Notes on Spark 198: Brontobytes, Babysitters, Gamification

• The show 
• Diane Zorn points to studies that show that gamers learn leadership skills, how to be a team player, etc.  I'm not a gamer so I look at this proposition with skepticism.  Games are purposefully designed to keep the player engaged even when they "die" or fail.  Real-life is not like that:  setbacks like a failed project, losing a job, getting ripped off are not part of any grander scheme.  While the ultimate level or goal of a game may take weeks to achieve, much like real-life projects or endeavors, in a game, along the way, there are many smaller accomplishments specifically designed to entice the gamer to keep playing.  Real-life doesn't normally have instant gratification built into it, and when it does, it usually is bad for your health.  
• While I think that gaming does help with certain intellectual development and problem-solving skills, I worry for my toddler, who will probably be gaming in the future, that he may miss learning to cope and tough it out through adversity, to deeply concentrate and organize thoughts outside of a game situation, and to truly bounce back from real-world failure, if he spends too much time gaming.  
• In another part of the podcast, where Nora Young interviews Elizabeth Lawle, they talk about intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.  Extrinsic rewards are grades, year-end bonuses, etc.

Spark 195: Pagination, Education, Participation

• Listen here
• Two main discussions of interest:  Enhancing education with technology and online collaboration. 
• Classrooms will/should become "hacker spaces" or "creative spaces" where students come together and with some guidance from the teacher, they build stuff.  This seems to make sense for classes such as industrial arts and computing science, but what about language arts (I'm thinking grammer) and social studies (I'm thinking history)? 
• The identity of "young people" today is "what I've built, shared, and what others have built upon".  Corporations will hire these digital leaders based on these attributes.  I argue that the same criteria can/should be applied to professionals currently in the IT industry
• Greater importance of imagination over creativity.  Whereas creativity is thinking about how to do something better, imagination is thinking of an entirely new way to approach a problem (thinking outside the box?)
• Rather than viewing the world as entities competing against each other, the natural way of the world may be collaboration between entities. 
• The "group IQ" of a collection of people is not most influenced by the IQ of the individuals but by the diversity of the group.  Having women in the mix also increases the group IQ
• If we look at the world we live in, if we were competing more than collaborating, would we have our cities, hockey leagues, the United Nations?  If competition was the driving force, I think it would be more of a Mad Max world, but without vehicles, since these probably would not have been invented

Spark: Interview with "Future Perfect" author

• Listen here:  cbc.ca
• Free market forces know the problem to solve and are very efficient, for the short term, but don't do well with planning long-term projects (e.g. widening a bridge in anticipation of increased traffic volumes).  This is what governments are good for.  Can decentralized peer networks plan and execute long-term projects?   
• Media likes to put one person on the cover of Time, etc. when actually the work of thousands may have contributed to X project.  This gives an inaccurate view of how projects are successful.  Projects are not successful based solely on the heroics of one person and even when a project was led by one individual, for multiple successive projects, heroics often cannot be repeated.
• Although I have not read the book, it seems that what is described is also evidenced by the success of open source software that powers the innovation happening on the Internet.  That is, source code written by one person can be freely adapted or enhanced by another developer, without patents and royalties to contend with.  This reflects the saying "[building] on the shoulders of giants".

Web site compatibility

I don't do a lot of web site development now but I was under the impression that in recent years, people's experience with different web browsers (IE, Firefox, etc.) was pretty consistent.  Then I started to use Opera (2010) and noticed its problems with Google Docs spreadsheets.  Then we tried to use the PS3 browser to surf the Internet on our HDTV (when we finally purchased an HDTV in 2011) and realized what an abysmal web browser that is. 

When I started using an iPod Touch (4th generation), I was surprised at how well its Safari browser displayed most web pages.  Besides a very intelligent mobile Safari implementation, it appears it was because of the dominance of its cousin, the iPhone, that caused web sites to bend over backwards to accommodate it.  For example, Google Docs presents a very usable interface for spreadsheet editing to the iPod Touch. 

I finally started an ongoing list of how well certain "unpopular" browsers render web sites that I use.  In summary:

• Windows Phone 7 has problems with more "complex" web sites that don't have a mobile version.  But I am sometimes surprised that it is able to handle image oriented web sites such as those found on Tumblr.
• Blackberry Playbook renders most web site excellently, probably because of its Flash support; surfing the net with the Playbook is much like using your desktop computer although there are gaps. 
• I don't have time to fill in the PS3 column but in general, it sucks.  Don't let the included web browser be a selling feature to you.  I have not researched how other game console web browsers such as on Xbox compare

MiFi 2372 review

Signed up for one-year mobile internet contract with Bell Canada September 2011 when I was using iPod Touch and HTC 6800.  MiFi 2372 was free with one-year contract.  No hotspot capability available with either iPod or 6800 so this device gave me internet access on the go. 

While usually it does a decent job, I am looking forward to the end of my Bell contract and moving onto another hotspot device (since my "new" Samsung Focus running Windows Phone 7.5 evidently cannot act as a hotspot either).  Problems with the MiFi 2372:

• Sometimes suddenly stops working as a hotspot although still has power.  Cannot power off by holding down power button; have to pull out battery to reset
• LED status light is indecipherable when there are problems
• Sometimes loses the configuration (SSID, password, etc.) I've set up for it and it returns to factory configuration

Your experience with MiFi 2372?

Using PS3 with external keyboard

After battling using the PS3 web browser and YouTube app with the PS3 controller, tried plugging in our little-used wireless keyboard.  Tip:  Make sure keyboard is working with your regular computer first, that is, ensure the batteries are charged!

Apparently,
F1 = Triangle button
F2 = Square button
Return/Enter = X button
Esc = Circle button

More short-cut keys:

• http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/browser/shortcut.html

Evernote on WP7

Evernote WP client offers better functionality than the native WP OneNote client as Evernote supports editing tags.  Also I got an annoying "Misplaced Sections" error with OneNote.  Google Docs viewed through WP Internet Explorer is lousy so I'm migrating all my quick, short notes over to Evernote from OneNote on Skydrive.  

iOS devices - innovation and reliability

Besides innovation (which Apple established with the first iPhone, but isn't maintaining on most fronts), reliability is the hallmark of iOS devices.  Am experiencing Adobe Reader plugin hanging my entire work Windows XP computer.  Why?  Probably some combination of Firefox version, Reader plugin version, OS version, and hardware.  Apple controls most of the h/w and s/w stack in their products and thus there are far fewer variables to manage.  Hence greater reliability.  It's not magic or some sort of Apple brilliance.