What Do the CEO of Twitter, Conan O'Brian, and David Foster Wallace Have in Common?

Nothing really. At least nothing substantial on the surface. Some might say the title then is just a ploy to get people to click on the link, pandering to the instinct in all of us to read about all things celebrity. But I guess you could say most titles are ploys, at least most good ones. They grab at you and tickle your curiosity in just a few words, words that may have some sliver of deceit in them. Yet that doesn't make them lies. And I submit that this title is no lie either (or you will forgive me the excess). There is something that the three men listed in the title have in common: they have all given truly excellent commencement speeches.

At a time when many UB students are planning their graduation parties and beginning down that nervously hopeful path that leads to the rest of their lives, I figured that I might help alleviate some of that nervousness by directing your attention to some of the most inspiring, funny, and reassuring commencement speeches on YouTube.

University of Michigan: Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter


Dartmouth College: Conan O'Brien

What's happening at Langsdale: the Link

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Will Apple change the future of textbooks?

News is flying around Apple's new tool to create multimedia textbooks for the iPad. Last week Apple announced its iBooks Author, which allows anyone to create an e-book on the ePub3 platform. Touted as the "Garage Band" app for authors, many think that this could cut e-textbook publishers out of the production loop and make ebooks more affordable for students.

For more on this story, read the arsTechnica article and campus responses to the news in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

What are your thoughts? How will this change the e-textbook landscape?

(Image from Apple iBooks Author)