Joint Editing of Office Web Apps

Juan Carios Perez reports that "Microsoft Added Real-Time Joint Editing to Office Web Apps ." This is something that Google Docs has offered for years.

-DD

Institute of International Education Report

The Institute of International Education has released Open Doors 2013 , a statistical report and trend analysis on international student populations in the United States. It shows that China sends the largest number of students to the United States.

-DD

 

Windows 8.1 Upgrade Experience

Alan Shimel reports on his Windows 8.1 upgrade experience .

-DD

Be Thankful

Frederic Paul muses on things to be thankful for (maybe) in the tech world.

-DD

Payment Card Security

Network World ran an article about data standards and the payment card industry . Bob Russo, General Manager of the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, is "dismayed that so many software developers not only haven’t heard of PCI standards but don’t even know about application vulnerabilities spelled out by the Open Web Application Security Project or SANS Institute.

-DD

The Hidden Fangs of Windows 8.1

Woody Leonhard warns of the "The Hidden Fangs of Windows 8.1 " that could bite anyone installing the operating system.

-DD

Tracing Web Sites to an IP Address and Physical Location

Tinkernut has a Youtube video that explains how to "Trace IP Addresses ."

-DD

 

Google Documents in the Classroom

Amy Cavender shares how faculty and students are using Google Documents in academic classrooms.

-DD

Chart of Visualization Tools

Sharon Machlis provides a chart of visualization tools.

-DD

Attempted Break In

Antone Gonsalves reports that one security firm found "15 out of 16 visitors at the sites Incapsula monitored were attempting to break in ."

-DD

A Short History of Computers

Brad Chacos presents a history of computers .

-DD

Robots

Daniela Rus discusses the past and future of robots at a conference sponsored by Microsoft Research.

-DD

 

Who Decides On Classroom Technology?

Steve Kolowich reports on contention between San Jose State faculty and administration over technology implementation . As administration seeks ways to both incorporate rich media and save money, decisions by administrators to mandate/outsource curriculum decisions reduces the responsibility of faculty.

-DD

Flame Graphs

Joab Jackson explains how Brendan Gregg developed flame graphs to chart CPU usage that was causing system slowdowns. Gregg's talk on the subject is designed for technology professionals, but the basic concepts can be understood by an amateur.

-DD

Five Steps to Re-Boot Schools

Cameron Evens suggests that technology offerings in education have primarily converted print to digital equivilents, and proposes "Five Steps to Re-Boot Schools ."

-DD

Ambient Energy

Lucas Mearian reports on attempts to harvest ambient energy broadcase from a variety of electromagnetic sources. Duke University professor Steven Cummer explains that the wireless device converts lost energy into electric power.

-DD

Digital Liberal Arts

William Pennapacker encourages universities to ensure that arts and humanities students develop technology competencies which will make them more marketable upon graduation.

-DD

Accessible Electronic Media In The University

Megan O'Neil wrote a Chronicle article about proposed legislation which would provide accessibility compliance standards for instructional technology . Many comments on this article were negative, citing costs, duplication with other legislation, or addressing feelings that the vision impaired should be restricted to specialized institutions. Lauren McL expounded on the intent of the proposed law, which she says acts to standardize appropriate accommodation efforts for electronic technology. Existing laws and regulations call for accommodation, but do not specify how a university can be in compliance so as to avoid civil lawsuits.

Chris Heard commented that professors develop a lot of content without the ability to easily create transcripts, and they will need assistance to make accessible media. Kearney made the point that this law should push universities to add accessibility to their purchasing requirements, so that vendors only offer materials that can be used by the visually disabled. Kathy Wood expressed the opinion that much educational media already has accommodation included, but that faculty (and even accommodation officers) do not understand its functionality.

-DD

Microsoft Kinect Software That Turns Sign Language Into Spoken Language in Real Time

Andy Patrizio informs readers about the development of new "Microsoft Kinect Software That Turns Sign Language Into Spoken Language in Real Time ."

-DD

 

Example of Social Engineering (How Spies Work)

Lucian Constantin tells the story of how a "Fake Social Media ID Duped Security-Aware IT Guys ."

-DD

Hermann Hauser Speaks About the 6th Wave of Computing

Hermann Hauser speaks at a Microsoft Research conference about the history of computing, and extrapolates to the sixth wave of computing , which involves machines learning. (Warning, the video is over an hour in length).

-DD

 

Saying No

Pat Brauns muses on the difficult choice to refuse an assignment .

-DD

Effects of Pornography

Joe Carter shares research into the effect of pornography on the brain . Trillia Newbell in another article discusses how many women feel they have an addiction to pornography.

-DD

Library Reads

Booklist is promoting the Library Reads website, where librarians talk up new works of fiction.

-DD

Facebook Stalker

Ms. Smith explains how some new data mining tools can discover a lot of personal information from your Facebook profile .

-DD

Digital Public Library of America

Ryan Cordell reports on The Digital Public Library of America , a new initiative to link museums and archives from around the United States.

-DD

'Read-Aloud' Assistance on Common Tests Proves Contentious

Christina Samuels reports that "'Read-Aloud' Assistance on Common Tests Proves Contentious ." Different state and commercial testing entities have differing policies. From this article, it appears that some blind students may not be able to take tests of their knowledge because of their inability to read the test instrument.

-DD

Sixteen Traits of Great IT Leaders

Richard Hein shares the "Sixteen Traits of Great IT Leaders "

-DD

Five Quick Tips for Taking Better Pictures with Your Smartphone

Al Sacco shares "Five Quick Tips for Taking Better Pictures with Your Smartphone ."

-DD

Curriculum Prompts New Concerns in L.A. iPad Plan

Benjamin Herald reports that an unfinished curriculum "Prompts New Concerns in Los Angeles iPad Plan ." At least one school board member is upset that the curriculum for a school-district-wide iPad deployment has still not been fully written by Pearson, and that cost projections for the three year contract are fuzzy.

It is suggested in the comments to the article that the best deployments of new technology usually are "phased-in" over time, as just "pulling a switch" to transition an organization to new software does not allow time for best practices to be developed and distributed.

-DD

Writing Tips

Lucy Ferriss asks Chronicle of Higher Education readers to suggest key advice for writing. While the advice given in her article, "Killing What Darlings? ," is interesting, I suspect that the responses to her question will be of even greater interest.

-DD

Microsoft Word Turns 30

Tim Greene talks about Microsoft Word which he reports is still the mainstay of the United States workplace. He notes that Microsoft has closely integrated Office with other Microsoft applications, making companies hesitant to quit the Office environment.

-DD

The Zuckerberg Files

Mark Zimmer, an Assistant Professor of Information Studies, has created "The Zuckerberg Files ," a collection of public utterances by the Facebook founder. According to Marc Parry, the purpose is to see if relaxations of privacy are ongoing with Facebook, and how concerns about privacy are met in public forums.

-DD

Tritter's Vine Service Now Allow Editing of Video Clips

Twitter's Vine video sharing service now allows editing of the three to six second clips that users can upload, according to Zack Miners, a ComputerWorld report.

-DD

Google to Fight for Internet Freedom with uProxy

Sharon Gaudin discloses that Google is developing a tool called uProxy which will allow people in nations where the Internet is censored to view what Americans see.

It appears from this announcement that American volunteers would provide proxy gateways to their own Internet service. If this is the case, the sharing of Internet service may be a violation of the terms of service with their Internet provider, since most agreements prohibit sharing a connection with others. Also, I would be concerned that governments which block or intercept/inspect Internet traffic might subject these gateways to denial of service (DDoS) attacks, overwhelming the American citizen's Internet connection. The DDoS would result in extremely heavy traffic for the local Internet provider, and might bring a university or corporate network to its knees.

There is also the moral question about an American's moral stance in providing an open link. If someone in a blocked country is downloading child pornography through an American's Internet connection, does the American have any moral or legal responsibility? And if only white listed Websites are allowed through the uProxy, then that is a degree of censorship as well....

-DD

Searching Facebook Is Becoming More Powerful

Zach Miners reports that soon everyone will be searchable on Facebook . A software setting to conceal a user's name from searches is being eliminated.

-DD

Building Responsive Mobile Sites With jQuery

Anastasia Salter suggests "Building [Responsive] Mobile Sites With JQuery ." As I have almost no programming ability, the use of a template (albeit using an alternate technology) was essential to my current responsive web project.

-DD