Monday, November 26, 2001

Pennsylvania Governor Mark S. Schweiker announced last week that he is abandoning his proposal that Edison Schools Inc. take over the Philadelphia public schools. In an agreement reached with Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street, Schweiker announced, "The privatization as [described] some days ago is now off the table." A member of Schweiker's administration said, "The governor was not going to allow one issue to derail this historic opportunity to provide a world-class education to the children of Philadelphia." Under the new agreement, Edison may serve as a consultant, provide some services, and have a role in recruiting new managers for the district, but will not appoint the CEO of the district.

• Philadelphia Inquirer -- Deal reached on Philadelphia schools
• Philadelphia Daily News -- Hostile takeover is averted
• New York Times -- Pennsylvania Abandons Plan to Privatize School Offices (free registration required)
• Washington Post/AP -- Pennsylvania Governor Drops Reform Proposal for City Schools

A related column by Jessica Portner, State takeover of troubled schools debated, appeared in Friday's San Jose Mercury News. Portner tells of the California takeover of the Compton Unified School District. She notes, "Nationwide, state education officials have a better record of rescuing districts from financial ruin than of curing academic malaise."

In a widely reported agreement, Microsoft will settle over 100 class action lawsuits by donating software to schools over the next five years. The Seattle Times' Brian Dudley reports in $1 billion to schools under Microsoft deal to settle class action suit that "An estimated 12,500 schools...would receive free software over the next five years. Eligible schools would have to have at least 70 percent of their students qualify for free- or subsidized-lunch programs."

Michael Kanellos and Joe Wilcox in a ZDNet News Special comment, "A proposed settlement agreement in a series of antitrust suits may not only give Microsoft a fairly inexpensive legal resolution--it may also help the company and its PC allies further erode Apple Computer's position in education."

User Friendly's Daily Static cartoon for last Friday was even less charitable concerning the self-serving settlement.

Our local newspaper recently ran a question that reflects a larger national issue, "Should Indiana mandate that its public schools start each day with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag?" Some of the answers were published in last Saturday's Terre Haute Tribune-Star. They mirror discussions now surfacing across the web that question whether enforced patriotism is any kind of patriotism at all. Recent related articles include:

• Alternet.org -- In a Time of Terror, Protest Is Patriotism -- by Jim Hightower (an especially good read)
• Christian Science Monitor -- When talk turns to patriotism -- by Amelia Newcomb
• Christian Science Monitor -- Thinking through patriotism -- a discussion by two professors, a high school teacher, and a college senior moderated by Amelia Newcomb
• Workingforchange.com -- The Patriotism Police -- by Molly Ivins
• Chicago Daily Herald -- A push for the pledge -- by Catherine Edman
• New York Times -- New Battles in Old War Over Freedom of Speech -- by Diana Jean Schemo (free registration required)
• Debateinfo.com -- Nationalism: a debate handbook

If you have some suggestions, news ideas, etc., please .

Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Dan Knight has released the results of Low End Mac's current Best of the Mac Web Survey. I won't give away the winners, but the results are an interesting read. BTW: Please don't zap out a flame to Dan for omitting Educators' News from his survey. We don't qualify, as Educators' News is an education site covering education news and hardware and software updates from multiple platforms (even though it is produced almost exclusively on a Mac).

CNET reports that the W32.Badtrans.B@mm worm spread rapidly over the weekend "mainly due to people's relaxed approach to security during the holiday season." Robert Lemos in Worm hitting home for the holidays indicates the PC email worm discovered just last Saturday "knocked SirCam from the No. 1 slot in MessageLabs' daily rankings of the Top 10 bugs, a spot the persistent e-mail worm has held for more than four months." Computerworld notes that the worm "can allow an attacker to gain access to a user's computer and then record data entered via the keyboard, including passwords and credit card numbers."

November Windows virus definition updates are now available from all the major antivirus players: Norton Antivirus; McAfee; and F-Secure Anti-Virus.

The Philadelphia Inquirer's opinion piece, Try again, Bill Gates, says the problem with the proposed $1 billion payout to impoverished schools to settle class action suits against Microsoft isn't the concept, but the amount. The Inquirer asserts, "So it's hard to refuse. But the answer is...no. Not 'no' as in 'no deal.' Rather, it's 'no' as in 'not enough.'" And, "The sum sounds like a lot, but it amounts to about 3 percent of the company's ready cash reserves. The settlement of such a case should sting more than that. The court is in the best position to decide a more fitting dollar amount. For now, the verdict is: not enough."

In the continuing saga of the state takeover Philadelphia's public schools, Pennsylvania State Senator Allyson Schwartz has proposed a change in state law to create an independent commission to monitor progress of Philadelphia schools under a new reform structure. Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Dale Mezzacappa notes that as things now stand, "a school reform commission will replace the existing nine-member school board and be dominated by Schweiker appointees." Schwartz's proposed commission would consist of "the city controller, state auditor general, and the presidents of Temple, Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania...to evaluate academic progress and monitor how the district's $1.7 billion budget is spent." The Philadelphia Daily News also offers some perspective on the situation with the editorial, Tackling the School Takeover, and John Baer's column, Little progress for all that posturing.

Buffalo News staff writer Sandra Tan tells the sad story of terminated special educator Tina Shareno in Devoted teacher's worst fear hits home. Shareno is just one of 500 Buffalo teachers to be laid off at the end of the calendar year in an attempt by the Buffalo Board of Education "to resolve its catastrophic budget crisis."

Conservative columnist William Raspberry offers his views in Good-Faith Argument for School Prayer.

Wolfram Research has announced they are now shipping Mathematica for Mac OS X.

BraveNewMac's Greg Martinez vents a bit about OS X in Brand X Is An Abomination! I liked this piece because I just haven't been able to warm up to Mac OS X. Greg's biggest beef, and mine, is the replacement of the friendly Classic user interface by OS X's Aqua. Greg comes up with some pretty radical and humorous suggestions for dealing with those who created the UI in OS X. Greg's column also made me notice that MacSoldiers has been replaced by BraveNewMac.com.

Craig Crossman, writing for the Bradenton Herald, gives a good counterpoint to the posting above in To upgrade OS or not to upgrade, that is the question. Craig reasons, "First and foremost, resistance is futile. I mean by this that eventually the older OS you are using will sooner or later be discontinued."

Educators' News will return to the usual Monday-Wednesday-Friday publication schedule later this week. The publication schedule last week was altered due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Today's posting sorta comes under the exception noted last October, "More frequent updates may be made at times as pertinent educational news dictates." In other words, the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial on the Microsoft settlement was just too juicy to let wait until tomorrow:-).

Wednesday, November 28, 2001

Scienceman Joe Martha today reviews the GM-10 Radiation Detector and Rad Software on Scienceman.com. Joe starts his review:

Upon beginning the review of this product, my pet cat ran over my keyboard as I was trying to run a test, and I was heard to remark "That stupid cat wrecked my dryer lint radiation experiment!" As soon as my brain registered what I said, I knew it was sad confirmation that I am indeed one of the world's biggest nerds.

While I probably will never need or use a radiation detector, I found the review interesting and entertaining, as is all of Joe's site.

Apple Computer, Inc. filed a brief on Monday protesting the proposed settlement consolidated private antitrust cases against Microsoft. Both CNET and AP quote Apple CEO Steve Jobs as saying:

We're baffled that a settlement imposed against Microsoft for breaking the law should allow, even encourage, them to unfairly make inroads into education, one of the few markets left where they don't have monopoly power.

Curry Software has updated their $20 Macintosh reading pacer shareware, The Reading Machine (1.6 MB), to version 1.1. Changes in the new version include improved controls for adjusting speed and reading method, automatic adjustment for any screen resolution, and the ability to change speed and volume in the middle of a reading session.

Northsoft Productions has released an update to their (currently) freeware gradebook, NP Grade for Macintosh. The Northsoft site also advises that versions beyond 2.0 will require a $20 shareware fee. NP Grade 1.5 is available for download in Classic (3.3 MB) and OS X (5.6 MB) versions.

New items this week from the SchwabLearning.org include:

• Dr. Robert Brooks: Recognizing low self-esteem
• Terms Used in Individual Standardized Tests
• Social Tips for Giving and Receiving Gifts
• Schwab Learning Online Newsletter

Friday, November 30, 2001

It's almost a done deal. Various sources have stated that the House-Senate conference committee has just about hammered out all the details for President Bush's education reform bill. The only item remaining to be settled is increased funding for special education.

• CNN Education -- Compromises reached on education bill
• Yahoo (Reuters) -- Special Ed Money Heart of School Bill Dispute
• Yahoo (Associated Press) -- Special Education Funds in Congress
• The New Orleans Times-Picayune -- Deal struck on Bush education plan

Salon managing editor Scott Rosenberg tees off on Microsoft in The Microsoft resistance. Rosenberg suggests a four part strategy for resisting further monopolistic moves by the Redmond giant, including, "Support software biodiversity -- use non-Microsoft products." He concludes, "But companies as big as Microsoft is today never start software revolutions; at best they co-opt them."

Thursday, Bill Fox of MacsOnly published the pertinent info and links for filing comments with the Department of Justice on the proposed Microsoft-DOJ settlement.

Ohio educator Joe Taylor sent in the following comment on the Micosoft class action settlement (the other Microsoft settlement):

Here in Toledo the hot news is that the school facilities commission is recommending that 60 of the 69 schools in the district be replaced. Yeah...we need to have more computers installed into crumbling buildings.

AnchorDesk's David Coursey speaks out against the proposed settlement in Apple for the teacher? Not if MS shows up in schools. He also notes that "the people on both sides of the table who crafted the agreement--and see it as a big win for education--must be feeling right now that no good deed goes unpunished."

At this writing only Virex had posted a Mac virus definition update for December. By the time you read this, Symantec and VirusBarrier will probably have their updates posted as well.

Several of the Windows virus definitions have been updated since I posted the download urls on Tuesday, so, it might be wise to take a peek at the new definitions: Norton Antivirus; McAfee; Inoculan and InoculateIT PE Antivirus; and F-Secure Anti-Virus. I'm sure mucyh of the update activity on the Windows side is due to the W32.Badtrans.B@mm worm. I've received three emails so far containing the worm (on my Mac). While I could be a nice guy and send the mailers a message of warning, they're all from folks I don't know. Burn, spammers, burn!

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