Basic tricks for computer use that you ought to know

New Times tech columnist David Pogue delivers real value for your time in this 6 minute TED presentation of 10 basic trick for easier everyday use of you computer, phone and camera.
Like: don't use your mouse to scoll on a webpage, use the spacebar to go down a screen - or shift space bar to go back up again.
Or: Press ctrl + to magnify the size of text on a webpage. ctrl - to back in size again. (it's the cmd-key on Macs)
useful stuff.

The core of e-learning

E-learning, flipping the classroom, blended learning... it's been exploding recently.
Here are links to three podcast with some central actors in the field:

A presentation by Salman Khan at the London School of Economics

A presentation by Sebastian Thrun from Udacity for the Commonwealth club of California on april 17. 2013

And finally, some interesting critical observations from Nicholas Negroponte, ex-head of MIT Medialab, speaking for the Long Now Foundation. He argues that videoinstructions and online tests are disastrous for learning. He calls it instructionalism. Instead he reminds of the virtues of constructivism; learning by doing and making, and the combination and the combination of theory and practice.
His remarks are concentrated 44 minutes into the programme.

Saving all open word documents at once

Ah, I finally found this function: If you have a bunch of word documents open on your screen and want to make sure they are all saved, you can save them all in one go by pressing "shift", and then choosing the "save all" function which will now appear in your "file" menu. Works for both windows and Mac. Wonderful!
It's explained in detail here.

Chinese phrases for key cultural concepts

Here are some Chinese phrases that anyone dealing with China might find useful to know: 

Fendou - 奋斗 

Struggle, hard work. There’s a strong belief that hard work and plain living is the way to build up a person – and a country, as well. Fendou is the drive that allows China to catch up

Renao - 热闹

Lively, hot, noisy. Whereas Danes typically prefer a quiet, orderly setting, Chinese often like to go where everyone else is mingling, talking, eating.

Mianzi - 面对

Face. Showing a big face, protecting face is very important. Nice clothes, a big car, an impressive façade on the house, paying the bills at restaurants – even if you can’t really afford it.

Shanzhai - 山寨

Literally: The bandit’s nest. Refers to pirated copies and low quality semi-legal products. Shanzhai companies are used to working fast, delivering what customers want, really cheap and with whatever means it takes.

Hexie, 和谐

Harmony. A very important concept in later years. Chinese leaders have emphasized the wish to develop a harmonius society, with comfortable, stable and fair relationships. Family and teams in companies should also be in harmony.

Shuang - 爽

If something is just great, feels wonderful, clear, bright and satisfying, the Chinese will call it Shuang, in an affectionate voice.

Jia You-  加油

Literally means: Add gas. Usually a shout to encourage someone to work harder: Go! Commonly used at sporting events, or to ask employees to speed up.

When the copy comes before the original

Here's a great little story about copying in China:
Zahia Hadid, one of the world's leading architects, has drawn the very distinct Wangjing SOHO complex, which is currently under construction in Beijing. However, it seems that someone has gotten hold of the drawings and used them as a very direct inspiration for a similar complex, which is under construction in Chongqing. Apart from illustrating that anything is subject to copying in China, there's a delicious twist to the story, because apparently the building in Chongqing will be completed before the one in Beijing. So the copy will precede the original.
You can read the full story in this article from Der Spiegel.

Watch Google making associations

This is mesmerizing. It's like seeing how Google's image search makes associations to find pictures that look like eachother. By following the variations the artist, Dina Kelberman, makes this great and When You've surprising trail of random images.

 

Afterwards, have a look at this piece, also by Dina Kelberman, and similar in approach: All kinds of little animations from the web with smoke and fire.

On the internet we're carving out meaning, not assembling it

How does the Internet change the way you think? was John Brockman's question for the members of philosophical society of science writers at Edge.org. 
I just read through most of the 150 replies, and one in particular stands out for it's poetic way of expressing a core concept very briefly. The essay by George Dyson titled "Kayaks vs. Canoes". 
 I'm taking the liberty of quoting here in full. 

But you can see it among all the other responses at the Annual Question site: 

Here's George Dyson: 

 

In the North Pacific ocean, there were two approaches to boatbuilding. The Aleuts (and their kayak-building relatives) lived on barren, treeless islands and built their vessels by piecing together skeletal frameworks from fragments of beach-combed wood. The Tlingit (and their dugout canoe-building relatives) built their vessels by selecting entire trees out of the rainforest and removing wood until there was nothing left but a canoe.
The Aleut and the Tlingit achieved similar results — maximum boat / minimum material— by opposite means. The flood of information unleashed by the Internet has produced a similar cultural split. We used to be kayak builders, collecting all available fragments of information to assemble the framework that kept us afloat. Now, we have to learn to become dugout-canoe builders, discarding unneccessary information to reveal the shape of knowledge hidden within.
I was a hardened kayak builder, trained to collect every available stick. I resent having to learn the new skills. But those who don't will be left paddling logs, not canoes.