| Vol.
4, Issue 4 |
April
9th 2002 |
HEADLINES
COVER
STORY Oxford
Reference Online - an e-reference revolution?
SPECIAL
REPORT The
next weave of the web?
EXTRA! DCL
featured on Open eBook website New FAQ:
Converting PDF to XML DCL Technical
Library - don't forget to visit!
OTHER
NEWS Compaq
provide educational e-books Well-dressed
soldiers
of tomorrow Important
e-Book survey published NTIS
makes 1000 sites of sci-tech resources searchable in one place Egypt's
new Alexandria Library opens, and
is even bigger than the original Conversion
ain't easy... Gameboy kids' thumbs mutate
ASIDES
;-)
Web page eaten... My
beer glass is empty - raise the alarm!
BEST
OF DCL-NEWS Check out the best stories from
previous issues
COVER
STORY:
E-Reference
Revolution? Oxford
Reference Online set to be largest reference source on the
Web Date: 4/9/2002,
DCLnews
Exclusive
Oxford
Reference Online (ORO) have made 100 reference titles available
on the Internet, including the Concise English Dictionary, Fowler's
Modern English, A Dictionary of Economics, and Who's Who. Confident
that the Oxford University Press brand will generate
enough subscribers to make a profit in four years, ORO plan
to expand the number of titles to 300, which would make it the
largest reference source on the Internet. The site was developed
largely due to the phenomenal success of the Oxford English
Dictionary site, which actually boosted sales of the print
version. So online reference ventures aren't necessarily cannibalizing
print sales - not yet, at least...
Find
out more at: http://www.dclab.com/oxford_reference.asp
Table
of Contents
SPECIAL
REPORT:
The
Next Weave of the Web? Tim
Berners-Lee - visionary or realist? Date: 4/9/2002,
DCLnews
Special Report
Tim Berners-Lee,
chief architect of the World Wide Web, has a new vision for
the Internet called the Semantic Web, a smart network
that, amongst other things, will revolutionize our ability to
search on the Web. Berners-Lee also believes it will encourage
creative and lateral thinking - the knock on effect being
the Semantic Web will change the world more than his original
creation. But is Berners-Lee a visionary with head in the clouds?
Or are his feet planted firmly on the ground?
Judge
for yourself, go to: http://www.dclab.com/semantic_web.asp
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of Contents
>>>EXTRA!!!
DCL
Featured On Open eBook Website Date: 4/9/2002, DCLnews
Data
Conversion Laboratory
is currently featured on the home page of the Open
eBook Forum
website. We very much support the Open eBook Forum. And if you're
involved in the software/hardware industry, in publishing, or are
an author or user of electronic books, it is well worth becoming
a member.
OeBF's aim is to establish specifications and standards
for electronic
publishing.
These are essential for the future success of all those involved
in e-book creation. But even more importantly, they are essential
for consumers... who, after all... will only turn to e-books
in a big way when they see a solid set of standards that offer
real benefits to them.
If
you haven't already, check out the Open eBook Forum at: http://www.openebook.org
Or
sign up to become a member now at: http://www.openebook.org/memberbenefits.htm
Table
of Contents
THIS
MONTH'S FEATURED FAQ: Converting
PDF to XML
We've been asked
whether PDF documents can easily be transformed into XML. "The
answer to this question is an unqualified MAYBE..." says
Mike Gross, Chief Technical Officer at Data Conversion Laboratory.
Get
the complete lowdown at: http://www.dclab.com/dclfaq.asp#pdfxml
Table
of Contents
DCL
Technical Library
Don't forget to visit
our technical library for insider information about XML
and SGML, e-books, technical documentation, and scientific and
educational publishing.
Go
to: http:www.dclab.com/dcllibrary.asp
Table
of Contents
OTHER
NEWS:
Compaq
provides educational e-books & further expands the revolution Date: 3/26/2002,
Planet eBook
Compaq
plans to provide schools with web-based
learning tools
and e-books
along with all its computers sold to educational institutions
across the United States. According to the Compaq, the e-books
will include the popular Furello
books series, which focus on non-violent messages and include
characters from a broad base of cultures (Furello recently received
an award from the Native American Arts Council). The series
has been used extensively throughout Texas as an educational
tool for K-12 to bolster reading comprehension and vocabulary-building
skills.
Compaq's website
will include a link to the Furello e-book series, along with
student workbooks and teacher manuals, interactive crossword
puzzles, word searches, riddles, and graphic organizers.
This is great news
for children and educators alike, but it's also more evidence
of a very real e-book revolution going down right under our
noses...
Read
the full story at: http://www.planetebook.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=319&nl
Table
of Contents
The
well-dressed soldiers
of tomorrow Date: 3/20/2002, Technology
Review
A new Institute
for Soldier Nanotechnologies
was recently created at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
(MIT), with a US
Army grant
of $50 million over five years. The institute has a remit to
produce fabrics that can morph to improve camouflage, stiffen
to provide splints for broken limbs and store energy that can
be tapped later to increase the wearer's strength.
Ned Thomas
of MIT's Department of Materials Science says many existing
nanotechnologies
already have the potential to be scaled up into full suits of
armor. "Our goal is to help greatly enhance the protection
and survival of the infantry soldier using nanoscience,"
he says.
One example could
be weaving fabrics out of nanoscale hollow fibres that Thomas
hopes to fill with an existing technology called a ferrofluid.
Ferrofluids contain magnetic particles that can be made to align
in rows forming a stiff gel when exposed to an external magnetic
field. "We know lots of injuries are made worse by people
trying to move someone," says Thomas, "Doctors say
this could be an on-demand splint."
Read
more at: http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_leo032002.asp
Table
of Contents
Open
eBook Forum publish results of e-book survey Date: 4/5/2002,
Open eBook Forum
Open
eBook Forum has published the results of a comprehensive
survey on the features people want in the design of an electronic
book. The survey represents feedback from a variety of people
- ranging from authors and publishers to consumers - and
provides a list of the top ten most "desirable" features
which people selected from a list of 48 features.
You can download
this survey in a variety of formats - PDF, MS Word, MS Reader,
Palm. You first have to join Open eBook's mailing list. But
if you are involved or interested in e-books in any way,
this is well worth doing. And the survey is a must...
Check it out at: http://www.openebook.org/eBookSurvey/results.asp
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of Contents
NTIS
makes 1000 sites of sci-tech resources searchable in one place Date: 4/4/2002, NTIS
The Commerce Department's
National Technical Information Service (NTIS) is developing
an online catalog of the leading Government Web resources
on science and technology. The www.scitechresources.gov
website has a database of over 1,000 sites selected by NTIS
staff. It will prove a valuable time-saving tool for all researchers,
as the material is all in one place.
Search features are
also powerful: You can conduct keyword searches across all topics
or restrict them to single topic searches such as biology, Earth
sciences, or aeronautics. Or you can use predefined resource
tags to specify the type of resource you're looking for. The site has been live for a few months, but has not been formally launched. NTIS welcomes site suggestions for the database.
Check
it out and offer any suggestions at: http://www.scitechresources.gov/
Table
of Contents
Egypt's
new Alexandria Library opens, and is even bigger than the original Date:
4/5/2002, UNESCO
Egypt's new
library at
the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria
is not a recreation of the Third Century BC original. For one
thing, it is many times bigger at 31,000 square feet, its roof
is modeled on a microprocessor,
and many books are on disks
and CDs.
What is similar is the ambition behind both libraries.
The new one is meant
to return Egypt's second-biggest city to the intellectual and
international prominence it had during Hellenistic times. In
288 BC Ptolemy
I added a
library to the city founded by Alexander the Great in 332 BC.
He hoped to acquire every book in the world. At the height of
its influence, the library attracted international scholars,
such as Euclid and Archimedes, and housed some 700,000
papyrus scrolls.
The new library,
which opens 12 years after its foundation stone was laid, is
one of the largest
anywhere. Built on the Mediterranean shore, it features a circular
design intended to evoke the rising and setting of the sun.
It is expected to open on time and welcome many heads of state
to the inauguration ceremony.
Discover
more, go to: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/alexandria_new/
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of Contents
Conversion
ain't easy... Date: 4/1/2002, eBookWeb
"Entire eBook empires have foundered on conversion,"
declares Dorothy Salo in a recent column on eBookWeb. According
to Salo, publishers and distributors everywhere are screaming for the "magic
pushbutton" that will take care of all their conversion needs, and tools'
developers are doing their utmost to accommodate them. But content producers should let go of the dream,
she argues, and design
conversion workflows that really work...
Table
of Contents
Gameboy
kids' thumbs mutate... Date: 3/24/2002, UK
Observer
A University of Warwick
(England) study finds that the era of Gameboys and PDA's has
produced a physical mutation in people under 25. As the
London Observer reported: "The study, carried out in nine
cities around the world, shows that the thumbs of the younger
generation have overtaken their fingers as the hand's most muscled
and dexterous digit." In Japan, people under 25 even call
themselves oya yubi sedai - "the thumb generation."
Pick
up the story at: http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,673103,00.html
Table
of Contents
ASIDES
;-) This
month's off-beat news>>>
Web page eaten... "Error
Message 404" Gets Unique Twist Date: 4/6/2002, DCLnews
When you type in
a Web address that points to a missing page, a generic error
message (known as a "404") normally appears. It's
dry and technical sounding, but evidently Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) thought they'd make theirs more interesting...
After the regulation
"404 File Not Found" an off-beat haiku appears: "I
ate your Web page. Forgive me. It was juicy and tart on my tongue."
Try
it yourself, use this made up web address: http://www.mit.edu/blah-x.html
Table
of Contents
My
beer glass is empty - raise the alarm! Date:
4/4/2002, New Scientist
US researchers say they've come up with a drinking glass that raises
the alarm when a refill is needed. They've basically turned a drinks' glass into a capacitor and installed a radio tag.
The iGlassware system is the brainchild of a team at Mitsubishi Electric in
Massachusetts, who hope it will be popular with bars and restaurants eager to improve their
customer service...
I
say this regularly, and I'll say it again - go get a beer at: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992123
Table
of Contents
Best
of DCLnews:
Read through a selection of the best articles from previous
issues of DCLnews. You'll find articles on
e-books, technology, Internet, data conversion, and digital
publishing, as well as humorous looks at the news.
Go to: www.dclab.com/bestof.asp
Table
of Contents
| DCLnews
Staff:: Editor: John
E. Shreeve Publisher: Mark Gross, President DCL Data Conversion Laboratory
61-18 190th St., 2nd Floor Fresh Meadows, NY 11365 Telephone:
718-357-8700 Website: http://www.dclab.com/DCLnews.asp
Editorial
e-mail: DCLnews@dclab.com
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