I was talking education with a student’s father last Friday. He is originally from Koto, India and sent me an article about India’s Cram Schools which have incredibly increased his hometown’s population.

Students drop out of high school and move out in order to attend a 2-year cram school to prepare for the entrance exam to one of a few Indian Institutes of Technology. These IITs are renowned, as you can imagine.

While teaching for the next two years, I’ll be attending Seton Hall one weekend a month for a degree and certification in teaching. This weekend marks the start of that program. The class is called Becoming a Teacher II: Technology.

Anyway, I swear to you my professor just asked, “Now, what does the right button of the mouse do?”

My school is opening their Back To School Night with this video. Has anyone ever seen this before?

It actually makes me feel anxious and insignificant. Thoughts?

How. Goddam. COOL. is this? The US Army just awarded a $4 million contract to a bunch of scientists who are supposed to develop a thought-control helmet that will let soldiers mentally control equipment in the field or communicate with each other.

If they’re successful, I can’t wait till they find ways to market it to the public sector.

So Kevin Martin (not the one who used to post here. The other one.) is apparently set on auctioning off a large portion of the wireless spectrum to whomever can provide nationwide wireless broadband—free of charges and free or porn. Which, to me, is where it gets really interesting. I’m a freedom of speech nut and, in my mind, porn falls squarely under “speech.” But I also believe free internet access to all Americans is, perhaps, equally important.

So which is more important? Absolute, no-exceptions free speech that cuts off our figurative noses to spite our information-craved faces? Or free data nationwide that sets a dangerous precedent? And for any free-marketeers out there, are we at a point where we can consider internet access a utility like electric and water? Or does the U.S. Government have no business pushing free internet?

Has anyone had this done? How did you find your doctor? What are your results?

I took a nice 4-night 3-day beach vacation this past weekend at some friends’ bungalow in Belmar. Sunday night, my buddy Brian and I goofed around enough to create a few killer tracks (or at least the beer said it was killer). We took turns playing either a push organ or a snare/maracas setup, while we both made up sounds and harmonies.

As usual, we were upset to not have anything to record with. Is a 4-tracker recorder a good idea? I have an iMac and Garage Band. Should I just use that and get a good microphone?

Does anyone know how to convert a Sony Vegas file into a Flash file?

I think there are free Flash converters online, so any advice as far as how to go about it, and which converter to use will help!

Thanks

So have any of you guys tried some of the new apps available from the app store?

So far I’ve gotten AIM, MLB: At Bat, Cube Runner, Remote, Weather Bug and Box Office.

Read more for mini-reviews.

I’m going to do some online research on my own. But I always like hearing your stupid opinions on things so: does anyone own a portable iPod audio system (dock and speakers, you know)?

Does it charge the iPod when plugged in? How long does a full charge last? Is it a separate volume from the iPod’s volume (so you can save iPod energy)? How loud does it get? What was the cost? Are you happy? Have you heard of better? Anything weird or particular to say about the one you’ve got?

I might get one, I might not, who knows.

a few weeks ago, i bought the june 18 issue of u.s. news world report with the cover story headline reading “where your gas money goes: record oil prices fuel the ambitions of the united arab emirates.”

Find out how much radiation your cell phone puts out! The one I own, the Motorola SLVR L2, is in the top 3 highest! Uh-Oh!

10 Highest

10 Lowest

I don’t know how I missed this until now, but I did… until now.

Followup to the previous “Playing the Building” post...now with more video!

John might be the only person who likes this…It’s got a really slow startup, just let it play.

Poor Pleo!

We have a web-based tech repair notification system here at the school where I work. When something is broken, a teacher will file a request on this website, and I get an email saying that there is a request (which, incidently, just creates more paperwork than if the teacher just emailed me directly). I then go to the website to login.

mandy who? has marked this post as private. You must be logged in to view its contents.

Waffle.fm seems to be the best replacement for the defunct Oink.cd site. Of course, you need an invite and I don’t have one. Anybody on theScrabbled in on Waffle.fm?

This is all I have to say about my possible membership: I learned my lesson at Oink.cd. I intend on only using this site for the very rarest of files and will not abuse Waffles.fm availability when I could use PirateBay.org for damn near everything. And of course, I will seed for days after downloading (which I’ve always done).

Dropbox is a web drive (as in a hard drive on the web) that instantly syncs any changes you make to the files within to all machines that are set up with your dropbox account. The screencast on the website seems pretty friggin’ awesome.

i am posting from my couch on my ps3. you know, as opposed to posting from my couch on my mac book. BUT ITS ON MY TV MAN!!!

streaming internet porn has never made more sense.