The NOSE

Running in the Dark

I am relatively new to "serious" running. I have been an off-again, on-again runner for many years. Winter months pose a special challenge for runners, because in addition to confronting the cold weather we also have to contend with running in the dark.

After some research I purchased a Petzl headlamp (Petzl E47P Tikka Plus) and have been quite pleased with the results. I run twice a week at night with a running club. And while I might not be the fastest runner out there I am now certainly among the brightest. The Petzl headlamp is bright and light. It's illuminated by four super-bright LEDs which together provide a very focused beam. I hardly notice the weight even if I do look like a machine-head. I also use the tilt adjustment quite a bit to focus the beam up and down at different parts of the trail.

If you are a runner who needs illumination, consider the Petzl Tikka Plus.

Amazing!: Webcast.Berkeley

UC Berkeley is making available a significant number of lectures in the form of a webcast/podcast through webcast.berkeley.  The recordings were aimed originally for Berkeley students to help them review key concepts and to study before exams. We have to commend though the visionaries and the faculty at UC Berkeley for making the lectures available to the world freely as open content.

The list of courses is amazing. Whether you want to brush up on general astronomy or listen in on the western civilization class you missed in college, this is a great resource. Thank you MIT for Open CourseWare. Thank you UC Berkeley for webcast.berkeley. Where are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, ....?

Network World Covers Blackboard Patent

This week's Network World provides coverage of the Blackboard patent case in "Software patent ignites firestorm in higher education."

A notable quote by Lev Gonick, CIO at Case Western Reserve: “Blackboard is going to get a very rude wake-up call when they realize that while they are a commercial vendor, with all the attendant rights, they also have obligations to the higher education community, which are unlike [those of] a faceless, corporate, software platform company."

From Web 2.0 to Web 3.0

As reported in the NY Times ("Entrepreneurs See a Web Guided by Common Sense"), entrepreneurs are beginning to focus on the next step in the evolution of internet technology, or what is being described as the shift from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 technologies.

"The classic example of the Web 2.0 era is the “mash-up” — for example, connecting a rental-housing Web site with Google Maps to create a new, more useful service that automatically shows the location of each rental listing."

Web 3.0 is based on the semantic web and will use artificial intelligence and data mining. It will allow users to get a reasonable answer to simple questions such as: 

“I’m looking for a warm place to vacation and I have a budget of $3,000. Oh, and I have an 11-year-old child.”

Web 3.0 is coming and much sooner than one might think.

Ken Udas Joins the Blogosphere

Ken Udas, Executive Director of Penn State's World Campus, has started a blog (Terra Incognita) on online education. You won't want to miss it, if you are interested in e-learning. Ken is a visionary pragmatist. I am looking forward to reading his contributions.