This guy had it down bicycling and talking on his cell phone in the streets of Beijing China.

Notater fra: What is Web 2.0?

Begreper:

The long tale :: Den lange halen: nye internettbaserte foretningsstrategier: å selge små volumer, i et stort vareutvalg, til mange ulike kunder, altså motsatt av en vanlig forretningsmodell som går ut på å selge mange enheter i et lite vareutvalg

Metcalf's law

WOC - Wisdom of the Crowd

Crowdsourcing

UGC - User Generateded Content

VLE - Virtual Learning Environments

Web 2.0 prinsipp - nøkkelen: Tjenesten eller produktet blir bedre jo mer folk som bruker den.

Åpen kildekode: Ideen strekker som utover å pne opp koden for utviklere, det dreier seg om å åpne opp for innholds produksjon for alle brukere samt å utsette data for gjenbruk og reproduksjon.

Open Acces:

*

Web 2.0 løser noen problemer (teknologien utvikler seg til det bedre, kollektiv intelligens, deling etc.), men det genereres også noe problemer:

• Hvordan skal utdanningsinstutisjoner håntere problemer som personvern og plagiat (samarbeid og deling), når elevene har utviklet nye måter å kommunisere på og sosialisere på?
• Hvordan skal de forholde seg til vurdering? (er svaret å utvikle PLE?)

Hva er web 2.0?

• Mer enn et sett kule nye teknologier og tjenester, det er mønstre av endringer i hvordan mennesker samhandler
• En kraft - i nettverk - som påvirker vår tenkemåte og våre handlinger

Utfordringer for utdanning:

1. personlig identitet og personvern
2. amatøren og en flat struktur vs hierarkiet og den proffesjonelle
3. eierskap over innhold

Videre anbefalinger (noen):

• reflektere videre på virkningen av VLE
• vurdering - i en verden hvor samarbeid, deling, og konstruktive tilnærminger er mer vanlig - trenger ytterligere gjennomgang
• analyse av bruk, forbruk og begrensninger
• videre utforskning innen de sosial aspekter ved læring
• gjennomgang av juridiske problemer knyttet til bloggin/journalistikk - hva er hva?

Poeng for videre debatt:

• Er barn så digitalt native som vi tror?
• Kan vi kreve at elever deltar i nettverk? - ikke alle liker den publiserte rollen.
• Er det institusjonelle barierer for bruk av Web 2.0 tjenester i HE (høyrere utdanning)?
• Skal bibliotekene lagre, og tilby tjenester av Web 2.0 art?
• Bør forskning bruke disse systemer?

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture (.pdf)

Utfordringer i deltakende kulturer - notater:

1/2 parten av unge i dag har generert media innhold, og 1/3 del av disse har delt dette på internett. De er deltakere i forskjellige nettverk. Former for aktiviteter i delingskulturen kan være:

• Tilknytninger: medlemskap, formelle og uformelle i fellskap omring ulike former for media, f.eks. Facebook, spill, My Space, etc.
• Uttrykk: produsere nye kreative former, mashups, skinning
• Kollektiv problemløsning, formelle og uformelle teamarbeider, eks. Wikipedia og reality games
• Sirkulasjon: i media, flyt gjennom blogging, podcasting etc.

Antydninger av potensielle fordeler for en slik kultur:

• peer to peer læring
• endrede holdninger til intelektuell eiendom (kan kunnskap eies?)
• spredning av kulturelle uttrykk
• utvikling av ferdigheter for fremtidens yrker
• styrket oppfatning av borgerskap

Er tilgangen til denne arenaen en del av den sjulte læreplanen?

Noen hevder at barn og unge tilegner seg disse feridighetene på egenhånd ved interaktivitet i denne kulturen.

Tre utfordringer:

• The participation gap: ulike tilgang til muligheter, kunnskap, erfaring, og ferdigheter som vil forberede dagens ungdom for deltakelse i morgendagens verden
• The transparacy problem: utfordringen unge står overfor i å lære å se tydelig hvordan media former oppfatningen av verden
• The ethics challenge: etiske utfordringer: nedbrytning av tradisjonelle opplæring og socialisering som kan forberede unge mennesker for deres økende grad offentlige roller som beslutningstakere og samfunnsdeltakere

Lærere må samarbeide og motarbeide digitale skiller!

Skoler er trege til å reagere på fremveksten av slike kulturer.

Fokus skifter: fra leseferdighet til sosiale ferdigheter: De ny ferdighetene omfatter:

• Spill - evnen til eksperimentere med en omgivelser som en form for problemløsning
• Ytelse - mulighten til å vedta for formål med improvisasjon og funn
• Simulering - evn til å tolke og lage dynamiske modeller av virkeligheten og dens prosesser
• Tilegnelse: evnen til å tilpasse og remixe innhold - med meningsfylde
• Mulittasking: evnen til å skanne et miljø, og å skifte fokus om nødvendig
• Distribuert kognisjon: evnen til å samhandle med verktøy som utvider den mentale kapasitet
• Kollektiv intelligens: evne til å samle kunnskap for å kunne sammenlikne og dele med andre for å oppnå et felles mål
• Vurdering: evnen til å vurdere pålitelighet og troverdigheten til ennen informasjonskilder
• Transmedial navigasjon: evnen til følge flyten av artikler og informasjon
• Nettverk: muligheten for å søke etter, syntesere og spre informasjon
• Forhandling: mulighet for å vandre mellom og på tvers av ulike kulturer og samfunn, og respektere og sjeldne flere perspektiver og fatte alternative

Å fostre slike ferdigheter krever en systematisk tilnærming. Alle som er involvert i å forberede unge for fremtiden har et ansvar for å tilrettelegge slik at de kan tilegne seg kompetanse for fremtiden - for å bli fullverdige deltakere i vårt samfunn. Skoler, foreninger og foreldre har et ansvar i sine roller som oppdragere for å oppmuntre og nære oppunder opplæringen av disse ferdigheter.

Teens and Social Media (.pdf)

Funn:

Media Multitasking Among American Youth (.pdf)

Tv, lesing, data, internett, musikk, spill ...

• Datamaskinen ser ut til å promotere multitasking.
• Øker med antall og mindre størrelser på utstyr
• Datamaskinen på soverommet er delvis ansvarlig fordi den åpner for bruk av flere medier samtidig
• Forskere mener hjernen tilpasser seg bruk, og at over tid vil hjernen forandre seg, ikke bare over tid gjennom naturlig utvelgelse men også i et livsperspektiv (nevrologisk adapsjon - forklaring: use it or loose it!)
• Noen mener multitasking ikke gir rom for kreativitet og refleksjon
• Beste måte å nå frem til unge med innhold, er når de selv er klare for det - Internett er ideell i så måte og informasjonen blir ikke borte ...
• Mulittasking er et fenomen som ikke vil forsvinne, men som vi må prøve å fortå, så vel dens effekter

Cause it means they're lying to themselves, to their friends, to their families, and to their (if there are any)  investors.

There's something to be said for knowing how to do a variety of things on a set, in post, etc.  I'll admit, I pride myself on knowing quite a few different jobs from preproduction to post-postproduction, however I also am a firm believer that a jack of all trades is a master of none.

So how do independent filmmakers know when to say when?

Here's a good way to divide up the job duties:

A director/producer can be one of the following, but only one: Cinematographer OR Editor.

Why is that? Because a director needs to have another voice of reason, a second opinion.  Film is a director's medium, but it behooves a director to have someone to turn to during the long days of production and the long nights of post.  By taking it all on your self you're attempting to be Atlas holding up the world.

And you're not.

Sure you might finish production, you might finish the editing, perhaps even the film.  But it won't be a great film.

There are exceptions - Shane Carruth, Robert Rodriguez, Joe Carnahan to name a few, but that's a very small minority.

But how does a filmmaker who feels this one script is their only shot to succeed do that?

By realizing that it's not.  If you had a great idea, you'll have another.  If you truly, deep in your heart, feel that this is the only good idea you'll ever have, then please check yourself into a mental institution cause it's all gonna be downhill from here.

I'm not saying you need a director's assistant (not be confused with an assistant director, a necessity) or run 3 and 3 at minimum on your G&E crew, but you do need to pass the baton on certain things.

How does a director know what to hand off?  Let's assume a few things right off the bat:

1. This is a no-budget shoot.
2. What investors there are happen to be the directors friends and/or family.
3. You don't have money to pay actors or crew much, if anything.

Okay, now here we go...

1st the simple stuff - A director/producer should never be asked what to buy the crew for lunch on the day.  It needs to be handled before hand (and can be handled by the director as such) but on the day the very last thing on the directors mind should be what to have to eat, especially on a low budget shoot.

A good rule of thumb is to establish a "go to person" (preferably the producer) and also establish the "penny jar" amount.  The "penny jar" amount is the amount the go to person can spend on a given day without have to ask the director.  It could be $50, it could be $1000, but figure it out beforehand and let him/her do their job.

On small shoot you have to be able to trust people, someone that no matter what the situation is, will tell the truth.  Not everyone gets along 100% of the time and you, the director, need to be comfortable with that.

On my first feature my producer was my wife's cousin.  We actually sat down before we started shooting and told one another that basically we were gonna push each other hard every day, but at the end of the day we were family.  And to this day we are still very close.

On my second feature my producer was a best friend and neighbor.  We also worked together very well because we understood where the other was coming from.  We would joke that I was the sheep and he was the wolf because I would push to accomplish everything on our ambitious schedule, but when my words fell on deaf ears (which wasn't too often) I knew I only had to look over at him and he was on top of it.

It was a great experience on both occasions.

This conversation will be continued, but let me wrap it up with some bullet points:

• A director should only be one other job (cinematographer OR editor, not both in addition to directing)
• Don't lie to yourself about your film, be honest from the get go.  I don't mean be negative or a Debbie Downer, but be honest with yourself
• Keep the small stuff off of your plate.  This is why preproduction is so important
• Have a go to person with access to the penny jar

I'll get more in depth on some other items (marketing, etc.) but for now I think I've offended enough people.

So do you agree?  Disagree?  Let's start a conversation.  If you're a filmmaker and have a war story send it on over, I'll post it up here and get you some free publicity (within reason, lol).

Til next time.

Jake

I've been reading the book for a few weeks now but haven't actually tried meditating. Until tonight.

This week I've come to terms with the fact that I have two choices at bedtime. Sit with the monkeys for the 5 -10 minutes it takes them to fall asleep, or spend 45 minutes shepherding them back into their beds. I'm leaning towards the former, for sheer efficiency. Again, no one is perfect.

The problem is that while I'm up there with them, I get bored, anxious or fall asleep. Today, I decided to meditate, and the time passed quickly and pleasantly. I didn't really get into any zen state - it's hard work to keep myself focused on the present moment, but it felt good to try. And while I was trying to remind myself that the now is the now and what is is what is, the monkeys fell asleep.

I think I'll try it again tomorrow.

"Brokeback Mountain is not a movie about gay people, and there are no gay people in it. There. I said it. Despite what you may have read in the many reviews that have come out about this new cowboy feature film, Brokeback Mountain is a bisexual picture. Why can't film reviewers say the word “bisexual” when they see lead characters with sexual and romantic relationships with both men and women?  I am unaware of a single review of Brokeback calling the leads what they are–a sad statement on the invisibility of bisexual experience and the level of biphobia in both the mainstream and gay media.

Now for the best thing about Brokeback Mountain : Jake Gyllenhaal plays a bottom." - Amy Andre, American Sexuality Magazine

No this post isn't about bi-politics, but readers, don't you worry it'll happen.  For now we here at SBL are easing y'all in with the fun parts of bisexuality (and believe us, it's like Doublemint up in here!). This post is about one of the many places that bisexuals like, The Wild West. Yeehaw!!

Where else, but the Wild West,  can two "straight" men be left alone to explore their more curved feelings?  It's not that the dusty plains or cold nights turned Ennis and Jack toward each other, it's that they didn't have the rest of society whispering behind their backs about "fairies" and "Texas".  Brokeback Mountain came along and the mainstream media rode that horse hard; two hot men love each other? No, no, it must have been lust - gay lust. Meanwhile the gay community went wild with smug, limelight catwalking, and countless hours of reminiscing about the good old bare-backing days. (Dear gay readers, nothing but love, pure, catty love.)

The Wild West is home to countless bi-satisfying stories and hobbies.  There are craft hobbies, to keep our fidgety hands busy, like tying lassos, making tin-can stoves, and (a bi-fave) hog-tying games.

The Wild West was also the place where women in America were first given the opportunity to show their stuff and prove that they're as needed, strong, and bright as men.  The men were out driving doggies across ravines or wrestling in the dust all day and the women had to stay home and shoot jaguars away from the soft flesh of their children or dig fence post holes.  From my extensive research these women of western wiles did all this while looking might fine!

The Wild West was not only a place of equality, for the settlers, and freedom from stifling sexual mores, it was also the place where the existence of bisexuality as a known reality or option was already present.  The American Indians had long acknowledged a third sex, or Two-Spirited persona; a person attracted to both sexes:

"The Two-Spirited persona comes to us from the American Indians. Within American Indian tribes, a third gender was considered natural.  That spirit was chanelled to shamanistic practices, warrior activities, weaving, folk medicine and herbalism.  An American male nurse who visited an Apache reservation reported being surprised at a proud mother who came in to visit the priest and told him, 'My 16-year-old son is attracted to other men.  We need to arrange for him to be initiated with the Medicine men.'

Of the 250 or so Native languages still spoken in the United States, at least 168 of them have been identified as having terms for people who are not considered male or female." - Angie Bowie, Bisexuality

Wow, not only were they acknowledged, but that quote provides further proof into the relentless activity of bisexuals over time: shaman, warrior, weaving, folk medicine, herbalism...whew! How will he have time for dance parties and poetry readings?

There are two other things about the Wild West that appeal to bisexuals: the mythology of it and the fashion.  I'll get into the former point some other time, but the fashion simply must be addressed now.  If there's one thing bisexuals like (haha, As If!!) it's playing dress up.  Any excuse to bend our wardrobe to our moods and we're on it like flies on horse apples.  The Wild West is home to countless fun fashion play from lacey fringe:

to the beloved Western Shirt:

There's also the chaps, boots, hat and then the riding accessories.  Ropin' broncos isn't just for macho bragging rights folks, no! You think those "straight" men aren't thinking about how those old jeans make their butts look or how that hat accentuates their strong jaw lines?  You bet they are! Any cowboy worth his pork n' beans isn't going to be caught dead without the appropriate wear at the local rodeo, to wit:

Let us examine this picture here: It's sunny and probably in a South/South Western state, where the normal clime is hot and dry.  This guy is sporting layers and he may tell you it's to prevent horrendous ring rash from getting bucked off the angry bull he's riding, but I don't buy it.  To him I might say, "And what of the fringed chaps Mr. Cowboy? Is that going to throw the bull's eye off course and keep him from goring you?"  I'm calling it, this guy...well let's just say he wouldn't say "no" to Jack's pleas of "keeping warm" either.

And finally the reverse cowgirl.  A consistent bi-favorite named after one of our favorite spots to visit and dream of

Yipee-ki-yea mother fuckers.

Getting back on topic now. Multitasking provides the illusion of being more productive. Doing more than one thing at a time initially seems very productive until I really thought about what I was doing. Right now, I am typing this blog, listening to my mother and the tv is on in the background with the movie, Shopgirl playing. Oh, and I forgot, I just checked Google for thoughts on multitasking and found this blog, The Myth of Multitasking: How Doing it All Gets Nothing Done. Is that really productive?

Of course not, not really. However we convince ourselves that I can get some thing done or a few things done or maybe one thing done.One great sage, my mother, often says, “Focus, baby, don’t scatter your energy.” Great words from a wise woman.

Let me know your thoughts by clicking the comment button, I’d like to know what you have to say.

I'm told that this is normal for the first week or so of the Fall semester (and this is my first experience with a Fall semester since taking this job).   A frenetic pace that certainly rules out boredom.  But at the same time, allows for no spare time and results in many "more-than-8-hour" days.   I'm having to redefine what it means to "multitask."  I thought I was fairly good at multitasking at my former workplace, but these last couple of weeks have proven that I'm able to take it to an all new level.

But I don't mind . . . to stretch your capabilities from time to time is a good thing.  And have I mentioned that I really love my job?  (And my colleagues, and, the location -- what a great work environment!)  Even though some projects carry over from semester to semester, there is something special about the Fall semester and the promise of a new beginning (despite where you've been or where you've left off). 

So hang on . . . here we go again!  Happy learning!

Mens jeg sitter der og holder på med mine mange små greier finner jeg ut at jeg har lyst til å bytte cd. Jeg har mist to Coldplay-cd´er med meg når jeg er på tur, og det var tid for å bytte. P.g.a. en aldri så liten brekksladd-sving litt tidligere (så en avkjørsel bittelitt for sent fordi jeg prøvde å understreke noe viktig i papirene mine med den gule tusjen) lå nå denne cd´en på gulvet i passasjersetet, så jeg bøyde meg ned ..over maten, rettspapirene og filofaxen.. mens jeg forklarte advokaten at hvis jeg ble borte var det bare fordi jeg mistet telefonen på gulvet og at jeg snart ville være tilbake. Jeg strakk meg så lang jeg var og fikk akkurat tak i den, og i det jeg reiser meg opp oppdager jeg at jeg er på vei utfor gitt!
Altså utfor veien!!
Jeg har mistet evnen!
Kraften er borte!!!
Hva i helvete??

P.S. for de som måtte være mer opptatt av hvordan det gikk så kan jeg informere om at det selvfølgelig gikk helt greit. Jeg har heldigvis ikke mistet evnen til å manøvrere som en helt :)

The Amiga computer, launched by Commodore in 1985, combined superior multimedia technology with ease of use, inspiring millions of the most creative and enthusiastic computer users ever.

Amiga Forever is the award-winning Amiga preservation, emulation and support package brought to you by Cloanto, Amiga developers since 1986.

Different editions of Amiga Forever blend high-quality software and original content with the ultimate set of videos to chronicle and let you experience firsthand the history, culture, challenges and passion behind the Amiga.

(http://www.amigaforever.com/)

If you're not, you should really check it out. This computer did things in 1985 that mainstream computers wouldn't end up doing for years - unfortunately, Commodore screwed the whole thing up, and it never got the chance to really break into the marketplace:

Amiga
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Amiga is a family of personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. Development on the Amiga began in 1982 with Jay Miner as the principal hardware designer. Commodore International bought Amiga Corporation and introduced the machine to the market in 1985. The name Amiga was chosen by the developers specifically from the Spanish and Portuguese word for a female friend,^[1] and because it occurred before Apple and Atari alphabetically.^[2]

Based on the Motorola 68k series of microprocessors, the machine sports a custom chipset with advanced graphics and sound capabilities, and a pre-emptive multitasking operating system (now known as AmigaOS). While the M68k is a 32-bit processor, the version originally used in the Amiga, the 68000, has a 16-bit external data bus (that transfers 32 bit of data in two consecutive steps, a technique called multiplexing -- all this transparent to the software, which is 32-bit from the beginning), and the original machine (along with its contemporary, the Atari ST) was generally referred to in the press as a 16-bit computer;^[3] later models sported fully 32-bit designs. The Amiga provided a significant upgrade from 8-bit computers such as the Commodore 64, and the Amiga quickly grew in popularity among computer enthusiasts, especially in Europe, and sold approximately 6 million units.^[4]

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga)

Yep. It had a pre-emptive multitasking operating system in 1985. For some context on how impressive this is:

The earliest pre-emptive multitasking OS available to home users was the AmigaOS released in 1985. Pre-emptive multitasking was later adopted on Apple Macintoshes by MacOS 9.x ^[1] as an additional API, i.e. the application could be programmed to use the pre-emptive or co-operative model, and all legacy applications were multitasked cooperatively within a single process. Mac OS X, being an Unix-like system, uses pre-emptive multitasking for all native applications, although Classic applications may be multitasked cooperatively as they run in fact under Mac OS 9 running as OS X process.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_multitasking#Preemptive_multitasking.2Ftime-sharing)

It took Apple until MacOS 9.x to implement this as an additional API.

MacOS 9 was introduced in 1999. (Granted, Windows NT/9x and Unix/Linux had this sooner than MacOS.)

Check it out. Definitely worth a look.

Lifehacker: Debunking the Myth of Multitasking. Still - as someone who can't focus on anything for more than five minutes, multitasking is often the only way I can feel productive. You?

Clive Thompson on how "Games Give Free Rein to the Douchebag Within". Theorists often point to the creation of a provisional 'second self' in gaming, but Thompson wonders why his avatar self is, well, such a dick. My response? One's second self doesn't make sense unless you consider the unconscious and the projections involved in creating identity. Why else is the hyper-masculine, ultra-violent avatar so popular amongst skinny teenage boys? The obvious question though is whether or not this is cathartic in a healthy way: if I act out my masculine fantasies in a game does this provide a constructive outlet for them or encourage their entrance into 'my real life'?

In Praise of Melancholy. "What can we call this fit but a meaningful experience of generative melancholy, of that strange feeling that sadness connects us to life's vibrant pulses? Alienated from home and happiness, we sense what is most essential: not comfort or contentment but authentic participation in life's grim interplay between stinking corpses and singing lemurs. This "fit" shivers our souls." It's a long read, but interesting, particularly because it takes pains to distinguish between the paralysis of depression and the potentially productive, mutual relationship between sadness and introspection.

Speaking of sadness, this piece in The Smart Set looks at a new book that analyses the destructive effects of loneliness. Some of them are obvious, but apparently the book also focuses on how to return to being social after extended periods of self-imposed solitude.

Finally, a new BBC sketch show called Wrong Door looks pretty damn funny, particularly if this YouTube trailer is anything to go by. [via MeFi]

Det kan selvfølgelig kun betyde én ting: Det er eksamensperiode, klokken er et godt stykke over midnat, og jeg overspringshandler.

Foran mig har jeg 3 ret stressede dage, hvor jeg gerne skulle præstere at lave en opgave, jeg egentlig havde fået halvanden måned til at lave.

Hvad kom så i vejen? - ...livet, tror jeg nok. Gider egentlig ikke komme med dårlige undskyldninger, men synes nu, jeg har nogle gode nogle af slagsen: Verden, der lige greb ind i mit liv, da alting ellers gik godt, og sendte mig til tælling... burde åbne en support-linie - der er snart ikke det traume, jeg ikke har prøvet! Og så en forening i krise med et projekt, der enten kunne blive en kæmpe succes eller en stor fiasko... Stadig ikke sikker på hvor den lander, men har i hvert fald gjort mit nu...

Det store problem har nok været nødvendigheden af multitasking: At skrive opgave færdig. At snakke med ham, jeg gerne vil have som vejleder, men endnu ikke har præsenteret idéen for :-S. At hjælpe min forening da der var mest brug for det. At passe mit arbejde. At besøge familien (22 t. sammenlagt). Nåh ja, og så at bearbejde den her grimme oplevelse, jeg var ude for. Det er faktisk slet ikke multitasking - det er bare triple... quarto... penta... hexa-tasking? Nægter i hvert fald at have dårlig samvittighed over det - det er alt sammen vigtige opgaver for mit liv - det er jo ikke fordi jeg har brugt halvanden måned på at læse jumbobøger!

Nästan som att ha haft en som väntade på mig i soffan efter jobbet (bara den lagade maten och fysiska beröringen som saknats).

Nästan som en pojkvän.

Nästan separationsångest.

Det är konstigt vad man vänjer sig fort :P

Jag får väl se på Hannibal i min ensamhet då..

Edit: Jaha. Alex är otrogen mot mig och är på hot date tonight. Det var ju snällt att han svarade på mitt "panik-vartärdu?-sms" i alla fall. Så jag äter mig tjock på choklad och surfar med ena ögat och ser Hannibal med andra. Multitasking? Hell yeah!

Of course people don't read everything but then how are we going to find what we want in the ocean of information? I was one lost guy drowning in this massive pool of information when I stumbled across News Reader and RSS. For a moment, it kind of resolved my problem. I was able to extract information that I find relevant to me and of course, interesting. Combined with email, I thought I have everything I need to survive in this digital age. Email to receive and send out my thoughts, News Reader with RSS feeds to continuously supply me with updates - all done on one webpage. So did this solve my problem of dealing with too much information?

In a way, it did. However I slowly discovered the real problem is not in the amount of information gushing out there but in how far I can keep my focus. Let me share what happened in the last month or so. I was surfing the web as usual for new things when I stumbled across several websites that are largely popular these days because of their web services offered. Their names are not unfamiliar to most techies, I believe. Welcome Twitter, Wordpress (yup, we are here!), delicious (online bookmarking service), facebook, cyworld etc. So before I knew it, I am the proud owner of accounts with each of the services mentioned above. With that, my life really gets busy. I begin to think how I can type something for twitter, write a blog entry, update my links in delicious and so on and so forth.

So today I just sat down and reflected on what's going on. I realized that my personal desire to do more things, to learn more new stuff is what put me in the digital race. No doubt each of the web application is useful in its own rights, there is no need to follow the trend. Rather, the wise person would take only what he needs and leave out the rest. Like my previous blog on travelling light, surf lightly and get more done. Multitasking just doesn't get the work done properly in most, if not all situations.

Multitasking may slow students down

College students' reading comprehension may not be hampered by interruptions from instant messages, but researchers found that those who try to multitask by reading an assignment and text messaging at the same time are about 15 minutes slower in working through their reading assignments versus their peers who work sequentially. "Students who are managing busy lives may think they are accomplishing more by multitasking, but they will actually need more time to achieve the same level of performance on an academic task," said Laura L. Bowman, a Central Connecticut State University psychology professor.

Education Week (premium article access compliments of Edweek.org) (8/15)

I'm not sure if the item at this link will disappear, so I have added it below:

Instant Messaging Found to Slow Students' Reading

By Debra Viadero

Boston

Students who send and receive instant messages while completing a reading assignment take longer to get through their texts but apparently still manage to understand what they’re reading, according to one of the first studies to explore how the practice affects academic learning.

“Students who are managing busy lives may think they are accomplishing more by multitasking, but they will actually need more time to achieve the same level of performance on an academic task,” said Laura L. Bowman, a psychology professor at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.

Ms. Bowman and her colleagues based their conclusions on a study of 59 college students who were tracked in a university laboratory while they read a selection from a college psychology textbook on a computer screen and received instant messages. The researchers presented their findings today during the annual meeting here of the American Psychological Association, a Washington-based group representing 148,000 psychologists and educators.

For the experiment, students were randomly assigned to take part in one of three groups. The first group read the text on screen with no interruptions. The second group answered instant messages first and then did their reading. The third group multitasked, fielding instant messages as they read. Instant messaging is a form of real-time online written communication that is faster than normal e-mail.

More Time on Task

The messages, which included questions such as “What classes are you taking this semester?” were designed to be typical in context and in frequency to the instant messages students would normally receive on their computers.

Even after taking into account the time students spent on the instant messaging, the researchers found, the third group took about 15 minutes longer than the other two groups to complete the reading—roughly 50 percent more time than the other two groups took.

All three groups, however, fared about the same on a test given later on to check their understanding of the text. The researchers said that last finding runs counter to other studies of students’ electronic media use, which suggest that students’ academic performance suffers when, for example, a television is playing in the background.

A study the authors published last year, in fact, found that students who reported high use of electronic media were more likely than avid book readers to have problems with becoming distracted in their reading.

“We thought for sure that we were going to find that the multitasking students were going to show a decrement in performance,” said Ms. Bowman.

Pausing to Reread?

Researchers theorized that one reason that the multitasking students did as well—but took longer—may be that they went back and reread passages after they paused to answer instant messages.

Study co-author Laura E. Levine, an associate professor of psychology at Central Connecticut, said that, although their study focuses on college-age students, the findings probably also hold true for younger students, many of who are also regular users of instant messaging on their home computers.

Their study is one of several on the effects of electronic technology on learning that are due to be presented at the August 14-17 meeting. Other studies focus on video games and how they affect learning or children’s predisposition to take part in violent activities.

Vol. 28, Issue 01

In addition to this item, if you're interested in this kind of research, I would recommend the following article:

Naveh-Benjamin, M., Kilb, A., & Fisher, T. (2006). Concurrent task effects on memory encoding and retrieval: Further support for an asymmetry. Memory & Cognition, 34(1), 90-101.

Som *nix bruger var det første som fangede min opmærksomhed nogle AT&T manualer men det viste sig at de var uden indhold så jeg kiggede lidt videre og pludselig lå den der... Vidunderligt! En vaskeægte IBM DOS Version 5.0 i ubrudt embalage - kunne man være mere heldig ;-)

Derudover dukkede der også en æske op med OS/2 Warp - desværre i brudt embalage. "et ægte 32-bit styresystem fra IBM med understøttelse af DOS og Windows programmer" plus bonuspakke med Internet, fax, IBM works, multimedia og meget andet. TADAAAA!!!

Here's a bit about multi...arh. You guys can read. By the way, am feeling lil lazy to get up and check my register which multi-things we were taught first. Ah!i wonder how many of us remember that.

Before I begin my Big Bang Theory lecture, I guess you guys should know what a task, process and thread is.

Task: Its a set of program instructions that are sent to the memory for execution.
Process: Its an instance of a program that is being executed by a processor. A program is basically a set of instructions. When these instructions are executed, it is called a process.
Thread: To make the Processing faster, each process is divided into two or more parts. These parts are called 'threads'.

Hmm. Maybe now it'll be more easier to understand multitasking, multiprocessing, multiprogramming and multithreading.

Multitasking

In multitasking, two or more TASKS share a SINGLE processing unit (CPU). At a particular instance of time, only ONE task is executed by CPU.

Multiprocessiing

In multiprocessing, there are two or more CPUs. This is the basic difference between multitasking and multiprocessing. In multitasking, there are more than two tasks that share the same processing unit, but in multiprocessing, tasks are sent to different CPUs depending upon which processor is done processing and is waiting for the next task. Its a software based support.

Multiprogramming

Its basically running more than one program on a single cpu. There's nothing much to know about it really, at our level at least. It is like, we are listening to music on Windows Media Player and doing someother work on, say, MS Word. Now, you are running more than one program on your computer. This is known as multiprogramming.

Multithreading

Multithreading efficiently handles multiple threads. Now, you might think that multiprocessing and multithreading are same. But, there's one key difference. Multithreading is hardware based support and multiprocessing is software based support.

Ah!its 2 A.M. in the morning and am typing this. Wah! Yeah, got nothing better to do. Anyway, if you like whats written here, please comment.

And yeah, was thinking to put generations of computers here. But instead, if i could find how the vaccume tubes and all used to work, will post the link here.

Or perhaps, where is the moment you are living in?

WC29

The eleven characteritics of smart companies, not meant as an exhaustive list but as a selection, highlighted the following:

1. They Communicate a Compelling Big Picture -
   

   Lee's Key Words: Vision and Mission, Employees' Roles and Responsibilities.
   
   Global's Style: Confidential vision, mission and organizational structure.
   
   Perceived Effect: Personnel are at a loss as to what valuable contributions they could do to for the company without knowing where it is aiming to go.

2. They Provide The Informational “Grist” for the “Idea Mill” -
   

   Lee's Key Words: Innovation through detailed information
   
   Global's Style: Minute details are deemed minute, and for the expats' eyes only
   
   Perceived Effect: Diminished improvements because of lack of information.

3. They Give Employees Control Over Their Jobs -
   

   Lee's Key Words: Lack of control bred learned helplessness.
   
   Global's Style: Multitasking and time management. Resources are scarce.
   
   Perceived Effect: Supervisors becomes McGyver-incarnate.

4. They Provide an Environment Which Fosters Trust -
   

   Lee's Key Words: Downsizing leads to dumbsizing.
   
   Global's Style: Expats as overseers to locals in steel manufacturing.
   
   Perceived Effect: Local personnel hoard important knowledge, as a personal edge or bargaining chips.

5. They Reward Managers For Coaching, Not For Having All the Answers -
   

   Lee's Key Words: Thinking outside the box. “Know-It-All” bosses tended to cultivate “Know Nothing” subordinates.
   
   Global's Style: Expats are the experts with no performance goals. Compensation structure is off-limits to non-managers.
   
   Perceived Effect: Everything is Priority Number 1. Local suggestions are ignored because expats' ideas are seemingly extensions of king's orders.

6. They Make Capturing and Sharing Knowledge Fun -
   

   Lee's Key Words: Encourage idea and best practices sharing.
   
   Global's Style: Quantity of ideas shared are more important than mere quality.
   
   Perceived Effect: Decisions are made by a minority, irrespective of what the corporate consequences are.

7. They Reward Knowledge Sharing And Knowledge Using -
   

   Lee's Key Words: “What gets rewarded gets repeated”
   
   Global's Style: Rewards scheme for a few, unreachable and unsustainable.
   
   Perceived Effect: Attempts are nipped in the bud.

8. They Communicate and Celebrate The Joy of Knowledge Sharing -
   

   Lee's Key Words: Sharing benefits everyone!
   
   Global's Style: Highlight success only when finances permit, otherwise ignore.
   
   Perceived Effect: Improvements backslide to old ways.

9. They Focus On People, Not On Technology -
   

   Lee's Key Words: Technology aids Humanity.
   
   Global's Style: Apply the old discarded technology from our mother company. Limit access to information technology for a select few.
   
   Perceived Effect: Antiquated equipment inhibits innovation. Increasing personnel attrition.

10. They Build In Reflection and Capture Time -
    

    Lee's Key Words: Reflection is central to knowledge creation.
    
    Global's Style: Rush from project to project. Management by “buzz words”
    
    Perceived Effect: Things are done reactively. Multiple focus at once losses attention to details.

11. They Know How to Create a Positive Emotional Climate -
    

    Lee's Key Words: Inspiration = Pride = Value
    
    Global's Style: Violent reactions now, ask forgiveness later.
    
    Perceived Effect: Analytical capabilities lost because of emotional pain.

Notes:

^[1] Lee, David (1998). “Intellectual Capital: If You Don’t Appreciate It, You Will Depreciate It,” Executive Excellence: September, 1998 back to text

You know the type -- the folks that sit at meetings with laptops and if you look at their screen, start to behave as though they were illegally hacking into the Department of Defense -- putting their screens down, shifting their sitting position, switching between applications, moving their laptop so far up their laps that they look like they are typing on their nads. As though their lack of attention is not evidence enough that they are doing something else during the meeting. Stay focused people!

For some people, the reaction goes as far as taking offense if one glances at their screen. Get over yourself! What is going on in your life is really not that interesting to the rest of us. You were invited to the meeting for a reason -- someone valued your opinion, insight or knowledge enough to include you in the discussion.

This got me to thinking….why would one take offense to someone else looking at their screen?

Guilt from working on something that they shouldn’t be and don’t want to be discovered? If you have something else to do, turn down the meeting invite and go take care of the priority. Don’t sit in the middle of a meeting typing away and randomly making non-contributory comments to give others the impression that you are actually participating.

Perhaps there is a lack of interest in what is being discussed or you are the wrong audience for the meeting? If it’s the later, excuse yourself. Why sit there and suffer through it and detract from the meeting? It’s a better use of the companys resources for you to be elsewhere working on things that are more contextual to you. If you have no interest in what is being discussed, speak to the person who invited you about the meeting agenda ahead of time.

I can already read the complaints from the multi-taskers -- multitasking is not only possible for those of us that are able, it can be extremely efficient. It is not effective however when dealing with people and that is precisely what a meeting is about -- interdependent interactions on a particular topic. The focus needs to be effectiveness, not simply your personal efficiency.

It is a natural reaction to bring into focus that which registers in our peripheral vision -- a survival instinct that is used frequently and not only for our survival. In the wild, the behavior literally increases our chances of survival by keeping us aware of impending, external dangers -- rattle snakes, scorpions and lions for example. In more modern times, we rely on the ability for survival as well when crossing the street or driving a vehicle. But even in non life-threatening situations we leverage the behavior when watching a movie or playing a video game.

For those of us with very sensitive peripheral vision, the flickering of your screen while you do other things in a meeting is distracting! So PLP, please stop being so paranoid and try being a bit more considerate. Please understand that your behavior has an impact on others and the meeting overall.

Then came Microsoft® Windows. Remember their 1990s ad campaign: “Where do you want to go today?” This was a result of people wanting to just finish simultaneous jobs so that they could have the freedom to pursue other things. Even with the usual occurrence of the Blue Screen of Death, popularly known as BSOD, people thought they could emulate this particular operating system and adapt it as a personal mantra: multitasking to be free.

Business management was not far behind. Heard of matrix organizations, where one subordinate could be reporting to two different bosses? This arrangement is ideal to project management, whereby a subordinate could be responsible for several tasks, and these tasks were tackled by different project managers.

Then came “Indianeering”: it upped the ante by applying multitasking to steel manufacturing. Here's a typical scenario: a shift supervisor who manages the shift resources -- man, machine, methods -- within a eight-hour shift, is also assigned to be a Total Productive Maintenance implementor, aside from being a part-time Six-Sigma greenbelt [GB]- or Black Belt [BB]-candidate plus the pressure of the company undergoing ISO 9001:2000 certification.

Handling of shift resources alone takes most of the eight-hour shift. Equipment problems do crop up due to the dearth of spare parts as well as the lackluster maintenance program. Added to this scenario: personnel are crying out for their delayed salaries, unpaid overtime, personal problems, among other things humans are supposed to interact. Systems and methods sometimes become an issue, especially in the field of Information Technology, which has a great deal to be desired. Typical complaints could range from un-encoded or missing works-in-process, non-conforming products beyond their holding time, unaccounted equipment delays and even to an automated personnel scheduling which takes at most two hours to do.

Being an implementor of TPM, moreover, the same supervisor is also a member of several TPM Pillars--Easy Kaizen [EK], Jishu Hozen [JH], Planned Maintenance [PM], Initial Flow Control-Product [IFC-P], Initial Flow Control-Equipment [IFC-E], Quality Management [QM], Education and Training [ET], Office Management [OM], and Safety, Health and Environment [SHE]-- each holds regular monthly meetings with deadlines to meet. Each supervisor could be a member of three, at most five, TPM pillars. Even with Jishu Hozen alone, the supervisor is assigned to handle at least two, at most four, teams of five to ten rank-and-file members. A few of the supervisors are also assigned as Office Management auditors, the audits are done every three months.

With Six-Sigma, which McManus (1999)^[2] concludes that Six Sigma is just an add-on project management tool in comparison with TQM, the same supervisor is required by the job's Key Result Area [KRA] to do an Six-Sigma project with a deadline of three months. The project involves data gathering as well as applying statistical analyses to come up with process improvement. All these to be done which needs computer power, but the latter is nowhere on site. Hendry (2005) ^[3] found that part-time BB advantages are (a) integration with day-to-day work, (b) authority on projects as they are undertaken in their area of responsibility, (c) co-operation and (d) lower costs; but cautioned on its disadvantages, such as (a) high workload, (b) less motivation and less satisfaction, (c) delayed projects and (d) limited scope of project due to time constraints. Furthermore, the study found that using a part-time BB appears to be a more realistic option for small firms. In contrast, Global steel is NOT a small firm! Although the advantages are great for the Global Steel's BBs, the disadvantages outwitted these thus the company embarked on fast-tracking most of the first-batch projects in 2005 and dubbed them as “turbo”. The result, the improvements were not sustained, but rather backslid because of management unacknowledgement of the projects' impact and the provision of resources to sustain the improvements failed to materialize.

By 2006, the company embarked on an ambitious project: ISO 9001:2000 certification by the year end of 2008. Luckily, during NSC era, three of its division have been ISO-certified prior to the plant shutdown. Employing “Indianeering” again: just replace the NSC documents with the Global Steel logo, and management believed that “we could safely sail the certification process with flying colors, like we did with TPM,“ one expat-expert was heard saying. Most of the gap analysis between ISO versions 1994 vis-a-vis 2000, documentation, and review were done by local employees, the bulk of which were shift supervisors.

Thus, the shift supervisors having been required to attend a four-hour seminar on Time Management, turned to multitasking--hoping that everything would fall into place. Probably everything is being done, but nothing is really accomplished, that is, properly! At least computers have screensaver mode.

Notes:

^[1] Kirn, Walter (2007). “The Autumn of the Multitaskers,” Atlantic Monthly: November 2007 back to text

^[2] McManus, K. (1999) “Is quality dead?” IIE Solution. 31 (7) 32-36. back to text

^[3] Hendry, Linda (2005), “Exploring the Six Sigma phenomenon using multiple case study evidence,” Lancaster University Management School: Working Paper 2005/056 back to text