Blurts

Academic Earth – BTW – this is a link post. The heading is active.

Become brilliant for free. No tuition, but no credits and no degree either. College courses from Yale, MIT, Berkeley, etc.

Another site springs to life attempting to offer the lectures of brilliant minds to the masses (that means you and me). I like the concept and I have tried several courses through iTunes U, but I have found little that keeps me  interested. I can usually only find one or two things I want to try and I wonder why the area I follow the most (Education) is not represented. I did listen to the Tom Friedman presentation, but I had also heard it before. Now, if I wanted to learn about economics, computer programming, or physics I might have found the mother lode.

The presentations get graded. I find that kind of creepy. I am used to being evalauted by my students, but I am not certain what I would think of feedback from people who watched for free. I would probably be more interested in the number of times a presentation was viewed.

There are some Intro Psych resources (I think I have watched the course available here before). I was excited when I first encountered Intro Psych lectures from prestigious places and thought I would get some ideas. I gave it a try, but decided the folks I was watching seemed to cover about the same things I cover and had about the same things to say.

What makes the podcasts I follow more interesting than these academic courses? I probably spend 3-4 hours a week listening to podcasts. Perhaps it is the requirement that courses hang together over an extended period of time and accomplish a wide range of goals that makes them less interesting. Perhaps it is just the selection of courses that happen to be available. I wonder if most people have this same reaction.

This link shows the Sorlie Bridge (see my own pictures in previous posts). Traffic was still flowing when I viewed this link, but the bridge is scheduled to be closed at 10.

Apple is being sued again. This time because the iPhone is being promoted as an ebook reader. Evidently a Swiss company applied for a patent:

MONEC believes those advances directly violate its patent, which describes a “light-weight” electronic device with a “touch-screen” LCD-display having the “dimensions such that […] approximately one page of a book can be illustrated at normal size, this display being integrated in a flat, frame-like housing.”

OK, I am now attempting to read books on my iTouch. The Touch does have a touch screen and it is light weight. However, it does not come close to displaying “approximately one page of a book at normal size”. 

I wonder if this company has also sued Amazon, the Kindle does not have a touch screen, but it comes closer to displaying a page at normal size. 

I also wonder what constitutes “prior art” in this realm. There was the famous Apple Newton which preceded all of these smaller tablet devices now being used for whatever purpose. 

The Red River has flooded many times in the 30+ years we have lived in Grand Forks. Until 1997, we expected that the flooding could be handled. Now, it looks like the potential exists for another serious flood. The greatest danger is south of us in Fargo, but there is anxiety in Grand Forks as well. I took a few pictures today as the flood wall was assembled in East Grand Forks.

My general reaction to Twitter posts is that they tell me very little, but they may direct me to something important. If someone wants to offer an explanation, a summary, or analysis, take the time to write something. I think Live Tweeting (if this is the term) from conferences is of little value to those not in attendance. Now, if I am listening to the same presentation and have a fuller perspective, Twitter comments may make some sense. 

This is a microblog so this comment is not really intended to inform or analyze. See this post by Louis Gray for an expanded discussion with a similar perspective.