TR Hot 5: Pointing the finger(print) at the iPad

I'm Sonja Thompson, and this is the last episode of TechRepublic's Hot 5, on May 28th, 2010. That means all you faithful watchers out there can stop following me -- at least here. Instead, you can follow TechRepublic on Twitter and become a Fan of TechRepublic on Facebook.

Many thanks to CafePress for this groovy shirt, and be sure to stop by TechRepublic's storefront on CafePress so that you can be stylin' with some TR goods.

Now, we're going to take this show out exactly how we brought it in, and that's by highlighting the hottest discussions of the week. Sit back and enjoy.

Toni Bowers, TechRepublic's Head Blogs Editor, talked about a new book from Bill Shapiro called "Other People's Rejection Letters: Relationship Enders, Career Killers, and 150 Other Letters You'll Be Glad You Didn't Receive." But Toni points out that it's better to receive a rejection letter than never hear back from the company you interviewed with. Is that kind of like, "It's better to have bad breath than no breath at all?" 

In the discussion thread, quite a few TechRepublic members chimed in with their opinion that this isn't just a matter of common courtesy  companies that don't send out rejection letter are just plain rude. Fortunately, Toni also included a link to a TechRepublic download so that hiring managers can get some pointers for how to craft a good rejection letter.

Senior Editor Mark Kaelin received quite a bit of feedback from his post about computers in primary and secondary education. Mark also included a poll, asking the TR community if you all think the practical computer education provided to students in grades K-12 is adequate. At the time of this recording, the majority of respondents selected the option, "Not even close...." 

It was really nice to see so many people chime in this discussion -- teachers, Elementary school ICT specialist, parents -- and while quite a few folks agreed with the poll results, others thought computer education was absolutely adequate, depending on where you live. One TR member even said that he (or she) didn't think computers belong in the K-8 classroom. Well, if you'd like to add your two cents -- or buck fifty -- to this conversation, rest assured that I'll provide a link to this and the other Hot 5 discussions of the week in the blog notes.

Jack Wallen hit another homerun with his list of the 10 best cross-platform applications. It's no surprise that Firefox was #1 on Jack's list, but you all have to go to the site to see the other nine! I know... I'm not very nice.

Jack ended his post by saying, "Your turn," and there were quite a few cross-platform apps that the TR community suggested in the discussion thread, such as anyosguy who said, "Dropbox is a great free app that I use mainly with my iPhone to transfer large file to my computers." And then we have Humgut who recommended Blender, GIMP, Netbeans, and FireBug. Be sure to check out his comment for more information.

Michael Kassner provided a high-level overview of application whitelisting and whether or not he thinks it can beat malware. Sure, quite a few security experts and IT managers are starting to think more about application whitelisting, but are you?

In the discussion thread, TR member jkameleon said that a firewall is a nice example of whitelisting, and Michael agreed. Michael also told folks to watch for his next two articles, because he's in the process of interviewing two of the better-known application-whitelist developers. Way to dive into this issue, Michael!

And the hottest discussion of the week, thanks to Jason Hiner, TechRepublic's Editor in Chief, was about the five biggest annoyances of the Apple iPad. I have to say, with everyone raving about this new device -- yeah, myself included -- it was kind of refreshing to read about some of its weaknesses.

The biggest one for me, which actually falls into the category of "gross" is the glossy screen that shows off absolutely every fingerprint smudge. Mmmmm! Yummy, right?

Jason started off the discussion thread by asking the TR community what else Apple missed or messed up with the iPad. And with almost 300 comments, you can imagine that there was plenty of good, bad, indifferent, and just plain silliness -- which is the perfect way to end this show.

Thanks again for tuning in, I appreciate everyone's support, and remember -- you can still keep up with the hottest discussions of the week every Friday by visiting the TR Out Loud blog. Take care, everyone. Bye!