When CAREO is launched, it does some stuff to modify its connection to a database, in order to allow me to point it to different databases at runtime without touching code or recompiling. In UCApplication.java, I modify the connection dictionary for the EOModel’s EOAdaptor, feeding it URLs for databases, usernames, passwords, etc…
This has worked like a charm on MacOSX and MacOSX Server (of course), but now, on Solaris, when I set the connection dictionary, and do a test connection to make sure it worked, I get this weird, cryptic SQLException error via WebObjects’ JDBCAdaptor class:
This is actually pretty cool. Another great link from Dale Pike!
Technorati.com checks a boatload of weblogs, and maps the links between them. Feed it a URL, and it tells you who else links to it.
What a cool way to find people who are linking to (and, one would therefore assume interested in) the contents of a weblog.
Something like this would be a slick addition to CAREO - map which people are subscribed to a learning object, and perhaps which other objects they’ve subscribed to, generating some form of dynamic relationship between objects. Something like the Amazon.com “You might like…” feature…
Just came across this presentation by Dale Pike. It’s a great summary of the reasons why weblogs may be valuable, and how they might be used in a community setting.
I’ve been asked to put together a “non marketing” feature list for CAREO. What can it do? What sort of functions does it have?
Anyway, my first, 10-minute stab at it is located here. I’ll also leave a link to it in the left sidebar of this site, so it’s handy. I’ll tweak it when I get a chance, but most of the important (or at least visible) features are in there. There will be some more additions in a few days, but mostly for behind-the-scenes kinda stuff.
SciQ just went live. It’s a K-12 theme for CAREO that is being used to push learning objects into the classroom in Alberta. Could be very cool, especially when teachers and students start using it in the trenches. This is a product of a whole bunch of educational stakeholders in the province, from content production to curriculum to technology.
It’s cool, from my perspective, since it’s a completely different look and feel for CAREO. A real test of the theming engine. Actually, SciQ was one of the major reasons that the theming engine is as flexible as it is now.
In a word: WOW! Those are some amazing photos. Powerful, beautiful, and completely amazing. Thanks to Ken for sharing his photos. Many of these would make great learning objects…
Not sure if I’ll leave it there, but it’s kinda cool to see external content. I actually intend to use the RSS-HTML utility that David graciously provided to demonstrate integration of Learning Objects and RSS into online learning - a WebCT or Blackboard course could include live external resources, without having to manually hunt for them. That’s a Good Thing.
I just ran a cool little utility called Comstats. It sniffs through my Mail.app mailboxes, and runs some stats on the contents. It generated this cool and somewhat scary graph of number of emails received per day, over the past 2 years:
It’s a little scary to extrapolate what appears to be something loosely resembling an exponential curve out another couple of years. Yikes.
Just tried both the Solaris and Linux versions of X-Hive, and MacOSX puked on the binary files for both (binary file not executable). Doh. Frederik at X-Hive suggested there might be MacOSX support by the end of the year. Guess I will have to wait until then.
In the meantime, we’ll have to scare up a Windows or Linux box to test on. Rob’s always got a RedHat box laying around, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Sure hope the Linux build of X-Hive likes RedHat…
OK… I’m feeling like a bit of an inept bonehead for not being able to figure this one out, and I’m hoping someone out there in blogland has done something similar…
I was hoping to create a simple HTML web page that included several RSS feeds, including several from CAREO. I was sure someone would have done something similar, but haven’t found anything that works. Reliably.
Is there anything I can use to embed live RSS feeds in an otherwise-static web page? I don’t want to be pre-processing anything, or cacheing XML or anything. I want a live display of a live RSS feed in a static HTML page. I don’t care if it’s a PHP or PERL or whatever-based CGI that does the heavy lifting, as long as it’s relatively portable (i.e., don’t have to recompile PERL on MacOSX like rss2html.pl seems to want to do). Oh, and it has to be able to run on my server. I don’t want to have a cross-the-pond round trip like what is required to use the feed processor at curry.com
Both claim to support multiple simultaneous xml schemas, XQuery, and lots of other goodness. Both claim to be relatively portable (although they don’t list MacOSX as a supported platform. ARGH! They both list Solaris and Linux, so maybe that’s close enough?) Both carefully hide what it costs to license their software.
