Month: November 2011

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Inside Higher Ed :: What Were They Thinking?

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/11/09/essay-why-smart-people-make-foolish-ethical-choices

Every time there is a new ethics scandal, whether in a university or some other setting (such as in government or the corporate world), observers wonder how those involved could have been so stupid. Could they really have done the things of which they are accused? If so, what were they thinking?
In fact, there are three precipitating factors for ethics scandals that practically guarantee that they will not be going away anytime soon. The three factors are foolishness, the complexity of ethical reasoning, and ethical drift, which I discuss in turn.

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/11/09/essay-why-smart-people-make-foolish-ethical-choices#ixzz1dLKWYdlv
Inside Higher Ed

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Build a serious WordPress server for high traffic website | David Euler on coding and design

http://www.beyondlinux.com/2011/11/10/build-serious-wordpress-site/

When building WordPress for high traffic website, we maintain and restart the web server frequently for better SEO and better user experience; but we don’t want to interrupt user’s visiting.

When we get familiar with SEO, the link/site structure may change and need to update nginx configuration which need restart of nginx. When nginx new version released for fixing a dangerous security issue, we need upgrade nginx.

So we need at least 2 nginx instance for load balance, and another nginx as proxy server. Let’s build the 3 nginx instance on a single server with the same nginx installation(or use 2 nginx installation if need upgrading nginx ). Two of the instance serves WordPress with the same WordPress installation and the same database.

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Go To Hellman: Creative Commons Media Neutrality and eBook Rights after Rosetta v. Random

http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2011/11/creative-commons-media-neutrality-and.html

Here’s where it gets complicated.

Not so long ago, book publishers had no idea that there would be such things as digital books. Publishing contracts mentioned nothing about ebooks. Literary agents made sure to keep derivative rights separate, so that translation rights, film rights, stage adaptation rights, etc. for a successful book could be separately monetized.

When ebooks started to become important, the digital publisher Rosetta Books took advantage of the situation, and started acquiring ebook rights to well-known books such as Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. This did not please the print publishers at all. Random House, one of the “Big Six” US publishers, took Rosetta to court, saying that their publishing contracts gave them exclusive rights to distribute books, and ebooks were books.The coffee’s on, let’s get to work.

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Twitter Updates for 2011-11-09

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Are Open Access and Traditional Publishers in the Same Business?

http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2011/11/08/are-open-access-and-traditional-publishers-in-the-same-business/

There are industries that use the same raw materials, yet are not the same. Commercial firms that deliver purified water to companies consume water, fuel, and vehicles. Yet, not a single one is in competition with the local swimming pool company.

Guys trucking 5-gallon water jugs around to offices are doing something with the same materials that is completely different than what the other company — digging, lining, and purifying your swimming pool — is doing.

So, are open access publishers and traditional publishers really in the same business?

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How does Google do a barrel roll? | Metal Toad Media

http://www.metaltoad.com/blog/how-does-google-do-barrel-roll

By now you’ve probably seen Google “do a barrel roll”. If you haven’t, head over to google.com and enter “Do a barrel roll”. What? You’re using IE? Ok, well then no tricks for you. I suggest Chrome. For the rest of us, Google’s page does a nice little in-place spin. When you saw it you may have thought “How the heck did they pull that off?” or maybe you said “Since when does google use flash?” or possibly “I feel the need… …the need for speed!”. The answer to the first question is easy

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Comcast pushes IPv6 forward

http://betanews.com/2011/11/09/comcast-pushes-ipv6-forward/

But it’s going to be slow going, and for good reasons. Despite all IPv6 promises, there is still much, much testing to do before it’s ready for prime time.

Today Comcast revealed that it has started an IPv6 “pilot market deployment” as first step leading to nationwide rollout next year. Broadband providers like Comcast haven’t rushed the switch to IPv6 — despite an increasing shortage of IPv4 network addresses — because of lacking support, ranging from operating systems to network switches and other devices. Then there are security questions that only real-time use can answer.

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U.S. Dept. of Ed. Reaffirms OER Support, Highlights Competency-Based Assessment | EDUCAUSE

http://www.educause.edu/blog/jcummings/USDeptofEdReaffirmsOERSupportH/241218

Last week, Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter led an education policy briefing at U.S. Department of Education headquarters that put a spotlight on the department’s support for open educational resources (OER). Joined by two of her senior policy advisors long associated with the OER movement, Hal Plotkin (journalist and former president of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District board) and Joel Thierstein (former executive director of the OER organization, Connexions), as well as by the director of the department’s Office of Educational Technology, Karen Cator, Kanter spoke at length about the importance the department places on the continued development of OER.

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Sign legal documents with your finger, your iPad and Softsign

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/11/08/sign-legal-documents-with-your-finger-and-softsign/

Did you ever think of your finger as a legal signing tool? Softsign for iPad (free for a limited time) offers a PDF annotation tool for iOS that allows you to sign legal documents via a touch screen.

Developer Tom Hodgson points out that a variety of laws implemented more than a decade ago made electronic signatures legally valid in the US, the UK, and beyond. The 2000 United States ESIGN act specified that e-signatures could be accepted as equivalent to a written signature for commercial transactions. The EU has the 1999/93/EC Directive on Electronic Signatures, and in the UK there is the Electronic Communications Act 2000.