Practical Nerd: Survival tips for Startup Weekend EDU

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I was a first-time mentor at a Startup Weekend recently and, appropriate to my day job, it was focused on education technology. This Startup Weekend Seattle EDU was only the third time a Startup Weekend was dedicated to turning entrepreneurs loose for an entire 54 hours to innovate in education (the first two were in… Read More…

Practical Nerd: When Amazon can’t be trusted

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Recently, I bought a new Android phone. It didn’t come with everything I wanted, so I turned to my default shopping resource, Amazon.com. I did a search, set the options to only show “Prime Eligible” shipping, found the accessory I wanted … And stopped dead. Instead, after reading several buyer reviews, I purchased from a… Read More…

Practical Nerd: Irresistible startups, immovable education

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I’ve advised a number of startups over the years and have been directly part of at least two. I discovered what many entrepreneurs know: it’s a maddening, exhausting, adrenaline-filled, glorious existence in which there’s never enough time, resources, sleep or toilet paper (when I was at iCopyright we brought our own). So when I heard there… Read More…

Practical Nerd: The hidden price of “free”

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In tech, nothing quite equals the siren lure of “free.” I still recall a friend of mine from Microsoft being amazed at the continued appeal of the lowly t-shirt. She described, in an awestruck-yet-cautionary tone, trade show attendees who happily applied Microsoft tattoos to their faces in the hope of being spotted on the show… Read More…

Practical Nerd: A plea for independence from bad accessory support

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Editor’s Note: “Practical Nerd” columnist Frank Catalano spent three hours this Independence Day weekend struggling under the oppression of one technology company’s failed accessory support. The only positive result: This open letter to Léo Apotheker, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard. In August 2009, I purchased an HP Mini 1151NR through Verizon Wireless. This was a… Read More…

Practical Nerd: Three ‘secrets’ of the digital classroom

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If you think you understand what’s happening in digital education because you follow digital consumer or business developments, think again. Because there are three digital technologies changing K-12 education that you’ve probably never heard of. I’ve worked in both consumer and education digital technology for nearly 20 years. The prevailing wisdom used to be that,… Read More…

Practical Nerd: Privacy vs. stupidity, a case study

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This one goes out to you, Herbert. And to you, Phil. And yes, even you, Correspondent-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named. I’m afraid you’re all idiots. Because you are case studies showing that no matter how fervent the hue and cry is about Facebook’s privacy policies or tracking cookie abuse by marketers, a major threat to individuals’ privacy — and… Read More…

Practical Nerd: A Norwescon vision of tomorrow’s tech

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I have seen the future. And it wears goggles and Victorian clothing. At least, that’s the immediate impression you might get after visiting Norwescon 34, which was held this past weekend near SeaTac airport. More than 3,500 attendees sold out the 2011 iteration of the long-running regional science-fiction and fantasy convention, in which “steampunk” (a… Read More…