AZERTY

tessssssssssssssssssssssssssssst

B4class - Group & video chat, scheduling, photo sharing & tutoring. View.
Labels: CHATTING 2.0, COMMUNITY 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, PHOTO 2.0, VIDEOCOM 2.0

Cafescribe - Search texts, upload & share notes, subscribe to best notes & save trees. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING 2.0, NOTES 2.0

Chalksite - Bring your classroom online. View.
Labels:

Classcaster - Interact with students thru podcasts & blogs. View.
Labels: AUDIO 2.0, BLOGGING 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, PUBLISHING 2.0

Classmarker - Create, publish & share tests and quizzes. View.
Labels: BLOGGING 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, GAMING 2.0, PUBLISHING 2.0

Edublogs - Blog hosting for teachers (Wordpress). View.
Labels: BLOGGING 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, PUBLISHING 2.0

Elgg - Open source e-learning software. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING 2.0, PUBLISHING 2.0

Engrade - Helps teachers, students parents to connect. View.
Labels: COMMUNITY 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0

Examprofessor - Create, publish & share exams. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING 2.0, PUBLISHING 2.0

Gradefix - Organize your homework. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING 2.0, ORGANIZING 2.0, PRODUCTIVITY 2.0

Grockit - Online exam preparation. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING

Haikuls - E-learning publishing & management solution. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING 2.0, PUBLISHING 2.0

Livemocha* - Language learning & practice community. View.
Labels: BRILLIANT 2.0, COMMUNITY 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0

Mindpicnic* - Share & learn from online knowledge. View.
Labels: BRILLIANT 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, KNOWLEDGE 2.0

Moodle - Course management system for learning communities. View.
Labels: COMMUNITY 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, PUBLISHING 2.0

Notemesh - Collaborate with classmates to create unified sets of notes. View.
Labels: COLLABORATING 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, NOTES 2.0, PRODUCTIVITY 2.0

Nuvvo - Build, publish & learn from courses. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING 2.0, PUBLISHING 2.0

Palabea* - Learn languages & share your culture. View.
Labels: BRILLIANT 2.0, COMMUNITY 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0

Plateau* - Enterprise e-learning, performance & career management solution. View.
Labels: BRILLIANT 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, ENTERPRISE 2.0, RECRUITING 2.0

Scitalks - Explore, publish & share scientific video presentations & lectures. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING 2.0, PRESENTATION 2.0, PUBLISHING 2.0, VIDEO 2.0

Scriptovia - Community for students; collaborate & receive feedback on your academic work. View.
Labels: COLLABORATING 2.0, COMMUNITY 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, PRODUCTIVITY 2.0

Solutionwatch - Reviews & lists of school & study tools. View.
Labels: ABOUT 2.0, CODING 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, EDUCATION 2.0

Soziety - Language-learning social network based on Skype. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING 2.0, PHONE 2.0

Starplay - Practice your music with virtual pros. View.
Labels: AUDIO 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, MUSIC 2.0

Tutorialicious - Digg IT tutorials. View.
Labels: CODING 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, RATING 2.0

Tutorvista* - Online education in any subject, with 24/7 live tutors. View.
Labels: BRILLIANT 2.0, E-LEARNING 2.0, IRL 2.0, SERVICE COMMERCE 2.0

Udutu - Online course authoring. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING 2.0, PUBLISHING 2.0

Visual-literacy - E-learning tutorial on visualization. View.
Labels: DATABASE 2.0, DESIGN 2.0 (GRAPHICAL -), DESIGN 2.0 (INTERACTION -), DESIGN 2.0 (PRODUCT -), E-LEARNING 2.0, TREEMAPS 2.0, VISUALIZATION 2.0

Wiziq - Connecting teachers and students for distance learning. View.
Labels: E-LEARNING 2.0, RECRUITING 2.0, SERVICE COMMERCE 2.0

First Capital has exclusively released to TechCrunch UK the information presented at its breakfast seminar this yesterday. The data contained makes for interesting reading if you are a startup trying to value your business.

They studied about 600 international internet M&A deals since the start of 2005 and found that 2007 produced very high valuations for deals, but that this was - in their opinion - unsustainable.

Put it this way, in early 05 most internet company exits were priced at three times revenues. In 2007 they were priced at 13 or 14 times revenues. Although VCs tend to aim for a 10 times multiple, even at this rate it’s unsustainable.

In addition, in 2007 there were 11 multi-billion pound deals. In 2006 there were… zero. And in 2005 only two - Ask jeeves and Skype. You can see the relaity check in that pricing started to fall at the beginning of this year.

In other words, this year will see less of those kinds of mega-deals. However, the situation today is that the sub-£100mn size exit market is still robust. Furthermore, valuations are still up on ‘05 and ‘06

Some of the First Capital findings could be described as ‘Myth busting’. Internet entrepreneurs often think of only a handful of big US consumer internet players, when considering an exit. And yes, they do make the headlines in terms of number of deals and value of these deals. But, the universe of potential acquirers is far larger and more complex than most realise. For instance, out of the deals they analysed there were almost 400 different acquirers, as opposed to the Googles/Yahoos/Microsofts that most people normally think of.

And since most acquirers of UK internet companies are OTHER UK companies, UK internet entrepreneurs would do well to build on these kinds of relationships rather than focus too heavily on the big US names.

That’s not to say that the Web giants are not active. The top eight Internet giants (Google, Microsoft, News Corp, eBay, Cisco, Yahoo, ValueClick, AOL) have done about £16bn worth of deals since 2005. To put that in context, the whole market did nearly £60bn worth over that period.

Also, Internet deals are not just about the consumer web. In truth, online data deals dominated 2007 by far. These are big boring ugly businesses - but they have a hell of a lot of data (note to all startups not concentrating on creating some kind of data!).

First Capital also identified some key trends for Internet companies:

- Social networks are going niche (Moli, Kindo, Visible Path)
- Advertising gets smarter (AdInfuse, Smaato, Consorte Media)
- Everything is going mobile (MyStrands, BetNow, Streamezzo)
- Professional content is returning (TVTrip, ONnetworks, VideoJug)
- Media is becoming more immersive (Superscape, AlamoFire, PlayFirst)
- Shopping is becoming more social (Tenga, ThisNext, ideeli)
- Software in the sky/cloud/ether! (Zoomio, Netsuite, TuVox)

Multi Billion £ Deals show that 2007 was an unusual year

2007 (& early 08)

Webex - Cisco £1.5bn 03/07
Doubleclick - Google 1.5bn 04/07
Reuters - Thomson 9bn 05/07
Aquantive - Microsoft 3bn 05/07
Gemstar (interactive TV) - Macrovision 1.5bn 07/07
Navteq - Nokia 4bn 10/7
Teleatlas - Tom Tom 2bn 11/07
Tradus (QXL) - Naspers 1bn 12/07
ChoicePOint (insurance data & analytics) - Reed Elsevier 2bn 2/08
Getty Images - Hellman & Friedman 1.2bn 2/08
Dow Jones - News Corp 2.8bn 1/07

2006

no billion pound deals

2005

Ask jeeves - IACI 1bn 3/05
Skype - eBay 2.2bn 9/05

Quotations about Success

Found a forum discussing the world’s dumbest hacker and I believe you have to agree, the guy really is the world’s dumbest hacker. Below is a copy of the post made in the forum:

*** Start ***

This is a transcript of the worlds dummest hacker on an IRC channel. The original can be found here: http://www.jellyslab.com/~bteo/hacker.htm

The comments are not mine, they belong to the original poster of the dialogue.

quote:

* bitchchecker (~java@euirc-a97f9137.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)
* bitchchecker (~java@euirc-61a2169c.dip.t-dialin.net) has joined #stopHipHop
[bitchchecker] why do you kick me
[bitchchecker] can’t you discus normally
[bitchchecker] answer!
[Elch] we didn’t kick you
[Elch] you had a ping timeout: * bitchchecker (~java@euirc-a97f9137.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)
[bitchchecker] what ping man
[bitchchecker] the timing of my pc is right
[bitchchecker] i even have dst
[bitchchecker] you banned me
[bitchchecker] amit it you son of a bitch
[HopperHunter|afk] LOL
[HopperHunter|afk] shit you’re stupid, DST^^
[bitchchecker] shut your mouth WE HAVE DST!
[bitchchecker] for two weaks already
[bitchchecker] when you start your pc there is a message from windows that DST is applied.
[Elch] You’re a real computer expert
[bitchchecker] shut up i hack you
[Elch] ok, i’m quiet, hope you don’t show us how good a hacker you are ^^
[bitchchecker] tell me your network number man then you’re dead
[Elch] Eh, it’s 129.0.0.1
[Elch] or maybe 127.0.0.1
[Elch] yes exactly that’s it: 127.0.0.1 I’m waiting for you great attack
[bitchchecker] in five minutes your hard drive is deleted
[Elch] Now I’m frightened
[bitchchecker] shut up you’ll be gone
[bitchchecker] i have a program where i enter your ip and you’re dead
[bitchchecker] say goodbye
[Elch] to whom?
[bitchchecker] to you man
[bitchchecker] buy buy
[Elch] I’m shivering thinking about such great Hack0rs like you
* bitchchecker (~java@euirc-61a2169c.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)

What happened is clear: That guy entered his own IP-Adress in his mighty Hack-Tool and crashed his own PC. This way, the attack on my PC was a failure. I was already starting to think that I did not have to worry, but a good hacker never calls it a day. Two minutes later he returned.

quote:

* bitchchecker (~java@euirc-b5cd558e.dip.t-dialin.net) has joined #stopHipHop
[bitchchecker] dude be happy my pc crashed otherwise you’d be gone
[Metanot] lol
[Elch] bitchchecker: Then try hacking me again… I still have the same IP: 127.0.0.1
[bitchchecker] you’re so stupid man
[bitchchecker] say buy buy
[Metanot] ah, [Please control your cussing] off
[bitchchecker] buy buy elch
* bitchchecker (~java@euirc-b5cd558e.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)

There was a tension in the room… Would he manage, after these two failures, to crash my PC? I waited. Nothing happened. I felt relieve… Six minutes passed by until he prepared the next wave of attack. Being a Hacker, who usually cracks whole data centers, he knew what his problem was now.

quote:

* bitchchecker (~java@euirc-9ff3c180.dip.t-dialin.net) has joined #stopHipHop
[bitchchecker] elch you son of a bitch
[Metanot] bitchchecker how old are you?
[Elch] What’s up bitchchecker?
[bitchchecker] you have a frie wal
[bitchchecker] fire wall
[Elch] maybe, i don’t know
[bitchchecker] i’m 26
[Metanot] such behaviour with 26?
[Elch] how did you find out that I have a firewall?
[Metanot] tststs this is not very nice missy
[bitchchecker] because your gay fire wall directed my turn off signal back to me
[bitchchecker] be a man turn that shit off
[Elch] cool, didn’t know this was possible.
[bitchchecker] thn my virus destroys your pc man
[Metanot] are you hacking yourselves?
[Elch] yes bitchchecker is trying to hack me
[Metanot] he bitchchecker if you’re a hacker you have to get around a firewall even i can do that
[bitchchecker] yes man i hack the elch but the sucker has a fire wall the
[Metanot] what firewall do you have?
[bitchchecker] like a girl
[Metanot] firewall is normal a normal hacker has to be able to get past it…you girl^^
[He] Bitch give yourself a jackson and chill you’re letting them provoce you and give those little girls new material all the time
[bitchchecker] turn the firewall off then i send you a virus [Please control your cussing]er
[Elch] Noo
[Metanot] he bitchchecker why turn it off, you should turn it off
[bitchchecker] you’re afraid
[bitchchecker] i don’t wanna hack like this if he hides like a girl behind a fire wall
[bitchchecker] elch turn off your shit wall!
[Metanot] i wanted to say something about this, do you know the definition of hacking??? if he turns of the firewall that’s an invitation and that has nothing to do with hacking
[bitchchecker] shut up
[Metanot] lol
[bitchchecker] my grandma surfs with fire wall
[bitchchecker] and you suckers think you’re cool and don’t dare going into the internet without a fire wall

He calls me girly and says only his grandma would use a firewall. I know that elder people are much more intelligent then younger, but I couldn’t let that rest. To see whether he really is a good hacker I lie and let everything as it is. I don’t have a firewall at all, only my router.

quote:

[Elch] bitchchecker, a collegue showed me how to turn the firewall off. Now you can try again
[Metanot] bitchhacker can’t hack
[Black] nice play on words ^^
[bitchchecker] wort man
[Elch] bitchchecker: I’m still waiting for your attack!
[Metanot] how many times again he is no hacker
[bitchchecker] man do you want a virus
[bitchchecker] tell me your ip and it deletes your hard drive
[Metanot] lol ne give it up i’m a hacker myself and i know how hackers behave and i can tell you 100.00% you’re no hacker..^^
[Elch] 127.0.0.1
[Elch] it’s easy
[bitchchecker] lolololol you so stupid man you’ll be gone
[bitchchecker] and are the first files being deleted
[Elch] mom…
[Elch] i’ll take a look

In panic I started the Windows Explorer, my heart beating faster. Had I under-estimated him?

quote:

[bitchchecker] don’t need to rescue you can’t son of a bitch
[Elch] that’s bad
[bitchchecker] elch you idiout your hard drive g: is deleted
[Elch] yes, there’s nothing i can do about it
[bitchchecker] and in 20 seconds f: is gone

Yes, true, G: and F: were gone. Did I ever have them? Doesn’t matter, I did not have time to think, I was scared. bitchchecker was comforting me with a music tip.

quote:

[bitchchecker] tupac rules
[bitchchecker] elch you son of a bitch your f: is gone and e: too

Drive E:? Oh my god… All the games are there! And the vacation pictures! I instantly take a look. Everything still there. But the hacker said it was deleted….

Or isn’t it happening on my computer?

quote:

[bitchchecker] and d: is at 45% you idiot lolololol
[He] why doesn’t meta say anything
[Elch] he’s probably rolling on the floor laughing
[Black] ^^
[bitchchecker] your d: is gone
[He] go on BITCH

The guy is good: My CD-drive is allegedly deleted! Bitchchecker turned my ancient disk sucker into a burner! But how did he do this? I’ll have to ask him. Some encourage him. He himself is giving advice how to avoid the disaster on my hard drives.

quote:

[bitchchecker] elch man you’re so stupid never give your ip on the internet
[bitchchecker] i’m already at c: 30 percent

Should I tell him he’s not attacking my computer?

quote:

* bitchchecker (~java@euirc-9ff3c180.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)

Too late… It’s 20:22 when we get the last message of our hacker with the alias “bitchchecker”. We see that he has a “Ping timeout”. We haven’t seen him since then… must be the Daylight Saving Time.

*** End ***

Geez, this guy is indeed the world’s dumbest hacker!!!

The Sea of Galilee, one of Israel's strained water sources.

The public discussion of Israel's water problems intensified this week, with Israel's most respected newspaper, Ha'aretz, calling on water authorities to shift to regulating demand for the scarce resource. Also this week, we reported on a new study suggesting that a shift to electric cars could seriously impact water consumption in countries where this technology is adopted.

The crux of the study's argument is that, as cars rely on the national grid for energy instead of on gasoline, national electricity generation (currently based on non-renewable sources) must increase, which will significantly elevate power plants' demand for water resources.

As Andrew wrote earlier this week, yes, it takes water to produce electricity - but this does not have to be a deal-breaker. However, in Israel, where ambitious entrepreneurs aim to put 100,000 electric cars on the road by the end of 2010, authorities would be wise to heed the advice of the researchers, and consider the broader impacts of large-scale adoption of the plug-in vehicle.

Located downstream from other regional consumers of water, and with no precipitation for around half of the year, Israel has never been a land flowing with water (unlike milk and honey, which still flow in abundance). And, as Israel approaches the end of the current rainy season, the country is facing the worst crisis the national water economy has seen in a decade. The agricultural sector, already in crisis mode, will probably be the first to suffer the economic effects of the drought, and the local effects of global climate change are only expected to exacerbate the situation over the coming years.

On top of the energy demands of the cars themselves, the factories that manufacture them will likely be built in Israel, and, despite the welcome boost to the country's green economy, will also become major consumers of energy and water. Although Israeli water authorities and green groups have held up transport projects in the past, it is not yet clear how the various groups involved view the electric car project at this stage.

The researchers behind the study on electric cars and water consumption, Carey W. King and Michael E. Webber of the University of Texas at Austin, offer these words of caution to policy-makers:

Overall, we conclude that the impact on water resources from a widespread shift to grid-based transportation would be substantial enough to warrant consideration for relevant public policy decision-making. That is not to say that the negative impacts on water resources make such a shift undesirable, but rather this increase in water usage presents a significant potential impact on regional water resources and should be considered when planning for a plugged-in automotive economy.

The best solution to the dilemma may be a wholesale shift to renewable energy. While Israel currently gets most of its energy from fossil fuels, King points out that, in an energy economy based on wind or solar energy, the electric car's additional contribution to water consumption would be "essentially zero."

Israel is well-positioned to take advantage of one of its only major natural resources, the sun, with considerable academic, technical, and business prowess in the solar field. The solar economy is just beginning to take off, with new regulations allowing private citizens to sell power produced by their solar panels to the national grid and new solar power plants planned in the southern Negev and Arava regions.

Bebo founders and husband-wife team Michael and Xochi Birch made about $600 million in the sale of the social networking site to AOL (NYSE: TWX) for $850 million. The two founders are reported to have about 70 percent stake at the time of the sale. This for less than three years of work. We reported earlier that VC firm Balderton Capital will reap about $140 million - nine times what it invested in Bebo less than two years ago - by selling its 15.7 percent stake.