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POPSThe Code Even the CIA Can't Crack and the elusiveness of truth, its message written entirely in code. Almost 20 years after its dedication, the text has yet to be fully deciphered. A bleary-eyed global community of self-styled cryptanalysts—along with some of the agency's own staffers—has seen three of its four sections solved, revealing evocative prose that only makes the puzzle more confusing. Still uncracked are the 97 characters of the fourth part (known as K4 in Kryptos-speak). And the longer the deadlock continues, the crazier people get.
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POPSThe Mind-BlackBerry Problem - Why we think we can function in two worlds at once?? "If we don't want this two-worlds experiment to be regulated nature's way—by killing people—then we'd better regulate it ourselves. Here are a few proposed rules of the road. Multitasking is a glorious gift. We can't ban it, nor should we. Want to phone your spouse or your office while walking? Fine. The only life at stake is yours. Want to turn on your car radio or music player? Fine. Listening is easier than talking, and you can mentally or physically shut it off when necessary. Want to chat with your passenger? Fine again. Studies indicate that passenger conversations are less distracting than phone calls, apparently because you're sharing and often referring to the same environment.
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POPSTHE WALL "It was meant to keep people apart, now it also brings people together"
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POPSA Forbidden City of words Recently, a new technique has been developed that involves some software that changes the alignment of Chinese words from horizontal to vertical, and it's very popular. Chinese sentences can be read from left to right, right to left, and top to bottom. For a Chinese person reading from top to bottom is not a problem – it has been like that for thousands of years, until the early 20th century. However, the forbidden vocabulary-seeking mechanism is fooled. When all these methods fail, people can still use mobile phones and text messages, which are not covered by the censoring system yet.
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POPSU.S. Declares War On Internet Radio If you value this explosion of musical choice, ACT NOW to save it. Even politicians who can't be bought (?) are influenced by the RIAA, Clear Channel, and other powerful interests who want to kill internet radio. It just takes a minute to make your voice heard.
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POPSThe English to text message translator The kind of text used by a 12 year old to send text messages. The translator wont work on the clip but there is the link at the top. A few translations show how handy it can be, but I must admit I don't send enough text messages to know much of the jargon.
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POPSThe 10 Commandments of Facebook This is the internet, after all, and if something on the internet can be used in an annoying way, you can safely assume that 99% of the population will proceed to do so (go try reading a comment on YouTube if you don’t believe me). People need rules to tell them how to act. Luckily I went to the top of Mount Internet last night, and God handed me down these 10 Commandments of Facebook for all to obey. Follow them or you’ll go to hell.
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POPSThe tools our students use Alan November argues that educators should take advantage of students' high comfort level with networked tools. Via Laura Blankenship's tweets (that's GeekyMom to you): http://snipr.com/1ne3v.
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POPSact,build,eat,invent,learn,live,move Laky’s text treatment really seems to declare once and for all that the best solutions might literally be right in our own backyards and communities, with materials and practices that simply need to be re-examined and better utilized. As the artist openly states, “Natural materials are very expressive…they also connect me to nature which is a deep love of mine.” According to her artist website, Laky considers herself to be an environmentalist, with her work often employing materials harvested from nature and/or agricultural sources with select recycled elements incorporated. “She is attracted to humble materials and simple, direct methods of hand construction…Laky has (also) been a strong advocate for the establishment of an environmental sustainability curriculum in design and art at UC Davis.”
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POPSStudents downloading ring tone that adults can't hear Kids, what will they think of next? It's just funny that the technology was originally intended to be used against kids -- I remember reading about a store owner who installed the noise-making device outside his store to discourage teens from loitering (did someone clip that?)
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