I just set up a copy of WordPress Multiuser, running at calgaryblogs.net. It’s an open and free blogging service. I won’t be running ads, or charging for individuals to use it. My only goal is to get more people publishing content online, and if yet another blogging service will help, then so be it.
It’s configured to serve subdomains, meaning you can easily set up a blog at “mygreatblog.calgaryblogs.net” and treat it like it’s your own server.
Read MoreI’ve been an on-again, off-again bicycle commuter for almost 2 decades. For the last couple of years, I’ve been riding my bike almost exclusively (as long as weather allows) from my house to work at the University. It’s not a long ride - between 12-14 km, depending on my route - and much of it can be done off of streets, or on quiet residential streets. At the beginning of the riding season, I estimated that i might ride 2000km, or if I got lucky, maybe 2500km, before the end of the season. I’m about to cross the 2900km mark, and might be able to hit 3000km if the weather holds out. The bike ride is probably the calmest, most meditative time I get in a day. On days when I can’t ride, I miss it, both physically and mentally.
Read MoreNorthern Voice 2008 is now on the calendar - February 22-23, 2008 in Vancouver, at the UBC Main Campus at the palatial Forestry Sciences Building. This is the 4th annual event, and I’ve had the extreme pleasure to have attended each of the previous 3 years. It is my one must attend event for the year - if the only conference travel I get approved is for NV08, I’ll consider the year a success. I just filled in the official “Travel Approval Request” form, and should know if the U of C will sponsor my way in the next couple of weeks. If they pass, I’ll find another way. I’m going.
Read MoreI’ve been using the WP-Cache 2 plugin for some time, as it offers pretty effective file-based caching of WordPress pages to help reduce the load on the database server and reduce page generation time. But the plugin has kind of languished without any real updates for months(?) or years(?).
Donncha O Caoimh, the WordPress guru who’s name I’ll never be able to pronounce, released an updated and refined caching plugin called WP-Super-Cache, based on the great start offered by WP-Cache 2.
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Evan and I spent the day at the Glenbow Museum, checking out the exhibits and hanging out in the discovery/crafts centres. We were at the museum for a record 5 hours - not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
We started at the top (4th floor) and worked our way down. I hadn’t seen the physical Mavericks exhibit, although I did construct the website for it. It was pretty darned cool to see the exhibits in the flesh. The Glenbow did a helluva job putting the Mavericks floor together.
Read MoreI’ve been using my “nifty fifty” (aka “plastic fantastic”) Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens almost exclusively since I got it a couple months ago. It was cheap, at $100, and it’s been a blast to use. The wide aperture means I can take shots without needing the flash, with a strong bokeh (blurred background with foreground in sharp focus). It really hit me just how awesome this lens is, when I dragged the camera out trick-or-treating with Evan last night. Lots of other parents brought cameras - it’s a natural thing to do. Many even had DSLRs with fancy schmancy lenses. But they ALL were firing the flash. Completely blowing away the spooky halloween ambiance, replacing it with brightly lit subjects with harsh shadows. Ick.
Read MoreToday is a memorable day. It’s the day that CAREO, the learning object repository we built at The University of Calgary, is being officially decommissioned. Unplugged, mothballed, and put into storage. It’s been a wild rollercoaster ride for these 6 years, but that ship has sailed. Back in 2001, when CAREO was first created, there was a need for a concrete prototype of a repository. Other available software didn’t quite do what we had in mind, and it was relatively easy to just go ahead and build some software to test out some ideas.
Read MoreWe’re working on a project with some folks at the CHR, and they are travelling to a conference to present their courses and talk about the process. Part of that presentation will be a live demo of the Moodle-powered site and some of the cool Breeze content we put together for them.
The hotel (which shall remain unnamed for now) sent them a sheet, asking what technical services they would like for their 1 hour presentation. Included in that sheet was this portion, listing the costs per service:
Read MoreOthers will write more profound and deeper posts describing what’s so freaking cool about MacOSX 10.5 Leopard. This post is just my initial gut reactions. Want more meat? Surf over to arstechnica.com.
I’ve played with seeds of 10.5 for what seems like years (but is really only a year?) through our Apple Developer Connection subscription. But all of my previous experience was in carefully isolated cleanroom installations, to prevent any bugs from nuking my production system. I’d never tried an upgrade install. I’d never run it for more than a day or two tops because bugs and instability sent me running back to 10.4. So, this is my first real time in Leopard, without an alternate or backup system running a previous version Just In Case™.
Read MoreI can’t say how happy it makes me that a good number of these are from good friends of mine :-)
I just poked through Rory’s A Typology of Learning Object Repositories article, starting with the tables, and found a few errors relating to his description of CAREO. Here are the corrections (I don’t have Rory’s email handy, and there aren’t comments on the DSpace page for the article):
But, it’s all a bit moot, as institutional and provincial support for the CAREO repository evaporated long ago, and the application itself is on its last legs. It’s no longer supported, is barely functioning at the moment, and will be decommissioned at the end of the month.
Read MoreWe use the Events module to manage workshops here in the Teaching & Learning Centre, and use the “Upcoming Events” block to display the next few workshops on our website. Works great, but the default text leaves a bit to be desired. By default, it shows the event title, and “(2 days)” - which indicates that the event begins in 2 days.
But, it could also mean that the event lasts for 2 days.
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