gonnalearn.com

Wii’d like to learn

After reading that moderate physical activity makes it easier to memorize stuff, I attached a wireless trackball to my home training machine and used it to control Rosetta Stone language learning software running on my Mac Mini attached to a flat screen TV. I was sure I had mcguyvered the perfect learning and exercise machine.

That was before I bought a Nintendo Wii. Just like the DS, this machine is begging to be used for something more serious than shooting “rabbids” with a plunger-gun (as addictive as that might be). My killer application would be a combination of a flashcard software like Supermemo with the physical activity and entertainment value of mini games. The result would be quicker, more enjoyable learning plus the general benefits (and downsides) of waving your arms around.

If that’s not enough, add an option for users to sell their self-produced content (flashcards) and you could even make money (or at least Wii-points) with your game console. While I’m at it, why not integrate a virtual meeting room where Miis learning the same subject can meet and support each other? Then you could learn more efficiently, have fun, improve your health, make money and find new friends – all in one application. If this can’t change the world, what else could? 😉

Please feel free to implement my idea and make more money you could ever spend while I go back to my learning and exercise machine… either that or the plunger-gun.

P.S.: Nintendo says 45 new games are currently being developed/translated for the Wii (including Big Brain Academy: Wii degree) and 79 for the DS (as reported on golem.de, in German) and in an interview with brand eins, Langenscheidt‘s Hubert Haarmann announced e-learning applications for the DS (and Sony PSP; brand eins 05/2007, p. 98).

Once it’s out there…

Let’s say you want to read what Scott Adams wrote yesterday on the Dilbert Blog before he decided to delete it (it’s not like you have a choice, anyhow). There’s a simple solution which doesn’t involve time travel or searching the internet for “deleted dilbertblog post”: Sign up with a popular web-based feed reader (aggregator) like Bloglines.com or Google Reader and voilà:

This raises a lot of terribly interesting questions like “are the aggregators stealing from Scott by caching a post he later deleted” and “are they morally obligated to do so in order to feed his starving readers”, but I’m already torn between enjoying the fantastic weather outside or playing with my new Wii so I’ll leave these issues to you.

Weblin explained in one sentence

Imagine taking the avatars from a virtual world like Second Life and setting them free on the World Wide Web. That’s my explanation of Weblin (formerly known as Zweitgeist).

So instead of logging in to a virtual world and flying your avatar to a virtual showroom of your favourite car manufacturer where he could inform himself about the newest car models, he could now just go to the manufacturer’s website… I mean, you could go to the website and your avatar would be there, too, like the avatars of other people just visiting this website at the same time. Presumably, you could then do whatever it is that avatars do. Or think about IBM: Instead of meeting somewhere in Second Life, IBM’s teams could meet right on the company’s website, eliminating the need to invest a lot of money in a new virtual presence.* The WWW’s virtual enough already!

If you see it from this perspective, Weblin makes a lot of sense. I might actually install it after having had a closer look at their privacy policy.

*If I just saved your company a lot of money, feel free to send me huge cheque. 😉

Thank you for the SPAM, ADR!

With all that foreign spam overwhelming my company’s mailboxes, I was deeply moved when I received an unsolicited newsletter from what blogger Charles Betz called “the far-right ridiculous Luxembourgish party Alternativ Demokratesch Reformpartei (ADR)” today.

Finally I get some spam made in Luxembourg (even if its being sent from a server in Germany)! Thank you, Alternativ Demokratesch Reformpartei <jengelen@chd.lu>! My spam filtering software (MailWasher Pro [affiliate link]) was so surprised that it couldn’t decide how to classify this newsletter. I chose not to delete it right away as I’m still working on a project to print spam on toilet paper but to click on the unsubscribe link instead. This led me to a “communication agency” in Germany and the following text appeared on my screen:

“The newsletter is being cancelled. You’ll receive an e-mail with a link for deactivation”. Wow. A truly brilliant system, testament to the superior intelligence of its customers. I click on a link in an e-mail to unsubscribe and they want me to click on another link in another e-mail. But there’s more: Unlike the original newsletter, my spam filtering software classified this second e-mail as “possible spam” because it didn’t have a “from”-address:

The message itself also looked kind of messy because they needlessly put a multipart boundary inside without defining it first. I must admit I was a bit disappointed when I clicked on the second link and saw a confirmation that I had successfully unsubsribed. That was just way to easy. I’d suggest alternative unsubcription procedures involving pictures of ADR politicians and hotornot.com but I have to do some real work now.

Edit: Should you receive spam from ADR or anyone else in Luxembourg as an individual (not as a company), you can do and should do something against it! Consult the website of the commission nationale pour la protection des données (CNPD) to read more about your rights. Article 11 of the “Loi du 30 mai 2005” (Page 1172) sounds interesting (up to 1 year imprisonment and fines up to 125000 EUR), though I’m not sure yet if it can be applied to newsletters sent by political parties.

To put things in perspective:

“Fighting spam, spyware and malicious software: Member States should do better, says Commission

[…] “It is time to turn the repeated political concern about spam into concrete actions to fight spam,” said Viviane Reding Commissioner for Information Society and Media. […]

Massive volumes of unsolicited email are still being sent: Security firms Symantec and MessageLabs estimate that spam is between 54% and 85% of all email. In 2005 Ferris Research estimated spam to cost €39 billion worldwide […].”

My favourite restaurants in Luxembourg

I just downloaded and installed the new Skype 3.1 which now includes SkypeFind. This feature “lets you recommend and share your favourite local businesses with the entire Skype community”. A nice idea, hopefully it won’t get overwhelmed with spam like the comment function of my blog.

So far, there were only two restaurants listed in Luxembourg, so I added my 3 favourite places. After providing valuable free content to Skype, I’m going to post my mini-reviews here as well. I might come back later to update this post (there are so many great restaurants in Luxembourg it’s hard not to gain weight). As I’m a vegetarian, the restaurants mentioned below are veggie-friendly. Should you happen to know any other great restaurants in Luxembourg that you think I should check out, please leave a comment (note that I don’t like very formal places and no, seafood isn’t vegetarian even if Chi-Chi’s thinks otherwise).

Restaurant Royal Chine: My favourite restaurant in Luxembourg due to the great choice of vegetarian dishes. Of course, they serve traditional Chinese food, too, as well as some Korean specialities (like Kimchi). It seems there’s a Chinese restaurant on every street in Luxembourg now, but this one really stands out and I suspect many of the friends and family members who come to visit me actually just want me to take them to the Royal Chine. 😉

Disclosure note: I’m good friends with the owners and designed their webpage (for free). However, this doesn’t make anything I wrote above less accurate or true. In fact, you can take advantage of my “guanxi” and send me whatever sincere comment you might have concerning this restaurant and I’ll mention it to the lǎo bǎn next time I go there. Or you could pretend being a friend of mine to see if you get a discount.

Restaurant Star of Asia: Lovely Indian restaurant with great food, relaxed atmosphere and very friendly service. Popular with locals and expats alike. My favourite dish is Bhagara Baigan (Aubergine curry) plus Chilli Naan (Indian bread). I’m getting hungry right now just from writing this comment. 😉

Disclosure note: I’m good friends with the owners, designed their webpage (for free) and also did an ad for them which was printed in Paperjam magazine. This shouldn’t make you think that I’d write an embellished review. Quite to the contrary, I wouldn’t consider designing a website for a bad restaurant!

Ristorante Dal Notaro: This would be the perfect Italian restaurant – if only it was closer to my home! 😉 Seriously, I love going there because it’s always a totally enjoyable experience. Great food, great atmosphere, what more could you want? Wine, you say? They have a superb selection of great (mostly Italian) wines, too!
The menu is apparently only available in Italian, but you can always ask the waiter to translate. My favourite dishes: Melanzane e mozzarella (starters) and Pappardelle alla trilogia di funghi.

Disclosure note: Nope. I wish, but there’s nothing to disclose. No connection other than me often going there.

BTW, the “sushi” picture above isn’t really related to this article as it was taken at a Japanese restaurant in Taichung, Taiwan. No luck finding a veggie-friendly Japanese restaurant in Luxembourg so far.