Modern Society and Privacy

(7/31/2014) You don't check in on your Facebook page. You don't take Selfie. You are not even a celebrity. But as long as you look different, the 21st century society can still keep track of you.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/mystery-roaming-woman-black-revealed/story?id=24774876

Microsoft Software's Inconsistency

(7/22/2014) Anyone who has taught Microsoft's Excel in class feels the same pain that I feel. Excel has so many different versions over the years, and the Windows version and Mac version also have different interfaces. Although I know Excel is very important to business students and I would really want to teach, but, as a teacher, I don't really know how to teaching in class. Why? Students have so many different versions of Excel on their computers. As Mac becomes more popular among college students, teaching Excel without a lab (in a uniform OS and Excel version) is mission impossible.

Here is an example that I just found today. I want to find the command that can help me to convert a "text" to a "number" in Excel. When I search online, this is the official instruction from Microsoft's website. Are the software developers in Microsoft so blind that they don't see the problem that we are experiencing everyday?

Below is copied and pasted from this page. The major problem is in "Method 3" below. Yes, we know there are many different ways of converting a "text" to a "number." But different versions of Excel should be consistent. I am technology savvy enough to find answers on my own when Excel's new version CHANGES the command again. But those inexperience students CANNOT. In a classroom that has 4 or 5 different versions of Excel among students, tell me, how am I going to teach students?

Wake up! Microsoft, you sleeping lion.

Restaurant Watches Old Surveillance And Shares Shocking Results On Craigslist

(7/14/2014) I found an interesting article about the back-office angle of waiting in the restaurant. I don't know how 'real' this article is, but it shows some interesting stories about waiting line management.  Are you shocked by the discovery too?

Snow Blower for Railroad?

(7/9/2014) I was watching "Railroad Alaska" on TV and just realized that how railroads clear the snow during the winter to keep traffic moving. I found several snow removal clips on youtube. Here they are.

This one shows you when snow is not too deep.


If the snow is really deep and hard, then it needs this monster to drill and blow snow away. Wow, based on its speed, how long will it take to clear 1 mile of railroad?

This is another industrial level of snow blower, so amazing.

A MOOC Course Suddenly Vanishes

(7/9/2014) Imagine that you take an online courses and start working on it. All of sudden the course site disappears. What is going on and who is responsible for those students? A course offered by a professor from the University of Zurich just disappeared like that on Coursera. Coursera has no control over the course and the strange tweets from the instructor afterwards just make things even weird. Who should be responsible for the course and how to protect the rights of online students?