Month: January 2013

Education Story Tech

How California’s Online Education Pilot Will End College As We Know It

By admin | by admin

As reported on TechCrunch. by GREGORY FERENSTEIN Today, the largest university system in the world, the California State University system, announced a pilot for $150 lower-division online courses at one of its campuses — a move that spells the end of higher education as we know it. Lower-division courses are the financial backbone of many part-time faculty and departments (especially the humanities). As someone who has taught large courses at a University of California, I can assure readers that…

Continue reading

Culture Internet Story

China adds 51 million internet users in one year, mobile numbers increase by 18.1 percent

By admin | by admin

As reported on Engadget. By Mat Smith China’s internet dealt with 564 million users during 2012, increasing its user base by 10 percent. Despite continued efforts to monitor residents and restrict access to subversive content, these substantial gains were apparently driven by mobile internet access, with the number of Chinese users tapping into the web from phones and tablets rising by 18.1 percent, now totaling 420 million. That’s 75 percent of all internet users.

Continue reading

Business

HMV goes bankrupt after 91 years in the disc-selling business

By admin | by admin

As reported on Engadget. By Sharif Sakr  The first time we mentioned HMV on Engadget was back in 2009, when the British retailer discounted the PSP Go — ironically, one of the earliest devices to do away with disc-shaped media. As the picture above shows though, HMV’s history goes back much further than that. Its first store opened in 1921 under an elaborate neon sign featuring the company’s emblem of a dog listening to a gramophone beneath the words…

Continue reading

Apple Microsoft Mobile

Ex-Microsoft Execs Explain Why They’re Using iPhones Now

By admin | by admin

As reported on Businessinsider.com by Megan Rose Dickey In light of the news that former Windows head Steven Sinofsky uses an iPhone, Spark Capital partner Bijan Sabet wrote a post asking why former Microsoft employees end up using products from other companies.  Sabet noted how some might say Sinofsky is using the iPhone to evaluate the competition. Well, that’s exactly the case, Sinofsky wrote in the comments. “I have owned every iphone released (and every ipad and galaxy and kindle),” Sinofsky writes. “It is far…

Continue reading

Story Travel Trends

Plan Some Travel on the Cheap This Weekend

By admin | by admin

As reported on LifeHacker. by Adam Dachis It’s a new year for making new travel plans, but preferably without spending an arm and a leg. We’ve looked at numerous ways to save on travel costs. Set aside some time this weekend, review a few tips, and put together a great trip on the cheap. Save on Airfare and Lodging   Full size There are many ways to save on traveling,organizing a travel group to volunteering to sibuying your ticket…

Continue reading

Art Entertainment

Broken Skateboards Become Stunning Wooden Sculptures

By admin | by admin

As reported on Wired. BY MIKE SENESE View as gallery   Self-taught sculpture artist Haroshi uses the discarded leftovers of broken skateboards to create striking wooden creations. The 35-year-old Tokyo resident, who prefers to not use his full name, began skating at age 15 in Kanagawa, amassing a growing stack of broken decks and parts. Ten years later, his collection overflowing, a friend suggested he find a way to do something with them. Cutting into one…

Continue reading

Government Hacking

The FBI Needs Hackers, Not Backdoors

By admin | by admin

As reported on Wired. BY MATT BLAZE AND SUSAN LANDAU Photo: dustball / Flickr   Just imagine if all the applications and services you saw or heard about at CES last week had to be designed to be “wiretap ready” before they could be offered on the market. Before regular people like you or me could use them. Yet that’s a real possibility. For the last few years, the FBI’s been warning that its surveillance capabilities are “going dark,” because internet…

Continue reading

Entertainment Random Story

How a 40-Year-Old Skater Is Bringing the Punk Credo to Digital Music

By admin | by admin

As reported on Wired. BY BRIAN RAFTERY Forty-year-old skater Ian Rogers has a message for the record labels: Get the fuck out of the way. Photo: Eric Ray Davidson It’s a cool, early spring night in Santa Monica, California, and Ian Rogers is sitting cross-legged on the floor of his house, a glass of red wine at his side, a Minor Threat record on the stereo. The lean-framed Rogers, a few months shy of 40, is dressed…

Continue reading

Application Mobile Story Tech

In the Coming Age of the Connected Home, Your Phone Will Be a Magic Wand

By admin | by admin

As reported on Wired. BY CHRISTINA BONNINGTON Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired   LAS VEGAS — Your smartphone is going domestic. In the age of the connected home, your mobile devices are becoming the central command, the brains, if you will, of the entire smarthome experience. It makes sense. Rather than remote controls with menus to memorize and knobs, dials and switches to manipulate, your smartphone or tablet becomes one remote to rule them all. You’ve always got…

Continue reading

Application Entertainment Games

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS DECLASSIFIED REVIEW: DISHONORABLE DISCHARGE

By admin | by admin

As reported on Polygon. By Russ Frushtick Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified is the lowest point in the series’ history. A lot of elements work in Declassified‘s favor. More powerful hardware, solid online support and the inclusion of dual analog sticks should provide the opportunity for an easier transition to the portable space. But something has gone wrong in the process. Developed by the former Nihilistic Software (now rechristened nStigate), Black Ops Declassified attempts to fill in the blanks…

Continue reading