Reader Poll: What's Your Word Processor? - Lifehacker
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Friday, September 07, 2007
Word processor survey
Lifehacker is running an unscientific reader poll. What interests me is the selection of choices.
Reader Poll: What's Your Word Processor? - Lifehacker
Reader Poll: What's Your Word Processor? - Lifehacker
AT&T's next move
Telephone companies and cable companies are the major broadband providers in the US: Cable companies have an extensive existing network that pipes both cable TV and internet, while phone companies have an even more extensive network whose loops can be upgraded to serve DSL as well as phones. Since everything is digital now, cable companies have rolled out landline phone service over their cables, while phone providers have begun to experiment with multimedia delivery.
However, the two companies have different core businesses supporting their networks. One -- cable -- is thriving, while the other -- landline phone service -- is dying. They are victims of their success: mobile phones have taken off in a big way, but they don't need the last-mile loops that enable broadband, and an increasing number of households (including mine) don't bother to use landline phones. So last-mile loops -- which each constitute a separate service -- are on the decline, and people don't want to subscribe to landline service just to get DSL.
So that brings me to the flyer I got in the mail yesterday. The upshot is this: Now AT&T sells "AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet Direct Express" (i.e., its DSL service) decoupled from landline phone service. They sweeten the pot with "no termination fees," "no term limits," and a substantially lower monthly fee than cable broadband. From a consumer point of view, this lower pricing makes a lot of sense because cable broadband has higher speeds. But from AT&T's point of view, things are not so sweet: for the households that join, the cost of installing and maintaining the last mile will be borne entirely by that lower fee. What was once the core revenue stream has been left for dead. Cable companies, meanwhile, can maintain their network with their thriving core revenue stream as well as their broadband business.
However, the two companies have different core businesses supporting their networks. One -- cable -- is thriving, while the other -- landline phone service -- is dying. They are victims of their success: mobile phones have taken off in a big way, but they don't need the last-mile loops that enable broadband, and an increasing number of households (including mine) don't bother to use landline phones. So last-mile loops -- which each constitute a separate service -- are on the decline, and people don't want to subscribe to landline service just to get DSL.
So that brings me to the flyer I got in the mail yesterday. The upshot is this: Now AT&T sells "AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet Direct Express" (i.e., its DSL service) decoupled from landline phone service. They sweeten the pot with "no termination fees," "no term limits," and a substantially lower monthly fee than cable broadband. From a consumer point of view, this lower pricing makes a lot of sense because cable broadband has higher speeds. But from AT&T's point of view, things are not so sweet: for the households that join, the cost of installing and maintaining the last mile will be borne entirely by that lower fee. What was once the core revenue stream has been left for dead. Cable companies, meanwhile, can maintain their network with their thriving core revenue stream as well as their broadband business.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Nukes on the loose
By now, everyone has heard that some of our nukes were unaccounted-for during a three hour flight. But Danger Room has this startling addendum:
Today, two hydrogen bombs and a uranium core lie in yet undetermined locations in the Wassaw Sound off Georgia, in the Puget Sound off Washington, and in swamplands near Goldsboro, North Carolina.Danger Room - Wired Blogs
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Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Reading :: Virtual Peer Review
Virtual Peer Review: Teaching and Learning about Writing in Online Environments
By Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Lee-Ann and I entered the ISU PhD program together and took most of our courses together, so it's nice to sit down, about thirteen years after we first met, and see what she's been doing. And what she's been doing has been really useful. Virtual Peer Review surveys the landscape of peer reviewing with digital technologies up to 2004. And although the landscape has changed quite a bit in the last three years -- with the explosion of social networking, collaborative writing, and commenting environments -- Lee-Ann's survey is still solidly applicable.
Lee-Ann's work is like Stuart Selber's recent book: it doesn't present an empirical study or break any new theoretical ground, but it takes stock of an area of the field that has not been carefully chronicled previously, and it does this job clearly and comprehensively. And because Lee-Ann does this job so well, I found that even with a topic that changes as quickly as computer-assisted peer review, her framework and guidance still apply quite well. I use computer-assisted peer review quite a bit in my classes, and have migrated from Word comments to Drupal comments to Google Docs and Basecamp within the last few years, but Lee-Ann's work still applies just as well. If you do a lot of peer review in digital environments, and you need some sense of the scope of the changes, check it out.
By Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Lee-Ann and I entered the ISU PhD program together and took most of our courses together, so it's nice to sit down, about thirteen years after we first met, and see what she's been doing. And what she's been doing has been really useful. Virtual Peer Review surveys the landscape of peer reviewing with digital technologies up to 2004. And although the landscape has changed quite a bit in the last three years -- with the explosion of social networking, collaborative writing, and commenting environments -- Lee-Ann's survey is still solidly applicable.
Lee-Ann's work is like Stuart Selber's recent book: it doesn't present an empirical study or break any new theoretical ground, but it takes stock of an area of the field that has not been carefully chronicled previously, and it does this job clearly and comprehensively. And because Lee-Ann does this job so well, I found that even with a topic that changes as quickly as computer-assisted peer review, her framework and guidance still apply quite well. I use computer-assisted peer review quite a bit in my classes, and have migrated from Word comments to Drupal comments to Google Docs and Basecamp within the last few years, but Lee-Ann's work still applies just as well. If you do a lot of peer review in digital environments, and you need some sense of the scope of the changes, check it out.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
30,000 movies on an iPod-sized device
Howard Lovy complains:
But back to the issue. What could we store on such a device? One idea: a (relatively) complete lifestream.
Howard Lovy's NanoBot: Nano memory: 30,000 movies and nothing on
If 30,000 movies is the best we can come up with, then we have a severe crisis of imagination. I don't blame the Reuters reporter. Like the overused and inaccurate "human hair" comparison, "30,000 movies" places the technology in a context the average reader can understand.That severe crisis of imagination is fairly common. Here on the UT campus, during the first week you couldn't walk on campus without being asked if you wanted to buy a subscription to the Austin American-Statesman or the Houston Chronicle. You might as well be selling butter churns or moustache cups.
But back to the issue. What could we store on such a device? One idea: a (relatively) complete lifestream.
Howard Lovy's NanoBot: Nano memory: 30,000 movies and nothing on
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You really are doing something at work
Fun fact of the day:
Productivity - Lifehacker
According to the International Labour Organisation, the United States leads the world in labor productivity, with a total output per employee of $8,000 over the second most productive country, Ireland.If we are so productive, can we change the "International Labour Organisation" to the American spelling?
Productivity - Lifehacker
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Monday, September 03, 2007
Jotspot back from the dead
Finally, looks like Jotspot, which Google bought nearly a year ago, may relaunch as Google Wiki. It's going to be integrated into Google Apps.
Google Wiki Prepares To Launch
Google Wiki Prepares To Launch
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Sunday, September 02, 2007
"The Voyager technology is so outmoded ... we have had to maintain heritage equipment to talk to them."
A look at the thirty-year-old tacking station that maintains contact with Voyager 1 and 2.