Ancient History Ramblings

Firefox Turns 5 and Cambyses II

The Firefox browser turns five years old today. It now accounts for nearly 25% of browser usage today. Its fairly steady growth as an alternative to Internet Explorer has slowed with the release of Google's Chrome. It will be interesting to see how Firefox changes as Chrome grows - Firefox 4.0 is around the corner and the browser competition can only benefit users.

Italian researchers have announced that they believe that they have found the missing army of Cambyses II. This army, supposedly 50,000 strong, was lost in a huge sandstorm in 525 B.C. The team of researchers have discovered a mass grave with hundreds of bones and skulls. Their discovery hinged upon a hypothesis regarding the path the army took:

In the following years, the Castiglioni brothers studied ancient maps and came to the conclusion that Cambyses' army did not take the widely believed caravan route via the Dakhla Oasis and Farafra Oasis.

• "Since the 19th century, many archaeologists and explorers have searched for the lost army along that route. They found nothing. We hypothesized a different itinerary, coming from south. Indeed we found that such a route already existed in the 18th Dynasty," Castiglioni said. According to Castiglioni, from El Kargha the army took a westerly route to Gilf El Kebir, passing through the Wadi Abd el Melik, then headed north toward Siwa. "This route had the advantage of taking the enemy aback. Moreover, the army could march undisturbed. On the contrary, since the oasis on the other route were controlled by the Egyptians, the army would have had to fight at each oasis," Castiglioni said.

RSM

Google Dashboard

Today Google announced the release of Dashboard. Google's Dashboard is a service that allows you to see and control the data saved about you on Google's servers. The release is due in part to the criticism that Google has received for its collection and storage of data from its users, which has been a growing concern as Google's wide range of enterprises continues to expand.

RSM

Digital Issues in the News Today

When I get up, I try to scan the various news and blogs sites I frequent to see if anything happened over night. I have also been on the lookout for digital related issues since I am in the process of locating ideas and issues for my new Digital History class. Today, what caught my eye was that there were 2 articles on CNN.com dealing with digital memories. The first was an article by John Sutter entitled "My week of recording a 'digital memory'."  He spent a week recording every moment of his life in an effort to document his life. It seemed that he ahd mixed feelings at the end of the week. As he said:

• "After a week of testing out Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell's theory of "Total Recall," I've decided it has potential -- but also serious limits. Bell argues in a recent book that people are developing "e-memories" to supplement the finite and fleeting info we store in our brains. For a decade, he recorded most of the details of his life in an effort to compile a searchable, digital memory."

When I finished that article and then returned to CNN's main page, I found an article under the Health section by Elizabeth Landau entitled "Do digital diaries mess up your brain?" This article also had mixed feelings on the subject:

• Relying on the Internet for answers does have its advantages in terms of brain stimulation. A recent study from Small's group at UCLA found that Internet searching among middle-aged and elderly adults who don't have much experience with the Web had increased activity in key areas of the brain after searching the Web for an hour each day for two weeks. "But recording everything you do takes people out of the "here and now," psychologists say. Constant documenting may make people less thoughtful about and engaged in what they're doing because they are focused on the recording process, Schwartz said."

So, the verdict on digital memories and their impact/effect seems to be out.

RSM

Dangers of the Internet

In my Introduction to History class I have been trying to stress to my class the dangers of the Internet - such as facebook pictures, twitter posts, emails, etc. They seemed to think I was overreacting, but a series of recent news articles support my concerns. "Digital dirt can haunt your job search" talks about the way employers now use the Internet to conduct background research on prospective employees.

• "In 2009, 45 percent of employers used social networking sites to research candidates, according to a CareerBuilder survey, a 23 percent increase from last year."

Another article "Lawsuit Over Anonymous Online Comments Is Settled" shows that online postings, even when they are supposedly autonomous, are potentially dangerous and unsafe. I have been collecting these articles since I am teaching another class on Digital History next semester and it will be interesting to see how that class reacts to this topic.

RSM

Another E-Reader

Having put off buying an e-reader longer than I ever expected (and still waiting), I was interested to learn about the new Barnes and Noble "Nook." Some bloggers are referring to it as a Kindle-killer, while others aren't so sure. I am still interested in finding a good e-reader to use in Cyprus. My goal is to be able to use it to read pdfs in the field. I guess a little more research is needed.

Blackboard continues fight

Despite Blackboard's loss in federal court in its battle against Desire2Learn is evidently not over. The company is going to file an appeal with the Supreme Court. The loss in federal court was a fairly substantial loss on all fronts for Blackboard, at least according to Desire2Learn's blog.

RSM

New Project

The IUP History Department has undertaken a new project....well, more of an experiment. One of our emeritus faculty, Dr. Irwin Marcus, has agreed to let us record a series of his lectures for delivery via the web. I am very excited about the project for several reasons. First, Dr. Marcus is an amazing individual. He is well-read on a far-reaching range of subjects. I have listened to many of his talks and am always blown away by how interesting his talks are....and a bit envious of his abilities. Second, Dr. Marcus has never made use of any computer technology, so it is very ironic that we are going to deliver his lectures online. I am in the process of developing a WordPress site for the project, code named "The Irwin Marcus Project" and am trying to learn about audio files - I still have a lot to learn.

RSM 

Google buys Digitizing Company

Google recently bought reCaptcha, a company whose program helps foil bots. You have probably seen such anti-spam services where you have to decode distorted phrases or words to join the website or access certain pages. The interesting thing is that reCaptcha uses their service to help the digitization of books. When a digitization project has words that their OCR programs cannot decode, they can use reCaptcha to have computer users solve it. As their website says:

• "reCAPTCHA improves the process of digitizing books by sending words that cannot be read by computers to the Web in the form of CAPTCHAs for humans to decipher. More specifically, each word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is placed on an image and used as a CAPTCHA. This is possible because most OCR programs alert you when a word cannot be read correctly. But if a computer can't read such a CAPTCHA, how does the system know the correct answer to the puzzle? Here's how: Each new word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is given to a user in conjunction with another word for which the answer is already known. The user is then asked to read both words. If they solve the one for which the answer is known, the system assumes their answer is correct for the new one. The system then gives the new image to a number of other people to determine, with higher confidence, whether the original answer was correct.

Very interesting.

RSM

History Curriculum

As classes start in the fall, my thoughts always turn to undergraduate curricular matters, for various reasons. For the last few years I have meant to do some research to see what other history programs are requiring of their majors, but as with many things - I have just not had the time. This fall I really mean to look into this. So, tonite I looked at the American Historical Association's webpage (AHA). There I found an interesting article entitled "Benchmarks for Professional Development in Teaching of History as a Discipline." The paragraph that caught my eye was:

• "History is the study of the past (including the study of change and continuity over time). According to historian Peter Stearns, "the past causes the present, and so the future. Sometimes fairly recent history will suffice to explain a major development, but often we need to look further back to identify the causes of change. Only through studying history can we grasp how things change; only through history can we begin to comprehend the factors that cause change; and only through history can we understand what elements of an institution or a society persist despite change." Studying history not only trains students to place events in historical perspective, it also develops research skills and sharpens student analytical thinking. Professional development projects should be reviewed over time to insure that these thinking and research skills are being met."

I certainly agree with the sentiments expressed in the paragraph and feel that most historians would agree with this also. The problem is that I do not feel that most history programs address these issues fully. Instead, most history programs seem to  be fairly similar to programs 20, 30, or even 40 years ago. Sure, some of the content has changed, but other than that the programs have not changed. Perhaps this is because the curriculum does not need to change, but I doubt it. Historians tend to resist academic changes and this concerns me. I worry that this will result in the gradual decline of the field since students already perceive history as an "old-school" major. I also understand that many students come to college with unrealistic expectations, for example I meet many students entering IUP who want to be CSI agents, not truly understanding what that would entail scholastically or professionally. This all leads me to 2 separate, but interconnected questions:

1. What should an undergraduate history curriculum contain?
2. How do we attract students to the field of history?

RSM

Codex Sinaiticus Online

I am sure that most people have seen it, but the Codex Sinaiticus is now available online. This is the largest ancient manuscript to be made available online. The Codex Sinaiticus Project website is worth visiting. They layout and organization is well-done. It is intuitive and easy to navigate. In addition to being able to examine individual pages (with translations) the site provides important background information on the manuscript . A very well-done and cool site.

RSM