”’TEΧ”’

Donald  Ervin Knuth a computer scientist, was the creator of the TEX computer typesetting  system. TeX has become one of the most sophisticated digital typographical program in the world. It is a way to typeset complex mathematical formulae.

From 2003, the program wiki MediaWiki (used by Wikipedia) implements the marks TeX using the etiquettes <math> … </math> that enclose TeX’s blocks. This capacity is possible thanks to Texvc that basically is a sequence of interpreted orders that send the marks to the program TeX producing a dvi, which with dvips generates a file PostScript which will use as base in order that Ghostscript believes the image PNG.

SOURCES

• Donald Knuth. (2009, 19) de diciembre. Wikipedia, La enciclopedia libre. Fecha de consulta: 21:40, enero 28, 2010 from http://es.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donald_Knuth&oldid=32313485.
• TeX. (2010, 27) de enero. Wikipedia, La enciclopedia libre. Fecha de consulta: 21:42, enero 28, 2010 from http://es.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TeX&oldid=33391346.
• TeX Resources on the Web.  Retrieved the 28th January, 2009. From: http://www.tug.org/interest.html

CiteUlike and Google Books

Nowadays, we can finde a lot of interesting services in the Internet. I’m goig to speak about: CiteUlike and Google Books.

• CiteUlike: Is a free service to store and to arrange different academic documents. We all can open a count in the next page: www.Citeulike.org , so that when you find an interesting document you can store it in your personal list. Moreover, you can share your list with other people to see their books. What CiteUlike does, is to extract automatically the details of the source, so you don’t have to write it.
• Google Books: This service was invented in 2003 with an important objective: allow people to find information about the books they want by the Web. Therefore, Google started to scan millions of work, with or without the copyright. For example, for books that are very old they didn’t need the copyright and we can find them completely. We only have to write “completed books” in the advanced search, and we will find all the list.

Due to these types of services, Internet is becoming really interesting and confortable. There are millions of different services, all with their functios, and the majority of them are very useful.

Sources

• CiteULike. (2009, November 29). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:47, January 9, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=CiteULike&oldid=328621862
• Slideshare.CiteUlike: gestor de referencias sociales. Julio Areso Arévalo. Retrieved, January 8 2010. From: http://www.slideshare.net/jalonsoarevalo/citeulike-gestor-de-referencias-sociales
• Google.dirson. GoogleBooks. Retrieved, January 8 2010. From: http://google.dirson.com/post/2787-libros-google-formato-pdf/

BLOGS!

 If we look up in a dictionary the meaning of the word blog, we are going to find something like this: is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author. But we do have to think that a blog s are mucho more than just a definition. Why?

Blogs can be considered as the newest media revolution, which is changin all the society: politics, business, culture… We only have to see some dates and numbers to understand this “revolution”. Before 1997, poeple didn’t even know the word “blog”, now defined as a regularly updated online journal. In 1999, people started being interested in them and there were a few hundred blogs. However, today, the search site technorati.com tracks 23.5 million of them.

Nowadays, there are so many different types of blogs that we can clasifie them: tematic blogs, personal blogs, colavorative blogs, fotolog, audioblog… They all have their own characteristics and functions. But a typical blog, usually combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web Pages, and other media related to the topyc. We don’t have to forget that a very important part of many blogs is that every reader can leave the comment he wants.

Sources:

• Blog. (2010, January 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:37, January 4, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blog&oldid=335639957
• Marketing Terms. Blog. (2007). Retrieved January 4,2010. From: http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/blog/
• American Journalism Review. David Kline and Dan Burstein.(2006). Retrieved January 4, 2010. From: http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4045

Markup language and HTML

Markup language are designed for the processing, definition and presentation of text. What language does is to specifie the code for formating, both the layout and the style, within a text file. A code is used yo specify the formatting, they are called tags. A very important example of a markup language is: HTLM

HTLM (Hyper Text Markup Language) is a language to specify the structure, using browser programs of World Wide Web (WWW), of documents for retrieval across the Internet. There are several types of markup elements used in HTLM:

• Structural markup: It always describes the purpose of a text. It doesn’t denote any specific rendering, but most Web browsers have standardized default styles for element formatting. Text may be further styled with CSS.
• Presentational markup: It describes the appearance of the text, without being interested in its functions. The majority of the presentational markup elements became deprecated under the HTML 4.0 specification, in favour of CSS style design.
• Hypertext markup: It makes parts of a document into different links to other documents. Now HTML has become XHTML. In this case, href attribute has to be with valid URL.

Finally, we have to take into account that HTML documents can be delivered with any computer file. However, the most common ones are by HTTP from web sites or e-mails.

Sources:

• HTML. (2010, January 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:57, January 3, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HTML&oldid=336592074
• Edit Live. Introduction to HTML. Retrieved, January 3, 2010. From: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp
• HTML source. What is HTML ( January, 2010). Retrieved January 3, 2010. From: http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/starthere/whatishtml.html

Digital Library

In the world of Internet, the long-time topic of digital libraries has suddenly become white hot. As we all know, digital libraries store materials in electronic format and works with large collection of those materials effectively.

The Glasgow Digital Library is based at the Centre for Digital Library Research in the University of Strathclyde. It was set up as part of the Research Support Libraries Programme, supplemented by funding from SCRAN and RLS for specific digitisation projects.

The original aim of the project was to establish the Glasgow Digital Lribary as a virtual co-library of the majority of public institutions in Glasgow. The long-term aim was to create a perfect digital resource to  teach, learn and research at all levels in the city, bringing together material currently separated by ownership and physical location.

Nowadays, we can find different collections ( Aspect, Red Clydeside, Maxton Papers, Springburn Virtual Museum, Voyage of the Scotia, 100 Glasgow Men, SMC Journal and Victorian Times), information from many different places and subjet, and finnaly some documents too, where we find  background information about the Glasgow Digital Library along with relevant reports, minutes, articles, policies, standards and contact details.

Sources

• Bruze Schatz and Hsinchun Chen. Guests editors´introduction. Bulidin large-scale digital libraries. Retrieved, the 10th October, 2009. From: http://www.icadl.org/intranet/papers/Building-96.pdf
• Glasgow Digital Library. ( July 2002). Retrievez, the 10th October, 2009. From: http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/documents/gdloverview.htm
• Digital library. (2009, October 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:56, October 10, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Digital_library&oldid=318521063

Which are the main differences between the “e-book” and the traditional book?

 

Nowadays, is not still ver common to see people using an e-book ( electronic book) in our society. Nevertheless, taking into account the changes of our reading changes,  these new appliances will become very catchy, beacause they have a lot of advantages: more confortable, less expensive, they are ecological…

On the contrary, we find a lot of stauch defenders of the conventional reading, who insist in the idea that they way we read today will never go away, as if the traditional books were a cultural convention almost genetic.

However, imagine if we could have our favorite novel in a small screen and we could hear it while we read some comment of the writer, or while we are watching some different images, or actors or actresses… But, the e-books that we hace today are not still capable to make such a miracle, but they will be. And that day, unfortunatelly,the future of the traditional book would be doomed to lose.

To summarize, in some years, the traditional book will disappear and with them all the bookshops, libraries, textbooks, encyclopedias… Eventhoght it sounds strange, for the next genetarions would be ver normal.

 

Sources

• Oswaldo. Blog personal( 2007). Retired the 6 of October, 2009. From: http://oswaldolilly.blogcindario.com/2007/11/01998-el-e-book-y-los-libros-de-papel.html
• Libro electrónico. (2009, 4) de octubre. Wikipedia, La enciclopedia libre. Fecha de consulta: 21:29, octubre 6, 2009 from http://es.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Libro_electr%C3%B3nico&oldid=30293706.
• Suit101. Colaboracion y contenidos de calidad. Javier Yohn Planells( 2009). Retrieved the 6 October, 2009. From: http://gadgets.suite101.net/article.cfm/un_futuro_sin_papel

ENCICLOPEDIA FRANCESA

Aunque el término “enciclopedia” no aparece como tal hasta la Ilustración, no debemos olvidar a autores como Plinio el Viejo (“Naturalis Historia”, años 23-79), San Isidoro ( “Etimologías”, años 627-630),o Suidas (“Suda”, año 990 aprox.), que en sus trabajos pretendían recopilar y conservar los conocimientos de sus respectivas épocas. En cambio, el concepto moderno de enciclopedia implica la difusión y divulgación de esos conocimientos en ella contenidos.

La enciclopedia francesa fue publicada  en el siglo XVIII por el editor Le Breton, siguiendo  el éxito que en Inglaterra tuvo la “Cyclopaedia” de Chambres.  Dirigida,  finalmente, por  Diderot -quien dejó su impronta personal en el proyecto-,  se convirtió en un compendio sistemático de todos los conocimientos humanos de la época.

Referencias

L’Encyclopédie. (2009, 31) de julio. Wikipedia, La enciclopedia libre. Fecha de consulta: 20:40, septiembre 30, 2009 from http://es.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=L%27Encyclop%C3%A9die&oldid=28520968.

La Enciclopedia, Diccionario razonado de las ciencias, las artes y de los oficios. Manuel Fernández Mayo. Fecha de consulta: 30 de septiembre, 2009. From: http://thales.cica.es/rd/Recursos/rd99/ed99-0257-01/enciclo.html
                                      

CEDRO

Nowadays, we all can hear something about the conflict between the Internet users and editors. The Internet will become the center of comunication wich will always be available for everybody. It would be normal to privatize all that world? Or it has to stay like it works now? There are some associations that work in that conflicts, like for example: CEDRO

CEDRO(Centro Español de Derechos Reprográficos) is a nonprofit association that represents and upholds collectively the  intelectual property rights of patrimonial character of the authors and editors of publications protected by the law , such as, books, periodicals publications, musical scores…

Due to these types of associations, we can´t find a complet work of an author hunged on the Internet. Although nowadays some companies want to stop with that privacity, like Google which want to digitize almost all the works to hung them in the Internet. But we can´t forget the person that is behind all the work we are reading in our screens, beacause as we all know, all the works has their reward.

In conclusion, eventhough it is not easy, we must understand that the Internet couldn´t be 100% free, because we must respect que writer´s work and their rights.

 

Sources

• CEDRO (centro español del derecho reprográficos).Retrieved the 24th the September, 2009. From:http://www.cedro.org/inicio.asp
• Elperiodico.(2009, Madrid).Retrieved the 24th the September, 2009. From: http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=598001&idseccio_PK=1021
• Whatsnew. Juan Diego Polo(2008).Retrieved the 24th the September, 2009. From: http://wwwhatsnew.com/2008/02/18/escribeya-red-social-de-escritores/

Mensajes y monjes!

Teniendo en cuenta los cambios que las nuevas tecnologias estan creando en nuestra sociedad y sobre todo en el ambito de la literatura, han surgido muchas dudas y prreguntas: desaparecera el libro normal?, leerems solo en libro digital? Y muchas otras preguntas. Pero ya es hora de ver este tema desde un punto mas comico, para eso, os dejo el siguiente video. Espero que los disfruteis.

Question Answering system (Q3)

A Question Answering system’s objective is to give a good answer to a user’s questioni. We could think that this systems is very similar to the current engines’ as Yahoo or Google. However, there are some important differences. For example, this systems finds not only Web pages where you can finde the information you want, it searchs you documents too. Moreover, it doesn’t localize only the document with the answer, but also accedes to this one in order to extract it. It is also important to emphasize that the objective is to obtain the answer to the question, regardless of it is on a database, on a Web page or in other type of container.

Question-Answering’s systems consist generally of four basic modules:We can find a lot of QA on  the World Wide Web:

1. Analysis of question: So, the questions will beexpressed in natural language.
2. Recovery of documents: It makes the firts choise of the documents, using a standard system of Recovery of Information.
3. Selection of paragraphs: Analyzes the documents in order to detect those fragments where is easier to find the answer we are lookin for.
4. Extraction of answers: Here the main purpose is to finde the correct answer.

We can find a lot of QA on  the World Wide Web:True Knowledge Answer Engine

• Ask.com search engine
• AnswerBus
• DFKI-Multilingual Web Question-Answering System

 

SOURCES:

• Question answering. (2009, May 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:43, May 21, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Question_answering&oldid=288495130
• Question answering segmenter. Home page. Retrieved: May 13, 2009. From: http://www.willcannings.com/segmenter/
• Università di Pisa.Dipartimenti di informatica. ( Giuseppe Attardi, Antonio Cisternino, Francesco Formica,Maria Simi, Alessandro Tommas). Retrieved: May 13, 2009. From: http://trec.nist.gov/pubs/trec10/papers/piqasso.pdf