As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
R.L. Stine Writes An Entire Short Story On Twitter Called 'What's In My Sandwich?'
Prolific author R.L. Stine is celebrating Halloween a little early this year by publishing his latest story entirely on Twitter.
Stine, who has introduced entire generations of children to the horror genre, recently resurrected his “Fear Street” series with the new book “Party Games,” thanks in large part to a Twitter campaign that went viral.
On Tuesday night, the social network became the home of his latest work, distributed in “chapters” of 140 characters or less:
I am going to try to write a story live on Twitter now. The story is called “What’s In My Sandwich?”…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
People call me a loser, but that’s going to change. I was in a little diner downtown and I ordered an egg salad sandwich…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I was about to bite down on it when I noticed something moving in the egg salad. Was I imagining it? No…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I saw a hairy, three-fingered claw push a clump of egg out of the way. I saw two round black eyes. A fur-covered face…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..The creature poked out of the sandwich, sending egg salad tumbling onto the plate. It was the size of a fat beetle…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..But it wasn’t an insect. It had a furry head and eyes that peered into mine. Before I could react, a second creature poked out…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..And then a third. My sandwich was infested. My stomach lurched. “Is everything okay?” the waitress asked…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..”Yes. Fine,” I said. “Could you wrap this sandwich to go?” Finding hairy things in your sandwich is gross…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..But I knew this sandwich would make me a winner. The sandwich would turn my life around…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..Discovering a new life form had to make me rich. I carried the sandwich home carefully and set it on a table…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I didn’t hear my son Willy come home. When I finally saw him, he had egg salad on his face…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..Yes, he ate the sandwich. If only I could have stopped him. Now the creatures are biting holes in his stomach…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..They are biting holes in Willy from the inside, poking their furry heads out of his stomach, chewing his flesh…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..Okay. A minor setback. But I’m not giving up. Willy is screaming in agony. The poor guy is terrified…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I’m so excited. Where is my camera? Willy is going to make me rich. ##
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
There you have it, a mini R.L. Stine masterpiece, delivered in 15 tweets (including the title).
Stine has had some practice doing this. In February 2012, he tweeted the story of a haunted kitchen. And on Halloween that same year, Stine tweeted a spooky story complete with instructions on how it should be read aloud.
On Thursday, Stine will be taking over Scholastic’s social media accounts to chat with fans via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more.
Need Help? Visit The Windows Phone Community
Even the most seasoned Windows Phone user from time-to-time needs a little bit of help. An app is not behaving or there is a strange WiFi issue with the latest update or simply to get a suggestion on how to do something with your phone. There are plenty of blogs and sites out there to help but sometimes reaching a broader audience – a global audience – is what you need. That is where Windows Phone Community can be a huge help and frustration saver. The Windows Phone Community is part of the Community pages from Microsoft. These self-help site
The post Need Help? Visit The Windows Phone Community appeared first on Clinton Fitch.
British Airways App For Windows Phone Gets A Major Update
The British Airways app for Windows Phone has received a much needed and impressive update today. The new app is available now in the Windows Phone Store and is free to download. The update, version 2.4 for those keeping score, brings enhancements such as live tiles and check-in for your flight via the app. The new user experience of the British Airways app is the most obvious and notable change. It looks and feels much fresher than the previous release which was little more than a web app in a wrapper. This new version looks and functions like a modern
The post British Airways App For Windows Phone Gets A Major Update appeared first on Clinton Fitch.
Apple reveals that iOS 8 has topped 50 percent adoption
As of October 27, iOS 8 was installed on 52 percent of eligible devices, Apple has announced in a posting on its developer website. While far slower than the take-up rate of iOS 7 last year, the milestone was achieved in a little less than six weeks’ time — still far faster than comparative figures for other mobile and desktop platforms. Early delivery and quality glitches in iOS 8 — most notoriously the short-lived 8.0.1 bugfix release — may have made the public more gun-shy about trusting later updates.
White House Hit With What Appears To Be Sustained Cyberattack
WASHINGTON — The White House computer network has been hit by what appears to be a sustained cyberattack, administration sources told HuffPost.
The White House — or the Executive Office of the President (EOP) — regularly gets hit with hapless cyberattacks from all corners of the web, but the one revealed Tuesday, said people familiar with the situation, has been much more significant in duration and strength, putting the system on the fritz for nearly two weeks, if not longer.
A White House official confirmed on Tuesday that the White House had “identified activity of concern on the unclassified EOP network.” Network outages are not uncommon in the White House, but they typically last no more than a few hours. For the system to be damaged for days on end indicates an attack of significant strength.
“Certainly a variety of actors find our networks attractive targets and seek access to sensitive government information. We are still assessing the activity of concern, and we are not in a position to provide any additional details at this time,” the White House official said in a statement.
The network outages have been a defense mechanism, White House staff were told in an internal note obtained by HuffPost. “Our computers and systems have not been damaged, though some elements of the unclassified network have been affected. The temporary outages and loss of connectivity that users have been experiencing is solely the result of measures we have taken to defend our networks,” the email reads.
White House press pool reports sent by email Tuesday night were “significantly delayed,” according to pool reporter Steven T. Dennis of CQ Roll Call. “Some people are getting pool reports significantly before other people,” Dennis reported. He said later that the pool report delays “appear to now be resolved.”
The full White House internal email lays out the situation to staff. (NSC is National Security Council.)
As you are aware, technical issues have resulted in limited access to some EOP network services. We understand that many users depend on these capabilities, and we apologize for what we know is an inconvenience. Some of these issues have been resolved, and we have also been working with EOP component heads and NSC Senior Directors to put in place a number of interim measures to help employees work on high priority requests as we continue to resolve the remaining issues as soon as possible.
Some of these issues have been resolved, and we have also been working with EOP component heads and NSC Senior Directors to put in place a number of interim measures to help employees work on high priority requests as we continue to resolve the remaining issues as soon as possible. With those measures in place, we want to share additional information so you are aware of what is causing these technical issues.
The Executive Office of the President receives alerts concerning numerous possible cyber threats on a daily basis. We take each of these threats very seriously, and we regularly evaluate our security measures and take action to defend our networks and mitigate those threats.
In the course of assessing recent threats, we identified activity of concern on the unclassified EOP network. Any such activity is something we take very seriously. In this case, we took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity. Our actions are ongoing, and some have resulted in temporary outages and loss of connectivity for our users.
Our computers and systems have not been damaged, though some elements of the unclassified network have been affected. The temporary outages and loss of connectivity that users have been experiencing is solely the result of measures we have taken to defend our networks.
We appreciate your patience as we continue to work with you to provide you the capabilities you need as soon as possible. If you are contacted on this issue by anyone outside of EOP, to include members of the press, please refer them to the White House press office.
This article has been updated to include press pool report delays.
How Can We Make Computer Science a More Women-Friendly Discipline?
A lot of attention has been given to increasing the number of women in computer science, but despite numerous efforts the presence of female students in computer science programs is still far below the 50 percent equilibrium.
In the department where I teach just about 10 percent of the students are women, and things aren’t much better at most other institutes of higher education. In fact, women representation in computer science programs is significantly worse than it was in the 1980′s, when about one third of the students were women.
One of the reasons is the way academic institutes approach STEM education, and computer science in particular. While using high words about the importance of increasing the number of women in computer science and engineering, especially when preparing application for federal or private financial support, many engineering buildings do not even have women’s restrooms on every floor (for the lack of popularity), sending a subconscious message that the engineering building is not a woman’s natural environment. The content of computer science academic programs is also noticeably male dominated. For instance, many video game development programs include 3D shoot-everything-up games, or other video games of the kind my daughters won’t play.
Perhaps the most radical example of male dominance in computer science is the field of image processing. For over a decade, image processing methods were tested using a picture of a naked woman, scanned from no other than the magazine “Playboy.” Hundreds of scientific papers used that one picture, which during the 1990′s became a standard. For instance, one could have problems reporting on a new edge detection algorithm without showing how their method processed that picture, featuring Playboy’s playmate of the month.
When declined requests to discontinue the publication of the picture in scientific papers, the editor of the journal IEEE Transactions on Image Processing explained that the picture is unique for its “nice mixture of detail, flat regions, shading, and texture.” Whatever. He also explained that he consulted with an anonymous feminist, who approved the use of the Playboy picture. The Playboy picture fiasco peaked in 1997, when the model was invited as a keynote speaker and gave a lecture (of questionable academic value) at the Society for Imaging Science and Technology conference.
Although I do not have scientific evidence to support it, my opinion is that the path to involving more women in image processing probably does not go through analyzing pictures of naked women taken from sleazy magazines, and women might also be less excited about the opportunity for a face-to-face meeting with Playboy’s playmate of the month when they attend a scientific conference. The example of the Playboy picture might be an extreme case, but the fact is that computer science is geared towards solving engineering-oriented problems that are of more interest to men. To open the doors to more women, the variety of topics being studied should become more balanced.
In the four years I have been teaching computer science I noticed that women undergraduate students prefer different research topics than men, topics such as art and animal science, that attract just little attention within the computer science community. Another relevant field is biology, but while most research in computational biology is focused on data analysis (e.g., DNA sequences), female students are often more interested in working in a “wet” lab environment with living organisms.
So getting more women involved with computer science requires a substantial shift in computer science as a discipline, allowing stronger presence to the application of computer science to fields such as social science, humanities, and “wet” life sciences, affecting all levels of academic activities, from classroom assignments to scientific journals and conference. These fields clearly offer opportunities for high impact discoveries, but are considered niche sub-fields, and are not nearly as common in computer science as the “traditional” engineering-oriented sub-fields of computer science. Making such topics more dominant in classroom assignments and graduate level research will provide women students with more opportunities to flourish in computer science, and choose computer science as major and career.
Automatically-generated graph representing art history based on computer analysis of paintings. Final project by computer science student Jane Tarakhovsky.
Samaritans app flags worrying tweets
An app launched by Samaritans notifies Twitter users if people they follow seem to be distressed.
Simulator lets you feel gun's kick
What if you had a killer product on your hands – literally?
Facebook Could Soon Be The Biggest 'Nation' On Earth
Facebook reported quarterly earnings on Tuesday, and they show the world’s largest social network just keeps growing.
Now, 1.35 billion people use Facebook at least once a month, up 14 percent over the same time last year.
As USA Today’s Jon Swartz pointed out on Twitter, that nearly equals China, the world’s most populous country:
Facebook, 1.35 billion members
China: 1.367 billion people
— Jon Swartz (@jswartz) October 28, 2014
And it’s more than four times the population of the United States.
(Facebook is for the most part blocked in China, though CEO Mark Zuckerberg was there last week and showed off his Mandarin skills.)
Although Facebook’s stock price dropped 9 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday, it has reached record highs in recent days, pushing the value of the company even higher. As of the market’s close on Tuesday, Facebook’s market capitalization was over $208 billion, more than longer established companies like Walt Disney, Nike, Bank of America and Coca-Cola.
VIDEO: Play games with your pet remotely?
Richard Taylor checks out PetCube, a product that wants to let you interact with your pet while you are away from home, using your phone.
A day without data
Is it possible to not share any information?
VIDEO: Can Rory go a day without data?
Can the BBC’s technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, go a day without sharing any data?
Facebook warns spending to rise
Facebook has warned that its spending will increase sharply next year and its revenue growth will slow in the fourth quarter.
Suspicious Activity Detected On White House Computer Network
WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Suspicious cyber activity has been detected on the computer network used by the White House and measures have been taken to address it, a White House official disclosed on Tuesday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not say who might have been responsible for the activity on what was described as an unclassified computer network used by employees of the Executive Office of the President.
“In the course of assessing recent threats we identified activity of concern on the unclassified EOP network. Any such activity is something that we take very seriously. In this case we took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity,” the official said.
It was unclear when the activity took place. The official said the technical measures to address the activity had led to limited access to some EOP network services. Some of the issues have been resolved, but the work continues.
“Our actions are ongoing and some of our actions have resulted in temporary outages and loss of connectivity for some EOP users,” the official said.
A second administration official said there were no indications at this time that classified networks had been affected.
The White House, like many government entities in Washington, frequently faces cyber threats. (Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Sandra Maler and Peter Cooney)
Antares Rocket Explodes Shortly After Lift-Off From Virginia Launch Site
An unmanned Antares rocket exploded six seconds after liftoff from NASA’s Wallops Island launch facility in Virginia at 6:22 p.m. EDT.
The cause of the accident wasn’t immediately known, NASA mission commentator Dan Huot told Reuters. NASA said there were no injuries.
The rocket, made by Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences, is a two-stage launch vehicle designed to ferry payloads to the International Space Station.
“Maintain your consoles,” ‘Orbital Sciences’ mission control said to the roomful of engineers and technicians, monitoring the launch, AP reported. Data from the launch were being collected for an investigation into the cause of the accident.
The rocket was carrying a Cygnus spacecraft packed with 5,055 pounds of supplies, science experiments, and equipment, according to Reuters. The rocket also carried a satellite owned by Planetary Resources, Inc. of Redmond, Wash.
The launch was originally scheduled for yesterday but was postponed after a sailboat ventured into the launch site’s hazard zone—an area of about 1,400 square miles off Wallops Island along Virginia’s eastern shore, NASA said.
Orbital Sciences is one of two companies hired by NASA to fly cargo to the ISS. The other is SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif.
The Orbital Sciences Corporation (ORB) stock fell after the explosion. As of 6:45 p.m. the share price fell 5.86 points (-19.30%) in after hours trading, after closing at 0.86 (2.91%) higher on the day.
This is a developing story. Check back for details.
Before launch @OrbitalSciences team wasn’t tracking any issues. No injuries have been reported & all personnel around launch site accounted.
— NASA Wallops (@NASA_Wallops) October 28, 2014
#antares exploded at launch unbelievable scary
A photo posted by Michael Waller (@michaelwaller77) on Oct 10, 2014 at 3:31pm PDT
.@OrbitalSciences is currently evaluating the status of its mission. Visit http://t.co/he3w3DDGI3 for the latest information.
— NASA Wallops (@NASA_Wallops) October 28, 2014
There has been a vehicle anomaly. We will update as soon as we are able.
— Orbital Sciences (@OrbitalSciences) October 28, 2014
Accident 6 seconds after @OrbitalSciences #Cygnus liftoff @NASA_Wallops. pic.twitter.com/2EC9UpH3dy
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) October 28, 2014
Photo of #Antares rocket exploding just after launch from @NASA_Wallops on Wallops Island, VA. Rocket unmanned. #nasa pic.twitter.com/3jMSYgp6mc
— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) October 28, 2014
Crazy. Sitting front row at the #NASA Goddard Space Station. The #Antares #rocket headed to the international space station explodes at launch. 10 seconds later you could feel the shockwave.
A video posted by Ian Z (@wutwolf) on Oct 10, 2014 at 3:52pm PDT
This was how it looked to us at the Harbor 5 seconds or so after liftoff. Praying for all our friends and family at Wallops.
A photo posted by Laura Davis (@tideandthyme) on Oct 10, 2014 at 3:55pm PDT
UPDATE [8:01 p.m. ET]: Orbital Sciences Corporation has released the following statement regarding Tuesday’s incident:
ISS Commercial Resupply Services Mission (Orb-3)
ORBITAL’S STATEMENT REGARDING ORB-3 LAUNCH MISHAP
Orbital Sciences Corporation confirms that today’s Antares rocket launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility was not successful. Shortly after lift-off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A at 6:22 p.m. (EDT), the vehicle suffered a catastrophic failure. According to NASA’s emergency operations officials, there were no casualties and property damage was limited to the south end of Wallops Island. Orbital has formed an anomaly investigation board, which will work in close coordination with all appropriate government agencies, to determine the cause of today’s mishap.
“It is far too early to know the details of what happened,” said Mr. Frank Culbertson, Orbital’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of its Advanced Programs Group.“As we begin to gather information, our primary concern lies with the ongoing safety and security of those involved in our response and recovery operations. We will conduct a thorough investigation immediately to determine the cause of this failure and what steps can be taken to avoid a repeat of this incident. As soon as we understand the cause we will begin the necessary work to return to flight to support our customers and the nation’s space program.”
Orbital will provide more information as it becomes available and is verified.
More from the Associated Press:
ATLANTIC, Va. (AP) — An unmanned commercial supply rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded moments after liftoff Tuesday evening, with debris falling in flames over the launch site in Virginia. No injuries were reported following the first catastrophic launch in NASA’s commercial spaceflight effort.
The accident was sure to draw criticism over the space agency’s growing reliance on private U.S. companies in this post-shuttle era. NASA is paying billions of dollars to Orbital Sciences and the SpaceX company to make station deliveries, and it’s counting on SpaceX and Boeing to start flying U.S. astronauts to the orbiting lab as early as 2017. This was the fourth flight by Orbital Sciences to the orbiting lab.
The Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket blew up over the beachside launch complex at Wallops Island. The company said everyone at the site had been accounted for, and the damage appeared to be limited to the facilities. And nothing on the lost flight was urgently needed by the six people living on the 260-mile-high space station, officials said.
Flames could be seen shooting into the sky as the sun set.
Orbital Sciences’ executive vice president Frank Culbertson said things began to go wrong 10 to 12 seconds into the flight and it was all over in 20 seconds when what was left of the rocket came crashing down. He said he believes the range-safety staff sent a destruct signal before it hit the ground.
Bill Wrobel, director of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, said crews were letting the fires burn out late Tuesday and set up a perimeter to contain them in the darkness.
This was the second launch attempt for the mission. Monday evening’s try was thwarted by a stray sailboat in the rocket’s danger zone. The restrictions are in case of just such an accident that occurred Tuesday.
Culbertson said the top priority will be repairing the launch pad “as quickly and safely as possible.”
He said he could not guess how long it will take to determine the cause of the accident and to make repairs. Culbertson said the company carried insurance on the mission, which he valued at more than $200 million, not counting repair costs.
He stressed that it was too soon to know whether the Russian-built engines, modified for the Antares and extensively tested, were to blame.
“We will understand what happened — hopefully soon — and we’ll get things back on track,” Culbertson assured his devastated team. “We’ve all seen this happen in our business before, and we’ve all seen the teams recover from this, and we will do the same.”
The Wallops facility is small compared to NASA’s major centers like those in Florida, Texas and California, but vaulted into the public spotlight in September 2013 with a NASA moonshot and the first Cygnus launch to the space station.
Michelle Murphy, an innkeeper at the Garden and Sea Inn, New Church, Virginia, where launches are visible across a bay about 16 miles away, witnessed the explosion.
“It was scary. Everything rattled,” she said. “There were two explosions. The first one we were ready for. The second one we weren’t. It shook the inn, like an earthquake.”
Culbertson advised people not to touch any potentially hazardous rocket or spacecraft debris that came down on their property or might wash ashore.
Immediately after the explosion, the entire launch team was ordered to maintain all computer data for the ensuing investigation. Culbertson advised his staff not to talk to news reporters and to refrain from speculating among themselves.
“Definitely do not talk outside of our family,” said Culbertson, a former astronaut who once served on the space station.
This newest Cygnus cargo ship — named for the swan constellation — had held 5,000 pounds of space station experiments and equipment. By coincidence, the Russian Space Agency was proceeding with its own supply run on Wednesday, planned well before the U.S. mishap. And SpaceX is scheduled to launch another Dragon supply ship from Cape Canaveral in December; some items may be changed out to replace what was lost on the Cygnus.
NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini told reporters that the station and its crew have plenty of supplies on board — about five months’ worth — even without the upcoming launches.
Among the science instruments that were lost: a meteor tracker and 32 mini research satellites, along with numerous experiments compiled by schoolchildren. Suffredini promised the experimenters would get a chance to refly their work.
The two Americans, three Russians and one German aboard the space station were watching a live video feed from Mission Control and saw the whole thing unfold before their eyes.
Until Tuesday, all of the supply missions by the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences and California-based SpaceX had been near-flawless.
President Barack Obama has long championed this commercial space effort, well before NASA’s space shuttles were retired in 2011. He’s urged that NASA focus its human spaceflight effort less on nearby orbit and more on destinations like asteroids and Mars. He was informed of the accident while on a campaign trip in Wisconsin.
SpaceX’s billionaire founder and chief officer Elon Musk — whose company is the face, in many ways, of the commercial effort — said he was sorry to learn about the failure. “Hope they recover soon,” he said in a tweet.
Support poured in from elsewhere in the space community late Tuesday night.
“Very sorry to see the Antares rocket launch failure,” said Chris Hadfield, a former Canadian astronaut who served as space station commander last year. “Spaceflight is hard. Very glad that no one was hurt.”
John Logdson, former space policy director at George Washington University, said it was unlikely to be a major setback to NASA’s commercial space plans. But he noted it could derail Orbital Sciences for a while given the company has just one launch pad and the accident occurred right above it.
The explosion hit Orbital Science’s stock, which fell more than 15 percent in after-hours trading.
___
Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida. AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington and Associated Press writer Alex Sanz in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Forums: 2011 Core i7 iMac vs Retina i5 iMac
After having some display backlight and logic board issues with an older iMac, Mac Enthusiast “Boochie” has decided now would be a good time to start thinking about a new iMac. A post they made in the MacNN forums sparked a debate about what would be a better choice, a 2011 iMac with a Core i7 processor, or a new Retina iMac with an i5 processor. Yesterday, one Forum Regular was trying to determine the best cable to use to connect a Mac mini to a Dell UltraSharp monitor, and asked fellow forum members for their thoughts.
The Device That Could Help Keep Former Inmates Out Of Jail For Good
More than 100 inmates in San Francisco’s jail are now in possession of computer tablets as part of a two-year pilot program allowing them to study using the same technology as students’ outside the system, shedding light on the digital divide so many inmates experience when they re-enter the job force.
The tablets were provided last week by Five Keys Charter School, a high school diploma program started by the San Francisco’s Sheriff’s Department in 2003 that has since spread to Los Angeles. Participating inmates will have the tablets for most of the day, NBC Bay Area reported, but they can be deactivated at any time and will only allow access to four secure websites, including a law library and education program.
“Tablets are next logical step,” Wendy Still, San Francisco’s chief adult probation officer, told The Huffington Post. “So much of our lives is digital learning.”
The $275,000 pilot program is funded by the California Wellness Foundation, the city’s Adult Probation Department and Five Keys Charter School, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The money goes toward tablets, digitizing the existing curriculum and teacher training. That spending, Still said, is a win for inmates and everyone whose tax dollars fund it.
“If we do not make this investment in tablets and tech in rehab programs, then [inmates] are going to continue committing crimes, which is very costly to the taxpayer,” Still said.
Studies have shown that inmate education programs are cost-effective and significantly reduce recidivism rates. Repeat offenders, according to research, often are unemployed.
“This is really cutting edge,” San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi told a group of sheriff’s deputies and charter school teachers during a tablet training, according to NBC Bay Area. “Historically, there’s been resistance, if not prohibitions, on allowing technology into the living quarters of inmates.”
Internet access is mostly banned in federal prisons, but San Francisco’s pilot program is an opportunity to study how making technology part of local jail inmates’ daily lives could be scaled for use in prisons, where inmates usually are serving much longer sentences. Some prisoners have no understanding of what the Internet even is — a major hurdle to finding jobs and services upon reentering society, Mia Bird, a Public Policy Institute of California research fellow, told HuffPost.
“We’ve been struggling with jail systems being behind and stagnant in their adoption of technology. It keeps accelerating outside the system, and there’s an increasing gap,” Bird said. “ … The idea is move toward trying to recognize what a leap it is to come out of custody and try to bridge that gap as much as possible.”
Why There Are No Good Apps for Etiquette and Education
During a recent family get-together, my sister-in-law who teaches high school chemistry rightly called me out for being digitally distracted. It was a forward head tilt that gave me away.
Most of us have been on both sides of the forward head tilt (let’s call it FHT), that precise moment in time when we go from a quick and casual glance to check a text, score or headline on our smartphone to all-out engagement where our heads literally move closer to the screen. Suddenly, our brains prioritize that BuzzFeed photo gallery or random status update from the old junior high school friend more than the actual conversation we are involved in at that moment.
I’m probably on the giving or receiving end of an FHT at least 20 or 30 times per day, and this isn’t even factoring times while on the phone where there is now barely a need to even fake paying attention. As a trained mobile media professional who prides himself on the ability to feign interest in any conversation at any point in time, I thought I was beyond being busted.
What I didn’t factor in was that my sister-in-law witnesses dozens of FHTs each period several times per day. In fact, she probably sees more neck adjustments in one class than most chiropractors see in a year. While receiving a well-deserved ribbing, I got an education on how smartphones, tablets and other touchscreen devices – while ultimately beneficial – all too often stand in the way of education.
“It’s like a herd of animals,” she said. “You see one head tilt forward during a lecture, and then the rest follow.”
Regardless of whether those and other students are following along digitally to what is being presented, something is lost when we lose direct connection between teacher and student in the classroom.
Only one way to teach eye contact
Educational technology in the form of apps, videos and other digital tools are having an immediate and profoundly positive impact on learning. It is a professional mission at appoLearning to identify, evaluate, and showcase the best.
From short standards-aligned math games that 71 percent of recently surveyed K-thru-8 teachers believe improve student performance, to apps like Learn With Homer that can improve foundational reading in toddlers, to TedEd videos that challenge preconceived notions and inspire continued intellectual exploration, there are more educational resources available at our fingertips today than can be found at MIT, the Sorbonne and the Smithsonian combined.
Too bad none of them can teach manners. Sure, there are thousands of apps, videos and websites that teach etiquette. They mostly provide advice on which piece of silverware to pick up first during a business dinner or how to conduct oneself on Twitter, SnapChat or other digital platforms. What can’t be downloaded or searched for is the ability to maintain eye contact with another human being for an extended period of time. Even if that knowledge could be passed along via a mobile device, there’d be no way to access it in crunch time without breaking the underlying rule.
There are no signs that FHT culture will slow down anytime soon. Smartphone and tablet screen addiction is so strong that we literally and routinely risk our lives for fixes while behind the wheel. We spend nearly half of our waking time processing information from a screen, and that’s before the Apple Watch and Google Glass (or whatever occupies the space beneath our foreheads) hits critical mass.
You might say, well, we’ve been watching about that much TV per day over the years, and the content on our mobile devices is probably of higher quality. While that might be the case, we used to at least have a better wall of delineation between the larger screens and the rest of life. Now that the screen is in our pocket, our attention spans become co-mingled between the actual and the virtual, harming our ability to be mindful for any significant period of time.
So we are left with a conundrum. The very devices and media delivery systems that provide us with unprecedented insight and understanding of the world are also distracting us from what is existing in front of our eyes.
In a culture where we will increasingly and rightly tap into an app, video or digital tool to learn a skill or collaborate with team members in our class or across the globe, the human race also needs to figure out a way to reconnect with what’s in front of us.
Thankfully, the combination of technological platforms including vision, taste, touch and the ability to listen and smell provide an immersive experience that enables direct interaction with one or multiple people around us. As we appropriately expand digital learning in the classroom and all walks of life, we need to create boundaries that preserve our organic sensory experiences (and sanity).
To paraphrase pop culture’s favorite mindful truant Ferris Bueller, “life moves pretty fast. if you don’t” stick your head up from your phone or tablet “every once in a while, you could miss it.”
How Googlebot Ticks: Optimizing Your Website Content
To many, Google is an absolute wonder. They have the infrastructure and the man-power necessary to build a highly advanced algorithm to regularly scour the web, indexing and understanding the content it finds.
If you’re a website owner, you know that Google comes by your website regularly to inspect your website’s pages, judging and analyzing the quality of everything it finds. This is how Google determines search result relevance when visitors are looking for information on a certain term, so naturally, you want to make a great impression when they see your content.
There are thousands of ways to improve the onsite optimization of your website, but in this article, I want to dig more into the logic and psychology behind Googlebot; something that isn’t covered very often in the SEO world.
Let’s dig right in.
Google knows which pages are seen the most
Google has a very good understanding of your website’s pages and your site architecture. The pages in your navigation help users navigate throughout your site, and other less visible areas of your site may be clicked less often. Google understands this and is privy to user experience and browsing behavior.
Lets take a website owner with a blog, for example. He knows his blog is important for SEO, but he doesn’t want it in his main navigation bar, as it isn’t as important as his money pages. He decides to put in his footer instead, as there will still be a link there, and he knows Google will still find it.
However, this also makes it far less likely that the bulk of his visitors will ever find his blog. As a result, his blog (a very important part of his site) will likely be considered less important than if it was a core part of his website architecture. Can you blame Google?
It’s important to take user experience into consideration when optimizing your website.
Don’t try to hide anything
Sometimes, there’s a good reason for hiding content and code from search engines. More often than not, however, people do it to hide content that Google may not like to see, such as affiliate links or landing pages.
Certain pages and files, like JavaScript and CSS code on your website, can be easily hidden from search engines by disallowing crawling access in your robots.txt file on your website. However, Google has been known to crawl them anyway; after all, they need to determine that the code and links aren’t hurting user experience. They’re regularly sending their visitors to your website, and they need to be able to trust it.
So why bother hiding your CSS and JavaScript? Some studies show it can actually hurt your rankings; the more you try to hide or obfuscate your content and code, the less trustworthy your website becomes.
Thin sites look weak
Would you buy a book that had 6 pages? Probably not. Would you a buy a book that had over 600 pages? More than likely.
Google is far less likely to hand out authority to “thin” sites; sites with very little actual content or pages. These sites are very easy to create, and most spam websites are very thin (because little effort was put into the creation of it).
Having a rich content-filled site shows Google you care about your site and you put effort into it, which can make a world of difference on your site performance.
Google knows when your backlink isn’t organic
Googlebot is looking for links that are naturally derived. A website owner linking to your site on their own good will is a good sign that your content is quality and worth sharing, which is a vote of confidence to Google.
However, this has been heavily abused over the years, and as such, Google is eerily efficient at determining if a link was organic or not.
Put yourself in a webmaster’s shoes when building links. Would you really link to their homepage with their primary keyword they’re trying to rank for as the anchor text? That’s generous. A little too generous. Actually, that would never happen in the real world.
Link to pages of high value, and do so in a way that actually adds value to your content. Otherwise, Google is going to spot it from a mile away.
Final thoughts
Google’s hardest job is maintaining search relevance, and to do that, they need high quality trustworthy websites packed with solid content that will help their visitors find what they’re looking for.
This is the reason Wikipedia is on the front page of Google for nearly every search term; it’s trustworthy, regularly updated, full of great content, and linked to from millions of authoritative websites.
Create a site that is easy to navigate, maintain a link profile of quality natural links, and don’t do anything deceptive with your content and links, and you’ll be on the right path towards improving your website presence.
Thanks for reading our digest. Opinions in the articles above are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Digital Workshed ltd.