Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Online Bibliography with a Twist

bibme is one of several tools I've seen to create bibliographies. What I like about this service -- in addition to it being free -- is that it can perform a search and then create bibliographies for the ones you pick. I just hope the students read the books they reference. This system would make it all too easy to pad a paper with references the student wouldn't even recognize they were placed in their hand.

T

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Google's new position on paid essay writing


The BBC is reporting that Google will stop selling advertisements for paid essay services. The Internet in general has made keeping students honest more difficult and paid essay services are one of the more obvious manifestations of this problem. Thanks, Google!

T

Monday, May 21, 2007

Bring out the dead!


<span class=LifeHacker has a story on how Staples will be accepting old computers and computer monitors at a price of $10 each. Keeping old equipment around isn't going to become any easier in the future. Most communities now prevent the disposal of computer equipment in the garbage because of all the toxic ingredients.

T

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Just Scratch-ing the surface

The BBC has an interesting write-up on a new programing system that allows students to create multimedia presentations without a high level of programing. It works on both Macs and Windows and is free.

Looks very interesting. If you have experience with it, please enter a post.

T

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Put your computer in oil

I've been thinking about what would happen if I put a computer in a tub of oil, but I was too afraid the result would be a big fire. Apparently, it's not a big deal and it could make for an interesting school science project. Just discussing the issues of heat would make for a number of interesting classes.

Here is an article on how to make the oil-bath computer.

T

Monday, May 14, 2007

SELinux and what it means to you

SELinux is a system and not yet another version of Linux -- we certainly have enough of those. SELinux is a security system that locks down the internal operations of program or process so that even if there is a bug in an application, the hacker will not be able to exploit it because the SELinux will forbid the hacker to use the compromised application in any unauthorized method.

Here is a good article on SELinux.

T

Friday, May 11, 2007

AJAX and Sun's new product

AJAX is one of the hottest new technologies on the web. It is a core technology for the entire Web 2.0 world. AJAX, which is the system which provides interactivity and customizability, is not one single technology. In fact, it may surprise you to learn that Microsoft is the first major implementer of AJAX with it's Exchange mail web portal.

Sun has long been a player in the AJAX world with its Java Script, but now it is releasing a new framework that looks almost as easy to use but far more powerful. Here is an article that compares the major AJAX systems -- including the new Sun announcement.

T

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

ColorJack

ColorJack is an online tool which helps web designers to pick the right set of colors. Graphic designers know about selecting compatible colors but most people only know when things look right. This color picker will help you to get the things looking "right" sooner.

T

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Google Calendar Connector

GCALDaemon is a process a way to allow you to synchronize your Google Calendar with Sunbird, an open source cousin of FireFox and ThunderBird.

This is a great idea because you don't want to miss appointments because of being off-line.

T