Category Archives: News

[Science] Recommendations For Educating Children In The iPhone Era

In his latest book “Raising generation Tech – Preparing your Children for a Media-Fueled World”, Jim Taylor, psychologist explores how nowadays technologies shape the lives of our children.

He argues that many parents as digital immigrants should think twice before they use media technologies to have their children – the digital natives – entertained.

According to Amazon.com “The essential message from Raising Generation Tech is that excessive or unguided exposure to popular culture and technology is not good for children.”

Well, but is that really something the people didn’t know before Dr. Taylors book release? Or the other way round: does Dr. Taylor really expect the entertainment media addicted people who themselves grew up in front of the TVs to read his book to change the way they raise their children?

Taylor’s intention is great and we think many people second his thoughts, but we are rather not entirely convinced by his strategy…

» Amazon.com: “Dr. Jim Taylor (2012): “Raising Generation Tech“…

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[iOS] Top Ten Cydia Apps

This Top Ten List is the MetaParadigma’s Editor’s choice of Apps available solely thru Cydia. Cydia is the alternative software distribution platform available to users, who have jailbroken their iDevices.

So you may ask: why jailbreaking anyway? Ain’t there enough software on the App Store?

Well, let’s answer this with another question: do you wanna have a fancy Gameboy like smartfone, for which Apple decides what allowed to be installed do you wanna have a handy pocket computer which you can configure completely?

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[Muzaq] Audacity 2.0 Released

The platform independent and Open Source driven audio editing software Audacity has been released in version 2.0. Audacity is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Many people say, Audacity is simply one of the best software audio editors with a huge amount of well designed built-in functions (fading, normalizing, vocal remover etc.).

It is compatible to LADSPA-Plugins, Nyquist-Plugins and VST-Effects.

Although the GUI should imho still be enhanced in comparison to its commercial competitors (Steinberg Wavelab, Sony Soundforge, Adobe Audition etc.), Audacity is a must-have, as it is free and from a technical point of view it is impressively powerful.

Don’t waste your time and grab your copy now.

 

[Muzaq] German Data Protection Officers Criticize Spotify

German IT-News Golem.de reports that german federal data protection officer Peter Schaar and his Berlin collegue Alexander Dix recommend not to use Spotify services as it does not comply to german data protection law (“Telemediengesetz”).

The german Telemediengesetz requires anonymous or pseudonymous registration of internet services. By forcing customers to use Facebook this law is broken by Spotify.

Link
» Golem.de: “Facebook-Zwang – Datenschützer warnen vor Spotify

[Muzaq] Spotify Launched In Germany

Today Spotify has eventually been launched in Germany. For all german users having registered in other countries via proxies now it is the time to change the country to Germany.

Sadly for new registrants: sole Spotify accounts are not available anymore. Registration requires a Facebook account since november 2011. There is no way around it. Old Non-Facebook accounts will still remain functional.
  

 

[misc] Das Riester-Dilemma – Die Riester-Lüge? ARD Reportage vom 09.01.2012

Die Reportage “Das Riester-Dilemma” ist nun sowohl in der ARD-Mediathek auch auf Youtube (s.u.) verfügbar. Für alle, die schon lange wissen wollten, ob sich die Riester-Rente wirklich lohnt, ist dies wohl einer der wenigen Beiträge, die sich auch der Entstehung des Riester-Rentengesetzes kritisch rekonstruktiv nähern. So kommt auch die Lobbyismus-Expertin Dr. Diana Wehlau zu Wort, die die Spendenströme aus der Finanzbranche in die Bundestagsparteien in den Jahren 1998 bis 2001 genauer beleuchtet.

In der Programmankündigung auf den Internetseiten des RBB heißt es:

“Januar 2001 wurde die Riester-Rente eingeführt – und als entscheidender Schritt zur Lösung der Rentenfrage gefeiert. Die Verfechter waren sich einig: Die gesetzliche Rente alleine könne es nicht mehr schaffen. In einer älter werdenden Gesellschaft müsse jeder privat vorsorgen. Mit staatlichen Zuschüssen sollten die Bürger ermuntert werden, ein privates Zusatzpolster für ihr Alter anzusparen. Doch nun, rund zehn Jahre später, entpuppt sich die vermeintlich renditeträchtige Privatvorsorge mehr und mehr als Rohrkrepierer: Die staatlichen Zuschüsse kommen vor allem den Versicherungsgesellschaften zugute und nicht den kleinen Sparern. (..)”

[MacOS] Backup Chameleon Boot USB-Stick

1. Abstract

You have the situation that you installed Chameleon for security and compatibility purposes on an external USB-stick. For safety reasons you should consider making a backup. But all diskimaging (either Apple’s Diskutility, Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper) tools fail to create a proper backup since the bootblock is just not copied. So you end up with having to create a second usb-stick, but this takes time. So why not copying it? In the following article we’ll show you some basic steps to create a proper backup of your precious Chameleon bootable USB-Stick.

This session is not considered for newbies. You need to understand the steps and understand that you can completely destroy your system when you apply certain steps in a wrong way. The following steps comprise a forum threat on OSX86.net.

2. Walkthru: Backing up your Chameleon USB-Stick

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[Muzaq] ximekon: nooz #2 & wholistic extrusion

Enjoy ximekon‘s latest aural works…

Nooz #2 (Dec 2011)
… in collaboration with NeZoomie and Ivo303

 

Wholistic Extrusion (Jan 2012)
… in collaboration with Jan Gabler)


Album scheduled for mid March, stay iTuned ;-)

[Science] ARTE/3Sat Dokumentation Expedition ins Gehirn…

Die aus dem Jahre 2005 stammende 3-teilige Dokumentation “Expedition ins Gehirn” ist endlich auch auf Youtube gelandet. Die Doku befasst sich mit dem menschen Gedächtnis und seiner Fähigkeit höchste Leistungen zu erbringen. Im Fokus stehen dabei als Abgrenzungskriterium zwischen der Leistung der Gehirne “normaler” Menschen immer wieder die besonderen Leistungen der inselbegabten Savants.

Zu Wort kommen u.a. die bekanntesten Hirnforscher der Welt:

  • Dr. Darold Treffert
  • Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen
  • Prof. Gerhard Roth

Jede Folge ist etwa 45min lang. Enjoy!

Expedition ins Gehirn – Teil 1 – Gedächtnis-Giganten

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