"This Isn't Working For Me" - A Phrase For Initiating Dialog

Fred Kofman suggests that a great phrase for initiating an uncomfortable dialog is "this isn't working for me ."

-DD

Pumpkin Computing

Bob Brown displays his favorite Halloween tech .

-DD

Rising Volume of OS X Malware

Tim Greene notes that malware is becoming more common in the OS X environment .

-DD

Image Processing

Mark Gibbs directs those who know the Python scripting language to a free course on image processing . Those who finish will have the knowledge to organize and search for Web images. He highly recommends Adrian Rosebrock's companion book, Practical Python and OpenCV+ Case Studies.

-DD

Practical Python and OpenCV from Adrian Rosebrock on Vimeo.

Computer Scripting

Mark Gibbs suggests that server and network system operators should purchase Al Sweigart's Automate the Boring Stuff With Python. The goal is to have routine computer tasks automated, freeing the human to work on new initiatives.

-DD

Inflating High School Graduation Statistics

Katherine Mangan observes that over ninety variants of the high school diploma exist, and many of these do not prepare students for university work. As the comments suggest, the desire to improve the high school graduation rate from 50% to 100% has resulted in the secondary education diploma being devalued, making a university degree the equivilent of the former high school diploma.

-DD

Home Libraries and Their Owners

Australian Clem Bastow muses on what home libraries say about their owners .

-DD

Free Computer Programming Training

Rich Hine suggests eight free online courses for those needing to learn how to program.

-DD

Apps for the Job Search

Dan Royles suggests three apps that can ease anyone's job search: Evernote,TextExpander, and Google Drive. He succintly explains how to use these tools for an organized job-hunt.

-DD

Perils of Online Speed Tests

Laura Solomon explains the inaccuracies of network speed tests . She also provides tips for documenting normal and abnormal network speed which would be valuable in determining when network capacity is maximized.

-DD

"Ask Me" Video Highlights the Proliferation of Genders

Julia Schmalz and the Chronicle of Higher Education have created a video on the range of gender expression among students in U.S. public universities. While the video is very positive toward these students and their desire to be named as they wish, in the comments, many respondents perceived that potential administrative or housing accomodation requirements may be challenging on a small campus.

-DD

GenderTimer

Jason B. Jones muses on how minorities tend to be quiet at meetings , and suggests an app that reminds leaders to invite all participants to bring their voice to the meeting.

-DD

Double Opt-In

Mark Gibbs rants about inadvertant spam, and suggests that double opt-in practices by corporate marketers could be improved. He suggests practices which any business using e-mail marketing should embrace.

-DD

Peer Pressure and Course Completion

Amy Ahearn notes that +Acumen has improved course completion

by creating beneficial peer pressure for completion. +Acumen recommends these techniques:

1. Form a team that can meet in person;
2. Recruit three people for your team;
3. Enroll people you already know, and,
4. Use supplemental technology for collaboration.

-DD

Increasing the Life of USB Drives

Stephen Lawson reports on efforts by SanDisk to increase the reliability and lifespan of flash memory used in USB drives and security devices such as cameras and sound monitors. The new drives are rated to work at temperatures as low as -40 C, compared with consumer devices that stop working below -25 C. The new drives will be able to accept as many as 128TB of information writes, far more than consumer grade drives.

The new capacity comes at the cost of slower writes and a current limit on total drive memory capacity of 64GB.

-DD

Affirmation Effect

Carmen Gallo shares two words that Joel Osteen says should preceed any personal self-affirmation. Unfortunately, Gallo's article is so brief that I cannot tell if what is espoused is positive thinking or something more scientifically or theologically based.

I commend to the reader Mitch Horowitz's book One Simple Idea: A Short History of Positive Thinking, which is available both in print or audio formats. Horowitz reviews the development and growing acceptance of positive thinking and the self affirmation movement in the United States.

My own belief is that the positive impact of self affirmation is limited by personal gifting and providence. My preference is the phrase used in "The Little Engine That Could."

-DD

Apply When Finishing Your Degree

L. Marion Wood reports that PhD students in the humanities seem to have more success in their job hunt if they start applying before they graduate. The results are not in, but those in the sciences and technologies may need to prove themselves with a completed dissertation project to being offered a position.

-DD

Resume Writing

Sharon Florentine suggests six things to omit from a resume . These include:

1. Photo
2. Age
3. Career objective
4. Reference
5. Obsolute expertise
6. Work experience more than a decade old

-DD

Boarding Pass Barcodes Reveal Too Much

Jamie Condliffe observes that airline boarding pass barcodes can be read by cell phone scanner apps, revealing account information.

-DD

Using Technology In The Classroom

Carl Hooker suggests tech innovations for the classroom .

-DD

Statistical Error

Paul McNamara notes an error in a Pew Research promotional piece which diminished the enormity of the shift in Internet social media. The illustration image, originally captured by Mike Gogulski, captures the scope of the error.

-DD

Total of New Cuyama photo taken by Mike Gogulski.

Lesson Sharing Sites and Intellectual Property

Stephen Sawchuk reviews the legal rights teachers can surrender by posting to lesson-sharing sites . Sawchuk provides exerpts from various site licenses, some of which transfer the right of sale to hosting site.

Sawchuk notes that it is still unclear who ownes a teacher's lesson:

The 1909 [copyright] law establishing U.S. copyright policy made employers the owner of employee work products and carved out a special exemption for teachers. But in what some suspect might have been a drafting error, Congress deleted that exemption when it rewrote the law in 1976. (Section "Who Owns A Lesson?" para. 5)

To quote Sawchuk's conclusion: "In other words, dull and uninspiring though it is: Read the fine print."

-DD

Computer Quotes

Mark Gibbs shares a collection of computer quotes .

-DD

Security Awareness Training

Maria Korolov notes that security awareness must be modeled by corporate leaders if the employees are to be expected to follow good practices

. -DD

Identity Theft Hit Almost 18 Million US Citizens

Martyn Williams reports on the extent of identity theft in the United States.

-DD

Fraudulent Results

Will Thalheimer notes that errors creep into academic assumptions due to teachers creating examples which become accepted as statistical fact, even though they have not been derived from experimentation or analysis. His article examines the bogus statistics that have accrued to the theoretical model of "Dale's Cone."

A later (2014) debunking of accretions to the learning pyramid was writting by librarians Candice Benjes-Small and Alyssa Archer -DD

Social Media Policies

Lauren Brousell suggests that collegiate restrictions on social media use may offer lessons to corporations crafting usage policies.

-DD

Robots Helping Humans

Sharon Gaudin opins that robots will soon be our personal digital assistants . She quotes Defense researcher Pam Melroy, who is excited about the possibilities of bionic prostheses for wounded veterans:

The ability to control a robotic arm with just thoughts, with an RF signal and a chip in a woman's brain has already been demonstrated. It doesn't yet send signals back, but that will happen and it will close that loop. We are just not that far away from this ability to think things [and make a robot move]. It sounds like magic, but it's all about electrical brain signals.

-DD

Ransonware Threat

Lucian Constantin notes that ransomware , a form of malware that threatens to encrypt a computer's files unless a payment is made, is a threat to small businesses. He specifically mentions the Crypto-Wall malware, and how maintaining several backups of data is the best defense.

-DD

The Value of Known Ignorance

Thor Olavsrud muses on the value of known ignorance , citing baseball analyst Bill James:

Speaking at the NetSuite NYSE Disruption Summit at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, James and Beane both expressed that in business, as in baseball, the key to making the most of the data you're collecting is to let go of preconceptions and start thinking of areas of ignorance as mines of opportunity.

"Ignorance is inexhaustible and a vast resource to all of us," says James, now senior advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox, a far cry from his early days writing about baseball stats while working as a night-shift security guard at Stokely-Van Camp's pork and beans cannery. "Whenever you find something that you do not know, that you could know, that's gold. That's an opportunity to turn lead into gold."

"It's taking bucketfuls out of an ocean," he adds. "Every field is shot through with things that people are convinced are true but just aren't true. Areas of growth are based on discovering those things you know that just aren't true."

The trick is to look into that sea of the unknown and understand what is quantifiable and what isn't.

-DD

Politically Correct Pronouns

Melvin Jules Bukiet tackles personal pronoun usage in a classroom with varied gender roles.

-DD

Technology Podcasts

Rich Hein suggests seven technology podcasts .

-DD

Big Data and Personal Privacy

James Niccolai recounts IBM data handling prowness .

-DD

Google Search by Voice

Sharon Gaudin reports that Google is improving voice search . Gaudin paraphased Google Fellow Amit Singhai as saying "that future searches will be more like conversations with your computer or device, which also will be able to give you information before you even ask for it."

Gaudin notes that voice recognition inaccuracies have slowed adoption. She quotes consultant Patrick Moorhead as saying "Very few people rely on any smartphone voice products. They only will rely on them when the accuracy gets to 99%. Imagine if your keyboard only was accurate 95% of the time, meaning every five keys out of 100 were inaccurate. So this is a nice improvement, but until the complete user experience gets to 99% it won't really make a difference in adoption."

-DD

Windows 10 in the Enterprise

Gregg Keizer comments on the changes which release Microsoft Windows 10 requires of enterprise networks. In the past, major changes in Windows occured only when a new version number was released; however, the new subscription model promotes frequent updates to the operating system, which shall require a nimble technology support team to deal with incompatibilities. Keizer quotes extensively from Gartner consultant Steven Kleynhans, who provides general recommendations for the compatibility testing process.

-DD

Grading Large Classes

Anastasia Salter offers five tips for grading large classes of university students. Most of her tips involve scheduling blocks of time - tiny blocks, regulated by a timer, for each individual paper evaluation, and weekly blocks of uninterupted time dedicated to grading. Careful preparation of the course and course technology can reduce grading time as well.

-DD

Social Media Engagement

Jennifer Lumba offers ten tips for social media engagement .

-DD

Telecommuting Tools

Sarah White suggests five essential technologies for telecommuters .

-DD

Viewing Through Walls

Jon Gold offers information on a MIT project to use radio waves to detect human activity through walls .

-DD

Evaluating Credentials

Goldie Blumenstyk observes that a today a credentialing summit will be held in Washington, DC. This gathering of business, labor and education leaders will examine the growing number of educational credentials, and recommend a means to determine their value. They are partnering with Workcred, which is attempting to establish national standards for denoting educational accomplishment.

-DD

Student Video Presentations as a Learning Tool

Robert Talbert exhorts faculty to include student video assignments in their online courses. Talbert provides examples of student videos, and explains why the inclusion of such assignments is a powerful boost for student learning.

-DD

Balance Between Work and Personal Life

Travis Bradberry provides guidelines for work and personal life commitments. I thought the graphic he employed was valuable.

-DD

TED Talks

Sean Moreau recommends ten TED Talks which would interest techies.

-DD

The Power of Praise

Justin Bariso encourages sincere praise for those who do well. He notes that praise not only creates bonds and reinforces good behavior: it brings joy to everyone involved.

-DD

Open Source Software

InfoWorld Staff suggest the ten best open source software products of 2015.

-DD

Inter-Racial Networking

Mark S. Luckie provides a first-person account of being a black professional in a high-tech company. He comments on how few white people have black friends who they can recommend for employment.

-DD

Book Recommendations

John Rampton lists books CEOs recommend .

-DD

Tamr

Katherine Noyes explains a free tool from Tamr which helps a firm catalog "dark data" assets.

-DD

Technology Makes Us Anti-Social?

Paul McNamara demonstrates that technology is not what makes people anti-social , but rather an innate need for personal space.

-DD

Academia.edu

Jeffrey R. Young champions an academic social network called Academia.edu which is designed to help disseminate academic papers for comment. It is hoped that the comment and revision process will endow the papers with academic rigor, similar to that of peer review.

-DD