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Sunday, July 7, 2002

Fixing Broken HTML in Radio News Aggregator

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 7:52 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Secure Printing From an IT Perspective

While not about graphic arts printing specifically, this post on Slashdot shows the issues of security are beginning to surface in areas outside the print industry, which means yet one more thing printers are going to have to address.

Slashdot | "Ask Slashdot" - Secure Printing?

RiverWolf asks: "As a Systems Administrator (a.k.a. 'paranoid security freak') I spend much of my time tightening down systems, loading patches, and just generally making sure no one does what they're not supposed too. While tools like ssh have become a staple for file transfer and terminal sessions, I recently began looking at all the little print servers we have throughout my offices and wondered "hmm, can those things be sniffed?". Until now, my focus for printing has always been 'just get it working', but if someone can sniff the print jobs (like payroll and other confidential information) as they go across the network, then it doesn't matter how locked down eveything else is. Is there a standard for secure (encrypted transmission) network printing, or does anyone know of a way to do this? I found this document that deals with it in a round about fashion, but with dozens of printers spread throughout multiple locations, I don't see it as an option." [Privacy Digest]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 7:38 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Future of Print

RAVEing Congressional Lunatics

RAVE Act: RIP Live Electronic Music. The RAVE Act, whose acronym stands for "Reducing Americans' Vunerability to Ecstacy", would fine people or companies that organize or host events "featuring loud, pounding dance music" up to $2,000,000, and allows promoters to be jailed for up to 20 years, without requiring officials to prove that any of the attendees actually possessed drugs. This law not only is a danger to civil liberties, but also would effectively eliminate live electronic music in the US, given the enormous risks now associated with it.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 7:31 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Usability Design

Extreme Usability.

Here is a case study about applying a usability methodology to a short, iterative, design project:
Applying usability techniques to deadline-driven projects (found via Column Two).

This piece gives some good questions to ask when starting a project.

Check out the flow-chart. How many boxes in the chart did you hit during the last design project you worked on? [High Context]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 2:57 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

More from Mower on liveTopics

liveTopics progress.

Only a week after I had hoped to release version 1.0 of liveTopics and I'm nearly there.

I've had a lot of good feedback from uber-testers Marc Barrot and Jack Mancilla.  This thing should be pretty well shaken out when it arrives.

The basic functionality is now all in place. You can successfully add topics to posts, have them displayed with the post and traverse the weblog using the Topic Table of Contents (TTOC).

The TTOC, for example Curiouser and curiouser! shows every topic defined in the weblog.  For each topic it lists the weblog posts associated with that topic, in chronological order.  Each of these postings in turn lists the other topics associated with that particular posting.  The end result is a very easy way to traverse the weblog following threads of thought.

Things that are in the pipeline just past v1.0:

• Exporting topic information in your RSS stream.
• Clever aggregators will be able to use this topic information to rank & prioritize postings in your news view.
• Topic Mining
• Quickly and easily add topic information to archive postings
• Sharing topics
• Your topics will be published as XTM topic maps.
• Subscript to other users topic rolls and be able to use their topics as well

Please let me know of any other ideas you would like to see implemented. [Curiouser and curiouser!]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 2:42 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Fragen for Fewer Tags

Eliminating those damn multiple paragraph tags. I guess it's time to announce my solution to the problem of Radio inserting multiple paragraph tags into the rendered HTML.

My solution is a script called pLessFix. It's available at my Public Scripts.

What it does.

Once the script is installed it needs to be run. Running the script copies the builtin upstreaming scripts for both ftp and xmlStorageSystem into the user.radio.drivers.upstream folder where they are then modified. The modification searches for instances of multiple paragraph tags and replaces them with a single paragraph tag.

It does not change anything in your Radio.root. If you wish to uninstall the changes simply delete the tables from user.radio.drivers.upstream or you can uncomment the bundle in the script that says uninstall.

I hope others find this helpful. Let me know. [Surgical Diversions]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:48 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

More IM/KM/intranet Pointers from Matt Mower

BlogAgent.

Russell Beattie has a new IM-based blog notifier called BlogAgent, written in Java and open source. [Scripting News

» Just started using BlogAgent.  The ability to see who else is watching pages you are watching is pretty cool. [Curiouser and curiouser!]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:44 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Info Tools Compendium

Software for Information Professionals.

I'm on the look out for software that improves my lot as an information producer/consumer.  I came across this article by Peter Morville which talks about software for Information Architects.

He identifies the following categories of tool:

• Automated Classification
• Automated Category Generation
• Search Engines
• Thesaurus Management
• Collaborative Filtering
• Portal Solutions
• Content Management
• Analytics
• Database Management
• Information Architecture Productivity

(Note some of the tool urls are now dead. This article was written in 2001)

As an individual I'm more interested in personal solutions than enterprise solutions. This means that I like tools like Copernic Summarizer and Personal Brain which put me in the driving seat. But I hope to have my own servers soon so I'll be interested in bigger solutions too.

Do you have a tool that you swear by? [Curiouser and curiouser!]

More good pointers from Matt Mower.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:40 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Category ftp, QuickScript Fix, and Progress But No Solution

I have restored the main upstream using Lawrence Lee's Quick Script suggestion noted here. I have a Private category now upstreaming to pwd-protected directory on my own web server at tfrazier.org. But the private category isn't quite right just yet. I still have some bugaboos in the page layout.

The posts, blogroll, macros, etc seem to be working fine. But the Theme elements aren't getting called as expected -- i.e. the blue borders along the top and left side of the page are missing from the Private category page.

I have manually copied the contents of my /www/images folder to the images folder on the ftp site. And I have manually copied the #template.txt and #homeTemplate.txt files into the Private category folder. And I have republished the site. But it just doesn't seem to catch on.

I'll see if Lawrence has an answer.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:29 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

How Fast Are You

JD's Blog: New Media Musings Scrolll down to find out how to test your broadband connection speeds.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:21 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

I Do Lots of Stupid Things So You Don't Have To

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 10:22 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Incorrect URLs After Changing Upstream Locations

Hugh Madison should get get Sue into writing a Radio Blog. With the trouble I get in Sue would have non-stop mysteries to solve.

Update: I did find that I had to refresh my Navigator links in the Prefs. Even after running the Quick script and republishing the entire site my Home Page link in the Navigator Links was still pointing back to the ftp site. Refreshing the Navigator Links in the Prefs and republishing again seems to have fixed the problem.

Time to go build a bookcase...

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 10:09 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Render Multiple RSS feeds on One Page

But I do know it would be cool to be able to display other RSS feeds, maybe news headlines, a project ticker from a k-log, etc. on a page.

Ok, so I didn't go to bed yet. But I saw this in the discussion group and wanted to catch it before it got away.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:27 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

ftp Munge

A minor thing, the Cloud Link to my Home Page still reflects the errant url of the ftp site, not my Cloud Home Page. I can't seem to get it to reset.

Ok, I see (sort of) what happened here. In messing with the ftp stuff I incorrectly enabled the general ftp function from Prefs. This is the Big ftp function, the one you use if you want to move your whole weblog to another server.

That wasn't what I was supposed to do. I just wanted to send a single category to a separate server. But in changing the general ftp setting I must have reset the default paths Radio uses to generate its image links and macro settings. I can't get them to reset.

I have Radio upstreaming messages back to the Radio Community Server but it is still trying to pull things like images from paths on the ftp site -- that's why the page looks funny.

I posted a message to the discussion forum. Maybe someone can help me out. I'm going to bed.

Update: Instructions on how to fix this. Don't forget to refresh your Navigator Links in the Prefs after running the script and before re-publishing.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 12:37 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Saturday, July 6, 2002

How to publish a category to a different FTP server

This post should appear on the Home Page but not in the pwd-protected directory at www.tfrazier.org.

Well, this seems somewhat hosed. Now the Radio server version of the site is munged. And I still can't get anything posted to the ftp site. Bummer.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:12 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Weblog by e-Mail

As for me, well, it just creates on more way to be ignored...

Blogging by email. Radio wishlist > Post to email..

Dale Pike writes:

I want to be able to designate a category and have that post sent as an email message to a pre-determined address. This would allow me to further consolidate my communications and have a more streamlined "write once" approach to my messaging.

[a klog apart]

» I need exactly the same thing to keep legacy people in the loop.  I'm trying to knock up something very quickly as a tool in Radio.

Basic features:

• preferences per- subscriber email
• filter by category & by liveTopic
• immediately, hourly or daily feedings
• send either complete post or permalink+title

I had originally thought about making it a program that subscribed to an RSS feed and emailed it out.  However this seemed like a lot of work and a way of re-inventing my.userland.  I'm trying to KISS!

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 8:52 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

About This Weblog

But along the way I have found myself going down the rabbit hole. The changes in personal publishing being wrought by the weblog are impressive. I think it has serious implications for the publishing industry's future. And I realize that to meet my objectives for this weblog I need to really, truly understand both the technology and methodolgy of blogging.

I also need to understand the implications for sharing what I learn and what I'm learning. I have a deep-rooted interest in collaborative computing, knowledge sharing, and the impact it can have on a company, a small business, or a project.

I have my own small business in mind -- one that addresses some of the gaps I see forming in the print/publishing industry. To make it work I need to understand how to bring a geographically dispersed team together, to keep them focused, and to keep them all moving full-speed ahead in the right direction.

I've been party to too many failed virtual efforts. I've seen companies stagnate, and even come completely apart because they couldn't manage a virtual business. I must learn how to do that if I am to succeed. So forgive my digressions into blogging, klogging, and intranet design.

My primary point, and I do have one, will become apparent once I have mastered the basics. Right now the information regarding my topics of interest -- new publishing distribution models, new print production models, new consumer models -- is widely dispersed, disconnected, and hard to find.

Publishers don't like what's happening becasue it will force them to change. Printers don't like what's happening for the same reason. Consumers don't like it because the benefits are still just a gleam in the eye of a few visionary people. But it will happen. In the mean time, I'm thinking out loud, trying to share what I learn along the way. I will get back to the point when the time comes.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 7:34 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

A Solid Intranet in Eight Steps

4. Put usability before consistency.
5. Start small and grow iteratively.
7. Evaluate against measurable objectives and criteria.
8. Make your intranet accessible.

Thanks Paul!

Article: A solid intranet in eight steps. I've never built a built a full-corporate intranet site, though I've been in a few efforts to build group sites. Even those efforts could have used the information in the article Theo Mandel has written: A solid intranet in eight steps" [Paul Holbrook's Radio Weblog]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 7:26 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Business Requirements for Classifying Content

A couple of articles from KMConnection I found from Paul's site:

Business Reqs.

Can't get enough Classification. I picked a reference to something called faceted classification from High Context. The back credits on where this comes from are getting a little deep for more (more on that later), so I'll just quote the item:

Faceted Classification.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 6:00 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Down the Rabbit Hole

Among others, Paul had this interesting post on what happens when you start to research something via blogs:

Down the rabbit hole of blogging .... Sometimes following other people's blogs is like talking to someone who won't shut up: you ask one question, and you're in for a 15 minute answer. Well, it's a little like that, except it's not: it's a lot more interesting. Case in point: I pulled a little piece out of my news aggregator this morning on a k-log pilot experiment, and many hours later, I'm left with a pile on interesting pages scattered around my screen that I'm trying to make sense of. (I can't even remember where I found the reference to the k-log item; it's already gone from my aggregator.)

BTW Paul, I got my RSS feed truncated. I've added you to my Aggregator and my blogroll. This k-log stuff is getting really interesting.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 5:36 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Feedback from a K-Log Experiment

[...] My own experience returning from a week of vacation really illustrates the benefits it has had within our own team. The first thing I did yesterday was fire up our team klog and read what had been going on while I was out last week. I immediately saw a couple items that needed my attention (which I dealt with in a few minutes each) and got up to speed on what the rest of the team had been focusing. All before I had finished my first cup of coffee and long before I had made it through my backlog of 200 e-mails and a few voice mail messages. (See John Robb's comments on the communication efficiency of klogs.) [...]

David has lots of other good KM and Usability items, too.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 5:26 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

What We're Doing When We Blog

As bloggers, we're in the middle of, and enjoying, an evolution of communication. The traits of weblogs mentioned above will likely change and advance as our tools improve and our technology matures. What's important is that we've embraced a medium free of the physical limitations of pages, intrusions of editors, and delays of tedious publishing systems. As with free speech itself, what we say isn't as important as the system that enables us to say it.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 4:58 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Requirements for K-Log Home Page

[...] Here is what should be on a K-Log home page (it is easy to set up the K-Log install process to ask for this info and insert it into the template):

1. E-mail link (or spam free e-mail link if it is publicly accessible).

2. IM link. IM status (online, busy, be right back, away, on the phone, etc.).

3. Phone number.

4. Address.

5. Bio. Including current position and responsibilities.

6. Picture.

7. Extranet weblog implemented as a category. As much or as little data on what you are currently working on as warranted. [...]

Maybe Scott can see what's required to get a live Jabber status icon going as part of his Jabber research.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 3:41 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Cool Tool: Summarizer Free Form Page Summaries

On Matt's home page I saw a review of Copernic Summarizer:

[...] Often when I am browsing I come across a long article that I'm not sure I want to read. If I have it in front of me I can click the summarizer button on the IE toolbar and let it go to work. If it's a link on a page I'm on I choose "Summarize target" from the context menu. Summarizer also has a live in- browser summary option.

Summarizer opens and downloads the page. It does a statistical analysis of the text to determine the key concepts. Then it works backwards to identify the sentences that are most important in the document based on those key concepts. It presents this as a summary list. At this point I can read the summary, email it or print it. I can also save it as an XML document (using Copernic's summary XSD scheme). [...]

This looks like a very nice tool for researchers, quite configurable, and probably something worth looking at if you write longer, expository posts on your weblog (Hmm. Wonder who that could be?)

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 2:34 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Searching for ZCB -- Zero Contribution Barrier

Thinking about this got me to thinking again about finding the maximum number of ways to get info into and out of an intranet. A search for NNTP in Yahoo! Groups: K-Log lead me to "Duncan Smeed", a university professor in Glascow. Duncan uses "Conversant", a Radio-compatible groupware product from Macrobyte Resources. Here's what he said:

[...]

Fourthly, Conversant provides subscribers to the site to create, and respond to, messages via (i) a web interface (HTTP), (ii) an e-mail interface (SMTP), (iii) a newsgroup interface (NNTP), and also to a certain extent (iv) a remote procedure call interface (XML-RPC) which allows other forms of interaction to be built; for example using Userland's Radio <aside> I'm really looking forward to installing MacOS X 10.1 to use its new AppleScript and XML-RPC features to incorporate my beloved BBEdit into the editorial process </aside>. This richness and variety of interface means that I, and my subscribers, get to use the interface that we find most convenient. In my experience the easier something is to do the more likely you are to do it. For example, posting a quote from a page on the web is, in my case, a simple matter of highlighting the text of the quote, then clicking twice - once to invoke the javascript bookmarklet I use to capture the text and the URL from the page which is then used to prime a textarea form in a new window, and the other to submit the form to my weblog. Two clicks. Two seconds. [...]

Macrobyte makes several products to support Radio Community Servers so I suspect there is some synergy here, and it looks like part of the Macrobyte site is created in Radio (similar look and feel, don't you know). I don't see anything about RSS syndication in Conversant, maybe that's a Radio thing.

Macrobyte software is affordable and they offer a hosted service. They also offer system design and consulting. Maybe someone to talk to for triangulation...

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:31 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Big Business Pressures for Palladium

What do you think your corporate IT department says to Microsoft when they come calling? I can just imagine it goes something like this:

1. "We want the ability to know what our employees are doing with our computers."
2. "We want to know who they sent email to (even if it's on a Hotmail site)."
3. "We want to know what files they send via Instant Messaging."
4. "We want to know what Web sites they both looked at and published to."
5. "We want to be able to search any employees' hard drive for any piece of information and get it fast."

[Scobelizer]

Business has legitimate productivity, competitive, and liability motivations for wanting this kind of info. Our litigious society has made BigBiz liable for virtually anything the employees do, whether the business knows about it or not. BigBiz simply has too many employees. They can't know them all, they sure can't trust them all, yet the courts hold them accountable for the actions of each. This kind of response is only natural.

I'd like to blame the lawyers, but that misses the point. Lawyers don't file suits if they can't find plaintiffs. I'd like to blame the courts but typically these things get jury trials. I'd like to blame the government, but we voted for them. Who does that leave?

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 9:54 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Denmark Case on Linking Counter to Internet Principles

via [Ernie the Attorney]

Dave Winer's thoughts on deep linking decision from Denmark

"In Denmark today, a judge rules against a search engine that respects the robots.txt convention, and stops it from "deep linking" into sites run by the Danish newspaper association. All these court cases are as stupid as dirt. Several good technical preventatives exist...[so] save the lawyer's fees. ...  We know for sure that when a company goes to court for "deep linking" that they aren't talking to, or listening to, their technical people. BTW, deep linking is an oxymoron. There's only one kind of linking on the Web. Why would you ever point to the home page of a news oriented site." via [Scripting News]

Amen Brother!  The law shouldn't help those who don't want to help themselves.  Of course, the site operators may not know about the technical solution.  One thing's for sure: most lawyers have zero incentive to figure it out on the client's behalf because it deprives them of the opportunity to file a lawsuit that, while not frivolous, won't win any Academy Awards either.  But lawyers file suits to make money, not to collect awards.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:43 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Bill Campbell Your Radio Host

A sad day for Atlanta when the Mayor responsible for driving the city to the brink of bankruptcy despite a decade of booming economy gets his own talk show. Too bad it won't be broadcast from the Georgia State Pen.

Ex-mayor gets a radio show. AccessAtlanta Jul 5 2002 12:27PM ET [Moreover - Atlanta news]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:36 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Jobless Rate up to 5.9 Percent

The job market doesn't just feel bad, it is bad. According to this NYT article it's not looking to get better any time soon. If you got one, hang onto it. If you don't well, let's go make one.

Jobless Rate Edges Up to 5.9%; Payroll Growth Remains Weak. The nation's work force rose by 36,000 jobs last month, but the increase was not big enough to prevent the unemployment rate from inching up to 5.9 percent. By Kenneth N. Gilpin.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:30 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

RIAA Goes After Corporate P2P

I have reservations about posting this, since it just helps spread the public scare tactics of BigContent. But it's important in as much as I think P2P can play an important role in corporate information exchange and it points out the need for som epolicies about just how and what can go on a P2P server.

BigContent strikes $1 million deal with Arizona corporation over an internal P2P server with illegal MP3s.

Peer-to-Peer Web Sites Grow 535 Percent. Lawsuit Settlement Finds Corporations Liable for Allowing Access to P2P Apps

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:08 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

K-Logs, NNTP, and Knowledge Management

Jon's book, Practical Internet Groupware (out of print but available used and online at Safari) was one of the first, and maybe the best, book available on using standard Internet protocols for groupware. It's a great book to read for ideas. And Jon ran the entire Byte publication team on a system similar to that he describes.

But he later admitted that the structure required for NewsGroups to work was cumbersome. I wish he would discuss how he thinks NNTP could fit into a POMO KM (a JOHO term) system. I like the idea of simple, open protocols. And I like using NewsGroups for support when companies offer moderated groups. But I'm having trouble weaving the two together.

Microsoft, NNTP, and the mismanagement of knowledge management. Robert Scoble has a theory about why Outlook doesn't include a newsreader: ...

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 12:21 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Friday, July 5, 2002

Open Access for NAB, Not for Users

So the NAB thinks cable companies and telcos should be forced to allow anyone to do aything they want on their networks -- no discrimination allowed. Funny, I don't see any sentiment like that in the CBDTPA.

"One nation, under broadcasters..."

NAB Joins Open-Access Forces. TVinsite Jul 5 2002 9:03PM ET

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:57 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Opera strikes accord with Macromedia

I used MSIE exclusively for over a year in 2000-2001 becasue it was just the best available browser. But Opera went to version 5.x in 2001 and got good enough. I switched. It's now version 6.0 and much better than good enough. It's my primary browser.

Some people still write pages with BS, MSIE-proprietary JavaScript stuff and I keep an old version of MSIE (v5 I think) installed just for dire emergencies. But if I find a site that forces me to use MSIE I just usually don't go there.

Try Opera. It works.

Macromedia to Embed the Opera Browser in Web Authoring Products

Oslo, Norway -- July 2, 2002 Today, Opera Software announced an agreement with Macromedia, whereby the two companies will work together to integrate their products for the Mac platform. Opera will deliver a full-featured, embeddable version of its desktop browser to be integrated into a wide range of Macromedia Web development products.

Opera and Macromedia will work together to develop and maintain an application programming interface (API) for an embedded browser on the Mac platform, enabling further technical collaboration between the two companies in the future. Opera's core technology will be used as default browsing technology in a number of Macromedia products on the Mac platform and will give users the opportunity to test their Web pages with the world's most standards-compliant browser. [Opera]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:41 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

The Buffy Syndrome is Real

posted by nicwolff » July 5 5:26 PM | 2 comments. Buffy the Terrorism Slayer(PDF link) The Center For Strategic & International Studies, which appears to be, like, a bunch of grown-up ex-senators and accused war criminals and former top spooks and such, released this white paper late last September.

Any structured intellectual approach to describing this situation — and planning for it — is so uncertain that a valid structure can only be developed as an exercise in complexity or "chaos" theory. I, however, would like you to think about the biological threat in more mundane terms. I am going to suggest that you think about biological warfare in terms of a TV show called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," that you think about the world of biological weapons in terms of the "Buffy Paradigm," and that you think about many of the problems in the proposed solutions as part of the "Buffy Syndrome."

I am one vindicated overgrown Buffy fan. (Via Need To Know.) [MetaFilter]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 9:59 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Master of Library Media

During my conversation with Scott Walker on information stewardship, we hit upon the idea of having someone with a strong library science background as part of our intranet design team.

Scott suggested I hit the Georgia State web site and take a look at their Master of Library Media program.

Sorry, but I couldn't care less if my librarian has ever studied Critical Pedagogy. I admit I have little background in library science, but half our educational problems are based in the silly idea that we need democratic schooling and teaching for social action. What tripe.

I suppose the Multicultural Education course will be helpful for those of us who want to imitate the productivity rates of Africa, the social norms of the UAE, or the labor practices of the Asia/Pacific regions. Just when Jenny Levine at TSL had me thinking so fondly of librarians...

But I digress.

Still seems like a good idea to have a librarian on board. I just wonder if I'll be able to find one that understands free market culture and wants to participate.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 9:39 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

How to Load a Script

I didn't.

I do now. Thanks to Andy Fragen's e-mailed instructions with his untitledPost script, I know all you need to do is save the script to a local folder and open it from the Radio App. Once the script is loaded hit the Complile button. You should be ready to go.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 8:43 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Andy Fragen just sent me his untitledPost script.

If this post appears with a title -- it works.

It works! Thanks Andy.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 7:28 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Apple and the Media

[from MAIL] They don't send me anything to review now. When they used to, I never heard from them unless I said something they didn't like. By anything they didn't like I include even minor criticisms: anything but fulsome praise was met with a barrage of emails and letters and other forms of harassment, some organized by Apple's marketing people.

It was painful enough that I, like a lot of journalists, decided that it just wasn't worth it. Most people in my business either became Apple specialists or gave up on Apple altogether.

Does Jobs really believe that, with 2 percent market share, he can dictate media policy? The good ones -- the ones people listen to -- just quit covering his products and his company.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 10:08 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Just Say No To Dot Doc

Scott Johnson at fuzzygroup devised the Just Say No To Dot Doc (or JSNTD) campaign.

Scott's article has instructions for setting MSWord to save out as RTF by default (in case you don't already know.) He also has an idea for a web service that would help businesses migrate away from MSWord dependence.

It sounds good to me, but then I'm your basic contrarian and don't give a rat's ass about total compatibility. I don't know what you do if you're stuck using MSProject or (God forbid) PowerPoint all the time. Are there viable alternatives to those? Anyway, something fun to think about while you're chewing on the latest Bush Administration/BigBusiness conspiracy theory.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 8:45 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Building Radio Templates with HTML

Dixie Vogul provides a brief tutorial on ReRu because the documentation is sparse.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 8:07 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Brent Ashley Tests Amphetadesk

Amphetatesting. I've been having a look at Amphetadesk today. In conjunction with Les Orchard's collapsable-channels-and-items skin, I like it quite a...

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:36 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

K-Logging vs the Seven Deadly Sins of KM

Thanks to [a klog apart]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:20 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

K-Log 101 Presentation

Klogging 101: What, Why, and How.. Explaining klogging to the gang at the office? To your user group?

Here's a little slide show you can use.

Klogging 101: What, Why, and How.

Talking points for 15-20 minutes.

Not included, but may be useful: a demo session.

• Bring your favorite b