Thursday, December 16, 2004

DJB Announces 44 Security Holes In *nix Software [Slashdot:] 8:46:48 AM      Google It!.

The (Classroom) Blog: A Moment for Literacy, A Moment for Giving Pause. Nice paper outlining work in educational blogging with a good range of reports from other implementations of the same technology. Not surprisingly, the author observes that "blogging will make sense for some and not for others." Not surprising, maybe, but as he observes, "often, in our response to calls to embrace the future, as educators we forget what should otherwise be basic to our own meaning-making and instruction. As a medium/tool, the classroom blog can give students the opportunity to write for a public audience... However, this tool should not be treated as normative, prescriptive, or proscriptive; it is simply one more medium for literacy, one that does not guarantee success." By Austin Lingerfelt, essence renewed, December 12, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 8:45:00 AM      Google It!.

Rocketinfo First Search Engine to Release News Search API. Canadian-based RocketInfo has been providing a news aggregation and syndication for some time now, targeting a base of resources that is larger than Edu_RSS or Google News but smaller than the major RSS aggregators. The result is a targeted collection of news-centric resources that can be used to generate high-quality content feeds. RocketInfo also markets RSS aggregators and clients. The company this week announced its news search API "designed for companies creating applications that require embedded search functionality and real-time access to current news and business information." By Press Release, RocketInfo, December 12, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 8:44:08 AM      Google It!.

Metadata Development in China: Research and Practice. Absolutely fascinating overview of metadata development in China, including a recent history showing an explosion of interest beginning in 2002 and a number of metadata initiatives. China is basing its initial work on examples set in Europe, but with a centralized system is able to achieve standardization quickly. By Jia Liu, D-Lib Magazine, December, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 8:43:12 AM      Google It!.

A Second Report Shows Charter School Students Not Performing as Well as Other Students. A federal Education Department analysis of test scores from 2003 shows that children in charter schools did not perform as well on exams as those in regular public schools. By By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO. [NYT > Education] 8:40:06 AM      Google It!.

Google's Library Project Could Drive Content Contest -Matt Hicks, eWeek. Not content with organizing billions of Web documents, Google Inc. is leading the charge in turning library collections into searchable digital content. In announcing Tuesday that it is working with five major libraries to scan millions of books for i [Online Learning Update] 8:29:30 AM      Google It!.

The Role of RSS in Science Publishing: Syndication and Annotation on the Web - Tony Hammond, Timo Hannay, and Ben Lund; D-Lib. RSS is one of a new breed of technologies that is contributing to the ever-expanding dominance of the Web as the pre-eminent, global information medium. It is intimately connected with—though not bound to—social environments such as blogs and wikis, a [Online Learning Update] 8:28:51 AM      Google It!.

U.S. Makes Plans for GPS Shutdown [Slashdot:] 8:25:21 AM      Google It!.