An interesting stat: Is it true?

Kirk McDonald: Sorry, College Grads, I Probably Won't Hire You - WSJ.com:

According to one recent report, in the next decade American colleges will mint 40,000 graduates with a bachelor's degree in computer science, though the U.S. economy is slated to create 120,000 computing jobs that require such degrees.

Now, I don't know where this gentleman, Kirk McDonald got this statistic but if you are teaching computer science then it's a pretty sobering statistic. I am going to try digging deeper to see if I can find the source.

WIndows no longer out of this world!

International Space Station switches from Windows to Linux, for improved reliability | ExtremeTech:

The United Space Alliance, which manages the computers aboard the International Space Station in association with NASA, has announced that the Windows XP computers aboard the ISS have been switched to Linux. “We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable.”

Number crunching smartphone app success

Here's my five-step plan for world domination:

1. I am creating a comprehensive taxonomy of characteristics of smartphone apps. Much more detailed than a feature list: "is it on android or iPhone" but really micro. I will have 20 different user interface 'styles' defined scientifically. I will analyze all 11 different variations on viral growth models and describe them scientifically. I will classify the color schemes, fonts used, left versur right swiping, number of customizable characters, and that's just the start!

2. Once I have that, I will have an independent panel of experts score the top one hundred smart phone apps on each of the facets of my taxonomy. With that I will have a 200-factor success "genome" for each of the top smart phone apps.

3. In parallel I will have a panel of business researchers determine statistics, over time, on each of the top smart phone apps. Number of users, amount of revenue, number of downloads, user ratings, and most important return on investment.

4. Armed with that data I work with a top Statistics PhD and find the predictive factors that lead to a successful outcome for a proposed app.

5. Once I prove that my equation works, I will market my services to VCs and app developers and help them decide which horses to back, and how to improve and refine the concepts they work on for maximum pay back.

What do you think? Will it work?

Solving Equation of a Hit Film Script, With Data - NYTimes.com:

A chain-smoking former statistics professor named Vinny Bruzzese — “the reigning mad scientist of Hollywood,” in the words of one studio customer — has started to aggressively pitch a service he calls script evaluation. For as much as $20,000 per script, Mr. Bruzzese and a team of analysts compare the story structure and genre of a draft script with those of released movies, looking for clues to box-office success. His company, Worldwide Motion Picture Group, also digs into an extensive database of focus group results for similar films and surveys 1,500 potential moviegoers. What do you like? What should be changed?

Why can't we all be as rich as Mark?

In Venture Capital Deals, Not Every Founder Will Be a Zuckerberg - NYTimes.com:

It’s the dream of entrepreneurs to sell their company for millions of dollars. But the dirty secret of venture capital is that the dream can be dashed as the venture capitalists make millions in a sale, leaving the founders with nothing.

Technology doesn't contribute to productivity?

Here's what I think: If economic analysis says that technology does not contribute to the overall productivity of the country, check the analysis. It's incorrect.

It's self evident and obvious that technology – computers, smart phones, tablets, cloud computing, robotics, and on and on make us more productive. I say, send the economists back to the drawing board to look again.

Economic Statistics Miss the Benefits of Technology - NYTimes.com:

The meme is back. The burst of productivity during the dot-com revolution of the 1990s gave skeptics pause. But as productivity has slowed substantially in recent years, doubts have re-emerged about whether information technology can power economic growth like the steam engine and the internal combustion engine did in the past.

Quote about improvisation (from David Byrne's new book)

I picked up David Byrne's new book: How Music Works while waiting around in a bookstore. I flipped it to this page with this quote which I thought was quite cool. If I remember he was quoting something else. Anyway, I wonder how this general idea can be adapted to other forms of improvisation, like designing software products or teaching. I am thinking. Do you have an idea?

Debunking the conventional wisdom

What do you think, are younger people better programmers? Are they more productive, more clever, work longer hours? Or do older people have some advantages? Here's a bit of research that says they do!

NC State News :: NC State News and Information » Older Is Wiser: Study Shows Software Developers’ Skills Improve Over Time:

There is a perception in some tech circles that older programmers aren’t able to keep pace with rapidly changing technology, and that they are discriminated against in the software field. But a new study from North Carolina State University indicates that the knowledge and skills of programmers actually improve over time – and that older programmers know as much (or more) than their younger peers when it comes to recent software platforms.

Yeah, I'm Dutch :)

The number of pages in a congressional bill

I have to do a little research. It seems to be a favorite talking point by politicians on all sides of a debate to criticize or dismiss a piece of legislation based on the number of pages it has. It's an odd bit of criticism: how long is too long, how long is too short, doesn't it depend on how many laws the bills are enacting? doesn't it depend on the number of amendments? Watch this space. I am going to find some answers. If you know some of the data, please post a response or send me an email!

Ongoing coverage of MOOCs: How good are they really?

This trend is now unstoppable - massive open online courses - or MOOCs - are constantly in the news. The angle often seems to be about whether or how or how much they will impact higher education and education in general. It's a topic I am very interested in.

Here's another piece of the puzzle, this time from the New York Times. In this article a reporter signs up for ten different online courses in a quest to assess from his personal experience along these dimensions:

• Professors: B+
• Convenience: A
• Teacher to student interaction: D
• Student to student interaction: B-
• Assignments: B-
• Overall experience: B

His telling comments about the convenience factor:

"Regardless of the convenience, you still have to carve out time for the lectures. Which is one reason the dropout rate for MOOCs is notoriously high: Coursera’s bioelectricity course, taught by a Duke professor, saw an astounding 97 percent of students fail to finish. My dropout rate was lower, but only a bit. I signed up for 11 courses, and finished 2: “Introduction to Philosophy” and “The Modern World: Global History since 1760.” (Well, to be honest, I’m not quite done with history — I’m still stuck in the 1980s.) Not coincidentally, these were two courses with lighter workloads and less jargon." (from NYT: Grading the MOOC University)