jameswang.net » Technology

TED Thursdays: Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education

James Wang — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:05:51 +0000

I’m on an education kick. Here’s another TED video about education. Children were built to learn and absorb. I think it is really powerful what he talks about regarding how kids love teaching things to each other and working in groups. He also talks about the power of retention when kids discuss things together. The concepts that I thought were fascinating were the granny method and the SOUL pods that he made that let you communicate between pods and with the “Granny Cloud”.

If you can’t see the video, then check it out here:

http://jameswang.net/2011/10/06/tt-mitra-child-driven-education/

Experimenting with SimpleMobile

James Wang — Wed, 25 May 2011 15:58:37 +0000

I’m frugal. I can’t deny that. I drive a car older than most of the kids in our Sunday School, so I’m always on a continued quest to see if I can shave a few bucks off here or there on regularly used services.

Recently I’ve seen a lot of ads for Simple Mobile. I’m already using tmobile. They piggy back off tmobile. They have a plan that is unlimited phone, text, web for $60. I just got it set up yesterday, but so far so good.

My findings so far:
No quality of sound issues or internet connection issues.
I have a Samsung Vibrant(Galaxy S) phone. It was not intuitive to set up the internet connection when the sim card came, but once I got that taken care of, it was just fine.

If you have a Vibrant and are thinking about Simple Mobile, here’s the info on setting it up. The website says it’s supported, but it isn’t listed when you sign up so you have to find the info on Non-Compatible Phones, which I thought was a little goofy, but manageable.

http://simplemobile.webs.com/index/NonCompatiblePhones.jpg

Let’s see how this goes.

TED Thursdays: Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book

James Wang — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:31:47 +0000

It is absolutely mind blowing what education could be like 5 years from now. The concept is a user interface for books that make it easy to flip chapter to chapter, page to page, and also have interactive objects within its pages, from expandable pictures and video to little apps within the pages, like a fun windpower game like app that shows how wind power might flow through a house structure. I can’t wait to see these in action.

http://pushpoppress.com/ourchoice/

TED Thursdays: Eric Giler – demos wireless electricity

James Wang — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:05:14 +0000

Seriously, I love TED. I could watch this stuff all day if I could. Here’s another awesome one. I’ve always been fascinated by how far ahead of his time Nikola Tesla was. In this video, Eric Giler shows wireless electricity that he dubs as wi-tricity. It’s pretty neat. I feel proud to see that the first and most easily modified phone to use witricity was the T-Mobile Google Android G1. Yeah, the iphone could too and so could the nokia, but with silly plastic backpack looking sleeves. Weak. Well, check it out. He actually wirelessly powers a television first before he even gets to the phones.

Microsoft is stupid . . . LIKE A FOX. Bad commercial. Stores. Stealing apples peeps. Pink. Courier. Natal.

James Wang — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:48:48 +0000

So, Windows 7 is going to be launching the 22nd of October. Cool. Microsoft is doing the whole, “windows 7 launch parties” thing. The video is TERRIBLE. Seriously, it hurts to watch. At first my thought was, no way, what is wrong with them. Why can’t they do anything right? Well, I was talking with Brandon (@shiftb on twitter) and we both agreed that a ton of people are talking about how bad the video is. I suppose infamy is definitely a way to fame. See for yourself.

But the thing is, they know how to make normal, if not good commercials like:

So why the terrible video for the launch party? Because they are stupid like foxes. I know they are. That’s my thought. I really think Microsoft is preparing for a very serious sneak attack. Can they pull it off? I have no idea. Here’s a couple reasons why I think Microsoft has a lot of very interesting things up their sleeves:

Microsoft Stores:
1st you may be thinking, well, how are they going to open a store for things they don’t even make themselves. Well, 1, I’m sure they’ll still figure that out, but 2nd, they are making a bunch of microsoft stuff. Details below. But more amusing is that they are just trying to hire away current apple store managers and any good employees that they can pull with them. Haa. Definitely disruptive. Even more so if Microsoft is successful with the stores. So now onto Microsoft making their own devices.

Project Pink:
For a while I’ve been saying that if you were microsoft, you wouldn’t just buy Danger and do nothing with it. My wife has a sidekick phone so it is top of mind every time I see her holding it. Well, take a look at these things:

Courier:

Check out the link to see a video of what they plan to have the experience be like:

Courier User Interface from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Natal:
Games without controller? I know PS2 had the eyetoy but it just didn’t catch on and sure wasn’t as smooth as this looks. The Xbox 360 is already doing awesome and Project Natal makes Wii look very dated in comparison.

TED Thursdays: PW Singer – on military robots and the future of war

James Wang — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:13:10 +0000

Wow, I would be so mad being someone having to fight America in a war. He has a good point though about some of the ramifications of robotic arms races. He talks about globalization and how that effects things. So an american soldier is using a robot to fight a war with hardware from China and software from India? Opensource warfare? Al Queda 2.0? Very interesting talk. He doesn’t talk about it but, frankly war has always had some commercialized aspects such as mercenaries in ancient times, but that’s at a whole new level these days with Black water, and the like. Some recent games and media highlighted the moral issues of mercenary life and loyalties or lack there of. Along that line, war is becoming more and more like a game. Makes me think of Ender’s Game. Great book. If you don’t have it and want it . . . feel free to buy it at the link below. It might actually give me a small kick back enough for 1/20th a coffee. hook me up.

The future of toys? Teddy Ruxpin eat your heart out

James Wang — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:37:31 +0000

Remember the day sof Teddy Ruxpin? Yeah, that’s right, that wierd bear that had tapes in his back and talked to you.

I actually personally got a Corky doll one Christmas. It was . . . an experience. I used to have fun scaring my sister with it. I’m sure the makers of “chucky were quite aware that chucky was corky with straight hair. I know I was. I would have Corky in bed with my, all the while praying that demon possession of my precious, expensive toy would not occur. But elaborating on that experience is another post for another time.

Hop into the wayback machine and Go to 2:45 in this video below and remember with me the beauty and the terror of the toy that was Corky, along with all the heinously awesome 80′s marketing magic.

Onward to the wonders of ToyBots. I haven’t really gotten to see too much from the Tech Crunch 50 presentations yet, but this company is pretty fascinating. Toybots showed some incredible things at TC50. Here’s some stuff for you to sink your teeth into.

Tech Crunch article and recap of them

Here’s the video that blew my mind. You’d think the yorkie was real. See for yourself. Looking forward to your comments.