Cory Doctorow held a lecture and Q&A Session on November 17th, 2011 at The Wharton School in Jon M. Huntsman Hall. It was open to the general public.
Cory’s Biography: Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing (boingboing.net) and the author of Tor Teens/HarperCollins UK novels like FOR THE WIN and the bestselling LITTLE BROTHER. He is the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in London.
Philadelphia has an amazing, diverse and ever-active tech-creative community. Web designers, graphic artists, developers, videographers, content strategists, people in marketing, social media and game development all find a home here. There’s so much going on, it’s easy to miss things you’d like to know about, and here’s your chance to find out what is happening and how to join in and be part of the community!
On Thursday, October 20, PANMA had a fast paced update on the far reaches of the Philly tech scene. Hear some of the most active participants in our community talk about the many activities, groups, opportunities and social events going on!
I recently received a summons for jury duty. That really didn’t take long: I’ve been back in the city for less than a year, and already, I’ve been “randomly selected.” During my five years in the suburbs, somehow I never ended up getting selected. I can’t complain, however; if frequent jury selection is the price for not living on a soulless cul-de-sac in the suburbs, I’ll take that trade off any day of the week.
I checked around Google to find out if I could bring my phone, PDA (a Blackberry), and my laptop. When I was called in 2005, when I last lived in the city, I was allowed to bring in a laptop with an EVDO card. However, these devices weren’t nearly as prevalent as they are now, and there was a plethora of conflicting information on Google.
So, I decided to go to the source. Here’s the email I sent to the court system:
I have jury duty coming up. I’ve checked online and have found conflicting advice about whether or not laptops and mobile devices are allowed during the jury selection waiting period at 1301 Filbert Street. Last time I had jury duty at this location in 2005, I was allowed to bring my laptop, but they’ve become much more prevalent since then. So, a few questions:
(1) Are laptops allowed?
(2) Are Blackberries / iPhones allowed with the phone service turned on?
(3) If not, are Blackberries / iPhones allowed with the phone service turned off (silent mode, for playing music, for example)?
I was very impressed when I received a reply within an hour from Gail T. Blair, a Court Administrator Officer; I was even more pleased when I read the content of the reply:
Yes, laptops are permitted and may be used during your down time.
Yes, Blackberries/iPods are permitted and may be used doing down time.
Yes, cell phones are permitted but must be turned off.
There’s the response, from the horse’s mouth. It sounds like you can’t talk on your phone, but can keep it silenced, and use silent PDA operations (texting, Twittering, browsing, listening to music through headphones). It doesn’t sound like they have any problems with laptops, either. This should make jury duty much more bearable.
Another tip: the days of donuts, coffee and bagels being put out are gone as well. Bring snacks, as the perks of donuts, coffee and bagels for jurists was slashed during a round of city budget cuts.
The future success of education depends on technological and pedagogical innovation. Unbridled by the physical constraints of both time and space, virtual spaces transcend many limitations of the typical classroom, where learning depends on presence and physicality.
Multi-User Virtual Environments for the Classroom: Practical Approaches to Teaching in Virtual Worlds highlights the work of educators daring enough to teach in these digital frontiers. Instructors will find cutting-edge teaching ideas in the theoretical discussions, case studies, and experiments presented in this book. These insights are applied to variety of subject areas and pedagogical contexts, including learning foreign languages in virtual environments, examples which encourage educators to design and develop new worlds of learning inside the university and beyond.
The part I authored focuses on the 3-D training I put together while working for Crompco, LLC.
Is there a version of Google Apps – either current or coming in the future – that allows people to host in their own data center rather than the cloud?
I was pleased to hear back from Google. Here is there the germane part of the response:
We don’t have any plans to offer a version of Google Apps that businesses can host in their own data center. We believe the greatest benefits of cloud computing come with a multi-tenant approach. For example-
Constant innovation: We can deliver new functionality on a weekly basis, or faster, because our systems are able to distribute updates so efficiently. No need to wait years and go through burdensome and costly upgrades to get the latest features.
Improved reliability and security: We can deliver > 99.9% reliability, best-in-class disaster recovery through synchronous replication, and numerous security benefits. For example, we’re able to efficiently manage security updates across our nearly homogeneous cloud computing infrastructure, so customers aren’t exposed to known vulnerabilities until they install security patches themselves.
Maximum economies of scale: We operate at a scale that allows us to pass along significant cost savings to our customers, and indeed as you know, even offer Apps for free to some organizations.
So there you have it, a very rational line of thinking. I’m often curious when how people believe they can secure information in their own data center more securely and reliably than Google, who has proven again and again to be the champion. There’s always a worry in outsourcing projects, but for some reason, IT people seem to fear Google much more than other services, which is beyond me.
The SL community of LSL programmers had a pretty good sense of humor. The wiki page was defaced, and after a few years, I decided it was time to recover some of the funnier pages that were posted, which all had nuggets of wisdom. Without further ado…
Courtesy of xkcd.com
Clever
Clever programmers think they are smarter than the accumulated programming wisdom of the last 60 years.
Clever programmers think that they will remember everything they’re thinking at this moment, so there’s no need to comment their code.
Clever programmers think that it’s worthwhile to sacrifice clarity in their code to cut down on the number of lines in their code.
Clever programmers don’t need to investigate root causes, because it isn’t fun or shiny.
Clever programmers invent their own indenting and brace style and then do not even stick to it.
Clever programmers don’t need to write efficient code, because hardware is always getting cheaper.
Don’t be clever.
l33t
Incorrect spelling of 1337.
1337
Shorthand to 31337.
31337
It means “elite.” Wow.
Practical Programming
Always write a getPizza() function before any others.
Writing the first 90 percent of a computer program takes 90 percent of the time.
The remaining ten percent also takes 90 percent of the time and the final touches also take 90 percent of the time.
Technical Documentation is like sex. When it’s good, its very very good. When it’s bad, it’s better than nothing.
A scripter I knew got quite prickly
When scripts became laggy and sickly
He spiffed up his code
Reducing the load
And now they all crash twice as quickly.
integer State = 1;
default
{
state_entry()
{
if (State = 0);
{
llShout(0, "OH GOD BRACE FOR IMPACT");
}
}
}
The letter we enclosed for the scammer in the parcel.
[ Note: Video Embedded at Bottom of Post ]
Recently, I received an email from my good friend Dave. A friend of his from Austin had recently lost his wife, yet was receiving scam texts from “her” in London. Dave asked if I knew anyone in London, and fortunately, I knew some wonderful people who were more than excited to help out. What follows below is the full story, in email form (emails and most last names removed for obvious reasons; I’m sure Tim Allen (me) and Bob Marley are fairly safe).
Subject: Londoner’s?
————————
From: Dave B
Date: Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 6:14 PM
To: “Tim Allen”
Hey – know any whitehats in London?
An old friend and recent Austinite like myself could use a little help.
Rob “Judge” Marley (and you think you’re the only guy needin’ a nickname), recent Austin transplant, old time Burning Man friend who founded some epic and still running camps out there needs a hand.
His wife died this past year after a long and gruesome battle with cancer. No lie that. Joan and I were with him and Tiffany “Stormy” Marley until the end – and it didn’t come quietly. Rob has been through the meat grinder.
So today he starts getting insistent messages from he dead wife. Hell, nearly everyone she ever communicated with gets messages. Same old scam. I’m stuck in London. My passport and money are gone. Please wire me money. Its an old and weak scam.
But its coming from a dead woman.
Nothing like a kick in the balls followed by a shit sandwich being rammed down your throat, ay?
Rob has tracked it down to one Blackberry and one specific Internet cafe in London. Yes, he – and other involved – have filed the appropriate complaints with the authorities.
Know anyone who wants to walk over to a cafe, look for dick and kneecap’m for being the bitch-of-week?
Here’s a link to Rob: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=XXXX
BTW – Rob works at XXXX and is often in the control room for YYYY. He’s an exceptional dude. You’d like him.
This just in from next week’s Wharton Higher Ed Web Symposium; if you’re going to attend, be sure to say hello! If you haven’t registered yet, there are still a few spots left. http://www.WhartonUIConf.org/ – a great line up is in store!
The 2010 Wharton Higher Education Web Symposium is next week! I hope you are as excited as I am.
Here are some details of interest, to make sure you have all the information you need.
Location, Registration & Food:
The Symposium is being held at Huntsman Hall.
Once you arrive at Huntsman, we’ll be downstairs in the Forum Level for most of the conference. There will be signs directing you where to go. Alternately, just ask anyone you see where the Forum level is, and they’ll direct you.
We’ll have the registration desk open from 8:00am – 11:00am both days. You’ll be able to pick up your registration packet there. The main sessions start promptly at 9:00 and you won’t want to miss a minute.
Breakfast goodies will be served from 8:30-9:00, and coffee, drinks, and snacks will be available throughout the day. Lunch will be from 12:00 – 1:30pm. Vegetarian options will be available.
There will be wireless access if you would like to bring a laptop, and a limited number of walk-up computer stations to check email.
Evening Events:
Our friends at PhillyCHI are hosting a pre-conference happy hour at the Blockley Pourhouse on Tuesday, 7/20. It is located on 38th street between Market & Chestnut. Doors open at 5:30pm and the first 100 people will get one free drink ticket. PhillyCHI has a fun evening planned… in addition to food, drink, and fun, there are rumors of a Mario Kart tournament. Even if you didn’t sign up ahead of time, feel free to come on by.
There will be walking escorts leaving the Locust Walk entrance of JMHH every 15 minutes from 5:15 – 6pm if you would like to walk with someone.
Make sure to check out the networking dinner options on 7/21, if you are interested. There is still plenty of room. You can select one by using your personalized URL below. Even if you are only coming for Thursday, you can still join a networking dinner on Wednesday!
