Interview with Rayid Ghani, Chief Scientist Obama 2012 Campaign: Q. How did you use facebook and other social networks as part of modeling? A. We used facebook for a few different purposes: We used facebook to reach young voters who were hard to reach using traditional channels such as phone, direct mail, and door-to-door canvassing. We built models using data from users who authorized our facebook app that allowed us to ask our supporters to contact their friends for specific reasons (voter registration, volunteering, going to vote, etc.). Our hypothesis was that getting their friends to ask them was more effective than us asking them directly by broadcasting on our facebook page. We also used facebook to determine people's interest and send them messages that were relevant to them and hence increase their likelihood of taking action.
At its release, the Mac was "designed as an information appliance" for which a hobbyist programming language was deemed unnecessary. To me, this ad - targeting teen girls - is consistent with that leave-the-programming-to-others philosophy. Your mileage may vary.:-)
Fall Internship Opportunity: FWD.us Apprentice Program Opportunity: FWD.us is offering a part-time (15 hr/week) apprenticeship program for Fall 2014. Compensation: This is a paid internship. Apprentices will receive a stipend of $550/month Internship perks include: * Weekly meetings with FWD.us staff to discuss current political issues * Face-to-face meetings with influential tech professionals * Professional development coaching in leadership development, networking skills, pitch practice, policy analysis, and qualitative research methods * Developing in-depth knowledge about the tech and policy space
The Yin and Yang of Hour of Code & Immigration Reform: But a recent NY Times Op-Ed by economist Paul Collier criticizing Zuckerberg's FWD.us PAC as self-serving advocacy (echoing earlier criticism) serves as a reminder that Zuckerberg and Gates' Code.org and Hour of Code involvement is the Yin to their H-1B visa lobbying Yang. The two efforts have been inextricably linked together for Congress, if not for the public.
Hey, looks like Donald Sterling's getting a $2 billion dollar Microsoft "severance" package. From TMZ: "Ballmer went to Sterling's Beverly Hills estate Monday at 3 PM, along with Shelly Sterling's lawyer, Pierce O'Donnell... who brokered the $2 billion deal."
Facebook Experiments Had Few Limits"Thousands of Facebook Inc. users received an unsettling message two years ago: They were being locked out of the social network because Facebook believed they were robots or using fake names. To get back in, the users had to prove they were real. In fact, Facebook knew most of the users were legitimate. The message was a test designed to help improve Facebook's antifraud measures...'There's no review process, per se,' said Andrew Ledvina, a Facebook data scientist from February 2012 to July 2013. 'Anyone on that team could run a test," Mr. Ledvina said. "They're always trying to alter peoples' behavior.'...The recent ruckus is 'a glimpse into a wide-ranging practice,' said Kate Crawford, a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Civic Media and a principal researcher at Microsoft Research. Companies 'really do see users as a willing experimental test bed' to be used at the companies' discretion."
Ever thumb through the series of books like "What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know" by now-retired E. D. Hirsch, Jr. to see if your kids were missing anything "big"? With schools in NYC and Chicago rolling out K-12 CS programs starting next Fall, has anyone seen a grade-by-grade proposed syllabus or checklist along these lines showing what's going to be covered at each grade level?. BTW, Hirsch unsurprisingly supports giving Common Core the old college try, although he conceded, "Not even most prescient among us can know whether the Common Core standards will end in triumph or tragedy."
King-Size Homer: In the episode, Homer despises the nuclear plant's new exercise program, and decides to gain 61 pounds (28 kg) in order to claim a disability and work at home.
Slashdot Mirror
Interview with Rayid Ghani, Chief Scientist Obama 2012 Campaign: Q. How did you use facebook and other social networks as part of modeling? A. We used facebook for a few different purposes: We used facebook to reach young voters who were hard to reach using traditional channels such as phone, direct mail, and door-to-door canvassing. We built models using data from users who authorized our facebook app that allowed us to ask our supporters to contact their friends for specific reasons (voter registration, volunteering, going to vote, etc.). Our hypothesis was that getting their friends to ask them was more effective than us asking them directly by broadcasting on our facebook page. We also used facebook to determine people's interest and send them messages that were relevant to them and hence increase their likelihood of taking action.
Valleywag, Jan. 2011: Meet Apple's New Boss, The Most Powerful Gay Man in Silicon Valley
Circa-2002 Motorola "Hello Moto" commercial for the new V60. Wanna trade your iPhone 6 Plus for one?
At its release, the Mac was "designed as an information appliance" for which a hobbyist programming language was deemed unnecessary. To me, this ad - targeting teen girls - is consistent with that leave-the-programming-to-others philosophy. Your mileage may vary. :-)
Did the debut of the AP CS exam in 1984 and its choice of languages - Pascal, C++, Java - make some kids hate computer science and programming?
If you were trying to discourage girls from trying to program computers, you'd be hard-pressed to top Apple's famous Ellen Feis 'Switch' ad (2002 Slashdot discussion). Btw, by introducing 'The Computer for The Rest of Us' in 1984 without a viable hobbyist programming language, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates no doubt helped discourage both girls and boys from studying CS, even if BillG is trying to make amends now.
Comparison of the demographics of undergrad CS majors at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1984 and 2014.
Brogrammers at Work
GM warns Chevrolet Corvette spy feature may break law
Fall Internship Opportunity: FWD.us Apprentice Program
Opportunity:
FWD.us is offering a part-time (15 hr/week) apprenticeship program for Fall 2014.
Compensation:
This is a paid internship. Apprentices will receive a stipend of $550/month
Internship perks include:
* Weekly meetings with FWD.us staff to discuss current political issues
* Face-to-face meetings with influential tech professionals
* Professional development coaching in leadership development, networking skills, pitch practice, policy analysis, and qualitative research methods
* Developing in-depth knowledge about the tech and policy space
Here's a link to the Google Zeitgeist website. Maybe your Mayor can loan you his username and password if you're curious. :-)
The Yin and Yang of Hour of Code & Immigration Reform: But a recent NY Times Op-Ed by economist Paul Collier criticizing Zuckerberg's FWD.us PAC as self-serving advocacy (echoing earlier criticism) serves as a reminder that Zuckerberg and Gates' Code.org and Hour of Code involvement is the Yin to their H-1B visa lobbying Yang. The two efforts have been inextricably linked together for Congress, if not for the public.
That'll teach Reid Hoffman to click 'Accept'...
Hey, looks like Donald Sterling's getting a $2 billion dollar Microsoft "severance" package. From TMZ: "Ballmer went to Sterling's Beverly Hills estate Monday at 3 PM, along with Shelly Sterling's lawyer, Pierce O'Donnell ... who brokered the $2 billion deal."
The "Amazing" Sixfinger: the Most Disturbing Toy that You Probably Never Owned
Facebook Experiments Had Few Limits"Thousands of Facebook Inc. users received an unsettling message two years ago: They were being locked out of the social network because Facebook believed they were robots or using fake names. To get back in, the users had to prove they were real. In fact, Facebook knew most of the users were legitimate. The message was a test designed to help improve Facebook's antifraud measures...'There's no review process, per se,' said Andrew Ledvina, a Facebook data scientist from February 2012 to July 2013. 'Anyone on that team could run a test," Mr. Ledvina said. "They're always trying to alter peoples' behavior.'...The recent ruckus is 'a glimpse into a wide-ranging practice,' said Kate Crawford, a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Civic Media and a principal researcher at Microsoft Research. Companies 'really do see users as a willing experimental test bed' to be used at the companies' discretion."
These are outrageous, but even at 20 cents a text, it's gouging IMO.
CSTA K-12 CS Standards: Mapped to Common Core State Standards. BTW, Google recently hired the Executive Director of CSTA as a Computer Science Education Program Manager.
Ever thumb through the series of books like "What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know" by now-retired E. D. Hirsch, Jr. to see if your kids were missing anything "big"? With schools in NYC and Chicago rolling out K-12 CS programs starting next Fall, has anyone seen a grade-by-grade proposed syllabus or checklist along these lines showing what's going to be covered at each grade level?. BTW, Hirsch unsurprisingly supports giving Common Core the old college try, although he conceded, "Not even most prescient among us can know whether the Common Core standards will end in triumph or tragedy."
Before the Internet, Computerworld was the only browsing distracton at work: '80 Mbytes of storage for under $12k!' and other ad favorites through the years
Should be "with a global overall workforce that's 37% female and U.S. tech workforce that's 1% Black."
King-Size Homer: In the episode, Homer despises the nuclear plant's new exercise program, and decides to gain 61 pounds (28 kg) in order to claim a disability and work at home.
...but very dark.
Looks like spending $425k on lobbying to defeat the WA State income tax may have helped Ballmer save nearly $200 million on this $2B deal: Income Tax Quashed, Ballmer To Cash In Billions
Don't get into that Google bubble car, Grandpa! Didn't your read this? :-)