Changing the language

February 19, 2006

The 2006 Winter Olympics brings a new little quirk we'll have to deal with for years to come. NBC decided to call Turin by its Italian name Torino. In the years to come will the next company to have the Olympics broadcast refer back to the games by their English name or their Italian? At the end of the day it is far from anything that makes much difference, but is a sign of the arrogance of the mainstream media when one communications company takes it on itself to change the language.

Dynamic CSS

February 18, 2006

Jeff Robbins posts about dynamic CSS. The idea being creating a CSS in php where you can use variables such as changing colors, backgrounds etc. in the PHP. It also has potential for the ability to reduce the number of files necessary to serve a page.

In systems like Drupal where there is a system-wide style sheet as well as one created for each theme and some modules add their own as well. With all of these it means more connections required to download a single page. For many users this is not a huge deal. For those of us on satellite links it is a problem.

RSS gets new life

February 18, 2006

It looks like in the last few weeks, the RSS Advisory Board is getting back into business. According to the chair of the board Rogers Cadenhead they will be working towards working with the developers of Atom and RDF Site Summary on things like the Feed Validator and having a common icon for web feeds. Could it be that the format wars will subside and web feeds will be set free?

The freedom of information

February 15, 2006

Last spring I wrote about Westlaw having RSS feeds available for searches. Then in the late summer a note about Lexis adding web feeds to their searches as well. In the time between it turns out that PubMed added feeds too.

There is an important dichotomy in the areas of law and medicine, however. In the area of law we depend upon two large companies to compile and publish the law of the land, cases and other important notes. If one wants to engage in the practice of law they must subscribe to these services. Medicine, to be sure, has its own databases of publications and information. However, for the lay person there is a big difference. In order for the lay person to search case law they must find a way, which generally includes shelling out bucks, to search the holy grail databases. In medicine it is possible for anyone to search PubMed's database.

Lest it be lost on anyone the ultimate irony would be that it is the government in its various forms that produces the law and the cases that interpret the law. In medicine they provide funding and have some agencies involved in medical research but it is not the primary job of two-thirds of the government as are law making and interpretation.

Focus

February 14, 2006

Reading Jeremy Zawodny's post tonight about reducing distractions at work reminded me of a few things. Jeremy mentions that after having given up watching television the next most intrusive thing was Instant Messenger(IM). I'd probably agree if I could manage to get people to use IM. At about the same time I stopped watching television I stopped using IM, not intentionally but because I am rarely on and at least at home the price of keeping one additional TCP/IP connection open isn't worth it.

It occurs to me, however, that I might actually benefit from getting more traffic moved to Instant Messenger... If it makes the phone stop ringing with calls that are not related to work and most importantly not related to what I'm working on at the moment it could be a good thing. The important part would be to make it more of a messenger and not focus on the instant portion of the title. In this way it could be a "more urgent than email" but something I can respond to as time permits.

I do, about four times a year, watch TV. The occasions are usually special events like the Tour De France and National Finals Rodeo or every couple of years the Olympics. What is notable, however, is how differently I view TV now. In the days when I was watching too much TV I thought I got a great deal of work done while watching. It is the multi-tasking myth. The idea that like a computer the human brain can successfully switch back and forth, moment to moment, from one task to another. As I said, it's a myth.

Google Analytics module for Drupal 4.7

February 13, 2006

I spent a little time last night with the Google Analytics module from Ixis. Mike's module works well for Drupal 4.6 but needed a couple of quick tweaks to make it work with the new forms API in Drupal 4.7.

The module, updated for 4.7, is attached below. Someday I need to get the whole CVS portion figured out to contribute to the main Drupal site, but I'm dreading how it will work over the evil satellite connection.

Another take on outsourcing

February 12, 2006

This weekend brings the news that San Jose City College will be outsourcing student email accounts. It is a model that I've discussed with colleagues for many months. When institutions have antiquated email systems the pressure will be great to move towards a new model. Details haven't been released so it is unknown if Google is using the same revenue model (advertising) or a customer paid model.

Earlier this year CCSN outsourced its technology department.

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