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Submission + - Back to the Social Media Future 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Scores of decades before WhatsApp, Gmail, Facebook, and multiplayer Call of Duty, there was TERM-talk, P-Notes, Notesfiles, and Battlestar. Brian Dear goes back to the future, penning A 1980 Teenager’s View on Social Media, as written by his 19-year-old UDEL undergrad self, an avid user of PLATO, the 55-year-old granddaddy of today's MOOCs. Of old-school texting, Dear notes that you-are-how-you-type: "Every character is displayed in real time as each of us types. So *how* you TERM-talk with folks becomes part of your reputation. Kind of like what your handshake is like. We all know when we shake somebody’s hand and they have a firm, confident grip, full of vigor and life, a quick shake and release and you know this person is with it. And then there are those with cold, clammy fish hands that feel like they have no bones, it’s all just cushion all the way down Well in TERM-talk, if you type fast, that’s cool."

Submission + - A 1980 Teenager's View on Social Media (medium.com)

Submitted by platohistory
platohistory writes: Written as a response to the recent popular "A Teenager's View on Social Media" that appeared in Medium this past week, about a 19-year-old college student's views on Facebook, Instagram, etc. Well, social media has been around a lot longer than people think. This is a detailed account of what it was like to be a 19-year-old immersed on the PLATO system in 1980.

Submission + - Zuckerberg and Gates Looking to Hire a CTO Who Can Get Them Free Stuff

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "There just aren't enough people who are trained and have the skills we need," bemoaned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in What Schools Don't Teach. So it's interesting that apparently one of the most important qualifications Zuck's Fwd.us PAC is looking for in candidates to fill its Chief Technology Officer position is their ability to get free stuff ("experience negotiating in-kind (pro bono) contributions is a major plus") for the tech billionaire-backed PAC as it lobbies to "accomplish our goal of passing comprehensive immigration and education reform" (aka Microsoft's National Strategy). Among the benefits to a consultant or business to take on pro bono work, explains Ennergize, is that it can lead to paid gigs. Hey, kind of like an unpaid 2014 FWD.us Summer Apprenticeship, but without the unlimited ride MetroCard perk, kids!

Submission + - Why Rip Van Winkle Might Yawn at Coverage of President Obama's Coding Lesson

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: If a modern-day Rip Van Winkle woke up from a twenty year nap and read the White House's 2014 Year in Review, he could be excused for wondering what the big fuss over President Obama's 2014 coding lesson was all about. While Quartz scoffed at the idea of a Bush dipping a toe in code, the last thing Rip could remember before dozing off in 1991 was seeing President George H.W. Bush get introduced to coding at an eerily similar-looking event at the Saturn School of the Future in St. Paul, MN. Dr. Tom King, the founder and Director of Saturn School, said in e-mail that Bush 41 was "the first of American Presidents to see and try K12 coding," recalling that students showed President Bush how LEGO-LOGO worked and how to enter computer code. "What George H.W. Bush did here," King added, "would have been similar to what Clinton or Obama did years later: Enter codes to solve a problem, such as moving a graphic around a computer screen. It's not trivial to do, but it's not 'rocket science' either. Obama used a modern computer or iPad screen, and typed in code, or 'chunks' of code, to make things move about the screen. To say any of them had learned to code is a stretch, but they did learn some basics of what coding is all about."

Submission + - Monica Guzman is Ashamed of Her Selfie Stick

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "As a tool for taking better pictures," writes GeekWire columnist Monica Guzman, "selfie sticks are fantastic." And while she didn't buy one of the gadgets just to include herself in pictures, Guzman still confesses to being "ashamed of my selfie stick", perhaps worried that she'll be lumped in with or — even worse join — the swelling ranks of monopole narcissists. So, is the selfie stick one of The 25 Best Inventions of 2014? Or is it one tech insanity too far?

Submission + - White House: Petition to Remove US DA in Aaron Swartz Case is Inappropriate

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: One year and 90K signatures after We the People petitions were submitted to 1. Remove United States District Attorney Carmen Ortiz from office for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz and 2. Fire Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Heymann, the White House has responded with a non-response: "As to the specific personnel-related requests raised in your petitions, our response must be limited. Consistent with the terms we laid out when we began We the People, we will not address agency personnel matters in a petition response, because we do not believe this is the appropriate forum in which to do so." So, the Administration is commemorating the 2nd anniversary of Swartz's tragic suicide by calling on citizens to Tell Us What You Think About We the People and This Petition Response on U.S. Attorney's Office Personnel Matters. Unfortunately, prosecutorial overreach shows little sign of letting up. Georgia Tech CE/CS student Ryan Gregory Pickren, the NY Times Reports. faces a possible 15 years in prison and a $50,000 fine after being charged with computer trespassing for allegedly posting a calendar entry stoking a football rivalry days before the Georgia Tech-Georgia game ("Sat., November 29, 2014/ 12:00 pm/ Get Ass Kicked by GT"). Pickren's sister is trying to crowdfund her brother's defense.

Submission + - From Poop to Potable: Bill Gates Enjoys a Glass of Water from Human Waste

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Bill Gates can lead us to water recycled from feces. But can he make us drink? GeekWire reports that BillG is certainly leading by example, appearing in a video in which he sips "a glass of delicious drinking water" produced from human waste processed by Janicki Bioenergy's OmniProcessor, which can take sewer sludge and turn it into clean drinking water, electricity and clean ash. So how was it? "The water tasted as good as any I've had out of a bottle," said Bill. "And having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day. It's that safe."

Submission + - Better Learning Through Expensive Software? One Principal Thinks Not.

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "Instead of improving the instructional practices of teachers," laments Chicago public school Principal Michael Beyer, "we are throwing vast sums of money and time at software and digital solutions that are largely untested, unproven and highly questionable." Ed-Tech vendors' so-called 'weapons of mass instruction,' argues Beyer, may show 'gains' on the high-stakes tests because they mimic the targeted test format, but the learning gains don't necessarily transfer to the real world, or last much longer than the end of the school year. But technology in the classroom is not going away, as one commenter notes. So, what to do? Well, since U.S. CTO Megan Smith is looking for bigger technological fish to fry than weaning the White House off floppy disks, why not give her a crack at Ed-Tech, including a healthy budget and some Lab Schools where she could have educators and technologists brainstorm-and-prototype to separate the Ed-Tech wheat from the chaff without undue vendor influence and short-term test score pressure?

Submission + - If the Programmer Won't Go To Mountain Valley, Should MV Go To the Programmer?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "If 95% of great programmers aren’t in the US," Matt Mullenweg advises in How Paul Graham Is Wrong (a rejoinder to Graham's Let the Other 95% of Great Programmers In), "and an even higher percentage not in the Bay Area, set up your company to take advantage of that fact as a strength, not a weakness. Use WordPress and P2, use Slack, use G+ Hangouts, use Skype, use any of the amazing technology that allows us to collaborate as effectively online as previous generations of company did offline. Let people live someplace remarkable instead of paying $2,800 a month for a mediocre one bedroom rental in San Francisco. Or don’t, and let companies like Automattic and Github hire the best and brightest and let them live and work wherever they like." Microsoft and Google — which hawk the very tools to facilitate remote work that Mullenweg cites — have shuttered remote offices filled with top talent even as they cry the talent sky is falling. So, is "being stubborn on keeping a company culture that requires people to be physically co-located," as Mullenweg puts it, a big part of tech's 'talent shortage' problem?

Comment Why We Have a Lawless Gotcha Capitalism Economy (Score 5, Interesting) 121

Here's Why We Have a Lawless Gotcha Capitalism Economy: "Gotcha Capitalism rewards bad behavior. It turns the normal reward function of capitalism on its head. Instead of good companies with good products and creative innovation rising to the top, we have companies that refine their gotcha mechanisms rising to the top. They create just enough surprise to walk the thin line of the law...or slip over it, but not enough to do something that might actually have a material impact on the bottom line. If you like my line of thinking, I've written an entire book about this - you can buy it here. But for now, know this: Until bad behavior starts resulting in material impact, companies won't stop. And we'll remain stuck in the sucker economy."

Submission + - Would Twitter Make President Obama 'Follow' the Tea Party if the Price is Right?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Giving others the impression that individuals support something that they actually don't could get you fined and placed under house arrest. But if you're Twitter, it could boost your bottom line. Gigaom's Carmel DeAmicis reports that brands pay Twitter to falsely appear in your following list, an advertising technique brought to light by William Shatner after he saw that 'MasterCard' appeared in his following list despite the fact that he didn’t follow it. "By making it look like someone follows an account that they don’t," writes DeAmicis, "it sends a false signal that said user cares about that brand. Although the brands are marked as 'promoted,' it’s not necessarily clear that the user in question doesn’t actually follow the brand. There’s ethical considerations to be had. Hypothetical examples: What if you’re vegan and don’t want people to think you’re following Burger King? Or you’re the CEO of Visa and don’t want people thinking you’re following MasterCard? Or you’re a pro-life activist and don’t want people thinking you’re following Planned Parenthood?" Or, if you're @BarackObama and don't want people to think you're following @TPPatriots!

Submission + - The Billionaires' Space Club

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Silicon sultans are the new robber barons, writes The Economist, adding that "they have been diversifying into businesses that have little to do with computers, while egotistically proclaiming that they alone can solve mankind’s problems, from ageing to space travel." But over at Slate, NYU journalism prof Charles Seife is less-than impressed with The Billionaires' Space Club. "It's an old trick," begins Seife. "Multimillionaires regularly try to spin acts of crass ego gratification as selfless philanthropy, no matter how obviously self-serving. They jump out of balloons at the edge of the atmosphere, take submarines to the bottom of the ocean, or shoot endangered animals on safari, all in the name of science and exploration. The more recent trend is billionaires making fleets of rocket ships for private space exploration. What makes this one different is that the public actually seems to buy the farce." Seife goes on to argue that "neither [Elon] Musk's nor [Richard] Branson's goals really seem to break new ground, despite all the talk of exploration."

Submission + - President George H.W. Bush Was the First 'Coding President'

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "We have a coding President!" declared U.S. CTO Megan Smith as President Obama completed a short computer coding exercise with middle-school students at the White House earlier this month. Perhaps "We have another coding President!" might have been more accurate. Decades earlier, President George H.W. Bush participated in a very similar computer programming demonstration at the Saturn School of the Future in St. Paul, MN. Dr. Tom King, the founder and Director of Saturn School, said in e-mail that Bush 41 was "the first of American Presidents to see and try K12 coding," and shared a couple of photos from the 1991 event in which students show President Bush how LEGO-LOGO worked and how to enter computer code. "What George H.W. Bush did here," recalled King, "would have been similar to what Clinton or Obama did years later: Enter codes to solve a problem, such as moving a graphic around a computer screen. It's not trivial to do, but it's not 'rocket science' either. Obama used a modern computer or iPad screen, and typed in code, or 'chunks' of code, to make things move about the screen. To say any of them had learned to code is a stretch, but they did learn some basics of what coding is all about."

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