Quote of The Day: Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants

“Our generation stands on the shoulders of giants. We are not ignorant. We are curious and love learning from the generations before us. We gain a sense of entitlement due to the fact that we have been raised around technology from a very young age. We are highly comfortable with technologies, which are known to make every day processes more efficient, and apply them to the lessons we have learned from those that came before us. “ – Dave Coleman, Digital Entrepreneur and Co-founder of #GenYTO

Rant: Education And The iGen

The October issue of Toronto Life magazine had an interesting article Lament for the iGeneration by Gregory Levey. As a GenY and new media enthusiast, such subjects are of great interest to me. Having gone through college and receiving straight A’s I was particularly appalled and equally fascinated by the article explaining why he feels teaching my generation is a so-called nightmare.

He poses a lot of points that surprisingly lack any understanding of my generation. A lot of people can’t seem to understand Gen Y, and rightfully so – a plethora of characteristics that define us are substantially different from the generations that came before us. Studies prove over and over again how computer usage alters one’s brain functions and thought processes. As a technologically inclined generation, our minds simply work differently from the generations before us, creating more than a subtle evolution. We have taken a major leap to what I like to call the hybrid of the young adult.

So, I ask the question: Should the entire generation be required to change and, in a sense, dement their growth/evolution to reflect an outdated education system or vice-versa?

Personally, I don’t attend a seminar without my latop for one main reason – efficiency. I can take notes once and in the press of a button, share them with my team and online communities.

In the article, he states, “The new assumption is that knowledge doesn’t belong to any set hierarchy; information is something that everyone can share—and even change.”

The new assumption? Open your eyes – mainstream (traditional) media is collapsing and being replaced by social media. This is not a radical concept, it is the reality.

In another argument, he references Neumont University, “a school in Utah that specializes in computer science and has a reputation for turning out top-notch tech talent, has begun a multi-pronged initiative to force its students to learn how to engage with the real world, instead of just the virtual world.”

Interesting, especially since The Wall Street Journal recently crowned us the greatest generation of networkers and a study conducted by The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that online social activities actually stimulate and increase in-person socializing and networks.

“Social media activities are associated with several beneficial social activities, including having discussion networks that are more likely to contain people from different backgrounds. For instance, frequent internet users, and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race. Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party.”- The Pew Internet and American Life Project

The part that had me rolling my eyes thinking You Really Don’t Get It? “Surely for a few hours a week, I thought, they could put aside their computers and focus on one issue instead of multi-tasking. The request resulted in a lot of indignant and perplexed students. Nevertheless, they all complied, and the result was a more engaged classroom, with a higher quality of discussion.”

In my opinion, this entire article (and every similar argument) sounds like one complaint after another, pissing and whining about how this generation is inconveniencing those who, lets be honest, are simply set in their ways. My suggestion is simple and summed up into one word: Adapt.

I am reminded of a George Bernard Shaw quote, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

My vote’s on #Fail – what do you think?

Open Letter to Life Hacker

Dear Life Hacker:

When sourcing a method to import my extensive iTunes library from my PC to my new Mac Book, Apple suggested the tedious task of burning all 6,600+ mp3s onto dvds, importing, and recreating the meticulous playlists. FML.

That’s when I stumbled upon your article Geek to Live:

How to move an iTunes library from a PC to Mac (and back).

I’ve looked to your site before as a reference guide to making life easier by solving such inconvenient situations which make one think “there must be a better way.”

With that, I would like to thank you for making life easier time and time again. I raise a glass to you – a reference guide to all things amazing. My love for and dedication to you only grows.

Cheers,

Melissa

Its Your Duty To Vote

I love everything Mashable, so when I found out about their new social media awards, I was intrigued. Here’s the info and I will be following it and updating you as it goes.

Mashable’s Open Web Awards: Social Media Edition

Over 30,000 nominations have been placed thus far, don’t forget to have your say.

Submit your nominations at Mashable.com/owa

Blackberry Messenger 5.0 Fail

Dear Blackberry Messenger 5.0: you suck.

After hearing the raving reviews from my friends who finally upgraded this week, I downloaded the new BBM 5.0 to my Curve 8900 with less than stellar results.

As a huge fan of aesthetics, I was pleased by the new design. Unfortunately, it didn’t go much further than the design: my texts stopped coming through and my contacts’ pictures never uploaded.

After contacting Rogers support about it, they fixed the text messaging but the BBM, I learned, was not going to be as easy. The upgrade is RIM supported and not Rogers supported, it has a lot of bugs, and to figure it out was going to be a huge inconvenience to me.

My options were as follows:
1. Manually reload each contact (I have over 100)
2. Manually link each contact to their address book entry (I tried one and it didn’t solve the problem)
3. Downgrade back to the last 4.7 version of BBM

That doesn’t sound like very helpful advice, the situation outlook isn’t promising, and its as though its on me to find the solution. Thanks,  Rogers. The worst part is that at the end of the conversation the Rogers support guys asked, “anything else I can help you with today?” umm.. how about fix my BBM?

I’m currently still running BBM 5.0 and have found plenty of online talk about the bugs.

All I have to say is Blackberry Fail.

What has been your experience with BBM 5.0? Any solutions that might be more useful?

Trending Topics

I love Twitter; However, having just started habitually checking the trending topics I began to wonder how these so-called trends never made a dent in my communities’ conversations. Then it happened – between coffee number three and my mid afternoon daydream – everyone began talking about also wanting to get stuck in a hot air balloon that would take us far, far away from this (suddenly freezing) city.

Soon the six-year-old boy who launched himself into the clouds became the trending topic #saveballoonboy and #balloonboy. Unfortunately, as soon as I heard his name was in fact Falcon (#namefail) and his family adores the spotlight, I smelt #Hoax and was #OverIt.

However, the day’s hashtagged topics were hilarious and worth mentioning. Today’s top trending rivals were Anne Frank and Balloon Boy, and everyone began tweeting “Balloon boy, Ima let you finish – but Anne Frank had one of the best attic hideouts of all time.”

Speaking of sad hoaxes, the amber alert that’s been going around? #Hoax. Oh, and can everyone please stop falling for phishing scams? While we’re at it, lets make a pact: as soon as something screams #Hoax, lets just ignore it as though it were an ADHD ridden child… The kind who hasn’t been shown any boundaries, given any hugs, or been taught consequences for actions (the worst kind). Thanks.

Want more? Follow me.

Best Dance-Your-Pants-Off Videos

My List of the best dance-your-pants-off videos.

1. Yelle – A Cause Des Garcons
2. Days Go By – Dirty Vegas
3. Diesel Disco
4. Kings Of Convinience – I’d Rather Dance With You

What are your faves to add to the list?

Swedish Love Affair

My favorite artist of the week award goes to stylish Swedish star, Lykke Li.

Everything about her is unique: voice, sound and style. No two songs sound the same, and yet they all come together to create the perfect ensemble in her diverse collection of music that ranges from cutting-edge indie electro to rock&roll and even pop.

Check it: Breaking It Up; I’m Good, I’m Gone; Dance Dance Dance; and the mix of The Kings of Leon’s Knocked Up

 

Soundtrack To Falling In Love

What does falling in love sound like? Below is a list of the top 3 artists who supply the music featured in the movie that is my life. Hopefully, it will help provide a lovely background to your personal love story too.

1. José González first captured my attention with a remake of The Knife’s song, Heartbeats. His album, 10 Days of Covers, features beautiful remakes of good songs and takes them to a whole new level. Best tracks worth checking out: Heartbeats, Teardrop, Hand On Your Heart and Killing For Love.
2. Kings of Convenience are great for upbeat, skip home in la, la, love music. Since the duo consists of  Erlend Øye, I’m counting his solo work in this section. Check it: I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From (original and röyksopp remix), Toxic Girl, I’d Rather Dance With You and Sudden Rush.
3. Four Tet’s talents stretch beyond producing originals, like the breathtaking track Everything Is Alright, and extend to remixing otherwise bland tracks into pieces of art - a perfectly crafted background to any love story. Four Tet remixes worth checking out: Andrew Bird’s Imitosis and Sia’s Breathe On Me.

I know, my love story sounds like a Spanish love-affair. I would love to hear back from you – what makes up your perfect soundtrack to falling in love? What does your list look like? What should I add to my list?

Let me know!

Tired Of Being Sexy

New

Brazilian Sub-Pop group Cansei de Ser Sexy(CSS) just released their new album Donkey. It is more refined and pop-ish than their last album, a self-titled raw and artistic masterpiece. Their overall sound, however, remains the same: pop art, Warhol, turned into music. Bright, brilliant and genuinely different.

I first heard of this group last summer, rocking out to Lets Make Love and Listen to Death From Above. They were one of the first bands which lured me into the Indie Electro scene. Soon, Music is My Hot, Hot Sex played back up to an Ipod commercial and the whole world had discovered my little secret known as CSS. Life was ruined.

Top tracks off Donkey are as follows:

1. Believe Achieve
2. Jagger Yoga

Top tracks off CSS:

1. Lets Make Love and Listen To Death From Above
2. Alala
3. Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex

Revived

Best of Radiohead was released last month and I was excited to get more from the creators of Creep. I must preceed the next statement with a reminder that I’m an ‘86er so you must forgive me, but I actually didn’t realize how many songs I love were created by this band. Kind of like Theory of a Deadman, you think you have never heard of them but you can sing along to all their songs (*ah-hem* rethink your PR).

In addition to all the songs I already loved, I have found new favourite tracks from this time capsule.

There have been so many great remixes and reconstructions of Radiohead tracks also worth mentioning. I remember first hearing Everything In Its Right Place on a CD about 4 years ago – it was the opening song to a set preformed by Paul Oakenfold. I also can’t forget to mention Mark Ronson’s rendition of Just on the album Versions. Mark Ronson is a music god.

Others worth checking out

1. Crookers. They are seriously building up in popularity and I’m hearing their name more and more often.
2. Santogold. Check out their songs L.E.S. Artistes and Creator
3. Black Kids and Lykke Li
4. Los Campesinos! I’m still trying to appreciate them.. cool sound, not my type but they are worth checking out.