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April 28, 2004

Get this one of a kind

eBay item 4146756343 (Ends Apr-28-04 15:37:01 PDT) - SIZE 12 WEDDING DRESS/GOWN NO RESERVE. Quick, before bidding ends, have a look at this one of a kind wedding dress -- err...I mean one of a kind dress model.

Posted by johnvu at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

Vincennes Open Citation Project

Citation Facility Interface (Vincennes) - Summary [Gna!]. Peter Schulte-Stracke, a major contributor to pybliographer, has started this project to expand free software usage in reference management.

The Vincennes project develops an open Citation Facility
Interface, connecting typically an Editor/Word Processor
(EWP) and a Reference Manager Application (RMA).

Primary purpose is the easy insertion of references
(»citation markers«) and creation of bibliographies
(»reference lists«), but in particular in connection with
the spread of XML encoded documents, it is expected that
many other uses will be developed.

The projects develops both an interface standard and a
reference implementation.

* Benefits

- Easy way to get an important feature lacking for years
- Makes free software more attractive
- Ability to freely combine two major applications will
attract users in particular from academia

* Contact

For contact use the »vincennes.dev@gna.org« mailing list;
to receive announcements you should subscribe to the
»vincennes-announce@gna.org« mailing list.

License : Other
Registration Date : Mon 04/26/04 at 18:00
Development Status : 1 - Planning

Posted by johnvu at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2004

Student struggles

The New York Times > New York Region > Yes, Some Students Live in the Library (But Not Like This). Talk about struggling students. This article made the front page of the NY Times (bottom of the fold) -- a student who could not find matching financial aid on top of his scholarship to pay for his living expenses in NYC. So he was living in the library, quite literally, and living on bagels and OJ. Interesting read. His web page is found at (http://www.homelessatnyu.com/home.php).

Posted by johnvu at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2004

Pay for peer review -- good or bad?

The Scientist :: Quick peer review for $125. Some journals pay for review of articles to expedite turnaround.

Posted by johnvu at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)

Grad Students on Strike

Columbia Spectator Online - Strike for Graduate Student Union Begins. There is a growing interest among grad students to unionize. The activity at Columbia U. is probably just the beginning.

Posted by johnvu at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2004

GM plants, more hoopla than its worth?

Wired News: USDA Rejects Drug-Laced Rice. I'm still debating whether or not genetically modified plants are really as harmful as some opponents believe. Guess the proof is in the pudding -- let's just see what the data says.

Posted by johnvu at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2004

Limiting free speech (profanity) at games

DiamondbackOnline.com: Officials get OK to draft fan behavior guidelines. Apparently, if you attend a sporting event at my alma mater, you better curb your profanity and the volume of it -- otherwise you'll be kicked out. I understand the officials' concern, but after watching the men's NCAA basketball final on Monday, I also think that the officials should be fair with this ruling by placing it all across the board -- i.e. to players as well. It's all or none. On numerous occassions, on national TV mind you, cameras and mics caught players swearing left and right. If the officials' concern is on the ears of the "youth in the crowd," how many youngsters were "exposed" by watching the event on TV? More than you can shake a stick at. The "problem" of profanity is systemic, my point is that more could be done by forcing players (and coaches) to be prime examples of good behavior, than by placing legal restrictions.

Posted by johnvu at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2004

Library costs affect everyone

Health Sciences & Human Services Library. My university needs to cut $250,000 in library expenditures, which mean they are cutting access and dropping subscriptions to journals. I suspect that this is not a problem unique to my university but to lots of places across the nation. The reason I am blogging about this is because the URL above actually has a good FAQ about why the library is placed in such a precarious position and talks about costs that is most likely global in nature.

Posted by johnvu at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)

April 02, 2004

Inexpensive MP3 player for exercise

Lots of buzz on the internet these days about the Creative Labs MuVo^2 (that's squared) MP3 player. It happens to have a 4GB CompactFlash microdrive from Hitachi that many are cannibalizing for use in their digital cameras and such. For $199 (street price), it's quite a deal -- compared to $300+ for the microdrive alone. But for those of you who want to benefit from the hackers, then head on over to eBay and get one of the MuVo^2 shells (the player without the drive), and slap a 256MB SanDisk CompactFlash Flash RAM into it and you got yourself a fairly stable MP3 player for the active lifestyle -- exercising, jogging, etc. Even better, it's also a WMA player that can play songs downloaded from Wal-Mart for $0.88. Yep, that's cheaper than you'd find at Napster or iTunes. Now, I just have to find a set of inexpensive noise-cancelling headphones and I can listen to it over the drone of the fridges here in the lab.

Posted by johnvu at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

What's good for the gander...

IBM event heralds Linux-like model for Power processor. Open source model moves beyond software to hardware? Well, sort of.

Posted by johnvu at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)