Not just searching current headlines, but now being able to search Google News archives going back years. Yum. :)
The link is sometimes a bit hard to spot. It's on the main Google News page as a link off to the right, or if you're in search display screen already, then click on "All dates" on the left, or "Advanced news search" at the top, to get to a link to the new feature on the search screen. Some of the entries it pulls up list prices that press organizations will charge for a reprint. However, I find that all it really takes to get free access is a library card number, and I can use my local library's website to get at Newsbank or Gale or EBSCOhost and can usually find most of the articles for free that way. Having a quick Google search telling me where to look though, makes searching much easier.
Searching books and periodicals and databases still has a way to go, even with this feature. As I'm doing research, I often find that I need to check multiple databases via library websites to find what I'm looking for, and there is not yet one central "Type your search term here" entry box that will search all the databases for me. But if anybody can do it, Google can. I'm already using Google Books and Google Scholar on a routine basis. Google Books is especially handy. I search for a book, click on "Find this book in a library", to access WorldCat, enter my zip code, and it not only tells me which are the closest libraries that have the book, it'll even tell me if the book is checked out or not. Nice stuff!
My company, Simutronics (play.net), is having a new office building constructed, which we're going to move into later this year.
Geeks that we are, one of our devs has set up a webcam from a nearby buiding, which is watching the entire construction process. We've also got a timelapse video so you can watch the trucks scurrying around and pouring concrete and whatnot.
We had a contest for who could pick the best URL for the webcam, and the winner was: building.play.net ;)
I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble, but not you, On hiccough, thorough, lough and through? Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, To learn of less familiar traps? Beware of heard, a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird, And dead: it's said like bed, not bead - For goodness sake don't call it deed!
Creating high-quality Wikipedia articles helps university students get an 'A'
Topic: Cyber-Culture
11:57 pm EDT, Apr 19, 2008
Jon Beasley-Murray, a professor of Spanish literature at the University of British Columbia, decided to make Wikipedia editing a class assignment, divvying up a set of articles related to the theme of his Spanish Literature class. Students who reached GA [Good Article] status would receive As, while FAs [Featured Article] would earn students an A on the assignment. Aiding the class was the FA-team, a new WikiProject of sorts whose aim is to help newer Wikipedians achieve FA status. The project consists of several editors with copy-editing and MOS [Manual of Style] experience to help guide new editors through the often-confusing process of reaching FA status. Out of 12 articles chosen as part of the project, five are currently GAs, one [El Senor Presidente] is an FA, and two more are currently featured article candidates (Mario Vargas Llosa and The General in His Labyrinth). Before the project began, a few of the twelve, including El Senor Presidente, did not exist.
The professor was interviewed for The Wikipedia Signpost as part of a celebration featuring Wikipedia reaching a total of 2000 FAs "Featured articles", the highest quality level that an article can attain.
I think that this idea of university professors assigning their students this kind of task is a superb one. It improves Wikipedia articles, it teaches the students a lot about collaborative editing in the Wikipedia culture, and it brings in more actual academics to Wiki's pool of volunteer editors. Good stuff all around! I've personally helped to bring a couple articles to FA, of which I'm most proud of "Knights Templar" and a GA status article, Fustat about the pre-Cairo Egyptian capital. I'm currently working on another article about the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, which I've gotten to GA status so far and hope to bring to FA status within the month. I know how hard it is to jump through the political hoops to get articles to that level, and agree with the "A" that the university professor offered! He wrote an essay about the project, which can be seen here.
There is, I fear, a common rumor That this group has no sense of humor We test this out each April first Which some think the best day, and others, the worst For Wikipedians of all ranks On this day launch their jokes and pranks On the main page, through RfAs, And in all sorts of other ways
Multiple administrators on Wikipedia had their account access blocked on April 1 for pulling pranks which other members of the community did not find funny (enough). As part of the uproar, Newyorkbrad, one of the members of Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee (sort of the WP Supreme Court) wrote a wonderful poem about the situation. Passing it along for those who enjoy following wiki-culture.
BTW, I don't think I blogged about it at the time, but as of December 2007, I too am now one of the 1500-odd Wikipedia admins. Took three tries, and the last two of them were both on the list of the most controversial noms in Wikipedia history, but I finally squeaked in. :)
