Future Internet

Youtube users asking questions regarding the 'future of the internet' to the ministers and world leaders gathered in Seoul, Korea for the OECD Ministerial Meeting. (June 17~18)



A couple of awesome ones, my favourites because they make a really good point:

• CIPPIC - comparing the internet with impact on the world of Gutenberg's press
• The group of language students - talk about the multilingual issues

Questia Research Library

I love Stumbleupon. Often I find some really useful looking web sites, like Questia.

Questia is a virtual library, I had a quick browse in my subject areas and it seems to have a lot of material that is useful for my study. There is a cost to subscribe, about $100 US for 12 months access which doesn't seem too much.

I shall check it out some more and keep it in mind for next semester.

Another useful resource, Study Guides and Strategies by Joe Landsberger has a lot of material to benefit learning processes.

Hold your position

Patrick Fitzgerald provides this concise yet well explained 10-step lesson in CSS Positioning. A good demonstration of the value of chunking for any sort of learning material. It managed to sink in through my thick head!

Also learned something about vertical centering from Bert Bos' tips on Centering Things. Unfortunately there was a browser compatibility issue with lists and the display: table-cell property, so I couldn't use it.

Colorblind filter

Or if you're Australian like me - colourblind filter.

In NED12 assignment one, the marker commented that they wondered how the design would go with a red filter. I decided to test this on my final assignment, and found an online filter test at http://colorfilter.wickline.org/.

So far my design-in-progress has passed with flying colours (haha). I also tested my design from assignment one - my lovely Australian bush colours become quite drab, but at least it still seems to pass from an accessibility standpoint.

Pardon my plagiarism

It's not illegal, it is a simple question of ethics: an interesting look at the issue of plagiarism. The different attitudes towards students and academics; the tremendous resources used to ineffectually try to "catch" plagiarists; the injustices and the inpracticalities. Dale Spender argues that while cheating slips under the radar there is little logic in punishing students for using the words of others or as Benjamin Franklin put it, "standing on the shoulders of giants" in their learning process. Read more from smh.com.au

Socialising improves your memory

According to new research spending just 10 minutes talking to someone can help improve your memory and can also boost your performance in tests.

Researchers at the University of Michigan say they have found that socializing is just as effective as more traditional methods of mental exercise for boosting the memory and improving intellectual performance. Read more from News-Medical.Net.

The value of an Arts degree

Interesting article by 18 year old Patrick Begley - Is the Arts degree history? To consider liberal arts studies to have little relevance in the modern workforce is to overlook the value of Arts in encouraging a variety of thinking skills. Read more from news.com.au

NED12 A design process revealed

A fellow student Tracy found this article by Douglas Bowman, A Design Process Revealed, very relevant to our first assessment task. It relates the processes behind designing a CSS Zen Garden submission. It is heartening to be told that no great artistic talent is necessary; design is a systematic process which can be grouped into phases as follows:

* research and discovery
* competitive analysis
* exploration
* thumbnail sketching
* typography
* imagery
* composition
* execution and implementation
* review

Using your noggin

Another link courtesy of my sister, Luciano Passuelo's new site LiteMind is all about exploring ways to use our minds efficiently. My favourite articles would have to be How to Recall an Entire Book in 5 Minutes or Less and What is Mind Mapping? (and How to Get Started Immediately) since both of these things are pretty good to have a handle on for uni.

Luciano is a fan of famous quotes also, and has convinced me it is not just idle entertainment.

Instinctive reasoning

I get a daily quote on my Google start page each morning. This one today by Bertrand Russell is profound:

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

Of course, underneath this quote (I get two a day) was a gem from Walt Disney:

I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I've ever known.

Thinking like a genius

Since introducing my sister to StumbleUpon she has been finding all these cool sites and sending them to me. She thought my studies could use a bit of help and guidance and sent me this link to Thinking like a Genius. It's all about thinking productively and creatively rather than reproductively, something they taught us in REA11.

I also found this resource on Critical thinking on the Web (all by myself!) which looks pretty good - lots of links and quotes and references there.

CafeScribe - textbooks 2.0

This is a new service that has a lot of potential, although there is not a lot of content available at the moment I can see CafeScribe really taking off as perhaps another Facebook, its focus on students.



It offers e-book versions of university textbooks for download, at reportedly half the usual print price, providing the opportunity to save some money as well as a few trees. Students can also upload their own PDF documents and share notes, add "friends" to their profile and join student discussion groups.

This sharing of notes and documents might raise some issues about collaboration, or breach of copyright if students are sharing published texts. The service does address the latter issue in its Terms of Use but it is yet to be seen how this would be enforced. There have been a few similar sites offering "textbook sharing" which seem to cross the line, but as one author/lecturer remarked, for small time publishers it's probably not worth the cost of legal remedy.

External links:

• E-book site for students promises to save trees, money Sabena Suri, CNet Aug 2007
• Post by Kristen Nicole on Mashable, Aug 2007

Free domain/hosting for students

Here are details of this offer I found from Hostess Web Hosting. Only available to uni students (you must register with email address ending in .edu.au) it includes a free .au.com domain name and free web hosting. Check it out on the Hostess web site (click "Uni Students" from the menu).

No php support but does offer a cgi-bin for perl scripts. My free site? http://www.mja.au.com/

Social bookmarking

I'm in a quandary.. I have social bookmarking overload! Thanks to Yani at NET11, I have become hooked (finally) on del.icio.us but Greg had to go and push ma.gnolia at us! :)

So for the moment I am using both, but it is highly impractical. I'm tossing up the idea of going back to one (but which one!) or using both for different contexts of links - for example, one for uni links, one for fun links.

Decisions, decisions!