The Register

MSN is considering charging Net users £60 a year to access its content.

They've got to be joking. Right!? I really hope they do this and shoot themselves in both feet - that'd add to the lead in 'em ;-)

Looks like Robert Scoble is collating Radio UserLand issues (presumably with Dave's blessing):

I'm learning UserLand's Radio. What is it? It's a way to share news with the world (both yours and someone else's). Coming soon. My Radio complaints. My Radio bugs. My Radio kudos. My Radio wishes.

See:

• radiobugs
• radiowishes
• radiokudos
• radiocomplaints

via Wes [HtP] - Schools need servers, not PCs

A growing number of technologists and educators think they know a cheaper and more effective way to get computers into the classroom. Instead of individual PCs, they argue, schools should look into client-server architectures, perhaps even using handhelds for the client side.

Interesting synergy. Yesterday at work I was attending the Information Strategy and Advisory Group (ISAG) - a high-level committee of the University. This particular meeting was notable because there was a preliminary report on the evaluation of the Millennium Laptop Initiative pilot scheme. I can't divulge the contents of the extensive report that was tabled at the meeting. Suffice to say that it was an in-depth report and an interesting read. If/when the results are made available for public consumption via the web I'll provide a link.

FWIW, I am not convinced that equipping all students with a high-spec PC laptop is the most cost-effective way of delivering IT support to all students. There will be situations where it's the most appropriate technology but I hope that the University will consider alternatives such as the client-server model suggested by the EE Times article.

If there are any of my students reading this I'd be interested in their comments and, in particular, the pros and cons of requiring students to have a standardised laptop PC.

No doubt I'll return to this pilot/initiative as it unfolds.

via Slashdot - BBC Online - H2G2: the BBC takes on Douglas Adams' H2G2 online community.

Endeavors Top Press Releases:Endeavors Technology Leads Small Device P2P Development and Ports Python to the Palm Operating System

Computer scientists at Endeavors Technology have successfully developed a highly optimized, open source port of Python to the Palm OS(r) platform to stimulate interest in creating Python-based applications for Palm(tm) handheld computers and other devices that use the Palm operating system.

I have several colleagues who are going to be interested in this news. Also...

Endeavors is making this port freely available to the developer community. It can be downloaded from the official Web site for Pippy at http://www.endeavors.com/pippy.html

Speculation: Zope + Pippy == Zippy ;-)

More on Slashdot...

Taking a leaf out of Wes' book

I unsubscribed from all the mailing lists I wasn't reading

I finally got round to doing the same thing for lots of lists. I can always keep up with most of them from their archives. It's certainly quieter in my in-box now ;-)

via Doc Searls Weblog - Fight the gatekeepers! FEATURE: STATEMENT OF PROFESSOR LARRY LESSIG AT "BROADBAND AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST" FORUM

I think the soul of the Internet's extraordinary growth is somewhere else. It is the architecture of the Internet. It is that innovation that is built into the values embedded by this architecture. It comes from the access made possible by this architecture. It comes from the control disabled by this architecture. And if we are to preserve the innovation and preserve the growth that this architecture has given us, we must understand it. We must understand its principles and we must defend them.

Doc's has taken to...

...calling unlinkable pages bogs. Like blog without the L. They're link-hostile. Against the grain of the Web. A sand trap among the golf links of cyberspace. A place where connections get bogged down.

I wonder if Doc knows that 'bogs' have another meaning entirely in Scotland? ;-)