Academic Computing Blog

“The majority of the world will first experience the Internet through their handset,” Jonathan Schwartz, the president of Sun, argued at a Friday speech in San Jose at a meeting of the American India Foundation.

When it comes to aiding developing regions’ digital development, “Our collective generation believes the desktop PC is the most important thing to give to people. I don’t buy that. The most important thing to give is access to the Internet.”

Source : Stephen Shankland, Sun president: PCs are so yesterday, CNET News.com, ZDNet News: September 23, 2005, 3:06 PM PT. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-5879292.html

Researchers at Penn State and other universities have developed a tool to help educators and researchers search for and exchange large academic or scientific files more easily–using the principles most associated with trading music and movies illegally.

But unlike the free “peer-to-peer” (P2P) file-sharing systems that have drawn complaints and lawsuits from the entertainment industry, people who allow data to be exchanged over LionShare can place limits on who can view specific files.

eSchool News staff, New tool aims to ease academic file sharing, eSchool News, September 23, 2005. http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=5876

Picking Your Brain
Bioethicist Paul Wolpe explores the implications of wiring computers to the
human brain.

From: Technology Review – November 1004 – page 74
By: Erika Jonietz

Brain-computer interfaces. Neuroscientists and engineers are developing technologies that allow the brain to interact directly with computers, from chips that could enable amputees to control prosthetic limbs to devices designed to enhance brain function. How will these new technologies influence daily life?

Read the entire article at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/11/impact1104.asp

Spotted by Card54

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 7, 2005–As millions of schoolchildren log back on to school computers this week, some will be using the Internet for something other than learning — online plagiarism. Secure Computing Corporation, the experts in securing connections between people, applications, and networks(TM), today reported the number of Web sites that facilitate online plagiarism has risen to 780, a ten percent increase over 12 months ago. Secure Computing enables schools to manage access to these Web sites as part of the company’s education market-leading SmartFilter(R), Bess(R) edition Web filtering solution used by thousands of schools worldwide.

Most of the 780 Web sites describe themselves as “essay banks” and offer digital copies of term papers and essays, some for free and others for a price. The larger plagiarism sites offer tens of thousands of essays on a wide variety of topics. Some of the Web sites even offer to write custom term papers on almost any topic. One site charges $19.95 per page for seven-day delivery, and will cater to the worst student procrastinators by providing “same day service” at $44.95 per page.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050907005311&newsLang=en

As students get back into the routine of another school year, many will be taking advantage of the scores of experts from academia, government, and elsewhere who offer free online advice to those needing homework help–as long as the inquiring young minds are motivated by curiosity and aren’t merely lazy….

From Experts offer homework help online, eSchool News (Online), Sep 9, 2005, http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=5865

Smart Internet 2010 (pdf) is an ambitious, 170-page report on the future of the Internet commissioned by the Australian government. It covers a lot of ground (much of it likely familiar to you if you’re a regular BB reader), aimed at a general audience (e.g., net-clueless regulators).
The most interesting thing in this report is the four schools of thought about the internet that it identifies:

Adaptive user environment;

Not the smart internet;
Rich media;
Chaos rules.

Can’t fit that 40-inch flat screen TV in your Wriston double? Internet Protocol Television, a new $60,000 pilot program available in dorms this fall, gives students the option of viewing cable television over the Internet.

The project began as a response to student dissatisfaction with the University’s antiquated cable network. “The cable infrastructure is in terrible shape,” said David Greene, vice president for campus life and student services. Greene said the University had to decide whether to lay an entirely new set of cables or move in a different direction, such as IPTV.

Hannah Miller, IPTV bypasses antiquated system, adds new channels, Brown Daily Herald – Campus News, Issue: 9/8/05. http://www.browndailyherald.com/media/paper472/news/2005/09/08/CampusNews/Iptv-Bypasses.Antiquated.System.Adds.New.Channels-978867.shtml

TP Msg. #661 Publish and Flourish : Become a Prolific Scholar

“Write daily for 15 to 30 minutes. Many scholars believe that writing requires big blocks of time. They’re wrong. Research shows that scholars who write daily publish far more than those who write in big blocks of time. The problem with big blocks of time is that they’re hard to find. In contrast, when you write daily, you start writing immediately because you remember what you were writing about the day before. This leads to impressive production. ”

Source : Rick Reis, Tomorrow-s Professors Listserv, Stanford University. September 6, 2005. An archive of all past postings (with a two week delay) can be found at: http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/index.shtml