Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

RIP Steve Jobs

While I may not have agreed with his labor practices or his refusal to consider the enterprise market, there is no doubt that Steve Jobs was a creative genius. His obsession with form over function has led to some of the most significant advances in consumer electronics. Without him MP3 players might still be the size of an old school Walkman, phones would be bulkier than they are today, and tablet computing would not be in the mainstream at all. Thank you Steve for all of the innovations you have brought to the industry.

The Google Docs app for Android tablets has been updated.

This is a good thing because honestly, using Google Docs on a tablet has been a bit of a letdown. I use my tablet more and more, and this addition makes it one step easier for making a tablet a second instead of third device. In other words, needing a laptop for mobile computing is becoming less of a necessity for me as I can do just about everything I need to do on a tablet when I am not at my desk.

I have been a fan of the Amazon Kindle since I got one for my birthday a few years back. It is simply the best way to read a book in my opinion. Of course, I am thinking of novels. There are other books and magazines that a more multimedia rich environment would benefit. To that end, the new media consumption tablet, the Kindle Fire has been announced with a release date of November 15.

This looks like a great device, especially if you plan to take advantage of Amazon’s digital and cloud offerings. We have been buying TV shows and movies on Amazon Instant Video for a while now and have been quite happy with that. The Fire would be another option for watching those shows.

Of course, the big thing seems to be comparing it to an iPad or calling this an iPad killer. CNN even has an article about this: Kindle Fire vs. iPad: Which is right for you? I don’t think this is quite an iPad killer, but it is certainly an attractive alternative. I think this will bring tablets into the mainstream. $199 is a lot easier to drop than $499 on a tablet, and if you don’t need any of the extra features then why pay for them. But if you plan on using  a variety of apps then the iPad may still be more your style since (unreasonably in my opinion) developers tend to write apps for the iPad before they do an Android version.

In light of recent tragic events, I am focusing some posts on bullying.

There are many resources online about cyberbullying.

The National Crime Prevention Council has resources at:

http://www.ncpc.org/topics/cyberbullying

Some thoughts on the Netflix split:
While I think in the short term Netflix will suffer from their price increase and then misguided service split, I think in the long term they will come out stronger.
I think the customers lost from this were expecting too much for basically free. Hopefully this will allow Netflix to focus on their core customers who actually like their product.
I do think the split to two different services is a mistake, done hastily in reaction to a vocal group of bad customers. One of the downfalls of our constantly wired world is that it can be very easy for a few people to blow things out of proportion and then have their opinion given undue weight.

This is a slightly different version of the presentation I did at the 2011 SUNY Technology Conference on Tuesday. I was very happy with the presentation and had a great time at the conference!

Apple bars WinXP users from iCloud

Windows XP was released on October 25, 2001. After almost 10 years I think it is time to move to a modern OS. I’m sure Apple hopes that rather than buy a new Windows 7 machine people will switch to a Mac. Either way it’s a good idea to stop supporting ancient technology.

Here’s an interesting article on Software for University IT Labs

I find it interesting that there is always call to reduce lab services when usage statistics show that students are using labs about the same as they did in the past, even though “everyone” goes to college with a computer. In my experience labs provide an excellent service for students on campus.

This looks interesting: Discussions in Google Docs

Here is another reader-submitted treat for pi day:

Source: Online Schooling