Currently popularity is crucial to the way things are ranked on Google. The more people link to something, the more important Google’s search algorithm thinks it is. The problem is that the current method leads to a lot of bad information being rated really highly. A successful hoax will get linked to by people who…
Technology may not have revolutionized education yet, but it should have
There is a great deal of debate about whether or not technology will revolutionize education. To me the debate itself points out a problem. With the number of free and low-cost educational resources that technology has made available it should have, at least to an extent. The fact that it hasn’t points to a problem…
EA introduces ‘Netflix for gaming’ for XBox One
If you have a tablet, you can access your movies and TV shows through Netflix (or Hulu, Amazon, Yahoo etc) or your music through Spotify (Pandora, Rhapsody, Rdio etc.,). Cloud storage and streaming seems to be the future of everything. Now EA games is taking the first step toward an all access gaming library. According…
FCC site has crashed just hours ahead of Net Neutrality comment deadline (keep commenting anyway)
Demand Progress (Demandprogress.org) is reporting that the Federal Communications Commission’s comment site has crashed from the influx of traffic. The deadline to submit comments, which the FCC encouraged, is midnight tonight. However, that doesn’t mean that you’ve lost your chance. Demand Progress and their allies at battleforthenet.com are storing comments so that they can be passed along…
Aaron Swartz documentary “the Internet’s Own Boy” is now free to stream or download
For those with short memories, or who were living under a rock at the time hacktavist, writer, organizer and programmer Aaron Swartz died in January, 2013. At the time of his death, which was ruled a suicide though no note was found, was facing “two counts of wire fraud and 11 violations of the Computer…
You won’t believe how mind blowing this video about clickbait is!
As someone who writes for what I, increasingly inaccurately, refer to as a ‘living’ I understand the temptations of clickbait, but try very hard not to engage in the practice – no matter how ‘Upworthy’ I believe a story may be. What I find even more disturbing is a recent trend to sensationalize headlines to…
PBS Idea Channel explores net neutrality & asks if the Internet should be a public utility
A look at the issues surrounding Net Neutrality from PBS Idea Channel. Personally I would go a step further than making the Internet a public utility. I’d make it an unalienable human right. It may not be as obvious as “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” and it may not be as essential as…
HD Video from the International Space Station is now streaming 24/7
It may be awhile before you can take an actual trip to space, but now you can take a virtual one anytime you like. The International Space Station is now streaming 24/7/365 on its UStream channel. According to io9 the feed is not quite 24/7 because it can only be active when the station is…
New security flaw found in all version of Microsoft Internet Explorer
I’ve worked for companies who, for whatever reason, never upgrade from the pre-installed version of Microsoft Internet Explorer. I’ve always been astonished by this because all of the other browsers are free and a massive upgrade over IE. I don’t just mean the big browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera either. Sea Monkey and…
Anti-social media is finally coming: Apps to help you hide from people
According to Scientific American it’s the “Greatest invention in human history”, apps that use GPS to help you hide from people, or at least avoid certain people: “The Cloak app, for example, collects location info from Instagram and Foursquare to let you know where your so-called “friends” are—so that you never have to see them.…