Syllabus News Update for Tuesday, June 22, 2004

• 06/21/04

Wide Range of Education Technology Providers to Exhibit at
Syllabus2004
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=7689

Syllabus2004 Early Bird Deadline June 25
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=7809
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News for Tuesday, June 22, 2004

* Winona State $40 Million Mega-Buy Boosts Tablet PC
* Blackboard Surprises Market with Bullish Stock Debut
* USC Offers Cardiac Patients Web-enabled Pacemakers
* SIGGRAPH Demos Advanced Computer Graphics Apps
* At Last! Web Laundry Service Adds Instant Messaging

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Hewlett Packard

Introducing the HP Workstation xw4100: a top-of-the-line solution
that delivers innovative technology at a low price. Designed to help
you and your school operate as effectively as possible. And now,
when you buy an xw4100 Workstation, you’ll save your school $656,
for a limited time.

http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=7831

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Winona State $40 Million Mega-Buy Boosts Tablet PC

Minnesota’s Winona State University has decided to standardize on
the tablet PC for student, faculty, and staff computing. The school
signed a seven-year contact with Gateway Inc. worth potentially $40
million to supply Gateway M275 tablets to supply incoming freshman
as well as current users who are ready for a replacement. The school
said it was the first school to standardize on the tablet PC as a
hardware platform.

“We conducted an open bid and had faculty, staff and students
evaluate many different models of PCs, including other tablets from
competing companies,” said J'e Whetstone, vice president of
information technology for Winona State. The Gateway tablet
“bubbled to the top,” he said, because the convertible has all the
features of a mainstream notebook coupled with pen input.

Other bidders for the contract included IBM, Dell, Toshiba, and HP.
Winona had been a Gateway customer for over four years. Under the
deal, the M275 will be priced starting at $1,799, slightly more
than a similarly configured notebook.

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Wide Range of Education Technology Providers to Exhibit at
Syllabus2004

Syllabus2004 takes place July 18-22 in San Francisco and
on the campus of UC Berkeley. In addition to cutting-edge
keynotes, breakout sessions and panel discussions, attendees
will see the latest products for campus technology in the
conference Exhibit Hall. Some of the companies include:
Insight Public Sector, offering consulting, procurement,
product delivery, maintenance, and support to higher education
institutions; NEC Solutions, Visual Systems Division, selling
and supporting display solutions and multimedia presentation
systems for unique needs and environments; Questionmark,
providing assessment software for educators and trainers to
securely write, administer, and report on tests and surveys
in Windows and Web environments; Spectrum Industries,
researching, designing, and developing computer lab furniture
specifically for classrooms, and Sprint, developing, engineering,
and deploying state-of-the-art network technologies nationwide.

To view the entire exhibitor list, and to register for
Syllabus2004, go to http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=7689.

Early Bird registration ends June 25--save up to $200 now!

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Blackboard Shares Take Off in Stock Market Debut

The price of Blackboard Inc. shares rose more than 60 percent in the
educational software company’s public trading debut last Friday.
Stock analysts said it was the best first-day performance of a
technology stock Initial Public Offering this year. Blackboard
priced its 5.5 million share offering at $14 per share. The stock
opened at $15.80 and rose 43 percent to close at $20.01.

Reaction to the IPO by financial analysts was mixed:

"This is certainly a positive reinforcement for those investors who
have been on the fence as to whether technology is overrated as a
potential investment," David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com,
a research firm in Millburn, N.J., told SmartMoney.com. "It says
that investors are willing to jump into the deep end of the pool,
provided they still have their lifejackets on."

Others trimmed their sails. Frank Adams, managing general partner of
Grotech Capital Group, told the Washington Post: "I hope they do
get out and I hope it's wonderful, but I don't understand. As the
new wave of IPOs came out, I thought it would be the best companies
first. And when I say 'best,' I mean 'profitable.' "

Blackboard, which counts over 6,000 colleges and universities as its
customers, had revenues of $92 million in 2003, up from $51 million
in 2002. However it has operated at a loss since mid-2003, when it
reported its first profitable quarter since launching in 1997.

USC Offers Cardiac Patients Web-Enabled Pacemakers

Physicians at the University of Southern California's University
Hospital can now evaluate patients with implantable cardiac devices
and pacemakers over the Internet, without requiring the patients to
leave home. The service is being offered through the Medtronic
CareLink Network, the first Internet-based remote device check that
allows physicians to follow their patients from afar.

The new technology is available to people with a Medtronic
implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), pacemaker or cardiac
resynchronization therapy ICD system for heart failure. The
Medtronic Network is composed of a patient monitor, a Website for
clinicians, and a Website for patients and their loved ones. The
monitor is a small, easy-to-use device that allows patients to
collect information by holding a small computer mouse-like "antenna"
over their implanted device.

The monitor automatically downloads data about the patient's heart
rhythm and device, and sends it through a standard phone line
directly to a secure server. Clinicians then review their patients'
data by logging onto the physician Website from any Internet-connected
computer or laptop and can make immediate decisions about the
patients' care needs. Patients have the option to view information
about their devices and conditions on their own personalized Web site.

SIGGRAPH Demos Advanced Computer Graphics Apps

The art of teaching is both upset and molded by changes in the
technologies of presentation and rendering. And there are few
places better positioned to showcase these changes than SIGGRAPH,
the monster computer graphics conference sponsored by the
Association of Computing Machines.

The 2004 SIGGRAPH conference, to be held next month in Chicago,
will include presentations on some of the most advanced uses of
computer graphics and techniques. Among the projects presenting will be:

-- The Art of SSX3, by Henry LaBounta, Electronic Arts Canada

A behind-the-scenes look at the visual development of the SSX3
videogame. The creative process used to develop the visuals that
support and enhance gameplay will also be discussed.

-- Digital Artifacts to Ease Communication With Seeing-Impaired
People, Maria Alberta Alberti, Universita degli Studi di Milano a
perspective into Genoa, Italy that has never been seen before. A
tour guided by seeing-impaired people to reveal city life in p'etry.
An interactive storytelling enhanced by sound and images.

-- Modeling Expressive 3-D Caricatures, Ergun Akleman and Jon Reisch,
Texas A&M University

An educational method to teach students artistic concepts of
abstraction and exaggeration by modeling expressive 3D caricatures.
All students, regardless of artistic abilities or experience, are
able to create convincing caricatures.

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Register Now for Syllabus2004 and Save up to $200!

Don't miss out on the opportunity to expand your knowledge of
the latest technology for higher education at Syllabus2004,
July 18-22 in San Francisco and on the campus of UC Berkeley.
During a special day-long visit to Berkeley you'll hear from
some of the leading scholars on technology in education, including
Kristine Hafner, Ph.D., on the role of IT at the University of
California in turbulent times; Gary L. Baldwin, Ph.D., on the
Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of
Society (CITRIS), and Mark Kubinec on teaching with streaming
media and electronic individual student response systems, to
name a few. Early Bird savings end Friday, so don't delay.

For the complete program go to
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=7809.

Register by June 25 and save up to $200.

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At Last! Web Laundry Service Adds Instant Messaging

The Mac-Gray Corp. said it would add Instant Messaging capabilities
to its LaundryView eMonitoring System, a service that enables
students to monitor the status of campus washers and dryers from any
device with a Web browser.

The company announced at the annual conference of the Association of
College and University Housing Officers International that the
latest version of LaundryView – with IM – “further extends Mac-Gray’s
dominance of Internet-enabled laundry equipment monitoring.”
Previously, students could be notified of open laundry machines
only through direct observation, computer, PDA, or cell phone.
LaundryView Version 2.1, however, can send notifications via all
major IM services, including AOL, MSN, and Yahoo.

Philip Clay, the Assistant Dean of Student Life at Worcester
Polytechnic Institute, "We're always looking for better ways to
provide basic services to our students. LaundryView is one that is
truly cutting edge."

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Syllabus2004 July 18-22, San Francisco: Technologies to Connect the Campus
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=6453
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