Class Topics

Tue - April 24, 2007

Campaign to ban Comic Sans typeface - Heck Ya!

Clipped from boinboing.net
Campaign to ban Comic Sans typeface
Earz Mag interviewed Dave Combs, a designer who hates Comic Sans so much he has launched a campaign to eradicate every last vestige of it off the planet.

Earz: I found a weird website on typography, it was written in Italian I think, and had images of a gravestone lettered in comic sans. What does that say to you?
Combs: That would only be appropriate if the deceased were a clown or comedian, but other than that, I'd come back to haunt whoever did that if I were the dead guy.
Link
posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:47:08 AM permalink |

Posted at 10:22 PM Read More

Tue - December 21, 2004

Help for your windows woes

http://www.help2go.com/
Help2Go is a community committed to offering free computer help and tutorials, in a way that everyone can understand, not "geek-speak". To get started, follow the steps below.

Posted at 11:56 PM Read More

Fri - December 10, 2004

English 'world language' forecast

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/education/4080401.stm
English 'world language' forecast
Report warns against complacency among native English speakers
A third of people on the planet will be learning English in the next decade, says a report.
Researcher David Graddol says two billion people will be learning English as it becomes a truly "world language".
This growth will see French declining internationally, while German is set to expand, particularly in Asia
But the UK Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, has warned against the "arrogance" of English speakers who fail to learn other languages.

Posted at 02:44 PM Read More

Tue - May 4, 2004

But teach, The Virus Ate My Paper - The new non-excuse.

[inspired to write this this morning by broadbandreports.com's article Secure Me, Please - Poor security tales of amazement ]
The majority of visitors to this site have usually been called on as tech support for family and friends. As such, our users often recount the horrors they find when going pro bono, be it 972 viruses on a single PC, or over 1,100 instances of spyware after a scan with Adaware (and that's actually a low total). Anti-virus definitions half a decade old, or absolutely zero protection of any kind are unfortunately all too common. It's these experiences that often makes our users laugh when a publication like the New Scientist claims one in twenty PC's "may be harbouring" unwanted spyware.

In class, as well as here, I try not to get too evangelical about flavours of operating systems. But last night I had students in 3 different classes with variations of 'the virus ate my homework.' Of course, these comments created the usual 'mumble-mumble' around the class of 'my computer doesn't work either.'

Unfortunately, my gut reaction was to say 'So, that's no excuse. A valid excuse for something like this is when things happen by accident or by means beyond one's control. You use windows, you clean up the mess.' As I was saying this I was internally shaking my head and thinking, why do people put up with this? I even had one student who said the it was his fault because he heard of the patch but decided to wait because he was doing other things. People, to use the car analogy, the problem isn't that you forgot to put gas in it, the problem is you're driving a lemon which obligates you to get out and tighten the screws every 50km.

'And what about 'the software I need?' I here some say. Well, the Mac comes with probably 90% of all the software you'll ever need. Hey. even Microsoft makes better software on the Mac. Here's a TIME reporter who recently commented that Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac is BETTER than the windows version.
[ New work-bundling software for Macs could make Windows users envious ]
And for students and teachers Office is like $150 US. Now you have 98%.

And so to those who are on the side of the road and getting out the screw drivers and wrenches to tighten up their ride I say, 'I guess it's OK,' as I turn on the windshield wipers to clean the bugs off, 'I'll wait for you in the big city.'

Posted at 10:22 AM Read More

Mon - April 19, 2004

Bugs as food. YUM!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0416_040416_eatingcicadas.html

In the United States, insects are eaten more for the shock value than nutritional one—just watch an episode of reality television shows like Survivor or Fear Factor. Contestants gobble down stink beetles, leeches, and cave spiders while viewers watch, squirming in disgust. But what many viewers don't realize is that they have more in common with contestants than they think.

"It's estimated that the average human eats one pound (half a kilogram) of insects each year unintentionally," says Lisa Monachelli, director of youth and family programs at New Canaan Nature Center in Connecticut.

Cochineal insects give a red or pink coloring to foods, lipsticks, and beverages. The small, scaled bugs are listed as cochineal extract on the ingredient list.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also allows certain levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods, as long as they doesn't pose a health risk.

For example, chocolate can have up to 60 insect fragments per 100 grams, tomato sauce can contain 30 fly eggs per 100 grams, and peanut butter can have 30 insect fragments per 100 grams (3.5 ounces), according to the FDA.

Posted at 02:07 PM Read More

Rhyming Slang: U.K.'s Poetry of the Proletariat Goes Pop

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0414_040414_britneyspears.html
James Owen in England for National Geographic News
April 14, 2004
Now you have a choice when ordering beer in a London pub—ask for a pig if you want just one, or for some Britneys if buying several. The terms represent both old and new in the modern lexicon of Cockney rhyming slang. ...

Posted at 02:05 PM Read More

Tue - February 17, 2004

Searching the Deep Web: Video and Full text trancript

http://www.osti.gov/media/DeepWebVideo.html
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) provides access to a wealth of energy, science, and technology research and development (R&D) information. To support the needs of Web patrons, OSTI has developed state-of-the-art technologies and services including a Deep Web search capability. The Deep Web includes content in searchable databases available to Web users but not accessible by popular search engines. This video provides an introduction to the Deep Web search engine and how it can be used to access R&D information contained in previously hard-to-find databases.

Posted at 03:25 PM Read More

Why I can't do my job. MS Malware.

I usually don't like whining here about strictly 'technical' things without 'education' involved. But I'm finding more and more these days that I am prevented from doing my job simply because students are afraid of their computers. They're afraid to use them because they've either been bitten too many times, or have heard horror stories of such.

And it seems like with good reason. Here are three recent articles talking about the vulnerability of various Windows Internet software products.
At the risk of sounding like a 'macmac,' All I can say is to repeat what that dude said in the Switch ads.

"Get out of your Windows world!"

AAGGHH!

[the links and text below come from <http://channels.lockergnome.com/news />

Spyware Oh My

If you ever needed more of a reason not to run IE and Outlook, this is it. [ UFies.org ]

ASN.1 exploit code circulating; universal shellcode only a matter of time

“Exploit code targeting at least one component of the Microsoft Windows ASN.1 flaw is circulating. Experts recommend applying the patch before it’s too late. ‘This exploit appears to work only against Windows 2000 Professional,’ said Marc Sachs, director of the SANS Internet Storm Center. ‘Windows XP is built from the same code base, and it may very well work against that as well.’ Users should bear in mind that it wasn’t long after the first exploit code for RPC-DCOM appeared that a universal shellcode for almost all Windows platforms came out, according to an advisory on the SANS Web site. ‘This is the same [type of] prediction,’ Sachs said. ‘It’s easy to build a worm around.’

Ibiza Trojan is a trip

“Web surfers need to be cautious of a new Trojan out there that exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer, for which there is no patch. The malware is introduced when end users click to what looks like a travel-related page but is, infact, a ‘hostile’ site that allows the Trojan to implant into Internet browsers’ machines.

...

The only surefire way to prevent infection is to use a different browser such as Mozilla or Opera, which aren’t affected by the flaw, Dunham said.”

Posted at 10:29 AM Read More

Thu - February 5, 2004

MGM vs. Grokster: EFF-Listen to the oral argument heard on February 3, 2004 in mp3

[from http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/ ]

EFF is defending StreamCast Networks, the company behind the Morpheus P2P software, in this important lawsuit pending in federal court in Los Angeles. Twenty-eight of the world's largest entertainment companies brought this lawsuit against the makers of the Morpheus, Grokster, and Kazaa software products, aiming to set a precedent to use against other technology companies (P2P and otherwise). As explained in EFF's brief:
"This case raises a question of critical importance at the border between copyright and innovation: when should the distributor of a multi-purpose tool be held liable for the infringements that may be committed by end-users of the tool? Unsatisfied with the absence of an express answer to this question in the Copyright Act, Plaintiffs here ask this Court to fashion a radical new form of technology regulation from the judicially-created doctrine of contributory copyright infringement. Such a transmogrification of the contributory infringement doctrine, however, is foreclosed by Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 104 S. Ct. 774, 78 L. Ed. 2d 574 (1984) (hereafter "Sony-Betamax"), the landmark Supreme Court decision that was followed and reinforced by the Ninth Circuit last year in A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc., 239 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2001) (hereafter "Napster"). That path is foreclosed for good reason: technological innovation depends upon bright line rules defining when the misuse of a new technology by consumers could expose its creator to liability."

Posted at 10:05 PM Read More

Thu - October 23, 2003

Hidden America - What people don't see

Ok, this may be a bit too rad for some, but there's some very good listening material here. And just how synchronicity works, we had a discussion about Mr. Moore just this week in one of my classes.
Thanks go out to Lisa Rein and Kevin Norton.

Michael Moore Goodies From Kevin Norton Kevin Norton donated a truckload of Michael Moore movie clips to my Michael Moore archive.

I haven't even had a chance to look at these yet, but I thought I'd let you know they were up there.

He's also included a ton of
MP3 clips too! These are named very nicely and include: 1996_radiofreela, 60minutes, after the oscars, bill maher, boulder-CO, an interview in belfast, ralph nader rally, university of toronto, and webzine.

Enjoy! [On Lisa Rein's Radar]

Posted at 04:24 PM Read More

Sun - August 10, 2003

Happy Fiestas

Hope everyone is staying cool this summer.
Here's a challenge.
Tell me where this photo is from.
A good friend just sent it to me last night. I wish I was there.

Posted at 09:34 PM Read More

Thu - July 3, 2003

American Apology Shirt

I had to laugh, I want one of these! (But probably the domestic version)

I was preparing for an international trip, and I thought, "what can I do tell as many people as possible in other countries that many Americans vehemently disagree with the policies of our own government?" So I made this shirt, and various wonderful people translated it into all of the official UN languages , Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, and Russian. Buy one for your own international travels. A domestic version (US$16) , without English, is also available for those who want to make a statement, but not to monolinggual locals.

http://americanapologyshirt.com/

Posted at 09:36 PM Read More

Zero Tolerance for Teens (US School / prisons)

I'm sure glad it wasn't like this when I was at school. This article paints a pretty grim picture of US Schools today. Of course, it is coming from the alternet.org so.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16305

Posted at 09:14 PM Read More