Interesting stats…for a mere $4,695.00 USD the whole thing can be yours to read.

mobile youth report dot com

1. Software is a poor organizing principle for digital production.
2. Digital literacy should reach beyond the limitations of software.
3. Discourse should not be trapped by production technologies.
4. Accommodate and forgive the end user, not the producer.
5. If a hi-fi element is necessary, keep it dynamic and unobtrusive.
6. Insist on open standards and formats, and software that supports them.

VIA

The launch of the iPad (a name I still find rather unfortunate) kicked of a flurry of hoorays and boos from all over the web. It has really been quite funny to follow. I do have to admit I too have my problems with the iPad (or rather the iPodTouch which I own) in the sense that you HAVE to go through iTunes to manage your content. There are, off course, a multitude of 3rd party tools (or Linux hacks) that you can use, but the one and only painless way seems to be iTunes. Something that makes managing content on this device a pain, especially for someone like myself, who likes his Linux-Box.

The same goes for developers for whom the only way to distribute their content legally is the AppStore.

But it is not Apple’s refusal to embrace the open source universe and the hordes of developers who apparently stand at the ready, but rather the so called battle of the titans that the iPad’s release supposedly kicks of.
Let me admit at this point that I am really looking forward to my first meeting with this newest Apple-Gadget.

Apple has always wanted to depict themselves as the outsider, or the troublemaker, the different thinkers (call it what you want)…they have always been that annoying kid on the block that nag others for this and that (The year-old get a mac ads). But for the first time (that I can remember) a launch of a new product does not seem to have the unison wow-effect. This really gives me hope.

The iPad provides the ultimate browsing experience? (get used to the blue lego’s)

Adobe on their side, made the first step towards this handheld market, when they announced that Flash CS5 you can now compile your FLA directly to the iPod (and with that, I would assume, the iPad).

For years now, it has been clear that the web, as such, will move out of the browsers, and on to platforms. Why is it then then that people like Lee Brimlow (who calls himself a Platform Evangelist) are screaming so loud. A few years ago Adobe launched Air, allowing Flash developers to deploy their Flash creations in a whole new way. Yes there are now browsers that do not display Flash, but honestly, what would a full fledged Flash/Video website like Tackfilm look and feel like on an iPad. I have problems believing that the either a pod or a pad would be able to make this the memorable experience it could be.  In any case, I think this is a question of choosing ones battlegrounds. I think Apple should definetely look into making the Flash player an option, but it not being there by default really does not bother me that much. Give people the choice of what they want to do with their new gadget. But then again has choice ever been in the interest of closed source system or platform suppliers.

The iPad And Chrome OS Netbooks Are On A Collision Course

What I really found interesting in this Techchrunch article was that they where seeing this as a start of an attack of Apple vs Google (and their highly anticipated Netbook) with Microsoft suffering in the middle. The question is, is Microsoft really suffering? If this really is a Mac vs Google issue, doesn’t this mean that Apple has lost focus. Have they become too confident by opening a war on a second front? A two front war is rarely won by those that start it. Is Apple really ignoring the most basic advice of Sun Tzu, who said “Never ever divide your army into two and never fight on two fronts at the same time”. I guess only time will show how this will turn out.

There is not really any point to my post, it is more of a message in a bottle really. Now I’ll throw it out into the sea, see if it’ll land on somebodies shore.

dieantwoord.com

Movie well worth watching

Oh Canada – Our Bought and Sold Out Land

stumbled across this wonderfully nerdy talk on Python. The intriguing part is the fact that this is a googler talking to googlers. As I have gone through and experimented my RoR book, and a friend mentioned Python the other day, it reignited my interest.

So I am thinking I should get myself some Python literature. If you have any recommendations as to books and what resources to use, please do tell.
I will install a Django on my server as soon as I get the time and get going….

Digital Visions

Well it looks like I will FINALLY get to play a game of Diplomacy again shortly, it is unfortunate that I am not able to play it more often. Disregarding the fact that finding 6 eager friends that are willing to set aside an entire day (and then some) to play a full game. But it is really worth it, so if anyone is willing, please do get in touch. As I am always on the lookout for people to to play a little (long) game.

The Gameshelf: “Diplomacy” from Jason McIntosh on Vimeo.

By Finian Cunningham
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16964

Even in its hour of utter devastation, Haiti, the western hemisphere’s poorest country, teaches the rest of the world some valuable truths.
This Caribbean island nation of nine million people has right now a third of its population cut off from basic supplies of food, water, medicine or shelter. In the blink of an eye, the earthquake that hit the country has buried a capital city of three million people under rubble for which the eventual death toll may be between 100,000 and 500,000. Just like that.
Like shutting the proverbial stable door after the horse has bolted, the US and other world powers are promising to send emergency aid to Haiti. Well intentioned no doubt. But where was the aid and economic development assistance to Haiti – over half the population live on $1 a day and 80 per cent are classed as poor – in the years before this calamity?
Haiti’s poverty – as for other poor countries hit by natural disasters – leaves its people wide open to the kind of devastation that has befallen them. And make no mistake, Haiti’s poverty is not just bad luck or something inherently faulty about its natural resources and people. The country has been kept underdeveloped by decades of political and economic interference from Washington to ensure that this former slave colony continues to serve as a cheap source of agricultural exports to the US and as a labour sweatshop for American corporations making textiles and other consumer goods.
While Washington spends $1,000 billion on wars allegedly to combat the threat of terrorism, Haiti’s poor – whose country’s economy is valued at $7 billion – show us a sobering perspective on what a real threat to life looks like. We live in a physical world where floods, tsunamis, earthquakes happen. These disasters claim multiple more lives than the threats that the US is fixated on and spends multiples more money on. Can you imagine how many lives could have been saved in Haiti’s earthquake if a fraction of the money squandered on futile wars had been directed to economic and social development of that country?
Of course, the moral and sensible logic of that idea does not apply in a world dictated by Washington’s foreign policy. This is because of the imperatives and logic of US-led capitalism, which requires countries like Haiti to be kept in a state of poverty for the sake of corporate profit and which requires the fixation on illusionary threats to cover up its need to control geopolitical resources (mainly energy). This is the true face of the economic system that Washington and its allies impose on the world. And Haiti has pulled the mask of this ugly face.
The harrowing anguish and suffering of Haiti teaches us something else. Heart-rending reports of streets filled with corpses and blood running from under rubble, children crying for parents, parents digging with their fingers for children, the sound of dying voices pervading the darkness of night. This is the horror of hundreds of thousands of people suddenly engulfed by suffering. Some observers have compared what has happened in Haiti to the aftermath of an atom bomb being dropped. So the next time, Washington spokespeople airily float plans on Sunday morning chat shows to obliterate Iran – that other “serious threat” (meaning not serious threat) – we should remember: this is what human suffering on a massive scale looks like.

also check out skip1.org

Mark Val told me about pipes a while back, and I have finally gotten around to open a few pipes and play with them.

If used properly pipes.yahoo.com is clearly an incredibly powerful tool that allows you filter any kind of data feed, combine it with others and pretty much do anything you want with it. I wish I had some time to play around with it…

http://pipes.yahoo.com