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9/30/12 NPR piece re: online learning

On 10/01/2012, in business side of he, change, changing business models, computer science, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, innovation, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, by Daniel Christian

Online Education Grows Up, And For Now, It's Free -- from NPR.org

 

 

From DSC:
Sending a special thanks out to Dr. Kate Byerwalter,
Professor at Grand Rapids Community College for this resource!

 

Also see:

 

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5 device frontiers that mobile developers think are coming [Niu]

On 09/27/2012, in computer science, emerging technologies, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, mobile learning, mobile technologies, programming, smart/connected TV, by Daniel Christian
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Some serious innovations within the worlds of AI, cloud computing

On 08/28/2012, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, emerging technologies, health, innovation, nursing, vendors, by Daniel Christian

IBM working on Watson app for smartphones — from extremetech.com by Sebastian Anthony

Excerpt:

After conquering Jeopardy, battling patent trolls, and chasing down health insurance fraudsters, IBM now plans to bring Watson to smartphones. Watson is an artificial intelligence that is capable of answering very complex questions using natural language answers. In essence, IBM is hoping to build a better, faster, and more professional/enterprisey version of Apple’s Siri, the voice-controlled assistant that debuted on the iPhone 4S.
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IBM Watson

 

Watson, come here: A clue to cancer! — from jumpthecurve.net by Jack Uldrich

Excerpt (emphasis DSC; regarding the video there, I don’t think we can so easily access/create/contain “wisdom”):

Last year, I published my top ten trends in health care. Number Five on the list was “artificial intelligence.” Specifically, I addressed the ability of IBM’s “Watson” supercomputer to revolutionize diagnosis.

Well, the folks at Memorial Sloan-Kettering have now hired Watson. If you’re in the healthcare industry, I can’t encourage you strongly enough to watch the following two-minute video because it points toward the future of cancer diagnosis.

As one of the physicians says in the video, “This is beyond evolutionary, this is revolutionary!” He goes on to add, “This could totally change the way we conduct medicine.”

IBM’s new mainframe aimed at assimilating “private clouds” — from arstechnica.com by
The zEC12 aims to do what “private clouds” do faster, better, and cheaper.
Excerpt:
IBM would like big enterprise customers to reconsider that whole distributed “private cloud” thing and go back to the original big data solution: mainframes. Today, IBM unveiled the zEC12, its next generation of the System Z mainframe platform. And like the Borg, IBM is hoping that companies will let the zEC12 assimilate their virtualization environments into a big, black cube.

 

Active in Cloud, Amazon reshapes computing — from The New York Times by Quentin Hardy

Excerpt:

SEATTLE — Within a few years, Amazon.com’s creative destruction of both traditional book publishing and retailing may be footnotes to the company’s larger and more secretive goal: giving anyone on the planet access to an almost unimaginable amount of computing power.

 

 

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If it’s still true, do you blame high school counselors/advisors from steering students away from Computer Science degrees!?!

On 07/16/2012, in career development, computer science, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Some reflections after reading Tech industry job cuts in first half hit 3-year high — from investors.com by Brian Deagon

Two-three years ago, someone who has spent years working in the Computer Science arena within higher education remarked to me that he was seeing far fewer students pursuing a degree in Computer Science.  You’re kidding me, right?  With all that’s happening in the Internet space, tech-based start-ups, etc…are you serious? No, he wasn’t kidding around.

When I asked him why, he mentioned that many high school counselors/advisors were steering high school students away from such a career path. Why? Because, as the article above points out, it’s too unstable. (No doubt the Dot Com crash added to this sentiment.) IT folks are often susceptible to the ax.

That got me to thinking…at a time when corporations are sitting on a trillion+ dollars, why aren’t we re-training people and/or reinventing ourselves? We lay people off way too quickly…answering only to Wall Street and to its shareholders, but not to the greater good of society at large.  Why do we emphasis STEM so  #@*^ much only to then have students take on debt…only to fire them all too quickly once they finally start earning a living?  Oh…and by the way, don’t expect corporations to help train you much.  They can pick from the 100’s of people who have already been laid off and who had to go out and get the marketable skills on their own dime.

(Even though the Tech industry is far more than programming and establishing/running data centers, I’d wager to say such other types of careers get lumped into CS at times.)

Addendums on 7/16/12:

 

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When machines do your job [Regalado and McAfee]

On 07/12/2012, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, computer science, corporate / business world, robotics, society, sociology, by Daniel Christian

The Future of Work
When machines do your job — from  TechnologyReview.com by Antonio Regalado
Researcher Andrew McAfee says advances in computing and artificial intelligence could create a more unequal society.

Excerpt:

Are American workers losing their jobs to machines?

That was the question posed by Race Against the Machine, an influential e-book published last October by MIT business school researchers Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. The pair looked at troubling U.S. employment numbers—which have declined since the recession of 2008-2009 even as economic output has risen—and concluded that computer technology was partly to blame.

Advances in hardware and software mean it’s possible to automate more white-collar jobs, and to do so more quickly than in the past. Think of the airline staffers whose job checking in passengers has been taken by self-service kiosks. While more productivity is a positive, wealth is becoming more concentrated, and more middle-class workers are getting left behind.

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Andreessen Horowitz’s $100 million bet on developers — and other items for the developers/CS students out there

On 07/12/2012, in computer science, programming, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Andreessen Horowitz’s $100 million bet on developers — from cnn.money.com

Excerpt:

In simple terms, GitHub is an online repository for developers to store and collaborate on code. It’s been called a “Facebook for geeks.” Managers can also log in and track changes that are made along the software development process. But while GitHub has implications for non-programming needs, it’s mainly a tool for developers. In other words, if you can’t tell code from gibberish it’s probably not on your radar.

GitHub pours energies into enterprise – raises $100 million from power VC Andreessen Horowitz — from techcrunch.com by Alex Williams

Excerpt:

Andreessen Horowitz is investing an eye-popping $100 million into GitHub, the ever popular repository for developers to post code and collaborate.

It’s GitHub’s first infusion of venture capital.Co- founder Tom Preston-Warner said the round will go to developing GitHub Enterprise, a server side version of GitHub.com. Reports state GitHub has been valued at $750 million.

What language should you build your app with? — from Mashable.com by Grace Handy

Excerpt:

Mobile developers across the globe have developed and released more than 650,000 iPhone apps, 400,000 iPad apps, and 600,000 apps for Android. Are you thinking about building an app? A key step in the process is choosing the right programming language, which depends on how scrappy you’re willing to be.

Make sure you’ve researched cross-platform app design and reviewed the common pitfalls of developing your app. Decide on your audience and what platform you’ll use, and then weigh your options to select a language.

Playcraft Labs launches HTML5 dev tools, aiming at games and beyond — from techcrunch.com by Billy Gallagher

playcraft-logo
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Excerpt:

Created by the folks at Chaos Collective, “Space” is an internal project that takes social coding to the next level with a real-time collaborative editor baked right into your browser. Right now, we’ve only seen the tool in use and haven’t played with it ourselves, but boy does it look impressive.

Here’s the interesting part: since Space is an internal project, the creators are trying to decide how to share it with the public. They company is asking if they should open source the entire project, or if they should build, maintain and support it as a full-on service.

Successful businesses will be those that optimize the mix of humans, robots, and algorithms — from nextbigfuture.com by Brian Wang

 Addendum on 7/13/12 — see also:

  • MobileAdvantage from infragistics.com
    “Deliver the most amazing user experiences across mobile devices with the new MobileAdvantage bundle. With toolsets for HTML5, iOS, and Windows Phone, you get every UI control you need to create the most performant, vibrant, and consistent applications for decision makers on the move.”

 

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Some announcements from Brightcove’s Play 2012 Conference in Boston

On 06/26/2012, in A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, Apple, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, convergence, emerging technologies, Google, mobile technologies, programming, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, by Daniel Christian

 

Introducing App Cloud Core – Build and Deploy Mobile Apps for Free

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brightcove.com/en/content-app-platform

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Also see:

 

 

Also see:

  • Brightcove PLAY is a global gathering of Brightcove customers, partners and industry leaders at the forefront of the digital media revolution. On June 25-27, hundreds of media companies, marketers and developers from around the world will convene in Boston for three action-packed days of hands-on learning, in-depth strategy sessions, next-generation product demos, all-star keynotes, and networking.
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[Report] Developer Economics 2012 – The new app economy [visionmobile.com]

On 06/22/2012, in Apple, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, Google, marketing/social marketing, Microsoft, platforms, programming, tablets, by Daniel Christian

[Report] Developer Economics 2012 – The new app economy –– from visionmobile.com

Excerpt:

Here’s just a sample of the key insights and graphs from the report – download the full report for more!

The new pyramid of handset maker competition.
In the new pyramid of handset maker competition, Apple leads innovators, Samsung leads fast-followers, ZTE leads assemblers and Nokia leads the feature phone market. Apple has seized almost three quarters of industry profits by delivering unique product experiences and tightly integrating hardware, software, services and design. Samsung ranks second to Apple in total industry profits. As a fast follower, its recipe for success is to reach market first with each new Android release. It produces its own chipsets and screens – the two most expensive components in the hardware stack – ensuring both profits and first-to-market component availability.

Tablets are now a mainstream screen for developers.
Developers are rapidly responding to the rising popularity of tablets: our Developer Economics 2012 survey found that, irrespective of platform, more than 50% of developers are now targeting tablets, with iOS developers most likely (74%) to do so. This is a massive increase over last year, when just a third of developers (34.5%) reported targeting tablets. On the other end of the spectrum are TVs and game consoles, with fewer than 10% of developers targeting those screens.

Survival of the fittest has played out within 12 months.
Whereas 2011 was the era of developer experimentation, 2012 is shaping up as the era of ecosystem consolidation around iOS and Android. Developer Mindshare is at an all-time-high 76% for Android and 66% for iOS. Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” model explains how BlackBerry, BREW, and Bada (Samsung) have lost Mindshare by failing to compete in terms of user reach, which is by far and consistently the top platform selection criterion for developers. In 2012, developers used on average 2.7 platforms in parallel, vs 3.2 in 2011, a clear sign of consolidation. The trend is further evidenced by declining IntentShare scores for most platforms – apart from mobile web and Windows Phone.

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The Secret Life of Data in the Year 2020 [Johnson]

On 06/12/2012, in analytics, computer science, data related items, engineering, future, innovation, internet, machine-to-machine communications, by Daniel Christian

The Secret Life of Data in the Year 2020 –– from The World Future Society by Brian David Johnson, a futurist at Intel Corporation, where he is developing an actionable vision for computing in 2020.

Excerpt:

Why will most people think that their data has a life of its own? Well, because it’s true. We will have algorithms talking to algorithms, machines talking to machines, machines talking to algorithms, sensors and cameras gathering data, and computational power crunching through that data, then handing it off to more algorithms and machines. It will be a rich and secret life separate from us and for me incredibly fascinating.

But as we begin to build the Secret Life of Data, we must always remember that data is meaningless all by itself. The 1s and 0s are useless and meaningless on their own. Data is only useful and indeed powerful when it comes into contact with people.

This brings up some interesting questions and fascinating problems to be solved from an engineering standpoint. When we are architecting these algorithms, when we are designing these systems, how do we make sure they have an understanding of what it means to be human? The people writing these algorithms must have an understanding of what people will do with that data. How will it fit into their lives? How will it affect their daily routine? How will it make their lives better?

Also see:

Preview of Future Inventions—Futurists: BetaLaunch 2012 — from The World Future Society by Kenneth J. Moore
The World Future Society’s second annual innovation competition will allow WorldFuture 2012 attendees to preview a few of the life-changing and society-altering artifacts of the future.

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Reflections on “Computer programming for all: A new standard of literacy” [Rowinski]

On 05/18/2012, in computer science, Daniel S. Christian, programming, by Daniel Christian

Computer programming for all: A new standard of literacy — from readwriteweb.com by Dan Rowinski

From DSC:
Dan Rowinski brings up some solid questions and points here, and I’ve heard others wrestle with the question whether we should require all students to take programming courses.

I’ve taken some computer programming courses and I’ve had some experience with scripting. 

Bottom line:
I find it to be a very different way of thinking. Programmers have their shortcuts which are intuitive to them and work very well for them. But the syntax loses many of the rest of us:

  • What happened to that variable?
  • Why did you make it a local vs. a global variable?
  • What occurs in this loop?
  • Why did (blank) not make it into the array?
  • Where do I have to declare this variable?
  • Why is the syntax written like this?
  • Is (blank) a reserved word of the programming language’s syntax or can I use it?

The reason programmers make a pretty good coin is because most people don’t like programming and don’t want to do it. The manner of thinking doesn’t work for them. It’s highly-detailed and very unforgiving. Along these lines and by way of example, I find that people in the web world fall into 1 or 2 camps: either they are web developers (i.e. the back end world of programming, databases, infrastructure, etc.) or they are web designers (i.e. the front end world of graphic design and layout, interface design, interaction design, etc.). It is a rare person who excels at both the front and back ends.

If we are going to make programming required, we had better do a better job with providing higher-level languages that are more intuitive for the masses.  Or we’ll just discourage many who try their hand at it.  And it’s not that I don’t value programming — I do! In fact, I wish that manner of thinking came much easier to me. But it doesn’t.


 

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appliness – the first digital magazine for web application developers

On 04/11/2012, in computer science, programming, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

appliness – the first digital magazine for web application developers

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Addendum on 4/13/12:

  • Java leads programming language popularity – measured by book sales — from readwriteweb.com by Joe Brockmeier
    Excerpt:
    How do you calculate the popularity of various programming languages? The TIOBE folks try to rank programming language popularity by searching the Web. The RedMonk team pulls data from GitHub and Stack Overflow. But O’Reilly has a unique method: It measures book sales as an indicator of technology trends. By that measure, at least, Java and JavaScript come out on top. Mike Hendrickson, O’Reilly’s vice president of content strategy, has been taking a deep dive into the state of the computer book market in a series of posts beginning on March 29th. The most recent is a look specifically at programming language popularity related to sales.
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Big-data related items

On 03/23/2012, in analytics, computer science, data related items, by Daniel Christian

The online future is personal, and that requires big data — from gigaom.com by Mathew Ingram

.What can you do with a supercomputer? –– from extremetech.com by Sebastian Anthony

 

IBM supercomputer (p690 cluster)

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What big data really needs is security — from gigaom.com by Ryan Lawler

BigDataWeek plans lots of meetings in April around the world –– from ReadWriteCloud.com by David Strom

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Gartner: Five megatrends as personal cloud replaces PC Era [Taylor]

On 03/14/2012, in career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, trends, by Daniel Christian

Gartner: Five megatrends as personal cloud replaces PC Era — from talkingcloud.com by Brian Taylor

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Steve Jobs called it the post-PC era. Gartner has another term for today’s world of personal computing meshed with mobility and the cloud. Indeed, A new Gartner report is dubbed “The New PC Era: The Personal Cloud.” Gartner contends that the era of the PC as the hub of business computing will end by 2014. The personal cloud will replace it, bringing along with it flexibility in choosing devices, enhanced user satisfaction and greater worker productivity.

A word of caution from Gartner: Businesses will have to “fundamentally rethink how they deliver applications and services to users.”

…

Megatrend No. 1:  Consumerization — You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
Megatrend No. 2:  Virtualization — Changing How the Game Is Played
Megatrend No. 3:  “App-ification” — From Applications to Apps
Megatrend No. 4:  The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud
Megatrend No. 5:  The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want

Also see:

Gartner Says the Personal Cloud Will Replace the Personal Computer as the Center of Users’ Digital Lives by 2014
Gartner Special Report Examines How Businesses Must Meet Consumers’ Cloud Expectations in Order to Win Customers

STAMFORD, Conn., March 12, 2012—      The reign of the personal computer as the sole corporate access device is coming to a close, and by 2014, the personal cloud will replace the personal computer at the center of users’ digital lives, according to Gartner, Inc.

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Some slick human computer interaction (HCI) -related items

On 03/01/2012, in computer science, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), by Daniel Christian

Apple, Microsoft, and the 3-D desktop of your dreams — from fastcompany.com by Kit Eaton

Microsoft’s Craig Mundie on the future of computing — from blogs.technet.com by Steve Clayton

Smart homes: Are we there yet? — from home-designing.com — also see openarch.cc

This is "the first home designed from scratch to incorporate a digital layer connecting the house and its elements to the Internet," says Openarch. "Its inhabitants lead a new digital and connected life. It is flexible and thanks to its ability to transform, it can adapt to any condition that the user requires."

 

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If Jobs or Woz would have had these toys as a kid — wow!

On 03/01/2012, in computer science, creativity, design, engineering, K-12 related, by Daniel Christian

littlebits

littlebits

LEGO-like toys help kids build electronics –– from Mashable.com by Adam Ostrow

Also see:

You Can Now Buy This Tiny Computer for $35 (Updated)

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