Venezuala - Presidential Decree: Public Administration Will Use Free Software
This is the translation from a Venezualan website on the presidental decree published today by El Universal newspaper.
Check it out:
Economy - eluniversal.com: "In 90 Venezuela days completely he will have opened the door to free software.
In Official Newspaper the presidential decree 3,390 was published, that establishes the priority for the use of this modality of programs in all the systems of the public administration."
In China, Turning the Law Into the People's Protector
This is a terrific story of law emerging in China. Everyone should read it.
In China, Turning the Law Into the People's Protector (washingtonpost.com): "Attorney Pu Zhiqiang sat with the two authors on trial, listening intently and taking notes, his broad shoulders hunched over a small table. Facing him on the other side of the courtroom, Zhang Xide, a short, slightly pudgy Communist Party boss, leaned back and smiled as the first witness took the stand."
Windows XP SP2: The Inside Story
The agile development of Windows SP2? Read the article and see.
Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Windows XP Service Pack 2: The Inside Story: "I sent out a mail to everyone in the division saying, 'This is what we're going to do. We're going to take a little bit more time to do it. And if you want to submit a security feature, you should do so, and then show up at this room.' Well, the next day, it was standing room only, and everyone had a security feature that they wanted to check in. It went all the way down from things like the new Bluetooth stack, to the new Windows Media Player, to the new Group Policy stuff, and on, and on, and on, and on.
We started walking through this list and realized that this was now not just an SP1 plus, it was now an SP2 [as it was finally released, a major update]. We took the new DCR [Design Change Request] list and Brian and I approved those individual DCRs, and then we pulled SP2 from the Windows Sustained Engineering (WinSE) team."
Alberto Gonzales' strange views of international law.
Another article on the future AG's view of international law.
Lone Star Justice - Alberto Gonzales' strange views of international law. By Alan Berlow: "Even before he came to Washington as chief legal counsel to President George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales demonstrated a penchant for finding ways around international law."
Should the attorney general be the president's yes man?
Here is another good Slate.com article. This article asks the question: should the attorney general represent the interests of the american public or the president's wishes. (One would think they would be the same, but not necessiarily).
Check out the article.
All the President's Lawyers - Should the attorney general be the president's yes man? By Dahlia Lithwick: "In a sense, President Bush is the quintessential rich divorce client. It's not just that he's wealthy; it's that he's accustomed to having cadres of lawyers flitting to and fro, waving their sparkly lawyer's wands and making his every dream come true. And this is why soon-to-be Attorney General Alberto Gonzales really is any president's dream come true. His prevailing legal principle appears to be to deliver whatever the client wants, whenever the client wants it. And one of the questions we need to contemplate is whether that's the kind of lawyer we want for the next attorney general."
Could other countries replicate Ireland's economic transformation?
On this side of the "pond", and getting close to a century since the last "Irish Need Not Apply" adorned employment ads, the change in Ireland's "ecomonic transformation" has been incrediable. Check out this article about replicating Ireland's success in other contries that we think of as 3rd world countries.
Tiger, Tiger, Fading Fast - Could other countries replicate Ireland's economic transformation? By Kim Iskyan: "Thirty years ago, Ireland was a Third World country, viewed through the same 'do-they-have-indoor-plumbing-yet?' prism that the moderately well-informed observer of today might apply to, say, Paraguay or Malawi. "
All That Jazz - The year's best records. By Fred Kaplan
Read Slate.com's top Jazz albums of the year. Jazz my not be at the forefront of the modern psyche, but it is the most sophiticated form of truely american music.
check ou the list:
All That Jazz - The year's best records. By Fred Kaplan It was a good year for jazz recordings. Yes, sales continued to slip, a few more labels shut their doors, and the next John Coltrane or Charlie Parker—some genius-messiah who transcends all boundaries and pushes jazz to a startling new level—failed, once again, to materialize. Still, young musicians scaled new heights, elders renewed their spirits, and, in the reissue bins, forgotten masterworks returned to astonish us.
The New York Times > Fashion & Style > Fooey to the World: Festivus Is Come
The New York Times > Fashion & Style > Fooey to the World: Festivus Is Come: "The first surprise is that from Tampa Bay, Fla., to Washington, from Austin, Tex., to Oxford, Ohio, many real people are holding parties celebrating Festivus, a holiday most believe was invented on an episode of 'Seinfeld' first broadcast the week before Christmas in 1997."
The Graphing Calculator Story
Probably the greatest software store ever told!
An engineer loses his job, but doesn't give up on the project. His badge still opened the door, so he kept showing up.
A must read!
The Graphing Calculator Story: "Pacific Tech's Graphing Calculator has a long history. I began the work in 1985 while in school. That became Milo, and later became part of FrameMaker. Over the last twenty years, many people have contributed to it. Graphing Calculator 1.0, which Apple bundled with the original PowerPC computers, originated under unique circumstances."
Washington Post Co. Buys Slate Magazine
I've just added Slate to my review list after this article. We'll see if it is any good.
The funny thing: I had to go to the New York TImes to find the story.
The NYT> Washington Post Company Buys Slate Magazine: "The Washington Post Company said yesterday that it had purchased Slate, an online magazine owned by Microsoft.
The sale completes Slate's transformation from an experiment in the new media in 1996 to a respected brand name in journalism. Terms of the sale were not announced, but industry specialists estimated that the deal was worth between $15 million and $20 million."
Best choice for a new Vikings coach?
This is an article at ESPN.com about Art Schell interviewing for the Miami head coaching position. I doubt that Schell will get the position since NicK Saban of LSU rumors are flying so high. But this is my inspiration for naming Art Schell the new coach of the Minnesota Vikings.
I like Tice, but he is still a O-line coach, not a head coach. Someday he may be the coach we want him to be, but not now. Art Schell would be perfect for coaching in the NFC "Norris" Division, given his Radiers history.
I doubt any of this will happen, since McCombs is too stingy, but you never know.
ESPN.com - NFL - Smith: Good call: "We can't see history, even if it's just over the horizon.
Art Shell holds the distinction of being the first black coach of the NFL's modern era, the first since football pioneer Fritz Pollard some eighty years ago. Fifteen years after that historic promotion, perhaps Shell, a Hall of Fame offensive tackle, will become the first black Bill Belichick/Dom Capers/Tom Coughlin/Norv Turner -- all of whom served several years as assistants before receiving a second opportunity."
Suprise! - 56 % say war in Iraq was a mistake
56 Percent in Survey Say Iraq War Was a Mistake (washingtonpost.com): "President Bush heads into his second term amid deep and growing public skepticism about the Iraq war, with a solid majority saying for the first time that the war was a mistake and most people believing that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should lose his job, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll."
NYT: The Fox Is in Microsoft's Henhouse (and Salivating)
The number 2 most emailed article on the New York Times website. Give a read, should be interesting.
The New York Times > Business > Your Money > Digital Domain: The Fox Is in Microsoft's Henhouse (and Salivating)
How to build a better web browser - UIWEB.COM
How to build a better web browser - UIWEB.COMWeb browsers are funny things. One the one hand, they’re supposed to be lightweight little programs that just let you view websites, and on the other, they carry the same burdens as operating systems and application suites, trying to provide everything to everyone. Here in this little essay I explain what I know about designing browsers.
Microsoft's alpha tester | Newsmakers | CNET News.com
Microsoft's alpha tester | Newsmakers | CNET News.com: "If anyone has a right to complain about buggy Microsoft products, it's Ron Markezich, the software maker's chief information officer."
Page One Wall Street Journal - US Education vs The World
PAGE ONE
New Equation
As Math Skills Slip,
U.S. Schools Seek
Answers From Asia
Singapore's High Test Scores
Win Over Some Educators;
Another Fleeting Craze?
Teachers Go Back to Class
By CRIS PRYSTAY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 13, 2004; Page A1
TOWNSEND, Mass. -- About five years ago, a statewide test in Massachusetts revealed that students' math skills deteriorated sharply as they went from fourth to sixth grade. Alarmed, the Massachusetts education commissioner suggested an unconventional fix: importing the math curriculum used in Singapore.
Students in Singapore routinely score among the highest in international math tests. The hope was that American kids taught the Singaporean way would improve their math scores.
The approach has been adopted in about 200 schools nationwide, from rural Oklahoma to the inner cities of New Jersey. Early indications suggest that many U.S. students taught with textbooks imported from Singapore do perform better in math. Some children who once found the subject frustrating say they now like it.
Faced with a worrying decline in math proficiency among U.S. kids, a growing number of educators are seeking inspiration from Asian curricula. American children are falling behind their Asian peers in science and math, a shift that could push still more white-collar jobs offshore as the next generation graduates.
"Our kids just don't seem as numerate as they should be, and we decided we needed to try whatever we can to fix that," says David Driscoll, Massachusetts' education commissioner and a former math teacher himself, who had the idea of using Singapore text books in local schools.
Critics assert that math teaching has been dumbed down in the U.S. over the past two decades. They say that too much emphasis is placed on making the subject accessible and fun and not enough on vital, if repetitive, drills such as multiplication tables. Another big criticism: U.S. math curricula tend to cover plenty of subject areas but not in sufficient depth.
Singapore and other southeast Asian countries take a different tack. Singapore's curriculum was developed over the past few decades by math experts hired by the Ministry of Education, who continually interviewed math teachers to find out what works and where kids need help. The elementary textbooks cover only one-third of the topics typically found in U.S. textbooks, but the material is taught far more thoroughly. While rote learning plays a part, kids in Singapore also learn to use visual tools to understand abstract concepts.
Singapore math texts, for example, ask kids to draw bars and other diagrams to visualize problems -- a technique called "bar modeling." When this strategy is applied consistently over a number of years, children tend to be better able to break down complex problems and do rapid calculations in their head.
SCHOOL DAYS
• Science Journal: The Best Ways to Make Schoolchildren Learn? We Just Don't Know 1
12/10/04
• Economic Time Bomb: U.S. Teens Are Among the Worst at Math 2
12/07/04
• Page One: As Test Scores Fall, Japanese Schools Get Harsh Lesson3
11/03/04
Not everyone believes that importing textbooks from Singapore would solve America's math problem. Some states say the approach doesn't meet their standards. American math curriculum varies from state to state, so there is a potential gap between standards set on the material students need to know and what they have covered using the Singapore books. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in the U.S. suggests that it might not be possible to copy what Singapore's done simply by importing its books. The success of its math program may have roots in Singapore's highly disciplined culture, where the entire community -- particularly parents -- expects kids to buckle down and work hard, argues the NCTM.
There's little doubt, though, that math teaching in America needs to be overhauled. Tomorrow, Boston College will release a four-year global study that is expected to show the math gap with Asia remains. The college's last study, the 1999 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), ranked eighth-graders in Singapore the best in math, while U.S. kids came in 19th, just behind Latvia. American kids also fall further behind the longer they're in school; as fourth-graders, American kids ranked 7th on the 1995 study.
That decline has already had an impact on U.S. universities. Among U.S. freshmen who plan to major in science or engineering, one in five requires remedial math courses, according to the National Science Board, which is part of the government-funded National Science Foundation. Enrollment by U.S. citizens or permanent residents in graduate science and engineering programs, meantime, dropped 10% between 1994 and 2001. Enrollment of foreign students grew 35%.
Because of the skills gap, America risks losing even more jobs overseas. "Many have a gnawing sense that our problems may be more than temporary and that the roots of the problem may extend back through our education system," said Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan at a Boston finance conference in March.
Reforming the U.S. curriculum is difficult. Unlike Singapore and other Asian countries, the U.S. doesn't have a national curriculum. Each state is responsible for setting standards, while each district retains control over how a subject is taught.
Under the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind policy, funding and jobs depend on how each school rates on standardized state exams. Many district officials are reluctant to try something new for fear of slipping up on those exams.
But a handful are turning to Asia for answers. Georgia plans to adopt Japanese math standards as part of its reform of secondary-school curricula. A teacher-training textbook, based on Singapore's elementary math curriculum and written by a math professor at Michigan State University, is now used at a half-dozen universities in America. Singapore's math textbooks for young kids have the biggest appeal in the U.S. because they're written in English.
In rural Bethel, Okla., school-district superintendent Marty Lewis thought his kids were slipping in math. After his curiosity about Singapore was piqued by the 1999 TIMSS results, he did an Internet search about the Singapore method. That led him to the private Rosenbaum Foundation of Pennsylvania, which funds Singapore math programs in the U.S. and Israel.
The foundation, in turn, put him in touch with Yoram Sagher, a Florida mathematician who trains teachers to teach Singapore math. Mr. Lewis hired Mr. Sagher to give a one-week seminar to all his teachers in July. Bethel kindergartners and first-graders began using the Singaporean books in September.
"I came to a point where I thought: I don't care how crazy people think I am; I'm going to go out and find something that works," says Mr. Lewis.
While Bethel's kids are just getting started, other school districts have adopted the Singapore method wholesale. One is North Middlesex, a farming and commuter district that's an hour's drive from Boston.
North Middlesex's program got rolling soon after the education commissioner, Mr. Driscoll, noticed the decline in math ability among his state's sixth-graders. In 2000, he got a $50,000 federal grant to test whether a Singapore curriculum would improve math scores for kids in his district.
North Middlesex dispatched three teachers with math degrees to work with a math professor at the Worcester State College in Massachusetts. They came up with a seven-day summer seminar for North Middlesex district teachers, based on textbooks from Singapore.
The Singapore-inspired program was started in grades five through eight, which needed the greatest help. As more teachers volunteered, the program was extended to other grades.
On a recent morning in Ashby, a tiny town in North Middlesex, fifth-grade math teacher Bob Hogan asked for volunteers to work out how many women there are in a hypothetical university class of 250 if there are 50 more men than women.
Mr. Hogan, an energetic 30-year-old teacher, asked for volunteers to tell him how to solve the problem using a bar model. Sarah Carter, a 9-year-old with freckles and bright red hair, leaned forward in her seat, arm in air.
First, she instructed Mr. Hogan to draw two bars of equal length, and label the top one "women" and the bottom one "men." She then he told him to add a small square extension to the "men's" bar, and write "50" inside of it. To the right of both bars, she asked him to write "250," indicating the full value of both, together. Looking at this pictorial, she started to solve the problem without pen or paper: She verbally subtracted 50 from 250, and asked him to write the "200" on the board, to the left of the two empty bars, indicating their combined value. Then, she divided 200 by two, and announced there are 100 women in the class, and 150 men.
"I don't know where Singapore is," she said, "but I like the way they do math."
Some teachers were initially skeptical. Steve Keating, a veteran math teacher who teaches seventh grade, says he has lived through a host of new math approaches, including the "new math" craze in the 1970s. "My first thought was, here we go again," he says, referring to the Singapore method.
He was especially taken aback by the textbook. By grades seven and eight, kids in the Singapore program are doing high-school-level algebra. "I thought, wow, that's complicated -- even for me," says Mr. Keating. He was eventually won over when he saw how enthusiastic his own students became about math.
The approach expects a lot of its teachers. Singapore's math program doesn't come with guides that walk teachers through every step of the class, and every problem, as many U.S. courses do. Teachers can't flip to the back of the book for answers. During the first year, Mr. Keating spent two hours every night preparing the next day's lesson. On his summer vacation he took math books to the beach. The effort paid off; his students' math scores improved.
Some parents also had doubts. Suzanne Carter recalls that her daughter Sarah, who'd always struggled at math, came home and drew bars and rectangles instead of working on the sums she grew up with.
"I was frustrated. I had no idea what she was doing," says Mrs. Carter, a sign-language instructor.
Her daughter's school, however, doesn't need more convincing. Students at North Middlesex are already doing better on state exams. Eighth-graders, for example, scored 75.4 points on this year's state "math proficiency index," up from 63.2 points in 2000. That jump was twice that of the state average -- which also improved. Other grades improved, but in line with the state average.
Eager for something more conclusive, North Middlesex recently hired Stanford University's Hoover Institution to analyze a slew of state and district exams to see whether a group of 300 students who'd taken one to three years of the Singapore program were better at math than other students. The study, which is continuing, found the Singapore math students had "significantly" better computation skills.
Boston Public Schools tried the Singapore math books in a few classes at one school last year, but decided to drop them. The district had adopted another math program, called the Workshop Model, which promoted group and independent work activities designed to get kids to think about concepts behind math. They didn't want to detract from that by experimenting more broadly with something new, said Ed Joyce, curriculum director for math for Boston Public Schools.
"I wouldn't say anything bad about Singapore math, but I would say there's a lot of programs that would have the same result," he said.
Another hurdle that could limit the appeal of the Singapore method is the U.S. obsession with standardized testing. Kids taking Singapore math might be better at a core set of subjects such as multiplication, fractions, word problems and algebra, but they may struggle with topics that appear on state tests.
So North Middlesex supplements the Singapore books with a few extra lessons in subjects like probability, which are taught in grades four and five in the U.S. but not until later grades in Singapore.
The Singapore method continues to attract fans. Inspired by North Middlesex, 20 schools in 12 different districts across Massachusetts are now running Singapore pilot programs.
William Carey, principal of Beachmont Elementary school in Revere, a blue-collar suburb of Boston, last year began offering "Singapore math" in grades one through four. He reports some early signs of success. Beachmont's grade four class lagged behind the state average by just 3% on this year's state exam, up from the 8% gap between the state and last year's fourth-grade class.
Beachmont's success, in turn, has inspired others. Across town, teachers at Garfield Elementary began to teach math the Singapore way this year. "When something makes a difference, people notice," says Mr. Carey, the principal at Beachmont. "Word is starting to spread."
Write to Cris Prystay at cris.prystay@wsj.com4
SAP Sees Opportunity in Oracle-PeopleSoft Merger
Life is interesting in the enterprise software world. Now there are will be two dominate players, but can Oracle build enough momentum to make this merger worthwhile.
only time will tell
SAP Sees Opportunity in Oracle-PeopleSoft Merger: "SAP AG has benefited from the market uncertainty created by the long battle between Oracle Corp. and Peoplesoft Inc. Now that the battle is over, the dominant business applications maker doesn't see the good times ending."
Teen Driving Deaths' Recurring Pain
This is really a local DC story, but I decided to share it because teen drinking and diving is too common in the US.
Teen Driving Deaths' Recurring Pain (washingtonpost.com): "Hands trembling, face flushed, voice a terrified croak, Justin Lapier, 20, tried to explain yesterday how he felt about having killed two of his best friends. ' 'I'm sorry' doesn't cut it,' he told their parents in a Spotsylvania County courtroom. ' 'I'm sorry' is what I'd say if I broke something in your house.'
In a letter to the judge, Lapier described how it happened -- how he was drinking and driving that April night before the accident, how he revved up his new Acura shortly before dawn because his friends 'wanted to see what my car could do.' What it could do -- before it flipped on a winding country road in central Virginia -- was at least 95 mph."
Bush backs Annan, Sen Coleman where are you?
Earlier I cited a Star Tribune article about Sen. Coleman's call for the resignation of UN Secretary Genearl Kofi Annan. In the latest developement in the Oil-for-Food scandal, President Bush has just given his support for the secretary general.
In the area of international politics the subtlies are numerous. I can see the Republican party or conservative elements in the party using the junior senator to test the waters of an American public. With a few day to see if the story has picked, the president has reaffirmed his support for Annan. I guess I'm saying that the timing and situation is interesting.
Bush administration backs Annan. 10/12/2004. ABC News Online: "The Bush administration has expressed confidence in UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and said he should stay in office, in a belated rebuff to demands from Republicans in Congress for his resignation.
US ambassador John Danforth called reporters together to deliver the comments, saying that he had to clarify the US position after his colleagues and the media believed the United States Government was not supporting Mr Annan.
'We are expressing confidence in the secretary-general and his continuing in office,' Mr Danforth said, adding that he was speaking for the White House and State Department."
Silly Norm
I don't know if Norm remembers what Minesotans are like now that he has moved to Washington DC on our backs. There must be a little bit of NY creeping back in him, now that he is much closer to home.
The Star Tribune posted this article about the Oil-for-Food scandal. Sen. Coleman is obviously sitting on the "right side" of the call for Kofi Annan to resign since he could only muster 5 House members and 0 fellow Senators.
Read the story and form your own opinion.
Coleman 'reckless' with U.N. criticism, think tank says: "Last week, Coleman, R-Minn., said that Annan should resign because of the oil-for-food scandal. Coleman's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said it had uncovered evidence that Saddam Hussein's government raised more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting U.N. sanctions against Iraq, including the oil-for-food program.
Five Republican House members backed Coleman's call, which Annan has rejected."
Howard Kurtz; Washington Post: Are we safer becuause of the intel bill?
Read an find out for yourself. Then ask the question: Are we safer now?
washingtonpost.com: Media Notes Extra
NYT - Disgruntled Troops Complain to Rumsfeld
Mr. Rumsfeld told troops to deal with the lack of armor and stop loss. I'm not sure how most troops would respond to his comment, but we can see the there is a growing voice of soldiers that are disagreeing with the current conditions in Iraq.
The New York Times > AP > International > Disgruntled Troops Complain to Rumsfeld: "Disgruntled U.S. soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about the lack of armor for their vehicles and long deployments, drawing a blunt retort from the Pentagon chief.
``You go to war with the Army you have,'' he said in a rare public airing of rank-and-file concerns among the troops."
Does the new intelligence chief have any power?
Read this Washington Post article with interviews with some current and former CIA officals discussing the new intelligence bill. Did we do the right thing in making this bill such a priority?
Director's Control Is a Concern : "The compromise legislation approved by the House yesterday in response to the Sept. 11 commission's findings represents a historic reordering of the $40 billion intelligence community.
But some experts say it is not at all evident how, or even if, the changes would help America's spies obtain secrets and aid analysts in determining the intentions of terrorists bent on striking again or worrisome nations developing weapons of mass destruction."
washingtonpost.com: Finding the Best, Not the Best-Known, Colleges
Where does your school really rank? Does your school really want you to know how well it teaches students?
Read this interesting article and find out if your school is letting you know how it really does its job.
washingtonpost.com: Finding the Best, Not the Best-Known, Colleges: "Two years ago, as I was finishing a book debunking the myth of Ivy League academic superiority, it occurred to me that I wasn't offering any useful alternatives. I presented the research showing that ancient universities with big names don't add anything to their students lives that they cannot get elsewhere. It is the students' characters, forged before they ever got to college, that make them successful, not high ranks for their alma maters on the U.S. News & World Report list."
The Campaign against Kofi -SPIEGEL ONLINE
There is a very good story profiling Kofi Annan. It puts more of a perspective on what is going on inside the UN. I know that Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) is making a name for himself in the media and the Republican party for leading the attack on the UN Secretary General, but i don't think we should be buying into their portrait of Mr. Annan. Read the article and start to form your opinion.
United Nations: The Campaign against Kofi: "The secretary general of the United Nations fights a war on many fronts in his crusade to bring human rights and peace to the world. But Kofi Annan's latest front isn't Sudan or Iraq, it's Washington, where right-wingers and spin doctors are plotting to overthrow him."
Putin scoffs at call for a new Ukraine election.
International news doesn't make it on to my radar very often, but I think this does deserve a note. Discussions over the holiday weekend brought to my attention the historical role that Russia has played in Ukrainian and eastern European independance. When Russia has taken over Ukraine, Czech, Slovinia, Poland historically have not stood a chance.
While it is seems unlikely that Russia would be has bold as it has historically, I would like to point out that Russian President Putin has taken over the Russian democratic government in the past year. After his comments today can point to a worry Europeans and eventually America.
Putin Meets Ukraine Leader and Scoffs at Calls for New Runoff: "President Vladimir V. Putin waded deeper into Ukraine's electoral crisis today, dismissing as useless one candidate's demand for a repeat of the final round of the disputed presidential election and criticizing European efforts to mediate."
ESPN.com: Page 2 - Why won't ND just admit it?
Alan Grant of ESPN.com predicts a decline in ND admissions standards. I hope not, but only time will tell.
ESPN.com: Page 2 - Why won't ND just admit it?: "As for Notre Dame's pesky recruiting 'standards' ... well, you can bet they'll be relaxed, starting this winter. Oh, no one will make an official statement or anything. But young players with suspect character will begin to find their way to South Bend. And Notre Dame will begin to win again."
