Hewie's Views and Reviews
By Hewie Poplock

Welcome to this issue of Hewie's Views & Reviews. Be sure to visit Hewie's Favorites at http://www.hewie.net/ . Hewie's Quick Thoughts appear almost daily at http://www.hewie.net/weblog/ .

In this issue :

++++ Virtual School
++++ Nine Out Of Ten Kids Use Computers
++++ Amazon Debuts New Book Search Tool
++++ Copyright Law Exemptions Nixed
++++ New additions to Hewie's Favorites

December, 2003

++++ Virtual School

Florida's Virtual School has become the model for online high schools nationwide. Started in 1997, the program has grown to serve about 7,000 students, who will take roughly 28,000 classes this year. Online high schools are a fast-growing trend, particularly in Florida, where the state's virtual school is a model for others throughout the country.

More than 70 percent of all virtual learning students attend high school, taking online classes as a complement to their regular courses. About 20 percent of online students are home schooled. The rest attend private schools. About 15 percent of virtual students take all their classes online.

++++ Nine Out Of Ten Kids Use Computers

Speaking of schools, according to AP News, about 90% of U.S. children ages 5 to 17 use computers and 59% of them use the Internet, according to two new studies released by the U.S. Department of Education. The new data also show that 99% of public schools now have Internet access, up from 35% eight years ago. "Children are often the first adopters of a lot of technology," says John Bailey, who oversees educational technology for the federal agency. "…

Almost 75% use the Net for help in school assignments and more than half use it for e-mail, IM-ing or playing games. I have read articles about first through third graders preparing PowerPoint presentations. That is a lot different than my elementary school experience.

++++ Amazon Debuts New Book Search Tool

"Search Inside the Book" allows you to search the full-text of more than 33 million pages from over 120,000 printed books.

Access to the full-text of 120,000 titles has enormous research and reference value. But, of course, Amazon's primary motivation for offering this service is to sell books.

Scanned books are fully browseable. You can move forward or backwards one page at a time using links above the page image. The original concept has changed in the first weeks of the service by limiting the number of pages that you can browse from the starting point.

++++ Copyright Law Exemptions Nixed

This came from The LA Times. The Librarian of Congress has rejected requests for exemptions to a provision in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act that forbids "circumventing" the electronic locks on copyrighted works, including making backup copies and other personal uses of digital movies, games and music owned by consumers. However, exemptions were granted for software programs and video games locked to obsolete media or equipment, and cases of electronic books whose digital rights management software would prevent them from being translated into audio or other formats for the visually impaired.

++++ New additions to Hewie's Favorites

Answers That Work
http://www.answersthatwork.com/
Online HelpDesk for Computer Support Solutions to PC Problems Software Support PC Troubleshooting Network & Hardware Support

Internet Security Sources
http://www.internet-security-sources.com/index.html
Provides the latest news and information on Internet security and related industries

Online Collaboration
http://www.masternewmedia.org/
Cutting-edge know-how resources and tools to facilitate your ability to learn communicate and collaborate effectively with new media technologies

Articles for Web Site Designers and Site Owners
http://www.ivanhoffman.com/web.html
Legal articles dealing with web site issues

Web Site Design
http://www.web-source.net/
Web site design development and promotion guide for business and Internet marketing web sites. Free site content

Citing Electronic Information in History Papers
~http://cas.memphis.edu/~mcrouse/elcite.html
New information media always present challenges to bibliographers

Columbia Guide to Online Style
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html
The CGOS is authoritative comprehensive guide to online style

Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/index.html
Book info and sample chapters

Open Video Project
http://www.open-video.org/index.php
Digitized clips and complete short films video clips from a variety of sources

Sources
~http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/
Their Use and Acknowledgement from Dartmouth College

Food & Wine
http://www.foodandwine.com/
Serves up recipes menus planning tips wine reviews ideas on pairing wine and food and articles about innovations and innovators in the food world

Copyright on the Web
http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf
Answers questions students teachers & parents may have about using web images sound recordings and text in papers presentations and web projects. From Library of Congress

HTMLSource
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/
HTML tutorials and well-researched links on all aspects of web design equally suited to beginners and advanced webmasters

Picsearch
http://www.picsearch.com/
Search engine for pictures - images and animations

Greatis Startup Application Database
http://www.greatis.com/regrun3appdatabase.htm
Greatis Startup Application Database from RegRun is listed and updated. Good source for the descriptions of many of the start up files

Startups - Full list
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.php
Searchable comprehensive list of the programs you may find that run when you switch on your PC

Startups Info
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php
Lists programs that run at system start-up and info about each