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gRadio
 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 [ blinked via Romenesko's Obscure Store ]
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
Monday, September 30, 2002
Phil Pearson has made me happy! I still can't get over how nice this is... New comment on post 459. New comments on post 459 (1 comments, previously 0) found Thanks, Phil! Your a real peach (well, a kiwi, I know, but I really do appreciate your mad coding skillz.) !!! 9:53:37 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via Comments for usernum 1215 on server http://radiocomments.userland.com/comments ]
Sunday, September 29, 2002
Must be the WFH settling in...
Is there really any other kind? I love working with crazy people. Working with, working on, or just having one as your own Alwin(er)Logger? 8:17:05 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via ViewFromTheHeart ]
inessential + daring fireball == Mac OS lovefest?
Brent reveals some feelings, from a developer's point of view. How to encourage developers: How do you encourage developers to do good work? Say nice things about their software. Wanna know something? They are both very correct in their statements. And both are good dudes, too (I know, because I've pestered both of them enough). I wonder if Brent ever tried making that Philly-style rib-eye steak sandwich... 6:29:48 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via inessential.com ]
Not deserving of the category a FARKer suggested, IMO. This poor woman thought she'd already dropped off her daughter, but the daughter was left locked in the car until some coworkers noticed her four hours later, badly dehydrated. 8-month-old in serious condition; mom says she thought she took girl to relative's home And in a followup story, it was reported today the Macon District Attorney still doesn't know if he will take this case to a grand jury. <*shaking head* /> I think Terrill Struttmann sums it up best when he said "What kind of punishment can you give [parents in a situation like this] that they aren't already giving themselves?" Terrill is the co-founder of a national advocacy group, Kids 'N Cars, that is concerned with preventing deaths of children in or around cars. He lost one of his own children when some toddlers left in a van knocked it into gear, and his child was struck and killed. Failures usually occur from a number of smaller but interrelated variables combining to magnify the impact of each other. I strongly suspect that sleep-deprivation played a major part in this tragedy -- parents of newborns and toddlers often resemble zombies, barely able to shuffle through some routines. And I'm guessing the little girl had fallen asleep during the drive, so there was no motion in the backseat to catch the mother's eye as she climbed out of the car. I'd also guess there was some slight change in her normal routine that morning that had the mother's attention (perhaps she was running late for work, or had a major deadline looming at work). Add to that the weight of the recent family deaths mentioned... At least a couple of times, I have climbed out my car in the parking lot at work, and then noticed I still had the (empty, thankfully) car seat in the backseat of my car -- on days when it was Mom's turn to take the mancub to his school. Luckily, all it cost me was some flex-time and gasoline, and the burden of receiving some more of those too-familiar looks from SHE. 12:45:27 PM [] blah blah blah'd on this [ blinked via FARK ]
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