ConnectKW News
Household Internet Use Survey
Statistics Canada: "The number of Canadian households surfing the Internet continued to grow in 2003 according to the Household Internet Use Survey. However, growth rates remained relatively stable largely because the majority of households were already plugged in."
Posted 8 July 2004
New site from Sick Kids hospital
AboutKidsHealth: "The goal of this site is to provide families with reliable, current information about all areas influencing child health and family quality of life in a format that is easy to understand."
Posted 28 June 2004
ICT in Schools Survey
Statistics Canada: "According to a new survey, virtually all elementary and secondary schools in Canada had computers and were connected to the Internet during the 2003/04 school year. Overall, an estimated total of more than 1 million computers were available to students and teachers, and about 9 out of 10 of these computers were connected to the Internet. However, while information and communications technology (ICT) has provided students with a new learning tool, it hasn't arrived without a number of challenges."
Posted 10 June 2004
Savvy in Cyberland
Waterloo Public Library: "Join us for this free series of introductory technology seminars. These seminars are geared towards the home user as well as the small business community. Wilfrid Laurier University and Waterloo Public Library are working together to bring seminars to the community which are informative, educational and practical."
Posted 19 May 2004
Dell Recycling
Dell Canada, in association with ReBOOT and Computers for Schools, is promoting donations of used computer equipment to nonprofits and schools.
Posted 3 May 2004
Canada Benefits
"Welcome to the Canada Benefits Web site, your Internet doorway to government-wide information about benefit programs and services for individuals. Canada Benefits is run by the Government of Canada."
Posted 13 April 2004
Privacy Concerns Raised Around New E-mail Service
From the Globe and Mail : The upcoming Google Mail service is debuting to acclaim and controversy. The new free web mail service will offer a gigabyte of storage space and a number of features that Yahoo and Hotmail simply do not have, but consumer groups have attacked Google for potential privacy violations.
Google's mail service will be free, but only because Google intends to run its ads as users view their e-mail. Google Ads are known for their ability to scan the websites they reside on in order to provide relevant advertisements. The prospect of Google doing this to private e-mails has alarmed privacy watchdogs.
From the article: "Google portrays the commercialization of e-mail as a small trade-off for a service that will give each user one gigabyte of storage — up to 500 times more than other leading free services — and provide a quicker, cleaner way to search e-mailboxes." / "Nevertheless, critics say the free storage — roughly the equivalent of 500,000 pages — isn't worth compromising individual privacy rights.
Posted 8 April 2004
Computer and Internet training
Student Connections at Wilfrid Laurier University offers a variety of courses.
Posted 31 March 2004
Older Americans and the Internet
A new report from the Pew Internet Project examines Internet use by seniors: "Wired seniors are often as enthusiastic as younger users in the major activities that define online life such as email and the use of search engines to answer a specific question. Also, wired seniors are as likely as younger users to go online on a typical day."
Posted 25 March 2004
Voice Browser in Development
CNN.com 'Opera Software is developing a new Internet browser that allows users to talk to their computer, the company announced Tuesday. The new browser incorporates IBM's ViaVoice technology, enabling the computer to ask what the user wants and "listen" to the request. Opera declined to give a launch date...
'...The browser is at its developmental stage. At a demonstration, a pizza order form was promptly displayed when the tester told the computer, "Order pizza." But the browser misinterpreted an order for "a pizza" as "eight pizzas."'
Posted 23 March 2004
Restaurant inspections
Region of Waterloo: "This website is designed to provide the public with information regarding inspections of all food premises in Waterloo Region. Please be advised that the results of all inspections posted on this website describe what the Public Health Inspector (PHI) observed on the date of inspection."
Posted 23 March 2004
Helping families with special needs
"The Family Net web site is committed to providing information and support to those families in Ontario who have a child or children with any kind of special need."
Posted 22 March 2004
Together 4 Health
"Together 4 Health is a community-based partnership committed to actively promoting healthy lifestyles in Waterloo Region." This site includes a Healthy Lifestyles Resource Guide.
Posted 22 March 2004
Bullied by the click of a mouse
Globe and Mail: "Cyber bullying - also known as digital bullying or Internet bullying - is harassment that takes place using an electronic medium. That can be through e-mails, instant messaging, chat rooms on the Internet, small text messages, on-line voting booths, and even websites set up especially to mock and humiliate." Learn more at cyberbullying.ca
Posted 22 March 2004
Canadian Spammers Sued
CBC.ca: "A major U.S. internet company has filed an anti-spam lawsuit against a Kitchener man and his two sons, in what they are calling the 'single greatest disruption' to their e-mail network. In the suit filed Wednesday, the Yahoo Internet company alleged that more than 94 million pieces of junk e-mail, or spam, were sent out by Barry Head and his sons, Eric and Matthew since January ... The three men are among hundreds named in civil lawsuits aimed at curbing the proliferation of unsolicited e-mails."
Posted 11 March 2004
