I spent the weekend mostly being lazy: hid in the air conditioning, watched the tour, and read the new Harry Potter book. It was a pretty good escapist weekend. After finishing the new one, I went back and read the previous one. There is a puzzle presented in the new one that includes a set of initials and I wanted to see if there were any clues in the previous one that might help me guess the identity. I found the clue I was looking for, although I think its a bit unbelievable that the characters wouldn't have thought of it immediately. It's obvious, once you think about it.

I saw a pointer to this interesting proposed Wikipedia activity that looks exactly right. I've been thinking about doing something with Wikipedia as part of the writing class I teach at the University. It's become clear that the Wikipedia is going to start killing off, not only reference books, but text books pretty quickly. Why force your students to pay $150 for a text book when you can have them use and extend a free resource on the web? I won't happen immediately, but I expect we'll reach a tipping point within a couple of years that will see the textbook industry destroyed. They can see its happening, but haven't yet come with any clear way to stop it.


StevenBrewer