Club Admiralty Blog
A blog about life in general, in as many languages as I can manage. Ενα ιστολόγιο περι ζωής, πολυγλωσσο - σε όσες γλωσσες εχω μεράκι να γράψω.
Microsoft: where mobile operating systems go do die
Wednesday, Feb 28 2018, 18:30 adieu, Microsoft, mobile, Technology, Windows PermalinkI am not sure if I was revising something on Feedly that I had not read yet, or if this crossed one of my feeds last week, but the story was about Windows Mobile 10 being taken off life support (it wasn't this story, but it gives you an idea). I've come to the conclusion, over the past decade, that Microsoft (just like Sony) just isn't good at Mobile. They've given it a valiant try with Windows CE, then PocketPC, failing to get PocketPC 6.0 out and cancelling it (reminds me a bit of PalmOS 5 in the way this was done), then purchasing Danger and killing off the HipTop and the HipTop OS for the Kin...which was summarily euthanized right out of the gateway. Then buying off Nokia (and I would say putting their mole in that organization to make this happen) so that Nokia would make Windows Phone devices and kill of the Symbian OS, and then bungling Windows Phone by making Windows Phone 8 incompatible with Windows Phone 7 apps, and then making Windows Phone 10 incompatible with 8. Seriously, with this kind of loyalty to people who buy your devices who needs friends ;-) . Maybe microsoft should stop trying and become a custom android manufacturer - or just get out of mobile altogether.
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Microsoft (Nokia) Lumia phones |
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Review: MOOCs
Tuesday, Feb 27 2018, 18:32 Books, conference, dissertation, DistanceEducation, Education, goodreads, PhD, research, review, Social Media, Social Networks Permalink
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
While the book is a bit out of date (MOOCs have moved along since it was published) I still found it to be a good introduction to the phenomenon of the (albeit without really looking too in-depth at research done in MOOCs).I did have an opportunity to hear the author speak back in 2012 (?) at the Campus Technology conference in Boston. At the time I was a bit dismissive, perhaps owning to the fact that I could have written such a book, even at the time (and I hadn't 😜), but putting a few years between the publication of this book and reading it makes me appreciate it a little more. Yes, most of the book wasn't news to me. Perhaps that's it: I better appreciated my own change of reference. Instead of viewing it as something I would learn a ton from, viewing it as a reviewer for other people who might be interested made me appreciate it more.
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Pika pika!
Tuesday, Feb 27 2018, 18:08 cartoons, Entertainment, nintendo, pokemon, video games, VideoGames Permalink
Adieu wikispaces
Monday, Feb 26 2018, 07:42 adieu, Social Media, Technology, wikis PermalinkWell...another one bites the dust...
Wikispaces this past week notified users of their Free wikis that the platform is going away this summer (apparently private label wiki admins got this notification earlier). It seems that one by one pioneers of the Web 2.0/social media revolution are closing their doors and moving on. I remember the excitement that was afoot when we could create our own wikis without needing to setup our own server to run mediawiki. Wikispaces was a pretty awesome space. Yes, wikis by their nature are not as pretty to look at as compared to something that you lay out in InDesign or something similar, but it does get the work done. Back in the day, when I was a student in the Instructional Design MEd program there was some turmoil in the department; lots of turnover for program directors, so no steady leadership, and lots of brain drain. Because I was an employee of the institution classmates kept asking me program specific questions that they thought I knew. Getting tired of answering the same questions (and also looking for an opportunity to get my own questions answered), I created a wiki on wikispaces called PocketID (Pocket Instructional Design), which included faculty bios (which I tried to crowdsource from faculty themselves as well as students), syllabi, course material breakdown (sort of like a crowdsourced OpenCcourseWare), a history of the department, and so on. A few years later, once things settled in the department I didn't maintain PocketID with much regularity, but the department decided to adopt the majority of it (and fork it). Good times wikispaces, sorry to see you go.
Wikispaces this past week notified users of their Free wikis that the platform is going away this summer (apparently private label wiki admins got this notification earlier). It seems that one by one pioneers of the Web 2.0/social media revolution are closing their doors and moving on. I remember the excitement that was afoot when we could create our own wikis without needing to setup our own server to run mediawiki. Wikispaces was a pretty awesome space. Yes, wikis by their nature are not as pretty to look at as compared to something that you lay out in InDesign or something similar, but it does get the work done. Back in the day, when I was a student in the Instructional Design MEd program there was some turmoil in the department; lots of turnover for program directors, so no steady leadership, and lots of brain drain. Because I was an employee of the institution classmates kept asking me program specific questions that they thought I knew. Getting tired of answering the same questions (and also looking for an opportunity to get my own questions answered), I created a wiki on wikispaces called PocketID (Pocket Instructional Design), which included faculty bios (which I tried to crowdsource from faculty themselves as well as students), syllabi, course material breakdown (sort of like a crowdsourced OpenCcourseWare), a history of the department, and so on. A few years later, once things settled in the department I didn't maintain PocketID with much regularity, but the department decided to adopt the majority of it (and fork it). Good times wikispaces, sorry to see you go.

Review: The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years
Sunday, Feb 25 2018, 18:21 Books, Entertainment, goodreads, review, Sci-Fi, Social Media, Social Networks, StarTrek Permalink
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An interesting look at the genesis of Star Trek, from before there was even Star Trek, through The Animated Series, through a few aborted concepts, to Star Trek VI. Told through the words of the people involved in the series, so there are multiple views on any given thing. One thing is for certain: for any Star Trek don't put all your eggs in the "What would Roddenberry do?" basket because it's clear that while there was a good idea, and a few good moments, he wasn't the Trek messiah people paint him to be :-) I think that what makes Star Trek what it is are the people involved and the stories told in the universe. Saying that something "isn't star trek" is a quick (and not so sophisticated) way of dismissing it.
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Adieu Miitomo
Friday, Feb 23 2018, 06:48 adieu, miitomo, nintendo, Social Networking, Social Networks, Technology PermalinkWell...I guess that's the end of that! Miitomo has announced in via their app that Miitomo will go offline and never come back in May. For the past couple of years this quirky social network has kept us company. The idea behind it was that people would customize a Mii (which Nintendo has also slowly walked away from in their newest console, the Switch) and through those Miis you could interact with your friends: send messages, funny photo snaps (like this one), and answer trivia about you (favorite movie and such, which seems like a way to get your information phished). You can import your Mii and your sidekick Miis before the end of May to your WiiU or your Nintendo 3DS, but sadly all of the clothing and accessories that you've gotten in Miitomo do not transfer.

Sev TNG - Will will ever get his own command?
Thursday, Feb 22 2018, 02:00 comics, Humor, SciFi, Sev, StarTrek, TNG Permalink(original archive here)

Συγκοινωνία! Μας ξέκανες!
Wednesday, Feb 21 2018, 22:00 MBTA, Δουλειά, Ελληνικά, ΜΜΜ, κούραση, χάος Permalink![]() |
Περιμένουν το λεωφορείο |
Από τα νέα:
Passengers contended with severe delays due to a partial closure of the T's Red Line from early Wednesday until the middle of the evening rush-hour. Many expressed fury and frustration as the MBTA attempted to get service back up and running.
The delays began around 9:20 a.m. when a six-car train heading north toward Andrew Station "experienced an issue that led to the derailment of the last car," Joe Pesaturo, the agency's spokesman, said in a statement. The derailed car was able to get back on track before entering the station, and riders were able to exit the train safely.
An early evaluation of the tracks showed that roughly 300 feet of the third rail was damaged, the statement said.

Cognitive dissonance in games
Tuesday, Feb 20 2018, 20:18 comics, Entertainment, Humor, shootEmUp, video games, VideoGames Permalink
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