Tuesday, September 28, 2010

HP Exec Bradley: Tablets Will Be A $40 Billion Market

I just want to go on the record that i have been asking for a tablet for 10 years and was consistently poop pooped about how "impractical-bad-stupid-useless" they were there would never be anything better than a lap top. and now in less than 2 years everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and it's going to be a $40 Billion dollar market.

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Lessons of the Chewbacca Incident « Binary Bonsai

Chewie dropped it like it was hot the saturday before last and traffic spiked at one hundred times normal late last week, for a total of over 50.000 unique visits. Aside from worrying amounts of stat masturbation, I also took the opportunity to glean some insights into the referrers and visitors interested in everyone’s favorite furry.

Above is a look at how the traffic evolved in the week following publication (you can hover for some insight into the flow and weight of the referrers).

What’s noteworthy here is that some sites taper off immediately, The Daily What for instance, as the news item is quickly pushed off their frontpage, while others, like Kottke, have a fairly long lifetime. In fact, Kottke is one of the few sites that carried more traffic on the second day than on the first. One of the others is Reddit, which never exploded, but instead has an exceptionally long lifetime.

More interesting is the fact that because ambient traffic levels are usually quite low – or, atrophied; tomato, tomato – a surge for a single post tells us a lot about the nature of the visitors and their referrers. Especially when it’s a post which can either be read as a whole for the narrative or skimmed for the punchline.

Here the top 30 referrers (by volume), with the average time spent on site on the left of each site in a dark shade of that site’s color and the average number of pages visited on the right, in a lighter shade1.

Nice Data Vis

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Monday, September 27, 2010

Fraser Speirs - Blog - The iPad Project: How It's Going

So we're now nearly five weeks into the iPad deployment and I thought it was time to update you in some detail.

The Educational Part

So many people have asked me to explain the educational impact of the iPad. I simply can't yet get to grips with everything that's happening. Put simply, the iPad deployment has transformed our school. Not evenly and not everywhere yet, but it's coming.

There are stages to technology adoption. Two important stages are 'replacement' and 'transformation'. With replacement, you take an existing resource and replace it with an essentially identical digital resource. Think of a paper textbook replaced by the same textbook in PDF form. That's not to be sniffed at - there are big advantages to that.

What we're reaching in some classes is the transformation stage. We're seeing the iPad completely change the way that certain subjects are taught. Our best example so far is Art. I will write and share more about what we're doing in Art over time but it's fair to say that it is already far beyond anything I expected in the first year, let alone the first month.

At this point, all I can give you are some practical anecdotes which, I hope, will give you a flavour of the change.

  • I picked up a ream of printer paper yesterday. It had dust on top of it.
  • Primary 2 pupils have now memorised their passwords. That's not something that happens when they get 40 minutes a week on computers.
  • Last week, we couldn't get the Primary 3 pupils to stop doing maths and go for lunch.
  • My daughter April asked me if I could install the educational apps from school on my iPad so she could use them at home.
  • We're seeing a reduction in the amount of homework forgotten or not done.
  • "Forgetting your folder" for a subject is now a thing of the past.

The one feature that my teachers are crying out for is a way to present the entire iPad UI on a projector. At the moment, it's up to the application how they choose to support the iPad VGA Adapter. Some, such as Brushes, show a 'presentation' style display but almost no applications mirror the entire UI. That's quite technically difficult for a developer, so it would be nice to see something in the OS to support video mirroring.

I've been looking at what used to be called "document cameras" but are now apparently called "visualisers". You know the kind of downwards-pointing-camera-on-an-arm thing. Those things are not cheap. They start in the multiple hundreds of pounds and go from there. I'm wary of buying when a future iOS update might obsolete them all at a stroke. (Note, again, that I know nothing you don't know on that front. Just a wish.)

The Technical Part

From a sysadmin's point of view, once set up, the iPad is quite an easy device to have on your network. I have already documented the trials involved in setup, so let me talk a little about the day to day running.

In the early days, when the set of installed apps was changing regularly, syncing the iPads was slow. When you're just backing up without installing apps, it moves along quite nicely. Gigabit ethernet is essential, though. We had a couple of classroom stations on WiFi and syncs were taking 20 minutes or more, which is no good.

We still find that deploying a new application to all the devices via sync takes too long. In Secondary, where each guidance class has 15 minutes three times a week to sync devices, we are not rolling out apps fast enough. It can take a week or more to make sure that everyone has had a chance to sync.

When we need an app on all devices quickly, we have found that having the class teacher manually install the app on the device through the App Store is about the only way to do it. This is obviously far from ideal but it's not too common an occurrance. We've only done it for two or three apps.

App deployment remains by far the least satisfactory part of the whole experience.

I have previously written about the impact of the iPad's battery life. We are not experiencing any problems with keeping the iPad running through an entire school day. Very rarely, a pupil will forget to recharge the iPad overnight and will need a top-up during the day.

We have had a couple of defective iPads. One device's LCD developed rainbow stripes, the other developed a dead strip across the screen that wouldn't respond to touch.

In both cases, the recovery procedure was:

  • Sync the broken device
  • Unwrap a spare
  • Restore the spare from the last backup

The procedure takes about 30 minutes from start to finish and the pupil is back up and running quickly. If you're going to do an iPad deployment, I'm starting to think it's essential that you have hot spares on site. The iPad is now so embedded in everything we do that to be without it for a single day - far less two or three - is unacceptable.

Both devices were replaced after a 10 minute visit to the Genius Bar. Try that with your £200 netbook.

The Apple cases are also holding up well. They do look dirty very quickly, which is a shame but, functionally, I have yet to see anything better.

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U.S. Wants to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet

A little important new bite for a lazy September Monday morning

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Saturday, September 25, 2010

Kilimanjaro's vanishing ice due to tree-felling - environment - 25 September 2010 - New Scientist

AGGRESSIVE tree-felling on mount Kilimanjaro could be partly to blame for its vanishing ice cap.

The ice on Kilimanjaro's summit has shrunk to just 15 per cent of its extent in 1912, leading campaigners to hold it up as a symbol of climate change. But other factors are also at play. For instance, the air at the summit is getting drier, reducing the snowfall that replenishes the ice and reflects solar radiation.

Now Nicholas Pepin from the University of Portsmouth, UK, and colleagues say deforestation could be an important part of the puzzle. Between September 2004 and July 2008, the team took hourly humidity and temperature readings at 10 elevations on the mountain. These revealed that daytime heating generates a flow of warm, moist air up the mountainside (Global and Planetary Change, DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2010.08.001).

Trees play an important role here by providing moisture through transpiration. Pepin suggests that extensive local deforestation in recent decades has likely reduced this flow of moisture, depleting the mountain's icy hood.

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Reporting Standards

Sat Sep 25 12:55:43 BST 2010 by Lazarus

Why does the Headline say "due to tree-felling" and the first line of the article say "tree-felling on mount Kilimanjaro could be partly to blame"?

Another Icon Despoiled

Sat Sep 25 19:57:30 BST 2010 by Ian Gilbert

Imagine that! The people who actually live there all year 'round have the audacity to cut down trees just because they need jobs to support their families!

Don't they know how important it is that people from the already-deforested developed countries be able to enjoy the natural wonders of poverty-stricken countries, unsullied by economic necessity?

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

It always seems to come back to the trees with humans....

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Make: Online : Modkit - a graphical programming environment for Arduino

About time computers started to do more of the work of programing so non-programer humans can focus on making things.

Posted via email from 27ray posterous

Make: Online : Modkit - a graphical programming environment for Arduino

About time computers started to do more of the work of programing so non-programer humans can focus on making things.

Posted via email from 27ray posterous

Take a Train between Downtown and the Beach by Early 2015? - LAist

expo-line-phase2-opening.jpg The Expo Line currently under construction right now could be fully operational by early 2015, Metro officials announced at a meeting last night. Transit supporter Gökhan Esirgen announced the news in an e-mail last night. It has been reported that the first phase between downtown Los Angeles and Culver City is expected to open next year, possibly in sections. The second phase from Culver City to 4th and Colorado in Santa Monica would not see a partial opening because of costs, noted Esirgen.

OOOHHHH 2015! are you kidding me.

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Friday, September 24, 2010

BethanHuws_1.jpg 640×829 pixels

Zoo Babies! L.A. Zoo Debuts Newborn Giraffe, Calamian Deer And Chacoan Peccaries - LAist

LA seems to be the town of babies right now.

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PBy

From Phineas Banning and the first railways in Los Angeles to Union Pacific’s merger with Southern Pacific, explore the marvelous complexities of rail, storage, intermodal transit and the importance of grade.

Learn More

All my Brewery friends should check this out, it's right in your backyard...

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Monday, September 20, 2010

American Taliban | PoliPointPress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOUNDER OF THE DAILY KOS COMPARES AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT TO ISLAMIC RADICALS

Download

Sausalito, CA – “Our culture is superior. Our culture is superior because our religion is….” Sounds like an Islamic extremist, right? Wrong. These words were uttered by one of America’s most well known media figures, Pat Buchanan—just one of many proselytizers of conservative intolerance gaining a toehold in our culture.

This September, Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, explores how the entire modern conservative movement has taken on the attitudes and tactics of the Islamic Taliban in his new book, American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right (PoliPointPress, September 2010).

Think about it. The freedom that jihadists hate—freedom of thought, inquiry, and lifestyle—are the very freedoms that the conservatives hate. On tactics and issues, there is little distinction between the Taliban and the radical right:  both embrace militaristic zeal, elevation of brute masculinity, disdain for women’s rights, outright hatred of gays, aversion to science and modernity, and staunch anti-intellectualism. Both movements are dedicated to the unbridled pursuit of power at all costs, have little tolerance for the trappings of democracy, and quickly resort to violence when challenged …  hardly the principles for which America stands.

Like their Islamic cousins, the American Taliban bases their ideology on “facts” that validate their worldview, but have little to do with reality—Obama is an illegitimate born in Kenya, ACORN stole the election. Lie after lie is repeated until each is firmly embedded as truth in the collective, delusional Taliban mind.

Moulitsas delivers a wry, searing broadside to the hypocritical—and dangerous—conservative movement, documenting the instances of the American Taliban at work in corporate boardrooms, on Capitol Hill, in the halls of the White House, or in FOX News studios. The book, divided into six chapters–Power, War, Sex, Woman, Culture and Truth–traces the simmering movement from its fringe origins to the American Taliban’s current front-and-center position in the Republican party.

Additionally, Moulitsas discusses:

  • * Why the Supreme Court is a favorite target of the American Taliban
  • * How and why a once-marginal movement went mainstream—and completely bananas—in January 2009
  • * How the Teabaggers, fueled by Republican Party leadership, came to be the enforcers of the American Taliban

Ultimately, Moulitsas argues, the American Taliban is little different from their Islamic extremist counterparts  halfway around the world whom the conservatives claim to loathe. Make no mistake, he warns the American Taliban are not just ”plain batshit insane” —they are a clear and present danger to the nation and the values upon which it was founded.

Luckily, with American Taliban (the book), we have a first line of defense for rolling back the fanaticism masquerading as cultured and respected leaders that is the American Taliban.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Markos Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos, America’s largest online political community. His publications include the critically acclaimed Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics (2006) and Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era (2008). Moulitsas is a frequent guest on cable news and shows like Meet the Press and Real Time with Bill Maher, a weekly columnist for The Hill, and a former Newsweek contributing columnist.

# # #

AMERICAN TALIBAN: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right

By Markos Moulitsas

$15.95, PoliPointPress, September 1, 2010, Trade Paper

ISBN: 978-1-9362270-2-0, 256 pages, 5.5” x 8.5”

For more information, go to www.p3books.com/americantaliban/

For press inquiries, please contact Darcy Cohan: 415-339-4111 or darcycohan@p3books.com

Now this is what Im saying. Religion can notmbe trusted no matter who wrote the book.

Posted via email from 27ray posterous

American Taliban | PoliPointPress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOUNDER OF THE DAILY KOS COMPARES AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT TO ISLAMIC RADICALS

Download

Sausalito, CA – “Our culture is superior. Our culture is superior because our religion is….” Sounds like an Islamic extremist, right? Wrong. These words were uttered by one of America’s most well known media figures, Pat Buchanan—just one of many proselytizers of conservative intolerance gaining a toehold in our culture.

This September, Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, explores how the entire modern conservative movement has taken on the attitudes and tactics of the Islamic Taliban in his new book, American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right (PoliPointPress, September 2010).

Think about it. The freedom that jihadists hate—freedom of thought, inquiry, and lifestyle—are the very freedoms that the conservatives hate. On tactics and issues, there is little distinction between the Taliban and the radical right:  both embrace militaristic zeal, elevation of brute masculinity, disdain for women’s rights, outright hatred of gays, aversion to science and modernity, and staunch anti-intellectualism. Both movements are dedicated to the unbridled pursuit of power at all costs, have little tolerance for the trappings of democracy, and quickly resort to violence when challenged …  hardly the principles for which America stands.

Like their Islamic cousins, the American Taliban bases their ideology on “facts” that validate their worldview, but have little to do with reality—Obama is an illegitimate born in Kenya, ACORN stole the election. Lie after lie is repeated until each is firmly embedded as truth in the collective, delusional Taliban mind.

Moulitsas delivers a wry, searing broadside to the hypocritical—and dangerous—conservative movement, documenting the instances of the American Taliban at work in corporate boardrooms, on Capitol Hill, in the halls of the White House, or in FOX News studios. The book, divided into six chapters–Power, War, Sex, Woman, Culture and Truth–traces the simmering movement from its fringe origins to the American Taliban’s current front-and-center position in the Republican party.

Additionally, Moulitsas discusses:

  • * Why the Supreme Court is a favorite target of the American Taliban
  • * How and why a once-marginal movement went mainstream—and completely bananas—in January 2009
  • * How the Teabaggers, fueled by Republican Party leadership, came to be the enforcers of the American Taliban

Ultimately, Moulitsas argues, the American Taliban is little different from their Islamic extremist counterparts  halfway around the world whom the conservatives claim to loathe. Make no mistake, he warns the American Taliban are not just ”plain batshit insane” —they are a clear and present danger to the nation and the values upon which it was founded.

Luckily, with American Taliban (the book), we have a first line of defense for rolling back the fanaticism masquerading as cultured and respected leaders that is the American Taliban.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Markos Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos, America’s largest online political community. His publications include the critically acclaimed Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics (2006) and Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era (2008). Moulitsas is a frequent guest on cable news and shows like Meet the Press and Real Time with Bill Maher, a weekly columnist for The Hill, and a former Newsweek contributing columnist.

# # #

AMERICAN TALIBAN: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right

By Markos Moulitsas

$15.95, PoliPointPress, September 1, 2010, Trade Paper

ISBN: 978-1-9362270-2-0, 256 pages, 5.5” x 8.5”

For more information, go to www.p3books.com/americantaliban/

For press inquiries, please contact Darcy Cohan: 415-339-4111 or darcycohan@p3books.com

Now this is what Im saying. Religion can notmbe trusted no matter who wrote the book.

Posted via email from 27ray posterous

American Taliban | PoliPointPress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOUNDER OF THE DAILY KOS COMPARES AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT TO ISLAMIC RADICALS

Download

Sausalito, CA – “Our culture is superior. Our culture is superior because our religion is….” Sounds like an Islamic extremist, right? Wrong. These words were uttered by one of America’s most well known media figures, Pat Buchanan—just one of many proselytizers of conservative intolerance gaining a toehold in our culture.

This September, Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, explores how the entire modern conservative movement has taken on the attitudes and tactics of the Islamic Taliban in his new book, American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right (PoliPointPress, September 2010).

Think about it. The freedom that jihadists hate—freedom of thought, inquiry, and lifestyle—are the very freedoms that the conservatives hate. On tactics and issues, there is little distinction between the Taliban and the radical right:  both embrace militaristic zeal, elevation of brute masculinity, disdain for women’s rights, outright hatred of gays, aversion to science and modernity, and staunch anti-intellectualism. Both movements are dedicated to the unbridled pursuit of power at all costs, have little tolerance for the trappings of democracy, and quickly resort to violence when challenged …  hardly the principles for which America stands.

Like their Islamic cousins, the American Taliban bases their ideology on “facts” that validate their worldview, but have little to do with reality—Obama is an illegitimate born in Kenya, ACORN stole the election. Lie after lie is repeated until each is firmly embedded as truth in the collective, delusional Taliban mind.

Moulitsas delivers a wry, searing broadside to the hypocritical—and dangerous—conservative movement, documenting the instances of the American Taliban at work in corporate boardrooms, on Capitol Hill, in the halls of the White House, or in FOX News studios. The book, divided into six chapters–Power, War, Sex, Woman, Culture and Truth–traces the simmering movement from its fringe origins to the American Taliban’s current front-and-center position in the Republican party.

Additionally, Moulitsas discusses:

  • * Why the Supreme Court is a favorite target of the American Taliban
  • * How and why a once-marginal movement went mainstream—and completely bananas—in January 2009
  • * How the Teabaggers, fueled by Republican Party leadership, came to be the enforcers of the American Taliban

Ultimately, Moulitsas argues, the American Taliban is little different from their Islamic extremist counterparts  halfway around the world whom the conservatives claim to loathe. Make no mistake, he warns the American Taliban are not just ”plain batshit insane” —they are a clear and present danger to the nation and the values upon which it was founded.

Luckily, with American Taliban (the book), we have a first line of defense for rolling back the fanaticism masquerading as cultured and respected leaders that is the American Taliban.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Markos Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos, America’s largest online political community. His publications include the critically acclaimed Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics (2006) and Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era (2008). Moulitsas is a frequent guest on cable news and shows like Meet the Press and Real Time with Bill Maher, a weekly columnist for The Hill, and a former Newsweek contributing columnist.

# # #

AMERICAN TALIBAN: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right

By Markos Moulitsas

$15.95, PoliPointPress, September 1, 2010, Trade Paper

ISBN: 978-1-9362270-2-0, 256 pages, 5.5” x 8.5”

For more information, go to www.p3books.com/americantaliban/

For press inquiries, please contact Darcy Cohan: 415-339-4111 or darcycohan@p3books.com

Now this is what Im saying. Religion can notmbe trusted no matter who wrote the book.

Posted via email from 27ray posterous

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Gotham Tornado: Amazing Photo of Twister Passing Statue of Liberty - NewsFeed

It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's just that little old Italian woman from 3G flying thought the air

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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Monday, September 13, 2010

llpegspiral_hst_big.jpg 1625×1625 pixels

Giant Sharks Swim Onto Species Watch List : NPR

The “Verizon iPhone” Versus “The iPhone On Verizon’s Network”

All those I would get an iPhone if it was on Verizion people (Oh i wish i wish the iPhone was on another network and that that network would let de download data all the time really fast for free) might want to give this a little read...

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Friday, September 10, 2010

BEAUTIFUL:DECAY – 27rayArt

Laws of physics may change across the universe - space - 08 September 2010 - New Scientist

Huh, I'm not ready to buy into this.. mediocre just sits better with me.

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Female Body Found inside Bag in Chinatown Area - LAist

female-body-chinatown.jpg Officers responding to a call this afternoon discovered a deceased female body, reportedly in a bag. A 3:05 p.m., the police were alerted to a death investigation at a recycling center on the 1000 block of North Main Street (map), according to LAPD Officer Rosario Herrera. The location is north of downtown in an industrial area abut Chinatown. KTLA, which reported it "near" Dodger Stadium, said the body was found inside a bag.

This is about 2 blocks from where I park every day to catch the train.

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Trapped in a Chilean mine - The Big Picture

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Bobcat Runs Up Power Pole, Goes Aflame, Starts Brush Fire - LAist

bobcat-fire.jpg Last week it was an Orange County golfer who sparked a fire last week when he swung, hitting a rock and sparking a 25-acre blaze. And yesterday it was a bobcat that ignited a five acre fire in the small town of Piru, east of Santa Clarita. “It looked like he was climbing up a pole to chase an owl or another bird,” Capt. Dan Preston told the Ventura County Star. "The animal apparently hit the power wires, caught on fire and fell to the ground, Preston said. That ignited the brush." The bobcat did not survive.

I can't believe this.

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Monday, September 6, 2010