e-Clippings 4.23.01

She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe
"I thought you'd never say hello," she said
"You look like the silent type."
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century.
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you,
Tangled up in blue.
Bob Dylan, Tangled Up in Blue, 1975

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And now another installment in the ongoing saga of "As the Laptop Sits"…
When last we left our intrepid hero, Mark was waiting on a backordered part=
from HP, a $2 plastic tray for his new hard drive, to finally fix his lapto=
p after almost a full month of downtime. Well, today Mark waits anxiously si=
nce this is the day the backordered part was due in. There was a thrilling m=
oment on Friday when a call came from HP but they had found a 20GB hard driv=
e but still no tray.. L Oh yeah, there will be another issue on Wednesday.

Cool Site(s):

SETI@Home
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/faq.html
These first two sites that I want to talk about today both employ the same =
idea, harnessing the spare computing cycles of your PC. This is distributed =
computing (DC), i.e. networking literally thousands (millions?) of computers=
together into a flexible, shifting web of computational power at near-super=
computer levels.

This first site, SETI@Home (SETI = Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence=
), is the granddaddy of the two. The SETI@Home software uses your PC (via a=
really cool looking screensaver) to wade through the multitude of radio sig=
nal information that is picked up by the radio telescope at Arecibo. The sof=
tware became available on 5.16.99 and within 10 days there were "350,000 pa=
rticipants in 203 countries." Within just that time "they have contributed =
1600 years of computing time, and together, the participants have formed ear=
th's largest super computer." Now, as of February 2000, " SETI@home has gro=
wn to encompass 1.6 million participants in 224 countries. The amount of com=
puting time contributed since May, 1999 is equal to 165,000 years, veraging =
10 Teraflops (about 10 times more than the largest supercomputer on the plan=
et). It is the largest computation ever done, and has attracted the particip=
ation of 20,000 groups such as schools and private companies" Now, no more =
scoffing at distributed computing OK?

United Devices
http://www.ud.com
This is the newest entry in the screensaver/DC field. While SETI looks for =
ET, UD.com is looking for proteins that may have the potential to fight canc=
er. It is run by the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford in =
England and the National Foundation for Cancer Research. I became aware of t=
his project a couple of months ago and I don't think it has been running muc=
h longer than that and already they cite stats of 286,658 members, 368,714 d=
evices and have logged a total of 24 MILLION computational hours!

Now all you have to do is pick whether you want to look for ET or search fo=
r a cure for cancer. And you thought today was going to be boring!

Opera Software
http://www.opera.com
I know I have mentioned this one before but there is a new version out and =
I just wanted to reiterate my prior recommendation. If you do a lot of surfi=
ng (like me), Opera is head and shoulders above both IE and Netscape. I am n=
ot saying don't have one of the others around; Opera still have some bugs re=
garding SSL (secure socket layer = how sites securely receive your personal =
info, etc.) and with some of the higher end plug-ins.

That being said - Opera is blazing fast, opens up one application with many=
windows versus IE opening up a new application for every window and Opera a=
llows you to save your windows as a set. Here's what I mean - let's say you'=
re out surfing for a new car. You find 8 sites all with great info, now with=
IE, all you could do is bookmark those sites of maybe save them for offline=
viewing. You can do all that in Opera but you can also save those sites as =
a set of open windows. So you save them as *.win file and next time you open=
Opera, bang, up pops all your sites automatically. Very cool.
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NEWS
TAKING A HARD LINE?
The National Education Association has issued a manual asserting that onlin=
e instruction is almost always more expensive than traditional, in-person in=
struction. N.E.A. officials say they hope faculty members will use the manua=
l in bargaining over distance-learning issues.
(4/23/2001)
http://www.chronicle.com/free/2001/04/2001042301u.htm

SNAPSHOT
LESSONS FOR INSTRUCTORS
An online course offered by Western Kentucky University teaches faculty mem=
bers and administrators how to use technology efficiently in instruction.
(4/19/2001)
http://www.chronicle.com/free/2001/04/2001041901u.htm

EXPANDED LISTINGS?
Word that researchers for Peterson's Guide to Distance Learning Programs ar=
e now collecting information about unaccredited colleges has some administra=
tors at mainstream institutions worrying that unaccredited colleges may be l=
isted in future editions of the guidebook.
(4/18/2001)
http://www.chronicle.com/free/2001/04/2001041801u.htm

CODE SHARING
Hoping to develop a more flexible way of building World Wide Web pages for =
their online courses, a group of universities has begun designing a course-m=
anagement system that will be free and whose source code will be made public=
ly available.
(4/17/2001)
http://www.chronicle.com/free/2001/04/2001041701u.htm

Caution on e-learning
The Internet revolution is now offering the possibility of e-learning progr=
ammes, but distance education providers say it is still too early to jump. Y=
vonne Healy reports
http://www.ireland.com/education/el/thirdlevel/2001/0417/story2.htm


TRENDS SECTION

5 Questions with John Doerr
Business 2.0
http://www.business2.com/content/magazine/ebusiness/2001/04/09/29738
The dot-com startup ranks are decimated, the Nasdaq has been
clobbered, the flow from the fire hose of venture capital has slowed. Is th=
e party over?

Silicon Investor posters can stay anonymous
First Amendment applies to chat rooms too
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/18420.html


EMERGING TECH SECTION

Smear Tactics / Forbes Magazine
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0416/326.html
The computer scientists behind San Francisco-based Digital Fountain may hav=
e found a simple solution for making streaming video work on the Web: better=
math for dividing and serving the data.

The Next Generation of Optical Fibers
- MIT Technology Review
New materials promise far more efficient light pipes with a much
greater capacity to carry information.
http://www.techreview.com/magazine/may01/ball.asp

SECURITY SECTION


HUMOR AND MISC. SECTION


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discussion of a product, company or person does not represent any
official endorsement or criticism of the same. All authors and
organizations retain complete copyright.
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