Joel Patrick

Other Christmas Ideas

I have been looking a while for a a way to have Internet radio in the kitchen without a computer. I think I may have found the device that will do it. In any case, I do wish I had stock in this company. It is a little limited in many ways for now, but it is programmable, and so I seems likely that it will keep getting better even after I get it.

Server problem

Something on the server chewed up some files. I am not sure what did it, but it was not fun trying to fix things. Please let me know if you think there is still something amiss. Sorry about the disturbance.

Making Links "count"

I received a very good question about link counting on the CICS blogging scoreboard. The question was why there are blog entries with links that are not counted. The answer is that the links are not active links. Here's the difference:

• Here is a link that is not active: http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2007/db071111.gif
• Here is the same link made active: http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2007/db071111.gif
• Here is the link in the text.

The first example is not counted by the scoreboard because the algorithm does not find a link unless the html grammar of is used. If you are puzzled by this, you can learn more at the following two links that are a short browse from the CICSWorld home page:

• From the link "Learning Movable Type" you can find this entry on adding links.
• From my howtos you can watch: Adding some value to a blog entry.

How much did you pay?

How much did you pay? What do you think it is worth? Where is this bunch's record company? How dare they?

Last Lecture

I am sure you know what Andy Warhol was right about.

I would like to see this whole lecture.

There is a write-up on him here.

Mind your minutes

One of the fun things for me during the 601 and 602 classes was the various strategies and tips dispensed by Drs. Steele and Gillette. Alternative student that I was, I viewed these strategies in the light of my personal experience. Frankly, theirs is pretty good advice. In the same vein are these two items from the web scans.

Pecha Kucha is not an Aztec monument but a clever technical constraint from the land of the haiku. Pecha Kucha: 20 slides @ 20 seconds each. Brilliant. The writer even provides an example.

A second one reminds me of a story that Dr. Gillette will surely tell (and perhaps retell because it is important) about a professor that gave him insight into non-fiction reading. This set of recommendations may not be quite as practical but it is about getting the most out of books. I have to smile at some of these articles because, I think that the authors embellish a bit on what they really do on a subject so they appear more masterful.

Have I got a deal

For a while it was an exalted thing to sell telecom services. I remember Dr. Groom saying once that the telecoms were geared to make lots of money with long distance at 10 cents / minute. I doubt we see rates that again other than what the Ritz charges the poor fools that pick up their room phone and dial "8". I had to negotiate a new deal on phones for my daughter when she got to campus because BSU does not do Cingular. It's a pity. With this article I would have been better equipped to haggle.

Medieval Help Desk (Human Factors)

This is truly lovely:

Diaspora as powerbase

Is there a CICS Diaspora?

There is a fascinating podcast from Jon Udell. It fits rather well with the match for the concept we have occasionnaly discussed with regard to the extended CICS network or "Distributed Collaborative Community" as we have called it. There is emerging evidence that we are seeing a real sea change in the way the world is starting to work. In the podcast is with blogger Jim Russell who is a geographer fascinated with the extended community related to Pittsburgh (home to Carnegie Mellon University).

The talk is very interesting and provides a lot of seminal thinking about what technology is doing to human cooperation today.

A related thinker is Richard Florida. Listen to his amazing talk at Pop!Tech on IT Conversations, a web service you should know.

Finished my assignment...

I spent a little time with the folks at HFI this past Friday. One of the things we agreed to do is to start documentation of the existing blog system. It is all based on the 3.2 version of Movable Type by blogging powerhouse Six Apart. It's always been the blogging platform I have known the best. In our case it is customized to get the united site, so there is definitely some assembly involved. It is still pretty low-grade stuff, but it is not always easy to find time to deal with it when things get intense in the Fall.

In my note on the Wiki, I discuss the SQL statements that make up the custom lists on the homepage and the scoreboard (see my previous blog entry). Hopefully we will be adding some more documentation as we go along.

Scoreboard back in working order

Each year getting the tracking system back in shape is the last bit of business. The scoreboard is working now. Basically it allows Dr. Gillette to associate a number with the blogging rate for the individuals. I do not like to put the link in the interface, because it is a bit mechanical. Alas, it is a necesary evil of teaching.

CrossBlog missing a piece

I added the necessary library Net/Blogger.pm; it was missing from the install. Crossblog.pl looks happy now, but I have not tried any crossblogging. Your turn, I think, Tony.

Screencasts for Learning Movable Type

I have spent some time checking things over on the weblog site and have prepared the following screencasts to help you get a good start with editing your weblogs. Screencasts are usually an effective method for getting people going on a new technology and you ought to consider using them with some of your outreach projects because they can jumpstart technology adoption. My favorite screencasts are by Jon Udell whose InfoWorld website (actually weblog) is one of the best technology columns going.

For now here are the screencasts. I will add more as I think of them of by popular demand.

• Resetting your password in the blog editing system
• Reentering the blog editing system with a replacement password
• Creating a blog entry
• Adding some value to a blog entry
• Changing the style of one's blog

I appreciate the opportunity to meet some of you and to speak about some of the questions that weblogs touch. I have uploaded my Powerpoint here. And I have also uploaded my program from last year.

Are you good because you act that way or do you act that way because you are good?

There are a lot of interesting things on del.icio.us today about appearances and trust. Basically to get dugg[ed] or delicioused, you create a list of dos, don't or other key factors. This one about resumés is a good example. It is good advice, but I am not sure you are in the resumé game if you need it. More from Forbes about "how to get people to trust you". There is a lot in the article about what people do to increase trust, but at the end the author reveals that being trustworthy is what is needed. On the collaboration front, I wonder how many people are tapping into the NotesMesh.

Turning towards Fall

As I think back to the fun and joys of Fall semester at CICS, there are a couple of recent articles that catch my eye. One is about Google page rank. This is a really nice piece about how page rank basically works. Why is page rank really important? Well one of my friends and unpaying custoemrs has a lovely old hotel in France. He complains to me that he "used to get a ton of reservations" from his web site and now no one comes. One of the things I have to do is look at referencing on this site and maybe even use Google's swell analytical tools. These could be handy if you are trying to communicate more effectively with the web (or get the points for site rank for the blog assignment).

For dear Jonesy, you might want to put these on your bedside table.