Dr. Who's Reading Room

From my course blog.

The new semester starts on Monday at both places I’m teaching this semester: the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Endicott College. As such, I’ve had to update my syllabi. Among other things, I’ve adopted the newest (second) editions of both the textbook and reader I use in my Introductory Sociology classes. It’s funny that one of my friends recently asked “How do you keep it fresh?” Well, that’s one way. It wasn’t exactly a “rototill,” but the updates were substantial enough to give me pause. I’ll leave rototilling to my upper level course. I’ve just become aware of a textbook I may want to adopt for that, replacing the current aging entries. They’re not bad books, it’s just that a lot has happened since they were published, and they haven’t been updated.

But this is but one of the biannual rituals of teaching. Others include closing out incomplete grades from the previous semester, and I have had a few of those. So no, I haven’t really been “off” this week. While it’s been a slower pace than when I’m teaching four or more courses, I have had a single-pointed focus that has not been leisure.

I can think of no better way to observe this ritual than with an internet meme, courtesy of the free meme generator app I got from the Mac App Store.

Andover Patch: Breaking News Alert

Update brings enhanced malware protection for Snow Leopard | Antivirus & Security | MacUser | Macworld »

Whew! I downloaded the Apple update the other day. I usually check the description of the update, but this time I didn’t happen to. I’m glad I’m protected.

Security Update 2011-003 adds protection from Mac Defender Trojan horse, daily definition updates

Posted on May 31, 2011 5:22 pm by Dan Moren, Macworld.com

Mac Trojan horses, beware: There’s a new sheriff in town, and its name is Security Update 2011-003. Not a very catchy name, to be sure, but it gets the job done—and that job is protecting Mac users from the nefarious Mac Defender Trojan horse, as well as laying the groundwork to keep them safe from future malware as well.

Mac OS X will warn you if you inadvertently download malware such as the Mac Defender Trojan horse

Twimbow v1.1 is here: skins, minimalistic icons, audio notifications and more

Twimbow v1.1 Is Here!

Dear Twimbow user,

We are happy to announce a new beta release of your social media dashboard Twimbow.

What are you waiting for? Please go to http://www.twimbow.com and check Twimbow 1.1 out. If you haven’t moved to Twimbow 1 yet, please migrate your account, it just takes 20 seconds!

Here are the main new features.

New Settings

Completely re-designed settings window. Settings are now splitted between two views and one view is dedicated to the “look & feel” only. Moreover, the new settings window works better with low-res netbooks.

White Skin

The much requested light skin is finally here! Don’t you like the default dark skin? Now you can choose between a dark (default) skin and a new white skin.

Small Toolbar and audio notifications

If you think the default toolbar is too big or it doesn’t play well together with the new white skin, you can now choose a small one with minimalistic icons. In the following versions, more skins and toolbars will be available. Moreover, we added optional audio notifications for DM and mentions for all your accounts.

Last but not least, we added other bugs :-) Please help us remove them by adding them to http://twimbow.uservoice.com

Please don’t esitate to contact me for further information. We are set to make Twimbow the best social media browser available, by providing innovative and unique features no other clients are offering. We don’t copy, we invent.

You can find more information about Twimbow on our blog http://blog.twimbow.com.

Please follow us on Twitter for the latest news on Twimbow or just to say “Hi”:Twimbow, filos (myself)

Cheers,
Luca

IMPORTANT: we are consolidating our mailing list, so please feel free to unsubscribe if you previously unsubscribed or if you son’t want to receive updates from us. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience :-)

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Included in Governor Deval Patrick’s just-released FY12 Budget for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a provision that would decrease litter, increase recycling, and generate revenue: an update of the state’s bottle bill. The provision would expand the 30 year old 5 cent deposit on some soft drinks and other beverages to include water bottles, sports drinks, teas and other drinks. The Coalition for an Updated Bottle Bill cheered the Governor’s move, and called for the provision’s immediate passage.

“Updating the bottle bill makes sense for all the right reasons: it reduces trash hazards in the environment, will provide added revenue to state conservation programs, and will return more money to cities and towns for recycling programs,” commented Jack Clarke, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations for Mass Audubon, which analyzes the environmental priorities in the state budget each year. While Governor Patrick supported the update in his first term, there is a ‘stepped up’ effort now, according to the Secretary of Energy and the Environment, Rick Sullivan. In addition, a recently released poll conducted by the MassInc Polling Group showed that 77% of the public supports the update.

“It’s basically been more than 12 years of snow days for the Updated Bottle Bill,” remarked Janet Domenitz of MASSPIRG. “The bill has been buried in the Legislature for far too long, and there’s simply no reason to delay any longer.”

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—	Updated Bottle Bill Coalition lauds Governor’s FY12 Budget - MASSPIRG If you are one of the more than three quarters of the public who support this, get your rep to sign on.

OSX 10.6.6 available – install now to get the Mac App Store »

I knew there was a reason I upgraded to Snow Leopard this week. Eclipsing CES, are we, Apple? Clever.

OSX 10.6.6 available – install now to get the Mac App Store

UPDATE: Apple has decided to jump the gun on the rumoured launch time and the Mac App Store isavailable immediately, with over 1000 apps available to download. We’re installing and will give you our first impressions as soon as possible.

With the Mac App Store due to launch today, Apple has just made an upgrade to OSX available that you’ll need to install first.

Once the new update is set up on your Mac, the App Store is due to become available from 9am PST / 12 noon EST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET and you’ll find it in the Software Update option in your Apple menu. OSX 10.6.6 is only available to those who have the latest Snow Leopard edition of the OS, which launched in 2009. If you haven’t got that yet, we suggest you run off to the Apple Store quick march.