The Chinese government unexpectedly lifted its block of the English version of Wikipedia, though users inside China still cannot access the Chinese-language version of the site. China is widely known for censoring content it deems inflammatory, such as discussions of human rights in the country or events such as those in Tiananmen Square in 1989. […]

My sister Rene got married today. The Ceremony was performed by my Uncle Terry. Renee has been with her new husband Richard Pasak for a couple of years now. They purchased a house in the Cloverdale part of Surrey and live their with Rick’s son Ryan from his first marriage. Their […]

As the price of college textbooks continues to rise–at twice the rate of inflation over the past 20 years–faculty and students are seeking alternatives to traditional texts. For some students, that alternative is simply not buying all of the materials for their courses, according to the National Association of College Stores Foundation, which estimates that […]

Nicholas Negroponte’s nonprofit organization, One Laptop per Child, has reached an agreement with the government of Libya to provide a laptop for each of the country’s 1.2 million schoolchildren.
Negroponte said that Libya could become the first nation to supply all schoolchildren with computers, noting that “the U.S. and Singapore are not even close.” Libya’s relations […]

The Campus Computing Project has released results from its annual survey of colleges and universities about information technology on campus. According to this year’s results, a majority of U.S.
classrooms now have wireless Internet access, up from 43 percent last year. Wireless access in homes is increasingly common, and Kenneth C.
Green, director of the Campus Computing […]

The Literacy Project, a portal to connect literacy organizations around the world, was announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. It was created in a collaboration among Google, the Frankfurt Book Fair literacy campaign, and UNESCO’s Institute for Lifelong Learning.
Google’s new online service lets teachers, organizations, and people interested in literacy use the Internet […]

Microsoft has embedded antipiracy technology in Windows Vista that locks a PC if the operating system isn’t activated using a legitimate product registration key within 30 days of installation. The system will run with reduced functionality until activated. The technology is part of Microsoft’s new Software Protection Platform and will be part of future versions […]

Finnish cell-phone maker Nokia has introduced Wibree technology, which ties low-power devices such as sensors into a personal network that also includes Bluetooth-connected devices such as cell phones.
According to Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, “Wibree consists of a small extension to a standard Bluetooth radio.” Nokia, however, insists that Wibree […]

Funded by a $2.4 million grant over three years from the Department of Homeland Security, a group of major universities including Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Utah is developing software to monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in foreign news media. Researchers plan to test the system […]

Three Russian hackers who extorted up to $4 million from online bookmakers and casinos in the United Kingdom alone, with 54 similar attacks across 30 countries during six months, have each been sentenced to eight years in prison and fined $3,700. The trio were arrested following a joint investigation by the U.K.’s National High Tech […]