2004¦~11¤ë9¤é

An Arctic alert on global warming. A new report is likely to pressure the Bush administration to take firmer actions to curb America's carbon emissions. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] 9:23:15 AM

Comcast, Microsoft to Deploy Video Recorder Set-Tops (Reuters). Reuters - Microsoft Corp. and cable television provider Comcast Corp. said on Monday they would begin deploying set-top boxes powered by Microsoft software starting next week. [Yahoo! News: Technology] 9:21:46 AM

Nanotechnology products to bring $2 trillion by 2014. Estimates of nanotechnology's financial impact range from about $20 bln to $50 bln in revenues today, jumping to as much as $1 trillion by 2010 and more than $2 trillion by 2015. Lux Research forecasts products incorporating nanotechnology by 2014 will account for $2.6 trillion worth of products 15% of global manufacturing output. More on this story at www.ITfacts.biz [AlwaysOn Network] 9:19:54 AM

Online Learning Environments. Massive list of links covering blogs and blogging, chat, computer-mediated communication, ommunity building online, e-mentoring, e-moderation, teaching and learning online and wikis. By Teresa Almeida d'Eca, November 6, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 9:12:05 AM

Virtual Trader. As I've talked about learning environments in the past this is the sort of thing I've had in mind. Virtual Trader is a stock market simulation - it allows you to make investments and trade stocks in a simulated environment - no money risked. As you look at the home page, notice how educational resources (learning objects?) are embedded into the game as a way of helping plyers learn about the subject. Note: the game would not let me sign on because it couldn't match my postal code (which is Canadian) to a UK street address. Why such information is needed is beyond me - and when it fails to work, it really gets annoying. Via e-Learning Centre. By Various Authors, November, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 9:10:06 AM

Daily Lesson Plan. Yet another example of free online learning content, this daily lesson plan from the New York Times is obviously centred around American politics and issues, but is a good example of free online learning provided in order to promote goods or services. This link is to the daily lesson plan; an archive is available from the link in the left-hand column. Via e-Learning Centre. By Various Authors, New York Times, November 5, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 9:08:23 AM

10 x 10. This is one of the more interesting applications of RSS I've seen. "Every hour, 10x10 scans the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources, and performs an elaborate process of weighted linguistic analysis on the text contained in their top news stories. After this process, conclusions are automatically drawn about the hour's most important words. The top 100 words are chosen, along with 100 corresponding images, culled from the source news stories." By Various Authors, November 7, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 9:05:09 AM

Music and the Brain. Scientific American: "When they scanned the brains of musicians who had chills of euphoria when listening to music, they found that music activated some of the same reward systems that are stimulated by food, sex and addictive drugs." [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] 8:45:19 AM

Solar-Powered Hermit Squatting on Los Alamos Land A hermit was recently discovered squatting on Department of Defense land just a few hundred yards from the famed Los Alamos research labs. Roy Michael Moore, or 'Mike,' came to Los Alamos four years ago to work on his own personal theories of space and time, and then presumably to present those ideas to the physicists at Los Alamos. He had built himself a comfortable home in a cave in Los Alamos Canyon, using solar panels to power a satellite radio, a glass door sealing off the front of the cave from the elements, and a wood stove for heat. It was the stove¡Xre-lit for the first time this autumn¡Xwhich alerted someone at the lab to his presence, as the soot-filled stove kicked up an abnormally large plume of smoke. Mike also had quite a considerable amount of marijuana, which he considered useful in his research into the mysteries of time and space. (Thanks, Rob!) Hermit Found Living in Cave on LANL Property [ABQJournal] Hermit Came to Los Alamos to Introduce Physics Theories [ANQJournal] One of Mike's Websites [MicroMike] - lev (joeljohnson@gmail.com) [Gizmodo] 8:41:36 AM

AOL-Branded PC AOL is selling their own branded PC for $300 for customers who sign up for a year of service with the ISP. Although GearLive is sort of down on the whole thing, I'm basically okay with it. A 2GHz Celeron isn't exactly a beast, but it'll handle most newbie users' needs, and with a bundled monitor it's not an awful deal. I'm much more behind this idea compared to, say, Microsoft's MSN TV. There's no reason for people to get on the internet with anything besides a PC these days. Plus AOL has all those cute smilies that you can't get anywhere else. They're a pioneer in smilies development, really, like c(0^o} and the patent-pending |0_o]. AOL Attempts to Lure Customers with AOL P [GearLive] - lev (joeljohnson@gmail.com) [Gizmodo] 8:39:39 AM

Self-Powered LED Bike Pedals I'm about to get a bike¡XI've lived in this city far too long without one, and if things go to plan I might be able to ditch my car (or have an excuse to get that supercharger). One thing I've been sketched on, though, is the almost-certain death that biking in NYC seems to lead to (my buddy Aron is still recovering from a failed bike<->cab interface a couple of months back). Maybe I'll grab him (and myself) a pair of these Sahalie Self Powered Bike Pedals. For $20 they add three LEDs that are powered by the gyroscopic motion of pedaling itself¡Xno batteries necessary. Of course, they don't have those fancy foot straps that Aron uses¡Xyou know, the kind that keep the bike attached when you go cartwheeling over a speeding cab. Sahalie Self Powered Bike Pedals [TreeHugger] - lev (joeljohnson@gmail.com) [Gizmodo] 8:38:29 AM

HP Compaq TC1000 Tablet PC Reviewed I like real-world user reviews, so even though I'm not really into Tablet PCs as a form factor (live by the keyboard; die by the keyboard, I say), it's good to know that Marc Eisenstadt's experiences with an HP TC1100 tablet laptop are favorable¡Xit makes it easier to understand what it is tablet fans like about their machines. One thing that caught my eye¡Xand it's not really a tablet thing, but whatever¡Xis that the TC1100's suspend button actually works as it should. One of the first things that sold me on my Powerbook was the ability to close it whenever without worrying if everything would be there when I opened it back up. I mean, if Apple¡Xwho are known to huff ether throughout the design process¡Xcan make a laptop that wakes up in just a couple of seconds, everybody else should be able to, too. Comfort Zones: More Road Warrior's 'Truth About Tablet PC' [Corante] - lev (joeljohnson@gmail.com) [Gizmodo] 8:20:45 AM