Category: YouTube

I’m Sorry Dave or . . . My Favourite Computer AI Voices in Movies and TV

I’m Sorry Dave . . . 
. . . or . . .
My Favourite Computer & AI Voices
in Movies and TV

2001: A Space Odyssey

I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that. If there is one singular voice and image, representing a computer or AI, it is HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This will be my list of my favourite computer/AI voices from Movies and TV shows that I have seen and grew up with! They can be human or actually computer generated. So some of them will no doubt be VERY obscure for many of you young folks! LOL! But that does not mean you should disregard them!  They might prove to be dated, but they have all influenced how we percieve computers and AI, to this day!

The voice of EVERY computer in every episode and movie of Star Trek is Majel Barrett, who was married to Gene Rodenberry! She even voiced the computer in the Star Trek:The Animated Series too! Outside of Michael Dorn (Worf), Majel Barrett has appeared in more episodes than ANY OTHER ACTOR!

Robocop morphed a critically injured policeman with state of the art technology to enforce police protection. What could go wrong? Well, more than you can imagine, including a horrible remake of this classic movie!

And at the time, TRON was the greatest computer movie OF ALL TIME! The graphics were amazing, the storyline was new and amazing and I remember watching it multiple times!

And then they made a reboot of it TRON:Legacy .. and I liked that one too! It got bad review, but I still liked it! And the graphics were amazing too!

               

                            TRON                                       TRON:Legacy

TRON Master Control
WALL-E

And how could ultimate cuteness and the end of the world combine any better than in WALL-E! Eve and WALL-E have instant chemistry, albeit confrontational at first, but it is still one of my favourite animated series and WELL ahead of its time in terms of environmentalism!

And probably the most iconic computer/AI interface, at least recently is the combined character of Vision in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). Vision is ‘powered’ by the Mind Stone, one of the Infinity Stones.

And … if you got this far, then you have seen the movies! Vision is a weird blend of the personality of Tony Stark (Iron Man), Ultron (his ‘Frankenstein-like AI), JARVIS (his own AI ‘butler’) and the power of Thor to kick-start him! Yeah, you had to be there … multiple movies and multiple personalities … what could go wrong! Actually, he is a pretty good character and very strong too!

And a childhood favourite that I waited for each Sunday night was Robbie the Robot from Lost in Space – the original series! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER! This even pre-dated Star Trek by a year!

And the rebooted series is fantastic too! The new robot, although not named Robbie, is unique, integral to the storyline and has amazing graphics! And it is filmed in Vancouver too! But only one season left! Sigh …… I remember building a model of this robot too!

Another TV show ahead of its time was Knight Rider! A virtually indestructible AI car (K.I.T.T. – Knight Industries 2000) guided by a secret organization dedicated to fighting injustice! Whoa, wait … NOT ELON MUSK! LOL! It kind of looked like a cross between Elon Musk and a Cylon! And we don’t want to go THERE either!

And having mentioned HAL 9000 above, did you realize that there was a SEQUEL to 2001? 2010: The Year We Make Contact featured SAL 9000 (voiced by Candice Bergen) as the upgrde to HAL that did not quite meet factory specifications! LOL! The most obvious difference (no spoilers here!) is that SAL is a blue orb’!

And coming up to just a couple more examples! There are SO many, that I really did limit myself this time! I had previously written posts about favourite computers in all kinds of media at “Shall We Play a Game . . . or Fictional Computers” but that did not focus on anything but the computers themselves. This post is on their actual voices used! Okay, a small distinction! So that does mentioning a previous post count as … Product Placement or what! LOL!

War Games! Just go find it somewhere and have a great popcorn time! A young hacker breaks into a High Security computer, unknowingly trying out a ‘game’ called Global Thermonuclear War and … well, the use of the modem is hilarious! But the voice of WOPR is amazing! If it makes you think of Stephen Hawking …. no spoilers here! A great, great movie!

And I will never hear the end of it from all my colleagues if I don’t include those two wacky robots from a relatively unknown cult classic … C-3PO and R2-D2. Did you ever wonder WHY they are called … R2-D2 and C-3PO? 

Perhaps the quintessential use of voice to convey language! C3PO is designed to be able to talk to ANYONE with his linguistics programming and R2D2 happily whistles, clicks, bings and we can all understand exactly what is going on! The classic straight man out of vaudeville humour and it works so well! Arguably the best parts of Star Wars are those two! Note: Yoda is NOT a computer! LOL!

All the voices mentioned above are in YouTube videos below. I hope I got them all! I might even do a sequel to this in a future post – there were many I have left off and they deserve a listening to as well!

 

Enjoy!

  1. 10 Unforgettable Voices In A.I. Movie History
  2. Computer, Obey Me! Hollywood’s Best Sci-Fi Computer & Robot Voices
  3. The top 50 robots and AI computers in the movies
  4. The Story of a Voice: HAL in ‘2001’ Wasn’t Always So Eerily Calm
  5. The 5 Best Computer Voices Ever
  6. The Most Memorable Voice Performances in Sci-Fi History
  7. 10 Famous Actors Who Are Incredible At TV Voice Work
  8. 10 TERRIFIC VOICES BEHIND GREAT SCI-FI CHARACTERS
  9. The All-Time Top 100 Voices in the Movies

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics! 

ENJOY!
     
TTFN!

Top 10 Quotes from
Robocop

War Games
Shall We Play a Game?

I’m Sorry Dave
I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That

Dr. Chandra and SAL 9000
2010: The Year We Make Contact

Majel Barett
The Voice of Star Trek Computers

Master Control Program
Quotes

WALL-E Meets Eve

All Iron Man and Jarvis
Quotes

Best of Vision Quotes

Lost in Space
DANGER Will Robinson! DANGER!

Knight Rider
KITT – Knight Industries 2000

R2-D2 and C-3PO
Being Best Friends

And can you identify
any of the computers/AI in the shows below?

 

 

Terrific Tuesday . . . upgraded to . . . Terrific TEDnesday!

Terrific Tuesday
. . . . upgraded to . . . .
TERRIFIC TEDNESDAY!

And now for something completely different … mostly! I do have favourite topics and have officially changed today’s name to TEDnesday in honour of TED Ideas Worth Spreading!

Everyone has heard of TED Talks! The first time I was told about them, my first thought was … who is this Ted person and why should I listen to him!

And of course, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design!

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.

Just a slight sidebar here … I usually discover something amazing (ie. LEARN something new!) if you look for an ‘About’ or ‘Who We Are’ or even a dedicated search engine WITHIN a website to uncover hidden jewels of information! And it is usually just one click away, or even visible as a magnifying glass icon!

This might be obvious to almost everyone, but … when that one person that lights up because you showed them a neat new trick at a website …. priceless!

So maybe, this next tidbit will help someone – TED actually has a very robust search engine itself!  And they also offer pre-made TED Playlists too! Just click on the images below to see TED Talks Playlists and TED Talks search engine for Languages!

TED Talks Playlists
TED Talks Search for Languages

Many of TED Talks are also found at YouTube as well, but there are so many extra benefits at TED.COM that I recommend looking there first. You never know what you might find!

And using an abundance of caution and a balance of fair play and common sense, I did a search for ‘Worst TED Talks of All Time‘ and came up with this:

But I do DISAGREE with Arthur Benjamin – A Performance of Mathemagic on  that list! No way that almost 10,000,000 of us can be wrong! That is my Inner Math Teacher speaking! LOL!

Enjoy!

  1. The Most Popular Talks of All Time
  2. 20 Quotes From the Most Powerful TED Talks of All Time
  3. 25 Quotes From the Most Inspiring TED Talks
  4. 25 TED Talk Quotes to Inspire You
  5. TED Topics
  6. History of TED
  7. 5 Best Quotes for life From The 5 Most Viewed TedTalks (YouTube)
  8. Debunking TED Myths
  9. 20 Most Inspiring TED Talks of All Time That You Should Not Miss
  10. The 79 Most Popular TED Talks of All Time
  11. TED Talks Are Wildly Addictive For Three Powerful Scientific Reasons
  12. Dilbert – Search for TED Talks

As long as there are words (& videos!) out there, there will be interesting topics! 


And videos too!

ENJOY!
     
TTFN!

Why Language is Humanity’s
Greatest Invention

How Language Shapes
the Way We Think

One of the Most Difficult Words
to Translate

The Benefits
of a Bilingual Brain

How Interpreters Juggle
Two Languages at Once

The Visual Magic
of Comics

Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na’VI
Real Languages?

Jed Talks

 

‘I wonder if TED ever listens.’

 

IT Security Quotes … or What Could Go Even WrongER!

IT Security Quotes
. . . . or . . . .
What Could Go Even WrongER!

I work from the Desk of VicU Computers Helpers. Pleeze conform to me your pazzword or your Internet will dissolve.

Yeah, right. IT Security is a huge, HUGE issue and is now part of our digital lives – both personally and professionally. And for good reason.

So, right off the top, the best and most informative sites are HERE AT UVIC! If you haven’t visited, read or been told about these incredible resources, then now is your chance. And since a picture is worth 1000 words …. here are 6000 words!

Click on each image below to go to the UVic site.

Information Security
University Systems status update
Phishing
Phishing emails spotted at UVic
Phishing emails spotted at UVic
Phishing Awareness Training Campaign
Antivirus Software for Students
VIDEO: 5 Common Cybersecurity Questions Answered
VIDEO: 5 Common Cybersecurity Questions Answered
Personal Perspectives from UVic’s Chief Information Security Officer
UVic Team Triumphs at National Cybersecurity Competition

 

Enroll in any computer security training that UVic has to offer! Refresh your Cyber Spidey Sense Skills all the time! Be aware of Phishing attempts! And be even MORE VIGILANT now that we are working from home – the same skills you are honing for work, are as important for your home digital security too!


“If you spend more on coffee than on IT security, you will be hacked. What’s more, you deserve to be hacked.”
     – Richard Clarke

“My message for companies that think they haven’t been attacked is: You are not looking hard enough.”
     -James Snook

“The five most efficient cyber defenders are: Anticipation, Education, Detection, Reaction and Resilience. Do remember: Cybersecurity is much more than an IT topic.”
     – Stephane Nappo

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and few minutes of cyber-incident to ruin it.”
     – Stephan Nappo

“USBs are the devil. They just are.”
     – Overheard at SecureWorld, Atlanta

“IoT without security = Internet of Threats”
     – Stephane Nappo

“One Person’s “paranoia” is another person’s engineering redundancy.”
     – Marcus J. Ranum

“Two things about the NSA stunned me right off the bat: how technologically sophisticated it was compared with the CIA, and how much less vigilant it was about security in its every iteration, from the compartmentalization of information to data encryption.”
     – Edward Snowden

“If security were all that mattered, computers would never be turned on, let alone hooked into a network with literally millions of potential intruders.”
     – Dan Farmer

“You have to make sure that your hard drive is external from your computer. If you put yourself in the minds of the thief, they want to make a quick buck. They don’t really care about your hard drive, just your computer. An external hard drive is critical. In my case they left the hard drive behind and I was able to plug it into my new computer. It was the key to everything.”
     – Michael Stelzner

And once again, similar to yesterday’s post “Famous Computer Quotes or What Could Go Wrong!” these are just a few of my favourite ones!

Oddly, there aren’t too many current IT Security videos at YouTube that I hoped for. So that means, as I mentioned above, check UVic’s own sites for the most current and most pertinent information about computer security! My Go To pages! They are listed below too!

If I had a single favourite quote, it would be this ……

Enjoy!

  1. Information Security (UVic) and more important links
  2. University Systems status update (UVic)
  3. Phish Bowl – Phishing emails spotted at UVic
  4. Phishing Awareness Training Campaign (UVic) and video
  5. Antivirus Software for Students (UVic)
  6. Inside IT VIDEO: 5 Common Cybersecurity Questions Answered (UViC)
  7. CISO Blog – Personal Perspectives from UVic’s Chief Information Security Officer
  8. CISO BLOG Video Endpoint Protection
    🔥 HOT OFF THE PRESS WINNER 🔥     
  9. 8 Cybersecurity Quotes to Apply to Your Online Habits
  10. 24 Best Cyber Security Quotes That Will Blow Your Mind
  11. 8 Tweetable Cybersecurity Quotes To Help You (And Your Business) Stay Safer
  12. Top 20 Cybersecurity Quotes You Need to Hear
  13. 101 Data Security Tips: Quotes from Experts on Breaches, Policy, News & More
  14. CQURE Hacks #42: That Can Fool Anyone. Don’t Ignore Social Engineering
  15. Simulated Phishing Training (video) (February 2021)
CISO VLog Simulated Phishing
                                                                             CISO VLog Simulated Phishing

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics! 


And videos too!

ENJOY!
     
TTFN!

Cyber Security
Top 10 Threats

Cyber Security Awareness
Better Update than regret

This is What Happens When You
Reply to Spam Email

More Adventures in
Replying to Spam

The Agony of Trying
to Unsubscribe

Top 20
William Gibson Quotes

Famous Computer Quotes … or What Could Go Wrong!

Famous Computer Quotes
. . . . or . . . .
What Could Go Wrong!

Since the advent of computers and digital technology, there have been some funny, outrageous, prophetic and downright WRONG quotes about computers and technology. Let’s go down that winding path this morning!

I will just intersperse quotes with some images of quotes too! A mishmash of data, graphics and historical perspectives!


“Computers in the future may weigh no more than one-and-a-half tonnes.”
     – Popular Mechanics, 1949

“I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last the year.”
     – Chief Business Editor, Prentice Hall, 1957

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
     – Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943

“There is no reason anyone in the right state of mind will want a computer in their home.”
     – Ken Olson, President of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977.


“Loop, Endless: n., see Endless Loop.”
     – Random Shack Data Processing Dictionary

“Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.”
     – Brook’s Law

“An elephant is a mouse with an operating system.”
     – Anonymous

“BUG, n.: An undesirable, poorly-understood undocumented feature.”
     – The Devil’s Dictionary to Computer Studies

“640k is enough for anyone, and by the way, what’s a network?”
     – William Gates III, President of Microsoft Corporation, 1984.

“Microcomputers are the tool of the 80’s. BASIC is the language that all of them use. So the sooner you learn BASIC, the sooner you will understand the microcomputer revolution.”
     – 30 Hour BASIC Standard, 1981.

I want to change the world but they don’t give me root access.
     – Unknown

And these are just a few of my favourite ones! There are literally hundreds of amazing quotes out there, and I as usual, have put a bunch of links below for you to search, should you need that perfect quote about computers!

The single best quote, ever, and ever so true even now, came from John F. Kennedy …..


Enjoy!

  1. Computer Quotes
  2. Top 10 Computer Quotes
  3. 101 More Great Computer Quotes
  4. Top 20 Computer Quotes
  5. Ted Nelson Computer Quotes
  6. 776 Computer Quotes
  7. Computer Quotes – Good Reads
  8. 21 of the Greatest Computer Quotes Ever
  9. 11 Best Computer Quotes
  10. History of CPU Architecture


As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics! 


And videos too!

ENJOY!
     
TTFN!

Top 20 Quotes
About Computers

Top 10 Computer Quotes

Top 15 Quotes
About Computers

Computer Quotes

Top 10 Computer Quotes

Best Famous Quotes
on Life and Computer

Top 20 Quotes About
Computers and Technology

10 Quotes About
Computers and Technology

Terrific Tuesday … already? Working From Home Humour!

Terrific Tuesday
. . . . already?
Working From Home Humour!

Working from home is like reading ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens ……

And yeah, a bit of both!

So today, a plethora (I like dictionary.com!) of comics, cartoons, YouTube and other appurtenances  (I like thesaurus.com too!)

I had started off with a theme of MS:Office and my long history with Excel, Word and PowerPoint. But I quickly found a far more interesting topic for today … Working From Home! I am forever the optimist (I hope!) and try to find the humour in most things (I try!) and quickly changed topics!

And today is a fairly busy day with some creative work in Teams for a Poll (Thanks to Kelly, Gary, Tomoyo and Heather!) and trying to be creative, relevant, funny, factual and learn a few new things every so often! Maybe this old dog CAN learn a few new tricks!

Some funny cartoons, websites and truly miscellaneous items for a quick post today.

Enjoy!

  1. Wrong Hands – Comic Strip
  2. Off the Mark – Pinterest
  3. The Work at Home Comic Strips
  4. What You Need to Know Before Using a Cartoon in Your Presentation
  5. Foxtrot – Comics
  6. Working From Home – Pinterest
  7. Tech Comics – Microsoft Office

As long as there are words out there, there will be Terrific Tuesdays!

ENJOY!

 TTFN!

And This Happened
BEFORE Covid! CLASSIC!

The Differences of
Working From Home vs Office

Work From Home
FAILS!

Work From Home
Bloopers

Working From Home
With Pets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b0yorOPHQE

 Our Favourite News Reporters
Working From Home Bloopers

      

Pandemic

Open Book Exams … or My Favourite Textbooks

Open Book Exams
. . . . or . . . .
My Favourite Textbooks

This may be the FIRST and ONLY blog post on the internet about … Favourite Textbooks! Textbooks are usually the bane of most students! LOL!

But I really enjoyed getting new textbooks, especially in Grade 12! For the first time, we had to venture to DOWNTOWN CALGARY to actually BUY AND OWN our textbooks! Previously, we were issued them, had to guard them throughout the semester and RETURN THEM at the end! But now, we could OWN THEM!

And what a great textbook for Grade 12 Math – ‘Modern Intermediate Algebra‘! And the trick was, to buy the book that had the ANSWERS IN THE BACK! Only a few of them DID have the answers, and I was lucky enough to get one of those! Quite an adventure for me at the time! 

And if you haven’t figured it out by now, I still have these textbooks! Yup, weird, but … I collect books of all kinds! A future post will be on REALLY OLD TEXTBOOKS that I have! 

The next 4 textbooks are all from when I attended the University of Calgary from 1975-1982. Yup, some gap years in there to travel, live and work in Banff and explore the world! Might sneak an old photo of me in there somewhere too! LOL!

And how boring – a book on .. evaluating student progress? And even more boring, THAT IS THE TITLE TOO – ‘Evaluating Student Progress’!

And here I thought I would finally find out all the tricks and secrets of passing exams … and for the most part, I did pick up some ideas, especially when my first job out of university was evaluating exams, something called Item Analysis! And it was fun! Basically, how does an exam actually MEASURE student knowledge! Yeah, boring, but at the time, I actually USED this textbook in a real life setting!

And then one of my All Time Favourite themes – STATISTICS titled ‘Elements of Statistics‘! All kinds of neat formulas, algorithms and magical numbers with REAL WORLD RESULTS! And for the first time – a new studying technique! We were allowed to bring in a small 4×6 recipe card with ANYTHING WE WANT WRITTEN ON IT! This was such a great learning tool, that I used it in all my future classes! This forces you to actually STUDY and WRITE DOWN anything you were not as confident with, thus FORCING YOU TO RECOGNIZE AND STUDY YOUR WEAK POINTS! And it worked flawlessly! (At least, for me!)

This has been a bit of a ‘Top 10 Favourite Textbooks‘ countdown, except only a ‘Top 5‘ of them! My bad! And the next 2 textbooks bring back fond memories … and some not so fond …. of courses I took … sometimes twice and three times! How about them apples!

The BEST stat course EVER was on games of chance! And the Instructor LIVED HIS TEXTBOOK – ‘Basic Probability and Applications‘! When introducing himself, he said he might be late for some Monday morning classes as he would be enroute BACK FROM LAS VEGAS as he spent most weekends there …. GAMBLING! That is one amazing course intro! And he had his own TEXTBOOK TOO!

And my FAVOURITE TEXTBOOK OF ALL TIME is entitled ‘Excursions Into Mathematics‘ for the exceedingly misnamed course ‘Elementary Mathematics From and Advanced Viewpoint‘!!!

I took this course
… THREE TIMES …
before I passed it!
HARDEST.COURSE.EVER!

First time was with a friend and BOTH of us dropped it at Christmas as it was just too freaking hard! Second time was with my entire Education Year colleagues (9 of us!) and the 10th student in the class dropped it too – and he was in Honours Math at the time! Why did HE drop it? It was lowering his GPA!

Finally, passed the course in the summer, and all I did was Math for a solid month, literally every day, and got a B+ on it! YAY! The Instructor apologized to me .. I was literally ONE POINT AWAY FROM AN A- …. but I did not care. I HAD PASSED THE COURSE and could now graduate! WHEW!

Still, the textbook is awesome and even though I may have ONCE understood many classical concepts – it is like Quantum Physics, another favourite topic! I may not understand ANY of it … but it is as close to MAGIC as we will ever get in this crazy world/universe/multi-verse we live in! LOL!


Oh, and whenever there was a so-called ‘Open Book Exam‘ – they were the toughest exams in the history of education. You better KNOW YOUR STUFF, because if you spent the time looking for the answer in your ‘textbook’, you wasted so much time, you never finished the exam!

And as Steve Jobs liked to say … ‘… one more thing….’!

My favourite math book was my ‘Mathematical Handbook‘ that had all kinds of formulas and simplified explanations of my favourite theorems and numbers! Served me well all through High School and University!

And one more …. one more thing! If I didn’t include a dictionary … ANY DICTIONARY in this list, then I would be remiss! I had ve saved many of my old dictionaries, including my pocket French/English dictionary, but I now tend to use dictionary.com and thesaurus.com on an almost daily basis! Big thumbs up to both of those sites!

 

 

Enjoy!

  1. 20+ Funny Textbook Doodles That Are So Clever, Teachers Won’t Be Mad

And not that many funny extra sites out there. I found most of them quite rude and in bad taste and many offensive. The only funny one is above. And just doodles on existing images in each book. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes … it rains! (Ask me about THAT quote, which literally comes out of … right field!)

And same with videos. Lots of bad taste ones out there, sand offensive ones, so today, only a compilation of Steve Jobs ‘One More Thing‘ below, to wax nostalgic today!

As long as there are words out there, there will be a site that Google finds!! 

    ENJOY!
            
   TTFN!

Steve Jobs …..
History of One More Thing

 

 

Throwback Thursday … A Stroll Down RAM-ory Lane

Throwback Thursday
A Stroll Down
RAM-ory Lane

How about some computer cartoons and other media today! Maybe some old ones that make us chuckle from where we have come from! And a busy day today too! LOL!

To start, my favourite scene from Captain Marvel! Many of us from The Computer Help Desk went together to see this movie together (Thanks again Marcela!) and this scene was THE funniest for me!

Remember, it takes place in the 1980’s and Captain Marvel is from an incredibly technologically advanced planet! And even today … I often get to use the classic phrase … ‘It’s loading“! LOL!

The single greatest comic in the history of HISTORY is Calvin & Hobbes. And that is an understatement! So many years ago and still relevant and still … Calvin & Hobbes! The official Calvin & Hobbes site is here.

And what would a Bog Blog Post be without some Homer Simpson memes!

     

   

And some Classic Bloom County from WAY BACK WHEN that many of you probably will never have heard of! My first car was a Black Subaru that I named … OPUS!

And Foxtrot always had a befuddled Dad playing around with their newest iFruit computer! The usual assortment of familh members, all with varying degrees of computer expertise from genius to … less than genius!

Enjoy!

  1. XKCD
  2. 38 of the best xkcd comics about the internet, computers and programming
  3. The Definitive Collection of XKCD Comics for Programmers
  4. Computer Comics – Pinterest
  5. IT Comics – Pinterest
  6. 7 tech comics that will put a big smile on your face
  7. Dilbert – yes, mentioned here but WORTHY OF A BOG BLOG POST DEDICATED JUST TO DILBERT!!!!

As long as there are words out there, there will be a site that Google finds!! 

    ENJOY!
            
   TTFN!

And then some random-ish comics that are currently located on … The World Wide Web! LOL!

“Then the hard drive says to the floppy, 110010001110011…”
“It’s a fantastic computer! It’s so old that none of today’s hackers know how to hack it!”

Computer Sale.

 

Cool Picture . . . or Infographics and Language Learning

Cool Picture
or
Infographics and Language Learning

A picture is worth 1000 words. Never more accurate with Infographics! And INFOGRAPHICS ARE about words AND languages.

FULL Disclosure: I have zero artistic talent!

DOUBLE Full Disclosure: I once took an art class and … could barely sharpen my sketching charcoal!

I just missed out on a course about Infographics at the library yesterday. I am hoping they offer it again! And just what ARE Infographics? Well, according to Wikipedia:

Infographics (a clipped compound of “information” and “graphics”) are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.[1][2] They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends.[3][4] Similar pursuits are information visualization, data visualization, statistical graphics, information design, or information architecture.[2] Infographics have evolved in recent years to be for mass communication, and thus are designed with fewer assumptions about the readers’ knowledge base than other types of visualizations.[5] Isotypes are an early example of infographics conveying information quickly and easily to the masses.[6]

All those cool combinations of statistics, images, ideas, trends and INFORMATION in one, easily understood picture! Literally, a picture is worth 1000 words!

I have liberally saturated some posts with Simpsons gifs and memes, and I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to find some Simpson infographics! LOL!

   

But why use Infographics? Basically, and I am truly over-simplifying, but … we areALL  students of VISUAL learning! Visuals can improve learning by over 400%! AND ‘The average person can recall 65 percent of visual information ten days later (only 10% of what they heard)‘. Those are astonishing numbers for success in learning … ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!

Confucious was right ….”I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

The topic of student teaching (practicums) came up at Digital Coffee today and the best and most powerful teaching lessons I remember, not only when I was a student teacher, but also AS A STUDENT, were always the most visually stimulating, interesting and sometimes, confusing lessons! But their impact is long-term, at least on me!

Oh, the stories that … could be a future OAC post about teaching ‘BG’ …. that is short for … BEFORE GOOGLE! LOL! Or even ‘BtI’ – Before the Internet!

Yup, I grew up when Amazon was ….. a river! And Social Media required … leaving the house!

And one of the most famous of ALL Infographics is something ALL of you have studied in school, potentially from about Grade 6 on … maybe even earlier – Mendeleev’s Periodic Table, 1869!

And I also discovered some ANIMATED Infographics, which takes visual learning to a whole new level! Okay, so the last one is a .. penguin! LOL! I bet you will remember THAT one, if only because it is such a black and white issue! 

Click on each one to open in a new tab.

Visual Learners
Muscles
Penguin

And the usual assortment of recently searched interesting links, videos and other cool stuff – but beware, you may now have an overwhelming urge to discover a new element and add it to the Periodic Table!

Enjoy!

  1. Infographic – Wikipedia
  2. 5 Language Infographics
  3. All the World Languages in One Visualization
  4. Infographics on Canada’s official languages
  5. Infographic: Benefits of Language Learning
  6. The Best Language Infographics & Interactive Tools on the Web
  7. 6 Language Infographics for National Foreign Language Week
  8. National Foreign Language Week
  9. 50+ Fascinating Language Facts You Didn’t Know
  10. INFOGRAPHIC: The world’s most spoken languages and where they’re spoken
  11. Infographic: A World Full of Languages
  12. The World’s Most Spoken Languages
  13. Language infographics – Pinterest
  14. The Simpsons: 30 Years Young – Infographic
  15. 6 Reasons Why I Won’t Look at Your Infographic
  16. Why infographics matter in the classroom
  17. 12 Groundbreaking Infographics That Changed the World
  18. A Collection Of The Best Infographics
  19. Life before Google: What was it like?
  20. 15 Examples of How Different Life Was Before The Internet

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics! 

    ENJOY!
            
   TTFN!

 

Using Visual Language
in Infographics

Infographics
How to Learn a New Language

10 Easiest Languages
to Learn

Most Popular
Programming Languages to Learn
1965 – 2019

 

 

 

Terrific Tuesday and and BONUS Cartoons and Posters

Terrific Tuesday
and BONUS
Posters and Cartoons!

Back from a few days off! Lot to catch up on and rejoin Teams! Tuesdays will have a ‘Terrific’ Theme of just about anything … TERRIFIC!!

I have been planning a retro look at all the Apple/Mac operating systems since the first Mac, but might do that later on this week, or just … later! For now, some computer cartoons, language posters and other random chuckles!

But will include a bit of a preview with one YouTube video about the history of Mac Operating Systems!

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics! 

    ENJOY!
            
   TTFN!

Evolution of Mac OS
(Mac OS 1.0 – Mac OS X 10.11)

 

Throwback Thursday and Even MORE Favourite Posters and Cartoons

Throwback Thursday
and Even MORE Favourite
Posters and Cartoons!

So many websites! So much information! So many ideas! If you aren’t a bit overwhelmed each time you GOOGLE, then you aren’t searching enough!

Some new cartoons, posters and stuff to quickly peruse today! Nothing earth shattering and sometimes you just go where Google takes you!

And just some random favourite sites that I use or like! A totally random post, and since there is no such thing as truly random …. I have NO idea why! 

Some future posts will be about ‘The Greatest Computer Ever Built‘, ‘Old Computer Textbooks‘, ‘CALL Hall of Fame Software‘, ‘A Brief History of Time and Space … and The CALL Facility‘, ‘Legacy Photos of The CALL Facility‘, ‘More Puns‘, ‘More English Words‘, ‘CALL Haiku of The Day‘, ‘Cartoon of the Day‘, ‘Poster of the Day‘, ‘TED Talks about Languages‘, ‘Training Links‘, ‘Best Language Quotes‘, ‘Language Podcasts‘, ‘Throwback Thursdays Encore‘, ‘Terrific Tuesdays Encore‘, ‘Weird Word Facts‘ and …. that is just what I thought of this morning!

Sometimes I make up a topic the morning of my post and just go with the flow! I have always like Einstein’s quote:

 

Imagination
is more important than knowledge.
Imagination
is the language of the soul.

 

 

And on a far more philosophical note, my favourite quote of ALL TIME is atributed to Robert Brault:

Enjoy the little things,
for one day you may look back
and realise
they were the big things.

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

  1. Einstein Quotes from Good Reads
  2. Itchy Feet – The Travel and Language Comic
  3. Doctor Who – BBC
  4. Comics Kingdom
  5. History of Computers
  6. The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English
  7. Dilbert
  8. XKCD
  9. Dictionary and Thesaurus (I use almost every single day!)
  10. Top 10 Monty Python’s Flying Circus Moments


As long as there are words out there, there will be a site that Google finds!! 

    ENJOY!
            
   TTFN!