New Optiplex

Dell has launched a new Optiplex, the 755 desktop.  "Dubbed the "world's most manageable, energy efficient commercial desktop ever," the system touts Energy Star 4.0 compliance and an Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) "Gold" rating. Additionally, the 755 can be snapped up with Intel's newly-unveiled Core 2 Duo with vPro technology, a 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 graphics card, up to 8GB of RAM, and your choice of mini-tower, desktop, or small form factor enclosure" (engadget).

E-testing Advantages

In a new report [PDF] by two Villanova School of Business professors, the argument is made that "...giving electronic tests can actually reduce cheating and save faculty time" (see HTML summary from Inside Higher Ed).  Timed tests drawn from randomly drawn from questions pools were used.  "Forty-five percent of students who took part in the study reported that the electronic testing system reduced the likelihood of their cheating during the course."  Further, "...professors reported recouping an average of 80 hours by using the e-exams" (Educause Connect).

News of Grants

News of grants:  We have two to report, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) "Digital Humanities Start-up Grants" for public and state controlled institutions of higher education, deadline for application October 16; and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) "Digital Innovation Fellowships," deadline for application October 3.    The NEH grants are involve new, digital approaches to presenting information in the humanities.  Click here for full information.  The ACLS grants require the applicant have a PH. D.  They support work for an academic year on a major scholarly project that takes a digital form.  Click here for full explanations.

California Voting Machines De-Certified

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen acting on the advise of numerous analysts and computer science researchers, de-certified California electronic voting machines in favor of paper ballots.  "The systems developed by the likes of Diebold, Sequoia, and Election Systems & Software were riddled with software-writing flaws and security holes that made the likelihood of error or foul play unacceptably high. The fact that the electronic systems had no reliable paper back-up – certainly not before one was mandated by law in many states, including this one – only made the systems’ vulnerabilities all the more unnerving. Not only could an election go badly wrong or be outright stolen; there was no guarantee anybody could prove it if it happened" (Los Angeles City Beat).  Click here to hear an interesting audio interview aired recently on NPRs Science Friday with Matt Bishop, one of the principle researchers and leader of a "red team" responsible for finding security holes in the recently de-certified systems (mp3 format).

End of the Free Lunch for Web Storage

Google, Microsoft and Apple all announced changes to their online storage services last week.  Google announced, essentially, the end of free, unlimited storage.  Paid storage upgrades for behemoth Picasa or GMail folders (soon to be added, Google Docs & Spreadsheet folders) can be had at the rate of $20/year for 6GB (on top of the 2.8 already provided free of charge by Google), running up to $500/year for 250GB.  To find out more, login to your GMail account and click the "Upgrade your storage" link.  Windows Live SkyDive is a free beta solution that provides 500MB of free Internet file storage for any purpose.  Click here to find out more.  You can create personal, shared, or public folders using the service.  Apple, not to be left behind, also bumped up the storage associated with .Mac accounts to 10GB, while keeping subscription to .Mac the same, at $99 per year.  Yahoo already offers unlimited storage for Yahoo mail users.  Microsoft hotmail has upped their storage limit to 5GB.

For-pay web-based storage

Google, Microsoft and Apple all announced changes to their online storage services last week.  Google announced, essentially, the end of free, unlimited storage.  Paid storage upgrades for behemoth Picasa or GMail folders (soon to be added, Google Docs & Spreadsheet folders) can be had at the rate of $20/year for 6GB (on top of the 2.8 already provided free of charge by Google), running up to $500/year for 250GB.  To find out more, login to your GMail account and click the "Upgrade your storage" link.  Windows Live SkyDive is a free beta solution that provides 500MB of free Internet file storage for any purpose.  Click here to find out more.  You can create personal, shared, or public folders using the service.  Apple, not to be left behind, also bumped up the storage associated with .Mac accounts to 10GB, while keeping subscription to .Mac the same, at $99 per year.  Yahoo already offers unlimited storage for Yahoo mail users.

The YouTube Generation

The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently published a report [PDF] indicating that 57% of all Internet users have watched videos online and most of them share what they find.  Other interesting findings: 74% of broadband users watch video online; just 31% of dial-up users watch video online; 76% of young (18-29) Internet users watch video online as opposed to 39% age 65 ot older.  49% of young Internet users say they have consumed videos from YouTube.