EP Topic News: 30th January 2003EP Topic News: 30th January 2003
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Due to the proliferation of conference announcements and calls for papers that we have been receiving in recent weeks we have decided to publish a page on El.pub dedicated to events. This events page enables us to highlight those events that may be of particular interest to El.pub readers. It will enable us to provide additional information of use to our readers including:
• calls for papers;
• calls for other forms of active participation such as project presentations or consortium building requests;
• details of European Commission supported Information days;
• project-supported events and concertation meetings.We will continue to publish the more complete chronological lists of events on two additional pages of the site:
• Conferences Europe, 2003 Onwards, see: base05.htm
• Conferences outside Europe, 2003 Onwards, see: connone.htmIn addition we publish a complete list of events run by the INFORM project (the editors of El.pub), along with papers, slides and reports published during or following the event on the "Downloadable studies, event papers and reports" page, see: base08.htm
Weekly additions to the new events page will be highlighted in El.pub Weekly.
URL: Events News and Resources on El.pub events.htm
eBooks123.Com is described by its publisher as a collection of: "the best books in e-format". The site lists a full range of electronic books on subjects ranging from: architecture and computing to sports and technology.
Further evidence of the growth in higher capacity portable storage is provided by the launch of a HDD 60GB Portable Hard Drive from Iomega. The portable hard drive is primarily being promoted to mobile users and includes software designed to enable back-up protection for desktops of both applications and data.
URL: Iomega http://www.iomega.com/
First 4 Internet (F4i) a UK-based developer has launched of its Extended Copy Protection (XCP) technology - which aims to provide an "end-to-end solution to protect the rights of record labels and artists against the unauthorised copying of CD content". Available in two formats, XCP1 "Burn Protect" for CDR pre-release production and XCP2 "Press Protect". XCP is deployed using F4i's Aurora software program and is available in three complementary versions:
• Aurora Professional edition is the complete solution designed for the recording, distribution and manufacturing of commercial music.
• Aurora Home provides the amateur or semi professional musician with the ability to record and distribute their music on copy protected CDR (CD-ROM) or CDRW (CD-Rewriter) media.
• Aurora Online enables the secure transfer of protected content across networks and the Internet, so that music may only be played and copied to CDR or CDRW through the use of a client end Aurora burning application.
DOM Level 2 HTML was approved as a W3C Recommendation on January 9, 2003. Further information from the W3C web site.
Free trial downloads of emerging IBM technologies are available via the company's alphaWorks web site. Of potential interest to El.pub readers are:
• Web Performance Tools, a set of applications that allow stress-testing of a web server, a web site, and/or a web application. The two current applications are stress, a high-performance, simple, threaded HTTP engine and record, a simple eavesdropping proxy that records a user's session against a web server for later playback. Learn more and download a free trial version via the link.
URL: http://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/tech/wptools?open&l=TS011603,t=awfl
• XML Registry, a data management system that manages and provides services for XML artifacts, including schemas (DTD, XSD), stylesheets (XSL) and instance documents (WSDL, WSFL, XML). New features enable registering, storing, and managing of XML artifacts such as DTDs, schemas, and style sheets.
URL: http://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/tech/xrr?open&l=LT011603,t=awfl
You can subscribe to a free email service, alphaWorks Flash, which updates you on the latest releases at the site.
Library Link Newsletter for January 2003 is available online and includes viewpoint articles which consider:
• the ongoing "battle" between academic librarians and the commercial learned journal publishers;
• the management issues relating to distance education and library/information services;
• the use of wireless computers in libraries.There are also the monthly collection of free articles, press releases concerned with library technology, news on forthcoming events and a book review section.
Australian developer, Wattle Software, has announced the release 2.0 of XMLwriter its XML editor for Windows. Priced at US$ 79, the software apparently includes a number of new features including: entry helpers to assist in composing valid XML documents; customizable code snippets to eliminate repetitive typing for often used text; auto-completion of XML tag pairs. The software also provides "full support for W3C XML Schemas including validation, conversion to and from DTD and generating sample XML data from an XSD Schema". XMLwriter is written in C++, and a free, fully-functional thirty-day evaluation version is available for download.
As a virus attack on Microsoft web servers worldwide made headline national news in the UK last week, it is perhaps an apposite time to report on the January 2003 Netcraft Web Server Survey which is published online. The survey confirms that Apache remains the dominant web server with reportedly over 66 per cent of "active" sites worldwide running the software. Just under 25 per cent of "active" web servers reportedly run Microsoft software. Netcraft send out a free monthly summary of web server implementations worldwide and analysis of trends.
The Intel Technology Journal, available in .pdf format, is a quarterly journal which considers the developments in computing and communications technologies. The coverage is technology oriented and each issue tends to focus on a theme. The most recent edition (November 2002) concentrates on the "Digital Home". There is an online archive available. (Source: The Scout Report)
URL: http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/index.htm
URL: The Scout Report http://scout.wisc.edu/
The CRA Bulletin of January 17, 2003 includes a news item: "R&D Spending Expected to Rise in 2003 - according to R&D Forecast, an annual study conducted by Battelle and R&D Magazine, total R&D expenditures in the United States are expected to increase about 3.4 percent to nearly $302 billion in 2003. Unlike in previous years, little of this increase will be due to industrial spending". There is further information on the CRA web site.
The Computing Research Association's electronic bulletin, available as a free email service, provides a news digest for computing researchers.
URL: Jan. 17 CRA Bulletin http://www.cra.org/bulletin/2003/1.17.html#rd
URL: CRA Bulletin http://www.cra.org/cra-bulletin/
URL: Battelle news release http://www.battelle.org/news/03/01-02-03_RDFunding.stm
MarketingFix.com is a web site which aims to provide a resource for those working in Internet marketing and media. The site is described as a collaborative weblog which aggregates stories from other publications. Updated daily the blog is enhanced with brief comments in an attempt to put the clips into context. The site uses the rather amusing tag line: "Independent e-marketing news (until we sell out)" - a useful blog for those interested in the subject.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has issued Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 and Mobile SVG Profiles as W3C Recommendations. The SVG 1.1 Recommendation is broadly similar to its predecessor SVG 1.0 though the single large DTD used in defining SVG 1.0 has been replaced by a "modular DTD" enabling the separation of SVG capabilities into reusable building blocks. For example SVG Mobile re-combines these "building blocks" in a way optimised for mobile devices. Further information is available from the W3C web site. The SVG working group has also published a roadmap for future work on developing the standard.
URL: SVG http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/Overview.htm8
URL: W3C http://www.w3.org/
XML.com have a feature article in which the author introduces XFML (eXtensible Faceted Metadata Language). XFML, a lightweight and easy to understand XML language for sharing faceted metadata, is an attempt to address some developers' metadata requirements without having to resort to RDF or Topic Maps.
URL: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/01/22/xfml.html
The issue also includes:
• "Excel Reports with Apache Cocoon and POI", in which the author shows how to generate real-time reports for Microsoft Excel, using the Apache Java projects Cocoon and POI.
URL: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/01/22/cocoon-excel.html
• the latest XML news from the XML Cover Pages by Robin Cover, including the following items: SMS Forum releases draft for the Mobile Message Access Protocol Specification (MMAP); Sun ONE Identity Server 6.0 supports Liberty Alliance and SAML Specifications; W3C creates Web Services Choreography Working Group.
XMLSPY 5, the latest version, is available for free trial download. Among the new features claimed for the software by its developers:
• improved support for building Microsoft .NET applications through Microsoft C# code generation.
• enhanced support for Oracle XML DB.
• additional web services support through a Web Service Description Language (WSDL) Documentation generation utility.
• PDF support for document publishing.
• Java integration support.
The January 2003 issue of The Safer Internet Newsletter, published by the European Commission's Safer Internet programme, has been published online. It reports that a new portal for the Commission sponsored awareness project: "EDUCAUNET" has been opened. The web site for ongoing critical approach of the Inter• net risks project was launched. This web site will be regularly updated with news, contents and materials for awareness.
URL: Safer Internet Newsletter http://www.saferinternet.org
URL: EDUCAUNET http://www.educaunet.org
XML Global Technologies have released GoXML Messaging 3.0 which it describes as "a secure and reliable SOAP-based messaging system that supports the industry standard ebXML Messaging Specification 2.0". ebXML is a suite of e-business standards sponsored by OASIS and the UN/CEFACT which has its foundation in what was originally termed electronic data interchange (EDI).
The European Library (TEL) is a European Commission supported project, which aims to share knowledge and standards, combining the resources of some of Europe's national libraries thereby establishing the concept of "a single European Library" in the future. The project has published:
• report on The European Library concertation workshop at the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) conference in Florence, October 14, 2002;
• the first version of the TEL metadata application profile;
• report on The European Library workshop on "Digital deposit: libraries and publishers reaching agreement".URL: The European Library http://www.europeanlibrary.org
The European Commission is seeking to improve the quality of its CORDIS R&D information service. Work is currently nearing completion on a major re-organisation of the way the CORDIS data is stored and retrieved. The developers are hoping that this "will pave the way for significant improvements in the speed and 'agility' of the service, and open up new options for extended and more sophisticated services".
CORDIS is keen to identify a representative panel of regular CORDIS users who would be willing to act as voluntary testers of the new structure before it is made public. If you are interested in acting as a "beta tester" for this new structure, please send your name and contact details to the email listed below. The launch of the test period is planned for mid-February.
Email: mailto:qa@cordis.lu
URL: CORDIS http://www.cordis.lu
MusicTank, a web site developed by the University of Westminster, UK is described as a "knowledge and information resource for the professional development of UK musicians and music entrepreneurs". MusicTank a collaborative, not for profit project, is keen to hear from any organisations wishing to be involved in its activities such as contributing articles and papers promoting professional skills, best practice and industry knowledge, providing speakers at MusicTank seminars and courses or sponsoring MusicTank events.
An article on Slashdot.org (Jan. 5, 2003) reports that: "Bruce Perens has convinced Prentice Hall to publish a series of books under an Open Source license. The 'Bruce Perens' Open Source Series' will be available first as hardcopy in bookshops, and the Open Source text will be available electronically a few months later." (Source: Slashdot.org)
During his keynote address at the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the US, Bill Gates, unveiled the first prototype of Microsoft's portable media player (PMP), based on the device platform code-named "Media2Go." "Media2Go" devices are handheld personal media players for downloading, storing and play back of digital media content including video, music and photos. Microsoft is working with Intel, whose work on the personal video player (PVP) led to jointly delivering the first "Media2Go" hardware reference design developed on the Intel XScale-based processors. According to Microsoft a number of consumer electronics companies, including Samsung, ViewSonic, SANYO, and iRiver are planning to deliver a variety of PMP devices based on "Media2Go" towards the end of 2003.
The devices are expected to support Windows Media Audio, Windows Media Video and MP3 formats and have 20 GB of hard disk storage. A technology called Sync & Go being developed for the Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition for Windows XP should enable users of PCs to download digital content from PCs to a "Media2Go" device using connections such as USB and IEEE-1394.
Lindows.com, Inc. has licensed a core set of delta-hinted fonts for its LindowsOS. The license agreement also includes a set of more than 50 high-quality display and text fonts from Bitstream. Bitstream was one of the original digital font foundries, and runs MyFonts.com, a web site for finding, trying, and buying fonts on line.
URL: Lindows.com http://www.lindows.com/
URL: Bitstream fonts in LindowsOS http://www.lindows.com/deluxefonts
URL: MyFonts.com http://www.myfonts.com/
URL: Bitstream http://www.bitstream.com/
UK management is now suffering acute stress from "Information Overload", according to a survey of senior IT managers conducted by the British Computer Society (BCS). In particular, managers complain of being deluged by e-mail that demands a daily average of two hours of executive time; particularly frustrating is that nearly a third of e-mail received they deem to be irrelevant and much is rated of poor quality. the findings are published in a report entitled: "Information Overload: Organisation and Personal Strategies", researched by the BCS and Henley Management College.
URL: BCS http://www1.bcs.org.uk/
URL: Henley Management College http://www.henleymc.ac.uk/
| About topic news We publish topic news occasionally with a separate page for each update, ensuring that links to our email alerter service continue to remain current. |
El.pub News A free email alerter of the latest news items and associated URLs |
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