36 Percent of Software Worldwide Pirated, Trade Group Says
I don't know how long newspapers will continue to publish the fabrications of organizations like the Business Software Alliance, but I wish they'd stop soon. Once again, for the record: the illegal use of a $100 software package does not represent a $100 loss to the company that produced it. More...

Hand Scanners to Keep Tabs on Students at Boca Middle School
The hand scanners will be used by teachers to take attendance. Though I don't really see how it really improves anything; my recollection of attendance is that it was over in a couple of minutes (in other words, more quickly than it will take a class of students to line up to have their hands scanned). More...

Private Sector Contributions to Achieving the Millennium Development Goals
Mauritius is just a dot - a group of dots, actually - in the Indian Ocean. More recently, it has become one of the international conference destinations of choice. It's warm, it's exotic, it's safe. And it is becoming more wired daily. More...

Enterprises Slow to Dump IE
In a story that most institutional readers can relate to, the use of Internet Explorer continues despite its critical security flaws because many enterprise systems depend on ActiveX and other Microsoft-specific features for functionality. More...

Bloglines Bows Redesign, Ad Model as RSS Heats Up
As the ClickZ article says, "RSS feed aggregator Bloglines has redesigned its interface and launched a blog creation tool, called Clip Blog." Bloglines allows you to create an account on its website and read RSS feeds; the blog tool is an obvious spin-off, as users of Radio Userland know. More...

France Telecom Develops an Integrated Flexible Screen to Display Animated Graphics on the Wearer
I'm not sure how this relates to online learning, but I'm sure it adds an entirely new dimension to the debates about inappropriate clothing that rage from time to time in schools. More...

Australian Government to Offer Guide to Open-Source
Not only cool, but useful. And reflective of an encouraging trend. More...

Pressure Mounts on Reed to Open Access to Science Work
This story follows the announcement by the number two company in the field, Springer, that it is moving to the open access model of journal distribution online. More...

WordPress Plugin: FOAF Output
The Semantic Social Network marches forward. This link is to a Friend of a Friend (FOAF) plugin for the open source blogging tool, WordPress. More...

Mapping BlogTalk 2.0
This is very cool - what you see is an interactive map of Vienna with various hot spots on it. Click on the hot spot and you are displayed a blog post with a comment, usually describing what may be found at the hot spot. Even better, if you click 'i' on the map you can also add your own information (at least in theory - I tried to add the location of the cybercafe in the city but it didn't take). More...