technology — #
Mac Buyer’s Guide helps you decide if now is a good time to purchase that shiny new piece of Apple hardware you have your eye on.
culture & television — #
From the Oh Darn, Turns Out That Never Happened Dept: Johnny Carson, Zsa Zsa Gabor, & the Pussy Cat
24 January 12
education — #
Stanford professor gives up tenure to start Udacity free online university
Inspired by the number of people that the Khan Academy’s free video lectures reached, Stanford professor Sebastian Thrun put his own artificial intelligence class online and enrolled 160,000 students. After scrambling to accommodate so many pupils, he came away from the experience with a new vision of education so different that he says he “can’t teach at Stanford again.” Instead, he’s starting an online university called Udacity. Thrun hopes to teach about 200,000 students per class — including grading exams and quizzes — in contrast to the mere hundreds taught at a brick-and-mortar university. The first two classes, starting February 20th, will teach students around the world to build a search engine or program a robotic car, and enrollment is free
music & video — #
TED Talk: Adam Sadowsky explains how his team built OK GO’s video for This Too Shall Pass
culture & technology — #
In Which I Fix My Girlfriend’s Grandparents’ WiFi and Am Hailed as a Conquering Hero.
Lo, in the twilight days of the second year of the second decade of the third millennium did a great darkness descend over the wireless internet connectivity of the people of 276 Ferndale Street in the North-Central lands of Iowa. For many years, the gentlefolk of these lands basked in a wireless network overflowing with speed and ample internet, flowing like a river into their Compaq Presario. Many happy days did the people spend checking Hotmail and reading USAToday.com.
culture — #
The Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg is one of the most amazing miniature exhibits of life in the world.
21 January 12
politics & culture — #
Larry Lessig Interviews Jack Abramoff
There’s a long discussion about the power of staffers on the Hill, rather than the actual elected officials (who “never read the actual bills”). They note that staffers are the real power. Abramoff talks about how he never wanted to hire the actual Congressional Reps, but always focused on hiring staffers. And then he makes a key admission that won’t surprise many people. He says that, early on, he focused on hiring people when he had job openings. But, later, he would talk to staffers — especially chiefs of staff — and just let them know he had a job opening for them whenever they wanted it. And he would ask them: “When do you want to start?” If they said “two years,” he knew that the guy was already working for him, but on the inside. As he says “I really hired him that day,” even though he went on for two more years working as a chief-of-staff to someone in Congress.
20 January 12
business & technology — #
Arena PartsList is a free BOM documentation tool for makers and electrical engineers that allows you to import any CSV and pull all the datasheets and component info for the components listed from Octopart in a few clicks.