Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Dan Gillmor Reconsiders Linux on the Desktop [Slashdot] 3:46:57 PM      Google It!.

Mozilla 1.7 to Become New Long-Lived Branch [Slashdot] 3:46:23 PM      .

Openness and Security on Campus [Slashdot] 3:43:55 PM      Google It!.

RSS and TiVo. Yesterday's item provoked a flurry of responses. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, who wrote the Washington Post story I dissected, points out that the nature of his assignment precluded broader coverage, and that he'd otherwise gladly have included bloglines. There's been lots of chatter about bloglines lately -- Chad Dickerson mentions it today -- so I was interested to hear from Martin Thornell about another web-based product, Rocket RSS reader. Doubtless there are others too. An implementation of one of these licensed for behind-the-firewall use, as Chad suggests, would be handy. As a matter of fact, that's how I use Radio UserLand's reader. It's nominally a desktop product, but I run it as a server and authenticate to it over SSL. ... [Jon's Radio] 9:01:31 AM      Google It!.

Humanoid Robot Conducts Beethoven Symphony [Slashdot] 8:57:12 AM      Google It!.

Jon Udell notes that Radio, while nominally a desktop product, also works as a server app. That's the advantage of using HTTP and HTML to form the user interface of the desktop app, you can easily separate the user from the app, as the old Starship Enterprise could decouple. It was exactly this configuration that I used for the short-lived Channel Dean project. [Scripting News] 8:56:27 AM      Google It!.

Today's Lesson for College Students: Lighten Up. Colleges are responding to the rising number of students seeking help for stress by offering treatments far beyond traditional medicine. By Sara Rimer. [New York Times: Education] 8:54:24 AM      Google It!.

Linux for iPod Matures [Slashdot] 8:52:35 AM      Google It!.

Sleek New Devices Help Low-Vision Patients See. The Quicklook, an amalgamation of a tiny digital video camera and a four-inch liquid-crystal display screen, acts as an electronic magnifying glass. By Kenneth Chang. [New York Times: Technology] this is an important step toward advanced glasses -- BL 8:50:37 AM      Google It!.

Unprecedented level of Virus Alerts [Slashdot] 8:47:36 AM      Google It!.

The Bigger They Are .... ... the bigger their screwups. Wal-Mart screws up big time, double- and triple-billing customers who shopped there last week and paid by credit card. The retail giant says the problem -- a computer glitch -- is fixed, but advises customers to check their bill. [Wired News] 8:45:23 AM      Google It!.

TECHNOLOGIES OF ONLINE LEARNING (E-LEARNING) - Rory McGreal, Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Introduction: This chapter includes an examination of some of the most exciting technologies and features used in online instruction today, and those we may use tomorrow. Education is one of the fastestgrowing economic and social sectors in the world, [Online Learning Update] 8:40:35 AM      Google It!.

The New Linux Speed Trick [Slashdot] 8:39:15 AM      Google It!.

Automating permission requests for postprint archiving. Tilburg University has added a very nice feature to its institutional repository. When a journal does not permit postprint archiving, then the repository still includes a record containing a citation and a link to the publisher's priced or for-fee edition. The record also contains an explanation of the publisher's policy, quoting and dating the publisher's own words if possible. With one click, the author can generate a letter to the publisher asking permission to deposit the postprint in the repository. Backend software automatically addresses the letter to the right human contact at the publisher and provides a full citation to the article. The letter concludes, "If I do not hear from you within thirty days I will assume that you have no objections to the above-mentioned request and the electronic copy will then be included in the institutional repository of the University of Tilburg." See this example. Leo Waaijers of Tilburg reminds us that the site is still under construction. [Open Access News] 8:36:00 AM      Google It!.

Browsing the Web, One Sentence at a Time [Slashdot] 8:35:03 AM      Google It!.