What is this Pirate Party all about?

Ars on what it all means and the struggles they face.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/rick-falkvinge-is-the-face.ars

FW: [IP] Background to the film Slumdog Millionaire

From Professor Farber's IP list.  I remember reading the original story and sharing it with my IT100 class at the time...

Sam

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber
To: ip
Sent: 2/24/2009 12:43 PM
Subject: [IP] Background to the film Slumdog Millionaire

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk>
Date: February 24, 2009 12:01:22 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Background to the film Slumdog Millionaire

Hi Dave:

For IP if you think it is appropriate:

> A NEWCASTLE professor watched Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire - 
> not realising he was the inspiration behind the movie.
>
> A decade ago Professor Sugata Mitra knocked a hole through the wall 
> of his laboratory in New Delhi, India, so children in the adjoining 
> slum could play on one of his computers.
>
> The experiment, to see whether unschooled children would teach 
> themselves how to use the internet if left to their own devices, was 
> intended as an educational tool.
>
> But it eventually inspired the film which swept the Oscars on Sunday 
> night.
>
> As he celebrated the film's success, original author Vikas Swarup 
> said he wrote Q&A, which was adapted for the screen by Simon 
> Beaufoy, as a direct result of hearing about street children using 
> Professor Mitra's computer.
. . .

Full story at:

http://tinyurl.com/czcd32

See also:

http://markkobayashihillary.computing.co.uk/2009/02/a-niit-at-the-movies
.html

cheers

Brian

--
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL =
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

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OK, so maybe 2 hours on the Credit crisis was a bit much

Here's a BRILLIANT animated recap of the problem in 10 minutes
http://www.crisisofcredit.com/

Sam

NYT introduces a new way to skim an online newspaper

Check this out, it's pretty damn slick and few ads.
http://prototype.nytimes.com/gst/articleSkimmer/

The Ascent of Money

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/featured/watch-full-program-the-ascent-of-money/24/

Absolutley fascinating documentary. I have always considered the
whole concept of money to be bull from the start and they go into why
that is and isnt true and why it doesnt matter, and then on to how we
got into this housing mess and where we go from here.

Watch the whole thing PRINT OUT a 2 paragraph review and I'll give
credit worth 1 weekly assignment.

Kindle 2 offiicial, I'm still yawning

For exactly the reasons Giz and its commenters list:
http://i.gizmodo.com/5149814/giz-explains-why-kindle-2-isnt-a-big-step-forward-for-voracious-readers

http://i.gizmodo.com/5149704/does-the-kindle-2-pass-the-applebraun-design-test

http://i.gizmodo.com/5149696/confirmed-kindle-coming-to-cellphones-and-how-to-get-a-kindle-2-firstest

Apple is smart in ignoring text, but if they ever do turn their eyes
to the printed word you can bet it won't be this boring.

Monmouth U is closed BUT we will still continue online!

One of the blessings and curses of the internet age is that we can
continue our work and learning remotely even when physical locations
are shut down. By now you should have heard from MUs emergency
notification system that the school is closing at 2:30. We will do a
number of things ASYNCHRONOUSLY so that our learning continues almost
at pace as if we had the actual class. This means you can do this
assignment at your own pace, you don't have to do it from 6-715 but
since you already have that time blocked out, that might be a good
time to do it!

First, you can catch up with all the lecture notes at:
http://zorak.monmouth.edu/~posten

Download and go through all of them through 'Storage'

Then do the following:

Read up on the Dr. Math talks Binary:
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/54311.html

Read How Stuff Work's article on Bits and Bytes:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/bytes.htm

For extra info, check out Joel Spolski's intro to Unicode for programmers:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html

What's inside my computer?
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/inside-computer.htm
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/motherboard.htm
http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/compuspeed90.html
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-memory.htm
http://www.howstuffworks.com/pc.htm

Be ready to discuss the different parts of a computer, the different
types of memory, how much faster computers are today than just a few
years ago, how we rate computer speed and memory capacity, and the
difference between primary and secondary storage. Let me know if you
have any questions!

Sam