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Domain: digitaldivide.net
Stories and comments across the archive that link to digitaldivide.net.
Stories · 9
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Controlling Hurricanes?
Phil Shapiro writes "With the cost of hurricane Katrina running as high as $100 billion, the thought of trying to control the severity of hurricanes should be mulled. Dissipating the energy of hurricanes as they're forming might be within the range of the feasible. Scientific American tackles this topic in an article last year, as does this crank. (I admit the crank is me.) Is this type of thing feasible, or is it best not even tried at all?" -
Mambo Changes its Name to Joomla!
Phil Shapiro writes "The popular open source content management system named Mambo has changed its name to Joomla! -- released under the GNU Public License. Some of the reasons for the name change are explained at MamboPortal.com. Joomla! is used by a very wide array of organizations and companies." -
Wink Chosen to Receive Noble Piece Prize
Phil Shapiro writes "Wink, a beautifully written free program for creating Flash-format animated tutorials has been chosen to receive a Noble Piece Prize, the prize that honors the craftsmanship of Alfred Noble, who worked at the Jacquard Loom factory in France. Previous winners of this prize include the Digital Bicycle web site." -
How to Spackle and Plaster a Black Hole
Phil Shapiro writes "With the recent reports about a lab-made black hole, it's useful to go over the directions of how to spackle and plaster a black hole. You can complete such projects in one weekend, but you wouldn't want to spackle and plaster a black hole every weekend." -
ALA President Not Fond of Bloggers
Phil Shapiro writes "American Library Association president Michael Gorman is not too fond of bloggers and blogging. '[The] Blog People (or their subclass who are interested in computers and the glorification of information) have a fanatical belief in the transforming power of digitization and a consequent horror of, and contempt for, heretics who do not share that belief... Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs.'" -
Writing Fiction Using SubEthaEdit
Phil Shapiro writes "The recent blizzard on the East Coast makes for some great collaborative creativity opportunities of various sorts, including group fiction writing using SubEthaEdit. Did you know you can write fiction about collaborative fiction writing using collaborative fiction writing tools? We didn't either." Man, the best fiction I've ever produced is some of the project plans created using SubEtha. -
IT and Natural Disasters
rikomatic writes "The Asian tsunami in December has dramatically shown how much SMS, email and the web are now indispensible parts of disaster recovery. The folks at the Digital Divide Network have organized a virtual conference on 'How New Media and the Internet are Reshaping Tsunami Relief Efforts' on Wednesday, Jan 12 at 10am, EST. Among the featured speakers will be Dina Mehta, co-founder of the Southeast Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog. In the hours following the tsunami, she and a group of South Asian bloggers created the volunteer-driven web portal for tsunami relief news and resources. Beyond using IT to coordinate post-disaster relief efforts, early warning is another critical need. Hopefully the UN's World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan later this month will address the IT infrastructure needed to make sure that people get advance warning before the next natural disaster strikes." -
IT and Natural Disasters
rikomatic writes "The Asian tsunami in December has dramatically shown how much SMS, email and the web are now indispensible parts of disaster recovery. The folks at the Digital Divide Network have organized a virtual conference on 'How New Media and the Internet are Reshaping Tsunami Relief Efforts' on Wednesday, Jan 12 at 10am, EST. Among the featured speakers will be Dina Mehta, co-founder of the Southeast Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog. In the hours following the tsunami, she and a group of South Asian bloggers created the volunteer-driven web portal for tsunami relief news and resources. Beyond using IT to coordinate post-disaster relief efforts, early warning is another critical need. Hopefully the UN's World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan later this month will address the IT infrastructure needed to make sure that people get advance warning before the next natural disaster strikes." -
National Organizations Doing Technology Outreach?
Phil Shapiro asks: "My neighborhood church has a Technology Mission comprised of volunteers doing computer support work for various good causes in the community. The folks in this mission are interested in being in touch with others doing similar kinds of volunteer work in other places. Does anyone know of national organizations doing technology outreach work of this kind?"