Sunday, March 24, 2013

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
  • "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...
Jörn Loviscach: The Story Of A German Math Teaching Sensation
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.“

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