Monday, October 03, 2005

Behavior: Stopping for a Smoke on the Road to Popularity. Popular students appear to be more likely to take up smoking than their less popular peers, a new study of sixth and seventh graders in Southern California shows. By NICHOLAS BAKALAR. [NYT > Education] 11:07:57 PM      Google It!.

Perry Mason, Meet Your Expert Technology Witness. Lawsuits over who can profit from ideas are increasingly a foundation of the technology industry, touching off a race to assemble teams of expert witnesses. By JOHN MARKOFF. [NYT > Technology] 9:36:45 PM      Google It!.

An On-Screen Alternative to Hands-On Dissection. Nearly a dozen states have laws or regulations requiring public schools to offer students the option of dissection software. By FRED A. BERNSTEIN. [NYT > Technology] 9:35:50 PM      Google It!.

Venture Capital in Open Source. [Slashdot] 6:23:00 PM      Google It!.

'Underground' tunnels help immune cells chat. Immune system cells are connected to each other by an extensive network of tiny tunnels that, like a building's hidden pneumatic tube system, are used to shoot signals to distant cells. This surprising discovery, being reported by two University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers in the September issue of the journal Immunity, may explain how an immune response can be so exquisitely swift. The research not only proves cells other than neurons are capable of long-distance communication, but it reveals a hereto-unknown mechanism cells use for exchanging information. [Science Blog -] 1:55:08 PM      Google It!.

AMD Geode Internet Appliance. [Slashdot] 3lb with 10gigs and no screen - competes with enhanced game machinges -- BL 1:53:55 PM      Google It!.

Nokia delays Linux-based tablet. [Slashdot] 1:46:55 PM      Google It!.

Among Gartner's key emerging technologies are podcasting, RSS and blogging. This is pretty remarkable that these three are now established to the point where corporate IT analysts are covering them. [Scripting News] 1:41:44 PM      Google It!.

Institutional Repositories and Referatories. I wrote this March 2, 2004 research bulletin with Bob Albrecht for the EduCause Center for Applied Research (ECAR); the article recently became freely available as a pdf file for readers who are not subscribers to ECAR. Although some of the references need updating, I believe most of the points made in the article are still pertinent, especially the point about the need for guiding referatories that will assist potential users (instructors and students) to find learning repositories and resources within repositories.____JH _______ Abstract. The number and size of online instructional collections is rapidly expanding. This research bulletin examines the world of online repositories and referatories and explores their impact on faculty, students, IT support, and institutional policies and procedures. It defines the specific terminology surrounding learning objects; presents examples of repository and referatory sites; demonstrates what these sites offer; discusses the potential impacts these resources have for faculty and students; and considers the benefits, challenges, and opportunities of these resources for institutions and IT staff. [EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online] 9:23:30 AM      Google It!.

Classroom Revolution - Mortimer B. Zuckerman, U.S. News. ....There is no limit to the possibilities. Distance learning can include Advanced Placement courses and special tutoring for the learning disabled whose talents are not developed in regular classes. With electronic links, textbooks will morph into digita [Online Learning Update] 9:22:03 AM      Google It!.

Harvard University, Western Ontario Add RSS Feeds. Harvard University, which Dave Winer made home to the RSS 2.0 specification, just launched several feeds. The University of Western Ontario has RSS feeds for news and a news podcast, both featured on the institution’s home page. [Syndication for Higher Ed] 9:20:04 AM      Google It!.

Nobel for stomach ulcer discovery. Australian scientists are honoured for their discovery that stomach inflammation can be caused by bacterial infection. [BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition] 9:18:08 AM      .

Cerebellum found to be important in cognition and behavior. Higher cognitive functions, like language and visual processing, have long been thought to reside primarily in the brain's cerebrum. But a body of research in premature infants at Children's Hospital Boston is documenting an important role for the cerebellum – previously thought to be principally involved in motor coordination – and shows that cerebellar injury can have far-reaching developmental consequences. [Science Blog -] 9:16:46 AM      Google It!.

MIT tackles autism. With the help of a $7.5 million grant, MIT brain researchers are undertaking an ambitious multi-faceted approach to understanding the genetic, molecular and behavioral aspects of autism. Autism, which affects as many as 1.5 million people, is considered the fastest growing developmental disability in America. Typically appearing during the first three years of life, autism is characterized by impairment in social interaction and communication abilities and by repetitive behaviors. Services for autistic adults cost $90 billion a year. Early diagnosis and intervention can cut the cost of lifelong care by two-thirds. [Science Blog -] 9:15:54 AM      Google It!.

Google Office Still in the Wings?. [Slashdot] 8:19:20 AM      Google It!.

Superplatform politics. In December, Roger Sessions published a touchstone essay in ACM Queue on the topic of objects, components, and services. He offered the following definitions: objects share a common operating system process, components share a common hosting/runtime environment, and services share nothing but a common message format. These are complementary techniques, he wrote: ...all useful, but for different purposes. Web services are useful for tying together autonomous systems; components for coordinating the process distribution within a system; objects for organizing the code within a process. [Fuzzy Boundaries: Objects, Components, and Web Services] In a follow-on discussion in the current issue, Sessions makes two points that raised my eyebrows. First, that CORBA's downfall was an attempt to standardize on a platform, not just on a method of communication. "CORBA was 95 percent API, 5 percent interoperability. Web services is zero API and 100 percent interoperability." Second, that cross-enterprise Web services is a marginal use case -- the real value is in "getting different technology systems to interoperate within the same enterprise." ... [Jon's Radio] 8:17:10 AM      Google It!.