Category: fyi
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UIST Student Innovation Contest
The ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology sponsors a Student Innovation Contest (SIC) with the goal of innovating new interactions on state-of-the-art hardware. They give you the latter, and you show them what you can do. This year they will be working with the new Microsoft TouchMouse. In addition to supplying you the…
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Happy wi-fi day
Today is traditional day we celebrate and honor wi-fi in the US: 8.02.11. In other parts of the world it is celebrated on February eighth.
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UMBC recognized as a 'Great College to Work For'
UMBC was recognized as a “Great College to Work For” in a survey done by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The 2011 survey was based on responses from nearly 44,000 people at 310 US institutions. UMBC was as one of ten large four-year colleges (> 10K students) selected for the honor roll based on its…
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Attack of the patent trolls
This week’s story on This American Life, When Patents Attack, is a good introduction to how the patent system is being used and abused, especially in the software industry. I listened to it today and got new insights into a complex problem. It will be aired on WYPR (88.1) at 4:00pm Sunday and available for…
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Exploring job trends
The job search aggregator indeed.com collects job listings from a large number of of websites, including job boards, newspapers, associations, and company career pages. Using this data, they regularly report on job trends by country, region and keywords. Their most recent report by industry shows the weakness of the economic recovery but also shows a…
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Students can now rent Kindle textbooks from Amazon
Amazon has announced a new program allowing students to rent textbooks. “Kindle Textbook Rental is a flexible and affordable way to read textbooks. You can rent for the minimum length, typically 30 days, and save up to 80% off the print list price. If you find you need your textbook longer, you can extend your…
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Teens prepare for cybersecurity careers at CCBC camp
The Community College of Baltimore County this month held a five-day cybersecurity camp for teenagers who may be on track to becoming cyber experts. Twenty-two students from Baltimore and Howard counties took part in the camp, which was intended to get high school students interested in security, and to consider pursuing college degrees or entry-level…
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Perks help tech startups attract and retain employees
While you can find a treehouse to rent using Airbnb, they also have a mockup of one for their employees to chill in. Last week’s Wall Street Journal had a story, The Perk Bubble Is Growing as Tech Booms Again, on how technology companies compete for employees by offering more and more extravagant perks. “Here…
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Computer science major tops for jobs
Software Development Times reports that Computer Science is the top major for job offers. “Computer science graduates now get more offers of employment than any other major. This is the first time since 2008 that computer science has topped the list: previously, accounting majors had the highest offer rate. In 2011, 56.2% of computer science…
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Is a smartphone your Internet portal?
Today’s Washington Post article, As smartphones proliferate, some users are cutting the computer cord, describes how smartphones are enabling a “always-on, Internet-on-the-go society”. “A third of all American adults own a smartphone and for many minority and low income users, those mobile devices have replaced computers for Internet access. The findings released Monday by the…