14073732
submission
ideonexus writes:
Although there are tons of these lists on the internet, I'm hoping this list of IT personality types will strike a cord with some people who've encountered them in the workplace or recognize these traits in themselves. Plus I'm really curious to see what other personality types or odd ball traits others have encountered.
9696884
submission
ideonexus writes:
Former advisor to Tony Blair, Charles Leadbeater has an comprehensive essay up on Edge about Cloud Cultures and the many competing forces attempting to influence them, such as the "Twitter Revolution" still going on in Iran compared to the oppressive "50 Cent Party" which uses social networking to report online content critical of the Chinese Government, and the actions we must take to empower dissenters under foreign regimes. He also cautions readers concerning the consolidation of culture in the form of books, communications, and music under profit-driven companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple, which are assuming the role of defining our Cloud Cultures for us with the content they provide, and the steps we need to take in order to ensure new, independent Cloud Cultures may still emerge.
9547194
submission
ideonexus writes:
At the New York Toy fair, Mattel has announced Computer Engineer Barbie, the doll's 126th career chosen by popular vote. The official announcement (PDF) shows her accessorizing with nerdy glasses, a Bluetooth earpiece, pink laptop, and tee covered in binary digits. The girls-only vote choose "News Anchor Barbie," which became Barbie's 125th career, but Mattel decided to add the Computer Engineer version after a viral outpouring of support from female IT professionals.
9536252
submission
ideonexus writes:
I've been lackadaisical when it comes to following stories about Texas schoolboard attempts to slip creationism into Biology textbooks, dismissing the stories as just "dumbass Texans," but what I didn't realize is that Texas schoolbooks set the standard for the rest of the country, and it's not just Creationism that this Christian coalition is attempting to bring into schoolbooks, but a full frontal assault on history, politics, and the humanities that exploits the fact that final decisions are being made by a school board completely academically unqualified to make informed evaluations of the changes these lobbyists propose. This evangelical lobby has successfully had references to the American Constitution as a "living document," as textbooks have defined it since the 1950s, removed in favor of an "enduring Constitution" not subject to change, as well as attempting to over-emphasize the role Christianity played in the founding of America. The leaders of these efforts outright admit they are attempting to redefine the way our children understand the political landscape so that, when they grow up, they will have preconceived notions of the American political system that favor their evangelical Christian goals.
9432934
submission
ideonexus writes:
A study of online article metrics from the New York Times produced some very unexpected results, such as the fact that people preferred to forward articles that are positive, long, intellectually challenging, and inspire a sense of awe, with science articles having a 30 percent chance of being forwarded over a 20 percent chance for other articles in the website.
The study raises a lot of questions, such as if this behavior is specific to the culture of NYT's readers over, say, the New York Post, which is a much more sensational, tabloid newspaper, and what are the motivations for forwarding articles. Did the reader forward the article to connect with friends or to show off intellectually?
8360204
submission
ideonexus writes:
South Korea, China, Brazil, parts of Europe, and Japan have been watching television on their phones for free since 2005, but American mobile carriers are struggling to offer clunky streaming video using Qualcomm’s proprietary MediaFLO system for an additional monthly fee and excessive bandwidth demands. Now, with America having gone digital in June, if Mobile carriers were to have ATSC M/H (advanced television systems committee—mobile/handheld) television-tuner chips built into their handsets it sounds like we could enjoy free TV on our cell phones too; however, these companies have already invested a great deal of money adapting their networks to Qualcomm's format and Qualcomm is considering becoming a Mobile-television distributor itself.
