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How Cool is this?

With so many new forms of social media to keep us occupied it can really become overwhelming.  How can you keep up with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin,   Foursquare,  Pinterest  etc.  and still get any work done?   I try to limit my involvement with most of these on-line distractions because, honestly, they can become tiresome and dull.  But, there is one site that I can’t get enough of:  Kickstarter.   It isn’t a social site, but it can be if I post or Tweet or Pin anything I want to share from Kickstarter ( In fact it’s encouraged).    What really thrills me about this site is the innovation, the hope and passion, the enthusiasm and possible endless opportunities just waiting to be fulfilled.  It’s exciting and it’s fun.  Sure, some of the ideas aren’t that great, but some of them have so much potential.  Just spend a little time browsing the site and see all of the artistic genius, the creative expression, the future projects just bound to be the next great thing!  This site, to me, has much more exciting content than:  where you’ve been, who you’ve seen or what you’re eating.   Not only that, you have the option to be part of the success of someone else’s dream.  What could be better than that?  OK, better yet, your dream could be achieved with the help of Kickstarter.  Let’s get Kicken! Beth Carroll

http://www.kickstarter.com/

Be social or die!

In a recent survey that’s creditable, six out of ten executive are of the opinion that to not only survive, but be competitive, companies must embrace social media. Read the whole report here: Hank

Blue Monday

Raced in a J29 sailboat Saturday, went out in our Hunter 27 yesterday, going to crew moving the J29 today. Next blog tomorrow. Hank

Have A Happy Friday: Kate & Gin are

GEM: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is possibly the largest cross-national collaborative social science research project in the world.

GEM offers scholars, researchers, policymakers and educators 13 years of high quality research and analysis. The value of the research is increasing exponentially, as the project expands, the methodology is refined and GEM researchers consider new areas of investigation. Using the data available via their site, and Google’s Google Data Explorer, you will be amazed by the information that is at your fingertips. Explore, you’ll be glad you did. And see below for an example comparing GDP per capita of selected countries.  Hank

Could Universities Follow Borders Bookstores Into Oblivion?

It’s difficult to look into the future and try to visualize how things that have been the same for so long might quickly become different because of disruptive technology.  Richard A. DeMillo, Georgia Tech’s former dean of computing and the newly appointed director of a lab for disruptive ideas, the Center for 21st Century Universities and Paul M.A. Baker, the center’s associate director discuss the effect on-line course offerings will have on the future of universities:

Mr. DeMillo: I think what you see happening now with the massive open courses is going to fundamentally change the business models. It’s going to put the notion of value front and center. Why would I want a credential from this university? Why would I want to pay tuition to this university? It really ups the stakes. for example, technology is enabling a single master teacher to reach students on an individualized basis on a scale that is unprecedented.  So when Sebastian Thrun offers his Intro to Robotics course and gets 150,000 students—that’s a big deal. Why is it a big deal? Well, because people who want to learn robotics want to learn from the master. Every one of those students in India that wants to connect to Stanford now—connect to a mentor—now has a way to connect by bypassing their local institutions. Every institution that can’t offer a robotics course now has a way of offering a robotics course.

Mr. Baker: There used to be something called Borders, you may remember. Think of Borders, the bookstore, “X, Y, Z University,” the bookstore. If you’ve got Amazon as an analogue for these massively open courses, there is still a model where people actually go into bookstores because sometimes they want to touch, or they like hanging out, or there’s other value offered by that. What it means is that the university needs to rethink what it’s doing, how it’s doing it. And how it innovates in a way of surviving in the face of this. If I can do the Amazon equivalent of this open course, why should I come here? Well, maybe you shouldn’t. And that’s a client that is lost.

Taken from an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education written by Marc Parry. Here is a link to the full article: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/could-many-universities-follow-borders-bookstores-into-oblivion/35711  Beth Carroll

Rob Reid’s Take On Copyrights

The TED-Talk below by Rob Reid is well worth the five minutes to watch/hear. He really pokes the music industry and its lawyers. Hank

While you were on Spring Break 2012: Samsung Galaxy S2 pocketed

Welcome back from Purdue’s Spring Break. Seems like half of the world descended upon Padre Island, TX for Break. Took me over an hour to go from Corpus Christi Flour Bluff area to the Island, a distance of about four miles. Here’s a quick video of the mess: Traffic-Breakers:

While on break, I purchased two Samsung Galaxy S2 Smart Phones (SGS2) running on Sprint, a black one for me and a white one for my wife Linda. We off and running and even receive 4G out here on the Island from time to time. I’m working on getting a replacement/substitute for my PC using the SGS2 as I mentioned in a previous blog. I put a 32 gig microSD in it, and purchased a K400 Logitech combination keyboard/touchpad which I haven’t gotten operational – yet. Seems the HDMI out has to have power since the interface is the new MHL standard which I also have on order.

What I do have working, is a device called EasyBlue that plugs into the USB port of a PC/notebook and supports switching of the native device’s keyboard/mouse between the PC/notebook and the SGS2. Below is a short video of it in operation. I was running the camera (from my wife’s SGS2) with one hand and operating the gear with another so pardon the video; you can get the idea from it anyway. With EasyBlue and the HDMI/MHL interface, I am but a step away from my goal. Hack on. Hank

What Hank Will Be Doing During Spring Break….

Have A Happy Spring Break: SNL Disney Housewives are

Looks like many readers of this blog are off on Spring Break 2012 already, so we’ll dispense with any serious stuff until you return from sand, sea and suds. Meanwhile, Beth suggested you might enjoy the video below from SNL hosted by LL. Hank