High Definiton DVD

What High-Definition Will Do to DVDs. Jo Twist. BBC News. January 31, 2005.
Due to be out next year, high definition DVDs will require less data compression than current ones and will make movies "pop off the screen." People will have to buy new DVD players to view them, too.

Marian the Librarian Interviewed

Real-life 'Marian' Surprises Audience and Cast. Caleb Warnock. Daily Herald. January 30, 2005.
Marian Seeley, 84, of Provo, Utah, made an appearance at a Brigham Young University performance of The Music Man. Seeley, who was interviewed for this article, was the inspiration for the librarian in Meredith Willson's musical.

Broadcast Flag for Digital TV

Michael Powell's Invisible Legacy. J.D. Lasica. Reason. January 26, 2005.
FCC regulations that take effect July 1 will require digital TV recorders to respect government-mandated copy protection. Millions of DVD players in viewers' homes will be unable to play programs copied on the newer devices.

Anti-Spyware Legisation Prepared

House Renews New Anti-Spyware Push. Roy Mark. Internetnews.com. January 26, 2005.
Although the Federal Trade Commission beleives new legislation to be unnecessary, the U.S. House of Representatives is moving to pass a new anti-spyware bill. It would prohibit phishing, keystroke logging, and home page hijacking.

Opera 8.0 Aids Those with Low Vision

Latest Opera Browser Gets Vocal. Geoff Adams-Spink. BBC News. January 27, 2005.
The latest version of the Opera browser will be conrollable by voice command and will magnify text up to 10 times.

Tips for Dealing with Spam

Spam Slayer: Spam Fighting Tips for the New Year. Tom Spring. PC World. January 24, 2005.
The author offers some strategies for dealing with junk e-mail.

Google Indexing U.S. TV Programs

Google Launches TV Search Service. BBC News. January 25, 2005.
Google Video searches the closed caption information that comes with television programs. Since December the search engine has been adding programs from PBS, the NBA, Fox News, and C-SPAN.

New Study of Search Engine Use

Search Engine Users. Deborah Fallows, PhD. Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Although the majority of Internet users have used search engines, most of them are not deeply committed to searching and are naive about their use.

Origins of Information Ethics

A Brief History of Information Ethics. Thomas Froelich. bid. December, 2004.
Froelich here traces the elements of the field of information ethics as they have arisen over the years in such disciplines as information science, computer science and media ethics.

Gates on the Media Center PC and the Digital Lifestyle

Bill Gates Plots a Windows Future. Stephen Cole. BBC News. January 21, 2005.
The "founder and figurehead" of Microsoft discusses his vision of a digital future in the first part of an interview with the BBC.

Library Budget Trends

Budget Report 2005--Tipping Point. Norman Oder. Library Journal. January 15, 2005.
In its survey of 484 libraries, the LJ Budget Report 2005 finds that library budgets are growing this year. The article provides details on how the resources are to be allocated.

Virtual Reference Defended

Virtual Reference: Alive & Well. Brenda Bailey-Hainer. Library Journal. January 15, 2005.
Although virtual reference service has recently been criticized, Bailey-Hainer points out that critics often ignore its viability at the state-wide level and its attractiveness to teen users.

MSN Search Now Open

MSN(beta) Is Now Live. Jim Hedger. ISEDB.com. January 20, 2005.
This article provides a good analysis of Microsoft's newly revamped search engine.

AOL Contending for Web Search Market

AOL Unveils Expanded Search, New Partners. Dawn Kawamoto. CNET News.com. January 20, 2005.
On Monday, AOL will unveil its new search service aimed at general Web users rather than just its own subscribers. The company is entering the search arena previously staked out by the likes of MSN, Yahoo and Google.

Internet Usage in China

Chinese 'to overtake US net use'. BBC News. January 20, 2005.
The net is used very differently in China than in the U.S., but is expected to exceed 137 million users by 2008.

Studying Human/Computer Interaction

Czerwinski on Vizualization. Ubiquity. January 18, 2005.
Mary Czerwinski, Senior Researcher and Group Manager of the Visualization and Interaction Research Group at Microsoft Research, explains in an interview how her team has been studying the way people use computer displays of various sizes, including wall-size ones. Some of their results, including the discovery of a gender difference, have been surprising.

Analyzing Reader Ratings at Amazon.com

Limbaugh, Franken: Something in Common? Michael Kanellos. CNET News.com. January 18, 2005.
An assistant professor of Russian Language and Literature at Dartmouth examined the reasons readers might assign high ratings to certain books, and believes length may have something to do with it.

Competitors Gain on Google

Google Reigns as Its Competitors Gain. Matt Hicks. eWEEK. January 13, 2005.
A survey conducted by Keynote indicates that, while Google is holding steady, Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves are making strides in indicators of future usage.

Steve Case on the AOL-Time Warner Merger

Case Accepts Blame for AOL-Time Warner Debacle. Jim Hu. CNET News.com. January 12, 2005.
Five years after the AOL-Time Warner deal, Case offers his thoughts on the reasons for its failure.

More Privacy Concerns Regarding Google

Paranoid or Prescient? Daniel Brandt is concerned about Google Print. Jim Hedger. Internet Search Engine Database. January 11, 2005.
Brandt, of Google-Watch, has long had concerns about Google's data collection and the privacy of its users. With its recent plans to digitize library collections he has grown even more alarmed.

Internet History as Documented by Usenet

20 Year Usenet Timeline. Google Groups.
Google, owner of the Usenet archive, has published a fascinating timeline of historic firsts and announcements, including the first mention of Microsoft (May 1981) and Tim Berners-Lee's announcement of the World Wide Web project (August 1991). [also see Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet (First Monday, 1998)]

Exploring the Deep Web

Into the Abyss. Arun B. Samaddar. The Statesman. January 11, 2005.
The "Invisible Web", consisting largely of the contents of databases, contains 10,000 terabytes of information out of the reach of conventional search engines. As Samaddar mentions in his discussion of the issue, 95 percent of these databases are freely accessible. Software is being created to help locate these resources.

Technology Experts Believe Attack on Internet Inevitable

The Future of the Internet. Pew Internet & American Life Project. January 9, 2005.
A survey of technology leaders for the Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals their views on where the Internet is headed in the next 10 years. Among other findings is their belief that an attack on the Internet infrastructure is bound to occur within a decade.

Unusual Whistle Langugage of the Canary Islands

Shepherds Whistle While They Work And Brains Process Sounds As Language. University of Washington. Science Daily. January 7, 2005.
Recent studies show that the brain processes the whistle language Silbo Gomero in a manner similar to its processing of regular languages. Silbo, used by shepherds in the Canary Islands, is one of several whistle languages. Others are found in Greece, Turkey, China and Mexico.

Researchers Working to Improve Image Searching

Search Looks at the Big Picture. John Gartner. Wired News. Jan. 06, 2005.
Researchers are working to develop software that would be able to recognize and index pictures in efforts to improve image searching on the Web.

Teachers Failing to Take Advantage of the Internet

Report: Schools Wired, but Still not Internet Savvy. Alorie Gilbert. CNET News.com. January 7, 2005.
Although 99 percent of U.S. schools are wired for the Internet, a recent government report reveals that teachers are not taking full advantage of computers in their classes. Their students are often more knowledgeable about technology than they are.

AOL Makes a Comeback

The Internet Company That Time© Almost Forgot. Dominic Basulto. TCS: TechCentral Station. January 6, 2005.
The "cyber-cockroach that refused to die" may be making a comeback, re-inventing itself as a portal along the lines of Yahoo! and MSN.

Bill Gates on Google, Gaming, and Microsoft's Future

Gates Taking a Seat in Your Den. Michael Kanellos. NET News.com. January 5, 2005.
Interviewed recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Microsoft Chairman discusses such topics as gaming, blogging, Google, intellectual property, and his company's future plans. [CES Speech]

Yahoo Buzz Index Analyzed

What's the Buzz About: An Imperical Examination of Search on Yahoo. Nicole Bladow, Cari dori, Liz Fredericson, Pavla Grover, Yvette Knudtson, Sandeep Krishnamurthy, and Voula Lazarou. First Monday.
In tracking the most popular search terms from week to week, the Yahoo! Buzz Index identifies "Buzz Movers", "Buzz Leaders" and "Breakout" searches. Researchers studying the index over 45 weeks have found patterns that suggest a lot about Yahoo users' (and society's) interests and search practices.

The Most Useful Web Technologies

Revisiting Past Technologies ("On the Net"). Greg R. Notess. Online. January-February 2005.
Columnist Notess looks at the Web technologies (browsers, toolbars, bookmarklets and RSS) which have proven their value over the years.

Thunderbird: Firefox's E-mail Client

First look: Thunderbird 1.0 a winner. Dennis O'Reilly. Computerworld. December 30, 2004.
The author reviews the e-mail counterpart to the Firefox browser and finds it to be a realistic alternative to Outlook.

The Year Ahead for Gadgets

The Future in Your Pocket. Mark Ward. BBC News. January 3, 2005.
As technologies continue to converge, portable devices such as cell phones will be able to do even more.

Using the Internet to Search for the Missing

Web Search Following Tsunami Devastation. Matt Moore. AP (via The Star Online). January 3, 2005.
This article shows how modern technology, including blogs and cell phones, is being used to hunt for those lost in the wake of the tsunami that occurred on December 26.