Gavin’s thoughts - a few times per month
Google now has a new favicon (the icon that appears next to the URL in your web browser) - it’s a lower case, blue “g.” The new one seems to be more “hip” and web 2.0-ish. The old “Big G” was very recognizable - brand recognition might take a hit because of this new change …
I’m really impressed w/amazons selection of DRM free music. I’ll still use iTunes for my player, but amazon is my new store
It’s great to see that people are slowly realizing how the iTunes Music store locks you in to iPods for the rest of your life. Amazon (and many of the up-and-coming alternatives like Napster) is cheaper, has non-DRM MP3s, and works with more players (including iPods). They have a special downloader program that will directly import the songs to your iPod, or (my preference) you can download the mp3 file directly. Why would you not switch?
Although I’m not sure if internet filtering plays a good or bad role in our schools, I did find this comment in an MSDN blog to be totally true - that is, I definitely experienced this when I was in high school.
The students are blowing through the filters as if they were not even there. Anyone who believes otherwise is only fooling themselves. Do you think students are not laughing themselves silly at getting to sites they know their teachers can’t get to? How much does that do for teaching respect for teachers, schools and authority in general?
Schools As Communication Free Zones
At my school, there was certainly not enough IT support to fight the onslaught of new proxy websites and game sites every day. Even with automatic updates to the banned sites lists, it seemed like most students knew a way to get around the filters.
What kind of monitor setups are most productive? This is a question that I ask myself often, as I try to be most productive at my school work, which is more often these days completed on computers.
A study by The University of Utah has concluded that two monitors can significantly increase efficiency. Further, monitors of size 24″ tend to be the most productive.
So if I’m interpreting this correctly, two 20″ or 24″ monitors will achieve the optimal efficiency for me.
Dr. James Anderson discussed his findings in his paper (begins on pg. 32) as well as on NPR. Very interesting.
FriendFeed