CogBlogged from ‘October, 2004’

Toogle takes a twist and strong copy of Google’s Image search except rather than return images scraped from web pages, it returns a visual representation of the search words made entirely out of text. it harkens back to the old monochrome terminal days of ASCII art. But this is way more fun… Toogle is a Text version of Googles Image Search. Currently it creates images out of the very term that was used to fetch those images, later we will endeavour to create images out of the search terms entered by users past and present. But for now please, go play. I have absolutely no idea why you would want to do this, or why anybody would delve into programming such a thing, but it is just plain quirky… fun. For example: sponge bob Koala Bear cheese Fred Flinstone Mount St Helens Even the MLX has been Toogled. And then [...]

Email is the communication norm. It is no more special than the phone. But it is the worst way to manage information over time or the “KM” buzzword (which by the way I have never understood— “mamaging knowledge”, it sounds like managing “wisdom” or quantifying ethics or s snipe hunt). I have noticed recently, in our system, that there are 2, 3, maybe event 10 messages a day that float around announcing some workshop, or an art exhibition, or a special speaker, or a performance- and usually is some monstrous graphic or HTML super-soaked giant message. Announcing things via email is very appropriate, but for the most part, this is the only ever electronic record of these events. E-mail is about the worst archiver and inefficient means of managing information. The worst. The half life of an email message is maybe 8 hours once it scrolls down the inbox, and [...]

As a single developer, I have programmed and designed a number of web transaction systems, and not one of them was limited to use on platform or web browsers (well to be honest, our 1998 Hero’s Journey site has some JavaScript quirks that prevent full use on some browsers, then again, I had no idea 18,000 accounts would be created). So I am a bit flummoxed how a large banking organization like CitiBank with gobs of money, programmers, designers, can create the worst, most unusable web transaction systems. I am not saying I am better them them, but the largest bank in the universe, or so it seems, ought not to put out systems for the customers that are unusable. Anyone hear of usability testing? As it is, on a Mac, I am forced to use Internet Explorer to access my account because their not so clever flyout menus do [...]

I think I got here via scanning RSS from Roland Tanglao – one of the Gods of Explaining CSS to Mere Mortals, Eric Meyer has rolled out a nifty way to assemble a presentation without any touching and software from Redmond. S5 is a fully web standards compliant XHMTL slide show creator- you can assemble a presentation by merely editing the text of single text file, and design it to your heart’s delight via CSS. To see it in action, check out the S5 Introduction. You get next and back buttons (also advances by space bars and arrow keys), and a hidden slide menu in the lower right corner. It plays back in any browser (well fuggedddaboutit if you use NetScape 4, go back to the 1990s ;-) Now this is your basic text and bullet slides (about 85% of what people twiddle their time in PowerPoint doing), as an [...]

Another arm of our Ocotillo is the Spotlight on Instructional Technology where we try and highlight once a month an interesting use of technology at each of our colleges. We ask a rep from each college’s technology group to provide text and photos for a story, but sometimes it just takes a long time to pry it free. For October, it was worth the wait. We just published Phoenix College Media Services: Better, Stronger, Faster (Now with IP Link) (does anyone hear music here???) where Cherly Colan and Mike Poplin describe how they have used IPLink to remotely control, configure, and troubleshoot any piece of classroom A/V or computer technology. Check it out…. lots of pictures, screen shots, even an animated GIF showing how text messages are sent to technicians when a device is lost or disconnected from the system. I was very pleased that they chose to highlight a [...]

Our Ocotillo Online Learning Group meetings have really taken off nicely this year. This group, now its fifth year, began as a “Blackboard Users Group” but we have broadened it to include demos and exchanges for people using any sort of online technology. I recall in the old days a few meetings with an audience of about 4 people, but now we are in the 30-50 range, and we are getting people coming from all of our colleges. The October 1 meeting was at Phoenix College, where we had a demo from a faculty member, Pam Petty, who was tired of the limited capabilities of the Blackboard gradebook, and has integrated WebGrade, the web version of MicroGrade, software that has been used in our system a long time. In her course, Pam just hides the Blackboard gradebook link, and ads the left side link for students to go log in [...]

I’ve been reading Syllabus magazine for quite some time, not always agreeing with everything in print, but I found good stories on instructional technology, case studies, review of technology that faculty use. But all that has been flushed. Syllabus has morphed to “Campus Technology” …the complete resource for leaders in higher education. Campus Technology offers an expanded coverage of academic and administrative computing as well as articles from strategic planning to practical tips. Let’s see the first issue articles… IT Spending: Where’s the Value? Enterprise Technology: Selling the Vision Telecommunications: Can Cisco Answer the Call? Faculty & Technology: Rewarding TET IT Directions: What’s Next for Windows? Smart Campus: MPEG-4 and the New, ‘Flat’ World The Web: Reading Between the Lines Not to mention the centerfold, a 18 page HP “Higher Education Contracts Guide”, a read less thrilling then the phone book. The closest article related to teaching, Faculty & Technology: [...]

flickr foto Beachedavailable on my flickr Waiting for the tide to rise at 6000 feet above sea level. At the end of the valley in the little town of Strawberry, AZ, this boat is ready for a ride… The wait might be a few hundred million years.. This was just a new test of an updated version of the iPhoto-flicker exporter to send images from iPhoto to flickr – now it can apply tags across multiple selection. Then from flickr I am directly posting to my weblog. This again, is a beautiful linkage of small technologies This is tres cool. I can be flickring from iPhoto night and day.

Well the boys are in town… John and George are on their way to Tempe (no this is not a Dead Beatles reunion, it is the other John and George). After their shindig at ASU, I am counting on meeting up for some drinks at the Billet Bar in downtown Scottsdale and then maybe up for a good ole time at Rawhide Western Town, where they can join the shootout acted out in the streets, do some Gold Panning or take turns doing “Arrest a Guest”. Maybe they’ll stop by my place and we can toss back some cold ones around the pool in the backyard. Other then that, streets are randomly closed, classes cancelled, small airports closed, most workers went home early, and a media circus is on the ASU campus wired and wireless out the wahzoo, and bellying up to the bar. I forgot, what is this all [...]

Will wrote today about his mild wonderment on his time spent roaming blogs, furl-ing and webnoting interesting web sites: So I had about 90 minutes of true blogging flow this morning, reading the latest in my Bloglines aggregator, clicking on links, Furling interesting posts, and stealing paragraphs here and there and saving them as a Webnote. When I was in the midst of it, it all seemed to connect, the tools working seamlessly together, each with its distinct purpose. I really did get lost in it, which is either a moment of higher understanding of all of this or a sad comment on my geeky existence. There was so much good stuff to read, so much that I wanted to write about and explore further. So much mental exercise at 6:30 in the morning as the sun came up over the soccer field outside my window. It was very Zen. [...]