RCS Tech Share

OCR of captured images on your iPad. Can also perform text-to-speech on them. $9.99

Free and very customizable QR code generator. Just be sure to test your more outlandish designs to ensure they are actually readable...

Check out the tutorials (this page), then look at the other really useful information there!

The .kml files allow for exploring the seafloor in 3D using street view. To use them in Google Earth: 1. Download the .kml file to your computer. (right-click, Save Link As, etc) 2. Launch Google Earth, click File-->Open and select the downloaded .kml file. 3.The new content will appear under "Temporary Places" in the "Places section of the sidebar. Make sure you have the "Explore the Ocean" layer checked under "Ocean" in the "Layers" section of the sidebar for these to work.

Excerpt: "They found that heavy multitaskers-those who multitask a lot and feel that it boosts their performance-were actually worse at multitasking than those who like to do a single thing at a time. The frequent multitaskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another."

Stanford's summary of their 2009 study. Excerpt: "Again, the heavy multitaskers underperformed the light multitaskers. "They couldn't help thinking about the task they weren't doing," Ophir said. "The high multitaskers are always drawing from all the information in front of them. They can't keep things separate in their minds." The researchers are still studying whether chronic media multitaskers are born with an inability to concentrate or are damaging their cognitive control by willingly taking in so much at once. But they're convinced the minds of multitaskers are not working as well as they could."

Multitasking feels good because of your brain chemicals, not because you're good at it. Excerpt: "Research has shown that when you multitask 'successfully', you activate the reward mechanism in your brain which releases dopamine, the happy hormone. This dopamine rush makes you feel so good that you believe you're being effective and further encourages your multitasking habit."

"RescueTime helps you understand your daily habits so you can focus and be more productive."

"A free Mac application to help you avoid distracting websites."

Articles and research.

Un-peer-reviewed / un-published research, but potentially interesting as support of the U Utah study. Summary: "What we found is on average most people perform better when focusing on one single task," said Ms. Ulmer. "But this one group of people-the high media multitaskers-performed best when they are in a multitasking environment. The high media multitaskers actually excelled in the multitasking room."

Offers Mac, Win, iOS, and Android apps that sync to a cloud account.

Excerpt: "A recent happiness study from Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert found that the more our minds wander, the less happy we are.... In short, being mentally "present" and focused on the task at hand really does matter - quite a lot, in fact."

Abstract: "Driver distraction is a significant source of motor-vehicle accidents. This chapter begins by presenting a framework for conceptualizing the different sources of driver distraction associated with multitasking. Thereafter, the primary focus is on cognitive sources of distraction stemming from the use of a cell phone while driving. We present converging evidence establishing that concurrent cell phone use significantly increases the risk of a motor-vehicle accident. Next, we show that using a cell phone induces a form of inattention blindness, where drivers fail to notice information directly in their line of sight. Whereas cell-phone use increases the crash risk, we show that passenger conversations do not. We also show that real-world cell-phone interference cannot be practiced away and conclude by considering individual differences in multitasking ability. Although the vast majority of individuals cannot perform this dual-task combination without impairment, a small group of "supertaskers" can, and we discuss the neural regions that support this ability."

APA's 2006 summary of numerous research papers finds (1) humans are not able to multitask and (2) multitasking reduces efficiency. Their conclusion: avoid multitasking on complex tasks. Excerpt "Although switch costs may be relatively small, sometimes just a few tenths of a second per switch, they can add up to large amounts when people switch repeatedly back and forth between tasks. Thus, multitasking may seem efficient on the surface but may actually take more time in the end and involve more error. Meyer has said that even brief mental blocks created by shifting between tasks can cost as much as 40 percent of someone's productive time."

Video summary of the 2009 study.

Totally free, totally awesome resource for learning programming.