Wednesday, March 22, 2006

assessment SAT Problems Even Larger Than Reported. The College Board disclosed that after rechecking additional tests, it found 400 more students whose scores were too low. By KAREN W. ARENSON. [NYT > Education] 9:59:07 PM    comment

speed Dell to Buy Alienware, a Maker Of High-End PC's for Gamers. Alienware Corporation's high-end PC's are widely acclaimed by video gamers for their fast performance and sleek, U.F.O.-themed looks. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. [NYT > Technology] 9:57:46 PM    comment

wireless elearing platform PayPal Goes Mobile. [Slashdot] 7:33:56 PM    comment

eLearning MyPsychLab Cited as Key to Success in Introductory Psychology Classes. Is the traditional 101 college lecture headed the way of the dinosaur? Not quite, but to more effectively reach today's visually and media-oriented college students, traditional teaching methods are certainly undergoing a fundamental evolution. A self-pa [Online Learning Update] 7:31:34 PM    comment

eCulture Web 2.0: A Pattern Library. In this exploration of the many trends powering the new web paradigm, Tim Ziegler separates the progressive ideas from the hype. In Webmonkey. [Wired News: Top Stories] good overview -- BL 5:49:09 PM    comment

Culture World's Greatest Tool: Duct Tape?. A company sells enough Duck Brand tape in just one year to wrap around the Earth nearly 20 times. A look at one of the most versatile inventions ever. From Forbes.com. [Wired News: Top Stories] 5:35:10 PM    comment

language Infnats learning language as early as 10 months. Infants are listening and learning their first words as young as 10 months, but they are only learning the words for objects that are of interest to them, not for objects of interest to the speaker, according to researchers at Temple University, University of Delaware and University of Evansville. read more [Science Blog -] 5:30:44 PM    comment

memory Organ in brain fights Alzheimer plaques. Researchers have discovered that an organ in the brain called the choroid plexus apparently plays a critical role in preventing the accumulation of a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease. The researchers found that the choroid plexus acts as a sort of "fishnet" that captures the protein, called beta-amyloid, and prevents it from building up in the cerebrospinal fluid. read more [Science Blog -] 5:27:18 PM    comment

aging Good news: Quality of life can improve in old age. Increasing age does not necessarily cause a reduction in the quality of life, and in some cases, can even improve it. Research published online this month in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, describes how researchers looked at indicators of the quality of life, and found that in England it is above average between the ages of 50 and 84, and in some cases increases compared with earlier years. read more [Science Blog -] 5:21:24 PM    comment

storage update Towards politically neutral infrastructure: Amazon's S3. By now you've heard the pitch: Amazon is offering metered storage for blobs of data in quantities ranging from 1 byte to 5 GB. S3 provides a simple key/value store, like the ever-popular Berkeley DB -- albeit without locking or transactional features. Objects can be world-readable or governed by a range of access controls. REST (Representational State Transfer) and SOAP APIs are provided, along with wrappers in a variety of popular languages. Pricing is aggressive for storage, somewhat less so for data transfer. Amazon's commerce engine handles the billing. ... Creating what's called the energy web -- a marketplace where smart producers and consumers of power exchange price signals in real time -- will require a massive overhaul of our legacy power grid. There's just no way for us to start from scratch. But in the realm of Web services, we're just now building the grid. Given a clean slate, maybe we can figure out how to aggregate demand, meter usage, and value services for what they do rather than just for the eyeballs they attract. [Full story at InfoWorld.com] ... [Jon's Radio] 5:18:22 PM    comment

open source Mozilla Firefox 2 Alpha 1 Available. [Slashdot] 5:16:59 PM    comment

addiction Researchers Find 'Switch' for Brain's Pleasure Pathway. Amid reports that a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease has caused some patients to become addicted to gambling and sex, University of Pittsburgh researchers have published a study that sheds light on what may have gone wrong. read more [Science Blog -] 5:14:17 PM    comment

eLearning Professor Bans Laptops from the Classroom. [Slashdot] 5:10:32 PM    comment

grid Sun Grid Compute Utility. [Slashdot] 5:06:10 PM    comment

wireless elearing platform More Laptop Than Cellphone, but It Still Fits in Your Pocket. The new T-Mobile MDA has so many features you may just leave that laptop at home. By JOHN BIGGS. [NYT > Technology] 5:03:25 PM    comment