Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Category: Computers

  • IFTTT Twitter Triggers

    Because of Twitter’s impending API terms changes (how third parties can access their service), third parties like If-This-Then-That are dropping Twitter. Ugh. I only had two recipes using Twitter. Post any tweets I tag #ln to LinkedIn. I don’t even think I triggered it once. Copy my tweets to Dropbox. I deleted both, but decided I needed…

  • TED Talk: What we learned from 5 million books

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    Google Labs’ Ngram Viewer lets us look at the use of phrases over time. For example, my name, Ezra, appears to have been most popular usage peaks back in the 1600s and 1700s, but has been more consistently used since the 1800s. This kind of thing can get me lost for hours at a time.…

  • The Long Problem

    We encountered a vexing issue where sections did not appear for the class list for students. We confirmed the students were properly enrolled. We confirmed the current date was between the dates for learning contexts and terms. We confirmed the access was granted to the students. Still, the sections were not showing, but the usual…

  • Counting

    In the beginning I used TOTAL=`ls /d2lmig/*/*/bak/*/* | wc -l` to get a total count. All was good. Until at around 55,000 files I got: -bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long. Then I used TOTAL=`find /d2lmig/*/*/bak/*/* -name *.bak | wc -l` to get a total count. All was good. Until at around 90,000 files I got: -bash: /usr/bin/find: Argument…

  • Students Out PR Professionals

    As a Valdosta State University student, we nicknamed the student paper the Speculator. Incorrectly reading between the lines were their specialty. Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes were part of their standard. But it was amusing to see them go after the administration. Not so much to be reported on when I made big mistakes. As…

  • Context Menu

    Almost everyone using a computer to access the Internet uses the left click on a link to go to its location. Exceptions might be left handers who switch the buttons on a mouse, those using screen readers, or similar small niche users of the Internet. I tend to multi-task, so I will scan a page…

  • Twexports

    Data portability is good both for users and systems. But I like being able to export my data for another reason: search. Some times I want to build on an old conversation. It would be easier with an eidetic memory. Lacking that, knowing the terms I would have used, searching for it should yield that conversation.…

  • Content Migration Progress Tracking

    When moving hundreds of thousands of courses between WebCT Vista and Desire2Learn, keeping track of what made it through which stage seems like an obvious hindsight thing to do. I added that last bit because we started to notice where things fell between the cracks starting to pile up. The basic process… Through Oracle SQL…

  • New World

    Here is an attempt at a positive post with our new vendor, Desire2Learn. In the Old World, WebCT/Blackboard, my role was to develop install the application / databases, monitor for problems, automate systems to run without the need of humans, or to make it simple for humans to do. In the New World, Desire2Learn, my…