Bookless library opened by new US university
Alison Flood, The Guardian, 2014/09/01

Although purists might think of a bookless library as a contradiction in terms, I think that something like this is the only way forward for librarians (and books, like scrolls and tablets, may continue to be kept in museums and archives). I also like this: "Once a book has been viewed twice on this system, it will be automatically purchased. The set-up, said Miller, 'allows for many more books to be available for the students, and the university only has to pay when the student or faculty member uses the book', allowing students 'to make direct choices regarding the books they want to read and have available in the library'."

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With $30 Million More in Hand, IFTTT Looks to the Internet of Things
Mike Isaac, New York Times, 2014/09/01

Forget Google and Facebook. The future will be run by companies like IFTTT: "The way we see the Internet of Things playing out, there’s going to be a need for an operating system that’s detached from any specific device,” Linden Tibbets said. “What we’re doing now is the foundation for that.”

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Why Learning From Mistakes Is Overrated
Stephen J. Meyer, Forbes, 2014/09/01

I'm not sure exactly how I want to respond to this - and after several minutes thinkibg about it decised that this fact makes it work passing along. Here's the author's main point: "Maybe failure is really interesting to explore only after success has been achieved." Before success, people haven't found out what they're good at - and this is what they should focus on. But after success, they've found their niche, and the types of failures they experience are more about process rather than direction. I asked myself, first, have I have some kind of 'success' that I could pin down and identify, and second, is there some 'thing' that I'm good at? Because I do believe I learn from my mistakes, which would mean these two conditions must have been satisfied. But I think that identifying 'success' and the 'thing' we're good at isn't so straightforward - and therefore, neither is this argument.

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Internal emails show LA school officials started iPad talks with software supplier a year before bids
Annie Gilbertson, 83.9KPCC, 2014/09/01

This is why people don't trust the good intentions of corporations. As Audrey Watters summarizes: "several LA news organizations obtained and published emails between LAUSD, Apple, and Pearson officials. The emails reveal that Superintendent John Deasy began meeting with these companies to discuss the hardware/curriculum purchase almost a year before the multimillion dollar contract went out to bid. The district agreed last year to purchase 700,000 iPads — one for every student in the district. The devices would come pre-loaded with curriculum created by Pearson. The expected cost of this project, including upgrades to the district’s WiFi: over $1 billion." The deal has since been cancelled - which makes it, I think, the exception rather than the rule.

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