e-Clippings 12.19.01

"Possibly all the knowledge...needed to establish a wise and
stable settlement of the world's affairs in 1919 existed in bits and
fragments...but practically nothing had been done to draw that
knowledge and these ideas together into a comprehensive conception of
the world...
...without a World Encyclopedia to hold men's minds together in
something like a common interpretation of reality, there is no hope
whatsoever of anything but an accidental and transitory alleviation
of any of our world troubles."
H. G. WELLS
World Brain (1936)
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Happy Holidays!!
Seeing how I am already two days late and I already have a pretty
good-size chunk of the newsletter done – it is going out as is. I
have had a couple of problems getting this one out and I pass them
along for as cautionary tales: #1 Running Win2K and installed IE6:
This mysteriously caused a required DLL file to go missing which was
needed to start Outlook. Only reliable solution after 2 days of
trying was to totally uninstall MS Office and then reinstall. Arghh!
#2 Ongoing battle with "NO Customer Service" types at
Compaq/iPAQ
Upgrade Center: I ordered the Pocket PC 2002 upgrade. They shipped it
to my address via FedEx Ground, which returned it to Compaq saying it
had a faulty address. Fine. Call Compaq to get them to re-ship and
their answer is that they'll re-ship no problem; to the same
address via FedEx Ground. Any guesses what would happen? I have
actually had to move through 2 ranks of supervisors to at least get
to someone who came up with the bright idea of sending it to
alternate address!! This is after I had a problem with a product I
ordered from PC Mall. I call their service rep and they refunded my
S&H charges immediately and re-sent the product via FedEx Overnight.
Amazing difference.

Anyway – next week will be an off week for e-Clippings. Enjoy the
holidays and we will see you all in the NEW YEAR!!
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NEWS

Army expands e-learning options: In an effort to expand its online
education offerings from simple content to a more complete e-learning
environment, the Army has announced a major expansion of its
agreement with SmartForce, an e-learning company.
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/1217/web-army-12-17-01.asp

Labor puts instant messaging to work: The Labor Department is
deploying 18,000 seats of an instant emergency notification system.
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/1217/web-labor-12-17-01.asp

The Journal: AVOIDING THE QUALITY/QUANTITY TRADE-OFF IN DISTANCE
EDUCATION
The promises of distance education to provide high-quality
educational pro-grams that can be undertaken anywhere and at any time
are not new. Similar promises were made early in the 20th century by
correspondence study programs. These programs failed to realize their
promises because they were confronted by a fundamental trade-off
between quality - personalized education - and quantity - the
widespread communication of the message to large numbers of students.
When higher education confronted this trade-off, they opted to choose
the quantity model. That choice eventually led to a widespread
dissatisfaction with the quality of correspondence education.
http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/articleprintversion.cfm?
aid=3753

HOUSE POSTPONES BROADBAND VOTE UNTIL MARCH:(Source: ITworld.com) The
U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday delayed a much-anticipated
vote on a measure that could allow local telecommunication carriers
to offer high-speed Internet access across regional boundaries
without first opening their local markets to rivals.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaaeXlaaQMBOa9tT0ib/

Dec-12-2001: ASU MBA High Technology Program Equips Students with
Compaq iPAQ Pocket PCs Compaq iPAQs facilitate problem solving,
communication and project management
http://www.cob.asu.edu/top/pressrelease_display.cfm?num=426


OPINION: WHAT TOPPED THE NEWS IN 2001?
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaae0ZaaQNuOa9nGBIb/

2001: THE YEAR IN QUOTES: (Source: ITworld.com) With all its horror,
heartbreak, and occasional highlights, no one can deny that 2001 has
been an interesting year, for IT folk as for everyone.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaaeZraaQNcsa9ndSPb/

REFOCUSING IN 2002: (Source: Computerworld) This has been a hellish
year. 2002 just can't get here fast enough. Looking back over 2001 is
like stumbling through a house of horrors. It was a year of
continuing drought in the East, raging fires in the West, anthrax and
network-crashing plagues of computer viruses.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaaeZraaQNcBa9ndSPb/

2001: THE YEAR THE INTERNET STOPPED BEING FUN: (Source: ITworld.com)
Opinion | Remember when you could barely resist the Internet's lure?
When the rush of discovering a new Web site or stumbling across a
nifty service kept you coming back for more; when the content was so
rich and plentiful that you could read, read, read all day long?
Well, that was last year.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaaeZraaQNcEa9ndSPb/

European Schoolnet: ELEARNING AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED AT EMINENT II
IN LISBON: On 6 December 2001 the winners of European Schoolnet´s
prestigious eLearning Awards for 2001 were unveiled during a special
prize ceremony at the EMINENT II conference in Lisbon... he winners
of eLearning Awards for 2001 are...
http://www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/About_eschoolnet/content.cfm?
oid=10518&id_area=101&lang=en&ov=10518


TRENDS SECTION

The Chronicle: GETTING READY FOR A NEW GENERATION OF COURSE-
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
The systems spare faculty members from having to photocopy and
distribute course packs, and mean that students don't have to hike to
a professor's office to look up grades that were posted on the door,
or call classmates to ask about the next reading assignment. Such
features simplify the administrative tasks of teaching and learning,
even if, as some critics say, they don't improve a professor's actual
teaching or students' learning. At many colleges, not all faculty
members use the systems, and in any case their usefulness depends
largely on how much effort is put into giving them helpful features.
http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i17/17a02501.htm

Intelligent Enterprise (Asia): E-LEARNING BENEFITS STILL UNCLEAR
According to a recent IDC report: "e-Learning in Asia-Pacific:
Barriers and Accelerators", there is confusion in the market about
the costs and benefits of e-learning and with that, the residual
stigma of e-learning being associated with the dot-com hysteria. The
findings were based on research with end users and e-learning vendors
across Singapore, Australia, Philippines, Malaysia, Korea, India and
PRC.
The report stated that the primarily reasons for not adopting e-
learning were:
- Respondents were still unclear about what eLearning was and its
benefits;
- There were no reasons to adopt e-learning, and
- E-learning was perceived to be very unaffordable.
http://www.intelligentasia.com/PrintArticle.cfm?artid=13430

IntelligentKM: INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION
Most of you have hobbies — in the IT world, many people are
obsessed with golf, although I've met plenty with less popular
passions such as sailing or singing country music. You don't get paid
to do these activities — you do them, in fact, to get away from
work.
Through communities of practice (CoPs), organizations such as The
World Bank build on their employees' passions and obsessions by
encouraging staff to move beyond their job descriptions and explore
subjects and perspectives that could benefit the entire enterprise.
http://www.intelligentkm.com/020101/501feat1_1.shtml

CNET: WHAT WILL THE WEB BE TOMORROW?
As the United States marks the 10th anniversary of its first Web
page, CNET News.com presents a series of interviews examining the
changes wrought by this breakthrough invention's past--and its future.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-8182805-0.html?tag=bt_bh

E-Books Live On After Mighty Fall (Culture 2:00 a.m. PST): Last
week's shuttering of MightyWords is just one in a series of closings
by big-name, e-book sellers. But smaller companies are thriving.
Also: MightyWords' last words
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,49184,00.html?tw=wn20011218


EMERGING TECH SECTION

Pentagon CIO wants NMCI proof: The Navy Marine Corps Intranet could
be a way to create a more network-centric Defense Department, the DOD
chief information officer said, but he stressed that the concept of
creating a single technology infrastructure has yet to be proven in
practice.
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/1217/web-sten-12-17-01.asp

BLUETOOTH: DREAM TECHNOLOGY COMES DOWN TO EARTH: Source: ITworld.com)
At the Bluetooth Developers Conference in San Francisco week, the
wireless network technology is finally coming down to earth, with
device makers beginning to deploy it in large numbers but with
interoperability and cost issues looming.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaaeXmaaQMCJa9nkbob/

FOUNDERS OF THE WEB STANDARDS PROJECT TAKE A HIATUS: (Source:
Computerworld) The grassroots Web Standards Project announced that
it's taking a short breather after helping browser makers implement
standards that make their products easier to
use.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaaeXlaaQMBMa9tT0ib/

Unwiring the Web: Community-owned wireless networks are gaining
popularity—and could help bridge the digital divide.
http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/dec01/innovation1.asp

Peer-to-peer USB hits the road: And MP3 players shall talk unto
phone...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/23450.html

Palm revs wireless plans with TI deal: In from the cold
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/23439.html

NAVY TRAINING CENTER TAGS COURSEWORK WITH XML: The Naval Air Warfare
Center Training Systems Division will have the course content of its
electronic classes tagged in Extensible Markup Language and moved
onto the Web.
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/17634-1.html

DELAYED YOPY PDA SHIPPING SOON: Drastically redesigned, the Linux-
based handheld will be available later this month for $399.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,75966,tk,dn121701X,00.asp


SECURITY SECTION

Case against Dmitry Sklyarov dropped: Russian programmer can leave
US, but must testify against employer
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/23403.html

GOKAR WORM SPREADS BY E-MAIL, WEB, CHAT: (Source: ITworld.com) A new
worm called 'Gokar' began to spread across the Internet Thursday via
e-mail, the chat program mIRC
and the Web, according to a trio of antivirus firms.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaaeXmaaQMCDa9nkbob/

Microsoft to users: Patch IE now!: The software company is telling
customers that they should
install a new security patch for Internet Explorer immediately. The
fix is for a hole in certain versions of the Web browser that could
open the door to password theft and viruses.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5100718,00.html

YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A MAGIC LANTERN: Like they say, just because
you're paranoid,
doesn't mean they're not after you. The FBI confirms the rumor
techies have insisted on for
weeks: Magic Lantern does exist.
http://www.backwire.com/go.asp?cid=70439&nhid=3692&uid=8954&bx=n2

ANTIVIRUS EXPERT: MICROSOFT DESIGN TO BLAME FOR VIRUS LOAD: Source:
ITworld.com) The blame for the latest round of viral congestion can
be laid squarely with Microsoft, according to Nick FitzGerald,
director of Christchurch, Australia-based Computer Virus Consulting.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaae1haaQND3a9ndSPb/


HUMOR AND MISC. SECTION

John Doerr's Startup Manual: - Fast Company: In 1997 Kleiner partner
offered his advice on starting a company.
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/07/082doerr.html

A Catalog to Catalog All Catalogs: As if there wasn't enough to find
on Google, the search engine offers a service that allows users to
peruse the goods from more than 600
catalogs. By Katie Dean.
http://www.wired.com/news/holidays/0,1882,49187,00.html?tw=wn20011218

ANOTHER BATCH OF HOT GIFTS FOR A COOL HOME OFFICE: (Source:
PCWorld.com) A $79 camera that records voice, an e-mail pager, a 208-
key keyboard.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaaeZkaaQM6Za9nkbob/
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