The New York Times reports on the increasingly frequent–but still very controversial–practice of incorporating Twitter and other “backchannel” communication networks into the classroom. Do such conversations make classes more inclusive or more distracting?
The raid is liveblogged when one of Bin Laden’s neighbors complains about the noisy helicopters on Twitter, while Bin Laden’s compound gets 3 of 5 stars on Google Maps. Also in the news: weaponized dogs and a tale of two seals.
This may be the most embarrassing technology-related accident since the owner of Segway died by riding one of his company’s scooters off a cliff and into a river.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/11/05/1158254/Nicaragua-Raids-Costa-Rica-Blames-Google-Maps
“An error on Google Maps has caused an international conflict in Central America. A Nicaraguan military commander, relying on Google Maps, moved troops into an area near San Juan Lake along the border between his country and Costa Rica (Google translation of Spanish original). The troops are accused of setting up camp there, taking down a Costa Rican flag and raising the Nicaraguan flag, doing work to clean up a nearby river, and dumping the sediment in Costa Rican territory.”
Google sent the following email (which serendipitously ended up on NMDnet automatically!) to the effect that it has quickly settled a class-action lawsuit about privacy violations. The same lawsuit targeted Facebook and Zynga.
The bottom line? The lawyers involved take home $2 million and users get nothing, except perhaps for a world in which the dominant Web service provider is a bit more conscious of privacy violations.
Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we’ve reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.
Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.
The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users’ concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be.
Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com.
When the rich get richer in the digital sphere, there’s no real consequences… right?
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http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=dc5d41dd3901e39f763a0f16e9afa2c3 via Byline The Android App Inventor from Google is intended to help nontechnical types create their own apps. An intrepid explorer plunges into do-it-yourself territory….
Truth is, Android App Inventor is only the latest in a long line of “programming for the rest of us” kits: HyperCard, Automator, Scratch and so on. Each, at its debut, was hailed as a breakthrough. Each promised the dawn of a new era. And not a single one wound up delivering the idiot-proof, drag-and-drop software-creation process they promised. It may well be that “programming for nonprogrammers” is simply an oxymoron.
Another item for your checklist of what to do after graduation: change your name.
Google’s Eric Schmidt says that people’s private lives are so well documented now that the young will have to change their names when reaching adulthood to avoid their youthful indiscretions. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Schmidt says: “I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time.”
Sure, it could lead to some crummy apps, but overall this is a big step toward making mobile devices about production as well as consumption.
theodp writes “Steve Jobs & Co. put the kibosh on easier cellphone development, but Google is giving it a shot. The NY Times reports that Google is bringing Android software development to the masses, offering a software tool starting Monday that’s intended to make it easy for people to write applications for its Android phones. The free software, called Google App Inventor for Android, has been under development for a year. User testing has been done mainly in schools with groups that included sixth graders, high school girls, nursing students and university undergraduates who are not CS majors. The thinking behind the initiative, Google said, is that as cellphones increasingly become the computers that people rely on most, users should be able to make applications themselves. It’s something Apple should be taking very seriously, advises TechCrunch.”
ttp://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/jx-nAU3mSsI/The-Android-Gets-Its-HyperCard via Byline
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iPad, Android
via Byline The App Store and the Android marketplace are attractive lures for developers, but apps built to run on the mobile web can still impress. We take a look at the best frameworks available for mobile-web developers.
iPad, Android
via Byline The App Store and the Android marketplace are attractive lures for developers, but apps built to run on the mobile web can still impress. We take a look at the best frameworks available for mobile-web developers.
Apr 232010
A hacker gets Google’s Linux-based Android operating system–which allows Flash and other non-Apple-approved applications–running on an iPhone.
Could this be the salt that melts the ice of the increasingly closed Apple ecosystem?
(via @zeveisenberg)
FairPoint network slowdown? Switch your DNS.
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Feb 072010
One of the many problems of using FairPoint as your ISP is that their DNS system is horribly managed. This often causes unreasonably long waits while a name resolves and can even cause some web pages to break as the browser tries to load assets from many different addresses. If switching ISPs isn’t a viable solution, one workaround is to use another DNS provider. There are many alternatives; in the past I’ve used OpenDNS, which was better than FairPoint’s but still occasionally had glitches (in addition to other potential concerns) and I’ve just started using Google’s Public DNS, which seems pretty good so far. Simple tip: if your computer(s) connect through a router, which they probably do, you should make the DNS change in the router’s control panel rather than on each machine.
Jan 302010
Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products — as well as new Docs and Sites features — won’t work properly in older browsers.
I think that officially means the rest of the world can do it as well. And since everybody is going to be upgrading now, when IE8 is available (among other, better choices) that means there’s no need to support IE7 anymore either, right?
….
Right?
Encyclopedia Dramatica, a Meme encyclopedia, known to many internet power users as simply ED (genital pun usually intended) has had articles censored by google’s australian branch for distasteful content concerning the native people of Australia. Australia is well known for it’s iron fist of censorship. Many video games have to have special Australian versions.
It’s important to note that, just like Wikipedia, ED is a Wiki and therefore user edited. The fact that any one from google, regardless of region, would censor a wiki of any sort, is distasteful in it’s own right.
Encyclopedia Dramatica, a Meme encyclopedia, known to many internet power users as simply ED (genital pun usually intended) has had articles censored by google’s australian branch for distasteful content concerning the native people of Australia. Australia is well known for it’s iron fist of censorship. Many video games have to have special Australian versions.
It’s important to note that, just like Wikipedia, ED is a Wiki and therefore user edited. The fact that any one from google, regardless of region, would censor a wiki of any sort, is distasteful in it’s own right.
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/aprc8/google_agrees_to_take_down_encyclopedia_dramatica/
Encyclopedia Dramatica, a Meme encyclopedia, known to many internet power users as simply ED (genital pun usually intended) has had articles censored by google’s australian branch for distasteful content concerning the native people of Australia. Australia is well known for it’s iron fist of censorship. Many video games have to have special Australian versions.
It’s important to note that, just like Wikipedia, ED is a Wiki and therefore user edited. The fact that any one from google, regardless of region, would censor a wiki of any sort, is distasteful in it’s own right.
Jan 132010
Google has long catered to China’s demands. However with recent attacks attempting to stifle the voices of Human Rights Advocates, Google finally puts it’s collective foot down.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html
Jan 132010
Google has long catered to China’s demands. However with recent attacks attempting to stifle the voices of Human Rights Advocates, Google finally puts it’s collective foot down.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html
Jan 132010
Google has long catered to China’s demands. However with recent attacks attempting to stifle the voices of Human Rights Advocates, Google finally puts it’s collective foot down.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html