Resources for Other

"It's natural for organizations to learn from mistakes. The problem is, people who propose new checks almost never consider that the check itself has a cost."
....

One of the things I really like about Folksy.com (the UK-based crafts marketplace) is the cool stuff they make to promote the site. Looking through their Flickr stream, there are plenty of other examples of them getting involved with the community of people who make and sell stuff through the site.

There's lots of inspiration there for us at School of Everything - and for any other startup that's trying to find playful ways to spread the word about a useful service.

Probably the smartest piece of advice to any growing organisation.

This week a couple of friends of mine asked me to teach them how the web works, and the basics of what they'd need to know to commission their own websites. So I found myself in the strange position of being their teacher for the evening. I think I did okay, so here's what I did, and what I learnt:

1. I asked them what they wanted to learn. (Easy to miss this one.) They basically had enough questions to build a clear map of the lesson, and it meant I could use examples from their lives to illustrate my points.

A not at all boring article that's full of genuinely good advice on what not to do if you find yourself writing a scientific paper.

I have been trying to get my head around ssh tunnels lately as I need to be able to access a development web server on our private network that doesn't have an IP accessible from the internet.
It's taken me a while to understand what is going on; it can be pretty confusing.

I'd recommend the following for a good explanation of what ports are used, e.g. when your browser requests a page:

http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_TCPIPClientEphemeralPortsandClientServerApplicatio.htm

And I thought this was probably the best single page explanation of tunneling:

Nice piece by respected VC Fred Wilson on how the web is giving 'power to the people' and what this could mean for education.

Whether it’s replacing car keys with complex wireless authentication technologies, or grafting endless functionality onto otherwise perfectly usable software - innovation is becoming synonymous with new things you can do, rather than doing what you want more easily. Can we have too much of a good thing?

I noticed recently how much new stuff I'm learning these days. In fact, it feels like I give myself more homework now than I ever used to do when I was at school or university. For example, in the past week I've been:

- teaching myself to transcribe 17th century manuscripts
- helping a friend rewrite a research report on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (which meant getting my head round enough of the science not to mess up the meaning of what I was editing)
- editing a magazine about "commons" and "common sense"
- taking part in an extended email discussion about copyright and ethics

I've recently started re-reading a book I've had for many years now and I'm enjoying it just as much the second time around.

It's called "The Code Book" by Simon Singh:

http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Code_Book.html

It's about the history of cryptography and it's very readable. It is written at just the right level in my opinion, not too basic, so it keeps your interest, but not full of mathematics that might be frustrating.

We don't really have a clue, but so far, it looks like it might be ok.