Teknovis

I read an article yesterday claiming that tablet users consume more online news. See Tablets Drive Deeper News Consumption [STUDY].

Yes – I am definitely one of those people!

The thing that really annoys me about certain news websites (RTE, The Irish Times, BBC) is that their RSS feeds only contain the first line of the news story, and then I have to browse a very heavy desktop page to read the rest of the story. I wish that they would provide either a full feed, or a second feed with the full articles!

Tags: BBC, RTE, The Irish Times

Apparently today was World Standards Day! I did not know such a thing existed, until a colleague told me about it this morning!

So happy World Standards Day!

Exactly a month after I last wrote about Irish Universities falling in global rankings (see Irish University Rankings)  there is another rankings list published that indicates an even greater fall. TCD is now the highest placed university in position 117. See The World University Rankings 2011-2012 for the complete list.

According to some articles, such as Government faces fees pressure as universities slide, the universities believe that the solution lies in reintroducing university fees:

UCD president Dr Hugh Brady said: “We are working harder and longer with far less but it will be difficult for us and for all of the Irish universities to compete in the years ahead unless the nettle of higher education funding is grasped.”

This is interesting coming from the seventh highest earner in education in Ireland (see The top 100 best-paid in education).

Personally, I believe that the Irish universities mismanage a lot of the money which they receive. I think that academics are paid too much in Ireland, and increasingly their performance is failing. Perhaps this is part of the general falling standards in Irish universities.

I personally know some academics working in EU universities that are ranked higher than the Irish universities, yet they earn significantly less than their Irish counterparts.

Tags: TCD, UCD

I read an interesting article about the most influential people in education in Ireland – The 50 most influential people in education.

The two things that surprised me most were:

• A lot of the people in the top 10 are not typically associated with Irish education!
• Brian McCraith, President of DCU, is the only university representative with a leadership role in the top 10 – well done!

It would be interesting to correlate this list with the list cited in Top Educational Salaries in Ireland!

Tags: DCU, Ireland

Somebody was discussing the virtues and dangers of Facebook with me recently, and he subsequently sent me this cartoon summarising his feelings :)

Facebook and You

In fairness, this could equally be applied to Amazon‘s new Silk browsing experience! See Amazon’s Silk looks creepily Phorm-ulaic.

Tags: Amazon, Facebook

I came across this cool interactive feature describing all of Steve Jobs’s patents today – Steve Jobs’s Patents.

Apparently, Steve has a very direct involvement with Apple‘s patent activities, according to Steve Jobs’ patents: A vital lesson for CEOs.

Tags: Apple, Steve Jobs

I had a discussion with a friend recently regarding the benefits of standards. I was subsequently sent the following image:

How Standards Proliferate

In fairness, it is very true!

I recently came across this list of cool HTML5 sites: 10 inspiring HTML5 sites you really should see.

I am particularly impressed with the SVG cartoons in Bifter (Desert Island Disks is even humorous :). I notice that they were created using Inkscape. I really must give it a try, because I have heard good reports about it!

Tags: HTML, Inkscape, SVG

I recently read an interesting article about a Windows compatible operating system called ReactOS. (The article is Russian President Medvedev asked to fund Windows clone.) There is also more useful information in ReactOS.

It is an interesting idea, and I can see the benefits to having such an operating system. However, I do not think that Microsoft needs to start worrying yet ;)

Tags: Microsoft, ReactOS

I read about a dog tracking device called Retriever over the weekend in Track Your Dog With Retriever, The Compact GPS Dog Collar.

There is nothing particularly innovative in this idea, but it seems to be well executed.

It interests me :) However, I must confess that I am wondering if it could equally well be used on a child!

Actually, I would be very interested in a generic version that I could hide in a car, or hide in a school bag, or in any other concealed area!

Tags: GPS