Comments for Gene A Wright

Comment on Coolest Keyboard Ever! by Bill DeBoer

Bill DeBoer — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 22:33:17 +0000

Truly revolutionary! One of my peeves’ with the touch screen keyboard is with typing. This forces me to use the BlackBerry which has limitations. Can’t wait till this is mainstream.

Comment on “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” by ericdurant

ericdurant — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:55:57 +0000

That’s a wonderfully concise quote that celebrates what can be accomplished by understanding other viewpoints. And, it’s friendlier than, “know your enemy.”

The Greek philosophers were true fans of the oral argument, committing great chains of reasoning and argument to memory. Indeed, in Socrates’ late career he questioned what was lost by writing these arguments down. Plato forged ahead after seeing the benefits of the oral argument rendered into written form, though. Although these Greek philosophers disagreed about delivery of the argument (and today we argue about Flash vs. HTML5 and FaceTime vs. Skype, etc.), they seemed to agree on the fundamental value of diverse ideas.

Comment on Product Placement in Music Videos by jheartt

jheartt — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:33:56 +0000

Very innovative methodology, it works.

Comment on YouTube Category Killer over iTunes? by jheartt

jheartt — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:02:57 +0000

It was very interesting article. I will not get into the fine details of statistics, however itunes/ apple should be given (due) credit for dissemination, personalization and portability of music. The comparison will be fair when youtube and Pandora are accessible on small devices without any premium (I understand that we have to pay songs on itunes).

Comment on How Not to Use PowerPoint Video by jheartt

jheartt — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:50:16 +0000

This was hilarious. I particularly liked the font analysis.

Comment on How Not to Use PowerPoint Video by dbw

dbw — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:52:15 +0000

Gene – I think I’ve given that presentation (except I wasn’t trying to be funny).

Comment on YouTube Category Killer over iTunes? by jamiep

jamiep — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:42:49 +0000

I found this article interesting, yet not surprising. First, there are a lot of options that people have to purchase a single song when they hear and like it. They can look it up online, or possibly tag it to purchase later. Even the free radios on most smartphones allow for a person to purchase a song if they like it. With the options available to people for the individual songs, there are less reasons for them to purchase the album from the store, or download, unless they know they enjoy a particular artist.

Comment on Princeton not too happy with Kindles by vikbergg

vikbergg — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:23:27 +0000

I do see the advantages of carrying hundreds of books around with you in a single, small, electronic device. I’ve also read how the e-ink screen on the Kindles make it easy to read in the sun or under artificial lighting, contrary to the glossy screens found on laptops and other mobile devices. However, different people have different learning styles, as well as different sensory preferences. Some like to see the material visually, others prefer to hear it, some like to read/write the information, but there is also the kinesthetic sense. So, forcing a single device that limits the students’ interaction with the material can actually harm them if their learning styles are different than the ones provided by the technology. Furthermore, if taking notes is being hindered by the device, it’s not serving the purpose of making learning easier, or the experience of carrying the books around less painful. Essentially, it’s replacing one evil with another. Also, having a pilot program with a select group of students that are not representative of the community is not the best way to go about it. Technical as well as non-technical students should have the chance to test the device and give feedback. At last, we are experiencing the dawn of a new technological era, where paper books are being replaced with digital ones, and desktops and laptops are being replaced by iPads and netbooks. So, younger generations may feel much more comfortable with the devices than older ones, and organizations should not jump to conclusions just yet. More investigation into this matter is necessary before making a final decision.

Comment on SixthSense Demo Video from MIT Media Lab by vikbergg

vikbergg — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:10:38 +0000

The SixthSense technology presented by MIT at the TED conference is an amazing innovation on human-computer interaction. The ideas presented here could really change the way we interact with our world. However, the fears of people losing touch with one another are very real as well. Considering the amount of social gatherings and other social activities that already exist in the “virtual” world, we have to be careful not to lose sight of how important the in-person interactions are to human-beings. Nevertheless, I can definitely appreciate how much more information we can gather from our surroundings using this type of technology, and how much potential it holds to parts of our lives, ranging from shopping to the integration of the many portable devices we currently carry with us on a daily basis.

Comment on Application Programming Interface (API) Explained by vikbergg

vikbergg — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:52:45 +0000

This article, while short, really gives us all an idea of just how amazing the accomplishments can be when the data is made available, or the users are allowed create at their own will. This type of integration is not only desired, it will be a necessary and logical step towards a company’s success in the future. We are already seeing it in how Google has created APIs for a whole host of their online tools, from Earth to SketchUp, and how users have tied them together and expanded to include Facebook, Pandora, and other online technologies as well. The music industry and the media studios such as MGM and Paramount have yet to fully accept this new model of our existence, but they only have more to gain from adopting it. As a software man myself, APIs are wonderful tools for creating even more amazing compositions with what I already have. I love them! Plus, they save me so much time in many cases…