Invisible

Apple new logo

2011-10-06T08:42:00.001-07:00

This is created by onathan Mak, a college student from Hong Kong, he got a job offer because of this creation. see the link here.

Kenny G: Going Home

2011-06-18T04:44:00.000-07:00

Kenny G has created so much great music, here are some favorites:
Going Home

My Heart will Go On

How Can I Suppose to Live Without You

Screencast-O-Matic

2011-06-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

Screencast-O-Matic is a wonderful online free screencasting tool. It works directly from the browser, no installation needed!
Here is the quick demo video, which demonstrate the features of the tool and how to use it:

Screencast-O-Matic is one of 10 best Screencast recording tools. Click Here to see others

Morning Sun, A Documentary Film

2011-06-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

Here is the film website. there is a short video from PBS site; the whole film is now available in youtube. here is the part 1:

Love story by Andy Williams

2011-06-08T02:16:00.000-07:00

Theme song "where do I begin" from the great movie Love Story.

Yanni's music

2011-06-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

Yanni--another popuar pianist/musician in East Asia

Nightingale:
The concert took place in Forbidden City , Beijing China. The Beautiful Chinese flue was played by solo flautist Pedro Eustache. This Chinese flute (Dizi) was made of black jade which is different from bamboo or wooden flutes.

Within attraction (live at the Acropolis)

Playing by Heart:

Music by Richard Clyderman

2011-06-04T18:13:00.000-07:00

Some favorite music by Richard Clayderman (he is very popular in China and Asia)

Romeo and Juliet:

Love is Blue:

Four Seasons:

Weding D'amour

Love Story:

Blessing-by Jacky Cheung

2011-06-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

Blessing, one of my other favorites by Jacky Cheung:

Take me to your heart-English and Chinese versions

2011-06-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

Listen to English and Chinese versions of "Take Me To Your Heart"-have different feelings. rhythm are same, but the lyrics in Chinese version were completely rewritten with different meaning. The title of Chinese version is "kiss goodbye". Many Chinese would say it was a better version. Which one do you like?

English version:

Chinese version:

Poublic colleges face tough times after stimulus end

2010-09-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

"Most state governments depend on federal stimulus money to keep public colleges and universities afloat, a new report says. But these funds may be drying up as the new fiscal year begins". Thirty-nine states used stimulus money to support higher education in the past year. "it won't be long before stimulus dollars disappear for good, forcing state colleges and universities to raise tuition, cut enrollment, or lay off faculty". Read the whole article here
Another similar article on higher education budget cut

College in America-infographic

2010-09-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to look at these statistics: info graphic about college in America! Russian has the highest percentage of population with a college degree; 90% college students have cell phones, but didn't say what percentage of students has computers, iPhones, ipodTouchs; 66% of college students get financial help from parents,and so forth...

Cataloging matters podcast by Jim Weinheimer

2010-09-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

Here are Cataloging Matters, a series of podcasts about the future of libraries and cataloging by Jim Weinheimer. Looking forward to next ones.

Cloud Computing

2010-07-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

What is cloud computing? There are a lot of resources including videos out there explaining it. The following video focuses on explaining its advantages with a clear illustration:

but leave many questions unanswered.

New tools make online courses easier to access

2010-07-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

Florida Virtual Schools announced built-in text-to-speech reader and other tools will be be made available for online students. FLVS courses will be updated to include a toolbar with read-aloud functionality, as well as study skills tools, a dictionary, English to Spanish translation, and a research tool for conducting web searches on any selected word. The read-aloud functionality allows students to click on a sentence to hear the content read aloud. As students hear a word read aloud, the word is simultaneously highlighted on the screen. These new technology tools will benefit online students especially the students with learning challenges.

Secondary schools students want more online learning

2010-07-17T05:18:00.000-07:00

Despite a growing interest in online learning among students, the availability of online classes in K-12 schools and districts hasn’t kept pace with the demand, according to a new report from Project Tomorrow and Blackboard Inc. The key barriers to offering expanded access to online courses include: online learning was not a funding priority (22%); teachers are not comfortable using the tools (18 percent) or teaching online (17 percent), or are reluctant to try (14 percent); schools do not have the expertise to create online courses (14 percent). Read the article

20 Facebook tricks

2010-07-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

Not a devoted user of the Facebook, but find this article: 20 Facebook trick interesting!

The newer version of Firefox doesn't allow Youtube videos to be downloaded via RealPlayer

2010-07-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

If you updated a newer version of Firefox, you probable have noticed that the icon of "Download this video" on the up right of Youtube videos disappeared. You no longer be able to download youtube videos using RealPlayer. This happened several times once Firfox newer versions came out.

Here is solution I found from Internet search and it does work (credit goes to Hest):
step 1: type about:config in the address bar
step 2: in the filter box type dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll.
Step 3: change the value to false.
step 4: restart FireFox

New language learning systems target K-12 schools

2010-07-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

Recorded Books, a publisher of K-12 curriculum and independent producer of audio books, has teamed up with Transparent Language, a provider of language-learning software, to introduce three foreign language-learning systems for K-12 schools: Transparent Language Premium Edition, Byki Online for Education, and KidSpeak.

Each system uses multimedia technology to help students rapidly acquire language skills and enhance foreign language instruction in K-12 classrooms. Transparent Language Premium Edition offers instruction in 16 different languages. Byki Online for Education offers practice and feedback for more than 70 different languages, including seven different languages for ESL students. KidSpeak offers 11 different languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese. Know more about it here

State of Shock-by Michael Jackson

2010-06-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson's top 50 Billboard Hits

State of Shock was one of those hits

"At Last"-sang by Alice Tan Ridley at AGT

2010-06-16T13:09:00.000-07:00

A stunning performance at America's got talent this week by Alice Tan Ridley (Actress Gabby" Sidibe's mom) singing Etta James' "At Last"

Cheater

2010-06-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

When you browse Michael Jackson's Ultimate Collection, you will find some not that popular or well known but very good songs. Cheater is one of them. It is a demo (the video was made by a fan, vocal by Michael Jackson)

"You don't know me"

2010-06-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

One of the best performances in America's got talent: Michael Grimm's singing of "you don't know me"

Teacher Tube

2010-05-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

TeacherTube is a You Tube based tool designed for teachers that allow them to share educational resources such as video, audio, documents, photos, groups and blogs. "as of March 2010, TeacherTube has over 525,000+ educational members and over 200,000 educational videos (Wikipedia)" Under Channels, you can find News and journalism, college and university, high school, middle school, elementary school, student products and subject categories like world language, fine arts etc.

College for everyone?

2010-05-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

Experts say, instead of a four-year college, more Americans should consider other options such as technical training or two-year schools. The question is: Do too many students go to college? Opinions differ. Read the article and overwhelming reader comments.

Udemy-virtual learning and teaching tool

2010-05-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

So many online learning tools are available out there, Udemy seems an interesting one. Watch the introduction video.

Udemy provides the basic tools so anyone can create their own online course in minutes on any subject they like. Educators can upload presentations, videos, and write blog posts for their online course.
Udemy also enables instructors to engage with their users, providing participants with the ability to “subscribe” to courses so they are more engaged. They can also ask questions via the discussion boards and publish links and comments on course to Twitter and Facebook. One of the most compelling features of Udemy is the live virtual classroom, where instructors can host a live video conference with students using Udemy’s proprietary live video technology. Udemy Live has a whiteboard, presentation viewer, chatroom, and file-sharing component. Over 10 videos can stream on Udemy Live and 1000+ users can watch a session. Read more from TechCrunch

Google provides text to speak to more languages on Google translate

2010-05-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

Google provides text to speak to more languages on Google translate. Now the following languages were added: Afrikaans, Albanian, Catalan, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese and Welsh. The quality of sound for English and French is good, but Chinese sounds like a robot.
Click here to try out. type text in the box or upload a document, then select languages from translate from and into, click the sound icon beside the sentence to listen.

Time magazine lists 25 sites that you can't live without

2010-05-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

How many of these sites are essentials for you? 25 sites you can't live without.

Lala is shuting down

2010-05-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

Apple has announced that the service will be shut down on May 31st, 2010. Apple will not be accepting new users, and existing users will be able to log in only until the end of next month. A cloud-based iTunes.com replacement presumably will be lunched in summer.Read more at Tech Crunch

How college students spend their money

2010-05-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here is breakdown of average college student budget by tuition, room and board, discretionary spending and miscellaneous - and where their revenue comes from - along with their device ownership. Interesting data, though not sure if tuition & fees and room & board figures are accurate.

College students import text messaging habits into academic writing

2010-05-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

if you are a professor or an instructor, how do you react when you receive your students' email like this: 'wut up ya I cnt make it 2 clss lol' or when you read similar shorthand terms in students' papers. Read this interesting article about this seemingly serious issue.

Middlebury college aims online language program as a source of revnue

2010-05-09T08:06:00.000-07:00

Middlebury College, a small Vermont college known for its rigorous foreign-language programs, is forming a venture with a commercial entity to develop online language programs for pre-college students. The college plans to invest $4 million for a 40 percent stake in what will become Middlebury Interactive Languages. The goals of doing this: It will help more American students learn foreign languages, an area in which they lag far behind Europeans; and it will give Middlebury another source of revenue. The price of the language class will be about $100.

It takes 9 years to get a PhD in humanities?

2010-05-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

"Law students get a diploma in three years. Medical students receive an M.D. in four. But for graduate students in the humanities, it takes, on average, more than nine years to complete a degree. They could spend another nine years, or more, looking for a tenure-track teaching job at a college or university — without ever finding one." More from New York Times article

Come Together--new cover by crystal bowersox

2010-04-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

Listen to the newest cover version of Come together by American Idol front runner Crystal Bowersox , what do you think?

The state of the Internet

2010-03-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Watch this amazing video about the state of the Internet created by Jesse Thomas

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

Apple's new creation: iPad

2010-03-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

Apple's new device iPad will hit stores in April. Here is the iPad ad, Steve Jobs' keynote and product introduction. It is good at web browsing, email, reading e-books, watching movies, sharing photos etc. according to the information. It is not a general purpose computer. It is not a replacement of anything, it is something between, with "affordable" price of $499. Read here for device hardware specifications.

Friendship is simple, love is enough--Cross-species friendship

2010-03-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

There are two kinds of cross-species friendship: one is between human and animals such as pet-owner relationship; another is between animals of different species. People may think the friendship between these different animals impossible, but look at these adorable animals how friendly they are!

We are here to change the World

2010-03-27T04:47:00.000-07:00

"We are here to change the world" is one of two songs featured in Michael Jackson's Disney film "Captain EO" first released in 1987. The second song is "Another part of me", which is more popular because it was included in Jackson's Bad album while "we are here to change the world" appeared much later in "The Ultimate Collection" album (limited edition) in 2004. "Another part of me" was also included in the Moonwalker movie. Surprisingly the dance moves (including the Moonwalk) with "we are here to change the world" in captain EO are comparable to those in Thriller.

And Captain Eo returned to Disneyland on Feb. 2010.

Here is the part 2 of full version of Captain Eo, which includes these two songs.

Speed Demon

2010-03-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson never stops surprising people. Watched a short video of Speed Demon before but first time watched this longer version from the Jackson' movie Moonwalker. Children would love this mini cartoon, along with many other favorite parts in this movie. This film seemed overshadowed by other Jackson's hits after his death. It definitely is one of Jackson's fine works

"Come Together"--notable cover versions

2010-03-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

"Come together" was written by John Lennon and originally recorded and played by Beatles (1969-1972); American hard rock band Aerosmith performed one of the most successful cover versions of "Come Together" in 1978. Michael Jackson's cover version of "come together" was another successful one (in 1987?). Many other notable artists covered the song also such as Dianna Ross, Tina Turner, Elton John and more. This song became one of the most covered songs of all time.

Here are some most famous cover versions. Which one do you like it better?
By John Lennon/Beatles:

By Michael Jackson:

By Aerosmith/Steve Tyler

By Elton John

We Are The World: three versions so far

2010-03-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

Watch this new version of We are the World by not famous singers around the world, WOW

Here is the original version, the best one! This video is with each artist's name and lyrics, NICE!

We Are The World 25 for Haiti version, the one was much criticized artistically

Movie search engine-nanocrowd

2010-02-13T20:45:00.000-08:00

Have noticed Nanocrowd-a new movie search engine. It has some features that some people may like such as "movies most like" and "movies least like", "Mymovies" and others, but the search engine seems not working very well. for example, when search "break up" as title, it doesn't bring up anything, you have to type the way of spelling of the title-"the break-up". And the titles in the database are limited at this point. Mama Mia is not yet in the database. IMDb is a better choice.

U.S. High School Chinese speech contest

2010-01-21T12:06:00.000-08:00

So you think you can speak Chinese? The Confucius Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Boston is now organizing the 5th US High School Chinese Speech Contest. Here is the link where you can find more about the contest and past contest winners gallery.

Upload audio to blogger

2010-01-18T20:05:00.000-08:00

This is my test to upload an audio file to blogger. Thanks to Jane Nicholls's post providing instructions on how to do this. Basically you will need to use a video/audio host website such as edublogs.tv to upload your audio file, then copy the embed code, drop it to your blog post. Audacity is a good tool for making your own audio files or editing sound files. In addition to edublogs.tv, you can also use divshare.com

Koha ILS Newsletter

2010-01-16T18:25:00.000-08:00

Koha, a popular open source Integrated Library System (the first open source ILS), currently is used by about 663 libraries all over the world. It especially is favored by small libraries. The first issue of Koha ILS Newsletter was just released, as the official publication of Koha open source community, it reports events related to Koha, news from Koha libraries and technical information on the system.

National library of the Netherlands plans to digitize all publications of Dutch

2010-01-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

The National Library of the Netherlands has released its Strategic Plan 2010-2013 announcing that the library intends to ultimately "digitize all Dutch books, newspapers and periodicals from 1470." WOW

Barnes & Noble Textbook rental program

2010-01-11T19:41:00.000-08:00

Textbook rental market is getting hot. After Chegg (a start-up of textbook rental), Amazon, BookRenter.com, and several others, Barnes & Noble College now is rolling out a program that aims to students of 25 U.S. colleges. Students will be able to rent textbooks from their campus bookstores, online, or from Barnes & Noble stores on campus. Read more

Google Apologizes to Chinese Authors for Book Scanning

2010-01-11T18:59:00.000-08:00

Google has apologized to a Chinese authors' group over its scanning of books by local writers into google books. Google issued a statement and acknowledged that it had scanned books by Chinese writers and the company would no longer do so without local authors' permission. "Our communication with Chinese authors has not been good enough. Google is willing to apologize to Chinese authors for this behavior." Later on Monday a Google representative clarified that Google only apologized for its "poor communication" in dealing with Chinese authors, not for scanning books in China. And it has not stopped scanning books by Chinese authors. read the post by Tom Krazit

Chinese National Library becomes the third largest in the world

2010-01-10T04:26:00.000-08:00

The Chinese National library A new extension of the National Library of China opened to the public. Now it is the 3rd largest library in the world with more than 22 millions items, behind the French national library (30 million items) and library of Congress in the United Sates (140 million items). See pictures

How digitization democratizes knowledge

2010-01-02T21:41:00.000-08:00

An interesting article to read: How digitized contents democratizes knowledge by Mike Elgan. It is an exciting trend. It is happening though it might be a bumpy ride.

Michael Jackson Thriller named to U.S. film registry

2010-01-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

Michael Jackson's Thriller video was one of 25 films to be included for preservation in the 2009 National Film Registry of the Library of Congress-the world's largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings. It's the first music video named to the registry. The registry was established by the Congress in 1989. There are now total 525 films in the registry. The films were selected not as the "best" American films but instead for their enduring importance to U.S. culture. They have to be "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant to be selected. The public nominated the film titles, the library selected those that met the criteria by consulting with the National Film Preservation Board.

Google added music "one box" search feature

2009-12-29T06:32:00.000-08:00

You probably already used or are using this feature, but here is the official announcement from Google, and commentary news coverage from Matt McGee

However, it doesn't come out as "One Box" for some other musicians such as Michael Jackson. I was puzzled. If anybody knows please point out?

10 music technology trends next decade

2009-12-29T04:18:00.000-08:00

Matt Rosoff's article "10 music-tech trends that will shape the next decade" reminds people of the power of technology on music-both production and consumption. It is fresh and makes you THINK though you may not agree with all the trends listed in the article. Here are the ten trends the author summarized: songs instead of albums; streams instead of downloads; in the cloud rather than on hard drives; fidelity rather than file size (quality over file size); production rather than consumption (In another 10 years, everybody will be a musician--or at least a recording artist?); suggestions rather than searches (personalized services become more important than search); spectacle rather than personality (entertaining over singing and playing); festivals rather than big concerts; and so on

China author is suing Google for copyright infrigement

2009-12-29T03:44:00.000-08:00

Shanhai's "bad girl" author Mian Mian is suing Google for copyright infringement as Google scanned her book "Acid Lovers" into Google Book without her permission. Mian Mian is a controversial author in mainland China. Her novels “Candy” and “Panda Sex” are banned in China but remain popular in black market and overseas. She asks for an apology and RMB 61,000 ($8930, really moderate claim :-) in damages. Read more from CNN international.

A survey report on how college students seek information in digital age

2009-12-28T09:45:00.000-08:00

A survey report "How college students seek information in digital age" made available in Dec. 2009 by the Information School, University of Washington. The research project surveyed 2318 students of U.S. colleges in spring 2009 in the effort of understanding how students search for information and what strategies that use when they seek information. The research findings are listed in the report. One of them would surely disappoint librarians:
"Librarians were tremendously underutilized by students. Eight
out of 10 of the respondents reported rarely, if ever, turning to
librarians for help with course-related research assignments."

This is a valuable report, especially to the information professionals who bear responsibilities of information literacy instructions.

Here again: all digital?

2009-12-27T21:08:00.000-08:00

This is a constant topic: electronic or paper? Still "there is much to be said on both parties". Here is a debate about if libraries are going to be all digital? Some interesting comments "declared" that not only "All libraries will be closed", but also "All schools and universities will be closed within 30 years" !

China unvails a new world's fastest train

2009-12-26T12:11:00.000-08:00

China unveiled the fastest rail link service in the world on Saturday. The high-seed train connects the central city Wuhan with the southern economic hub Guangzhou at an average speed of 350 kilometres (217 miles) an hour. Traveling by train before from Wuhan to GuangZhou took about 10 hours, now it only takes 2 hours 40 min. "The train can go 394.2 kilometres per hour, it's the fastest train in operation in the world," Zhang Shuguang, head of the transport bureau at the railways ministry, told Xinhua. Xu Fangliang, general engineer in charge of designing the link, pointed out that the average for high-speed trains in Japan was 243 kilometres per hour while in France it was 277 kilometres per hour. It cost China 50 billion dollars and took 4 years to build this high-speed train. Chinese officials said they planned to build 42 high-speed lines by 2012.

A college Professor compares American students with ingternational students on their work ethic

2009-12-23T21:49:00.000-08:00

An article "My lazy American Students" by Kara Miller on Boston Globe sparked readers' controversial reviews. 500 comments poured in so far. The readers debated intensively about if foreign students are more diligent than American students. Some agree and think this is a problem, while others don't and a few even took offense at being called "lazy". In addition to work ethic, other issues covered in readers' comments including time management and student engagement and so on. The discussion about creativity vs. knowledge is pretty interesting one. I agree with some readers: creativity is built on knowledge. no knowledge, no creativity. Some readers think foreign students are more diligent but American students are more creative. if this is generally true, what is the reason behind this phenomenon? Maybe the Different education systems played roles?

A free tool to evaluate accesibilty of a website

2009-12-11T20:28:00.000-08:00

A tool called FAE-Functional Accessibility Evaluator, can evaluate the functional accessibility of a single web page or the entire website, the tool was created by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaing.

Mendeley: a free research management tool for researchers

2009-12-11T20:13:00.000-08:00

Mendeley, a web service that allows researchers to organize, discover and share their research papers. Read "how it works" from the site, it is amazing that how much you can do with it. The database now includes some 8 million works, according to wired Campus

Turn reading into listening

2009-12-11T19:40:00.000-08:00

California State University-Dominguez Hills library offers service that students can scan and convert their reading materials into MP3 files, and they can then download onto cellphones or other mobile devices. The report says "The speed of the scanning itself depends on the quality of the scanner, but the software, called Kurzweil 3000 to converts the scanned text into sound at a rate of three pages per second."

If it is worth for somebody to spend time scan and convert while can read at the same time. but it sounds interesting option. For some students it maybe a nice choice. Find out more about the Kurzweil 3000 and pricing

Amazon orffers textbook trade-in

2009-12-11T19:22:00.000-08:00

Amazon announced a textbook trade in program for students on Dec. 3. Students cam search the Amazon website for the book they want to trade to see if it is eligible to trade and how much credit it will get. And then students can print a pre-paid shipping label and drop the package in the mail. Once the book is received and verified by a third-party merchant, an Amazon.com gift card will be deposited into the student’s Amazon.com account. Read more. Students no longer need to line up to their books stores, but they can't get cash from Amazon.
Amazon claims that the program offers savings of up to 30 percent off the list price of more than 100,000 new textbooks and up to 90 percent off used textbooks.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports online education

2009-12-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $12.9-million to advance technology at community colleges, improving virtual learning environments for both students and teachers, according to Wired Campus. Here is how the dollars distributed.

Your gudie to music on the Web II

2009-11-29T20:54:00.000-08:00

Your guide to music on the web part I by Orli Yakuel covered covered music recommendation sites, Web radio, independent music sites, playlists, and music visualizations. Here is PART II that covers music search engines, Web players, ways to share music on Twitter, and music mixing apps. There are plenty of music wen search engines and players listed. Currently I am using lala and plenty others added by readers. What an amazing music world on the web!

Google Chrome OS

2009-11-22T20:03:00.000-08:00

Great public interest generated since Google announced Google Chrome OS in July 2009. Here is Google's logic about why we need Chrome OS:
"computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates." So Google "attempt to re-think what operating systems should be".
Here are some key pieces of information on Chrome OS:
"Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS".
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.
"Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010,"

Since it targets netbooks, not desktops or laptops, should Microsoft worry? Obvious yes, see how Bill Gates says about Chrome OS

You can read more about Chrome OS from10 things about Chrome OS

More Chinese students come to U. S.

2009-11-21T17:08:00.000-08:00

India is the number one country to send students to United States study. China is catching up however by sending 98,510 in 2008 with a 21 percent increase than the previous year. read more from New York Times.

List of all magazines in Google books now available

2009-11-06T18:43:00.000-08:00

A page added on Google Books that lets you browse all the available magazine titles. The page is Here
When click a magazine, there are options to search in the magazine or browse all issues. It's great that Google books put these magazines online. Now there are about 90 titles available, more titles will be added, for sure.

Michael Jackson Fan This Is It photo mosaic

2009-10-31T13:39:00.000-07:00

Check out Michael Jackson's This Is It Mosaic, which is entirely composed of MJ fans' pictures. Zoom in and then click and drag fan's image to move around.

Most of College Students To Take Classes Online by 2014

2009-10-31T12:45:00.000-07:00

Nearly 12 million post-secondary students in the United States take some or all of their classes online right now. But this number will skyrocket to more than 22 million in the next five years, according to data released recently by research firm Ambient Insight. Now about 1.25 million students in higher education programs take all of their classes online, while 10.65 million take some of their classes online. The students who take all of their courses in physical classrooms are 15.14 million as of 2009. However, this situation will change by 2014, according to the research, by 2014 only 5.14 million students will take all of their courses in a physical classroom, while 3.55 million will take all of their classes online, and 18.65 million will take some of their classes online.
Read the full article by David Nagel.

According to the data released by the same research firm, More than 2 million preK-12 students take some form of schooling online right now, the number will jump to more than 10 million by 2014.

Ghost

2009-10-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

Michale Jackson's Ghost movie is perfect for Halloween. Here is part of it.

here is the Scary and fun part

Watch the full version of Ghost, not high definition though.

Windows 7 released

2009-10-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Windows 7 released, a lot of reviews, critics and user comments around. Here is CNET's review, it seems positive. It says:"Windows 7 looks like the operating system that both Microsoft and its consumers have been waiting for. By fixing most of the perceived and real problems in Vista, Microsoft has laid the groundwork for the future of where Windows will go. Windows 7 presents a stable platform that can compete comfortably with OS X, while reassuring the world that Microsoft can still turn out a strong, useful operating system."

Here is useful piece of information from WIRED: "seven things should know before updating to Windows 7"

Keys make online teachers successful

2009-10-20T16:18:00.000-07:00

What are the qualities that help instructors succeed when teaching online? the article from eSchool news pointed out: Clarity, creativity, and compassion are key characteristics for online instructors

Cut fat by following Michael Jackson's moves

2009-10-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

Nobody sits without moving when watching Michael Jackson's music videos, so you may kill two birds with one stone--while enjoy the music and dance, cut your fat by following moves in the videos(If you don't hate Michael Jackson). Some complicated dance moves may be hard to follow like moon walk, but many moves we can imitate, not necessarily to be fancy, eloquently or fast. Many or almost all of Micheal Jackson's videos we can follow, like Thriller, Beat it, Bad, Billie Jean, Black or White, Who is it, Ghost and so on , and so on. You can watch and follow different videos, or just watch one of your favorites several times. Many of MJ's videos are classic videos, you won't get bored by watching them multiple times.

YouTube’s Bandwidth Bill Is Zero. Welcome to the New Net

2009-10-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

Read the interesting article: YouTube’s Bandwidth Bill Is Zero. Welcome to the New Net

"YouTube’s low or nonexistent bandwidth bill points to a very important shift in the structure of the internet, which is rapidly becoming much more complicated".

As ordinary internet users we may not be able to completely understand the net architecture and technology advances, and not even interested in the matrix of business operations like who pays whom, but we felt and saw the changes happening. We are already experiencing faster downloading :-)

A report of Two-Year Study of Global Internet Traffic Will Be Presented At NANOG47 meeting

Online learning and futue of higher education

2009-10-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

High costs maybe one of reasons that pushes students online. Read the article "the future of college may be virtual"

Today, a college education is more than twice as expensive as it was in the early 1990s, even after adjusting for inflation.

Colleges and universities already offer thousands of online courses to their registered students. According to one recent survey, nearly 4 million college students, more than 20 percent of all students, have taken at least one online course.

Online education is continually improving. It’s better now than it was 10 years ago. A study of 12 years of online teaching by SRI International on behalf of the US Department of Education concluded earlier this year that “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”

openculture.com, is a website that points visitors to free educational courses online

Fences: A free tool to organize your desktop icons

2009-10-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

Fences, a free program lets you organize your desktop icons into groups that you can show or hide with a double click. I am using it now and it's pretty handy. Watch the video to see how it works

Rare Chinese book to be digitized

2009-10-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

Harvard College Library and the National Library of China have agreed to digitize one of the largest collections of rare Chinese books - 51,000 volumes rare Chinese books at Harvard Yenching Library. It was a “multimillion-dollar’’ project and that the Chinese government is paying most expenses. Harvard staff will be responsible for capturing images of the fragile books, scrolls, and artifacts, one of the largest collections outside Asia, using high-tech cameras in its state-of-the-art lab at Widener Library. Once completed, these images dating as far back as the Song dynasty in 960 AD, will be publicly available for free on the Web to scholars in China and elsewhere. Read the Story from Boston Globe

nfb.ca

2009-10-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

Watch hundreds of films online at NFB.ca. Documentaries, animations and alternative dramas on the web, on your personalized home page, or on your iPhone. Free for personal use and on a subscription basis for schools and institutions.

Also, watch trailers, upcoming online releases and playlists.

Watch "They chose China"

Trooker-video search engine

2009-10-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

With Trooker, you can search various video sites including Youtube, Livevideo, Dailymotion, Myspace, CBC videos, and Crackle.

Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider's Michael Jackson medley video-Amazing

2009-10-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider's Michael Jackson medley video became a web hit. Sam Tsui performed, Kurt Schneider arranged a video of a medley of Michael Jackson songs six times over. The video is a seamless mash-up of Jackson songs including "Smooth Criminal," "Billie Jean," "I'll Be There," "Man in the Mirror", "Beat it" and "Thriller." Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider are students at Yale University.Kurt majors in mathematics.

Lexicool

2009-09-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

Lexicool provides a searchable directory to over 7000 freely available online bilingual and multilingual dictionaries and glossaries. Searches may be entered by language(s), subject, or title/keyword. The site also provides a directory of translation and interpreting courses, a listing of translator and interpreter associations worldwide, language resources, freeware to download and links to sites for currency conversion, text analysis and language identification. Language-related software and products may be purchased at the website. It is a resource intended for translators, linguists, language students and all those interested in foreign languages.

National Gardening Association web site

2009-09-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

The National Gardening Association (NGA) offers a wide array of useful gardening content for consumers and educators. Gardeners can consult the weed and pest libraries, food gardening and plant care guides, regional reports, and how-to articles. They can also browse the useful Q and A database and the buyer’s guide. The most impressive feature is the NGA Plant Finder, searchable by plant type, hardiness, light, flower color, and more. In addition, there is a special “Kids Gardening” section loaded with activities and classroom projects. For those who prefer to view gardens rather than dig in the dirt, there is a public garden locator.

Google's one box, plus box, 10 pack and direct answer

2009-09-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

Google’s “normal” listings show the title of a web page, a description of it (also called a “snippet”) and the web page’s URL. However, Google also has other listings that appear within search results that are designed to give access to some of its specialized search tools (such as news search), to allow more information to be shown than a standard answer provides or to show answers directly within the search page. Read details from Danny Sullivan's article

How to moon walk like Michael Jackson

2009-09-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

A step-by-step video to teach you how to moon walk like Michael Jackson.

Google's 11th birthday

2009-09-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Google has a special logo up on September 27, 2009 to celebrate their eleventh birthday.

Here is Google's 10th birthday logo.

Academic Libraries of future

2009-09-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

The university library of the future will be sparsely staffed, highly decentralized, and have a physical plant consisting of little more than special collections and study areas. That's what Daniel Greenstein, vice provost for academic planning and programs at the University of California System said to librarians at Baruch College of City University of New York, where the higher education technology group Ithaka held a meeting to discuss "sustainable scholarship. The point of view certainly ignited debate on this very issue. Read Inside High Ed article and posted comments

What's new in Picasa 3.5

2009-09-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

Google has released version 3.5 of Picasa. One of the new features of Picasa 3.5 is facial recognition. look at th evideo for details.

Stupid fun-how a college library is used

2009-09-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

How a college library is used by Maxim.com

Legislation to keep Philadelphia libraries open passed

2009-09-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Recent news about Philadelphia libraries. Pennsylvania State senate passed the legislation that was needed for the City of Philadelphia to avoid the layoff of 3,000 city employees and forced the closing of all libraries.

Microsoft Bing's visial search

2009-09-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

Neck and neck with Google's fast flip, Bing launches new visual search. You have to install silverlight to be able to use visual search. Click here to read people's comments about it.

Google's Fast Flip

2009-09-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

Google is developing a product called Fast Flip that aims to make it simpler and faster to browse through news articles on the Web. According to Google, fast Flip lets readers glance at pages and browse through them quickly without having to wait for multiple page elements to load, which can significantly slow the rendering of articles, especially if they have multimedia content.Google's announcement and More about the Fast flip

Philadelphia is Closing All Of Its Libraries

2009-09-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

Sad news: Philadelphia is Closing All Of Its Libraries. Here is the statement

Make History: 9/11 digital archives

2009-09-12T14:04:00.000-07:00

The National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center has issued a world-wide invitation for the public to submit media related to the 9/11 events through a new online initiative “Make History", which will will become a permanent digital archive and help build an interactive, mapped time line of events on the web.

Hard Times Resource Guide

2009-09-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

Washington State Library complied a good resource-Hard times resource guide- to help people in a tough economy.

China's BYD to bring electric cars to U.S. in 2010

2009-09-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

Chinese auto company BYD, one of the front-runners in making electric cars, plans to bring an all-electric sedan in small numbers to the U.S. next year. Buffet invested $230 million in BYD. BYD reported standing for "Build Your Dreams". The founder of BYD Wang Chuan-Fu is heroic figure in China. Wang Chuanfu started the company in 1995 when he was 29 years old, first made mobile phone batteries then expanded into car manufacturing. He once drank battery fluid to prove that the company has developed a nontoxic electrolyte fluid. Here is CNN's report on Wang's dream. And More

Centuries of Citizenship: A Constitutional Timeline

2009-09-06T20:56:00.000-07:00

Awesome resources- Centuries of Citizenship: A Constitutional Timeline is an online experience highlighting some of the key dates and events that mark more than 200 years of our constitutional history. Visitors can browse through a collection of stories and headlines -- annotated by images, audio and video clips and interactive content -- to explore some of the people, events and issues that have shaped the Constitution and the history of our nation.

Tiago Hoisel's creative digital paintings

2009-09-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

Look at Tiago Hoisel's (Brazilian) cartoon characters of living beings.

More amazing illustrations

Mexico gave biggest tribute to Michael Jackson

2009-09-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

Fourteen thousand people danced MJ's Thriller on his birthday in Mexico, which reported beat the Guinness Book of World Records for “The Most People to Dance to ‘Thriller’ at once.”

Tablet: Next Apple Surprise?

2009-08-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

Rumors about Apple tablet have been swirling for a while on the Internet. It looks like the story was not coming out of thin air. Here are some speculations on Apple tablet:
Release date-September or early 2010? Screen size, capability-10, 12 or 13 inch, it will be a Amazon Kindle killer? Cost-$600? Even how it looks like
Read most recent post on the rumor"Steve Jobs new trick: Apple tablet"

Tablet will be another exciting Apple magic? Let's wait and see.

Google logo remembers Michael Jackson's birth day

2009-08-29T21:52:00.000-07:00

Google celebrated Michael Jackson's birthday by putting up a logo for him today. Other search engines yahoo, Bing or Ask.com didn't pay tribute to MJ by doing this. Google's action certainly pleased MJ's millions fans around the world (some people have different opinions on this, of course). But the logo LOOKS cute, doesn't it?

Other famous people Google did logos for including: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky(1882-1971), Russian composer, pianist, and conductor; Diego Rodríguez (1599-1660), Spanish painter; Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007), Italian operatic tenor; Hans Christian Ørsted (1777–1851), Danish physicist and chemist and more...

Apple has signed a deal with China Unicom to bring the iPhone to mainland China

2009-08-28T20:42:00.000-07:00

Suppose this is big news for Apple: Chinese telecom giant China Unicom has just officially announced that it has reached a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in China.
China has 700 million mobile phone users, the biggest in the world (US: around 270 million). China Unicom is the second largest mobile provider in China, behind China Mobile. It has has over 140 million cell subscribers in China, making it the third largest mobile provider in the world. (AT&T has around 78 million). So If Apple can capture a significant percentage of the China Unicom subscribers, and possibly pull in some from other carriers, that will mean huge for Apple.

Here is the announcement in Chinese, which indicated that both 3G and 3GS will be shipped to China