e-Clippings 20 March 2003

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955

To teach is to learn twice.
Joseph Joubert, 1754 - 1824
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NEWS

Sylvan Learning to Focus on Private and Online Universities : Sylvan
Learning Systems Inc, an educational service firm, said on Monday it
will divest its K-12 education operating units in a deal
valued at up to $300 million as it moves to focus on post-secondary
education.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9433-2003Mar11.html?
referrer=email

LEARNING IN RIVER CITY: A current NSF project aims to find an
engaging ways to teach science,drawing on curiosity and play. The
twist is that this learning goes on in "multi-user virtual
environment experiential simulator" (MUVEES), created using the same
technology used to design popular online fantasy games. Source:
Harvard University's Graduate School of Education
http://www.virtual.gmu.edu/muvees/index.htm

NEW HIGH SCHOOL COMES WITH STUDENT LAPTOPS: Students and teachers at
San Jose's new Evergreen Valley High School each have their own
laptop computer with wireless Internet access. With such ready one-to-
one access, Evergreen Valley is itself a lab where educators can
learn about the potential of this enriched learning environment.
Source: The Mercury News
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/4662002.htm

Educause, MERLOT Form Alliance on E-Learning: The National Learning
Infrastructure Initiative (NLII), a program of Educause, and the
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
(MERLOT) formed an alliance to share information and to develop joint
programs that advance online learning. The alliance will support
national and campus-based initiatives in faculty development,
technology use in teaching and learning, shared learning
tools, and online community facilitation. Educause Vice President
Carole Barone, who leads the NLII, said, "This alliance will result
in an extension of expertise and focused action plans between two
programs singularly dedicated to the transformative role that
technology plays in education."
http://www.educause.edu/

"Scotland's E-Learning Comes of Age":The Guardian, March 4, 2003
Primary students in Edinburgh will have much more pleasant
experiences on their first days of high school thanks to an e-
learning program entitled Flexible Learning in the Community, or
FLiC, which facilitates taking virtual tours of city high schools and
asking questions about them. Enthusiastic teachers plan on using
video conferencing for modern language lessons and the web space for
distributing and receiving assignments, both included in the
program's platform.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,10577,907223,00.html

"Country Watch: Japan Stirs up its Skills Base":by Tristan Donovan
IT Training Magazine, March 2003
http://www.train-net.co.uk/news/full_news.cfm?ID=4011

"Toward a Smarter Organization": by Tom Kelly and Nader Najiani
Chief Learning Officer Magazine, March 2003: Kelly and Najiani
present their productivity pyramid which consists of e-communication,
e-training, and e-assessment.
http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_col_pyramid.asp?
articleid=123&zoneid=96

TECHNOLOGY LITERACY FOR THE UNDER-8 SET: For more than four years,
the Montgomery County Maryland schools have used a carefully planned
program to promote technology literacy in the earliest grades. The
Early Childhood Technology Literacy Project helps school teams
integrate technology into instruction.
http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/littlekids/

Tech Wars: P-to-P Friends, Foes Struggle: Arms battle escalates
between P-to-P piracy and copyright-protection efforts.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109816,00.asp

Norway - Opera Internet browser meets with success on campus: The
Norwegian alternative Internet browser is releasing its 7.03 version
for Windows this week, with German and Japanese language support.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15374

Spam's Cost Escalates: The flood of unsolicited messages sent over
the Internet is growing so fast that spam may soon account for half
of all U.S. e-mail traffic, making it an increasing drain on
corporate budgets.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17754-2003Mar12.html?
referrer=email

Military Transformation: Progress and Challenges for DOD's Advanced
Distributed Learning Programs. GAO-03-393, February 28.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-393
http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d03393high.pdf Highlights

TOSHIBA PROTOTYPES METHANOL FUEL CELL FOR LAPTOPS: Posted March 05,
2003 05:12 Pacific Time: Toshiba has developed a prototype direct
methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that it says will end the need for
rechargeable batteries on portable PCs. The new fuel cell has an
average output of 12 watts and a maximum output of 20 watts, and
gives about five hours of operation with 50 milliliters of fuel,
Toshiba said in a statement Wednesday. It runs on replaceable methanol
cartridges, Toshiba said.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/05/HNfuelcell_1.html
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TRENDS SECTION

**Didn't know if you knew BUT, WIRED magazine makes all of it
print content available online – just not all at the same time.
The link below is to the page where they will be posting all the
content from this – their 10th anniversary issue. Check back
often – much good stuff. I don't kow if you read WIRED but I
remember
when I saw my first issue of WIRED that this would be the Life
Magazine for my generation and so far it has been.
The Way We Were
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.04/

U.S. Navy Formalizes XML Management: The U.S. Navy is setting the
standard for managing the use of XML across an enterprise with more
than 500,000 IT users. And the Air Force may soon follow suit.
http://computerworld.com/newsletter/0%2C4902%2C79348%2C0.html?nlid=PM

Last week Microsoft rolled out details on its digital rights
management system. According to our Microsoft Watch editor Mary Jo
Foley, you should be afraid, very afraid. It's not
the panacea you might have thought -- instead it's yet another way
for Microsoft to bind you and your company to its products.
http://eletters1.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo/y/eT740CdiPZ0HX60uoP0Ag

Creating a Culture of Ideas: Nicholas Negroponte says expertise is
overrated. To build a nation of innovators, we should focus on youth,
diversity, and collaboration.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/negroponte0203.asp

Science Fiction and Smart Mobs: Dystopian visions of the future
explore the power of virtual communities.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_jenkins013103.asp

10 Emerging Technologies That Will Change the World: Technology
Review identifies the developments that will dramatically affect the
way we live and work—and profiles the leading innovators behind
them.
http://www.technologyreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forumid=169

Net Has Few Degrees of Separation
Researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Israel have found that the
average number of connections needed to get from one point to another
in real-world networks like the Internet and social networks is
smaller than the number needed for randomly-connected networks.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_030603_2.asp

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EMERGING TECH SECTION

Review: Hands On With Valence's N-Charge Battery: Got a laptop?
Looking for extra juice? If 10 hours on one charge sounds good, the N-
Charge might be worth the cost.
http://computerworld.com/newsletter/0%2C4902%2C79373%2C0.html?nlid=MW

Tablet PC Sales Robust, Growth Seen in 2003 –Report: Reuters
Friday, March 14, 2003; 4:19 PM, SEATTLE (Reuters) - Shipment of
Tablet PCs, personal computers that can be operated with a pen,
reached 72,000 units in the last three months of 2002 and is expected
to keep growing this year, technology industry research IDC said on
Friday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26275-2003Mar14.html

First Tests: Intel's Centrino: Notebooks gain speed, battery life
with new mobile technology.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109606,00.asp

WI-FI GADGETS: WILL THEY CHANGE YOUR LIFE?: New consumer electronics
embrace wireless nets, versatile tasks.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109590,tk,dn031403X,00.asp

Nokia, Wi-Fi And Chips In Your Clothes: It seems like everyone is
launching Wi-Fi clouds. Can m-commerce be far behind? We take a look
at the news of these launches, a plan by clothing makers to weave
chips into their offerings and Nokia's plan to offer even more phones
that take photos.
http://computerworld.com/newsletter/0%2C4902%2C79335%2C0.html?nlid=MW

FILTERING THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL: (Source: IDG.net) An e-mail
scanning technique that sifts through e-mail messages for the
characteristics and behaviors that are unique to spam messages may
help reduce inbox weeds.
http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=791430

MEMORY CARDS GET SMALLER, FASTER, CHEAPER: New cards offer more
storage (up to 4GB), at the lowest prices yet.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109798,tk,dn031303X,00.asp

TABLET PC TO LEARN MORE LANGUAGES: Posted March 12, 2003 6:25 AM
Pacific Time Microsoft is working on software that will add basic
support for eight more languages to its Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
operating system, it said Wednesday. The Multilingual User Interface
& Recognizer Pack, due out in July, will allow users to switch the
language of the user interface to Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian,
Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, Microsoft said in a
statement released at the CeBIT technology trade show here. The user
interface includes help files and dialog boxes in the operating
system.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/12/HNlanguages_1.html

Building Virtual Reality: Imagine a world where you could float to
distant lands, find friends with the click of a button and build
complex objects like houses instantaneously. Several several
companies are building suchworlds—where else?—in cyberspace.
http://www.technologyreview.com/offthewire/3001_912003_3.asp

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MOBILE COMPUTING SECTION

Save PDAs by Making Them More Fun
http://www.business2.com/articles/web/0,1653,47952,00.html?ref=hpsmall

Reg Kit Watch: For starters, Samsung's Palm OS smartphone, Time's
Tablet PC
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/29735.html

Handhelds gain space: Handheld computers are convenient and are
quickly getting more powerful, but you can't get around that small
screen. You can, however get the screen around large documents. The
trick is being able to scroll by moving the device around in the
space surrounding you.
http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2003/022603/Handhelds_gain_space_022603.
html

West Point learns wireless lessons: The U.S. Military Academy at West
Point is deploying an 802.11a, 54M bit/sec wireless LAN as part of a
new strategy to create a much more interactive classroom.
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0224westpoint.html

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GAMING SECTION

New Games: Action Aplenty, Less Gore: Up-close animals, runaway
lawnmowers, bridge-building, and more await.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109785,00.asp

ARMY NATIONAL GUARD GETS GAME – Prophet: While perusing the
official site for Rival Interactive we came across a pop-up ad for a
game they apparently made for the U.S. Army National Guard called
Guard Force. Unlike the US Army's game, Guard Force isn't readily
available for download - in order to get it you have to call your
local recruiter. The game has been available since December
2002.Here's a description of the game from the official site: Guard
Force is a real-time strategy game utilizing today's modern
military
units including M1A1 tanks and M2 Bradley's. Guard Force contains six
unique missions that take place in graphically rich surroundings
including snow covered mountains and lush jungles. Guard Force puts
you in command. Take control of your forces and engage in covert
assaults, counter-insurgency, and rescue missions.
Rival Interactive: http://www.rivalinteractive.com
Guard Force: http://www.1-800-go-guard.com/guardforce/index.asp

Tools of the Trade: What You Need: Hardware: We help gamers put
together the ultimate kit upkeep on their machines.
http://www.gamespy.com/hardware/march03/toolkit/

Nintendo Star Speaks Out On Future: Can I just say I love Nintendo?
Even though my Xbox looks better, I find myself bringing out the N64
to treat my three year old when he's bored. I'm just itching to get
my hands on the GameCube and the latest Zelda game, and the new
GameBoy looks great, too. So I was excited to see that we managed to
get some face time with Shigeru Miyamoto --probably the greatest game
designer ever. Even if you've only ever played Donkey Kong or Super
Mario, you'll want to see what this truly innovative pioneer has to
say.
http://eletters1.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo/y/eUDs0CdiPZ0HX60uxe0AT
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SECURITY SECTION

New Worm Targets Weak Windows Passwords: Deloder installs a backdoor
program on PCs with easy-to-guess passwords.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109750,00.asp

E-mail Scams Continue To Target PayPal Users: Scam artists are again
trying to steal users' personal data, including their names,
addresses and credit card information
http://computerworld.com/newsletter/0%2C4902%2C79222%2C0.html?nlid=SEC
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HUMOR AND MISC. SECTION

Today's Refdesk Link of the Day is: Book Finder
at: http://www.bookfinder.com/

200 Web Sites Are Guaranteed to Please. With Cheese!
http://eletters1.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo/y/eUIf0CdiPZ0HX60u620AO

The New Military-Industrial Complex
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,47023,00.html?nl=whn

Salary Survey 2003: Who's Making What
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,47224,00.html?nl=whn

Employment Outlook 2003: What Are You Worth?
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,47135,00.html?nl=whn

Information Technology Training: Practices of Leading
Private-Sector Companies. GAO-03-390, January 31.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-390
http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d03390high.pdf Highlights

Total Poindexter Awareness tech spooks - a Who's Who : Weren't we
not supposed to know this?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/29530.html

The US M1A2 Abrams, and war as a video game: First test of the
digitized battlespace looms...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/29553.html

The Military's Silicon Revolution: As the U.S. military is poised to
go to war against Iraq, journalists getting sneak previews at how
military technology has improved since the last time Americans
prepared to fight in the Middle East.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50562-2003Mar6.html?
referrer=email

PocketMusic is a freeware MP3 player for Pocket PC that plays MP3
files from any folder on your Pocket PC. It features Winamp skins
support, various presets, mappable hardware buttons, an option to
edit ID3 tags, and a playlist organizer, along with a 10-band
equalizer.
www.pocketmind.com/pocketmusic.htm

Instant Messaging: Instant messaging has evolved into an essential
workplace tool. We look at how one company uses it to boost
productivity.
http://eletters1.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo/y/eTuy0CdiPZ0Eva0uMy0AA

Product Guide: Instant Messaging Software: Check out our reviews of
other instant messaging software.
http://eletters1.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo/y/eTuy0CdiPZ0Eva0uMz0AB

SXSW: 2003 SXSW WEB AWARDS WINNERS
http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/web_awards/winners/

Harvard Medical School: EVOLVING A MOB: WIRELESS COMMUNITIES OF
PRACTICE: "Based on experiences with Hiptop Nation, it appears that
by having ubiquitous mobile data communication devices and a
successful communal blog, it is possible to create an ideal
environment within which a smart mob can grow into a goal-oriented
mobile community of practice. Communal blogs play a critical role in
the creation of three essential elements of community: the
establishment of social capital, the creation of weak ties that
foster creativity, and the formation of a sense of "place" within
which everything can happen. The final crucial ingredient is a
complex goal."
[Note: PDF, 170Kb]
http://neuro-www.mgh.harvard.edu/lester_hci_2003.pdf

Business 2.0: SHARING THE WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE
"There are dozens of companies designing tools that extract knowledge
from individual employees and make it available to the rest of the
corporation. A few weeks ago, at Demo 2003, I saw three of these
companies, each of which takes a fundamentally different approach to
the problem."
http://www.business2.com/articles/web/0,1653,47805,00.html
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