Ning RIP

The end of Ning as a free resource is pretty discouraging for the future of free, and how it will affects educators. Will the domino effect leave free culture tumbling away in free-fall?

In an attempt to recover my balance, I've tried two more social networking sites today: Grou.ps, and SocialGo. My hopes were tilted upward for SocialGO until five minutes into my exploration revealed that little "Upgrade Plan" buttons emblazoned with the ubiquitous shopping cart icon were laid over all the good features. Ning, we never knew what we had until it was gone.

Trying the Grou.ps avenue will have to wait until tomorrow.

Newly Available Condition: Internet Addiction

It's here, it's official: internet addiction is now a psychiatric problem, at least in Korea. I would like to generalize it to "screen addiction".

dramatech

It's time for a dramatic reading of the help files.. Prepare yourselves.

Zen and the Art of Computing

Each time the machine asks you to wait. To "please wait". Take this golden opportunity to do nothing, breathe, and be.

Praise Technology

The Church of England proclaims "blessed be thy 3G network." During a service in London Monday, The Times reports the Reverend Canon David Parrott blessed all kinds of electronic gadgetry — a modern take on a prayer for laborers that dates to medieval times then: plows and hammers.

Now: smart phones and laptops. The blessing: "May our tongues be gentle, our e-mails be simple and our Web sites be accessible."