(This is an post I wrote back in November but didn’t publish…. Until now. Have fun!) Mitigated speech gets a lot of use by people trying not to offend. All too often, people who have been hurt because of mitigated speech question what isn’t being told as though the omission or gaps are intentionally deceptive.… Continue reading Supported
Tag: port
xmllint
This Linux tool is my new best friend. We get thousands of XML files from our clients for loading user, class, and enrollment information. Some of these clients customize our software or write their own software for generating the XML. This means we frequently get oddities in the files which cause problems. Thankfully I am… Continue reading xmllint
Me Social Media
Dan Schultz doesn’t like Facebook or Twitter because they are too focussed on individual expression rather than the community. That may be because he is using them wrong. I liked photography as a kid, but I didn’t know any photographers. Flickr happened to come into my life just after I bought my first digital camera.… Continue reading Me Social Media
Integrating With Facebook
At least a couple years ago, I set up the Facebook Notes app to import this blog’s posts as notes. By setting this up, a number of friends have taking to commenting on my posts. I get far more comments on Facebook than I do here. However, this was a horrible way to get traffic to… Continue reading Integrating With Facebook
TED Talk: Taryn Simon
My favorite quote from Taryn is, “Photography threatens fantasy.” Disney uses intricate interior design, photography, and video to construct fantasy. Advertisements, magazines, weddings, and portraits are about showing others the ideal instead of the reality. Have you seen the Dove Evolution video? (This one has music and singing by a Baha’i musician Devon Gundry.) What about… Continue reading TED Talk: Taryn Simon
Useful User Agents
Rather than depend on end users to accurately report the browser used, I look for the user-agent in the web server logs. (Yes, I know it can be spoofed. Power users would be trying different things to resolve their own issues not coming to us.) Followers of this blog may recall I changed the Weblogic… Continue reading Useful User Agents
Tracking Specific File Use
CE/Vista Reports and Tracking displays summaries of activity. If an instructor seeks to know who clicked on a specific file, then Reports and Tracking falls down on the job. Course Instructor can produce a report of the raw tracking data. However, access to the role falls under the Administration tab so people running the system… Continue reading Tracking Specific File Use
Turnitin.com
I’m surprised I have not blogged here about the student lawsuit against Turnitin.com? An anti-plagiarism service, Turnitin has students or faculty members upload papers into the database. By comparing new papers to the database, it gives ratings as to whether it is likely a student plagiarized. Now the search goes out for any student who… Continue reading Turnitin.com
Booing at Beckham
Sports are entertainment. Some watch it for the feats. Some like discussing tactics. Some just want to see scores. Some love the bloopers (aka mistakes). The second you feel a sports player seen on television wronged you by a decision on or off the field (or court), it is time to turn off said TV.… Continue reading Booing at Beckham
Racial Profiling
Walking home from the bus in high school, I saw police cars and officers in front of my house. Their presence made me extremely apprehensive. The only little assurance was my father talking to the officers. Someone broke into the house and stole some of our stuff. We felt violated. Our own home was unsafe.… Continue reading Racial Profiling