Group items tagged

"In January, we featured series of short animations from BBC Radio 4 addressing the question "How Did Everything Begin?" In February, we featured its follow-up on an equally eternal question, "What Makes Us Human?" Both came scripted by Philosophy Bites co-creator Nigel Warburton and narrated by X-Files co-star Gillian Anderson (in full British mode). Now that March has come, so has the next installment of these brief, crisp, curiosity-fueled productions: "Has Technology Changed Us?""

"Facebook "likes" are being added to webpages even if a user has not clicked a like button, or even visited the page in question, the company has admitted. A US security researcher found that simply sending a web address to a friend using Facebook's private messaging function would add two likes to that page. "

Costly digital technology that has the power to transform education often sits in boxes because teachers do not know how best to use it, a study claims.

"As to the vision of the company, they say they are a "movie and TV series network." Note that they see themselves as a "network" -- will Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and the BBC become the new television networks? But, they are not just a network, they are a "TV series network." That is a testament to their success producing multi-episode series for Internet distribution. People like to watch TV without commercials. They also like watching two, three or maybe all the episodes in one sitting. They like watching TV on phones, tablets, PCs or television sets whenever they want to. "

"An artist and comedian has been told by the publisher Penguin that her new satirical art book breaches its copyright, and if she continues to sell copies it could use the courts to seize the books and have them pulped. Miriam Elia, who has her own comedy series, A Series Of Psychotic Episodes, on BBC Radio 4 and has had a number of short segments on Channel 4, had produced a spoof version of the Ladybird books from the 60s. Generations of British children fondly remember these works, which famously portrayed the daily lives of Mummy, Peter and Jane as an introduction to reading and writing for young children."

"Microsoft corporate vice-president for Skype Mark Gillett told BBC News that his division is working on 3D technology for its video calls, although the technology itself is years away from mainstream implementation."

"The boring university lecture is going to be the first major casualty of the rise in online learning in higher education, says Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. The custodian of the world's biggest online encyclopaedia says that unless universities respond to the rising tide of online courses new major players will emerge to displace them, in the way that Microsoft arrived from nowhere alongside the personal computer. "I think that the impact is going to be massive and transformative," says Mr Wales, describing the importance of the MOOCs (massive open online courses) that have signed up millions of students."

"Personal details of about six million people have been inadvertently exposed by a bug in Facebook's data archive."

Interesting...had no idea that they've been around for that long!

I use these little pictures quite a bit. I kind of like it when the little green guy replaces them because he seems very playful and helpful.