Google.org on helping technologically developing countries in Africa gain a global voice: allowing them to be producers, not just consumers, of knowledge.
Today, Swahili books online for example, number in the hundreds compared to the hundreds of millions of books in English available online. What message does this send to young people about the relative importance of their knowledge, language, and culture?
An important (rhetorical) question.
Or maybe, “The One Million Dollar Algorithm”.
A competition to improve the recommendation engine of the online DVD rental company, Netflix, has been running in to problems.
As the contestants edge toward an improvement rate of 10% (the point at which the $1,000,000 prize will be awarded), their progress grinds to a halt thanks to a small selection of films that are notoriously divisive and difficult to predict. The New York Times reports that this problem is being called the Napoleon Dynamite Problem:
Mathematically speaking, “Napoleon Dynamite” is a very significant problem for the Netflix Prize. Amazingly, Bertoni has deduced that this single movie is causing 15 percent of his remaining error rate. […] And while “Napoleon Dynamite” is the worst culprit, it isn’t the only troublemaker. A small subset of other titles have caused almost as much bedevilment among the Netflix Prize competitors. When Bertoni showed me a list of his 25 most-difficult-to-predict movies, I noticed they were all similar in some way to “Napoleon Dynamite” — culturally or politically polarizing and hard to classify, including “I Heart Huckabees,” “Lost in Translation,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” “Kill Bill: Volume 1″ and “Sideways.”
Rands In Repose’s Nerd Handbook is an essay on understanding geeks; from our insatiable appetite for knowledge to our hard-to-decipher social interaction ’skills’. The Handbook is at times painfully precise.
The nerd has based his career, maybe his life, on the computer, and as we’ll see, this intimate relationship has altered his view of the world. He sees the world as a system which, given enough time and effort, is completely knowable. This is a fragile illusion that your nerd has adopted, but it’s a pleasant one that gets your nerd through the day. When the illusion is broken, you are going to discover that…
Your nerd has control issues
Your nerd has built himself a cave
Your nerd loves toys and puzzles
Nerds are fucking funny
Your nerd has an amazing appetite for information
Your nerd has built an annoyingly efficient relevancy engine in his head
Your nerd might come off as not liking people
I see a lot of myself here, and I’ll have to remember to send this to any future prospective Mrs Morgans. In fact, while I’m at it, maybe I should also send them The Atlantic’s article on caring for your introvert… they share a lot in common with us.
Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?
[…]
If you answered yes to these questions, chances are that you have an introvert on your hands—and that you aren’t caring for him properly.
How can I let the introvert in my life know that I support him and respect his choice?
First, recognize that it’s not a choice. It’s not a lifestyle. It’s an orientation.
Second, when you see an introvert lost in thought, don’t say “What’s the matter?” or “Are you all right?”
Third, don’t say anything else, either.
Mashable’s list of over 130 web design tools looks like it may come in handy.
Tools mentioned include CSS optimisers, colour scheme generators, attractive background design generators, and many more.
With a number of companies beginning to offer unlimited vacation time, Alison Lobron of The Boston Globe asks whether unlimited vacation is really a beneficial perk for employees.
Because of technology’s reach, some activists rightly worry that “unlimited vacation” is nothing more than corporate-speak for “no vacation at all.” They worry that employees without a specified vacation allotment will feel pressure to work constantly, damaging their relationships, their health, and the nails on their BlackBerry-typing fingers. Bonnie Michaels is a board member at Take Back Your Time, a nonprofit organization focused on work/life balance. She has no problem with informal vacation policies, so long as managers create a culture where employees really can take breaks. “People are always afraid of taking time off if everybody else isn’t doing it,” says Michaels. A recession can compound that problem. When people feel insecure about their jobs and their wallets, “they probably won’t take the time,” she says.