The former co-owners of a New Jersey computer services provider each have been sentenced to 27 months in prison on charges of conspiracy to defraud the federal e-Rate program, which helps bring internet access to schools and libraries, PC World reports. Benjamin Rowner and Jay H. Soled, former owners of DeltaNet, also were sentenced to pay $271,716 each in restitution to the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC), which administers the e-Rate for the Federal Communications Commission. Rowner and Soled, working with Leonard Douglas LaDuron, conspired to defraud the e-Rate by submitting false and misleading statements and concealing material facts from USAC, the Justice Department said. The conspiracy, which ran from 1999 to 2003, reportedly affected at least 13 schools across the country. LaDuron, former owner of Serious ISP, Myco Technologies, and Elephantine, was sentenced on Dec. 16 to serve 57 months in jail and to pay $238,607 in restitution. LaDuron’s mother, Mary Jo LaDuron, fraudulently represented herself as an independent consultant for school districts and steered e-Rate contracts to companies owned by her son, Rowner, and Soled, the Justice Department alleged. Mary Jo LaDuron plead guilty to making false statements in July…
…Read MorePodcast Series: Innovations in Education
Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
Asustek plans Eee Book eReader and tablet PC to rival iPad
Netbook pioneer Asustek Computer plans to launch its own eReader device and a tablet PC to rival Apple’s iPad in the second half of this year, PC World reports. The company will focus on bringing content providers on board when it releases its tablet PC, CEO Jerry Shen told investors. It also will launch its first eReader device, the Eee Book, at the Computex Taipei 2010 electronics trade show, which runs June 1 to 5. Details about both devices were not immediately available. Shen hinted at creating a “smart book” this year, a mini-laptop similar to a netbook but made using a microprocessor and other components normally found in smart phones. The devices offer far longer battery life than netbooks, which are made using laptop PC components. During the conference, he said Asustek saw a better opportunity for smart books this year…
…Read MoreGoogle expands its social search test
Google’s Social Search service, which includes public content from users’ social networks in search results, is getting promoted to Google.com from the company’s Labs site, meaning it is no longer considered an early prototype, PC World reports. In the coming days, Google will let English-language users of its search engine see relevant links to items their social-networking contacts have posted publicly on the web. Social Search results also will appear in the Google Images engine, the company said in a Jan. 27 blog post. To use Social Search, users have to be signed in to their Google account. Google also recommends that people create a Google Profile, which they can populate with addresses to their blogs, social networks, photo-sharing accounts, and so on. Google can then harvest the contacts and connections in those sites, as well as in Google services such as Gmail and Google Reader, and index publicly available, relevant content for these users’ Social Search query results. Besides the Social Search effort, Google also is indexing public posts from social networks and returning links to them in its search results, even for users who aren’t signed in to their Google account…
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