Thursday, March 03, 2005

OrangeGuava

OrangeGuava is focused on allowing people to get their work done without needing to think like a computer.

OrangeGuava Desktop updates the desktop metaphor which has remained mostly unchanged for the past decade. A real world desktop has stacks of paper arranged informally in such a way that you always know where to find a piece of information, simply by knowing which side of the desk you always put that kind of information. This is combined with the functionality of a large pad of paper, to take notes in a similarly informal structure. http://www.orangeguava.com/

Edward Felten, The Freedom to Tinker

Viola Huang. Fighting for the 'freedom to tinker,' Daily Princetonian, March 1, 2005 writes:

"The world is an imperfect place, and Edward Felten likes to tinker with it.

"In December, Felten released the world's smallest peer-to-peer file-sharing program — 15 lines of code he named tinyP2P — to prove that such programs could not easily be banned. Felten wrote tinyP2P with his graduate student Alex Halderman '03.

"It isn't the first time the duo has caught the eye of the media. In 2003, Halderman discovered a way to bypass the copy-protection technique in CDs by pressing the Shift key. He was soon threatened with a lawsuit.

"For Felten, the opportunity to work with students like Halderman is what keeps him in the classroom. Felten finds that teaching enhances his ability to do his security research.

"Students are part of the key," he said. "If you're in the technology field and want to stay current, you need to have people around who know about the latest things . . . This is one of the big benefits of being at a university — there's always a constant stream of smart students coming through."

"Felten speaks out through a daily blog, http://freedom-to-tinker.com, which he started to advocate "freedom of ordinary users to adapt technologies to their cause."

[1] Viola Huang. Fighting for the 'freedom to tinker,' Daily Princetonian, March 1, 2005. http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/03/01/news/12196.shtml

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

connotea : online collaboration

Connotea is a free online reference management service for scientists created by Nature Publishing Group.

Connotea stores your reference list online, and that provides many advantages: it's readily accessible, it's linked directly into the literature and it's easily shared with colleagues. Opening your references to other researchers enables you to discover new leads by connecting to the collections of those with similar interests to you.