You want an iPad with that Hyundai?

Owner's manual done digital...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2010-11-17-hyundaiipad17_ST_N.htm

Check out this video!

NET student Amy Barr created this video for the contest.

View the video then vote for Amy!

I really dig this video from the AT&T Simplify Your Life video contest - check it out. It could win the $20,000 Grand Prize!

You can see the video here: http://tinyurl.com/2e323rq

eMarketing/Social Media/Web position

Interesting skill set....

>

Awesome name for a rock band...

Longchain Polymer and the Free Radicals

NET225S Writing for Electronic Media - Translation

NET225S Writing for Electronic Media - Translation

NET225S Writing for Electronic Media

 

Translation

 

 

Several events occurred to inspire this lesson in writing for electronic media. First, one day last week I had two messages in my In Box that made me pause:

 

One email alerted me to a comment on one of my blogs from a person in Russia (.ru) and the comment was posted in Cyrillic. The other email is from a student whose first language is Japanese, and in the “From” field, the name is rendered in Kanji.

 

A few days later, I encountered an article in my newsreader that claims that 70 percent of the world’s internet users do not speak English.

 

Now, what was really interesting is that the above-mentioned Russian comment wasn’t lost to me. With barely a thought, I copied the text from the email, opened Google Translate, pasted in the text, and read the result. And this seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Really, though, a tremendous amount of clever programming and computing power is behind this seemingly mundane act. (Google Translate, Babelfish.com and other translation services can translate entire websites - just paste the URL into the translate box.)

 

First, the program must recognize the alphabet, then the language, then the words, then the meaning, and render that into an entirely different language. It made sense. Here is the translation:

 

Excellent article! Many thanks to the author for interesting material. Good luck in development! :)

 

Machine translation (as opposed to human translation) has made great strides in the last few years, as processing power has increased, translation tables have been populated, and artificial intelligence models try to tease out contextual clues. Fluent and instantaneous machine translation has been a staple of science fiction for over a century, and we are now very close to its realization, both from language to language and mode to mode (text to speech or speech to text). There has even been experimentation of voice in language A to text in language B!

 

Machine translation breaks down when we use idioms - words that seem to have one definition but are used in a different way in conversation. Humans are pretty good at understanding idioms, but machines are terrible at it.

 

When we use idioms and metaphors to communicate, and a non-native speaker (or machine) tries to translate, it can sometimes sound like a Star Trek episode. For example, we commonly use the phrase “That’s big of you” when we mean someone is being generous (or sometimes we mean it sarcastically when they are not, but that’s a different problem!). Translating that phrase to Latvian, for instance, results in:

 

Tas ir liels jums

 

It is a word-for-word translation. But if we translate it right back to English, we get something else:

 

It's great for you

 

Uh, oh. “Big” became “great” and “of” became “for.” So let’s say we are in a business deal with a Latvian partner, and she makes an offer that is to our advantage. We reply “That’s big of you,” to indicate that we think she is being generous. However, on the other end, it sounds like we are saying, “That’s great for you!” meaning we think it is in HER favor. That could be taken as an insult, and the entire deal could collapse.

 

So, what can be done to avoid such miscommunication? Let’s try the translation again, this time being more precise with our language:

 

Original phrase: You are very generous

English to Latvian: Jūs esat ļoti atsaucīgs

Latvian to English: You're very generous

 

The more precise and non-idiomatic English phrase avoids the mis-translation seen in the earlier example.

 

The activity for you, then, is to identify five or so idiomatic or metaphorical phrases that you are prone to using. (Review your email archives for one source.) Enter them into a translation site and translate them into several languages, then back to English. See how they change, then try to re-write the original text to remove the idiom or metaphor and use direct language, and run them through the same translators to see whether you have succeeded. Post your phrases, translations, back-translations, revisions and re-translations to your blog site.

Google Docs makes it easy to create, store and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

NET225S Writing for Electronic Media - Brevity

NET225 S Writing for Electronic Media - Brevity

NET225S Writing for Electronic Media

 

Brevity

 

 

One of the interesting consequences of the rise of social media - Facebook and Twitter, in particular - is the prevalence of the “micro-blog,” or a web posting that is extremely abbreviated.

 

Twitter’s post limit is 140 characters. Not words - characters! Including spaces and punctuation. Here’s what you can say in 140 characters:

 

How do you explain Twitter to someone who doesn't follow Twitter? Tweets are trail markers, saying "go this way to find interesting stuff."

 

Actually, that’s 139. The input field on Twitter’s web page counts them down for you.

 

What happens if you want to say more? One option is to use a blog+autopost option, such as Posterous. Here’s a longer post, as it appears on Twitter:

 

Springsteen lost and found: The Promise http://post.ly/198QF

 

That is actually just the title and a shortened URL link to the full blog post at http://edisonnet.posterous.com/springsteen-lost-and-found-the-promise. The URL itself is 69 characters - fully half of the allowed character count for a tweet (what an entry on Twitter is called). Posterous, in addition to posting the entry to blogs, Facebook, etc., will create a shortened URL to save character counts.

 

There are a number of URL shortening services, Bit.ly being perhaps the most popular. These work by building a simple table, using a uniquely generated string of letters and numbers and associating that string with a full URL. When someone clicks on (or enters) the shortened Bit.ly address, the site forwards the page request to the actual URL.

 

Another place characters count is in Facebook ads. Facebook ads are fairly inobtrusive, as web-based ads go. They appear on pages as relevant content, based on either the content of the posts or on information in the user’s profile settings. Here are two ads that appeared on one of my pages recently:

 

 

The disc golf ad appears because I am a member of the Edison Disc Golf fan page. The other is because I graduated from high school in 1977. Your ads will differ based on your preferences and settings. If you notice, just above the Disc Golf Superstore heading, there’s a link to “Create an Ad.” If you want to see something cool and magical happen, paste in a URL of your website (your blog URL is OK) and click the “Suggest an Ad” button. Facebook reads the content of the site and puts in a title, some body text and even a graphic!

 

Note that you have 25 characters for a headline, and 135 for the body text. Edit your title and body text to get a message to a prospective audience. Facebook will show you a preview of what it looks like:

 

 

The next step is to target your ads (you can still do all this without committing to a purchase). Try different keywords and demographics to see how that affects your potential audience.

 

 

If you are interested in how Facebook ad pricing works, click Continue. Otherwise, post a screen capture of your ads (try a few) and some information about your demographic selections to your blog. Specifically address how your ad copy targets the people you identified in your demographic selections.

 

Then try to recreate the ad in a Twitter entry, including a shortened URL to point people to your web address.

Google Docs makes it easy to create, store and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Springsteen lost and found: The Promise

Listen on NPR until Nov 16.

Tracks written, recorded, abandoned, shelved or reworked in the period between Born To Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town, 1976-77, reveal the range of experimentation, mood, and even playfulness of Springsteen's band while they toured waited for lawyers to settle a lawsuit.

Man, was that really 35 years ago? When Springsteen released Born to Run, 35-year-old music was Artie Shaw and Bing Crosby.

How Much Math Do We Really Need?

Sent to you via Google Reader

How Much Math Do We Really Need?

Pickens writes "G.V. Ramanathan, a professor emeritus of mathematics, statistics and computer science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, writes in the Washington Post that although a lot of effort and money has been spent to make mathematics seem essential, unlike literature, history, politics and music, math has little relevance to everybody's daily life. 'All the mathematics one needs in real life can be learned in early years without much fuss,' writes Ramanathan. 'Most adults have no contact with math at work, nor do they curl up with an algebra book for relaxation.' Ramanathan says that the marketing of math has become similar to the marketing of creams to whiten teeth, gels to grow hair and regimens to build a beautiful body, but even with generous government grants over the past 25 years, countless courses, conferences, and books written on how to teach teachers to teach, where is the evidence that these efforts have helped students? A 2008 review by the Education Department found that the nation is at 'greater risk now' than it was in 1983, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress math scores for 17-year-olds have remained stagnant since the 1980s (PDF). Meanwhile those who do love math and science have been doing very well and our graduate schools are the best in the world. 'As for the rest, there is no obligation to love math any more than grammar, composition, curfew or washing up after dinner. Why create a need to make it palatable to all and spend taxpayers' money on pointless endeavors without demonstrable results or accountability?'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ruby shadow

As the last sunset of October faded, it cast a ruby shadow through cranberry glass.

--Brad

Article: Reframing College Completion

Reframing College Completion
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/28/metropolitan

(Sent from Flipboard)

Ghosts? Goblins? Pssh. This is REALLY scary [repost]

I've debate for several days now about whether and how to discuss this, and I've decided that a demonstration of how vulnerable popular web sites are to hacking may be the best thing.

It is common knowledge among internet security professionals, and many savvy users, that the most popular websites - Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. - are especially vulnerable because they do not force secure sessions. Basically what happens is that your initial login is encrypted, but then a session certificate ("cookie") is sent, often through unencrypted web space. If you are connecting to the service through an open, unsecured WiFi network, its like shouting your ATM PIN number across the cafeteria.

To demonstrate how easily this information can be snagged from the air, Eric Butler developed a "demonstration" application called "Firesheep." The Firefox plug-in takes only a minute or so to download and install, and then you are a hacker. No pesky terminal code or anything to worry about.

I have installed Firesheep on my desktop computer, which normally does not use WiFi, and I will be capturing my own accounts. Otherwise, what I am about to do technically violates the terms of service of about every service I am using. Be it known, though, that I am capturing only my own account data, and only for demonstration purposes.

Here is what Firesheep looks like when installed:

Now, I am going to connect my iPad to the same unsecured WiFi network ("Open Edison") and connect to my Facebook account using the Safari Mobile web browser (more about this in a minute). Here goes....

Pop. Almost instantly my account name and service appears. It even shows my profile picture.

If I double-click the entry in the Firesheep pane, I am instantly logged into Facebook using those credentials. From there I have complete account access.

Logging into other services adds them to the Firesheep pane:

And presumably they will stay there as long as I want them. There is no warning from any of the services that my account has been "hacked," because as far as they know, I am the owner of the accounts and nothing is amiss.

Now, interestingly, a few experiments show that logging onto those same services on the same unsecured network, but using an iPad app rather than the generic web browser, hides the account session cookie from Firesheep. For example, if I use the "Facebook app" Firesheep detects the account, because it is just a web app and launches the Safari Mobile browser. But connecting to my Facebook stream through Flipboard hides the session from Firesheep. And on a secured WiFi network (basically one that you have to log into) Firesheep is unable to detect the account cookies.

I'm not sharing this to turn you all into hackers. I'm doing it to make you think about how and where you use your online accounts. While Firesheep comes preloaded with scripts for detecting about a dozen of the most popular web services, "developers" can write their own (again, presumably to test the security of their own services, but then who knows?).

For more about Firesheep and a discussion about implications of web security go to Eric Butler's website http://codebutler.com/firesheep.

Ghost? Goblins. Pssh. This is REALLY scary....

I've debate for several days now about whether and how to discuss this, and I've decided that a demonstration of how vulnerable popular web sites are to hacking may be the best thing.

It is common knowledge among internet security professionals, and many savvy users, that the most popular websites - Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. - are especially vulnerable because they do not force secure sessions. Basically what happens is that your initial login is encrypted, but then a session certificate ("cookie") is sent, often through unencrypted web space. If you are connecting to the service through an open, unsecured WiFi network, its like shouting your ATM PIN number across the cafeteria.

To demonstrate how easily this information can be snagged from the air, Eric Butler developed a "demonstration" application called "Firesheep." The Firefox plug-in takes only a minute or so to download and install, and then you are a hacker. No pesky terminal code or anything to worry about.

I have installed Firesheep on my desktop computer, which normally does not use WiFi, and I will be capturing my own accounts. Otherwise, what I am about to do technically violates the terms of service of about every service I am using. Be it known, though, that I am capturing only my own account data, and only for demonstration purposes.

Here is what Firesheep looks like when installed:

[cid:0A882D1A-7975-43D5-A110-E0463E7B80A8@edisonohio.edu]

Now, I am going to connect my iPad to the same unsecured WiFi network ("Open Edison") and connect to my Facebook account using the Safari Mobile web browser (more about this in a minute). Here goes....

Pop. Almost instantly my account name and service appears. It even shows my profile picture.

[cid:B83C05DD-D116-45EB-96F5-166A75A99BE8@edisonohio.edu]

If I double-click the entry in the Firesheep pane, I am instantly logged into Facebook using those credentials. From there I have complete account access.

Logging into other services adds them to the Firesheep pane:

[cid:B15C94BF-A8E3-4FED-ABBF-56D5510A5B16@edisonohio.edu]

And presumably they will stay there as long as I want them. There is no warning from any of the services that my account has been "hacked," because as far as they know, I am the owner of the accounts and nothing is amiss.

Now, interestingly, a few experiments show that logging onto those same services on the same unsecured network, but using an iPad app rather than the generic web browser, hides the account session cookie from Firesheep. For example, if I use the "Facebook app" Firesheep detects the account, because it is just a web app and launches the Safari Mobile browser. But connecting to my Facebook stream through Flipboard hides the session from Firesheep. And on a secured WiFi network (basically one that you have to log into) Firesheep is unable to detect the account cookies.

I'm not sharing this to turn you all into hackers. I'm doing it to make you think about how and where you use your online accounts. While Firesheep comes preloaded with scripts for detecting about a dozen of the most popular web services, "developers" can write their own (again, presumably to test the security of their own services, but then who knows?).

For more about Firesheep and a discussion about implications of web security go to Eric Butler's website http://codebutler.com/firesheep.>

See and download the full gallery on posterous

What Senior College really means

I have just come from leading the third session of a Senior College mini-course at Dorothy Love Retirement Community in Sidney. About 20 active seniors attended the three Tuesday evening sessions. The topic: Bananas. I decided to take a single, everyday subject - one we all take for granted - and explore it from a multi-disciplinary approach. So, over the course of three weeks we looked at bananas from a scientific, historical, political, economic, cultural, and personal perspective. We made connections from politics to science, from economics to music, and back again.

At the end of tonight's session, one of the participants came up to chat. She smiled and said thank you. Then she said she was born in '18. She had lost her husband of 65 years in June, and she is trying to get out and do more things. And seeing that I wasn't getting it, she said, "college was never an option for me. I was born in Sioux City, and had to go west to find work. I'm grateful for this opportunity to experience what college might have been like for me."

Wow! Let's do it again! Soon.

WidgetBox Mobile simplifies web app development

WidgetBox Mobile is offering a service for designing and deploying web apps for mobile devices, independent of platform, using HTML5.

The service has a monthly fee, but is worth watching as a bellwether of other online app design+deploy options.

Hear Shakespeare in the original pronunciation

University of Kansas production revives 16th century pronunciations to make characters not sound like Gandalf.

Article: Have Scientists Finally Discovered Evidence for Psychic Phenomena?!

A Cornel parapsychology researcher says experiments suggest extroverts can perform better now on tests they'll study for later, and become aroused by future porn.

Have Scientists Finally Discovered Evidence for Psychic Phenomena?!
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-social-thinker/201010/have-scientists-finally-discovered-evidence-psychic-phenomena

(Sent from Flipboard)

Article: The Goldmine Of Opportunities In Gov 2.0

The Goldmine Of Opportunities In Gov 2.0
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/23/the-goldmine-of-opportunities-in-gov-2-0/

(Sent from Flipboard)

Article: Apple reinvents software distribution

Apple haters already be hatin', but my guess is SteveCo will need to invest in a few more trucks to haul the cash to the bank.

Apple reinvents software distribution

http://blogs.yankeegroup.com/2010/10/21/apple-reinvents-software-distribution/

I'm already a convert to one-click buying thanks to my iTunes-iPhone-iPad experience. A couple of weeks ago my Mom was telling me about a book she thought I'd like (Devil in the White City) and she was holding a trade paper copy of it as she sat next to me. My instinct was to search the Amazon Kindle store, one-click buy it and I was reading the author's preface while we were still discussing it.

She said "Why didn't you just take my copy?" Um........

(Sent from Flipboard)

Article: Google Earth: This Is (1945) London

Google Earth: This Is (1945) London
http://searchengineland.com/google-earth-this-is-1945-london-53641

(Sent from Flipboard)

The Social Network - see it!

Just came from screening of The Social Network. Very, very good movie.

Don't know how "true" it is. Don't care. True enough. Immediate. Familiar and strange.

Proves nerds can be both jerks and successful. And money is not always the driving force. Sometimes it is a byproduct.