Blog Posts

[GEEKY] Good link of Rails Tips

Just a quick hit: Ruby on Rails tips that will male you a better programmer.

Preparation needed

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what kind of preparation college students need as they graduate to pursue their futures. Thomas Friedman writes an excellent column in the New York Times where he says: > “Look at the news these days from the most dynamic sector of the U.S. economy — Silicon ...

Boston Postmortem

We just got back from the monthly meeting of “Boston Postmortem“. Huh, what is that? Well as a result of my teaching at Brandeis this summer – [Mobile and Game Software Development](https://sites.google.com/site/jbs2011mobile/lectures/week/04-3d-graphics-and-open...

Are you losing money?

From ABC News, but I’ve seen a similar story elsewhere: > “There are 300 million third-party charges totaling $2 billion on U.S. phone bills each year, according to the Senate Co...

David Brooks: The Mother of All No-Brainers

Another on the mark article by David Brooks: the mother of all no brainers. I can’t help it but I am riveted by this debt ceiling debacle. Like many I want them to stop bickering and reach and agreement. I know th...

Cool new game? Giraffe Adventure…

If you’re interested in computer games for Android, see what you think of this one’s potential… Coming soon to an Android near you according to some friends of mine. I’ve seen a prototype and, it looks promising in an Angry Birds kind of way. Mindless and unique. Let them know what you think! Giraffe Adventure, Coming to an Android near you!

I wonder when this will come to iPhone!

This is a very unusual Android app that I came across. It looks like they are just starting so it’s a bit crude, but highly intriguing… > “HappyTrack is an Android Application that gives you the chance to express how are you feeling and why. Every time you update your status this app will keep track of the time, place and reasons about your feelings. But that’s not all!” (from HappyTrack) What do you think?

Microsoft is to Google as Lotus was to Microsoft

This isn’t a huge new insight but it’s interesting to see history kind of repeating itself. Sometimes a product is so locked in and so entrenched that it looks like it will never be beat. After all, no one ever got fired for buying IBM right? And you’d have to be crazy to try to build a...

Inside Job

It’s hard to comprehend people who feel that it is reasonable (let alone ethical, let alone bankers) to get paid on the order of $50 MILLION a year. You should watch the documentary Inside Job. It’s nauseating. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFfTcAcGjcU]

[GEEKY] Full Applications that run in the browser

Sproutcore is a JavaScript framework for writing powerful web applications with less code. It looks to me as a way to write a lot more of your application in JavaScript running in the browser. And this involves moving the logic of the application’s own logic there...

Interesting approach to teaching computer science

Fun article about Ben Hescott who has some unique – and impressive – approaches to teaching an abstract topic: > Q. Did you experience an “aha’’ teaching moment? A. My first time teaching, I was using PowerPoint slides. One student kept saying, “I don’t see it.’’ So I turned off the c...

[GEEKY] JavaScript – Universal Language of the Future

JavaScript is the language of the future. Why do I say this? I love Ruby, I respect Java, and I am jealous of Python. And of course I have a warm spot in my heart for C++. Think about it. JavaScript is unique among all those languages: - Any computer you can get your hands on nowadays has a workin...

Adobe Software Updates To Help Devs Build iOS, PlayBook And Android Apps

As you (don’t) know, I am teaching a course at Brandeis University about mobile and game development. So I follow stories about how to more easily create cross platform mobile apps with great interest. Check this post [Adobe Software Updates To Help De...

In Boston, Bruins more important than Bin Laden!

Waiting for Superman

I recently saw the movie “Waiting for Superman” – yes I am late to the party. But in case you have not seen it let me recommend it to you as a highly revealing and disappointing view into the way the American school system runs, stuck in a system that feels so wrong in so many ways. Watch it. And visit the Waiting For Superman Web Site. Here is the IMdb info for Waiting for Superman. Here is theNetflix link for the DVD.

Internet in a suitcase

The U.S. government is helping create parallel internetsand cell phone networks in countries where the government is suppressing free communications between their citizens. The idea makes sense and is, “pretty cool”: “The effort includes se...

Hulu Pluz

So I finally got to try Hulu Plus on a one month promotion, and used it to watch an episode of Friday Night Lights. I had read a recent TV review comparing Friday Night Lights to Glee, and it made me curious. Verdict: Friday Night Lights – Excellent! Verdict: Hulu Plus – Commercial after every 7-8 minutes, highly annoying

“The Real Housewives of Wall Street”

Mike Taibi writes in Rolling Stone about some fairly outrageous doings between Washington D.C. and Wall Street during the various ‘bailouts‘: > “Christy is the wife of John Ma...

Really good advice

Robert Krulwich gave this graduation speech. While it is aimed at Journalism students, it has some good stories: > “As I say, he was a news writer, wr...

Urban Outfitters Rip Off Independent Artists?

This article, “Anatomy of a Trending Topic: How Twitter & the crafting community put the smackdown on Urban Outfitters” is interesting for two reasons: - Photographs that show graphically that Urban Outfitters, in at leas...