Sunday, August 30, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Get an Epson all-in-one photo printer for $39.99
via news.cnet.com
Simply amazing deal! Just wish it had wireless/LAN connectivity and it would be an absolute winner.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Bonhomme Richard Celebrates Birthday
via military.com
I was stationed on the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard from 2003-2006. She turned 11 on August 15th while out to sea.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Boating on Lake Purdy
I had such a great time out on Lake Purdy today! We are definately going again and soon. We also fed a lot of fish! Nothing on our hooks but we were trying! We need to get Lucy a doggie life jacket so it's easier for her to go swimming. She didn't do so well on her own. All in all it was a blast and they let me drive the boat!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Open Source Textbook Company Now BMOC at 400 Colleges | Epicenter
What did you do this summer? Flat World Knowledge stayed busy on campus and now has 40 times as many students and more than 10 times the colleges using their freemium, open-source digital textbooks as they did spring semester. And they did it the old-fashioned way — one professor at a time.
After a sort of beta earlier this year, Flat World is set to announce Thursday that more than 40,000 college students at 400 colleges will use their digital, DRM-free textbooks fall semester, up from 1,000 in 30 colleges in the spring.
Digital textbooks remain a nascent business and a tough market to enter. At an average cost of $100, textbooks command the highest cover prices in publishing, outside of only some art and coffee-table books. Demand is artificially inelastic as students are indentured to cost servitude at the whim of college professors who blithely assign titles a student must own if she hopes to do well in a given course. Now, multiply that by four, five or even six courses a semester and you are talking big bucks.
By comparison, Flat World has a pricing scheme that starts at zero for online access using a browser, and $20 for a PDF, which they believe will be the most popular format. Printed versions of their textbooks cost up to $60.
Perhaps best of all: Textbooks are available a la carte, chapter by chapter.
But the key buy-in has been from teachers who make the assignments and who, in my college days, could not care less how much the textbooks cost. What’s changed?
“There has been a mind shift,” co-founder Eric Frank told Wired.com. A tipping point came a couple of years ago when faculty began to consider the financial burden on students because many of them (Frank estimates a third) didn’t bother to get the texbook at all.
Perhaps more to the point, open-source textbooks — which are Creative Commons-licensed to allow unencumbered non-commercial use — make it possible to graft supporting material to the curriculum, rather than the other way around.
“Faculty are notorious for wanting to do things their way,” said Frank. “But they always had to cut the foot to fit the shoe. Now, with open source, they can cut the shoe to fit the foot.”
There is virtually no friction involved. A professor can register on Flat World’s site and let students know that the book is available there. No cooperation from a school district or college administration is required.
“Every single class is a fiefdom, and they are kings and queens of their domain,” Frank jokes.
Like any freemium retailer, Flat World depends on enough people buying something, because clearly the business cannot be sustained if everyone just opts for free web access. “What we’re counting on is that people will be willing to pay for different packaging.” (Frank proudly notes his company is on page 160 (.pdf) of Wired magazine editor in chief Chris Anderson’s Free.)
And it will come down to the price points, Frank acknowledges, even when the company develops formats for the Sony e-book reader and Amazon Kindle, as they hope to this year. It makes as much sense to equip students with a device that makes all their reference materials available on demand as to offer a casual reader a complete portable library — perhaps more. This is a classic chicken-and-egg scenario in which a device-dependent culture needs to evolve alongside new content formats.
For this and a variety of other reasons, including the cost of e-readers and for the media they serve up, Frank thinks the PDF will remain the format of choice for students for some time to come (and the ubiquitous and DRM-free Portable Document Format is readable on the Sony and Amazon devices, anyway).
“They’ll move forward,” Frank says of device-specific e-reader formats. “But there is so much irrational pricing right now that they’ll move forward much more slowly than they probably should.”
For now, expect a PDF revolution. And what better back-to-school present can you think of for 40,000 hard-up college students in the midst of a recession?
See Also:
- Flat World Knowledge to Bring Free Textbooks into Blackboard
- Open Source Textbooks Challenge a Paradigm
- Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business
- Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson on the Future of Free
- College Textbooks Delivered On Kindle: Will Corporate Learning & Development Be Next?
via wired.com
Are you listening Birmingham, Alabama colleges!?
Microsoft Sees MSI’s Acrobuttocks and Raises it a MEGAWOOSH [Video]
via mashable.com
Sweet! Nice one Microsoft. Now drop Lauren the laptop hunter and make ad's like this.
Do lost people really go round in circles? : Not Exactly Rocket Science
via scienceblogs.com
Very interesting article about how we get lost without reference points such as the sun and moon to guide us.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Olark Is A Dead Simple Chat Widget For Site Owners
The ability to chat live with visitors is an incredibly useful marketing tool for site owners. Whether a site owner operates an e-commerce or consumer or business service site, live chat is increasingly becoming the norm for engaging with visitors in real time. Olark, a Y Combinator-funded startup (re)launching today at Demo Day (it was previously branded hab.la), has made the ability to embed chat into a site incredibly simple.
For free, site owners can embed the widget into their site with just a few lines of javascript. One useful feature that Olark offers is the ability to add one-to-one chat to any website without editing any code. Olark’s short link service lets website owners create a link to any site they would like to chat with a visitor about. When a customer/user clicks on the link, the Olark widget will float over to the visited webpage. The site owner can use an existing IM client, such as GChat or AIM, and each customer will show up in the buddy list. So site owners can interact with visitors from their preferred chat program. Visitors show up on a website owner’s buddy list as soon as they hit the site (with an anonymous ID like Web User 1), with the name of the page they’re on. Basically, you can watch everyone’s progress through the site even when they don’t talk to you.
While Olark has a free offering, you can add different functionality to the chat widget starting at $5 per month. One paid feature is the ability to hide the widget on the site when the site owner isn’t available to chat. You can also implement chat in certain pages while restricting chat on others. While most customers will use the free version of the widget, paid clients have been doubling every month and the startup is in line to hit profitability next month. Olark is already being used already on 4000 sites, including SurveyGizmo.com and HonestIdeas.co.uk.
Of course, there are many competitors to this product out there on the market, including chat offerings by Meebo, Digsby and AOL all with the same functionality. But Olark’s co-founder, Ben Congleton says the beauty of Olark’s widget and short link service is in its extreme simplicity, allowing even a non-tech savvy site owner to be able to implement live chat on a site easily. Plus, Olark lets owners customize the widgets to resemble the look and feel of the site in which its embedded. Olark, which was originally a side project of its founders before the startup entered Y Combinator’s program, was rebranded from hab.la during the program. Congleton says that the decision was based on a few considerations, including confusion around the spelling and pronunciation of “Habla” as well as the advantage of having a .com domain versus the .la domain from Hab.la.
Website:
olark.com
Location: Mountain View, California, United States
Founded:
April 20, 2007
Olark is a lightweight tool to chat with visitors to your website using your existing instant messaging client. Visitors to your website appear as buddies on your Buddy list, their messages to you appear as IMs. Learn More
Information provided by CrunchBase
via techcrunch.com
I just added this to bufalocomputerservices.com, my business site and it's really that easy! Very cool! Might even pay for a plan if it works out.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
10 things you need to know about HDMI 1.4 | News | TechRadar UK
via techradar.com
Looks very promising! Hope this get's adopted all around as it has the possibility of changing a whole lot when it comes to PC's.
Visualizing up to ten dimensions - Boing Boing
http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf?mediaId=99898&affiliate=33530
Bowloftoast sez, "This is a short animation that takes the viewer through a progressive description of all (and all possible) dimensions, up to and including the 10th. It is an elegant introduction to the fundamentals of string theory and a mind-blowing toe-dip into the pool of the metaphysical."
Imagining the Tenth Dimension
(Thanks, Bowloftoast!)
via boingboing.net
This is simply amazing and may cause your head to explode but worth a look.
From Boing Boing:
Bowloftoast sez, "This is a short animation that takes the viewer through a progressive description of all (and all possible) dimensions, up to and including the 10th. It is an elegant introduction to the fundamentals of string theory and a mind-blowing toe-dip into the pool of the metaphysical."
Imagining the Tenth Dimension (Thanks, Bowloftoast!)
http://tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Meet Lisa Sanders, The Doctor Behind 'House' : NPR
via npr.org
Lisa Sanders' monthly "Diagnosis" column in The New York Times Magazine was an inspiration for the hit Fox TV series House.
Moon And District 9 Can Save Sci-Fi
via cinemablend.com
Really good look at two up and coming sci-fi movies!
But twice this summer, using a fraction of Abrams' budget, a film has popped up to give fans of smart sci-fi their fix. Though Duncan Jones' gloomy, atmospheric Moon and Neill Blomkamp's adrenaline-pumped District 9 could not be more different films, they both seem to herald a new age for sci-fi, in which cheaply available special effects and a handful of brave distributors mean that science fiction is no longer just the realm of safe Hollywood efforts. You can watch Transformers all you like, but now you have the option of something that looks as good, and has a brain to go with it.
Moon Trailer
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIexG8179K8]
District 9 Trailer
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHihFA8q8xI]
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
New Clips: District 9 And Inglourious Basterds - Screen Rant
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgSR71FjPQw&rel=1&color1=d6d6d6&color2=f0f0f0&border=0&fs=1&hl=en&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&iv_load_policy=3&showsearch=0&hd=1]
via screenrant.com
More goodness for the upcoming District 9 and Inglorious Bastards movies. I can't wait! I'll be seeing both hopefully.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Video: Hitler Is Not Pleased About Facebook’s Acquisition Of FriendFeed
via techcrunch.com
These were my sentiments exactly when learning of FriendFeed's acquisition. I absolutely love these (see http://bmbufalo.posterous.com/hitler-mad-mj-died)!
Trends in Posterous
I've been playing with Posterous for the last month or so on again and off again. So far I really love the service. It is quick, easy and makes cross posting to the majority of the sites I post to and does it quickly through email, something I do a lot of. If you want they even have a bookmarklet that allows you to post website content quickly while you surf the web. As this is mostly what I post, it makes it quick and easy for me. What I've noticed, however is how quickly I get page views using Posterous. Because I've set up several services when I post to my blog a notice goes out to Twitter which seem's to be driving traffic up. I just installed Google Analytics as well and am going to start tracking my user data a little closer but if this trend holds up I can see a lot of value in getting my word out quickly and also get a lot of views. Anyone else notice this?
Experience the planets
Check out this amazing site that features some amazing artist renditions of the 8 planets! via @BadAstronomy
Monday, August 10, 2009
iPhone camera photos
A couple of the best iPhone photos my wife and I have taken on my iPhone.
This was inspired by the iPhone Photography blog, check it out here.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Zombieland Redband Trailer
When I say I'm excited about Zombieland...that's a bit of an understatement. I CAN NOT FREAKING WAIT TO SEE THIS! Here's the redband trailer
http://creative.myspacecdn.com/design/tools/customPlayer/customPlayer.swf Thanks to Screen Rant to feeding my obsession!via Screen RantTwitters Response to Today's Outage
Twitter's latest outage has been caused by a massive Denial of Service attack that also seem's to have affected several other site's around the internet today. Here is their latest post on what went on:
via Twitter
Update on Today's DoS Attacks
As noted earlier on our Status Blog,
Twitter is back in action. The continuing denial of service attack is
being mitigated although there is still degraded service for some folks
while we recover completely.Over the last few hours, Twitter
has been working closely with other companies and services affected by
what appears to be a single, massively coordinated attack. As to the
motivation behind this event, we prefer not to speculate.Please
note that no user data was compromised in this attack. This activity is
about saturating a service with so many requests that it cannot respond
to legitimate requests thereby denying service to intended customers or
users.We've worked hard to achieve technical stability and
we're proud of our Engineering and Operations teams. Nevertheless,
today's massive, globally distributed attack was a reminder that
there's still lots of work ahead.
posted by @Biz at 1:31 PM
via Twitter
Top 5 Slow-Motion Videos
Check out this great compliation of slow-motion video's:http://www.cnet.com/av/video/flv/universalPlayer/universalSmall.swf
[via Cnet]Brian M. Bufalo
http://blog.bmbufalo.com
[via Cnet]Brian M. Bufalo
http://blog.bmbufalo.com
JSCC Incident
Per the Automated Jefferson State Community College Campus Incident alerts body has been discovered next the the Jefferson Campus, see below:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: JSCC e2Campus Notice!
Date: Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Subject: JSCC Incident
To:
Police discover suicide body next to Jefferson Campus. Confirm NOT Student, No Foul Play, Identity not released
From: JSCC e2Campus Notice!
Date: Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Subject: JSCC Incident
To:
Police discover suicide body next to Jefferson Campus. Confirm NOT Student, No Foul Play, Identity not released
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Some Major Changes in the Mix
A lot has happened for me lately in my personal and professional life that will begin to be reflected here on my personal web space, Brian's Latest. My business, BrainCase Inc, that I started with a colleague of mine is in the process of being dissolved. While this sounds really bad it's going to open up some opportunities as well. I plan on continuing to repair computers large and small on my own in my spare time. What that means is I am going to have to grow my website to accommodate both the professional and personal aspect of my life. I am going to have to find a way to maintain a business and a personal space here. Most important is getting a professional presence up in the short term that is presentable and easy to use for my customers and myself. I have registered a new domain name, ordered the business cards and have been brainstorming ways this is going to work out. Thus far it's a work in progress. Fortunately, this is the part of the process that is so exciting and so much fun! In the long term I hope to have a website experience that myself, my customers, and those who follow my personal life can enjoy while staying simple for me to maintain.
I'll keep you posted!
Brian
http://blog.bmbufalo.com
http://www.bufalocomputerservices.com
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Some Major Changes in the Mix
A lot has happened for me lately in my personal and professional life that will begin to be reflected here on my personal web space, Brian's Latest. My business, BrainCase Inc, that I started with a colleague of mine is in the process of being dissolved. While this sounds really bad it's going to open up some opportunities as well. I plan on continuing to repair computers large and small on my own in my spare time. What that means is I am going to have to grow my website to accommodate both the professional and personal aspect of my life. I am going to have to find a way to maintain a business and a personal space here. Most important is getting a professional presence up in the short term that is presentable and easy to use for my customers and myself. I have registered a new domain name, ordered the business cards and have been brainstorming ways this is going to work out. Thus far it's a work in progress. Fortunately, this is the part of the process that is so exciting and so much fun! In the long term I hope to have a website experience that myself, my customers, and those who follow my personal life can enjoy while staying simple for me to maintain.
I'll keep you posted!Brianhttp://blog.bmbufalo.com
http://www.bufalocomputerservices.com
I'll keep you posted!Brianhttp://blog.bmbufalo.com
http://www.bufalocomputerservices.com
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