You know your TV has had it when it gets up in years (15 or more to be exact) and you start noticing the following:

1- Weird lines at the top of the screen.
2- A black bar taking up the bottom two inches of the viewing area.
3- Everyone looks shorter and more stout
4- Everyone, bald or otherwise, has a cone head.
5- There is an unmistakable buzzing coming from the speakers.

For those who cannot envision this, see the artist’s rendition (below).

We will be picking up our new TV today.

Wired provides a great overview of how tiny netbooks (small, low powered laptops with very small hard drives) are now ruling the market once dominated by ultra powerful laptops and desktops.  The average person is realizing that they really don’t need their laptop to edit hours of video and play bleeding edge video games after all…

If you have never visited TechCrunch, www.techcrunch.com, it is a good site to learn about the latest trends in the technology world and actually get an eye into what it might mean for the average person. 

I noticed this article on how facebook may be under reporting their number of users in order to stay under the radar from those who might try to discern when they will need more money.  What does this mean for us?  Well it could mean another acquisition from the Google Empire, or another series of “face” lifts to figure out how to create revenue from social networking.  The truth of it is that now that facebook is the tool of the masses, facebook only has a short amount of time to tie it to a viable financial model before people move on to the next big thing.  Remember Friendster?  MySpace?  The clock is ticking, let’s see what happens…

Headline: Twitter Wouldn’t Sell For $1 Billion, Says Source  TechCrunch reports on potential acquisition by Google.

As you will learn, I am a big fan of social networking and interoperability.  Although I personally am only lukewarm to the concept of staying in constant communication with the world around us, I firmly believe that we must meet people where they are if we are to have meaningful communication in the 21st century.  This will be especially true in the changing world of education, where online classrooms will have to compete with other portals, such as Facebook and google for the attention of students.  To help bridge this challenge, I think that people need to be able to easily use technologies that are familiar and can serve multiple purposes.  This is why I am in favor of a Twitter-Google marriage. 

For those unfamiliar, Twitter is a short form communication tool set around keeping posts to 144 characters or less (text message size), so that people can send quick notes an updates on multiple platforms, ranging from cell phones to web pages and beyond.  Although Twitter has made great inroads to ensure that their messages can be broadcast everywhere, including Facebook, they are still a small private company that if it were to go under, would take all of their messages and their broad user base along with it.  Enter Google, with its large reach and technical firepower, they have the ability to help ensure that the technology lasts and seamlessly integrates with multiple technologies (whether they like it or not).  In many ways, acquiring a company like twitter helps lay a familiar infrastructure to provide a new communication network to the masses.  This pipeline will be able to provide all types of content, user generated, educational or otherwise, in a format that speaks to the users.  Again, to be clear, in this day and age we need to speak to people using the mediums that speak to them…

Looking back on this news story, although these acquisition talks can be construed as Google trying to buy up another up and coming potential competitor, I still think that absorbing exciting new companies like Twitter help diversify and in the long run strengthen Google from a creativity standpoint.  Fresh eyes and ideas are only a good thing, especially in the world of social networking where we are all still unsure where the road will lead us next.

To recap, the article discusses that Twitter’s asking price may be too high, but I am sure the discussions will continue.  These type of stories are not only meaningful to those in Silicon Valley but could have far reaching social implications.

I am glad that sites like TechCrunch are asking questions like these…  Like many, I have high hopes for our first techno-friendly president.  Once I know that there is someone whose sole job it will be to think about about our technological infrastructure, I will feel better.  Obviously there have been more pressing issues going on in the White House, but the time has come where we should start hearing something on this front soon.

HD Radio is a fascinating technology that may soon follow the path of the laser disc as a great technology that never got its’ footing and was soon overtaken by more commercially viable technologies.  For those who don’t know what it is, or what it does, check out this NY Times article.

I am clearly on a technology kick these days. I thought this was an interesting article that scratches the surface of the generational gap taking place in the office, which I think also carries over into Education.  As non-traditional learners (formerly lumped under the title “Adult Learners”) are getting younger, they are becoming more technologically savvy.  This article suggests what many may have suspected, that younger people have more tolerance for multi-tasking, specifically using technologies such as laptops, PDAs and smart phones during meetings.  Looking from the standpoint of Education, this can be construed as a cautionary tale that there may be a place for this type of technology in the classroom (online or face to face), but we need to know the populations we serve.  A large part of crafting a quality educational experience is to help students push their boundaries, but still allow them some level of comfort in their education platform. 

This is a follow up to a previous post.  A new Chief Technology Officer will be named.  In addition, the article includes parts of the President’s remarks from the upcoming press conference.

via farm4.static.flickr.com

Interesting pic.  Speaks to the world of Education in the current economy as well as our new world of social media.

I am very curious to see what this means for the consumer.  If people are able to get broadcast TV on their potable devices for free, most notably on their phone, which now is 100% controlled by the cell phone carriers, this could begin changing the industry.  It sound like there will be some hurdles as the technology is standardized, but I certainly appreciate the direction we are going, integrating multiple technologies and platforms.