CogBlogged from ‘December, 2003’

This blog will blink off line around Dec 30 or 31 when I hope to migrate our content and assorted scripts to the new XServe– I had thought it would happen by the end of the week before I vanish 10 days to my retreat, but it is rushed, and the last days of December seem more reasonable time. If things go well, we might be out for 1-2 hours; if Murphy is around, well, you know how that goes. This would impact anyone relying on our RSS2JS Feed Script so you might end up with blank areas on your feed area for a period of time. I am looking at ways I can redirect requests to another server, but that may not pan out. Speaking of RSS2JS, I had to make a few minor tweaks to the scripts, mainly areas where there were some hard coded references to the [...]

I have relied for years on VersionTracker (VT) for keeping up to date with the latest updates to software or finding out about new apps for Mac, Windows, and Palm platforms. On a recent visit to another similar site (MacUpdate) I began wondering why these types of sites do not have RSS feeds. Well VersionTracker has it! First of all, for those (Ten Reasons Why, mezzoblue) that complain about the meaningless links from little orange XML icons, VersionTracker’s RSS icon links first to a page that explains their Feeds as well as a brief intro to RSS and links to RSS readers: VersionTracker software update listings are available via RSS feeds. Each platform has its own feed featuring the latest 20 items listed for that platform on VersionTracker. For those unfamiliar with RSS, it is a web standard for publishing news headlines. You can read these feeds with special software [...]

Supposedly in “Take Back the Net”, the Dec 30 issue of PC Magazine has sent Blogging, wikis, and RSS mainstream, according to a entry by Michelle. The article does provide a nice overview of the range of major blog tools, has some decent resources, etc, but there are some statements in the opening that have me scratching my head, wondering just which internet the author, Cade Metz, is writing about. Such expectations were summarily quashed by the mid-nineties. The Web didn’t give everyone a voice. It didn’t allow for the widespread exchange of ideas. With a browser, you could easily read Web pages posted by others. But there wasn’t a comparably simple and effective way for you to create, post, and update your own pages.. Unless you were a seasoned computer user, building or editing a page with tools like Macromedia’s Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage was far too difficult and [...]

Some folks are rather big on the use of games and simulations for learning. So were we.. back in 1995. Here is another article from our Fall 2003 issue of the mcli Forum. In “The Long After Life of Simulation Software: Hidden Agenda”, we interviewed Jim Gasperini who had created in the late 1980s a role=playing computer game based on the politics of Central America. The game was described: The images of Central America in our Newspapers and TV are mostly of conflict–warfare, assassinations, strikes, revolutions, disputed elections, military coups. What keeps this region in endless turmoil? Why can’t Central America settle down? Now, with Hidden Agenda, your students can try their hands at governing a simulated country, Chimerica , and see for themselves. By taking a turn as president of Chimerica, students experience first-hand pressure facing a third-world country. They make decisions, make events happen, make headlines. As they [...]

Here is a nice resource for MovableType-rs, The MovableType Knowledge Base is a wiki chock full of tips and suggestions. This Wiki is dedicated to helping users of MovableType, a content management system. This is a place to add tips, tricks, instructions, and definitions. Topics are editable so everyone can add to them. These topics are not for posting MT support questions. Use the fabulous MTSupportForums for that. it is well written and a worthwhile bookmark for anyone dealing with setting up MT or going beyond the basic templates. See for example a description of TrackBack or the overview of MT Templates..

If I had any doubt that my geek IQ was not so high… I think I have proved it in the last few days trying to get our new XServe into business with MovableType. Let’s say that getting it running under Panther OSX Server is a delicate operation for those not familiar with planet unix. The Apple OS apparently lacks a critical perl module that MT desperately needs. The order in which you do things is critical. It helps not to step on a crack or walk under ladders. I was able to patch together a strategy with some help from ibry daily and links there to Kirk Samuelson. The ibry log touches on a suggestion that is better explained at OSX hints regarding the DBD module and a required edit to a Config.pm file buried deep in the bowels of perl. To get back to action, I resorted to [...]

I’ve been here before– “Adventures in Reflective Surfaces: The Mirror Project” was a community based site where people contribute all kinds of self portraits were the photographer is somehow reflected from a mirror or any reflective surface. The Mirror Project is a growing community of like-minded individuals who have photographed themselves in all manner of reflective surfaces. Most anyone how has dabbled past snapshots with a camera has taken some sort of picture of glass buildings, a pond, a shiny sign that has somehow caught the picture-taker in the picture. Well I know I have… and so have about many others who have shared their mirror shots here– the site has a great story behind it as well as a goal of collecting 20,000 images. Anyone can submit a photo as long as it meets some reasonable criteria. I sifted through a directory of my older images and found this [...]

Related to recent wonderings of “Where Have All the Bloggers Gone?”, it appears that author William Gibson is blogged out. In “Last Postcard from Costa Del Blog”, Gibson pens: Time for me to get back to my day job, which means that it’s time for me to stop blogging. I’ve found blogging to be a low-impact activity, mildly narcotic and mostly quite convivial, but the thing I’ve most enjoyed about it is how it never fails to underline the fact that if I’m doing this I’m definitely not writing a novel – that is, if I’m still blogging, I’m definitely still on vacation. I’ve always known, somehow, that it would get in the way of writing fiction, and that I wouldn’t want to be trying to do both at once. The image that comes most readily to mind is that of a kettle failing to boil because the lid’s been [...]

It is time to crank up the promotion department for the Maricopa Learing eXchange (MLX), given that the semester is winding down. We have set up a new PR area that links all of the MLX presentation and news tidbits. With the exception of a nice burst of 15 entries from Estrella Mountain Community College and 5 from MATEC, it has slowed down quite a bit at the MLX Loading Dock. All those union workers, sitting around drinking coffee and shooting the breeze, when they would rather be taking new deliveries and beefing up the inventory. So what are we doing? Well I had a recent invited college presentation for the main Instructional Computing group at Glendale Community College and tried to make a case for the syndication services we offer individuals, departments, and the college. I do this by hijacking some of their web pages and showing how dynamic [...]

Ok. I am trying some way out there, It is a Mac OSX app called Kung-Log that allows me (I think) to post and edit my MovableType blog directly from a friendly Mac OSX interface. We will see what happens as I am “Kung-Log” blogging this one right now. Woah.