New
Bookmarks
Year 2001 Quarter 1: January 1-March 31 Additions to Bob
Jensen's Bookmarks
Bob Jensen at Trinity
University
You
can change the viewing size of fonts by clicking on the View menu item in your
browser.
For the January 1-March 31, 2001 Additions and Summaries scroll down
this document
For the other editions go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
For the full set
of Bob Jensen's Bookmarks go to http://WWW.Trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm
(The full set is never up to date with the latest
additions to my New Bookmarks.)
Click here to go to Bob Jensen's home page http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/
Choose a Date for Additions to the Bookmarks File
March 30, 2001 March 16, 2001 March 9, 2001 March 1, 2001
February 23, 2001 February 16, 2001 February 09, 2001 February 01, 2001
January 26, 2001 January 19, 2001 January 12, 2001 January 5, 2001
Scroll down this page to view this week's new bookmarks.
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
I maintain threads on various topics at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Click
here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search
Site.
This search engine may get you some hits from other professors at Trinity
University included with Bob Jensen's documents, but this may be to your
benefit.
Whenever a commercial product or service is mentioned anywhere in Bob Jensen's website, there is no advertising fee or other remuneration to Bob Jensen. This website is intended to be a public service. I am grateful to Trinity University for serving up my ramblings.
Quotes of the Week
If you're not riding the wave of change...you'll find
yourself beneath it.
As quoted on the bottom of email messages from Steve Gilmore.
Epitaph: Though I have
passed on, salesmen phone my apartment around dinnertime.
From the Dead Letter Office (See below)
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.
A pat on the back is only a short distance from a kick in the pants.
Every problem solved introduces a new unsolved problem.
Flying is hours,
and hours, and hours and hours of sheer boredom interrupted by a few moments of
stark terror.
Sgt. Merrill Manlove (after his single engine Beechcraft Bonanza iced up and
forced a scary but successful landing in Terra Haute, Michigan.
A marriage is made in heaven, but . . . so are thunder and lightening.
Wow High Tech University and Wow Soaring Nation of the Week
I just returned from a week of lecturing in Mexico at both the Monterrey Tech onsite campus and the Monterrey Tech Virtual University. I want to say that I am impressed by what is happening in Monterrey Tech and in Mexico in general. See http://www.itesm.mx/
Adobe Systems on Monday announced Atmosphere, a set of new software and tools for authoring and viewing three-dimensional Web sites --- http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0103274/2701258/
Have you experienced the beta version of Internet Explorer yet? IE 6 features all kinds of CSS and privacy enhancements, plus full support for the XSL 1.0 standard, a built-in MP3 player, the ability to turn off meta refreshes, and more --- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/preview/ie6/ie6preview.asp
For CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/preview/ie6/ie6preview.asp
For XSL (eXstensible Style Sheet) language see http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/
My links to MP3 can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/newfaculty.htm#Resources
(You have to scroll down a bit after you arrive at the above spot.)
On the negative side of IE6, Web site privacy rating capability and cookie management features need work --- http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0103271/2700809/
Education Technology Update From Syllabus News on March 27, 2001
eCollege Releases Campus Author Tool
eCollege, an eLearning software and services provider, recently announced the availability of its Campus Author tool, enabling administrators to change and update their online campuses in real time, without any knowledge of HTML. The tool is already being used by 12 institutions. Campus Author is another use of eCollege's Visual Editor tool that has already been implemented in its course delivery system and adopted by faculty to edit and format online courses. Campus Author provides administrators 24x7 (this means every hour of every day) access to and control of their eCollege-powered online campus, whether the institution uses the company's CampusPortal, Premium Campus Gateway, or Campus Gateway. Using the tool, administrators can view their edits in a preview mode before the changes go live.
For more information, visit http://www.eCollege.com .
Note that eCollege is a heavily capitalized company that serves up quality
courses from various major state universities.
For courses available online see http://www.ecollege.com/student/
There are not many respected doctoral programs online, but eCollege led me to the Doctoral Program in Pharmacology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
How is the University of Arizona delivering searchable streaming video?
Education Technology Update from Syllabus News on March 27, 2001
Virage, Inc., a provider of software and services that enable video for strategic online applications, recently announced that the University of Arizona is using the Virage Internet Video Application Platform to provide searchable streaming video of select courses at a university Web site. The initiative, which is part of the university's Virtual Adaptive Learning Architecture (VALA) research grant and the Faculty Center for Instructional Innovation (FCII), demonstrates an improved method of capturing, containing, and circulating information within academic institutions. Under the initiative, professors have the option of videotaping classroom lectures and streaming the video content in a searchable online format from a University of Arizona Web site, where students can then search for specific course material and review lectures at any time. The university is currently streaming 8 classes and plans to expand the technology into the new integrated learning center when it opens for the Spring 2002 semester. In addition to university classroom activities, the project is also archiving programs from the local PBS affiliate including a daily news program.
For more information, visit http://www.virage.com/.
A new accounting research paper entitled "The Knowledge Scorecard" is available from Baruch Lev at http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~blev/newnew.html
Takeaway Points in the Paper
Top of the Line
Evaluations of e-Learning Programs
--- Lguide at http://www.lguide.com/
(The evaluations are not free, but the listings of programs are free.)
Lguide.com empowers e-learning decisions for business professionals. As a leading e-learning research and consulting organization, we offer in-depth, authoritative analysis of e-learning products and services. We have developed a sophisticated methodology for reviewing Web-based training, and have reviewed over 1,500 products to date. We leverage this industry expertise in several ways: we provide e-learning consulting services to corporate clients, and we offer a subscription site with access to a full library of e-learning research and analysis, and we publish stand-alone research reports on the e-learning industry. Leading associations, publications, and companies in the e-learning industry have come to rely on us as a definitive source of e-learning research and analysis, including the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), Online Learning magazine, Click2Learn, THINQ, and Headlight.com
You can sign up for a free trial view of Lguide reviews. Categories of online courses in the area of "Business" are as follows:
Lguide Releases the First Authoritative
Analysis and Directory of E-Learning Publishers http://www.lguide.com/index.cfm?application=services&page=reports
(The price is relatively high for academe --- $999.99. Do
you really want that penny back in change? However, the report may
be a useful reference in a college library, especially for colleges toying with
content and delivery ideas for online courses. This report provides
rankings by content, which is something that is very difficult or impossible
to find elsewhere at the present time.)
Report examines the present state of the industry and future trends, evaluating 40 top e-learning publishers and their courseware, and includes a comprehensive industry directory.
Tacoma, WA (March 12, 2001)-- Lguide, a leading independent e-learning research and consulting firm, today announced the release of a groundbreaking research report: "E-Learning Course Publishers: A Comparative Analysis and Industry Directory." The first of its kind, this report allows both e-learning consumers and industry members to understand who's who and which companies have the best products in a very confusing marketplace.
Reaction to the report from corporate training managers has been overwhelmingly positive.
"Lguide's E-Learning Course Publishers: Comparative Analysis and Industry Directory is an excellent source for ALL the information you need when considering the purchase of online training content," said Deborah Bauer, Director of Development Services for Dell Computer Corporation. "It provides in-depth information by content or vendor as well as graphs that give you an excellent overview by subject area. I've worked with teams of folks over many weeks just to compile a small fraction of all the data contained in this report."
Industry analysts are unanimous in their praise of the report. The report provides "a comprehensive roadmap," which "ought to result in the continued advance of e-learning," said Trace Urden, e-learning analyst for WR Hambrecht and Co. Piper Jaffray analyst Mark Marostica called the report a "very comprehensive, easy-to-follow resource, and a must have guidebook for anyone who is faced with the daunting challenge of evaluating the myriad of e-learning offerings on the market."
Wow Portals of the Week
Important Knowledge
Portals for Business Educators and Researchers
Some of the portals added to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm
Also see Bob Jensen's Threads on Knowledge Portals at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/portals.htm
************************************************************************************
Rutgers University's Research &
Reference Gateway: Research Guides: Business
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/business.shtml
While the Dana
Library is designated the business research library of the Rutgers
University Libraries, materials in business and related areas can
also be found at the Alexander
Library, with its strong United States, foreign and international
documents collections; the Kilmer
Library, serving the School of Business in New Brunswick; the Robeson
Library, which supports the School of Business in Camden; and the School
of Management and Labor Relations Library, which focuses on
industrial relations.
|
For example, the Accounting option above leads you to the following links:
Page Contents:
************************************************************************************
Harvard Business School's Project Finance
I am repeating a notice on Harvard's Project Finance that I put in the March 16 edition of New Bookmarks, because this will one day be a very important portal even though its glossary disappoints me at the moment.
Harvard Business School Project Finance
Portal http://www.hbs.edu/projfinportal/
(the HBS Project Finance Portal's Glossary is at http://www.dbsa.org/privatesector/project_finance.htm
I found this glossary to be very disappointing
from a portal that is in other respects outstanding.)
A better set of glossaries can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbus.htm
Some of Harvard's Project Finance Portal links are called "General Project Finance Links" at http://www.hbs.edu/projfinportal/generalpfhtm.htm
Global Development Project Finance & Project Management Information
InfrastructureWorld.com: This site is designed to assist project sponsors, developers, service providers, and other professionals in completing project finance transactions. It also contains 1000's of useful links.
Institute of International Project Financing
International Project Finance Association
PrivateFinance-i.com: PrivateFinance is the ultimate resource for online PFI/PPP news, research and market information, and supports business-to-business services by uniting buyers and sellers and enabling online transactions.
The main Project Finance Website is at http://www.hbs.edu/projfinportal/
************************************************************************************
The University of Kansas International Business Resource Connection http://www.ibrc.bschool.ukans.edu/
The IBRC, a business outreach program of the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) within the School of Business at the University of Kansas, was created to encourage trade opportunities and expand international business education. Through strategic alliances with major partners (including the U.S. Department of Education and the Kauffman Foundation), private sector affiliates, faculty and students at the University of Kansas, the IBRC assists small and medium-sized Kansas companies explore available trade opportunities and broaden international business skills. Particular emphasis is placed on the emerging role of electronic communication resources (the Internet) in developing international business opportunities for firms located in the heartland of the United States.
Also, don't forget Paul Pacter's great international accounting site at http://www.iasplus.com/
************************************************************************************
Helpers for Marketing Students and Educators --- MarketingProfs.com --- http://www.marketingprofs.com/
Other marketing links can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm
************************************************************************************
One opinion on the top 10 investment
resource sites.
InvestMove.com --- www.investmove.com
Top Ten Financial Portals
1. Yahoo Finance 2. MSN MoneyCentral 3. Quicken.com 4. Wall Street City 5. Inter@ctive Investor 6. Motley Fool 7. Wall Street Research Net 8. Morningstar 9. Stockmaster 10. Silicon Investor
Other top investment and finance portals
Yahoo's picks of the top finance web sites --- http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/content/101most/101finance.html
Top 50 Financial Websites --- Money.com http://www.money.com/money/depts/websmart/bestweb/index.html
Advanced Stock Information http://www.stockadvanced.com/ (note that ratios are available)
Enter a symbol and click "go!" to get the following information: Stock Prices, Options, Stock Splits, Charts, Live Stock Quotes, Stock Performance, Earnings Estimates, Analyst Opinions, Company Performance, Stock Valuation, Broker Reports, Company Profile, Earnings Release Dates, Latest News, Fundamentals, Intraday Charts, Forum Discussions, Technical Charts, Annual Reports, Significant Events, Institutional Ownership, Financial Ratios, Insider Trading, SEC Filings, Financial Statements, Stock Dividends, Competition, Momentum Rating, Management Discussion, Conference Calls, Short Interest, and more.
From the Scout Report --- Business.com http://www.business.com/
The owners of this lucrative URL address have sponsored a Web directory created by a "team of 50 research analysts [that] has sifted through the Web to find relevant sites for our handcrafted Directory." All Websites in this 30-category directory have been annotated. The annotations, however, tend to be very terse and a bit vague. First time users are encouraged to skim over the excellent site guide, which gives a step-by-step manual for using the site as well as in-depth explanations of the terminology and taxonomy.
Financial Risk Links --- http://victoryrisk.com/
Center for Financial Research & Analysis, Inc.
CFRA, Inc. Launches Free On-Line Service for Academic Community
Rockville, MD - August 1 - The Center for Financial Research & Analysis (CFRA, Inc.), a leading provider of independent research to over 2,000 institutional investors, will now offer an academic version of its product to professors and their students. Since there is no cost for this service, its use is restricted for research and teaching purposes.
What's included with the Academic Version?
1. Access to all educational pieces in our database. 2. Access to selected company-specific reports that focus on quality of earnings issues 3. Weekly e-mail notification of new companies added to the database
Who qualifies for this service and how can you sign up?
All professors teaching courses in financial accounting, auditing, and finance qualify. To sign up, click on the URL http://www.cfraonline.com and register. Then sign and fax the agreement to (301) 984 8617. Once activated, you will have access to the Academic Version of CFRA's database.
About CFRA
CFRA has become known internationally for its pioneering research ferreting out companies with operational problems that use unusual accounting practices to camouflage such practices. Founded in 1994 by Dr. Howard M. Schilit following a 20 year career as an accounting professor (author of FINANCIAL SHENANIGANS: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks and Fraud in Financial Reports) http://www.cfraonline.com/publications/publications.jsp#FinancialShenanigans CFRA provides a daily on-line news wire of financial analysis and a database on over 900 companies. Its mission is to warn investors and creditors about companies experiencing operational problems and particularly those that employ unusual or aggressive accounting practices to camouflage such problems.
Howard Schilit
http://www.cfraonline.com
301-984-1001 ext. 105
Investment Tutorials and Glossary
From the Scout Report on March 22, 2001
Investopedia Tutorials http://www.investopedia.com/university/
Investopedia (reviewed in the September 7, 2000 _Scout Report for Business & Economics_) presents this wonderful collection of investment education tutorials. Tutorials are divided into two sections. The Building Blocks section provides investment basics including reading financial tables, retirement planning, and the P/E ratio. The intermediate tutorials offered in More Advanced Tutorials section include the Federal Reserve, inflation, and buying on margin. The tutorials are information-rich, clearly written, and link to terms found in the Investopedia glossary. However, they lack accompanying illustrations, save for a few charts and graphs.
Learn 2 Read the US Stock Market Page http://www.learn2.com/05/0522/05228.asp
Mutual Fund Investing Helpers from Consumer Reports "Survival of the Fittest" http://www.consumerreports.org/Special/Samples/Reports/0103mut0.html
ABCs of Figuring Interest http://www.chicagofed.org/publications/abcsinterest/abcsinterest.cfm
Two federal laws have been passed to minimize some of the confusion consumers face when they borrow or lend money. The Truth in Lending Act, passed in 1968, has made it easier for consumers to comparison shop when they borrow money. Similarly, the purpose of the Truth in Savings Act, passed in 1991, is to assist consumers in comparing deposit accounts offered by depository institutions.
Provisions of the Truth in Lending Act have been implemented through the Federal Reserve's Regulation Z, which defines creditor responsibilities. Most importantly, creditors are required to disclose both the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) and the total dollar Finance Charge to the borrowing consumer. Simply put, the APR is the relative cost of credit expressed in percentage terms on the basis of one year. Just as "unit pricing" gives the consumer a basis for comparing prices of different-sized packages of the same product, the APR enables the consumer to compare the prices of different loans regardless of the amount, maturity, or other terms.
Similarly, provisions of the Truth in Savings Act have been implemented through the Federal Reserve's Regulation DD. These provisions include a requirement that depository institutions disclose an annual percentage yield (APY) for interest-bearing deposit accounts. Like the APR, an APY will provide a uniform basis for comparison by indicating, in percentage terms on the basis of one year, how much interest a consumer receives on a deposit account.
While federal laws make it easier to comparison shop for credit and deposit accounts, a variety of methods continue to be used to calculate the amount of interest paid or earned by a consumer. To make an informed decision, it is useful to understand the relationships between these different methods.
Education Statistics Quarterly_ http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/quarterly/winter/
For other links, go to "Education Statistics" at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Has anybody seen a comparison review of Endnote versus eGems? It would appear that Endnote is mainly focused on the writing of a paper or book, whereas eGems is more focused on ease of grabbing and classifying scraps (gems) of information that you encounter in Web browsing or computer document reading in general. As they say in Texas, I "fix'in" to try one or the other or both, but before doing so, it would be nice to get feedback from current users.
Endnote 4 is a software product used by authors to manage bibliographies. You can download a trial version and a tutorial from http://www.endnote.com/ENhome.htm
More than 250,000 researchers, scholarly writers, students, and librarians use EndNote to search online bibliographic databases, organize their references, and create bibliographies instantly and automatically. Instead of spending hours typing bibliographies, or using index cards to organize their references, they do it the easy way--by using EndNote! EndNote for Windows and Macintosh is a valuable all-in-one tool that integrates the following tasks into one program:
Remember my Wow Site of the Week on March 2. It was eGems at http://www.egems.com/
Everyday, you come across valuable gems of information. The problem is, they're usually scattered far and wide — throughout web sites, emails, desktop applications, databases, graphics and virtual libraries.
eGems™ Collector Pro lets you change those rich nuggets of research into powerful gems of knowledge — quickly, easily and without losing their accompanying source. You simply "grab and drop" discrete pieces of information as you find and need them.
eGems™ Collector Pro helps researchers, writers, analysts, professors and students work faster and more efficiently. It's absolutely invaluable for anyone who re-uses verifiable information! Take a look at the many features and benefits!
Reply from Jim McKinney [mckinney@WAM.UMD.EDU]
There is also ProCite, Endnote's direct competitor to consider.
The Procite homepage is at http://www.procite.com/
Reply from Roger Debreceny [rogerd@NETBOX.COM]
Actually ProCite is now in the same stable as EndNote (see http://www.endnote.com/ENabout.htm ) along with Reference Manager .. ISI Research. EndNote was sold by Niles Research, the original developer.
I have been a user of ProCite and then EndNote for many years. I use it for every paper I write as well as for the preparation of teaching materials. I also make extensive use of the Internet connectivity.
A bibliographic database is one of the most important tools that an academic can use .. I'm always amazed how many colleagues have either not heard of EndNote or, if they have heard of it, don't use it. I can only assume that PhD programs do not have a skills element?
Idea Site of the Week
Although medreview.com is a medical review site, it has some features that academic associations and commercial providers (such as CPA Review providers) might consider implementing --- http://www.medrevu.com/
Chances are somewhere through your medical school career, you’ve used a gross anatomy book with blue boxes emphasizing clinical relevance, a pink checkerboard-covered review book for pathology, and a question/answer series of books that go by the name of “Recall.” That’s us…. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. For over 100 years, students have relied on us for quality medical school course and board review products. In fact, we make a science out of review.
Now, we meet your needs even further with medrevu.com. The purpose of the site is to be the Internet resource offering you personalized educational tools for your success through professional schooling and beyond. We offer a variety of online review products with the same high quality you have come to expect from our print products.
medrevu.com is partnered with Medsite.com, a leading service provider to the medical student community, to offer you even more.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins is a global publisher of medical, nursing, and allied health information resources in book, journal, newsletter, looseleaf, and electronic media formats. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins is a unit of Wolters Kluwer International Health & Science (WKIHS). WKIHS is a group of leading publishing companies offering specialized publications and software in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, science, and related areas. WKIHS also includes Ovid Technologies, New York; Facts and Comparisons, St. Louis; Adis International, Auckland, New Zealand; and Kluwer Academic Publishing, The Netherlands. The Company is headquartered in historic Old City Philadelphia and continues to maintain offices in Baltimore, MD; New York, NY; Hagerstown, MD; as well as London, Australia, and Hong Kong. Medrevu.com is staffed out of the Baltimore office.
• Unlimited monthly access to the irevu Bank, a database with more than 5,500 questions for USMLE Step 1 and Step 2
• Personal assessment based on cumulative score tracking
• Diagnostic 180, a comprehensive 3-hour/180-question simulated test for both USMLE Step 1 and Step 2
• PDA downloads of our best-selling Recall Series for the Palm™, TRGPro™, Visor™, and Pocket PC
Take the tour or jump right in by visiting our product selection. From the publishers you trust for the best in review—Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
From Syllabus e-News on March 20, 2001
O'Reilly Network Provides JavaScript Web Resources
A new Web site provides developers with JavaScript and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) resources, enabling them to create richer and more sophisticated Web sites. The site is part of the O'Reilly Network, located at http://www.oreillynet.com , an online resource for open and emerging technologies. The Java Script and CSS site features JavaScript experts' practical articles linked to a library of useful samples of programming code, as well as out-of-box solutions for applications. It also includes an RSS JavaScript feed pulling content from a wide variety of sites and newsgroups, the O'Reilly JavaScript/CSS book catalog, reader "Talk Backs," and feature articles. Two additional columns are the JavaScript and Web Design column, and the weekly JavaScript and CSS column.
* Increased Accessibility for Physically Disabled Computer Users
Gyration, a supplier of wireless, motion-sensing input devices, recently announced a new partnership with Boost Technology, a manufacturer of products for the assistive technology market. Boost Technology's signature product, a head-controlled computer mouse called the Tracer, will incorporate Gyration's GyroPoint Technology, a unique method by which an inertial motion sensor detects natural movement to control a cursor on a remote display. Users suffering from debilitating diseases and other physical conditions that make traditional means of cursor control difficult or impossible will enjoy precise control and a seamless user interface. The Tracer will also adopt Gyration's RF technology, providing reliable communication without line-of- sight limitations for the user.
For more information, visit http://www.boosttechnology.com/ or http://www.gyration.com .
Techlearn 2001 at http://www.techlearn2001.com/ features the following learning system demonstrations.
| Product
demos
Building E-Business (Harvard Business School Publishing) Element K (Element K) KnowledgeNet EXPRESS (KnowledgeNet) KnowledgeNet INTERACTIVE (KnowledgeNet) KnowledgeNet LIVE (KnowledgeNet) learningVista (TM) - a new learning management solution (GlobalLearningSystems) Lectora Publisher (Trivantis Corporation) Microsoft LRN Courses (CyberstateU.com) (CyberStateU.com) MoneyMaker - The Simulator for Sales Professionals (Intermezzon) Oracle iLearning - Learning Community Management System (Oracle Corporation) Prime eLearning System™ (PrimeLearning.com™ ) SkillSoft NetUniversity, SkillPort and Web Based Courseware (SkillSoft ) VIS Custom e-Learning Services (VIS Corporation) |
The Techlearn 2001 website also
features a long listing of E-learning products and services at
http://www.techlearn.net/elab/layout.cfm?header=mainheader&page=product_selector
Assessment Tools
Associations
Audio Video Equipment
Auditing Tools
Books and Printed Materials
Collaboration Systems
Consulting Services
Courseware
Development Services
Enterprise Learning Systems
Instructional Design Services
Learning Management Systems
Learning Service Providers
Performance Support Systems
Simulations
Streaming Technology
Technology Delivered Learning
Testing
Videoconferencing
Virtual Classroom Systems
"Binge-Drinking-Related
Consequences in College Students: Role of Drinking Beliefs and Mother—Teen
Communications<"
by Rob Turrisi, Kimberly A. Wiersma, and Kelli K. Hughes in Psychology of
Addictive Behaviors, December 2000, 342-355.
The present research contrasted theoretical models depicting the nature of the relation among drinking beliefs, drinking tendencies, and behavioral consequences in 266 incoming freshman college students. It also examined the theoretical relations between mother—teen communications and drinking beliefs relevant to behavioral consequences. The findings revealed direct relations between binge-drinking consequences and the drinking beliefs: Alcohol can make positive transformations, can enhance social behavior, and can increase negative affect and normative approval. Direct relations were not observed between consequences and the drinking beliefs regarding physical risk and health orientation. Finally, the present research found consistent support for the relation between mother—teen communications and drinking beliefs relevant to binge-drinking consequences.
Rental software from e-academy.com --- http://www.e-academy.com/
We provide innovative digital distribution and content management solutions to administrators, faculty, and software/text publishers for higher education.
Our industry-leading technologies and full customer service are helping the academic community in the transition to the Internet age with secure electronic software distribution, volume license management, semester-based software licensing, and multi-media course materials.
Secure, simple and leading-edge, e-academy helps you bring digital content to higher education with a clear vision to reduce costs and enhance service to academic communities.
A Yahoo Pick of the Week on March 19, 2001
21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com --- http://www.mikedaisey.com/
Actor and playwright Mike Daisey witnessed quite a bit during his two-year stint at Amazon.com, and because his Non-Disclosure Agreement recently expired, Mike is free to share many of those experiences with the public. If you live in the greater Seattle area, you can go see the one-man stage show (through March 31st), but don't worry if you're not a denizen of the Northwest -- there's plenty of interesting fodder on the web site about the "slavishly love idealistic mouthbreathers, sixty-hour weeks, and the cult of personality that is Jeff Bezos." Don't miss the fan letters -- quite a few people write in with personal experiences of the dot-com rise and fall. And if you have about an hour to kill, watch the webcast of the show.
Forwarded by Dick Burr:
Author(s): Baker, Nicholson.
Title: The author vs. the library. San Francisco Public Library's controversial weeding of collection
Source: The New Yorker v. 72 (Oct. 14 1996) p. 50-3+ JournalAbstract: The San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) is a case study of what can happen when telecommunications enthusiasts attempt to transform big old research libraries into high-traffic showplaces for information technology. Such changes, happening to varying degrees in a number of U.S. cities, devour unforecastably large amounts of money. For that reason, the SFPL is essentially broke, despite receiving a good percentage of the city budget each year from the "Preserving Libraries Fund." It would be churlish to highlight the shortcomings of the SFPL's plans to become a "library of the future" by moving to a new building were it not for the fact that it has, by a conservative estimate, sent more than 200,000 books to landfills. When it was realized that the New Main Library would not be able to house the present stock, let alone any new accessions, the solution was to "weed" the library's collection. Many of the discarded books were old, out of print, hard to find, and valuable. The writer discusses the library's tactics and his own efforts to combat them.
eLawyers?
LegalZoom Legal Documentation Service --- http://www.legalzoom.com/
Take care of common legal matters from your home or office! Created by top attorneys, LegalZoom uses the latest technology to help you prepare reliable legal documents online.
Once you complete a simple questionnaire, your documents will be prepared within 48 hours. We even review your documents and file them with the courts at no additional cost.
Choose a Procedure Copyrights Corporations Divorce Living Trust Living Wills LLCs Prenuptials Restraining Orders Trademarks Wills
Helpers in Tax Season from Scott Bonacker
This is some of the information I found on the internet, any additions to the list or comments would be welcome.
A survey of used clothing values can be purchased at: http://www.itsdeductible.com/ For their press releases see: http://www.itsdeductible.com/content/content_pr.html
There are also some free guides at: http://www.salvationarmy.org/safaq.nsf/(all)/21D4E8A485DAB6D8802568F9006A045
http://www.cpasnet.com/mmm/1197.htmlScott Bonacker, CPA McCullough, Officer & Company, LLC Springfield, Missouri moccpa.com
The new worm is capable of changing network settings, stealing passwords and eliminating security measures, setting up an infected machine for further attacks. http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0103232/2700665/
Computer security experts have unearthed a new worm that they say is spreading rapidly on the Internet and is capable of changing network settings, stealing passwords and eliminating some security measures, setting up the infected machine for further attacks.
Known as the Lion worm, the virus spreads through an application called "randb," which infects Linux machines running version 8 of the BIND DNS software, one of several iterations that are known to have numerous security vulnerabilities.
Lion scans random networks, probing TCP port 53, looking for potential targets.
The Columbia Encyclopedia is now online (free) at http://www.bartleby.com/65/
Also see the following from Bob Jensen's Bookmarks at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm
Great resource site for educators
I think that everyone has hit the nail on the head. What is the purpose of a listserv, if you can't read the e-mails, get an idea or respond to an idea? I use the listserv, daily, in my job and it relates very nice to what I am doing. So, I do appreciate the listserv and the all of the recommended info. Speaking of all of that, here is a site where I find lots of great ideas: http://www.sitesforteachers.com/cgi-bin/autorank/rankem.cgi?id=jory
Steven Gilmore [joryyroj@HOTMAIL.COM]
Department of Education & Cultural Affairs Curriculum Technology Specialist
700 Governors Dr.
Pierre, SD 57501 (605) 773-2489...Office (605) 280-1248
Non-hierarchical Website Navigation
OLAP, as defined in my Technology Glossary, stands for Online Analytical Processing database designs in which data can be analyzed from a multidimensional point of view. A great example is given online at the FedScope Website of the U.S. Government. Whereas a relational database can be thought of as two-dimensional, a multidimensional database considers each data attribute (such as product, geographic sales region, and time period) as a separate "dimension." OLAP software can locate the intersection of dimensions (all products sold in the Eastern region above a certain price during a certain time period) and display them. Attributes such as time periods can be broken down into sub-attributes.
I recall that somebody requested information regarding non-hierarchical organization of data and information in Websites. For example, reference was given to The Brain at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/portals.htm#TheBrain
I stumbled upon a rather unique website that organizes data in a way that may interest some of you. It has possibilities for online training and education site designs. The site is called FedScope from the Office of Personnel Management of the U.S. Government --- http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/index.htm
FedScope is an On Line Analytic Processing tool which provides a free and easy way to access and analyze a large array of Federal employment data on your own.
FedScope uses multidimensional data sources called "Cubes". A FedScope cube brings together 13 key dimensions (data elements) on the Federal workforce and lets you explore any combination of the data: up, down, and across the dimensions.
You can easily
use our shortcut canned reports that we've provided in this application.
free-style with our OLAP tool to create your own reports.
export data to your favorite software (i.e. Excel Spreadsheet) for analysis and presentation.
export reports to Adobe Acrobat PDF for printing.
Online Glossary of Online
Terms from the Office of Personnel Management of the U.S. Government --- http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/glossary/index.htm
(This glossary has a somewhat unique design for online users.)
The U.S. Government has some other outstanding examples of Website design, including the revamped SEC site at http://www.sec.gov/ and the ever-popular IRS site at http://www.irs.gov/
From Phil Livingston in FEI Express on March 26, 2001
In case you missed it, FEI was featured prominently in Friday's Wall Street Journal. The subject was the growing use of pro forma earnings in press releases. In a recent meeting with the SEC, leaders from our Committee on Corporate Reporting agreed to explore the development of a best practices recommendation for earnings press releases. While many companies have legitimate reasons for employing pro forma earnings, many others are omitting or burying the actual GAAP results. Our best practices statement is in draft form, but should be available on our website ( http://www.fei.org ) within the next month. To read the article, search Friday's edition at http://www.wsj.com.
Last week, I had the pleasure of moderating a great discussion with four leading CFOs. Harry Harczak of CDW Computers offered his insight into how CDW achieved and maintained its place on the list of America's best companies to work for. Rebecca Maskey of Click Commerce discussed her company's current search for a new enterprise financial reporting system, as well as the cost and the planning involved. Cary McMillan of Sara Lee talked about the CFO's role in providing "passionate objectivity" for the challenges facing management teams. And finally, Joan Ryan of Tellabs talked about the M&A environment in the telecommunications industry, and gave her thoughts about current market conditions. Three of the four interviews are available online today on our Video Center: http://www.fei.org/media/ . Check back for updates as we add more.
Kathy Zirolli of AETNA recently created a great summary of FEI/CCR responses to audit committee questions. It includes examples of what other companies are doing regarding the threshold for audit committee approval of non-audit services, and audit committee recommendations that the audited financial statements be included in the company's 10-K. Read the document on the FEI site, at http://www.fei.org/finrep/summaryauditcomm.cfm.
Comic Strips
From the University of Southern Mississippi
This history of Curious George, The Life and Work of H. A. and Margret Rey --- http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/virtualtour/opener.htm
Comic Strips
Charles M. Schulz Museum --- Snoopy and the gang --- http://www.charlesmschulzmuseum.org/
Women In American History --- http://www.britannica.com/women/
What are ADRs? http://www.global-investor.com/cgi-bin/shr/pascal.pl?sid=global-investor&pid=adrs_about
Because there can be problems in dealing in unfamiliar foreign markets, Depositary Receipts were devised as a method of trading international securities (equity or debt) within the U.S.
This involves depositing the ordinary securities from the foreign market with a bank (called the depositary), who will then issue certificates in the U.S. that represent (and are backed by) the deposited securities. These certificates are freely traded and are commonly called American Depositary Receipts (or Depositary Receipts for short, or sometimes Global Depositary Receipts for marketing purposes).
The attractions of ADRs
The main appeal is that they are U.S. securities: this means that they are covered by U.S. securities regulations; trade and settlement is similar to any other U.S. security; and quoted prices and dividends are in U.S. Dollars.
Because of the above, investment by funds and institutions is possible, where perhaps they would otherwise be prevented from investing directly in foreign markets.
Investing directly in international securities may incur global custodian fees - these are not required with ADRs.
ADR prices and liquidity will track very closely the underlying security as any deviation will be quickly corrected by traders exploiting an easy arbitrage opportunity. Although ADRs may have been devised originally for U.S. investors, all of their attractions can be equally applicable for foreign investors.
For example, an investor in Kuwait may be interested in buying shares in Telefonica De Argentina, in which case the U.S. traded Depositary Receipts may be more attractive than dealing direct in the Argentine market.
In addition to the advantages above, the investor would be able to look at price history charts and follow real-time prices (as with any other U.S. security), transaction fees could be less and the foreign currency investment may be more competitive than converting funds to Argentine Dollars directly.
The types of ADR A similarity obviously exists between ADRs and covered warrants (or OTC options) As with the latter, there is frequently nothing to stop anybody buying some shares in a company and then issuing Depositary Receipts representing those shares - without consulting, or acting with the accord, of the company itself. These are termed unsponsored Depositary Receipts, and in the early days of the ADR market they were quite common. Today, however, nearly all ADRs are sponsored, whereby companies sign a Deposit Agreement with a bank acting as the depositary.
There are then a few different types (or levels) of ADR:
Sponsored Level 1: this is the simplest method for foreign companies to issue tradable securities in the U.S. markets. The ADRs are not listed, and are traded over-the-counter (OTC). The attraction to the companies of not listing is that they do not have to adapt any reporting procedures to comply with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) or Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosure.
Sponsored Level 2: if the company wishes the shares to be listed then they have to satisfy the procedures mentioned above, and further comply with the listing rules of whichever exchange they choose. This stage actually comprises many different levels, depending on the type of visibility the company desires - and therefore the type of listing they choose.
Private placement (144A): instead of publicly traded securities, a company may wish to make a private placement to large institutional investors in the U.S. (which will not require SEC registration). The ADR market There are now over 1,500 ADRs from over 50 countries; and the majority of these are OTC (Level 1 type). In many cases the ADRs may constitute 5-15% of the total shareholder base for a company.
The depositaries for the ADRs tend to be concentrated among a very few banks; the most active of which are: Bank of New York, Citibank, and Morgan Guaranty Trust.
ADR Holders Find They Have Unequal Rights By Craig Karmin The Wall Street Journal, 03/01/01 Page C1
ARTICLE URL: http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB983398241631137607.djm
From WSJEducatorsReviews [WSJEducatorsReviews@dowjones.com] on March 8, 2001
TOPICS: American depositary receipts (ADRs), shareholder rights, financial accounting, financial statement analysis, managerial accounting
Holders of American Depositary Receipts in BP Amoco are finding that they don't have all the rights of local shareholders in the firm.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 1. What is an American Depositary Receipt or ADR? How many foreign companies offer ADRs? What is the total value of these ADRs? How much did foreign companies raise through ADRs last year?
2. Read the short description of ADRs at the following website: http://www.global-investor.com/index.htm about How many levels of ADRs are there? How do you think foreign firms choose between the different levels of ADRs?
3. Compare and contrast the rights of owning an ADR versus owning a share in the company. Why do U.S. investors find investing in ADRs more attractive than buying shares directly?
4. Why do you think ADR owners have different rights regarding sponsoring shareholder resolutions and voting on them than ordinary shareholders? Suppose they were given the same rights as ordinary shareholders, what voting rights should the financial institution issuing the ADRs (and owning the underlying shares) have? How should a conflict of voting desires between the ADR owner and the issuing institution be handled by the foreign firm?
5. What is the difference between a sponsored and an unsponsored ADR? Would your answers to the previous question (4) be affected by whether the ADR were sponsored or unsponsored?
Wow Idea to
Help Educators: A Message to All Journal Editors
The above WSJ service is great for suggesting how educators can use selected WSJ
articles in the classroom. The Journal of American History does something
similar for using its articles in the classroom.
Teaching the Journal of American History --- http://www.indiana.edu/~jah/teaching/index.shtml
Teaching the JAH uses online tools to bridge the gap between the latest scholarly research in U.S. history and the practice of classroom teaching. JAH authors demonstrate how featured articles might be taught in a U.S. history survey course.
Speaking of history --- Everything Postmodern --- http://www.ebbflux.com/postmodern/intro.html
Dear Prof. Jensen
First a thank you for your efforts to share as much of your work and thinking as you can by way of what is served up on your website. As I worked to familiarize myself with changes in the accounting standards area as they relate to financial instruments and to think a bit about how and what to present to my fourth year undergrads in the last five sessions in a special topics in accounting course your site was invaluable.
My approach will lean heavily on the approach that Alex Milburn took when he updated the financial instruments section of Ross Skinners' "Accounting Standards in Evolution" for the revised Skinner and Milburn version - Why the interest, History of standard setting developments in this area including why Canadian standards are currently so far off the mark, Developments in the US including SFAS 133 and the Exposure Draft 204B. Finally I'd like to take up the JWG's Draft Standard.
Have you some thoughts on that standard and how it might be fine-tuned for application within the US? What a fine opportunity for students to experience standard setting in action.
Now I must return to sorting out how I'll present the key conceptual developments so that my students have the basic concepts, issues and theory in place. I'd like for them to be able to wade into whatever application of the "global" standard that eventually confronts them with a some solid footings.
(Added in a second message)
Here are a couple of URLs for two files that will update you the Canadian side of FI issues and on where we were (are) with respect to standards for Financial Instruments.http://www.camagazine.com/cica/camagazine.nsf/e2000-jun/regulars http://www.cica.ca/cica/cicawebsite.nsf/public/E_14Dec00
Ian Hutchinson [ian.hutchinson@acadiau.ca]
Associate Professor
Fred C. Manning School of Business
Room 209, Rhodes Hall Acadia University Wolfville, NS B0P1X0
The book by Milborn and Skinner is as
follows:
Accounting Standards in Evolution, 2nd ed., 672pp.
ISBN: 0130880159 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: June 2000
For a summary of the JWG debates, go to the white papers noted below:
If an item is viewed as a financial instrument rather than inventory, the accounting becomes more complicated under SFAS 115. Traders in financial instruments adjust such instruments to fair value with all changes in value passing through current earnings. Business firms who are not deemed to be traders must designate the instrument as either available-for-sale (AFS) or hold-to-maturity (HTM). A HTM instrument is maintained at original cost. An AFS financial instrument must be marked-to-market, but the changes in value pass through OCI rather than current earnings until the instrument is actually sold or otherwise expires. Under international standards, the IASC requires fair value adjustments for most financial instruments. This has led to strong reaction from businesses around the world, especially banks. There are now two major working group debates. In 1999 the Joint Working Group of the Banking Associations sharply rebuffed the IAS 39 fair value accounting in two white papers that can be downloaded from http://www.iasc.org.uk/frame/cen3_112.htm.
Financial Instruments: Issues Relating to Banks (strongly argues for required fair value adjustments of financial instruments). The issue date is August 31, 1999.
Trinity University students may view this paper at J:\courses\acct5341\iasc\jwgbaaug.htm.
Others may go to the IASC download site at http://www.iasc.org.uk/pix/banksjwg.pdf.
Financial Instruments Joint Working Group Draft Standard --- http://www.iasc.org.uk/frame/cen3_112.htm
FASB's Exposure Draft for Fair Value Adjustments to all Financial Instruments On December 14, 1999 the FASB issued Exposure Draft 204-B entitled Reporting Financial Instruments and Certain Related Assets and Liabilities at Fair Value. This document can be downloaded from http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/fasb/draft/draftpg.html
I want to thank Professor Hutchinson (see above) for reminding me of the important contributions of Ross Skinner.
Wow Accounting Theorist of the Week --- Ross Skinner, Retired Partner in Clarkson Gordon, now E&Y in Canada
Ross Skinner --- http://www.greengene.net/casestudy/GGDiscussionForum/SkinnerCritique.html#Skinner
Ross M. Skinner, FCA has been for many decades the pre-eminent thought leader in the Canadian accounting profession. He was the National Director of Accounting for Clarkson, Gordon & Co. (now Ernst & Young) for fifteen years. He is a former Chair of the Accounting and Auditing Research Committee of The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, a former Chair of the Financial Disclosure Advisory Board of the Ontario Securities Commission, author of Analytical Auditing (1966), Accounting Principles: A Canadian Viewpoint (1972), Pension Accounting (1980), and Accounting Standards in Evolution (1987). He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Brock University in 1979, the Award of Outstanding Merit by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in 1984, the Certificate of Merit of The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1985, and was elected to the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1999. E-mail address: rmhbs@pobox.com
Note from Bob Jensen
Ross Skinner was inducted into The Accounting Hall of Fame in August 2000 --- http://gsma62.rutgers.edu/raw/aaa/aen/fall00/item05.htm
Dr. Hutchinson mentions Ross Skinner's work, so I thought it might be helpful to provide several of online items.
"GreenGene Comments," by Ross Skinner --- http://www.greengene.net/casestudy/GGDiscussionForum/SkinnerCritique.html
"Judgment in Jeopardy: Why detailed rules will never replace a chartered accountant's professional judgment in financial reporting," by Ross Skinner, CA Magazine, November 1995 --- http://www.camagazine.com/cica/camagazine.nsf/e1995-Nov/Features
The subject of the critical editorial was the elasticity of generally accepted accounting principles. "Like a child's balloon, a company can make its earnings or assets grow bigger or smaller under GAAP, provided its accountants blow or suck hard enough," wrote Diane Francis in the January 29, 1994 issue of The Financial Post. "When challenged about a loose presentation, the accountant often replies, 'Show me where it says I can't do that.'" Her solution? "If the accountants are becoming rule-oriented, give them tighter rules within GAAP. That's the answer."
The complaint, then, is that those responsible for financial reporting are playing games with the rules or they are not applying proper judgment when there is room for judgment. The solution proposed by The Financial Post is to take away that room. But is there really a problem? Is it as simple as biased judgment? And if it is, will the proposed solution work?
Hard evidence is lacking to answer these questions, but the editorial correctly notes that some regulators are quite concerned about slanted financial reporting. If regulators and other knowledgeable people in the financial community are concerned, accountants should be concerned. But before a remedy is prescribed, a thorough diagnosis of the malady is advisable.
There is an IASB (formerly IASC) discussion paper on discounting at http://www.iasc.org.uk/frame/cen3_22.htm
Possible Outcomes of the Project
- Material for the Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements, to guide the Board in future projects that could involve discounting.
- A separate Standard on discounting to describe how discounting should be applied in Standards that require present value measurements.
- Amendments to existing International Accounting Standards. Such amendments may move existing requirements to the new Standard on discounting, eliminate inconsistencies, expand application guidance, and remove explicit or implicit choices
Scope
- Present value principles should be used in all measurements based on future cash flows, except where the time value of money and uncertainty do not have a material effect. Among other things, this conclusion implies that present value principles should be applied to:
- deferred tax (Under IAS 12, deferred tax represents the incremental income taxes that an enterprise will pay or receive when it recovers / settles the carrying amount of its assets / liabilities); and
- determining recoverable amount, for impairment testing, of assets not covered by IAS 36 (notably inventories, construction contract balances and deferred tax assets).
- For assets and liabilities that, currently, are not measured solely on the basis of future cash flows, present value concepts should:
- in principle, be applied to prepayments and revenue in advance, in the rare cases when the effect is material;
- be applied to construction contracts, to allow a more meaningful aggregation of cash flows that occur in different periods (under IAS 11, measurement partly reflects past cash flows, and partly reflects undiscounted future, cash flows); and
- not be applied in determining depreciation and amortisation, as the cost of applying present value concepts would exceed the benefits.
"Unaccountable Discounting" by Chris Robinson at http://panoptic.csustan.edu/cpa99/html/robinson1.html
Financial accounting routinely discounts future amounts for financial statement presentation. Managerial accounting uses discounted cash flows as part of the decision-making process. Business has accepted this practice as the best way to make decisions, based on the net present value rule. Only technical details are debated. Discounting hides serious ethical and environmental issues, and there is a good case that we should not discount many future values at all. The ethical assumptions that are shown to be problematic are: perpetual growth; complete markets and intergenerational equity; and, technological externalities and their pricing in human society and Nature.
In my opinion, Professor Robinson's paper is an excellent paper for debate in the social sciences. His argument in a nutshell is that the discount rate should be zero for R&D or other investments that may seriously harm or destroy future generations. With a zero discount the "cost" of those harms will not be reduced to an amount that justifies investing and developing harmful products.
If companies reported environmental liabilities at undiscounted amounts, we would be less likely to ignore the message that we are destroying our future. Lest you think I am too alarmist, let me remind you of an aphorism that exists in different words in different societies: Mother Nature Laughs Last
Examples of investments that worry Professor Robinson are nuclear power plants and developments of antibiotics (that may in turn lead to ever increasing strains of powerful microbes against which future generations will be defenseless).
The fatal flaw in this argument lies inside finance theory itself. Arbitrage is possible only when markets are complete -- the identical consumption stream can be replicated in two markets, but at different prices. If there is no way to replicate a given consumption stream, then the market price is not necessarily "right," whatever right would mean. For example, there is no insurance policy available to pay the residents of my home city, Toronto, if a nuclear plant discharges a large quantity of radioactive waste into Lake Ontario. The entire area would become uninhabitable, many people would die and the damage would be incalculable. If we use the language of finance, we say that no Arrow-Debreu security exists that pays off in this specific state of nature.
Discounting the future damage is a silly exercise, but let me do it anyway. Suppose we estimated the damage at $1 trillion, real dollars. Further, let us suppose that it doesn't happen for 200 years, and so it is a future unborn generation that suffers the consequences of this radioactive spill. Finally, accept a real discount rate of 5% as reasonable, using current finance practice. If we are certain that the spill will happen, the expected present value is $57.8 million. If this were a standard capital budgeting problem, we would not invest more than that amount in additional safety systems, or in finding alternative energy sources.
The above illustration is indeed silly for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that investments in nuclear power cannot be evaluated with deterministic models that do not relate interactive and highly uncertain benefits with risks. There are also environmental risks of not investing in nuclear power (e.g., global warming, depletion of oil and gas, energy prices that depress or destroy economic development and crop production, excessive migrations to temperate climates, destruction of rain forests for fuel and crop land, etc.)
A better example not touched upon by Professor Robinson is the current issue of genetic engineering. Seed can be genetically engineered to make production more bountiful and disease resistant. For an example, go to the document called "Aussie Scientists Crack Barley" at http://www.csiro.au/communication/mediarel/mr96060.htm .
Genetic engineering of crops (e.g., yellow rice correcting for Vitamin A deficiencies in nations having poor nutrition) can save millions of lives today and improve the nutrition of billions of hungry people. But there are enormous risks of fooling with Mother Nature's ecosystem. It is questionable whether Professor Robinson's proposed zero discount rate in a deterministic cash flow model is an appropriate tool for such complex issues of how many present human beings to sacrifice for the sake of untold future human beings. Of course his worry is that simplistic discounting (with nonzero rates) will be used without proper inputs for global risks. This is food for thought in courses devoted to ecosystem worries. The analytical paradox, however, lies in the lack of sophistication of any known tool, including present value discounting, in a very complex and highly interactive world where human sacrifices must be made to preserve a rather fragile ecosystem embedded in a present-day econsystem.
I wrote a module about the complex issues of genetic engineering in the January 19, 1999 edition of New Bookmarks at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book00q1.htm#011700
http://www.iasc.org.uk/frame/cen3_26.htm
On February 23 you should have received an email providing the URLs to slide presentations from Donald Gray from the University of Wisconsin Foundation speaking on fund raising and Robert Johnson from the Arthur Andersen office in Atlanta speaking on the new economy.
We have just added a presentation from Liv A. Watson from BDO Seidman speaking on what financial executives need to know about XBRL. All the slides are available online from:
http://accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aaa/aapg/2001/slides.htm
Craig [Craig Polhemus, American Accounting Association]
Bill Gates on Monday unveiled a set of technologies that he hopes will advance Microsoft's .Net strategy and its goal of providing services anywhere --- http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0103202/2698539/
From InformationWeek Online on March
20, 2001
Note Bill Gate's praise of the "XML Revolution."
** Microsoft To Launch HailStorm
Microsoft plans next year to launch middleware called HailStorm that would let its own applications and those built by independent software developers share data about a PC user's payment preferences, personal contacts, and calendar entries. It's the sort of behind-the-scenes communication between software programs that Microsoft calls .Net, which aims to expand the company's purview beyond Windows PCs to generate new revenue. Rather than tying information about a user's address, application settings, and other preferences to applications using the traditional Windows method of associating objects in a client-server architecture, HailStorm will rely on storing that data in XML documents, and calling it across the Internet via Microsoft's Simple Object Access Protocol.
"The kind of dreams people have had about interoperability in this industry will finally be fulfilled by the XML revolution," Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, said at an event to reveal the initiative Monday. "It's really a necessary part of this revolution that we have services like HailStorm."
On Monday, companies showed what these Web services could look like. American Express Co. showed an online bookstore application in which notifications of incoming orders would be displayed on a user's PC desktop running Microsoft's upcoming Windows XP operating system. XP would include Microsoft Passport, a digital wallet service available Monday that authenticates users with E-commerce sites and automatically fills in their payment information. And Groove Networks CEO Ray Ozzie demonstrated how users of Groove's peer-to-peer collaboration app could populate a list of people they wanted to invite to a session, from Microsoft's instant-messaging buddy list. HailStorm services could supply Groove with a central store of users and contacts, which the startup needs to propagate its app, Ozzie said.
The key to getting this type of integration to work across applications and platforms, of course, will be gathering a "critical mass" of software and customers, Gates said. "Stitching these islands together is about having a standard schema--in fact, a very rich schema--in which your information is stored." An early specification of the HailStorm schema, the set of XML fields that Microsoft and independent software developers need to agree upon to build apps such as these, is available today. Microsoft plans more complete alpha software by this summer, a beta version of the HailStorm schema by the end of this year, and live services on the Internet next year.
Microsoft's still working out pricing details, but plans to give away some services to consumers and implement fees for heavy users or those wanting special technical support. There'll be some revenue from licensing fees to developers and network service providers. And Microsoft may combine sales of HailStorm services with subscription versions of Office, which the company is developing. Such scenarios could be years away, though. First up: getting data from of Microsoft's MSN services such as Hotmail encoded into XML. Microsoft group VP Bob Muglia also promised not to mine, publish, sell, or target advertisements to data the company gathers while developing HailStorm.
Potential users of the platform are skeptical about Microsoft's commitment to openness, pointing to Java as an example of broken interoperability promises --- http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0103234/2700449/
Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect outlined a brave new world at WinHEC, touting Windows XP, the Tablet PC, "HailStorm" and .Net. --- http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0103272/2701114/
Forwarded by Aaron Konstam (I like the Windoze spelling)
I've been using UltraEdit on the Windoze end for years now. It automatically detects Unix format text files. If you open a text file in Unix format and edit it, it will be saved in the same format unless you tell it otherwise. You can also save DOS text files as Unix format files and vice versa.
Not only that, but it is a great programmer's editor, with syntax highlighting, smart indents, and the ability to use spaces instead of tabs; too many other features to mention here. (I'm already sounding too much like an advertisement.)
UltraEdit is shareware and can be found at
