Talking with some friends at lunch the other day I was *shocked* ( as in the case of Capt. Louis Renault in Casablanca) to hear that they were still using IE for browsing and hadn't even heard about Firefox. What follows are some links to tools/sites useful to an academic/scholar using the Web.
Firefox - http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/. This is the best browser available - great features, robust, no charge, and open source.
Google Scholar. - http://scholar.google.com/. A new search tool, released by Google, that focuses on scholarly resources. it's more suited to research than the Google's general tool at http://www.google.com. (Try searching using the expression "ernest ackermann" in both to see the difference.) The Chronicle of Higher Education carried a story about Google Scholar on November 19, 2004, http://chronicle.com/free/2004/11/2004111901n.htm.
Academic Resources entry in the Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_resources. Take a look at this for two reasons. One is the list of resources, and the other is to get some exposure to the Wikipedia, a resource built by its readers. Hey, maybe you'd like to edit the page!
Technorati - http://technorati.com/. Use this to search for the Web for information being posted to blogs -- up to the minute opinion and commentary. You do need to know about blogs. To find out about them take a look at How Blogs Work, to get your own blog go to blogger.com or Bloglines, to read about scholars who use them read Scholars Who Blog, and to browse a good example (IMO) of a blog take a look at Lessig Blog, by Lawrence Lessig.
Posted by ernie at November 20, 2004 03:54 PM | TrackBackNice blog today! I was particularly happy to get the link to the Chronicle piece, which I missed the first time out.
Re the Wikipedia: I did some reading last week on its "protected pages," and was fascinated to see what was protected and why. I also learned a new phrase: "edit wars." Very interesting.
Posted by: Gardner Campbell at November 22, 2004 10:27 AM