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Men and women in computing
British researchers found that men in many aspects of modern life experience greater satisfaction than women. The results of study conducted by Benenden Health of British citizens, showed that seven of the 12 categories of parameters men show a higher level of happiness. These categories include wages, career prospects, body weight, appearance, attitude of other people, the overall financial situation, job security. Ladies, smile and relax. There are no biological difference in the computing ability between men and women. Here are interesting few fun facts that come from the Terri Oda research.
Unlocking the power of iPad for the blind
Cheree Heppe, blind reader sent Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind, her review of the iPad. Read Full Version on Read How You Want blog.
“The iPad should not be thought of as a tool solely for low vision people. I’m a no-vision user and can work the iPad well, for being a new user and having no experience with configuring the Voiceover settings.
To use the iPad well, a blind user should have a strong spatial sense. I mean that the touch method for the screen depends on knowing where the icons reside in space in relation to other icons on a flat glass plain.
I speculated that if a blind user wanted to use a certain app a lot, such as the typing virtual keypad feature, a tracing could be made of the positions of the icons and someone could cut out an overlay of light plastic, like a glorified check writing guide or a stencil. That way, a blind user could tactilely locate the positions quicker. Imagine a sheath of light plastic overlay cut-outs the shape of the screen for different standard uses, such as typing or web surfing, carried in a sleeve or pocket inside the front cover of the iPad case. This idea is based on knowing virtually nothing about how the icons refresh or whether they change position, etc.
What a gadget! Accessible right out of the box. If Apple can insist on accessibility across the entire platform as standard foundational basics for any app developer, blind consumers will have a lot of amazing possibilities with this device and won’t have to be shunted off to the separate-but-equal, but not quite accessible, side of things.
Apple has caused a totally unexpected paradigm shift with this iPad, at least in my thinking.”
Animals, Music and Art
No, I am not aged out of wanting to be a superhero. Despite the controversial, speculative, socialistic and even childish context of Animals, I love the Art-Rock. Perhaps, the music reminds me of earlier favorites of Scorpions sort. Animals video became the winner when in Dec 12′ Muse launched a competition with Genero.tv asking people to produce the music video for the song. Animation artists from Portugal Inês Freitas and Miguel Mendes created the art. Pretty awesome, all: the art, the music, and the engaging idea of social creativity and public vote, which all resulted in this awesome piece:
Select the cause, match your concern
to the right issue
&peace, startup to watch out
You’ll be able to easily make a difference by ‘click-to-donate’ button just like you click Tweet This, or, Read It Later, or, Pin It, you’ll make a donation, share it with friends – all takes a few seconds. Brilliant combination of Recommendation Engine concept (trust your friends’ choices) and the best functions of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
There will be a dedicated &peace website, where you’ll be able to sign in with your Facebook details to connect with friends, see what issues they support and share your own donating activity. The site will also host information about the &peace sponsors, how much they have given and where. Read further on &peace blog
- Any company, big/small, local/global can become an &peace sponsor
- Companies get to select the causes they want to give to, matching their concerns to the right issues
- &peace acts as a platform for companies to communicate their corporate social responsibility (CSR).
- Every click on the ‘Peace’ button is added to a counter on the company’s &peace profile page.
- On the &peace site, users can check CSR profiles to see which companies align with their own concerns.
- They can then make informed decisions about what brands they want to buy and support.
How to change the world in 5 seconds: A smarter way to help good causes from &peace on Vimeo.
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