Find: Making Sense of Data with Google

This online course may interest. 

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Making Sense of Data with Google
// Google Student Blog
Cross-posted from the Google Research Blog

In September 2013, Google announced joining forces with edX to contribute to their open source platform, Open edX. Since then we’ve been working together to expand this open education ecosystem. We’re pleased to announce our first online course built using Open edX. Making Sense of Data showcases the collaborative technology of Google and edX using cbX to run Open edX courses on Google App Engine.

The world is filled with lots of information; learning to make sense of it all helps us to gain perspective and make decisions. We’re pleased to share tools and techniques to structure, visualize, and analyze information in our latest self-paced, online course: Making Sense of Data.

Making Sense of Data is intended for anybody who works with data on a daily basis, such as students, teachers, journalists, and small business owners, and who wants to learn more about how to apply that information to practical problems. Participants will learn about the data process, create and use Fusion Tables (an experimental tool), and look for patterns and relationships in data. Knowledge of statistics or experience with programming is not required.

Like past courses, participants engage with course material through a combination of video and text lessons, activities, and projects. In this course, we will also introduce some new features that help create a more engaging participant experience. For example, participants will be able to access instant hangouts and live chats from the course web page for quick help or for direct feedback. As with all of our MOOCs, you’ll learn from Google experts and collaborate with participants worldwide. You’ll also have the opportunity to complete a final project and apply the skills you’ve learned to earn a certificate.

Making Sense of Data runs from March 18 - April 4, 2014. Visit g.co/datasense to learn more and register today. We look forward to seeing you make sense of all the information out there!

Posted by John Atwood, Program Manager

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Find: Code.org turning the ashes of 'Flappy Bird' into a phoenix of coding education

Code.org turning the ashes of 'Flappy Bird' into a phoenix of coding education
// The Verge - All Posts

The wildly simple yet infinitely frustrating game Flappy Bird is no more, though it continues to live on in countless clones. Now Code.org, the non-profit aimed at teaching people how to write code, has created a tool to make your own Flappy Bird game while learning some code at the same time.

Continue reading…

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Event: help build a new UX community at Friday's nexUX Camp

Folks,

The university is gaining momentum in user experience, and we've organized an event to help things coalesce: nexUX Camp, happening this Friday at the Hunt Library. 

The event itself is free, all day, with a mixed talk/workshop format. 

Please come, and bring your interested friends along!

More detail below. 

Benjamin Watson
Director, Visual Experience Lab | Associate Professor, Computer Science, NC State Univ.

919-513-0325 | vxlab.csc.ncsu.edu | @vx_lab

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Help build a new user experience community at Friday's nexUX Camp

Do remember the thrill you felt the first time you saw an iPhone? Technology can be so exciting. But have you ever asked yourself why?

This isn't only a rhetorical question: if you move people, then — well — you move people. When people are excited about technology, they're more likely to have it, use it, and it will have more impact.

The relationship between technology and emotion is a central concern of the booming field of user experience, as are the broader impacts technology has on us. Good user experience can improve lives.

Unfortunately, user experience expertise doesn't currently exist at any one place at the university, or indeed only at the university. If we want to be a player in UX, we need to come together.

So local faculty, students and practitioners are forming nexUX, a nexus for user experience expertise. We're holding a formative event, nexUX Camp, this Friday February 28 at NC State's Hunt Library, from 930-6pm, at which we'll begin deciding what we'll do together. Registration is free.

Please join us, we want your opinion. Help build the nexUX community.

nexUX Camp crib sheet

what: Lightning talks, workshops, and keynote (program)

when: Friday, February 28, 930-6pm (schedule)

where: NC State's Hunt Library (directions)

how: free to anyone (online RSVP)

nexUX Camp speakers

Ross Teague, Senior UX Manager, Allscripts

Chris Paul, SVP Design, LPL Financial

Santiago Piedrafita, Associate Professor, NCSU Graphic Design

Patrick McGowan, Principal, The Service Design Group

Rajiv Ramarajan, Senior Manager – UX, SAS Institute

Christian Holljes, Professor, NCSU Industrial Design

Liza Potts, Michigan State

Follow nexUX

Find: internet feudalism begins

Seems it's already true that ISPs give you slower access to some content. 

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Comcast gets paid by Netflix and might still want money from Cogent
// Ars Technica

Comcast

Comcast's success in extracting payments from Netflix won't end its dispute with Cogent, a network operator that distributes Netflix video and other traffic, Cogent's CEO said.

Cogent operates one of several networks that Netflix uses to distribute video across the Internet. With Netflix now paying Comcast for a direct connection to that ISP's network, Cogent's role in passing traffic from Netflix to Comcast will be reduced or potentially eliminated.

But just because Netflix traffic will now flow directly from Netflix to Comcast doesn't mean that Comcast will drop its demand for payment from Cogent.

Read 23 remaining paragraphs

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Find: Mozilla aims for the emerging world with plans for the $25 smartphone

Mozilla aims for the emerging world with plans for the $25 smartphone
// Ars Technica

In Barcelona today, Mozilla announced its Firefox OS plans for the next year. The highlight: plans for a line of smartphones starting at $25 each, bringing HTML5-powered smartphones to billions of people who can't afford more expensive devices.

Central to this plan is a partnership with Chinese fabless semiconductor designer Spreadtrum. The company has designed a trio of chipsets built around the ARM Cortex A5 processor.

While a $25 smartphone might be a step down from the high-powered phones of Samsung and Apple, Mozilla is positioning its new products at an audience that currently only has feature phones. As such, it's not a step down, it's a step up.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs

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Find: Mozilla aims for the emerging world with plans for the $25 smartphone

Mozilla aims for the emerging world with plans for the $25 smartphone

// Ars Technica

In Barcelona today, Mozilla announced its Firefox OS plans for the next year. The highlight: plans for a line of smartphones starting at $25 each, bringing HTML5-powered smartphones to billions of people who can't afford more expensive devices.

Central to this plan is a partnership with Chinese fabless semiconductor designer Spreadtrum. The company has designed a trio of chipsets built around the ARM Cortex A5 processor.

While a $25 smartphone might be a step down from the high-powered phones of Samsung and Apple, Mozilla is positioning its new products at an audience that currently only has feature phones. As such, it's not a step down, it's a step up.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs

Find: E-Z-2-Use attack code exploits critical bug in majority of Android phones

Attack targets android browsers. 

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E-Z-2-Use attack code exploits critical bug in majority of Android phones
// Ars Technica

A screen showing the status of a Metasploit attack exploiting a vulnerable Android handset.

Rapid7

Recently-released attack code exploiting a critical Android vulnerability gives attackers a point-and-click interface for hacking a majority of smartphones and tablets that run the Google operating system, its creators said.

The attack was published last week as a module to the open-source Metasploit exploit framework used by security professionals and hackers alike. The code exploits a critical bug in Android's WebView programming interface that was disclosed 14 months ago. The security hole typically gives attackers remote access to a phone's camera and file system and in some cases also exposes other resources, such as geographic location data, SD card contents, and address books. Google patched the vulnerability in November with the release of Android 4.2, but according to the company's figures, the fix is installed on well under half of the handsets it tracks.

"This vulnerability is kind of a huge deal," Tod Beardsley, a researcher for Metasploit maintainer Rapid7, wrote in a recent blog post. "I'm hopeful that by publishing an E-Z-2-Use Metasploit module that exploits it, we can maybe push some vendors toward ensuring that single-click vulnerabilities like this don't last for 93+ weeks in the wild. Don't believe me that this thing is that old? Just take a look at the module's references if you don't believe me."

Read 4 remaining paragraphs

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Find: google fiber puts us on the short list

Ok municipal leaders, lead, or prepare for the wrath of google gone. 

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Google aims to provide broadband in 34 more cities
// NewsObserver.com -- Business

Google is planning to offer high-speed Internet service in 34 more cities scattered across eight states in an ambitious expansion aimed at providing formidable competition to cable and telecommunication providers.

Click to continue  

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Announcement: Our first video shorts are up!

Hey folks,

Our first video shorts are up! They discuss text, color, and layout properties, as well as survey some more advanced properties. They will also complete our discussion of CSS.

As a reminder, you'll need Adobe Reader proper to view these (or as an alternative, you could just read their scripts). Please react to each of these shorts the same way you would to normal lecture topics, and complete them by class Wednesday. We'll discuss them this week.

Professor Watson

Find: EU pushes for less US control of the internet amid outrage over NSA spying

More ripples from nsa surveillance. 

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EU pushes for less US control of the internet amid outrage over NSA spying
// The Verge - All Posts

The EU is challenging US control of the internet today with fresh proposals aimed at decentralizing authority. While there have been concerns over US control for years, today’s proposals follow widespread shock over the US surveillance activities of the NSA. The EU appears to be playing to those concerns, suggesting that the US-centric model of internet governance needs to transition to a global one.

More global internet control brings its own concerns

The EU’s proposals call for more transparency, accountability, and inclusive governance about how the internet is managed and run. Russia, China, and other nations have pushed for changes that would transfer duties such as domain name allocation away from ICANN, the US nonprofit...

Continue reading…

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Announcement: consenting to let us use your html and css assignment results in our research​

As I've mentioned we are experimenting with a tool for improving web design in our research, and we would be grateful for your help.

If you agree to let us use your assignment results in our research, you will earn 1% extra credit for the course. If you don't consent, you can still earn extra credit with extra reading. 

After you consent, your assignments will be identified only with a random numeric ID for anonymity. 

To indicate if you consent, please use this form:
http://ift.tt/1iR6F7Q

If you consent, please fill out this survey:
http://ift.tt/1bjgJaH

Thanks, 

Professor Watson 

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Find: Government wants you to broadcast your driving data—eventually

Hmm. Why not? Our phones already broadcast the same information. 

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Government wants you to broadcast your driving data—eventually
// Ars Technica

An artist's conception of vehicle-to-vehicle communications in action—every car, bus, and truck reporting where it is, where it's going, and how fast it's moving.

US Department of Transportation

The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that it’s finally ready to consider regulations that might require “light vehicles” to communicate with each other about their speed, direction of travel, and location in order to prevent collisions. The technology, called vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) could by some government estimates reduce traffic fatalities by as much as 80 percent if it’s ever fully rolled out.

The emerging V2V standard, which Ars recently looked at in depth, is based on a broadcast networking protocol similar to those used by Wi-Fi networks, GPS geolocation technology, and in-car sensors that detect rate of turn, braking, and other movement data. V2V-equipped cars continuously broadcast information in what's sort of a digital version of the swimming pool game Marco Polo, warning drivers if another vehicle’s broadcasts show a risk of a collision.

V2V technology comes with a number of technical and policy challenges that could blunt any major push to mandate it too quickly or broadly. Privacy, squabbles over radio spectrum, and the cost of the vast scale of the infrastructure (ensuring the security of the system and integrating it with highway infrastructure) are among the major pain points that need to be addressed, or at least considered, before a regulation can be put into effect.

Read 4 remaining paragraphs

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Find: WebState -

Mobile Chrome up, Android browser down. Safari dominates mobile overall but largely because of tablets: phone domination is less.  

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Windows 8 growth falters again, mobile Chrome continues to pick up steam
// Ars Technica

Net Market Share

The first month of the new year continued in the footsteps of the old one. Even the once-volatile mobile browser landscape is now relatively stable, though Chrome is continuing to make its presence felt. And one long-standing oddity of the usage numbers continues: although Android is outselling iOS on a global basis by some margin (and has done so since mid-2010), Safari punches well above its weight in the usage numbers. With some data from Akamai's State of the Internet report, we can get a little more insight into what's going on.

Net Market Share

Net Market Share

The big changes were Internet Explorer picking up 0.3 points and Firefox dropping 0.27 points. The rest were little changed—Chrome up 0.06 points, Safari down 0.02 points, Opera down 0.05 points. Without some big event to shake up the desktop browser market, big swings are unlikely.

Read 13 remaining paragraphs

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Announcement: extension -- assignment 1 is now due Wednesday February 5

Due to last week's snow day, our first assignment is now due Wednesday February 5.

Find: The Big Web Show (109: Bring Me The Head Of Tim Berners-Lee)

Interesting discussion of the web and drm (digital rights management). Drm is a big bugaboo for the open web.

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A rational conversation about EME, DRM, the MPAA, and the W3C.

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