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 Thursday, October 31, 2002
Doc shoots. He scores!
Hey Joe --- Doc got in a good one! FIY. I'm glad the new RSS feed for Doc is working as well as it is. I'm still wondering if UserLand will make this available for everyone who uses Manila... 4:58:59 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via The Doc Searls Weblog ]
If they only really knew... Not much earth-shattering news here. Unless you consider having one of the greats teaching an Intro class earth-shaking. Which I do. Imagine Einstein, Oppenheimer, or Feynman teaching an Introduction to Physics for non-majors course. That's about what this one is like. To the Liberal Arts, He Adds Computer Science. Brian Kernighan, a legendary computer scientist, has a new challenge for himself: to demystify digital technology for liberal arts students. By Steve Lohr. Kernighan, the K part of the K & R boo^H^H^H bible of C programming, should be able to provide some outstanding insights, and I do like the two analogies offered near the end of the article. I just doubt his students know how good they really have it. I wonder if they are videotaping this course, and if I could score a copy? 4:53:59 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via New York Times: Technology ]
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
So what is the normal behavior, huh? Cairn owners appear to be a breed unto themselves. This woman mentions more than a few things about her dog Elly that hit a little too close to home for me -- about the behavior of the female owner and of the dog... And yes, Jeff, we do own the movie Best in Show. I think it is what tipped SWMBO toward a terrier, but she won't admit that yet. However, she does sing along to that song, and I've caught her singing that song when the movie *wasn't* playing, so... 4:59:39 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Happy Birthday, Beast.
Monday, October 28, 2002
Language is not the actual barrier...
Lilia Efimova believes her comfort with this language is the barrier. I would say it is others' thoughtless use of language that can cause barriers -- idioms, metaphors, similes, and analogies usually do not transfer well across cultures. Off-hand references can also be obscuring. I know, since I'm often guilty of abusing all of those things. Having a great deal of team-based coursework with students from other countries has made me more aware of it -- I'm not perfect, by any stretch, but I am willing to circle back around and try a different way of explaining what I meant. As a whole, Americans often do not handle multi-culturalism well, since our idea of multi-culturalism is too often just a homogenizing melting pot, not a mosaic or a quilt. Do not hesitate to call us (gently) on it, either. There is a couple of KM discussions I would like to participate, but I can't because of gap between their and my level of English. When it turns to a bit more philosophical, a bit more conceptual, a bit more "scientific" discussions, I'm lost with "shades of meaning". All my attention focuses on trying to grasp the meaning and to be sure about it, so I'm not able to join in. I would suggest you jump in anyway, and ask for clarification where *you* believe it is needed. Enthusiasm and genuine interest are great at overcoming less-than-perfect composition. Plus, email is a forgiveness generating medium, in most forums. Do feel free to post questions you are not comfortable asking there into a new category on your blog (let me know about it, and I'll subscribe to it, too. If it would make you feel more comfortable about it, make it an RSS-only feed, to make it harder for others to stumble upon unintentionally.) I suspect more than a few native English speakers on the list might appreciate the information you seek, anyway. And don't forget, having something spelled out in small words is often useful for making a pitch to a management-type person. ;-) 9:19:51 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Mathemagenic ]
Mancub duty calls... Plus an insane deadline approaching, too. I'll try to find some time to update later tonite, so I'll just have to dash this off to create a placeholder -- while I'm still on the fat pipe at work, that is. Zooooooooommmmmmm! 5:02:32 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Sunday, October 27, 2002
Fall back, Spring forward. Except in these parts. At some point in time, some miserable SOBs decided that this part of this state would not pay any attention to the sort of clock-changing game that many others play. This creates havoc with both sets of our in-laws, of course, and they can't seem to remember if we are now on the same time as them (yes, we are now), or if we are an hour behind (not until spring.) The fun part is they will attempt to bracket their normal calling times; one week they will call earlier, and then a couple weeks later, they will call later. But not in any systematic way. As a personal form of protest about this madness, I put up three new clocks in the kitchen today. Details will follow, as I have to dive back into my backlog of deadlines and projects. 11:32:07 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Thursday, October 24, 2002
An Undocumented Benefit Feature...
...of being the ranked the number 1 party school, it would appear. This same adult film company made a film at ASU last year, when they were ranked number 1. This year, that production company, uh, came here (Sorry...) to Bloomington. Calli Cox, publicist and adult film actress for Shane Enterprises, said she, along with a number of her colleagues visited IU during the first weekend of October in order to "party with students from the No. 1 party school." And party they did, according to this IDS News account of the events:
Can you imagine what would happen to student applications if they actually could use this for recruiting potential students? At least among some of the hetero male population, I think there'd be a significant rise (Really, I'm sorry...). As it is, that story appearing in the student newspaper has spawned an official investigation. And it turns out that something related to the filming (and the resulting student "exploitation") may already have been reported by the resident manager of the dorm where this adult-oriented filming is alleged to have happened: "There was not a connection at the time of the original incident," [IU spokeswoman Jane] Jankowski said. "Given the events surfacing it makes sense to go back and look at the report on Oct. 3." Or they could just sit back and wait for the, uh, release of the 'product' in November. (Sorry, couldn't resist that one, either.) No, I guess I'm not really sorry. Not one little bit. This is whole thing is just too funny. (Hey Joe! *ringing dinner bell*) 11:14:20 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Amazon still needs work... Yea for Christina! [hand-blinked via Camworld] Congratulation to Christina Wodtke on the publication of her first book, Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web. Now can someone explain why the Judy Bloom titles have such a prominent placement in relation to Christina's book? (Yea, I know, low sales numbers right now, and this will correct itself to more topical titles as more copies of Christina's book sell.) I just liked the ironic juxtaposition of Christina's book's topic and JB's Blubber -- and really, I just like the sound of that title. Blubber. heh. 9:51:14 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
I think Mr Chrysler is running rings round you already.
Do the British courts capture and make transcripts available? I want a copy of this one, please. This account of the trial of a man alleged to be named Arthur Chrysler who was alleged to have stolen over 40,000 wooden clothes hangers (yes, 40k) has easily got to be one of the funniest things I have read in a while. Go. Read. Oh my. My tummy still aches. 8:25:15 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Brats Lovers Who Blog...
You know, I thought that post was going to be dismissed as a "cheese dream" kinda thing, or get slammed by some brats purists, but the referer page says there are some high-profile brats hounds out there looking at Football. Brats. Beer. Mmmmmm.
The power of the brats. heh. 7:45:56 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Will Help Revolutionize Education for Food.
And some rent. And perhaps just a little mad money, too, while you're at it. Seb is looking for someone to help make some of his (rather solid, IMHO) ideas about creating online learning environments a reality. Essentially, I want to keep doing what I am doing... getting the stuff into schools, colleges, etc., trying to solve problems with the tools that are available NOW. But this requires to sell some of my services or to find some third party funding for my research... Do you see my persoal dilemma, my dear EduBloggers, visitors, friends, ...? Is anybody out there who would rather buy one PC less and spend some money on setting up educational Webpublishing projects with me, using her or his existing infrastructure plus some super-cheap Webpublishing software? ;-)... anyone who wants to write me in a research grant? ;-) Anyone out there in a position to have a super-bright person to do some heavy lifting for your education-related Manila sites? I'd have to think Will would be willing to provide a good recommendation about the long-distance collaboration experience, if you'd want a reference... 7:21:10 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Seblogging News ]
Who me? Whistling not-so-innocently? Now who do you suppose would do such a thing, for the author of such a fine chunk of code? While I'm showered with gifts for Kit, [...] "In this way I sign this page". Is that just so meta, or what? ;-) 12:24:51 AM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via markpasc.blog ]
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
But at least he's consistent. An alleged scammer is outraged at being outed for being an alleged scammer. Hilarity ensues. 12:00:07 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Monday, October 21, 2002
Now here is a line-up!
Forget all the World Serious stuff some folks are going on about right now -- check out the OSA team for some heavy hitters! 6:57:52 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Doubled NYT feeds, anyone? Any other Radio users seeing a doubling up of some of their NYT feeds? Recently, I'm noticing that I have been subscribed to another similar feed, for instance, I am now subscribed to the following:
The thing is I had only subscribed to the first feed. I think the second may have appeared due to some of the recent RSS feed redirection activities at UserLand. But I could be mistaken. Right now, though, I am seeing the posts for both feeds (one duplicates the other) in my news page. The second feed is much newer, based on the number of updates listed on my subscriptions page. Anyone else seeing this sort of thing, or am I just a lucky guy? [Update: McGee says he's seeing this, too.] 6:13:23 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Sunday, October 20, 2002
Football. Brats. Beer. Mmmmmm. Today was a good day. With the local NFL team playing on Monday night, the local TV blackout nonsense was lifted. Four NFL games this afternoon that I got to catch bits and pieces of. wh00t. Also finished off the brats I had prepped last night. Double wh00t. If you're a bratwurst purist or were born in 'Sconsin, turn away now. Ya sure, youbetcha Alwin, these probably shorten my lifespan by more time than it takes to prepare them. Each. ;-) I took the frozen brats (Hey look, I haven't found anyone local who makes good brats. Don't get me started on the lack of a good bakery, either.), and dropped them in a ziploc bag with a beer and a package of onion soup mix, to create a marinade. Let 'em soak in that for hours and hours, turning it over now and again to keep things mixed all happy happy. Then drop the whole mess (Minus the plastic bag. Duh.) in a saute pan, bring to a boil, and let 'em cook for about 6 minutes per side. Then slap the brats on the grill, and dash back inside and reduce that marinade to a *thick*, glossy, carmelized onion sauce. When the brats are done, slap 'em in some buns, add that onion sauce, and don't afraid to be generous with some horseradish mustard (I recently found some that'll clear the sinuses of the person sitting next to you, too. Really great stuff.). Enjoy with good company, beverages, and more football. 7:52:26 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Saturday, October 19, 2002
Question asked. Question answered. Kinda. Fred Sampson, after encountering the following lyric from Ms. Anderson via the QOTD feed, noted former Synclavier user (I wonder what she's using these days?), asked the question below.
The Onion A.V. Club answers, or comes pretty close to it, when they asked various people "Is there a God?" -- seems Laurie is "attracted to Buddhism"... 9:34:43 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Fred Sampson's Radio Weblog ]
Friday, October 18, 2002
Big Cat is loose! Now with more squished bugs and GREAT icons. 11:29:01 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Thursday, October 17, 2002
This was a test of truncated RSS items
This has only been a test. Had this [not] been a normally posted item, you would have been able to read the entire text of this message, if you were subscribed to my feed. As it is, it should have shown up as just the first sentence of this paragraph, followed by the word count for this entire post. This has only been a test. We will soon return to the regularly scheduled drivel. Now to figure out how to cobble the title and link (if they exist) into this script that should live at weblogData.callbacks.rssFilterDescription.truncated...
on truncated (description, adrpost) {
local (trunc = string.firstSentence (description));
local (wc = string.countWords(description));
return (trunc + " ... (" + wc +" words)")};
truncated (description, adrpost)
3:08:40 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Blogs for ESL immersion Lilia Efimova points out another possible use for blogs. Blogging can help ESL students to become better with this odd mutt of a language. Joe Luft's classes are proof that this can have an impact at all age levels, too.
This could be a ripe opportunity for universities which have ESL programs for their ESL majors to get some solid experience, and be able to add to their own portfolios. Sounds like a good match to me. PS: Lilia, I don't think your English is imperfect, since the quality of your thinking shines through. Also, when compared to my "command" of Russian... *shiver* :-) 1:26:18 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Mathemagenic ]
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Positive correlation? Si. Wrong variables compared? Si.
Seb grabs a choice quote from the schoolblogdebate weblog. School site review blog ..."Purely my own opinionated views but I wanted to keep track of them. I think I'm now seeing some patterns and uncovering some best practices. Overall the best sites also are the sites with most prominent news - at least, I don't think I'm imagining this correlation.Bill Kearney shares more of his analysis of school Websites... BK notices a correlation, but he is noticing a symptom of the variable existing, not the actual variable, though. The quality of the website most often has a strong positive correlation with, to paraphrase Seb, "people who simply [DO] have [an] interest in sharing information on their activities, who [DO] want to engage in a conversation with the students, their parents, and the wider community [, and are willing to make the time to do so in their day, regardless of the immediate rewards]." That variable also shows up inthe quality of the visual appeal of a site (like Seb's which can grow on you quickly), and in the quality of the actual content, too... 8:27:13 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Seblogging News ]
Wired on wireless for Mac OS X IMO, one of the problems with Wired News is not their format, but the content. They have almost no time to research a story well. Seems they'd rather publish something half-baked, then do a follow-up. I guess that ups the pageviews counts (And would be in a reporter's best interests, if they are paid by the article, too). Here's an example: Mac Toters Push Wireless Bounds. Apple's Titanium PowerBook costs more than other Macintosh laptops, but its built-in wireless card isn't up to snuff. For Bay Area Wi-Fi hackers, however, it's not a problem -- it's a project. By Paul Boutin. Yes, the built-in Airport card has some problems. Yes, you could just slap a wireless card into the PC card slot, and have it hanging out the left-hand side of your powerbook. Yes, the WirelessDriver Project provides a wonderful way for folks to use non-Lucent/Agere/Apple wireless cards in their Mac OS X machines. Yes, some wireless cards allow an external antenna to be plugged into the card, to extend the effective range. Anything new there? Not really. The notice about the Senao EnGenius card was kinda scary, though. I personally don't like the idea of having 200 milliwatts (most cards operate at 30-100mw, according to the article) of microwave frequencies radiating in an omni-directional pattern that close to my favorite parts of my lap. But that's me, and I rarely have my powerbook attached to an ethernet cable anymore. Yea, 200mw's still considered low wattage, but I'd rather move my location to find a sweeter spot for the wireless node. And keep my own sweet spots just as they are. Of course, now, after I typed a draft of this Murphy got involved. My wireless connection gacked, and now I'm running with the ethernet tether right now. *sigh* 8:44:56 AM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Wired News ]
Monday, October 14, 2002
I do not know either of them, but SHE is no Ellen Feiss!
... Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep ... Microsoft's Answer to Ellen Feiss. M$ gets caught with a poor imitation of something from Apple. Again. ahem. 10:26:14 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Daring Fireball ]
Bathroom geek humor... Some poor schmoe lost his Nokia cell phone at work. I know this because he had posted a sign to that effect on the door of the room he believes he had left it in, and asked for the return of the phone. That room has various shaped porcelain fixtures, with plumbing attached to them, btw. Some wag (It wasn't me. Honest, officer.) had scribbled the following at the bottom of the note:
mv NokiaPhone \dev\null\
Rough crowd in these parts. Mean, too. 6:51:05 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Saturday, October 12, 2002
Lemme have some of that Twain, and a side of Swift... Aaron visited Washington, to watch Lessig pitch his case. And he got to visit Brewster Kahle's magnificent Internet Bookmobile. [This Internet Bookmobile] didn't contain any physical books. Instead, it connects to the Internet Archive's servers in the Presidio to download them. Then the high-speed printer prints out the pages. The chopper cuts them in half so you can fold them together to make a normal-sized book, and the binding machine heats up the glue-smeared cover to hold it all together. The whole process takes about fifteen minutes for a book... I wonder what Craig's reaction is to this one? When I read that passage, I had an image of local establishments springing up to offer local versions of this service. Where patrons would place their orders and wait impatiently for them to be filled, standing in businesses that would be nestled next to (or perhaps inside of) neighborhood bakeries, or delis, or diners. Only, in these places, the waitstaff would be serving still steaming fresh-bound books to the (information) hungry patrons. Books prepared by folks wearing white-aprons, short-order bookbinders, who would ring a little bell when another book comes out of the binder, trimmed, baked and bound to perfection... "Twain's up!" *ding* "Dante's up!" *ding* [hand-blinked from Aaron's blog, after Mark Pilgrim posted the quote on his own blog and on FOS, which was then blogged on Seb's Open Research, where I found it in my Kit news page. Whew.] 10:03:13 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Friday, October 11, 2002
Yet another reason why weblogs are good.... With another example of how I can always benefit from a smart editor. Lilia Efimova captures my thought stream with a marvelously concise phrase, and asks good questions.
This is yet another reason why weblogs can be so useful. Your ideas can be reflected, summarized, adapted, analogized, metaphorized, repeated, challenged, bent, twisted, or misinterpreted -- so you can choose to clarify, and think further about what you were trying to say, and rewrite, edit and repost. These are all good things. Now to take a stab at answering your questions... I agree some exemplars are ahead of what will eventually become mainstream -- and if they generate break-throughs that can be adapted to use by others, by all means use them. Adapt them. Strive to improve them. Remember, you and a few others reading this are using a personal publishing tool (Radio) that has emerged through such a process. Such break-throughs will then become the new benchmark for good practice. One trend seen in today's economy is the ability of successful groups to adapt and evolve their practices as the environment shifts around them. Those that do not adapt well often try to stiffle the environment (Eldred lawsuit, RIAA copy-protection, Disney copyright extension, ...) to maintain their 'competitive' advantage. Some will live on for while doing this, others will eat away at their own goodwill, and eventually become business school teaching cases. Good management should try to get as many employees as possiible to follow good practices, and weed out those who cannot perform them AND do not generate desired results. That said they should not try to force eveyone to be an exemplary performer, since failure is almost guaranteed -- you can't make a dog do everything a cat does, nor should you try (Don't try the reverse, either.). Exemplary performers often break rules, but often do so in a way that creates a desired outcome, so they are usually (or sometimes should be) left alone to continue performing well, as long as the outcomes are still desirable. Not everyone has the KSA to do things the way the exemplars do, which is precisely why those individuals who can are exemplary -- otherwise, it would be an extreme case of the Lake Wobegon Effect. :-) 7:43:41 AM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Mathemagenic ]
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Commenting on the dangers of Frankenfood, or just weird fan art?
Just trim the mustache a little, and feed it some Quualudes with the herring... And you'd have a really weird, uh, walrus-ry version of how a certain blogging someone kinda described himself back in January... Rumor has it that he has a new RSS feed, now. I had unsubscribed from his old one, because of the clash between how Doc actually did his blogging, and the results as they appeared in my news feed. The entire day's page from his blog would repeat itself in your news feed with every change or additional entry. I enjoyed some of what Doc wrote, but not that much (*wink*). So I unsubscribed from his feed, and that immediately placed him in my infrequently visited browsing list. If you aren't in my news page via an RSS feed, I usually don't stop by regularly anymore. It's nothing personal about you, it's a me thing. This is how I like to drink from the firehose now. I think I'll go get some slurps from Doc's new feed (Radio users) (XML), and see how it tastes this time around. I hope that new RSS feed will be available to all Manila users Real Soon Now, as it seems to be a pretty cool thing to have. UPDATE: The feed looks good so far, and Joe picked up on the song I had in my head the whole time I was writing this post... Cool. 6:01:38 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Search hits on this blog. Eeeeeewwwwwwww. Successful search hits for yesterday. Yea me. Ick. Snarky comments are all mine.
From google:
From search.yahoo.com: "cairn terriers louisville" (uh, phrases usually work better when they normally occur in the targeted language.)
Wednesday, October 9, 2002
Sometimes the Customer Is Not Always Right...
Easily, one of the most important (business? life?) lessons I learned was while I was working in a computer store (yes. geek!), which was owned nand operated by a local businessman. This business pre-dated the appearance of the first PCs by a number of years, and is still there today. So by most standards, they are reasonably successful. One of our best (regular visits, and purchasing often, at many price levels and price points) customers came into the store fuming about something he had recently purchased. I was there, along with the store manager and another employee. the customer began a fine rant (Partially deserved, too, but not much that we had direct control over.), and then veered into a zone he shouldn't have entered. The owner of the business came out of his office at that point. He listened for a little bit. Then, during a break in the rant, he asked the customer to leave, saying he was very sorry to ask him that, and said we would not be able to keep him as a customer any longer. He explained we simply did not have the resources (or the control over all of the factors involved) to meet these expectations, and it was obvious we wouldn't be able to satisfy him. And he greatly regretted that. Plus, even if we could, we couldn't afford to do it and still stay in business, so as to be there to service his wishes in the future. All while he gently guided the customer out of the store, and then let the door swing closed behind him. Then he gathered us, and explained why he said and did that. It was very simple. Sometimes, the customer is not always right. It is a hard call to make, but ultimately, the survival of the business must be held above the needs of a single customer, no matter who they are. Too many people's livelihoods depended on the business continuing on. Of course, he then reminded us that he was the only one who should have the authority to make that call, but we should approach him if we found ourselves faced with a similar situation. And then he returned to his office. The customer did return later that week, and he apologized for acting as he did. We downplayed our reactions, everyone made nice, and life went on for all. The incident wasn't ever mentioned again while I worked there. But I haven't forgotten that lesson, Dick, and I still am amazed at how well you handled it. Thanks for helping me keep everything in perspective, and for teaching me important lessons. Sometimes, the expectations of a customer may exceed what the business may be capable of providing and still remain in business. And always meeting a customer's demands in that situation is not in anyone's best interest. 11:17:25 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Interesting dinner conversations?
Oh, to be a fly on the wall there... This evening I had dinner with Jake Savin, Andy Fragen and Andy's uncle, John. An' dat dere's a whole buncha UserTalk brain-power concentrated in one place, folks. I wonder what snippets of conversation the wait-person overheard... 9:21:19 AM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Jeff's Radio Weblog ]
Don't always aim for the top, when the middle presents a better target. And I'll go out on a limb, and say that I think this method at the Ritz-Carlton will actually cause a great deal of employee dissatisfaction and turnover, and not lead to largest possible gains, compared to what might happen if they would make some slight changes to their benchmarking methods.
Collecting best practices from the top performers may not be the best practice, ironically. Top performers often do things in a way that make management uncomfortable, or that are not easily replicable. As I had mentioned in Of Tom Gilbert and K-logs, the performance of top performers may not be easily replicable, by them, or by others. A company seeking to obtain the highest ROI should try to make all of those folks tagged as low performers achieve at the level of those folks who are tagged "competent'. Here's why. There is greater room for improvement there, and the results are likely to be both attainable and sustainable, and at a more reasonable level of investment of effort, time, and costs. Think about the effort required to move a C+ student to being a B+ student. That is almost always far easier than moving someone from being an A- student to being an A+ student. Reduced range of error and return on investments play major factors here. In addition, pulling up the bottom performers toward the middle is far more likely to bring in greater gains than bringing some of the upper end people toward the very top. Imagine where you would be if all of your students were performing at an A- level or better. (obAnswer: Harvard, before the grade inflation checks are implemented. Doh! ;-) ) 8:08:27 AM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Seb's Open Research ]
Tuesday, October 8, 2002
I Remember When... The folks at ScriptMeridian.org had a place where people could some cool stuff about their favorite things in their root files. It was called "What's in My Root" for some odd reason. heh. I was reminded of that when I saw the screen grab that Phil Wolff posted this morning on the Radio DG. Nice list, Phil. I'll have to grab a screen shot of mine and post here. I think it would be good to include pointers to the root files that do not ship as part of a default Radio install, too. Maybe we could get other Radio users to share theirs, as well... 11:29:16 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Monday, October 7, 2002
Go away for a little while, and you will get called on it... See, Dale. Others noticed, too. It's an RSS thing, baby. Makes it real easy to keep tabs on your neighbors, so to speak. ;-)
I'm glad Seb posted this, since my aggregator had unsubscribed his feed during his extended tour of portions of Central America. I noticed the gap when I wanted to post this one... fixed. 11:35:21 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Seblogging News ]
Sunday, October 6, 2002
Alive! He's alive!
Heh. The coercive powers that can accrue with years of training as a little brother to someone. Gotta use 'em for something. gRadio and guilty posting. "Perhaps he can be guilted out of his blog doldrums/neglect by posting links to his site. " Very glad to hear that you've just been busy, Dale, and I'm green-eyed that you were at Educause this year. Looking forward to hearing about your takeaways from there. hint, hint. 9:22:39 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Stand Up Eight ]
What is cute, cuddly, and represents the most basic nightmare of humanity? Bzzzt! Sorry, it's not Dubya. 
WARNING: The link for this post's title goes to a GeoCities page for the artist who created the image of that little fella to your right, so beware all of the usual cookies, pop-ups, flash ads, java ads, and other assorted garbage they may try these days. I don't see them, since I've got one of my browsers tightly locked down for just such an occasion... That little Cthulu to your right has been called cute by some, and certainly would be considered chthonic, and according to H. P. Lovecraft, is an embodiment of cosmic evil, or some such thing (the plush versions of Cthulu could make for some seriously twisted childhoods, particularly the one in the Santa trimmings...). Explicit examples can help others better understand concepts, don'tcha know. BTW, this entire post was triggered by seeing entries from the Dictionary.com Word of the Day in my aggregator... chthonic. Dictionary.com Word of the Day: chthonic I'm guessing Jeff has cobbled together a macro that grabs and reformats the Dictionary.com Word of the Day for him. I like his use of the title attribute on the second link to the word. Hey Jeff, if so, wanna share that one, too? ;-) 12:41:57 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Jeff's Radio Weblog ]
Saturday, October 5, 2002
Powerful picture essay about the war in Viet Nam I spent a good part of this morning spellbound by that site, which I found via Craig's Booknotes, with the assist from plep. I had not seen many of the images before, and most of them are from photojournalist Tim Page. And after reading this passage from him, I certainly do believe he was the inspiration for the character Dennis Hopper played in Apocalypse Now. The war in Viet Nam had far fewer restrictions placed on the images that came out of the field, compared to the recent conflicts the US has been involved in. I think that with all of the current sabre-rattling, we need to remind ourselves of what it is exactly that some people are asking us to rush into, and what the likely outcomes will be, from a human standpoint, for everyone involved on either side. May all those who died while serving our country, and defending my opportunity to write this post, rest in peace. 9:32:25 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Friday, October 4, 2002
FrameMaker and Radio users, stand up and be counted!
OK, so looking past the (false little) spat between Fred and Guy, it's good to see some Sillycone Valley STCers blogging. Hoping to see more good stuff from them, too... 9:48:22 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Sick, Sad World (Volume 367, Issue 39)
Well, this headline is descriptive. Girl lugging Easy Bake Oven is attacked by rooster I'll bet Joe, aka the Punster, could have some fun with this one... The headline, I mean. Rooster attacks are no laughing matter, particularly if you're carrying a bulky toy with a light bulb in it. 9:29:04 AM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Good morning, Dale. A variation on the source of the name for a particular blog... Japanese Proverb. "Fall seven times, stand up eight." Coincidence? I think not... Perhaps he can be guilted out of his blog doldrums/neglect by posting links to his site. 8:33:59 AM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Motivational Quotes of the Day ]
Thursday, October 3, 2002
Famous lies, number 4598.
Regardless of what some may claim... I did not have cheese sandwich with that last post. 11:49:31 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Somewhere, an original non-stick pan must be losing some of its magic... I stopped by Steve's place recently, and he had announced... For future reference: Caring For You Cast-Iron Cookware. I need to re-season our cast-iron skillet... A well-seasoned cast-iron cooking utensil is a Very Good Thing™, as Martha might say. With just a little bit of care, you have something that will serve you (heh) well, and can be passed onto your kids and maybe your grandkids, too. Be certain to never use oil or butter to try to season a cast-iron implement, though. The smoking point (the temperature at which these lipids will begin creating a lot of smoke when heated) of oil or butter is too low -- that's why the Lodge folks recommend using shortening (a solid lipid like Crisco) to season a pan, since shortening has a higher smoke point. If you don't, you risk starting a fire, or at least filling your house with lots of smoke. Also, be very careful to coat the entire pan (or whatever), including the insides, where you cook your food, AND the outside, as well as the handles, if they are cast-iron. Rust, neglect, and salty or acidic foods are the enemies of your cast-iron pans, and careful seasoning keeps all of them at bay. The Lodge folks FAQ covers some of these issues, but could still use more info about the "whys", IMHO... As part of my IST classwork, we had a team assignment to perform a usability test on a non-computer related instructional product. We decided (against the warning of our instructor -- because of the set-up costs we would incur. See below.) to use the instructions that came with cast-iron skillets. Our announced task (to hide the real intent) was to have the subjects make a grilled cheese sandwich (aka "cheese dream" sandwich. My mom used to make them open-faced, with bacon and sliced tomatos, from those grown in dad's garden.) We gave *each* participant the recipe for making a cheese dream (yes to butter, vague on the smashing, in this recipe), an array of new kitchen utensils, and a new cast-iron skillet, with all tags and such attached to the new stuff. We wanted to see if they would notice, read, understand and be able to follow the instructions for seasoning the cast-iron skillets. To a person, they did not notice the instructions. Then when we revealed our actual intent, and tried to have them follow the directions for seasoning the skillets, they had problems. The Lodge FAQ does address some of the problems with the instructions we had noted, but still... I guess that's why they are selling electro-statically coated pans now, that can be used right out of the box, without any seasoning required. We learned a lot about creating better and more explicit instruction, and got to eat the results of the tests. :-) Mmmmmmmm, cheese dreams... And we got to divvy up the new kitchen goodies, so we all got new spatulas and cast-iron skillets. Not a bad class assignment, really. And a great excuse to hide a cheese sandwich post on my blog. Every blog's gotta have one. It's the law, not just a good idea. Where's yours? :-) At least grab a pic of your cast-iron ware, and post it on your blog, OK? Of course you can re-season it first, certainly... 7:12:15 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Wednesday, October 2, 2002
What evidence to seek to confirm a successful inital Radio post for a new month If you are using Radio for your blog, the following table indicates critical entries (and their proper order) that you might see in your Events page, after making a successful initial post for a new month. Many Radio users may not be aware of all the events that must happen for a successful post to occur, or how to determine if the events actually did happen, or if a problem has occurred (which might be easily fixable by republishing that post again). I have pulled the data out of my own Radio Events Log from yesterday, so that the evidence of a successful post might be available for others to check the results of their own postings. Being able to see what should happen, and what files get upstreamed may prove helpful to others trying to troubleshoot their own blogging experiences with Radio. (NB: I have reversed the chronology of these events, as they would appear in the actual Events log page, so this reads a little more easily from top to bottom.)
This post was sent (to the front page of this blog and it's RSS feed) via a wireless network attached to a fat Internet pipe, so the amount of time in the secs column can vary widely. I have my copy of Radio set to log all events, ping Weblogs.Com after making a home page post, enabled the weekly and monthly archives, and this particular post was not sent to any categories, or else those pages would also be present in the events log. Radio users should check their Prefs pages for how to change these settings. YMMV. Do not fold, spindle, tear or mutilate. Yadda yadda yadda. I almost always see the publish events. A lack of both publish events, however, is an indicator that a problem occurred (for these particular settings and conditions), and I should attempt to republish the post to fix it. Likewise, I'll try to republish again if the index pages, the archive pages, the RSS feed file, and all day pages for the month's prior posts (or in the case of the initial post for a new month, all of the day pages which contained a post for the previous month) did not get upstreamed successfully. Hope this helps someone. [Update: Ironically, I've had to republish this post, so you can see it everywhere it should be. Thanks, Murphy. ;-) ] 1:29:35 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this
Tuesday, October 1, 2002
It is so obvious now.
The truth of the matter is revealed... * I am number 1, 2, and 3 on a Google search of 'Alwin'. My plans for total weblog domination continue apace. Bwahahahaha! Some other folks might reconsider how they try to drive their Google ranking. It's not about the different RSS flavors, baby. That only causes bad email. It's all about the cooking knives... 10:00:14 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via ViewFromTheHeart ]
Seblogging: Why radio? Seb, Seb, Seb. Volker's question was why do I use Radio. That is how I phrased my response, strictly about my own use. I would not wish my own habits and preferences on others, since they would very likely bind and cause friction and discomfort. ;-) Hmm, I have argued here just the other way round. Well, use patterns are different... but I still believe that Radio's architecture holds some major drawbacks for most educational use scenarios. Just imagine you have to support 30 students while they are trying to download, install and test a new Radio tool on their local hard drives... One difference in our use patterns may be that I have access to a wireless network on this campus, and at my home. This makes it easier for me to use my laptop wherever I am. I do agree that for students' blog use in a classroom setting, a centralized approach is likely to have many more benefits (at least initially, until they become comfortable with blogging), and cause less chaos and burden on whomever is left holding the tech support bag. I really suppose we should ask McGee about that, since he lived it. Jim, what would you do differently? I'd be very interested in an expanded post-mortem of your experiences with trying to use desktop blogging tools with your students... 11:48:05 AM [] blah blah blah'd on this
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