Skip to content

Monthly Archives March 2007

Stop Cyberbullying Day

Blogger Andy Carvin has urged active bloggers to declare today Stop Cyberbullying Day. His declaration was prompted by the case of blogger Kathy Sierra who in some way has prompted the ire of a group that has taken pleasure in harassing and threatening her. While I agree with the sentiment, I wonder about the benefits [...]

Posted 30 March 2007 † grabe § General ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Teaching to Learn

A certain type of guilt has been embedded within my academic personality. I credit this to my early academic training. I am tempted to compare this to religious training, but I do not want to be accused of being politically incorrect. If I become excited about something and become an advocate, there is a little [...]

Posted 30 March 2007 † grabe § Research ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Web Based Apps

If you have experimented with or are seriously using web apps (e.g., Google docs and spreadsheets), you may find a post on the ReadWrite blog to be of interest. This post briefly contrasts advantages and disadvantages of browser and Internet based apps vs. offline browser apps (perhaps not a distinction you might recognize – not [...]

Posted 28 March 2007 † grabe § General ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Wikipedia Alternatives

Wikipedia has clearly become a destination for those seeking information online, but this category of web resource still attracts some competitors. Perhaps concerns regarding the quality of content allow opportunities for challengers. Some offer an alternative based on a potentially superior way of organizating and sharing information (e.g., Freebase) and others an approach that address [...]

Posted 27 March 2007 † grabe § New Software/Hardware ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

What search engines find?

I am the treasurer for the National Consortium for Instruction and Cognition. Our organization has a web site and sometimes I am asked a question (e.g., where do I find the dues statement) that requires I provide an address for the web site. Much to my frustration I have great difficulty locating this site using [...]

Posted 26 March 2007 † grabe § General ‡ Comments (0) °

ShieldsUp!

I have discussed computer security and open ports in previous posts. I worry about open ports (and so do the university folks of monitor my activities) because I operate servers and must allow for interaction (port 8o for HTML, 22,23 for FTP and 25 for Email). You may have other ports open on your equipment [...]

Posted 26 March 2007 † grabe § General ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Flickr Frustration

Flickr is one of those great services that began as an independent initiative and then was purchased by one of the larger “players” (Yahoo in this case). I have always assumed this was a business model – become popular, get purchased – because how the original Flickr folks expected to cover their costs was never [...]

Posted 22 March 2007 † grabe § New Software/Hardware ‡ Comments (0) °