In the age of the Kindle and the iPhone, text is more ubiquitous than ever, but that doesn’t mean users are lining up to pay for content. Readers often need a push, in the form of a strong personal brand, to get them to open their wallets.

Social networks can provide an ideal platform for budding authors looking to bring their brand to the masses. A recent Social Media Week panel brought together a best-selling author, a literary blogger and a pair of publicists to discuss how social networks are changing the way authors promote their work — and how writers of all stripes can use social tools to get ahead.

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In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxWindyCity, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxWindyCity event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

TEDx Windy City will be held October 6th, 2010 at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

You can sign up for email announcements at TEDx Windy City

This is something that could come in very handy, it changes the wiring of a cable with a simple flip of the rotating centre drum to provide the user with five different types of connector. This could be an essential tool for anyone that works with computers.

Features of the Universal Network Cable:

•Provides 5 cable types in one connector

•Just rotate the centre to the cable you need

•Cable options:

◦ROLLED: Connect a host to a Cisco router or switch

◦CROSSOVER: Communicate directly between computers without a hub or switch

◦STRAIGHT-THROUGH: Use as a standard RJ45 patch cable

◦ATM/LOOPBACK: Test if a network card is working by checking for link lights with no need for a hub or switch

◦T1: Connect to DDS lines / T1 trunk lines

Priced at $24.99

Source [Think Geek]

Last night, we reported on a new restriction that was being applied to Apple’s App Store: no more applications with “overtly sexual content”. At this point, the exact nature of that ban is unclear. But it’s a policy shift that may alarm many developers — even those whose applications have nothing to do with sexy content.

First, a little background: we’ve seen numerous reports about applications that have been pulled from the App Store for featuring sexual content, but there are still plenty of apps that have names like “Magic Boobs”. I reached out to Apple PR…

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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has found that at least four recently launched smartphones emit
ome of the “highest radiation” on the market.

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Updated 2/18/10 5:26 PM

Dear LMSD Community,

Last year, our district became one of the first school systems in the United States to provide laptop computers to all high school students. This initiative has been well received and has provided educational benefits to our students.

The District is dedicated to protecting and promoting student privacy. The laptops do contain a security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops. This feature has been deactivated effective today.

The following questions and answers help explain the background behind the initial decision to install the tracking-security feature, its limited use, and next steps.

• Why are webcams installed on student laptops?

The Apple computers that the District provides to students come equipped with webcams and students are free to utilize this feature for educational purposes.

• Why was the remote tracking-security feature installed?

Laptops are a frequent target for theft in schools and off school property. The security feature was installed to help locate a laptop in the event it was reported lost, missing or stolen so that the laptop could be returned to the student.

• How did the security feature work?

Upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop, the feature was activated by the District’s security and technology departments. The tracking-security feature was limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator’s screen. This feature has only been used for the limited purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop. The District has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.

• Do you anticipate reactivating the tracking-security feature?

Not without express written notification to all students and families.

We regret if this situation has caused any concern or inconvenience among our students and families. We are reviewing the matter and will provide an additional update as soon as information becomes available.

Sincerely,

Dr. Christopher McGinley
Superintendent

After hitting a flat spot
last fall, Twitter’s worldwide growth is pointing in the right
direction again. According to worldwide comScore figures released
today, Twitter’s own site attracted 73.5 million unique
individuals in January, up 8 percent from December, 2009 (when it had
65.2 million visitors). Its annual growth rate is still a phenomenal
1,105 percent. A year ago, Twitter.com attracted only an estimated 6
million visitors.

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Google Voice is a great service, one of the best things Google has released in a long time. Unfortunately, most casual web users have no idea what it is. Or more specifically, what it’s purpose is. And in fact, there’s even still some confusion amongst heavy web users about whether Voice is VoIP, for example (it’s not — yet). So Google has today launched a series of videos to explain the service.

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MacSpeech purchased, NaturallySpeaking coming to Mac OS X

Wednesday’s announcement that speech recognition giant Nuance was acquiring the scrappy Mac vendor MacSpeech means that if you want a standalone voice recognition app for Windows or for Mac, you’re down to a single choice. Typically, this would be bad news for innovation, but the buyout might actually work to the advantage of Mac fans who are sick of running Nuance’s NaturallySpeaking under Boot Camp or virtualization in order to access the far more advanced features of the Windows product.

That’s because MacSpeech was never a truly independent offering. The company had its own product called iListen, but it never turned in spectacular performance and was dumped in 2008 for the new MacSpeech Dictate (read our review). Dictate’s engine was licensed directly from Nuance, and it was the same engine powering NaturallySpeaking on the Windows platform (read our review). Recognition accuracy was superb, but the small MacSpeech team never had the time to build the rest of the software into a truly compelling alternative for Mac users.

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