Iron Man Super Bowl Advertisement

The new Iron Man television spot which premiered during the Super Bowl has everyone talking. It certainly got me pumped to see the film, although, a lot of people seem to be questioning the overtly CG animated sequence towards the end (yes, it did look somewhat like a video game cut scene). But I’m pretty sure this is just unfinished early effects work. If you haven’t already, check out the television spot below. Please comment and tell me what you thought!

Signal bars - what are they for?

There's an icon in the corner of every mobile phone's screen that we are all familiar with. But do we really know what those signal bars mean?

That question was raised for me by this blogger, who also links to an interesting discussion thread on the matter here. Various people pitch in, some with knowledge of working in the handset or network operator industry. They give a suite of reasons that the bars are not much use, including:

There are no industry standards for what 'one bar', 'two bars', etc means
Some phones estimate signal quality when idle, only measuring it properly when you try to call, which is misleading
Under the CDMA protocol used in North America, bar represent signal strength, but not a variable dubbed EC/I0, which is the portion of that signal that is usable
Interesting points. But if we want to improve things, the technical details are not really important. We need to decide what we want to know about our signal first.

At the moment, phone manufacturers give us little idea of what to expect. But people still read a lot of information into signal bars. It's not unusual to hear people boast "I've got five bars" when a friend struggles to connect. I often hear people comparing signal strength on parts of London's metro network where the tunnels are not deep enough to completely block signals.

But really, most of us have no idea what those bars mean. I think we need to rethink them, with an indicator directly related to what you can do with the signal you have.

How about using these four categories:

No signal
Text messaging only
Poor call quality likely
No problems
I'll admit that's not perfect. For example, an indication of how much bandwidth you have for data transfer could be useful. Can anyone else think of a better way of representing signal strength and what you can do with it?

Tom Simonite, online technology reporter

Labels: cellphones

12 Website FAQs We Suspect Aren't Asked That Frequently

By Conrad Schickedanz


It's hard for us to tell whether there are a lot of clueless people frequently asking dumb questions out there, or clueless web designers trying to predict what questions might get frequently asked by the type of clueless people they expect to visit their site.

#12.Meet-an-inmate.com


Alleged Frequent Question:
"Do you recommend looking for a mate through your service?"

Ladies, do websites like Lavalife and Match.com lack the threat of impending violence you look for in a dating site? The guys you'll meet at meet-an-inmate.com are going to be in great shape, and totally committed to you, as evidenced by the life-sized tattoo of your face they'll add right between the eagle and swastika on their back!



In their official answer, meet-an-inmate.com discourages the prison relationships that people so frequently ask about, but they're much more reserved than you might expect, using phrases like: "too many obstacles" and "the odds of everything working out are slim." Plus, rapists and murderers are usually so clingy.

#11.Playboy Enterprises


Alleged Frequent Question:
"Would Playboy sell so well if it didn't have naked women in it?"

If this question was on a Blockbuster Video, we're sure the back of the box would tell you that the hypothetical people frequently asking it also loved asking:

* Whether Miller High Life would sell so well without alcohol in it;
* Whether Scrabble would be popular if the wooden squares featured binary digits; and
* Whether people would buy as many Powerball tickets if the grand prize was a Git-R-Done baseball cap and an issue of Playboy with no naked women in it.



The answer they provide, "Probably not. We'll never know," has the unmistakable ring of willful ignorance, like Carl Everett claiming that he doesn't believe in dinosaurs because he's never met one. Come on Playboy editors, we know that when you graduated from journalism school, writing for a titty magazine wasn't one of your stated career goals, but it's time to face up to the truth.

#10.Disney Cruise Lines


Alleged Frequent Question:
"Is it true that children must be toilet-trained in order to enter the pools?" And "What are the swimming pools for kids?"

This one-two punch of obtuseness assumes such a lack of familiarity with pool etiquette and the very concept of what a children's pool is, that we're not sure anyone who asks it would be able to figure out how to board a boat, let along procreate.

Disney helpfully answers the first question by informing parents that, yes it is indeed true that you're not supposed to let your kid crap in the pool, but they do it in an almost apologetic way, pointing out that "the United States Public Health Service requires" it. Hey, the folks at Disney would let your kid crap in the pool to his heart's content, but it's out of their hands thanks to the floater-Nazis over at the USPHS.

They do point parents with incontinent children to "the fountain play area near the Mickey Pool." It'll be the one that looks less like a fountain, and more like a stew of poop-tinted diaper stuffing and bemulleted children.



#9.World Of Warcraft


Alleged Frequent Question:
"What classes are available in World of Warcraft? Are there any non-combat or 'pacifist' classes that can gain levels from healing wounds, curing disease, "buffing," or by providing any other type of assistance to other players?"

You know how people who graduate from an Ivy League college are really quick to ask you where you went to school, and then will sit quietly until you ask them back? Most FAQs work in a similar way, except companies don't even have to bother baiting you into asking the questions they're after since they get to write your question for you. So you end up asking things like, "can I be a pacifist in World of Warcraft" that make you sound like a total pussy.



Then they get to answer you with grizzled one-word answers (in this case "No.") like you're an asshole for having asked the question in the first place.

#8.Aeroflot Russian Airlines


Alleged Frequent Question:
"Is it possible apropos of epidemic of the bird’s flu to transport shell parakeets by Aeroflot from Moscow to Kaliningrad? The parrots will be bought in Moscow. The reference for export is available; also, there is a sanction of the main veterinary of Kaliningrad. What documents are required else?"

At first, we were pretty certain that Aeroflot had inadvertently translated a Russian SAT question, in which case the obvious answer is: "D) It all depends on how many parakeets I can fit in my pants." (Incidentally, this is the correct answer on every Russian SAT question). But then we conducted a random search of Expedia, and found that flying from Moscow to Kaliningrad costs $149 on Aeroflot vs. $1,713 on the only other airline that flies the route. That's a $1,500 difference that enough people are apparently willing to pay to stay the fuck off of an Aeroflot flight.



So while we're still pretty certain that this particular question has never been asked in quite the same grammatically convoluted way, we have little doubt that rampant parakeet smuggling and a little bird flu is the least of your worries if you decide to fly Aeroflot.

#7.Iams Pet Food


Alleged Frequent Question:
"When I give my Labrador treats, she hides them in a corner and "covers" them with air. Why?"

Right away this begs the question as to just how many times you have to ask a subsidiary of a mega-corporation like Proctor & Gamble an apparently obscure question for it to be considered "frequently asked".

We're not even sure what it means to "cover" something with air. Are they pretending to cover it up with dirt? Are they blowing on it?



Also, isn't anything that's not under water or in outer space already "covered" with air? This is obviously one of those questions that only serves to spawn more questions. Apparently Iams is just as puzzled because when this bizarre mystery is presented on the FAQ page, their only response is to provide a link to a page with no further information about the behavior.

#6.Dr. Demento


Alleged Frequent Question:
"I can't find your show anywhere around here! What gives?"

Perhaps this question earned legitimate frequent status when it was phoned in daily by Weird Al Yankovic, the recipient of significant airplay from DJ Dr. Demento during the 1980s.



If Al had dug around on the website he would have discovered that "what gives" is that he doesn't live in one of the EIGHT markets that still broadcast Dr. Demento weekly, including: Albany, Oregon and North Clinton, Iowa. But the real reason we're suspicious of this question's frequency is the simple fact that we've never heard the phrase "What gives?" used outside of a Hardy Boys novel.

#5.Cosmopolitan Magazine


Alleged Frequent Question:
"Someone called me saying he/she was from Cosmo, but asked me a lot of very personal questions. What gives?"

First of all, we're surprised you even know what Cosmo is since you're very clearly an adolescent boy from the year 1954.



While having long since disappeared from actual use, the phrase "What gives?" is apparently enjoying a healthy resurgence in the FAQ section of various websites, presumably because it makes the hypothetical user sound peeved in an adorably anachronistic way, where as a more common phrase like "What the fuck?!?" might come off as genuinely angry. Using such a stupid phrase is also helpful in distracting readers from the fact that perverts are using your brand to sexually harass your clientele.

#4.American Idol


Alleged Frequent Question:
"I couldn't get through to the lines or all I get is a fast busy signal when I call - why?"

The real question is how someone who apparently doesn't understand how telephones work managed to get through to a real person at the Fox network to ask this FAQ in the first place.



#3.Bazooka Joe Bubblegum


Alleged Frequent Question:
"What should I do with my gum when I am finished?"

We actually really hope this one is frequently asked, or that it has been asked at least once. We want to believe that there's a guy who was chewing Bazooka Joe, wrote this question to the company, and then continued to diligently chew the gum until receiving the company’s response. Their proposed solution is to wrap it in paper and throw it away, which we're sure was a bit of a letdown for our hypothetical, inquisitive gum-chewer, but they make the recommendation with lots of exclamation points, so at least they were enthusiastic about the whole thing.



#2.Wrigley


Alleged Frequent Question:
"Is it OK for my dog to chew/eat sugarfree gum?"

Obviously not as dogs can’t read the Bazooka Joe website and would have no idea how to properly dispose of it. That, and sugar-free gum is apparently toxic to dogs. Oh, and dogs don't fucking chew gum.



#1.Coca-Cola Bottling Company



Alleged Frequent Question:
"There is a message making the rounds on the Internet that says that carbonated soft drinks can be used for a variety of household purposes, such as removing rusty bolts and cleaning greasy clothes. Is this true, and does it mean soft drinks are unhealthy?"

We're sure a variant on this question is frequently asked of them, namely, "Is it true that Coke has the alien-blood-like ability to dissolve human teeth and metal?" Coca-Cola tries to pull a fast one by rephrasing the question so that it's asking about whether Coca-Cola is as incredibly useful at removing rusty bolts and cleaning greasy clothes as we'd all heard.



Coke responds by stating: "The message you cite also mentions that baking a ham basted with Coca-Cola produces a delicious gravy -- and that is definitely true!" Well, no need to read any further about that other household cleaner mumbo-jumbo, we got hams to bake!

Strategies

There are many different strategies that research has shown are effective in literature-based instruction. These include modeling, cooperative learning, scaffolding of instruction, self-initiated reading and writing, student choices, using different modes of reading, activation of prior knowledge, and student responses to literature.
The purpose of my research is to show under what circumstances the instructional strategy is appropriate and why.
“A common and effective strategy for helping students develop their higher order thinking skills is scaffolding. My own first exposure to scaffolding in education came when I was attending a high school where there was some construction in progress. The workers had erected a series of temporary structures (called scaffolding), which permitted the workers to carry out their work in high places. When the work was finished, the scaffolding was removed. The term scaffolding has been developed as a useful metaphor for an effective method for helping students develop their thinking skills. The teacher, the textual materials, or other students provide temporary support (like scaffolding in the construction industry) to help students bridge the gap between their current abilities and the intended goal. Scaffolds can be tools, such as written guidelines or cue cards, or techniques, such as modeling or prompting by the teacher. Like the physical structures supporting construction around my high school, instructional scaffolding is temporary and adjustable. As students demonstrate greater proficiency on their own, the scaffolding is gradually removed.” (1)
Good ways to introduce a strategy to students include demonstrating or explaining a prompt, modeling the skill, or thinking aloud while performing a task that applies the strategy. Various writers have developed prompts that are useful for particular thinking skills, such as summarizing, asking questions to promote reading comprehension, solving difficult problems in mathematics, and planning a composition.
The next step is for the student to practice the strategy while the teacher manages the level of difficulty. For example, to teach a five-step thinking strategy, the teacher might try any of the following methods:
Begin by modeling all but the final step in the application of the strategy, and then gradually requiring the student to perform more of these steps.
1. Ask the student to name each step for the teacher to model.
2. Provide cue cards to prompt the student to perform each step.
3. Start with easy problems to which the strategy can be applied and then move to more difficult problems.
The idea is to provide the support necessary to enable the student to meet with continuous success.
The third step is to vary the context in which the student can practice the strategy. Three basic contexts are (1) teacher-led practice, (2) reciprocal teaching, and (3) small group sessions. An important component of these practice sessions is the opportunity for the students to verbalize what they are doing. It is more likely that students will generalize strategies if they are able to label the steps; this will enable them to encode the information about the strategy in a more meaningful manner and thereby enable the learner to retrieve it more easily for later applications. In addition, verbalizing the information often exposes misconceptions and enables the students to expand the limits of their understanding of the process. In addition to varying the audience with whom the learner practices a strategy, it is useful to vary the content of the problems, so that the learner masters a general thinking strategy rather than a mere algorithm for solving a specific type of problem.
The fourth step is to provide feedback. This feedback can come from the teacher and from other students; but it is also useful to enable the students to give feedback to themselves by realizing that a strategy has been effective. One good way to stimulate self-reinforcement is to have the students use checklists to evaluate their own performance. Another possibility is to provide expert models; for example, after asking a set of questions about a reading passage, the student could compare this set to those developed by the textbook author or by the teacher.
Modern research continues to find that scaffolding is an effective teaching strategy. Two recent studies regarding the use of inscriptions for teaching scientific inquiry and experimentation (external representations – graphs, tables, etc.) found that the use of external representations, representational scaffolds, can serve as an effective strategy for teaching these scientific skills. In one study the instructional goal was to teach fourth graders valid experimentation skills. During the first part of the study a teacher-specified table of variables was the scaffold provided. Students had to select the appropriate variable related to their experiment. The results of this part of the study led to the conclusion that the “… use of the pre-developed table representation may have helped students abstract the overall structure of the experiment and thus aided their understanding of the design…” (Toth, Results and Discussion section, para. 1). The teacher designed table helped focus the learners’ thinking on only those items that were important for the task. Additionally through the use of the table it became obvious to the students if they had omitted an important variable from their experiment. This helped the students learn what things must be considered when designing an experiment (Toth, n.d.).
In the second study, “… the effects of two different external representations (evidence mapping vs. prose writing)…” were evaluated in research with ninth grade students (Toth, n.d., Representational scaffolding while coordinating data with theories section, para. 1). Students used either a software tool or prose writing to record their thinking during a problem-based-learning activity in which they had to find a solution to a scientific challenge. The software tool provided epistemological categories linked with unique shapes. The students that used the software had to categorize the information they were evaluating by selecting the appropriate shape and entering the information into the shape. The students in the prose writing group just documented their thinking by writing. One finding of the study was that the students who used the software tool correctly categorized more of the information as hypothesis and data than those students in the prose writing groups. The correct categorization of information was attributed to “…the effect of the mapping representation that scaffolded students’ categorization efforts” (Toth,). Eva Toth concluded from the research that the use of , “…teacher-developed table representations was found to scaffold students’ progress of inquiry by making the variables of an experiment salient and by perceptually constraining the students’ attention to abstract the characteristics of correct experimentation” (Toth). She also concluded that the evidence mapping, which used the software tool that scaffolded students’ thinking and categorization efforts, was a “…successful instructional methodology to teach how to categorize and label scientific information and to teach students how to evaluate hypotheses based on empirical data.” (Toth). The study also found that the use of explicit rubrics supported the scaffolding effect.
One of the primary benefits of scaffolding instruction is that it engages the learner. The learner does not passively listen to information presented instead through teacher prompting the learner builds on prior knowledge and forms new knowledge. In working with students who have low self-esteem and learning disabilities, it provides an opportunity to give positive feedback to the students by saying things like “…look what you have just figured out!” This gives them more of a can do versus a “this is too hard” attitude. This leads into another advantage of scaffolding in that if done properly, scaffolding instruction motivates the student so that they want to learn.
Another benefit of this type of instruction is that it can minimize the level of frustration of the learner. This is extremely important with many special needs students, who can become frustrated very easily then shut down and refuse to participate in further learning during that particular setting.
Scaffolded instruction is possibly one of the most important (and most frequently neglected) techniques teachers can use when working with students at computers. By using scaffolded instruction at the computer, teachers can help students develop thinking and study skills while they are studying the subject matter that is the focus of the unit of instruction.
As the conclusion it is useful to show where we can use this strategy.
1. The teacher does it - The teacher models how to perform a new or difficult task, such as how to use a graphic organizer. For example, the teacher may have a partially completed graphic organizer on an overhead transparency and "think aloud" as he or she describes how the graphic organizer illustrates the relationships among the information contained on it.
2. The class does it - The teacher and students work together to perform the task. For example, the students may suggest information to be added to the graphic organizer. As the teacher writes the suggestions on the transparency, students fill in their own copies of the organizer.
3. The group does it - Students work with a partner or a small cooperative group to complete a graphic organizer (i.e., either a partially completed or a blank one).
4. The individual does it - This is the independent practice stage where individual students can demonstrate their task mastery (e.g., successfully completing a graphic organizer to demonstrate appropriate relationships among information) and receive the necessary practice to help them to perform the task automatically and quickly.
1. http://education.calumet.purdue.edu/vockell/edpsybook/edpsy12/edpsy12scaffold.htm
2. Toth, E. E. (no date). Representational scaffolding during scientific inquiry: interpretive and expressive use of inscriptions in classroom learning. Retrieved October 19, 2002, from http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~ircs/cogsci2000/PRCDNGS/SPRCDNGS/posters/toth.pdf


3. http://education.calumet.purdue.edu/vockell/cai/Cai3/cai3scaffold.htm