Bookmarks 20-Nov-2009

What Beautiful HTML Code Looks Like
Chris Coyier. css-tricks.com. 09-November-2009.
“I originally wrote this over two years ago. It was getting a little long in the tooth, especially now that HTML5 has come along and made HTML far more beautiful than even XHTML 1.1 was. So I updated it!”
gml: Fun. Nice annotated HTML5 example (graphic). The size (2000 pixels x 2000 pixels scaled to 22%) makes it a little tough to maneuver, but mouse over the graphic to enlarge it. It’s definitely worth a look if, like me, you’re excited about what HTML5 offers. The text of the HTML5 example is here.

The $10 Phone Bill
Scott Wooley. Forbes.com. 29-October-2009.
“Once that happens it will unleash a new era of pricecutting, Linquist believes. Liberated phones will hop off the cellular network whenever there is another wireless network around that’s able do the same job at a lower cost. Already many of today’s wireless gadgets can communicate via either a 3G cellular network or a Wi-Fi network. Tomorrow’s phones will hopscotch to electronic formats with names like Long Term Evolution, femtocellular and Wi-Max.”
gml: Roger Linquist is founder and CEO of MetroPCS, the fifth largest cellular carrier in the United States. There’s too much Linquist hype in the article, but it also contains some interesting details and time-series graphics of the cell phone industry. Disclaimer: I find the bundling of wireless services by cell carriers to be appallingly complex and expensive. It’s a classic shell game of customer confusion and price gouging.

East Asia Summit calls for the revival of Nalanda University: thinking and acting beyond the nation?
Kris Olds. GlobalHigherEd. 25-October-2009
“The establishment of new types of universities in like Nalanda University, Øresund University, or the recently opened Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (UNILA), remind us that there is an emerging desire for novel spaces of knowledge production that think and act beyond the nation.”
gml: One item in the press statement from the summit says: “They supported the establishment of the Nalanda University as a non-state, non-profit, secular, and self governing international institution with a continental focus that will bring together the brightest and the most dedicated students from all countries of Asia – irrespective of gender, caste, creed, disability, ethnicity or social-economic background – to enable them to acquire liberal and human education and to give them the means needed for pursuit of intellectual, philosophical, historical and spiritual studies and thus achieve qualities of tolerance and accommodation.” Wonderful statement of mission. I couldn’t tell, however, if the intention was to create a physical university, a networked learning experience, or both.