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Vol. 5, Issue 6

June 2003

Lead Stories:
Going Digital After 1300 Years
Fighter Pilot Heads Up Technology For Honda Mechanics

Plus:
Books2Bytes Service Revives Book Backlists
Most Popular Articles From Recent Issues
DCL's "Ask The Experts" - Your Data Conversion Questions Answered 

Other News:
U.S. Soldiers To Get Wired Uniforms By 2010
PDAs For British Doctors, BMA Says
"Human" Markup Language Brings Cultural Understanding To The Web
E-Books Get Boost At BookExpo
Online Learning Gaining Ground

Asides:
What's Next? Aircraft Seats That Betray Hijackers

Lead Stories:

Going Digital After 1300 Years
Date: 6.24.2003, DCLnews Exclusive

The Lindisfarne Gospels, an illuminated manuscript so fragile it cannot be handled by the public, has been digitized by the British Library and made available to all over the Internet. More.

Fighter Pilot Heads Up Technology For Honda Mechanics
Date: 6.24.2003, DCLnews Exclusive

Seattle-area start-up Microvision inc. says a test of its headset display technology with American Honda automobile mechanics improved efficiency by nearly 40 percent. More

Plus:

Books2Bytes Service Revives Book Backlists
Date: 6.24.2003, DCLnews Extra

Data Conversion Laboratory is running a new web-based service called Books2Bytes, which converts printed books and typed manuscripts into electronic files (plain text or Microsoft Word). Back catalog or out-of-print titles can then be revived by releasing them as e-books or as new editions. More

>>> Most Popular Articles From Recent Issues

    Leveling The Textbook Playing Field For The Print Disabled
    http://www.dclab.com/accessibility_whitepaper.asp

    Keeping A Pilot's Maps Up-to-date Is No Simple Matter
    http://www.dclab.com/atlas_air.asp

    Quark To XML
     http://www.dclab.com/QuarktoXML.asp

    XML White Paper
     http://www.dclab.com/xmlwhitepaper.asp

DCL's "Ask The Experts"
Date: 6.24.2003, DCLnews Extra

Got a data conversion question? If so, send it to DCL's experts and see the reply in next month's issue. mailto:experts@dclab.com 

Other News:

U.S. Soldiers To Get Wired Uniforms By 2010
Date: 6.13.2003, Washington Post

By the end of the decade, soldiers will be outfitted with wired uniforms that monitor heart rate and respiration and helmets that receive real-time video and text messages. General Dynamics Corp. won a U.S. Army contract in early June - potentially worth $3 billion - to provide a prototype of the new uniform by 2006 and to out fit the first unit by 2010.

The creation of a new uniform is part of a larger effort to modernize the Army for combat on a digital battlefield where soldiers, tanks, and drones are connected to a common network. The soldier would become a node in the network wearing an undershirt fitted with body sensors and receiving video from drones tracking enemy movements.

"Army transformation is founded on the principle of networking soldiers with weapon systems, vehicles, and aircraft to create a cohesive, integrated fighting team with overwhelming and devastating force of action," Lt. Gen. John M. Riggs, who is leading the Army's modernization efforts, said in a statement. More.

PDAs For British Doctors, BMA Says
Date: 5.9.2003, Ananova

British patients are being put at risk by out-dated computer systems in hospitals, the British Medical Association warned in a recent report. This means information about patients could get lost in the system, potentially leading to misdiagnosis, delays in treatment and prolonged hospital stays. The BMA recommended that doctors should be equipped with Palm Pilots to access crucial information and e-mails.

The report also called for an electronic directory that would link doctors' contact details to their duty schedules so the right person could be contacted in an emergency. Technology should be piloted which would allow doctors to report results and order treatment from the patient's bedside. And staff should be able to access clinical information more easily through internal websites and national electronic libraries. More.

"Human" Markup Language Brings Cultural Understanding To The Web
Date: 5.29.2003, WSReview.com

Human Markup Language or "HumanML" is a new XML specification being developed by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) that will allow accurate information exchange between people of different cultures over the web.

The main objective of HumanML is to ensure that all the characteristics of human nature - behavioral, mental, and physical traits - are properly conveyed to improve the quality of human communication. The new markup language will play a key role in eradicating the various cultural barriers we currently experience in global communication over the Internet.  More.

E-Books Get Boost At BookExpo
Date: 6.2.2003, USA Today

This year's BookExpo America, the annual booksellers' convention, saw e-books alive and well (if not yet prospering) and getting a boost from software maker Adobe. Last month, the company updated its dominant, and free, Adobe Acrobat software, which allows web surfers and other computer users to read documents on screen exactly like they would look in printed form. The new program includes an e-book icon at the top of the page and an online link to a online store offering e-books. "We get 1 million downloads of the software per day," Adobe's Tom Prehn says. He adds that the software has 500 million registered users. "This should really get the word out about e-books."

But skeptics still insist e-books will never take off - simply because people do not want to read books on a computer screen. Nick Bogaty, who runs the Open eBook Forum trade group, rejects this: "Five years ago, you'd say I prefer getting mail and writing letters, but when was the last time you actually wrote anyone a letter? [E-books are] a natural progression." More.

Stop Press: Growing numbers of well-known authors are reviving their out-of-print books as e-books. U.K. author Colin Wilson ("The Outsider") is one. Many of his hard-to-find classics have been put online at Reinventing Yourself.com. I've spent years trying to find one title - "G.I. Gurdjieff: The War Against Sleep" - and notice it is soon to be available as an e-book on the site.  For me, reviving out-of-print titles is the real strength of e-books. It's a way of keeping the "gems" available.

Online Learning Gaining Ground
Date: 5.10.2003, Orlando Sentinel

E-learning - computer-based training delivered via the Internet or proprietary intranet sites - is expanding knowledge in workplaces nationwide. "About 85 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies have significant e-learning initiatives under way," says Elliott Masie of the Masie Center, a learning research think tank in Saratoga Springs, N.Y..

Though no one expects e-learning to replace classroom training, it does have its advantages. "It cuts out the chitchat before class, the teacher explaining something a second time when you're ready to proceed quickly," says Margaret Driscoll, director of strategy and ventures for IBM E-Learning. With Web-based training, "those who don't get it the first time can get remedial learning that brings them up to speed." More.

Asides:

What's Next? Aircraft Seats That Betray Hijackers
Date: 6.6.2003, ZDNet

Future hijackers may find that their buttocks betray them, if UK defense firm Qinetiq has its way. The company has developed a smart chair stashed with "a thicket of seat sensors" that monitor the way passengers shift their weight - revealing whether they are asleep, jumpy or otherwise not conforming to expected normal lower-torso motions.

The seat itself will not make a fundamental assessment of the mental or physical state of its load but will merely point out the discrepancies, leaving it to the cabin staff to work out whether seat 45B is jumpy because they're scared of flying or because they're planning to take over the plane. More.