Living in the Future

Month: March 2016

  • A list of the apps on my phone that can make calls

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    Rob Attrell

    Doesn’t require phone number: FaceTime Phone Contacts Facebook Messenger Snapchat Google Hangouts Messages Whatsapp Can/does use your phone number: Phone FaceTime Messages Chrome Safari Mail Notes Announced, but hasn’t shown up yet: Slack As it turns out, pretty much every remotely social company has a way that people can talk to one another in a…

  • Podcasts Like ‘Serial’ Are Encouraging Literacy

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    Rob Attrell

    “[L]istening, unlike looking at a written page, is more active, since the brain has to process the information at the pace it is played.” My student Roberto offered similar insight: “I think it helps me out with my reading since I have to keep a pace up.” Huh, turns out the best ways for kids…

  • Driverless Cars Are Going To Be Here So Fast

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    Rob Attrell

    [T]he ongoing conversation is good for those who wish to see self-driving cars enter use, a careful analysis of the facts, coupled with an understanding of how similar transitions have played out through history, indicates that the majority of the discussion occurring right now vastly underestimates the speed with which self-driving cars will become the…

  • Bacteria Is Evolving to Eat Plastic

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    Rob Attrell

    PET was only invented about 70 years ago. That means the bacteria must have evolved the ability to consume the plastic over the intervening decades. The results are published in Science. I don’t want to say ‘I told you so’, but I kind of called this one. As I keep saying, yes of course, plastic…

  • How Much Should Free Tuition Cost?

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    Rob Attrell

    I don’t think many people – other than say, the Canadian Federation of Students and their wilder-eyed allies – genuinely believe that tuition for children of wealthier families should be free. Most people agree that there should be some sort of net price slope, running from zero for students from poorer families and upwards as…

  • Looking into Ottawa’s past

    Looking into Ottawa’s past

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    Rob Attrell

    I’m not exactly sure how I came across this (I think I was seeing how streets lined up and wondering how Ottawa’s streets might have changed), but this morning I discovered a really neat repository of old aerial maps of Ottawa, going back all the way to the 1920s. It’s cool to see how cities…

  • Ed Snowden can say whatever he wants

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    Rob Attrell

    “The FBI says Apple has the ‘exclusive technical means’ to unlock the phone,” Snowden said. “Respectfully, that’s bullshit.” It must be really nice to be in a position where you can say something like this with confidence, having not a care in the world about repercussions. Not saying Snowden is in an enviable position overall,…

  • The Problem with Homelessness is Poverty

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    Rob Attrell

    I attended college pay-as-you-go for a couple years while working, then left because I couldn’t afford to continue and knew better than to take on student debt. My moderate savings was destroyed in my 30s by health care costs that insurance wouldn’t cover. Within the past several years, full-time work that pays a subsistence wage…

  • Handoff for iTunes | iMore

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    Rob Attrell

    I’d love to be able to start a playlist on my Mac and then walk away, pick up my iPhone, swipe, and keep right on listening. So true. I (and Rene) have been saying this for a few years at least. This is the dream, and it’s sooooo close with Handoff, just not for iTunes.…

  • Is group chat making you sweat?

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    Rob Attrell

    10. Chat reminds you that you’re behind. Group chat feels like you’re chasing something all day long. What’s worse, group chat often causes “return anxiety” — a feeling of dread when you’re away for a while and you come back to dozens (hundreds?) of unread lines. Are you supposed to read each one? If you don’t, you…