Monthly Archives: December 2011

60 Minutes 2011 reports on family homelessness are must-sees

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Karl

They titled the report, “The Hard Times Generation” and it was a revealing look at families fighting homelessness. 60 Minutes: 14 minute video: “Hard Times Generation: Families living in cars”: 60 Minutes: 2 minute video: “Something with a roof: Scott … Continue reading →

Posted in Homelessness, Public Service, Civics, Government and Activism | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Meet the man behind the protest mask – Alan Moore

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Karl

Tom Lamont, in The Guardian, interviews comic book writer Alan Moore and asks him how he feels about the propagation of “V for Vendetta” masks among protestors: “Alan Moore – meet the man behind the protest mask”

Posted in Movies, TV, Radio, Comics, Books, Public Service, Civics, Government and Activism | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Star Wars versus Doctor Who

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Karl

Philip Sandifer, “A hopeless geek with a PhD in English focusing on media studies”, compares Star Wars and Doctor Who in “Pop Between Realities, Home in Time for Tea 21 (Star Wars)”. A long read, but worth it.

Posted in Movies, TV, Radio, Comics, Books | Tagged , | Comments Off

A parent who finds a way to build an App helping his Autistic son

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Karl

The Startup Toolkit profiles Aeir and profiles the person behind it, Joseph Hill. It is an inspiring story: “A man, a mop, a year, and an app – Joseph Hill on Aeir Talk”.

Posted in Coding, Software Engineering, Programming, Communications, Connection, the Internet, the Web, and Media, Public Service, Civics, Government and Activism | Tagged | Comments Off

In 2011, the Internet started to revolutionize education

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Karl

A huge list of stories from TheNextWeb to read in its 2011 round-up: “In 2011: How the Internet Revolutionized Education”. Things that got my attention: Squad, CodeNow, ReadingBear, The Open University, and Clayton Christensen, saying education is ready for disruption.

Posted in Coding, Software Engineering, Programming, Education | Comments Off

Edd Dumbill’s Big Data predictions for 2012

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Karl

O’Reilly Radar: Edd Dumbill: “Five big data predictions for 2012″. Are you going to add a data science team in the new year? Apache’s S4 looks interesting.

Posted in Coding, Software Engineering, Programming | Tagged | Comments Off

Tim Bray, “we have so little consensus on these issues”

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Karl

Tim Bray posted a thought provoker in “Type-System Criteria”. Working in Android has caused him to rethink some positions. Go read.

Posted in Coding, Software Engineering, Programming | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Greg Wilson, “This continues to be the biggest headache our students face”

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Karl

Greg Wilson discusses one of the biggest road blocks to using Python more widely, especially in teaching situations, in “It Just Keeps On Hurting”.

Posted in Coding, Software Engineering, Programming, Education | Tagged | Comments Off

How Firefly fans won a fight for free speech on a campus

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Karl

YouTube.com: “Don’t Mess with Firefly! How SciFi Fans Made a Campus Safe for Free Speech (feat. Neil Gaiman)”: (via Boing Boing)

Posted in Communications, Connection, the Internet, the Web, and Media, Education, Public Service, Civics, Government and Activism | Tagged , | Comments Off

Quotes from the Nato Software Engineering Conference in 1968 – Peter Krantz

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Karl

Peter Krantz put together some eye-opening, and sad, sad quotes from a software engineering conference held in 1968: “Quotes from the Nato Software Engineering Conference in 1968 – Peter Krantz”.

Posted in Coding, Software Engineering, Programming | Comments Off