Reinventing the book

This too is for academics, general readers too. Books, as we know them, is changing completely! Possibilities are immense. This article looks at some of them as is happening and as is evident from the BookExpo end May!
For one thing, the possibilities of combining multi-media has not really been applied completely. I feel very excited in thinking about just how it can be used for making the learning of concepts so easy. Education is, after all, about getting these concepts! Rest of your life, one applies them and possibly makes this place a little more livable! As people get more used to reading from screens, the book is bound to shift to the screen. There are no two ways about it. I would think, that would happen by the time the young generation, early and late twenties, take over. These people are so used to reading screens that reading learning material from screens would be very natural for them. What form the content will take is anybody's guess. This article discusses a few, things that are visible already. Time to think how best to use the new technologies and how to use them for learning!


Reinventing the book, one uncertain step at a time

Take engineering education in context - 2011-04-21 10:00:00 | EDN

This piece is for everyone involved in engineering practice. The article I have cited below brings out a major issue in how engineering is taught everywhere. Dr. Kevin C Craig mainly criticizes how in the engineering curriculum we teach skills in isolation and very little attention is paid to "playing the game". By playing the game he compares it with training of a baseball player where a rookie learns all the skills as well as how to use them together to play. In case of an engineer it will be actually engineering things while using all the skills he learns in isolation, without a good feel of how they are to be used together. How to use the skills learnt individually and in combination is vital to creating good engineers.


In our context, the situation is even more pathetic. The so-called engineers we churn out every year are woefully short on those individual skills. Capability to use them together is something they are not very capable of . We, the trainers are to blame for that I would think.

Take engineering education in context - 2011-04-21 10:00:00 | EDN

What is the Potential Impact of Tablet Computers on Education

While this article talks about how education might be affected, it is interesting to look at the question in general. 7 inch handheld tablets, or similar form factor e-Readers seem to have the potential in education similar to what the slated brought in a while back! HP calls their tablets "slates" possibly to raise that image in the minds of buyers. To my mind an eReader and a tablet as a ereader may considered similar, but what tablets can offer is animated illustrations inn color and other multimedia add-ons. It is this ability to create animated illustrations, inherent interactivity (far more than page turning) that gives tablets an edge in education. I am sure they will get their rigyhtful place eventually.


What is the Potential Impact of Tablet Computers on Education Systems in Africa?

The college essay - ASPIRE™

This is for my dear students who just went out into this wide open world, even for some of you coming into the fourth year. Either way this is for students who want to pursue their studies in US/UK and such countries. One of the major requirements for all applications to the admission committees of the universities. This is an excellent article on why such an essay( also known as SOP or statement of purpose) is required and how to go about writing an effective one.

The college essay - ASPIRE™ - People Power Limited, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Intel Announced Oak Trail But Will It Lead To El Dorado!

The El Dorado of the mobile phone and tablets that is! Intel missed the boat in this marketplace. The mobile space seems to be growing all the time. The smartphone and the tablets are growing the way no other device has grown before. Everything seems to be going to the various variants of the ARM architecture.This Oak Trail announcement, about a month or so back, announced this family of devices. However the boat may be too far gone.

Intel Officially Announces Oak Trail Computer Processors

Samsung 2GHz dual-core smartphone processor

2 core processors for the mobile space are breaking out all over. What that means is smart phones are going to get smarter and, more interestingly, closer to a PC. While smart phone are more of a phone with lots of other capabilities through apps, PCs are more of general computing capabilities that may have some communications capabilities. What is when a unified device is going to appear! I'll mush rather like to carry around one device that gives me everything. Phone, general computing, the whole nine yards of it! I'll happily carry such a device around!
Samsung intends to release 2GHz dual-core smartphone processore

Super 30 founder to start school! - Yahoo! India Education

Super 30 founder to start school! - Yahoo! India Education

Hands-on with the iPad 2

This link refers to a visual tour of the new (then, back in Mar) iPad2. So definitely take a look at the slides, pictures do speak a thousand words. Looks nice and handy and in the white version like a slate! This device is available in white and black. With the original iPad it was " you can have any color, as long as it is black!" You can hold it one hand comfortably as it is significantly thinner. (this photo is from the Computerworld photo show)

With the use of covers available, the device can be made to stand on a table for comfortable video viewing or the video conferencing everybody is going ga-ga over, the well known "FaceTime" app that is enabled by the front and 2 cameras in the devices, and the one that looks at you. The other camera is for looking at other people, taking video of others and their photos. Most tablets have this general form factor. So the pertinent question is will this be the way we all will be doing our computing in future!

Visual tour: Hands-on with the iPad 2

Eight free Windows 7 tools

I don't know if these are really the top free applications. But the suggestion in this article from Infoworld do look interesting and hence I am pointing out to my readers too. These applications are, in no particular order, evernote, desktops, FastStone photo resizer, easy duplicate file finder, teamviewer, dropbox, clip training and AllMyApps. They are all free so, there is no stake in trying them out, drop them if you do not like any one of them. But if it can ease the hassle we all go through everyday, these will be worthwhile.


Evernote makes it very easy to take all kinds of notes, including audio, images, video. It lets you sync the notes with all kinds of machines including your smartphone.


Desktops is for creating desktops to your liking and you can have up to four of these virtual desktops.


FastStone photo resizer would let you rename the photos als when you resize them. Besides, it will let you crop and rotate the pictures as also adding a watermark or a logo. You can change the color depth of the images too.


Easy duplicate finder does just that. It finds all the duplicates quickly and lets you resolve them easily and safely.


Teamviewer lets you share your desktop with others and make communicating about specific issues meaningful.


Dropbox makes remote backup, in this case in the cloud, very simple. You just drop the files to be backed up into this box/folder and you are done!  The files can be synced by other users on on other machines. Wioth 2GB free space that is quite useful to start with.


AllMyApps collects applications, has some 1600 now, and lets you download a collection and install them in one go. You do not have to install them one by one.


That leaves the clip training which is a collection of some 100 training videos about Windows 7 features including some of Office functionalities too.


Go ahead, try them and see which of them save you some bother!!!!




Eight free Windows 7 tools you gotta try

Glonass-K Satellite Available By Year End

Glonass set up, Russia's answer to the US GPS system is nearly complete with 22 of required constellation of 24 satellites required for a fully operational system. The balance two should go up by the 3rd quarter of this year. Like the GPS this system too will have both military and civilian use and will provide accuracy for civilian use withing a few meters. Receivers have started to appear in the market hat can handle both GPS as well as Glonass satellite signals to determine your position. This series of Glonass-K, satellites have a service life of 10 years. They will beam five navigation signals; four in the special L1 and L2 bands and one for civilian applications in the L3 band.


Russia To Start Operating New Glonass-K Satellite By Year End