Why Air Traffic Controllers Snap

Year and year, "air traffic controller" is always listed as the most stressful job. Want to know why?

This collection of videos show air traffic over a 24 hour period. It is awe-inspiring. Take a few minutes to read and watch the various videos, and take a moment to think about the number of people in the air at some of the peak moments, and how few hands their lives are in. It is amazing, and quite an intricate system that is in place.

Videos on Wired.

Student Sues Principal in Cyberbullying Case

Interesting development in the aspect of Cyber-bullying and the Free Speech rights we share.

Student Who Created Facebook Group Critical of Teacher Sues High School Over Suspension.

Power Point Gone Wrong

As someone who both attends and presents a fair number of presentations, I have a typical love/hate relationship with Power Point.

Few have summarized this relationship better Mr. Don McMillan.

Kill a few minutes and learn about presentation skills.

Google Adds Video Chat - Challenges Skype

In a previous post about Google adding SMS, the idea of Google as your total communication portal was further enforced. Now, Google Chat has added video, and is looking more and more like a solid Skype option.

Google Chat now offers voice and video to its chat function, giving it a further step towards total communication domination. Although Google Chat isn't overly popular as of yet, this is a significant step towards gaining market share. Once the SMS is enabled, Google could be the one portal for the vast majority of communication - e-mail, chat, video chat, audio chat, and SMS.

Webmonkey has a review and some video here. Cnet's Webware has another.

While it requires a download on both ends, the single interface is a nice option for a lot of people, and adding Skype-type of functionality may be a turning point in the chat tool's popularity.

Mind Meld - Computer Controlled by Brain Wave

"60 Minutes" presented a fascinating story about a computer controlled only by a brain, with no interface other than thought. The advancements here are astounding, and largely unknown.

While this is sure to create some paranoia about 'mind control', as the episode itself mentioned, it's important to note that the signals sent are only those intentionally sent. The demonstration of a first time user was particularly fascinating.

The full context of the show is presented here. Video follows.



The potential of this is astounding, life-changing, and exceptional. It fascinates the science that is being done around the world.

Netbooks Below Cost - With a Catch!

As previously suspected, there are rumblings that netbooks are going to be offered soon at less than cost under a program similar to how cell phones are subsidized.

Slashdot posted today how HP and AT&T may be talking about offering a netbook for less than cost with a two-year wireless contract. This model follows the cell phone model, though first shown via the Gillette company with razor blades (offering the razor at below cost, but making strong profit off the disposable blades).

As the wireless world becomes more and more stable and fast, the use of netbooks by the mass public will become more and more ubiquitous.

E-Notes Go Offline

E-notes, or the idea of virtual Post-It Notes, have been around for a long time. Now, Sequoia Studio designers have made the E-Note go OFFLINE, making a sticky, electronic version of a Post-It Note.

No price listed on the site yet, but this is just fascinating. Have a look at the videos on Sequoia's site here.

No sign of availability yet, but if they costs are appropriate, it could be interesting to see if these catch on.

Google Adds SMS to Gmail

This week, Google released SMS texting to the Gmail list of services. This allows, via Google's Chat feature, the ability to send and receive texts with cell phones.

Google is working hard at being the center of electronic communications, so this was an inevitable step. The tool is currently only available through Google's Labs section, so there's still some work to be done, but it is now released.

Read more from Webmonkey here.

Read more from Cnet here.


Note: Guess I jumped the gun here a bit... there was a release glitch, and Google says it will be delayed 2 weeks approximately.

Best of the Netbooks... so far

The Netbook segment of laptops is only a year old, but many companies are jumping on the bandwagon with some very similar models. The good folks at Wired have rated the late-entry Lenovo Ideapad S10 as their pick of the litter so far.

Lenovo's first entry hits a home-run over most netbooks in a couple of key areas, mainly screen size, power, and price. Still under 3lbs, the IdeaPad S10 has a larger screen, 160G HD, Gig of RAM, and lots of nice touches, and still comes in under $500.

Read Wired's review here.

As the market continues to get more and more competative, expect to see more and more pushes of the envelopes by organizations in this very crowded market.

Russian Schools All Go OS

UK Blogger Glyn Moody shared with us this morning that Russian Schools will be purchasing no more software, and only go with free, open-source software. Read his post here.

This is an interesting move, and could have some interesting repercussions down the road for both the school system and the software markets in Russia and beyond.

In schools I've worked in, I have always promoted Microsoft's Office Suite for in school use, mostly because of my belief that part of a schools responsibility is to prepare students for the workforce, of which 90+% use Microsoft Office on a very regular basis. Teaching students to effectively utilize the software in their work (note I'm not promoting teaching the software itself, but the use of it as a tool) helps them make smooth transitions to post-secondary and the work force, where they will undoubtedly encounter the monopolistic MS office.

Recently, I've turned to promote Google Documents as a valuable option, free option, to MS office. The skills are relatively the same, and a transition should be relatively smooth. It seems the Russian Schools are moving in that direction as well.

My biggest question in this decision is "why?" If the decision was made with sound pedagogical rationale, I'm OK with that. If it was a financial decision, I have to question the validity of it.

If you read the article, please also read through the reader comments following the post. Often times, these are as interesting as the post itself.