ConnectKW News: March 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
Internet use at 'third places'
Pew Internet Project: "Those who use the Internet in some place other than home or work fall into two main camps. The first camp consists of the online Americans who seem to go online wherever they are. These users often have access at home and at work and they are anxious to have access from other places as well. Many of them are young – under the age of 30 – and avid Internet users. On a typical day, more than half the people accessing the Internet from a 'third place' are between ages 18-24. Nearly half of students (48%) have accessed the Internet from a 'third place.' They are the anywhere, anytime users of the Internet.
"In the second camp are Internet users who are relatively poor and do not have high levels of education. Many have access at work, some have access at home, and a portion of them depend on a place other than home or work for their Internet access. Those who depend on 'third places' make up only 3% of the entire U.S. Internet population, but they are disproportionately likely to live in households earning less than $30,000, to live in rural areas, and to be newcomers to the online world. They are fairly infrequent users of the Internet who often use libraries and friends’ homes as their access points."
Posted 3 March 2004
Netsky-D E-mail Virus Alert
CNN.com: "A new computer worm dubbed "Netsky-D" was clogging e-mail systems around the world after emerging on Monday... The worm is particularly difficult to root out because it lands in e-mail boxes using a number of different subject lines such as "re:details" or "re:here is the document." "It arrives with an attached pif file (program information file) and it's already extremely widespread."
Posted 1 March 2004
