Metropolis Magazine: some cool ones

Don Norman’s jnd.org / Simplicity Is Highly Overrated: as I’ve been known to say about simplicity… “it prevents people from thinking”, which it does. If something is so simple that you don’t have to think about it, to learn about it, then that thing loses a certain value to many people as Norman indicates. What […]

It’s just hardware!: It’s just hardware, it will not change education, it will not make our students smarter, it will not make our lives easier unless we are willing to take a long deep look into our systems and change the way we do things. We are talking about a pedagogical shift in the way […]

GOP & Higher Education: “It’s about training a docile work force.” No. 1.28.2006. 19.: “It’s not about liberal education and critical thinking,” says Dennis Baron, a former columnist for the Chronicle of Higher Education and commentator on education policy. “It’s about training a docile work force.” —— yep, that is basically what it is about…

Wikipedia Biography: Kathryn Cramer proposes that ISFDB take back author biographies from Wikipedia. —- I agree, wikipedia is not the place for…. biographies, actually it is not the place for most things. it is really hard to maintain any sense of standards in wikipedia. you can basically find valid citations for nearly any minoritarian position […]

A sad tale of technology dependence: Fortunately, this particular laptop has a fingerprint sensor. What a cool piece of technology! I still have no idea what my password is, but every morning I simply drag my index finger over the sensor and Windows logs me in. Last night in the woodshop I sliced my index […]

KOMO-TV – Video – Video – Young student’s documentary leaving audiences stunned: Kiri Davis is a young filmmaker whose high school documentary has left audiences at film festivals across the country stunned — and has re-ignited a powerful debate over race. —— Racism is all around along with other forms of bigotry. It is a […]

BookMooch: a community for exchanging used books (book swap and book exchange and book trade): —– bookmooch.com… ‘It is a really great idea’

I ordered a new macbook from apple under my own name. It has been years since I’ve purchased a computer for myself, as virginia tech has provided adequate resources. Pratt gave me a nice desktop too, don’t get me wrong, it arrived a month or so into my first term of teaching. I really need […]

Peter Scott’s Library Blog: Amazon.com “Wish for Lit” contest Amazon.com has introduced the Wish for Lit contest, where it will give over $20,000 in Amazon.com products to 3 winning libraries in the United States. One library will be selected in each of the three categories: K-12, Academic, and Public. Each winning library will receive a […]