Archive for internet
Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Follow EiH on Twitter in 2010
Posted by: | CommentsPeople often wonder about the purpose of Twitter, and most people fail to see the benefit of a Twitter account. I don’t blame them, and I’m not going to try to convince them of Twitter’s greatness. Instead, I’m going to share with you how EiH uses Twitter and why you should follow EiH on Twitter.
- On This Day Tweets: Get hourly tweets about what happened on any given day in history. I used to post a list on here at the beginning of each day, but that became tiresome and the lists would get really long on some days.
- Daily Dose of Quotes: Some are inspirational, others are silly, but they can often help you through your day. I especially enjoy the quotes from people from long ago whose words still apply today.
- Links to other sites: If you recall the post about the methods of accessing EiH, there is a Posterous blog called EiH Lite. Basically, I use it when Twitter does not afford enough characters, but I don’t need to use a full blog post. As such, I tend to share extended quotes on it, as well as “this day in history” events that warrant more explanation than Twitter’s character limit allows.
- Contests: I plan on having contests in 2010 that will be exclusive to EiH’s Twitter followers. If you don’t follow, you’ll miss out on winning some great stuff.
- Interact with other history and trivia lovers: One of my favorite things to do on Twitter is retweet interesting posts from other Twitterers. Sometimes those tweets reach my weekend Links of Interest posts, but not every retweet is a link, and why wait until the weekend to read something you can read in real time?
There you have it; the top 5 reasons for following EiH on Twitter. While you need a Twitter account to be able to interact, I understand if you have a Twitter aversion and you don’t want to sign up for an account. However, you can still keep up with EiH on Twitter because the profile is public. Simply go to http://twitter.com/HistoryOfAll and bookmark the site. You can even subscribe to EiH’s Twitter RSS feed (although if you go that route you might as well sign up for a Twitter account). Either way, I look forward to interacting with you on Twitter.
P.S. My personal Twitter account is @TamahomeJenkins, so if EiH doesn’t follow you back, I probably will. Feel free to leave your username (or that of your favorite Twitterer) in the comments!
My First Guest Post
Posted by: | CommentsThe guys at Babeled were nice enough to allow me to guest post on their site today. I was nervous because it was my first guest post, but it appears to have passed muster. Follow the link below to take part in this historic event.
Kind of Bloop: Miles Davis Meets 8-bit Audio
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Kind of Bloop: An 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue
I like video games, I like 8-bit montages, and I like jazz. Imagine my excitement when I learned that someone had combined the three and created Kind of Bloop. Only the Internet can allow for the greatest selling jazz album in history to be immortalized in 8-bit form. If you like jazz and you tear up a little when you hear original Nintendo theme music, then you’ll probably enjoy this. Cost of entry is only $5, and you get 5 of the most innovative tracks on the Interwebs.
Kind of Bloop: An 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (via Uncrate)
The Future of Publishing
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A week ago, I wrote a post asking readers what they thought about the future of reading. Today, I’ve come across a website called Scribd, which aims to make writing social. I know what you’re thinking, isn’t that what blogs are for? Well, Scribd is different, as it aims to democratize the publishing space, which allows for sharing on an unprecedented scale. Self-publishing over the Internet is old-hat as sites like Amazon and Lulu have been providing self-publishing platforms for years. However, Scribd is different in that it has a social twist; as the American Historical Association put it, Scribd aims to be “Youtube for Writers.”
What say you? Is the socialization and democratization of writing a good thing? Or does it provide bad writers a playground formerly reserved for the elite?
What is the Future of Reading?
Posted by: | CommentsReading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
– Albert Einstein
I’m not what you would call an avid reader. To be sure, I read magazines, newspapers, and stuff on the Internet all the time. But on average, I generally read 3-4 books (novels, non-fiction, etc.) per year. However, in the last month, I have read 4 books, and am currently working on my 5th. I’ve also discovered a newfound interest in classic literature, having read several short stories and essays by various authors including George Orwell and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Why the Sudden Burst in Reading?
It’s no secret that I am an enormous geek, and I love all things tech. I have an iPod Touch with 3 ebook readers on it, and the only reason I don’t have an Amazon Kindle is for fiscal reasons. That’s right, I’ve read the last 4 books this past month on my iPod Touch; and comfortably I might add. Steve Jobs famously said about the Amazon Kindle in January 2008:
It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.
How ironic then, that the device that has renewed my interest in reading is an Apple device. Even more ironic is the fact that technology is the main reason people don’t read anymore, yet technology just might change that. From the availability of a whole library or bookstore in the palm of your hand, to the persistent connections offered on most newer ebook readers, including the Kindle and the iPhone, the convenience afforded by these devices is unparalleled. Of course, many of the details, such as licensing, need to be addressed, but I whole-heartedly believe that ebooks will overtake traditional books within my lifetime.
What do you think? Are ebook readers here to stay, or just a geek-fad?
Happy 10th Birthday Windows Messenger!
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I’ve never used Windows Messenger outside a corporate environment in tandem with Microsoft Exchange, but a milestone’s a milestone, right? If you actually use Windows Messenger for your IM needs, head on over to the Microsoft commemoration page to get your free gift. Everyone else continue wondering why Microsoft even bothered with this one.
A Short History of Distance Education
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Though it may have come to the forefront in recent years with the growth of online universities and colleges, distance learning has been in existence since the early 1900’s and perhaps before then through mail-based correspondence courses. Even then, distance education owed its success to the development of new forms of media. Starting with catalogs of instructional films, distance education has been adapting to the latest forms of communication ever since.
While radio made an early attempt to provide instruction, it was not until the invention of television that instructional programs really started to garner a lot of interest. Even as early as 1932, schools were working on developing lessons through televised programming, though they did not attain widespread attention until the 1960’s. Televised instruction failed to ever really take hold and in 1967 it was judged that to discontinue it would have little lasting effect on education.
Many attempts were made during the 70’s and 80’s to create high quality educational program and it was Britain’s Open University that served as an inspiration for many programs that arose. These experimented with everything from teleconferencing to videotaped lectures to try to come up with an effective solution for learning at a distance, something that was in high demand with rising college costs and a more mobile population.
Distance learning would get a tried and true partner in the web, however, and the 90’s saw a surge in distance education programs and the students hoping to take them. Through the internet, course materials were relatively inexpensive to deliver and students could communicate with each other and instructors easily through email.
Further advances in internet technology have made the division between online education and more traditional classroom instruction even narrower. Now, lectures can be recorded on video, allowing students to see and listen to their professor as they would in a real class and webcams can make it possible for students to interact with one another in real-time. Quizzes can be taken online, programs have expanded and grown more sophisticated and even some of the most distinguished universities have added distance learning programs.
Distance learning has changed a lot since its early days of correspondence schools and with the rapid fire pace of technological development it’s likely to change a good deal in the coming years as well.
This post was contributed by Meredith Walker, who writes about the online bachelors degree. She welcomes your feedback at MeredithWalker1983 at gmail.com
