What is your favorite school appropriate Memorial Day Weekend memory? I hung out with friends, had lots of play practice, and went to the Folk Life Festival in downtown Seattle and saw Aztec dancers  and the spoon man, who recycles spoons into art! But the best thing I did was to hike up Mt. Index to Lake Serene, where I was able to play in the snow! What did you do that was memorable? Or what do you wish that you could have done?  Write a brief post to share with the rest of the computer apps. community!

Which features do you like best on the new DSi? Which don’t you care about and why? If you had created the new DSi, what new feature ideas might you have included? Would you buy a DSi or do you prefer the DS lite–why or why not?

On June 10, 2005, Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University created Repliee Q1, a human like robot. Q1 blinks and appears to be breathing. Not only does Q1 look like a human, but it can also perform human like movements. For example, Q1 can block slaps, swat fast moving balls and snake through debris. Still, not all robots are perfect. It has glitch-reported “spasms.”

You may be wondering what the whole point of this robot is. Q1 was made to escort tour groups and watch after children. Still, many believe that this robot has crossed the fine line between cool and creepy. Would you trust a robot not to desert someone you loved in an emergency? What if it broke down? How do you feel about robots taking over jobs such as these? Would you want a robot in your home or school? Why or why not?

Kindles are devices that allow you to download books and read them on a special screen instead of on paper. Many readers who loved traditional paper books tried a Kindle one time and loved it. They say that it is nothing like reading text from a computer screen, which as some know hurts your eyes after a while. Many say that reading from a Kindle is even more comfortable than a regular book.

The main attributes of the Kindle II are its invisibility to the user, its comfortable grip, and the accesibility to new literature. Also, the Kindle II has the capability to sync book, or other parts of books, onto other kindle devices and, in the near future, your cell phone. This feature would make it so that when you have those unexpected ten minutes to read while waiting for something, you just turn on your phone and there’s your book!

Another new feature is text -to-speech. Now your Kindle can hold and play audio books, too. This way, when you’re right at the good part of your book but you have to leave, you can set your Kindle to play an audio book and listen to it in the car. All in all, the Kindle II seems to be a very well-made decice, meant to be comfortable yet easy to use. The only downside is that it does not have a color display. This would make it too bulky. Further, not all books on the market are available through the Kindle.

In this blog, please answer the following questions about the above current events topic:

1. Make an inference. In your own words, what does it mean when to sync books?

2. In your opinion, will Kindle or other similar devices someday replace books?

3. If Kindles, with their easy to read screens, could download or run computer applications such as Microsoft Office, would you buy it rather than a personal computer? Why or why not.

Cell phones keep changing and including more and more features. Which of the above features are most important to you? Why? Which can you do without? Do you believe that phones like the Blackberry will soon come to replace personal computers. Why or why not?

In the article about cell phone addiction, identify at least one paradigm and share it in this blog. Do you agree or disagree with this paradigm? Name a paradigm that you operate from, whether it’s technology related or not.

Photo: Steve Jobs (left) and Bill Gates

Do you agree with Bill Gates that you should “Keep your friends close and enemies closer?”  Why would someone need to know not only who his or her enemies are but what they are doing? Is it a healthy attitude to assume that you have enemies? Why or why not? Can the concept of an “enemy” be useful? Why or why not? Provide an example of Apple or Microsoft employees either keeping friends or enemies close.

What are some problems here at Monroe Middle that concern extraction, production, distribution, consumption, etc? In what ways are we wasteful or potentially wasteful? What solutions are there for problems that you identify. What questions or concerns did you have about the movie? What did you like or dislike?

 Begin to dialogue about the questions above. Remember to write in complete sentences and refer to one another if possible. Restate, agree or disagree respectfully with each other!

Choose one of the following main characters to reflect upon… Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Bill Gates. At this point in the movie you have seen all of them start out at ground zero and develop their businesses into lucrative, multi-million/billion dollar companies. What personal qualities enabled them to be successful? At what point did they seize an opportunity and make it work for them? How did fortune and fame affect their lives and/or personalities? Did fortune and fame affect their lives/personalities?