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?in my Spare Time, I write Software.
2008-08-17 03:33:00
That’s what I’ve been doing lately instead of writing more articles here at Parallel Divergence. So I thought I’d share with you my latest hobby project. It’s called Stu’s Double Jeopardy! version 3.1 - and as usual, it’s completely free for anyone who wants it. For a free product, it’s actually quite impressive and it’s already ...
More About: Software , Internet , Time , Write

Australia?s Digital Education Revolution?
2008-06-01 10:46:00
NOT LONG after Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party was whisked into power in Australia after 12 years of conservative government, there were immediate and obvious differences that appeared. Rudd took no traditional “honeymoon” period, instead preferring to get straight to work on delivering his pre-election promises. One of these being the $1.2 billion “Digital Education Revolution “. During the ...
More About: Internet , Life

Games With A Purpose
2008-05-17 13:02:00
Humans compute very differently to computers. Knowledge, Intelligence and Wisdom are not terms often attributed to computers. The closest descriptors in the computer world are Data, Processors and Recursion. They’re just not the same. A human could quickly look at a photograph and immediately identify all the elements in it - a man, a woman, a park bench, ...
More About: Internet , Games , Purpose , Phil

Still Interested in a Class Blog?
2008-04-22 15:15:00
If you’re still listening, I’ll assume you’re still interested in creating a class blog at your school. In part one, we concentrated on WHY teachers and schools should be blogging. In part two, we looked at WHAT had to be done to ensure student privacy and security. Now, in this third instalment of the class ...
More About: Internet , Web 2 , Blog , Class , Phil

Getting Started with Class Blogs
2008-04-21 13:30:00
In the article “Why Teachers and Schools Should be Blogging“, I discussed the reasons and benefits of blogging in the classroom, but for the blogging-novice, there are student privacy, security and policy concerns that must be considered. Assuming you took notice of the content of that first article, this one will take you through the first ...
More About: Internet , Life , Web 2 , Blogs , Class

Why Teachers and Schools Should be Blogging
2008-04-12 09:48:00
MANY of our students leave school in the afternoon and go straight on-line as soon as they get home. They immediately start chatting with their friends on MSN, often holding down multiple conversations at the same time, seamlessly changing subjects and maintaining discussion threads as they swap from one chat window to the next.  Their ...
More About: Internet , Life , Schools , Web 2 , Blogging

The Needle and the Damage Done
2008-03-02 04:20:00
The unexpected demise of famous young people due to “accidental” drug overdoses has dotted modern history. Janis Joplin, John Belushi, River Phoenix, Kurt Cobain, and Heath Ledger all succumbed to an addiction that snatched away their lives when they were in their prime. While crystal-meth, crack and ecstasy are now the most “popular” of illicit ...
More About: Music , Life , Neil Young , Damage

Heath Ledger: Dead at 28
2008-01-22 23:43:00
January 22 2008: What a shocking, tragic waste. An all too stunning but brief spectacle - like a meteorite that flashes across the midnight sky. At only 28 years of age, a young man in the prime of his emerging career is dead. What can you say? What can anyone say? You keep clicking Refresh on ...
More About: Movies , Life , Heath Ledger , Dead , Ledger

SHOCKING - or De-sensitizing?
2007-12-02 09:47:00
GOVERNMENTS and authorities around the world have been using shock tactics in ”Public Service Announcements” for several years now, but their use of graphic advertising has been on the increase. Certainly, it is universally acknowledged that smoking, driving without a seat belt and drugs are dangerous and carry certain risks, but it seems the public needs to ...
More About: Internet , Life

Brad & Phil?s Information R/evolution
2007-11-25 03:53:00
In early 2007, I discovered an amazingly-constructed video on YouTube by Dr Michael Wesch, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. The title of his video is “The Machine is Us/ing Us” and in under 5 minutes he managed to grab my attention like nothing else in recent times.  If you’ve never ...
More About: Humor , Internet , Information , Life , Evolution

Microsoft Vista Overtakes Apple OSX in Only Eight Months
2007-10-02 15:38:00
Microsoft Vista was released publicly and globally on January 30, 2007 and it’s taken only eight months for this troubled operating system to overtake Apple ’s computer flagships, the iMac and OSX. In fact, as the graph below indicates, percentage-wise, Apple has either been stagnant or declining over the past five months while in the same ...
More About: Internet , Microsoft , Phil

How ?Spirit? Killed God?
2007-09-16 14:40:00
MARCH 2004: On the 63rd Martian Day of its tour of duty, the Mars Rover “Spirit ” raises its “eye” skyward and captures a series of mosaics of the horizon just one hour before sunrise to produce another symbolic nail in the coffin of God . Those images combined to form the first image ever taken of Earth from the ...
More About: Life , My Thoughts

Unique and Complex Passwords for Everything
2007-08-19 11:54:00
When we were children, our “world” was a very small place. Everything that I knew was within a five-kilometer radius of my home. From time to time, I would catch a bus or a train that would take me out of my world, and into another. My little circular world was joined by a line ...
More About: Life , Unique , Complex , Nique , Swords

The Private Lives of Google Street View
2007-06-03 14:23:00
I believe Google wants to be ubiquitous. It’s the world’s favorite search engine, cataloging every nook and cranny of the Internet  and boasts more than 380 million unique visitors every month. Google’s AdSense and AdWords are “widely recognized as the Web’s most efficient advertising vehicles”. It now owns the world’s most popular video-sharing site, YouTube as well as the ...
More About: Life , Earth , Google Earth

Creation Museum Madness?
2007-04-28 08:04:00
May 28, 2007: The intelligence of Man takes a giant leap backward, into the Middle Ages, with the opening of the “Creation Muse um ” in Petersburg, Kentucky where it seems not only is the Bible 100% correct, but so were The Flintstones. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be laughable.   Such incredible visionaries were Bill Hanna ...
More About: Life , God , Earth

The Best Fool is an April Fool!
2007-03-28 14:43:00
I was looking at a calendar the other day and realised April 1st is coming up again. I’m not usually the kind that plays pranks on others, but it reminded me of one day many years ago when I did exactly that on my family. Don’t worry, it’s nothing as lame (athough effective) as wrapping ...
More About: Fool , Best

Swing with Me? Please?
2007-03-23 11:24:00
Most democratic nations hold open elections regularly - usually every three or four years. Most democratic nations also only have two major parties vying to form government. As democratic nations mature, the two major parties tend to move from a traditional left-wing/right-wing battle to an almost converged state where on many platforms there is little ...
More About: With , Wing , Please , Swing , Lease

The Inflation of Earth?
2007-03-03 23:43:05
When I went to school, one subject I really enjoyed was Geology - the study of the Earth , the materials of which it is made, the structure of those materials, and the processes acting upon them. I also loved reading comic books and admiring the wonderful artists that produced the amazing pieces of artwork that filled each comic.  But never in my wildest dreams did I think that a comic book artist would destroy the foundation of my understanding of the geology of our planet. But that’s exactly what one comic book artist has done.  The above diagrams represented my “knowledge” of how the Earth formed, from the single landmass of Pangaea which violently broke apart 225 million years ago forming Laurasia and Gondwanaland. These further broke apart into about twelve separate plates which, over all those millions of years, have drifted and come to form the continents as we know them today. Of course, my “knowledge” was provided to me by others - teachers and...
More About: Inflation , Flat

OLPC: The Revolution Begins?
2007-02-17 17:33:03
In February 2007, the first of almost 2,500 “$150 Laptops” will be rolled out to school children in the poorest areas of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Nigeria, Libya, Rwanda and Cambodia. The ambitious “One Laptop Per Child” (OLPC) project was first devised in January 2005 with the concept of producing an affordable laptop computer specifically for the poorest and most-remote children in the world. Just two years and several prototypes later, the impressive lime-green and white “Children’s Machine” dubbed the XO is almost ready for mass-production. The XO is offered for sale only to the governments of countries for distribution on a one-for-one basis to children by each nation’s educational authority. The OLPC association has received orders for one million units to date and is preparing for a production schedule of five million units this coming July. A further fifty million XOs are expected to be produced in 2008, when the unit price ...
More About: Evolution , Revolution , The Revolution

Where is Humanity for A Girl Like Me?
2007-01-27 17:16:05
When people run a project, an essential part of the success of that project is ongoing review. What did we do right? What did we do wrong? What could we have done better? Those evaluations and recommendations then must be applied to future projects to ensure progress. Why as a society would we not apply that same concept to our children? While it is our job to teach children, we must also listen to them and learn from them. The old principle, “Children should be seen and not heard” is akin to placing blinkers on a society’s future. Certainly, our children are precious and need nurturing, but their thoughts and perceptions are also direct evidence of what they have learned from us and should never be ignored. One of these children, 17 year-old Kiri Davis, a high school student from New York, decided to make a short documentary in 2006 to capture the thoughts and perceptions of her peers and even from infants in her neighborhood. In the 1940s an experiment was condu...
More About: Human , Mani , Girl , Humanity , Here

Watch out Firefox - Here Comes Maxthon!
2007-01-12 05:08:03
In the most recent count by the respected W3Counter Global Web Stats, Fire fox in all its versions and flavors, has hit a very respectable 25% market share in just two short years since the version 1.0 release. This rapid rise has been on the back of the history of a ubiquitous Microsoft Internet Explorer stumbling through a series of major security breaches, ignorance of World Wide Web Consortium standards and a lack of upgrades. Firefox has also benefitted from a grass roots, sometimes almost militant campaign against IE to “Take Back the Web”, driven by developers and the blogosphere. Meanwhile, pre-dating Firefox by a few years, a solo university student in Beijing, China who called himself ”Changyou“, decided he wanted to make Internet Explorer better.  His development was called MyIE. Following in the footsteps of NetCaptor, released a year earlier, the first version of MyIE included tabbed-browsing. But on top of this great innovation he implemented ma...
More About: Watch , Come , Here

How Saddam Killed the Death Penalty?
2007-01-05 11:01:03
As Saddam was hanged and his images were flashed around the globe, the reverberations of opposition to the Death Penalty quickly followed. It is so ironic that it has taken the death of such a murderous tyrant to raise the howls of complaint over capital punishment. These were not protests to save Saddam. These were protests to make sure Saddam was the last “legal execution” carried out by modern Man. [click map to enlarge] The above map represents the current status of Capital Punishment in each country. Why have the vast majority of first world countries abolished the Death Penalty? It is illegal in every country in Europe (except Belarus), Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Legal execution is simply no longer an option - and in each case, abolishing capital punishment was a positive decision for humanity. Of the remaining first world nations, only Japan and 38 of the 50 United States of America still maintain the now widely rejected option of ki...
More About: Death penalty , Kill , Killed , The D

7 New Year?s Resolutions for your Brain
2006-12-29 22:56:03
Tired of the repetitive, pointless, run-of-the-mill New Year ’s Resolutions like quitting smoking, losing weight and getting fit? These are the most resolved and least achieved resolutions, made in the heat of New Year celebrations. Achieving anything requires you to put your mind to the task - but what if your mind’s simply not up to it? What if your brain has been subjected to years of abuse ? Parental influence. Bandwagon-hopping. Too much FOX News. It’s time to think for yourself. Here’s a set of New Year’s Resolutions for your Brain . The aim is to develop critical thinking skills and the love of lifelong learning. These things do not come naturally - they need practise. But what they will do is make your life a whole lot more enjoyable and clarify your whole reason for existence. Nobody can clarify this for you, but you. 1. Empathize There are two sides to every story. Just because one person or one website says something against another, it doesn&...
More About: Rain , Your , Solutions

How Google Earth Killed Santa?
2006-12-22 22:51:03
December 12, 2006: GOOGLE releases an add-on to Google Earth in an attempt to reverse the damage it has done to millions of children around the world. But instead of reigniting children’s belief in Santa , it has effectively provided a fatal blow that will resonate in the ears and minds of our now scarred youth. Children know that if they are good, Santa will come to their house on Christmas Eve and bring them presents. But only if they have been good all year. Santa lives at the North Pole and on Christmas Eve he takes off in his sleigh pulled by magical reindeer, to visit the home of every good child on Earth. For over a year now, many schools have been using incredible educational tools like Google Earth with their students to give them a wider view of this amazing planet and the reality we live in. One of the first things just about everybody does with Google Earth is to find their own home in their own town. They zoom in and they see their rooftop and their backyard. They...
More About: Kill

Sympathy is what we need, my friends?
2006-12-17 22:46:01
We all live in our little boxes, struggling with our own little problems. Our experience of the world is based on what we see on TV or what we read on the Internet. The media tells us what they want us to hear - a politician made an embarrassing mistake, a celebrity was seen out with another celebrity last night and the amazing pet dog found its way home after being missing for two weeks. But is this really what’s important in our world? More than six billion people surround us on this planet, but less than a mile from where you are right now, there’s probably a homeless person. In some countries, entire cities of people don’t have enough food to eat while other cities throw out masses of perfectly good food each night from their supermarkets and restaurants. Clean water for drinking is used to flush toilets around the world while some communities fear drinking from their only water sources because of disease. The richest 2% own more than half the world’s w...
More About: Friends , What , Hat , Friend , Need

The Hajj is Peaceful, but is Islam?
2006-12-09 22:44:03
The largest pilgrimage in the world happens every year during the days of Hajj . From almost every country on Earth, about two and a half million Muslims, many of whom can barely afford to pay for the trip, will make what is one of their “duties” in life - a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.  With the Islam ic calendar based around lunar months, the period of Hajj occurs at different times of the year relative to the more common twelve-month calendar, and coincidentally, this year it is just after Christmas. Most Westerners understand very little about the Islamic faith. In a religious sense, the word Islam means submission (to God’s will and word). It is not simply a case of worshipping Allah (God), it is a way of life.  Most people are aware of the Muslim’s requirement to pray five times a day at specific times, but many do not know that it is a requirement to perform the prayers in Arabic, by heart, even if Arabic is not the Muslim’s native tongue. E...
More About: Peace , Slam , Peaceful

Family Snapshot
2006-12-02 16:40:39
For some people, life blossoms and pampers. For me, life aches. Why is your life spent in eternal sunshine while mine is in perpetual fog? I commute sixty miles each day just to make ends meet while you have no concept of what either end actually is. People hang on your every word. People hang up on me. (more…)
More About: Family , Snap , Shot , Snaps

Why are we Dumbing-down our Future?
2006-12-02 16:40:39
None of us will live forever. The record advancements of the 20th Century were made on the back of strong education systems aimed directly at providing our children with the analytical and problem-solving skills that each generation needed to continue the progress that humanity was demanding. But now it appears that mankind has well and truly peaked and downhill is the only way to head. (more…)
More About: Future , Dumb , Down , Bing

iPods Reinforce the Throwaway Society
2006-12-02 16:40:39
I sometimes feel sorry for the youth of today. While their world is one full of information, communication, interaction and technology, they are missing out on so much that we had just one generation ago. Although the 70’s and 80’s were only twenty or so years ago, the differences in society are staggering. The biggest change I have noticed is time. Now there is no time for anything. E-mail, voice-mail, cell phones, longer working hours and multi-skilling are the order of the day. The end of the working day and home time have become blurred. Back then, there was plenty of time - to think, to breathe, to listen to and appreciate music - to enjoy life. In the 70’s I cherished the toys I had - I could count them on both hands. Right now, my kids could open a toy shop with all they’ve got. They have so much stuff that they have not had the opportunity to learn to value their possessions. What can you do when they’ve got two sets of grandparents? And it doe...
More About: Society , Pod , Ipod , Info , Force

How Hubble Killed God?
2006-12-02 16:40:39
March 9, 2004: NASA releases a single image taken by the Hubble Space telescope that proves a fatal blow to the concept of God , but despite the compelling evidence, many simply don’t comprehend the significance of the image.  (more…)
More About: Kill , Killed