cogdogblog

<pile archive>

The Grand VideoCasting Future: Watching Me Say Ummm (February 24, 2005 07:05 AM)
With podcasting going from zero to tech trend in 6 months, some are hedging bets that videocasting is already accelerating. So here is the CogDogBlog evolution. We go from reading my typos in a blog to listening to me say "ummm" as a podcast to watching me say "ummm" as... «more»
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Thinking Sideways About Web / Video conferencing (February 22, 2005 09:35 AM)
Despite our best intentions, the cart named technology seems to often get ahead of the horse. In a recent meeting, one of our groups looking at new technologies made the usual strong case for looking at video conference technologies- better use of time, people not having enough time to come... «more»
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Another Bookmarklet Tool- Quick Furl Search (February 21, 2005 06:42 PM)
I cannot claim this was an Urgent/Important task, but my curiosity got the better of me... I made a new bookmarklet tool that allows me to run a search against my furl-ed sites either by entering the search terms or by highlighting the words in any web mouse-selectable content. This... «more»
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Linkroll Added to the Marklet Maker (February 20, 2005 01:14 AM)
A commenter suggested I add Linkroll to the bookmarklet marklet maker collection, and that was an easy one to roll into the tool, which puts it up to a choice of 8 different web site submission tools that can be addressed with a click on a bookmark link. Linkroll is... «more»
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Newest 25 Cent book from the Pine Thrift Store: Bill G and His Road Ahead (10 years later) (February 16, 2005 09:00 PM)
My latest 25 cent investment from the Pine Arizona Senior Center Thrift Store is "The Road Ahead" by Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold, Peter Rinearson. Far from being my hero, I was curious where the road he envisioned back in 1995 actually went. I've not read much yet, but flipping... «more»
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1000 Monkeys Pecking At PHP... (February 16, 2005 11:38 AM)
... would likely program my current project more efficiently. This is one of those textbook examples of how not to build software, but in then end, good enough will (hopefully) be good enough. I am working an updates to an online application system we developed last year for one of... «more»
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Flipping the Question:"Why DON'T Academics Blog?" (February 11, 2005 11:00 AM)
Liz Lawly recently shared a great collection of edublogger's explanations for why they blog: I keep getting asked this question by colleagues here at RIT and elsewhere, and I find myself sending them the same links over and over again. So here’s what I give people who ask me this,... «more»
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Real Life Quotes From the Bicycle Lane (February 9, 2005 08:26 PM)
This really happened. I promise. While biking home tonight, I came up on what I took to be a father riding along side a boy, perhaps 10 or younger. As my speed was greater, as I approached, Dad swung out far to the left, so I had to pass between... «more»
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ASU Mars Lecture (Was Geologist One Night Nostalgia) (February 9, 2005 12:58 PM)
For the last 12 years at maricopa, my e-mail signature has been "Was Geologist, Now Technologist" a Readers Digest condensed version of my tale of transforming from a graduate student in Geology to a techie at Maricopa. Last night, I attended an event at Arizona State University, for one night... «more»
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Would You Like Fries With That? (February 8, 2005 08:27 AM)
Just got a headset for doing audio chatting... too much feedback from the laptop speakers and crappy built in micorphone. C'mon Skype me! "How about a super kids meal? C'mom, trans-fats are fun"I never worked fast food ;-)... «more»
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Another Jade Hiccup (February 6, 2005 09:56 AM)
Apologies again, as this server, also the host of Feed2Js, went south for about 10 hours Friday night - Saturday morning, just like last week. I had found in the server logs where the services were crashing, but nothing to indicate a cause nor why it was able to restore... «more»
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Saturday at the Parada del Sol (February 6, 2005 09:47 AM)
flickr foto Hashknife Ridersavailable on my flickr One of the many members of the Navajo County Sheriff's Posse who participated in the Hashknife Pony Express, which re-enacts the delivery of mail by horseback, riding from Holbrook to Scottsdale. They did not look tired at all. It was cowboys, cowgirls,... «more»
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Warming The Hands Over the Flames of Email (February 1, 2005 12:36 PM)
E-mail flame wars (a torrent of angry, differing viewpoint exchanges) must be as old as the first listserv with more than 20 people on it. Whether you want to classify participants according to some phylum/species or not not, it is just human nature, and what happens in the loosely structured... «more»
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A Few More Critters for Amy's Menagerie (Courtesy of the Porcupine Anti-Defamation Scoiety) (January 28, 2005 11:55 PM)
I am a card carrying porcupine. According to Amy Gahtan's new series on "Handling Online Vermin", the internet is swarming with undesirable, nasty "vermin" who apparently threaten the well being of innocent online souls: online media presents a deeply weird juxtaposition of isolation and connectedness, anonymity and identity, parts and... «more»
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Arf! Can Your Hear Me Now? Woof! (January 28, 2005 06:48 AM)
More from the weird web department... can anyone guess who's remaindered links I am plundering?? Anyhow, as a DOG themed corner of the web and a techie, I gave some serious perusal of Pet's Mobility: PetsMobility™ Network, Inc. (PetsMobility™) is a wireless communications company that will be providing innovative wireless... «more»
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The Basket is Good (but way inside the 3 point line) (January 27, 2005 10:00 PM)
From Bore Me, here is a video clip of a bunch of guys who toss a cheerleader through a basketball hoop. There is a lot of surlpus time out there working in strange ways. What else can be said? And can someone help me understand The Two Headed Dog? (from... «more»
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On the Wrong Side of the Velvet Ropes (Again) (January 26, 2005 08:56 AM)
After my usual too-much-over-the-top-sarcasm bark at the Professional Bloggers Association, I got a quick professional PBA trackback from their new professional PBA site: Trackback: "Chuckle..." Excerpt: My own personal snarky anti-fan strikes again: http://cogdogblog.com/alan/archives/2005/01/21/amateur.php He does this periodically, so please don't lash out at him. We all need to be... «more»
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Foibles of my First Pod... er, iRiverCast (January 25, 2005 11:52 AM)
Today was one of those technical gambles that actually, sort of worked! This morning, the EDUCUASE/NLII Meeting in New Orleans had a general session where the New Media Consortium provided a 5 Minutes of Fame overview of their just released Horizon Report (I was lucky to be among some great... «more»
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But Will Flickr Have A Manicure As Well? (January 24, 2005 08:26 PM)
My hands are quivering. The DTs are starting. I have photos to upload... and Flickr has sent the database for a massage? Will all the tags be rubbed down as well? Will there be vibrant toenail polish? Will the bunions be sanded? An herbal wrap? Oh well, I guess I... «more»
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From the Feedback Grab Bag (January 24, 2005 12:51 PM)
Feedback is a mixed bag, and one lessons I may have learned is that you are never going to please an audience as wide as the one on the web. So among the many places we collect feedback, some recent ones have just caught my eye. First, from our Writing... «more»
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My Saturday Spent in School (January 21, 2005 07:18 PM)
I spent my Saturday in school, not furthering my education, but paying my penance for zipping by a photo rador van last month. That's right, I did an 8 hour course from the National Safety Council, in lieu of paying the full fine, going to court. Sitting in a cramped... «more»
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New Amateur Bloggers Association: Biff's On Board (January 21, 2005 07:19 AM)
What are the odds? Amy Gaharan has just announced her joining the Professional Bloggers Association (PBA): the practice of being a consulting blogger-for hire, or operating a weblog with a functioning revenue model that goes beyond Google Ads Now it would be easy to take potshots, to throw darts, to... «more»
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Mickey's Tribute (January 18, 2005 07:44 AM)
We interrupt the regular stream of yammering about rss, wikis, flickr, tags, learning objects, eportfolios, spam (actually it's been a while for that, don't ask why) for something meaningful to me (well it is my blog). It's been more than 3 months since my companion and subject for the... «more»
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Hey, That's Us! (But are we in FL?) (January 13, 2005 10:15 PM)
The January 2005 issue of Campus Technology has a nice two spread on my employer, the Maricopa Community Colleges. In "Who We Are", our IT Vice Chancellor outlines some of the big numbers about our big system (which is impressive), our recent successful .980 billion dollar bond election, and puts... «more»
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When Projects Rain, It Pours (January 12, 2005 06:12 PM)
Yes, what is with the weather? Even here in Arizona, the last two weeks have brought tremendous rain to the desert, doubling are average, flooding the dry washes. Up north, the mountain tops are getting snow by the foot. And this week, the projects here habe been coming down in... «more»
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Thrice Warned: Piracy Shy? (January 9, 2005 03:12 PM)
Who reads the fine print any more? From the Stamp Out And Abolish Redundancy Department (apologies to Mad Magazine) comes the fine print on the back on an audio CD: Like the famous multiblade razors, the first warning (1) gets your attention. FBI Anti Piracy Warning: unauthorized copying is punishable... «more»
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Email Signature of the Day (January 7, 2005 02:03 PM)
Lurking at the bottom of another email message today: "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it is too dark to read." ---Groucho Marx Now where is my flashlight? I cannot read that that mysql manual....... «more»
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Essence of Podcasts (January 5, 2005 07:26 AM)
Yes, I may be grumpy. No I did not get an iPod for Christmas. Despite this extreme hinderance, I have sampled a few more, and am still feeling a yawn reflex or hearing the strumming of lowdown 12-bar blues. I was thinking of the old (and still alive) Movie-A-Minute site:... «more»
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And Perspective on Bandwidth... (January 4, 2005 06:47 AM)
Roll back your time clock to the mid 1990s and consider your reaction to this statement (lifted out of context from a comment about BitTorrent): Yesterday, it took me 2.5 hours to download a measly 39 megs. I remember being hesitant to download something as large as 5 Mb (even... «more»
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Morning Perspective (January 4, 2005 06:36 AM)
With access to newspapers and highspeed net access after a week away, the graphic imagery and harsh realities of the post-tsumani impacts make anything complained about here last night seem infinitesimally insignificant. Like others, I have been contacting friends and colleagues with families in Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand, and... «more»
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A Bit of Edu Torrents? (January 2, 2005 09:41 AM)
I've got some back of the cranium wonderings about educational uses of BitTorrent -- if this has not yet crossed your scope, check out the January 2005 Wired article The BitTorrent Effect (no, the article does not star Ashton Kutcher as BT creator Bram Cohen): BitTorrent lets users quickly upload... «more»
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Accurate Predictions for 2005 (December 28, 2004 08:46 AM)
Ahh, it is creeping up New Year, and the insightful pundits are rolling out the grand prognostications. Is their crystal ball really any sharper than yours or mine? Why? Here is mine: I predict that I will not be making any new year predictions. That's it.... «more»
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How to Stop HTML Thieves (December 22, 2004 09:15 PM)
A frequent question we get from our Writing HTML tutorial is: "what code can I use to prevent people from viewing/stealing the source code of my web pages?" and the answer is very similar to what i say to people when they want to protect their images on web pages... «more»
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I Google Scholar-ed Myself (December 22, 2004 01:57 PM)
I'll leave the academic wrestling over Google Scholar to the academics-- I was more humanly curious what I could find there... so did a self Google to see if I could find a reference to my previous life. Before materializing as an instructional technologist at Maricopa, I was a graduate... «more»
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Dog News (Dog Blog) (December 17, 2004 12:01 PM)
We at CDB support the advancement of other dog blogs, esepcially as the number of Google-able cat blogs (6,040,000) appear to be ahead of the dog blogs (5,710,000). Therefore we share with your "Dog News: weird, inspiring dog tales". The Dog New folks have gone ahead and applied Creative Commons... «more»
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Homer's Browser (December 17, 2004 06:34 AM)
There's a heated web browser debate going on over at "Redemption in a Blog" as techies try to sort our what web browser Homer Simpson uses, see "Homer Simpson Uses Tabbed Browsing". Top theories bounce between FireFox and Safari, with no clear winner. I would bet Homer wants his pop-up... «more»
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A Cup of Connotea: A New del.icio.us Flavor of Social Bookmarking (and now a 4 in 1 bookmark tool) (December 16, 2004 10:30 AM)
Every day's glance at the not so old RSS reader brings new gems. Today the far seeing Stephen Downes shared a link to Connotea, very much a nice knock off of del.icio.us for bookmarking sites as well as papers. Connotea is a place to keep links to the articles you... «more»
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Oops On That Billboard (December 16, 2004 06:38 AM)
Found while trolling some of the graphic design gems over at Cameron Moll's Authentic Boredom Billboard Backside Blunder Only pure coincidence could create a scenario like this. Posted along I-15 in Provo, Utah, this billboard stand demonstrates what happens when an advertiser fails to consider what might be posted on... «more»
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Dissecting the Code: Google Suggest (December 13, 2004 09:11 PM)
Found surfing RSS feeds of someone else's del.icio.us tagged bag... If you've not come across the beta of Google's new feature, take a peek at Google Suggest, which works like autocomplete by responding with common/popular search queries based on the first few letters you type in the search field. What... «more»
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Weird Statements Emanated From Our Television (December 11, 2004 04:14 PM)
While doing some of our holiday decorations today, the television was providing some background white noise. We both were caught off guard by this statement. This is 100% honest-- I think it was on the Disney Channel. This broadcast of "Ernest Saves Christmas" has been brought to you by Preparation... «more»
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Housecleaning the Blogroll (December 10, 2004 11:24 AM)
There was dust and some missing pieces to my sidebar list of blogs I read regularly- which I spit out from Bloglines using their JavaScript insert to list on the sidebar of CDB. A number of old favorites have gone quiet, and sorry, but have slipped off my radar, quite... «more»
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My Not So Greatest Playlist Meme of '04 (December 8, 2004 08:23 PM)
Just following the cue of Señor D'Arcy, here is what popped of the shuffling of my meager iTunes song list (I hardly ever tune in and cannot even remember why I loaded these)... 1 Destroyer The Kinks 2 Girls Got Rhythm ACDC 3 Polythene Pam The Beatles 4 Pure And... «more»
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Tufte Tour (December 7, 2004 05:21 PM)
Edward Tufte's short course "Presenting Data and Information" is coming to town in late January... can anyone who has attended one of these or knows a friend who has (or a second cousin of their mother-in-law's dentist) let me know if it is worth it? Or should I just buy... «more»
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The Day Blackboard Died (December 5, 2004 11:27 PM)
Ouch, can you feel the pain, of faculty, students, tired techies... The servers hosting the Blackboard Enterprise system 6 of our colleges share had some sort of "cataclysmic" failure of the SAN- the data storage. It has been down and out about 2 weeks before finals. Ouch. I am not... «more»
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Benoit the Denver Cabbie (December 2, 2004 09:37 AM)
Some recent online discussions on motivation and eportfolios reminded me of an experience back in October at the EDUCAUSE conference.... well actually it had nothing to do with the conference. Towards the conference, I needed to get out to the airport (which seems to be located somewhere in Nebraska) since... «more»
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My Portrait Photo You Will Not See on Flickr (December 2, 2004 09:19 AM)
Last evening I had a digital photo portrait taken by a local photographer but I doubt it will be flattering enough to land on my flickr collection... I never saw the photographer, but I have been aware of where they set up their studios. Yes, I managed to have a... «more»
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The Open Source Party is in Town And... (December 1, 2004 06:15 PM)
Yawn... I almost forgot, Today through Friday is the Open Source Summit right in my own backyard in Scottsdale, and what a list of heavy hitters are on the docket. It kind of feels like peeking through the fence at an exclusive country club, marveling at all the shiny, pretty... «more»
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How I Have Spent/Wasted Time Lately (November 30, 2004 11:41 PM)
Ouch, my blogging fingers are rusty. Among tweaking and updating many of our project web sites this week, an inordinate amount of time has been spent: * cleaning up the droppings we find on our wikis (Thanks for all the potted meat food product shipped directly from Southeast Asia- love... «more»
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Hiding Out (Psss -it is snowing right now) (November 28, 2004 02:26 PM)
Surely of interest to no one, but I've been fortunate to enjoy a rather lazy extended piece of time, 6 days wrapped around Thanksgiving at our Arizona mountain hideaway in Strawberry (yes readers, Arizona is not a swath of Arabian windswept desert, but have places with trees and weather). I... «more»
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New Zealand: Believe It or Not! (November 19, 2004 10:53 AM)
For the benefit of my fellow American travelers, I am sharing some key learnings that may save them embarrassment, shame, or international ridicule when visiting this beautiful place. Note- this is very much not to be taken seriously! I am writing this on the plane back before it all starts... «more»
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The Big New Zealand Finale: "Rip. Mix. Learn." (November 17, 2004 12:58 PM)
Today is my last day in a little slice of green heaven known as New Zealand where I have been visiting and giving workshops at several institutions in the Auckland area (see the CogDog's upside down inverted cousin, the CogDog(kiwi)Blog). Among other bits, I've been stirring up the interest in... «more»
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What the flickr is going on? (November 5, 2004 03:23 AM)
Here I talked about loving flickr and a few hour later I cannot log in- all attempts are bounced back to the home, un-logged in screen. Flushed the cache, cookies, been tried another browser. Where is the love back? Unrequited? Is it just me? Does it hate my latest pictures?... «more»
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Web Pioneers on the Ballot? (October 29, 2004 06:08 AM)
Wow, how do some of the key pioneers of the web have time to fun for elected positions in Arizona? Among the piles of colorful signs crowding every street corner, I have seen some familiar names pop out on the ballot for November 2... Is Eric Meyer, who's books and... «more»
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Conference Hangover: Low Information Density in Conference Presentations (October 27, 2004 12:14 AM)
Actually, my vacation time in Colorado did wonders to revive my spirits after 4 days at the EDUCAUSE 2004 conference. I've grumbled before about the sour irony that the dominant mode of communication in our field of instructional technology (or pretty much all other conference gatherings) is the very unwired,... «more»
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Back in Action (the photos are 404 for now) (October 26, 2004 09:13 PM)
Just returned home from 5 days of being a sightseeing fool up and down the Rocky Mountains following last week's EDUCAUSE conference in Denver. I've got a big of pile photos to flickr up, but it will be delayed following a harrowing experience having accidently leaving my digital camera at... «more»
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Blog Brownout (October 23, 2004 06:13 AM)
This blog will go into a period of non-activity the next few days as I work on a project requiring me to pretend to be a tourist in the Rocky Mountains. There will not be anything else posted on "project mini vacation"... «more»
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Sometimes You Spend So Much Time and Effort Thinking of a Cute or Clever Title for A Blog Post That You Completely Forget What You Were Going to Write About (October 21, 2004 06:23 PM)
It happens.... «more»
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EDUCAUSE 2004: "Learning Space Design" (October 21, 2004 05:13 PM)
This session will explore learning space design principles as a way to enhance and transform teaching and learning with technology. The principles acknowledge changes in our understanding of student cognition and faculty roles in the learning process. Well-configured Learning spaces make it possible for faculty and students to engage in... «more»
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EDUCAUSE: "Sakai, A Collaboration Between The University of Michigan, Indiana University, MIT, Stanford, OKI, and the uPortal Consortium" (October 21, 2004 11:32 AM)
Sakai is delivering an integrated open-source framework comprising an enterprise portal, a course management system, and a tool portability profile as a standard for writing future tools that can extend this core set of educational applications. Learn what Sakai has achieved and its direction for the future. http://www.sakaiproject.org/ My comments:... «more»
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Disclaimer (October 21, 2004 09:45 AM)
Eeek. It is coming to my attention via email, comments, trackbacks, server logs, that more people than My mom are reading this blog (actually she doesn't know about it). Beyond scaring the ____ out of me, I felt it appropriate to say that my writing here is almost exclusively for... «more»
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EDUCAUSE Croquet Project (October 21, 2004 09:41 AM)
This poster session demo was probably the coolest thing I have seen here at the EDUCAUSE 2004 conference. It is so cool I do not think I can describe it, See the Croquet Project WHAT IF... ...we were to create a new operating system and user interface knowing what we... «more»
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EDUCAUSE: "Surveying the Digital Landscape" (October 21, 2004 09:33 AM)
(more back blogging from yesterday's sessions at EDUCAUSE 2004): This presentation will provide a brief overview of various Evolving Technologies Committee white paper topics: the "consumerization" of information technology; strategies and best practices for addressing the growing concerns of spam, worms, and viruses; and the convergence of libraries and digital... «more»
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EDUCAUSE: "At the End of the Day We Will Have Given it All Away: The Convergence of Open-Source CMS and Open Courseware" (October 20, 2004 03:46 PM)
Free content for community colleges (well and everybody else)! Free! Developing content based on model of MIT Open CourseWare success, but for community college level courses. Foothill-De Anza approached by Hewlett Foundation to lead effort for more general education level courses, community college level curriculum. Based on success with FHDA... «more»
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Mile High (October 19, 2004 07:15 AM)
So this is Denver... It is not secret, but the Denver airport is an entire city unto itself. You get off a plane, get on a train, hop on a boat, cross a mountain... and then wait 40 minutes, praying, for your luggage. Then, you find out the airport is... «more»
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Denver Bound (October 18, 2004 04:09 PM)
In a few clicks, I'm off to the airport for Denver heading there for the EDUCAUSE 2004 Conference Extravaganza. With good wireless connectivity, I hope to blog what I can. Tomorrow Brian and I will be rounding up some objects in our pre-conference seminar, "Decentralization of Learning Resources: Syndicating Learning... «more»
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Email as the Most Used And Worst Method of "Knowledge Management" (October 16, 2004 04:02 PM)
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).... «more»
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Beached (October 13, 2004 09:47 PM)
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... «more»
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The Boys Are in Town (October 13, 2004 04:57 PM)
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... «more»
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3 Bookmark Tools in One (October 6, 2004 07:56 AM)
Based on the descriptions elsewhere, in addition to the web bookmark service Furl I am starting to also use the social bookmarking site del.icio.us - the latter for its rip-mix use of free form ":tags" to collect bookmarks made bu other del.icio.us-ers (sidebar, I enjoy "furling" sites but do you... «more»
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Is Flickr Flickering? (October 3, 2004 08:22 PM)
Gerry caught me on iChat tonight and let me know he was having trouble reaching Flickr-- he's right! What's happening? And it looks like they are based in Vancouver... Did Mount St. Helens blow a big cork and blast it north? I hope not! Maybe flickr is just flickering.... «more»
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Surrealistic Walgreens (October 2, 2004 02:08 PM)
I had a surrealistic moment in Walgreens. I was there to pick up a (legal) p;erscription. Walkign out, I noticed that the soothing background music was actually the pseudo 1960s Pictures of Matchstick Men by Status Quo which I always took as a trippy psychedelic song. No Muzak or cheap... «more»
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Even South American Volcanos Have Wireless (September 26, 2004 05:00 PM)
Wireless technology spreads far and wide. A recent EurekAlert came my way (somewhere in the techie/gadget RSS feeds in my reader) that describes the use of wireless sensors to monitor the activity on Tungarahua in Ecuador (this one is for you, Michelle ;-): A rumbling South American volcano has gone... «more»
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If You Build It (and email it), They Still Will Not Come (September 26, 2004 09:50 AM)
If I knew better, I would take last week's Ocotillo Virtual Kickoff as a resounding failure. We had set up a series of 1-4 minute streaming video welcomes from not only our top executive levels, but more important;y, the faculty co-chairs leading our new initiatives on learning objects, eportfolios, hybrid... «more»
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Training Expo Demo2 (September 23, 2004 04:29 PM)
This is the last session of the day. I think they want to go home. Let's give a hand to our guest photographer, Jason, who's image choice reflected how the group felt at the end of the conference. This group too ahs been rather receptive to some of the... «more»
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Training Expo 2004 Live Demo (September 23, 2004 02:46 PM)
I am writing live from Black Canyon Conference Center in Phoenix doing session on so-called "new technologies" for people who work in workforce development centers and job training place. The "presentation" was whipped up this morning (it shows) as a wiki (a) because it is fast; and (b) I can... «more»
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Doh! Simpsons Writer Coming To Speak on Pop Culture (September 21, 2004 07:48 PM)
Wednesday night, the Simpsons are coming to Maricopa! Writer Mike Reiss is coming to give a lecture on "Simpsons Mania: Behind the Scenes with America's Favorite Family": Culled from more than two decades of creating the funniest and most outrageous shows on television, Reiss' presentation is a unique glimpse inside... «more»
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Grand Canyon (barely) Survivor (September 21, 2004 05:28 PM)
Not to clog this blog with too much non educational technology stories (but I am my own editor and publisher...), I am just back to work today after what was supposed to be a tranquil backpack into the Grand Canyon with my stepson that turned out to be a near... «more»
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Dog Off Grid (September 17, 2004 10:19 AM)
In about 8 hours I will be pulling the Matrix plug out of the back of my neck, as I head north for a 3 day Grand Canyon adventure on the Hermit Trail -- (e.g. no blogging, no barking, no ranting, just sweet silence on this blog site). It should... «more»
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Survey Sez.,. (September 15, 2004 05:50 PM)
Okay, 14 readers took the time to try the goofy, meaningless survey I posted as a quick demo of using phpQuestionnaire. The survey is open, and I have set this one up so the results are publicly viewable: http://zircon.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/phpq/stats.php?sid=3. What was nice was that I could tweak it in midstream... «more»
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CogDogSpielberg (September 14, 2004 10:01 PM)
Hardly Hollywood, but I've been focussed this week in the MCLI movie studio (e.g. my G4 TiBook). We are preparing an online opening for our Ocotillo Action Groups that will include some video welcome messages from our faculty co-chairs... as an introduction of their efforts this year and a teaser... «more»
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Missed Utah (September 7, 2004 08:16 PM)
I sure regret not having time to make the Instructional Technology Institute at Utah State University apparently well orchestrated by David Wiley and nicely blogged by others. The blog buzz is good from folks I know and trust. I've got some blog scraping to catch up on. Some wishes: Earlier... «more»
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To the Coast and Back (September 7, 2004 07:59 PM)
Ahh, and end to the lack of blog labor for an extended Labor Day weekend in San Diego. Over there, the refer to us invaders from the east as "Zonies. Some highlights included: Excellent Mexican food at a little place in Blythe, CA (we drove out the LA way to... «more»
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Beached Dog (September 3, 2004 12:21 PM)
After today's Ocotillo Online Learning Group meeting, I am hitting the road for a long weekend in San Diego. I need to romp in the ocean and find some good fish tacos. Much to Mrs CogDogBlog's pleasure, I am likely leaving the laptop at home ;-) so this blog will... «more»
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Skyped? Skyping? (August 31, 2004 04:56 PM)
I've not read much on Skype until I noticed via Joi Ito that a Mac version was out. Heck, I did not even know what it did! It appears to be a simple way to have audio conversations via the net, and even 3,4 way conversations. The trouble is I... «more»
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The Sunday Triathalon (August 31, 2004 08:41 AM)
In preparation for a mid September Grand Canyon trip, this past Sunday I completed the unofficial, unsanctioned CogDogBlog triathalon, which will not be covered on NBC or commented on by Bob Costas. The event included: A two mile mountain bike ride to Camelback Mountain A grueling ascent and descent of... «more»
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Short Staffed (August 30, 2004 04:11 PM)
The CogDog will be doing a lot more running around for the time being. It is not just the zaniness of semester start up, but I am feeling the loss of a valuable part-time student programmer who has been with MCLI for 5 years. This reduces my technology staff from... «more»
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The Weeks Prep for "The" Canyon (August 25, 2004 11:07 AM)
Completely irrelevant to technology... but I am in a 3 week physical ramp up in preparation for a Grand Canyon backpack, 3 days, 2 nights down the Hermit Trail. I'm getting my 2-3 day a week bike commute, some good weekend climbs, like Camelback Mountain. The park service issues lots... «more»
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Hanging Out with Wyatt Earp (August 22, 2004 08:29 AM)
Who needs Broadway? Last night we were at the "theater" in Pine Arizona (that is the town community hall, an old school gym that still has the wooden basketball court floor), with $7 tickets to see the one performance by Wyatt Earp - that is his name and he is... «more»
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To San Fran and Back: One Day for Horizon Project (August 14, 2004 10:49 PM)
I was a commuter today- a one day trip fro Phoenix to San Francisco for the NMC Horizon Project meeting... I am rather humbled and honored to be a part of a group of heavy hitters in the instructional technology realm- Phil Long from MIT (we first crossed paths at... «more»
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IndyJunior - maps of travels per year (August 13, 2004 11:27 PM)
It's been a while since I updated my data files for the nifty Flash mapping app- IndyJunior. This application reads coordinate data from an XML file, and maps locations and current geographic location. Check out the CDB travel maps for 2003 and 2004. By turning the template for this MT... «more»
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Raising the White Flag on our Course Management System Data Collection (July 29, 2004 04:10 PM)
As far as course management systems, the Maricopa system has quite the diversity for course management systems- 2 colleges using WebCT (moving Fall 2004 to a shared Enterprise server), 6 using Blackboard, 1 using MIDAS, a derivative of the Anlon product, and 1 developing a brand new LMS/CMS to pilot... «more»
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Mmmmmmm Mighty Mud Mania (July 23, 2004 05:24 PM)
Thanks to our 4 day summer work week, I had today free to volunteer for Scottsdale's Mighty Mud Mania, a 21-year old event that draws more than 10,000 kids to romp through obstacle courses full of gooey mud. It began in the 1970s as some promotion for a cleaning product,... «more»
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Survived (July 22, 2004 09:34 PM)
In regards to the yesterday's bike accomplishment, make that two in a row. Today was uneventful, the only encounters were with a covey of quail along the Arizona Canal. When we bicycle, we are all Lance, careening down the cobblestone roads at 50 mph, accelerating our way up the French... «more»
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Back In the Saddle (July 21, 2004 02:42 PM)
Completely unrelated to technology... Today, after two months of excuses and ignoring the messages from Mirror Mirror on the Wall, I got back on the bicycle for my 11 mile commute to work. And today's weather was so... optimal? Here in Phoenix we are expecting a record high of 112... «more»
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How to Stop HTML Thieves (July 20, 2004 10:54 PM)
A frequent question we get from our Writing HTML tutorial is: "what code can I use to prevent people from viewing/stealing the source code of my web pages?" and the answer is very similar to what i say to people when they want to protect their images on web pages... «more»
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Pounding the Jade Server (July 14, 2004 05:32 PM)
Crikies! We just got around to setting up AWstats for our "Jade" server that runs our blogs as well as the Feed2JS contraption. For just a week of running, in the middle of a hot and slow summer, we see: 561,000 hits (42k per day)99,000 unique visitors (11k per day)... «more»
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Free PDF Creation Tool (Yawn...) (July 10, 2004 03:19 PM)
pdfMachine is a $49 PC app for generating PDF files: Our pdf writer pdfMachine converts a print stream from an application directly into a PDF. Once you have installed the pdf writer, open your document that you want to convert, then click “print”, select the “Broadgun pdfMachine printer” and that’s... «more»
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North of the Border....... (eh?) (July 9, 2004 11:36 PM)
It's been more than a while since our return from visiting 2 weeks in Canada, so before all the brain cells rot, here is an attempt to summarize a glorious trip. I managed to snap more than 600 photos (tossed about half), and still they really do not capture the... «more»
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Willow Fire Photos (July 6, 2004 08:10 PM)
Monday night we drove home to Phoenix skirting the edge of the active Willow wildfire and was awed/dismayed at how the smoke completely obscured the Mazatzal range-- the front in the photos below was only 1/2 mile from the Beeline Highway (AZ87) and the radio was reporting that the Beeline... «more»
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Way Too Much Time on Their Hands (Please Wash Hands When Done_ (June 18, 2004 10:33 PM)
Another installment on the There is a Niche for Everything on the Net: Urinal Dot Net (I was googling to find the SeaBus Terminal in Vancouver and this was result #2.... why? Only Google Knows)... «more»
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