The grades are in

I have to admit, after marking 190 paper 1 scripts I wasn't in the mood to mark anymore tests. However, everything is done. You will be getting your report cards next week.

I will be here all next week until the 26th. I don't really have anything to do. SO right now my plans include rearranging my office according to Feng Shui principles and playing a lot of tetris.

You can contact me by email over the summer if you need anything. I will be posting occasional photos from my vacation.

Have a good break.

Remember Chapter 5

Do you remember our discussions about paper vs. electronic reading and media? It all tied into web publishing and electronic vs paper files and documents. Well, there is an excellent article at Slate that discusses this and makes clear some of the defining characteristics of today's publishing.

The way we find, collect and use information is changing. For myself and people my age I can see the difference. It is probably harder for you to realize since most of you have not experienced anything different. There has also been significant research about how our brains are actually being wired differently because of all the exposure to electronic media.

A good topic for an EE.

BTW you should watch the 11th Hour, Leo's film about the environment. Excellent piece of work and it has a lot for your courses.

Support Open Source

You can be part of history.

Mozilla has an excellent viral marketing campaign going with the download day. I have been reading about this for a while now and it seems to be taking off. Promotions like this are the new method of advertising in the Internet Age. If they used traditional ads how many people would really care? But get people involved, make it seem like they will be part of a movement and they will step on their grandmothers to get to the front of the line.

This psychology is part of the reason that social networking sites are so popular. You see a large crowd and assume that there must be something of value there. You set up your page and declare 'I am somebody too!'. No longer an individual you take your place as part of the undifferentiated masses.

So go ahead and be one of the masses for a good cause. Open source promotes an open society free from corporate control. It is also a chance to promote Bahrain. Currently we have only 356 pledges as of this posting. Can't we get it over 400 or even 500?

Everyone who signs the pledge and actually downloads will get another two points extra credit. If you do it post a comment to this post and I will look for your name on the site.

Go ahead and join the movement and get lost in the massive crowd. Be somebody by being nobody.

Linux Wins Again!!!

Aside from all of its other many benefits, Linux is also better for the environment. NetworkWorld produces the results of their test and shows the differences. This is also a good issue for those of you in Ecosystems.

IM Rules

This article was very interesting, especially the parts that discuss how people adapted a technology they already knew to make themselves more efficient. I have often wondered if our school's zero tolerance policy for communication devices is misguided.

It just seems to me that a technology used by several hundred million people every day must have some applications to communication within school. If it can make workers more productive by allowing them to have fewer interruptions, could it be used for arranging school events or locating people?

Let me know what you think. Tell me how you could use IM to improve your work and/or efficiency here at school.

For your edification

You can check out this book. It is available as a free download.

We will be covering the Internet when we return from the summer and I am assigning this to you as required summer reading.

Live from Dolphin Park

There are so many people using the net here that I can barely get anything from BitTorrent.

I was thinking about you guys and I decided now would be a good time to talk about the final exam. The exam itself is all IB questions with no editing. There will be four short answer questions and one essay. This should take about 80 to 90 minutes if you are writing at a good pace and not putting too much on paper. You will have the full two hours of course.

I noticed that they are grading the short answer questions a bit differently this year and I will be putting up a grade descriptor for it tomorrow when I get to the office. You should refer to this as well as the other one that I put for the discussion section of the essay when planning your answers.

Anything that we covered this year, and chapters 1 through 8 in your textbooks can appear. It is a good test and I think you will do fine.

As you may have seen I have been finishing my examiner work this week. I can honestly say that the marks are all over the place. Some high scores and some low ones. The highest yet is a 39 out of 40. I have not seen anything different from the tests I grade in class. SO you guys are right on target.

I guess that's about it for now. Tomorrow is furniture moving day so there will be CAS opportunities for anyone who comes to school.

Remember this from the test?

We had a question about detecting fake images. The picture of the guy holding that giant cat.

Well, here is a good article about how it is done. You can use this for its principles and the examples given can provide the social context for your examples and explanations.

First Time in History

I usually don't do this but...

If you want to get some extra points you can complete the assignment I gave in class today. It is due on Thursday the 5th of June.

Extra Credit - 10 marks

• Choose any two points from the Social and ethical issues sections of two different technologies that we have covered this year.
• Explain how these issues are related even though the technologies involved are different.
• Discuss the impacts of these issues within a specific social context.
• Evaluate your answers.

Print your answers, do not submit them in the comments section.
No late submissions will be accepted.