Over the last twenty months, I have heard and learned a lot about data driven decision making. My husband, after a trip to Washington DC with his Pepperdine University cadre decided he was going to focus his attention on DDD, education and No Child Left Behind (NCLB). He worked with Micki Tubbs and in July they successfully defended and this Friday it will become official - they will become one of the newest EdTech doctorates! Congrats Cal and Micki !!
Since then I have been very much aware of it. I see it more often in library literature. I have always known that data can get you through doors that otherwise would have been closed, but I see it being used more often outside of the educational realm, being integrated in consumer goods.
A recent blog post by Will Richardson talked about his Prius and how using the data helped him get better gas mileage. I replied that I too had a Prius - two of them, and we now have a Camry hybrid and love the fact that they are constantly giving the driver real time data on their driving habits to assist them in becoming more efficient drivers. In my Prius, I always was shooting for trying to get the gauge to record 100 mpg, knowing that it would help in getting my mpg higher than it was when I started. (I once drove an entire day getting 50+ mpg.) In my Camry, the gauge not only shows me the data, but if I did well, I get an "Excellent" message and my speedometer gets a blue ring around it. Very positive reinforcement!
This weekend shopping, I noticed the new Oral B toothbrush Triumph has also gone with DDD. Their wireless SmartGuide monitor notifies you when to switch areas, how hard you are brushing and when you need a replacement head. It keeps the data for months, so you can track your progress! Very cool tool. (I have the previous Oral B toothbrush, which beeps every 30 seconds to tell you to switch areas - I may have to upgrade!)
Monday, December 10, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
all things Mac...
I am a Mac person. Have been since the Cube came out - loved it. (I guess I was one of the few who never had problems with it.) I only got rid of it because OS X came and I could work seamlessly from one platform to another. (My husband came to the dark side when my OS X laptop came - I had to pry it away from his hands to get my work done.) 4 laptops later, we own 2 plus a new desktop. Anyway... two interesting Mac related stories crossed my path today.
Coming to Terms with a Crash-Proof Laptop by Terry Calhoun is very interesting. From friends who have been converted we get similar stories - they love the fact that it doesn't crash! I have no idea why people put up with it - if it was a TV, it would be returned to the store. The automobile industry has the lemon law for vehicles that chronically have problems. Unsure why a large part of the population knowingly purchases a product they know will crash.
[On a side note: I think as the word gets out on the new Leopard operating system they will be even more converts - I haven't had time to play with ALL the new features, but I LOVE Stickies, Spaces and Quick Look!!! I have no idea how I lived without them. (I did have a stickies widget, but having it as a desktop tool is better. I can open a sticky as I am talking to someone to take notes - sometimes I have two notes going at the same time - one on the conversation, another on things that are triggered by the conversation that I want to look into.) Spaces is a great desktop management tool - great way to control multiple open screens. And Quick Look allows me to take a look at a doc before downloading - saves time and space. It was like going from my old cell phone to an iPhone - how did I ever get along without it! ]
The second news items had to do with the popularity of Macs - they are now becoming more susceptible to viruses. Also of us who love Macs knew the day was coming - I wasn't shocked. Sad, yes. Shocked, no. In Kevin Allison's article Apple’s rising popularity lures hackers, he notes that Macs share of the PC market is increasing and so is the malware that are targeting them. He quotes Patrick Runald, of F-Secure, as saying “Over the past two years, we had found one or two pieces of malware targeting Macs. Since October, we’ve found 100-150 variants.” I think Mac users who have the dual operating system will be some of the first to have issues with viruses; it has already been noted that running both systems at the same time can leave the user open to viruses - something that a typical Mac user has not had to think about in the past. Many of us have let our guard down, but we need to think about installing virus software for our Windows machines we now have. On a side note, if you want to know more on the various viruses out there, google 'patrick runald' and read his contributions to numerous interviews. I spent way tooo much time reading them.
Coming to Terms with a Crash-Proof Laptop by Terry Calhoun is very interesting. From friends who have been converted we get similar stories - they love the fact that it doesn't crash! I have no idea why people put up with it - if it was a TV, it would be returned to the store. The automobile industry has the lemon law for vehicles that chronically have problems. Unsure why a large part of the population knowingly purchases a product they know will crash.
[On a side note: I think as the word gets out on the new Leopard operating system they will be even more converts - I haven't had time to play with ALL the new features, but I LOVE Stickies, Spaces and Quick Look!!! I have no idea how I lived without them. (I did have a stickies widget, but having it as a desktop tool is better. I can open a sticky as I am talking to someone to take notes - sometimes I have two notes going at the same time - one on the conversation, another on things that are triggered by the conversation that I want to look into.) Spaces is a great desktop management tool - great way to control multiple open screens. And Quick Look allows me to take a look at a doc before downloading - saves time and space. It was like going from my old cell phone to an iPhone - how did I ever get along without it! ]
The second news items had to do with the popularity of Macs - they are now becoming more susceptible to viruses. Also of us who love Macs knew the day was coming - I wasn't shocked. Sad, yes. Shocked, no. In Kevin Allison's article Apple’s rising popularity lures hackers, he notes that Macs share of the PC market is increasing and so is the malware that are targeting them. He quotes Patrick Runald, of F-Secure, as saying “Over the past two years, we had found one or two pieces of malware targeting Macs. Since October, we’ve found 100-150 variants.” I think Mac users who have the dual operating system will be some of the first to have issues with viruses; it has already been noted that running both systems at the same time can leave the user open to viruses - something that a typical Mac user has not had to think about in the past. Many of us have let our guard down, but we need to think about installing virus software for our Windows machines we now have. On a side note, if you want to know more on the various viruses out there, google 'patrick runald' and read his contributions to numerous interviews. I spent way tooo much time reading them.
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