technology - general

Using the "chart" functionality on Technorati, I tracked blog posts mentioning Net Neutrality (see below). Looks like it lost tremendous steam in the blogosphere after an early June '06 peak. Is that due to fading interest or lack of new activity in Congress?

Looks like this Net Neutrality debate will be raging on for some time to come.  Today, the Senate is beginning its third day of hearings on draft telecom legislation after the House passed a bill last week that largely ignored the Net Neutrality supporters' concerns.  Most supporters of the "Net Neutrality" concept want to ensure that network providers do not create (or enable) Internet content monopolies.  However, there are a host of other issues that must be considered before such a "concept" could be (or should be?) drafted into law.  The Wikipedia page on Net Neutrality does a nice job of summarizing the diversity of issues. 

Please log on an read today's Washington Post Opinion Section: Lawrence Lessig and Robert McChensey "No Tolls on the Internet" - I couldn't have said it better myself! Please also keep checking in at Save the Internet.com

I am testing out my new laptop (a Dell Inspiron 640m - the business brand sister to the home version E1405).  Including Tom's work laptop, my Cingular 8125 and Tom's Blackberry, we now have 6 devices to access the Internet (including the iMac and our other laptop). However, I NEEDED this new super fast "thin and light" laptop :)  Here are the basic specs:

Here are links to the latest news and information on the status of Net Neutrality amendment.  It was defeated on a 34-22 vote by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday.  It is time to start paying attention.  Whatever your position, please spend some time getting to know and understand this important issue.  If nothing else, it is interesting to follow an issue where the "Gun Owners of America" are on the same side as "MoveOn.org".  I tried to pick from sources who capture both sides of the issue:

• Business Week
• Boston Herald
• LA Times

Does anyone know what the technology is behind sites like Become.com and Dictionary.hm?  They are sooo awesome!  A total about face from type, send, wait . . .

Listable is an interesting browser based social bookmarking tool that goes a step beyond traditional tagging.  Users have the ability to create "lists" made out of combinations of tags.  There are some interesting popular lists, including the popular "Complete List of Web 2.0 Products and Services" made out of "web2+internet+blog+apps+online.  Feeds are also available, including a Popular Lists Feed. 

How absolutely cute is this? [Odeo|htt://odeo.com] (the podcast host started by the founders of Blogger) has added a fun little button that allows subscribers to add a voice mail feature to their web pages. I just added one on the right sidebar. If you have a mic, feel free to leave me a message. While this may just be a cute toy, it would seem to have some other useful applications, right?

I gave [StumbleUpon|http://www.stumbleupon.com/] a try today. It is a tagging and social bookmarking brower based tool with a fun little Firefox toolbar. It looks to be a really easy way to save and tag your favorite pages. You can also "stumble" to pages on the same topics that have been tagged by others in the community. However, it does not appear to allow many options to take your tags with you (say to your personal blog) or a means to export / import to other bookmark tools. While an RSS feed is available to your "favorites" page, a combo of the key features of Stumble with the portability of [Furl|htt://www.furl.net] would really make my day!

For the past several months, I have accumulated links and trial software relating to various types of collaboration tools (some desktop applications, some Web based).  This week, I had the opportunity to gather my thoughts on these wonderful new technologies.  I documented my observations in a media accumulation and review "reflection paper" that assesses how a teacher in an online or distance education setting could use some of these collaboration technologies as a means of providing teacher feedback. 

I have gleefully embraced many new free internet based storage solutions and applications, including Flickr, Blogger, Writely and Furl.  I have also touted them as signs of the revolution that will move us from reliance on our desktops.  However, in the spirit of learning from mistakes, here is an example of what can happen when we rely so heavily on free internet applications and file storage that we don't own or control. 

I stumbled on this story today that made me consider how I will use these services in the future.  I am not a member of the Yahoo! Group in the story, but as a member of another Yahoo! Group, it does give me pause.  It has certainly reminded me of the "here today / gone tomorrow" potential of any of these wonderful free tools. Where possible, it makes sense to backup content to the lowly desktop. I have already made several copies of my Furl data as I would lose hours and hours of internet surfing if I lost my account. While the ol' desktop may not be flashy, for now, it is more dependable. . .

Give it a try! Looks like it would be a fun "voice"

Everything I have done on my web site, I have taught myself (scary - and it shows!)  I have tried to learn the basics of Dreamweaver to create a few simple intro pages.  Also, I have taken advatage of provided HTML "cut and paste" to integrate things like Bloglines blog roles and Furl Bookmarks.  I have even loaded some wonderful Open Source CMS products on my server including Moodle (I love it!) and Drupal (I really love it!).  So, here I sit trying to figure it all out.  Where do I go from here?

"Attach TuneCenter to your television and stereo for viewing photos, watching video, listening to your iPod music library or internet radio. With the included 14 button remote, TuneCenter turns your iPod into a complete Home Media Center. Just dock the iPod into TuneCenter, and let the entertainment begin." 

Looks really nice at $99 - who needs a DVD player / CD player / Receiver (now iPod offers one)?  Cool.

When I get some time after the holidays, I want to give Festoon a try.  It is a free application that works with either Skype and Google talk to allow you to see the others on your call.  It also appears some degree of application (or at least screen) sharing.  Fun!