The list of Google services tied to my account keeps getting longer and longer. I noticed my Gmail services menu has now added an integrated Writely and Google Spreadsheets (“Docs & Spreadsheets”) tool, and there’s also a “Photos” web service (Picasa as a web service) item now. The full list (at least for me):
In the late 70’s, I bought a Mamod SA1 Cream Steam Roadster. I had saved up for it for a long time, and as I recall it cost me about 35 pounds, which was a lot of pocket money.
Like many toys, I used it a few times, and then primarily kept it in its box and on a shelf. I have been carrying it around with me ever since. I moved recently and my daughters noticed it and prompted me to get it out.
With some caution and lots of caveats to my girls about it being unlikely to work after 25 years or so in a box, we oiled the bearings, filled the boiler with hot water and took out the fuel tablets. To my frank astonishment, they lit, we placed the heat under the boiler and the engine worked beautifully.
The steam engine is a marvel both of simplicity, but also of quality engineering. It was fun for my girls to steer it up and down the sidewalk, and I just love the elegance of the design, and watching the piston do its work. I think my brother had a Traction Engine. Maybe he’ll dig that out.
It reminds me of a visit to the British Engineerium, and the massive pump engine there, which I was lucky enough to see in operation. It looks like the museum has had some shaky times, but I hope it sticks around.
My kids’ elementary school has the principal blogging using blogger, and the school calendar maintained using Google Calendar. This makes it really easy to keep track of what’s going on at their school, using my customized Google Homepage. I’ve added the RSS feed for the principal’s blog to my home page, and the school events to the calendar widget. A bit of digging reveals that Google Calendar also supports RSS, so I could be reading both in any RSS reader.
Now, if only the teacher blogs (yes, there are those) had RSS feeds too, but they use Think.com sites instead.
It’s gratifying as, dare I say it, a pioneer in this stuff to see it becoming mainstream…eight years or so after it all got going!
During my citizenship ceremony, the federal court judge made some remarks and used what I thought was an unusual phrase – “disciplined liberty” – it sounded wrong to me, but maybe I’m just ignorant of its roots.
I became a U.S. citizen last Friday and only had to wait 4 days before meeting a president. Is this a standard thing for citizens? Maybe there’s some secret code or marker on me now and I’ll run into presidents all the time? Who knew?
I don’t recall ever meeting the queen, although I have vague memories of getting a peek at her one time in Chichester. I do like being in a republic, even if it doesn’t always feel like one. With that said, I am proud of my English background and in some respects this was a very practical decision in terms of what was best for me and my kids (who were born here). Anyway it takes some pressure off, is one less thing to worry about and I probably don’t have to worry about being deported for a misdemeanor, although I have never committed one, thank goodness.
My paperwork only took two and half years(!) although casual conversation at the ceremony with other applicants seemed to indicate that the process may now only be taking months. Anyway, I have now renounced and abjured absolutely and entirely all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty (pdf). I have done the deed.
Did I tell you they spelled my name wrong?
My boss was in this part of the state today, and stopped by. He very kindly took our team out to lunch. We don’t exactly work in a major metropolis….it’s more a truck stop off I-81. We ate at a simple barbecue place in a standard shopping plaza (a Kroger and about 8 other stores, and that’s about all there is around there). As we were finishing up, someone looked up and said, “Oh, there’s George Bush.” My first reaction was mere confusion, and then surprise as a black SUV parked, and a secret service guy walked into the restaurant, followed by George Bush (the senior).
I quickly snapped a very bad picture using my cellphone, and then my boss and one of my co-workers, neither of whom could ever, ever be called a shrinking violet, headed over to ask if he would allow to have our picture taken with him. He very graciously did, and my boss pulled out his digital camera.
He asked if this was a “Mother and son” picture, which unintentionally gave us a bit of a laugh, and then we left him to get his lunch. It was all very low key. No huge entourage. Just him and a couple of guys basically. It did occur to me that such a picture could have cost me several thousand dollars a few years ago.
I was born and bred in England, and so really have no automatic reverence for the presidency, and I hope, no particular reverence for anyone who holds high office, so I’ve found my reaction to be a bit more subdued than my co-workers who were pretty tickled about the whole affair (although to be fair to them, not with awe). Part of me feels that the really classy thing would have been to just ignore him and let him have some lunch, and acknowledge that there was nothing special about him, that he was just a guy doing his job. In terms of the cult of celebrity, I feel a little bit that I let myself down by having the picture taken. I didn’t say anything meaningful. I just had my picture taken with him, and, considering the alternatives that didn’t really make the world a better place. I just kept an old man from his lunch.
As is usually the case, about three hours later I thought of some things I maybe would have liked to say to him, aside from my mumbled “Thank you”. Perhaps I could have told him that although I didn’t agree with a lot of the things he did while he was in office, I thought he was a pretty decent guy and I respected him, and I could have thanked him for his service both then and in earlier times. But he is no longer a public figure, I doubt he would care to hear my opinion, he’s eighty-one years old (and looking very healthy) and he probably just wanted some barbecue.
I could have said something about his son, and the war, and the country. Would it have made any difference? I doubt it. Was it my moral duty to do so? Maybe so, even if it were a whisper in a storm.
I’m surprised that an old guy having some lunch at a truck stop could confuse me so.
We are looking for a security analyst (pdf). Where would be the best place to find a geek with a pony tail who wears darkly humorous t-shirts, and finds this funny?
We often are called on to solve strange problems that students have with Blackboard, and I see these discussions on some of the lists all the time. A year or so ago, I pulled together a list of things to check and it has served us well.
Some are them are obvious to seasoned users, but some really are not (checking the time zone settings for example). Read on for the full list of suggestions:
I probably missed this since I don’t typically pay much attention to Merlot, but Merlot looks like it finally has RSS feeds for arbritary searches and categories now (e.g. literature). It could do with a little polish, e.g. putting the search or category in the RSS feed title, and fixing the spelling of “materials”. Also, when I did a sort, it appeared to be in reverse order, although I’m less clear on how the RSS feed itself behaves – it appears to not keep track of the keywords or category.
A good step in the right direction though.
Blackboard has a number of pending patents in addition to the recently granted one.
These were posted by Santo Nucifora to the Blackboard list out of ASU.
PUB. APP. NO. Title
1. 20060168233
Internet-based education support system and methods
2. 20060026213
Content and portal systems and associated methods
3. 20050086296
Content system and associated methods
4. 20040167822
Method and system for conducting online transactions
5. 20040030781
Internet-based education support system and method with multi-language capability