e-Clippings 12.19.2003
"Legero. Cogito. Scribero." (Not Latin for Fair and Balanced)
"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water and
breeds reptiles of the mind." William Blake

"I know of no other manner of dealing with great tasks than as
play; this, as a sign of greatness, is an essential prerequisite."
Nietzsche, Ecce Homo


**Editor's Note: While the newsletter obviously continues, I
would urge you to stop by the e-Clippings' blog to take a look at
all the items that I have been adding to that site. While the news
stories both on the site and in the newsletter are fairly similar,
the blog allows me to include a great many links, documents, etc.
that just won't fit in the newsletter. Thanks and Happy Holidays!
Mark Oehlert
e-Clippings' Blog
http://blogoehlert.typepad.com/eclippings/
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Phrase of the Moment:
YHBT [Usenet: very common] Abbreviation: You Have Been
Trolled (see troll, sense 1). Especially used in "YHBT. YHL. HAND.",
which is widely understood to expand to "You Have Been Trolled. You
Have Lost. Have A Nice Day". You are quite likely to see this if you
respond incautiously to a flame-provoking post that was obviously
floated as sucker bait.
http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/y/YHBT.html
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This email is provided for information purposes only. Mention or
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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Making Sense of Learning Specifications & Standards:
A Decision Maker's Guide to their Adoption
(2nd edition) from the Masie Center
Web site: http://www.masie.com/masie/default.cfm?page=standards
Document: http://www.masie.com/standards/s3_2nd_edition.pdf

Game Developers Conference 2004 (GDC 2004)
http://www.gdconf.com/

PDA Guides for Hardware and Software from infoSyncworld.com
Hardware (all) http://hardware.infosyncworld.com/
Software (Pocket PC) http://windowsce.infosyncworld.com/#Software
Software (Palm) http://palmos.infosyncworld.com/#Software
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NEWS

Apple store tops 25 million tunes: Apple's online music store has hit
a new high, selling more than 25 million songs since its launch in
April. The 25 millionth song purchased on Friday was Let It Snow! Let
It Snow! Let It Snow! by Frank Sinatra.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3323583.stm

Website 'exposes' tobacco firms: Campaigners hope smokers who visit
the website will quit the habit. A website which claims to expose the
marketing practices of the tobacco industry has gone online. The
database - www.tobaccopapers.com - includes 14,000 pages of evidence
which have been described as damning by health campaigners. The
website has been constructed by the Centre for Tobacco Control
Research at Strathclyde University.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3326209.stm

Reload releases SCORM e-learning content player: Wilbert Kraan, CETIS
staff December 14, 2003: Now that the open source Reload content
package editor is maturing and in pretty widespread use and
development, the team have added a content player to the toolkit. It
plays SCORM 1.2 in a pretty straightforward fashion, but is mainly
meant to help content developers understand and control what is going
on behind the scenes.
http://www.cetis.ac.uk/content2/20031214181715

SimCandidate: Video games simulate sports, business, and war. Why not
politics? By Steven Johnson: Posted Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003, at 10:58
AM PT
http://slate.msn.com/id/2092688/

Introducing Our New Shareware Library!: December 17, 2003
By Robyn Peterson : Just in time for the holidays, we've
exponentially increased our selection of downloads to include a deep,
robust collection of hot, new shareware. And the best part? You can
download as much as you want, any time you want, for free! So, push
frugality to its outermost limits—download some
try-before-you-buy
software today. Head on over to shareware.pcmag.com
and check out our four favorite shareware applications. It's a great
place to start. We'll be updating this list frequently.
http://www.pcmag.com/print_article/0,3048,a=114744,00.asp

Internet Sales Tax Effort On Hold for Now: The dogged efforts of
nearly three-dozen states to win Congress's approval for a national
Internet sales tax plan failed to pay off in 2003. Observers say 2005
may be the next chance for action.
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/WBRH05DA1C8482C97E3623EB43619

IE Overhaul Part of Windows XP SP2: [December 16, 2003] Microsoft's
service pack for XP has a host of goodies for improving the Internet
Explorer experience.
http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/3289571

from eLearningpost)
Intranet Journal: CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION CONVERGE ON
E-LEARNING "there are three broad categories of learning content
based on the urgency of the information that needs to be learned: a)
develop skills and competencies; b) critical knowledge transfer; and
c) information broadcast. Critical knowledge transfer and information
broadcasts involve rapid e-learning, which needs they are high-volume
applications and need some type of content management to facilitate
their use..."
http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200312/ij_12_10_03a.html

Teamware: And the winner is ...: The teamware market is poised for
growth as organizations increasingly realize the benefit of creating
virtual workspaces for project teams, communities, and processes.
http://ct.com.com/click?q=e8-DOJMQfk~pfozf0eCTeTkdcBdtOFR

SPECIAL HOLIDAY SECTION

Tech Toys Survive Trial by Tots By Leander Kahney
02:00 AM Dec. 18, 2003 PT: SAN FRANCISCO -- Once again, the four
Kahney kids got to test a selection of tech toys sure to be under
many a tree this year. The children, ages 3 to 7, put several toys
-- including interactive books, handheld game consoles and robotic
dogs -- through their paces. The results were mixed: Some were great,
and some not so. Read on to see what is hot, and what's not,
according
to Nadine, 7; Milo, 6; Olin, 4; and Lyle, 3.
http://www.wired.com/news/holidays/0,1882,61630,00.html

2003 Holiday Gift Guide from PCMag.com
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,4148,11182,00.asp

A holiday wish list of time-saving tech tools: Could the best gift of
all time be the gift of time itself? You can't add hours to anyone's
day, but you can help them save time--or use it more fruitfully.
ZDNet's 9-5 Holiday Gift Guide is geared toward busy professionals
like you--or anyone whose life is ruled by the calendar.
http://ct.com.com/click?q=ba-m~45QXpITQSrXJVsxIxIlZBZWSuR

How to Gadget Shop: Gift shopping for just the right tech gadget this
holiday season? Washington Post personal technology columnist Rob
Pegoraro offers advice for buying DVD players, digital cameras, game
systems, computers, MP3 players, handheld organizers and WiFi setups.
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/WBRH05DA0C7852C97E3623EB7B393


EMERGING TECH SECTION

From (kuro5hin.org): Disposable Ipods (Technology)
By cestmoi : Wed Nov 26th, 2003 at 11:55:37 AM EST
Jason bought an Apple Ipod 18 months ago. His battery died and this
is what he did.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/11/25/114627/74

Samsung planning highest capacity flash memory yet: Posted December
16, 6:43 a.m. Pacific Time: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. plans to
shortly begin mass production of a flash memory chip that could
enable memory cards and portable electronic devices to offer greater
data storage area, the company said Tuesday.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/12/16/HNsamsungflash_1.html


TRENDS AND RESEARCH SECTION

Foresight and Governance Project Explores "Serious Games"
"On February 5-6 the Wilson Center's Foresight and Governance
Project hosted a two-day workshop Game-based Learning Models &
Simulations: Expert Blueprints for Project Success, to explore how
the management and performance of three sectors – hospitals, high
schools, and parks – can be improved using game-based simulation,
learning, and training technologies. Several presentations from the
workshop were taped and are now available in RealPlayer (see
below)."
http://wwics.si.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.item&news_id=20313

A visual vocabulary for describing information architecture and
interaction design version 1.1b (6 March 2002) Jesse James Garrett
jjg@...
http://www.jjg.net/ia/visvocab/


MOBILE COMPUTING SECTION

Toshiba launches VoIP software for PCs: Posted December 17, 9:20 a.m.
Pacific Time Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.'s Digital
Solutions Division released a software program Tuesday that can turn
a desktop or notebook PC into a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
telephone, the company said in a release.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/12/17/HNtoshvoip_1.html


GAMING SECTION

"Second Life Radically Changes Pricing, Offers $US Incentives For
User Content In an announcement that will long be remembered, the
makers of Second Life have revealed a new pricing policy that allows
users to turn some of their in-world earnings into cash." (from
terra Nova)
http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2003/12/second_life_cha.html


COPYRIGHTS AND PATENTS SECTION

(NY Times requires free registration)
Special Section in NYTimes.com Technology on "Digital Copy
Fight"
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/technology/techspecial/

Valve, Steam and DRM (Technology)
By Talez
Sat Sep 13th, 2003 at 07:22:22 PM EST
"On September the 12th, a game developer known as Valve launched
a new product designed to enable and promote digital distribution of
software. This product, Steam, was supposed to be a gaming panacea.
At last, companies could skip the arduous task of finding a publisher
willing to take their games and sell directly to the gaming public.
A big part of Steam is its DRM. DRM--Digital Rights Management--is
the digital lock on an application, stopping a user from running the
applications without a proper license. What most people didn't
realise until this day is how bad exactly DRM enabled software can
be. This article is the experience that a humble gamer has had with
Valve's own brand of DRM."
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/9/13/03945/7308


SECURITY SECTION

Check Point Software Buying Firewall Vendor Zone Labs: The deal will
add end-user firewall products to the company's network security
offerings.
http://www.computerworld.com/newsletter/0,4902,88289,00.html?nlid=SEC2


HUMOR AND MISC. SECTION

Ninjai, The Little Ninja
http://www.ninjai.com/index.html

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