Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Record-Breaking Speed for Flexible Silicon. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have made ultrathin silicon transistors that operate more than 50 times faster than previous flexible-silicon devices and are expected to reach 20 Gigahertz.... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News] 11:21:41 PM      Google It!.

The nonhuman touch. In experiments across the country, robots are providing the human caring touch to patients who need more help than there are therapists and nurses: stroke victims, autistic children, and the elderly. ... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News] 11:20:48 PM      Google It!.

Ohloh comparison of Sakai and Moodle. http://www.immagic.com/eLibrary/ARCHIVES/ GENERAL/SAKAI_US/S070109F.pdf Jim Farmer points to a comparison of the Sakai and Moodle projects done by Ohloh, a very cool site that provides objective information about open source projects. Instead of looking at Jim's PDF file, you can check out the Sakai and Moodle reports directly on the Ohloh site. Ohloh's reports are produced by looking at the source code repository (either Subversion, CVS or Git are currently supported) and it's value is in creating human readable (and very attractive) reports on empirical data that such repositories capture. The sparklines depicting developer activity make it really obvious how many regular contributors there are to a project, and the Project Cost estimator provides a cute way to scare your pointy headed boss out of thinking you could accomplish the same thing in-house in a few evenings and a couple of cases of Red Bull. - SWL[EdTechPost] 10:23:45 PM      Google It!.

Hamachi and Unyte - Two Indispensible Virtual Office Tools. http://www.hamachi.cc/ and http://www.unyte.net/ I work at home. I almost never get to see my colleagues face to face. And when I do, I have my laptop with me, a different computer than the one I use at home. These two FREE technologies have become indispensible in helping me work with others at a distance as well as stay connected while I'm on the road. The first, Unyte by Webdialogs, is a screen sharing app that integrates with Skype. It allows me to display any number of apps running on my machine to any of my skype contacts. The beauty is that they don't require anything to view the shared screen, only a web browser. And it's free. I work with developers in Australia, designers in Vancouver, researchers in Colorado - all of whom are on my skype contact list. Now, when the need arises ("look, it really is a bug," "no, I meant put the logo THERE") I can share what I am looking at with them in 2 clicks. It works beautifully. There is a pay-for version which allows you to share with more than one person at a time, but if you are looking for a fast and easy way to share a screen with anyone out there, Unyte has a lot going for it. I had tried Glance in the past, and while I quite liked it, the lack of a free version turned me off. On to the second piece (really the reason I am writing this up, so I can send this to some colleagues), Hamachi. Hamachi bills itself as "zero-configuration virtual private networking" and true to its word, the setup and configuration of the software on my desktop and laptop took about 2 minutes, after which I was able to grab any file off my desktop when I was travelling. You are not limited to just your own computers in this virtual network and can create ad hoc private networks with anyone you trust and want to share with. There are clients for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (though the later has suffered in the past from requiring some command line tinkering, something I believe has largely been overcome). If you're an ubergeek you'll probably look down your nose at this - why wouldn't anyone simply use OpenVPN, and how about UltraVNC or TightVNC for that matter, which can largely accomplish both of these ends in one app. Well, great, if they work for you. I've tried all of these with varying degrees of success. What excites me about both of these apps is their absolute ease of use and their singlemindedness; they do one thing and one thing well. So if you need to be able to access yor home computer from work, or your work computer from home, or if you need to be able to quickly share something on your desktop with a remote user, I highly recommend both as additions to your virtual office tool box. - SWL [EdTechPost] 10:21:27 PM      Google It!.

Cisco Sues Apple Over iPhone Trademark. lucabrasi999 writes "It appears that Apple may be running out of items that they can prefix with the letter "i". Cisco is suing Apple over trademark infringement. Cisco claims to own the rights to the "iPhone" trademark since they purchased Infogear in 2000. Infogear filed for the rights to the trademark in 1996."[Slashdot] this is/was known in advance and Cisco hurried to release or a least post a release of physical product but the wifi one was not yet available -- seems like a ploy to go for legal fees to me --BL 9:43:27 PM      Google It!.

Download Only Song to Crack the Top 40. nagora writes "The BBC is reporting that next week's UK music chart may have the first sign of the end of the recording industry as we know it. From this week (7th Jan, 2006), all downloaded music sales are counted in the official UK chart, not just tracks which have had a physical media release. Now, an unsigned band called Koopa is poised to enter the top 40 without any old-world recording, distribution, or production deals. Band member Joe Murphy says "If someone comes along and gives us an offer, we'll talk to them." before continuing on to add the words the recording industry has been having nightmares about since the introduction of the mp3 format: "If we can get enough exposure and get in the top 40 by the end of the week, do we necessarily need a large label? Probably nowadays, no you don't." Is this finally the crack in the dam we've all been waiting for to wash away the entrenched monopolies of 20th century music production? Or just a sell-out waiting to happen?"[Slashdot] 9:40:07 PM      Google It!.

New study supports a stem cell origin of cancer. University of Southern California researchers have found that cancer is rooted in stem cells. They found that cancer arises in cells that have already undergone epigenetic (heritable factors not associated with DNA) alterations, which points to ep... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News] 9:36:00 PM      Google It!.

EDUCAUSE and Internet2 Support Bi-Partisan Legislation to Protect the Open Internet. EDUCAUSE and Internet2 have announced their support for the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act," introduced today by Senator Olympia Snowe (R -ME) and Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and co-sponsored by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), John Kerry (D-MA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), and Barack Obama (D-IL). The bill provides a bi-partisan solution preventing phone and cable companies from manipulating the performance and architecture of the Internet. Read the press release, and learn more about the importance of this issue to higher education and the public at the EDUCAUSE Net Neutrality resource site.[EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs] 9:33:13 PM      Google It!.

Five Weeks to a Social Library. Thought some of you might be interested in this rather grass roots initiative aimed at highlighting some of the benefits of social software (blogs, wikis) within an educational setting. While this is targeted specifically at libraries, the great part is that all of the content will be made available online for others interested in these same tools. See Five Weeks to a Social Library. [EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs] 9:32:07 PM      Google It!.