Maybe I should pick colors too

Once we make it though this extended February, March Madness will be just around the corner once again. It seems like the time between these things gets shorter every year.

Of course, March Madness will bring out all the brackets and all of the competitions that go with them.

I'll admit, I do not religiously follow college basketball. Yet, once I get my bracket for the NCAA tournament, I begin to act like a crazed fool.

I really wish I would have held onto my brackets from past years. Why? Because I guarantee you that looking back now I would be dumbfounded at my stupidity.

Even year I think I have a winner. And every year I walk away disappointed. Unfortunately for me, it always seems that one of my Elite Eight or Final Four teams loses in the first or second round.

Have you ever noticed how well women do on brackets? I swear, it never fails that a female is either top dog or runner-up in all of the pools I see.

I blame it on people who understand and know basketball over thinking everything. You know what I hear every women say about their bracket picks?

"I liked their colors better."

Seriously? Maybe I should pick colors too.

Sometimes, only sometimes, does Apple make sense

I really do not mean to blast Apple all of the time, but to me they just rarely make sense.

One of their lastest "makes sense" moves is the release of an iPhone Software Developer Kit. The kit would enable third party software vendors to write applications to run on the iPhone.

Hooray Apple! Thank you for opening up your very secretive smart phone.

I have yet to understand the logic behind locking down every aspect of the iPhone. I do not understand why Apple locked in with AT&T or what took them so long to release an SDK. Though the Information Week article linked above states that Apple wanted developers to make AJAX applications for the Safari browser built into all iPhones, I cannot believe Apple thought that would be good enough.

If there is one thing I've learned from my years around computers, it is that someone somewhere is constantly trying to push the envelope. Developers want to push the iPhone to it's limits. Frankly, why not let them do it?

Cool things come from open platforms. Look at Linux. The kernel is completely free and it has led to amazing software like Ubuntu. Perhaps the opening of the iPhone will lead to something to really be impressed about.

Thank you again Apple. I only wish you were more open about your other products. Then maybe I would want to buy something other than an iPod.

Teens may by out of touch with past culture, but are adults out of touch with teens?

I'm often perturbed at the amount of studies that focus on the shortcomings of America's youth. As the studies will show, a good number of school aged children don't know things certain people deem to be important. For instance, the linked study suggests:

-Only 43% knew the Civil War was fought between 1850 and 1900
-Only 52% knew the theme of the book 1984

Ok, so the Civil War thing is a little sad. But, to be honest, I'm not exactly positive of when the Civil War took place, and I'm in an American history honors class. And I could definitely only give you a vague idea as to what the theme of 1984 was. Why? Because it wasn't required reading.

Who determines what is important for teenagers to know anyway? Obviously someone who is out of touch with teenage culture.

Yes, it is important that teenagers know certain things. But, what if a teenager constructed a survey testing adults about teen culture? How would an average adult do on these questions:

1. What is the significance of Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo?
2. What does this sentence say? 0M6! 15 17 p05518L3 70 533 l33+? (See this horrid news report on YouTube).
3. Who is Miley Cyrus?

As Nick is pointing out to me while I write this, these are "pop culture" references. However, it is my opinion that today's pop culture is just as important as any historical culture. After all, history is written because someone felt it was important. Why are these not as important as any other event in history? Most everything is important to someone.

My point is that measuring student performance based off cultural references is a bit absurd. Yes, those events and items played important roles in history, but teenagers care about different things. Just as an adult would not be expected to ace questions like those I posed above, teenagers should not be expected to ace historical references.