Friends
Face Made for Radio Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 2:07 pm
It's a good thing I have a face made for radio, because I'm going on KVNU's Voice for the People, Thursday, November 20th, to talk about OpenCourseWare. We start at 5:40 PM MST, and will likely go until the show is over (6:00). If you want to listen in, you can do so at:http://kvnuforthepeople.com/
Feel free to call up and mock me mercilessly.
Source: 
The Monopoly of Higher Education... Thursday, 13 November 2008, 3:15 pm
His awesomeness, Brian Lamb, has posted a thought provoking piece over on his blog. In it he says:"I staked out something of a confrontational stance... that higher education is still conducting its business as if information is scarce when we now live in an era of unprecedented information abundance."
This is an interesting point. We live in an age where information is not only plentiful, but it's easily searcheable and accessible. It's not a question of whether or not the information is out there. You can rest assured that it is in fact out there, you just have to find it. And more and more finding it is a relatively simple matter.
So, is higher education in danger? People go to a university to obtain an education, right? To get understanding? To read and learn about things. But now that information, education, and understanding can be found on the internet. They are in direct competition with Google, are they not?
I have a dirty little secret. I do web design for a living, and I've never had a single course on web design. I taught myself everything I know from the web. I didn't need the higher education system.
Universities should be shaking in their boots, right?
Wrong. Because universities still have a monopoly. One that shows no signs of cracking. That monopoly surrounds certification. I might know everything there is about programming, history, teaching, whatever, but employees aren't interested in that. They want to see my diploma. A diploma is such a beautifully quantifiable thing. So simple.
On his blog, Brian mentions that a person asked him, "...if we live in an era of information abundance, why is the primary drive around OERs (and OCWs for that matter) the publication of more content? And what other activities around the open education movement might be an effective use of our energies? What other needs have to be met?"
I would give a hearty push for a solution to the certification problem. It's a much stickier problem and has yet to really be discussed by the openness community (at least from my perspective, which is probably a perspective from the 'outside'. But I would argue that this challenge is a much more important one, and definitely a game altering one. OCW is great, and a lot of schools have added a lot of useful content to the world. But the world is filling up with content. If we want to see a real difference, let's make it possible for people not to just find content (they can already do that with Google), but let's make it possible for them to demonstrate competency. I feel that would make a distinct difference in a lot of people's lives.
Source:
Barak’s Flickrstream and Creative Commons Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 10:54 am
Barak Obama’s team have been publishing photos since 2007 on flickr under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Comercial-Share Alike license. These photos show an unprecedented view of what happened behind the scenes in this historic election. Here is his election night photostream…
Barak on Election Night
Larry Lessig, be proud.
Source: i'm sorry, i just don't know | shelleylyn
Leveraging Emerging Technologies for Business Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 10:33 am
Don Hinchcliffe recently wrote about how Web2.0 can be used to create legitimate value for business today. His image below breaks it into four components: Innovation, Growth, Cost Reduction, and Transformation.
Source: i'm sorry, i just don't know | shelleylyn
My First Ruby Code Tuesday, 11 November 2008, 6:30 pm
So I've written my first bit of Ruby code. Allow me to bore you with the story.
The other day my son and I were checking out the local thrift store. The Boy came across a board game that appeared to be brand new. The cards were still wrapped in cellophane, the cardboard chits were unpunched, and it was only $1.50.
He bought the game and raced home. He punched out the bits, was excited to play when much to his chagrin, he realized that there were two decks of cards missing. The game was incomplete. He was devastated.
What is a Dad to do? Well, I hopped onto boardgamegeek, posted a question about what was in the decks in the forum, and within 3 hours, I had the answer to my question. We now knew what the other decks comprised of.
My son recreated one of the decks with a bit of cardstock and our printer. That deck was basicly a ticket system, that moved you around the board. But the other deck was a bit more tricky. There were 26 cards, divided up into four types of flowers; 8 blue, 7 orange, 6 red, and 5 green. The idea was you flip over 3 cards, and then if you turned over two or three of the same color, then you get more or less points.
Being the geek that I am, and having just read about SmallBasic, the two of us sat down and wrote a small script that figured the chances of pulling out each card, and then displayed the appropriate card. Small Basic was very simple and easy to get into, but I've been meaning to poke around Ruby for quite some time. In the end, I rewrote it in Ruby, just to say I had done it.
Ruby ended up being easier than I thought, and very clean. I'll post both scripts below, for you geeks who care about things like that. Since I'm a complete and total novice, I'd be more than interested in any feedback from 'pros' out there. Is there a simpler or more elegant way to do it?
Small Basic
num = 0
start:
num = (num + 1)
a = Math.GetRandomNumber(100)
While (num < 4)
If (a <32)
Then TextWindow.WriteLine("Blue")
Goto start
EndIf
If (a < 59) Then
TextWindow.WriteLine("Orange")
Goto start
EndIf
If (a < 81) Then TextWindow.WriteLine("red")
Goto start
Else
TextWindow.WriteLine("green")
Goto start
EndIf
EndWhile
----------
Ruby
#!/usr/bin/ruby
round = 0
while round < 3 do
number = rand(100)
if number < 32 then puts "Blue" end
if number > 31 && number < 59 then puts "Orange" end
if number > 58 && number < 82 then puts "Red" end
if number > 81 then puts "Green" end
round += 1
endSource: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Dog days and green eggs Monday, 10 November 2008, 7:59 pm
I’m not going to lie, spending weekends in the hospital is not what I’d call a romantic date. My han
dsome husband has been in the ER 4 times in the last month. Living in a rural community definitely has its perks, but our local docs just aren’t equipped to deal with this. We’re going to see the big guns in Salt Lake this week to get this sorted.
My goats don’t seem to mind their new neighbors the Dr. Seus chickens, but they do keep trying to eat their lay mash… and who could blame them? We’re about out of alphalpha hay for the goats and they are going to have to start digging on some feed. You’d think they’d eat anything, but apparently squash is very low on the list for goats. I had some squash left over that is still sitting, rotting on the floor of their pen. Who ever heard of finicky goats?
But life is good- the eggs are green, the view is lovely from my office window, we’re in good spirits.
Source: 
i'm sorry, i just don't know | shelleylyn
If you haven't seen it yet... Friday, 7 November 2008, 1:01 pm
I may be the last person on the internets to see this, but if you haven't seen it yet, sit back, turn up the sound, and enjoy!
Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Patents for Sale Friday, 7 November 2008, 11:59 am
Looks like NASA is selling off some of their patents. The first line says, "Congratulations taxpayers! A group of patents developed on your dime by a NASA researcher, sold at public auction last week in a new effort to parlay innovative technology into commercial goods and services."
I guess this can be seen as good news. On the one hand, NASA has a little bit more money, and they can continue to do cool things. But Darryl Mitchell, a manager at NASA, says the real win is that now these technologies are in the private sector, and they will create jobs and help the economy.
My question is why not release the patents into the public domain? Free the ideas from their shackles, and let anybody play with them. Why not say, "whoever wants to take a crack at this, go ahead. Let the best company win." Patents just lock things up. A company can buy the patent, and then take their merry time doing whatever it is they want with it. Open source works with software, and now we're seeing it work with content. It also seems to be working with hardware, as a recent Wired article points out (an article that is not yet online).
So, why are we keeping these innovative ideas, ones that taxpayers have funded, locked up? Which scenario is better for taxpayers and the economy, for one (wealthy) company getting and sitting on the patent, or many different companies competing and fiddling with the ideas and innovations that the patent has locked up? I see more jobs and innovation coming from the latter.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Inside Higher Ed. Wednesday, 5 November 2008, 9:51 am
For all of you who laughed at me the other day when I mentioned Warcraft and learning in the same breath, there is a great article over at Inisde Higher Ed. that talks about using fear and humiliation as legitimate teaching aids. A few quotes:
"A 25-person raid is the same size as a class, and like a class its leader can only take it to places places that it is willing to go. Teaching, like learning to down a boss, is about helping people grow their comfort zone by getting them to spend time outside of it. The question is how to push people so that they will be ready to learn, instead of ready to tear their hair out.
"Almost immediately I could see why its members were successful — their raid leader did not pull his punches. In the middle of fight I would hear him saying things like “Xibby, don’t think I don’t see you healing melee — please do your job and focus on the tank.” At times — like when our Paladin failed repeatedly to engage Thaladred the Darkener, who responded by repeatedly blowing up our warlocks — voices were raised.
"A willingness to take risks can also be shored up by commitment and drive. Our guest leader drove my guildies nuts, but impressed me with his professionalism. Does this mean that after graduate school even generous doses of sadism seem unremarkable?"
It's a very good article, I recommend reading the entire thing.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Let's "Spread the Health" Tuesday, 4 November 2008, 4:57 am
Before I moved to England, I had heard the horror stories of Socialised Healthcare. All the doctors were bad because they didn't get paid very well and had no incentive to treat people better or improve their profession because there was no reward system to be recognized for good work and everyone got paid the same. This meant that although my doctor was free, my doctor wouldn't be good. I wasSource: 
Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
The Hardest Part Monday, 3 November 2008, 11:13 am
I have a confession. I hate writing. I really do. It's difficult, it is time consuming, and I spend most of the day convinced that I'm horrible at it, so why bother in the first place? There are very few redeeming aspects about it. I write because...well, I'm not sure why. I just know I get a story in my head, and it won't leave me alone until I get it out.
But as much as I dislike the writing process, the process that comes after the book is done is even worse. I am now shopping for an agent/publisher.
Agents and publishers are very nice people. I have nothing against them, at all. But the fact of the matter is that a major portion of their job is to reject people. They have to tell them that they are not interested in representing/publishing their particular story. I know this in my head, but it doesn't make the process any easier.
For those of you who have never had the lovely opportunity to send off a book to a publisher/agent, let me try to paint you a picture of how it feels.
Imagine you've just had a baby. You have carried this baby for 9 months in your womb. The process of carrying and delivering this baby was incredibly difficult. But when you hold the baby for the first time, and you see how beautiful she is, you know it's all been worth it. The pain, the suffering, the tears, the worry...all worth it.
The nurse comes in, and you hold the baby up so that she can take a good look at her. The morning light shines on your baby, and she coos for the nurse. What a precious baby! What a precious moment!
The nurse glances over and says, "Wow, that is one ugly offspring you've got there."
Yeah, that is exactly how it feels. Right in the gut. Kapow!Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Why Hulu misses the mark... Friday, 31 October 2008, 9:26 pm
Hulu won me over early on, but I've come to realize that they have missed the mark. In all fairness, it's probably not Hulu, rather the suits at the networks.
There is an interesting new show on Hulu called Sons of Anarchy. I saw some ads, so I watched the pilot. Not too bad. I wanted to watch more. Then I notice that they pull down the episodes 22 days after they are put up. So right now you can watch episode 1 & 2, and then it jumps to episode 6. You're just out of luck for 3-5.
I'd really like to mee the person who made this decision, and ask them why they think it's a good idea. Because it's not. There are two outcomes in this scenario.
Outcome #1 - I go to bittorrent and download the missing episodes, and probably the rest of the episodes, just beacuse it's easy. I get to watch all of them, commercial free.
Outcome #2 - I get discouraged, tell myself I'll wait until they come out on DVD (Netflix, I never buy), and I may or may not remember to check them out. What will probably happen is I'll end up never getting around to watching them again. I won't become a fan of the show, and won't watch the Hulu version with ads that generate revenue.
Isn't there data out there that show people still buy DVDs, even if they've seen the shows on TV, or watched them on the internet? Or that even if they don't buy DVDs, doesn't the ad revenue make up for that? A recent article on wired quotes Hulu as they will "dramatically exceed initial forecasts" regarding revenue.
I am willing to watch commercials to watch TV. I'm not willing to ignore my family at a certain time, and on a certain day, to watch a program. Watching TV when it is broadcast is so 20th century. If I'm in the mood to watch something at 1:39 in the morning, then by golly, I'm going to watch it then, not at 7:30 on a Thursday.
Hulu is close to the mark, but sites like the Pirate Bay will always be there, and will always be a viable alternative, until the Networks understand that they need to give consumers what they want.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Winter is coming, nothing else to do but twitter away... Friday, 31 October 2008, 3:59 pm
I've had a twitter account for some time now, but have just started using it. Lots of fun. If you've got one, let me know so I can follow you. If you're so inclined, you can follow me here...
http://twitter.com/firemeboySource: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
You heard it here first... Friday, 31 October 2008, 1:56 pm
The recession is over. That's right, it's officially over. Oh sure, you can wait for the Wall Street Journal to call it, but the old media is far too slow. I'm calling the event here, based on a single economic indicator.
I work with a great, albeit shrinking, group of people. Every once in a while the group likes to live high on the hog, and go down to Sam's club to buy a polish dog combo. Hot dog and soda, $1.62. Can't beat that deal.
I've been trying to lost a bit of weight over the last few months (I'm down 7 pounds and counting), so I usually pass on the meal, but I like to ride with these guys because the conversation is always so stimulating. While they are buying their combos (and after I've drunk my strawberry slim fast), I walk around the aisles, performing my 'hunter gatherer' routine. I hit every sample station in the place because...well, I have no pride.
That being said, I've noticed that the bounteous harvest has been anything less than bounteous, as of late. In fact, at the height of the stock market crash, I went there one day and there were only three sample stations set up. I had to drink a lot of water that day, and eat some grass.
However, today, that has all turned around. Sam's Club must be on the way up, because this was my hunter gatherer experience today. Behold, the fruit of my labors:
Hot cider
Chicken salad on a club cracker
Meatball dipped in alfredo
Part of a fiber one bar
Black forest ham
Chicken in BBQ sause
Ghirardelli chocolate
Diet juice
Part of a cinnamon roll
Now, you may wonder how I hope to lose weight with all that food, but remember, this comes in servings about the size of a quarter.
If Sam's Club can afford to put out a spread like this, then you can rest assured, the hard times are almost over.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Quote of the day... Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 12:39 pm
The following took place on IM:
Mom: "Call us please
Dad: "Lose the phone again?"
Dad: "Calling."
Mom: "Again, please."
Dad: "Calling."
Mom: "Again."
Dad: "Calling."
Dad: "Calling again, still no luck?"
Mom: "Got it, we found it hidden in Spencer's pocket."
Mom: "No wonder we couldn't trace the sound, it kept moving."Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Great News... Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 10:31 am
As far as I'm concerned, this is great news.
"Google Inc. and five major book publishers have reached an agreement that will allow the search-engine titan to make millions of in- copyright books and other written materials available online." Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Closest yet... Monday, 27 October 2008, 10:14 am
For those who read this blog religiously, you've known every month or so I go on and on about geo-related content. Organizing content by geographic location, user generated content, linking wikipedia to locations, etc. I've been talking about it for years, but since I'm completely impotent when it comes to writing code, I've never been able to actually build anything. And never been able to convince anybody that the idea is good enough to invest time/money into it.
Well, now somebody has officially beat me to the punch. A very cool demo over at worldhistory.com, a Utah company. It's pretty much everything I've ever talked about, and I'm excited to get a chance to play with it, once they open it up to the general public.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
I'm a meanie... Sunday, 26 October 2008, 12:44 am
I ran my first 5k today. However, as it turns out, USU doesn't know how to measure. It was only about a 4.25 k. My wife, who has been very consistent in her times (within 10 seconds or so), finished the race 7 minutes early. We went to Google maps, and sure enough, the race was way off. We were nowhere close to 5k.
Anyway, I discovered today that I'm a mean person. The race was hard for me because I have only run once in the past month. But I buckled down, and ran the entire 5k...er, 4.25k without stopping to walk. In the final stretch, my wife was about 40 yards ahead of me, and two girls were about 30 yards behind. Well, right at the end I could hear the girls making their move. They were getting closer and closer. I picked up the pace, and so did they. By the very end, they were right behind me, but I managed to stay ahead of them, and finish in front.
It kind of felt good, but then I realized these poor girls had probably said to themselves, 'let's beat that guy in the green shirt. They had set a simple goal, and I had to go be a stinker and keep them from achieving that goal. I probably ruined their day. I really felt pretty bad about it, I could have slowed up and let them pass me.
So there you have it, revelation of the night. I'm a stinker.
But, I'm no longer angry. The final play was tonight. And I will miss it.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Welcome Aboard... Thursday, 23 October 2008, 11:19 am
Live in Utah? Got a kid going into the 9th grade? Want that kid to be part of an online, completely open High School? Want use of a free laptop for the duration of their studies?
Then the Open High School of Utah is the place for you. Applications are now being accepted.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Tragedy of the Commons… a tie between Instructional Technology and Natural Resource Management Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 6:57 pm
The idea of the “Commons” is central to the concept of the open sharing of information and ideas. It’s a concept that forms the core of the Creative Commons movement and progressive movements in education. Well I ran into this idea again unexpectedly today… My husband was printing off his readings for his Natural Resource Management graduate course today and out of the printer came “The Tragedy of the Commons”… I was so surprised to see it! And of course, how presumptuous I’d been… this concept is most readily connected to the management of natural resources. For heaven’s sake, the example they always use is about over-grazing by shepherds who feel no sense of responsibility to protect the “common ground”.
Source: i'm sorry, i just don't know | shelleylyn
This is Copper Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 3:36 pm
Originally uploaded by shelleylyn
Copper has just joined the Johnson family. He is a two year old chocolate lab-german short hair mix. He is sweet and already loves playing with our other two monster dogs.
Source: i'm sorry, i just don't know | shelleylyn
Achievements Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 11:05 am
If anybody reading this is an online educator, or any educator for that matter, you need to stop reading this, go to Wal-Mart, buy World of Warcraft, and play it for 2 months. It's homework.
I can not believe how engaging this game is. There has to be some way to figure out how a game can take boring, meaningless tasks, and make them fun, engaging, and dare I say, educational.
Blizzard, the company that makes World of Warcraft, just came out with a patch. They updated the game, and now there is something called 'achievements'. Basically when you do something (usually something boring), you get a virtual 'star' for it. Usually you get 10 points (you can't turn those points in for anything), and a message goes out to your guild saying, 'Herman just did X'. And that's it. That is all there is to the achievements. It's nothing more than a way to record what you did.
The crazy thing is that everybody is doing them. Like mad. One achievement is to discover every area in the game. I think there are close to a thousand areas. So you hop on your little mount, and ride around the country. You just run around, trying to find all of the zones. It's mind-numbingly boring, and takes hours, but it seems like everybody in my guild is doing it. Every 10 minutes I get a message that says something like, "Magicatak just discovered Western Plaguelands!"
Many of these achievements will take weeks, if not months to do.
Maybe this whole 'student confidentiality' thing is wrong. Maybe instead of giving grades, we should give students levels, and make it public. You're at level 7 math, level 9 reading, and level 15 writing. You could have achievements like knowing your 7 times table in 8 seconds or less. We'd keep track of it on some social network, and you could proudly display all of your achievements to your guild...er, class.
Sound like a crazy idea? That is because you're still reading this, and not playing World of Warcraft, like I told you to. Go. Go and see if you can figure out how Blizzard seemed to pull off the impossible. They have got me baffled.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
CMS, meet the Great Outdoors Monday, 20 October 2008, 12:40 pm
I'm a big fan of mashups. A mashup is where you take one tool, combine or mash it up with another tool, and you're left with an altogether brand new toy to play with. I like mashups because they bring together experts in different content areas. A good example is Flickr's geotagging tool. You have people who take pictures, and you have people who love fiddling around with GPS devices. You mash these two people together, and the next thing we know we're all geotagging our photos.
It's been over a year since a post I wrote hit slashdot on the subject of linking content to location. I've been thinking about the topic for probably over 3 years. It occurred to me that a good way to visualize the system I'm proposing, is by understanding how a content management system (CMS) works.
The basic idea behind a CMS is that is solves the problem of too much data. Let's assume you have a lot of stuff, like electronic text, images, links, video, and more. You have all this stuff that you want to share with others. You could just put it all on one really big massive html page, but what if you have 10,000 items? People would have a hard time sifting through all the content to find the one thing they want to view.
Enter a CMS to save the day. With a CMS you can upload all your stuff to the system, and then choose how you want to display it. You can display information hierarchically, where content is stored in categories and sub categories. Or you could do it linearly, where people first see one topic, then move on to a more complex topic. Or you could sort it by date created, file type, keyword, etc. The beauty of a CMS is that you can have thousands of pieces of content, and then sort it by one or even all of these methods. One person can view the content by date uploaded, while another person could browse the same content from the same repository, but do it by topic.
A good example of a CMS is the site I work on, USU's OpenCourseWare site. We have thousands of pieces of content, but it's sorted by topic and by lesson, and is easily navigated.
So, how does this pertain to the geo-content idea? We just mentioned that a CMS allows you to sort information based on several methods. Now imagine that the earth itself becomes a CMS, with users access the information via their GPS enabled smart phone. This Global CMS would display information based on your location. Instead of sorting by date or file type, it sorts by where you are on the planet. If you're driving on a freeway it might display information found on wikipedia's site regarding the freeway system. It might also display information about the city/state/country you are currently in. It might display information about the flora, fauna, and wildlife in the area. It could tell you about the history of the region, or famous people who were born, or passed through this part of the world. This information would be useful and relevant because of your location, not based on something you searched for. You would find 'hidden knowledge' that you were not aware existed.
You can go out and buy a CMS. Or there are a lot of really good ones that are open-source (USU uses educommons, which is open-source). What we don't have is a system that would allow us to create and access this global CMS. We have WordPress for blogs, we have Plone for a web based CMS, but I think it's time we get ourselves a CMS capable of building a Global CMS.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Ballot Design Review Monday, 20 October 2008, 7:24 am
Today I cast my overseas ballot. The designer in me couldn't help but be annoyed at the horrible design associated with these punch cards. Allow me to elaborate on what I mean...The trick to making a clear design where the number and the dot are an obvious correct pair, is through close proximity and alignment. So I'll share with you what's wrong with the current ballot design of today (A) andSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
My new chicken coop Saturday, 18 October 2008, 6:12 pm
Originally uploaded by shelleylyn
So I used to spend my Saturdays at the mall or on the beach. Here’s what I’m up to these days… This lovely structure on the back of our truck is going to become our new chicken coop. This is me… Happy!
Source: i'm sorry, i just don't know | shelleylyn
A social network I'd like to see... Friday, 17 October 2008, 4:44 pm
Last night I was working on a little outdoor project. I was trying to get them to help me, but of course, none of them would.
A neighbor girl came over in her roller blades. She's only 7 or so, and she scares me to death, because she can barely stand up in these things. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her. She proceeded to help me for about 45 minutes. Working harder than all of my boys put together.
I thought to myself, my boys must just not know how to work.
Then, today, one of my sons goes over to another neighbor's house. He spent an hour raking their leaves into a big pile. It's not that they don't know how to work, it must be something about doing something different.
So, I need a social network site that allows you to swap kids. I'll send my kids over to your place, and you send yours to mine. They will all work happily, and we'll get a lot done.
So, there you go. Somebody code that puppy. I'll see if 'childlabor.com' is available.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Ward DVD Music Monday, 13 October 2008, 8:20 am
A friend of mine posted a request to her blog, looking for music for their ward DVD. I wrote in her comments, but it started to get a little too link heavy, so for a cleaner version, I'm posting my suggestions here.
For a ward DVD, you can never go wrong with Camper Van Beethoven's "Take the Skinhead bowling". Bowling and skinheads were never given such a snappy rhythm and catchy tune.
And don't get hung up on his funny name, Gogol Bordello does a great job with "Start Wearing Purple". Although this shouldn't be confused with any of the Prop 8 stuff going on in California. Ward DVDs should be apolitical.
And then of course, no ward DVD is complete without Johnny Cash's 'Ring of Fire', just to remind everybody of hellfire and damnation. I prefer Wall of Voodoo's version.
And if you have any ward Christmas pics, and need a good Christmas song, then make sure to include "Get behind me, Santa." by the very talented Sufjan Stevens.
And finally, if you had any ward activities surrounding the Bronze Age, and really, what good ward doesn't have a ward activity surrounding the Bronze Age, then don't pass up They Might Be Giants "Mesopotamians".
Of course, using this selection depends a lot on whether or not you want to be asked to do the ward DVD again next year...Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
New Spring Creek Community Wetlands blog Sunday, 12 October 2008, 1:21 pm
We’ve just built a new site for the Spring Creek Community Wetlands. As many of you know, my handsome husband has been working with John and Ann Ribera to restore their backyard to it’s former wetland glory. The project is a grassroots, community based effort to restore water, wildlife, and vegetation to the 5 acres behind the Ribera’s home. The area is unique as it sits in the apex of Spring Creek on one side and a pacificorp irrigation canal on the other side. The website will serve as a hub of activity for the project and includes a blog where Ann, Rob, John, and other authors can contribute their observations as the area regains its health and vitality. Spring Creek Community Wetlands site.
Source: i'm sorry, i just don't know | shelleylyn
Very interesting... Sunday, 12 October 2008, 8:46 am
Those interested in OpenCourseWare will find Tom's post interesting. Coursefeed has hooked up Facebook and Blackboard together to provide students a way to collaborate even after the course is finished. Not surprisingly, the folks at Coursefeed are running into all sorts of privacy and proprietary issues. However, to me this is interesting for several reasons.
OpenCourseWare has none of these issues. We could set up learning environments around courses, and people could join if they wished, and leave when they want. We've wanted a social aspect to OCW for years, and this could be it.
The other interesting aspect to all of this is what happens when faculty realize they can put their content in OCW, and have all their learning tools in Facebook. Who needs an LMS when you have this setup? The natural next step seems to be to ditch the fee heavy, tech support heavy LMS, and move to what students are already using...Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Webook... Friday, 10 October 2008, 11:12 am
My problem is that I'm an idea man. I come up with ideas, but am completely powerless to do anything with my ideas. I've been pining for years about how the publishing industry is behind the times, runs on a very closed model that is harmful to everybody but themselves, and that writing can be, and in many cases, should be, a collaborative effort.
"Why doesn't somebody create a web site where people can write collaboratively, share their books, and then vote on the best book to be published? Why can't royalties be shared among authors, editors, and those who give feedback?"
Well, enter Webook. Get it? Webook? Isn't that clever? It's like We-book (we write a book), and web-book (a book on the web), all at the same time. Ha ha, zany!
Anyway, if I had sat down and designed a site that met all of the things I've been whining about, Webook would be it. You can start a project, collaborate in an open or closed environment, work on other projects, or just give feedback. Projects are voted on, and Webook already has their first published book out. And their terms of service looks pretty decent.
I can understand that many authors, especially those who have already been published, might be a little bit leery. But let me take the risk for you. I've already signed up, and posted chapter one of a book I'm working on. If you'd like to give it a try, please feel free to drop in. Or maybe you have a book that is out of print, and not doing anything? Post it!
Now, let me say up front, you may go there and find a lot wrong with the site. There is a lot of content that is very rough. It's the first draft attempted by somebody who probably has no experience with writing. But what better way to learn than through a community of similarly struggling writers. Person A may know nothing about hooks, but can write a good scene description. Person B is a hook master, but struggles with descriptions. Put the two together and they start to learn and grow. Those familiar with fanfiction.net, know this is a healthy process, and one that should be encouraged.
So, if I've piqued your interest, sign up. And if you do, make sure to let me know, and add me as a friend.
And finally, let me leave you with a quote from the founder of Webook. One that I could not possibly agree with more.
"[Webook's] biggest challenge is to contribute to the evolution of the traditional publishing business, which is still dominated by a few large publishers who wield enormous control over the titles that reach the bookstores. While in the past decade the music, software, travel, financial, and other major sectors have shifted the power from the few to the many, publishing continues to function as an exclusive, traditional business."
I, for one, wish them good luck.Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
smushit will smush your images.. a little Wednesday, 8 October 2008, 9:42 am
Smushit.com is a simple web-based image compression system that lets you upload a batch of images from your computer or enter in image urls from the web. You can even get a firefox extension to optimize any images from the web. Here’s how it works…
[Smushit] uses image format specific non-lossy image optimization tools to squeeze the last bytes out of your images - without changing their look or visual quality.
So I tried it- I uploaded several random images from my laptop. The optimization results ranged from a whopping 0% to 7.36% savings on image size. I’ll admit- I was a little underwhelmed. Of course, most of my images were already optimized for the web using photoshop. Maybe if I had my mom’s massive image files she takes on her trips to Europe, it would make a bigger difference.
Regardless, it is simple to use and provides you with a zip download of your altered images. And… I don’t have to wait a minute for photoshop to open up- that’s something. And of course, if you don’t have access to photoshop, this is a great alternative tool. I hope they don’t get crazy and start trying to add too many features- the best part about this is that it is clean, simple, and currently free.
Source: i'm sorry, i just don't know | shelleylyn
Reflections... Sunday, 5 October 2008, 6:37 pm
Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Sunday, 5 October 2008, 11:40 am
This was breakfast at my house...If you click on the picture, you'll get to see things up close. Just don't drool on your keyboard.
Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Quote of the day... Saturday, 4 October 2008, 10:40 am
Dad is opening his hand-drawn birthday cards.
Dad: "Very nice! Is that a birthday cake?"
Boy # 4: "No, that is a monster eating a kids arm off. But it doesn't go down to his stomach, it goes up to his brain, ha ha!"
Dad: "Oh yeah...now I see it."Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Difficult Questions... Friday, 3 October 2008, 10:21 am
This photo shoot kind of shook me up. It is at once beautiful and haunting.
Number 18 shows the resilience of youth. It warms the soul.
Number 20 shows the face of somebody who is beginning to learn just exactly how life is, but still clings to a bit of hope.
But it's number 8 I can't stop looking at. It's number 8 that breaks my heart, makes me think.
Part of me wants to say, "See? This is why we should buys stones made in a lab". So people aren't forced to toil away their childhood, scraping at the walls of a shaft, looking for stones that are sent to 'civilized countries' so we can look pretty.
But if we do that, there will be no more demand left for these stones. And where would the miners be then? How will they feed their children if their livelihood is taken away?
I think the thing that burns me up the most is that these people are the ones wasting and wearing out their lives, they are the ones losing their childhood, and working long hours to find the stones, only to have a bunch of middlemen make all the money. From the guy who sits behind the bars and buys the stones, to the guy that gets them to the 'western world', to the jeweler down the street who then charges hundreds of dollars more to 'make his cut'. That is the part that makes me sick, and I want no part of it.
I would love to buy one of these stones, and I would love to pay full price, but I want the money to go to the person, or more likely the family, that is doing the work.
Why, in this so called 'flat world', can I not do this?Source: Chickens Don't Have Armpits | Matthew Buckley / Marion Jensen
Another goat post Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 3:08 pm
So I was on the phone with a colleague today discussing potential collaboration on an innovative peer-to-peer networking system for inventors when I looked out my window. Izzy (the cute black lab in the photo) was chasing ALL FOUR of our goats in and around the barn. Trying to be as sneaky as I could, I ran outside barefoot (still on the phone) to grab Izzy and bring her inside. All of the goats followed me through the yard… Wilson tried coming in the house with us. I have to say, it’s kind of hard to keep a brilliant and professional tone in your voice when you have a goat trying to follow you into the kitchen.
After I got off the phone, I went out to see how they’d all escaped. They had managed to knock off the reinforcements we made to the stall and were jumping gleefully in and out of the pen. I called Rob who was just about to start class and he recommended using wire instead of rope to tie down our reinforcements. I couldn’t find the wire, so I decided instead to barricade the whole barn with hay bales. I got them three high and figured that would be good. I had to climb out of the barn using the internal supports of the barn to get out. Wilson was watching me as I climbed out and immediately jumped right on top of all three hay bales. Plan foiled! I found some old skunk traps behind the barn and an old toddler carrier… the kind you attach to your bike. Those went up on top of the hay bales and we’ve had no escape attempts since (it’s been two hours…)
my awesome barricade
Rob and I decided we’ll be going to buy some more goat wire today after work 
Originally uploaded by shelleylyn
Source: i'm sorry, i just don't know | shelleylyn
Free Culture Flash Game Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 10:29 am
Paolo Pedercini developed a flash game that illustrates how free culture and the commons interplay with market forces. Little green people produce ideas in the Commons and a dark void sucks them out into the market where they are no longer available for the green idea producers. As ideas are commoditized and copy written, the little green idea producers turn into gray consumers, no longer thinking for the Commons. Once there are no ideas left in the commons, gray consumers start thinking for themselves again and become little green thinkers once again. Pretty fun way to illustrate the free culture ideas… game link
Free Culture Flash Game
via boing boing
Source: i'm sorry, i just don't know | shelleylyn
Rexburg Temple Sketchup Sunday, 14 September 2008, 2:31 pm
Google released their own version of AutoCAD, and now you can download 3-D models of all sorts of buildings. Including the Rexburg Temple.It will be interesting to see where this free modeling software goes!Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
Camping at Tony Grove Monday, 21 July 2008, 8:18 pm
Last week our family camped at Tony Grove Lake up Logan Canyon. The wildflowers were amazingly diverse and beautiful including these that Meghan spotted growing on a boulder in the lake.
After morning hikes we swam in the lake which was surprisingly pleasant.
The older kids and I explored polygamy cave.
My Dad and I backpacked into White Pine lake where we ran into beaver. One beaver (I’m assuming the mother) made quite a show repeatedly slapping her tail on the water. 
Seth made a compass course for those of us who are directionally challenged.
Good times. Now get back to work!
Source: 
undesigned | joel
Why you should believe what they say about dirty money... Saturday, 19 July 2008, 1:41 pm
People have always said, "You should wash your hands after handling money, you never know where it has been."Well, here is one possibility. Perhaps this woman is vacationing near you?Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
I WWWove You, Office Friday, 11 July 2008, 5:12 am
Andrew and I are addicted to this show. Maybe more me than him, but not by much. It makes me feel like I'm connected to the US even though I'm surrounded by english land, people and accents.So it was a nice find today to see these additional scenes and episodes on the nbc site. Too bad that I can't watch the new webisodes, because I'm using an English internet and NBC doesn't want me to feel atSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
How fun is that! Friday, 11 July 2008, 12:08 am
Source: undesigned | joel
Teacher Authoring and Metacognition at the PSLC Wednesday, 9 July 2008, 12:43 pm
JCDL 2008 trip continued: On my way out of town I couldn’t resist stopping by the PSLC to attend a lunch meeting where Turadg Aleahmad and Ido Roll were giving practice talks for ITS2008. Turadg presented on an online authoring tool designed for teachers to use to create worked example math problems. I was surprised to hear that he had over 500 different users submit problems. That is until I heard that he posted an invite on a website offering $10 for each submission. Most of the submissions were unusable.
This vision of providing tools for teachers to create online content is similar to what I envisioned for my dissertation work which led to the eNLVM. My eyes were soon opened to the fact that most teachers do not have the time or skill to create online content, especially from scratch. I suggested to Turadg that if he wanted to encourage better and more problem submissions that they could provide example problems from which teachers could base similar problems. I also pointed out that there is already a massive supply of math problems in textbooks that could be tapped. He and others present mentioned concerns about copyright. To me, this is not a problem. By looking at a math problem you can extract the essence of the problem or it’s “problem type” and use that to easily generate many more of the same type of problem with different cover stories and values. Of course, until you solve a problem it can be difficult to know that the problem has similar solution structure as another. This is the basis for a project I would like to do some day: a library of math problem generators coupled with math test generators that leverage the problem generators and their alignments with standards and textbooks.
Ido presented a study that measured metacognition, specifically help seeking behavior. He began by flaming simple recall as a learning outcome, showing the example of the YouTube video of the child who can point to the names of the countries that her parents name. He did this probably because a PostDoc sitting in the presentation focuses on fact learning (Chinese). Ido’s study compared a new measure to the “assistment” measure used by Carnegie Learning’s tutors as predictors of learning. It seems to me that they pretty much measured the same things, and both are somewhat good predictors of learning.
This is an interesting area. Information seeking is a metacognitive skill: knowing when you know enough to proceed and when you don’t. Having the will to not take the lazy out when you know enough. Knowing where to go to find information you need. The picture is actually much more complex than this. When you are first learning something, or solving a novel problem, it is expected that you would need more information. Better problem solvers and learners recognize this and seek the needed information effectively. As you learn more in an area, you don’t need as much help and so you should stop relying on it. In a situation where making a wrong decision could cause someone to die, the good problem solver relies on additional sources to verify that what they think is a good decision is actually one :-).
Measuring information seeking behavior is an important way to measure problem solving ability. Unfortunately, school, and even worse, school testing situations, are very unnatural problem solving situations where information seeking behavior is called cheating 
Source: undesigned | joel
Visiting the Entertainment Technology Center Wednesday, 9 July 2008, 12:42 pm
JCDL 2008 trip continued: 
I’ve watched Alice with interest for a number of years and my children and I have played with it. Naturally, Randy’s last lecture renewed my interest. Wednesday morning I visited Drew at the Entertainment Technology Center that Randy co-founded. Drew was very kind to give me a tour of the place, including robot hall of fame and design rooms, while describing the amazing program and projects they do there.
The Masters in Entertainment Technology (MET) program brings together people from multiple disciplines to work together on intensive entertainment technology projects. He said that this is the head fake; the MET program is designed to help people learn to communicate together and work as a team. It only made me wish I could be back in school doing their program! Now if I can just convince Julianne
Drew explained that they Randy likes research and had pretty much moved Alice and his group back to the CMU campus for some time even before the last lecture. While Alice is a good tool for introducing programming to novices, it is not the tool of choice for developing production quality 3D games. The ETC now uses Panda3D heavily with Jesse Schell one of the primary contributors on staff. Panda3D is the open-source, python programmable, game engine used by Disney to develop games such as Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Very cool! I could have kicked myself when standing outside waiting for the bus I realized that I failed to take out my camera during my tour of the ETC.
Source: undesigned | joel
Measuring the Wrong Things Wednesday, 9 July 2008, 12:42 pm
JCDL 2008 trip continued: In Education and NSDL: Past, Present and Future, David McArthur presented the future of the NSDL as a platform from which to build. This is the right direction to head… hopefully not too late. The NSDL should provide additional services beyond search, it should provide web services, architectures, and tools that make it easy for people to develop learning resources and communities. Those services should provide simple and powerful ways for member collections to play together. Needed services include authoring, collaboration, adaptation, recommendation, student tracking, and teacher publishing. It was also neat to meet Kim Lightle and David Yaron who I had never met before.
I resonate with David Yaron’s concern that we teach the wrong things in High School and introductory College courses, focusing on teaching students to follow mathematical procedures rather gain a conceptual understanding of the content. I shared my theory a cause:
- We emphasize in our teaching what we test
- We test what is easy to test
- Testing simple recall and procedure following is easy
- We emphasize simple recall and procedure following in our tests
- We emphasize simple recall and procedure following in our teaching
The remedy is to develop automated measures of higher level thinking: conceptual understanding, problem solving, design. He agreed in part but challenged that we don’t know or agree what problem solving is and have an even harder time measuring it. I agree in part, but think we do know something and can begin heading in the direction of trying to measure problem solving and higher level thinking.
Problem solving is what we do when we don’t know what to do.
Problem solving involves recognizing and defining a problem, searching for relevant information, forming appropriate subgoals, selecting appropriate strategies for accomplishing subgoals, executing procedures, monitoring progress and redirecting efforts when appropriate, recognizing when satisfactory solution has been arrived at, and interpreting the results of problem solving efforts. Interestingly this relates to the conversations I had at the PSLC later in my trip.
Yaron, who sits on the AP Chemistry board, also indicates that even if we had good automated measures of higher level thinking it would take a long time for them to be widely adopted and that a revision approach is more likely to succeed than a revolution approach.
Source: undesigned | joel
Aligning Content with Standards Wednesday, 9 July 2008, 12:41 pm
JCDL 2008 trip continued: I talked with Bryan Chapman about aligning content with standards (see his paper Exploring Educational Standard Alignment: In Search of ‘Relevance’). He pointed me to the CNLP’s Curriculum Assignment Tool and to the Teacher’s Domain cross walking service as potential sources of tools and providers of standards alignment. I have the idea that if we could create a backbone set of standards that was as superset of all of the state standards and then align content with that set of standards, then it would make it dramatically easier to provide answers to a teacher’s query for resources relevant to what they are teaching.
Bryan believes that it is nearly impossible to develop effective crosswalks between the standards. Different standards focus on different levels of detail and address different levels of outcome. They use the same words to mean different things and some standards assume the context of their location in an hierarchy rather than restating it. This still seems like an interesting problem to try to solve, maybe even something that recommender technology could be applied to.
Source: undesigned | joel
JCDL 2008 Wednesday, 9 July 2008, 12:41 pm
I recently attended JCDL 2008 to present a poster on OER Recommender with Brandon. As usual, the interactions with people were the best part of the conference. Monday night I enjoyed good dinner with at Lidia’s with David Tarrant and Max Wilson, PhD students from the University of Southampton England. Max’s dissertation work is on co-citation as predictor and measure of article impact. Co-citations being the other citations that get cited in articles that cite your article. His research indicates that it converges more quickly than just citation count. Interesting.
Tuesday morning I got in a run along the Allegheny and saw up close a few of the 466 bridges of Pittsburgh as well as the inclines.
Source: undesigned | joel
New Old Kids on the Block Friday, 27 June 2008, 12:03 pm
As a fifth grader, I loved these guys. As a 11th year university grader my affection has changed. Yep, the New Kids on the Block are out with a new song "Summertime". Check out the video on itunes and feel young (and weird) all over again.Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
Still part of the "Youth Vote" Tuesday, 24 June 2008, 7:20 am
Today I registered to be an overseas voter. I was surprised to find out I'm still part of the "youth vote". Next year though, I'll have to forgo the hip stylish website and go with the vanilla corporate one. Ah well.I thought I'd share some links on how to find out information about candidates. This year I want to be extra informed and make a really good vote, despite the fact that no matterSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
I guess they used to be analog? Tuesday, 3 June 2008, 10:40 am
Saw this the other day while I was online grocery shopping, so I took a screenshot (I didn't photoshop it, why would I spend time on a joke this lame?). I just had to share. Everything is going digital these days. Sadly, they don't sell these anymore (hence why I took a screen shot before it disappeared!).Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
R. Shankar - Small Coincidences Friday, 23 May 2008, 11:46 am
After years of keeping them in boxes, I recently got out my University Physics and Math books and put them on my shelves. Just getting them out inspired me :-). This morning while testing the Open Yale Courses feed that I had added to OER Recommender, I ran across the Fundamentals of Physics course. This led me to R. Shankar’s home page, where I noticed an old friend,
Shankar’s book that I used in my quantum mechanics class at the University of Utah. I also smiled to see him list his
Most important contribution to physics
“Discovered a small parameter that justifies most calculations performed in physics: 1/ego, where ego is the author’s ego.”
Very clever. It is cool to see a self-deprecating physicist. The description of his other book shown there: Basic Training in Mathematics rang true to my experience. My love and interest while studying at the UofU was always Physics, but I ended up taking so much math that I decided to go ahead and major in Math as well. While doing so, I found that almost everything I learned in my Math classes I had previously learned in my Physics classes :-).
Source: undesigned | joel
Some Sweet Stamps Thursday, 1 May 2008, 5:57 am
Aren't these awesome? See the whole set. Although, I think it is strange that they credit the design of these to a human. ;)Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
RIP: Student Loan Sunday, 27 April 2008, 11:40 am
This is one of my favorite images so far! :) Bye bye student loan!And, in 2019, Andrew's will be paid off too. Party pending. ;)Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
Say Cheese: "Ossau Iraty" Sunday, 27 April 2008, 6:15 am
Since birth, I have been allergic to milk. Without getting into detail, milk and my body don't get along, and sometimes it puts me to sleep. But thanks to last year's revelation that my allergy is based on the milk of cows; the world of goats, and now sheep have opened new possibilities to me as never before! Which means cheese is no longer taboo! :)I went to a local cheese shop yesterday andSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
Component Fluency Hypothesis Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 10:07 am
Math problem solving procedures are important tools in a problem solver’s toolbox. Fluency at using those procedures frees up cognitive resources for problem solving. This is the component fluency hypothesis described by van Merriënboer in his book Training Complex Cognitive Skills and in an ETR&D article. These algorithmic skills are not everything though. Common taxonomies of knowledge such as those described in Jim Cangelosi’s book on Teaching Mathematics in Secondary and Middle School include facts, concepts, procedures, principles, problem solving and application.
Problem solving is what you do when you don’t know what to do. Problem solving requires recognizing and defining the problem, selecting an approach, breaking the problem down into sub-problems, selecting procedures for solving those sub-problems, executing those procedures, evaluating and diagnosing progress, recognizing when a solution is satisfactory, and interpreting results. Note, if practice makes perfect, we better give students opportunities practice in all of these aspects of problem solving, not just simple recall and algorithmic procedures.
Common wisdom says that we should wait until people have developed the basics before we ask them to solve problems and do higher level thinking. I reject that notion. Higher level thinking may not so much be “higher level” as it is “different level”. Kids at the youngest ages can and need to be given opportunities to engage in real problem solving. Maybe, part of why kids learn to hate math is because we spend so much time focusing on “repeat what I just said” and “do what I just did”, to the exclusion of authentic problem solving.
Source: undesigned | joel
PSLC Theoretical Framework Wiki Opened Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 10:06 am
Recently the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC) opened public access to a wiki version of their theoretical framework which had previously only been available in PDF format. Kurt VanLehn, one of the PSLC directors, and a pioneer in the field of intelligent tutoring systems, serves as editor. The framework attempts to provide a cohesive structure for understanding and furthering PSLC research. Academics seem to insist on inventing their own theories and terminology. As Kurt quotes in his PSLC Summer School Overview presentation:
“Theories are like toothbrushes, everyone has a theory, but no one wants to use someone else’s theory”
This is true within a given field such as artificial intelligence / cognitive science in which the PSLC work is based. It is even more true if you look across multiple fields such as education (teacher preparation), cognitive science, instructional design, and math education. Each of these fields have something to say about learning and teaching math, but the languages of their literatures are as different as English, Urdu, Chinese, and Russian.
I recently presented on the PSLC and this framework at a recent USU Math & Stat Journal Club meeting (see my PSLC Theoretical Framework Trailfire Trail). In our discussion it was brought up that sometimes teachers object to the type of instruction that is typical of the PSLC model tracing intelligent tutors because it is not open-ended or exploratory. My reactions to this criticism is that the tutors are not meant to replace all instruction. This type of instruction is very effective at teaching procedural (algorithmic) skills consisting of a sequence of steps. It turns out that a lot of the math what we expect middle school and high school students to learn (and demonstrate on standardized tests) is of this nature.
Source: undesigned | joel
This is for Becca Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 5:21 am
British boy that Becca stole his soul and put into a camera.My friend Becca and I went on a pretty fun trip to Europe a few years ago, part of which involved hijacking a train. It's harder than you think.She recently put up a post about her habit of taking photos of strangers. I have the same problem, particularly people sleeping and strange outfits. Becca, I dedicate this post to you.ASource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
The votes are in Thursday, 27 March 2008, 11:54 am
Well, despite all of your efforts, my project didn't make it to the final 20 projects. Thanks everyone for your help, I'm sure I'll get this built one way or the other! I'll keep you posted!The good news is that I may be going to the USA vs. ENGLAND match at Wembley Stadium instead, so that should be fun!Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
The internet is cool, once again Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 10:57 am
I am amazed by the people I am able to find through random online connections. Last week I got an email from pinkribbonsally asking if she could add my breast cancer website to her blogroll. Then, she wrote this post on her blog. Wow! Talk about motivation to keep going. After a while of working on my own, I do feel like a crazy inventor and wonder if I'm making something that really is useful.Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
Winner announced tomorrow morning! Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 10:05 am
03/27/08:The top 20 Mashup Projects will be announced on March 27 at 9:00am Pacific Time and the winners will be invited to attend this year's NetSquared conference in San Jose, CA, scheduled for 5/27 and 5/28. Each of the top 20 projects gets an allowance for travel (including airfare to and from the conference, along with a hotel room for two nights). 05/27/08 & 05/28/08:At the conference,Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
Voting extended Friday, 21 March 2008, 1:39 am
The NetSquared team has decided to extend voting until Monday March 24 at 5:00pm Pacific Time! Please notify your communities and encourage them to continue showing their support! The top 20 Featured Projects will be announced on Thursday, March 27 at 9:00am Pacific Time.Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
Cold weather! Thursday, 20 March 2008, 10:46 am
Why is March looking and feeling like February? It is very cold don't you think? Still a foot of snow on the ground in my front yard, but it is beginning to melt. Should make a nice muddy wedding day. Any tips for not getting mud on my dress?Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
How to vote for Breast Cancer Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 9:46 pm
I've made a mashup project for my phd breast cancer work and need votes to get it built by a group of geeks who feel democratic.If you have 5 minutes to spend, I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to vote for it before Friday afternoon, here's the details:Ok. Let's rock the vote! 1. Please register and log in to the NetSquared site by Thursday, and pick a user name for aSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
My Breast Cancer Map Thursday, 13 March 2008, 11:04 pm
A good opportunity has come up for my breast cancer project. A organization is granting money to the best web project that improves social change. The top 20 all get money with the top 3 getting a large amount of funding and the winner...$100K and resources to build their project. One of the people involved in the effort encouraged me to enter, so I have.Have a look at my project. Here is aSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
Suzanne Tagged Me Thursday, 6 March 2008, 2:33 am
Okay, she tagged me a while ago, but I missed the post! Here goes:Here it is:1. Pick up the nearest book to you (one of at least 123 pages).2. Open the book to page 123.3. Find the fifth sentence.4. Post the next three sentences.5. Tag five people.Okay my book is "A Designer's Research Manual" and it says:They applied a multilateral research approach by using several differentSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
See, I am addicted to starting blogs Thursday, 6 March 2008, 2:20 am
I am great at starting blogs. Keeping them filled constantly is another thing. But part of my resolution this year was to make a blog that I like, so for me that meant to start from scratch on wordpress (a service like blogger, but more customizable).If you would like to get the address to my blog, post a comment and I'll email you the address (just leave your email and I'll delete the commentSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
The English Post Office (a rant) Thursday, 6 March 2008, 2:14 am
So yesterday I went to the post office to mail off some cards. I had stamps on everything except for one piece of mail for my brother in France. So I went to the post office to drop off the cards and get my one little stamp.Not so.The Post Office here is a brand, and is no longer owned by the government. There is the Royal Mail, which uses Post Office branches to operate. I'm not sure ifSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
My first earthquake...in England? Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 3:22 am
So who would have guessed the first earthquake that I would experience would be in England?Last night just as I was drifting off to sleep, my bed started shaking. I was really annoyed. After a day of walking around London taking photos, I was exhausted and whatever was shaking my bed was not welcome. I didn't think earthquake, for some reason my tired mind thought it was that my bed was offSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
One step closer to a pygmy goat Tuesday, 19 February 2008, 2:21 pm
There was a guy in my high school that had a pet pygmy goat. He had it on a leash and walked it around town. I was so jealous. The goat was a little bigger than this guy shown above. Little did I know just how much I would come to love goats.For years I've had to make decisions between cheesecake and its certain aftermath, or opting for the dairy-free crackers and tap water during dessert timeSource: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
I've been tagged! Monday, 4 February 2008, 1:42 pm
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 fellow bloggers.10 years ago: What was I doing ten years ago?I was at Ricks College trying to figure out if I wanted to be a graphic designer or not, and feeling that perhaps I wasn't cut out to be a designer at all. School wasn't easy,Source: Lady Corrine of England | Corrine
