Games for Learning

Here is an interesting article of what we are learning in the course, using games for learning process. A school in England, UK, is using games in the classroom to boost students' learning process. Click here for the link.

I think what we are learning now is going to come true is near future. At present, people may disregard using games for learning. They don't dare give it a try. Most people think that it won't affect nuch in the learning process. However, sooner or later, I believe that there will be a major shift. Educational institutions are going to use games to create new learning experience and ignite what is called FUN in the learning process.

Magic Pen

Have u ever used Tablet PC? Have u ever imagined what enables you to write on the tablet? The technology is called "magic pen" developed by Microsoft.

With this pen and your tablet, it literally means you have infinite ink plus papers. Cool isn't it... But, there will be upcoming innovation in the future whreby you won't need your tablet anymore. You can just write on a piece of any paper, then whatever you write there will appear exactly on your PC screen. A research conducted in Microsoft's Beijing research lab is currently developing it.

Here is the link to the article: http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home2003/erne0001/magicpen.pdf.

Novel in Your Cell Phone

For those of you, novel enthusiast, now you can read your novel on your phone screen. Not just that, you can also download novel from the internet and read it on your mobile phone screen. People, especially students, in Japan are now in engage with this new features. For complete news, visit: http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,66950,00.html.

New Portable Surveillance Receivers 'Arm' Israeli Troops

As the title suggest, an innovative design of a receiver device for Israeli troops has been released. For Israeli troops, getting fast access to enemies is a crucial information. A new communications technology that delivers video to a receiver one-fifth the size of normal is allowing Israeli troops to see what enemies may be lurking just over the next hill or around the next corner. For complete article, click here.

New Development of XML

XML (Extensible Markup Language) has been very popular for web application development. Derived from SGML, XML is a very flexible text-format. For more information, visit: http://www.w3.org/XML/.

XML usage is not just in the Web application. There are other areas that use application based on this language, one example is the US Air Force. In order to increase combat effectivity and efficiency, it uses so called "binary XML". Click here for more information: http://www.mitre.org/news/events/xml4bin/pdf/gilligan_keynote.pdf

In response to the rapid usage of XML, W3C, Web standards body, is planning to speed up XML-based software/application in order to benefit all the users from cell phone carriers to television broadcasters to the military. Users find that XML is too bulky for certain applications such as interactive program and sending data to set-top boxes. W3C proposed to increase the speed processing of XML based applications. The details can be found in this link: http://news.com.com/Faster+XML+ahead/2100-1007_3-5630957.html?tag=nefd.top

Handphone Virus

Handphone is not protected anymore. There were recents news of handphone virus. One example can be found in: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,84329,00.html.

The expert views that the threats maybe coming soon through various ways such as MMS, bluetooth, etc.

In my opinion, since their first success in spreading virus, hackers will not stop spreading more and more virus to damage handphone software and even hardware. The first virus, known as Cabir, has caused panic to arise among users. More information about Cabir can be found at:

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3809855.stm
• http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/mobile-phone-hoax.html
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3554514.stm
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3554514.stm

In conclusion, it is just a matter of short time for all of us to equip our device with a defensive antivirus software. In addition, the damage caused by handphone virus maybe far greater than that of computer due to rapid information flow among users through SMS, MMS, bluetooth, internet, etc.

RFID

The techology discussed in the case study is RFID. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. More information about RFID can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID. RFID usage all over the world is spreading widely, ranging from animal identification, library loan system, airport baggage tracking, and many more. One example of RFID usage can be found at the following link or can be downloaded here (Note: file size is big). The link provides excellent and clear diagram on the use of RFID in retailers' supply chain management.

In my opinion, RFID is an excellent technology, simple, cheap, yet powerful. I believe in near future its usage will be widespread. The drawbacks of this technology is high cost for its active chip and high concern of customer privacy.