i202 Fall 2010 School of Information, UC Berkeley

A recent study in Germany suggests that non-traditional first names are correlated with poor academic performances and bad behavior.

Surprisingly, at least for Americans, is the particularly poor performance associated with the name "Kevin". I've known some bad Jeffs, and even a few sketchy Erics, but Kevin? This guy?

This essay from NYTimes.com poses an interesting question regarding how in the wake of Caster Semenya's gold medal victory at the world track and field chapionships, the International Assoc. of Athletics Federations is struggling to set clear rules for sex typing.

This Economist article describes the use of bar codes in conjunction with mobile phone cameras to provide users with real-time, context-sensitive information. An example of this is the traveller photographing a barcode at a railway station with his mobile phone to obtain train timetables. Despite of varying bar code standards, the author suggests their free, open standard nature will encourage wider adoption. However, for this technology to become pervasive, collaboration between barcode software developer

Earlier this year, Craigslist, facing bad publicity and legal pressure, changed its "erotic services" category to "adult services". The site now charges $10 for each ad, and manually reviews each ad to ensure guideline compliance. When I originally read this article - and never having used that part of Craigslist (I tend to stick to the PG part) - I wondered if a name change would change anything at all?