2008 May 08 » Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Invent the future!

8th May 2008

Adware blocked by OpenDNS

posted in isafety, literacy | Comments Off

I’m a big fan of using OpenDNS for home content filtering for many reasons, and tonight I ran across another one. I was watching a YouTube video on my iPhone of some pretty amazing guitar play, and noticed in the video description the alleged author wrote:

http://websiteaddress.com I learned to play guitar with http://websiteaddress.com….

Thinking if he REALLY did learn to play the guitar on that website, it must be a pretty amazing online tutorial system for guitar players, I tried to visit the website he provided. Result?

Now, I am honestly not sure if the website address to which I was trying to link has adware / malware on it or not. It appears, however, that the website I typed in is registered to an advertisement redirection link, which is known to be used by adware / malware distributors. Since I’m running a Mac (of course, how else would I want to safely surf the web) it is VERY unlikely any adware or malware that could be present on the site could infect my system– since I have not ever heard of malware “in the wild” yet for Mac OS X. None the less, I’m still glad to have a layer of FREE protection at home from malware from sites like this.

Thank you OpenDNS!
For more about OpenDNS, see my March 2008 post, “The Value of OpenDNS (free) content filtering at home.”

Not only does this incident point to the value of having at least a basic, FREE level of content filtering present on your home network, it also reveals the importance of MEDIA LITERACY and always being aware of how people and companies are using guerilla marketing strategies to influence consumer behavior. On the subject of media literacy, I recently discovered and started to enjoy Understand Media’s podcast channel on media literacy. GREAT content there! For more on the dark side of guerilla marketing (as well as many other topics) check out the bonus features DVD of the 2003 Canadian documentary “The Corporation.”

Technorati Tags:
adware, malware, filter, protection, home, free, opendns

8th May 2008

Innovative teachers wanted under the Big Tree in SF!

posted in distributed-learning | Comments Off

Chris Walsh recently let me know about an intriguing summertime travel, PD, and curriculum development opportunity with Big Tree Learning. Chris and others with Big Tree are looking for “Rock Star Teachers” to help with curriculum development for 3-4 weeks in San Francisco, and a stipend is provided. Read more and submit an application form on the Big Tree Learning website. If Chris Walsh is involved, it’s sure to be:

Fun!
Focused on engaged learning and progressive ideas for the classroom.
Cutting edge technologically.

If you’re not familiar with Chris, his ideas and his work, be sure to check out his blog as well as the video channel on the Infinite Thinking Machine! The video podcasts for the ITM have not updated lately because of funding issues, but blog posts on the ITM continue. I’m looking forward to stepping up my own contributions there starting this summer after NECC.