Stephen's Untold Stories

Here is a comparison of 14 difference personalized start pages. I didn’t know there were 14 available, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

I am currently using a personalized Google page (now known as iGoogle), but I have used Netvibes, Protopage, and Pageflakes in the past. They all worked just fine, but I like the single login for all my Google stuff.

• Here is the link to the comparison article

The question, of course is “Hey Stephen, did you get an iPhone?”

An iPhone might be in my future, but not for quite a while. I am perfectly happy with the phone I have. It gives me a speedy Internet, plays mp3s, and gives me access to E-Mail without the need for WiFi. I can also use it as a wireless modem when I’m out and about.

Very funny ad from 1977. Click the image for a much larger (and legible) version.

This may wind up saving my life. One of my professors shared this with me earlier today, and it is a very thorough list of RSS feeds from well-respected research journals.

• Here is the link

They also have an OPML file that you can import into your RSS reader, which will subscribe you to all of the journals at once! Check your reader’s help files for how to do that. I did it in Google Reader by going to Settings and then Import/Export.

I have to admit that I hadn’t really followed the case up until this point, but we now have word from On High that school districts may not use race in school assignments.

A bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday issued what is likely to be a landmark opinion — ruling that race cannot be a factor in the assignment of children to public schools.

The court struck down public school choice plans in Seattle, Washington, and Louisville, Kentucky, concluding they relied on an unconstitutional use of racial criteria, in a sharply worded pair of cases reflecting the deep legal and social divide over the issue of race and education.

A conservative majority led by Chief Justice John Roberts said other means besides race considerations should be used to achieve diversity in schools.

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Roberts wrote.

More than a half-century after the high court outlawed segregation in public schools, the justices were deeply divided over one controversial outgrowth of that decision: what role race should play, if any, in assigning students to competitive spots in elementary and secondary schools.

Link to full article

I did my RSS poster presentation this morning, and I was amazed at the number of people who stopped by. I brought about 100 business cards and I had given them all out before my time was half over. I asked people to give me their cards so I could E-Mail them the presentation, and I got almost 60 of those. A lot of people also copied down my E-Mail and/or presentation link from the screen, and it was really great to see so many people interested in RSS.

If you are interested in the presentation, here is a link!

Thanks to everyone who showed up!

Sometimes all you need to say is “Wow.” I absolutely love the new interface they have put together. This will make it so much easier to keep up with my documents and the people I’ve shared them with. And just think that soon we will also be seeing presentations here!

Click image for larger version

I spent most of the morning wandering around the massive exhibit hall. I’ll go back and hit some of the more interesting booths tomorrow and Wednesday. I also took in a few Poster presentations. Since I’ll be doing one of those, I thought I’d see how other people were setting up for theirs. I did one last year in San Diego, and I didn’t prepare any actual posters or visual aids. I did make a few this time, but making those things is clearly not a gift that I possess.

And here is the obligatory shot of the exhibit hall.

I know I’m on a YouTube roll lately, but I couldn’t pass this one up.

Lots more good stories.

• WeFi Makes WiFi Easier
• All of Montreal could be wrapped in a WiMax blanket
• WiMax in South Africa
• New Wi-Fi distance record: 382 kilometers
• Alereon to Release New Wireless USB Chip
• EarthLink makes WiFi easier

I just haven’t been able to get into the whole Second Life thing. I’m sure it would be even more funny if I were an “insider,” but I still had a great time watching it.

My presentation isn’t until Wednesday, but I want to get this thing done tomorrow. I’ve started and stopped about 12 times now. Hopefully I’ll have a creative streak sometime on Sunday and finish this thing.

If you’re going to be around on Wednesday morning at NECC, stop by the Poster session area.

• RSS – Almost Ready for Prime Time!

Best 5-second video I’ve ever seen.

If you ever thought about blogging, or knew anybody who ever thought about blogging, or ever thought you knew anybody who knew somebody who might think about blogging, here is a great site with just about everything you or anyone else could ever use.

• 120+ Resources for Bloggers

Now this is something you don’t see every day.

(Click image for larger version)

Something was about to happen. Just two days ago, two of the three celestial objects easily visible during the day appeared to collide. But actually, Earth’s Moon passed well in front of the distant planet Venus. The occultation was caught from Switzerland in the hours before sunset. Moments after this image was taken, the Moon, visible as the crescent on the right of the above image, eclipsed Venus, appearing in gibbous phase on the lower left. Clouds that once threatened to obscure the whole event, were visible on the far left. About 90 minutes later, Venus re-appeared just to the right of the bright crescent.

Link to article

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. There certainly is a need for something to combat the cheating problem.

The number of college students taking courses online is surging, creating a tough dilemma for educators who want to prevent cheating.

Do you trust students to take an exam on their own computer from home or work, even though it may be easy to sneak a peek at the textbook? Or do you force them to trek to a proctored test center, detracting from the convenience that drew them to online classes in the first place?

The dilemma is one reason many online programs do little testing at all. But some new technology that places a camera inside students’ homes may be the way of the future — as long as students don’t find it too creepy.

This fall, Troy University in Alabama will begin rolling out the new camera technology for many of its approximately 11,000 online students, about a third of whom are at U.S. military installations around the world.

Link to article

This one has been making the rounds in the blogosphere lately. Thought I’d pass it along as well.

“Slam” poet Taylor Mail does a great riff. Be careful…he gets a bit loud at times!

Easily my favorite (and only) weekly segment.

• AT&T might skip WiMax
• Town in Minnesota gets solar-powered WiFi
• DirecTV and EchoStar get in on the WiMax game
• Is London the WiFi capitol?
• Sprint seeks funding for wireless network
• Taiwan vets WiMax applications amid protest

The video is easily worth two minutes of your time.

Thanks to Dean for this one!

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, has some great tips for improving your writing style.

Business writing is about clarity and persuasion. The main technique is keeping things simple. Simple writing is persuasive. A good argument in five sentences will sway more people than a brilliant argument in a hundred sentences. Don’t fight it.

Simple means getting rid of extra words. Don’t write, “He was very happy” when you can write “He was happy.” You think the word “very” adds something. It doesn’t. Prune your sentences.

Humor writing is a lot like business writing. It needs to be simple. The main difference is in the choice of words. For humor, don’t say “drink” when you can say “swill.”

Write short sentences. Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence. Readers aren’t as smart as you’d think.

Learn how brains organize ideas. Readers comprehend “the boy hit the ball” quicker than “the ball was hit by the boy.” Both sentences mean the same, but it’s easier to imagine the object (the boy) before the action (the hitting). All brains work that way. (Notice I didn’t say, “That is the way all brains work”?)

Read the rest here