Changing the way we Learn

I remember slugging around a heavy backpack full of textbooks that in some cases were outdated the moment I bought them.

Big, heavy, and expensive, I was glad to get rid of them.

Now a revolution has happened.

Not just for textbooks but a change that drastically improves the way we learn and the way we teach and create learning materials.

Apple announced today in partnership with the major text book publishers a new way to use textbooks by using the iPad.

Watch the video here. It’s awesome.

But the innovation doesn’t stop there. With iBooks Author, Apple has made it easy to create books with interactive content, and it’s drag and drop to create.

The books can be used on the iPad. You can take notes and the notes are saved with the books.

We’ve been stuck on a static system of learning for too long.

Now it’s time to catch up to the digital age.

The new iBooks still feature traditional text, but now video, interactive content, quizzes, note taking, flash cards, and more bring that learning to the new millennium.

And that’s only part of the innovation. Watch the video on Apple.com for more.

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Imagine a World without Free Knowledge

“Imagine a World without Free Knowledge” from Wikipedia’s blackout page.

One of the largest and most used websites on the net is down in protest of the SOPA and PIPA acts in Congress.

There has never been an Internet protest of this magnitude in the US.

Google has “censored” their page in protest and has organized a petition that I urge you sign here.

Reddit has blackedout and pointed visitors to sign a petition.

Hundreds of other sites have put notices or have brought their own sites down in protest.

What’s the big deal about all this anyway?

It’s interesting that our nation has been critical of other nations and regimes whose governments censor the Internet.

The SOPA and PIPA bills would provide the US government the ability to censor the Internet in a similar manner at the bidding of the entertainment industry.

Take 5 Seconds and give your Opinion Voice

Sign the Petition organized by Google here.

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Stop Unjust Online Censorship

Online Censorship?

No, this isn’t a post about Iran, North Korea, or Syria.

It’s about the United States.

I don’t think I’ve posted anything on our site even remotely political, but I do support Freedom, and this is important enough to get involved.

Congress is set to vote on January 24th, if you like using the Internet, then you should watch the video below and see what’s about to happen.

Quick Video about Preserving Freedom on the Internet:

The acts are called PIPA (Protect IP Act) in the Senate and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House.

You can read more about who’s funding who here if you’re into that.

I’m all for protecting intellectual property, but you need to judge if these bills have gone too far.

If you watch the video above you’ll see why.

We already have a system in place for infringement

If the record labels can sue 12 year old girls for hundreds of thousands of dollars and win (remember when that was happening not too long ago?), how much more power is necessary?

A system of legal recourse is already in place, but at the click of a button whole sites, maybe your personal blog, or videos you’ve posted to YouTube, or all of YouTube, Facebook, and Google could be in danger.

Imagine searching for Sony Blu-Ray player on Google, and only one search result appears: Sony.

All other results in the Google search say, “Results removed due to a SOPA/PIPA violation.”

Drop GoDaddy Day – People Took Action

I used to buy my domain names and host my websites at GoDaddy.

Then GoDaddy started a sleazy advertising campaign (and their CEO shot an elephant), to top it off, GoDaddy recently gave their official support of SOPA.

The Internet community decided to boycott GoDaddy pledging to remove 82,000 domains from GoDaddy and register them somewhere else.

I’ve moved all my hosting away from GoDaddy starting on Drop GoDaddy Day (a move I should have made a long time ago anyway because I didn’t like their advertising) and am just about to transfer away the very last domain I had there.

Thousands did the same.

Now GoDaddy opposes SOPA.

This is a Big Deal

More than a few people think it’s not right that China will block Google because they allow for searches about Tiananmen Square, other countries block websites they feel appose their government…even censoring news sites like CNN.

SOPA and PIPA open a Pandora’s box of problems in the name of the movie industry.

Write to your representative in congress (scroll down to the place to write congress).

Over a Million People have emailed congress, but that’s not enough because support for the bill is still strong.

The SOPA and PIPA acts visualized

See the infographic.

You can see that support for the bills in Congress is strong.

They know what they’re doing in congress, right?

Why would support be so good if these were bad bills?

Let’s look at the Companies that support SOPA and PIPA:

• Comcast/NBCUniversal
• News Corporation
• Sony Music Nashville
• Universal Music
• Warner Music Group
• Warner Music Nashville
• And a whole bunch of other companies

Source: judiciary.house.gov

Companies that Oppose SOPA and PIPA:

• Google
• Facebook
• eBay
• Etsy
• Yahoo
• Mozilla (the folks that make Firefox)
• CloudFlare
• foursquare
• HostGator
• The Huffington Post
• Craigslist
• ICanHasCheezburger
• tumblr
• Reddit
• Creative Commons
• Free Software Foundation
• Wikipedia (Wikimedia)
• WordPress (powers websites like ours)

Sources and more companies that oppose: AmericanCensorship.org, TechCrunch.com

Additional Organizations and Individuals that Oppose SOPA:

• American Association of Law Libraries
• American Library Association
• Association of College and Research Libraries
• Library Copyright Alliance
• Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal
• Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square

Source: SopaTruth.info

Time to Take Action

I believe in freedom on the Internet. I support intellectual property rights, but not in the way that SOPA and PIPA propose.

I’ve written my feelings to Congress using the site listed below.

Whatever your feelings, I urge you do take 2.5 minutes and do the same.

Write to your representative in congress by clicking here..

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First Go at HDR Photography

Have you ever taken a picture, and then when showing someone the picture you’ve taken, you sigh with dissapointment, “Well, you just had to be there. The picture doesn’t do it justice.”

I’ve gone through that…a lot.

I still have a lot to learn about photography, but I’ve wished I could get my pictures to turn out better.

There’s a technique called HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography, and I finally was able to give it a go this holiday season.

Here are some shots I took:

A Cool Winter’s Day

Nestled in the Mountains

Cabins in the Distance

Red Sky Delight (or Pink)

First Go at HDR

When you’re watching a sunset, your senses take in the beauty of the scene.

The problem when taking a picture of the scene is that the photograph doesn’t record like your mind records a scene.

The camera doesn’t record what you see because your eyes and brain interpret the light differently than the camera’s sensor.

For example, here’s what the Red Sky photo looked like without HDR

You can see how the camera doesn’t interpret the light from the trees and ground very well, but standing there, you could see them and the sunset just fine.

It was a beautiful moment on what was becoming a chilly winter evening as the sun set.

Here’s the HDR version again:

HDR helps capture the essence and feeling of the scene.

You adjust your camera’s settings to take different exposures of the same scene.

Underexposed, which captures the majesty of the sky for example, and then increasing the exposure on the camera with each picture.

Low exposure:

Lighter:

Lighter-er:

Pretty exposed there:

Unfortunately, when I was taking the pictures, the clouds were moving super fast. They just would hold still for me!

So you take the various exposures and put them in a program called Photomatix that combines the images for you. It’s pretty slick.

Final Result:

If your camera can autobracket, you can take the different exposure levels automatically. My current camera can’t do that, so I have to manually adjust after each picture (which can move the camera, creating blur).

My pictures above are my first go at HDR and aren’t the best examples, but below are some awesome examples courtesy of StuckinCustoms.com:

First HDR to Hang in the Smithsonian by Trey Ratcliff – Stuckincustoms.com

Disneyworld HDR Photo by Trey Ratcliff – Stuckincustoms.com

Taj Mahal HDR by Trey Ratcliff – Stuckincustoms.com

Trey’s photographs are outstanding (used under Creative Commons License).

He has some awesome tutorials on his site.

Since taking my pictures, I’ve watched a lot of his tutorials, so my next pictures should be even better (hopefully).

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2011 Year in Review

We had a great year this year.

The kids had a lot of fun, with tumbling, dance and school.

Mom and Dad had fun too with a trip to Jurassic Park (well, close enough).

Book Thomas Read:

• The Science of Advertising
• Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D.
• Poke the Box by Seth Godin
• The Alchemist
• Tell to Win
• The Millionaire Messenger: Make a Difference and a Fortune Sharing Your Advice
• Blue Ocean Strategy (reread)
• All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin
• Free Prize Inside
• Verse by Verse The Four Gospels by D. Kelly Ogden, Andrew C. Skinner
• We are All Weird by Seth Godin
• Read this before your next Meeting
• The Book of Mormon

Media we Enjoyed:

• Jurassic Park (because we flew there…sort of)
• Food, Inc.
• Waking Sleeping Beauty (Documentary about the Disney Animation Renaissance)
• The Coat: A Story of Charity
• Wise Men Still Seek Him
• The Annoying Orange
• AngryBirds (all for the kids of course)

 

World Events:

• Widespread unrest in Arab and African nations overthrows governments in what is called the Arab Spring
• The war in Iraq finally comes to an end
• Osama bin Laden is killed
• Tsunami triggered by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake devastates Japan and causes a meltdown situation at the Fukushima nuclear reactor
• Steve Jobs dies

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