Ancient History Ramblings

Cheating at UCF

As we approach final exams, it was interesting to read about a cheating scandal at the University of Central Florida. The post on this topic by Robert Talbert includes a video of the class where the professor at UCF confronts the class and is an important read if you use publisher provided test banks. Talbert makes some very interesting points on the subject.

RSM

New Path?

There is a new photo-sharing site – Path. This site opened last Sunday and is a bit different from other, more traditional photo-sharing sites. What makes Path different is that it places limits on how many people you can share your photos with – you are limited to 50 people.

• “We chose 50 based on the research of Oxford Professor of Evolutionary Psychology Robin Dunbar, who has long suggested that 150 is the maximum number of social relationships that the human brain can sustain at any given time.  Dunbar’s research also shows that personal relationships tend to expand in factors of roughly 3. So while we may have 5 people whom we consider to be our closest friends, and 20 whom we maintain regular contact with, 50 is roughly the outer boundary of our personal networks. These are the people we trust, whom we are building trust with, and whom we consider to be the most important and valued people in our lives.” (http://blog.path.com/)

The argument the company makes is that with this site you do not have to worry about who will be seeing your photos since your circle of friends is limited to 50, unlike Facebook where the average user has more than 100 friends  The site is being first launched as an app for the iPhone, but it can also be viewed through the web.

RSM

Color E Ink Readers

Color E Ink has finally arrived. Some E-readers, like the Kindle, use E ink which can be easier on the eyes since it looks like real ink and is not backlight. Hanvon, an e-reader manufacturer in China, has announced at the FPD International Trade Show.that it will be manufacturing a new e-reader with a color screen. It will be interesting to see how this affects the market since the color E ink screen is not as bright as a color LCD screen, like the iPad.

RSM