Engineer2Entrepreneur

Students plug into iLectures-No more excuses for skipping class

Link: Students plug into iLectures-No more excuses for skipping class.

There's no such thing as a missed lecture for University of Michigan dentistry students, who are transforming their personal iPods into the latest college learning tool.Slept through the talk on craniofacial biology? Go to an Internet iTunes store set up exclusively for future dentists in Ann Arbor. There, students can download the professor's recorded wisdom to an MP3 player for easy listening while strolling across campus, working out or cramming for an exam.

More schools are adding podcasts all the time. It is such a better thing to do to have this material available so you can review things you may have missed and get ready for tests.

"My concern is students not taking notes will have a lasting effect on their true mastery of the material," said William Kennedy, humanities professor and director of teaching and faculty development at Michigan Technological University in Houghton."

This is a good question. If you take notes at all whether in class or while listening to the recording will probably be very helpful. If you don't take notes, you'll not remember nearly as much.

"Lopez, 32, routinely employs the popular MP3 technology.
He has downloaded about 20 of the nearly 200 lectures posted on the U-M Dentistry iTunes site this term. Most were for review because he said the sessions are fast and jam-packed with technicalities.
"It's kind of hard while you are taking notes in a hurry to write something like parvo cellular nucleus," Lopez said. "I reviewed one lecture the other night for an exam and I picked up on several points that I had missed in my notes."
But Lopez admits he skipped one lecture to attend a sonogram examination of his unborn child.
"With the amazing time demands on students here, something that allowed me to do something as significant as seeing my first child for the first time, well, I was grateful," Lopez said."

This is a very good use of technology.

iPod Garage : iPod, iTunes, and Music : News, Commentary, and Reviews : Switch to the iPod Garage - So You Wanna Start Video Podcasting, Part 2

Link: iPod Garage : iPod, iTunes, and Music : News, Commentary, and Reviews : Switch to the iPod Garage - So You Wanna Start Video Podcasting, Part 2.

Just to emphasize that fact that you have to be careful about using video in a podcast is the latest article by Jacob Nielsen. His article talks about an eye tracking study of people watching video from CNN.

Working Smart: The Death of Traditional Book Publishing

Link: Working Smart: The Death of Traditional Book Publishing.

You've way over-specced your hypothetical device. Ipod isn't a general purpose palmtop! A book reader device should be as simple as could possibly work. Reads HTML, PDFs, DOCs and TXTs, displays on one black-and-white electronic-paper screen, and plugs into USB as a read/writable hard drive. No muss, no fuss.

I was just thinking about something like this, and I totally agree, the idea from the post is over spec-ed by a long way.

PDAs are going away since they seem to be doing too much. mobile phones are much the same while they are increasing in popularity most people complain about how complex they are.

For an ebook reader it needs to be so simple it _can't_ do other things.

It should be able to display txt, pdfs, rtf and (maybe) doc files. It doesn't do anything else. Maybe v2 might add a simple game, contacts/calendar type stuff. No stylus or other direct data entry for a while.

There could be a few sizes: paperback, trade paperback, hardcover and textbook. I don't know which one would be most popular but different sizes for different uses.

The real problem isn't the reader unit but the other end. We need an equivalent to the iTMS. I can see why Google didn't bother with asking permission first, its just too hard.

There must be a way to get the publishers to open up. We need a Steve Jobs to open them up.

BREITBART.COM - Virgin Spaceport to Be Built in N.M.

Link: BREITBART.COM - Virgin Spaceport to Be Built in N.M..

Virgin Galactic, the British company created by entrepreneur Richard Branson to send tourists into space, and New Mexico announced an agreement Tuesday for the state to build a $225 million spaceport.

The first steps to the stars are fraught with peril and uncertainty but take them we must to stride into the future.

Wired News: Games Tackle Disaster Training

Link: Wired News: Games Tackle Disaster Training.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is funding a series of computer games to help prepare health workers and other first responders facing bioterror attacks, nuclear accidents and pandemics.

The Military has used wargames for ages to get ready for things. I'm rather surprised they only now just started doing the same things for this. I thought they had something like this already. Better late then never.

this is the samaBlog � Carnival of the Capitalists

Link: this is the samaBlog � Carnival of the Capitalists.

There is a lot of talk about the recent del.icio.us acquisition, and behind the scenes of a companies layoffs.

this is the samaBlog � Carnival of the Capitalists

Link: this is the samaBlog � Carnival of the Capitalists.

There is a lot of talk about the recent del.icio.us acquisition, and behind the scenes of a companies layoffs.

How to Make Yourself Deaf

Link: ChannelCincinnati.com - Technology - iPod Generation Hearing Sounds Of Silence Sooner.

"I guess I'm listening to it like eight or nine-tenths of the way up, which probably isn't great, but that's what I like to do," band member Dan Garmon said.

Not great? This reminds of of a kid in my high school. He had a garage band, he always wore T-shirts from Heavy Metal bands, short purple hair and everybody knew he played his music loud. Senior year he came to school with hearing aids behind each ear. He had lost almost all his hearing.

He was 17 and almost completely deaf.

My dad worked at JFK airport, a very noisy place, for 30 years and he has hearing problems that he finally admitted to himself and got some hearing aids which have made a difference in improving his life.

I rarely turn up my iPod past the first 2-3 clicks, usually only while mowing the lawn and even then it is only about three-quarters of the way up, using noise-canceling headphones. I am also listening to audiobooks and the like which seem to be a bit quieter then music.

My hearing is important to me so I try to keep my iPod set on the low side rather then the high side. I want to be able to hear the voices of my children and grand-children. The sound of the wind in the trees and the babbling of the brook.

I once was working in a lab that had an environmental chamber running for weeks. The noise was so bad that after the first day I ran to the sporting goods store to get hearing protection. Those little foam inserts cut the noise by a whole lot. I also found they make flying a lot easier. After listening to the drone of the engines for hours, I would be really tired and often had a headache, with the hearing protection I still felt fresh and no headaches.

Not to say that I always play my tunes low and quiet. After a rather depressing meeting I cranked up Ride of the Valkyries. That is a great song to break up a depression.

You don't want to end up like that guy who watched a solar eclipse by just looking up and was surprised when he went blind and now is taken around the country giving speeches to students about not looking directly at the sun.

Our bodies are temples and it is very bad to abuse your body, especially with something you can control like the volume of your iPod. If you are listening in a noisy environment, get some noise-canceling headphones they will help save your hearing.

iPod Garage : iPod, iTunes, and Music : News, Commentary, and Reviews : Switch to the iPod Garage - So you Wanna Start Video Podcasting

Link: iPod Garage : iPod, iTunes, and Music : News, Commentary, and Reviews : Switch to the iPod Garage - So you Wanna Start Video Podcasting.

Thanks to all the people who have bought my new book and downloaded the free report. There is no kind of encouragement to do ones best then when someone buys your book.

Techronization: Welcome to the Carnival of the Capitalists!

Link: Techronization: Welcome to the Carnival of the Capitalists!.

They have an interesting article on the definition of work.