Rantings of Joe Jurczyk

2005-06-24T00:20:00.000-04:00

Wow 4 months since the last post ! I guess I can't multi-blog. In the last few months I've been busy at work. See our much more prolific blog, Grassroots.org News and Views.

Wow ! The Picasa/Blogger integration seems to going ok...

2005-02-23T01:54:00.000-05:00

I'm always looking for some kind of online survey software that allows for complex branching, easy data export, and - most importantly - is cheap. Looked at a few packages: Perseus, SurveyShare, etc.

I recently explored SurveyConsole Web Survey Software with their 30 day trial offer. It's easy to work with and can be used with complex surveys, but many of the nice features in the trial version are not included in the $29/month basic version. Still it's a solid product which is very affordable.

2005-02-09T13:04:00.000-05:00

The machine keeps rolling.....http://maps.google.com

2005-01-26T13:27:00.000-05:00

The Google Labs continue to release new tools: http://video.google.com/

2004-12-27T13:34:00.000-05:00

Wow, where does the time go ? No posts in over a month. Too busy with a move, etc.

Here's a new Google feature (Google Suggest), similar to ole' Microsoft Word's AutoComplete:
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

2004-11-19T20:25:00.000-05:00

Google goes to college and learns about academic research: http://scholar.google.com

2004-11-18T01:39:00.000-05:00

Another grid computing app, the World Community Grid, has been introduced. The purpose of the project (like SETI) is to use millions of PC's, with the appropriate software installed to perform complex mathematical tasks.

See http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=6829592 for more information.

2004-11-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

Another good freebie. US Patent information including the ability to view the patent in PDF format: http://www.freepatentsonline.com

2004-11-09T17:27:00.000-05:00

FREE - FREE - FREE: One week only. Well, the hype is true: the online version of the Wall Street Journal is free through the end of the week: http://online.wsj.com

2004-11-07T22:52:00.000-05:00

Suddenly I find myself needing to be able to access my own information from various locations. Of course, I could carry my ThinkPad or my USB disk, but another way of accessing data from anywhere is SyncNotes.

Similar to Post-It notes and the Post-It application that's also commercially available, SyncNotes allows you to post small notes (memos, letters, etc.) and be able to access them from anywhere using the web. Built in to the app is also the capability to e-mail notes to anyone.

2004-10-22T17:51:00.000-04:00

A few years ago when Pearl Jam released a series of live recordings from one of their tours it was probably the first time a major label act allowed consumers to purchase such a large number of official "bootlegs". Other bands, like Metallica, have since allowed concert attendees to purchase CD's of the same concert immediately afterwards.

Now, Queen is selling 100 of their best bootlegs to the public. But the recordings are only available via download, not on CD or other media. To see more info or order the first releases in the series go to the store on their web site.

2004-10-22T17:22:00.000-04:00

This library resource for kids helps them find information, learn to use the Internet safely, and a lot of other things: http://ipl.si.umich.edu/youth/

2004-10-22T01:35:00.000-04:00

Statistics for SETI Users in XML:

http://setiathome2.ssl.berkeley.edu/fcgi-bin/fcgi?cmd=user_xml&email=xxx@yyy.zzz
(replacing xxx@yyy.zzz with the user's e-mail address)

Example:
http://setiathome2.ssl.berkeley.edu/fcgi-bin/fcgi?cmd=user_xml&email=jurczyk@apk.net

2004-10-09T01:18:00.000-04:00

There's a new online journal called Innovate that covers the topic of the effectiveness of online education.

2004-09-30T01:01:00.000-04:00

Is BackPage a competitor to the Craig's List franchise ? Not yet.

2004-09-28T23:26:00.000-04:00

Free access to Sage Journals through the end of October, 2004: Highwire Press

2004-09-28T22:14:00.000-04:00

The new version of Mozilla Firefox is here !

2004-09-07T16:48:00.000-04:00

HOW MANY STUDENTS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB AT . . .

SMU: Two--one to call the electrician and one to call daddy to pay the bill

RPI: Five--one to design a nuclear powered one that never needs changing, one to figure out how to power the rest of New York using that nuked light bulb, two to install it, and one to write the computer program that controls the wall switch

Princeton: Two--one to mix the martinis and one to call the electrician

Brown: Eleven--one to change the light bulb and ten to share the experience

Dartmouth: None--Hanover doesn't have electricity

Cornell: Two--One to change the light bulb and one to crack under the pressure

Brandeis: The whole school. It would be the most exciting event to happen in years

Penn: Only one, but he gets six credits for it

Columbia: Seventy-six-- one to change the light bulb, fifty to protest the light bulb's right to not change, and twenty-five to hold a counter protest

Yale: None--New Haven looks better in the dark

Harvard: One--he holds the bulb and the world revolves around him

Vassar: Eleven--one to screw it and ten to support its sexual orientation

Middlebury: Five--One to change the light bulb and four to find the perfect J. Crew outfit to wear for the occasionStanford: One, dude

Oberlin: Three--one to change it and two to figure out how to get high off the old one

Georgetown: Four--one to change it, one to call Congress about their progress, and two to throw the old bulb at the American U. students

Duke: A whole frat--but only one of them is sober enough to get the bulb out of the socket

Williams: The whole student body--when you're snowed in, there's nothing else to do

Tufts: Two--one to change the bulb and the other to say loudly how he did it as well as an Ivy League student

Sarah Lawrence: Five--one to change the bulb and four to do an interpretive dance about it

Swarthmore: Eight--it's not that one isn't smart enough to do it, it's just that they're all violently twitching from too much stress

Bryn Mawr: One- because it would be a violation of the Honor Code if any more did.

Boston University: Four--one to change the bulb and two to check his math homework

Wesleyan: Wesleyan's boycotting GE... you know, military-industrial complex and all that

Connecticut College: Two--one to change the bulb and one to complain about how if they were at a better school the light bulb wouldn't go out

Virginia: Thirteen--Ten to form student committee to vote on whether changing light bulbs is a violation of the Honor Code, one to change the bulb, one to hold the keg the he's standing on, and another to attribute electricity to Mr. Jefferson.

Bowdoin: Three--one to ski down to the general store and buy the bulb, one to take the chairlift back to school, and one to screw it in

Boston College: Seven--one to change the light bulb and six to throw a party because he didn't screw it in upside down this time

Santa Clara University: One--but you would never know about it because only Cal and Stanford gets press for changing their light bulbs.

2004-09-07T15:23:00.000-04:00

Did SETI find something ?

See these articles and discussions for more info:

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996341 (The New Scientist article that started the talk.)

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996255 (an article in the same pub from a month earlier)

http://planetary.org/news/2004/seti_signal_0902.html (from the SETI people themselves)

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/01/2244203 (post on Slashdot)

2004-09-07T01:17:00.000-04:00

Click here for "All the news that's not fit to print."

2004-09-03T19:54:00.000-04:00

Internet2 Logo

2004-09-03T19:38:00.000-04:00

Boy ! Just when I finally get my wireless network at home to communicate with my ThinkPad at 54Mbps using a card with the 802.11 g protocol, I find out that a new Internet2 scientific application has set a speed record of 100 petabits per second. (If I did the math right, that's only about 1 billion times the speed of my home network.) See the story. See more about the network at the Internet2 site.

2004-09-03T16:47:00.000-04:00

The Scout Report is a weekly e-mail publication that delivers a descriptive list of 10-20 Internet resources that of interest to researchers and educators. (Their words, not mine.) I've been subscribed to this mailing list forever (well, at least 5 or 6 years) and they always seems to be at least a couple of sites included that are of interest to me.

2004-09-03T11:33:00.000-04:00

If you want to contact your federal representatives, Congress.org allows you to look up your reps by entering your zip code and, optionally, your street address. The site also has information on the voting records of those and other reps and a section titled "Issues and Action" which shows you the positions of various associations on different issues.

2004-08-31T23:08:00.000-04:00

After an editor's column in Infoworld magazine a couple weeks ago on 6 IT Myths, the issue that arrived in my mail today (yes, I still prefer printed material) included a followup with reader comments. One of the notes came from the editor of VMyths, a great site that details various virus hoaxes and myths from over the years.

2004-08-27T00:39:00.000-04:00

If you want to see a preview of the next educational technology plan presented by the U.S. Department of Education see this article .

2004-08-23T18:47:00.000-04:00

The Edupage newsletter provides a summary of the latest technology in installments three times a week. The new sletter provides information on the biggest stories in summary form. To subscribe or view newsletter archives go to http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage.

2004-08-20T14:08:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I began work as the Executive Director for Grassroots.org, an organization I mentioned earlier. As the text on the home page states,

Grassroots.org is a 501c3 that is looking to change the world slowly but surely via the Internet at local, national, and international levels. We serve other non-profits and information consumers worldwide and provide free Internet business services to charities, including full-featured web hosting and email services.

My responsibilities will include developing a nonpolitical, nonreligious site dedicated to social issues, recruiting more charities and nonprofit organizations in the US and Canada to take advantage of our free web hosting and to develop additional services for those groups to better use technology to improve their operations and serve their missions.

2004-08-20T13:59:00.000-04:00

While listening to the radio this morning (Chuck Booms substituting on the Glenn Beck program, he mentioned the new proposal for rebuilding the Twin Towers in New York with a similar design (albeit with a safer structure) to the original buildings. Very eerie. I confess, I thought the new design and plan was already chosen from the list of various proposals.

2004-08-14T20:50:00.000-04:00

Yayyy !!! After I don't know how many months (years ?) I was finally able to get a wireless connection on my home network. While I've been able to get connection at the wireless networks at Cleveland State, UAkron, and other places (including the DL conference I attended last week), there has been a huge mindblock in achieving the same thing at home. Part of the problem was a shared DSL network (some wired connections, some not), part was poor hardware documentation, but most of the problem was user error.

After getting a Microsoft base station I still wasn't able to get things working (even though the documentation was infinitely better - i.e. easier - that the CompUSA wireless router I had bought months earlier. (Look for that latter device on EBay sometime soon !) Then my wife got a wireless connection from the base station without even trying. Final straw ! Two hours and nearly my entire laptop battery later I can report that I am now working remotely from the kitchen (though sitting close to an outlet as my laptop recharges).

2004-08-10T11:09:00.000-04:00

I managed to stumble across a web site, AddAll, that uses a metasearch engine to help you locate hard-to-find books (or movies or magazines or CD's) by searching 36 new and 16 used books stores. (See list of stores.) Wow, I haven't used a metasearch tool for years now. (Remember HotBot from Wired ?)

Happy hunting.

2004-08-08T14:03:00.000-04:00

One of the most interesting presentations I saw at the Distance Teaching and Learning Conference was a showcase of a web site called Critical Choices . (You can login to the system by using guest as both the "User ID" and "Password".)

The service provides online courses focused on low-income, local residents and helping them to enhance their job skills, learn new technologies, and prepare them for job searches. (Because the materials are web-based students can access the information from anywhere, including various local sites - such as the YMCA - that offer free computer and Internet access.)

The project is the result of a collaboration between Northern Illinois University Outreach and the YMCA Alliance of Chicago. The site offers a nice, clean look-and-feel and enough learning material such that the student will find the information useful without being overwhelmed.

2004-08-07T03:18:00.000-04:00

Went to the Distance Teaching Learning Annual Conference, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin in Madison this week. The conference was held at the Monona Terrace Community and Conference Center, a beautiful three-year old conference center right on Lake Monona. Standing in the ballroom of the center gives you a 180 degree view of the lake. A beautiful experience, rain or shine.

While there I attended a number of sessions and a pre-conference workshop on learning objects and SCORM (Sharable Content Object Resource Model) which was facilitated by several people, including David Wiley who gave this presentation. Dr. Wiley has edited one of the few books on learning objects. (The book is also available for free in PDF form on his site.)

Learning objects are small modules which contain information on a single topic. By creating a number of objects a designer can create an online course. The reusable nature of objects allows you to further customize courses and to include modules in other learning adventures without “recreating the wheel”. Additional information about SCORM (a set of standards that allow learning objects to interact with each other and applications such as Learning Management Systems) is available at the ADL web site.

2004-07-30T20:07:00.000-04:00

Error Message

2004-07-30T19:41:00.000-04:00

Earlier today I had a conversation with a fellow blogger who asked about getting images included in his blog. While I've just been uploading the ones I've used to my own web site, there are other options for those who do not have a web site with file space.

If you are using Blogspot to create your blog (as many/most do), you are given an option of using Bloggerbot. However, clicking on the link generated the error message in the above posting. Instead, try this URL and you should get to the right place:

http://www.hello.com/how_bloggerbot_works.php

Using the link immediately above you can download the software and, in conjunction with with Picasa or Windows Explorer (not sure what Mac users do), you will have a method for transferring pictures to the web. (Bloggerbot offers free image hosting.) Unfortunately I wasn't able to get it working so smoothly on my first try (my last post) or in this post. (Otherwise I would be able to include the error picture within this message.)

I will obviously need to research this a little more.

2004-07-30T19:17:00.000-04:00

If you are a nonprofit organization (non religious) you may qualify for free web hosting at Grassroots.org . You need to complete the request form and will be required to add the banner below to the top of your site.

2004-07-29T12:09:00.000-04:00

Another online resource similar to that in my post from July 23...

If you're interested in government and social policies from a research point-of-view, the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Washington D.C.-based volunteer organization, has a great site called Both Sides which, as the name implies, presents both sides of issues (e.g. environmentalism, federal spending, unions, etc.). The materials are culled from published articles, interviews and press releases.

2004-07-27T23:16:00.000-04:00

Yippee !!! I finally did it ! I made it into the top 1% of all SETI At Home users. (SETI At Home is a project that uses the computer downtime of PC's to analyze data obtained from telescopes at the University of California at Berkeley. The project currently has over 5,000,000 users and was one of the first major applications of distributed computing using the general public. Users automatically download data and upload the analyzed results.)

It took me quite a long time (as you can see on the graphic), but there are simple strategies for making the processing efficient.

1. Use Easy SETI which runs the processing in the background, rather than the screen wasting display of the regular SETI program. (I had some unit cycles that were 100+ hours long, and now I regularly have 6-8 hour cycles.)

2. Run the program as "low priority" so that it doesn't grind your machine(s) to a halt for other applications.

3. Run the program on all of your computers, especially the fast ones. (Big surprise.)

4. Increase the queue in EasySETI. The Berkeley site that is regularly down so if you're done processing a unit you're not at their mercy to get new data for processing.

2004-07-26T20:45:00.000-04:00

Time for another Google-related post. To see a visual representation of a URL and its related sites (meaning similar - using the Google search term "related:" ), look at the TouchGraph Google Browser. Enter a URL and see what other sites and pages are connected.

I'm not exactly sure how the results are derived. When entering my own home page, one of the highest related sites is a Swedish entertainment site . Strange.

2004-07-23T23:28:00.000-04:00

Social Issues

For those who are interested in researching social issues online, this site acts as a portal with links to background information and articles on major issues (e.g. abortion, environmentalism, poverty, etc.) Though the site is targeted towards school-age children, others will find worthy content describing the issues and various points of view towards the subject.

2004-07-22T12:56:00.000-04:00

If you have some spare time on your hands and want to help out a charity or other nonprofit organization with your technical or other skills, see VolunteerMatch . The site lists opportunities with different organizations for web designers, programmers, designers, writers, researchers and other volunteer staff.

2004-07-18T01:22:00.000-04:00

If you have read any tech news source lately (last few days) you probably noticed that Google recently purchased Picasa , a program for organizing graphics on your own PC.

I noticed it, explored and installed it (it's free) when I wanted to upload a picture for my last blog entry. Blogger gave me the option of downloading and installing Picasa and since it's free....

Of course, Google with all of its recent offerings and purchases (Orkut......GMail......Blogger......Picasa....???) is reminiscent of Microsoft a few years back trying to blanket the desktop software market. Only now with Google it's the Internet application market. Same users, different paradigm.

Follow all of the Google news (good and bad) here.

2004-07-18T01:02:00.000-04:00

Interesting video about a potential space elevator, its benefits and potential problems in getting one developed and deployed

2004-07-16T20:00:00.000-04:00

While watching my daughters today at the local playground, I read the newest issue of Syllabus, a magazine about the use of technology in higher education . Besides good articles on learning objects and LMS's (Learning Management Systems), there was an opinion piece on the last page about the author's proposed new online course development tool called "Course Creation Systems" (CCS).

As my last entry points out something needs to be done to make online courses easier to create and more functional for the user/student. An an "expert system" for instructors (haven't heard that term for a while) a CCS would automate the mundane tasks and help add better organization and content to an online course. Let's see if this idea ever takes off....

2004-07-11T12:32:00.000-04:00

Finally had a chance to roam a little around MIT's new open source course management software, Caddie.Net. (You can login to a demo site at the home page or one of several test site here.)

The software looks to improve upon current education LMS software (such as WebCT and BlackBoard) by using web services and a platform based on learning objects. Rather that creating completely isolated courses without flexibility and connectivity, Caddie.Net allows you to use content from other courses or allow content from your course to be used by other courses.

Information about the benefits of Caddie.Net (and web services, in general) are located in thisWord file. The software

2004-07-04T14:55:00.000-04:00

For those who are in the job market and want to search online, the first step is usually to go to one of the big general sites like Monster or HotJobs (owned by Yahoo!) or one of the industry-specific sites like Dice (IT) or HigherEdJobs (....uh, higher education). Of course, these sites work if the employer posts their openings to these national sites.

If you are looking for local postings try instead a site like FlipDog (now owned by Monster) which aggregates and indexes company job listings on their own web site.

Or try Craig's List which offers postings within in each city that the site serves. For those who want to search multiple CraigList sites, you can download and install these PHP scripts and load them on your own server. (The result will be something like this.)

2004-07-04T13:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, after fetching a couple sacks of bird seed at the local Sears Hardware I happily wandered into the the nearby Starbucks to get a iced frappucino on the balmy Saturday. I had an extended wait. The baristas forgot/misplaced my order and I watched the 5 people in back of me get their drinks first. Seated near the day's newspapers I stumbled across a recent business book (The 80/20 Individual) with a sticker on it saying "I'm Free".

After reading the sticker and the enclosed bookmark, I learned the book was registered at bookcrossing, a site that facilitates the exchange of books by having members leave their books with the approporiate identifiable markings (the stickers and bookmarks) allowing the finders (me, in this case) to go online, register as a subscriber and tell the system that I have the book. The idea is for people to freely get rid of books they don't want by leaving them at places like Starbucks. What's the business model ? Well, I guess the finders get satisfaction from finding books that might interest them without paying for them (sounds like a library, just potentially more exciting) and bookcrossing gets revenue from people who want to "release" their books by buying supplies (stickers, etc.).

Their site also allows you to do a scavenger hunt, of sorts. You can look for what books are possibly available in your area and where. Let's see if they're around in a year or two.

Was the barista's error just fate that allowed me to discover this new service ? I don't know, but they did give me a coupon for a free drink at my next visit because of the inconvenience. (And, no, I didn't complain to anyone to get the coupon.)

2004-07-03T14:19:00.000-04:00

As the summer gets into full swing, I've decided to make a serious attempt to get (back) into decent running shape.

At the end of the month, the BT50K, will take place in Brecksville, OH. (Look for the blue blazes.)

This is the 11th running and the first as an actual "race". I was the rd for the first ten years and it was more of a low key run. Now, Vince and Steve from The Vertical Runner and Steve Godale have taken over, gotten permits from Cleveland Metroparks and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and promise to take this run to the next level....whatever that is. This represents a full relinquishing of my race directing responsibilities having handed over management of the Mohican 100 last year. I hope to start a new ultra race or two in the next couple of years. Somewhere scenic and probably hilly.

Anyways, as I said earlier I also hope to get my own running career back on track, now that my classes at UAkron are just about done and I'm starting to get the idea that I may have some free time in the fall which I can use for training, racing, etc. While I've been running marathons and 50K's for the last few years, they've been slow and I hope to both increase my distances and lower my times....

2004-07-01T14:38:00.000-04:00

This entry will be an all-Google post.....

After experiencing Orkut for a couple weeks it seems to be the most comprehensive social site yet in terms of content and users. There are communities on virtually (no pun intended) every topic. However, with the ability for anyone to start their own community, there often exist duplicate groups with little differentiation. While the freedom afforded this capability is nice, as a user with a limited amount of time and desire to select which community(ies) to join the selection process can prove frustrating. Which one(s) do I join ?

The process of Orkut invitations seems to work well to reduce the amount of noise and eliminate spam. (I'm not sure how spammers are dealt with - e.g. subscription revoked, posts removed, etc. - but the content seems pure.) Of course I bought my invitation off of EBay for a couple dollars, but that's beside the point.

GMail is another nice product/service. I've had my account for about 3 weeks now and not a single spam. Even though I haven't given my address out much, I know that it's easy - though not from experience - for spammers to just append common user names to the popular domain names. I figured that I would have received at least a couple spams by now. But I guess that whatever Google is not on the anti-spam side seems to be working. The content-based advertising is another interesting "feature" and I wonder how long it will be until people find a way to circumvent the service by coding messages to trigger certain ads to display.

2004-06-28T11:14:00.000-04:00

Attended the ISTE/NECC Conference last week with my wife Lynne who did a presentation on Virtual Field Trips.

First time to the French Quarter and Bourbon St. The music and action don't stop (and the beads don't stop falling from the balconies above) except for the early (late?) morning hours. (But the music seems to only be either Zydeco or bad 80's top 40.)

Never been to such a hot and humid place. (Though Cleveland has its occasional times.) No wonder everybody moves so slow and no wonder the smell (presumably of wet garbage, not of the bodies in the above-ground cemetaries) permeates the air there.

2004-06-17T23:33:00.000-04:00

From the too much time on my hands department......

Today I re-activated my Yahoo Mail account after reading about their service upgrade providing free access to a mailbox capable of storing 100 MB of messages. This is, of course is in response to Google whose Gmail software was also recently launced. GMail, OTOH, offers 1 GB of storage. (Little did I know my Yahoo account was deactivated because (probably) of inactivity.)

I think I'm going to do a little experiment and see how fast the spam fills up in each of the boxes which were essentially created on the same day. (Of course the Yahoo mailbox is older but I rarely gave the address to anyone.) This experiment will measure the quality of each services spam-prevention software and compare the messages that get through to each. Perhaps not a very scientific study - especially since I'm publicizing it here - but maybe there will be something of interest that arises.

2004-06-17T22:47:00.000-04:00

The times....they've already changed.

As I was deciding what to enter here tonight - what great pearls of wisdom, new techie finds, or random babblings - I was thinking about how much communication has changed on the Internet.

Earlier this year a mailing list about ultramarathons that I stated with a fellow runner had its tenth anniversary. Ten years on the same software (LISTSERV) and same host (Dartmouth College.) The school may have upgraded their computers during this time, but the hosts still don't crack the 1Ghz processor speed.

At that time the argument for discussion platforms was mailing lists (LISTSERV, Majordomo, eventually Lyris) vs. newsgroups. While newsgroups (especially Usenet - though Google Groups is certainly a great tool for researching newsgroups) seemed to have quieted a bit over the years, mailing lists are still strong and have gained competition in recent years from web forums. Blogs and easy to use software like Contribute allow anyone - yes, anyone - to publish on the web.

Definitely easier accessibility. Definitely more noise.

2004-06-17T01:07:00.000-04:00

With an e-mail I received earlier today from EBay I was reminded that the used good site they own, Half.com, will be integrated into the parent site. (This will happen in October according to the note/press release. See this note.) As someone who purchases almost everything related to entertainment (books, music, DVD's) online I hope that the convenience (and cheap prices) will not go away. (This older article reminds us of how long it's been since the merger first started.)

Tonight I (re-)experienced this convenience firsthand. After misplacing a textbook (an older edition of a computer networking book) that I'm using for one of my classes, I decided to order a replacement copy. (The book is important and I've already been looking for the book for a couple days. My certainty in ever locating it is dwindling.) Looking at Barnes and Noble, which I usually use for new purchases I was shocked at the price for a new book of $115. (This shouldn't be a surprise for a textbook.) I then chose to look at EBay. They had several copies for $5-$10 (and a Buy It Now one for $25 or $35.) I went to Half.com and found one for under $5 which I reserved and will hopefully get by early next week.

While their main site certainly offers some great deals, here's hoping that EBay chooses to incorporate the Half.com inventory into their own EBay Store feature (or their new "Half-Off" feature, as they call it)and allow customers to still get access to such a wide selection of products, often at dirt cheap prices compared to the big retailers like BN.

2004-06-17T00:42:00.000-04:00

While traditional colleges and universities have also had competition from community colleges and junior colleges, the growth of proprietary schools today in both online and offline forms has been substantial. The guide to proprietary schools from the University of Virginia offers a good overview to proprietary schools in both of these forms of alternative education. In today's world, the medium can offer a lot in terms of convenience to the non-traditional student seeking to extend his or her education.

2004-06-14T09:03:00.000-04:00

Found a new set of web tools that I'll be using on some sites I'm working on. Bravenet.com seems to feature a lot of stuff that can be embedded in your own pages and also services (often free) for hosting other features. Add a customizable e-mail contact page (for example) rather than planting a harvestable e-mail URL, put audio clips on your site, download some scripts, etc.

2004-06-05T15:36:00.000-04:00

Returned from the AIR Conference in Boston this week. Presented my demonstration of Q Methodology and was able to attend quite a few other interesting sessions on retention, swirl, survey techniques and other IR topics. (The day after returning another Continental flight from Cleveland to Boston received a military escort due to a mistaken transmission made by the pilot.)

Also had a chance to run and roam around the Harvard and MIT campuses and got to see the Stata building at MIT, designed by Frank Gehry. Much larger in scope and size than the Peter B. Lewis building he designed for Case.

Blogging by e-mail ? Let's see

2004-05-26T01:06:00.000-04:00

Sure, I don't (b)log anything for a month and then I choose to change all of my settings, my layout and the functionality of the blog. Hmmmm...let's see if this "blog by e-mail" functionality works. (and if embedded links are as easy as they should be...)

OTN (Obligatory Technology Note):

*Web Hosting* - As someone owns a few domains, who doesn't want to pay a lot for hosting, and who wants CF hosting, I recommend
HostingDataCenter . (Get a reseller account !)

If you want to know more about the hosting field in general (e.g. experiences, tech issues, etc.) see WebHostingTalk.

2004-05-25T23:40:00.000-04:00

Joe here again.....(almost a month later !). Here's some links I want to use to show you some of the work I've done:

My Home Page

CSU's IR Home Page

An article showing some of the characteristics of the CSU Cohort group (first-time, full time, degree-seeking freshman students)

A redesign of UA's IT Master's Program web site

A web site for the BT50K, a 50K fun run that I founded ten years ago

2004-04-26T23:47:00.000-04:00

Finally got around to doing a blog. (Yippee !) Got motivated to doing it after seeing a policy-related blog this morning before a job interview and visiting a lot of network sites this evening: Ryze, Tribe, Craig's List, and the other usual suspects. I'm still too busy to research all of them out there. One of these days I'll get to visit every site listed at Social Software. But by then something new will take over.....