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Dan Chung road tests the Canon EOS5D MkII

I was off enjoying myself last week - so apologies if you've already seen this - but I've just spotted that our photographer extraordinaire Dan Chung has tested out the video capabilities of the new Canon EOS5D MkII camera.

It's interesting to see how digital SLRs (increasingly prevalent among hobbyists, in my experience) can really start to compete on the video front too. Dan's video from the streets of Beijing is simple enough - as I said, just a test - but here it is in HD glory courtesy of Vimeo.

Why Obama should treat the car industry like the internet

Like much of the economy, America's car industry is in turmoil. Ford and General Motors are begging for a $25bn bailout from the US government, and the clouds are hanging heavy over Detroit. Some hope that innovative new companies will rise to fill the space left by these fallen giants - perhaps small companies like Tesla Motors, the electric car outfit run by PayPal alumnus Elon Musk.

Except struggling Tesla is now applying for $400m in low interest loans as part of the bailout - and a few voices are taking exception to that.

Randall Stross led the charge in the New York Times this weekend, by asking whether the public purse should be used to support a company that builds cars that only the rich can afford. Others, including CNET's Jon Oltsik, followed suit by accusing Tesla's investors of treating automotive industry in the same way as they treat hi-tech.

I wonder how Tesla's course has been influenced by at least some of its investors being helplessly smitten by the world's quietest dragster. Mr. Musk said: "I'm not doing this because I think the world has a shortage of sports cars." But his customers must be loaded with green in order to go green.

Sounds good, doesn't it? After all, why should the public fund a company that has only handed out a spattering of $100,000+ sports cars to the super-rich?

It shouldn't: Stross is right on the fundamentals here. But he's also missing the larger point. Right now electric vehicles are merely the playthings of billionaires and bleeding hearts, but it's worth the long-term investment - and here's why:

First things first - regardless of Tesla's financial health, they'd be stupid not to apply for help from the bailout package; there's money on the table that will otherwise only go to propping up ailing car giants. And Tesla is already the beneficiary of some low-interest help from the government and tax breaks, so this is nothing new.

But beyond the financials, and the underlying issues of class, the real problem isn't that the US government might give a helping hand to a fancypants companies that makes hi-tech sports cars for rich nobs. It's that it should be investing in the infrastructure, not the people who want to use it.

New technologies are always adopted by those who can afford them. The more of them who buy stuff, the more the cost of production goes down. Prices fall and more people buy, ad nauseum. That's basic economics.

Electric cars are massively important if American economy wants to be free of its dependence on oil - a strategic move in energy, economy, security and environmental policy which should be Obama's moon shot. But right now it isn't car manufacturers who need supporting - it's the new systems that might help the best of them to thrive. What's the point in buying an electric car if there's nowhere to plug it in?

Barack Obama should be sitting down with the car industry and telling it to them straight: You want a future in America? Then change. The strategy you've been following for the past decade hasn't worked, or else you wouldn't need a bailout. Instead of funding Ford and GM and anybody else to carry on doing what they do badly, we'll build a system that lets ordinary people drive electric cars, not just treehuggers and the super-rich.

You make the cars to run on that system, and you'll be able to sell them because the structure will be in place.

This is the same strategy that led to the explosion of the internet; an independent infrastructure supported by the US government that bred innovation. There were no government loans for Yahoo or Microsoft or Google (or even Pets.com) - even during the darkest days of the dotcom bust - but the world continued anyway, and America forged itself a position at the heart of a new hi-tech industry.

This isn't just a pipe dream. It's already happening at a regional level - just look at the recent announcement by the mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland. Ordinary people don't need guarantees that Ford will stay in business, but they should know that if they buy electric, there will be places to plug in.

So, forget toys for very rich boys. Forget saving jobs today just so that you can face the same question in another five years. And forget bailing out the car manufacturers.

Give them this one chance to innovate - and if they can't be bothered, then leave them to die.

Dispatches from the (Family) Front Lines

So just a couple of quick education centered observations about this past weekend, spent with various family members from both sides:

First, one of my tribe is a teacher at one of the top 15 high schools as listed in the current version of Connecticut Magazine. It’s a very well off district that sends a high number of it’s graduates to college, a good number of them to the “best” schools in the world. Over the years, he’s been hearing my spiel about technology and the Web, and he and a couple of his colleagues have been dipping their toes into the social tools waters with varying degrees of success with one very notable, very positive exception. So here’s the news: almost all of it is being done pretty much under the radar with very little discussion, investment or support of technology of any kind in the classroom. Most of the professional development is centered around the learning theory author du jour, and the focus of all of it is maintaining or increasing test scores. In other words, it’s pretty much all about trying to do better what we’ve been doing all along, assessing it all the same way, and hoping for the same result. There is little or no talk of “21st Century” (or whatever you want to call them) skills or literacies in terms of global collaboration, networking, connecting and problem solving.

My other story deals with a third grader on Wendy’s side of the family. She came to visit over the weekend and at one point she pulled out a little red workbook and started doing problems in it. “It’s homework,” she said, adding that she had six pages to do over the weekend. Later, when she was done and had left it open on the dining room table, I flipped through it a bit and saw page after page of pretty basic math and word problems and (fill in the blank). When I closed it, I finally noticed the title: “Preparation for the 3rd Grade New Jersey ASK Assessment.”

Oy.

ShareThis

Pownce sells up, closes down

Just a few weeks ago blog developers SixApart laid off 16 workers, but now it's all smiles as they're out hiring again - or, more accurately, buying the team and technology behind messaging startup Pownce.

Developers Leah Culver (something of a starlet in a startup world notoriously devoid of female coders) and Mike Malone will be joining SixApart later this month - and closing down the service as a result:

We will be closing the service and Mike and I, along with the Pownce technology, have joined Six Apart, the company behind such great blogging software as Movable Type, TypePad and Vox. We're bittersweet about shutting down the service but we believe we'll come back with something much better in 2009.

Things have been tough for the Powncers as the service failed to gain traction despite having an unreasonably high profile thanks to co-founders Culver and Kevin Rose (of Digg fame). But at least this appears to be a dignified exit for the people behind the site - if not so pleasing for the handful of people who actually use it.

The Simpsons skewer Apple

The Simpsons, having brought down George Bush (the older one) - he said he wanted America to be "more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons" - are now turning their attention to the fruity output of California.

Yes, Apple. That Apple.

The company featured on the most recent Simpsons, and is up to the standard you'd expect. While it might not kill off sales of the iPhone in the manner of Doonesbury murdering the Newton, it's always nice to have a reality check.

"it's so sterile," gasps Lisa on seeing the new Mapple store in Springfield. (Well, they've opened everywhere else in the US, haven't they?) Bart then disses a "Steve Mobs" product announcement in front of a crowd of gaping nerds, "You think you're cool because you buy a $500 phone with a picture of a fruit on it. Well guess what? They cost 8 bucks to make and I pee on every one!"

A Mapple store employee then angrily responds, "Who dares question the boss we fired 10 years ago and then brought back!"

So there's this... and let's all remember the words of Bart Simpson, and cherish them: "Stupid angry mob chasing me because I shine a harsh light on society."

Hey, where can I buy a Simpsons phone?

(Updated with a single clip rather than two.)

Facebook Connect roll-out is starting soon

Facebook Connect was announced in May as a way of using your Facebook identity on different sites, such as Digg. Since then, things have been quiet. However, The New York Times now has a big story, Facebook Aims to Extend Its Reach Across the Web, which says:

In the next few weeks, a number of prominent Web sites will weave this service into their pages, including those of the Discovery Channel and The San Francisco Chronicle, the social news site Digg, the genealogy network Geni and the online video hub Hulu.

It adds:

The effort is particularly important for Facebook, which once represented the seemingly boundless promise of the Web 2.0 boom. It desperately wants to make certain the other Web companies do not supplant it and become the most popular hub for online socializing.

There's also the little matter of advertising. So far, Facebook has not done much to convert its mindshare into a money stream, but Connect might help:

"It's becoming very clear that advertisers don't know how to advertise on Facebook," said Charlene Li, an independent consultant and social media analyst. "But if you take a group of Facebook friends and put them on a travel site where they are spending more time and generating more ad dollars in a focused area like travel, that is an opportunity ripe for getting revenues back and sharing it."

Whether you'd actually want to use your real identity on a site like Digg is another matter, of course. It seems to me that the number of sites where you'd want to be identified is a very tiny subset of the web -- though it could be a profitable subset.

The story points out that: "MySpace, Yahoo and Google have all announced similar programs this year, using common standards that will allow other Web sites to reduce the work needed to embrace each identity system. Facebook, which is using its own data-sharing technology, is slightly ahead of its rivals." It neglects to mention Windows Live ID Delegated Authorization, which seems to do the same sort of thing.

When Microsoft tried this with Passport (used for the Hotmail sign-on) seven or eight years ago, the response was almost universal condemnation and a rival Liberty Alliance Project. But maybe times have changed….

This week's letters and blog pingbacks in full

OS, SURVEYED
I wonder if the reason for the Ordnance Survey's obsession with preserving their copyright (OS move raises political stakes, November 20) is because a handful of managers dream of doing a QinetiQ: convince the Government it would far more efficient as a private concern; buy as many of the initially undervalued shares as possible and then watch them increase in value so that in a few years they are all multi-millionaires. All, basically, at the taxpayers expense.
Robin Benson, Southampton

A couple of comments on the article 'OS move raises political stakes'
1. You have to admire the consistency of the Ordnance Survey position - when it comes to mapping applications in the UK, they have always been part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Not content with selling us data we used to own, they endeavour to stand in the way of almost every advance in the world of mapping.
2. The answer is the same now as it has been for a least twenty years - ignore them and do your own mapping:
It would be simple enough for a local authority to visit each of its public toilets with a handheld GPS (or Pocket PC with integrated GPS) and record the position (thousands of people are recording wildlife sightings in this way every day, and many local authorities already use asset tracking software for 'street furniture')
In a similar way, it is relatively straightforward to walk/cycle/drive the boundaries of administrative areas recording your track. Accuracy will fall below that which the OS could supply, but it will be far greater than that required for most internet mapping. As an example, this technique is already used for 'Phase 1' habitat mapping (Phase I habitat mapping is a system of habitat classification and representation designed for use in rural and urban environments through Great Britain).
[name and address supplied]

>> In Australia, led by the great example of Queensland, government data sets are starting to be released using Creative Commons licenses, and in a study presented by Tim Barker the Director of Queensland's Spatial Information Office, 85% of the public sector data-sets they had examined could by licensed using one of the standard creative commons licenses without any problems.
Before you all fall about laughing saying this could never happen in the UK, the OS actually has released information under a creative commons license before, the research team published some ontologies used in semantic research using a non-commercial share alike licence, but of course perhaps that was a little under the radar screen.
edparsons.com

ON THE FT DESIGN
I couldn't disagree more with Andrew Brown's article.
Font size and leading relate to cognition rather than knowledge and education: just because FT readers are clever doesn't mean they are capable of 'processing' more information from a computer screen than your average Sun reader.
Reading from a computer screen is an unpleasant experience: reducing the amount of content on a page, simplifying the layout and upping the leading and pixel ('point' is a term that applies to printed matter) sizes aid the comprehensibility of a text for everybody, even for people who went to Oxford. Older readers (presumably a major part of the FT's readership) will be especially appreciative.
Couple this with the fact that most readers scan texts (see useit.com) - certainly the top level, index pages - then the design makes perfect sense.
What makes the design especially brave is that, unlike The Guardian and The Telegraph, the FT has shown respect for its readers by refusing to follow the current trend for multi-column, print-based layouts. Instead of displaying excerpts of 50+ stories on its home page, FT readers are trusted to click through and find content they are interested in.
And the way dyslexia is linked to being some sort of ignorant prole is, well, crass.
Leon Paternoster, Ipswich

You should also comment (adversely) on the Telegraph's redesign of its technology page on the web.
F D Hobson, Greenwich

>> I think Andrew is being overly harsh here. Whilst I'm sure nobody would describe the new look as beautiful, it isn't as bad as all that. Early on in his article Andrew talks about point size and leading, which made me initially think this must be the rantings of a print dinosaur. However he then goes on to mention Wordpress templates and Rememberthemilk, so clearly he is no novice to the Internet.
I said in my Delicious links yesterday that the one tweak I would make to the Financial Times design would be in the area of the pink background. I understand it is an important element of the print branding, but I'd also like the site to be easy on the eye when reading from a screnn.
currybet.net

>> In short, [the FT redesign has] all great things that The Guardian's site isn't.
It's perhaps a surprise that such a traditional, conservative publication has led the way in designing a home page that is fully aware of the constraints and possibilities of the medium, while Britain's greatest liberal paper adopts such a narrow, backward looking view. It's the FT that's leading newspaper design into the modern era.
leonpaternoster.com

>> no mincing of words there.
thoughtsofnigel.blogspot.com

AUSSIE CENSORSHIP
Can't see anything wrong in principle with Australian plans to filter dodgy content except that it doesn't extend to file-sharing. How often does it need to be stated that there is no such place as "cyberspace" - just millions of individuals with millions of computers in specific geographic locations, which means it's perfectly legitimate for any sovereign government - Australia, China, whoever - to seek to control traffic through its territory, carried by telcos subject to local law. While it's fine to raise reasoned objections to the specifics of any given scheme of control, knee-jerk opposition to the principle of local censorship is the product of a puerile utopianism, masking an uglier libertarianism, that does little to promote the healthy development of a resource constantly struggling to maintain functionality and legitimacy against the relentless torrent of filth, advertising, Wikibollocks and the yammerings of bloggers. And far from reducing broadband speeds, currently at the mercy of weight of traffic and crumbly infrastructure, effective measures to clear all the crap out of the pipe must eventually speed things up, even without pusillanimous governments getting round to forcing the telcos to invest.
Root Cartwright, Radlett

Just a thought.....
In your next story regarding this issue, you may want to consider including the following text:
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation." ~Adolph Hitler, 1943
Now, the Australian Government may laugh at this. But guess what? I'm not laughing.
The Reichstag Fire, just before the start of World War 2? The Exectutive Orders the President RUSHED through Congress immediately following September 11.
What EXCUSE will be used in the future to lock down the USA, or anywhere next time there's a 'terrorist' attack.
WW2? I believe the fire was an EXCUSE to start the war (correct me if I'm mistaken).
Now, 'protecting' the Children?? Remember what I just typed above about excuses? Dito! Why is it an EXCUSE? Because the overwhelming MAJORITY of people here in Australia in a poll on a news site clicked the 'No' button!! (I was one of them).
Throughout history, sadly, governments will always find an EXCUSE to push through 'hidden' (or their true agendas) so that the general public will get used to the idea and be able to 'swallow' it.
I'm 'only' 36 years of age, but I'm not stupid.
It doesn't take much thought to start to see a pattern at what's really going on.
The world is not as nice as you might think. There are hidden plans that we cannot see. To put it bluntly, there is a 'storm' coming. It will be terrible, unlike anything you have ever witnessed in your life.
To put it another way, here's 'food for thought':
1st Thessalonians 5:3 "For when they shall say 'Peace and safety'; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail (labour) upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape."
'Peace and Safety'? Peace Talks with Governments,etc ?
There are three words I want to share with you: NEVER FORGET HISTORY.
Keep an eye out on what's happening in the word regaring U.S policies, rights & freedoms etc, while never forgetting the past (Adolf Hitler), then, with research and the Bible, start to join the dots together.
I think you'll find that there is indeed a storm coming, and it could be sooner than we think, and without sufficient warning before we are rounded-up like animals. Our faith and morals WILL be severely tested.
Earl Blennerhassett, Melbourne, Australia.

>> Regular readers will know of my less-than-sympathetic views of this kind of filtering scheme.
b2fxxx.blogspot.com

>> Is debate between moral absolutism and moral relativism a red herring when the primary criticism of Conroy's scheming is its technical unfeasibility? or should we watch carefully regardless, since as Oz moves toward a republic, tussles between cognitivists, noncognitivists and other philosophical camps will be germane to the formation (or not) of an Australian Bill of Rights.
kadaitcha.com

ON LETTERS
Re. Michael Edwards letter on sites not recognising Mac keystrokes (Letters, November 20), I too find this infuriating. The only, admittedly expensive, solution that I have found is to use Vmware fusion (or Parallels) with a Windows OS on a Mac running Leopard. If the Windows is suspended it takes less than a minute to have it up and running, and you can use Firefox or I.Explorer for downloading, filling and saving any forms required. As a bonus these can be instantly transferred to the Mac OS for further attention. Although this solution costs about £100 at best buy, you do have two computers for the price of one, and you're never hampered by those people who can't be bothered to program properly.
John Forse, Stoke-on-Trent

If agamisu.livejournal.com (Letters and blogs, 20th November) can't sort wheat from crap, he/she shouldn't try home-baking.
Charlie Haigh, Milnthorpe

FAR FROM THE MODDING CROWD
>> I'm not ashamed to say that I wasted far too many hours of my younger years on [Half-Life], which deserves praise not just for being a startlingly visceral artistic achievement, but for the degree to which it hyper-charged the DIY game-development community thanks to the welcoming attitude its developer, Valve, took toward modders, who ended up extending the game's lifespan for, well, a decade and counting.
pushback.org

NOMINET NOMINATIONS
The article 'UK net body faces split' (Thursday 20th November 2008) included serious allegations of misconduct and mismanagement by Nominet. We would like to make it clear that no formal allegations have been made against the board directors concerned and that any such allegations, informally made, are robustly denied.
Our goal is to ensure that what is fundamentally a disagreement about Nominet's future does not overshadow or undermine the excellent work that is taking place in support of our members, customers and the wider internet community. We believe that while such disagreements happen, they should be dealt with in a professional, structured manner. We remain committed to ensuring Nominet is governed according to best practice principles and the upcoming governance review will help us to do that.
Our priority remains: to ensure the smooth running of .uk and to deliver a secure, stable service to our members, registrars and customers.
Lesley Cowley, Chief Executive Officer, Nominet

>> I am saddened to read the resignation letter by Angus Hanton and the revelations by Jim Davies.
These men have put their reputations, personal wealth and time on the line for us who elected them.
Many questions remain unanswered, such as those relating to executive pay, senior staff discipline and corporate governance.
Therefore, in my opinion, time has come to regain and safeguard membership control of Nominet, a key supplier to all our businesses.
ofnom.org.uk

HACK DAY
>> Simon Willison used Dabble to help him organize The Guardian's first ever Hack Day, which consisted of 37 demos, 24 hours, 15 guest hackers, 8 judges and a handful coveted trophies.
blog.dabbledb.com

NAMING CONVENTIONS
May I suggest you change your publication's name from Technology Guardian to Computer Geeks' Guardian?
The word Technology means the application of practical and industrial science, engineering and technology, with the vast spectrum of subjects that infers. It certainly does not mean entire issues of 'Technology' Guardian devoted to nerdy articles about the web, reviews of stupid computer games aimed at bears of very little brain, and upgrades of existing computer software.
Which is what we received today.
Frank Landamore, Lewes

DON'T WORRY ABOUT DELL
I don't think you should be worried. It's doing OK. Its financial ratios are quite acceptable, certainly not in risky territory. Spending more on R&D would not help it. The software is done by MS, the hardware is done by the OEMs. What is there for them to contribute? The margin is what it is because that is the nature of the industry, its like food retailing or white goods manufacture.
The smart thing that Michael Dell has done is recognize this and take the necessary decisions. Not all companies do this - many simply refuse to cut costs, try to 'move up the value chain' or 'move into the value added', and so drift into being high cost producers with no differentiation, and eventually start losing both money and market share.
It's not true that Dell has not innovated. Its innovations however were in logistics rather than hardware.
Because Dell's situation is the direct consequence of its having adapted to the market it is in, your prescription would probably be diversification. Whether into services or other consumer products markets. It's very risky. Few companies have managed this on any scale. And even if they do, it does not change the nature of the existing business.
There is probably nothing to be done about the existing business but "accept the universe" and do the best they can executing the current strategy. No reason to think this cannot be done indefinitely. Yes, it's not a great growth stock any more. Who cares, as long as it continues modestly profitable and stays in business?
Peter Berrie, London

POSTAL HASSLES
So let's say you want to buy the officially released DVDs of a foreign TV show. The Region 2 version available in the UK is much poorer quality than the Region 1 version available in the US (and of course, you own a multiregion DVD player). So you want to buy the US version to get the extras and better image quality etc.
Last time you did this, you bought from a company like DVDStars, which at that time let you buy US DVDs from a UK-based company. Now they don't/can't sell the US versions any more, so you try a US supplier, which lets you order but won't ship the DVDs to addresses outside the US. You arrange with a US friend to receive your DVDs so you can collect them when next you see each other. (You had successfully ordered a camera like this earlier in the year). You go to a US supplier and place your order with your UK credit card, only to receive the response below.
What I want to know is: is this the Patriot Act or one of its spawn, stopping me buying the official DVDs of ... horror! ... previously broadcast TV shows, or is it the film/TV industry trying to force me to buy goods of lesser standard just because that's all they want to market in my world region?
Fortunately my US friend will order them for me and I'll pay her back, but what exactly is the purpose of these - obviously relatively new - regulations? Is this not some kind of restraint of trade? Meanwhile, the places that sell sets of Tivo'd DVDs of US TV series seem to continue to flourish undaunted, even though what they are doing is patently illegal.
"We could not process your order as entered; therefore your order request was rejected and subsequently, cancelled. We do not accept orders that are placed in an International destination and then shipped to the United States or to any other country: IE: you cannot place an order in the United Kingdom and ship it to the United States. If you would like to place an order with Legendary Heroes for merchandise you must be the authorized user of the Credit Card you are entering; you must enter your full name as the credit card holder in the designated space and the merchandise must be "Billed to" and "Shipped to" the Credit Card holder's address in the country the order originates in."
Naomi Standen, Newcastle upon Tyne

Sunday Times story on Microsoft/Yahoo deal is 'total fiction' says All Things Digital

A story in today's Murdoch-owned Sunday Times has been rubbished by Kara Swisher at the Murdoch-owned All Things Digital blog, which is an offshoot of the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.

The story claims that "Software giant Microsoft is in talks to acquire Yahoo's online search business for $20 billion (£13 billion)." It says:

It is thought that Jonathan Miller, ex-chairman and chief executive of AOL, and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media, have been lined up to lead the new management team.

However, Levinsohn has told Swisher it's "total fiction" and "the first time Levinsohn has heard of the plan, he said. Sources at Microsoft and Yahoo also said there was no deal like that in the making at this point in time."

VentureBeat also says: "We've reached out to Levinsohn who says of the Times Online report: 'No truth to it. News to us'."

Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget is going with: Microsoft-Yahoo $20 Billion Search Deal Hogwash - Levinsohn

It would be quite generous of Microsoft to pay $20 billion for a small part of a company that is, as a whole, worth $16 billion.

Of course, the idea that Microsoft and Yahoo will try to do some sort of deal, at some sort of price, at some point in the future, is taken for granted. But that's not news, it's speculation. The idea that they are doing a deal now, at that price, before Jerry Yang has been replaced as CEO, would be news, but is it true?

"Not yet" seems to be the consensus.

Cutting down vampire power (as used by appliances on standby)

A Spanish company called Good for You, Good for the Planet has "patented an algorithm that can detect when an appliance is in standby mode and automatically switch it off completely," says a report in The Wall Street Journal. The idea is to reduce the "vampire power" consumed by appliances when they are not in use, which can account for 10% of a European household's power consumption.

The company has developed a chip and is "talking to electronics manufacturers about incorporating it directly into their new devices". The story says:

Other companies have come up with products to address the problem. James Dunne, of ElectraTech Ltd. in the U.K., has developed a power strip he calls the Savasocket. The device "learns" the infrared signal from the TV remote and switches off the entire bank of plugs when the standby button on the remote is pressed. The Savasocket is to be introduced in the U.K. next year at a price of about £20 ($30).
"The interest in the product has been phenomenal," says Mr. Dunne, a civil engineer from the British city of Leeds. "I'm very happy with the orders that are coming in."
One Click Technologies Ltd., also based in the U.K., sells the £17 Intelliplug, which cuts power to computer peripherals such as printers, scanners and speakers when a personal computer is shut down.

Although only small amounts of power are saved per device, there's a large potential saving -- especially in the US. The story says: "a study by the University of California, Berkeley, found that such snoozing machines consume as much as 26% of electricity used in gadget-stuffed homes in California."

US Army uses video game to help prevent suicides

US Army suicides have increased since the invasion of Iraq, and although they are still at a lower rate than the general US population, "One suicide is too many," says Colonel Thomas Languirand. The Army is taking a number of approaches to help, according to a story in the Christian Science Monitor:

But one of the more novel solutions is an interactive game called "Beyond the Front," starring Specialist Norton, a character in a kind of modern-day military morality play. The service plans to send out thousands of copies of the game – part of an Army suicide prevention program costing almost $1 million – to educate soldiers about the dangers of not seeking help when they most need it.

In this role-playing game (demo online, not suitable for children), you get a happy ending by choosing to "reach out to fellow soldiers and family members." The story says: "The key to suicide prevention lies in overcoming the stigma of seeking help." Colonel Languirand adds:

"Ultimately, it's not about videos or pocket cards or any other programs, but about educating soldiers to look out for each other."

New Xbox 360 'Jasper' spotted in the wild

Xbox-Scene reports that some readers now have Xbox 360 games consoles with long-awaited Jasper motherboards. These should run cooler and should mean the end of the Red Ring of Death, which featured on a recent Guardian Technology cover.

The Jasper board has the new 65-nanometer version of the ATI graphics chip, which ran hotter than Xbox motherboards could sustain, over the long term. This should run cooler and it also costs less to produce.

It's not easy to tell which machines have the new board. However, they have 150W power supplies with a different plug, whereas Falcon boards have 175W power supplies. Maybe someone will figure out the numbering scheme so it will be possible to tell from the box.

Jasper boards also have 256 megabytes of Flash memory to store the new avatar-based (Wii-style) user interface, with space to spare. Earlier models had only 16MB of Flash.

At VentureBeat, Dean Takahashi (who has written two Xbox books, and wrote our cover story) adds:

What exactly was wrong with the older 90-nanometer graphics chips and the boards that came with them? I've gotten some new information about that. The main failure cause was "thermal fatigue" of the leaded C4 connections between the graphics chip die and its organic carrier. The underfill had too low a glass-transition temperature for the amount of heat generated. That caused cracking over time, resulting in graphics chips coming loose.
In previous versions, Microsoft addressed this with better heat sinks. The temperature sense diode was off in a corner and didn't reflect the true temperature in the core regions. Jasper has shifted to a material with a significantly higher transition temperature. Coming up with this fix took time, since the new material had to be identified and tested. The smaller 65nm chip die also helps since the stresses that cause the thermal fatigue are related to size.

For more Jasper coverage, see DailyTech, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Engadget, Kotaku etc etc.

Why is there a correlation between searching for PlayStation and obesity?

StateStats is a website that lets you correlate the frequency of Google search results and US statistics, using Spearman's rank correlation. A search for mittens, for example, has a strong correlation with latitude: people who live in Alaska are more likely to search for mittens than people who live in Florida. Search for Microsoft and you'll find the state of Washington comes top, because that's where the company is based. But it's usually much harder to find a connection beyond simple correlation (which does not imply causation), except the most obvious: population density.

Silicon Alley Insider has tried a few tech terms, and proclaims that: Internet users in states with high illiteracy rates are more likely to search for MySpace. Searches for Twitter correlate with income, while searching for Yahoo correlates with violent crime and unemployment. Using Google to search for Google doesn't correlate with anything, though it does seem to suggest a degree of stupidity.

Most tech terms don't produce any results, presumably because there is no regional data for comparison. However, after trying a few, I found a strong correlation (0.73) between PlayStation and obesity. The correlation for Nintendo is much weaker (0.22).

There is data for a wide range of things including age, income and life expectancy. Post a comment if you get lucky….

Apple uses DMCA against iPod interoperability project

Apple is trying to use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to stop the iPodHash project, and thereby to restrict the freedom of iPod owners who'd prefer to use alternatives to iTunes, such as Songbird and WinAmp. Since Apple does not make iTunes available for Linux, this is also an attack on open source users who own iPods. It could even result in BluWiki -- which has received a "cease and desist" order from Apple -- being forced offline.

The background is that Apple has added a new hashing algorithm to its iTunesDB database file -- which stores user data, such as the details and location of each song on the iPod, as obfuscated by Apple -- to prevent anyone else's software from writing to it. The iPodHash project is an attempt to crack the latest hash.

The use of the hash suggests Apple is trying to exploit its monopoly market shares of the portable MP3 player market and iTunes online store to force iPod owners to use iTunes for Windows. Apple uses iTunes to foist its QuickTime media player on Windows users. It has also deceived some users into installing its Safari browser for Windows by offering it as an "update".

Cracking the "iPod hash" would enable rival software to work with iPods. Interoperbility is the aim of the iPodHash project, and interoperability is specifically allowed for by the DCMA.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has offered to get involved, and has published Apple Confuses Speech with a DMCA Violation, a Legal Analysis by Fred von Lohmann. He says: "Short answer: Apple doesn't have a DMCA leg to stand on." There's also a long answer.

One problem is that nobody knows who created the iPodHash pages on BluWiki. The operator, Sam Odio, asked him or her to come forward:

Please contact Fred at the EFF. Fred is looking to protect your right to free speech online. But he can't do so if we don't work with him. Because Fred has expressed interest in representing both you and BluWiki, all communication is confidential and protected under the attorney-client privilege. Communication with Fred can not be released in court.
If you do not contact Fred, and the EFF does not represent us, we will be forced to comply with all of Apple's demands. If Apple chooses to litigate against us, we will probably exhaust all funds in our defense. Out of money, BluWiki could ultimately be forced offline. This would be one more small step backwards in the fight for the right to free speech.

Later, Odio published an email from the author In defense of Ipodhash.

Connectivism: Networked Learner

Over the last 12 weeks, Stephen Downes and I have facilitated a course on Connectivism and Connective Knowledge. The final “project” for enrolled participants is to reflect on the quality of their own learning networks. Wendy Drexler has posted a video of her final project that is (deservedly) getting significant attention: Connectivism: Networked Learner (also available on YouTube)

Definition of Emerging Technologies for Learning

I received an email recently asking for my definition of emerging technologies for learning. To enlarge the conversation, I asked the question on Twitter. The following are responses:

Eduinnovation: “Those technologies that allow learners to connect, collaborate, and create with other learnes, mind-to-mind, anywhere & anytime”

prawsthorne: “an innovation that captures attention, engages and deepens learning so the learner/teacher can self-measure the improvement.”

MarkMilliron: “any technology YOU don’t quite understand that you’ve heard might improve teaching and learning”

UNMVCTLC: “using technology TOOLS to improve the learning process while enhancing the instructional environment” and “using those tools that are not fully explored to reach new frontiers in methodology, experiences and concepts”

jdwilliams: “I think emerging (web) technologies are just sites/apps my district hasn’t found to block (yet)”

Darren Draper: “Emerging technologies for teaching and learning consist of all hardware, software, concepts, and ideas that can be employed to advance social, connective, and educational processes”

davecormier: “usually defined as - stuff George likes - I believe”

bengrey: “A body of knowledge or innovation not yet widely adapted or fully actualized which holds educational implications”

StonyRiver: “New Direction Learning Technologies”

How do you define emerging technologies for learning (or is the attempt to provide a definition sooo web 1.0?)?

Nokia admits defeat in Japan -- but Vertu will continue

Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, has decided to stop selling phones in Japan, except for its luxury Vertu brand, reports Reuters.

"In the current global economic climate, we have concluded that the continuation of our investment in Japan-specific localized products is no longer sustainable," Nokia executive vice president Timo Ihamuotila said in a statement.

The story says the problem is that "Most of the mobile phones used in Japan are part of third-generation networks and boast features such as TV broadcasting and electronic payment functions."

The need to develop special handsets means non-Japanese suppliers have only a small share of the Japanese market -- about 5%, according to IDC Japan. But it also means Japanese phones don't sell outside Japan.

Sales of Vertu phones are probably not going to be large. Reuters says: "Vertu, founded in 1998, sells gem-encrusted, hand-built mobile phones with prices ranging from 3,500 euros to over 100,000 euros."

That sounds like a strange business to me. If your €24,000 phone is obsolete after two years, that's €1,000 a month in handset depreciation. (The original Vertu Signature cost €24,000 -- as hand-made in Hampshire and sold in London.) Can you get the diamonds re-used on a different handset, or do Vertu buyers have so much money they just don't care?

YouChoose: zero-gravity cups, Neuromancer and C

Can I have a latte instead?

An amazing marriage of technology, physics and chemistry: a cup you can drink from in microgravity. Usually, the fluid would float out - but this uses surface tension to keep it inside and only flow along the narrow outlet.

William Gibson, I presume

The Skyrails project at the University of New South Wales aims to provide visualisations of social networks. Here, it looks more like the "consensual hallucination" of Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer.

Next, we'll explain it with pasta

This claymation short shows graphically why C programming isn't taught in this form at any level. Except on YouTube.

Got a favourite technology or games video? Tell us in the comments!

Social Computing

Dave Snowden is well-known in the knowledge management field. He has been kind enough in the past to present to online conferences that we have hosted at University of Manitoba (most recently, our Future of Education conference). Over the last few years, his writings/presentations have taken a turn that very much fits in with concepts presented in this forum and in CCK08. Dave started blogging about two years ago, but I’ve been following his work through his publications and contributions to ACT-KM. I could be imagining things, but his shift to blogging seems to coincide with his increased attention to the fragmentary nature of information. Distributed conversations, not packaged as they have been in the past through frameworks such as articles and books, in blogs provide an interesting experience in personal sensemaking. In a recent presentation (.pdf of slides - why not slideshare?…podcast is here), Dave details seven principles of KM, including: “Tolerated failure imprints learning better than success.”

Visualizing Data

OECD has been learning from Hans Rosling and Gapminder. In order to make their data more accessible, they’ve created (or had someone create) an application for visualizing data. I personally prefer gapminder’s interface, but OECD’s contribution is appreciated. If data is made more accessible it will be used more often as a guide for decision making (he says in his most idealistic voice).

Microsoft’s Personal Reboot: Web-Centric, But Beyond “The Cloud”

Microsoft has been a favorite source of mockery for all the cool web 2.0′ers. Microsoft is seen as too closed, too confined to the desktop, too late to search, and too out of touch with how people want to compute. In the face of this criticism, Microsoft continues to attempt a transformation -Personal Reboot: Web-Centric, But Beyond “The Cloud”: “Cloud computing may be trendy, but Ozzie says MSFT’s best course moving forward is a hybrid desktop/Web-based strategy…future success hinges on new products that win over the masses instantly.”

Education needs to be pulled into the 21st century

Short rant. Articles like - Education needs to be pulled into the 21st century - cause many educators to smile and nod in agreement. The report broadly splashes all the latest and coolest terms that cause sensible educators to viciously agree: “In an increasingly complex and competitive world, teachers must understand technology and connect coursework to the global economy, curricula should eliminate less relevant material and incorporate modern skills such as global awareness, technology and media literacy, and standardized tests must include these new subjects”.
Ok. That’s very nice. We are then treated with the typical mis-focused comment: “I hope to encourage policymakers to better equip our graduates for today’s and tomorrow’s jobs”. Education isn’t only about creating employees. It’s about assisting individuals to develop into the types of people that can tackle and handle the continual gyrations of a complex world. I don’t buy into the “education must prepare people for jobs that don’t yet exist” view. Education - as it always has - must prepare people for an unknown future. This isn’t new. When I was going to school, the particular job that I have today did not exist. How should we prepare people for, let’s say, the current financial crisis? By training people to be stockbrokers? No. You can’t prepare people for black swans. People must be capable of handling uncertainty, but also adapting as environments shift and change. At it’s most basic, education must move from epistemology to ontology. Getting back to the report: give us something useful. Statements as broad as those provided in the article (i.e. “develop new programs, standards, partnerships and assessment measures”) are hardly a basis for action. Perhaps it’s time that we stop focusing on what our curriculum is and start focusing on how we actually do curriculum in the first place.

Systems for Supportive Open Teaching

We’ve experienced this in CCK08: Systems for Supportive Open Teaching: “I think it more valuable to think about how openness changes the basic praxis of teaching from an essentially individual activity to a shared activity.”
But, as we’ve discovered, openness may produced shared activity at some levels (students helping each other, taking on leadership roles, connecting to others outside of the course, etc). Open teaching is really best seen as open learning. When we learn in transparent ways, we become teachers. But not everyone wants to learn in open ways. In CCK08, we had numerous participants who did not contribute by posting or commenting. Instead, they observed/lurked. They did not contribute in the way we would have expected. Lack of direct participation does not mean they didn’t learn - at least that’s what some participants have expressed here. Open teaching, therefore, means also rethinking our expectations of engagement. We simply can’t control students the way we have done in classroom environments. Open teaching will become a rather shallow concept if we bring too much of closed-classrooms to the process.

Hypermiling beats tweet and linkbait to become Oxford's Word Of The Year

Hypermiling has been selected as the Oxford Word of the Year 2008, or WOTY, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary's blog. It says the word was coined in 2004 by Wayne Gerdes, to mean the "attempting to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one's car and one's driving techniques."

Many will be sad to hear that rickrolling didn't even make the shortlist, but at least it's better than the Americans managed last year, which was locavore.

The technology industries did manage to get three words on this year's shortlist: tweet, linkbait and one I've never heard of: CarrotMob or carrot mob:

a flashmob type of gathering, in which people are invited via the Net to all support and reward a local small ethical business such as a shop or café by all patronizing it at the same time. Also as noun, carrotmobbing.

We could also claim one of the finalists: "moofer -- a mobile out of office worker -- ie someone who works away from a fixed workplace, via Blackberry/laptop/wi-fi etc. (also verbal noun, moofing)"

Previous "Words of the Year" include bovvered (2006), biosecurity (2005), chav (2004), karaoke (1979), bikini (1947), T-shirt (1920), camouflage (1917) and muckraking (1906). However, it looks as though these were selected with the benefit of hindsight by Susie Dent for a book, The Language Report.

Anyway, was hypermiling the best choice, and if not, what should have won? Your suggestions please….

Update: As goweb points out in a comment, The Register is letting you Vote now for your top net neologism

Lenovo will let you kill a notebook with a text message

Lenovo is working with Phoenix on a BIOS that will let you disable a ThinkPad notebook PC by sending it an SMS text message. The feature should be available early next year, reports TG Daily. The story says:

The lockdown will happen immediately if a notebook is turned on or, when it is turned off, the next time the system signs on to a cellular network. To reactivate the disabled PC, a user needs to enter a pre-set passcode created during notebook startup.

Since not many people have notebooks with built in Sims, it would be more useful if you could disable a notebook over the internet. Maybe you can….

It would also be more useful if every notebook PC had this sort of feature, as it would tend to discourage notebook theft. However, bear in mind that it doesn't protect your data, because someone can always remove the hard drive and read it with a different PC -- unless the data is encrypted.

The article also doesn't say whether the SMS simply triggers a BIOS password. There are ways around those....

Is O2's grip on the iPhone putting customers off?

The woes reported by our own Roger Browning with O2's customer service over his iPhone aren't exclusive. But, you may say (entirely fairly), one person's experience doesn't tell you anything; it's anecdote, and as Ben Goldacre has drummed into our heads, that doesn't indicate anything.

However one wonders if there's a pattern emerging. Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter, details his own woes on his blog trying to get O2 (which supplied him with an iPhone 3G to test; he then bought one) to bill him properly for it.

Eventually he became so frustrated with it that he penned a letter to one of its higher-ups - which he also detailed on his blog. It's not an encouraging story.

Here's his litany:

Summary of the problem:-
- Every month I receive an automated message saying there is a problem with my payment, please call.
- Every month I call, speak to a customer care agent, provide my correct credit card details and the one-off payment goes through. I'm advised this won't happen again. But the same payment details fail when the bill is due for paying the following month!
- At no point in time have I been able to view my bill on the O2 website - the login fails. Every month I'm advised this will be fixed and it isn't. Most recently, O2 customer care argued with me that the login was working when it simply wasn't, on three separate computers.
- Every month I ask for a copy of my bill in the post, and it fails to arrive.
- Last month O2 froze my account, as I was slow getting back due to business travel in the US.

So, the bottom line is:
- I want to pay my bill.
- I have never seen a copy of the bill, and yet have still paid o2 on trust on four occasions now.
- I'm fed up with having to pay manually each month.
- I'm fed up with wasting time each month on the phone with O2 customer care.

(Just to reiterate, those are Ian Fogg's experiences. I don't own or use an iPhone.)

More anecdata? Yes, possibly, though Fogg points out that experiences like this pose a danger for Apple - and thinks that it will be important for it to be able to move to availability across all carriers as soon as possible. That certainly chimes with my own thinking (much that it matters): it's better to be able to choose your service provider, and choose that on the basis of quality, than be tied.

And let's not forget that O2 was in the charge of the famous iPhone 3G launch. Ah yes, O2 opens brewery, forgets bottles. A classic.

But it's dangerous for the phone companies to think that because they've got a lock on a provider - and vice-versa - that people will tolerate poor service. People talk. Perhaps we should measure the quality of a phone network not by its coverage (they're all pretty much identical) or even price (almost identical), but on a public statement of how many people work for their customer service - and how many calls they receive?