Great #Insights into Broadband Usage

Interesting to see that bottom graph, top 1% of users utilizing 20% of all traffic, top 10% utilizing 60% of all traffic.



I've been having this discussion about metered broadband plans (similar to what's happening in the wireless world). I think it could be ok if priced at a fair rate (and not as a way to trick users). It just seems unfair that 90% of users are paying more for other people's usage than their own. Perhaps if we had an oyster card like system, maybe 10GB to start at $30, eventually increasing by $10 for every additional 5GB, then capping at $100 for unlimited?



What do you think?

Amplify’d from gigaom.com

Why Broadband Changes Everything

According to the study, the average broadband connection is now generating 14.9 GB of Internet traffic per month, up 31 percent from last year when it was 11.4 GB per month. And while a majority of this traffic is coming from online video –- streaming not P2P -– the trends show that we are using the Internet for more than just that. Give us more speed and we will use it all. And then we’ll want more of it.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing is now 25 percent of global broadband traffic, down from 38 percent last year.

Video — which includes streaming video, Flash, and Internet TV — represents 26 percent, compared to 25 percent for P2P.

The top 1 percent of broadband connections is responsible for more than 20 percent of total Internet traffic.

The top 10 percent of connections is responsible for over 60 percent of broadband Internet traffic, worldwide.

See more at gigaom.com

 

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RSA Animate - Changing #Education Paradigms - Modern Epidemic of ADHD and Divergent/Convergent thinking

Interesting notes:

Just as public education was initially resisted because most people thought the average person couldn't learn to read or write, we were wrong then and today, we must continue the evolution of education to truly enable everyone to achieve their potential.



Modern Epidemic of ADHD (3:38):

Interesting to see how this is heavily skewed towards East/Southeast US which implies that this is not an actual epidemic. It is simply the information overload world and the increased demands on students to pay attention (to more boring things, like history class).



Instead of deadening ourselves (via drugs or arbitrary focus), we need to awaken ourselves to what lies within.



There needs to be a balance of continued divergent thinking along with our convergent thinking (7:50). It's crazy to think about how we all start with the ability for divergent thinking, but modern education (of 1 right answer) has "boxed" us over time to no be able to think outside of the box anymore.

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award. Read more at www.youtube.com

 

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Why Intelligent People Drink More Alcohol

Interesting...perhaps I should drink more

Amplify’d from www.psychologytoday.com

The Scientific Fundamentalist

A Look at the Hard Truths About Human Nature

Why Intelligent People Drink More Alcohol

More intelligent people are more likely to binge drink and get drunk

Drinking alcohol is evolutionarily novel, so the Hypothesis would predict that more intelligent people drink more alcohol than less intelligent people.

The Hypothesis would therefore predict that more intelligent individuals may be more likely to prefer drinking modern alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, and distilled spirits) than less intelligent individuals, because the substance and the method of consumption are both evolutionarily novel.

Consistent with the prediction of the Hypothesis, more intelligent children, both in the United Kingdom and the United States, grow up to consume alcohol more frequently and in greater quantities than less intelligent children.  Controlling for a large number of demographic variables, such as sex, race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, number of children, education, earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, frequency of socialization with friends, number of recent sex partners, childhood social class, mother’s education, and father’s education, more intelligent children grow up to drink more alcohol in the UK and the US.

It is important to note that both income and education, as well as childhood social class and parents’ education, are controlled in multiple regression analyses of these data from the US and the UK.  It means that it is not because more intelligent people occupy higher-paying, more important jobs that require them to socialize and drink with their business associates that they drink more alcohol.  It appears to be their intelligence itself, rather than correlates of intelligence, that inclines them to drink more.

Indicators of alcohol consumption in the Add Health data include the frequency of binge drinking (drinking five or more units of alcohol in one sitting) and the frequency of getting drunk.  That such behavior is detrimental to health and has few, if any, positive consequences, is irrelevant for the Hypothesis.  It does not predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in healthy and beneficial behavior.  Instead, it predicts that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in evolutionarily novel behavior.  Since the consumption of modern alcoholic beverages – including binge drinking and getting drunk – is evolutionarily novel, the Hypothesis would predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in it, and the empirical data from the UK and the US confirm it. Read more at www.psychologytoday.com

 

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Google’s New Billion-Dollar Businesses (Mobile, YT & Display)

Glad to finally not just working in an area that's "strategic". Crazy to think that 5 years ago we had zero Mobile Ads revenue and now we're making $1B.



RE: Android - that's not completely accurate since Android is driving Mobile Ads as people can actually use their phones to browse the Internet, search, etc.

Amplify’d from mashable.com

Google’s New Billion-Dollar Businesses

Display advertising: The company’s annualized run rate for display ad revenues is approaching $2.5 billion, according to Rosenberg. Google called its next billion dollar business, and that it’s already here. Much of Google’s display ad business comes from its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick.

YouTube: While Google didn’t reveal specific revenue numbers for YouTube, the company did say it is monetizing 2 billion views per week, up 50% from last year. Recent reports suggest that YouTube is approaching $1 billion per year in revenue.

Mobile: The annualized run rate for Google’s mobile business is $1 billion this year. That means, if things stay on track, mobile will become yet another billion-dollar business for the search giant. As a note, this is really more about Google’s mobile ad business and less about Android, which is free for companies to use. Read more at mashable.com

 

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Technology In The Classroom (#Infographic) | ThePajamaPundit.com

URL:  http://www.thepajamapundit.com/2010/10/technology-in-cl...

Wow. Really surprising how little computers/Internet are being used in the classroom today. I think the interactive and community nature of the Internet could really facilitate greater learning and it's a shame we aren't taking advantage of it!

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Awesome!

Amplify’d from www.axismaps.com

Typographic Maps

Axis Maps is pleased to announce the release of our mapping / art project Typographic Maps. Created as a labor of love, these unique maps accurately depict the streets and highways, parks, neighborhoods, coastlines, and physical features of the city using nothing but type. Only by manually weaving together thousands upon thousands of carefully placed words does the full picture of the city emerge. Every single piece of type was manually placed, a process that took hundreds of hours to complete for each map. Take a look at our blog for more on how these maps were made.

See more at www.axismaps.com

 

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E-Ink combined with LCD? Pixel Qi

This company needs to make it big. Fast!



I'm seriously excited about the potential of this technology solving 2 critical problems wrt battery life (and usability benefits).



1. E-ink on tablets

2. Reflective pixels for outdoor viewing

Amplify’d from www.pixelqi.com

Pixel Qi: the only non-captive LCD design company in the world

We have already shipped 2 million screens in the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) XO  laptop: Pixel Qi is a spin out of One Laptop per Child.   For our first Pixel Qi product, we have developed of a new class of low power screen that embodies epaper with color and video with vast improvements over the OLPC screen.  With the backlight on, this screen is color and looks and acts just like a standard LCD; with the backlight off, it becomes a highly reflective e-paper display with support for rapid update and video.   Our first product in this series is a10.1" diagonal and is now available for mini-laptops, multitouch tablets, ebook readers and other devices and offers a 5-10X power reduction compared to standard LCD screens.  This allows much longer battery life and/or can halve the weight of tablets using low power chipsets like ARM due the savings on battery weight and housing made possible with our screen.

The future of mobile computing requires low power screens that are readable in any light.

However, in environments with high ambient light levels, the 3Qi's reflective mode contributes to the image, allowing the backlight to be turned down or off.  This unique capability delivers significant power savings,

This highly "green" LCD consumes 80 percent less power in reflective mode, yet delivers a better contrast ratio and equivalent reflectance typical of the best electrophoretic displays.

The screen is the most power-hungry component in a computing device:

Our screens are game changers - delivering low power & long battery life while enabling much lighter tablets, laptops and devices.

See more at www.pixelqi.com

 

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Where creativity comes from: Divergent + Convergent Thinking #mind

A great summary of the creative thought process.



Also, the rest of the article talks about how we are losing the creativity battle in the US Education system.

Amplify’d from www.newsweek.com

To understand exactly what should be done requires first understanding the new story emerging from neuroscience. The lore of pop psychology is that creativity occurs on the right side of the brain. But we now know that if you tried to be creative using only the right side of your brain, it’d be like living with ideas perpetually at the tip of your tongue, just beyond reach. When you try to solve a problem, you begin by concentrating on obvious facts and familiar solutions, to see if the answer lies there. This is a mostly left-brain stage of attack. If the answer doesn’t come, the right and left hemispheres of the brain activate together. Neural networks on the right side scan remote memories that could be vaguely relevant. A wide range of distant information that is normally tuned out becomes available to the left hemisphere, which searches for unseen patterns, alternative meanings, and high-level abstractions. Having glimpsed such a connection, the left brain must quickly lock in on it before it escapes. The attention system must radically reverse gears, going from defocused attention to extremely focused attention. In a flash, the brain pulls together these disparate shreds of thought and binds them into a new single idea that enters consciousness. This is the “aha!” moment of insight, often followed by a spark of pleasure as the brain recognizes the novelty of what it’s come up with. Now the brain must evaluate the idea it just generated. Is it worth pursuing? Creativity requires constant shifting, blender pulses of both divergent thinking and convergent thinking, to combine new information with old and forgotten ideas. Highly creative people are very good at marshaling their brains into bilateral mode, and the more creative they are, the more they dual-activate.Read more at www.newsweek.com

 

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