New Bookmarks
1999 Quarter 4: October 1-December 31, 1999 Additions to Bob Jensen's Bookmarks
Bob Jensen at Trinity University
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Choose a Date of 1999 Additions to the Bookmarks File
December 22, 1999 December 16, 1999 December 8, 1999 December 1, 1999
November 23, 1999 November 16, 1999 November 9, 1999 November 2, 1999
October 26, 1999 October 19, 1999 October 12, 1999 October 5, 1999
For the other editions go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Speeding Up Evolution: Implanting
microprocessors in the biological brain
"Brave New World: the Evolution of Mind in the Twenty-first Century,"
by Ray Kurzweil http://www.kurzweiltech.com/WIRED/#THE GROWTH OF COMPUTING
What does it mean to evolve? Evolution moves towards greater complexity, greater elegance, greater intelligence, greater beauty, greater creativity, greater love. And God has been called all these things, only without any limitation: infinite intelligence, infinite beauty, infinite creativity, and infinite love. Evolution does not achieve an infinite level, but as it explodes exponentially, it certainly moves in that direction. So evolution moves inexorably towards our conception of God. Thus the freeing of our thinking from the severe limitations of its biological form is an essential spiritual quest.
By the second half of this next century, there will be no clear distinction between human and machine intelligence. On the one hand, we will have biological brains vastly expanded through distributed nanobot-based implants. On the other, we will have fully nonbiological brains that are copies of human brains, albeit also vastly extended. And we will have a myriad of other varieties of intimate connection between human thinking and the technology it has fostered.
Ultimately, nonbiological intelligence will dominate because it is growing at a double exponential rate, whereas for all practical purposes biological intelligence is at a standstill. By the end of the twenty-first century, nonbiological thinking will be trillions of trillions of times more powerful than that of its biological progenitors, although still of human origin. It will continue to be the human-machine civilization taking the next step in evolution.
Before the next century is over, the Earth’s technology-creating species will merge with its computational technology. After all, what is the difference between a human brain enhanced a trillion fold by nanobot-based implants, and a computer whose design is based on high resolution scans of the human brain, and then extended a trillion-fold?
Most forecasts of the future seem to ignore the revolutionary impact of the inevitable emergence of computers that match and ultimately vastly exceed the capabilities of the human brain, a development that will be no less important than the evolution of human intelligence itself some thousands of centuries ago.
Ray Kurzweil is the author of: the following books and tapes:
What ingredients comprise the "Dough" in the "Renaissance" of the next millennium? Why will the 20th Century be viewed as a global dark age in spite of the seeds of invention that sprouted just before or during our lives?
During a panel discussion in a conference in NYC on December 14, a financial analyst named Mark Brennan reminded me of a quote from Orson Welles in the 1949 movie called The Third Man. I recalled the quotation, but it has been years since I thought about those lines. With the impending end to this millennium, the lines seem to have renewed meaning. My recollection may not be literal, but the approximate quotation is as follows:
Don't be so gloomy! After all it's not so awful. In Italy under the Borgia regime they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed. But they also produced Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Renaissance.
In Switzerland they had brotherly love! They had 500 years of democracy and peace. What did they produce? --- the cuckoo clock.
One wonders if Italy had more "dough" than Switzerland during the first half of the present millennium --- where I am using the word "dough" in the context of Bob Blystone's message below.
A fable to ponder --- transmitted by Bob Blystone
The following was found folded in a book (The Satire of Gulliver's Travels) left in a first floor restroom in the library.
Early one day there was a man who thought it would be nice to have some fresh cinnamon rolls at the end of the day. He decided to bake these rolls himself. Although he was a technology oriented sort, he had never baked cinnamon rolls before and like any modern person he would begin his task with a visit to the WEB for information and help. There he found the following recipe.
3 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour, divided 1 envelope Fleischmann's Quick Rise Instant Yeast 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 tsp salt 3/4 cup milk 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup margarine 1 egg 1 cup firmly brown sugar 1 tbsp cinnamon 1/2 cup margarine, softened 1/2 cup raisins, optional
SET aside 1 cup all purpose flour from total amount. MIX remaining flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in large bowl. HEAT milk, water, and 1/4 cup margarine until hot to touch, 125F-130F. STIR hot liquid into dry ingredients. MIX in egg. MIX in enough reserve flour to make a soft dough, that does not stick to the bowl TURN out onto floured board and knead 5 minutes. COVER dough and let stand for 10mins MIX brown sugar, cinnamon, & margarine together. ROLL dough into 12x9inch rectangle. SPREAD with cinnamon mixture. Sprinkle with raisins. ROLL up from long side, jelly-roll style; pinch to seal the seam. CUT into12 equal slices with a sharp knife. PLACE cut side up in large greased muffin cups; place on baking sheet over a shallow pan half-filled with boiling water. COVER dough and let rise 20 minutes. BAKE at 375F for 20mins or until browned. Remove from muffin cups to cool. Serve warm makes 12 buns.
He printed out the recipe and put it into his pocket. He knew that he really only wanted to eat two cinnamon rolls and the recipe would make twelve. So he thought he should share the future fresh rolls with his friends whom he would ask over to join him at the end of the day.
As the morning progressed he met his first possible guest. He asked if she could come over to have some fresh cinnamon rolls at the end of the day. Then he showed her the recipe. She said, "I'm a vegetarian and if you took out the egg, I could eat your cinnamon rolls." He crossed off the egg and said, "I will see you at eight."
A little later he passed an old friend and asked, "I'm having some friends over this evening at eight to have some fresh cinnamon rolls, could you come?" His friend said: "Thank you, but because of my heart condition I am on a restricted diet and can not have any margarine." The future baker said: "Not a problem, see you at eight." And he crossed off margarine from the recipe.
Soon he spotted another potential guest and offered the friend a place at the roll fest. The friend said: "I'm diabetic and can not have any sugar." "Not a problem" was the response and the sugar and brown sugar were crossed off the list.
At noon he had lunch with another friend and offered the eight o'clock repast. The friend said: "If you have raisins in the rolls, I can't come for I am allergic to raisins." "Not a problem" and another item was Xed out.
At afternoon break he saw two more friends and gave them the invitation. The first said: "I'm on a salt restricted diet" and the other said: "I'm a strict vegetarian." "No problem" said the willing host as he crossed milk and salt from the recipe.
As the day drew to a close, he found another friend and offered the invitation. She said: "I'm can't eat gluten." The response was predictably: "Not a problem." The future guest then said: "Can I bring a friend?" Without hesitation the compliant baker said," Sure, why not." The guest added: "But, he doesn't like cinnamon." "Not a problem" echoed as the pencil struck flour and cinnamon from the recipe.
As work ended, the man went by the store to pick up the supplies for baking and discovered that there was no yeast in supply. "Not a problem" he thought to himself as he went home. He prepared and set the table for the feast and his guests; who, all promptly arrived at eight.
His eight guests with anticipation noticed that there was no aroma of fresh baked bread in the house. All there was on the table was a quarter cup of water. The man thought that his skeptical guests would want to know where the cinnamon rolls were. And the first question came: "Is this European mineral water? I can only drink European mineral water." Quickly others chimed in about the quality and type of water.
The man pulled the recipe from his pocket and began to rewrite it again. His complaining guests soon realized that the host was writing something and they quieted and then asked: "What is it that you write?"
SET aside offending ingredients. MIX eight friends in a large room. Catch HEAT from guests for not pleasing. STIR water for impending doom.
MIX friends. MIX ingredients. TURN and possibly run. COVER all bets and please no one.
MIX protesting friends. ROLL to cover all ends. SPREAD one's self too thin. ROLL and try to blend.
CUT out all offending ingredients. PLACE compliance ahead of contents. COVER all bets and please no one. BAKEd water is no fun.
The man closed the door behind him as his guests begin to point fingers. He walked to a nearby Starbuck's Coffee and had two cinnamon rolls.
Fables should have morals as some mushrooms do. What would Aesop say as we are now through? Nothing, if you don't want to offend As we come to this end. But if you want to have a fresh baked cinnamon roll You have to make some dough.
I certainly do not advocate bringing back anything like the Borgia regime to stimulate creativity. Nor am I providing recipes for cinnamon rolls. However, my point is that, in the grand scheme of things, strife and hardships are more important to creativity and progress due to complacency that often accompanies prosperity.
In the profession of accountancy, we are entering the next century embroiled in strife over such immense problems as:
In all this strife and complexity, however, we take comfort in the above "Recipe for Cinnamon Rolls" that indirectly suggests there is more "dough" for creative global solutions and better lives everywhere on earth than ever before in the history of human life on this strange and seemingly unique planet. If there is to be Y2K terror, fraud, and information warfare, there may also be a Y2K Renaissance that lifts the next generations into ever higher plateaus. Us old timers in the U.S. may prefer to set the clock back to the 1950s at midnight on December 31, but we won't have the "dough" for my Glimpse of Heaven described at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/max01.htm.
A surprising number of retail firms have resisted selling products online or are
pulling the plug on their existing online ordering systems. Examples cited
below are from The Wall Street Journal Online at
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB945647211680668431.htm
Levi Strauss & Co. recently said it will pull the plug on its year-old e-commerce venture, despite being ahead of plan with sales of jeans, khakis and shirts online. "Selling on the Internet is a complex proposition," says Jeff Beckman, a spokesman for the San Francisco jeans maker. "We decided it wasn't the best use of our funds."
Most of the firms that might be termed either "holdouts" or "retreaters" have web sites that use a variety of ploys to encourage customers to visit their stores, use 800 numbers, or shop from their catalogs. Another class of firms might be called "reluctants," because they reluctantly offer merchandise online but strongly encourage customers to not order online. One example is cited below:
Last month, Tiffany & Co. began offering engagement rings, pens and other items on its Web site. But the site came complete with a discouraging warning to Web shoppers: "Because selecting an engagement ring is such an important event, Tiffany encourages our customers to visit a Tiffany store in person."
But there are reasons to be nervous in light of the competition that is building up online:
Of course, many of the biggest traditional retailers -- including Macy's and Bloomingdale's -- have jumped on the e-commerce bandwagon. Online shopping is expected to account for as much as 3% of holiday shopping this year, up from the 1% blip of last year. Any holdouts at this point, some analysts say, are making a costly decision since they are ceding market share to competitors.
"There are an awful lot of innings left to play when it comes to e-commerce, but it's no longer the first inning," says Jonathan Cohen, director of research at Wit Capital Corp. in New York.
Colleges and universities face some of the main dilemmas.
I will repeat the point that I have made repeatedly in previous documents. Bad communication exists between employees (especially faculty) and online education program planners. Many administrators and faculty think that the only justifications for any newer education technologies and networked courses is to either improve learning or save money. Hence, we see repeated debates about whether this or that really improves learning and motivation to learn. And we grow weary of debates over whether this or that will ever save money in the long run while maintaining the same or improved effectiveness of the service.
Certainly the above "micro" tests of efficiency and effectiveness are very important, but I think they tend to detract from the larger "macro" considerations that are closer to the discipline of marketing than they are to accounting. Universities like Columbia and Duke are seeking new markets and exploiting their brand names. Many other universities are simply trying to protect their existing markets in an effort to avoid getting left in the dust by emerging alternatives for students in their geographic regions.
One myth that should be dispelled is that everyone who ventures into new markets will be successful. The failure of Western Governors University to achieve even 10% of its targeted enrollments demonstrates how a massive state-supported venture faces enormous hazards in developing new "markets." Another myth is that online ventures are more economical if investments are made to upgrade existing campus technologies. The upfront investments and ongoing funding for online degree programs are enormous. Perhaps this is why many colleges and universities are outsourcing to corporations like eCollege, UNext, Pensare, CyberClass, and other alternatives mentioned at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245soft1.htm.
My prediction is that technology outsourcing will be the growth industry of the next decade. There are immense economies of scale leading to outsourcing of both e-Commerce and e-Education. Retail firms like Levi Strauss & Co. expect short payback periods for investment returns, and most retailers in eCommerce are not hitting breakeven targets. Hence, I predict that many online firms will retreat until outsourcing becomes a more viable alternative with lower investment risk. This same prediction applies to distributed higher education. Distributed education, however, has one advantage over online retailing. Outsourcing firms like eCollege, UNext, Pensare, and others have an advantage in that they can justify their tremendous investments in technologies with exploding revenues from training contracts (e.g., from corporations, banks, government agencies, military agencies, etc.). These training revenues enable those outsourcing firms to enter into distributed education contracts that would probably not be profitable as stand-alone markets. But outsourcing is now fiercely competitive and will become even more competitive in the next decade. Thus we will probably see the typical pattern of an enormous number of startup operations followed by an intense shakeout of all but a few giant firms with typical oligopoly powers that branch out to all parts of the world.
The 21st Century's paradigm shift means that shopping and education alternatives are going global. As with anything new in life, there will be controversies over whether these are good things to spread around the world. For example, shopping in stores is a social and entertainment process as well as an economic activity. Going to class is a social and maturing process as well as an educational process. Economists focus on that which is "economic" but keep a wary eye on what they call the "externalities" or "non-convexities" of economic behavior. Computer networking and wireless communications are entirely new paradigm shifts with newer forms of economic behavior and looming externalities.
Another part of the 21st Century's paradigm shift is that "learning" and "education" are not synonyms any more than a "library" means the same thing as a "school" in the 20th Century. One of the externalities of a networked world is the multimedia archiving of knowledge that can be accessed at low cost. For example, art museums typically have much larger collections that can be displayed on web servers than can be physically displayed (along with detailed commentaries) in their buildings. There is a penchant to share on the Internet in ways that defy economic assumptions of economic utility and wealth maximization behavior. This penchant for sharing combined with efficiencies of access and search make it much more difficult for oligopolies to control learning. Anyone can become an expert on most anything without having to go to school.
Still another part of the above 21st Century's paradigm shift is that
computers are going to be drastically different that computers of the 20th
Century. Computers today are calculating machines. Computers of
tomorrow will be thinking machines. I especially recommend that you print
and read the document at
http://www.kurzweiltech.com/WIRED/#THE GROWTH OF COMPUTING
The above ingredients (outsourcing, online shopping and education, multimedia knowledge bases, and thinking machines) combined with the externalities of imploding of communication, entertainment, learning, and socialization are what I think comprise the "Dough" for a monumental "Renaissance" in the next millennium. The 20th Century will be viewed as a global dark age in spite of the seeds of invention that sprouted just before or during our lives.
From Doug Engelbart,
Please join me in a Colloquium hosted by Stanford University as we discuss the challenges of coping with the increasing urgency and complexity which face modern organizations.
Thirty years ago, when I led the team that developed NLS, the first hypertext system, and pioneered collaborative computing, I had a vision of computing that was to augment human intellect by following a comprehensive strategy. While many of the aspects of the information revolution are now improving the way we learn, live, and work, the unprecedented rate and scale of global change is also leading to major problems that will not be solved through technological solutions alone.
I would like to use this Stanford Colloquium -- *An In-Depth Look At The Unfinished Revolution*-- as an opportunity to share with you a comprehensive strategy that will enable individuals and organizations to begin to cope with the increasingly more rapid pace and constant state of change in modern society. More specifically, the Colloquium will give us a forum to engage in lively dialogue on how we can improve our abilities to leverage our collective IQ. In my view, the concept of collective IQ and its improvement needs to become a core focus and challenge for society. Although much attention is now given to the challenges and opportunities of e-business, the organizations, regions and countries that adopt the most effective, large-scale strategy for becoming collectively smarter, will enable broad improvements throughout society and commerce, including e-business. The concept of high collective IQ will, therefore, vitally affect every aspect of governance, security, economy, education, health, business and other societal services.
The colloquium is designed to generate awareness of large-scope issues and opportunities, to present a framework that can evolve a coherent improvement infrastructure, and to examine scaling such an infrastructure for sectoral, regional, national, and global applications. Such concepts have been the objective and focus of my work in collaborative technology and strategy since 1951.
The Colloquium begins on January 6th and will convene for 10 consecutive Thursday evenings from 4 to 7 P.M. PST. The colloquium will be webcast live at < http://scpd.stanford.edu/pd/engelbart/engelbart.html >. Archival replays will be available shortly after the live sessions. A very limited number of seats are also available on site at Stanford to registered participants on a first-come-first-served basis.
For additional information please feel free to visit the colloquium websites < http://www.bootstrap.org/colloquium > at the Bootstrap Institute, the organization I founded to strategically map a course for the future. The colloquium is open to the public and is free of charge. Registration is advised, as that will enable full access to all the interactions that will be featured.
I hope you can join us as we start an organized dialogue on the problems and opportunities that face us collectively.
Sincerely,
Douglas Engelbart, Ph.D.
P.S. If there is someone who might be interested, I would appreciate your passing this message on.
The following message from a friend in Nigeria indicates how global the world is becoming (I would never have had this friend or a visit from him at my home had it not been for my postings to the Internet. If any of you would like to help him further his cause, it would be a good thing to do for some students badly in need of all the help they can get.
Dear Bob,
We had a very interesting three days seminar this year: "Marketing in the Internet" It had some theory and some practical. There were several presenters of the theory. The main one was a Nigerian Professor (Ifeanyi Nzegwu) at the University of Wisconsin. Marquette Campus. In the practical aspect they worked on Web Sites design using FrontPage 98. We will repeat the seminar in March next year.
The School outsourced the design of their web that has just been launched in early December. We are at http://www.lbs.edu.ng . It is still very primitive but it is the beginning. I am working on the school Intranet where all the members of staff could place their contributions for internal consumption before putting them in our site. It will be a kind of a training for them.
We are about to start the development of the new Lagos Business School site. It may eventually develop into a University. We are planning very carefully the communications infrastructure. We are changing the cabling in the present site to improve connectivity.
Merry Christmas for you, your family and everybody at Trinity. I wish I could go back one day...
All the best
Eduard F. Schmitter
Kuramo House [kuramo@linkserve.com.ng ]
What university has the most online courses in engineering and computer science
--- would you believe Stanford University's listing in excess of 250 courses
reaching over 6,000 professionals? You can read about it in "Stanford
Learning: Worldwide Availablility On-Demand at Stanford Online," T.H.E
Journal, December 1999, pp. 16-18. The online version is at http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A2519.cfm
Until now, the growth of online education has been hampered in part because video (and other types of content) consumes so much bandwidth. This problem has kept many educational institutions from expanding beyond the more traditional distance learning delivery methods such as videotapes and satellite broadcasts. However, Stanford Online has made live and on-demand distance learning a practical reality by using video compression technology running on Compaq hardware and Microsoft’s Media Server (formerly Microsoft NetShow) to stream video, audio, text and graphics over the Internet to a variety of computer platforms.
Stanford Online courses are streamed directly to the student’s computer at home, at work or while traveling and are viewed via an Internet browser. Lectures and seminars are broadcast live on the Internet, or are made available within one or two hours of each class. When students log on to the Internet to view courses, they see a video window on their computer screen, inside of a standard Internet browser. Adjacent to the video window, the Web page houses a larger window displaying complementary graphics and text. This includes course outlines, notes, slides, simulations and other presentation materials used in each lecture. When a student chooses a specific topic in the table of contents, the appropriate video segment and supporting graphics are presented. In addition to delivering courseware live or on-demand, Stanford Online offers a variety of services that allow, for example, students to receive tutoring by live interaction over the Internet with professors or teaching assistants.
A Data-Intensive Process
While Stanford Online uses powerful compression technology to allow for the deployment of video over the Internet and corporate intranets, dealing with video remains an extremely data-intensive task. With an ever-expanding 85 gigabytes of digitized video and other data such as course outlines and slides, Stanford Online requires a robust solution for storing and managing huge volumes of information. To back up its video servers, back-end systems and growing library of video and multimedia content, the Stanford Online program uses a high-performance Quantum DLT 7000 half-inch cartridge tape drive. In addition to conducting incremental backups nightly and full backups weekly, Stanford Online uses the tape drive to archive courseware. Course lectures remain online for the duration of the quarter and many for the entire academic year, giving students more control over their own viewing patterns. Courseware slated for re-use at a later date is archived longer-term to the Quantum drive.
Convenience is critical to the success of Stanford Online. Students around the world need access to the system at all times of the day and night. As a result, the school must perform rapid backups to avoid long delays in delivering courseware to students. Stanford Online considered using a DAT drive for backup, but the Quantum tape drive offers a faster solution with higher capacity. With hundreds of large video files being integrated into the network each day, DAT’s two gigabyte per cartridge data limitations didn’t have the capacity to meet Stanford Online’s expanding storage needs.
Extending Education to the World
By using state-of-the-art server technology, software for streaming video and DLT backup and archiving, Stanford Online can deliver education on-demand in a reliable, timely fashion. This new delivery technology is particularly exciting, because it literally enables us to extend Stanford to the world. It opens up new educational markets and enables us to reach beyond our historical distance learning base, much of which is in Silicon Valley. Now, Stanford Online can offer courses to talented students who are also professionals in industry wherever they are located, while adhering to the same rigorous coursework and admission standards that apply to students on campus. And with the convenience of Internet delivery, Stanford Online can also attract students who normally might be too busy to take a class.
ETIQUETTE
IN SOCIETY, IN BUSINESS, IN POLITICS AND AT HOME By EMILY POST http://www.bartleby.com/95/
(I don't find new categories for newer technologies such as network etiquette,
although many of the recommendations (e.g., "think before you speak")
can be translated to the modern age (e.g, "think
before you hit the SEND button" --- Bob Jensen needs more training along such lines.)
To the extent that I can thank you for really bad news Norman --- Thank you for letting me know about this!
SECTION: Business; Part C; Page 1; Financial Desk, New York Times
HEADLINE: ERNST & YOUNG TO PAY $335 MILLION IN AUDIT LAWSUIT; ACCOUNTING: FIRM AGREES TO SETTLE WITH CENDANT SHAREHOLDERS TO RESOLVE DISPUTE OVER ALLEGED ERRORS IN FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF PREDECESSOR COMPANY.
BYLINE: VIVIEN LOU CHEN, BLOOMBERG NEWS
BODY: Ernst & Young will pay $335 million to Cendant Corp. shareholders to settle charges that the accounting firm's audits of a predecessor company were inaccurate, the California Public Employees' Retirement System said Friday.
Analysts said the payout is the largest an accounting firm has had to make outside of the settlements with the government in the early 1990s over alleged malfeasance in audits of failed savings and loan institutions.
CalPERS, the nation's largest pension fund, owned 3.1 million shares of Cendant as of September.
"In the realm of settlements by auditors, this may be No. 1 with a bullet," said Joseph Grundfest, a Stanford University law professor and former commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ernst & Young's settlement comes after Cendant on Dec. 7 said it would pay $ 2.83 billion to shareholders to settle claims that it inflated earnings at CUC International Inc., which combined with HFS Inc. in 1997 to form Cendant. The combined company is the franchiser of such businesses as Century 21 and Coldwell Banker real estate agents and the Days Inn motel chain.
CalPERS said it and the New York state and city pension funds lost about $ 89 million after Cendant's stock plunged following revelations in 1998 that it overstated earnings.
CalPERS said Friday's settlement, together with Cendant's $ 2.8-billion payment, resolves all its claims against Cendant. It said Cendant had agreed to pay shareholders half of any funds it may recover from Ernst & Young.
The Ernst & Young accord "sends a strong message that corporate responsibility goes beyond the corporation and extends to accounting firms upon whom pension funds and other investors rely in making investment decisions," said Charles Valdes, chairman of the CalPERS Investment Committee.
Ernst & Young spokesman Larry Parnell said the settlement was "well within the firm's capacity, given our substantial insurance coverage and overall financial strength." He said the firm will continue to "aggressively prosecute" its claims against Cendant "for defrauding us."
Accounting firms generally settle lawsuits regarding audit work to avoid the expense of prolonged trials and the possibility of large jury awards.
Analysts say it is difficult for accounting firms to win lawsuits because they have to argue complicated auditing issues before juries that typically aren't familiar with auditing rules.
The case that led to Friday's settlement stems from irregularities in financial statements at CUC International and the CMS division of Cendant, which were audited by Ernst & Young. The accounting firm was the outside auditor for CUC from 1995 to 1997 and for CMS in 1997, CalPERS said.
"Ernst & Young provided 'clean' audit and review letters in connection with three annual reports, seven quarterly reports and as many as 20 registration statements," CalPERS said. "Each of these documents have subsequently been found to include or incorporate grossly overstated financial statements."
CalPERS said, for example, that Cendant admitted that CUC's operating income was overstated by approximately $ 500 million--more than one-third of its reported operating income--from 1995 to 1997. Cendant also admitted that CUC's quarterly operating income was inflated by $ 31 million in 1995, by $ 87 million in 1996 and by $ 176 million in 1997, CalPERS said.
Cendant shares tumbled 46% on April 16, 1998, erasing $ 14 billion in market value, when the company said it would restate earnings because of accounting irregularities.
On Friday, Cendant shares rose $ 1.50 to close at $ 24.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Cendant shares rose nearly 40% on Thursday after the company said it would get a $ 400-million investment from Liberty Media Corp. as part of a venture to develop television and Internet programming linked to Cendant's businesses.
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE: December 18, 1999
I would like to call the attention of
accounting researchers to the article entitled "A Dearth of FASB Comment
Letters and Applicable Research from Academe," by Dwoght Owsen in the Fall
1999 issue of the Public Interest Section of the American Accounting
Association. Once again I am reminded of Pogo's comment: "I
have found the enemy, he is us." See
http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/pi/newsletr/fall99/item04.htm
I encourage our readers, if they have not already done so, to read and subscribe to the biweekly Accounting Today published by Faulkner & Gray, Inc., phone: (800) 535-8403. It is the best accounting policy journal at a reasonable price (some of the industry newsletters are interesting but expensive). While reporting current developments in the accounting profession, it publishes editorial articles and letters, often from the public interest perspective. This might be because Accounting Today’s 30,000 readers are often small independent practitioners and its advertisers include the many software companies that cater to these practices. Thus, it can afford to be more independent than the association practitioner journals. Independent and controversial pieces by Abe Briloff, Ed Ketz, Paul Miller, Eli Mason, and Wanda Wallace are found in its pages.
In addition, Accounting Today has a prolific and critical editor, Rick Telberg, who writes an outstanding weekly editorial section. Telberg, our colleagues at the FASB, and many articles in the last five years in Accounting Horizons have suggested that accounting educators contribute more effectively to the FASB process. They have further suggested that educators write comment letters or conduct research that more directly and timely addresses FASB standard setting. An example is the recent contentious debate over SFAS 123. Here the FASB was forced to retrench and compromise when the preparer community threatened the existence of the FASB with an appeal to Congress. While one of the FASB’s staunchest allies in accounting regulation has been the accounting academic community, many of these articles and editorials seem to be requests for more active and effective support from the academic community.
The Accounting Today 1999 Top
100 Software Products --- http://www.mbsol.com/at981214.htm
Also see http://www.electronicaccountant.com/
The new Falkner and Gray Accountant's Guide to Internet Sites --- http://www.electronicaccountant.com/html/gap/index.htm
Also see http://www.women.com/
From "Partnerships Provide New Online Courses," T.H.E. Journal, December 1999, pg. 25.
Hungry Minds.com has announced partnerships with Business2.0, The History Channel, PBS and Women.com. These companies will develop stimulating and fun online courses for the post-college market that focus on a wide variety of topics. For example, Business2.0 will co-develop a class on conducting business in the Internet economy. PBS’s "Excellence in Non-Profit Leadership and Management," developed by the Learning Institute for Nonprofit Organizations, is a certificate program consisting of eight live satellite broadcasts delivered by PBS’s Adult Learning Service.
A one-stop learning marketplace, Hungry Minds.com provides students an array of online courses and resources through discussion groups, online communities and knowledge databases. Through its partnerships with over 30 companies and universities, it can offer students a diverse and extensive listing of online learning products. Hungry Minds.com, San Francisco, CA, www.hungryminds.com .
From Bob Colson
You are receiving this e-mail because as an academic member of FEI you may have a special interest in a research project that the Financial Executives Research Foundation is interested in pursuing on an urgent time line. You can access a description of the project, which deals with measuring the quality of financial reporting, at http://www.ferf.org/reportingresearchqual.doc . If you're not personnally interested in this topic, but know of someone who might be, please forward them the link.
Thanks!
Bob Colson rcolson@fei.org
Financial Executives Research Foundation
New free long-distance telephone service and free
Internet Access.
From Tech Briefs on the Wall Street Journal Interactive on December 16,
1999:
IDT Corp. is expected Thursday to announce it will offer a free Internet-access service for consumers. The Hackensack, N.J., telecommunications company plans to profit from the service, called ZeroDinero, through advertisements. The service is the latest entry into an increasingly crowded category that includes NetZero Inc., Westlake Village, Calif, and 1stUp.com, a unit of Andover, Mass., Internet conglomerate CMGI Inc. Howard Jonas, IDT's chief executive, said ZeroDinero hopes to distinguish itself by showing fewer ads than its competitors. He also said the service will include free domestic telephone calls and faxing on the Web. IDT plans to make ZeroDinero available in 11 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, beginning in January. The Innovative Data Technologies Corporation home rate is at
http://www.idtc.com/.
Recall Norman's review of other free
long distance service providers at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book99q4.htm#FreePhone
Deep discounts can be had for international calls at http://www.sayhello.cc/ , However, two users who like free U.S. long distance options report that they are not satisfied with options for making long distance calls from their computer.
Fraud flows in both directions on the web.
"Cutting out e-fraud As holiday
shopping escalates, so does online fraud; small e-com companies are most
vulnerable,"
By Maria Seminerio, PC Week Online, December 13, 1999 ---
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,2405184,00.html
Seeing only the monetary sparkle of the holiday buying season, many companies have accelerated their e-commerce efforts without preparing for the threat posed by increasing levels of online fraud.
The most vulnerable enterprises are small and medium-size businesses, particularly if they sell big-ticket items or items such as software than can be delivered over the Internet. Such companies often can't afford expensive fraud detection products and services any more than they can big losses due to fraud. Therefore, like Reeves, they should develop an anti-fraud strategy before they launch, experts say. Fortunately, there are techniques that can help cut losses.
Meanwhile, vendors of anti-fraud services are beginning to market lower-priced products specifically for smaller e-commerce companies.
Update on speech technologies --- http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,2409293,00.html
Dragon Systems Inc. has begun previewing its new AudioMining speech technology, which will enable users to search and retrieve audio and streaming media content on the Web.
The AudioMining technology converts audio data into text, which can then be accessed by keyword searches, company officials said. That saves time and helps users be more productive because they don't need to listen to entire recordings to find information, they added.
Dragon demonstrated the technology for the first time at the Giga Showcase for Innovative IT Solutions earlier this month (December 1999) in Palm Desert, Calif., and conference participants voted it Best Overall Winner, Most Innovative Product, Best Business Application Potential and Highest-Quality Demonstration.
For a review of speech recognition technologies see http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#Speech1
The FASB's new exposure draft on
fair value accounting for financial instruments ---
http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/fasb/news/nr121499.html
The Financial Accounting Standards Board today published its preliminary views on measuring financial instruments at fair value. The document is the next step in a wide-ranging Board project related to financial instrument issues. Comments on the preliminary views are requested by May 31, 2000.
The preliminary views cover three core issues:
What would be reported at fair value? What is fair value? How would changes in fair value be reported? According to the Board’s preliminary views, financial instruments, as defined in the document, would be measured and recorded at fair value. Financial instruments are defined as:
Cash Ownership interest in an entity
Contractual obligations to deliver financial instruments to another entity and that entity’s contractual rights to receive them
Contractual obligations for one entity to exchange financial instruments with another and the second entity’s contractual rights to require the exchange
Fair value of a financial instrument would be its estimated market exit price.The issue of where to report changes in fair value may become moot if the Board decides that enhanced disclosure alone is sufficient. However, if the Board decides to require reporting changes in fair value, those changes would be reported in net income.
According to Ron Lott, an FASB project manager, the Board is "committed to working toward resolving the conceptual and practical issues related to determining the fair value of financial instruments, an effort discussed in FASB Statement 133 on derivatives. Although Board members see conceptual reasons to measure financial instruments at fair value, they have not decided when, if ever, it will be feasible to require them to be reported at fair value in the basic financial statements.
"Although it has made preliminary decisions about the definitions of financial instruments and fair value and general guidance for determining fair value," Mr. Lott said, "the Board needs more information about the potential problems and solutions for reporting financial instruments at fair value. Publishing the Board’s preliminary views at this time is intended to solicit that information."
Copies of the preliminary views are available at this website under Exposure Drafts or from the FASB Order Department at 800-748-0659.
America Online's Netscape division acknowledged that a security flaw can allow a hacker to break the password code in the e-mail component of the Communicator Web browser --- http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9912164/2410285/
There was quite a debate on the AECM regarding the appropriate use of PowerPoint in class. There were too many messages to repeat here. One that I especially liked was from Uday.
I too have been following the Powerpoint "for" and "against" discussion with some interest. The key question, for me, is "what is the most appropriate use of class time?" Is it (a) to convey information or (b) to demonstrate *application* of concepts (read "problem solving"). Powerpoint probably works well for (a) but that too seems debatable. However, I contend that class time should be aimed largely at (b). For the most part, whether you use a blackboard, overhead slides, or Powerpoint, (a) is quite uninteresting (boring?). On the other hand, (b) engages students and makes them want to attend class.
Concept application / problem solving can take several forms and means different things for different courses (e.g., cases, discussion of current topics, "war stories" etc . I hate to generalize, but I find it hard to believe that there are courses where (a) works better than (b).
Just my .02
Uday Murthy Associate Professor of Accounting Coeditor, Journal of Information Systems Texas A&M University College Station TX 77843-4353 409-845-5017 http://acct.tamu.edu/murthy
History
and Photography
This is a neat photographic and animation page from Kodak --- http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/endurance/
The Endurance sailed from England in 1914 to take 28 men to Antarctica. The Endurance did not return. But Frank Hurley did, along with his hard-earned photos. His unprecedented chronicle of an expedition focused on both Antarctica’s harsh beauty and the courage of the Endurance’s men. His story unfolds in Frank Hurley: Hero of Expedition Photography.
Science and History
When I was on the faculty at the University of Maine, there was a sign over the
door of the Physics Department that read "Physics is Good for
You." My Grandmother Dourte always said the same thing about Caster
Oil.
A Century of Physics http://timeline.aps.org/APS/home_HighRes.html
PricewaterhouseCoopers goes its own
way by initiating its own web seal security service
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-1488698.html?tag=st
Geology, Geography, Free Maps, and Travel --- TopoZone --- http://www.topozone.com/
Dell rolls out wireless networking kit --- http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9912174/2410785/
I don't always agree or even like some of the web sites that Yahoo chooses to honor, but in many cases I would never have discovered some great sites if it were not for Yahoo. Between now and the end of the year, Yahoo's Picks of the Year will be listed in weekly installments. You can find the Week 1 listings at http://www.yahoo.com/picks/
I especially like IBM's Gallery of Obscure Patents at http://www.patents.ibm.com/gallery
The Many Dimensions of Humor
I think humor is an important means of communication and is becoming a bigger
thing on the web. As many editors know, humor is also a means of
attracting subscribers --- some people subscribe to The New Yorker just
for the wonderful cartoons. Humor depends a great deal upon context.
However, in searching for humor I did find some truly offensive web sites that
are malicious in any context (vulgar, racist, etc.) other than research on what
is wrong with society. I also found some web sites that in the right
context are less offensive (at least to me). I do not believe
in banning most any category of humor in a free speech society. I do find
that sick humor is a lot like pornography --- very difficult to define and censor, but you
generally know it instantly when you are confronted with it. I hope the following
illustrations will not offend any reader.
An enormous database of jokes, stories, poems, quotes, etc. --- http://www.jokes2go.com/dbmenu.html
Making fun of the Swedes: A Norwegian Tradition (an example of context versus content) --- http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/Floor/4220/Swede.html
The international travels of a Norwegian --- http://www.pvv.org/~bct/backpack/index.html
Jewish humor (another example of context versus content) --- http://members.tripod.com/~jewishjokes/
Jokes for sermons --- http://www.help4sunday.com/
Lawyer jokes (the list is endless) --- http://www.counselquest.com/jokes.htm
Bumper Stickers --- http://people.csnet.net/spartan5/bumper.htm
Accountant jokes (I thought these would be more of a rare find --- wrong!)
http://www.cpadvantage.com/misc/jokes.asp
http://www.counselquest.com/jokes.htm
http://www.net.big-river.sk.ca/lkm-cga/jokes.htm
http://www.hangoutplace.com/dilbert/humor43.html
http://hamilton99.execmba.com/humour.htm
http://cust2.iamerica.net/lenzyh/jokes/accountant.html
Humor for assorted professions --- http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/4661/projoke.htm
Femine humor at HerSalon: The Cyber Themepark for Women --- http://hersalon.com/ (This site is controversial. They seem use the word "babe" whenever they like. This is another example of context versus content.)
The Shrine --- http://hersalon.com/shrine/shrine.htm
These women make us laugh, cry, lust, hope and dream... and many of them helped shape our childhoods - showing us the core strength and spirit of women, giving us choices and alternatives and ideas we were not presented with in our immediate worlds...We thank them for their contributions to our lives. In their honor, we have built these altars, and stocked them chock full with the finest in pics, sounds, movie clips, screensavers, and commentary...
Feminine humor at Just Smile and Act Nice --- http://www.smileandactnice.com/
Computer related humor --- http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/Floor/4220/indexhumor.html
Redneck humor :
http://www.fortogden.com/foredneck.html (These break me up!)
http://www.pvv.org/~bct/backpack/index.html
Blonde jokes (no comment) --- http://www.vip.fi/~flax/joke/blond/index.html
The AccountingWEB Friday Wrap-Up Newswire - Issue 21 December 17, 1999 http://www.accountingweb.com
1. Consulting and Venture Capitalist Role Blurred at Andersen
2. Keep Poaching Out Of The Firm
3. PWC Starts Its Own Web Seal Program
4. CPA Patricia Gilbreath Elected Mayor of Redlands, California
5. Do Your Clients Need an Angel?
6. Tips for Timely Collections
7. FASB Outlines Fair Value Derivative Accounting
8. Website Acid Test: Can Visitors Find Your Phone Number?
9. IRS Prepares Taxpayers For Paperless Tax Filing
10. New Search Engine To Try: www.alltheweb.com
AccountingNet Update http://www.accountingnet.com For the Week of December 20, 1999
1. This Week's Accounting-Specific News Headlines
2. Win a Palm Pilot V
3. Online Wiley GAAP 2000 Now Available
4. In the Forum: What's the best company gift you've received?
5. Pull a CPE All-Nighter!
6. Our Tip of the Week: Reporting Tips for Internet Companies
The December 19th Internet Essentials '99 Newsletter http://www.tiac.net/users/nhannon/news.html
1. Free Phone Calls Around the World
2. The Free $20 Account Update ... Success!
3. Radio Windham Hill on the PC Airwaves
4. Computers Will Soon Exceed Human Intelligence
5. E-Mail Help Page From ZDnet
6. AccountingClassifieds.com, For Your Career
7. Cisco CIO: Layering Glitz Atop Old Infrastructure Won't Cut It
8. Need One More Christmas Gift? Don't Do It At Work. 9. FASB: Preliminary Views on Fair Value
Out of all the places we lived, our son Marshall and daughter Lisl both chose to return to Maine to live. This is for them and any others who want to better understand Yankees. (Slightly modified from the anonymous author's original)
Maine Temperature Conversion Chart (in Fahrenheit) --- to appreciate this you have to work all the way to the bottom
60 above
New Yorkers try to turn on the heat.
Lisl's husband, Chuck, plants a garden.
50 above
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Maine sunbathe.40 above
Italian cars won't start.
People in Maine drive with the windows down.32 above
Distilled water freezes.
Moosehead Lake's water at long last becomes invigorating.20 above
Floridians wear coats, gloves and woolly hats.
Marshall looks for his long-lost tank top.15 above
New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
Lisl and Chuck have the last cook-out before it gets cold.*0 -
People in Miami cease to exist.
Mainers lick their flagpoles.20 below
Californians fly away to Mexico.
Marshall digs through boxes trying to find his sweat suit.40 below
Hollywood disintegrates.
My Granddaughter, Hilary, begins selling Girl Scout cookies door to door.60 below
Polar bears begin to evacuate Antarctica.
Marshall postpones "Winter Survival" classes until it gets cold enough.80 below
Mt. St. Helen's freezes.
People in Maine rent some videos.100 below
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Maine-iacs get frustrated when they can't thaw the keg.297 below
Microbial life survives on dairy products.
Cows in Maine complain of farmers with cold hands.460 below
ALL atomic motion stops.
People in Maine start saying...."Cold 'nuff for ya?"500 below
Hell freezes over.
The New England Patriots win the Super Bowl
Reverse logic: The New England Patriots will never win the Super Bowl until Hell freezes over.
And
that's the way it was on December 22, 1999 with a little help from my friends.
Professor
Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
At last Richard has answered a question that has puzzled me as well as Amy. It is a "dirty little secret" about Microsoft software.
-----Original Message----- From: Amy Dunbar
I created a file in Word and saved it as an HTML file. I put the file on the web. I decide to edit the file and ftp it back to my machine. When I open Frontpage and try to open the html file, the file opens in Word. Why can't I open the file in Frontpage?
-----Response from Richard Campbell
Amy:
One of the dirty little secrets of Microsoft is that there are these little incompatibilities between various Office programs. MS Word has some unique ways of handling HTML tags - so unique that the new version of Dreamweaver (3.0) has a utility to strip these tags away. Another unrelated issue is that you can't do formatting pages in Publisher and convert into Word format.Richard J. Campbell RJ Interactive www.rj-int.com mailto:campbell@rj-int.com
But Larry Gindler replied as follows:
From: Gindler, Lawrence
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 1999 11:31 AM
To: Jensen, Robert
Subject: RE: New Bookmarks for December 16, 1999In Front page, under Options, configure editors, you will find the following dialogue box. Note the check box that says "open web pages in the office application that created them." This feature can be turned on or off.
Also, if you click on a file in front page with the right mouse button, you have the option to "Open with...". This brings up a dialogue box that allows you open the file with any of the applications listed in this dialogue box.
--larry
Tax: Explore the New Rules for Tax Exempt Organizations http://www.accountingnet.com/research/solutions/public/taxation
More on the Ernst and Young Center for Business Innovation http://www.businessinnovation.ey.com/main.html
Dear Prof Jensen
Thank you for your e-mail on the work done by the Ernst and Young Center for Business Innovation. You may be interested in the research that I am currently involved in as this appears to compliment the nature of your research.
I have in the past four years done research into the role of flexibility in the business organisation in a rapidly business environment. The emphasis of my research has been what flexibility is ( the different types of flexibility) and how flexibility can be measured so that organisations can measure their levels of flexibility, identify potential sources of flexibility, set goals for improved flexibility and monitor the levels of flexibility of competitors.
You are most welcome to contact me if this research may be of interest to you.
Kind regards
Prof Carolina Koornhof Department of Accounting University of Pretoria Pretoria South Africa Faks 27 12 362 5142
Free financial calculator --- http://homepage.swissonline.ch/FinCalc/
This site provides you with the tools to build advanced financial functions under Excel. FinCalc covers bonds, money market instruments, futures, options, interest rate swaps, caps & floors and swaptions.
Key points are:
calendar with business holidays for the major financial centers. analytics: valuation functions and sensitivity measures; construction of a discount curve based on money market rates, short term futures and swap rates; interest rates derivatives. user friendliness: meaningful function and parameter names, user's manual, numerous examples and applications. Visual Basic code to build your own Excel add-in, compiled add-in and example to download.
From Norman Meonske [nmeonske@kent.edu]
Free Phone Calls Around the World --- (make sure you go to www.hottelephone.com
(with two t's) and not www.hotelephone.com
)
Free phone calls from the Internet just went international. Starting Friday, HotTelephone raises the bar in the bustling world of Internet telephony by offering a free global PC-to-telephone calling plan. The service is not unique, but Hot Telephone is the first to offer free calling anywhere on the planet. All you need is a Net-enabled PC, speakers, and a microphone, and tolerance for less-than-perfect sound quality. Here's the catch: You must choose from three advertising-supported tiers of service. HotTelephone competes with pay voice-over-Internet protocol firms like Net2Phone, WebPhone.com, and deltathree.com, which each charge about three cents per minute. HotTelephone also competes with free services, including dialpad.com, Innofone's Hot Caller service, Callrewards.com, and CallMeFree.com. All support their services with advertisements. http://flashcommerce.com/articles/99/12/09/185421680.shtml?e=1
I added this on December 16.
New free long-distance telephone service and free
Internet Access.
From Tech Briefs on the Wall Street Journal Interactive on December 16,
1999:
IDT Corp. is expected Thursday to announce it will offer a free Internet-access service for consumers. The Hackensack, N.J., telecommunications company plans to profit from the service, called ZeroDinero, through advertisements. The service is the latest entry into an increasingly crowded category that includes NetZero Inc., Westlake Village, Calif, and 1stUp.com, a unit of Andover, Mass., Internet conglomerate CMGI Inc. Howard Jonas, IDT's chief executive, said ZeroDinero hopes to distinguish itself by showing fewer ads than its competitors. He also said the service will include free domestic telephone calls and faxing on the Web. IDT plans to make ZeroDinero available in 11 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, beginning in January. The Innovative Data Technologies Corporation home pate is at
http://www.idtc.com/.
Before the end of this year, the Derivatives Instruments Implementation Group (DIG) will probably be issuing some of its most important pronouncements on accounting for derivative financial instruments under SFAS 133. Accountants should carefully watch http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/fasb/derivatives/digmain.html . New pronouncements will deal with some of the more controversial issues in SFAS 133. The November 23 meeting of the FASB is also interesting in this regard. See http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/fasb/derivatives/bdmtg112399.html
I try to keep current DIG pronouncements woven into my glossary (in red boxes) at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm
New dimensions on the independence of auditors controversy.
From a former student
Dr. Jensen:
Here's more grist for the mill....
Multi-billion dollar consulting firm Andersen Consulting today announced that it has formed a venture unit. Andersen Consulting Ventures will fund Internet companies in its drive to become a major internet player. http://2.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?x=doEguhhogwEghuuo
Jake
JACOB T. GRAY GRAY MATTER Business & Capital Management 4040 Broadway, Suite 420 San Antonio, TX 78209 (SE HABLA ESPANOL) (210) 828-3722 (office) (210) 828-0805 (fax) (210) 862-1092 (mobile) jgray@eGRAYMATTER.com (email)
Also see "Consulting Solutions: Sales is Not
a Four-Letter Word at http://www.accountingnet.com/research/solutions/public/consulting/socn991206.asp
Jensen is not so sure on this one.
It's time to openly accept the word "sales" in the accounting profession. For too long, too many accountants have associated this word with some type of unprofessional behavior and in some circles, it is even considered unethical.
The word "sales" is not a four-letter word. It is a professional activity and one that accountants should well embrace. Selling is an activity that we must learn if we are to succeed. People who sell services or products make a promise of some future deliverable.
Here is an easy way for you to overcome your fears when you think about selling. Think of this definition. "Selling is problem solving." I doubt anyone would have a problem with that. And that is what good accountants and consultants do all the time.
Every time you help out a client you are solving a problem that they are facing. The secret is not to become this selling machine, but to understand how to solve problems for your clients and prospects and how to generate more new business opportunities.
The
Online Consumer Shopping Survey from Deloitte and Touche
http://www.usdeloitte.com/us/news/99oct/happe.htm
This holiday season, the mouse that’s likely to be stirring throughout the house will be connected to a computer. An Internet survey conducted by Deloitte & Touche indicates that most online consumers are extremely satisfied with their e-commerce experiences to date and plan to include a combination of bricks and clicks to meet their holiday shopping needs. The findings show that online consumers expect to spend an average of $219 buying holiday gifts via the Internet this year. This represents one-fifth of the $1,067 they expect to spend overall.
Deloitte
and Touche also has an eCommerce study devoted to the insurance industry at
http://www.us.deloitte.com/pub/ecommerce/default.htm
This study also provides additional facts on related industries.
E*Trade, the online securities brokerage firm ranked as the second largest online broker with a 13.3% market share as of April 1999, has deeply penetrated its market in a very short period of time. E*Trade has more than a million customer accounts and recently announced a $1.8 billion acquisition of Telebanc, an Internet bank which manages over $2.6 billion in assets and has nearly 60,000 customer accounts. E*Trade’s success is clearly tied to the shift in individual stock trading; the Internet now accounts for 30% to 35% of all stock trades by individuals.
In response to the loss of market share to the online securities brokerage firms, Merrill Lynch, the largest U.S. brokerage firm, has decided to offer trading online. The magnitude of this change can best be summarized by a quote from the Wall Street Journal: “Indeed, Merrill’s decision—one that every full-service Wall Street brokerage firm will have to respond to—shows just how profoundly the Internet is transforming the competitive landscape in the U.S. economy. Rarely in history has the leader in an industry felt compelled to do an about-face and, virtually overnight, adopt what is essentially a new business model.”
Developments in the PC manufacturing industry tell a similar story. In fours years, PC sales at Dell Computer have sky-rocketed from $3.4 billion to $18.3 billion, its return on equity ranks in the top ten of the Fortune 500, and its market cap stands at $94.6 billion. Compare this with Compaq, the world’s largest computer maker, whose market cap has fallen from $100 billion in January 1999 to $42.4 billion (see Dell vs. Compaq chart). First quarter results show that Dell’s sales rose by 52% against an industry average of 19%, while Compaq lost market share with sales only growing by 16%.
Why compare insurance enterprises to PC manufacturers? It wasn’t that long ago that the computer industry supported its model of retail sales distribution over direct distribution for the same reasons that insurance executives currently believe they are not threatened by direct insurance sales. The cost of Compaq retaining its retail agents shows up in its SG&A expense, which is 15.7% of revenue compared with Dell’s 9.5%. Both Dell and Compaq have gross margins in excess of 20%— Dell’s net income is 8.2% of sales, while Compaq’s is 3.0%.
While these developments may not be a foreshadowing of future events in the insurance industry, they do raise some compelling questions as to how insurers will integrate existing distribution channels with potential E-commerce opportunities.
Common denominators for success in eCommerce http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9912071/2403840/
The top 100 financial services e-business innovators
Financial services are transforming, funneling more and more innovation capital into e-business By Jeff Moad and Anne Chen, PC Week Online December 13, 1999 9:00 AM ET http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,2405179,00.html
AltaVista launches financial portal --- Users gain access to 25 news sources, real-time quotes, and live Webcam shots from the AMEX trading floor. http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9912073/1018307/
A credit card comparison tool from
Quicken (free)
http://www.quicken.com/small_business/finance/bankrates/?SUBRATES=CC&pindex=0&sindex=0&cindex=0&posted=1&psindex=0&STATE=0&CITY=0&RATES=c1.var
Some helpers for running a small
business from Quicken (free)
http://www.quicken.com/small_business/answers/?topic=2&subtopic=1&question=0
New revenue recognition guidelines from the Securities and Exchange Commission
See http://www.sec.gov/news/presindx.htm
Commission Staff Issues Accounting Bulletin on Revenue Recognition" –
December 3, 1999. (File name:
99-162.txt) (Additional materials are available: Fact Sheet on Staff
Accounting Bulletin No. 101: sab101f.htm;
complete text of Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 101: sab101.htm)
Quote from The Wall Street Journal, December 6, 1999, pg C17:
The SEC says "dot-com" companies have increasingly created clever ways to pump up their revenue with questionable items, such as booking as revenue the entire sale price for a product or service, when all they are really entitled to is a commission on the sale.
The new guidelines say if Internet companies merely act as "an agent" for a sale, they must only book the commission fee as revenue. They also stipulate that companies can book revenue if they have satisfied all of these criteria: They have an agreement to deliver products or services; they have actually delivered the products or services; they have fixed a price for the products or services; and they can collect the specified price.
While the guideline also reiterates existing standards, the SEC for the first time has knit together disparate revenue-accounting rules together into one package, making it easier to crack down on abusive companies, said Lynn Turner, SEC chief accountant. Having revenue-accounting rules all over the map allowed companies to take advantage of this disarray.
From InformationWeek Online, December 14, 1999
IBM To Unveil Knowledge Management Tool --- http://www.internetwk.com/story/INW19991214S0008
New York -- IBM next year plans to unveil a knowledge management portal that will make it easier for business executives to quickly get the information they need from the Web.
The new portal will mark an "evolution of personal productivity applications," said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager of IBM's Internet Division, who spoke about the new portal in a keynote address at the E-Business Expo here.
"Within IBM this is a big part of what Lotus [Development Corp.] is doing, moving up the value chain and bringing in all these tools to help organize information," said Wladawsky-Berger.
The knowledge management portal will first be made available as an application for IBM employees and then later be sold to customers, Wladawsky-Berger said. He would not be more specific on when the portal will be available to businesses.
A financial industry executive, for example, could use the portal to weed through huge amounts of financial information. "What this application can do is search, classify, do a lot of analysis and decide based on the 10 parameters you put in what are the most interesting articles, the most useful," said Wladawsky-Berger.
Unlike a traditional Internet portal such as Yahoo or Altavista, the IBM knowledge management portal is more of an "office productivity application," said Wladawsky-Berger. -- Steven Burke, Computer Reseller News
From the Scout Report
ADAM: the Art, Design, Architecture & Media Information Gateway http://adam.ac.uk/index.html
This searchable catalog of 2,500 Internet sites has "been carefully selected and catalogued by professional librarians for the benefit of the Higher Education community." The site offers extensive annotations of resources in the Fine Arts, Design, Architecture, Applied Arts, Media, Theory, Museum Studies and conservation, and professional practices in these fields. ADAM features several options for both searching and browsing. Search options include a keyword search with the ability to specify proximity of words. Users can also search specified fields, perform an advanced search using booleans and various truncations, or search "recent additions." Resources are browseable by ADAM subject headings, historical period, resource type, geographical area, and terminology from an Art and Architecture Thesaurus. Users can nominate a site for review by the ADAM consortium -- a group of librarians whose standards for inclusion and cataloging are professional, detailed, and available on-site. The site is supported by the Surrey Institute of Art and Design in the UK. Caveat: We were unable to determine the source of ADAM's funding beyond December of 1998; and the site seems to have begun updating only recently after a substantial hiatus.
The choice of the ADAM acronym is somewhat unfortunate since ADAM over the past decade refers to the famous anatomy multimedia learning modules that are used in virtually all medical schools and many biological science courses in colleges and universities. This ADAM web site can be viewed at http://www.adam.com/ (This ADAM is one of the most successful technology projects ever launched in the history of educational technologies.)
From the Scout Report
My History is America's History http://www.myhistory.org/
This interactive Website presented by the National Endowment for the Humanity's Millennium Project encourages Americans to find their family's place in American history. The site shows users how to research their genealogical past, construct a family tree, place their family in a timeline of American history, write their own family history, and publish it online at this Website. Visitors can read selected family or community stories or search the developing database of family stories maintained in partnership with genealogy.com. (Unfortunately, only a small selection of these stories is browseable.) Special sections are designed for use with children and in the classroom. The site also offers an opportunity to join a history discussion list and provides additional resources for those interested in pursuing issues of American history and genealogy.
Janet Flatley sent me a link to "It's cheaper, faster, and easier to distribute than live classes. But is it effective?" by Kris Froeswick at http://www.cfonet.com/html/Articles/CFO/1999/99DEtheo.html (Thank you for the link Janet):
The main attraction of online education, however, is clear: it saves big bucks. Almost three years ago, Al Gordon, program manager at Siemens Virtual University, at Siemens Information and Communication Networks Inc., faced a daunting task: train 600 high-level engineers on data/voice convergence technology, do it as quickly as possible, and keep engineers updated on new developments. If he went the typical route--face-to-face classes, delivered at special training locations--Gordon estimated it would take three years and more than $4 million in travel and lost productivity time to train all 600 people. And that didn't include the cost of the training itself.
Counter-reasoning from Bob Jensen
Online education controversy: Lowered Costs vs. Expanded Markets for Luxury
Education
I disagree with Froeswick on the point that "it saves big
bucks." Among the prestige schools, the purpose is more to tap into
new and lucrative markets rather than save money. Consider the following
quotations from "Ivy Online: Elite universities and professional
schools are scrambling to "leverage their brands" and make extra money
through online education" by Todd Woody at http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,7122,00.html
Last year Harvard Business School Publishing created a simple intranet version of its CD-ROM courses. But the cost of developing a full-blown online multimedia course can exceed $1 million, so the school went in search of a partner. The agreement Harvard signed this year with Pensare calls for the company to create up to six Internet courses with Harvard professors. The school will receive royalties on the courses Pensare sells as well as warrants for stock in the company.
Some of the newly targeted markets are described below:
UNext is betting that when a Sony (SNE) or a Siemens (SMAWY) needs its marketing managers in Kuala Lumpur to take a finance course, it'll be more likely to turn to a company that offers an Ivy League curriculum than to a local university. According to the company, students will be able to take multimedia classes at their own pace or collaborate with other students in real time. (UNext will offer its first course next year.) Nobel-winning professors may contribute to the courses and may deliver lectures online, but they won't actually be teaching the courses in the conventional sense. UNext will hire a staff of online mentors to answer students' questions and provide guidance.
For more on distance education partnerings of prestige universities, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book99.htm#prestige
A subsequent message from Janet on the same topic.
Professor,
Thought you'd be interested in another series the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is running on the use of technology in higher education. In case the article is no longer at http://www.seattlep-i.com/local/farr09.shtml
I've copied it below.An interesting point from the article: While other state universities and colleges offer courses and programs in rural areas, none has reached out as aggressively as has [Washington State University]. "There is a segment of the population that is asking for assistance in getting an education that does not fit in our traditional system," WSU President Sam Smith said in a recent interview. "The real choice is: do you want to educate this whole new segment of the population?" For the 15 years Smith has led WSU, the answer has been a resounding "yes."
Though the article does not mention faculty reaction to the WSU program, this is certainly a different response to distance education than the previous article by this reporter concerning University of Washington faculty opposition to high-tech intrusion into higher learning.
Hope your holiday preparations are on schedule - I have fond memories of Christmas in the Hill Country, though I would have wished for a somewhat more seasonal climate instead of the shorts & t-shirt weather I remember, at least for the holiday!
Janet Flatley AVP-Controller 1st Fed S&L Assn Pt Angeles, WA (360) 417-3104
From: Carolyn A. Strand, Assistant Professor, Seattle Pacific University, Chair of the Teaching and Curriculum Research in Accounting Education Committee of the American Accounting Association --- http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/tccomm/Fall99/item07.htm (only portions of Carolyn's reviews are quoted below):
Electronic books --- from InformationWeek Daily on December 12
Barnes & Noble Inc. said Thursday that IBM will provide technology and management for a new process that prints books on demand for customers at its retail stores and Web site.
IBM will provide Barnes & Noble with printing and workflow technologies, scalable servers, and software for electronic- book management and distribution. It will also provide on- site management at a content-distribution center in Jamesburg, N.J., that will become operational in mid-2000. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
In January, Barnes & Noble will begin working with publishers to build a digital library. Books will be scanned into the print-on-demand system or provided in PDF format. Customers will be able to order books electronically via PCs, wireless handheld devices, and notebooks, Barnes & Noble says.
Barnes & Noble executives expect that print on demand will let them increase their selection by 500,000 titles within five years. The agreement for IBM's print-on-demand services extends to iUniverse.com, a publishing portal of which Barnes & Noble owns 49%.
Skeptic's Annotated Bible http://SkepticsAnnotatedBible.com/
Sociology Dictionary http://www.iversonsoftware.com/sociology/index.htm
I always find messages from Scott informative
I have been reading "Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the WWW" written by Tim Berners-Lee who is responsible for the original design and for guiding its execution. At Amazon.com it is:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062515861/o/qid=945181937/sr=2-1/002 -2359596-1624222
This is a good read, especially seeing what is going on with AECM and similar groups. It certainly clarifies for me the inherent threat that an entity like Microsoft poses.
Scott Bonacker, CPA McCullough, Officer & Company, LLC Springfield, Missouri moccpa.com
Forwarded by Aaron Konstam.
Below is an article about a professor that really believes in the kind of academic integrity for the whole university that I support. ========================================================================
[The Chronicle of Higher Education] Thursday, December 9, 1999
Boston U. Professor Voluntarily Resigns His Chairmanship Over an [ Omitted Attribution
By COURTNEY LEATHERMAN
The head of Boston University's mass-communications department stepped down from that post last week after realizing that he had failed three days earlier to attribute a quote he had included in a guest lecture to 400 freshmen.
The announcement by John J. Schulz, a professor of international communication, surprised colleagues who thought he might be going too far by giving up his chairmanship for what they described as a simple mistake -- one that any of them could have made. But Mr. Schulz, who will remain on the faculty, said it was his duty to set an example. "Taking into account that this might even be considered an issue among students -- that there could be a standard for them that somehow professors don't have to live with -- made it seem right and proper that I step away from this leadership role." He said the decision was his alone. The dean of the college of communications, Brent Baker, said he accepted the resignation with regret.
"The lesson here is that when a good leader does something wrong, he immediately admits it, and takes personal responsibility for his actions," Mr. Baker said in a statement that praised Mr. Schulz's integrity as a teacher, scholar, and journalist. Before coming to Boston University, Mr. Schulz had worked for 21 years as a reporter and news executive for Voice of America.
Explaining the situation, Mr. Schulz said that he had been rushing to finish his lecture to the introductory communications class and, in doing so, overlooked the attribution for his concluding quotation. It was a long sentence from an article by Alexander Stille that ran in The Nation magazine. Mr. Schulz said that [Image] during the class, he had been roving around the room talking. But [ ] when he realized that he was almost out of time, he returned to the lectern, scrapping the planned ending to his talk and hurriedly reading the quote -- eager to get to a question-and-answer period. In his rush, he overlooked Mr. Stille's name, he said.
A student in the class recognized the quote and pointed it out in an on-line discussion section set up for the class. That prompted an on-line debate about what constituted plagiarism and whether or not the university had a double standard for students and professors. As it happened, the course was regularly taught by the college's dean, Brent Baker, who contacted Mr. Schulz after reading the students' comments. Yesterday, Mr. Schulz returned to the class where he had made the mistake and apologized to the students. Many applauded after he finished his comments.
Several of Mr. Schulz's colleagues say that he had made a mistake but had not committed plagiarism. "Many of us viewed what he did as a mere slip of the tongue or a minor oversight under time pressure and not as a deliberate attempt to misappropriate someone's idea," said Melvin L. DeFleur, a professor of mass communications and former chairman of the department.
But Mr. Schulz noted, "There's nothing in the definition of plagiarism that talks about intent." He added: "This is a case that involves having to take that desperately painful step of recognizing that, like with a car accident where you run into the rear end of an auto -- while it might have been accidental, you are the perpetrator. It's one of those horrifying moments that can affect a whole lifetime, and I'm very sad."
Aaron Konstam
Computer Science Trinity University 715 Stadium Dr. San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
telephone: (210)-999-7484 email:akonstam@trinity.edu
Forwarded from Bob Jensen. This relates indirectly to the above message recently forwarded by Aaron.
-----Original Message----- From: Janet Flatley [mailto:jflatley@ffpa.com] Sent: Thursday, December 09, 1999 10:40 AM To: 'rjensen@trinity.edu' Subject: 79% of young Americans believe that there are no absolute standar ds in ethics
Professor, I found this article especially relevant to discussion of CPA independence and the tension between attest function & MAS. As Ms. Calle states below, "As more traditional accounting firms become involved in consulting, which to some slightly grays the line of impartiality, it is more important than ever that the accounting profession operate according to the highest ethical standards." In a climate where "... there are no absolute standards in ethics," the lack of independence may be the least of our problems.
The last paragraph is aimed at college business students, but it's worth reading by all their role models, in academia & business.
Enjoyed your recent bookmarks ... it's the one of the few external emails I take the time to review when received.
Janet Flatley AVP-Controller 1st Fed S&L Assn Pt Angeles WA (360) 417-3104
PS Full disclosure - I am a KPMG alumni, having worked in MAS in RI & WA.
Ethics in Business By Jeri Calle Partner in Charge of University Relations, KPMG LLP
The national media have recently begun to lament the loss of ethics in today's business world. According to a recent survey cited in The Wall Street Journal --- Honesty in business dealings doesn't seem to be at the forefront of people's minds.
For those of us in the accounting profession, however, ethics is at the cornerstone of what we do. Clients look to us to provide impartial information about their company and industry. The business community depends on accountants to perform their jobs with the highest degree of accuracy and ethical standards. The stability of a free-market system depends, in large part, on unimpeachably exact audits and statements.
As more traditional accounting firms become involved in consulting, which to some slightly grays the line of impartiality, it is more important than ever that the accounting profession operate according to the highest ethical standards.
Most ethical lapses are so small as to seem insignificant. However, they add up over time, and can snowball into a serious situation. Poor ethical standards are most damaging in the long-term.
The biggest victim of ethical lapse is trust. A small breach of ethics is often known only between a few people. But this knowledge can destroy trust between fellow employees, and from there make its way up the ladder, destroying trust between employee and supervisor, and between divisions of companies. When ethical lapses become rampant, employee productivity declines, loyalty follows, soon major breaches such as employee theft begin to appear. Eventually, and worst of all, the most important advantage a firm has, the trust between a firm and its clients, erodes.
Why has such an important topic as business ethics gone unnoticed, even actively ignored? The biggest reason is that ethics is largely misunderstood. Ethical behavior-behavior conducted with honesty and integrity, has recently become muddled up with moral or political questions.
In the past generation, the business community for the first time was asked to consider political and moral consequences when making business decisions-whether to do business with South Africa during apartheid, for instance. The public's new interest has changed the way many companies do business.
However, as political and moral concerns have taken center stage, ethical concerns have been forgotten. Ethics has very little to do with political beliefs, or public opinion. Ethical behavior is a very personal matter, which requires that a person be honest and truthful in all business dealings.
Because ethical behavior is so personal, it is unlikely to be given any recognition. While there are many awards for corporate social responsibility, awards that recognize ethical behavior are rare. Ethics is viewed as something that is expected from employees-only when ethics codes are breached if the topic even discussed. However, this Monday Morning Quarterbacking approach to ethics gives employees who are being ethical day in and day out, without encouragement from above, the impression that ethics are not important.
A movement has begun to combat this impression. Business leaders know the importance of ethics--an international survey found that 78% of boards of directors are setting ethical codes of conduct, up from only 41% in 1991.
Ethical behavior starts at the top. Before a company can expect to be viewed as ethical in the business community, ethical behavior within its own walls-to and by employees-is a must, and top management dictates the mood. Ethical behavior by the leaders of an organization will inevitably set the tone for the rest of the company-values will remain consistent. Further, a well-communicated commitment to ethics sends a powerful message that ethical behavior is considered to be a business imperative.
Companies, led by top management, are increasingly adopting ethical codes of conduct. Modern ethics codes aren't just some simple platitudes set in a break-room plaque. Companies now commit considerable time and money to illustrate their reliance on ethical behavior. Companies now bring in consulting firms (including KPMG's own Business Ethics Services Practice), to craft a document with concrete rules and real meaning.
A modern ethics code will consider the main ethical dilemmas of a company's employees, and determine the most vulnerable ethical areas for the company. The execution of a company's ethics program depends on identifying these vulnerabilities. All future messages, from the code, to materials, to training, will focus on these major ethical dilemmas.
Companies are also interested in determining whether ethical behavior can be measured, just as efficiency and productivity are. KPMG's Business Ethics Institute is taking the lead on research in this area. Often companies must innovate ways to measure ethical behavior, which in turn motivates ethical behavior.
Once training, measurement and a new ethical code have been developed, companies are also hiring full-time ethical compliance officers, and starting ethics hotlines to report possible policy violations. Hiring a full-time ethics officer is another signal to employees that ethical violations will be taken very seriously. However, this person isn't just a watchdog-they will take a proactive approach to identifying possible violations before they develop. An ethics violation hotline is another essential step to ensure ethical compliance. Employees can call the hotline 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, to report violations or even to discuss potentially dangerous ethical situations.
As ethical behavior comes to the forefront, more and more companies will be taking these steps to ensure that the ethics of their company and its employees are unassailable.
For those of you about to enter the workforce, ethical questions are fairly faint on your radar screen. However, because companies, and especially accounting firms, are so concerned with maintaining proper ethical standards, it is important to reiterate the major principles of professional ethics: * Avoiding even the appearance of conflict of interest-This is most important in the accounting field. Especially when confidential financial material is involved, as in an audit, there can be no interest conflict. For instance, it is improper to hold stock in a company that you are auditing. * Keeping sensitive information confidential-Most, if not all, information you get from a client is confidential. As an accountant or consultant, you are usually dealing with some of the most sensitive material a client has. Therefore, that material, even its existence, should not be discussed with anyone outside the firm. * Full disclosure-Any information with any impact whatsoever on your duties or professional life should be shared openly and honestly with supervisors. At KPMG we encourage such honesty with a "time-bank" leave policy. There is no such thing as sick leave or personal days, it is all lumped together-employees can use the time for whatever they choose, making for a much more open workplace. * Devotion to responsibility-As a paid employee, you are expected to perform your duties to the best of your possible abilities, and to retain loyalty and respect to your firm.
You may have taken a business ethics class, where you learned theories of ethics and analyzed case studies of famous ethical dilemmas. This is important preparation-but in the business world, there won't be time to fulminate and analyze. Split-second ethical decisions are made every day-and if you follow the main professional ethics principles, making the correct decision shouldn't be difficult.
For more information on ethics in business, check out KPMG's business ethics Web site at www.us.kpmg.com/ethics/today.html < http://www.us.kpmg.com/ethics/today.html > . Related articles <archive.asp>
Reply from our Steve Curry:
Doesn't absolute standards imply an absolute authority? Doesn't that authority have to be beyond the influence and alteration of human opinion? Aren't we talking about religion? Is it really any surprise that, as we have removed religion from public discourse, young Americans no longer believe in absolutes?
- Steve Curry scurry@trinity.edu
Thank you Roger.
One of the unfortunate but inevitable side-effects of having so much material available on the Net is online plagiarism. Check out a recent article on Wired that covers the problem and an interesting set of counter-plagiarism tools and sites.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,33021,00.htmlRoger Debreceny, PhD, FCPA, CMA Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Room S3-B1-B61 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798 rogerd@netbox.com adebreceny@ntu.edu.sg http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/adebreceny ICQ 22958324 Ph: +65 790 6049 Fax: +65 791 3697
I am inserting this message, because Will has one of the finest helper web sites in existence for tax information, tax research, tax return preparation, and links to great tax web sites.
I hope you have Happy Holidays and a Happy New Millennium.
Please note my new address below.
Will
Dr. Will Yancey, CPA 6848 Midcrest Drive Dallas, TX 75240-7944 Phone (972) 934-2810 Fax (972) 934-2813 Email will@willyancey.com Web http://www.willyancey.com
Bill Trochim's Center for Social Research Methods http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/index.html
For us old duffers. (assurance services, elder care. gone but not out)
These Web sites are useful for ElderCare practitioners who wish to research services for the elderly. The sites all provide numerous links to other sites related to aging and the aged. These links were given in Exhibit 4 in the December 1999 issue of the Journal of Accountancy, pg. 48.
Government Sites
Access America for Seniors -- www.seniors.gov . Information about programs for seniors and links to other senior sites. Administration on Aging -- www.aoa.gov Every conceivable issue affecting the elderly and their families. A great starting point for research. Includes numerous links as well as a comprehensive resource directory for older people. HealthCare Financing Administration -- www.hcfa.gov Medicare and Medicaid information for consumers and providers. Medicare Handbook and Consumer Information -- www.medicare.gov The official Medicare site. National Institute on Aging -- www.nih.gov/nia Health and medical information for the aged. Social Security Administration -- www.ssa.gov The official Social Security site. U.S. Census Bureau -- www.census.gov Demographic information on the aging population. Amazing research capabilities.
Organizations
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) -- www.aarp.org Resources on consumer issues affecting those over 50 as well as links and details on AARP initiatives and member benefits. American Association of Home and Services for the Aging -- www.aahsa.org Information on continuing care retirement communities and on the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission. American Geriatrics Society -- www.americangeriatrics.org Issues affecting the aging. Health Insurance Association of America -- www.hiaa.org Medigap policies and LTC insurance. Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations -- www.jcaho.org A listing of accredited health care facilities in all 50 states. Checklists for use in choosing a health care facility or provider. Explanation of the accreditation program. National Academy of ElderLaw Attorneys -- www.naela.org Information for and about NAELA members. National Association of Area Agencies on Aging -- www.n4a.org. Information about local area agencies on aging, including numerous local and national links. National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers -- www.caremanager.org How to find a geriatric care manager. National Association of Social Workers -- www.socialworkers.org Information about social workers and links to other organizations. National Council on the Aging, Inc. -- www.ncoa.org More resources for the aging and their families. National Resource and Policy Center on Housing and Long-Term Care -- www.homemods.com/ The Home Modification Assistance Program site, which provides support for builders and others to make alterations to homes to allow for independent living. National Senior Citizens Law Center -- www.nscic.org Advocacy for the aged. Visiting Nurse Associations of America -- www.vnaa.org Links to local visiting nurse associations.
Other Resources
Careguide--ElderCare Resource Center -- www.careguide.net A for-profit enterprise that provides a wealth of information for the elderly, caregivers and providers. Search for health care providers in your area. ElderWeb -- www.elderweb.com An award-winning site founded by Karen Stevenson Brown, a member of the ElderCare task force. Numerous links to resources, useful articles and a listing of some of the CPAs and CAs now providing ElderCare services.
Mobil Masterpiece Theatre PBS special event presenting nine films based on the works of major American authors, including Willa Cather, Eudora Welty, Langston Hughes, and Henry James. http://ncteamericancollection.org/.
This website included aids for educators and a special page for student contributions.
Mindtrail is a revolutionary new tool for managing expert knowledge and performing assessments. Mindtrail delivers substantial productivity gains when used for assessments, document assembly, process capture and automation.
We have been given the opportunity to trial, Mindtrail, a tool for assessing essays etc electronically. For those interested, in can be found online at http://www.mindtrail.com.
I am interested in knowing if anyone has had experience with this product or similar and your views on using such products.
Thanks
Andrew Priest
School of Accounting, Edith Cowan University, Pearson Street, Churchlands Perth, Western Australia 6018, Australia Phone: + 61 8 9273 8116 Fax: + 61 8 9273 8121 + 0411 22 9765 ICQ# - 38215599 Mailto:a.priest@ecu.edu.au Mailto:apriest@imstressed.com Home Page: http://www-business.cowan.edu.au/acctinfoplus Editor - Accounting Education.Com Double Entries http://www.accountingeducation.com/ Webmaster - AAA Government and Nonprofit Section http://www-business.ecu.edu.au/aaagnp/
Bibliography of experimental economics --- http://www.economics.harvard.edu/~aroth/bib.html
Java's future is in doubt since SUN pulled the plug on standardization. See http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,2407597,00.html
The AccountingWEB Friday Wrap-Up Newswire - Issue 20 December 10, 1999 http://www.accountingweb.com
1. Top Story: E&Y May Sell Its Consulting Group
2. Do Consulting Services Affect Auditor Independence?
3. Success Factors Of M&A Outlined in Extensive Survey
4. Never Thought You Would Deal With OSHA? Think Again . . .
5. Technology Is Changing The Face of Financial & Business Reporting. Are You Prepared?
6. Can A Virtual Assistant Solve Some Of Your Admin Issues?
7. SEC Continues To Press Revenue Recognition Issue
8. Dare To Get To Know Your Competitor
9. Is An Ethical Assurance Service In Your Product Mix?
10. Neat Must-Have Toy: C-Pen Scanner
AccountingStudents Newsletter: December 14, 1999 http://www.accountingstudents.com
1. Ring in the New Year with a Palm V
2. How High a Salary Should Accounting Majors Expect?
3. Internship Question of the Week
4. The Complete Accounting Research Page
5. Site of the Week: CARE CPA
6. Survey Results: Where do you get the news?
7. Ethics in Business
8. Keeping a Positive Attitude During Your Job Search
9. Tip of the Week: How to Conduct an Informational Interview
December 12th Internet Essentials '99 Newsletter for the financial professional. http://www.tiac.net/users/nhannon/news.html
1. My $20 Cash Christmas Gift to You
2. Eudora Pro (email software) Is Now Free
3. Shutting Down Your Web Site for New Year's?
4. Freemarkets.com, Business-to-Business Online Auctions
5. What's Hot for 2000? Wireless Internet Access
6. Customer Loyalty is a Major Factor '99's Holiday's Sales
7. I'll Have a Coke and a Firewall Sandwich, Please
8. Quick Comments on the Internet Scene
In a lecture, I once heard John Kenneth Galbraith state that Ireland is the land of artists and poets, but Ireland never produced one economist. This is consistent with the following sent to me by Sherman Zelinski:
An out-of-work Irishman went walking around London until he found a construction site with a sign announcing that workmen were being hired. When he applied for the job it was his bad luck that the foreman in charge was an Englishman with a dismal view of the Irish.
"So, Paddy, you think you can do the work?" asked the foreman.
"Oh yes," said the Irishman. "I've been doin' construction for thirty years."
"Then you really understand construction?" asked the foreman.
"Of course," said the Irishman. "I can do it all -- the plumbin', the electric, the carpentry."
"Then you wouldn't mind if I gave you a bit of a test?" asked the foreman.
"No, no. Test away."
"Then tell me, Paddy, what is the difference between a joist and a girder?"
"That's too easy," said the Irishman. "Twas the former wrote Ulysses, whilst the latter wrote Faust."
Author unknown!
And
that's the way it was on December 16, 1999 with a little help from my friends.
Professor
Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
Carl Hubbard passed this along. You can get a free Internet connection and other free services --- http://www.freei.net
Unlimited FREE Internet Access, Web Browsing, and Email News, Weather, and Shopping
FreeiFriendssm - chat/instant messaging
Now works on Windows 95, 98, and NT!
Download Version 2.5 Now!
All you have to do is tolerate a small banner on your screen
WebEntrepreneurs --- http://www.webentrepreneurs.com/visitorshome.cfm
This website offers quite a few free tools for starting and operating an
eCommerce site.
Business@Home http://www.gohome.com/
This site focuses on operating a business out of your home.
This web site lets you play at business
out of your home --- an online Microsoft Monopoly Game (humor and fun)
M$-Monopoly.com --- http://www.ms-monopoly.com/monopoly.php3
A humorous odyssey through Micro$oft's investments and strategic shifts of
fortune.
News from Accounting Education.com at http://www.accountingeducation.com/
We are currently looking to recruit people to undertake book reviews for us - a handsome fee will be paid for each review completed! If you are interested in volunteering your services please email us at reviews@accountingeducation.com giving brief CV information and we'll provide further details.
We are pleased to announce that we have agreed to host information on a key European interest group in our field - the British Accounting Association's Accounting Education Special Interest Group. Initially we have provided data on their forthcoming conference and further, more interactive, features will follow.
Whilst, of course, we don't run AccountingEducation.com for the glory (!) we do appreciate the occasional award as much as the next person. We have just been awarded a StudyWeb award for 'Academic Excellence' as 'one of the Net's finest informative educational links'. We humbly accept!
IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON ACCOUNTING FUTURE KEY FEATURE IN AUSTRALIAN CPA
http://www.accountingeducation.com/news/news694.htmlWEB BASED EDUCATION HAS A FUTURE
http://www.accountingeducation.com/news/news691.htmlSEC CALLS FOR STRICTER ACCOUNTING RULES FOR INTERNET COMPANIES http://www.accountingeducation.com/news/news663.html
I am not including the following for advertising or for promoting this particular source (LoanWise) of a business loan. The reason that I am including it here is to illustrate how fast business managers will be able to borrow money via the Internet when more lenders commence similar services. The source of the following is an advertisement that I received in the Wall Street Journal Business Alert about the murder of Edmond Safra in Monte Carlo.
The 5-Minute Online Business Loan Now business loans are on Internet time. At loanwise.com. Answer a few short questions about your personal and business finances. Your one application will be evaluated by multiple leading lenders. And you get a loan decision instantly ... right on your desktop. Select the loan that's best for your business and get back to work. All in less than 5 minutes.
http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;612056;3549565;m?http://www.loanwise.com/ewsji
Course Technology --- http://www.course.com/
Course Technology, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was founded based on a vision that technology would transform the way people teach and learn. As the first publisher to truly integrate software with textbooks successfully, Course Technology pioneered the revolutionary concept of student versions of software and grew it into a wildly successful new publishing model. Today, the company continues to focus on developing leading edge materials to help people learn about technology. In its first year, Course Technology developed three products. This year Course Technology will ship over five million units to learners worldwide, and this web site will receive over 30 million hits. Led by President and CEO, Joseph B. Dougherty, Course Technology is now far and away the number one publisher of instructional materials on information systems in the world. The company has two divisions: the Academic Learning division -- the worldwide leader in IT publishing for the secondary and post secondary markets, and the Corporate Learning Division -- an emerging force in IT learning tools for the corporate market.
The Ernst and Young Center for Business Innovation http://www.businessinnovation.ey.com/main.html
There is also a forum at this website.
The Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation is a source of new knowledge, insights, and frameworks for management. We exist to discover and develop innovations in strategy, people, process, and technology that deliver high value to business. Our work, performed in collaboration with leading thinkers in business, academe, and other research organizations, fuels Ernst & Young's development of new strategic consulting services, and is communicated broadly to general business audiences.
The research agenda of The Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation is shaped by our vision of an increasingly connected economy. There is no doubt that connections and ways of connecting have proliferated wildly-among firms, among individuals, among computers, and more. In a highly connected world, things don't simply happen faster. Different things happen. Economies behave in non-classical ways. Firms take on different structures. Different kinds of assets drive competitiveness.
All this calls for new theories of management and new tools for managing. Our research agenda focuses on a few realms that will experience profound change. Our work in performance measurement focuses on the rising value of intangibles, and new ways to measure them effectively. Our inquiry into knowledge management explores intellectual capital as the most important-and underleveraged-source of competitive advantage. Research on customer connection identifies new ways to grow by forging economic, knowledge, and technological links to customers. The rapidly evolving world of electronic commerce is an example deserving of special attention. Finally, most broadly, our search for a new theory of the firm anticipates an economy so connected that it begins to behave as a complex adaptive system-and looks to complexity science to provide clues to the future.
Did those nasty little critters invade your privacy? This is scary from The Wall Street Journal, November 30, 1999, pg. B6 or the WJS Interactive at http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB9439120611421351.djm&template=pasted-1999-11-30.tmpl
WASHINGTON -- A company's popular software to change a Web browser's computer cursor into cartoon characters and other images is quietly tracking its customers across the Internet and recording which Web pages they visit.
Comet Systems Inc. ( www.cometsystems.com ), a private company in New York, doesn't dispute that its free cursor software, installed by more than 16 million people, reports back to its own computers with each customer's unique serial number each time that person visits any of 60,000 Web sites -- including dozens aimed at young children -- that support its technology.
Privacy advocates expressed dismay over the communications, which are sent without informing users. But the company insists it isn't violating customers' privacy because it doesn't attempt to match serial numbers against real-world identities. It published an explanation of its practices early Monday on its Web site after questions over the weekend.
800 Professors at the University of Washington Start a Campaign to "Just Say No to Distance Learning."
Hi Janet,
I really appreciate seeing this article. It is great for starting a debate. However, the author obviously has a naive view of distance education. By " naive" I mean equating modern-day distributed education with former correspondence courses. Correspondence courses did not have the technologies of communication that accompany good online courses of today and tomorrow. Firstly, most prestige distributed education courses such as the highly successful GEMBA Program at Duke University are heavily synchronized such that students meet at the same time in a virtual classroom (hearing each other with audio technology and seeing each other with video technology) and discuss a case in much the same manner that they would discuss the case if they were face-to-face on the Duke University campus. Secondly, students often overburden their instructors and other students with more messaging (email and chat room) outside of class than ever existed in traditional classrooms.
Reporters who write such naive columns just have not done their homework. For example, it is obvious that Ms SCHUBERT has never examined the outcomes of the multimillion Sloan Foundation experiments. See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/260wp/260wp.htm
It is important for academics to be objective about results of learning experimentation --- whether or not these results run contrary to our personal utility functions. Distributed education has serious flaws and serious advantages over traditional on-site education. When a writer such as Ms SCHUBERT resorts to a writing style like the message below, she sounds more like a spokeswoman for a faculty union than a scholar writing objectively on both sides of an issue.
Do you think I can put your message below into my December 8 Edition of New Bookmarks?
Bob (Robert E.) Jensen Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212 Voice: (210) 999-7347 Fax: (210) 999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Message 2 from Janet
Be my guest ... I agree with your assessment of reporter Schubert. The earlier piece, reporting on the June 1998 letter signed by UW faculty, fit your description that she "sounds more like a spokesman for a faculty union."There has always been a tension between the past and the future in academia - on the one hand, universities are repositories of past intellectual wealth. But on the other hand, the future is barreling down the track at the speed of the internet. Faculty can rail against it with "over my dead body" open letters, or they can - as you and other visionaries have proven - fashion the technology to serve both teacher and taught.
Janet Flatley [mailto:jflatley@ffpa.com]----------------------------------------------------------
Message 1 from Janet-----
From: Janet Flatley [mailto:jflatley@ffpa.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 12:26 PM
To: rjensen@trinity.edu
Subject: brave new world of digital educationHave you seen this article? I have a paper copy of the article reporting the June 1998 letter signed by U of Wash faculty. It may seem dated, but I think the faculty's concerns have probably deepened & not improved since then.
Janet Flatley (360) 417-3104
-------------------------------------------------------
Original Article Sent to Me by Janet
Warnings are raised about downloaded education
Monday, October 11, 1999
By RUTH SCHUBERT SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERGrants are referred to as "venture capital" and class materials are "content."
For-profit companies are vending virtual degrees, and politicians talk of the cost efficiencies to be derived through technology.
To many professors and researchers, this is the dark underbelly of distance learning's explosive growth. Their increasing concerns encompass intellectual property rights, "mentors" and "tutors" replacing professors and what some see as a decline in quality.
When Jones International became the first virtual university to gain accreditation in March, the American Association of University Professors immediately sent a letter of protest to the accrediting agency, arguing that it had ignored its own standards.
The letter zeroed in on the lack of full-time faculty, the paucity of degree-seeking students and the use of pre-packaged courses.
"By all public accounts, this virtual institution presents a very weak case for accreditation," wrote James Perley, head of the AAUP's accrediting committee. "Indeed it embodies most of our major worries about the denigration of quality that could follow this apparently inexorable march toward online education."
Closer to home, in June 1998, more than 800 University of Washington faculty signed a letter to Gov. Gary Locke that decried the "brave new world of digital education" depicted in his speeches.
"Education is not reducible to the downloading of information, much less to the passive and solitary activity of staring at a screen," said the letter, from the UW chapter of the AAUP.
The faculty letter was inspired in part by David Noble, a history professor at York University in Ontario. His less-than-ebullient views are enumerated in a series of articles posted on the Internet called "Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education.'
Steven Crow, an executive director at the regional accrediting agency that approved Jones International University, disagrees with much of what Noble argues -- but not all of it.
"I share the concern about education simply becoming a commodity that any business can put together and just goes out there," Crow said. "I am still convinced that we need the hand and role of people who, by training and by skill, are concerned with the coherence of the learning process and the coherence of the curriculum. That's a faculty role."
But it's a faculty role that could look far different than it does today. Supporters of educational technology talk in terms of "unbundling the faculty role" and becoming more "student-centered."
In this scenario, one faculty member may specialize in course design, another in tutoring students in class. Some of the new, for-profit vendors of online programs have signed on "brand name" schools or professors to develop or review course content. But students interact online with tutors or teaching faculty, who grade assignments and answer questions. The tutors don't have anywhere near the qualifications of the professors who design the courses.
The virtual Concord School of Law, created by the test-preparation giant Kaplan, hired Harvard Professor Arthur Miller to head the Board of Advisors, but he doesn't interact with the students. Under American Bar Association guidelines, Concord is a correspondence school and is not, therefore, accredited.
The fledgling UNext.com, funded in part by convicted insider-stock-trader Michael Milken, has signed on some of the most prestigious schools in the country to create online business education courses. Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University and the London School of Economics and Political Science will create the courses. Tutors will teach the students.
Noble is at work on the next installment in his "Digital Diploma Mills" series, which compares today's online programs with the correspondence courses that proliferated a century ago.
Many failed, he argues, as universities cut costs by hiring per-course faculty and as quality plummeted.
"What's happening with distance education is a repeat, the only difference is instead of using the post office and the mail, they're using online delivery," Noble said. "But, it's being identified as a revolution, a complete departure, and what I'm saying is it's not new, we've seen it all before."
After reading the above messages, Earl Hall wrote the following and gave me permission to pass it along::
While I definitely agree with the sentence quoted from the letter, I disagree with the implication that digital education is bad.
I was one of the initial non-academic members of ANet (moderating FinAcc-L and AEthics-L for the period they were moderated) and felt confident to grasp the vision of the future that Roger and others had because of the education I was provided by the UW accounting department in the late 1960s and early 1970s while I was there. I have trouble envisioning the forward-looking faculty in the School of Business at that time joining in this letter.
=Url= (pronounced "Earl") From the Yakima of Washington - Upwind of Radioactive Emissions earl@earlcpa.com - Downwind of Volcanic Emissions http://www.earlcpa.com
Peter Kenyon had a later message along the above lines.
There is a new (11/99) essay by historian David Noble titled "Rehearsal for the Revolution." Noble's previous essays on "Digital Diploma Mills" sparked much controversy. I suspect there's little support for his views on this list, but you may want to test yourself by reading his essay.
See the newest article at: http://communication.ucsd.edu/dl/ddm4.html
Peter B. Kenyon
Professor of Accounting
School of Business & Economics
Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 95521 USA
707.826.4762 (tel) 707.667.0752 (fax) http://www.humboldt.edu/~pbk1/
At one point, David Noble states the following (I just do not agree that, with modern communications technologies, we can even remotely equate distributed education of Year 2000 with correspondence schools the past).
In essence, the current mania for distance education is about the commodification of higher education, of which computer technology is merely the latest medium, and it is, in reality, more a rerun than a revolution, bearing striking resemblance to a past today's enthusiasts barely know about or care to acknowledge, an earlier episode in the commodification of higher education known as correspondence instruction or, more quaintly, home study. Then as now, distance education has always been not so much technology-driven as profit-driven, whatever the mode of delivery. The common denominator linking the two episodes is not technology but the pursuit of profit in the guise and name of higher education. A careful examination of the earlier, pre-computer, episode in distance education enables us to place the current mania not only in historical perspective but also in its proper political-economic context. The chief aim here is to try to shift our attention from technology to political economy, and from fantasies about the future to the far more sobering lessons of the past.
In case you missed it, The Wall Street Journal on December 6, 1999 had some heavy-duty inserts about technology in education and distributed (distance) education.
Girls Fight for a Living
(history, journalism) http://athena.louisville.edu/library/ekstrom/special/girls/girls.html
This site has some very interesting documents that add another dimension to
business history.
XML update from InformationWeek Daily, December 1, 1999:
Microsoft Submits XML Standard; Signs BizTalk Backer
Microsoft submitted for industry approval on Tuesday a network protocol for XML communication between Windows and non-Microsoft systems.
Microsoft submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force a draft specification for version 1.0 of the Simple Object Access Protocol, a method for accessing objects over the Web. Soap employs the Extensible Markup Language, a format for platform-independent data exchange, to let developers write apps that call objects built with Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model, as well as non-Microsoft components that use Java and Corba. Microsoft hopes interoperability between its systems and computers running Unix will spur sales of Windows 2000.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and New Era of Networks Inc., or Neon, announced a strategic relationship to create and jointly market XML-based E-commerce products. Under the relationship, Neon will support Microsoft's integration and development platform, Windows DNA 2000, as well as its Babylon Integration Server, and its XML-based BizTalk Server. Neon also endorsed Microsoft's BizTalk E-commerce framework and said it would join Microsoft's BizTalk steering committee, which is working on XML technology and standards.
To varying degrees, educators are torn apart by the fast pace of education technology experiments and the emergence of education as business ventures. The following quote from the November 30 issue of the Scout Report relays some serious findings by some serious educators and researchers.
Information Technology: Its Impact on Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology_ -- NSF ASCII: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1998/nsf9882/nsf9882.txt .pdf version (287K): http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1998/nsf9882/nsf9882.pdf
This 1998 National Science Foundation (NSF) report is the fruit of a conference that was convened by NSF's Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) to discuss the use of Information Technology (IT) for undergraduates in the hard sciences. After considering the explosion in both communication and computer technologies that has made IT so much more prevalent in undergraduate education, the report offers recommendations for ways to improve the use and integration of IT into standard curriculum. The consensus of the conference participants includes "a renewed call to change an academic culture that views research on education and the use of education technology as incidental or secondary to more traditional avenues of research."
In another Scout Report review, we find the following:
Social and Economic Implications of Information Technologies: A Bibliographic Database Pilot Project http://srsweb.nsf.gov/it_site/index.htm
This pilot site from SRI International's Science and Technology Policy Program with support from the National Science Foundation Division of Science Resources Studies contains over 4,000 citations of "data sets, research papers, books, and web sites about the social and economic implications of information, communications, and computational technologies (IT)." These citations are organized in searchable listings called Road Maps, with categories such as Education, Government, Science, Globalization, and Employment and work, among others. Approximately one-third of the citations in the database have abstracts, and the majority appear to offer a link to the site or document. Also, citations on IT in the home have been specially annotated and collected on the IT in the Home project page. Directions for using the Road Maps Database is available from the main page as well as at the start page of each of the individual Road Maps.
Thank you David for this lead to research on the impacts of information technology on learning!
Bob
You may be interested in this paper I came across a couple of weeks ago. Interesting AND accounting related
http://www.cegsa.sa.edu.au/acec98/papers/p_gilliver.html
David Stephens [StephensD@cbs.curtin.edu.au]
The paper is entitled "Learning in Cyberspace: Shaping the Future," by Robert S Gilliver (Overseas Visiting Lecturer in Accountancy), Bernard Randall (Lecturer in Law), and Pok Yang Ming (Head of Department of Mathematics and Science) Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore). Contact bobgill@mbox2.singnet.com.sg Website http://www.cegsa.sa.edu.au/acec98/papers/p_gilliver.html
Abstract
Proponents of multimedia and Internet based educational tools have long claimed their potential, but the absence of broad based quantitative research from controlled experimental use, continues to mitigate the transfer of that potential to reality. This paper reports on experimental work in Singapore, which was designed to establish a supportable theoretical foundation for the hypothesis that the use of information technology (IT) resources in education, does improve pedagogic outcomes. The authors reach a positive conclusion, and attribute those improved outcomes to the use of IT resources through the conduit of improved student motivation. The paper also draws the important distinction between using multimedia and the Internet as a facilitator of learning rather than teaching, and reports upon the research project in detail, particularly improvements in student understanding and results, quantified at 11% in one semester. The authors also report on productivity gains of 16% for educators as a result of effective use of Internet resources and use of the Internet to deliver course material for learning. Based on the research work done, this paper draws the statistically valid conclusion that use of IT resources does improve student learning.
Hi Denise,
I would like to know where you found the fountain of youth. You most certainly have not changed in looks much since when I first met you many moons ago.
I have no secrets other than arising before 4:00 a.m. and toiling for 14 hours each day. What benefits me the most is the help I get from my friends around the world.
You can read about RDF at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/xmlrdf.htm. RDF will be to information what DNA is to our body cells. However, the standard setters are so slow, us old duffers may not really enjoy the efficiency of RDF in our lives. We all know how important HTML has become in our lives. The HTML inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, is of the opinion that RDF will be the most important component in future development of knowledge bases.
Different forms of E-communication (e-mail, lists, discussion boards and FAQs/web pages) fit together" very neatly with RDF. Prior to RDF implementations, our most efficient alternatives indexing services (e.g., Alta Vista). What you are looking for are living threads link messages and keep growing like an AIDs quilt. If we could have some aecm volunteers thread messages for subsets of topics, it would be of great help. However, you can only get a limited amount of help from volunteers.
Message 2-----
From: Denise Nitterhouse [mailto:dnitterh@condor.depaul.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 1:44 PM
To: Barry Rice; Bob (Robert F.) Jensen Subject: RE: Archives, general help, thanksThanks to both of you! The "farm I grew up on/ going home" discussion is another whole thread... I will turn XX (age deleted by Bob Jensen) years old in January 2000 and have spent quite a bit of energy the past 18 months on the question of "So what DO I want to do with the second half of my life?" (No definitive answers so far.) The professional part of the option set is certainly dependent on the IT developments so near and dear to all of us... But that's for another time.
Barry: I checked the tech-talk archives and they look like they provide an excellent set of searchable archives. That would be a great help for AECM, and I look forward to having it available. What tool does it use? But there's a large gap between searchable archives and the synthesis provided on Bob's site. We need both. How does one get from one to the other in a different, Bob-less domain?
Bob: Yes, I know I opened the whole can of KM (knowledge management) (perhaps also KG--knowledge generation--if we want to be really cocky about it) worms. But someone has to! I have used a Discussion Group with my class for the past 3 years, with some success, but many frustrations. Your "bookmarks", truly a living e-document, are a treasure. Would you please let us know how you do them (in detail!) and how long it takes you? I might be able to figure it out by digging through your site, but it would be MUCH simpler if you'd just explain it to us.
What's RDF and how and how soon will it save us?
Does anyone know, and has anyone succinctly stated, how the different forms of E-communication (e-mail, lists, discussion boards and FAQs/web pages) fit together, or should? Especially in a teaching/learning context.
I'm not sure how your "assigned archivists" would work. Please say more. One problem with assigning archivists is that the archive categories/assignments may need to change frequently, or possibly stifle evolution of topics.
If people like you continue to cull and post, and if I can figure out what bases you cover, and count on you to pick up everything there of potential interest to me, I can use you to cover those bases for me, leaving me more time to cover the areas of interest to me that no-one else does yet.
Please feel free to post any part of this that you find relevant to any location (either list or site) that you feel will contribute most to our evolving understanding and creation of this cyber-beast.
Thank you BOTH for your crucial roles in this adventure!
The first message from Denise that started the above messaging, is shown below:
Message-1----
From: Denise Nitterhouse [mailto:dnitterh@condor.depaul.edu]
Sent: Monday, November 29, 1999 10:37 PM
To: Barry Rice Cc: rjensen@trinity.edu
Subject: Archives, general help, thanksI'm in a "list quandary", and hope you can help. I subscribe to several lists that have quite a lot of interest to me, and only a bit I can actually respond to. When I'm either out of town or just overloaded for several days (heaven forbid a week or more!) the load becomes overwhelming. It strikes me that I/we need a new way of communicating. I switched one of my other fav lists to digest mode and find that I don't follow it as well as I did previously, so I'm looking for a better alternative. I tried to access the AECM archives from the link at http://pacioli.loyola.edu/aecm/ and it went nowhere. I'm hoping that being able to periodically check archives would be a good alternative. In our case, Bob Jensen actually seems to retain a good bit of what's worthwhile on his site, so we have an "archive alternative" there that's a godsend, but I'm wondering if you know of a less work intensive method that does the job. I need to come up with an alternative for the other sites I deal with. (I'm in grave danger of getting seriously and officially involved with one of them.) Suggestions appreciated, and thanks again for starting and hosting a wonderful list!
Bob: Occurred to me as I was asking Barry for help that I should ask you, too. Please don't suggest that anyone else manage to put together the equivalent of your site. It's too overwhelming. I can't imagine it! On the other hand, it did bring up the "7 degrees of separation" idea that perhaps if each of us managed our own little corner of the universe and just linked it to the rest... No, I'd never be able to manage! BTW, I truly LOVED your tale from childhood (I recall the flavor, although I've forgotten the names). I, too, grew up on a farm (in PA) and you brought back many memories. I agree that the Internet initially created a similar but geographically unconstrained community, but fear that the "sick heads" (as my "dear old dad", at 85, calls them) find the Internet a protective cover of anonymity they didn't have in rural PA in the 1950s. But, for better and worse, it's here to stay, so I just try to use it as well as possible and harm as few as I can.
Best to both of you, sorry to go on so, thanks
Denise
Reply from Barry Rice
I completely agree that HTML archives for AECM are overdue. In fact, I am currently working to get the archives for the past couple of years on the Web. All future posts will also be available on the Web. All this should happen in the next month or so. Because the list will have to be moved to an NT server, I am using another list I own (Loyola's TECH-TALK) to make sure everything goes smoothly before I move AECM. For a good idea of how the archives will work, you can look at http://listserv.loyola.edu/archives/tech-talk.html .
Regards to you both.
Barry
Computer security threats climb --- http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0%2C1510%2C10004%2C00.html
Forget the stereotype of the teen hacker. Sophisticated cybercrooks caused well over $100 million in losses last year, and the trend toward professional computer crime is on the rise.
Most hacks are inside jobs --- http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0%2C1510%2C9673%2C00.html
If you are anxiously awaiting the DVD recording on standardized formats, forget it for a while. Just as Sony was about to release one of its most major products in history, a hacker cracked the encryption code designed to protect copyrighted products. The timing of this make me suspicious --- sounds like an inside job from someone in Hollywood who does not want this product released.
From the Scout Report on November 30
Kids & Media @ The New Millennium
Table of Contents: http://www.kff.org/content/1999/1535/
Press Release: http://www.kff.org/content/1999/1535/pressreleasefinal.doc.html
Report (.pdf): http://www.kff.org/content/1999/1535/KidsReport%20FINAL.pdf
Appendices (.pdf): http://www.kff.org/content/1999/1535/KidsAppendices%20FINAL.pdfReleased this month by the Kaiser Family Foundation, this book length study touts itself as "one of the most comprehensive national public studies ever conducted of young people's media use." The study, "based on a nationally representative sample of more than 3,000 children ages 2 -18, shows how much time kids spend watching TV and movies, using computers, playing video games, listening to music, and reading." The report also examines the extent and nature of parental oversight, how children use media, and whether new media are replacing traditional ones for the nation's young people. One of the more sensational findings: "the typical American child spends an average of more than 38 hours a week - nearly five and a half hours a day - consuming media outside of school."
-----Original Message-----
From: jano katsiridakis [mailto:jano@apivita.gr]
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 3:51 AM
To: rjensen@trinity.edu S
ubject: access 2000
Hi Dr. Jensen
I am John Katsiridakis from Athens Greece I read your paper about publishing
excel worksheets and charts in html format. I wonder if you have
something about publishing access 2000 pages. I have an apache
server running on a Linux redhut 6.0. I also have Office 2000, and I
use FrontPage 2000 to publish my webs I can't understand how to combine access
pages with FrontPage. I 'll it very much because I'm particular
fascinated by the pivot tables you can built for publishing data on my intranet
Thanks in advance
John Katsiridakis
------------------------------------------------------------
Reply from Bob Jensen
Hi John,
You can save Excel pivot tables as dynamic HTML (i.e., DHTML) interactive documents that will read in the Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher browser provided that you have MS Office 2000 installed. You can also save MS Access tables as DHTML documents that can be interactive on the Internet Explorer browser. However, you cannot obtain full MS Access database functionality from a web browser. If you have installed MS Office 2000, Microsoft provides some nice pivot table and MS Access table DHTML illustrations. However, these are somewhat hidden. I provide a suggested path where you might look in my document at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/dhtml/excel01.htm.
Not being able to save database forms as HTML is disappointing. However, being able to save database tables in HTML is neat. Certain levels of interactivity with queries are also feasible. I thought that perhaps you would like to check out an illustration that is probably already on your computer if you installed Microsoft Office 2000. Locate the directory where you placed Microsoft Office. Then follow the path (...\Microsoft Office\Office\Samples\Review Products.htm). The (Review Products.htm) file is a Microsoft Database table that you can now navigate interactively in your Internet Explorer 5.00 or higher. (Don't forget to click on the plus-sign buttons.)
There is another illustration of great interest. It is an Excel pivot table that interactively runs in your web browser. The path to that sample file is (...\Microsoft Office\Office\Samples\Analyze Sales.htm).
There is also a useful Excel illustrations file on the path (...\Microsoft Office\Office\Samples\Samples.xls).
I order to make full use of database interactions, you should look into ASP.
I had a couple of requests to discuss ASP. ASP will be a big deal in knowledge databases that are networked. Although I know what it is, I thought it would be fun to test my guru.net installation. After typing ASP in Word, I used Alt-Click to bring up the following:
An Active Server Page (ASP) is an HTML page that includes one or more scripts (small embedded programs) that are processed on a Microsoft Web server before the page is sent to the user. An ASP is somewhat similar to a server-side include or a common gateway interface (CGI) application in that all involve programs that run on the server, usually tailoring a page for the user. Typically, the script in the Web page at the server uses input received as the result of the user's request for the page to access data from a database and then builds or customizes the page on the fly before sending it to the requestor.
ASP is a feature of the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), but, since the server-side script is just building a regular HTML page, it can be delivered to almost any browser. You can create an ASP file by including a script written in VBScript or JScript in an HTML file or by using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) program statements in the HTML file. You name the HTML file with the ".asp" file suffix. Microsoft recommends the use of the server-side ASP rather than a client-side script, where there is actually a choice, because the server-side script will result in an easily displayable HTML page. Client-side scripts (for example, with JavaScript) may not work as intended on older browsers.
Selected Links Client and Server Scripting in Web Pages provides some perspective about when and how to use Active Server Pages. Wolfgang Engel's brief but effective Active Server Pages Tutorial (I found this to be a dead link this morning) provides a basic level, a components level, and a database level.
Selected Books Active Server Pages Black Book: The Professional's Guide To Developing Dynamic, Interactive Web Sites With Microsoft ActiveX by Al Williams, Paul Newkirk, and Kim Barber explains ASP in the larger ActiveX context.
There is also Active Server for Dummies at
http://www1.fatbrain.com/asp/bookinfo/bookinfo.asp?theisbn=0764501909&from=QHJ279
If you have Office 2000 installed, you
may also want to take a look at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/dhtml/excel01.htm
End of Bob Jensen's message to John Katsiridakis
-------------------------------------------------------
Steven Filling replied as follows:
Any chance of reconciling this with the latest Netcraft stats for web servers? They find that IIS [in all its incarnations] possesses less than 1/2 the market share of Apache, a stat which is echoed by the perhaps more relevant stat for developer systems.
Here's the URL I drew from .http://www.netcraft.com/survey/
Steven Filling E-Mail: steven@panopticon.csustan.edu Date: 02-Dec-1999 Time: 23:01:50
Robert Holmes adds the following
I would have discussed Application Service Providers who host applications over the Internet. This is another development in the perpetual dilemma of centralized service and control versus distributed service and control. Users tend to want things local and large organizations want things centralized. There are valid reasons on both horns of the dilemma. It is always interesting to watch these changes and reminds me of the old saw "The more things change the more they remain the same."
Robert C. Holmes [rcholmes@GLENDALE.CC.CA.US] Thu 12/02/1999 9:41 AM
You can read more about networked databases at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/260wp/260wp.htm
If you
know any accounting educators with helpful materials on the web, please ask them
to link their materials in the American Accounting Association's
Accounting Coursepage Exchange (ACE) web site at
http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/ace/index.htm
Please send these professors email messages today and urge them to share as much
as they can with the academy by easily registering their course pages with ACE.
ACE has this addition from France:
Instructor: Hervé Stolowy
Institution: HEC School of Management, France
Course Title: International Accounting and Auditing
Textbook: International Accounting Author(s): Walton, Haller & Raffournier
URL: http://www.hec.fr/profs/dept/ccg/stolowy/PERSO/Iaa/Iaa1.htm
Course Details: http://www.hec.fr/profs/dept/ccg/stolowy/PERSO/Iaa/Iaa98-99.htm#COURSE RESOURCES
Thank you for sharing all the way from France Professor Stolowy
Upheavals in e-Commerce --- nobody is more sad and more hopeful than the U.S. Post Office
"Look Who's Becoming a Dot Com The U.S. Postal Service sees the handwriting on the wall. One thing it has in its favor: a trusted brand" Internet World, December 1, 1999, pp. 43-46. The online version is at http://www.internetworldnews.com/idx_article.asp?inc=120199/ebusiness/commerce/12.01Commerce&issue=12.01
By Elizabeth GardnerThe U.S. Postal Service has a special spot on its Web site for debunking the recurring Net rumor that it wants to impose a five-cent surcharge on every e-mail. "The U.S. Postal Service has no authority to surcharge e-mail messages sent over the Internet, nor would it support such legislation," the statement says.
The USPS's Robert Krause Photo Credits: Katherine Lambert But the rumor addresses a fundamental truth: The Internet could erode the bedrock of the USPS if it doesn't find a way to turn the Net to its own advantage.
Worst case: The Net devours so much postal business that the USPS has to cut back on its universal service commitment or jack up the price of stamps - or both - leading to a downward spiral that leaves it a shadow of its former self, propped up by government subsidies. A recent U.S. General Accounting Office report hinted at just that scenario, saying, "The Postal Service may be nearing the end of an era."
Best case: The USPS offers its own profitable Net-based services that customers find cost-effective and valuable, using the resulting revenue to support its shrinking paper-mail operation. Work along these lines has been proceeding for several years, and may soon come to fruition. But will it be soon enough?
The Postal Service's most visible Net strategy so far has been a splashy co-promotion - "What's Your ePriority?" - with Amazon.com for its Priority Mail package service, used by about 65 percent of Amazon customers. Amazon's Priority Mail boxes bear its logo as well as the USPS's. Priority Mail traffic was up a healthy 7.6 percent between 1997 and 1998, and is on track for a similar increase in 1999. The USPS estimates it has about a third of the package business generated by e-commerce. And its market share is likely to grow with innovations like the new Merchandise Return API, which allows unsatisfied customers of online stores to print out return shipping labels that charge the postage back to the store.
But e-commerce packages won't stanch the hemorrhage from First-Class Mail, which accounts for almost 60 percent of Postal Service revenue. (Priority Mail is still less than 10 percent.) The Postal Service estimates that First-Class Mail will begin falling off at a rate of 2.5 percent per year - roughly $850 million in revenue at current rates - by 2003.
From the Scout Report on December 2, 1999
Beyond Grey Pinstripes http://www.wri.org/wri/bschools/index.html
Sponsored by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Initiative for Social Innovation through Business (ISIB), the Beyond Grey Pinstripes report identifies MBA programs in the US that include environmental and social elements. The report comes in two forms. The online version targets an academic audience and looks at the ways in which each featured business school addresses social and environmental issues, while the print version, which must be ordered for a small cost, is aimed at the corporate community. The online report ranks the top business schools in terms of environmental and social stewardship, and nearly 50 business schools have written short descriptions of how their programs have integrated these two elements into their curriculums and activities. The WRI and ISIB plan to add and expand several sections in the future, including a faculty research database, a study of business schools worldwide, and a listing of courses that deal in environmental and social stewardship.
e-Commerce updates at http://ecmgt.com/Dec1999/e-products.htm
FinanceWise: Latin America Special Reports http://www.financewise.com/cgi-bin/l/lrrpre?P=/l/latunreg.htm
FinanceWise Special Reports are designed to help you find the best information on the Internet in the quickest possible time.
Because of the nature of a search engine, information can often be located in a broad cross section of categories. Our reports bring that information together as one convenient resource enhanced by topic specific editorial abstracts for each site.
For the Latin America Special Report, we have compiled links on both a regional and a country-by-country basis. Also, ten countries have exclusive detailed information from the Emerging Markets Investor Fact Book.
In addition to links we have details of currency spot rates for all 13 countries in the region provided by theFinancials.com. There is also a review of newsgroups and discussion forums on the region.
Equity Analytics http://www.e-analytics.com/
This is a financial consulting firm that provides free services to the public
(e.g., an annotated index includes information on government statistical
releases, futures and commodities, financial planning, software downloads, and a
discounted bookstore.)
The Gay Financial Network http://www.gfn.com/
Those of us who vividly recall the War
in Viet Nam would never have expected to find a website like this in 1999
---
http://www.vinaone.com/ (Please take a look
at this VinaOne web site --- we can all be friends and partners.)
Lotus enhances FastSite Web publishing tool. The upgrade to the office productivity suite lets users convert files to HTML format and build customized Web sites. http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9911305/1018283/
First, it can save documents to the read-only PDF format, publish them to a Web site and convert an entire Web site into PDF format, she said. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to read PDF files, and Adobe Acrobat Writer is required to publish PDF files to the Web.
Second, FastSite 3 is integrated with Microsoft FrontPage, so Web developers can now link their FastSite to their FrontPage site or pull an entire FastSite into FrontPage to further customize it, Scharfman said.
"FastSite is ... seamlessly integrated with FrontPage. It acts very nicely as a behind-the-scenes tool to get there," she said.
Finally, FastSite 3 offers new templates to take advantage of 3-D effects and more colorful designs, Scharfman said. "It has an easy-to-use interface and more customized features for people who are technically savvy," she added.
Lotus FastSite Release 3 will be bundled in the next version of SmartSuite, which is slated to debut in the summer of 2000, Scharfman said.
Apple's update offers enough significant features to make it a must upgrade for Macintosh PowerPC users, PC Week Labs finds. http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9912031/2399000/
Gary Lauber sent in the following message regarding IRS Form 508 concerning Tax Benefits for Work-Related Education.
I believe the IRS just published maybe useful to some of your students. http://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p508.pdf
Online buyers dogged by tech-support woes from e-commerce sites and
Internet --- see
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/filters/katt/
Isaac Asimov Home Page http://www.clark.net/pub/edseiler/WWW/asimov_home_page.html
Red Hat guns for Microsoft http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9911291/2400243/
Teaching Indigenous Languages http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/TIL.html
Cambridge International Dictionaries Online http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/esl/dictionary/
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Sampleville at http://www.sampleville.com/index.html?SID=ba567bccee2aa67661ca189a0413ecdb
At Sampleville, we don't just find the greatest free offers, we actually order them for you! What does this mean? The fastest access to samples...--- the samples are free.
Asa Somers, Computer Shopper's intrepid Buying Advisor, scours retail stores, Web sites, and online auctions for the best possible price on a handful of gift worthy products. http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?14117:2700840
This is an advertisement that I received --- some of you may be interested
First, get a jump on your Holiday Shopping at the all-new LYCOShop and you can earn 500 Lycos Rewards Points on your first qualified purchase - plus one point for every dollar you spend on qualified purchases. Lycos Rewards Points are redeemable for a wide selection of premium merchandise. Best of all, as a registered subscriber, you will be notified directly of new Lycos Points earning opportunities as they become available - start earning your Points today! http://specials.lycos.com/go/991123w/REWARDS/?ly41910342
OurHouse.com --- products and project information for homeowners. http://www.ourhouse.com/
Home (house) architecture --- See Residential Architect at http://www.residentialarchitect.com/
Mad About Amaryllis (gardening, flowers) http://www.madaboutamaryllis.com/
From the November 30, 1999 Scout Report
G. Robert Vincent Voice Library http://www.lib.msu.edu/vincent/
Maintained by the Michigan State University Libraries, this site offers selections from the largest academic voice library in the nation. Unfortunately, the site offers only a fraction of the library's more than 50,000 voices ranging over 100 years. Still, users can access excerpts from the speeches of over a dozen presidents, including Warren G. Harding coining the phrase "America First," Theodore Roosevelt pronouncing on "why the bosses oppose the progressive party," and John F. Kennedy publicly discussing the Cuban Missile Crisis. Selections of poems and fiction are also provided from the Michigan Writer's Series. Finally, the Website links to NPR's Lost and Found Sound, a fascinating collection of audio materials from the last century (see the March 26, 1999 _Scout Report_).
Satellite Update
"Broadband Infrastructure, Part 3: Satellite
"Highway in the Sky," Internet World, December 1, 1999, pp. 73-75. The online version is at http://www.internetworldnews.com/idx_article.asp?inc=120199/internettech/theinfrastructure/12.01Infra&issue=12.01
By Sarah L. Roberts-WittBroadband Internet access via satellite has been available roughly twice as long as cable or DSL. And anyone in the entire country who has an unobstructed southern view can get it, while cable and DSL are available to less than a third of U.S. households. So a lot more subscribers have signed on for satellite service, right?
Wrong. Despite the 1996 launch of DirecPC by Hughes Network Systems, an alluring 400-Kbps top speed and the painfully slow roll-out of competition from cable and DSL, the best estimate of broadband satellite Internet subscribers is that they will reach 100,000 by year's end. Cable had a million as of June, and DSL is expected to reach between 250,000 and 450,000 before 1999 is out.
But many experts predict a big burst of growth in satellite subscribership in the next couple of years - like the bursts in cable and DSL that happened this year, finally pushing their subscriber levels into the noticeable spectrum.
Related Stories Highway in the Sky Beaming the Internet A Network's Anatomy|Hughes Network Systems Jupiter Communications is relatively conservative with its growth estimates, predicting that there will be 200,000 U.S. residential satellite Internet subscribers by the end of this year and around a million by the end of 2002. Investment firm C.E. Unterberg, Towbin is more optimistic, saying U.S. satellite subscribers will hit 2 million by 2002 and jump to 6 million in 2004, eventually reaching nearly 15 million by 2008. And Pioneer Consulting's estimates grow from 100,000 this year to 4.5 million by 2002 and 13.1 million by 2008. Pioneer also predicts that once the promised new two-way services go live in the 2002-to-2003 time frame, the number of global subscribers will explode: nearly 6 million in 2002, 18 million in 2005, and 30 million by 2007.
EmailAbuse http://www.emailabuse.org/
The use of elctronic mail to advertise unethically, harass, annoy, or cause harm to the email recipient. Abuse can take the form of bulk email, threatening email, email sent with the intent to slow productivity of, or cause damage to, the recipient's system. It is a world wide problem and anyone with an email address is vulnerable.
EmailAbuse.org is dedicated to informing users of this potential abuse and providing them with the tools to avoid becoming a victim and to fight back at Email Abusers!
Multimedia poetry --- see UbuWeb at http://www.ubu.com/
Grimm's Fairy Tales http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/
Rankings of best and worst books are many and varied. One set of rankings appears at http://www.ivillage.com/ (this is also a women's resource website for aspiring writers with some free downloads for writers). Among the top 100, you will find the following:
Several months ago, we posted a list of your all-time favorite works of fiction. Well, you've voted again so we retabulated the list. To Kill a Mockingbird is still our number one, but some wonderful books including Toni Morrison's Beloved, Jeanette Winterson's The Passion, E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News, and John Irving's The World According to Garp were knocked off the list altogether. Who made the new list? Keep reading and you'll find out:
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
Others at http://www.ivillage.com/millennium/qas/0,4773,32129,00.html
The Intercollegiate Review in the Fall 1999 edition on pp. 3-13 lists the best 100 books and the worst 100 books of the 21st Century. The five best and five worst at the tops of each list:
THE TOP FIVE BEST BOOKS
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
Pessimism and nostalgia at the bright dawn of the twentieth century must have seemed bizarre to contemporaries. After a century of war, mass murder, and fanaticism, we know that Adam's insight was keen indeed.C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1947)
Preferable to Lewis's other remarkable books simply because of the title, which reveals the true intent of liberalism.Whittaker Chambers, Witness (1952)
The haunting, lyrical testament to truth and humanity in a century of lies (and worse). Chambers achieves immortality recounting his spiritual journey from the dark side (Soviet Communism) to the--in his eyes--doomed West. One of the great autobiographies of the millennium.T. S. Eliot, Selected Essays, 1917-1932 (1932, 1950)
Here, one of the century's foremost literary innovators insists that innovation is only possible through an intense engagement of tradition. Every line of Eliot's prose bristles with intelligence and extreme deliberation.Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History (1934-1961)
Made the possibility of a divine role in history respectable among serious historians. Though ignored by academic careerists, Toynbee is still read by those whose intellectual horizons extend beyond present fashions.
THE TOP FIVE WORST BOOKS
Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928)
So amusing did the natives find the white woman's prurient questions that they told her the wildest tales--and she believed them! Mead misled a generation into believing that the fantasies of sexual progressives were an historical reality on an island far, far away.Beatrice & Sidney Webb, Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? (1935)
An idea whose time has come...and gone, thank God.Alfred Kinsey, et.al., Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948)
So mesmerized were Americans by the authority of Science, with a capital S, that it took forty years for anyone to wonder how data is gathered on the sexual responses of children as young as five. A pervert's attempt to demonstrate that perversion is "statistically" normal.Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man (1964)
Dumbed-down Heidegger and a seeming praise of kinkiness became the Bible of the sixties and early postmodernism.John Dewey, Democracy and Education (1916)
Dewey convinced a generation of intellectuals that education isn't about anything; it's just a method, a process for producing democrats and scientists who would lead us into a future that "works." Democracy and Science (both pure means) were thereby transformed into the moral ends of our century, and America's well-meaning but corrupting educationist establishment was born.
A silly frog to waste your time --- http://ligsg22.epfl.ch/people/clavien/public_html/ctouch_v3.html
Lawyer joke from Kathy Nunberg:
What is black and brown and looks good on a lawyer? --- A Doberman
AccountingNet Update http://www.accountingnet.com For the Week of November 29, 1999
1. This Week's Accounting-Specific News Headlines
2. Win a $1,000 Scholarship
3. Don't Miss This Week's Feature Articles
4. Win an IBM WorkPad
5. Our Choice for Site of the Week
6. Four M&A Pitfalls to Avoid
AccountingStudents Newsletter: November 29, 1999 http://www.accountingstudents.com
1. "Account for Your Future" Scholarship Program
2. Ethics in Business
3. How to Get Oriented for Studying
4. Site of the Week: Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
5. Survey Results: Which is more important, money or happiness?
6. If You Do Not Pass the CPA Exam
7. Accountants Included on Top 10 Best Jobs List
8. Win Online CPA Exam Review Materials
9. Tip of the Week: Facing Test Anxiety
AccountingStudents Newsletter: December 6, 1999 http://www.accountingstudents.com
1. Win an Online CPA Exam Review!
2. Cover Letters for Online Job Applications
3. Internship Question of the Week
4. Last Chance to Win a $1000 Interview Wardrobe!
5. Site of the Week: Versity.com
6. Survey Results: What is the setting of your desktop area?
7. Objective Multiple-Choice Questions on the CFM Exam
8. The Interview Challenge
9. The CPA Developing Essential Career Skills
10. New Government Financial Manager Section
11. Tip of the Week: Let the Volunteer Spirit Last All Year
AccountingNet Update http://www.accountingnet.com For the Week of December 6, 1999
1. This Week's Accounting-Specific News Headlines
2. Win Bisk's Online CPA Exam Review
3. Every Company Needs Sexual Harassment Training
4. Try Our FREE Financial Calculators
5. Our Choice for Site of the Week: CPAdvantage.com
6. AccountingNet's Tip of the Week
The December 5th Internet Essentials '99 Newsletter http://www.tiac.net/users/nhannon/news.html
1. WebHelp.com .. An Actual Person to Help Your Web Searches
2. Would you pay $7.5 Million for the "business.com" Name?
3. Finally..A Site for Men
4. Microsoft Supports Bluetooth Wireless Technology
5. ZDnet's Killer Downloads including Hard Drive Maintenance Tool
6. The End of Free-PC
7. Buying a under $1,000 computer? You must read this first.
8. A Dozen Dandy Web Sites
And
that's the way it was on December 8, 1999 with a little help from my friends.
Professor
Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
On PBS television, the Wall Street Journal's technology editor, Walt Mossberg, clued me in on one of the neatest free software downloads that I have ever seen. Guru software is from Israel, and the web site is at http://acronymfinder.com/
GuruNet is a free new one-click information service that works whenever you're online. It automatically analyzes pointed-to text in context and pops up a simple window without linking or leaving your document. You don't even have to select the word.
GuruNet's got reference information (dictionary, thesaurus and encyclopedia) and real-time information (e.g. news, sports, weather or stock quotes). And lots more exciting content on the way. Best of all, GuruNet works in any PC application, such as e-mail, MS-Office, PIMs and, of course, any browser.
Guru is really easy to download and install. When you are connected to the Internet, Guru is really easy to use. For example, I clicked on FASB and up popped a short definition that this was the acronym for the Financial Accounting Standards Board. I was also given a link to the Acronym Finder at http://acronymfinder.com/. Don't expect too much in the way of definitions of technical accounting terms. It does, however, have short definitions to some technical terms in accounting and finance. For example, the term "derivative" includes a definition for financial instruments derivatives but makes no reference to rules for accounting for such contracts. You can, however, get definitions, links, and reverences for most technical computing and information system words and acronyms.
You can read some of the press releases before downloading. See http://www.guru.net/.
Word of advice: Alt-Click means hold the Alt key down and click on the left mouse button. This is not the same as Alt-Enter (which has special meanings in Word, Excel, etc. and will not trigger a Guru definition like Alt-Click.)
Impact of Web Courses on Student
Learning and Faculty Loads
William S. Guad from Northern Arizona University has an article entitled
"Assessing the Impact of Web Courses," in Syllabus, Nov/Dec
1999, pp. 49-50. This is a nice short article that is not yet posted on
the web. Eventually you can read it at http://www.syllabus.com/syllmag.html
Good News
Studies were made of learning in
traditional versus web biology/ecology courses. (Good
news for web education.)
More than 50 percent of each class felt they had to take the Web section, while more than 30 percent felt that the Web section was simply more convenient than a traditional lecture section. This attitude is remarkable, since BIO 226 had an alternative lecture section available. There is clearly a market for Web-based classes.
The courses challenged the students. Students in both classes felt that they spent more time working on assignments in the Web sections than they usually did in lecture sections. The median number of hours per week was 6-9 hours for these three-credit classes. Many of the students were clearly excited by the resources they were using on the Web.
Besides providing a valid educational experience, taking the courses on the Web delivered additional benefits, as reported by the students. Between 30 and 80 percent of the students reported that the assignments using Web resources added depth and breadth to the course, contributed to a fuller understanding of the topics, and made subjects more relevant. In addition to learning about ecology and biology, between 30 and 60 percent of the students reported that they learned how to work independently, learned to budget their time effectively, and developed useful computer skills.
Bad News
The article also discusses impacts of
web course instruction on faculty workloads. (Bad news
for web education.)
So, how much time does a Web course take? For now, the data from these two courses suggest that the Web-based course is the format that is most expensive in faculty resources. Of course, the format of courses on the Web is quite variable. Different formats will not all lead to the same student learning, nor will they require the same amount of resources. And of course, faculty workload varies significantly across institutions.
Let's look at one example. If a professor is employed for 40 hours a week and is expected to work the equivalent of a 15-credit course load, then each course credit should require 2 and two-thirds hours of work each week. This means that a three-credit course translates into 8 hours, or one day a week. At 15 minutes per student for grading and feedback, this means that interaction and evaluation with 32 students would take the full 8 hours of a course time. Taking into consideration the technological demands of managing a Web-based course, such as checking links and continually updating and revising the pages, the data suggest that a three-credit student course would equal more than eight hours of a faculty resource. (This calculation did not include the planning and development time.)
The number for faculty load could be increased by considering a three-credit student course equivalent to a four-credit course for the instructor in terms of workload. If one additional credit is allowed for Web course maintenance, then student enrollment might be appropriate at 32 students. Otherwise, if the workload is maintained at the 3-credit load, the maximum course enrollment for Web courses should be no more than 22 students.
If a lecture course meets three times a week for an hour each time, and it takes the instructor one credit equivalent (two and two-thirds hours) for preparation per week, the class takes slightly less than six hours a week regardless of the number of students enrolled.
If an instructor decides instead to use four multiple choice exams, assume it takes eight hours to write each discriminating and thoughtful exam, but only one minute per student to grade with machine forms. The cost per week to write the exams is a little under two hours, but about 15 seconds per student to grade. The total weekly cost of such a class is approximately 7.5 hours per week plus a negligible amount per student. If the average number of hours worked per week by a university instructor is really a reputed 56, then the switch from essay exams to multiple choice exams occurs at approximately 45 students per section.
This model of the impact of course formats on faculty workload and the recommended number of students provides a way to quantitatively compare the faculty workload associated with different course formats. In the rapidly changing arena of the Internet, decisions need to move away from data-free analysis to an empirical basis for planning and resource allocation.
I might note that Northern Arizona University has over 50 courses that are delivered to UNA students (on-campus and off-campus students) from eCollege at http://www.ecollege.com/ (however, I think that you must access these courses from UNA rather than eCollege). There was a program on this at the American Accounting Association Annual meetings in San Diego on August 18. The presenter from UNA was Beverly Amer at email address Beverly.Amer@nau.edu . You can order an audio MP3 disk of Dr. Amer's presentation along with presentations of others on the topic of Accounting Education Online. I ordered the $199 CD that contains all presentations in MP3 audio compression that will play on most PCs. You can also order individual tapes. The web site is at http://www.tsok.net . The company is Sound of Knowledge, Inc., 4901 Morena Blvd. Suite 207, San Diego, CA 92117. Telephones are 858-483-4300 (voice) and 858-483-4900 (fax). Abstracts of these presentations are available at http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/99annual/highlights.htm .
Bad News
Business school enrollments are shrinking. New York Times reporter
David Leonhardt reports (I saw this in the San Antonio Express News,
November 28, 1999, pg. 7A):
In the last year, applications to Stanford, MIT, Dartmouth, Michigan, and the University of California at Berkeley have dropped as much as 11 percent. On other elite campuses like Northwestern and Carnegie Mellon, applications have leveled off. Some less prestigious universities have seen steep declines.
Reasons are varied and complex, but Leonhardt attributes much of this (especially the increasing drop out rate among students already enrolled in business education programs) to obsolete curricula.
Many people in their 20s and 30s also question whether the ivory tower is the place to learn about the emerging Internet world.
Good News
Perhaps in response to student criticisms and demands, business education
programs are moving to correct curricula deficiencies in technology, e-Commerce,
and Internet usage. Leonhardt states the following:
To attract students and recruiters, schools are overhauling curriculums to offer more Internet courses and even creating majors devoted to the subject. Some schools have increased advertising budgets and stepped up their own recruiting to compete with companies trying to lure skilled workers in a tight labor market.
Warning
Failure to modernize curricula with the changing times will impact negatively on
virtually all areas of undergraduate and graduate higher education. This
problem is not limited to business education.
The Nov/Dec issue of Syllabus mentioned above has a Buyers Guide that is not posted online. A few of the items mentioned in pp. 34-42 are as follows:
Various web course delivery shells are updated, including the following:
Network/Course Management Software updates include the following:
Online Communications and Resource updates include
There are also updates on Telecommunications and Video Conferencing on pp. 42-44 of the Nov/Dec issue of Syllabus.
For more information on these shells see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245soft1.htm
Update on
Web Courses and Programs
Not all external campus options are fully asynchronous. LearnLinc has an
innovative approach for mixing synchronous and asynchronous pedagogies.
You can read the following at
http://www.ilinc.com/article.cfm?ArticleID=12&EID=0&PID=5462
An important element of any virtual classroom is synchronous activity, where the students and instructor interact through live voice or video while working together with a collaborative software package. Just as important is asynchronous activity – studies done at the student’s own pace, and their own time. The actual mix of synchronous and asynchronous activity is adjusted to suit each course. Although much of the course material may be reviewed asynchronously, the addition of a synchronous classroom provides a significant boost to student retention and training results.
Why Not Conduct a Completely Asynchronous Course?
History shows us why that is not such a great idea. There is a long record of just such efforts, based on both text delivery and computing. The completion rate for students in self-paced courses can be very low. This design works very well with the highly motivated. However, if students are not highly motivated, or there are too many students or employees to train, an asynchronous approach won’t work. Here’s an example: Ford Motor Company used computer based training to teach a new technique to their employees. They designed a CD-ROM for 15 hours of instruction, but employees completed less than 2 hours of the material on average.
Striking a Balance
With live Internet learning, there can be a balance between synchronous and asynchronous time. Individual study can offer self-paced flexibility, but in order to be really successful, students also need continuous feedback, interaction, and teacher mentoring.
What Does an Effective Internet-based Distance Learning Environment Look Like?
Delivery on standards-based multimedia PCs equipped for live video/audio interactions and connected to a large network.
A balanced mix of synchronous and asynchronous activity.
Compatibility with industry-standard authoring tools for multimedia courseware including audio and video clips, animation, and simulation exercises.
Use of professional quality software tools for CAD, spreadsheets, and word processing.
Small group discussions.
Question and answer tools.
Collaborative software for application sharing over the network.
Floor control for both instructor-led and student-centered learning.
Course administration tools for scheduling, registration, and resource management. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – A Pioneer in Distance Learning
In 1992 Rensselaer was challenged by AT&T to create an Interactive Multimedia Distance Learning Environment (IMDL). They re-designed a course from AT&T's University of Sales Excellence (USE), an internal training and education organization. The course teaches the features of AT&T Advanced 800 Services and how to apply them to customer applications. Rensselaer created the multimedia materials and did the workstation programming for the project. AT&T Bell Labs took on the network programming. In June of 1993, they tested the IMDL environment with live participants. An instructor in Ohio delivered the course to students in Texas, Illinois, and New Jersey.
Update on Web Courses and Programs
Education to Go claims the following at http://www.educationtogo.com/
Education To Go is the world's largest supplier of Internet-based adult education courses. We manage all online instructional development and delivery for a network of over 450 colleges, universities, and other training institutions in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Our mission is to lead educational institutions towards a new online instructional standard. We make online education more accessible, more affordable, and more effective for your students. In short, Education To Go is changing the way people learn!
We can help you begin offering online courses to your students within minutes. Our unique program requires no budget or capital investment, reduces administrative costs, and maintains the primary role of your institution as an instructional provider to your local community.
By partnering with Education To Go, you'll completely bypass the steep development costs associated with creating and delivering new online courses.
Update on Web Courses and
Programs
Viviance is rising as a major player in web delivery
of courses and programs in Europe. There are
also newer partnerings in the United States. See http://www.viviance.net.
Viviance new education was founded in 1996 in St. Gallen, Switzerland by our two founders: Ursula Suter-Seuling, a former senior manager of an international education company and Ignatz Heinz, who had over 10 years of computer based training experience. A joint educational project for the internet helped serve as the eye-opener for both. Combining of sound pedagogy and high-tech was possible now and the time to move was at hand.
Both Ignatz Heinz and Ursula Suter-Seuling soon realized a trend of "techno people" doing education in online development. This motivated both to help change the face of technology based education and training into a healthier "think education first, then do technology" approach to design and development. Viviance AG new education quickly emerged as one of the leaders in instructional software development in the European market. Ursula Suter-Seuling and Ignatz Heinz drew from their educational and technological expertise to manage this innovative company. From its beginning situated in a farm house in Niederwil, that still serves as an office today, Viviance used the latest instructional design principles combined with the latest in online technology to help shape its corporate philosophy that is still in use today.
As the company realized success as a production company, it became more evident that the tools sets used to produce successful online courses were going to have to be internally developed. This led to the June of 1998 idea development of Thinktanx, a fully integrated authoring and delivery system in use today by Viviance designers and developers around the world.
Thinktanx is constantly updated to match the robust environment that is the internet. As such, Viviance made a critical commitment to online development technology that will keep the company in pace with what is new in the internet world.
It is a great season for deals on web shopping. For example, the Wall Street Journal on November 29 notes that major online retailers are reducing or even eliminating shipping costs. You can read the following at http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB943651612880233926.htm
Online retailers are wielding a weapon they hope will tip the odds in their favor when they slug it out with their bricks-and-mortar peers this holiday season.
Online retailers CD-Now Inc., BarnesandNoble.com Inc., Amazon.com Inc. Buy.com Inc. and Cyberian Outpost Inc.'s Outpost.com are among the slew of online merchants betting that waiving or whittling down shipping costs will win over shoppers.
It is a great season for reviews of online shopping web sites and tips on the best shopping sites. The Digital Duo on PBS television devoted an entire show to such a review on November 28, 1999. I like the Digital Duo because they are often hard to please when it comes to web site and software reviews. The Digital Duo web site is at http://www.digitalduo.com/
The November 28 show is not yet posted to the Digital Duo web site. Digital Duo warnings include the tendency of many web merchants for taking orders for items not in stock. There can be long delays before you see the goods at your doorstep. Tech support often falls way behind what you receive from local merchants. One way to check out merchants is at http://www.bizrate.com/. However, Stephen Manes is quick to point out that low ratings from BizRate.com are rare, so don't expect to find some of the bad sites highlighted.
They mentioned one of my favorite shopping web sites --- Eddie Bauer at www.eddiebauer.com. This is a great shopping web site! It was also one of the first web sites to interactively allow you to see how you will look in a garment (provided you are willing to provide your measurements online).
Department Stores
Online
Susan Gregory Thomas likes Bluefly at http://www.bluefly.com
(I find Bluefly's server to be frustratingly slow.) There is a nice
Bluefly 90-day money back guarantee. Bluefly is good for genuine top-named
products. Stephen Manes found the photos to be of poor quality and the
selection/sizes to be very limited.
Gifts and
Sporting Goods
Stephen Manes, whose tastes for gifts for friends are sometimes a little weird,
likes Archie McPhee at http://www.archiemcphee.com/
Susan Gregory Thomas is more traditional and prefers buying gifts from Violet at
http://www.violet.com/v/home.asp.
She also likes sporting goods shopping at http://www.fogdog.com/.
There are experts online to help you buy sporting goods and will place special
orders for hard-to-find products and vendors online. FogDog is a high
service web site.
Wine Online (there
has to be a poem here someplace)
The Digital Duo agreed that Wine.com is a great place for bargain wine shopping
--- http://www.wine.com/. Some states
like Pennsylvania won't allow you to purchase wine online. Unfortunately,
Wine.com does not tell you up front whether you can or cannot order from your
state online. You may go to the trouble of placing an order and then
getting an email weeks later saying that wine cannot be shipped to residents in
your state.
Furniture and
Home Furnishings:
Susan Gregory Thomas will go so far as to furnish her new home online. She
recommends http://www.furniture.com/ and
http://www.goodhome.com .
The Digital Duo gives some very good advice --- don't buy techie gifts for techie friends unless you know that your friend wants a particular product. You should also know the exact specifications that your friend wants for this product. The Digital Duo recommends sending junk food to techies.
Online buyers dogged by tech-support woe from e-commerce sites and
Internet --- see
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/filters/katt/
On November 29, 1999 there was an excellent shopping review (particularly for new and different computer hardware items) on the PBS television show called Computer Chronicles. The web site is at http://www.cmptv.com/computerchronicles/99-00showarchive.html
This show has the Consumers' Buying Guide at http://www.cmptv.com/computerchronicles/shows/99-00/1710buyguide/1710-summary.html
Consumer Buying Guide Our annual round-up of the latest and greatest software, hardware, websites, and gadgets, reviewed by a panel of journalists and analysts. Just in time for holiday buying ideas for your favorite techie......or yourself. [Episode #1710, Broadcast Week of 11/23/99]
One of the most clever products (for a mere $99) is a fold-up keyboard for a Palm Pilot that will fit in a shirt pocket. It unfolds in seconds to become a very usable keyboard. Take a look at http://www.thinkoutside.com/ . You can read about it at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/circuits/articles/18hand.6.html . Versions will soon be forthcoming for other PDAs other than Palm Pilot, e.g., versions are in the works for the Visor and the Compaq Aero 2100.
All Palm users should consider this product that lets you watch and store what your are writing (in pencil on yellow pad) on the Palm computer. You can even send hand-written email messages without being near a keyboard. Go to http://www.ecritek.com/.
The DVD Anywhere is also exciting at http://www.x10.com/products/offer60.htm. For a mere $88 you can play a DVD disk on your PC and have it broadcast to television sets in any room of your house.
So you have a DVD player in your PC ... but it's not quite a home theater! It could be! Now you can easily enjoy your DVD movies on any TV in your home using X10's DVD Anywhere! Using 2.4Ghz wireless audio/video sending you can also watch regular or cable TV and control the lights and appliances (mood and environment control) all with one wireless remote. It's the incredible breakthrough X10 product: DVD Anywhere!
The online shopping picks of various people that appeared on the November 28 show are as follows:
|
Paul's Picks: The new Compaq Aero 1500 Ultra-thin Palm-size PC is the thinnest Palm-size PC running Windows CE currently available. The Lexmark Z51 Color Jetprinter claims to have the highest inkjet resolution on the planet! X10's DVD Anywhere wireless remote lets you control everything on your PC including it's DVD Player. Tim
Bajarin Tim's Picks: Handspring's Visor Handheld is a palmtop that has small add-on hardware products that expand the functionality of the Visor via the product's "Springboard" expansion slot. Polaroid PhotoMAX PDC 640 Digital Camera makes digital photography easy and affordable while delivering outstanding image quality. With the simple-to-use iMovie digital video editing software, Apple's iMac DV lets you create home movies, along with easy connection to the Internet. Possibly the iMac of PCs, the AMD Internet PC focuses on making PCs easier to set up, easier to use, and easier to upgrade. The IBM ThinkPad 240Z is ultra-thin, lightweight, and has loads of processing power and storage space. The lowest cost Armada solution, the Compaq Armada V300 Ultra Sub-Notebook, comes with an Intel Mobile Celeron processor, a mainstream hard drive capacity, and graphics/multimedia capability. The Psion Revo PDA offers agenda, contacts manager, email on the move, jotter, PC sync and lots more, all made to fit in your pocket. The PocketMail Backflip offers an integrated mobile e-mail solution for Palm connected organizers. Chris
Gorman Chris's Picks: Chris takes us through what she thinks are some of the best shopping sites online: Beyond.com An all-encompassing site for your computer hardware and software needs. See http://www.beyond.com/indexb.htm iGadget.com This is probably where 007 gets his favorite high-tech toys. See http://www.gadget.com/ LandsEnd.com Give them your measurements and you can see what their clothes look like on your own virtual model. See http://www.landsend.com/cd/frontdoor/ KBKids.com Toy shopping for kids made easy at the KBToys website. See http://www.landsend.com/cd/frontdoor/ TheGift.com If you don't know what to buy for someone who has everything, let this site give you some suggestions. See http://www.thegift.com/ Plus some hot products: With a 56K modem, an ethernet port, Mac OS 8.6 and all the right software already installed Apple's iBook is as Internet-ready as a notebook computer can be. Ecritek Ecrio allows you to directly enter data from your note pad into your palm top. Go to http://www.ecritek.com/ Think Outside's Stowaway Keyboard is the first 100% full size, no compromise keyboard that is small enough to fit in your pocket. Chris
Charla Chris's Picks: One of the
most realistic PC games, EA
Sports NHL 2000 brings all the best graphics and game play to your
computer. Sega DreamCast is the ultimate videogame console. See http://www.sega.com/console/index.shtml Microsoft's "Age of the Empires II: The Age of Kings" is the sequel to the award-winning, best-selling real-time strategy game, Age of Empires Zowie Interactive's "Red Beard's Pirate Quest" and "Ellie's Enchanted Garden" are "Smart Toys" that enable kids to control and change on-screen worlds and characters in real time through connected playsets. (Jensen Note: Usually I hate computer games unless they are highly educational. This one, however, really looks fun. You get a tall mast ship that would look good above your fireplace. When you move the people or turn the wheel, however, you are taken into action at sea.) |
This is one game I do love for parties--- Trivial Pursuit Online http://www.trivialpursuitonline.com/
Summary of consumer buying guides:
Top 100 Products of 1999
BizRate
ZDNet Shopping
Holiday Gift Guide
Electronic Ideas for the Holidays.
Cool Stuff
Holiday Gadgets
How to Buy Index
The Year's Best Gear
Forbes ASAP Product Guide
Videogames.com's Holiday Gift Guide
ZDNet Holiday Gift Guide Showcase
And don't forget the always-helpful Yahoo at http://www.yahoo.com/
And then there is a Yahoo copy cat at http://www.invisibleweb.com/
From T.H.E, Magazine, November 1999, pp. 34-40. The online version is at http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/M2615.cfm
| EduNet | |
|
Congratulations to Northeastern University. Northeastern's High Technology MBA Program ranks Number One in ComputerWorld's Top Techno MBA Survey. See http://www.cba.neu.edu/htmba/
Ranked #1 Techno-MBA in the United States -- Computerworld. "The cream of the business school crop is no match for schools such as Northeastern University ... when it comes to producing graduates with 21st century business and information technology (IT) skills." Computerworld Press Release, 09/24/99.
The High Technology MBA stands as the premium program in New England for fast-track managers in high tech product and services industries. It is a comprehensive MBA program designed for managers who not only need to continue working full-time, but in fact, wish to use the program to achieve advancement and promotion in their companies and industries.
Our program is focused on Leading Growth and Innovation in Technology-based Industries. We serve three primary segments of the regional industry:
Systems and software, be it for telecommunications, general purpose computing, or industrial products and processes. Financial services. Heath care and biotechnology. Now, what is our High Technology MBA really about? What is its heart and soul? The answer is simple yet at the same time, complex. Executives want their best people to help grow the business. Growth means the ability to conceive, develop, produce, and distribute extraordinary products or services that cause excitement in the market and command a position of value-cost leadership. It also means understanding the dynamics of how marketing, product development, manufacturing, and finance must interact to accomplish non-incremental change.
Achieving growth in a company, and by extension, helping students to consider the issues of growth would appear easy at first. However, if it was, every company and business school would be doing it well. Throughout industrial history, market leaders have consistently become stuck in their own traditional ways of building products and running the business. Most of us know how difficult it is to introduce innovations within our own organizations and to our customers. Our entire curriculum focuses on the challenges and successful approaches of growth. By the nature of our students, the context includes large corporations, small-to-medium sized firms, and startups.
The British Film Institute presents this list of all-time favorite "culturally British" films --- http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/bfi100/
The American Accounting Association badly needs new members, especially accounting practitioners who would like closer ties with accounting educators worldwide. There are a lot of benefits to practitioners as well as educators. See http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/join.htm . Whether you are an educator or a practitioner, this is a super organization. The web site has some great helpers at http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/
Financial ratios and company comparison reports (updated daily) --- http://ip.dowjones.com/help/cic_compare.htm
The
Company/Industry Comparison Reports page enables you to select a company or
industry and compare its statistics with other companies or industries. You have
the option of comparing two companies, two industries, or a company and an
industry.
Each
Comparison Report provides stock price change in percentage in dollars and
percentage, the stock's price change versus S&P 500's performance, key
ratios, and shareholdings.
Using
Company/Industry Comparison Reports, you can search approximately 8,300 U.S.
publicly held companies, and more than 50 industries. These reports are
currently available for U.S. companies only.
Helpers for teaching accounting.
Accounting Course Materials http://www.accountingeducation.com
Check out the links section and in particular the sub-category: Course
Materials.
Also you can go to particular courses at http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/ace/index.htm
South-Western Publishing Company's "Great Ideas for Teaching Accounting" at http://www.swcollege.com/vircomm/gita/gita.html
The CPA Journal Online is unique in that it carries a lot of back issues that may be helpful to educators. See http://www.luca.com/cpaj.htm
For management Accounting, Amelia Baldwin suggests the following:
The Institute of Management Accountants website is here http://web.imanet.org and they publish a journal called Strategic Finance (it used to be called Management Accounting) and some of the articles are available online here: http://www.mamag.com/strategicfinance/ I often use articles from SF in class.
Amelia A. Baldwin, Ph.D. Arthur Andersen Faculty Fellow & Associate Professor Culverhouse School of Accountancy, Box 870220 The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Al 35487-0220 Ph: 205-348-6679 Fx: 205-348-8453 Email: abaldwin@cba.ua.edu Web: http://www.webprofessor.org
Look up 118,300 acronyms/abbreviations & their meanings --- http://acronymfinder.com/
This is for Barry Rice and others interested in eBooks. You can now purchase or rent them from netLibrary. See http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A2356.cfm
A veritable library of electronic books has been created on the Internet by netLibrary. At www.netlibrary.com you can search, view and borrow eBooks such as reference, scholarly, mass market and professional publications. The list of publishers providing content include: Grove's Dictionaries, Inc., Macmillan Ltd., National Academy Press, St. Martin's Press, The Brookings Institution and McGraw-Hill Companies, as well as many university presses such as Cambridge University Press, Columbia University Press, Duquesne University Press, University of Akron Press, University of California Press, University of North Carolina Press, New York University Press, Ohio University Press and Rutgers University Press.
The netLibrary provides the services of a traditional library in that patrons have the option of either borrowing the eBook and viewing it online, or viewing it offline by downloading it to their computer. Patrons will have to wait for eBooks that have been lent to other patrons before them. Some of the nation's major libraries are charter customers of netLibrary. Individuals and corporations may also become customers and check out what these cyber shelves hold. netLibrary, Boulder, CO, (303) 415-2548, www.netlibrary.com .
Recall that my review of eBooks is in my July 30 Edition of New Bookmarks at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book99.htm#Rocket .
I might add that the Digital Duo on November 28 was not very complimentary of the Franklin's pioneering electronic books at http://www.franklin.com/. These books require that you purchase tiny disks for at least $20 or more and have a very limited selection of books as opposed to Internet download books such as are available from netLibrary, Barnes & Noble, Rocket, etc. Recall that my review of eBooks is in my July 30 Edition of New Bookmarks at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book99.htm#Rocket
Joint Working Group of Banking Associations Financial Instrument Issues Relating to Banks
- banksjwg.pdf - Discussion Paper
- jwgfinal.pdf - Final Position zum Fair Value AccountingHi Dr. Jensen!
It is the official site about the Financial Instruments - Comprehensive Project of the IASC http://www.iasc.org.uk/frame/cen3_112.htm The site of the IAS Recognition and Measurement Project is: http://www.iasc.org.uk/frame/cen2_139.htm
Your Trinity-Homepages on Derivatives SFAS No. 133 is my favourite on this subject, espicially the illustrative examples (and the account simulations).
Currently I am focusing on splitting up hybrid financial instruments, especially those with embedded optional building block. The book of Smith/Smithson/Willford (1998) Managing Financial Risk and that from Das S. (1998) and Walsey J. (1997) provides a good guidance how these products are structured.
Best Regard Christian
Free Technology & Learning
Journal --- http://www.techlearning.com/index1.html
T&L Software Awards of
Excellence By Susan McLester For the 17th year, "The Best of the Best"
in School and Home Learning products, Technology & Learning, November
1999, pp. 13-31.
Technology & Learning
articles online at http://www.techlearning.com/content/working/articles/articles.html
Did
you note the article entitled "IBM's Accounting Method Faces
Scrutiny: One-Time Gains Raise Questions," in The Wall Street
Journal, November 24, 1999, p. C1. The online version is at
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB943394213352502942.djm&template=pasted-1999-11-24.tmpl
. . . some accounting specialists and analysts, scrutinizing the footnotes, now are raising questions about IBM's unusual treatment of one-time gains. At issue: IBM booked about $4 billion in such gains from the sale of its Global Network business to AT&T Corp. during its second and third quarters. The gains were included in selling, general and administrative expenses, or SG&A.
Translation: Reported costs were lowered. And reported operating income was raised.
The issue is important on Wall Street. This is because operating income --which excludes taxes, interest and other items that have little to do with success in making and selling products or services -- is often more important to investors than net income, and widely regarded as an indicator of how well management is running the shop.
In a new report, accounting watchdog Howard Schilit says IBM should be "roundly criticized for its policy of bundling one-time gains and other nonoperating activities into operating income." SG&A expenses, he says, should be "just that" -- and shouldn't include one-time charges or gains that don't reflect operating performance. Mr. Schilit's reports on such matters have a close following among money managers.
For many years I used IBM's annual reports as examples of managed-earnings accounting. Remember "IBM's Method of Accounting for Cutbacks Bucks Trend of Taking Repeated Charges."
In the November 23 edition of New
Bookmarks, I reported the following: Plagiarism.org
will soon be an important web site for many educators and many others, including
investigators and journal editors, who want to check if any writer's work is
authentic. Entire schools may be interested in paying for this service.
This site was featured on November 22 on CNN television. I discovered it
at breakfast while watching the news. Go to http://www.plagiarism.org/
Paul Myers replied as follows:
The following URL -- with spelling error and all -- provides background on the Berkeley plagiarism-detection program --- http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9911/21/plagerism.detective/index.html
J. Paul Myers, Jr. Associate Professor Department of Computer Science Trinity University 715 Stadium Drive San Antonio, Texas 78212
From INFOBITS November 23, 1999
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (IJET) is a new refereed journal in the field of educational technology, sponsored by faculty, staff, and students at The Graduate School of Education at the University of Western Australia and the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. IJET [ISSN 1327-7308] is published online twice each year and is available without an access charge. The journal is available on the Web at http://www.outreach.uiuc.edu/ijet/
Articles in the first issue include: "Technology in Education: Who, Where, When, What, & Why?" "Can Computer-Based Testing Achieve Quality and Efficiency in Assessment?" "Opportunities and Options for Web-Enabled Databases: Comparing in Choosing the Right Software for Virtual Courses and Communities"
Also from INFOBITS on November 23, 1999
HOW TO PROCTOR FROM A DISTANCE
According to a recent article in THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION ["How to Proctor From a Distance," by Dan Carnevale, vol. 46, issue 12, November 12, 1999, p. A47],"technology is offering students new and easier ways to cheat, especially in on-line courses. But the same technology is also giving professors easier ways to catch cheaters." The article contains a variety of methods that faculty can use to detect plagiarism and cheating in online assignments and tests.
However, detection technology alone cannot eliminate the isolation and anonymity that might incline a student to cheat. According to Jeanne M. Wilson, president of the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University, "online education only worsens that sense of isolation and anonymity. 'It's kind of like the difference between living in a big city and living in a small town where everyone knows your folks and would tell them if you did something wrong.'" To address this isolation, professors will also need to use communication technology, such as online chats and discussion forums, to get to know their online students better and to establish closer relationships with them.
The complete article is on the Web at http://chronicle.com/free/v46/i12/12a04701.htm
How XML unleashes data
PC Week Labs looks at XML, the simple and almost universally compatible language
that is poised to become the key technology in e-commerce --- http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9911231/2396831/
Greenwich Mean Time to offer PC auditing tool. The software will help IT managers keep track of what software and hardware end users are adding to their systems --- http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9911235/1018274/
Non-PC devices: Long on hype, short on substance. The current talk about non-PC devices getting market traction is a lot of malarkey, says John Dodge --- http://www.pcweek.com/b/pcwt9911236/2397497/
New Adobe Acrobat Reader http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/webbuy/main.html
Adobe has announced a new version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader which is Webuy enabled. This is a proprietary technology that works in the following manner: 1. You go to the PDF merchant's file server and order (and pay for your book); 2. After downloading the book the Acrobat Reader checks for the license, and if the license is not found, it connects to the merchant's site and identifies to the merchant your CPU # and hard drive number. 3. The buyer gets a software key to unlock the book. 3. The Adobe site has a number of Freebooks - such as "Poems by Shakespeare", that you can use to test the process. http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/webbuy/freebooks.html Adobe makes its money by selling the PDF Merchant software which is installed on the merchant's server.
Richard J. Campbell RJ Interactive www.rj-int.com mailto:campbell@rj-int.com
Virtual Tour of ERIC --- http://www.accesseric.org/resources/eric_train.html
Information for lawyers --- http://www.infirmation.com/
Science Service Historical Image Collection http://americanhistory.si.edu/scienceservice/
NEW FEATURES from The Wall Street
Journal Interactive Edition.
Dear
Subscriber:
We've
added a powerful new feature that lets you conduct in-depth analysis of an
industry's performance as well as compare a specific company to its industry.
The new
Dow Jones Industry Group Center uses industry-performance data provided by Dow
Jones Global Indexes and interactive charting features from BigCharts.com to
provide you with a collection of industry-analysis tools, including: --
Expansive reports on the best and worst performing U.S. industries and the
stocks within those industries. You can also sort stock charts based on criteria
and time frames you specify. -- Interactive industry charts that include basic
industry pricing data and fundamental information as well as the ability to
compare an industry to selected indexes, stocks and other industries.
The
Industry Group Center is available in the Global Indexes section of the Markets
Data Center: http://interactive.wsj.com/edition/resources/documents/mktindex.htm
Accounting Education News --- http://www.accountingeducation.com/news/
Adobe has announced a new version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader > http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/webbuy/main.html which is Webuy enabled. This is a proprietary technology that works in the following manner: 2. After downloading the book the Acrobat Reader checks for the license, and > if the license is not found, it connects to the merchant's site and identifies to the merchant your CPU # and hard drive number. 3. The buyer gets a software key to unlock the book.
This is absolutely frightening. I am not sure there was as much snooping in fascist dictatorships.
Nobody should have the right to look at anything on my machine without my express permission (except for law enforcement agencies with court permission).
If some one were to walk into house and snoop around your closet, would you feel any less violated?
I have always suspected that Microsoft snooped around my hard drive (so usually I do not visit Microsoft related sites from home usually), and now Adobe, a company that I have had the highest regard for!
It is pathetic that we should be so violated in the name of free enterprise, democracy, and all those nice-sounding words that these rascals love.
jagdish -- Jagdish S. Gangolly, Associate Professor (j.gangolly@albany.edu) State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222. Phone: (518) 442-4949 Fax: (707) 897-0601 URL: http://www.albany.edu/acc/gangolly
Island Ireland --- http://www.islandireland.com/
Grimm's Fair Tales --- http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/
A gallery of opinionated art.--- http://www.impolitic.com/
Where do computers go when they die --- http://www.ce.cmu.edu/News/nyt-extract.html
How will technology change our economies, our businesses, and our lives? Where are we going and where have we been? http://www.mamag.com/strategicfinance/1999/11e.htm
The AccountingWEB Friday Wrap-Up Newswire - Issue 19 November 26, 1999 http://www.accountingweb.com
1. AICPA Publishes New Peer Review Standards
2. Family Feud an Andersen Heats Up
3. Sexual Harassment Reminder: Know What To Do
4. Enhance Your Work Environment Through Student Internships
5. Internet Companies Face Accounting Crackdown
6. Helping Clients Make Money With Uncle Sam
7. IASC Approves Restructure For The Future
8. Tax Legislation Stalemate Yields Some Improvements
9. $$$Savings Corner Tip: Check Your Cellular Phone Plan
The November 27th Internet Essentials '99 Newsletter http://www.tiac.net/users/nhannon/news.html
1. E-mail advice from womenCONNECT.com
2. Sage Software Taking DacEasy Accounting to the Next Level
3. Computer Crash Recovery Programs
4. Shopping Helpers for Buying Online
5. IBM Criticized for Financial Reporting
6. Computer Chips to Hold 400x More Transistors
7. Security Policy: Your Best Defense
And
that's the way it was on December 1, 1999 with a little help from my friends.
Professor
Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-999-7347 Fax: 210-999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
Several years ago one
of the Trinity University students in my First-Year Seminar was killed in a
senseless accident. The class really never recovered from that loss.
Hence it is difficult for me to fathom the grief in the Texas A&M University
community that lost twelve students in one tragic accident. Even though we
make jokes down here about "Texas Aggies," we seriously love and
respect them greatly. Texas A&M is one of the great universities in
the world, and our hearts and prayers are with them all --- students, staff, and
families.
Department of Defense
compares seven Web-based learning management systems. http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9911191/2391276/
Free long distance
telephone calls --- http://www.dialpad.com/
--- I wonder when the government will shut this down or tax it to death? At
Trinity University we are not allowed to make free phone calls due to limited
network bandwidth and a firewall that prevents us from hearing what persons on
the phone at the other end of the line are saying to us (even though they can
hear our voices). Other universities such as Kent State
University in Ohio, however, are making use of dialpad.com.
You can make free phone calls from your web browsers to any
telephone in the US. Now you don't have to disconnect from the Internet to make
a phone call. Just come to dialpad.com and make free unlimited long distance
calls.
You don't have to download and install anything. Just come to
dialpad.com. With its Java/Web technology, everything is automated.
All
it takes is a PC sound card and a microphone and a network connection that is
not blocked by a firewall computer. A veteran user named Norman
Meonske [nmeonske@kent.edu] from Kent
State calls me regularly. He was on the PC at Kent State, and I was on a
regular telephone at Trinity University. He told me about dialpad.com.
Norm
sent me the following forwarded message:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
It appears that I was not correct about the firewall problem even though the Help File for Dialpad claims that Dialpad will not work in front of a firewall. Note the following message from the Director of the Trinity University Computing Center.
This morning (Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday, with no one around) dialpad works really well. Yesterday afternoon, under a moderate network load, the quality was ok, but there was a noticable delay, much like the early days of transatlantic calls. We'll leave the ports open until the traffic gets bad again.
When the phone company uses T1 circuits for voice, they will put only 24 calls on one circuit. Systems like dialpad do several things to allow more calls, including -- You are not giving a fixed amount of bandwidth. Each packet must compete individually with all other data and voice packets for the available bandwidth. The audio is highly compressed. For some kinds of sound, like most phone calls, this probably works. This technology is changing rapidly and this may be how all voice traffic is handled in the future. Meanwhile, at less than 5¢ an minute, I'll use a circuit switched phone network.
--larry
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted at 12:22 a.m. PDT Friday, October 29, 1999 --- Start-up
offers free phone calls from PC
BY CHRIS O'BRIEN Mercury News Staff Writer
If you've been wondering just how cheap long-distance calls can
get, here's your answer: free.
San Jose-based dialpad.com has launched a service that allows
anyone with a PC to make free long-distance calls through its Web site. Just
sign up, plug in your headphones and microphone, and call any phone in the
United States.
Don't throw out your old telephone just yet, though. The
reliability and quality of dialpad.com doesn't match the traditional telephone
system. A typical call on dialpad.com sounds like an analog cellular phone call
and heavy traffic can sometimes make it tough to place a call. Still, the
service is so cheap and easy to use, it may begin to move PC calling out of the
realm of geeks and hobbyists and into the mainstream.
The big long-distance carriers aren't exactly quaking in their
boots, and analysts say dialpad.com won't trigger any immediate drops in
long-distance prices, which have already plunged to as little as five cents per
minute for high-volume callers. But they do agree that dialpad.com provides a
glimpse into the not-too-distant future where Internet technologies will make
phone calls so cheap they'll be given away for free as part of packages of other
communications services.
``We used to go to conferences a few years ago and talk about this
like it was pie-in-the-sky kind of stuff,'' said Sarah Hofstetter, vice
president of Net2Phone, a dialpad.com rival that charges a 3.9-cents-per-minute
fee for domestic PC-to-phone calls. ``Now it's happening right before our eyes.
It's kind of freaky.''
To use dialpad.com, you need a PC that has at least Windows 95
(Sorry, no MacIntosh or Linux users.) and a sound card, headphones, a microphone
and an Internet connection. First, you create an account by providing personal
information that dialpad.com uses to target you with banner ads -- where the
company plans to make much of its revenue for now.
Then go to the main page where a Java applet will pop up on your
screen. This will ask permission to install another applet that is relatively
small and takes a few seconds to load. That second applet then opens and
displays a screen with numbers. Just click on the phone number you want to call,
hit ``dial'' and the call is put through.
There are certainly drawbacks. Holding a microphone while talking
for long periods isn't comfortable. In addition, it can sometimes be hard for
people on the phone to hear the person on the computer. Calls can be made only
from a PC to a phone, not from a phone to the PC. And if Internet traffic is
heavy, the call won't go through.
Hyunduk ``Doug'' Ahn, CEO of dialpad.com, said quality problems
are due to the unexpectedly high volume of users. Since launching 11 days ago,
dialpad.com has signed up 70,000 users and predicts it will have 250,000 at the
end of its first month. Ahn said GTE Internetworking, which provides the network
to carry the calls, is scrambling to install more equipment to accommodate the
quick growth.
``Traffic is well beyond our expectations,'' Ahn said.
The free service is possible because of a technology called
Internet telephony. The unwieldy name refers to the fact that calls are being
made over networks using the same technology -- Internet Protocol, or IP -- that
carries data across the Internet. This system is far more efficient than
traditional phone networks. And the size of the data ``packets'' that make up a
phone call is so puny compared with other video and data traffic sharing that IP
network that GTE's cost of carrying the phone call is negligible.
Using dialpad.com, the call travels from the caller's PC to the
Internet service provider to GTE's IP network. At the other end, it's then
handed to the local telephone company, which delivers the call to its final
destination. This last step requires GTE to pay a small termination charge.
While GTE won't say what the cost is, the company said it's small enough that it
can be covered by the ads running on the dialpad.com site.
Whether or not dialpad.com ever makes a dime, the cost of its
service to consumers still could be trend-setting.
``It has the potential to be a market-changing characteristic,''
said Meredith Rosenberg, a senior analyst for the Yankee Group. ``By offering
this for free, they'll appeal to a much wider audience.''
Making Internet calls isn't exactly new. People have been making
telephone calls over their PCs in some form for several years now. As the
Internet grew in popularity, companies developed software that allowed people to
talk for free to someone on another PC. But it was tricky because you had to
figure out how to use the software and then schedule the call with the other
person.
The medium took its next step when companies like Net2Phone and
deltathree.com developed software that allowed users to place calls from PCs to
regular telephones. These calls were much cheaper than regular long distance,
but still required users to download software they had to configure. The
companies also charged for the calls.
The founders of dialpad.com believe they'll have an advantage over
these other PC-to-phone services not only because their service is free, but
because it's easier to use. However, Ritch Blasi, an AT&T spokesman, said he
doesn't think dialpad.com will put a dent in the his company's revenues, noting
that just over half of U.S. households own a PC.
``I don't think this is going to affect us immediately,'' he said.
``It's a niche product and you have to have a computer to initiate the call.''
Still, phone companies are building IP technology into their
networks. And Blasi acknowledged that as it becomes more widespread, it will
reduce the cost of calls almost to zero.
To make up that revenue, companies like AT&T and SBC
Communications Inc., the parent company of Pacific Bell, have begun offering
services in ``bundles,'' where customers pay one fee for a package of wireless,
Internet access and voice calling.
But if everyone starts offering free long distance in the United
States, dialpad.com won't be unique for long. Next year, the company will begin
offering free international calls, which account for the bulk of traffic for
competitors such as Net2Phone.
The company also hopes to license its technology to Web sites that
have a telephone number on them, say for customer service at an e-commerce site.
The idea -- dubbed ``click-to-talk'' -- is that someone clicks on the number and
the call is made to that number using dialpad.com, rather than the traditional
voice network.
The problem here is that companies like Net2Phone are already
offering this service to customers such as Lands End and FTD.com. Analysts say
Net2Phone is well entrenched in this market and it could be hard for dialpad.com
to break in.
I
am really impressed with an IASC document (Five Chapters) entitled Business
Reporting on the Internet that is available free at http://www.iasc.org.uk/frame/cen3_26.htm
This is an exploratory staff research project not yet on the
Board's agenda. The first phase of the project involved developing and
publishing a discussion paper, Business Reporting on the Internet. The
discussion paper was published in November 1999 and was authored by: --
Prof. Andrew Lymer (University of Birmingham) --
Prof. Roger Debreceny (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) --
Prof. Glen Gray (California State University, Northridge). --
Prof. Asheq Rahman (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
IASC Project Manager: Paul Pacter - ppacter@iasc.org.uk
Fundamental Issues Facing IASC
What are the current technologies available for
electronic business reporting? What are companies around the world actually
doing? What kind of standards for electronic business reporting are needed now,
within the constraint of today's technologies? What are the shortcomings of
business reporting on the Internet within current technologies? What
technological changes are on the horizon and how can they improve electronic
business reporting (particularly the ability to go beyond the Internet as
"electronic paper" to facilitate downloading and analysis of financial
data)?
Outline of the Discussion Paper
Chapter 1 reviews some of the impetuses behind the proliferation
of Web based business reporting. It also provides background information on the
increasing types and number of corporate Web sites, and the increasing number of
online traders. Chapter 2 explores and summarises the multitude of different
electronic reporting technologies that can be used by Web designers. These
technologies are not mutually exclusive, which means that a designer can use any
mix of these technologies to develop a Web site. Chapter 3 summarises the
findings of the existing literature on Web-based financial reporting and adds
further findings from a survey of 660 corporations in 22 countries conducted by
the authors. The chapter also discusses electronic reporting environments within
national disclosure and regulatory regimes such as EDGAR and SEDAR in the USA
and Canada, respectively. Chapter 4 examines the information presented in the
prior chapters and proposes that the IASC should seriously consider the
development of a "code of conduct" that would cover both the form and
content aspects of Web-based business reporting. Chapter 5 addresses issues
raised by pending and future technologies, which are evolving at a rapid rate.
The chapter suggests that to add value to information consumers, it is critical
that international standards setters and other organisations respond to these
new technologies, which can greatly improve business reporting and subsequent
Internet searches. This chapter highlights the significant need for a universal
Business Reporting Language (BRL) to facilitate the electronic dissemination and
use of business information. The Chapter suggests a consortia approach that will
help ensure the development of standards that provide both certainty in
reporting and flexibility for future innovations. Chapter 6 synthesises the
information provided in the prior chapters to discuss the opportunities,
challenges, and implications for the accounting profession and the IASC, its
international standard setter.
What
impresses me most is the documentation and illustrations of how companies
(especially European companies) have already adapted financial reporting to
newer technologies. It might help us yanks if there were more U.S.
illustrations, but then we can't ask for everything in one research study.
Every
accountant and financial analyst should examine this study. Virtually all
upper-level students in accounting courses should study this document. My
hat is off to my former doctoral student, Paul Pacter, for organizing this
significant research contribution. You can learn more from Paul Pacter at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/pacter.htm
The
document appears to be quite current in terms of new technologies and new
initiatives in XML reporting. I do have a few minor criticisms. The
document may be downloaded as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file or as a HTML file.
The HTML file provides dynamic hyperlinks. The PDF file provides better
hard copy printing. See
http://www.iasc.org.uk/frame/cen3_26.htm .
Home page of the XFRML
Workgroup http://www.xfrml.org/
XFRML (XML-based
Financial Reporting Markup Language), will be the digital language of business.
XFRML is a framework that will allow the financial community a standards-based
method to prepare, publish in a variety of formats, exchange and analyze
financial reports and the information they contain. XFRML, which will be freely
licensed, will also permit the automatic exchange and reliable extraction of
financial information among various software applications.
The XFRML
working group was begun by the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants). The following organizations have already joined this important
effort: Arthur Andersen LLP; Caseware International; Canadian Institute of
Chartered Accountants; Cohen Computer Consulting; Crowe Chizek; Deloitte &
Touche LLP; Document Technologies; e-content, a division of Interleaf, Inc.;
EDGAR Online, Inc.; Ernst & Young LLP; FreeEDGAR.com, Inc.; FRx Software
Corporation; Great Plains; Institute of Management Accountants; KPMG LLP.
You can read more about XML,
RDF, and XFRML at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/xmlrdf.htm
Due to a possible security
risk caused by JavaScript, the Department of Defense considers banning it from
all military websites --- See http://www.pcweek.com/a/pcwt9911225/2398182/
I
was born forty years too soon. First I missed the sexual revolution.
Now I am missing the F/M revolution. This is a message from Glenn Meyer.
FEWER THAN 45 PER CENT of today's college students are men, down
from about 55 per cent in 1970, and college officials are starting to pay
attention. About 70 college presidents and deans met here at Goucher College
this week to discuss the trend and what -- if anything -- should be done about
it.
http://chronicle.com/daily/99/11/99111803n.htm
Plagiarism.org
will soon be an important web site for many educators and many others, including
investigators and journal editors, who want to check if any writer's work is
authentic. Entire schools may be interested in paying for this service.
This site was featured on November 22 on CNN television. I discovered it
at breakfast while watching the news. Go to http://www.plagiarism.org/
Proven Results. Our proprietary plagiarism detection algorithms*
have successfully been used in multiple classes at U.C. Berkeley and abroad.
Powerful Methods. Our computational processes for
'finger-printing' papers and determining degrees of originality will detect
plagiarism.
Speed. We can 'finger-print' and evaluate thousands of papers each
day.
Extensive Database. Our extensive and growing database of term
papers will deter your students from plagiarizing other work.
Easy To Use. We make every effort to customize the service's web
page so that our plagiarism deterring technology is a non-technical seamless
addition to your classes.
Increases Quality. Instructors report that the quality of their
students' work increases when they know that manuscripts will be checked for
originality.
Increases Student Morale. Students themselves report that
unchecked cheating and plagiarism by others undermines their own efforts and
educational enthusiasm.
The purpose of this service is to insure that term papers, essays,
and manuscripts, which are submitted as a requirement for a university or
college course, are never plagiarized. This means that papers will never again
be recirculated/recycled every year, that papers will not be copied from one
class and used for a different class, that papers from one university will not
find their way to another university course, and that papers acquired from the
Internet will NEVER be used to fulfill a course requirement.
An instructor registers his/her class with Plagiarism.org. Each
instructor then requests that her/his students upload their term papers or
manuscripts to the Plagiarism.org web site.
Each student in the instructor's course accesses the
Plagiarism.org web site.
From the web site students can upload their work into our database
designed specifically for their particular class. Students can also access
information regarding plagiarism and information concerning intellectual
property.
Our proprietary technology converts each manuscript into an
abstract representation; essentially, we 'finger-print' each paper.
Each term paper submitted for a class requirement is statistically
checked against a database of other manuscripts collected from different
universities, classes, and from all-over the Internet. Only cases of gross
plagiarism are flagged. This means that papers using some identical quotes or
papers written on similar topics will NEVER be flagged as unoriginal.
A report is then emailed (or mailed) to the instructor detailing
the degrees of originality for each paper checked with Plagiarism.org.
The
fees, which I find reasonable for this remarkable service, are described below:
Our offer is simple. To insure that only interested parties use
our service there is a one-time, $20.00 (US) fee to create an account with us.
This account can be used to upload 30 different manuscripts. We will email you a
link to a confidential webpage containing an exact numerical analysis of each
manuscript's originality. If any manuscripts were plagiarized you will know.
After an account has been created, there will be a small charge of $0.50 for
every manuscript, after 30, subsequently analyzed.
The
Financial Executives Institute (FEI) has a number of downloads that may be of
interest at http://www.fei.org/download/dl_index.htm
. For example, you can download Phil Livingston's PowerPoint slides on
emerging issues.
Technical
and Policy Issues are at http://www.fei.org/tech.htm
I
would like to pass along the following commentary that appears on Page 6 of
Financial Executive, Nov/Dec 1999 (the main journal of the Financial Executives
Institute).
FROM
THE PRESIDENT
by Phil Livingston
plivingston@fei.org
AUDIT
EFFECTIVENESS -- WORRISOME TRENDS
No doubt you've read about SEC
concerns over "earnings management" and recent high-profile cases of
accounting misstatements. Part of the SEC's reform effort is to scrutinize
the audit process; the commission has charged the Public Oversight Board to
study the issues and prepare a formal report. The POB held public hearings
in October; FEI gave the corporate perspective.
Our testimony, posted as text and as a PowerPoint presentation at www.fei.org,
stressed four points:
·
FEI
members want and need a critical, independent audit. It provides a
valuable, third-party cross check in producing accurate financial statements.
·
Many
members sense that the auditing and assurance business has diminished in
prestige and emphasis. The auditing profession needs to turn this trend
around.
·
CPA
firms must reestablish their leadership roles in the development, analysis and
interpretation of accounting standards. We sense a shift in the balance of
authority in accounting and auditing, with auditors relying too much on the SEC
and the FASB to solve difficult accounting issues.
·
Regardless
of the market pressures on management to deliver results, those pressures
shouldn't affect the outside auditor's ability to complete an objective,
independent, well-executed audit.
Generally speaking, the audit process isn't broken; there's no
objective evidence that audit or financial reporting failures are up. But
we can do more to maintain high quality and enhance the stature of this
important function.
One problem is the perception that audit work is less desirable
than consulting. Traditional auditing is essentially a line of business
with finite potential, not one of dynamic growth. So understandably, audit
firms have leveraged their core skills into other, more lucrative, areas.
But does that translate to less qualified personnel and fewer resources being
devoted to audit work? And for how long will it be possible to attract
capable new entrants to the audit side, if the prestige and rewards are better
elsewhere?
An inability to get tough questions answered by the local audit
team also troubles many members. Audits now almost always involve checking with
the firm's national office and, often, "no-name consultations" with
the SEC. There are many reasons for this; some are valid. And
there's no doubt accounting rules are more complex. But the authority and
confidence of audit firms are too often undermined when the SEC renders
opinions. We encourage the Big Five to retake the high ground here -- it
will benefit all parties and make for more efficient capital markets. CFOs
can help by encouraging more leadership from their local audit partner.
And CFOs shouldn't encourage appeals to the regulators if the local answer isn't
attractive.
SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt has called auditing "the very soul
of the profession, not a loss leader as a foot in the door for higher-fee
consulting services." That's worth remembering. The financial
statement audit is essential to capital formation and corporate governance.
More than any other activity, the audit lends credibility to a company's
published results. Those involved must strengthen and enhance it -- not
undermine it. As long as companies seek investor capital, we'll need
high-quality audits.
A
message to accounting educators trying to figure out how to help themselves and
their students make sense out of SFAS 133 and IAS 39 on accounting for
derivative financial instruments and hedge accounting.
Hi
XXXXXX,
I
agree entirely. But the wide scope of standards are perhaps wider than you
imagine in your wildest nightmares. I am going to remove your name from this
message and send it out to my many friends with an appeal for more help. I would
especially encourage practitioners to help us out with your appeal (which is
also my appeal).
I
might note that students are not the only ones having trouble identifying a
derivative. Practitioners in public accounting and industry are having even
greater troubles, because they do not have the luxury of retreating to
artificial worlds of professors and students (better known as ivory tower
worlds). I contend that the major problem we are having (with SFAS 133 and IAS
39) is that the concept of a "derivative" covers thousands of types of
disparate contracts. In the past, SFAS 80 narrowed its focus on selected
contracts. Now SFAS 80 has been deep-sixed, and the current FASB and IASC
standards have a wide-angled derivatives lens that is difficult to focus. Many
things pointed at remain fuzzy no matter how hard we look at a contract.
I
think that for some types of derivatives, the "contracts" are
relatively standard and do not need to be set out for students in great detail.
For example, futures contracts and options contracts are traded on major
exchanges that deal only in standardized contractual terms. The main difficulty
in those instances lies in understanding those terms when you are not used to
the tools and languages of street traders. This is the main reason I wrote the
"street-smart" illustration cases that you find at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/caseans/000index.htm
. You will find that these illustrations, especially the CapIT case are based
upon CBOT illustrations designed to help investors be more street smart.
Another
place to look for help are the tutorials that illustrate the tools, languages,
and standardized contracts of trading markets. My best illustration here is the
wonderful set of tutorials provided free online by the CBOE at http://www.cboe.com/education/
You
may find some help in the DIG issues, but the DIG often deals with complicated
issues that students need not tackle until they grasp the basics. If you are
interested in DIG issues, see the items in red boxes at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133glosf.htm
I
really agree with you with respect to custom contracts such as swap contracts
and the thousands of specialty contracts (crude oil knocks, etc.) I also agree
with you on complex contracts such as circuses. It would be a great service if
the executive research staffs of major CPA firms would share contracts with us,
both simple contracts and complex contracts. I am certain that it would be easy
enough to disguise client names. I think some firms have helped us considerably
with their "Guides" on SFAS 133. For references, see http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000overview/mp3/133summ.htm.
However, those "Guides" sometimes assume that readers are familiar
with the contracts being illustrated.
Perhaps
the best way for many higher education programs to teach students about SFAS 133
and IAS 39 is to team teach these topics with faculty in finance (if they are
experts in derivatives trading and hedging) teamed with financial accounting
faculty (if they are familiar with the relevant standards such as SFAS 52, SFAS
107, SFAS 115, SFAS 130, SFAS 133, and IAS 39). If you really want to get
into the technicalities of derivative instruments, I recommend the following
(the excerpt is from the Barnes & Noble web site): (for
example, there is a nice section on pricing of swaps)
Derivative Securities, with Disk (Second Edition ) Robert A.
Jarrow and Stuart Turnbull
www.bn.com Price: $85.75 In-Stock: Ships within 24 hours. Order
this item no later than Dec. 17 using standard shipping to make sure it arrives
by Dec. 24th Format: Hardcover, 1st ed., 686pp. ISBN: 0538862718 Publisher:
South-Western Publishing Company Pub. Date: December 1995 Edition Desc: BK&DISK
But
SFAS 133 can even confuse the pros in finance and economics. I am currently
working on two joint projects with a finance professor. One of these is
forthcoming in Derivatives Review. It explains the behind-the-scenes aspects of
Example 2 of SFAS 133. The second project was inspired by my confusion with
Example 5 of SFAS 133. When I derived the yield curves for that illustration,
the economics of the illustration just made no sense to me. I have convinced my
colleague (an investments professor) that Example 5 probably will never make any
sense to finance experts. He is now working on the details of "whys"
with me. His conclusion is that Example 5 could only arise in very inefficient
and unrealistic markets.
Bob
(Robert E.) Jensen Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Trinity
University, San Antonio, TX 78212 Voice: (210) 999-7347 Fax: (210) 999-8134
Email: rjensen@trinity.edu http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
-----Original
Message-----
From: XXXXXX Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 1999 12:36 PM
To: Jensen, Robert Subject: Suggestion for FASB 133 instructional materials
Hi Bob,
Thanks for permission to use your FASB 133 stuff for CPE
presentations and other instruction. I will, of course, acknowledge with
gratitude the source for anything I use.
I do have one suggestion. It seems to me that the main problem
for many (perhaps most) practitioners and professors and virtually all students
in coming to grips with FASB 133 will lie in (a) knowing a derivative when they
see one (b) correctly classifying it as a hedge or non-hedge and, if a hedge,
into one of the three hedge categories. I noted that the FASB recommended that
its group-study course not be taught by anyone who did not have significant
hands-on experience with derivatives. It seems to me that a library of sample
derivative instruments, redacted to protect both the innocent and the guilty,
could be a useful instructional tool. It could be done in lots of ways.
Examples: sample instruments of each type could be linked to the definitions of
each hedge category; critical terms or concepts in the instruments could be
linked to explanatory material; assignment modules could be constructed around
correctly classifying various instruments.
Someone like me would find it very difficult to construct such a
learning resource because: (a) I have no practical knowledge of derivatives,
having never actually read a derivative contract, and (b) I would be starting
from zero in trying to amass a library of such instruments--not a single contact
in the world of investment banking. Clearly, though, such a resource would be a
grand way to leverage the time and knowledge of the right person for the benefit
of the accounting profession, the academy, reporting entities, and the public at
large.
Again, thanks for the help. It's really nice to see a person with
your high-flying record in academic research with his feet so firmly grounded in
the day-to-day, practical problems of accounting, business, and teaching
Sincerely,
Professor
XXXXX
Reply
for the former Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board
Bob,
I don't know if it will make you or Professor X feel any better,
but I've decided not to try teaching FAS 133 in detail to my graduate accounting
students. Many of them do take a finance department class on derivatives that
deals with the financial risk mitigating issues but doesn't get into the
accounting as I understand it. Interestingly, a few of the MAcc students taking
that class have come to me to seek help with papers they have to write for the
class - they want to focus on accounting issues even though the class doesn't!
In my Accounting Policy graduate level class I spend one or two
sessions having the students read some generalized materials about derivatives,
including some of the current articles about how companies are using
derivatives, the companies that have had major "busts", etc. I ask the
students to define derivatives as a starting point (most can't) and then we talk
about the business reasons why companies should or shouldn't use derivatives. We
then talk in broad terms about the key conclusions in 133 and what the FASB
hoped to accomplish (including some of the political pressures from the banking
community and others).
Similar to some of the recent exchanges about using technology in
accounting education, I try to help the students learn about this complicated
topic without falling into the bottomless pit of the details of 133 and the DIG
interpretations. I emphasize "try" as I don't have any current way of
evaluating whether this method is better than a much more detailed approach.
By the way, I haven't done any review of the intermediate accounting texts but
are they adding this as a topic? If so they will have to send students to body
building classes before they buy the book.
A couple of related comments. I wrote an article about accounting
standards becoming overly complicated that was published in the March issue of
the Journal of Accountancy. I got more favorable reactions to that one article
than the total number of comments I've received in my life on the 75 or so other
articles I've published. In the J of A article I noted that 133 is nearly 250
pages long and many sentences need a flowchart to be understandable. What I
didn't say in the article is that 133 is pretty close to the same length as ARB
43-51, which was the grand total of codified GAAP when I was an accounting
student.
I know this is a much more complicated world that we live in, but
I feel that professional leaders have a responsibility to try to make things
easier to use and understand. At a conference last summer, one of the speakers
pointed out that autos are much more complicated than they were when you and I
were first learning to drive. But they are also much easier to use, with no
popping of the clutch to get the car started, very infrequent flats, etc. I
think that accounting policy makers should assume similar responsibility to make
the final product more user friendly.
One final point that also runs to Professor X's comments. Several
months ago the Georgia Society of CPAs contacted me and asked me to present a
seminar on derivatives using the FASB's materials. Now I spent about five years
at the FASB learning about how derivatives work including educational sessions
from many world class companies. And I led most of the accounting deliberations
that led to 133 a year after I left the FASB. But I turned down the invitation
to teach because I didn't feel competent to cover the subject in as much detail
as the seminar called for. (Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I
could have done it but it wasn't worth the amount of time I would have to spend
to adequately prepare myself.) Even more important, it turned out that the
seminar was for accounting employees of Coca Cola, which is headquartered in
Atlanta. I told the Georgia Society person that there probably were a dozen or
more people at Coca Cola who were far more competent to teach this material
because of their hands on experience as compared to my relatively hands off
education.
Denny Beresford, University of Georgia
Response
from Ed Swanson at Texas A&M University
Bob and Denny
As a supplement to your e-mails, Wiley has a chapter on SFAS 133
on its website that will be used in the next edition of Kieso and Weygandt,
Intermediate Accounting. I am using it in teaching accounting theory and
supplementing it with additional examples. However, I also spend four classes on
the major types of derivatives before beginning the topic of how to account for
derivatives. I spend eight classes on this general topic. Even spending this
much time, I skip most of the complexities of the pronouncement.
Ed Swanson
On Tue, 16 Nov 1999, Frimette Kass wrote:
