via Scripting News - SearchDay - Teoma vs. Google, Round Two - 2 April 2002

Teoma's underlying technology is an extension of the HITS algorithm developed by researchers at IBM several years ago. In a nutshell, the search engine goes beyond traditional keyword and text analysis and seeks out "hubs" and "authorities" related to your query terms -- a "social network" of related content that forms a "community" about the topic.

The cool thing about Teoma is that its community-seeking behavior is both query-specific, and happens in real time. "Whenever you type in a query, we're actually looking for the communities after you type the query," said Paul Gardi, Teoma's Vice President of Search. "We're using a method called dynamic rank, because there's a lot of information you can learn about that page by its friends."

The Scotsman - Education - Children will need skills, not knowledge, says professor

Gordon Kirk, a dean at the faculty of education at Edinburgh University, a national centre for teacher training, has outlined the case for scrapping the curriculum and discouraging teachers from focusing on imparting knowledge to children.

...

...children need to concentrate on acquiring skills in communication, thinking, learning, negotiation, risk-taking, first aid, DIY and self defence. They also need to develop self-awareness, people skills and technological knowledge.

Whilst I don't agree that gaining 'knowledge' is as simple as compiling facts, I have some sympathy with the view expressed by Professor Kirk. It's a short article, worth reading. Some of the more memorable parts include:

Douglas Wynn, of Deloitte and Touche management consultancy, who oversaw a review of teacher training for the Executive covering the next three to five years, backed Prof Kirs call for more radical change in the longer term...predicted that education professionals will, in future, be "facilitators" sitting beside pupils as they learn from sophisticated computer programmes (sic). Instead of being filled with knowledge, pupils will learn how to problem solve and look up information as they need it.

but not everbody agrees ;-):

David Eaglesham, the general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association..."This is typical of the rambling and incoherent approach we hear from academics. It is unachievable and a distraction from real issues such as workload, discipline and alienation of some pupils from the system."

Seems to me that Eaglesham has his head in the sand. Perhaps his 'real issues' could be tackled, in part, by taking a new approach to teaching.

PS In the same education supplement Hugh Reilly's op-ed today is well worth a read too!

According to Al:

"By following these simple guidelines, you can keep me and mine securely employed."

Sorry Al, no can do! ;-)

Looking forward to seeing the outcome of My Cocoa App (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog) and reading Machine Beauty: Elegance and the Heart of Technology that provided the inspiration.

The Register | MS to micro-manage your computer

...With this announcement, Microsoft competitors and independent programmers should be gearing up for another court case, as this concept reeks of Redmond's historic anti-competitive tactics in the marketplace. Savvy consumers should be very concerned that Palladium will mean that their computers and information are no longer under their positive control but rather under the omnipresent surveillance and enforcement of a third party more interested in turning a profit than empowering their customers to think and act for themselves. The computer will essentially become a tool of surveillance, judgment and control over users, rather than a tool of innovation, communication, and enlightenment...

via vfth - Eastgate Tinderbox: the tool for notes

Tinderbox is a personal content management assistant. It stores your notes, ideas, and plans. It can help you organize and understand them. And Tinderbox helps you share ideas through Web journals and web logs.

Interesting.

Dave Polaschek's Magical Macintosh Key Sequences.

Steven Levy of Newsweek on The Big Secret:

Computer security is enough of a worry that the software colossus Microsoft views it as a threat to its continued success: thus the apocalyptic Bill Gates memo in January calling for a 'Trustworthy Computing' jihad. What Gates did not specifically mention was Microsoft's hyperambitious long-range plan to literally change the architecture of PCs in order to address the concerns of security, privacy and intellectual property. The plan, revealed for the first time to NEWSWEEK, is... Palladium, and is one of the riskiest ventures the company has ever attempted. Though Microsoft does not claim a panacea, the system is designed to dramatically improve our ability to control and protect personal and corporate information. Even more important, Palladium is intended to become a new platform for a host of yet-unimagined services to enable privacy, commerce and entertainment in the coming decadesThis ist just about solving problems, but expanding new realms of possibilities in the way people live and work with computers says product manager Mario Juarez.

Because its ultimate success depends on ubiquity, Palladium is either going to be a home run or a mortifying whiff. "We have to ship 100 million of these before it really makes a difference", says Microsoft vice president Will Poole. That's why the company can't do it without heavyweight partners. Chipmakers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices have signed on to produce special security chips that are integral to the system. "It's a groundswell change", says AMs Geoffrey Strongin. "A whole new class of processors not differentiated by speed, but security". The next step is getting the likes of Dell, HP and IBM to remake their PCs to accommodate the system...

Surprise, surprise. No doubt their enthusiasm is driven primarily by the fact that this will sell more units of Windows and processors+motherboards. No doubt Hollywood would be delighted too!!

For 'Secret' read 'Danger'!

Update: MSNBC have 404'ed the URL cited above but there's a copy over at http://cryptome.org/palladium-sl.htm

Thanks to one of my students - Chris Hodgins - for the link to Charlie Brej's Mouse powered Amulet! ;-):

The Amulet2e is a asynchronous implementation of the ARM processor capable of 40 Dhrystone MIPS with a Core power efficiency of 290MIPS/watt. As it is asynchronous it will change speed dependant on the voltage supplied. Normal operation is at 3.3v but the processor will work correctly down to 1v.

...

We hope to capture one of the real rats living in the bushes outside the department and use it to power a few chips. As a mouse can generate about 1Watt so a rat should be about 2Watts thus a rat can generate 580 MIPS on Amulet2s. This is very good when compared with a processor like the Athlon which uses 60 watts(30 Rats) to produce the same speed.

MIPS Technologies, Inc. -- Website Terms Of Use

...For purposes of these Terms of Use, the use of any Materials on this Site on any other website or networked computer including the linking to any Materials on this Site from any other website is strictly prohibited without the express prior written permission of MIPS.

Sheesh! This prohibition on linking is sure going to make it difficult to use the definitive site about the MIPS (tm) architecture in my teaching of computer architecture. I wonder if Hennessy and Patterson are aware of these terms of use!?

via Scripting News - Public Protests NPR Link Policy

When huge, nameless, faceless corporations try to impose "linking policies" upon webmasters who want to point to the company's site, people usually react in a predictable way. They get mad, they spitefully put up dozens of policy-violating links, and they bemoan, once more, the fact that some folks still don't understand that if you don't want to be linked you shouldn't be on the Web.

The reaction was much the same on Wednesday, when webloggers discovered that yet another huge organization is trying to lay down rigid linking guidelines -- only this time the huge organization is National Public Radio, the ad-free, member-supported radio network that often paints itself as the antithesis of all things big and corporate.