You may be reading the site right now and wondering where the non-sequitur black-and-blue went. Rosario and I felt that the theme didn't quite convey the purpose of the site. Hopefully we're closer to the mark with this one.
So let us a know what you think, either in comments or by emailing us.
As many of you know, 8 candidates running for the Democratic nominee position in the 2008 election took questions from CNN and also YouTube just about a week ago. By mixing in YouTube-submitted questions and a little humor, it was thought that more young people would be watching. Were you?
If not (bad, bad, bad...), here are some highlights:
And here is a complete transcript. Check out Jon Stewart's response, too.
In another Microsoft-reminiscent swoop to incorporate third-party application features into Facebook itself, the Facebook Blog just announced the extension of wall posts into the realms of pictures and video. Cool.
Unfortunately, I don't have enough money for a fancy MacBook or Sony Vaio, so I can't do some field reporting with PhotoBooth (or the Sony equivalent).
This is all great and is an expected improvement. The thing that's most concerning, however, is that Facebook seems to be squashing smaller, original third-party apps. The Super Wall Application, a third-party application with an identical feature-set that boasted 2,849,543 total users today, will inevitably suffer. Sure, these wall additions are nothing major. But the limited potential of Facebook applications allows the big (and maybe bad?) Facebook to copy any idea willy-nilly. And Facebook is the landlord. So when fancy-pants analysts say that Facebook is the next Microsoft, they could be right, but not in the way they originally thought.
We'll keep an eye out for you, Facebook. Until then, I'm going to litter my friends walls with pictures of kittens.
Summer lends itself to long hours of boredom followed by brief periods of responsibilities and more stuff than you know what to do yourself with (like dangling prepositions, zing). How many times have you been trying to get out the door while reading that vacuous digg.com front-page-r? It doesn't work so hot.
So, we introduce the Mobilizer Firefox Extension (or Add-on?). Select whatever you want to beam to your phone and then right-click to select "Mobilize This!". Shazaam, not Kazaam.
Now you can contribute to a statistic [DARK HUMOR WARNING] or two while keeping updated on all those blogs.
Get it and don't forget it: Mobilizer Firefox Extension
Today, I heard a commercial that said we'll spend about a week of our lives on average tying our shoes. As a preacher of the HackCollege dogma, I refuse to be so inefficient. Unfortunately, this will be redundant -- I'm basically ripping off one of the websites that Rosario mentioned below. But since I'm apparently a plagiarist already (long story) and this is way too cool to miss, I'll link it here as well. One look at the GIF animation and you'll get sucked right in:
It took me about a minute to get it down, but I'm really smart, so don't feel bad if it takes you several years. It's worth it in the end. Eventually, you will turn heads with your quickness.
While cruising through the vast Internet today--I swear I've just about read every single site--I came across a delightful find: The Grammar Girl Podcasts.
This podcast is a great supplement to one of my favorite educasts (lame word alert), The Word Nerds. I would go so far as to to say The Word Nerds podcast got me interested in writing. The hosts fall into the category of "cool old guys." And it seems like they know more than Webster himself.
So, while your mind simmers on the luke-warm pan of indignation, sloth, and ineptitude this summer, tune into some educational podcasts. Your brain will thank us later.
The Links:
We've already discussed how to perfect a foreign language with Skype, but there's another player out on the field now: xLingo.
xLingo is a community for both learners and teachers. Upon signing up, you can designate which languages you're currently learning or would like to learn; you can also designate which languages you can teach, along with your level of fluency.
Then, it functions like a "tandem partner". You can meet those wishing to learn the language you can teach, and you can meet those teaching the language you wish to learn. Exchanges can occur through forming a penpal relationship, an IM relationship, or even meeting in real life.
The site also allows you to create flashcards and tests for yourself and others. Very useful.
Monday, July 30, 2007