As digital drugs or i-dosing appears in Oklahoma, experts warn that it’s not the sounds themselves that should worry parents. The websites where the tones are sold entice young people down a slippery slope, they say.

Schools and drug experts are warning parents to beware of “digital drugs” that Mustang High School students blamed for their apparent intoxication.

Three students were sent to the principal’s office when they appeared to be high on drugs or alcohol in March, said Mustang School District Superintendent Bonnie Lightfoot. She said the kids explained that they had tried something called “i-dosers.”

http://xenophilius.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/digital-drugs-at-mustang-high-school-have-experts-warning-of-slippery-slope/

Holidaymakers have been warned to watch their words after two friends were refused entry to the US on security grounds after a tweet.

Before his trip, Leigh Van Bryan wrote that he was going to “destroy America”.

He insisted he was referring to simply having a good time – but was sent home.

Trade association Abta told the BBC that the case highlighted that holidaymakers should never do anything to raise “concern or suspicion in any way”.

The US Department for Homeland Security picked up Mr Bryan’s messages ahead of his holiday in Los Angeles.

The 26-year-old bar manager wrote a message to a friend on the micro-blogging service, saying: “Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America.”

The Irish national told the Sun Newspaper that he and his friend Emily Bunting were apprehended on arrival at Los Angeles International Airport before being sent home.

“The Homeland Security agents were treating me like some kind of terrorist,” Mr Bryan said.

“I kept saying they had got the wrong meaning from my tweet.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16810312

Finally the world catches up with what it means to really understand the basic technology of the internet. By knowing how the internet and its applications are developed and implemented individuals will gain a deeper understanding of its potential. By understanding the distinctions between platforms, applications, frameworks and layers everyday people will be able to recognise and harness the opportunities afforded by the internet and its development.

(CNN) — This week, New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg tweeted his intent to learn computer code by the end of the year. He joined about 300,000 other people who have signed up at CodeYear to receive free interactive programming lessons each week from the Codecademy, a web-based tutorial. I am greatly relieved.

It’s time Americans begin treating computer code the way we do the alphabet or arithmetic. Code is the stuff that makes computer programs work — the list of commands that tells a word processor, a website, a video game, or an airplane navigation system what to do. That’s all software is: lines of code, written by people.

We are socializing, working, consuming, and living in a world increasingly defined by programs. Learning to code is the best way to understand what all those programs do, or even to recognize that they are there in the first place.

Just a couple of years ago, I was getting blank stares or worse when I would suggest to colleagues and audiences that they learn code, or else. “Program or be programmed,” became my mantra: If you are not a true user of digital technology, then you are likely being used by digital technology. My suggestion that people learn to program was meant more as a starting point in a bigger argument.

Class of 2011 scores higher-paying jobs

Sussex owner of missing iPad uses photo to help trace it

Tom Clarke has appealed for the man in the photograph to help him trace his iPad

An IT consultant is attempting to track down his missing iPad by using photos taken on it.

Tom Clarke, 26, from Hove, in Sussex, either lost or had his iPad stolen while shopping in a Tesco store.

Several days later photos taken on the device – showing a man in a woolly hat – were automatically streamed to his mobile phone through Apple’s iCloud software.

Mr Clarke has appealed for the person in the photo to help him trace it.

He said: “All I want is for Sussex Police to be able find the guy in the woolly hat because he knows who has got my iPad.”

Mr Clarke said he had gone shopping in a Tesco store on 18 December in Holmbush Shopping Centre, in Shoreham, using his iPad as a shopping list.

When he returned home he realised it was missing.

On 24 December several photos taken of the man, a dog and some luggage were automatically sent to his phone.

<a href=”http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-16536953“> more here</a>

Researchers say that some people are developing a rare condition where they send incoherent text messages to their contacts while sleeping, something that they have no memory of. Sleep specialist Dr David Cunnington, of Melbourne Sleep Disorder Centre, said patients had come to them reporting sleep texting.

“We have had patients who have reported sending text messages to their friends and family while asleep,” the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying. “It is one of those things that happens, but it is very rare, and certainly not a common trend,” he said.

There are no studies into sleep texting, but a similar phenomenon, sleep emailing, was studied in 2008.

Researchers at the University of Toledo reported the case of a 44-year-old woman who would compose emails while sound asleep but would have no recollection of them when awake. According to Dr Cunnington, sleep emailing is more common and likely to have a more detrimental effect than sleep texting, which is a result of people having too much to do during waking life.

However, a good night’s sleep means people should be able to shut off their minds and phones, so people struggling to get a quality night’s sleep should keep their handsets out of the bedroom.

“If your phone is on the nightstand, then it will be more difficult to have a good night’s sleep without feeling compelled to reply to a message or check your Facebook account,” Dr Cunnington said. “The key point is that people need to respect their sleep, and make an effort to switch off at night,” he added.

Read more about “sleep texting” here and here.

Social network sites may be changing people’s brains as well as their social life, research suggests. Brain scans show a direct link between the number of Facebook friends a person has and the size of certain parts of their brain.

It’s not clear whether using social networks boosts grey matter or if those with certain brain structures are good at making friends, say researchers. The regions involved have roles in social interaction, memory and autism.

The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, looked at 3-D brain scans of 125 university students from London. Researchers counted the number of Facebook friends each volunteer had, as well as assessing the size of their network of real friends. A strong link was found between the number of Facebook friends a person had and the amount of grey matter in certain parts of their brain.
The study also showed that the number of Facebook friends a person was in touch with was reflected in the number of “real-world” friends.

“We cannot escape the ubiquity of the internet and its impact on our lives, yet we understand little of its impact on the brain, which we know is plastic and can change over time”

Dr John Williams, Head of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the Wellcome Trust

Read more here.

Ulillillia is a 25 year old reclusive videogame addict who describes anywhere outside of an 8 mile radius of his house as “unknown territory”. He runs a website which is basically an overly technical and descriptive journal of many assets of his life.

On of the most interesting and disturbing parts of his website is the one where Ulilillia describes the “mind game” he sometimes plays:

“This animated GIF above shows some of the few thrills and crazy stunts I do in my mind game, a futuristic-like video game I play in my mind often. It takes a day or two to climb a mountain 6900 feet high, but in my mind game, with the use of the float run and numerous other special abilities, it takes under a minute. The above animation is in true time and is scaled realistically with very strong 3D effects. The behavior exactly matches that in my mind game. The animation loops forever and lasts about 80 seconds per loop, the time it takes to go up and down the mountain.”

Find out more

Interesting to see how Google employees rate their own services, especially when they think that their post will be dealt with internally… See what comes out when Google software engineer Steve Yegge speaks his mind – and releases a very critical article about Google+ – accidentally, of course.

A Google software engineer, Steve Yegge, had some less than favorable things to say about his employer’s social networking service Google+. You know, the one that Google says “is Google.”

He crafted a lengthy and very critical post about Google+ to share within Google, but accidentally shared it publicly (hat tip to Frederic Lardinois). Of course, others were able to capture it before he deleted it.

Here are some quotes from the rant.

“I was at Amazon for about six and a half years, and now I’ve been at Google for that long. One thing that struck me immediately about the two companies — an impression that has been reinforced almost daily — is that Amazon does everything wrong, and Google does everything right.”

That’s how it began. Good start, in Google’s eyes no doubt, considering the building rivalry between those two companies. In fact, much of post talks about how Google does most things better than Amazon, except for a few. Eventually, he talks about how Google’s “doesn’t get” platforms.

Here are some of the Google+-specific quotes:

“Google+ is a prime example of our complete failure to understand platforms from the very highest levels of executive leadership (hi Larry, Sergey, Eric, Vic, howdy howdy) down to the very lowest leaf workers (hey yo). We all don’t get it. The Golden Rule of platforms is that you Eat Your Own Dogfood. The Google+ platform is a pathetic afterthought. We had no API at all at launch, and last I checked, we had one measly API call. One of the team members marched in and told me about it when they launched, and I asked: “So is it the Stalker API?” She got all glum and said “Yeah.” I mean, I was joking, but no… the only API call we offer is to get someone’s stream. So I guess the joke was on me.”

Read the full story here.