2006.05.03

Once again iPod

17.08.32 - Mark

Hopefully this won't be my track record for getting a new laptop, but after 4 and a half months of living without my regular iPod I've finally fixed it. All it took was about 5 minutes, a junk mail credit card, and an $80 hard drive off of eBay. Its not an obvious task, but there are plenty of places that have write ups, videos, and photos on how to open XYZ iPods. Considering how cheap it was I'm almost kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

Reloading it with my DRMed music from my non-function Mac will be another matter but I'll figure that out over the next few days (then I'll be reclaiming my rights to use my music where ever the hell I want to).

First I need to pull a miricle out of my ass for a PHB like teacher who is oblivious to the Pick Two Trilemma of Working, Documented, On Time

Considering how funky IIS is with PHP code, he might just be getting one on Monday.

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2006.03.22

Take Note.

18.29.02 - Mark

There's a student/teacher debate over laptops at University of Memphis that's getting some national coverage. The interesting thing about it isn't that there are teacher who want to ban laptops in favor of pen and paper. I don't think that's quite as interesting as what laptops are demonstraiting a bit better than "traditional" methods of note taking, and that is students don't know how to take notes.

The offending teacher claims that laptop users are more concerned with transcribing than note taking. I'd say that's a legitimant concern (as is eye contact and other distractions associated with computers) However the problem isn't solved by demanding pen and paper notes, because most students will continue to make attempts at transcriptions.

Different classes require different learning styles. Some classes almost require word for word image for image notes which require pen and paper (Math comes to mind) others benifit from outliner notes and occassional google searches. Others still shouldn't have any notes of any shape or form.

There's some decent discussion on the topic over at slashdot

Too bad there's a breakdown in communication between most students and teachers. That's part of the reason I really like the unconfrence model for classrooms. Everyone gets to do their own thing

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2006.03.03

Long time coming

19.25.48 - Mark

I've been wondering for several years how long it was going to take for my former high school to get around to complaining about blogs, turnes out several years. They're holding their first informational session about "the internet and your child" next week. Part of me abhors the idea of returning to that wretched stink hole, but another part of me wants to know how much misinformation they'll be feeding parents about the internet. This would be the same computer education department that tried to pass Hypercard off as Apple's less capable answer to Powerpoint. Sure...

The part of me that wants to be tortured wouldn't be doing it just to gain plesure from mass media induced ignorance, its been kicking around the idea of doing a new media workshop like several other communities around NC have done. I'm fairly sure there are a number of people in the area interested in blogging, audio and video podcasts, wikis, etc. it would be nice to shed some light on those subjects and help shave away some of the digital divide.

See, I don't hate all forms of education (just the overly organized I'm right you're wrong model)

Anyways My CDs are burned (I miss the ability to update my iPod with fresh podcasts) I'm going to go see if I can't collect my brother's boat anchor of a laptop from CompUSA.

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2006.02.28

Good Night, and Good Luck.

19.04.12 - Mark

I just got back from seeing Good Night, and Good Luck. and I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

It is unquestionably well written and edited, and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between the archival footage and the freshly filmed material, and it flows wonderfully. Its not a typical story archetype, with introduction, conflict, more conflict, climax and resolution, it felt more like a debate in a way, point after point with slight transistions between them and a slow fading of the characters.

That might be a problem from some people, and I'm not quite sure why Clooney insists on staring in everything he works on. Its not that his performance was bad per say, but he's developing a case of Tom Cruise Syndrome (the apperaing in every film whether he needs to or not variety, not the jumping on the couch ranting lunitic variety)

I'm fairly confident I liked it, but I'm not sure what's hooked me more about the film, the ideas Murrow had about Journalism and Television as a medium, or the politicians he challeneged while on the air. In both cases its as relevent now as it was then, if not more. All of us seem to have a tendency towards treating televisions and computers as entertainment, and not to their full potential as social catalysts.

...those who say people wouldn't look; they wouldn't be interested; they're too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter's opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost.

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful. --Edward R. Murrow at the RTNDA Convention, October 15, 1958

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2006.02.22

Good Day, Good Day

00.24.06 - Mark

Despite it looking like today was going to be miserable its turned out well. I had been expecting to get swamped with homework, and while repetitive text entry is No Fun(tm) some of the MySQL tools and experience I've acquired from building this blog made the commands easy enough to rattle off in Terminal (still like GUI front ends tho', but I needed to log everything)

Thanks to that delightfully easy assignment I was able to meet up with Bucket, an Author client/friend who's trying real hard to make the adult world child digestible in fiction form (his first work is online). I signed on last year just so I could bang out code, but I stayed on to expand my horizons and I probably know a bit more about the book industry than I really care to. Anyways, despite some of his bad luck he's managed to compensate me for some of my expenses plus some. Something to help keep the server on at night, plus some to do a small spending spree over at Geeks.com, some assorted electronics and a bit of dirt cheap audio gear. Should let me do a little hacking and MAKEing.

Wrapped it up with a good vegetable stir fry (metal chop sticks seem like a better idea than they really are) and a cold drink. Today hasn't been so bad, and hopefully tomorrow will be even better (crosses fingers for a good inexpensive laptop hard drive).

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2006.02.06

Where's the Boardband?

00.10.06 - Mark

A book review of The $200 Billion Broadband Scandal, a book that takes a look into where the promise of true broadband in America went.

I hate to go on and on about bandwidth, and in terms of global perspective bandwidth issues are fairly trivial, but its a topic thats important to me. Not only do I want to be able to get more information, I think everyone will benefit from widely available, low cost, high speed broadband. Anything to narrow the digital divide.

Some people give me flack for thinking DSL is slow, but I remember dial-up, hell I remember dial-up when 14.4kbps over a long distance connection was high end consumer technology. I didn't like those connections either.

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2006.01.30

Mark's Technology Hit List

01.31.17 - Mark

Technologies that have caused me undue pain in the Last 72 hours

Microsoft Windows (I don't like dealing with CompUSA Tech Goons - unrelated to other items)
VHS Tapes (And those who still accept them as a useful media)
VCDs and MiniDVDs (The whole stinking standard - or lack of compliance)
iDVD 4 (For not letting me write to a disc image)

I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

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