Edu_Rss

Quicken does it right
I may have grown not just to hate but actually to fear the Quicken user interface - which used to be its strongest feature - but I will say that when they chnaged the internals of their bill pay system, they treated their customers right: They sent us a free copy of Quicken Premier 2005.... From Joho the Blog on September 6, 2004 at 11:47 p.m..

"The wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time"
It's about freaking time Kerry said this! Resolved: Howard Dean didn't have enough influence on the Democratic candidate's campaign. Oh,, and, yes, Kerry's statement is consistent with his vote to authorize the war.... From Joho the Blog on September 6, 2004 at 11:47 p.m..

MS: On Second Thought, Put On These Handcuffs
Farhad Manjoo has a nice article up about the new MSN Music Store (via Frank).  At the very end, he notes a somewhat predictable turn of events: MS changed the language, noted by Fred, that advocated burning DRM-locked songs onto CD and then re-ripping into another, possibly unencrypted format.  It now reads simply: From A Copyfighter's Musings on September 6, 2004 at 11:46 p.m..

BMI (not BMG!) Has Record Year
The movie industry had a record summer at the box office, despite a decline in ticket sales.  That's pretty predictable, since broadband is not pervasive and watching a DivX download is not nearly as high quality as going to the theater.  So it's not worth making too of this.  It's also not worth making too much of recent news that BMI has had a record year.--> From A Copyfighter's Musings on September 6, 2004 at 11:46 p.m..

A Little More on Skylink
You know, it's still a lot to wrap my head around.  I would really like to first go back and read many DMCA articles and all the cases a little closer.  But this tentative assessment is going to have to do for now. Prelim Points First, I'm just going to assume you've read at least Ernest's and Ed Felten's posts - I'll get to some of what they bring up, but not all of it.  --> From A Copyfighter's Musings on September 6, 2004 at 11:46 p.m..

Organisation in the way: How decentralisation hobbles the user experience
Peter Merholz has written an article on organisational barriers to good user experiences. To quote: Contrary to all the books, articles, Web sites, and workshops that suggest otherwise, the biggest problem in user experience design today is not one of... From Column Two on September 6, 2004 at 11:46 p.m..

Software patents kill innovation
Martin Brampton from Silicon.com doubts that software patents are rarely as innovative as the simplistic argument for patents would suggest. A parallel debate is being fought in science. Governments have sought increased commercial involvement with university research, but the price has often been proprietary control over new ideas. Many academic scientists are opposing this trend, believing that the advancement of knowledge is a collaborative and public venture.Related From owrede_log on September 6, 2004 at 11:45 p.m..

Vote or Not
The HotorNot.com folks have set up a register-to-vote sweepstakes. Prizes of $100,000 -- well, this is different... (Via Chris Nolan) From Dan Gillmor's eJournal on September 6, 2004 at 11:45 p.m..

'Throw Me an Anchor,' Yells the Drowning Man
UPDATED Kerry names John Sasso (CNN) as senior advisor. Sasso, you'll recall, is the genius who ran the Michael Dukakis campaign in 1988 until he was (inexplicably) forced to quit for a time after pointing out that a Democratic opponent had plagiarized parts of a speech from a British politician. From Dan Gillmor's eJournal on September 6, 2004 at 11:45 p.m..

Opposing the deracination of reason
Gwynne Dyer's one of the most rational commentators around. Ever since 9/11, countries like Russia and Israel that face serious challenges from Muslim peoples living under their rule have been trying to re-brand their local struggles as part of the "global war on terrorism." And even Garrison Keillor gets shrill about playing fear against reason: From homoLudens III on September 6, 2004 at 11:44 p.m..

Making RSS Scale
I've been meaning to write about this since I saw a one-page article on the subject of RSS clogging websites' bandwidth in NewScientist back in June. But it wasn't until I saw this Slashdot story on the same subject that I knew I had to get my thoughts down. A lot of sites are suffering from a big problem — they are being systematically hammered by RSS newsreaders for new material at regular intervals. When I first came across RSS around two years ago and did some reading up on it, it sounded like another interesting protocol for a nonproblem. I wondered wh From kuro5hin.org on September 6, 2004 at 11:43 p.m..

Weblog overcomplexity
I'm amazed at how some weblog designs are so overly complex that it can take me a minute or two of scanning a page just to find the "subscribe" link.... Many were blogroll items, bookmark links etc. But they overwhelm the reader with so much superfluous data that it's ... From D'Arcy Norman's Learning Commons Weblog on September 6, 2004 at 11:43 p.m..

First class days
It's back-to-school time: fresh starts, excitement, and for some, a few jitters. From Christian Science Monitor | Learning on September 6, 2004 at 11:43 p.m..

Can competition really improve schools?
School choice is today a driving force behind education reform. But does it work? From Christian Science Monitor | Learning on September 6, 2004 at 11:43 p.m..

Big tech on campus
College students are serving as guinea pigs for the digital lifestyle--but is tech marketing in schools getting out of control? From CNET News.com on September 6, 2004 at 11:43 p.m..

Maths optionnelles après 14 ans ? Pas bête.
Considérant l'importance accordée aux mathématiques, il est toujours surprenant d'entendre une voix discordante. D'autant plus quand elle vient du milieu de l'éducation, et d'une université de surcroît. Quoique je ne sois pas mathématicien -- plutôt une victime des maths -- j'ai... From Osmoze on September 6, 2004 at 7:30 a.m..

What Teachers Need to Know About the Internet
I recently presented "Internet Beware: What Teachers Need to Know About the Internet" at my old high-school in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. The presentation spoke to Internet/Media Awareness type issues which should be of great concern to most, especially as they relate... From Couros Blog - Frequent Rants from an Ed. Tech'er on September 6, 2004 at 7:28 a.m..

Huawei Technologies roadshow comes to Sofia
The Chinese technology supplier hopes to interest the Bulgarian incumbent telco in its fixed-line and mobile telephony technologies. From Digital Media Europe - digital media news from across Europe on September 6, 2004 at 7:28 a.m..

VSSTV - Very Slow Scan Television
Gebhard Sengmuller (Austria). - VSSTV uses broadcasts from the historic public domain TV system --available anytime over freely accessible frequencies-- and regular bubble wrap to construct an analogous system in which the packing material works as the aperture mask. A plotter-like device fills a sheet of bubble wrap with pigments in the 3 primary CRT colors (red, blue, green), turning them into pixels on the VSSTV "screen." Observed from a distance, t From unmediated on September 6, 2004 at 7:28 a.m..

Mark Cuban on Broadcast Flag
An online Q&A with Mark Cuban [pdf] at the Washington Post includes this (IMHO overly optimistic) exchange: Washington, D.C.: "In the end, the consumer will be the winner" It certainly doesn't look that way right now. Hollywood has bought the "broadcast flag" legislation that it wanted, and the hardware manufacturers don’t seem to be putting up any kind of fight abo From unmediated on September 6, 2004 at 7:28 a.m..

GSM over Wi-Fi
A consortium of companies including several major phone carriers and mobile phone manufacturers has released a specification for what they are terming Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), allowing mobile phone roaming over "unlicensed" radio technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Such a system would allow a Wi-Fi- or Bluetooth-equipped mobile phone to switch from a GSM WAN to a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth access point within a building where the GSM signal does not penetrate transparently mid-call. The call would be routed over TCP/IP via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to the wired phone network, just as conventiunmediated on September 6, 2004 at 7:28 a.m..

How to Enable web based viewing and remote control over your Tivo.
"How to Enable web based viewing and remote control over your Tivo" is a geeky guide to controlling and streaming your TiVo from a website. It involves hacking together an IR remote that can be remotely controlled, and combined with output sent to Quicktime's streaming server, it c From unmediated on September 6, 2004 at 7:28 a.m..

More on Community Publishing and the Internet
"Blogging is a powerful technology for driving participatory journalism," according to iUpload president Robin Hopper, "because it acts as an engine or metaphor for turning members of the community into journalists without any learning curve." The quote is part of a short EContent article on community publishing and the Internet From unmediated on September 6, 2004 at 7:28 a.m..

Peter Jennings on News & Technology
Peter Jennings of ABC News was the guest today on "Talk of the City" on KPCC radio...and he had some interesting things to say about ABC's new 24 hour digital TV channel, and its distribution online as well as on mobiles...(the archives of todays' show is not up yet, so check back later) He's been watching the ABC news video feed on mobiles and said that he was not necessarily very happy about the whole situation...the smaller the screen becomes, the more impersonal it becomes. But then, he said, that&a From unmediated on September 6, 2004 at 7:27 a.m..

Congress busy working on file sharing and digital copyright issues
PC World's October issue brings an article about the current growth of file-sharing despite heavy attack from the MPAA and the RIAA. Also has a list of bills that Congress is busy trying to pass. S 2560 (Inducing Infringement of Copyright Act) would hold technology and service companies liable if their products or devices were found to encourage or"induce" copyright violations, such as by making illegal copies of songs or movies. This legislation paints a virtual bull's-eye on P-to-P software vendors, but also could have far-reaching consequences for oth From unmediated on September 6, 2004 at 7:27 a.m..

An XSPF-based schema for OpenMedia
An XSPF-based schema for OpenMedia. The OpenMedia project entails playlists with unique requirements. This document describes a way to use the XSPF shareable playlist format to meet those requirements. Caveat: the OpenMedia web site is still private, though access is available to anyone who asks, so there is a touch of snobbery in my writing here. (Continued at the weblog of Lucas Gonze.) From unmediated on September 6, 2004 at 7:27 a.m..

Citizens Media, an Example
I talk a lot about low-end tools that create high-quality media. Here's an example: Phil Shapiro's interview with August Trometer, who founded dotmac.info to connect people and communities via creative projects. From unmediated on September 6, 2004 at 7:27 a.m..

Readers Suggest New CONTENTIOUS Topics (Survey Results, Part 8)
CONTENTIOUS already covers a lot of topics – but this blog is a work in progress, and I certainly want to keep my eye out for intriguing new topics of interest to my readers. Therefore, question 8 of my reader survey was: What NEW topics or issues would you like to see CONTENTIOUS cover? The 35 people who answered this question had some interesting ideas... From Contentious Weblog on September 6, 2004 at 7:27 a.m..

Blogs y cine
La sección sobre Internet de la revista Fotogramas de septiembre (nro.: 1.931) reseña tres blogs sobre cine: Un toque de azufre - Antonio Trashorras opina, encuentra, piensa, duda... (es un colaborador de la revista) Rance (chismes del Hollywood por el... From eCuaderno v.2.0 on September 6, 2004 at 7:23 a.m..

The Age & Sydney Morning Herald RSS Feeds
I guess that's the way it works, some guy driving round the States tells you that the paper you read each weekend in Melbourne offers RSS feeds :o) The Age RSS Feeds The Sydney Morning Herald RSS Feeds From James Farmer's Radio Weblog on September 6, 2004 at 7:21 a.m..

USU IT Day 3
We only met half a day today, and it was still probably the best day. There is much to be posted. First, from Ulises Mejias, a nice summary of the whole conference. Steven Downes gave the final keynote, and here's... From Martindale Matrix on September 6, 2004 at 7:21 a.m..

'Knowledge sharing' should be avoided
Real nice reality check on knowledge sharing: "The simple fact is that staff simply don't 'share knowledge', they conduct whatever work activities are required in their jobs. In our terms this may include sharing knowledge, but to them they are 'updating client details', 'discussing project schedules' and the like." From elearningpost on September 6, 2004 at 7:17 a.m..

Synchronous Tools for the Academic World
This is 30 minute breeze presentation on both high-end and low-end synchronous tools. From elearningpost on September 6, 2004 at 7:17 a.m..

Turck MMCache for PHP - Accelerator
"Turck MMCache is a free open source PHP accelerator, optimizer, encoder and dynamic content cache for PHP."If you haven't tried it, you should. It's a great accelerator for PHP (version 4.x). From Serious Instructional Technology on September 6, 2004 at 7:16 a.m..

Phd, Project Management, Weblogs
It's all here. I'm not sure where to start, so I'll let my personal weblog do the talking. The weblog as a personal class journal dimension is really provocative, especially since it's on my own initiative and not mandated. From Serious Instructional Technology on September 6, 2004 at 7:16 a.m..

HD PC: Cheaper Than High-Def TV
A new device that costs a couple hundred bucks can turn the home office into a high-definition media center. It's a start anyway, and far less expensive than coughing up for a television setup. From Wired News on September 6, 2004 at 7:16 a.m..

Catch a Falling Space Capsule
It's reality TV at its most sci-fi. Two Hollywood stunt pilots hired by NASA are practicing to snag the 400-pound Genesis capsule Wednesday to give it a softer landing as it hurtles to earth. It'll be broadcast live so they better get it right. From Wired News on September 6, 2004 at 7:16 a.m..

Getting the Hurricane Word Out
The director of the National Hurricane Center stays calm in the midst of a storm, but wants everyone in hurricane-prone areas to get the message from his media advisories: Respect the storm's power and make proper response plans. From Wired News on September 6, 2004 at 7:16 a.m..

ACSA announces it is endorsing President George W. Bush in the 2004 Election: "The Right Man at the Right Time with the Right Stuff."
The American Computer Scientists Association endorses President George W. Bush for 2004. The Association of computer industry workers and Information Technology businesses casts unanimous support for President Bush. ACSA also calls for Labor Unions to shift their traditional Democratic Party line support to President Bush in 2004 "for the good of America". [PRWEB Sep 6, 2004] From PR Web on September 6, 2004 at 7:16 a.m..

films to see before you vote
It is the nature of the net that just about the time you think, "there ought to be ...," there is. Here's a site with a collection of films relevant to the election. It would be better were there more that were clearly from the other side. Ideas? From Lessig Blog on September 6, 2004 at 7:16 a.m..

Feel the Hate
That's certainly how the GOP convention seemed to me, though maybe I'm just too "sensitive." But this certainly was a different convention from the GOP convention at which I was a member of the Pennsylvania delegation (indeed, the youngest member of any delegation) in 1980. That the was the Party of Jack Kemp. This is the Party of Zel Miller (!). From Lessig Blog on September 6, 2004 at 7:16 a.m..

the GPL in Germany
Christian Ahlert and Thomas Hoeren have translated a Munich Court decision about the enforceability of the GPL in Germany. Ahlert also has an introduction, to the case and to Creative Commons, and Professor Hoeren has written a commentary. From Lessig Blog on September 6, 2004 at 7:16 a.m..

Changing Role of Metadata?
I've been reading through the wiki pages Brian Lamb's presentation on wikis etc. at David Wiley's recent ITI conference.... Man, if I could just borrow his brain for a while, I'd have my Master's thesis done ;-) (but that's another story). From D'Arcy Norman's Learning Commons Weblog on September 6, 2004 at 7:15 a.m..

Bob Evans, IBM mainframe pioneer, dies at 77
Evans led a team that developed a new class of mainframe computers that allowed different applications to be run simultaneously. From CNET News.com on September 6, 2004 at 7:15 a.m..