XML

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages.[1] It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own elements. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of structured data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet,[2] and it is used both to encode documents and to serialize data. In the latter context, it is comparable with other text-based serialization languages such as JSON and YAML.[3]

It started as a simplified subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), and is designed to be relatively human-legible. By adding semantic constraints, application languages can be implemented in XML. These include XHTML,[4] RSS, MathML, GraphML, Scalable Vector Graphics, MusicXML, and thousands of others. Moreover, XML is sometimes used as the specification language for such application languages.

XML is recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It is a fee-free open standard. The recommendation specifies both the lexical grammar and the requirements for parsing.

What is a worm?

		Worms are programs that replicate themselves from system to system without the use of a host file. This is in contrast to viruses, which requires the spreading of an infected host file. Although worms generally exist inside of other files, often Word or Excel documents, there is a difference between how worms and viruses use the host file. Usually the worm will release a document that already has the "worm" macro inside the document. The entire document will travel from computer to computer, so the entire document should be considered the worm W32.Mydoom.AX@mm is an example of a worm

What is a virus?

A computer virus is a small program written to alter the way a computer operates, without the permission or knowledge of the user. A virus must meet two criteria: It must execute itself. It often places its own code in the path of execution of another program. It must replicate itself. For example, it may replace other executable files with a copy of the virus infected file. Viruses can infect desktop computers and network servers alike. Some viruses are programmed to damage the computer by damaging programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard disk. Others are not designed to do any damage, but simply to replicate themselves and make their presence known by presenting text, video, and audio messages. Even these benign viruses can create problems for the computer user. They typically take up computer memory used by legitimate programs. As a result, they often cause erratic behavior and can result in system crashes. In addition, many viruses are bug-ridden, and these bugs may lead to system crashes and data loss. Five recognized types of viruses File infector viruses File infector viruses infect program files. These viruses normally infect executable code, such as .com and .exe files. The can infect other files when an infected program is run from floppy, hard drive, or from the network. Many of these viruses are memory resident. After memory becomes infected, any noninfected executable that runs becomes infected. Examples of known file infector viruses include Jerusalem and Cascade. Boot sector viruses Boot sector viruses infect the system area of a disk; that is, the boot record on floppy disks and hard disks. All floppy disks and hard disks (including disks containing only data) contain a small program in the boot record that is run when the computer starts up. Boot sector viruses attach themselves to this part of the disk and activate when the user attempts to start up from the infected disk. These viruses are always memory resident in nature. Most were written for DOS, but, all PCs, regardless of the operating system, are potential targets of this type of virus. All that is required to become infected is to attempt to start up your computer with an infected floppy disk Thereafter, while the virus remains in memory, all floppy disks that are not write protected will become infected when the floppy disk is accessed. Examples of boot sector viruses are Form, Disk Killer, Michelangelo, and Stoned. Master boot record viruses Master boot record viruses are memory-resident viruses that infect disks in the same manner as boot sector viruses. The difference between these two virus types is where the viral code is located. Master boot record infectors normally save a legitimate copy of the master boot record in an different location. Windows NT computers that become infected by either boot sector viruses or master boot sector viruses will not boot. This is due to the difference in how the operating system accesses its boot information, as compared to Windows 98/Me. If your Windows NT systems is formatted with FAT partitions you can usually remove the virus by booting to DOS and using antivirus software. If the boot partition is NTFS, the system must be recovered by using the three Windows NT Setup disks. Examples of master boot record infectors are NYB, AntiExe, and Unashamed. Multipartite viruses Multipartite (also known as polypartite) viruses infect both boot records and program files. These are particularly difficult to repair. If the boot area is cleaned, but the files are not, the boot area will be reinfected. The same holds true for cleaning infected files. If the virus is not removed from the boot area, any files that you have cleaned will be reinfected. Examples of multipartite viruses include One_Half, Emperor, Anthrax and Tequilla. Macro viruses These types of viruses infect data files. They are the most common and have cost corporations the most money and time trying to repair. With the advent of Visual Basic in Microsoft's Office 97, a macro virus can be written that not only infects data files, but also can infect other files as well. Macro viruses infect Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access files. Newer strains are now turning up in other programs as well. All of these viruses use another program's internal programming language, which was created to allow users to automate certain tasks within that program. Because of the ease with which these viruses can be created, there are now thousands of them in circulation. Examples of macro viruses include W97M.Melissa, WM.NiceDay and W97M.Groov.

Ableton Live

Ableton Live is a loop-based software music sequencer for Mac OS and Windows by Ableton. The latest major release of Live, Version 7, was released in November 2007. Unlike other software sequencers, Live is designed around the notion of being as much an instrument for live performances as a tool for composing and arranging.

Ableton Live 7 LE Available NowAbleton Live 7 LE gives you an intuitive interface and pro features for recording, songwriting, remixing and DJing.

http://www.ableton.com/

Requirements for using NETg (skill builder) online learning tutorials

Operating Systems - Platform and browsers must support JavaScript and Java 1.1

• Intel Windows 95 (B) or

• Intel Windows 98 (SE), ME or

• Intel Windows NT 4.0 or

• Intel Windows 2000

• 100 MHz Pentium Processor

• 32 MB recommended

• 800 x 600 display mode

• 256 colors (1024 x 768 display, 16-bit color recommended)

• MPCI-compliant sound card w/speakers or headphones (if audio is desired)

• Microsoft compatible mouse

• TCP/IP services correctly installed and operating

Web Browsers - Must support the html 3.2 standard

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 w/sp2 or higher

• Java support; your browser must support either .zip file archives (like Navigator) or cabinet files (like

Internet Explorer)

• Access to a compatible Java Virtual Machine (Microsoft IE 4.01 SP2/higher or SUN JRE 1.1.7/higher)

• Netscape Navigator 4.74 or higher

The following settings must be used

• Proxy settings in Browser: NONE, all switched off

• Java Virtual Machine:

• Two JVM’s exist that are supported by NETg: Sun’s JRE and Microsoft VM

• Due to a Legal Settlement between Sun and Microsoft, Microsoft have withdrawn the support for

Microsoft VM and do not make it available any longer for download.

• Sun’s JRE can be downloaded from the Java Web Site http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp.

A list of Operating Systems will appear. Click the relevant “Instructions” link and when you are ready

to download the JRE, click on the “Download” button. Follow the prompts through the process as per

the instructions.

• Accept all downloads of .TMP files NETg prompts the user to accept

• Ensure that cookies are allowed and not blocked.

• Setting security to medium on Internet Zone should allow everything that is required. Do not exit any

windows that NETg opens except via the appropriate procedures i.e. OK button or other prompt, NOT the

X in the top right hand corner. Doing this will not record the information about the course.

Learning Objects

A learning object is a resource, usually digital and web-based, that can be used and re-used to support learning.

Learning objects offer a new conceptualization of the learning process: rather than the traditional "several hour chunk", they provide smaller, self-contained, re-usable units of learning.^[1]

They will typically have a number of different components, that range from descriptive data to information about rights and educational level. At their core, however, will be instructional content, and probably assessment tools. A key issue is the use of metadata.

Learning object design raises issues of portability, and of the object's relation to a broader learning management system.

Definitions

There are various definitions of the term. As David Wiley observes, "the proliferation of definitions for the term 'learning object' makes communication confusing and difficult".^[2]

Most generally, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) defines a learning object as "any entity, digital or non-digital, that may be used for learning, education or training".^[3] More specifically, and pointing out the extreme breadth of the IEEE's definition, Wiley describes a learning object as "any digital resource that can be reused to support learning".^[4]

The following definitions focus on the relation between learning object and digital media. RLO-CETL, a British inter-university Learning Objects Center, defines "reusable learning objects" as "web-based interactive chunks of e-learning designed to explain a stand-alone learning objective".^[5] Daniel Rehak and Robin Mason define it as "a digitized entity which can be used, reused or referenced during technology supported learning".^[6]

Adapting a definition from the Wisconsin Online Resource Center, Robert J. Beck suggests that learning objects have the following key characteristics:

*Learning objects are a new way of thinking about learning content. Traditionally, content comes in a several hour chunk. Learning objects are much smaller units of learning, typically ranging from 2 minutes to 15 minutes.
* Are self-contained – each learning object can be taken independently
* Are reusable – a single learning object may be used in multiple contexts for multiple purposes
* Can be aggregated – learning objects can be grouped into larger collections of content, including traditional course structures
* Are tagged with metadata – every learning object has descriptive information allowing it to be easily found by a search^[1]

Components

The following is a list of some of the types of information that may be included in a learning object:

• General Course Descriptive Data, including: course identifiers, language of content (English, Spanish, etc.), subject area (Maths, Reading, etc.), descriptive text, descriptive keywords
• Life Cycle, including: version, status
• Instructional Content, including: text, web pages, images, sound, video
• Glossary of Terms, including: terms, definition, acronyms
• Quizzes and Assessments, including: questions, answers
• Rights, including: cost, copyrights, restrictions on Use
• Relationships to Other Courses, including prerequisite courses
• Educational Level, including: grade level, age range, typical learning time, and difficulty^{[citation needed]}

Metadata

One of the key issues in using learning objects is their identification by search engines.^{[citation needed]} This is usually facilitated by assigning descriptive learning object metadata. Just as a book in a library has a record in the card catalog, learning objects must also be tagged with metadata.

Mutability

A mutated learning object is, according to Michael Shaw, a learning object that has been "re-purposed and/or re-engineered, changed or simply re-used in some way different from its original intended design". Shaw also introduces the term "contextual learning object", to describe a learning object that has been "designed to have specific meaning and purpose to an intended learner".^[7]

Portability

Before any institution invests a great deal of time and energy into building high-quality e-learning content (which can cost over $10,000 per classroom hour),^{[citation needed]} it needs to consider how this content can be easily loaded into a Learning Management System.

If all of the properties of a course can be precisely defined in a common format, the content can be serialized into a standard format such as XML and loaded into other systems. When you consider that some e-learning courses need to include video, mathematical equations using MathML, chemistry equations using CML and other complex structures the issues become very complex, especially if the systems needs to understand and validate each structure and then place it correctly in a database.^{[citation needed]}

Define your Research Topic (info)

Define your Research Topic

Your research statement contains the major elements of the topic you are investigating. When you define your research statement you will want to find a balance between choosing a topic that is too broad or too narrow.

It helps at this early stage of your research process for example, Transport costs in land locked countries, is an example of a broad research topic. There are entire books written on these subjects.

To obtain more targeted information, you will need to think about looking at just one aspect of this topic. For example:

What studies have been done on transport cost?

What features make a country land locked?

What are the elements used in transport cost?

Depending on the context of your research, you may want to narrow your topic further. The sooner you can develop a broad subject into a focused topic, the sooner you can shape your research.

A topic that covers too much material is a common problem for students. Depending on your interests, a general topic can be focused in many ways. In this case, the above the topic can be written as relationship between haulage transport cost and land locked countries.

It is very important to identify key concepts in the process of refining your research topic.

Why Should you be Interested in a Topic? (Info)

Why Should you be Interested in a Topic?

The second aspect of topic-selection is that you should be interested in the subject being discussed.

Just how interested you are depends on how long your reactions linger. If you immediately loose your enthusiasm you aren’t that interested. If it keeps nagging at you, you probably have an interest that will sustain you throughout the research.

Since you need a subject that will interest you long enough to complete the research process, use this rule to gauge your interest level. A solid research topic is always worth doing and doing well, but research is only as good as the time and effort put into it. Don’t choose a research topic because it looks easy.

All research requires painstaking thought, writing, and reading before the proposal is finished. You might get by with a minimal effort, but you will have lost an opportunity to explore something meaningful to you. On the other hand, don’t choose a topic that is so complex that it can’t possibly be done effectively. You may attract the attention of your instructor or supervisor, but that isn’t solid basis for learning research.

Choose a topic that truly interests you and will keep you going back again and again to research literature, your notes, or your own thoughts. You need not necessarily retain the first thoughts you had when you began to write your question. On the contrary, you may focus on one small aspect of the larger problem that you had never thought of before. However, this will not occur without your being intimately involved in the larger topic to begin with.

Finding Research Topics (info)

Finding Research Topics

Where can topics be found, and how do you know they are researchable? In order to do research, the first step is to find a topic to research.

Finding a research topic isn’t as hard as it seems at first. Once you develop the ability of looking for researchable topics, they appear everywhere. Experienced researchers become so good at spotting researchable topics they usually have at least a dozen ideas waiting to be investigated. But finding topics can be intimidating at first . . .

This topic seeks to examine how research topics are identified.

Naruto

Naruto (NARUTO - ナルト -, Naruto romanized as NARUTO in Japan) is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto with an anime adaptation. The plot tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a loud, hyperactive, unpredictable, adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become a Hokage, the ninja in his village that is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all. The series is based from a one-shot that Kishimoto first authored in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.

The manga was first published by Shueisha in 1999 in the 43rd issue of Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine and it is still being released with forty-four volumes. The manga would be later adapted into an anime produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. It premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3, 2002. The first series lasted nine seasons, while Naruto: Shippūden, a sequel of the series, began its first on February 15, 2007 and is still airing.

Viz Media has licensed the manga and anime for North American production. The Naruto anime debuted in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block on September 10, 2005, and in Canada on YTV's Bionix on September 16, 2005. Naruto began showing in the United Kingdom on Jetix on July 22, 2006. It began showing on Toasted TV on January 12, 2007, in Australia, which features the Manga Entertainment TV version and the German-language dub opening, although it could be watched on Cartoon Network in 2006.

Serialized in Viz's Shonen Jump magazine, Naruto has become the company's best-selling manga series. As of volume 36, the manga has sold over 71 million copies in Japan.