Category: Technology
Energy Futures
(repurposed forum post) Finally got around to the promised post on energy solutions and futures. First up, even if we leave aside the issue of climate change entirely, fossil fuels are finite resources. (Barring a few fantasies about endless renewal from currently on-going natural processes (someone posted a link on that here a while ago…
Solving the ‘apps won’t open’ issue on iPhone
(a few keywords to make it more searchable: apps applications not won’t work working open opening crash crashing maximize) Thought I’d share this here because I know enough people with iPhones who might run into it, plus if it’s blogged it will eventually be Google-able, and a bit more reliable than old forum posts from…
Cloud Culture
Charles Leadbeater does a great job of outlining some of the potential of, and threats to, cloud computing: http://www.counterpoint-online.org/cloud-culture-promise-and-danger/
This Century’s Big Physics Breakthrough?
At the end of the 19th century they thought they just about had physics sewed up. Just a few loose ends to tidy up, but basically the big theories were all under control. Then, in 1905 and 1915, a patent clerk named Albert Einstein published two papers that turned the physics world on its head.…
Businesses that get the new web
Really just passing on kudos to two businesses that are doing it right. We’ve been using TPG for our web access (ADSL2+) for a year or so, and have been very happy with them. We’ve just given them all our mobile phone business too (the 3 girls’ phones – mine is through work and is…
iPhone Day!
Heading in to uni today to pick up my new iPhone – which will be my first ever mobile phone. Guess in this particular technology I’m an extremely late adopter… the fact that I’m not really a big fan of talking on the phone may have something to do with that. Maybe the new toy…
Large Hadron Collider Panic
Reading the comments on the web and in the media about people freaking out that the starting up of the Large Hadron Collider today will end the world, I have two opposing reactions: Wow, my colleagues and I need to work much harder at science education May as well give up on science education, the…
Hanny’s Voorwerp
(a story about the new networked world) This is Brian May, the guitarist from Queen: He’s also known as Dr Brian May, having recently completed the PhD in astrophysics that he postponed over 30 years ago when the band got big: This is Hanny Van Arkel, a primary school teacher from Holland who is a…
Trent Reznor breaks the musical fourth wall
He’s experimented with it before – leading to some inspired remixes that cut his dark industrial through the Ghostbusters theme, among other things – but now that he’s free of a major label Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has released all the original tracks of his new album, allowing fans to create their own…
BG
Some of the beginning teachers in my class used the phrase ‘BG – Before Google’ as a joke today, but it’s really a pretty amazing concept in terms of education. How does education change when, rather than needing to memorise facts, you can google them in a second? Now what school needs to do is…
Green Explosives
Environmentally friendly killing and maiming: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6975/full/427580a.html
Blended Learning
Currently sitting in a workshop on using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace in university teaching, as part of a daylong conference here at UQ on ‘Blended Learning’. That means some sort of complementary approach where face-to-face teaching is supported with some kind of information and communication technologies. The range of things is immense,…
A Cool Thing
Attended a session today on some of the ways in which MIT is using both technology and different classroom design to make their first year physics lectures more effective and interactive, Very interesting. One thing they showed us was this very rich Java applet for teaching the phase relationships in a circuit containing a resistor,…
New Evidence Changes My Mind (again)
Like most people who are concerned about the environment, I used to oppose nuclear energy, because of its risks and the issue of long-lasting nuclear waste. But then, when we came to understand the impact of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels as a greenhouse gas, I had to re-think: nuclear has some issues, sure, but…
A way to boost my publication record?
This is cool, in a geeky sorta way: http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/automaton-author-writes-up-a-storm/2008/04/21/1208742816514.html
The Future
Check out this fully working and powerful electric motocross bike. Just too cool, and a great indication of where things might go. Charge it with renewable power and all sorts of things are possible.
Obsolete Technology
Cassie was quite chuffed to be using a terribly outdated and obsolete piece of technology this morning: her teacher had asked her to submit her work in electronic form on a floppy disk! I don’t usually feel old, or do the grandpa thing, but I have to admit I did go into a bit of…
Facebook and Family
We were at a 70th birthday party for my Dad last week, and caught up with lots of the family. Chatted quite a bit with my cousin Tracylee, who I hadn’t seen for a long time, but who I had also taught when she was a high school student and I was a beginning teacher,…
The Essential Geek
Was just at a PhD confirmation hearing (where the student has to convince us that s/he is ready to do the research) on having middle school students use digital video to learn and communicate their learning. Very interesting stuff, but one of my stray thoughts was that any innovation like this (or web-based teaching, or…)…
Jmol
Workshop this arvo on Jmol, a Java-based application for viewing molecules in Chemistry. Lots of fun, and really intelligently written to make it simple to use. I’d love to have shown it to you right here on the blog page – that would have been very cool – but unfortunately the blog code breaks the…