Carl Wieman on Teaching

Eric Westervelt interviewed Nobel laureate Carl Wiemann about the benefits of active learning compared with lecture.

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Apple Quicktime for Windows Loses Apple Support

Gregg Keizer notes that Apple Quicktime for Windows is no longers supported by its manufacturer, and should be deleted from Windows computers.

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Taking Notes

James Doubek warns that notebook computers are poor tools for taking notes, as they offer too much distraction.

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YouTube Explores Virtual Reality

Sharon Gaudin writes about YouTube's experiments with providing a virtual reality experience.

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Blockchain Technology

Jonathan Hassell explains blockchain technology, which is used for secure financial transactions.

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Productivity Videos

Rachel Gillett recommends TED Talks which encourage personal productivity .

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iOS Updates

Oscar Raymundo shares some of the latest technology in Apple phones and tablets .

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Cyberwar

Taylor Armerding evaluates the possiblity of cyberwar against U.S. utilities.

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Google and "Fair Use"

David Kravets reports that the U.S. Supreme Court considers Google's scanning of library books to be an example of the legal concept of "Fair Use ."

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Email Triage

Stephanie Vozza offers two rules for sorting email .

1. Real productivity "is about managing your energy", so manage email at a low-energy time such as late in the day.
2. Handle email at one or a few times during the day. Don't let email take presidence over your job.

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Wearable Computing

Michelle Drolet warns of seven potential security problems that arise with wearable computing:

1. They often contain a large amount personal health information
2. They can be used for surreptitious audio or video recording
3. This technology often employs insecure wireless communication
4. These devices often do not encrypt data
5. Wearable security is not yet an issue of compliance
6. Software flaws in such devices are often unpatached
7. Mobile Device Management (MDM) software often does not account for these devices.

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Apple CareKit and Healthcare Records

Ryan Faas shares information about Apple CareKit , a framework for writing healthcare applications.

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WiFi Hotspots

OPLIN shares information from MIT on the uses of WiFi .

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Email Response Robot

Katherine Noyes shares her experience with an email response robot developed by X.AI. It primarly contacts humans to book meeting.

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Google Chrome Version 50 Does Not Support WindowsXP or WindowsVista

Gregg Keizer warns that Google Chrome can not be updated beyond version 49 on systems running WindowsXP or Vista. According to Keizer:

The upgrade to Chrome 50 will not be recognized or downloaded by personal computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, OS X Snow Leopard, OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion. Those operating systems debuted between 2001 (XP) and 2012 (Mountain Lion). Users of those OSes will be permanently stuck on Chrome 49, getting neither upgrades to new versions nor security patches for newly discovered vulnerabilities.

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Vivaldi Web Browser

Jon Gold provides a slideshow demonstrating the features of Vivaldi , a new web browser which counters the trend toward a minimalist interface. It can be downloaded here: https://vivaldi.com/download/?lang=en_US.

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Microsoft Windows 10 Power Tools

Brad Chacos lists powerful system software shipping with Windows 10. Warning: many of these tools are only of interest to those who use the "command prompt" on a regular basis.

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Data Storage

Lucas Mearian provides a look at new data storage technologies which will allow further device miniturization.

Even random access memory is seeing significant advances, as Agam Shah notes in his article on nonvolatile DRAM modules being installed in Hewlett Packard's DL360 and DL380 servers.

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A Consequence of Plagiarism

Helen Rubinstein feels anguish over reporting a struggling student found to be committing plagiarism , and the pain only increases when the students commits suicide.

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File Transfer Protocol

Ian Hamilton reviews the limitations of the 45-year-old File Transfer Protocol and suggests characteristics for an alternative.

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Paul Glen suggests that managers need to exercise restraint in attempting to get more productivity from knowledge workers.

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Internet for the Poor

Matt Hamblen reports that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission will charge a fee on telecommunications services to allow the poor to have internet access .

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Delivering Children

Nancy Pope notes that for when the ability to mail packages by parcel post was first introduced in 1914, a number of frugal parents mailed their children to save money. Edna Neff made the longest journey, "traveling from her mother’s home in Pensacola, Florida, to her father’s home in Christainburg, Virginia."

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Decline in New Windows Installs

Gregg Keizer shares Gartner data indicating Apple's operating systems are being installed on more new devices than Microsoft Windows.

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Teamwork and Collaboration

Sharon Florentine suggests ways to improve collaboration within a team.

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Data Visualization

Andy Cotgreave discusses data visualization. Cotgreave suggests that innovative visualization is important because: "Getting people to engage is sometimes as important as building the cognitively most valid method." He uses as examples charts from the Wall Street Journal showing the impact of vaccination on disease which he says are more attention grabbing than line charts.

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Interview With Sal Khan

Jeffery R. Young interviews Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy . Khan has recommendations for remaking students' academic experience. This is his vision:

But a lot of their time, their days are not spent in these 300-person lecture halls taking notes, trying to take exams on things that will have very little relevance to what they will eventually do or, even if it does, they’ll forget.
Instead they should be out in the field doing things — and that doing things, it could be interning at a Google or a Khan Academy.
It could be doing research at a local, it could be at another university or at a pharma company.
It could be working with a tech incubator or a business incubator and trying to start or innovate something new.
It could be getting mentored by a great writer, kind of in an apprentice system and you’re trying to learn how to write similar types of novels.

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Big Data Consultancy "Fast Forward"

Marc Ferranti describes "big data" consultancy Fast Forward . Fast Forward CEO Hilary Mason notes three primary reasons why big data initiatives fail:

1. Over-investing in equipment
2. Hiring the wrong people
3. Weak leadership.

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Vice in U.S. Cities

Felipe Chacon compiled statistics on vice in major U.S. cities.

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Travails of an Independent Scholar

John Barnes notes that quitting academia for consulting is financially perilous.

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Linked Data

Roy Tennant acts as an evangelist for linked data in a library environment.

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