At a recent seminar I attended, a
Colorado “Health Expert” proudly mentioned that they would be
developing their own record system from scratch. I asked why they
various free versions were unacceptable, but she had apparently never
heard of such a thing. No doubt we'll spend a billion or so before
we throw the system out and start over... and over...
"Free Software Foundation
president Richard M. Stallman announced the winners
of the FSF's annual Free Software Awards at a ceremony held
during the LibrePlanet 2013 conference. The Award for the
Advancement of Free Software is given annually to an individual who
has made a great contribution to the progress and development of free
software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free
software. This year, it was given to Dr. Fernando Perez, the creator
of IPython, a rich architecture for interactive computing. The Award
for Projects of Social Benefit is presented to the project or team
responsible for applying free software, or the ideas of the free
software movement, in a project that intentionally and significantly
benefits society in other aspects of life. This award stresses the
use of free software in the service of humanity. This year, the
award went to OpenMRS,
a free software medical record system for developing countries."
It's a shame I had to read this
online... Wait. No it isn't. That's how I get 95% of my news! I
will mention that Baen Publishing is offering a leather bound edition
of the first book in the Honor Harrington series. (for a mere $102)
Clearly they believe that fans of the series will appreciate a
high-end (dare we say, “collector's”) edition.
March 23, 2013
Commentary
- Books aren’t dead yet
Self-publishing
fans and the tech-obsessed keep getting it wrong: Big authors want to
be in print -- and bookstores, by Laura Miller
- "You’ve probably read that bookstores, like traditional book publishers, are in trouble. They are, especially if they’re big, overextended, relatively impersonal chain stores like Barnes & Noble. But, as the Christian Science Monitor recently reported, there are now many indications that a once-beleaguered portion of the bookselling landscape, independent bookstores, are enjoying a “quiet resurgence.” Sales are up this year; established stores, such as Brooklyn’s WORD, are doing well enough to expand and new stores are opening. Indies have been helped by the closure of the Borders chain and a campaign to remind their customers that if they want local bookstores to survive, they have to patronize them, even if that means paying a dollar or two more than they would on Amazon."
No comment. I can't stop laughing long
enough to come up with a comment that isn't a double entendre.
For years Japan’s leading producers
of pornographic movies have been battling to protect their content
overseas. In particular they have focused on Taiwan where websites
openly sell their videos and TV channels air their content without
permission. The studios eventually took legal action, but to no
avail. This week prosecutors made the decision not to prosecute any
of the alleged pirates, ruling that since pornography
is obscene it isn’t worthy of copyright protection.
Who says Math teachers get no respect?
Unfortunately, lots of Math teachers...
Bespectacled, bearded and donning a
tweed jacket, Jörn
Loviscach speaks with a measured cadence that demonstrates a
concern for his students to grasp what he’s saying.
It’s that careful communication style
that has helped Loviscach gain nearly 8 million views and more than
16,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel of math instructional
videos in German language. He’s also now teaching a Udacity course
that challenges thousands of students to use numerical methods to
solve real world problems such as rescuing the Apollo 13 astronauts,
stopping the spread of epidemics and fighting forest fires.
… A few years ago, Loviscach
started recording screencasts of his lectures – that is: the spoken
word as audio, plus the computer screen’s content as video –
using an old tablet PC notebook that runs Windows. He flipped his
classroom, posting the videos to a channel on YouTube and requiring
students to watch the lectures he’s recorded before. They can then
use more class time for trouble-shooting and problem solving
together.
Similar to Sal Khan’s viral
experience, other German university and high school students started
watching Loviscach’s videos. Before long, his videos were seeing
10,000 view per day, “which is not too much compared to Lady Gaga,“
he quips. “But it’s good for a math channel.“
No comments:
Post a Comment