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Archive for July, 2010

Is this the Future of Learning in Large Urban Slums?

Posted in Education, India, Technology, tagged , , , , , , on July 25, 2010| 1 Comment »

In the past two weeks, I came across two exciting and interesting news headlines, both dealing with technology and research developments in India.  The two headlines:

  1. Using Computers to teach Children with No Teachers
  2. India develops world’s cheapest “Laptop” at $35

Now, the real excitement is how fast these two developments can be combined!  Let me explain.

Using Computers to teach Children with No Teachers

This article discusses 10 years of research performed by Professor Sugata Mitra.  Mitra first introduced children in a Delhi slum to computers in 1999 by embedding a computer in a wall facing the slum. (more…)

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A Renewed look at Nadal’s future case for Greatest of all Time (GOAT)

Posted in Sports, Tennis, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 4, 2010| 7 Comments »

Rafael Nadal won the 2010 Wimbledon today, a month after his 2010 French Open championship.  Nadal is certainly back, regaining top form after injuries derailed much of his 2009.  He now has 8 Grand Slam championships, surpassing John McEnroe and tying him with Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors in career grand slams.  And all of this by age 24.

With these consecutive titles, the discussion of how far can Nadal go is reigniting—a requisite inclusion in any article chronicling his Wimbledon championship (see Bruce Jenkins article, and Greg Garber’s article here).   With Nadal’s 8th Grand Slam championship, he’s now halfway to Federer’s total of 16.  It’s time to take a renewed look at his current and possible future performance compared to historical legends and update my posting last year about Nadal’s candidacy for GOAT. (more…)

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A Social Experiment: Listening to music or drinking coffee- What’s more common for the daily San Francisco pedestrian commuter?

Posted in Commuting, Silicon Valley, tagged , , , , on July 2, 2010| 2 Comments »

Being a San Francisco city pedestrian commuter, I’ve been wondering what’s more common—people walking while listening to music or people walking while holding a coffee cup.  I see commuters each day and my curiosity has me asking:  has the proliferation of smart phones and ipods made listening to music as essential to the daily commuter as getting that Starbucks coffee before making that last stroll into the office.   I, of course, did some research to find out.

As part of my commute each work day, I take the Caltrain near my home  to the final stop at 4th Street and King Street in downtown San Francisco (my earlier observations of commuting on the train are here).   From there, I’ve decided to walk to the financial district of SF where my office is located—a daily one way walk of about 25 minutes—a great way to get exercise.   Here’s a map of my walk with pins for the beginning and end locations.

(more…)

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The World Cup or the Olympics – which one to attend?

Posted in Globalization, Sports, tagged , , , , , on July 1, 2010| 3 Comments »

The World Cup has completed its group play stage and has reached the exciting knockout quarterfinals.  The remaining teams are now battling for the title of World’s best, with only the razor’s edge of margin separating the very top teams.  The drama, excitement and pressure are all building and drawing in more and more fans around the world.

All of this excitement has me lamenting that I have not seen a World Cup event in person.  I’ve stated that my goal in 2014 will be to attend the World Cup in Brazil.   But as I think about attending the World Cup, I also ask myself which event would be better to attend:  the World Cup or the Olympics.  After all,  Brazil also hosts the 2016 Olympics.    To me the answer is clear:  the World Cup, and this article from sports journalist Peter King provides the justification better than I ever could.   (more…)

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