Cool Mediums vs. Hot

I’ve generally kept my advocacy for the Lead-Crime Hypothesis of this blog. This is a blog about web-enabled education, after all. But today I can probably get away with it because there’s a web literacy connection. Seriously, I promise. For those who don’t know the lead-crime hypothesis, it goes like this: the massive crime wave […]

via The Lead Hypothesis and a Gripe About Mobile — Hapgood

Using McLuhan as a yard-stick, I’m going to put mobile phones into the cool category. A laptop or desktop computer is hot. Mobile is definitely one-way consumptive and information is treated “as received” from the sources. Mike has a point here, a creative act or a medium that allows for creation and not just consumption would be hot. And further, being able to participate and create, makes it hotter still. It is a medium that is fully 2-way and not just “as received”.

I will be sharing my data with NY AG

Some things, you can measure centrally. Some, you can survey with a sample group. But sometimes, what you really need is a giant crowdsourced effort — and that’s what New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is asking Empire State residents to help with. You may remember that the AG brought a lawsuit earlier this month…

via NY AG: Please Send Us Your Broadband Speed Tests So We Can Investigate Providers — Consumerist

I know that our cable modem is likely deficient. It was issued around 2005 before DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems were widely distributed by TWC. We’ve been on the same modem since that time. And I guarantee it would never support more than a 10Mbit connection download and 1Mbit upload.

3D Xpoint finally leaking out into the market.

 Intel announced that it is shipping 3D XPoint memory DIMMs to data center customers. Intel tested a laptop with 16GB of DRAM against a laptop with only 64MB of DRAM and 16GB of 3D XPoint in the DIMM form factor with no perceptible performance loss.

via 3D XPoint’s DIMM Prospects Lighten, Memory Sticks Shipping — News Tom’s Hardware

I’m liking the sound of this article. 3D Xpoint is doing great things for the folks who have gotten to bench test and try it out. The problem is it’s a new tech altogether different from preceding generations of RAM and hard drives and different even than Solid State Disks. Revisions will need to be made to OSes and Apps to take advantage of how 3D Xpoint works. Hopefully Intel can help leverage it’s long-standing relationship with Microsoft and accelerate this process as much as possible.

I guess there’s always mid-term elections?

The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions narrowly approved the nomination of Betsy DeVos Tuesday for secretary of the United States Department of Education (ED). The committee voted 12-11 to approve President Donald Trump’s pick to head the ED, splitting along party lines.

via ED Secretary Nominee Narrowly Wins Committee Vote — Campus Technology: All Articles

Data, Caregiving, and the Ethical Control

Now is the time to keep 2 sets of “books”. One is the source of record, and the other you give out to the Steel-heeled thugs (purged of all the elements they seek). Good luck sorting out that Big Data.

random data from a tumored head

This was in response to the tweet pushing Fascism and the Caregiver.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? Those of us with the responsibility of managing large quantities of the personal data of other people constantly think about control. We have legal and ethical requirements to control access, to establish and maintain limits, and use best practices (such least privilege access).  Whether we are talking about the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA),  Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), or any of the dozens of other federal and state privacy laws.

We also have the responsibility to encourage use of the data, but always appropriate use. Use that adds value to the lives/livelihoods of those we serve…

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please read: A Few Notes on Gaslighting – tressiemc

A few million (mostly) women in the U.S. and abroad marched yesterday. They marched to protest various forms of oppression, symbolized in a new presidential platform that involved explicit racism, …

Source: A Few Notes on Gaslighting – tressiemc

Gaslight is a movie where a husband tries to convince his wife she is crazy. He goes to great lengths pulling pranks, telling lies. So that’s the pop culture reference intended whenever anyone uses that term. The problem is it isn’t a pop-cultural problem. It’s a dominant culture problem. And the people in power, the dominant culture see fit to use this technique in order to get their way. Whether it be just to maintain the status quo, or to gain advantage, gaslighting in the press/media is a favorite old saw, a bad habit the demagogues and their toadies fall into, and get good at.