Web effects on learning style?

Web effects on learning style? I'm reading this article: http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i04/04b01001.htm I haven't groked it all yet. It reports on research done by Jakob Nielsen on how digital content is read. So far it seems to support some thoughts I've had and opinions I read regarding the use of "computers in the classroom" or in general the effect that web based information is having on cognitive style.

"and other trials by Nielsen amount to an important research project that helps explain one of the great disappointments of education in our time. I mean the huge investment schools have made in technology, and the meager returns such funds have earned.

So does the cognitive style used for interactive entertainment as found on the web translate into a style conducive for education in the classroom? This is important not only for classroom learning of course. As our society moves more toward the web with its social networking and instant news, its instant gratification, a cloud of apps and interrelatedness, will this aid political awareness, for example? Yet, what do we know? I tried and could not read early English prose as found in historical works about my state. Perhaps the coming generations will see our linear, sentence, block paragraphs, as so much drivel; an antiquated, constipated chicken scratching of a dying age. Why not? They will be directly pointing and manipulating virtual worlds in a linked web of zettabyes of data and intelligent entities where agents search and deliver what and when IT is desired. In this world concepts and relationships are visible and high machine IQ agents help you determine their worth. Then, meaning is poetry.

Neologism Contest

Neologism Contest

Hilarious contest. I saw this on Chris Case's blog: http://chriscase.blogspot.com/2006/12/neologism-contest.html

"Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. * Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs." And a lot more...

Reusing computer system's heat - Grey Energy?

Computer systems generate a lot of heat. There is great effort to remove that heat using passive or active systems (fans, pipes, etc). Then there is now efforts to design cooler systems. I wonder if this excess heat can also be reused. Somewhat like "grey water" systems reuse some types of water in a home. The amount available is huge. Imagine reusing the heat energy from Google server farms. I won't state that it can; invariably, such statements tend to be demolished after simple analysis, for example, the cost to capture and reuse the heat energy may be too high or have a low ratio. Anyway, just a thought. --- Josef

Executable Jar Metadata (XJM)

Executable Jar Metadata (XJM) http://members.cox.net/jbetancourt1/topics/computers/programming/languages/java/articles/jar-info/JarVersioningTiddlyWiki.html This is a new 'article' I wrote and posted to my web site. It discusses an approach to access Java jar version information. This is quite a pain in Java, though there is plenty of support for this in the Java platform. Interestingly, I chose TiddlyWiki to create the document. Very easy to use and result is usable. keywords:

Spring,Java,TiddlyWiki,Jar,Versioning,OSGi,JMX,Package,Wiki

Statistically Improbable Phrases

Statistically Improbable Phrases Amazon has this cool feature. "...are the most distinctive phrases in the text of books in the Search Inside! program. To identify SIPs, our computers scan the text of all books in Search Inside. If they find a phrase that occurs a large number of times in a particular book relative to all Search Inside books, that phrase is a SIP in that book." Click on on these SIPs and a new page is shown where one can then search the A9 search engine for the SIP.

Wikiphilia - The New Illness

Hacknot: "Wikiphilia - The New Illness Posted on 18 Feb 2005 by Mr Ed Wikiphilia: A mental illness characterized by the irrational conviction that any problem faced by a group can be rendered solvable through installation and use of a Wiki. This delusional ailment has been occurring in increasing numbers ever since it was first identified in 1995. Wikiphilia usually manifests in two distinct phases - the rapturous anticipation of the Wiki's potential in the short post-installation phase; slowly giving way to denial of the Wiki's failure to fulfill that potential in the second phase." Nice article. Also gives some information on wikis in general.

Gear Live | Why Apple Makes a One Buttoned Mouse: "Giving the average person a right mouse button is like giving a bald man a comb." Very good article on the use of the right button mouse button and why Apple still "caters" to this as a default. Note that Apple computers can use a multi-button mouse.

SC Magazine: "'If infected mobile devices are scary, just thinking about an infected onboard computer..,' said Eugene Kaspersky, head of anti-virus research at Russian firm Kaspersky. 'We do know that car manufacturers are integrating existing operating systems into their onboard computers (take the Fiat and Microsoft deal, for instance).'" Computer viruses in cars! Computers are everywhere. Most are embedded, they perform a dedicated purpose, one will never directly interact with them. But, if they can be infected with a virus then they are no longer embedded, they do more then what the embedding was intended. Very dangerous. Now what about adware? Imagine cruising on the highway and all of a sudden your auto network gets bogged down because an ad for a anatomical enhancing product is trying to use the cd player display screen to get your attention.

Searching for a tune on the web? I have this tune in my head. I'd like to find out the name or group who recorded it. No use asking people, they stare at me as I hum out the melody and mimic the base and drum line. I don't blame them. Interesting problem for a search on the web. One approach is contextual. Where and when I heard it, what style, etc. Another would be the ability to just hum into a microphone and then software does an audio signature that then can be searched for. Hmmm. This would make an interesting web search service (broken out of exclusive P2P systems), a search that finds music or any audio like a speech. Of course, where metadata is available that will always be optimal. Hey Google, want to buy this idea from me?

Cafe au Lait Java News and Resources: "Beta 9 of Groovy, a JVM hosted scripting language that combines the speed of GW-Basic with the clarity of Perl, has been posted. .... " Maybe I'm a techno geek. I find that quote hilarious!

The Mac mini : Page 1: "Low-margin, low-tech, white box, red state PCs have been around since the before Michael Dell first declared Apple doomed, so what is the big deal about Apple finally doing what most PC manufacturers have been busy losing money at for years?" Pretty interesting product. My initial thought is that compared to Linux or Window boxes with comparable specs, it is still very expensive. I'm not currently a Mac owner and this box does not sway me to become one. The laptops are nice though. The article has more info.

The Bad Plus: "GRAMMY NOD FOR 'GIVE'! Among the nominees for the 47th Grammy Awards, you'll find The Bad Plus's own 'Give' in the running for Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical). Big up to studio maestro Tchad Blake, who fostered amazing sounds on both 'These Are the Vistas' and 'Give', and who is slated to record the band's next studio album in the spring of 2005." Great music from this band. I never heard of them until I saw them on the Newport Jazz Festival 2003 which is showing right now on public television.

Swing MVC Framework

Interesting article on Swing MVC use. The author presents his ongoing R&D framework JStaple. It is discussed at http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=30278 Some of the comments are good. What may be missing is the understanding that even if Swing does have everything neccessary to solve GUI problems, having the expertise, time, or incentive to apply them, is not always possible. In fact, anything beyond a simple "Hello World" does become an OOP spaghetti feast. There is a need for a Swing framework that does some information/control hiding. Some others? Spring RCP: http://www.springframework.org/spring-rcp.html MillStone: http://www.millstone.org/ What else is out there? Google search for MVC frameworks

Recent discussion with my son. Went something like this: son: Who is the most evil bad guy? me: where? son: In Marvel or DC. me: Well, I'm not too sure about DC comics, Marvel a little more. Galactus is the most powerful bad guy. son: So he's the most evil? me: Well, bad and evil are not the same thing. Galactus is just hungry. So, he's going to eat the earth! [laughter] son: Right, he's just doing what he has to do. me: Yup, its bad for us though. But, there are cases of just plain evil, like Joker in the DC world. me: Unfortunately, in the real world there are plenty of both. No fear, I stress the positives in life too. :)

Zilverline Search Engine

Zilverline Search Engine

Zilverline is what you could call a 'Reverse Search Engine': Zilverline is a search engine that offers web access to your personal or intranet content

See: http://www.zilverline.org/zilverlineweb/space/home

Sounds like a superset of what the Google Desktop offers.

Simple XML     I've been thinking that XML can be simplified for simple applications.  However, unlike many proposals out there, I think this is simple.    Just create an editor that hides the less-then and greater then symbols.  Further, the delimiting tag can be hidden also.    How to show containment?  Use positioning, WYSIWYG like Python does, or introduce some simple containment symbol, like C++, Java and other languages.  Another alternative is to use diagramatic editor symbols such as those from Action Diagrams to delineate structure.   For example,         &lt;root>Hello<data<x</data></root>         becomes:          root hello                   data  x Of course, that is not accurate, there has to be more to distinguish stuff.  You get my drift? I'm not the only one thinking about this in this manner, of course.  Recently there is the idea of SDL, see:  http://jakarta.apache.org/hivemind/sdl.html   by Howard Lewis Ship. There are other proposals too, see http://www.xmlsuck.com/pault/pxml/xmlalternatives.html Related to this (in some ways) are the recent or ongoing attempts to create alternative serializations of RDF, especially in XML.  For example, history of RDF formats:  http://www.cip.ifi.lmu.de/~bolzer/tmp/history.html Turtle, see http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/discovery/2004/01/turtle/ R:, see http://www.dehora.net/journal/2004/07/r.html Trix, see http://www.w3.org/2004/03/trix/     J. Betancourt    

Waxy.org: Daily Log: Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game: "Here's a fun game... First, look up the most popular and critically-acclaimed books, movies, and music on Amazon. Click on 'Customer Reviews,' and sort them by 'Lowest Rating First.' Hilarity ensues! It's the Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game! "

Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics":  

"Isaac Asimov's 'Three Laws of Robotics' A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. " Funny, I told my son about these laws and immediately he started giving me a critique of them. Such as, what about animals, can a robot harm animals? Oh well.

Good article on developer Rickard Oberg and the project he has been working on. "Apart from having written a book on RMI, he has been one of the core programmers behind JBoss. He instigated the XDoclet tool. WebWork, winning Java programming competitions, lectures and other achievements are also on his CV. Moreover, he's not your average online personality, or perhaps he is? Anyone who remembers the Pet Store debacle*?"

Semantic World and Cyberspace: "To a savvy Christian, all this Semantic Web stuff is thousand years old and we relax by quoting Salomo (Ecc 1, 10): 'What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. '" Cool post. SW is not really some esoteric stuff, it's just very powerful pragmatic framework for making information more managable by using the power of networked resources. maybe.