Apple Keyboard Shortcuts and Touchpad Commands

If you are used to a Windows user interface and use keyboard shortcuts, then when you alternate and use a Mac, it has a different set of keyboard shortcuts and Touchpad commands you’ll want to learn and remember. Below is my list of Apple keyboard shortcuts and Touchpad features I use most often.

Posted By Li Hao on March 27, 2012
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How to Record Audio on Computer

Computer audio recording technology has advanced significantly in the last 10 years or so. Even a low-powered computer can now record audio professionally with the right hardware and software tools. Here's a guide to help you record audio on a computer, whether you're trying to make a professional sounding song or a simple audio greeting for friends and family.

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If they build stuff, students will come -- to learn more

That's the idea behind a recently opened fab lab at Castilleja School in Palo Alto. Thursday afternoon in Elaine Middleman's Biology and Economics of Cancer class, seniors Suzie Quackenbush and Christine Herrmann, both 18, were working on what they called a cancer-screening box, a device that would allow researchers to view slides with cells. After three days working at the lab, they had a cardboard prototype held together with blue tape.

"Eventually it will be made of thin wood, with metal hinges," Quackenbush said. "It'll look much better than this." It will have to work, too. Middleman said the students are being graded on "producing a functional product."

Distance learning, YouTube, the iPad -- new technology is helping transform education in many ways. But the Bourn Lab, a fabrication lab built especially for middle- and high-schoolers, aims to get students to create tangible things.

The Bourn Lab is part of the FabLab@School program, which was created by Paulo Blikstein, an assistant professor at Stanford who has a similar lab on campus and who started one in Moscow. Blikstein was a master's student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology around the time a fab lab was created there, he said.

Exploring vs. lecturing

Other fab labs were born out of that MIT effort. The Fab Lab San Diego, for example, has programs for adults as well as school-age students, said its director, Katie Rast.

But when Blikstein came to Stanford, he wanted to bring a lab to school kids. Blikstein, an engineer with a Ph.D. in education, wants to re-create the role of labs in schools, which he says have become "places where invention and creativity go to die" because typical science experiments require students to do not much more than follow directions. His goal is less lecturing, more exploration.

The Bourn Lab has a couple of 3-D printers, a 3-D scanner, a laser-cut printer and other equipment that have enabled one seventh-grade history class, for example, to re-create models of Leonardo da Vinci's machines. A revolving bridge, an aerial screw, a catapult and other laser-cut wood models of the great inventor's machines now sit in Castilleja's library for all to admire.

"There's a lot of engineering in history," Blikstein said. "The lab allows history, engineering, math to be taught in an integrated way."

After seeing some of the impressive work the students did with the Leonardo project, one parent asked how much physics the girls learned, said Nanci Kauffman, the head of Castilleja, a private school for sixth- through 12th-grade girls.

"My thing was, 'How much more did they learn about da Vinci?' " than if they had simply heard lectures from their history teacher or read a book, she said.

Parent volunteer Diego Fonstad pointed out plastic figures made by students in a 9th-grade geometry class. "The girls went out of control, way beyond what we expected," he said, pointing to a 3D-printed model of R2-D2 and other figures. "All designed mathematically," he adds.

Kauffman said she's hoping the lab, which had its ribbon-cutting in March, fosters a risk-taking culture at the school. "Girls and women struggle with that," she says. "Here they can be willing to get behind a half-baked idea and try."

Hands-on high tech

Fifteen out of the 60 teachers at Castilleja -- representing every department -- have been through a lab training headed by Blikstein, and more teachers will take part. In addition to training and regularly meeting with the teachers, Blikstein is heading a team of about 20 people at Stanford to study how well the FabLab@School concept works. "Research is the best way to ensure it's going to continue," he said.

The equipment for the lab cost about $60,000 and was funded by the school, the Edward E. Ford Foundation and the Doug Bourn memorial fund. Bourn, an engineer at Tesla Motors (TSLA), died in a plane crash in East Palo Alto in 2010 along with two other Tesla employees. Bourn was Castilleja's robotics mentor.

As part of its partnership with Blikstein, Castilleja also is helping with the cost of another school fab lab, at East Palo Alto Academy, which will open later this year. Blikstein said he's currently talking with teachers at both schools -- he has worked with teachers at East Palo Alto Academy for a while, and some of the school's students have been using his Stanford fab lab regularly -- and envisions having students from the school in East Palo Alto do joint projects with Castilleja students.

"We want to democratize by expanding to public schools," Blikstein said. "Society pays attention to high-tech tools. Putting them in the hands of kids" who otherwise might not be exposed to them, he said, "that's very valuable."

It's a sentiment echoed by Betsy Corcoran, CEO of Burlingame startup EdSurge, which aims to provide information about technology in education. EdSurge is helping shine a spotlight on the learning-by-doing movement at next weekend's Maker Faire in San Mateo -- where the Bourn Lab will have a presence.

"What's most compelling and exciting to us -- and teachers and students -- is when students learn by building," Corcoran said.

By Levi Sumagaysay, posted 05/11/2012

lsumagaysay@bayareanewsgroup.com

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California Schools Warn of Grim Future for Students

California's public schools released a report that shows an increase in stress levels even as they must reduce staff levels. The state's university system, too, revealed that continued funding cuts are damaging the Golden State's ability to provide an affordable higher education to its students.

What stresses does the public school system face?

The Oakland Tribune cited an increase of children living in poverty. Cases in point are children attending the Oakland school district. Between 2007 and 2010, the percentage of children living below the federal poverty level increased by 8 percent, reaching 33 percent. This figure points to stress factors the schools face when working with youngsters to succeed academically, which include the local unemployment rate and budget cuts due to the state's deficit. "They try to teach an increasing number of children in poverty with fewer employees and a continual threat of cutbacks," the report notes.

How have budget cutbacks affected per-student spending?

California public schools have reduced per-student spending to fall $2,856 to $3,000 below the national average.

How much does California spend on public education?

The California Department of Education notes that between 2010 and 2011, the statewide total cost of education equaled $46,278,595,991, which averaged $8,323 per student. Ten years before, in the 2000 to 2001 school year, the total annual expenditure was $36,825,458,699, which came to $6,360 per student. The Silicon Valley Education Foundation crunched the numbers and found that California currently occupies the 47th place when it comes to per-student spending in the U.S.

Why do legislators keep cutting education budgets?

California faced a $27 billion budget deficit last year. To balance the budget, the governor made spending cuts across the board, including education.

What is the governor doing to re-establish funding to California's public schools?

Gov. Jerry Brown has drafted a controversial $9 billion tax hike proposal, which voters will likely see on the November ballot. The Sacramento Bee highlights that schools worry about actually getting the measure to pass, which has led school districts to favor austerity measures and layoffs over budgeting with money that is not yet in their coffers. Although Gov. Brown encourages school districts to factor in the tax hike money, administrators instead ask for permission to "shorten the school year without penalty below the current 175-day minimum."

Do budget worries only affect K through 12 schools?

No, higher education also faces budget cuts. The Associated Press notes that the University of California is planning to implement a 6 percent tuition increase in the fall, unless the state supplies $125 million for the 2012 to 2013 school year. In addition, there is talk of a "double digits" mid-year tuition hike, if the governor's ballot measure fails.

Sylvia Cochran is a Los Angeles area resident with a firm finger on the pulse of California politics. Talk radio junkie, community volunteer and politically independent, she scrutinizes the good and the bad from both sides of the political aisle.

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Intelligence Is Overrated: What You Really Need to Succeed

Albert Einstein’s was estimated at 160, Madonna’s is 140, and John F. Kennedy’s was only 119, but as it turns out, your IQ score pales in comparison with your EQ, MQ, and BQ scores when it comes to predicting your success and professional achievement.

[More from Forbes.com: 10 Steps You Can Take To Become A Successful Young Leader At Work]

IQ tests are used as an indicator of logical reasoning ability and technical intelligence. A high IQ is often a prerequisite for rising to the top ranks of business today. It is necessary, but it is not adequate to predict executive competence and corporate success. By itself, a high IQ does not guarantee that you will stand out and rise above everyone else.

Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Shockingly, only 15 percent is due to technical knowledge. Additionally, Nobel Prize winning Israeli-American psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.

[Related: Habits of Highly Productive People]

With this in mind, instead of exclusively focusing on your conventional intelligence quotient, you should make an investment in strengthening your EQ (Emotional Intelligence), MQ (Moral Intelligence), and BQ (Body Intelligence). These concepts may be elusive and difficult to measure, but their significance is far greater than IQ.

Emotional Intelligence

EQ is the most well known of the three, and in brief it is about: being aware of your own feelings and those of others, regulating these feelings in yourself and others, using emotions that are appropriate to the situation, self-motivation,  and building relationships.

Top Tip for Improvement: First, become aware of your inner dialogue. It helps to keep a journal of what thoughts fill your mind during the day. Stress can be a huge killer of emotional intelligence, so you also need to develop healthy coping techniques that can effectively and quickly reduce stress in a volatile situation.

[More from Forbes.com: How To Change Your Brain For The Better]

Moral Intelligence

MQ directly follows EQ as it deals with your integrity, responsibility, sympathy, and forgiveness. The way you treat yourself is the way other people will treat you. Keeping commitments, maintaining your integrity, and being honest are crucial to moral intelligence.

Top Tip for Improvement: Make fewer excuses and take responsibility for your actions. Avoid little white lies. Show sympathy and communicate respect to others. Practice acceptance and show tolerance of other people’s shortcomings. Forgiveness is not just about how we relate to others; it’s also how you relate to and feel about yourself.

[More from Forbes.com: 10 Worst Body Language Mistakes]

Body Intelligence

Lastly, there is your BQ, or body intelligence, which reflects what you know about your body, how you feel about it, and take care of it. Your body is constantly telling you things; are you listening to the signals or ignoring them? Are you eating energy-giving or energy-draining foods on a daily basis? Are you getting enough rest? Do you exercise and take care of your body? It may seem like these matters are unrelated to business performance, but your body intelligence absolutely affects your work because it largely determines your feelings, thoughts, self-confidence, state of mind, and energy level.

[Related: 6 Millionaire Moms]

Top Tip For Improvement: At least once a day, listen to the messages your body is sending you about your health. Actively monitor these signals instead of going on autopilot. Good nutrition, regular exercise, and adequate rest are all key aspects of having a high BQ. Monitoring your weight, practicing moderation with alcohol, and making sure you have down time can dramatically benefit the functioning of your brain and the way you perform at work.

What You Really Need To Succeed

It doesn’t matter if you did not receive the best academic training from a top university. A person with less education who has fully developed their EQ, MQ, and BQ can be far more successful than a person with an impressive education who falls short in these other categories.

Yes, it is certainly good to be an intelligent, rational thinker and have a high IQ; this is an important asset. But you must realize that it is not enough. Your IQ will help you personally, but EQ, MQ, and BQ will benefit everyone around you as well. If you can master the complexities of these unique and often under-rated forms of intelligence, research tells us you will achieve greater success and be regarded as more professionally competent and capable.

By Keld Jensen, Forbes , May 9, 2012

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HP Tries to Beat Ultrabook Pricing With Thin-and-light Sleekbooks

Hewlett-Packard announced new Envy Ultrabooks on Wednesday, but also a new aggressively priced thin-and-light brand of laptops called Envy Sleekbooks, which boast starting prices that are US$150 lower than ultrabooks.

The Envy Sleekbook laptops, which have the latest chips from Advanced Micro Devices and Intel, come with 14- and 15.6-inch screens and start at US$599. HP's Envy Ultrabooks have the latest Intel third-generation Core chips, come with screens of the same size as the Sleekbooks, and start at $749.

The Envy Ultrabooks and Sleekbooks are no thicker than 19.8 millimeters, and weigh from 1.8 kilograms. The thin-and-light laptops' batteries last between seven and nine hours.

HP could not put AMD chips into its ultrabooks as the designs are exclusive to Intel, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. So HP built a separate laptop in Envy Sleekbooks for AMD chips.

Ultrabooks -- a new class of thin and light laptops backed by Intel -- come exclusively with Intel's processors and have been praised for design but criticized for high prices that can run over $800. AMD has said users don't need to pay a premium for ultrathin laptops, and that it wants to enable similar designs to ultrabooks with prices starting at $500.

HP's thin laptops come as Intel and AMD release faster chips that provide longer battery life. Intel has started shipping third-generation Core processors, aka Ivy Bridge, while AMD will soon announce new laptop and desktop chips code-named Trinity.

The aggressive pricing of Envy Sleekbooks could be AMD's way to lure buyers away from the more expensive Ultrabooks, McCarron said.

"The price is a continuation of what we've seen in the past: AMD tends to price laptops aggressively," McCarron said. "What all of this is underscoring is the evolution of laptops. Guess what, they are getting thinner."

There are size and weight distinctions between HP's Envy Ultrabooks and Sleekbooks. The Ultrabooks feel lighter than the Sleekbook laptops, though both are extremely thin and lightweight.

The Ultrabooks are also slightly thinner as HP tried to stick to specifications set by Intel, said David Conrad, director of product marketing at HP. Ultrabooks cannot be more than 21 millimeters thick, according to design criteria set by Intel.

But Sleekbooks are comparable to the Ultrabooks on battery life, which is between eight to nine hours.

The Ultrabooks also have some additional features that the Sleekbooks don't, Conrad said. The Ultrabooks boot more quickly, have antitheft features typically baked into Intel's latest Core processors, and can also resume from standby more quickly.

Intel in the past has said Ivy Bridge ultrabooks will also blend in tablet-like features such as touchscreens, but HP officials declined comment on when such models would be introduced.

The Envy Sleekbooks come in screen sizes of 14 inches ($699.99) and 15.6 inches ($599.99), and will ship worldwide starting on May 9. The Envy Ultrabooks come in screen sizes of 14 inches ($749.99, available on May 9) and 15.6 inches ($799.99, available on June 20).

HP also announced additional ultrabooks for consumers and enterprises with screen sizes between 11.6 inches and 14 inches.

HP's new Envy Spectre XT is a 13.3-inch ultrabook that is only 14.5 mm thick and weighs only 1.4 kilos. The laptop has 128GB of storage and a choice of Intel's third-generation Core processors. The ultrabook will offer seven hours of battery life, and will become available in the U.S. on June 3 starting at $999. HP declined to comment on worldwide availability.

The Spectre XT is a thinner and lighter cousin of the Spectre 14, which was introduced earlier this year. The Spectre 14 has features including wireless audio and NFC (near-field communication).

There is also a healthy demand for ultrabooks in enterprises and HP is building up the product portfolio, said Scott McCammon, worldwide product manager at HP. The company currently offers the Folio 13 ultrabook, which started shipping last year.

HP on Wednesday also announced the top-of-the-line EliteBook Folio 9470M ultrabook, which has a 14-inch screen and offers nine hours of battery life. The ultrabook is priced starting at $1,149, and will ship in October. The ultrabook is 1.6 kilos, 19 mm thick and can offer nine hours of battery life. An optional slice battery gives the laptop 20 hours of battery life.

By Agam Shah, IDG News

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

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Tabletop microscope

Tabletop microscope from Rick Arellano on Vimeo.

Honoring the best of the Web

Associated Press
NEW YORK — When Louis C.K. released his comedy special "Live at the Beacon Theater" by himself on his website for $5, it was little more than a cautiously optimistic experiment.

Less than two weeks later, it had reaped more than $1 million. Already among the most respected stand-ups in the country, Louis C.K. was suddenly a new media trailblazer, too.

On Tuesday, the Webby Awards announced Louis C.K. is their "person of the year" for setting "a new precedent for distribution." Comedians Aziz Ansari and Jim Gaffigan have since similarly released albums online.

The Webbys, which celebrate Internet achievement, announced the winners of its 16th annual awards on Tuesday. They're presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a group of about 1,000 Web experts and Internet professionals.

The awards spanned the breath of the Internet, from mobile apps like Instagram and Pinterest that have disrupted social media, to entertainers charting new digital ground, like Louis C.K. and Bjork.

Bjork was named artist of the year. Last year, the Icelandic musician released the album "Biophilia" as a multimedia presentation of music and apps.

She was among the special recognitions named by the Webbys, which also cited the photo app Instagram as breakout of the year. It was recently acquired by Facebook for $1 billion.

"It's been a huge year of change," said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences.

Also specially honored were Juliette Lewis and Graydon Sheppard, who share the award for best actress for the viral video "S--- Girls Say." The video, which parodies common expressions, has been watched more than 16.2 million times on YouTube and spawned a viral sensation of countless similar videos. Sheppard, a male comic, appears in drag in the video.

In more than 130 regular categories, the Webbys give two winners for each: an official Webby award and a "people's voice" pick chosen from online votes.

Ferrell, who co-founded the comedy website Funny Or Die, won best individual performance for a video in which he reprised his impression of President George W. Bush, reacting to Osama Bin Laden's death.

Another Funny or Die video, "Drunk History Christmas," won best long-form comedy video. It stars Ryan Gosling, Jim Carrey and Eva Mendas in a slurred telling of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

The Onion won for best humor website and its video arm, the Onion Network, earned best writing in an online video for its satirical morning TV show video: "How to Get a Guy to Notice You While You're Having Sex With Him."

The pinboard-style website Pinterest won for best social media app, as well as a people's voice award for best functioning visual design. Best music app went to the streaming service Spotify, which Davies said typified "the intersection we're seeing between social and entertainment."

HBO Connect won for best TV website. The New Yorker's website won for best editorial writing. Keifer Sutherland's Hulu series "The Confession" won for best drama.

One new category, people's special achievement for social change, went to Facebook. The award, which was voted for online, honors "important Internet work that played an integral role in advancing and organizing the masses."

The awards will be handed out in a May 21 event at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. Patton Oswalt will host the awards, whose winners are famously restricted to five-word acceptance speeches

Online:

http://wbby.co/winners

—Copyright 2012 Associated Press

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http://online.wsj.com/article/AP62f12f2f6d7f405ea3bd59eb7e068a99.html