Cyril Dangerville

New entry 2: test crossblog...

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the kind of entertainment for CICS geeks you don't want to miss and this is for next week (or the week after in the event of rain)! Ball State University is operating the fusion of Art and Wireless Technology.
Who said that "top unwired campus" is nothing but a generous gift from Intel, that Ball State is no wireless pioneer? If the show goes as expected, you may review your judgement. At least, open your mind.

What is this all about?
I just read an article from Slashdot featuring Ball State! [Zonk (2006, April 15). Sculpture to Reflect Campus Wireless Traffic. Slashdot], posted during the day, which I echo with the reference to the corresponding article from the Star press:
"Ball State University, the top unwired school in the nation according to Intel survey, is set to unveil a sculpture that will reflect the wireless traffic on the campus network. From the article [Koch, G. (2005, April 15). Sculpture to reflect Internet traffic. The Star Press]: 'Beginning Tuesday night at 8 p.m., as people log onto the Internet via Ball State's network, their online activity will appear as sound, color, patterns and images projected onto giant screens set up around the base of Shafer Tower, located in the middle of campus on McKinley Avenue".

You'll find a concise what-where-when-how in the Star Press article and all the details in the original article from John Willfalk at Ball State.
As for the WHO, the project is lead by J. Fillwalk (Associate Pr. of Electronic Art), K. Kothman (Associate Pr. of Music Technology) and J. Allison (Instructor of Music Theory and Composition), supported by Information Technology and University Computing Services, sponsored by the Center for Media Design and a grant from Lilly Foundation ($20M).

This sounds like a WOW project. The only thing that bothers me is the lack of open source software involved in the project. But that's just me.

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In his presentation in Fall, Tony Piazza said we should experiment with the blogs. Therefore, failing to be a prolific blogger, I have played with the stylesheets and the templates of my blog. Not much, but I tried a few things. In particular, I was having a hard time to upload all the files coming with a stylesheet (images, scripts, etc.), since you can upload only one file at a time with the Upload file option in Movable Type (MT). So I figured out this StyleCatcher plugin featured on MT's Style Sheets & Templates page could be useful after all. In fact, the setup of the plugin was not thoroughly straightforward. (If you want an idea of the trouble this caused to people, look at blogs like Movable Type StyleCatcher: Broken Broken Broken.) In short, it is great, but it doesn’t work… unless you work at it. But I could install it on our CICSWORLD.ORG, it works and you can play with it. Instructions follow…

Continue reading "Give a NEW LOOK to your BLOG in ONE FINGER SNAP (StyleCatcher)" »

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The question should be "HOW TO CUSTOMIZE your BLOG INDEX IN A FLASH". Indeed, your index is right there already, in your personal weblog site. You just click on Archives, and you get your index. You don't have the dates in the list? Let Movable do it for you. I'll try to make it easy.
After RTFM (type "index" in the search tool), you find out that you have to modify the Master Archive Index. After logging in, click on Templates then Master Archive Index in the list. In the template body, look for the first occurence of:

<MTArchiveList>
[blablablabla]
</MTArchiveList>

Then, if you just want to add the date before the entry title with a new line (<br/> in HTML), make sure it looks like:

<MTArchiveList>
<li class="archive-list-item"><$MTArchiveDate$><br/>
<a href="<$MTArchiveLink$>"><$MTArchiveTitle$></a>
</li>
</MTArchiveList>

I just inserted <$MTArchiveDate$><br/> (22 characters), not more. That's the power of the template. You can use different attributes for MTArchiveDate to modify the date format or the language (RTFM).
Now that you feel like a master, you want to increase your power, so you want to number the list (because Dr. Groom told you so. Sorry, no inside joke on the blogs? Too late). (Footnote for non-CICS: Dr. Frank Groom teaches ICS 630: Research Methods where he insists on the necessity to number the list of subjects in the random sampling process.) In this case, you have to change the lines before and after the MTArchiveList element:

<ol class="archive-list">
<MTArchiveList>
<li class="archive-list-item"><$MTArchiveDate$><br/>
<a href="<$MTArchiveLink$>"><$MTArchiveTitle$></a>
</li>
</MTArchiveList>
</ol>

I just changed 2 letters: o instead of u in <ul...>. Example of the result of this change. You can now copy-paste in one shot the whole index or just give the link as I did, when you want to give your blog index. You don't have to waste a blog for it.
I hope at least it helps the geeks that still have to get a blog index.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum.

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 03:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you want the solution right away, skip to my next blog (same thing “Part II”).

You are having a nightmare. In this nightmare, you are taking the final exam for ICS 620 AGAIN. (Footnote for non-CICS: ICS= Information and Communication Sciences, ICS 620 is a course on Telecommunication Technologies by Dr. Jones.) As usual, Dr. Jones, cheerful, tries to relax you by telling entertaining stories, yelling at GAs, playing with the equipment in the room, etc. (Footnote: GA= Graduate Assistant.) But this doesn’t work. You are striving to concentrate the few brain cells that you have left on this one damn question, the question that keeps you from the Perfect, this one blank in your paper (this is just a dream, I mean a nightmare, OK?).
This question is:
What basic principle would you apply whenever you do not know how to do [whatever]? 4 words, NO ACRONYM PLEASE

Continue reading "[Tips from The DARK SIDE] HOW TO GENERATE your BLOG INDEX IN A FLASH (Part I: Introduction)" »

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 01:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I said in part I I would explain in a next blog why many open source software are threatened to death by this law and what kind of protections governments and large companies are developing to enforce the DMCA/EUCD. Here you go...

Continue reading "DMCA, EUCD, leave our freedom and free software alone! (PART II)" »

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 07:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I read an article in a IT-related newsletter (very popular among French web surfers) concerning the use of blogs in the world (in the USA in particular). It shows the results of several surveys, including the benefits of a CEO's blog in the company. I am sure Dr Steele would argue such a study. I thought this would be helpful to the CICS blogosphere, especially to the CICS geeks that research on blogs.
However, it is all in French and I did not find a close English equivalent on the web. You may be luckier than I was. Anyway, I give an (attempt of) English version of two interesting survey results in my opinion, that are given in this article. One reason is to keep track of the content [1] since it might disappear pretty soon or the link might change.

Continue reading "Surveys on use of blogs in the world" »

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When my CICS colleague Luke Amos informed me about something scary going on between free software, e.g. VideoLAN, and the French legislature, I went to the VideoLAN website, alarmed, since VideoLAN is one of my favorite programs ever. What do I read in red bold characters, at the top of the page?

“VideoLAN might disappear due to new French/European legislation.” (VideoLAN, 2005)

What?? Do you mean the program that…

Continue reading "DMCA, EUCD, leave our freedom and free software alone! (PART I)" »

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I build my human communication on different models of communication from various fields of science, from basic to complex, looking for effective ways of communication at different levels (from interpersonal to mass communication).

Continue reading "Personal Human Communication Theory" »

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blogs work like websites, except they have a specific use of dynamic pages, databases and templates. Read more for further details.

Continue reading "[Weblog Research] How does weblog technology work?" »

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

... = SPAM 2.0!
I recently read an article about a new – new for the least geeks of us, I actually read the article one month ago - web phenomenum that I deem worth to be brought to your attention : the « splog ». What the hell is that? The definition, the good and evil, the causes and effects, and the Nota Bene, all you wanted to know (unconsciously) about SPLOGS...

Continue reading "SPAM + BLOG = SPLOG" »

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AOL just bought Weblogs Inc. last Thursday. Weblogs Inc. is a specialist of Blogs, very popular in the USA. Weblogs hosts famous sites such as Engadget (technology), Autoblog (automotive), Joystiq (gaming), Cinematical (films), Blogging Baby (parenting), Luxist (luxury), Gadling (travel), The Wireless Weblog, SlashFood, and TVSquad. Altogether, 85 blogs come to enhance AOL's information services.

Weblogs's audience amounts to 25 millions of visits/month. Soon, links to these 85 blogs should be integrated into AOL's information channels such as « Personal Finance Channel », « Autos Channel », « Travel Channel », « Games Channel », « Television Channel », and AOL News.

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Thursday, Sony introduced its brand new dog-robot of the Aibo series, code name ERS-7M3. At first sight, nothing new, the suprise hides "inside". Indeed, its abilities have been improved from the former generation to enable him to create a logbook with pictures included, and update it on a regular basis. The master can have access to this logbook via a computer and the appropriate software, and broadcast it on the web as a weblog. The robot can also read its "blog" loud and clear.
As "blog abilities", ERS-7M3 has two "camera-eyes" to take pictures and a-thousand-work directory. Futhermore, it can learn to walk according to the master's behavior and habits, and store data about places of objects/people to optimize its movements. Finally, if you want to skip the education process, you can upgrade your toy to the "adult" mode with a quick computer tweak.
Welcome to the first blogger machine!
Price: (Japan) ~$1,740
Available in 3 colors: white, black, gold.

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Technical" comes from greek τεχνικοs, adjective coming from the noun τέχνη, which means "art, craft, skill"; originally the art, craft or skill of the τεκτων, the carpenter, more generally the builder. That is why the primary definition of "technical" you find in the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) refers to "special and usually practical knowledge especially of a mechanical [like the builder's] or scientific subject".
You can also use the term "technical" to oppose human and its complexity. "This is the technical definition of technical" is an example of means to say you are sticking to the stric or legal (if you refer to law) definition. You do not want to involve connotation (the denotation only) or any kind of human thinking that would take you too far from the plain task of defining. Similarly, A technical way to do sth follows a well-defined set of instructions, and a machine could do it as well in the absolute. Indeed, "technical" is very close to, if not part of the world of machines.

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week, Jean-Paul Vouiller, a CFTC (French union) union activist called Hewlett-Packard's employees for using weblogs as a means to coordinate their action and give their opinions on the current HP's scheduled lay-off program. You probably know that very recently, short after IBM's massive series of lay-offs in Europe, HP laid off 14,000 people in Europe, whose 1,240 from France. The blog, more than a means of pressure, has become a strong and powerful union tool.

Posted by Cyril Dangerville at 02:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)