OLDaily

How the Internet has changed in the past 10 years
Jason Kottke, kottke.org, 2017/05/18

Let's take stock. "In 2007, the Web was triumphant. But then came apps and Facebook and other semi-walled gardens... Facebook did open up…they turned themselves inside-out and crushed the small pieces loosely joined contingent. They let the Web flood in but caught the Web’s users and content creators before they could wash back out again." See also Alexis Madigral in the Atlantic, The Weird Thing about Today's Internet.

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Compliance is Not the End Goal of Education
George Couros, Connected Principals, 2017/05/18

It shouldn't have to be said, I suppose, but it bears repeating that there are several outcomes above and beyond 'compliance' sought in a quality education. Outcomes like 'engaged' and 'empowered', for example. "Focusing on 'empowering' students is seen by some as 'fluffy'," writes George Couros, but "This is not my belief at all.  Empowering students teaches them to have their own voice and follow their own direction." 

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I Don’t Believe in Blockchain
Onging, 2017/05/18

I'm sure Don and Alex Tapscott don't want to read this, but Tim Bray (who has a long history of internet standards development) has called the recent attention being paid to blockchain "an over­pro­mot­ed niche sideshow." He writes, "I’ve seen wave after wave of landscape-shifting tech­nol­o­gy sweep through the IT space: Per­son­al com­put­er­s, Unix, C, the In­ter­net and We­b, Java, REST, mo­bile, pub­lic cloud. And with­out ex­cep­tion, I ob­served that they were ini­tial­ly load­ed in the back door by geek­s, with­out ask­ing per­mis­sion, be­cause they got shit done and helped peo­ple with their job­s.That’s not hap­pen­ing with blockchain. Not in the slight­est. Which is why I don’t be­lieve in it." 

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JSON Feed Version 1
Brent Simmons, Manton Reece, 2017/05/18

I've had a JSON version of OLDaily since 2010 but since nobody was using JSON for feed syndication it didn't really matter. Fast-forward seven years and we have the release of JSON Feed version 1, so I updated my JSON format to match theirs, added the autodiscovery and new icon, and am now among the adopters of the format. You can see my JSON feed at http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.json and subscribe to it using your web browser or an (as yet non-existing (but I'll see what I can do)) JSON feed reader. See also this Brent Simmons blog post on JSON feed.

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Boy, 11, hacks cyber-security audience to give lesson on 'weaponisation' of toys
Agence France-Presse, The Guardian, 2017/05/18

This is too good to pass by. At a cyber-security conference in the Netherlands 11-year old Reuben Paul used a Raspberry Pi ("a small credit-card size computer") to hack into attendees' bluetooth devices to control a teddy bear, successfully recording and playing back audio from the conference. “IOT home appliances, things that can be used in our everyday lives, our cars, lights refrigerators, everything like this that is connected can be used and weaponised to spy on us or harm us.” The real message here isn't that this can be done - I think we knew that - but that it can be done by an 11-year old. Image: Joost vander Vleuten.

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