All hail the Australian Broadcasting Corporation! How on earth do they manage to put up so much serious quality media for 8 cents a day???
I discovered ABC2 the other night when we finally got the set-top box going.
Quick sidetrack: one of the warnings on the STB was, 'do not put this on top of your TV - it may fall off'. But it's a set-top box!!
Our very first programme was Hack, a JJJ show with outstanding credentials. What a delight to see it now! & the topic: MySpace security. Freeaaky! Here's the summary. And you can watch it on ABC's iView, their awesome streaming service. Go to Catch Up, & find Hack half Hour. Beware! pretty hungry for bandwidth! Schools will need to work out how to manage this fantastic resource.
Steve on Hack talked to Sophie, who has over 200,000 MySpace friends. It started when she was bed-ridden for long periods, & has given her great experiences, & some authority! Then he spoke to Ty, a professional hacker, who found enormous holes in MySpace's security. The finale was an edited forum, covering a great array of well-reasoned opinions. My favourite was "really, we need to take responsibility for who we are online."
It's compelling viewing. If you're wondering about the youth of today, what'll become of us etc etc., please watch this: you'll be so encouraged!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Newer, lighter, nicer
I want a new computer. The new solid-state jobs look great; now I just have to justify the purchase. My biggest problem is my current machine, a beautiful Macbook Pro. It works too well.
I love my Macbook. The apostles of Bill Gates & Microsoft may goggle at this, but they're just easier. Yes! Quick eg: You want a new application. Step 1: copy into the Applications folder. Finish. That's all you do. To remove: delete it. That's it. And I've got Windows running simultaneously on a "virtual machine" platform-in-a-program. Why on earth? Work needs it. But back to solid-state computers.
The Register has an excellent article on small, cheap computers. One of their recommendations is the Asus eeePC. (I'm so glad they agree with me!) It's got a 9-inch screen, it weighs less than 1kg, it's about half A4 in size, and the battery lasts up to 8 hours. The secret is the hard disc... it hasn't got one, just a row of flash-memory chips. Yours for about $A500.
Imagine a school of these, connected wirelessly. Students carry them easily, they're economical, light & sturdy, batteries last a school day. Web, word process, spreadsheet, all there, & more. The money saved buys a Photoshop computer, a video edit computer for each class, and employs a local techie.
The computer, with the help of the Read/Write Web, becomes a tool, to do something wonderful with.
I love my Macbook. The apostles of Bill Gates & Microsoft may goggle at this, but they're just easier. Yes! Quick eg: You want a new application. Step 1: copy into the Applications folder. Finish. That's all you do. To remove: delete it. That's it. And I've got Windows running simultaneously on a "virtual machine" platform-in-a-program. Why on earth? Work needs it. But back to solid-state computers.
The Register has an excellent article on small, cheap computers. One of their recommendations is the Asus eeePC. (I'm so glad they agree with me!) It's got a 9-inch screen, it weighs less than 1kg, it's about half A4 in size, and the battery lasts up to 8 hours. The secret is the hard disc... it hasn't got one, just a row of flash-memory chips. Yours for about $A500.
Imagine a school of these, connected wirelessly. Students carry them easily, they're economical, light & sturdy, batteries last a school day. Web, word process, spreadsheet, all there, & more. The money saved buys a Photoshop computer, a video edit computer for each class, and employs a local techie.
The computer, with the help of the Read/Write Web, becomes a tool, to do something wonderful with.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Remember GIGO?
Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you input nonsense the program outputs nonsense. It's not rocket science.
I just wrote a post for another blog Energy Crisis? Rubbish!. I had a few references, found a few more on Google, which I trusted. Why? I read them, carefully. There's a risk of GIGO, but pretty small if I was paying attention.
If you read carefully, 9 times out of 10, you'll spot the flaky stuff. A Wikipedia article had a word tagged "weasel word". Excellent. If the warning light goes on when you read something, ask yourself why.
I just wrote a post for another blog Energy Crisis? Rubbish!. I had a few references, found a few more on Google, which I trusted. Why? I read them, carefully. There's a risk of GIGO, but pretty small if I was paying attention.
If you read carefully, 9 times out of 10, you'll spot the flaky stuff. A Wikipedia article had a word tagged "weasel word". Excellent. If the warning light goes on when you read something, ask yourself why.
Careful, discriminating readers will be hard work for the crooks & con-artists. The plethora of fantastic new communication tools (& toys) makes it that much easier for the good - & bad - to say something. And that means that taking care is even more important.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Google Chrome: that shiny & new?
Lots of chatter about Google Chrome lately. My first response was, another browser? Great! Us Mac-heads have been spoilt for choice for a while now. My second response was, oh, another Google toy. That's great, but since Google censored itself - for George Bush at the APEC conference in Sydney (technical issues my eye) - I've been a little uneasy about Google's reach. Anyone who gives Microsft a kick can't be all bad, but we sure don't want another Microsoft!
My third thought was, hey, I've seen all the new features in Opera! the sophisticated tabs -hello Microsoft!- and the thumbnail pages. Opera was even blogging before Google too. But you weren't American, Mr www.opera.no
My third thought was, hey, I've seen all the new features in Opera! the sophisticated tabs -hello Microsoft!- and the thumbnail pages. Opera was even blogging before Google too. But you weren't American, Mr www.opera.no
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Do it the Easy Way, or the Hard Way
At work we are planning a 2nd-hand book facility. A way for sellers & buyers to find out about each other, without us having to handle money or even do anything once the machines were running. After lots of discussions, hypotheticals, disaster planning, to-ing & fro-ing, I produced a very nice overview using Freemind & Freemindshare, & even started chatting to the database guru. Then I was shown someone else's solution to exactly the same challenge. A simple wiki. The New Web provides the answer easily, with open-source tools. Makes you feel good (once you've caught up!)
Saturday, August 30, 2008
The Virtual & the Real
Primary school homework is online. Well, at this stage it's a case of: find your class page, click on the links, do the interactive page from the BBC or whoever. Look, it's a start! And congrats to the chalkies for being so brave. I mean that.
What interested me was the Integrated Studies link, learn to play Mah Jongg. Mah Jongg is an ancient Chinese solitaire game??? My only proof this is total nonsense is a Chinese friend seeing the computer game & not linking it in any way to true Mah Jong - which is in fact a 4-handed game, similar in many ways to poker & rummy, & played everywhere there are 4 Chinese in one spot. Here's a discussion of computer Mah Jong, which goes back to the "ancient" days of the early 80s! It finds no good evidence of an old, real, version.
And what started this? A long time ago I played Mah Jong against my sister, over many years. It sort of works 2-handed, but with fewer chance throw-ins. So by checking my own age (don't ask), I know I pre-date any personal computer toy. Ah, I remember my dad starting up his "Macintosh" 128K, like it was yesterday. 1984 I think? The Happy Mac. The piece of paper, corner folded, on the desk. The little dustbin "under" the desk, that bulged. I distinctly recall the thought, "This is the future, from now on, all computers will work like this..."
Sorry, where was I.
There are two lessons here: internet is often mistaken, or plain wrong; it's strength (& weakness) is the ease any old stuff goes up there. And don't confuse computer-based, virtual & real: computers can do things nothing else can; but real is real, and "virtual reality" is in fact "imitation reality".
What interested me was the Integrated Studies link, learn to play Mah Jongg. Mah Jongg is an ancient Chinese solitaire game??? My only proof this is total nonsense is a Chinese friend seeing the computer game & not linking it in any way to true Mah Jong - which is in fact a 4-handed game, similar in many ways to poker & rummy, & played everywhere there are 4 Chinese in one spot. Here's a discussion of computer Mah Jong, which goes back to the "ancient" days of the early 80s! It finds no good evidence of an old, real, version.
And what started this? A long time ago I played Mah Jong against my sister, over many years. It sort of works 2-handed, but with fewer chance throw-ins. So by checking my own age (don't ask), I know I pre-date any personal computer toy. Ah, I remember my dad starting up his "Macintosh" 128K, like it was yesterday. 1984 I think? The Happy Mac. The piece of paper, corner folded, on the desk. The little dustbin "under" the desk, that bulged. I distinctly recall the thought, "This is the future, from now on, all computers will work like this..."
Sorry, where was I.
There are two lessons here: internet is often mistaken, or plain wrong; it's strength (& weakness) is the ease any old stuff goes up there. And don't confuse computer-based, virtual & real: computers can do things nothing else can; but real is real, and "virtual reality" is in fact "imitation reality".
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