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Leslie Katz - Joggingvideo.com https://1800birks4u.com Lifestyle, Culture, Relationships, Food, Travel, Entertainment, News and New Technology News Mon, 24 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.4 Crafty College Students Design Helmets to Thwart Exam Cheating https://1800birks4u.com/uncategorized/crafty-college-students-design-helmets-to-thwart-exam-cheating/ https://1800birks4u.com/uncategorized/crafty-college-students-design-helmets-to-thwart-exam-cheating/#respond Mon, 24 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/uncategorized/crafty-college-students-design-helmets-to-thwart-exam-cheating/ You’ve put in long hours studying for your college midterms and don’t want anyone copying your answers. What do you do? You make a wacky anti-cheating hat that blocks your peers from seeing your test, of course.   Enlarge Image Mary Joy Mandane-Ortiz That’s what students at a school in the Philippines did on the […]

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You’ve put in long hours studying for your college midterms and don’t want anyone copying your answers. What do you do? You make a wacky anti-cheating hat that blocks your peers from seeing your test, of course.  

Student attaches tubes to his eyes to block the view of his testStudent attaches tubes to his eyes to block the view of his testEnlarge Image

Mary Joy Mandane-Ortiz

That’s what students at a school in the Philippines did on the prompting of their teacher, who asked them to create headgear that would prevent others from copying their work.  

Mary Joy Mandane-Ortiz, a professor of mechanical engineering at Bicol University’s College of Engineering, told the BBC she initially asked students to make a “simple” design out of paper as a fun way to ensure honest exam-taking earlier this month. But these engineers weren’t going to settle for simple.They tapped anything they could find — from paper bags to cardboard tubes and boxes, bubble wrap, fabric and even a tennis racket case to create headwear that obscures neighbors’ views. One placed an open umbrella canopy atop his head, while another wore headphones to hold two rectangular vision-obscuring paper flaps in place over his ears. 

A student's anti-cheating hat made from headphones that hold two rectangular strips in place on the side of his face.A student's anti-cheating hat made from headphones that hold two rectangular strips in place on the side of his face.Enlarge Image

Mary Joy Mandane-Ortiz

Mandane-Ortiz posted images of the hats on Facebook, earning the students worldwide attention (and potentially some job offers). Pupils at another school in the Philippines, Palawan State University, even followed suit with their own handmade anti-cheating hats.  

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say, except if you’re copying someone else’s exam answers.

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‘Stranger Things’ Musical Finally Brings Justice for Barb https://1800birks4u.com/culture/entertainment/stranger-things-parody-musical-finally-brings-justice-for-barb/ https://1800birks4u.com/culture/entertainment/stranger-things-parody-musical-finally-brings-justice-for-barb/#respond Mon, 24 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/culture/entertainment/stranger-things-parody-musical-finally-brings-justice-for-barb/ Hawkins, Indiana, may be home to murderous monsters, but it’s way less threatening when you toss in campy musical numbers and silly wigs.  You get plenty of both in Stranger Sings: The Parody Musical, which bills itself as a “hilarious ‘upside down’ take” on the hit Netflix horror drama about young friends facing supernatural forces […]

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Hawkins, Indiana, may be home to murderous monsters, but it’s way less threatening when you toss in campy musical numbers and silly wigs. 

You get plenty of both in Stranger Sings: The Parody Musical, which bills itself as a “hilarious ‘upside down’ take” on the hit Netflix horror drama about young friends facing supernatural forces in a fictional ’80s town. It’s playing off-Broadway in New York now, and runs through Jan. 1 in London. The show comes to Melbourne, Australia, in November, with more Australian cities on the docket.  

With its colorful cast of ragtag characters, big ’80s hair and bulky portable phones that could double as doorstops, the series practically begged for musical satire, says Jonathan Hogue, writer and producer of Stranger Sings.

“When I started exploring this series as a parody musical, the songs and story beats all fell into place so naturally, as if the show was meant to be musicalized, and parodied, from the beginning,” says Hogue, a big fan of the Duffer brothers’ creation, which ended its fourth season in August. “Who doesn’t want to see Joyce get a big brassy showstopper with her Christmas lights? Or Barb become a vengeful musical diva?” 

Jamir Brown, as the Demogorgon, crouches behind SLee as Barb in Stranger SingsJamir Brown, as the Demogorgon, crouches behind SLee as Barb in Stranger Sings

Jamir Brown plays the Demogorgon and SLee is Barb in Stranger Sings: The Parody Musical. 


Evan Zimmerman

The rest of the gang’s here for the musical version too: Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Eleven Hopper, Steve and Jonathan. Stranger Sings follows season 1’s story arc, which explains the reappearance of poor, ill-fated Barb, alive again and doing duets with questionable bestie Nancy.    

“We’ll stick together, friends forever, and best friends never, they never die,” they sing with a knowing wink. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical (@strangersingsmusical)

The show lasts around two hours and features 14 songs — about life in Hawkins, awkward teen crushes and the stress of having your child kidnapped and taken to another dimension. Some of the more amusing lyrics come from a number featuring psychic kid Eleven singing about sketchy Hawkins National Laboratory scientist Dr. Brenner. Her father figure does some very unpaternal things, like put Eleven in a sensory deprivation tank to exploit her telekinetic powers for government evil.

“I always wanted a dad who would never make me cry,” Eleven sings. “One who’d tell me, ‘Kid, I’m so proud of you,’ instead of ‘Stay in your cell ’til July.'”  

“I got a lot of ideas from watching and listening to classic ’80s films and music, but I also carried so much inspiration over from my lifelong obsession with Saturday Night Live, Mel Brooks, Monty Python and other sketch comedy creators,” says Hogue, who’s pursuing a graduate degree in theater management and producing at New York’s Columbia University. “It was also important to me that while the show remained funny throughout, I also made sure to infuse it with just the right amount of heart so that audiences really cared about these characters, as silly as they are.” 

The show’s pulled in generally enthusiastic reviews, with critics calling it high-energy and hilarious. It won seven Broadway World Off/Off-Off Broadway Awards in 2021, including best new musical, best costume design, lighting design and scene design.   

Hogue has watched all four seasons of the Netflix show, met the cast and even been an extra in a few episodes. But he says audiences can still enjoy the musical even if they’ve never heard of Madmax or the Mind Flayer or tweeted using the #justiceforbarb hashtag. 

“One of my favorite things to hear … is audience members telling me, ‘I’ve never seen an episode of Stranger Things and I loved this show,” Hogue says.

Watch Stranger Things on Netflx

See at Netflix

This isn’t the first time Stranger Things has been set to music. Five years ago, singer Brian David Gilbert came out with a comedic musical backing track to be played in place of the first season’s regular audio track. The album’s also called Stranger Sings, but isn’t connected with the musical. 

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things is expected on Netflix sometime in 2024. The Duffer brothers have confirmed a time jump for season 5, but they haven’t revealed details. 

In the meantime, maybe a hip-thrusting Demogorgon in a tight body suit will tide you over. 

‘Stranger Things’ Stars Then and Now: Wow, They’ve Really Grown Up

Stranger Things stars at season 4 premiereStranger Things stars at season 4 premiere

Eleven in season 1 of Stranger ThingsEleven in season 1 of Stranger Things

Eleven looking a little older in Stranger ThingsEleven looking a little older in Stranger Things

+37 more


See all photos

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Boston cop uses mating call on phone to lure lovelorn peacock https://1800birks4u.com/tech/mobile/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/mobile/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Wed, 13 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/mobile/boston-cop-uses-mating-call-on-phone-to-lure-lovelorn-peacock/ Cell phones are endlessly handy. You can make calls with them, play games, find your way around unfamiliar cities — and lure escaped peacocks.  That’s how a Boston police officer used his device this week when faced with a big bird that had broken out of the Franklin Park Zoo.  Enlarge Image Snowbank out and […]

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Cell phones are endlessly handy. You can make calls with them, play games, find your way around unfamiliar cities — and lure escaped peacocks. 

That’s how a Boston police officer used his device this week when faced with a big bird that had broken out of the Franklin Park Zoo. 

peacock2-1peacock2-1Enlarge Image

Snowbank out and about in Boston. 


Boston Police Department

It was around 6 a.m. Monday when a concerned citizen approached officers on patrol in the Roxbury area to report an unusual sighting: a large peacock roaming the neighborhood.  

“An officer on scene relied on his quick wit to track down a peacock mating call on his cell phone, successfully luring the bird into a fenced-in yard where he waited patiently for the arrival of Boston Animal Control,” the department recounts in a report on the official Boston Police Department website. 

The department describes the plumed perpetrator as “extremely large, slightly intimidating, and quite beautiful,” while visitors to the Boston Police Department’s Facebook page describe the officer’s actions as “brilliant,” “clever” and “awesome.”  

The 6-year-old escapee, named Snowbank, is back home at Franklin Park Zoo, which has been his home since 2013, and “doing well,” according to the zoo. Like so much of the world, the zoo is temporarily closed due to COVID-19. 

The zoo’s peacocks are free-roaming, the organization said in a statement, and “while they typically wander throughout the zoo, it is currently mating season, and it’s possible he ventured out looking for love in search of a peahen (female peacock).” 

Now, if the officer can just find a peacock-friendly dating site and make the suave Snowbank a match… 

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Guy makes dating app that features just one guy https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/guy-makes-dating-app-singularity-that-features-just-one-guy-himself/ There are few places you’re as likely to be overcome by the tyranny of choice as on dating apps. Choice is not an issue on Singularity, a new dating app for women. It features one guy and one guy alone.  Enlarge Image Aaron Smith is trying to make it easier for you.  Screenshot by Leslie […]

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There are few places you’re as likely to be overcome by the tyranny of choice as on dating apps. Choice is not an issue on Singularity, a new dating app for women. It features one guy and one guy alone. 

aaronEnlarge Image

Aaron Smith is trying to make it easier for you. 


Screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET

That guy is Aaron Smith. He created the app to sidestep all that dater-against-dater competition. Swipe through and you’ll see photos of only him. 

There’s Aaron in a Santa hat. There he is playing guitar. There he is playing guitar again, this time in a floppy wig. And there he is holding an adorable dog and making puppy eyes. Aaron is 32 and “gainfully employed,” the app reveals. 

The Greensboro, North Carolina, resident is indeed employed, in technical support. He also has a YouTube channel, Aaron Loves Gear, where he posts videos of music gear, software and “other random crap that I feel like putting up here.”

The channel now also hosts an amusing ad for his dating app. “By utilizing the latest in personality analysis and machine-learning technology, Singularity saves you countless hours of swiping by just matching you with me,” Smith says in the vid.  

The ad gives a good sense of Aaron’s feelings about online dating — and probably reflects the sentiments of a lot of others too. 

aaronaaronEnlarge Image

Hey, it’s Aaron again! 


Screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET

“Online dating is terrible, and getting more nonsensical with each passing year,” the narrator in the ad says. “Sure, you could meet people the old-fashioned way by going outside, but that feels like a lot of work. So instead you navigate this bleak dystopian hellscape sifting through the dregs of humanity through your smartphone while each day brings you closer to the cold hard hands of death.” 

Smith tells me he was getting bummed with the rat race to romance, but instead of posting an online rant, he decided to mine the situation for humor. Smith created Singularity with the help of his friend Scott McDowell, a software engineer.  It doesn’t appear on app stores (yet), just via a mobile website accessible via singularitydating.com.

The app makes its humorous bent clear from the start screen, which prompts you to log in with your Social Security number. You can also get in by just clicking on the “Okay fine” button.

Online-dating advice from our CNET expert

Unlike the infinite scrolling that characterizes most dating apps, this one ends on a page with Smith’s contact information in the form of a Facebook page and an email address. “Yes, this is a joke,” it reads. “But what if it isn’t?” 

Smith says he’s gotten a few Facebook friend requests through the app, but so far nothing that’s going to get him to give up Bumble for good. He is, however, more than open to meeting someone through Singularity.  

“I met my last serious girlfriend through Tinder,” he says, “so is this really that different?” 

Having interviewed the single Smith, I can share a pro tip for anyone interested in standing out. “If you’re an eccentric, socially anxious cat lady, we’re probably each other’s type.”  

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Here’s how to see spaceships at Coachella 2019 https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Wed, 17 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/heres-how-to-see-spaceships-at-coachella-2019/ If you’re on the ground at Coachella this weekend and get tired of posting selfies between acts, you can fill the time tracking flying space objects instead. An AR-equipped stage at the music festival’s Sahara Tent will shoot space-themed content around for those who open the Coachella Camera in the Coachella iOS or Android app and point their […]

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If you’re on the ground at Coachella this weekend and get tired of posting selfies between acts, you can fill the time tracking flying space objects instead.

An AR-equipped stage at the music festival’s Sahara Tent will shoot space-themed content around for those who open the Coachella Camera in the Coachella iOS or Android app and point their phones at video screens during changeovers. The giant images will include interactive planetary objects, space stations and astronauts that appear to be floating above the crowd. 

Voila. Your reality, already augmented from hanging out in the California desert with tens of thousands of strangers, gets even more so.

space2space2

Coachella

Childish Gambino headlined the festival’s opening night Friday with a 90-minute performance, urging attendees to put their phones down and take the moment in. He’ll perform again this weekend, as will Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Kacey Musgraves, Weezer and many more artists who hit the Coachella stages last weekend. Sunday also brings Kanye West’s highly anticipated Easter Sunday Service. 

Acts scheduled for the spacey Sahara Tent this weekend include Kid Cudi, Dillon Francis, Diplo, Jaden Smith and Wiz Khalifa.  

And if AR astronauts don’t feel tangible enough, there’s always Overview Effect, a 36-foot spaceman by Los Angeles art studio Poetic Kinetics that’s been roaming Coachella grounds. 

The gigantic sculpture has radio-controlled animatronic arms and hands that make gestures such as “peace,” “OK” and “thumbs-up” signs. Through a live interactive facial capture system, festival-goers get their faces projected into the helmet visor three stories up, while their name simultaneously appears on the astronaut suit’s enormous name tag.  

astronautastronaut

A giant astronaut roams Coachella 2019. 


Poetic Kinetics

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Sprint Super Bowl 2019 ad stars Bo Jackson and a flying horse (of course) https://1800birks4u.com/tech/mobile/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/mobile/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Sun, 03 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/mobile/sprint-super-bowl-2019-commercial-stars-bo-jackson-flying-horse/ Super-athlete Bo Jackson meets a mermaid and a horse with wings in Sprint’s Super Bowl 2019 ad.  “How do we tell people they get the best of both worlds with Sprint?” Paul Marcarelli, the Sprint spokesman formerly known as the Verizon spokesman, asks a few cute robots hanging out with him in a living room. […]

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Super-athlete Bo Jackson meets a mermaid and a horse with wings in Sprint’s Super Bowl 2019 ad. 

“How do we tell people they get the best of both worlds with Sprint?” Paul Marcarelli, the Sprint spokesman formerly known as the Verizon spokesman, asks a few cute robots hanging out with him in a living room. Replies one of them: “How about we get two-sport legend Bo Jackson?”

Jackson, a former American baseball and football player, then appears on the scene holding a mermaid clutching a keytar (as mermaids do). With a “bird horse” flapping over his left shoulder, he urges customers to choose Sprint for its nationwide LTE Advanced network, an upgraded form of 4G delivering internet speeds up to twice as fast as before. Jackson says customers will also save $1,000 over Verizon and AT&T. 

More Super Bowl

Sprint needs to go big since with its ad it’s the last-place national carrier that’s still losing subscribers. All of this may be moot, with Sprint hoping regulators approve T-Mobile’s bid to acquire it. 

The other wireless carriers expected to broadcast Super Bowl commercials will no doubt have their own take on the best choice. And the wireless companies aren’t just dropping money for ads during the big game. They’ve spent millions to ensure your Instagram posts and livestreams from in and around Mercedes-Benz Stadium don’t jam on Sunday.   

Best Super Bowl TV deals: Buying a new TV for the big game? These are your best choices.

How to watch the Super Bowl: Watch the game in the US for free, on TV or online.

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Fast https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Fri, 08 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/gudak-cam-app-ios-photography/ Gather round, kiddies, and let me tell you about a time when we’d take a photo, and then wait, sometimes for hours or even days, to see how it came out. Back then, we couldn’t check voicemail while walking down the street unless we stopped at a payphone (a big box you put coins into). […]

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Gather round, kiddies, and let me tell you about a time when we’d take a photo, and then wait, sometimes for hours or even days, to see how it came out. Back then, we couldn’t check voicemail while walking down the street unless we stopped at a payphone (a big box you put coins into).

gudak2-2gudak2-2Enlarge Image

Quality over quantity: Gudak Cam forces you to be more deliberate about the shots you take. 


Screw Bar

All that waiting might seem like torture to you, young ‘uns, but it brought a sweet anticipation that can only come with delayed gratification. Curious what that feels like? So are a lot of people. An app called Gudak Cam that makes you wait three long days for your digital photos to be processed is among the hottest paid iPhone apps in several countries, including South Korea and Japan, where it’s especially popular among female high school students, Nikkei Asian Review reports. 

The 99-cent iOS app, which came out in July, approximates the look and experience of a Kodak disposable camera. Users can only snap 24 shots in a row. Once they’ve finished a roll of 24 exposures, they have to wait an interminable hour to reload the “film.” Rolls take three days to “develop.”

Gudak Cam photographers shoot pictures through a tiny viewfinder. They can even opt to add nostalgic “random light leaks” to their photos, as well as a color cast those who’ve used disposable cameras will recognize. Many apps and filters give photos a vintage look, of course, but Gudak Cam goes a step further by adding wait time.

The app garnered 1.3 million users in its first two months, Nikkei Asian Review reports, and an Instagram search for #gudak and #gudakcam returns more than 280,000 photos from around the world. 

The app’s rising popularity comes at a time when many hobbyists still enjoy taking photos on film, and digitally savvy young hipsters are leaving CCD and CMOS sensors behind in favor of a technology their grandparents used.

More analog photography

The title of Gundak Cam, developed by South Korean startup Screw Bar, comes from “Gudagdali,” a Korean term for “outdated.”

“In today’s digital era where the undo function is prevalent, we may have lost the thrill of choosing and cherishing moments,” the developer says. “The aesthetics of waiting for printed photos may also have been lost.”

What’s next? Email that requires postage stamps? 

Tech CultureFrom film and television to social media and games, here’s your place for the lighter side of tech. 

Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool.

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Do online high schools make the grade? https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Sat, 05 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/online-schools-get-mixed-report-cards/ Natalie LeBaron dissected earthworms, grasshoppers and frogs for her 10th-grade biology class. Sure, high school students have been excising amphibian hearts for decades — but not like LeBaron. She wields her scalpel on top of the dryer in her family’s laundry room in Stockton, California. LeBaron, 15, had just completed her sophomore year with Stanford […]

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Natalie LeBaron dissected earthworms, grasshoppers and frogs for her 10th-grade biology class.

Sure, high school students have been excising amphibian hearts for decades — but not like LeBaron. She wields her scalpel on top of the dryer in her family’s laundry room in Stockton, California.

LeBaron, 15, had just completed her sophomore year with Stanford Online High School (mascot: the Pixel), where she takes classes while in a fluffy chair in the corner of her bedroom. When she does science experiments, like dissecting frogs or measuring cellular respiration, her teacher sometimes asks to see photos, which she snaps and sends with an iPad.

But it’s not all homework at Stanford Online High School (OHS). Student life can be surprisingly well-rounded.

LeBaron, for example, runs a weekly club focused on the multiplayer video game Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator. She’s also performed in a one-act play via Adobe Connect, sharing the virtual stage with a fellow actor in New Jersey as audience members applauded with emojis.

“Sometimes it gets a little bit lonely, being the only person in Stockton that goes to my school, but it works out,” says LeBaron, who has met classmates at get-togethers on Stanford’s Palo Alto, California, campus 85 miles from home. “I love the challenge. I love the environment.”

stanford-online-high-school-8953.jpgstanford-online-high-school-8953.jpg

Natalie LeBaron turns her kitchen counter into a lab table for a science experiment she’s conducting for Stanford Online High School.


James Martin/CNET

There are all kinds of online high schools — from government-funded public and charter schools, which are free to resident minors, to private schools including those like OHS, which are affiliated with universities.

This last category varies in price: Indiana University High School charges $250 for each course, George Washington University Online High School costs $12,000 a year, while yearly tuition at OHS hits nearly $20,000 for four or more courses. (OHS says about 15 percent of its students receive financial aid.)

Nearly 460 full-time charter, privately run or district-operated virtual schools enrolled more than 261,000 students during the 2014-15 academic year, according to the National Education Policy Center.

Something for everyone

So what’s the appeal? For some, like LeBaron, these virtual schools feel like natural extensions to their home schooling. Others might have been bullied, struggle with chronic illnesses or live in remote areas.

Others are high achievers who need higher academic standards or the flexibility to compete in sports, start companies or perform on stage.

German student Birte Doludda, 17, checks off several of those reasons for attending OHS. She and her family moved to Tokyo eight years ago when her father got a job there with chemical maker Nippon Aerosil.

“In physical schools, I often had disappointing teachers who seemed uninterested in their own subjects,” says Doludda, who just completed her junior year. “[At OHS] I get to work on subjects that I like and experience things like philosophy, which I am told not many high school students get to do.”

Alex Shaffer, now 25, attended Indiana University High School because it made it easier for him to juggle homework while keeping his 30 internet marketing clients happy.

“I needed a high school that was flexible with my schedule so I could go to meetings and work on my projects,” Shaffer says on the school’s website. “I was able to work at my own pace, and being able to work anywhere was a good thing because I traveled.”

Not so fast

To be sure, not every virtual high school caters to high achievers — or even meets the needs of the average student, according to the National Education Policy Center. In April, the organization published a report saying students attending charter, for-profit and district-operated virtual schools consistently underperform those at traditional schools. (It didn’t cover college-associated schools, like OHS.)

The center also notes that for-profit virtual schools account for nearly three-quarters of all enrollments. They also have the highest student/teacher ratio, with 44 students per online classroom. The report’s authors go so far as to describe the virtual schools it looked at as “dismal — if not disastrous.”

“The whole model is flawed,” says lead author Gary Miron, a professor of education at Western Michigan University. “[It] was not developed by academics or researchers or practitioners.”

Even schools with impeccable academic credentials have their skeptics. That’s because they can’t provide the social elements — from varsity tryouts to locker room awkwardness — that are an important part of growing up. For some, that’s OK.

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Classmates in Vikram Venkatram’s AP biology class could see and comment on a report he gave on plant defenses.


Screenshot by ​Leslie Katz/CNET

“I do think that I am missing out on some typical high school experiences, like walking to class with my friends,” Doludda says, “but I believe that I experience all the ones that really matter.”

She says she’s made close friends at OHS, but has met them only over Skype.

Learning without borders

On a Tuesday evening, hardly a standard time for a high school class, Kim Failor led an AP biology class from a video chat window on one side of a computer screen, while students on camera answered questions or delivered presentations.

Vikram Venkatram, for example, gave a report on plant defenses and posted visuals on a virtual whiteboard he shared with classmates as far away as China and Japan. They praised him with smiley faces and virtual high-fives after he’d finished.

“I really like how a lot of the assignments and teaching are focused on quality over quantity,” says Venkatram, 16, who started his senior year this fall.

“It’s definitely a lot of work and it’s not easy. But it’s nice because every homework assignment will ask in-depth questions on something new versus 16 or even 50 questions on the same kind of math [but] with different numbers.”

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See more stories from CNET Magazine.


Michael Muller

Inner strength

It takes a certain kind of student to do well at schools like OHS, the No. 3 ranked private school in the country, after Phillips Academy (where day students pay $40,500 in annual tuition) and Phillips Exeter (nearly $37,900 a year), according to Niche.com.

For sure, they’re high achievers, but they also tend to be more self-reliant than their peers attending brick-and-mortar schools.

“I really like that the students are doing lab work at home, because then they’re really required to get the full experience of being a scientist,” says Failor, head of the science division at OHS.

“They have to set up the apparatus. They need to troubleshoot. In graduate school I noticed that not everyone had the skills to troubleshoot an experiment. They always had an expert on hand.”

Count LeBaron in the take-charge OHS crowd. At just 15, she’s already looking ahead to a career in physics or medicine and, if her high school record is any indication, she could end up doing both.

This story appears in the fall 2016 edition of CNET Magazine. For other magazine stories, click here.

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This Commodore 64 bad boy helps drive an auto shop in 2016 https://1800birks4u.com/tech/computing/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/computing/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Wed, 28 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/computing/this-commodore-64-bad-boy-helps-drive-an-auto-shop-in-2016/ An auto shop in Poland has a little lesson for the consumer masses conditioned to grab the latest, sleekest, fastest gadgets. The shop uses a Commodore 64 that goes back 25 years. “This C64C used by a small auto repair shop for balancing drive shafts has been working non-stop for over 25 years,” reads a […]

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An auto shop in Poland has a little lesson for the consumer masses conditioned to grab the latest, sleekest, fastest gadgets. The shop uses a Commodore 64 that goes back 25 years.

“This C64C used by a small auto repair shop for balancing drive shafts has been working non-stop for over 25 years,” reads a post this week on Commodore USA’s Facebook page. “And despite surviving a flood it is still going…”

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Commodore International introduced the legendary Commodore 64 in 1982 with 64 kilobytes of memory, a processor running at 1MHz and a 16-color graphics chip. The Guinness World Records lists it as the highest-selling single computer model of all time.

The auto shop’s computer looks like it could use an epic scrubbing, and browsing the Web on it probably gets really tricky. But it has at least one distinct advantage: Management doesn’t need to worry about employees passing their workdays streaming “Stranger Things” and playing Forza Horizon 3 on this 8-bit bad boy.

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Snapchat Spectacles, glasses with a camera, coming this fall https://1800birks4u.com/tech/mobile/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/mobile/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Sat, 24 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/mobile/snapchat-spectacles-glasses-camera-snap-inc-evan-spiegel/ Now playing: Watch this: Watch out, GoPro: Snapchat Spectacles could succeed where… 1:25 The camera built into Snapchat’s “Spectacles” lets you shoot video that shows the world from your point of view. Spectacles.com Like to view the world through Snapchat-colored glasses? You’ll soon be able to do that for real. The millennial-friendly messaging service plus […]

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The camera built into Snapchat's "Spectacles" lets you shoot video that shows the world from your point of view.The camera built into Snapchat's "Spectacles" lets you shoot video that shows the world from your point of view.

The camera built into Snapchat’s “Spectacles” lets you shoot video that shows the world from your point of view.


Spectacles.com

Like to view the world through Snapchat-colored glasses? You’ll soon be able to do that for real.

The millennial-friendly messaging service plus social network plus video hub is set to release “Spectacles,” its own smart glasses. The specs shoot first-person video clips, or Snaps, that you can transfer directly to the Snapchat app.

The company, which has also renamed itself Snap Inc. to reflect its expansion into consumer hardware, touted the new product Saturday by way of a fashion-friendly website called, appropriately enough, Spectacles.com. It also posted a statement on the new site Snap.com.

“We’ve created one of the smallest wireless video cameras in the world,” the post says, “capable of taking a day’s worth of Snaps on a single charge, and we integrated it seamlessly into a fun pair of sunglasses.”

Both sites say the specs will arrive “soon.” In an article published late Friday by The Wall Street Journal, Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel said the glasses would be available in the fall.

The move is the latest in the continuous effort by tech companies to see into the future and stake out new territory as they jostle for customers and try to keep each other at bay.

Social-media juggernaut Facebook failed to acquire Snapchat three years ago and has watched as the upstart and its video Snaps (until now shot only with smartphones) have seized the imagination of the younger crowd. That’s one of the reasons — along with live-streaming products like Twitter’s Periscope — behind Facebook’s strong move into video with its Facebook Live feature. Among other things, the Spectacles product adds another element to the video equation.

Snapchat's $130 camera-toting glasses will come in three colors: coral, teal and black.Snapchat's $130 camera-toting glasses will come in three colors: coral, teal and black.

Snapchat’s $130 camera-toting glasses will come in three colors: coral, teal and black.


Spectacles.com

The specs can record up to 10 seconds of video from the wearer’s perspective. Each tap of a button mounted on the frames records another clip, while a ring of tiny lights lets people know you’re recording. The camera-glasses use a 115-degree-angle lens that resembles the human eye’s natural field of view, the Journal said.

“Spectacles connect directly to Snapchat via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and transfer your Memories directly into the app in our brand new circular video format [which] plays full screen on any device, in any orientation,” Snap Inc. said on its site.

The glasses, which can be recharged in their case, will come in one size and be available on a limited basis. They’ll come in three colors — black, teal and coral — and, according to the Journal, will cost $129.99 (roughly £100, AU$170).

“We’re going to take a slow approach to rolling them out,” Spiegel told the paper. “It’s about us figuring out if it fits into people’s lives and seeing how they like it.”

A video ad on the Spectacles site shows a posse of happy millennials enjoying an endless summer to a Beach Boys-y soundtrack — all while storing up the good vibes via clips shot with the specs.

“Imagine one of your favorite memories,” the Snap.com post reads. “What if you could go back and see that memory the way you experienced it?”

The unveiling of the product confirms speculation that followed the leak of a different ad for the glasses, obtained by Business Insider on Friday from a YouTube tipster. It also follows plenty of scuttlebutt about the project.

In 2014, Snapchat bought Vergence Labs, a startup that makes Google Glass-like eyewear that records video of what the wearer sees. In 2015, Snapchat began building Snapchat Research, a team composed of scientists and software engineers specializing in computer vision and machine learning.

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In March, CNET’s Sean Hollister reported that Snapchat was recruiting hardware experts for a stealthy new project. The social-media firm has never produced physical gear, unless you count merchandise like beach towels and backpacks. It does, however, already count nearly a dozen wearable-technology vets among its ranks.

In addition, Spiegel had been spotted in public wearing prototypes specs.

On any given day, Snapchat reaches 41 percent of all 18- to 34-year-olds in the United States, according to the company.

That’s a lot of young consumers that could sport new specs.


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First published, September 23, 5:45 p.m. PT. Update, 8:15 p.m.: Adds information on Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel’s confirmation of Spectacles. Update, September 24, 9:22 a.m., 12:38 p.m.: Recasts top of story, with material from Snap.com and Spectacles.com websites.

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