Interesting Links   1/08/2008
Author : Graeme Daniel

Interesting Links July 28th 2008

China says its population of Internet users rises to world No. 1 at 253 million   (The Age: July 25, 2008) - a 56% increase over the last year, constituting 19.1 percent of the Chinese population.
Internet World Stats for the United States  quotes Nielsen/NetRatings (May, 2008): 219,537,606 Internet users, 72.3% of the population.
Australian  figures are: 15,300,000 Internet users (December, 2007), 74.3% of the population.

Videogames getting minds of their own  (Sydney Morning Herald: July 20, 2008) - enemies in games such as Fallout 3 are capable of changing tactics in response to players' choices, which may also determine which entities become friend or foe.

The Scout Report  (July 18, 2008) reviews the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching which aims to:
    # Enable faculty to use technology effectively in teaching and learning
    # Enable academic programs to design and deploy academic technology
    # Build a community around the research and scholarly use of multimedia educational resources.
Topics in the current issue include: Blended Learning; Usability and Learning Outcomes;  Audio Conferencing; Asynchronous Discussions; Virtual Environments; Web 2.0; Class Blogs; Wikis; Learning Management Systems; Lifelong Learning.

Australia Releases Code of Conduct for Internet Use  (streetknowledge: July 16, 2008) - a code of practice to help people to choose appropriate online viewing has been developed by the Internet Industry Association. It will only affect content originating in Australia.

Breaking the Internet's glass ceiling  (University of Sydney: July 09, 2008) - Professor Ben Eggleton describes CUDOS' Photonic Integrated Circuit as a piece of "scratched glass" which may eventually mean very fast, error-free,  unlimited Internet access worldwide.

Australians develop world's smallest wire   (Samuel Cardwell /  shareordie: June 23, 2008) - Australian scientists have been able to lay down a string of individual phosphorus atoms, encasing them in silicon to make a wire just a few atoms wide.

Digital pens that deserve some buzz  (David Pogue / International Herald Tribune: July 03, 2008) - compares features of the Pulse pen (a ballpoint that records both handwriting and the sound of the words, for subsequent transfer to a Windows PC), Digital Scribe, and zPen .

Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? (Motoko Rich / New York Times: July 27, 2008) - has the Internet created a new kind of reading integral to lifeskills in the modern age? See also lots of comment at Will Richardson's Kids Prefer Reading Online…   (Weblogg-ed: July 26, 2008)

Low marks for computers in schools (Justine Ferrari / Australian IT: June 18, 2008) - a timely reference to the federal Government report, Partnerships in ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Learning   (Ralph Leonard, John Pegg, Chris Reading, Katherine Schoo, Michelle Williams / DEST: October 2007) emphasises our lack of readiness when it comes to integrating information technology into Australian classrooms. It's worth reading the full report for a state-by-state overview of where we are in applying ICTs in education.

Ex-Googler, Husband Launch Cuil New Search Engine  (Dan Nysted / PC World: July 28, 2008) - claims an innovative contextual approach to search across an index spanning 120 billion webpages, along with faster and cheaper indexing. Search results are certainly more informative than we have come to expect from staple search engines.

King's Global Warming Collection   (King's College Library, University of Cambridge) - "detailed information about greenhouse gases, the ozone layer, carbon trading and carbon sequestration, fossil fuels, renewables, nuclear energy, energy storage and distribution, and the hydrogen economy". A virtual library.

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