the iphone 2.0 comes out tomorrow morning.

here i lay, on the couch, watching the videos and downloading applications from the app store (aim, facebook, google mobile app, remote, twitterific), even though i don’t have an iphone. yet.

you see, in about seven hours the stores will be opening up and i shall have one. i’m not really sure why, though. i mean, yeah, they’re cool and all, but i have a completely functional blackberry pearl sitting right here.

why must i have an iphone?

the truth is i really don’t know. but i must. and i shall. and i will.

if you need a beta code for ping.fm, use “pingofpings”. it worked for me a few minutes ago.

what is ping.fm?

ping.fm was created for the sole purpose of making it as easy as possible to share your posts with the world. now you don’t have to fumble around the web in order to post anymore, you can just post once, and be done with it.

the idea came about when making some posts to twitter and tumblr . the idea of posting the exact same information in two places seemed a bit tedious, so ping.fm was born.

the toronto star tells the story of chris avenir, a first-year student facing academic expulsion “for helping run an online chemistry study group via facebook“.

“so we each would be given chemistry questions and if we were having trouble, we’d post the question and say: ‘does anyone get how to do this one? i didn’t get it right and i don’t know what i’m doing wrong.’ exactly what we would say to each other if we were sitting in the dungeon.”

as an educator, i think ryerson university is taking this way too far (based on what i know). if there was blatant cheating going on, then by all means punish those involved. if this is, as the article says, the students were simply using the forum to “brainstorm” in groups then it is completely absurd.

i *encourage* my students to work together in groups. working together in groups in something that higher education should teach you. every one of these students will have to work together in teams once they get out into the “real world” and will have to collaborate with their peers. it should also be common knowledge that having multiple people in your group who can provide their own insights is an asset, and makes the team greater than the sum of its parts.

again, blatant academic dishonesty should be punished. from what i’ve read, however, that is not the case here.

best of luck to you, chris avenir.

i just joined the “stop hillary clinton: one million strong against hillary” group on facebook. you should too.

okay, so i’ve been around “the net” for a while. it’s 2008 so… carry the one… roughly 13 years. i can remember being a bored teenager and going into random irc channels and telling people “hey, press alt-f4 {to|for} <insert stupid thing here>”. it’s been a long time since i’ve seen any references to alt-f4.

until just now. i’m checking out some chick’s profile on facebook and on her wall, i see this:

“OMG this is amazing… ever wanted to know who looks at your profile the most? to find out all you have to do is re post this to everyone on your friends list then press alt+f4 together then it should re-direct you to a status screen where it shows”

needless to say, it doesn’t work.

oh, and don’t press alt-f4, by the way.