Steve Jobs discussed in TIME magazine

For Jobs, belief in an integrated approach was a matter of righteousness. "We do these things not because we are control freaks," he explained. "We do them because we want to make great products, because we care about the user, and because we like to take responsibility for the entire experience rather than turn out the crap that other people make." He also believed he was doing people a service. "They're busy doing whatever they do best, and they want us to do what we do best. Their lives are crowded; they have other things to do than think about how to integrate their computers and devices."

In a world filled with junky devices, clunky software, inscrutable error messages, and annoying interfaces, Jobs's insistence on an integrated approach led to astonishing products marked by delightful user experiences. Using an Apple product could be as sublime as walking in one of the Zen gardens of Kyoto that Jobs loved, and neither experience was created by worshipping at the altar of openness or by letting a thousand flowers bloom. Sometimes it's nice to be in the hands of a control freak.

All the stuff is written here:
http://stikhin.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/time-magazine-10072011-steve-jobs-commemorative-issue/

New look ready for 2012 and it's about time we had more girls!

Not enough IT girls in NZ! In the UK, girls are doing some of the best work in the IT industry and NZ has a lot of catching-up to do.


Here's a dedicated site : http://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/girls-in-it-campaign

and here's there report: Women's_Careers_in_the_Technology_Industry_2011_Report.pdf

Google+ is better than Facebook for 10 reasons

1. "Circles"

Overwhelmingly, Google+ users say they prefer Google+'s model for organizing your contacts. While Twitter allows you to "follow" others, and Facebook is all about mutual "friendship," Google+ instead introduces the concept of "Circles."

Circles are groups of friends with different labels such as "co-workers" or "family." Users can choose to share each update with a different group, and also view their incoming streams by group, rather than all at once. "I'm finding the circles help with keeping my life and work separate," explains Google+ fan Richard Walden.

2. Privacy

Google+ users say they find the service's privacy settings easier to use. This might be surprising given that Google+ profiles themselves cannot be private. However, thanks to Circles, it's easy to control which users can see each of your updates. "I want fine grained control of how my posts are shared," says Jen Delisle.

3. Longer, more thoughtful posts

Twitter might be king when it comes to brevity, but Ward Andersonsays he reads more insightful postings on Google+. This thoughtfulness is enabled by Google+'s higher character limit -- users can post multiple paragraphs of text, versus one or two sentences on Twitter.

4. No ads

Google+ users, including Dave Francis Rotaquio, say they love that Google+ is currently ad-free. With Facebook having run ads for years, and Twitter now ramping up its use of advertising, Google+ is now one of the few successful social networks that lacks commercial interruption.

However, the free lunch is unlikely to last forever: Google runs the largest ad network on the Web and may eventually have to face the economic realities of operating a large social site.

5. Group video chat

Want to video chat with up to 10 friends? With Google+, switching from a text chat to a group video conversation takes a click -- and it's one feature that Google's rivals lack. Facebook now supports video calls thanks to a deal with Skype, but group chatting isn't possible there.

What's more, Google just integrated this "Hangouts" feature into YouTube, letting you and your friends chat about videos while you watch.

6. Farmville-free

Google+ recently added games to its lineup -- a feature that's often cited as an annoyance on rival social networks. (Do you have a Facebook friend who can't help but post Farmville updates all day?)

Google+ makes its games less irritating, says Inniya Kim, by relegating all gaming updates to a dedicated tab -- this keeps your stream free from noisy distractions. So if Farmville were ever to come to Google+, few would consider it a pest.

7. Better photos

Some Google+ users say the network is becoming a leader in photo-sharing: Full-screen photo galleries and a highly active community consisting of some the Web's most popular photographers must surely have helped here.

8. Friendly staff

Who said social networks don't need great customer service? The creators of Google+ are active on the service themselves and use it to respond to questions and criticisms. Rob Michael feels this has made Google+ feel more collaborative.

9. Less clutter

Perhaps it's simply the lack of advertising, but many Google+ users say they like Google's clean, white aesthetic. On Google+, there's nothing to distract you from the content.

10. Integrated with Google products

Fans of Google's other services, such as Gmail and Google Calendar, say they like the way Google+ works across many of Google's existing products.

"They had everything else, for the most part, already working so all they needed was to add the social networking aspect to things," says Josiah Stone.

Perhaps the greatest selling point of Google+ is the most obvious, however: It's new. The opportunity to start afresh with an up-to-date list of friends, no spam, no ads and an uncluttered interface is a novel experience for those of us who have spent years maintaining profiles on other websites.

Whether that "new car feel" lasts -- especially for neophiles like me -- remains to be seen.

Copied from:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/08/23/google.plus.better.cashmore/index.html

Web turns 20

World wide web celebrates 20th birthday

...And they interview yet more women!

#WhereAreTheBoys

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14430076

Another Girl leading the way and this time she's only 10 !

Girl finds flaws in mobile games

A novel class of security problems have been found lurking in many mobile games by a ten-year old 'hacker.' (Hacker might be a bit strong - Wells)

Going by the handle CyFi, the hacker presented her findings at the DefCon hacker conference held in Las Vegas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14443001

Girl beats 200000 boys at Excel Comp

Rebecca, who is 15, was one of 228,000 competitors from 57 countries.




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14401766

Ripping films legal in UK?

As long as it was ripped by you and watched by you, you will be able to rip movies & music in the UK !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14372698

Handbrake is a common Ripping App

What happened when they designed the Handbrake Icon? (left)

Firefox 5 and Extensions

I have been a Safari man for at least a couple of years now and went for it because it was a cleaner design. But Firefox 5's speed has drawn me back to it and with the "foxdie" Appearance plug-in it now looks like Safari but has then allowed me to add these useful extensions: Auto Hide Tabbar

1. Auto Hide Bookmark Bar
2. BugMeNot
3. DownloadThemAll
4. Flash Blocker
5. Twitter from address bar

Test Post

This is a test post to see what's wrong with the KC ICT App on the app store.

The KC ICT app is now available on the iTunes App Store. However, it is experiencing a bug whereas only the comments for a post will load, if any.

The App is add supported.

(The picture is just a random thing.)

iPod Magic!

I have mentioned that as a teenager, I was a party magician (It paid $200/hour!). Here, my 2 worlds collide:

I'm not making it up!

15-year-old Daniil Kulchenko, who recently sold his startup cloud-based computing company Phenona to ActiveState in a deal of undisclosed terms. ActiveState was founded in 1997, making the company just one year younger than its new employee. 
Kulchenko is hardly the only young entrepreneur to cash in on their technological savvy. In January 2011, Robert Nay, then 14-years-old, created the iOS game Bubble Ball that knockedAngry Birds out of the long-standing top spot as the “bestselling” free app, and in March 2011, 26-year-old Amanda Stocking became a millionaire, self publishing ebooks in the young adult vampire romance genre.

VOLCANIC LIGHTNING !!!

VOLCANO ERUPTS IN CHILE - CLICK HERE

SCARIEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN

Dare I say it...

...but LION's looking very cool indeed:

Mobile Devices in Schools

Students lead the way, conference of educators hears: Cell phones in the classroom may be distracting, but banning them is not the answer — changing teaching methods is — a conference on digital learning in schools has heard.

“The press got it wrong. It’s not about the phone, it’s about the electronic device,” said Laura Williams, chief information officer with Learning Technology Support Services for the Peel District School Board.
Ms Williams was taking part in a conference of educators held Friday on social media use in the classroom.
Educators from across the province met to discuss issues such as cell phone bans, distraction and online bullying at a conference in Etobicoke, with York Region educators at the forefront. The conference also used the recent yorkregion.com series on digital learning as resource material.
An Ontario survey released earlier this year showed most high school students don’t want cell phones allowed in schools and the Toronto District School Board caused a stir recently when trustees voted to lift a four-year ban on cell phones. However, many of the participants in Friday’s conference said the survey did not paint an accurate picture of what students want.
They may not want to phone or text people, but they do want to use their electronic devices, and the issue gets muddy when a smart phone is also a computer, Ms Williams said.
“Students get it, but I’m not sure the press gets it. It’s a very fine line.”
Dr. Jim Greenlaw, dean of education at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, agreed digital devices may be distracting. At UOIT, where savvy students are supposed to understand the use of technology in education, he still sees situations where the teacher is droning on at the front of the room and one third of students are playing video games, because they’ve figured out what the teacher is saying already. The challenge, he said, is keeping them engaged.
Part of the answer to the distraction problem lies in the age students are introduced to digital learning, said Royan Lee, teacher at Beverley Acres Public School in Richmond Hill.
Mr. Lee, who is at the forefront of the digital learning movement, believes there’s a strong urgency to teach kids to use the devices for education at an earlier age.
“Some of the problems arise because we’re too late coming into the game.”
It’s difficult to expect students who’ve been using their smartphones for a “realm of independence” to suddenly be told teachers are going to join them and they may have to “unlearn” bad digital habits, he said.
Dr. Greenlaw agreed. “Yes, the ship sailed a while ago and yes, Grade 12 students may not know how to deal with it because we didn’t start them in Grade 4. We need to get moving.”
Hazel Mason, superintendent of education with the Peel public board, added, “educators are always catching up. We’re always at the cow’s tail.”
It’s time, she said, to re-evaluate how budgets are spent and how to teach differently so students aren’t distracted by technology.
“We’re going to have to change how we define homework and the role of the teacher. We can’t do the same thing we’ve been doing for 100 years.”
Geoff Thompson, a teacher at Uxbridge District High School, said he has had to change his teaching style. He describes a recent class where a good student was not taking notes as the teacher wrote on the chalkboard. When asked why not, the student responded “when you’re done, I’d like to take a picture [of the chalkboard] and post it to the [online] forum” and Mr. Thompson realized it may no longer be necessary to insist students take notes — although for some, it helps them learn.
Royan Lee says his classroom full of devices in Richmond Hill means he has to stop trying to force students to memorize facts — it’s all available at their fingertips. “I realize it’s totally unnecessary and pointless and I’m forced to think about teaching higher order, critical-thinking skills.”
“Everything useful about computers I learned from my students. We fail to listen to students at our peril,” Dr. Greenlaw said.
The difficulty, he said, is harnessing students’ social networking skills within the constraints of most Ontario classrooms.
The Ontario College of Teachers recently warned their members that the dynamics between teachers and students are forever changed when the two become friends in an online environment and advises teachers to question whether the interaction enhances learning or satisfies a personal need, if the photographs or comments are reasonable and professional.
“If online discussion is so dangerous, why do many of us still think it is important?” he said, suggesting it’s because it’s necessary to become responsible workers and citizens in the 21st century.
Another challenge, said Bernie Smith, principal at St. Augustine Catholic Secondary School in Unionville, is motivating teachers. “Not all teachers are onboard” and educators must grapple with student equity when not all students have access to the technology.
Students from Uxbridge High and Beverley Acres in Richmond Hill explained how they use social media and why they think it’s important it be incorporated into the classroom.
“When we leave school we’re going to be collaborating and so learning how to do it now is important,” said Jenna Bruno, in Grade 12. Universities now use live Twitter feeds to allow students to ask questions of professors, breaking down the shyness barrier and allowing discussions to continue after class.
Skype conversations with students around the world are “mindblowing”, said Sabrina Adams, Grade 12 student at Uxbridge, who says accessing information on web means “kids who don’t pay attention pay attention ... and people who never talk, talk.”
Monissa Rajasri, in Grade 7 at Beverly Acres, believes students learn better when they research information online. “When we get it on our own, we keep the information in our heads, but when a teacher tells us we use the information when we need it and then forget.”

YouTube Movies !

YouTube is upgrading from cute kittens to Hollywood stars, making the move from homemade clips to full-length films.
The move is designed to progress YouTube from a service based on users’ clips to one that can take on television on its own terms, to say nothing of online movie rental services.
That means users now have access to 3,000 movies, along with critics’ commentaries and bonus materials, all online. The selection includes classics like Goodfellas and Taxi Driver, as well as recent releases like The King’s Speech and The Green Hornet.
So far, the selection is only available to American residents, who have to pay 3.99 dollars to rent a movie this way. In other countries, users will have to make do with a handful of older, but free movies at www.youtube.com/movies.

Android becomes main target for app develpors

Hear that Mr Wells? Android is gaining ground - fast!
http://goo.gl/0utTW (shortened URL)

$25 Pocket Computer

This is quite simply amazing - a whole computer on something the size of a typical flash drive. Well, short of any long term storage though; you'll need a SD card, external hard drive, or something similar. It's still in it's early phases, but David Braben, the leader of the foundation making the computer, is certain it will be around the $25 (USD) price range, despite the custom PCB. A drawback is that it runs on an ARM processor, and it's specs are rather low compared to the typical modern computing device. The ARM processor won't run Windows or OS X, but then again, even if it had a x86 processor, the specs wouldn't get close to the minimum requirements. Still, at roughly 2.5% the price of a typical low end laptop, it's got some rather decent specs.
Here are some early build specs:

1. 700MHz ARM11
2. 128MB of SDRAM
3. OpenGL ES 2.0
4. 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
5. Composite and HDMI video output
6. USB 2.0
7. SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
8. General-purpose I/O
9. Open software (Ubuntu, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)

Go to http://www.raspberrypi.org/ for the official foundation website.

The world of App development

Apple gets developer momentum as Android fragments, survey finds:

App developer interest is shifting back toward Apple as fragmentation and "tepid" interest in current Android tablets chips away at Google's recent gains in momentum, according to a new survey of more than 2,700 developers around the world.

Fun Google Facts

1. The First Google Doodle was an "Out of Office message.
2. The First Google Storage Was Made From LEGO
3. Google’s First Ever Tweet = I’m 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010.”
4. Google Rents Goats
5. The Google Logo Was Not Centered Until 2001
6. Google Has a Company Dinosaur

Newsflash! Mr Wells finally gets excited about Gaming!

$15 will now sort out my Gaming world for good. All 80's Atari games are coming to iOS: http://goo.gl/wlg3s and if you're really keen you can get the arcade accessory! (pictured)

Buy the rest of Atari’s Entire Library in 2 unique ways:
1. 25 separate packs available for download at $0.99
2. Buy all 100 games for a discounted price of $14.99