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Raising geek kids

TechDept — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:00:12 +0000

Being a nerd is a good thing in our house. My daughters both love being creative, working with technology and learning new things. They proudly identify themselves as geeks.

For a long time now I’ve had a goal to raise children that are creative problem solvers – the kind of people that encounter a problem and say “I have an idea!” instead of “What am I going to do?”

This post I wanted to share some of the things we do together in hopes of inspiring creativity and problem solving. Hopefully it give other geek dads parents some ideas they can do with their kids.

By Hugo Ware for hugoware, 25 Sept 2011.

Why angry birds is so successful and popular: a cognitive teardown of the user experience

TechDept — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:07:14 +0000

Why is it that over 50 million individuals have downloaded this simple game? Many paid a few dollars or more for the advanced version. More compelling is the fact that not only do huge numbers download this game, they play it with such focus that the total number of hours consumed by Angry Birds players world-wide is roughly 200 million minutes a DAY, which translates into 1.2 billion hours a year.

By Charles L. Mauro for Mauro New Media, 6th February 2011

25 Great Examples of UK based Facebook Pages

TechDept — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:13:29 +0000

A few weeks back I wrote a blog post that detailed a few tips surrounding building and maintaining pages for brand and companies within Facebook, a post motivated by a blog post I saw on AppStorm. In the meantime the guys from eConsultancy have also written a detailed blog post surrounding some brilliant examples of Facebook pages that have been created by brands. But its not just these two though, there are hundreds of blog posts that cover the same topic – but there’s a problem - all of them predominantly cover either pages that have been created for US or Global markets.

By James Fell for The Wall, Sept 23 2010

Why Apple is a Groucho Marx brand

TechDept — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:17:49 +0000

Does Apple like its customers? You have to wonder. I’m asking this after the latest PR blunder with Steve Jobs telling an inquiring student to “Please leave us alone”. Yes, from the man himself, Jobs telling a customer to go away.

Sure, I know Jobs is an uber busy CEO, but really media relations should take his phone away after the incident involving Chelsea Isaacs. Or maybe not.

Isaacs a journalism undergrad at Long Island University and having tried and failed to contact the notoriously unhelpful Apple PR team (a universal experience, I think) about an article she was writing about the Apple iPad and got nowhere she emailed Jobs and got, yes, a reply (read the full exchange – its worth it).

By Gordon Macmillan for The Wall, September 21 2010

What your social network profile picture really says

TechDept — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:58:59 +0000

Spare a thought for your profile picture on Facebook. Why did you choose it? What is the scene? Is it even you?

The psychology of profile pictures is now being laid bare in the form of one of the four finalist entries in BBC Radio 4′s “So You Want to Be a Scientist?” project.

Nina Jones is a 17-year-old student from Buckinghamshire, and one of the four finalists. Earlier this year, projects were selected from over 1,300 entrants and given the chance to turn their ideas into real research projects. Together with her mentor Bernie Hogan of Oxford University’s Internet Institute, Nina has discovered some surprising – and some not-so-surprising – things about Facebook profile pictures.

By BBC News Technology, September 13 2010

Movie Mode app – Despicable Me

TechDept — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:10:32 +0000

Turn on Best Buy Movie Mode at the beginning of the movie to translate every hilarious word the Minions are saying during the 3D end credits of Despicable Me, and unlock even more exclusive content after the show. It’s the exciting new mobile app that syncs with the movie screen to give you a one-of-a-kind experience. Check out the TV spot.

By bestbuymoviemode

The Magical Classroom

TechDept — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:43:09 +0000

A short film by SMART Technologies showcasing the magic of their touch screen interactive whiteboards.

Posted on Youtube by SMARTloveoflearning, 03 May 2010.

Game Seeds card game

TechDept — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:11:35 +0000

“Game Seeds is a card game designed to spice up your brainstorm sessions on Character and Game Design. Game Seeds are wild free-spirited tiny creatures that you can play with, combine, hack and get inspired by to bring new characters and game ideas to life. The object of Game Seeds: design a Hero, design a Sidekick and design a Game by playing with a deck of cards.

Gaming most popular internet activity for tweens

TechDept — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:10:48 +0000

Children aged eight- to 14-years-old might be the most digitally aware generation yet, having never experienced life without mobiles, internet and computers, but 74% of children still opt for a modern version of old fashioned entertainment such as gaming.

This is followed by 59% of children who most commonly use the web for homework.

Although 95% of the 3,020 children surveyed said the internet was important to them, 30% said they would still prefer communicating with friends face to face while 15% would prefer texting and only 14% would rather chat online. Nearly 10% prefer communicating using their mobile phone.

By Sara Kimberley, Brand Republic, Jan 11 2010

How Much do Music Artists Earn Online?

TechDept — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:10:36 +0000

For years, we’ve heard the music industry talk about declining sales and profits — often unconvincingly tying these numbers to piracy) — but what about the artists? How much do they earn when their music is distributed online, compared to selling CDs?

It’s a very hard question to answer because much of this data is kept secret and it varies from country to country. Still, David McCandless, author of the book “Information Is Beautiful,” rolled up his sleeves, researched the available data and created this beautiful infographic that shows how hard life is these days for most music artists (unless they’re Lady Gaga).

McCandless discloses that the data was very hard to research and that it may not, therefore, be 100% accurate. He also warns that “these figures do not include publishing royalties (paid to composers of songs).” However, you can check out the full spreadsheet of data, that does include royalties, here.

by Stan Schroeder, April 2010