David Heinemeier Hansson’s thoughts on “Your life’s work”

David Heinemeier Hansson – Creator of Ruby on Rails

David Heinemeier Hansson:  I’d be happy if 37signals is the last place I work. In an industry so focused on the booms and busts, I find myself a kindred spirit with the firms of old. Places where people happily reported to work for 40 years, picking up a snazzy gold watch at the end as a token of life-long loyalty.

 

 

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Jobs in the U.S. with the lowest (and highest) unemployment rates

Unemployment rate for petroleum engineers is .06%.

Petroleum engineers, detective supervisors, and animal breeders all have one thing in common.  They are  extremely employable. They’re among the occupations with the lowest jobless rates over the last two years along with dentists and nuclear engineers, according to the Wall Street Journal’s study of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

 

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Lego’s Mindstorms EV3 – a robot kit that is iPhone-controlled

Lego Mindstorms EV3

Lego Mindstorms EV3 is Lego’s first major update of the Mindstorms line since 2006.  Mindstorms are Lego’s programmable robotic parts–a brain, motors, and sensors–that interface with their Technic line.  And since social networks, smartphones and apps all rule today it’s only natural that each of these ideas worked themselves into the Lego Mindstorm EV3.

 

 

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Can the Khan Academy help find the next Einstein?

Albert Einstein

A vision for the future would be one where everyone will be able to learn at their own pace and where it would be competency based. Once you feel like you know something you can prove it, and the world respects that, and maybe you have to maintain that knowledge state, it’s not that you just have to prove it once and not have to worry about it.

 

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Stephen Hawking joins international think tank to defend humanity from futuristic threats

Stephen Hawking wants to stop the rise of the machines.

Stephen Hawking turned  71 on January 8th and has joined the board of an international think tank devoted to defending humanity from futuristic threats. The newly founded organization, the Cambridge Project for Existential Risk, researches existential threats to humanity such as extreme climate change, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, artificial life, nanotech, and other emerging technologies. Skype cofounder Jaan Tallinn and Cambridge professors Huw Price and Martin Rees founded the project in late 2012.

 

 

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The hidden costs of the ‘free’ app ecosystem

“Paid apps work because they provide the great experience people deserve as customers.”

Time is money, and apps don’t last forever. All the weeks you spent on your apps and you’re never going get back all those hours you spent on them.  And all of the free apps are dangerous, yet free is the dominant business model most mobile apps are taking these days.  The idea is to grow as quickly as possible then insert ads of some kind or get acquired.  For consumers it offers a crummy set of choices: either losing the countless hours you put into the app or have your private data sold to marketers — since as well all know, when the product is free, you are the product.

 

 

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Iran’s ‘smart’ approach to censorship of the internet

An internet cafe in Tehran.

Iran has an intense relationship with the internet.  The country has made many attempts to curtail its citizens’ use of social media.  Iran’s  supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in May, issued a fatwa against anti-filtering tools that have helped citizens to access blocked material on the Internet.  In December, they launched Mehr, its own version of YouTube, which allows users to upload and view content they create, and to watch videos from IRIB, Iran’s national broadcaster.  They have also been building a national intranet – a government-run network that would operate “largely isolated” from the rest of the World Wide Web.  Reporters Without Borders named Iran to its 2012 “Enemies of the Internet” list with Iran’s intensified online crackdowns, increased digital surveillance of citizens, and the imprisonment of web activists.

 

 

 

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Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
Unlock Your Potential, Ignite Your Success.

By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

Learn More about this exciting program.