Saturday, November 27, 2010

'4G' Internet arrives

Internetbrowsing.jpg
The latest generation of wireless Internet that will allow people to watch a crystal clear movie or live sporting event on the street or atop a hill is being deployed throughout Hong Kong.
HONG KONG: The latest generation of wireless Internet that will allow people to watch a crystal clear movie or live sporting event on the street or atop a hill is being deployed throughout Hong Kong.

The Long Term Evolution (LTE) network will give super high speeds across the city and could mean the end of computers ever needing to be plugged into a wall for a connection to the net.

The so-called "fourth generation" system is being rolled out by Hong Kong mobile network operator CSL in partnership with telecoms equipment maker ZTE Corporation

"The first launch of an LTE network any place in Asia is truly historic," Joseph O'Konek, CSL's chief executive, told AFP.

"For a lot of people, this will be their first experience of the Internet. They are at a huge advantage to previous Internet generations because they are leapfrogging all those fixed line technologies.

"It is truly going to unleash the power of human networks as this kind of system rolls out more and more across the world."

LTE enables faster data downloads and uploads on mobile devices compared with a third-generation network.

The system will give speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) and should make the high quality viewing of full length movies or realtime live sporting events possible anywhere in the city.

LTE networks are already operating in Europe, Scandinavia and North America. Japan will have an LTE system before the end of the year and huge growth in LTE connections is expected over the next five years, especially in China.

Meanwhile CSL's owner, the Australian telecoms giant Telstra, said it is looking to make acquisitions to strengthen its position in the Asia-Pacific region.

"Organic growth is always the best growth. But you do need to acquire new technology that's going to allow you to fuel the growth in the future," David Thodey, the company's CEO, told the Wall Street Journal.

"Sometimes you expand geographically... or sometimes you want to expand your market share. We will be doing all three because it's critically important for a company to keep pushing the limits as you go forward."

Saturday, November 13, 2010

9 Things you can do with Wi-Fi

9 Things you can do with Wi-FiWi-Fi can be used for a lot more than just connecting to your computer or phone to the internet. The technology can come handy for a variety of other tasks.

Here are nine little-known uses of Wi-Fi.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Keep laptops away from lap to protect sperm

NEWYORK: Using a laptop computer as the name suggests may not be good for male reproductive health, according to a study.

And there is little that can be done about it, aside from using the laptop on a desk, said Yelim Sheynkin, a urologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook who led the study published in Fertility and Sterility. In the study, thermometers were used to measure the temperature of the scrotums of 29 young men balancing a laptop on their knees. Even with a lap pad under the computer, the men's scrotums overheated quickly.

"Millions and millions of men are using laptops now, especially those in the reproductive age range," said Sheynkin. "Within 10 or 15 minutes their scrotal temperature is already above what we consider safe, but they don't feel it," he added.

According to the American Urological Association, nearly one in six couples in the US have trouble conceiving . About half the time this is due to male infertility. Under normal circumstances, the position of the testicles outside the body keeps them a few degrees cooler than the inside of the body, which is necessary for sperm production.

Earlier research has showed that warming the scrotum even more than 1°C is enough to damage sperm.

Read more: Keep laptops away from lap to protect sperm - The Times of India

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Koha 3.2.0 now available

Release notes for Koha 3.2.0 - 22 October 2010

Koha is the first free and open source software library automation package (ILS). Development is sponsored by libraries of varying types and sizes volunteers, and support companies from around the world.
The website for the Koha project is http://koha-community.org/
Koha 3.2.0 can be downloaded from: http://download.koha-community.org/koha-3.02.00.tar.gz
Installation instructions can be found at http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Installation_Documentation
Koha 3.2.0 is a major feature release.

New features in 3.2.0

ACQUISITIONS
  • The acquisitions module is significantly revamped:
    • Support for hierarchical funds and budgets
    • Budget planning by calendar and item type
    • Vendor contract periods
    • Generation of PDF purchase orders
    • Ability to place orders on a batch of bibliographic records imported into the catalog from a file or Z39.50 search
ADMINISTRATION
  • Significant usability enhancements to the system preference editor
  • Granular permissions are now always on; the GranularPermissions system preference is consequently removed
  • Many additional granular permissions are added
CATALOGING
  • Bulk item editing
  • Revamped inventory/stock-taking
  • Ability to export bibliographic information in CSV format from the staff cart
  • New quick spine label print button
  • Support for temporary location and in-process item statuses
  • Usability enhancements to cataloging workflow:
    • Can now choose whether to edit items after saving a bib record
    • Option to move an item from one bib to another
    • Option to delete all items attached to a bib
    • Ability to clone an item
    • View bib in OPAC link from the staff interface
  • Ability to merge duplicate bibliographic record from the staff lists interface
CIRCULATION
  • Ability to define library transfer limits
  • Email checkout slips
  • Option to enable alert sounds during checkin and checkout
  • Improvements in Koha's ability to express circulation policies
    • Option to charge fines using suspension days instead of money
    • Hold policies are now on the library/itemtype/categorycode level
  • Renewal policies are now on the library/itemtype/categorycode level
  • Ability to specify an expiration date for a hold request when placing it via the staff interface or OPAC
  • Daily batch job to cancel expired holds requests for a bib in the staff interface
  • New messaging system for patron records, allowing an unlimited number of patron notes to be stored and managed
  • Changes to web-based self checkout
    • Ability to login in automatically to self-check, allowing for unattended self-check stations
    • Ability to display the patron image in self-check
OPAC
  • Numerous enhancements to the bib display XML templates
  • Per-patron OPAC search history, with ability for patrons to manage the retention of their search history
  • Support for Syndetics, LibraryThing, and Babeltheque enhanced content
  • Support for RIS and BibTeX export
  • Bib details page includes which lists a bib belongs to
  • Can now customize the 'search for this title in' links
  • Preference to control whether patrons can change their details in the OPAC
  • OPAC icon set provided by vokal
REPORTS
  • Guided reports can now take runtime parameters
  • Can now edit SQL reports
SERIALS
  • Can now specify the subscription end date, library location, and grace periods
  • Option to automatically place hold requests for members of a serials routing list
  • Numerous bugfixes
STAFF INTERFACE
  • The cart has been added to the staff interface
  • Staff can add items to lists in bulk from search results
  • Enhanced patron card and item label creator
  • Support for XSLT templates in the staff bib details display
  • Bib details page includes which lists a bib belongs to
WEB SERVICES AND INTERFACE
  • Integration with SOPAC, including support for various web services defined by the ILS-DI recommendation
  • Support for CAS single sign-on
  • Improvements to OAI-PMH support
INTERNATIONALIZTION
  • New initialization SQL files for German, Italian, and Polish
  • Revamped UNIMARC framework for English
INTERNALS AND PACKAGING
  • Koha is now packaged for Debian Squeeze; installation of Koha can now be as simple as apt-get install koha
  • Improvements to the management of required Perl modules
  • Improvements to test case coverage
  • Substantial progress on enabling the warnings pragma in all of Koha's Perl code
BUGFIXES
  • Approximately 1,050 tracked bugs and enhancement requests are addressed in this release

System Preferences

The following system preferences are new in 3.2.0:
  • AcqCreateItem
  • AllowAllMessageDeletion
  • AllowHoldDateInFuture
  • AllowHoldPolicyOverride
  • AutoSelfCheckAllowed
  • AutoSelfCheckID
  • AutoSelfCheckPass
  • BranchTransferLimitsType
  • Babeltheque
  • casAuthentication
  • casLogout
  • casServerUrl
  • ceilingDueDate
  • CurrencyFormat
  • DisplayClearScreenButton
  • DisplayMultiPlaceHold
  • DisplayOPACiconsXSLT
  • EnableOpacSearchHistory
  • FilterBeforeOverdueReport
  • HidePatronName
  • ILS-DI
  • ILS-DI:AuthorizedIPs
  • ImageLimit
  • InProcessingToShelvingCart
  • intranetbookbag
  • LibraryThingForLibrariesEnabled
  • LibraryThingForLibrariesID
  • LibraryThingForLibrariesTabbedView
  • NewItemsDefaultLocation
  • numReturnedItemsToShow
  • OAI-PMH:ConfFile
  • OpacAddMastheadLibraryPulldown
  • OPACAllowHoldDateInFuture
  • OPACAmazonReviews
  • OPACDisplayRequestPriority
  • OPACFineNoRenewals
  • OPACFinesTab
  • OPACPatronDetails
  • OPACSearchForTitleIn
  • opacSerialDefaultTab
  • OPACSerialIssueDisplayCount
  • OPACShowCheckoutName
  • OrderPdfFormat
  • OverdueNoticeBcc
  • OverduesBlockCirc
  • PrintNoticesMaxLines
  • ReturnToShelvingCart
  • RoutingListAddReserves
  • ShowPatronImageInWebBasedSelfCheck
  • soundon
  • SpineLabelAutoPrint
  • SpineLabelFormat
  • SpineLabelShowPrintOnBibDetails
  • StaffSerialIssueDisplayCount
  • SyndeticsAuthorNotes
  • SyndeticsAwards
  • SyndeticsClientCode
  • SyndeticsCoverImages
  • SyndeticsCoverImageSize
  • SyndeticsEditions
  • SyndeticsEnabled
  • SyndeticsExcerpt
  • SyndeticsReviews
  • SyndeticsSeries
  • SyndeticsSummary
  • SyndeticsTOC
  • UseBranchTransferLimits

System requirements

Changes since 3.0:
  • The minimum version of Perl required is now 5.8.8.
  • There are a number of new Perl module dependencies.
Run ./koha_perl_deps.pl -u -m to get a list of any new modules to install during upgrade.

Upgrades

The structure of the acquisitions tables have changed significantly from 3.0.x. In particular, the budget hierarchy is quite different. During an upgrade, a new database table is created called fundmapping that contains a record of how budgets were mapped. It is strongly recommended that users of Koha 3.0.x acquisitions carefully revie the results of the upgrade before resuming ordering in Koha 3.2.0.

Documentation

As of Koha 3.2, the Koha manual is now maintained in DocBook. The home page for Koha documentation is http://koha-community.org/documentation/
As of the date of these release notes, several translations of the Koha manual are available:
English: http://koha-community.org/documentation/3-2-manual/
Spanish: http://koha-community.org/documentation/3-2-manual-es/
French: http://koha-community.org/documentation/3-2-manual-fr/
The Git repository for the Koha manual can be found at
http://git.koha-community.org/gitweb/?p=kohadocs.git;a=summary

Translations

Complete or near-complete translations of the OPAC and staff interface are available in this release for the following languages:
  • Chinese
  • Danish
  • English (New Zealand)
  • English (USA)
  • French (France)
  • French (Canada)
  • German
  • Greek
  • Hindi
  • Italian
  • Norwegian
  • Portuguese
  • Spanish
  • Turkish
Partial translations are available for various other languages. The Koha team welcomes additional translations; please see http://www.kohadocs.org/usersguide/apb.html
for information about translating Koha, and join the koha-translate list to volunteer:
http://lists.koha-community.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/koha-translate
The most up-to-date translations can be found at:
http://translate.koha.org/

Release Team

The release team for Koha 3.2 is
Release Manager: Galen Charlton
Documentation Manager: Nicole Engard
Translation Manager: Chris Cormack
Release Maintainer (3.0.x):
Henri-Damien Laurent
Release Maintainer (3.2.x):
Chris Nighswonger

Credits

We thank the following libraries who are known to have sponsored new features in Koha 3.2:
  • Aix-Marseille Universities, France
  • BrailleNet (http://www.braillenet.org/)
  • BULAC, France (www.bulac.fr)
  • East Brunswick Public Library, East Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
  • Foundations Bible College & Seminary, Dunn, North Carolina, USA
  • Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg, Germany (www.hfjs.eu) XSLT changes to display 880 fields
  • Howard County Library, Maryland, USA (http://www.hclibrary.org/)
  • MassCat, Massachussetts, USA
  • Middletown Township Public Library, Middletown, New Jersey, USA
  • New York University Health Sciences Library, New York, USA
  • Northeast Kansas Library System, Kansas, USA
  • Plano Independent School District, Plano, Texas, USA
  • SAN Ouest Provence, France
  • vokal (Vermont Association of Koha Automated Libraries), Vermont, USA www.digital-loom.com
We thank the following individuals who contributed patches to Koha 3.2.0.

  • Alex Arnaud
  • Allen Reinmeyer
  • Amit Gupta
  • Andrei V. Toutoukine
  • Andrew Chilton
  • Andrew Elwell
  • Andrew Moore
  • Brendan A. Gallagher
  • Brian Harrington
  • Chris Catalfo
  • Chris Cormack
  • Chris Nighswonger
  • Christopher Hyde
  • Cindy Murdock Ames
  • Clay Fouts
  • Colin Campbell
  • Cory Jaeger
  • Daniel Sweeney
  • Danny Bouman
  • Darrell Ulm
  • David Birmingham
  • David Goldfein
  • Donovan Jones
  • D. Ruth Bavousett
  • Eric Olsen
  • Frédéric Demains
  • Galen Charlton
  • Garry Collum
  • Henri-Damien Laurent
  • Ian Walls
  • James Winter
  • Jane Wagner
  • Jared Camins-Esakov
  • Jean-André Santoni
  • Jesse Weaver
  • Joe Atzberger
  • John Beppu
  • John Soros
  • Joshua Ferraro
  • Katrin Fischer
  • Koustubha Kale
  • Kyle M Hall
  • Lars Wirzenius
  • Liz Rea
  • Magnus Enger
  • Marc Chantreux
  • Marcel de Rooy
  • Mason James
  • Matthew Hunt
  • Matthias Meusburger
  • Michael Hafen
  • MJ Ray
  • Nahuel Angelinetti
  • Nicolas Morin
  • Nicole Engard
  • Owen Leonard
  • Paul Poulain
  • Piotr Wejman
  • Ricardo Dias Marques
  • Rick Welykochy
  • Robin Sheat
  • Ryan Higgins
  • Savitra Sirohi
  • Sébastien Hinderer
  • Srdjan Jankovic
  • Stan Brinkerhoff
  • Stephen Edwards
  • Vincent Danjean
  • Will Stokes
  • Wolfgang Heymans
  • Zeno Tajoli
We regret any omissions. If a contributor has been inadvertantly missed, please send patch against these release notes to koha-patches@lists.koha-community.org.

Revision control notes

The Koha project uses Git for version control. The current development version of Koha can be retrieved by checking out the master branch of git://git.koha-community.org/koha.git
The branch for Koha 3.2.x (i.e., this version of Koha and future bugfix releases) is 3.2.x.
The next major feature release of Koha will be Koha 3.4.0.

Bugs and feature requests

Bug reports and feature requests can be filed at the Koha bug tracker at http://bugs.koha-community.org/

Publication Year:2010
Type of Material:Press Release
Issue:October 22, 2010
Publisher:koha-community.org
Company:koha-community.org
Products:Koha
Subject:Product announcements
Permalink:http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=15143
Record Number:15143
Last Update:2010-10-23 08:12:47
Date Created:2010-10-22 09:44:39