The whole problem is millions of developers with NOTHING TO DO. Examples: – Facebook v7 (Updated 24 March 2014, see links at bottom) was a great version. Why have we moved so far beyond an app that was 18mb to an app that is 60mb, in 4 years? Why? What is so good about the modern version that we couldn’t… Read more →
I spend less and less time on Facebook. So I’m on Twitter. I saw a tweet recently that encapsulates the total fail of modern news feeds: “Here’s an outrageous algorithm idea, bear with me: a feed that shows you posts made by people you follow, in the order they were posted.” (https://twitter.com/BOKHOOTOS/status/953398351810187266) Facebook and Twitter etc. are all glorified fancy… Read more →
A note – I haven’t used this blog for a while but I’m increasingly writing things about current digital content/ Internet/ communication that don’t fit with the PhD and aren’t short enough to only be social media posts. So, I’ll revitalise this blog to focus on these kinds of posts. To be continued… (image: LG Telescope)
Pirate Bay, two words synonymous with the wild west of intellectual property on the world wide web. If you want it, here it is, come and get it. Within a probable 90% certainty (non verified statistical analysis), you can download almost any content you desire, often taking as little as a couple of minutes to find the torrent, and perhaps… Read more →
Universities are notorious for finding it very difficult to mix disciplines. One faculty will look (down) disdainfully at another, assuming the high ground for academic approach, rigour or sheer depth of knowledge. I have literally seen an academic measure knowledge in terms of the thickness of a masters dissertation document for different disciplines – surely the most arbitrary of scales… Read more →
Stephen has kindly taken time and responded to my rather pithy comments on his post from August 11th. Below I’m reproducing his responses to my initial comments – originally available here, with my comments in bold sans-serif beneath. Stephen I’ve actually spent quite a bit of time with Facebook, not just a user but also as a developer, working with… Read more →
Response to: Ascent From Social Media, By Stephen Downes, Aug 11, 2016 http://www.downes.ca/post/65670 Stephen I did read your post. Not because I subscribe to your content (in any shape or form) but because I came looking. What I found was *maybe* a **bit** old fashioned, out of touch and ill informed. So, at risk of being put in my place by a huge… Read more →
Watching the Facebook feed is a beautiful thing. It twists and turns and pulls you in directions like a swirling river current, going you-know-not-where, endlessly flowing, eternal and irresistible. It consumes all before it, devouring knowledge relentlessly and regurgitating every piece, big or small, serious or trivial, into equal prominence in space and time. Like the nano-bots we read about… Read more →
How to encourage out of the box thinking for a moribund and some might say dying sector? Yes, I’m referring to higher education, that which was previously so respected and loved by all (er, the well healed elite, anyway), now facing decay and slow petrification from total lack of new thinking and practice. My belief is that in the name… Read more →
Another article about the desperate need for coders in the job market. Another article about not needing a degree – in this case a computer science degree – another article about learning online and not in a college (or any other place of learning). I read this today with new eyes and new thoughts, as I had made a big decision over the… Read more →