My SXSW Badge

On Tuesday, I got back from Austin, Texas. I was speaking at SXSW Interactive 2009. It was my first time at South-By, and I can say right now that I am going next year – no matter what. My presentation was great (thank you, Alex, for offering me this great opportunity!) – read on for more about my presentation. I met so many incredible people, including Gary Vaynerchuk, Kevin Rose, and danah boyd. Being under 21 at SXSW was tough, since so many after-parties were at 21+ venues, but it worked out. SXSW was overwhelming, especially going for the first time. Basically, it doesn’t stop. Day, night, morning, evening – you name it. There is always something going on at SXSW. Just check my Twitter stream. I reconnected with some “old” friends from the Boston Social Media scene, like Steve Garfield, Clarence Smith, and Chris Brogan. The Bigg Digg Schindigg was amazing – I finally saw a live Diggnation! Check my Flickr for pictures. I’ll be uploading many more in the coming days. The panels I saw were amazing. Gary Vaynerchuk was the most inspirational speaker I saw, up there with the “SHIFT Happens” people and the Web and Feminism panel. I made a PDF of all the tweets I tweeted during SXSW. Download it. Most recent at the top.

SHIFT Happens: Benefits of Visual Thinking

My Presentation

As you all _should_ know, I was on a panel about the future of technology in education, called Blackboards or Backchannels: The Techno-Induced Classroom of Tomorrow. Alex Leavitt Moderated, and I spoke along with Archana Ramachandran, Kelly Sutton, and Diana Kimball. Someone liveblogged our panel, check it out! I spoke of my EduTech project and my feelings about, at least in small class settings, the use of off-hours technology only. For example, in small seminar classes, I see laptops as walls and severe distractions. They might be employed to “enhance” communication, but instead, they replace human-human interaction with superficial and removed conversation. Technology cannot replace or fix bad teaching – I was surprised to see some teachers react negatively to that statement, for surely I thought that they would all be in favor of quality teaching, too. I was also surprised to find out that predominately older K-12 teachers and university professors saw my own (and the groups) views as conservative. I never thought about it that way. The educators in the room appeared to want validation from us students. They wanted us to approve the unbridled use of technology in their classrooms. Not to say that risk-taking and experimentation are bad, because they are very crucial to the learning process, but the successful use of technology in classrooms need to be thoughtfully planned out. Technology cannot be there just to be there. One needs a goal. A teacher should be able to answer the question, “Why are you using technology in your classroom?” A teacher does not, or should not, just assign an essay or exam. Just to let you know, my philosophy of technology and education only applies to small class settings. I have yet to seriously consider the implications of technology in large classrooms, simply because I haven’t been in those situations and, I don’t particularly agree with lecture based styles of education.

My Name Plate!

The response to our panel was mixed. Following the Twitter hash tag (#sxswed) was interesting: one person thought she should have been on the panel and did not restrain her anger, and others were frustrated with our “non-techno induced” classroom. Questions were engaging, but somewhat strange. One woman suggested that Kelly and I had been brainwashed by the educational systems in this country. Why? Because we both go to smaller liberal arts colleges? Or because at least I (don’t know about Kelly…) had a very progressive education in high school without standards? Anyways, others were more positive. One man raised the issue of learning, in general – how do you learn of find things on the Internet? Another man, who seemed younger, perhaps a recent college graduate, seemed offended by my advocating against the use of technology in the classroom, and proceeded to give various reasons how Twitter had helped him. Just to clarify, I think Twitter is amazing, but, do you really have a need to use it in class? How about on the weekends, when the students and the professor are not in the same room together?

Check out the Twitter search for #sxswed. Again, go back a few pages. You’ll find some interesting responses.

Tote Bag

Overall

I’m gong next year. Meet me there. I will try to get myself on a panel (email me if you have ideas or are interested in having me speak on your panel), but we’ll see. Don’t forget to check out my pre-SXSW interview with SXTXState. Want to meet next year? Email me. Check out Flickr photos, too.

K.

I am only speaking for myself in this post. I cannot vouch for the other panelists. Just FYI.

Photos

@kevinrose

Who doesn’t love LEGO’s?

@alexalbrecht

Slideshow

Video

Dear Nerd News Radio Fans,

I’m still here. I have not given up podcasting – I wouldn’t even think of giving it up. I just haven’t had the time. I’ve even lots touch with music – I barely practice these days. I need to figure out how to work my podcast, my music, and other things, back into my life. I want to. I haven’t forgotten Nerd News Radio. I still get emails every now and then, saying something along the lines of “please do a podcast.” It means a lot. I hope you will keep listening – go back, listen to past episodes and give me feedback for how I could improve the podcast and the site. I love Nerd News Radio. I’ve been through “downfalls” before (think 2006), but I will never forget.

I can guarantee I will record an episode of Nerd News Radio over Thanksgiving break, and maybe even sooner, though I doubt it. I will record over winter break, too. Send me emails, it helps. I have a lot of work, but I have been able to keep up with my blog. Check it out.

Sincerely,
Kabren Levinson
Founder, Host, and Producer, Nerd News Radio

So, if you’ve been reading my blog, you know that there have been some “issues” with my session at PodCamp Boston. Well, those issues are almost gone, thankfully.

Here’s what happened. The PodCamp Boston “master schedule” was released, I noticed that my session was not present, so I wrote a blog post and contacted the PodCamp Boston crew, with a self-admittedly angry letter. You can read the original blog post here. There were a lot of quick emails and interactions, and currently, they’re looking for a session slot for me! Thank you Chris (Cofounder) and Whitney (organizer) for your quick responses and support. And, thank you all who contacted the PodCamp Boston team. It means a lot to me. This is why I love the Internet.

Here’s the original post.
Here’s the update (Must read).

Read my blog if you want to stay up to date!

Kabren

P.S. Nerd News Radio #32 is out tomorrow (I hope)!

Woah! I got tagged on the Eight Random Things Me meme by Howard O’Berry. I didn’t quite expect this to happen, but hey, it’s the Internet, anything is possible. I do have to admit, I’ve enjoyed learning more about some Powncers like Howard and Geoff. Here are the rules:

Ugh. Here it goes:

I really, really, really want to learn how to fly a helicopter. I’ve had fantasies about joining the Navy to become a helicopter pilot. I think those fantasies will remain fantasies.

Well, hope y’all enjoyed, and here’s who I’d like to know more about: Carolyn from Pink Ninja Studios, Julie, Staci, Jaffar from Resilient-Reborn, Andrew, Tony from Teknision Inc., William from Sugar Attack, and Tom from Open Minded Design. Now all I gotta do is let these people know some how…POWNCE!

“Seeing Yellow” is a project that stemmed out of the Computing Culture group at the MIT MediaLab (I’m currently working with this group).

“When you print on a color laser printer, it’s likely that you are also printing a pattern of invisible yellow dots. These marks exist to allow the printer companies and governments to track and identify you — presumably as a way to combat money counterfeiting. When one person asked his printer manufacturer about turning off the tracking dots, Secret Service agents showed up at his door several days later.” (From the Seeing Yellow website)

These tracking dots are not news. They’ve been “public” for quite a while. Here’s what I want you to do.

I want you to call up your printer manufacturer and request that the dots be removed. So far, over 800 people have called.

“There is nothing suspicious or criminal about wanting to privately or anonymously produce color documents. In fact, the ability to speak anonymously is an essential part of our democracy! We have every right to demand color laser printers without this “feature.” We have every right to demand that our printer manufacturers to fix their devices. We shouldn’t need to choose between our privacy and color print outs.

Let’s join together to call our printer manufacturers and demand that they tell us how to turn off the tracking dots. Let’s stand up to bullying and interrogations by the U.S. Treasury Department and Secret Service of others who have done the same. If we all stand up together, we can send a strong message that there’s nothing wrong with demands to print privately. Together, we can make it more difficult for groups like the Secret Service to bully individuals who do so.”(From the Seeing Yellow website)

Read the website to find out more.

This story has become very popular on Digg in the past 24 hours, and a major tech news site, Ars Technica, wrote an article. Here are some links:

The actual website:
www.seeingyellow.com

The Digg story:
Digg it! (Now over 900 Diggs)

The Ars Technica article:
Ars Technica

And here’s the link to the EFF, www.eff.org . The EFF “Defends freedom in the digital world.”

Please try to spread the word, this is important to our digital freedom!

I’m not one to take political stances on this podcast. That’s not what I like to do with it, but that may be changing…I just can’t help myself.

“Justice for None” – Holocaust

Read it, think about what the hell this country is turning into. Let me know what you think. Audio comments are fine.

Email me, please.

I’m also available on Jabber, contact@nerdnewsradio.com

Also, please call the White House, here’s more explaining why:
Joe Biden – “Call the White House”

Thanks.

I’m on Pownce now.

http://www.pownce.com/kabren/

Add me as a friend. I’m not scary.

Oh, and check out Snippets.

A type of microblogging, I did the initial design, my friend Jacob Potter did everything else.

http://www.snippetlog.com

There are still a few bugs, but still, check it out, it’s fun.

I touched the iPhone.
I used the iPhone.

I will talk about the iPhone on Sunday on episode #18 of Nerd News Radio.

Stay right here.

Or go to iTunes. Keyword: ‘kabren’ or ‘nerd news radio’

If you want some pictures, go to my Flickr. Here’s the link.

Nerd News Radio has a Cafepress online store.

cafepress.com/NerdNewsRadio

Your purchases help me.

Now forget about the lack of NNR #11, (I have a reason,a you’ll hear about it soon) and focus your energy on what recently went on at Flickr. Some of you may know that Flickr was bought by Yahoo a while back, and ever since, Flickr has become more and more “Yahoo.” This is upsetting, because I think Yahoo sucks, to say it clearly. I’ve had email accounts deleted, they put a Chinese journalist in Prison for 10 years, I mean come on. “At Yahoo the marketers rule, and at google the engineers rule. And for that, Yahoo is finally paying the price.” (A quote from the latest issue of Wired, where on the cover it said “How Yahoo Screwed Up”) But even since that sell out, Flickr has let us “Old Skool” members keep using Flickr the way it was: without Yahoo. Of course the login page changed, but there was that link “Psst: Old Skool members sign in here.” This let us stay away from the behemoth that Yahoo is. But last night I, along with many other pissed off members, that the Old Skool members can no longer log in the way we were used to. We have to merge with a Yahoo ID, one of the most insecure distrustful systems out there. Flickr users have been protesting on the link provided above. Even though we may be a mere 5 percent, Flickr meant something to us. It was friendly. All I had to give them for signing up was an email address. In Yahoo, there is all that personal info (for the marketers of course). Yahoo is not friendly. They censor political posts on Yahoo Groups, something Flickr has never done. Flickr let you be who you are. In that thread, which the founder of Flickr and members of Flickr staff have posted in, it showed who cared about Flickr, and who was worried that Yahoo was “seducing” Flickr (Can’t think of a better word, it’s 7:30 in the morning here).

So basically, I hate yahoo, and lovED Flickr. Flickr just broke up with me. I do have more to say, but I have a limited brain capacity at this time in the morning.

I mourn the “death” of Flickr. Damn. Just as I added that nice “Photos” page. (Which you should check out.)

-Kabren

This is a letter I recently wrote about Apple and what they’ve become. I sent it to David Pogue, Slashdot, Apple Insider, The Boston Globe, Wired, and Digg. Help me get this out! People need to know what’s going on under the surface!

read more | digg story

This is a letter I recently wrote about Apple and what they’ve become. I sent it to David Pogue, Slashdot, Apple Insider, The Boston Globe, Wired, and Digg. Help me get this out! People need to know what’s going on under the surface!

Enjoy!

To Whom It May Concern,
I have loved Apple in the past. They’ve been an outstanding company, giving me, and millions of others, reliability, security, and just an unbelievable OS. Up until June, I had a PowerMac G5 that was just a dream, it still is. I decided it was time to go mobile, and picked up a black MacBook. Sure it put a dent in the finances, but boy was it an amazing machine. It seemed to have the same power as my G5. Well, maybe not quite as much as my G5, but a hell of a lot for a portable machine, more than I’ve ever seen.
This machine was a workhorse, until the last week of August. It was about a week before school started, when I was installing all the software and doo-dads that I might need for school. (i.e. Microsoft Office). I even reinstalled just to clear out my work from my summer job at MIT. I wanted a clean fresh machine, when bam, it shuts off. No warning, screams, lights, just shut off. All of a sudden I am looking starry eyed into a black screen that’s reflecting my face (good job glossy screen!). I couldn’t believe what had just happened! Now, at this point, I had heard very little about what I later discovered was the Random Shutdown Syndrome. I saw Kevin Rose on Diggnation with his RSSing black macbook, and laughed it off, and thought that it was just a freak occurrence on some machines, and it just went away.
So, I went ahead and pressed the power button, and I am greeted by my “Get Firefox� desktop. Everything went fine for the next few days, when bam, again, I was staring at a black screen. Like I did before, I pressed the power button, it lit up, and low and behold, it shuts off again.
I have been battling this issue for a few weeks now, where I have even tried for 5 minutes to get the machine to stay on for a minute. And that’s not even the worst. The support was horrible! I went to the Apple Discussion forums (a great place to get a problem fixed yourself) and I was horrified to see that thousands of people were having the same issue that I had. After an unsuccessful hour browsing the discussion forums and posting my situation, I called AppleCare. AppleCare is usually great at getting a quick, easy answer to your problem. I was put on hold, and then spoke with someone who told me they had never heard of the issue. I was told to go to my local Apple “Genius Bar� (they’re idiots) and have them look at it. So, I went, and was told I had to make an appointment, or call Applecare (what?!?!?) and have them send me a box to send it in to be diagnosed.
Now, let me refresh your memory. I am a student (junior year of high school), a podcaster, and a tech junkie, I need this machine, and I need it to work. I don’t have time to wait the weeks that others have been waiting. Apple even posted a support document (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304308 ) about the RSS, which reads:
If your MacBook is shutting down intermittently, please contact AppleCare for service.
That’s it. No explanation, nada. The worst part is that I already called apple care (the same day I might add) and they told me they’d never heard of it!
Now, why am I writing this. I need guidance. I don’t know what to do with this mess. Apple has been such a great company, but it seems that all they care about now is PR (in the latest issue of “Wired� there is a 14 page fold out “Get a Mac� brochure). And I do have to say; I am a source of Apple PR. On my podcast, Nerd News Radio, I have given hundreds of people rave reviews of Apple products. That will change. They are turning into a bureaucratic giant, that doesn’t care about its customers, like they used to. I need to get this to the media. I am tired of having this issue in the background. People need to know what’s going on, and they need to know now. I need to know if I will ever buy an Apple product again.
I hope you can help me and thousands of others get out of this mess.

Sincerely,
Kabren Levinson
www.nerdnewsradio.com
Kabren@nerdnewsraido.com
Teen Podcaster