I’ve finished 1919, the first part of M. The Son of the Century. Scurati does an amazing job of showing how Mussolini was able to turn Italians’ discontent into authoritarianism. I wanted to share some background information that could be helpful for non-Italians who are reading the book. Who was Mussolini? Benito isn’t an Italian… Continue reading M. The Son of the Century: 1919
Category: Writing
Tell me what’s painful in US immigration
I’m building tools for people navigating the US immigration system—both visitors/international students and the folks who help them (think immigration lawyers and international student advisors). Right now I’m focused on making currency conversion easier and building data products around immigration processes. So far I’ve been looking at visa wait times, currency trends, and similar patterns… Continue reading Tell me what’s painful in US immigration
What’s old is new. A fascism book club.
I’ve started a book club about fascism with some friends. Our first book is “M: Son of the Century”, an Italian novel about Mussolini’s rise to power. I’m reading in Italian, but I also have an English translation for when it gets tough. I’m a little over 100 pages into it, and so far, it’s… Continue reading What’s old is new. A fascism book club.
Data marketplace launch
My team at Candid just launched our datasets on Snowflake Marketplace. This is a big step for us — it’s the first time we’ve made our nonprofit data available through a marketplace platform. If you’re not familiar with Candid, we’re essentially Dun & Bradstreet for the philanthropic sector. We collect data from government sources, direct… Continue reading Data marketplace launch
Learning Blender
I’ve started learning Blender, the 3rd art software.
Absolute Beginners
I’ve started a podcast with a friend. We’ve been chatting for a few months about our mutual interest in games. I’ve been a huge fan of the game dev community for a long time. I’ve always found people who make games to be an amazing mix of creative and technical. We’re starting off by learning… Continue reading Absolute Beginners
How to mute an email address in Gmail
Last year I started working at OpenTable and quickly discovered that we get a lot of unsolicited sales emails. I’m guessing people just figure out our standard email format, then look up all employees on LinkedIn. If you work for a well-known company, you’ve probably seen these before. The subject is something like “Checking in… Continue reading How to mute an email address in Gmail
@FriscoEdits
A few months ago, I forked and launched a Twitter bot. The original bot that I forked from was called @congressedits and was developed by Ed Summers. Congress edits was a lovely little bot that tweeted out edits to Wikipedia pages. It would only tweet if the editor was coming from an IP address associated… Continue reading @FriscoEdits
First add-on published
My first Google sheets add-on is published! To be totally honest, I made it mainly to see what was involved. I really like the work that Andrew Stillman has been doing with New Visions for Public Schools, including Doctopus and formMule, and I wanted to see if I could do similar things for higher ed or international… Continue reading First add-on published
Startup Weekend Immigration
I attended (but didn’t participate in) another Startup Weekend this week. This one was focused on immigration. I didn’t really have time to work on this – already had previous commitments. I just stopped by on Friday and Sunday to catch the pitches. To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed. Most
New Favorite App: HelloTalk
I don’t know why I wasn’t using this app before – it’s awesome! I heard about it through a friend who is developing his own language-learning app. Here it is on the Play store and iTunes. If you’ve read this blog
Cool things I’m thinking about
I’ve been away for a while because things have been pretty busy at Educents. We recently finished our seed round and we’ve been growing really quickly. It’s been an awesome experience being part of a successful startup that is focused on trying new things. As account manager, I’ve been talking to new partners every week and… Continue reading Cool things I’m thinking about
Bleg: What’s your favorite educational product?
I’m working for a great edtech company and looking for recommendations on educational products we can promote!
“It’s complicated.” — Bourdain in Iran
Under the bridge. Isfahan. Where men gather to spontaneously sing. #Iran pic.twitter.com/SYUjoTeWhG — Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) November 2, 2014 Many thanks to the Persian acquaintance who tipped me off to the latest episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown show. This was his first
Tuesday Tip: Using Git with Google Apps Script
One of the biggest issues with Google Apps Script (GAS) is that it doesn’t have any real version control system. Last month I started using GitHub (through this course on Udacity) and was disappointed to discover that there is no way to directly integrate Git with GAS projects. If you’ve never used Git, it’s an… Continue reading Tuesday Tip: Using Git with Google Apps Script
New job, new activities
Big news: I’m starting a new job this Tuesday. I’ll be joining Educents, an edtech startup in Oakland. Educents is sort of like Groupon for educators, with deals on the materials that teachers and administrators use regularly, at wholesale prices. This is a great move for me, and
Where MOOCs are now
Earlier this week, the New York Times published an interesting piece by Jeffrey Selingo on the current state of MOOCs (“Demystifying the MOOC“). It’s an easy read, and it hits on something that I’ve been thinking myself and hearing from people working in a variety of MOOC organizations around the Bay Area. When MOOCs (massive… Continue reading Where MOOCs are now
What is international edtech?
A few weeks ago, I noticed that EdSurge doesn’t have an international section on the Edtech Index (their listing of edtech-related products in various categories), even though they do post a lot about international education. @finnismundi most of the tools in the Index can be used around the world! What kind of tools would go in… Continue reading What is international edtech?
Clever Responds on Student Privacy
In a sign of how prominent concerns about student privacy have become, the New York Times Opinion section this week featured a collection of viewpoints on the topic from people working in the field (“Protecting Student Privacy in Online Learning“). The most interesting (I think) perspective is from Tyler Bosmeny, co-founder of Clever. I like Clever. They… Continue reading Clever Responds on Student Privacy
The internet of things (and of student data)
This week I attended a panel discussion of the Internet of Things at a design firm in San Francisco. If you haven’t heard of it, the concept refers to the so-called third wave of the internet. The first wave was a mechanism for distributing information, the second was the growth of social media and peer-to-peer… Continue reading The internet of things (and of student data)