OLDaily
By Stephen Downes
June 24, 2004

I Want To Be A Cognitive Ergonomist
Robin Good turns a phrase about as well as anyone, and today's contribution - cognitive ergonomist - is no exception. A short item - but that's about the way it is today, one of the slowest news days of the year (so today's fare is a little light, a little opinionated, a little irreverent, like a summer breeze). By Luigi Canali De Rossi, Robin Good, June 24, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Copyright Criminals
I just have to say, if people find it easier to take pictures of book pages and read them that way, then the publishing industry is in trouble. Their solution: digital camera detectors in their stores. Sheesh. Read the comments for a snarky remark from me about the terminology used in this item. By Jade Walker, E-Media Tidbits, June 23, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

a journal of a researcher
Daniel Lemire linked to this site - another NRC researcher who blogs. Wouldn't it be nice if the entire NRC reserach staff had blogs so that the Canadian public could see clearly the work that they're doing? By Yuhong Yan, June, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Codec Comparison
Oh, I don't know. Maybe somebody, some day, will need a detailed description of video coder-decoders (codecs). Well, here it is, describing varions of AVI, Quicktime, Windows Media and MPEG (Real format forthcoming) in quite a bit of (technical) detail. All part of the Video Guide for the MIT Computer Graphics Group. By Various Authors, MIT Computer Graphics Group, June, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

The Location Field Is the New Command Line
This is a follow-up to an item run here a few days ago, How Microsoft Lost the API War. It has me thinking a lot more about web applications. I have been touting the web as the source of content for a long time now (in contrast, say, to standards designed to accomodate local media, such as CD-ROMs). But I have left the domain of things like word processors and even email to the desktop. Mostly because web based versions - such as Microsofts Outlook Web Access (OWA) are so awful. But maybe that's all about to change. By John Gruber, Daring Fireball, June 22, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Credit Cards Could Offer Key to E-government Authentication
Here's a stupid idea - using credit cards to authenticate voters and participants in e-government. Why a stupid idea? Well if you knew how many years I was denied a credit card (the consequence of student loans) you would understand - I see no reason to be denied my franchise simply because I have a bad credit rating. (You know - it's funny how professionals, including professors and journalists, think of their lifestyle as 'normal'. Trust me, it's not. Most people don't have retirement savings plans, summer homes, two car garages, investment portfolios, and the like. But you'd never know, following the media.) By eGov Monitor, Digital Media Europe, June 24, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

I’ll Spend My Time Talking to Whom I Want, Thanks Very Much!
Nice observation here: “For the consumer, the ability to control the timing, method, and manner of a transaction is very attractive – particularly if it saves them time and effort. The attraction for the supplier is that they can off-load all the administrative costs of selling to the consumer and still give a better service.” Or, put another way: stop trying to tell me what amount and kind of interaction is right for me. I'll figure it out myself, thank you. By Lisa Galarneau, Relevancy, June 24, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

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Copyright © 2003 Stephen Downes
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