Monthly Archive for August, 2006

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Making Maths look Cool

Published on Wednesday, August 16, 2006 in Education, Society, Thoughts and Trend. 0 Comments

The reason I changed from ‘not liking maths’ to appreciating how useful it can be, was due to a more appropriate teaching method.

What I should first confess is that I don’t like the way maths is taught in France. I spent most of my later schooling years in France. I left England when I was 12 and came to live in France where maths is considered ‘the’ criteria of intelligence.
Maths is not really taught to students in France it is used to filter people in to groups of intelligent and less intelligent people. It goes so far that very few engineers, Directors/CEOs and even politicians will go places unless they are good at maths. A job in France without the appropriate educational credentials means it is hard to get noticed. Creativity, on the other hand is considered the B-path or C-path as well as all ‘art’ type studies.

So should one be surprised that maths, set on a pedestal in France, is taught to kids in the most uncreative way imaginable.

Although I don’t have a direct comparison, I left France with a Baccalauréat and studied maths in the UK at University. Now, the way maths was taught in the UK, actually became interesting and suddenly made sense. Why ? Well because of the teaching methods and the real-life examples used.

In France for probabilities and statistics it was numbers and letters and say Tim and Sally were added by the pure creative maths teacher.
Is it a surprise that the real life examples used in the UK helped to see the utility of maths? I was told that Jo had a Garage and he had just purchased a structure next to the garage in order to create a parking lot. Jo had a choice of three different types of lights to use in the parking lot and they each had different probability of breaking after a certain amount of hours and each cost a different amount.
We were asked to calculate which lights would be the cheapest for Jo if he opened the parking a) from Monday to Friday 09h00 till 18h00 b) from Monday to Saturday 06h00 to 20h00 c) etc.

It wasn’t just about the fact that I was in a Business School or that I had recently helped a friend calculate import costs for his clothes shop. I was faced with a real life solution where maths illustrated how useful it was to obtaining the best solution, sorry probably the best solution. My other experience told me that in real life you also need to take into account various other aspects about the company providing the goods; through their track record, reputation etc.

I’m not really sure how maths is taught in other countries but when I was reading an article today about how the Nobel prize winning president of Caltech thanked the Numb3rs TV series actor ‘David Krumholtz’ for making “maths look cool”, it got me thinking about this. The character in Numb3rs played by David Krumholtz uses everyday examples that people can relate with to explain the concepts in maths. The explanation aims at including people, showing how the method works with real-life examples. Sounds familiar to me…

An education program has been started by CBS and Texas Instruments to provide teachers with educational exercises that precede each show. The concept seems pretty interesting and has spawned blogs like the blog from the Northeastern University Department of mathematics.

So will maths teachers (especially in France) take note of this series success ? Could they imagine teaching in a down to earth way that demonstrates the value of maths or will they continue to think that the mad scientist, detached from reality image is better ?

Someone stole my magic sword

Published on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 in Game, News and Trend. 0 Comments

An article at CNN (Reuters) covers the trend that criminals are now targeting online games to steal people’s hard earned ‘virtual’ gold.

The multiplayer online games are now being targeted by criminals that will try to steal the hard earned rewards from players of succesful games like World of Warcraft. ” ‘Those of you who are working on massively multiplayer online games, organized crime is already looking at you,’ said Dave Weinstein, a Microsoft security”. Obviously if you can make money from it and it’s not too hard to elaborate a plan to steal it then I’m sure there are unscrupulous people out there willing to find a way to get rich by stealing from others.

As Weinstein says :

“The police are really good at understanding someone stole my credit card and ran up a lot of money. It’s a lot harder to get them to buy into ‘someone stole my magic sword.”

Article ref. : Microsoft: MMO games face security risk

Evangelism does work

Published on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 in Advertising, Blog, Marketing and Trend. 0 Comments

It is quite interesting to figure out what type of information gets through to people who are thinking about buying especially when it’s businesses, that will spend a fair amount of money.

In an article at ‘Chief Marketer’ called Reasons to Get Evangelical About Evangelism Marketing (link via Mediapost’s Marketing Daily), there may be some light shed on this. The article discusses a study from MarketingSherpa partnering with CNET.

Over and above the main results that explain how Word of Mouth, Conferences and Print Magazines came in respectively first second and third (48.3%, 41.9% and print magazines at 40.6%), the article discusses how blogs from ‘other technology professionals’ came in higher than all other blogs at 19.6%. The stats also have podcasts coming in at 2.7% of answers.

I think that sounds right to me, blogs from companies are not really high for me on a reliability scale, or blogs from traditional magazines and media companies. What I would call independent blogs from professionals are more than likely to get my attention. Why ? Well I consider that all the others have something to gain from evangelising a product or company in the same way that the well known evangelists like Vincent Cerf and Guy Kawasaki do/did don’t score high. Even if they start pleading and saying honest this product is really great, it’s just too much like selling your soul for my liking.

Influential Web Sites

Published on Monday, August 14, 2006 in News, Trend and Web. 0 Comments

A very interesting email was waiting for me this morning in my inbox. My week-end round-up from the Guardian which in turn lead me to an article in the Observer/Guardian about “Websites that changed the world“.

Although this is the list that follows, do take a look at the article, it’s far more interesting than the simple list below :

Amazon used to be a large river in South America – but that was before the world wide web.

  1. eBay.com
  2. Wikipedia.com
  3. Napster.com
  4. Youtube.com
  5. Blogger.com
  6. Friendsreunited.com
  7. Drudgereport.com
  8. Myspace.com
  9. Amazon.com
  10. Slashdot.org
  11. Salon.com
  12. Craigslist.org
  13. Google.com
  14. Yahoo.com
  15. Easyjet.com

I personally feel that Google has had a bigger impact than being at number 13, but hey, being reunited with your friends is priceless isn’t it. However being placed after salon.com, what’s that about ? Have you heard people say just google it, and what about just salon.com it ? I think this is more about the Guardian/Observer journalists admiration than true ‘influence’ (sorry, changing the world) along with several other sites like Drudgereport, SlashDot etc. for them to be placed higher than Google.

The WebDNA of UbiKann

Published on Monday, August 14, 2006 in Design, Fun and Web. 0 Comments

While visiting sites that link to UbiKann the other day I came across a site called Neatorama, which covers funny and unusual content.

One of the posts covers the story of the WebDNA project. When I tried it the first time the guy’s server must have been slowly dying under the numerous hits from so many visitors. Today however I was able to take a few snapshots of different sites.

This is UbiKann.com’s DNA profile “à la” WebDNA :

UbiKann Web DNA

This is Significant-Media.com’s WebDNA (a site I just finished) :

Significant-Media.com WebDNA

This is the WebDNA of Gossamer-Threads (my hosting company) :

Gossamer-Threads Web DNA

Finally this is the WebDNA of ‘A List A Part’ :

A List A Part's Web DNA

The Web DNA site explains that the structure of the content is used to create the image and that “a semantically rich site will appear brighter than one with messy old-style code”…

Marketing lessons from Saks

Published on Saturday, August 12, 2006 in Advertising, Society and Trend. 0 Comments

In a New York Times article Saks recent campaigns are discussed. The article explains why Saks has chosen to go with a broad campaign this time as opposed to the previously cashmere specific campaign. As you can see the typography used for the “Want It” campaign uses a ransom note style with the hand poised to steal the “i”…

Saks Want It

I’m not sure how well the people that can afford the garments and objects presented in the campaign, will take to the idea that they need educating about what to wear :

Mr. Schaefer said the trends showcased throughout “Want It!” “set Saks up as the sage, telling consumers what they need.” He continued: “It is educating the consumer. This is what you want in your closet for fall.”

How safer are we ?

Published on Saturday, August 12, 2006 in Politics and Society. 0 Comments

I came across several interesting articles and comments on articles in French, US and UK newspaper sites today about the foiled terrorist plot in the UK.

In Dickey’s article called “Foiled Plot doesn’t make us safer” there are several comparisons to the period leading up to 9/11 :

Panicked CIA analysts flew to Texas to brief Bush personally in 2001, “to intrude on his vacation with face-to-face alerts.” Bush sized them up, as is his wont, looking to judge the content of what they told him by the confidence with which the message was delivered. Bush wasn’t convinced. “All right,” said the president, “You’ve covered your ass now.”

and further down :

Presidents cover their backsides, too. If this attack had succeeded, or another one still does, the people to blame wouldn’t be Bush or his advisors, the culprits would be those who limit his “tools.” Massive wiretaps? Secret prisons? The list is long.

Dickey is often insightful in his articles and this article really covers and discusses some of the key issues that are leading to all these attacks, the fact that many a Muslim most probably feels ‘under attack’ with constant images of blood and carnage in the news concerning the Muslim world.

An article on the Guardian points out that :

Downing Street admitted Tony Blair would not have left the country on Monday for his Caribbean holiday if he had known the police would need to swoop so quickly to disrupt a terrorist plot.

Further down in the article, we find out that Blair and Bush had a “conversation on a secure line” about this. Well it’s good to know that they have changed their habits.

It seems from an article on the WashingtonPost that the whole counter terrorist operation began after July 7 attacks in London, following a tip. Although all arrested are British citizens who are nearly all tied in some way to Pakistan.

These problems are being used however to silence people that don’t agree with the government or policies as an amazing article by Henry Porter illustrates. Policies that aim to stop people that encourage and participate in violence and killing is in my opinion justifiable. Policies aiming people that “have traditionally brought their grievances to those in power” and laws, in order to silence them is very “Nineteen Eighty Four” or “V for Vendetta” (for reference to a modern take on 1984). Such policies are unacceptable. It seems that like Bush in the US, Blair and his government have been busy creating policies that allow them to silence domestic grievances in the name of counter-terrorism.

Update (16 Aug): In a Guardian blog there is a rant from H. Evans about the danger of extremists as opposed to the loss of civil rights. This is following the letter from muslim leaders about UK foreign policy. There are even those who would like to believe it is a hoax.

Barclays increases security

Published on Thursday, August 10, 2006 in Criminal, News and Tech. 0 Comments

An article at Out-Law explains how Barclays will be providing customers beginning next year with a hand-held car reader device allowing them to generate a one-time password.
As Out-Law explains the move follows an Apacs recommendation for more security measures:

“In view of the growing incidence of Trojans and phishing attacks directed at internet users, banks are recommended to move towards stronger authentication for their online banking customers,”

I recommend reading the article that provides very interesting information on how Barclays handles online fraud with regards to its customers :

Asked if the bank refunds victims of phishing attacks who revealed their security details to a fraudster, Holloway indicated that the professionalism of a particular attack will be relevant and each instance would be judged on a “case by case” basis. Barclays does not disclose how many of its customers have suffered such attacks.

And if you don’t know the site Out-Law it’s well worth subscribing to !

We Feel Fine

Published on Thursday, August 10, 2006 in Design, Experimental and Web. 1 Comment

Just came across this web site called We Feel Fine. Don’t know how long it’s been about (3 or 4 months I think) but it is nicely designed and pretty intriguing. The concept reminds me a bit of the NewsMap aggregator in Flash, however this is not in Flash and the layout is simple and very modern (IMHO).

As you can see all these feelings are floating around for you to pick from :

We Feel Fine Main

You can also refine the floaty feelings as you can see here :

We Feel Fine Settings

On some of these lovely floaty feelings, when you click on them, you get the sentence accompanied with a background image :

We Feel Fine Sentence

But you really must take a look it’s well worth the time, it’s a novel experience !

If you enjoyed Don’t click it you’ll like this

CD et DVD vierges

Published on Thursday, August 10, 2006 in Français, Personal and Tech. 0 Comments

J’utilise pas mal de DVD et parfois des CD, j’ai même gravé mon premier DVD double couche avant hier. Tel un enfant devant un jouet j’ai lu Nero qui me disait qu’il gravait la première couche, puis un peu plus tard la deuxième couche (et ouais c’était du X2.4) !

Je me faisais avec cette première expérience de double couche une copie de SuSE 10.1. Mais le but ici est de vous parler de mon fournisseur. Je vous préviens je n’y gagne rien à vous en parler, ce n’est pas un échange de bons procédés avec la société en question. Au contraire c’est un échange de bons procédés avec vous. Car je veux vous expliquer comment je m’y prends.

Je passe par une société anglaise pour mes CD, DVDs et sacoches pour CD/DVD. C’est la même société qui me fournit (je me prends pour le roi d’Angleterre) depuis maintenant 3 ans. Au début, ce que j’aimais c’était leurs infos pour alerter sur la compatibilité du CD ou DVD avec tel ou tel graveur. Au fil du temps les graveurs se sont améliorés donc ces infos sont moins importantes.
Mais les clients peuvent laisser des commentaires. J’ai beaucoup aimé le coup de la sacoche quasiment donné. Un de leurs clients marque “c’est nul”, le service de support de la société ajoute “Pouvez donner un peu plus de détails pour permettre aux autres de mieux comprendre”, plus bas un autre marque “Si on la transporte beaucoup, la sacoche tombe en morceaux” C’est vrai que des sacoches pour abriter 400 CD ou DVD à 9 Euros, on peut imaginer, mais comme répond un autre client. “Moi je m’en sers pour ranger chez moi et c’est parfait”. La note donnée par les clients pour des produits moins bons est en dessous des 5/10, et c’est chose rare! Lorsque plusieurs personnes donnent des notes dont la moyenne finale est entre 9 et 10, vous avez certainement en face d’un produit hors pair…

Une commande vient de m’arriver. Il s’agit d’une commande groupée. Lorsque je passe par SVP je préviens les amis, on se met d’accord sur ce que dont a besoin, puis je regarde les offres ‘Bulk’. On peut par exemple commander un carton de 200 Verbatim (Taiyo Yuden) (16x) DVD-R pour £47.31 (environ 70 euros). Et ce n’est qu’un exemple parmi d’autres avec des marques comme Panasonic, TDK, RiDisc, DataSafe etc. J’ai même pris des TDK ‘ScratchProof’ qui sont, soi-disant, 10 fois plus résistants aux rayures et aux traces de doigts. Avec les DVD que je prête à mon père et qui me reviennent avec cette impression qu’on leur a donné un coup de Spontex, ce n’est pas une mauvaise idée !

Le port est d’environ 14 Euros (pour la France) donc il est intéressant de passer une ‘bonne’ commande chez eux (à plusieurs ?) et le port ne fait même plus mal. Je vous conseillerai aussi de prendre des CD ou DVD que vous connaissez, ou de marque, car par expérience ce n’est pas le milieu de gamme qui est le plus intéressant. Avec les moins cher vous devez vous attendre à avoir des ratés dans le lot mais avec les CD de marque comme Verbatim, Panasonic et TDX je n’ai pas encore eu de raté. Je ne compte pas le coup où l’orage m’a eu en pleine gravure. Forcément le DVD gravé était HS mais en les 2 qui ont suivis, c’était aussi des ratés.
Petite astuce, lorsque l’ordinateur est éteint brutalement en plein milieu d’une gravure, il faut désinstaller Nero, le réinstaller et tout redevient comme avant !
D’ailleurs renvoyer, comme on peut le faire avec SVP, lorsqu’il y a un problème, reviendrait cher comme avec toute commande par Internet.

Voilà, je vous le dis, pour les CD et DVD vierges je vous conseille SVP. A vous de voir maintenant !