MASTER SERIES

Go there

On the 'net ...

Learning with the Simputer

Source: The Feature

THE information revolution never made it to the schools of Mahasamund in the Chhattisgarh state of India. Not until late last year, at least, when Anita Rawate introduced to teachers and schoolchildren a flat, gray, AAA battery-powered handheld machine with an LCD screen that ran math games and other learning applications on a Linux OS.

Eight months since Rawate first introduced the Simputer, she is already seeing results. In the primary- and secondary- schools that she works with in the slums and rural areas of Mahasamund, student attendance has increased 20 percent. Teachers and children have not only learned how to use the device and are now developing new Simputer content on their own.

Read full report

Long hours at computer 'deadly'

Source: The Australian

THE next time your boss asks you to put in a few extra hours at your desk - remind him it could be deadly.

New Zealand researchers have found that sitting at a computer for hours on end can cause fatal blood clots, just as long flights can lead to deep vein thrombosis (DVT), known as economy-class syndrome.

They discovered the link when a 32-year-old man who sat at his computer terminal for up to 18 hours a day nearly died after he developed a blood clot in his leg which travelled to his lungs.

Read full report

How to Get Insanely Rich on the Internet
The total idiot's guide to Internet success

Go there

IIT Bombay develop new multilingual search engine

Source: goatelecom.com

Move over Google! A team of researchers from the Indian Insititute of Technology Bombay, says it has developed a search engine for the internet that is both multi-lingual as well as meaning specific, giving it a broader applicability and greater accuracy than existing models.

"Our search engine eliminates the language barrier and its results are much more accurate than any other techniques used," says Dr Pushpak Bhattacharya, Prof Computer Sciences and Engineering Department, IIT Bombay. Using Universal Networking Language (UNL), "the model has integrated the user's language requirement with the knowledge the user seeks," he points out.

In a paper to be presented at the ongoing International Conference on Universal Knowledge and Language here, Dr Bhattacharya and his team of students, Sarvjeet Singh, Tushar Chandra, Upmanyu Misra and Ushhan D Gundevia argue that their search engine retrieves only the knowledge that is relevant and attempts to bridge the language gap by using an underlying, structured language as a backhand translator. "As far as we know, we are the first to employ this technique," they say.

Google, widely believed to be the best search engine, is restricted only to English. According to an estimate by the World Wide Web, English language content makes for about 80 per cent of the trillion and trillion bytes of textual information on the internet. Though other language content is also catching up rapidly -- specially Chinese and South Asian languages -- the digital divide between nations and people is still huge.

Indian boy becomes world’s youngest web designer

Source: IndiaExpress Bureau

He is just five years old. But Ajay Puri of Lucknow has earned the distinction of having become the youngest computer web designer in the world.

With the feat firmly under his belt, the Class-II student, who designed his website, http://www.microsoftkid.com/, has entered the Limca Book of Records.

The talented boy recently met Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. After the meeting, Gates is reported to have remarked: "Ajay! You are going to take my seat."

Read full report

New Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) Web Site launched

OSISA, a philanthropic non-profit grant making foundation is pleased to announce the launch of its new website at the following address:

http://www.osisa.org/

This new look website is filled with information on OSISA, its vision, mission its activities, areas of operation and program guidelines. The program areas of focus are:

• HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY BUILDING;
  
• ECONOMIC REFORM;
  
• INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT);
  
• MEDIA;
  
• CAPACITY BUILDING;
  
• EDUCATION.

SANGONeT Media Technologies built the database-driven website for OSISA, based on the MAPS Enterprise Portal System.

Welcome to SpiderChat, the resource centre and meeting place for webfriends - novice webmasters and and experienced web developers alike. Here, we collect the best and most useful content on the Web and arrange it in an easy to access, user-friendly format. Read our featured article or browse through our extensive archive of useful articles, maintained in association with Add Me. Check out our Site of the Month or submit your site for the Editor's Choice Award.

Otherwise, take a peek at our Forum - over 3500 posts! Also check out our Work Area where you can build graphical Navigational buttons effortlessly!

Drop us a line or fill in the feedback form to let us know how we can improve this site.