Blogs about: Technology

For better or for worse, it’s advancing rapidly, and it’s everywhere. From communication to transportation, technology is the chair you’re sitting on and the screen you’re reading from. We’ve come a long way since the Stone Age, but nowadays, even dial-up Internet and beepers seem like ancient artifacts. Now we can access the web from our cell phones, and we can find out where our friends are without having to ask. Even cash and credit cards may soon be obsolete. What will they think of next?

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‘Are you sure?’ prompt boxes
middle class fury

Some things in life require an extra layer of confirmation; a nuclear launch for example. I’d be quite happy if, after having entered the launch codes and turned the keys simultaneously, a big monitor in the centre of the bunker flashed up with the message “Are you sure?” It’s a valid question in such circumstances. And maybe, having been faced with such a succinct and direct challenge to this particular course of action, the President would pause for a moment of quiet contemplation, look up and see the tears in the frightened eyes of all around him, and conclude that there had to be a better way; that despite having lost the entire Eastern seaboard, condemning the entire world to annihilation just wasn’t going to make things any better. But if I just want to log off the printer, such a failsafe really is an infuriating waste of my time. Say that I had accidently logged off when I didn’t want to. Do you know how quickly I can log back in again? Really fucking quickly; I’ve got a

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Naming and claiming
see what happens

In the realm of creativity, the ‘what if’ is our currency. It buys us access to an as yet un-imagined future, a future that is still ours to create. At university, though, I studied history, and as a student of history you are taught to resist ‘what if’s. In history ‘what if’s are not about peering into the future, they’re about looking back at what’s already occurred. This is the counter-factual view of history – what might have been. What if Hitler had been killed in 1923. What if Lenin had lived for longer. This is pretty futile stuff, by and large. Too much has happened since, and it’s hypothetical anyway, but sometimes it can be useful. It’s said that history is written by the victors: you claim what you can name. The job of a historian, though, has always been to resist taking the victor’s word at face value. The history of the internet is relatively short but full. So much has happened in the last 20 years i

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Giiiiit!
Libby Broadbent

It’s June, beautiful June, and I despair that I am losing the battle. This is not the despair of the unexperienced, not the despair of the uninitiated. I’ve been teaching for ten years. I’ve raised four children. I have survived everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to the advent of facebook. I have been sworn at, cursed at, blasphemed at, spat at… I once had a kid tell me I was a pain in the ass. I have stopped fights, dried tears, wiped up blood, settled relationship disputes… all in my classroom, never mind what my own kids have put me through. But this semester… this semester I have taught grade ten English. To thirty-two darling fifteen year olds. Thirty-two fifteen year old Millenials, if I may use the word with the kindest of sentiments. First of all, let me say how much I enjoy them. Don’t get me wrong, they exhaust me. They frustrate me. They leave the room at the end of a 75 minute class and I have to lie on the floor for ten minutes to recover. But they’re funny. The

New Zealand in the News
missionsundergroundacts18
Post Mortem: Xbox One DRM
Punch, Kick, It's All in the Mind

For those not already aware, the internet exploded when Microsoft dropped a bombshell in the form of an official statement regarding their ‘always online’ and ‘used games’ policies.  The link is below. http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update Microsoft has decided to not backpedal a little, but to backpedal completely, making the Xbox One little more than a more powerful, more versatile Xbox 360. If this was always an option, why did they try to go with the convoluted sharing system in the first place.  The reason can be found in their interview with CNN just as E3 was winding down. From CNN: Publishers, of course, have been the most forceful proponents of cutting off the used game market, with some suggesting that used games are comparable to piracy for their bottom line. But Mehdi said that Microsoft wasn’t simply “giving in” to publisher demands with its new game licensing terms. Instead, it was trying to balance the needs of its four main

I am going to hold on to see how this play
Practicebetterbusiness's Blog
Apple’s next iPad mini 7.9 inch Retina display will be Samsung-made
Read360
The Dos And Dont’s Of Introducing Kids To Technology
Simply Senia
Huawei unveils Ascend P6, world’s slimmest smartphone
Playing catch-up in the technology age
Tech4ChangeGH
First Latin American Biotechnology Summit To Be Held In Colombia
I’m glad the FBI director has no clue where drone images go
The Cross Pollinator

From the Daily Beast here: Today in government surveillance: FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee that his agency uses surveillance drones in the U.S. Asked about the FBI’s use of drones, Mueller said that the agency does use them, but “in a very, very minimal way, very seldom.” Federal agencies use drones to patrol the northern and southern borders of the U.S. and occasionally for law-enforcement operations, like earlier this year when an Alabama man held a boy hostage in his bunker. Mueller said he wasn’t sure what happens to the images recorded by the drones. First off, I’m totally psyched these are already in use. Even though it appears this was a very important privacy related issue that was decided undemocratically by somebody, I have no friggin’ clue who decided this was great, I’m sure this is all done with my interests in mind. Especially the part about the drone video images.  He’s the director of the FBI, shouldn’t he

While time is a cold case’s greatest enemy, technology solves mysteries
chittersnyc

While time is a cold case’s greatest enemy, technology solves mysteries For more about this and related stories visit http://www.heartlandconnection.com/ Follow KTVO on social media: https://www.facebook.com/ktvotv https://twitte… – http://movies.chitte.rs/while-time-is-a-cold-cases-greatest-enemy-technology-solves-mysteries/

Facebook’s Instagram video feature seen as challenge to Twitter
Read360
Check out the Hall of Fame – Video Games
School Chat - Starting Conversations with Media

Part of the summer school this year in Irving ISD was STEM.  We used Scratch to teach beginning programming skills to 5th graders.  We were impressed with some of their creativity and ingenuity to create their own games.  Here are the websites we used.  These will not be ready till tomorrow, check under the Hall of Fame tabs.  You will need to be an IrvingISD staff member or teacher to access these some of these pages. https://sites.google.com/a/irvingisd.net/mr-bernal-scratch/elementary  - Bernal https://sites.google.com/a/irvingisd.net/dominguez-scratch-page/   –  Dominguez https://sites.google.com/a/irvingisd.net/granillosummer12/  - Granillo https://sites.google.com/a/irvingisd.net/stipes-d/  - Shrewsbury https://sites.google.com/a/irvingisd.net/scratch-summer-school—tufts/elementary  - Tufts Click here for other games stored online.  http://scratch.mit.edu/explore/projects/games/ Click here for the download to your computer, get parent permission first. http://scratch.

TECH POST! XBOX One: Microsoft u turn on pre-owned and game sharing
Martd69 My Blog My Rules

So as most people already expected Microsoft have decided to ditch the drm on its games so yes we can all share them to our hearts content or sell them to a Shop for peanuts  so said shop can make a tidy profit selling them for £5 less than the new one. Also you won’t need a 24hr internet connection to play games. You can play all games offline as with the 360. They obviously didn’t want to do this, Its just after E3 and Sony getting in there first they pooed their pants. Find out what was said here

Microsoft Reverses Internet Requirement & Sharing Policy on the Xbox One
The Torch: Entertainment Guide

It seems the voice of gamers have finally reached the ears of Microsoft as they have decided to reverse the always online  and sharing policies of the Xbox One. It has been almost a month since the Xbox One reveal conference and a week and a bit after their E3 appearance. Both meetings were met with angry gamers who voiced their opinions on the consoles features, especially two features that were deemed unfair by bloggers, gamers and critics alike. The console, dubbed the XBone, originally required the owner to ‘sign-in’ every 24 hours before playing and would not allow the user to play if they did not have an internet connection. This was not well received since it meant that it would defeat the console’s original purpose, if your internet cut or if you lived in an area where you could not receive a good net service. Another issue which has been changed is that of the Sharing and trading of games. The Xbone originally would restrict the sharing of used games between

Marco Arment
danapalooza

Marco Arment He is, among other things, the OG coder of Tumblr and the creator of that seminal “read-it-later” app, Instapaper, and he has an exceptionally intelligent and informed take on the state of technology, web and app development, and … well, cars.

One raindrop – ten raindrops – what’s the difference?
Course of Mirrors
Next-gen purchases Pt 1.
ffastforward