I just took a few minutes and built a simple MySQL table to store the 51 Dublin Core metadata elements that make up the “core” and “other elements”. Except for elements that are dates, I used “text” fields for everything so that it can hold anything you can throw at it, while still being indexable and searchable.
Following Cole’s lead, I added my own version of randomized banner images. I get the urge to modify the layout every now and then, and this just might cure that for a while since it looks different every time I see the page…
There are currently 11 images in rotation. Many were tweaked a bit to make the text a bit more readable over top of the image. All images were taken by myself, and the location is labeled. Most are from around the Calgary area, but there are a handful from other locations as well.
I’d played around with MarsEdit back when it first came out. I liked it, but couldn’t justify using a client application when the Wordpress posting interface works very well. I see that Josh is trying MarsEdit so I thought I’d give it another go.
It does provide a handy way to manage multiple weblogs, and I have it configured so I can easily post to the PachyBlog as well.
UPDATE: It looks like WordPress 1.5 has fixed the issues with the XMLRPC interface, since MarsEdit is able to communicate with my weblog just fine, without requiring the xmlrpc hack I had to use before. I also just posted to the PachyBlog - something I hadn’t done since September (oops). MarsEdit just makes it so easy (don’t have to remember passwords - the KeyChain remembers all…)
I’ll be updating the Lightweight Asset Management database to support the extra fields once they’ve been fleshed out or finalized a bit more, and when I get some time (it’s currently a version 0.1 application profile - adopters beware :-) ).
I just went to sign into my safari.oreilly.com account, and it was doing something odd… It somehow identified me as “University of Calgary”, and was offering the entire catalog for me to read! Wow. What an awesome thing! I assume our library bought a campus-wide license (and the safari website must be detecting my IP domain), or, perhaps this is available for all campuses now?
Regardless, very cool! 1165 technology books available at my desktop. Freaking amazing! Thanks to whoever did this!
I’ve always tried - not always successfully - to limit the amount of time I spend in meetings. Time spent in meetings is largely time spent not being productive (with a few notable exceptions). Well, there have been some changes here in the Learning Commons, with the net result for me being - wait for it - more meetings. That would be fine, but I still have the same deadlines and non-meeting workload. It’s going to be interesting over the next couple of weeks to find the balance.
I was just playing around with the Lightweight Asset Management thingy I’ve been working on, and decided to try something new…
For a couple of years now, I’ve maintained a quick and dirty website of webcams of warm places. You know, for when it’s not so nice outside…
I took the URLs from that website, and entered them into the lightweight asset manager as regular old “learning objects” with Dublin Core metadata. Then, I whipped up some simple PHP to run queries on the metadata, looking for the geographical area, and type of resource (webcam in caribbean, for example).
I’ve been using delicious2Safari for a while now, and it’s a really nice (and free) way to integrate your carefully tagged folksonomies from del.icio.us into your Safari bookmarks.
Combine that with Safari Stand, which makes an extremely useful bookmarks search utility only an F4 away, and I’ve got a very handy offline cache of del.icio.us bookmarks.
I’ve also got a shortcut in the Sogudi extension to Safari, so all I have to do when I’m online is enter “del whatevertagiwant” in the location bar of Safari, and BOOM - my del.icio.us bookmarks with that tag.
I was just chatting with Joshua Archer and we tried out Skype. It looks really promising, but we didn’t get to have an actual conversation over it because I didn’t have headphones, and the feedback from my powerbook’s internal microphone was pretty nasty.
Assuming the addition of headphones clears that up, this should be a great addition to our suite of collaboration tools (and would wind up getting a spot in our potential NMC 2005 session in June…)
Previously, the TR database had been developed as a WebObjects application, connecting to an XStreamDB XML database. That performed really well, and made for nice reliable queries, but meant an editing interface was more difficult to develop.
Now that it’s just a simple MySQL database, and a simple PHP script running the queries and interface, it’s easy to manage, and performs quite well.
The Learning Commons is looking to find a good flash designer (able to work on existing flash projects with a lot of actionscript code, and to create new projects based on them). This person would be filling a dual role, also providing graphic design expertise for online projects (websites, more flash stuff, some interactive/CD-ROM stuff).
We’ve got some really cool projects going on, so you ’d get to play with some great stuff, and work with some great people.
Normally, it’s just annoying. This time, I missed my bus because of it. My menubar clock was blissfully telling me it was “Tue 1:18:42 PM” - I just thought it was a particularly long day, since it felt later (it was a particularly long day, but that’s another story).
So, I keep plugging away.
Eventually, I glance at the menu bar on my other computer. “Tue 4:24:15 PM” WHA? Crap. Missed my bus. But, my laptop still says “Tue 1:18:42 PM” Thanks, crashing menu bar clock. I’ll be catching the next bus home…
