Cervical Cancer on your mind?
Posted on | January 26, 2012 | No Comments
I am not a woman and I do not have a cervix BUT the issue of cervical cancer is a very serious issue and one that brings with it a bit of controversy.
Here is an interview I did on DubaiEye during the Nightline show.
I spoke with Charmaine D’Souza and Dr. Amala.
Find them on Facebook “its about you” or call 04 434 5960 or 055 947 1882
Here is our interview.
This is also a good example of how you can talk about sensitive topics in the UAE.
Tech Review
Posted on | January 25, 2012 | No Comments
As you may or may not know I also spend a bit of time on DubaiEye 103.8FM with Nightline.
One of the parts of the show I really enjoy is talking a look at some of the new technology out there and doing some hands on testing.
We looked at 2 items last night on the program.
Nokia Lumia 800
- Nokia’s first Windows phone
- I’ve had it since last Friday
- Great design (same as N9)
- One piece solid polycarbonate, solid color throughout
- Great camera, dedicated physical camera button
- 1.4 GHz processor (single core), 512 MB RAM
- 16 GB storage (no expansion), you get 25GB SkyDrive cloud storage
- 8 megapixel camera, f2.2 lens, Carl Zeiss lens, 720p HD video
- Windows Phone 7.5
- Fast, like the tile interface
- IE 9 is fast, but doesn’t render all sites correctly (Mobile Safari for iOS is better)
- Apps is an issue (50,000 but not all that I need)
- I can imagine how nice the 900 would be, with bigger screen, front-facing camera and LTE
|
DURABILITY |
5, no concerns, the polycarbonate body makes it feel hi-class |
|
PORTABILITY |
4, no problems, battery life increased with software update |
|
EASE OF USE |
4, if you come from Android or iOS, there’s a but of learning to do |
|
Design and Form Factor |
4, like the N9 – very good |
Turtle Beach EarForce PX21
http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/ps3-gaming-headsets/ear-force-px21.aspx
- About $80
- Long and thick cable
- Remote control too close to the headset
- Soft earcups
- Very flexible mic boom
- Great sound for voice chat
- Decent for music
|
DURABILITY |
4 Some concerns, like the padding comes off easily |
|
PORTABILITY |
3 Very bulky, but not really meant to be carried around |
|
EASE OF USE |
5 Great, no problems |
|
Design and Form Factor |
4 Only that cord is very thick and inflexible |
16/20
Here is the podcast of the show.
Career Plans?
Posted on | January 18, 2012 | No Comments
How much career planning are you doing or have you done?
I know several people who have mapped things out and have pretty well followed the road-map.
My plan has been pretty haphazard and gone more with luck, intuition and chance.
What if your career was only really destined to last 4 years?
It was interesting to look at how some people have lived this in the last couple of years.
Like this lady.
Stacy Brown-Philpot, 36
1997 First job: Pricewaterhouse-Coopers
1999 Second job: Goldman Sachs
2000 Enters Stanford MBA program; offers finance skills to software startups to learn the tech biz2003 Joins Google in sales finance; segues into sales and operations•
2009 Volunteers to head Google’s online sales and operations in India
Or this guy.
Adam Hasler, 28
2006 Takes over Modern Times, a D.C. coffeehouse; lives on “cookies and beer”
2009 Leaves the business; learns programming and electronics and writes case studies for international-development journal
2010 Interns at interactive media-arts lab in Buenos Aires
2011 Applies to MIT Media Lab’s Center for Civic Media, in Cambridge; waits tables
Old/New Publishing
Posted on | January 17, 2012 | No Comments
I stumbled upon this piece a few days back.
About 100 Hawaiian-language newspapers published from 1834 to 1948 are being translated by roughly 3,000 volunteers. The newspapers are currently housed in Hawaiian archival collections as originals and microfilmed images, but when the project is finished, more than 60,000 pages of daily life in the Hawaiian Kingdom will be available for viewing on the Internet.
This is the coolest idea I have read about in a long time.
And the 1st thing it made me think about was the rich history of the printed press in the UAE.
Well, if we go back before the federation of the UAE there were a handful of people writing broadsheets, by hand, and placing them on their Majalis doors for the community.
Imagine if these publications could be brought back to life?
In a sense this is the type of historical journalism that the UAE needs to embark upon.
A history project that is still young enough to have materials and people of the era around.
The Awaiaulu project is a great example and a doable idea here in the UAE.
Anyone interested?
Hugh Says it! My Role on DubaiEye’s Nightline
Posted on | January 16, 2012 | No Comments
A Must Watch
Posted on | January 15, 2012 | No Comments
Why go to school?
What is a teacher?
Public education?
Smart?
Not?
Economics vs intellectual?
I am moving to a new school in September to help create the UAE’s leading mass communication program.
I say leading because if we are going to just do what is typical today there would be no point in moving to CUD from ZU.
We are going to put a program in motion that is in constant re-invention.
We are thinking of journalism in terms of the craft and the delivery.
We are thinking advertising in terms of what, who and where.
We are thinking about PR in terms of the story and delivery.
No more we need huge expensive pools of equipment to make media, WE DON’T NEED A HUGE SET OR A HUGE LAB.
What we need is people who are engaged as mentors and learners.
Watch this video this to me is where CUD’s mass communication program is going.
Tags: communication > CUD > Education > ideas > ken > mass > robinson > sir > ted
An Artists Mind
Posted on | January 14, 2012 | No Comments
I had the opportunity to speak to the music sensation Rash Radio on my ever popular radio show on Dubai Eye.
Honest, sincere and real.
I loved his answer to the question about writers block.
Rash said that he felt like every song was his last and then the next one just seemed to arrive in his mind.
I love the sound of his music and he said that it is set to morph into a bit more deeper textures.
This is an interview that I would recommend to anyone who is looking at what they love to do and thinking of packing it in.
Sometimes all you need for a bit of inspiration is someone to take notice.
Listen to Rash Radio music at Triplew.me.
Here is the interview.
A very cool TEDx
Posted on | January 13, 2012 | No Comments
There are a lot of TEDx events taking place these days, things have sure come a long way from 2009 when Giorgio Ungania and myself organized the 1st TEDxDubai.
Big, small, local, regional, ethnic, artistic the question that people are asking is what makes a great TEDx?
Unlike many things size does matter.
It is my personal belief that many TEDx organizers have become blinded by size and want to scale their events.
TEDx is all about engagement of a community and from where I am sitting the closer you can get to the community and actually get them involved in the process of communication, 2 way not mass or one way, the better.
The other challenge that TEDx organizers face is who to engage as speakers.
Again TEDx is all about community and too many organizers spend too much time trying to be TED.
Tap the community and the magic happens.
This TEDx event is one of those events that has wrestled with its identity and I think it has found the mix of size, content and community that makes it very relevant.
My own foray into TEDx events has taken me to Salons that are small, almost impromptu and in very public places.
Instead of people coming to TEDx the event comes to them, interesting idea and it seems to work.
The beauty of TEDx, from where I am sitting, is the ability it has to engage a community.
And the best thing about a TEDx event is there are many examples but as many variations as you can dream up.
MITx a great Idea.
Posted on | January 12, 2012 | No Comments
MIT has consistently pushed the education envelope.
One of the greatest challenges to any education institution is how to take what is happening inside the walls to a larger community.
Think ideas and think finances.
What we are talking about is a win win.
What if I could get a million people doing courses and for 1 dollar they could get a certificate?
That would be cool.
And what if the certificate had value because my course completion was authenticated and validated?
MIT is well on the road to making a global open education possible.
MITx will endeavor to break down barriers to education in two ways. First, it will offer the online teaching of MIT courses to people around the world and the opportunity for able learners to gain certification of mastery of MIT material. Second, it will make freely available to educational institutions everywhere the open-source software infrastructure on which MITx is based.
This sounds really cool and I wonder how Zayed University where I am now or the Canadian University of Dubai where I am moving to in July can borrow a page from MIT.
The Power of the Muppets p2
Posted on | January 11, 2012 | No Comments
Google+ and the Muppets.
This just works so well on so many levels.
keep looking »
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