An initial go at embedding from diagram.ly

It's hard to believe how easy it is to use this free diagramming tool. Thanks to who ever it was who pointed it out!

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

Here's a rebuilt view:

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

Incompatibility strikes again!

"Zotero MacWord Integration is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 when run under Firefox 4. Please upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6.x, or downgrade to Firefox 3.6.x" (Firefox 4 pop-up at first launch).

Guess I'll stick with 3.6.13 a while longer.

Another century post slips past

I figured it was time again for a human post when I noticed 300 for potpourri on the dashboard, and the month of February gone by without one. The 3ooth was an automated Diigo bookmarks compilation. Does extending the dashboard metaphor mean I was asleep at the wheel?

No, the three such automated posts last month represent about thirty Diigo bookmarks (February 2011). What with categories, highlights, notations, quotations, and tags as options, not to forget [group sharing,] Diigo-to-blog and -to-Delicious output options and other extensions, I'm beginning to think of Diigo as my micro-blogging engine of choice!

As the chart in the graphic and figures below indicate, total numbers of visitors and countries from which they hail continue on modest upward trends.

2010-10-15 79 2338

2010-11-00 n.d. n.d.

2010-12-15 80 2397

2011-01-00 n.d. n.d.

2011-02-15 81 2444

Import from WordPress

Using an export file that WordPress generated in XML format (Dashboard: Tools: Export), and an online, WordPress-to-Blogger converter, I successfully imported a small number of posts from a WordPress blog to this one. Directions for importing posts and comments to Blogger are available here:

• How do I import and export blogs on Blogger? (answer=97416)

Since the number of posts I had on that other blog was small, and around half of them were notes about getting up to speed in a WordPress MU installation; rather than to republish them all automatically on this blog, I opted to republish only a select few by hand.

Though user content in the Blogger Help Forum indicated numerous problems (see, for example: query=import+data+Blogger), I encountered no glitches. The crux of the conversion may be file size; according to a warning on the Wordpress2Blogger conversion utility:

• NOTE: This hosted application [that utility] will only allow downloads smaller than 1MB. 

Quick Study of Blog Feed Stat's

When the ClustrMaps widget on the Writing Studio Blog started getting blotchy in locations other than Japan, I started wondering how all the blots came to be. Some, I knew, represented sources of comment spam that began showing up recently even though I've kept that blog out of Blogger listings (Settings: Basic: Add your blog to...: No!) since its inception. 


So today I took a look at FeedBurner Feed Stat[']s for both the blog headline feed and the blog post feed that I'd redirected through FeedBurner, respectively: 

• Headlines: February 25, 2007
• Posts: January 15, 2009

A difference discernible in spite of the disparate ages of the redirected feeds is in how the feeds get used. The Headlines go to FeedBurner Email subscriptions, and, although there also is a "Get Mailed: Posts" from FeedBurner gadget in the blog sidebar, too, the Posts, by and large, go into feed readers and aggregators – over the past seven to 30 days, mainly to Mozilla Compatible Agents (5-10), Google FeedCatcher (2-3), and PubSub (2 [unchanged]). 


Also over the past seven to thirty days, but for neither feed, have there been any hits (clicks on the feeds) from either Google Chrome or Internet Explorer browsers. Most hits have been from Firefox browsers; next most, from other Mozilla driven browsers.


The remainder of this post lists other findings as well as sources of this information, to which you may not have access (except in parallel locales relevant to your own FeedBurner feeds). 

The Writing Studio Blog: Headlines

Current

33 subscribers

Last Seven Days: Wednesday, March 31 – Tuesday, April 06

28 subscribers (on average)

"This number provides a general understanding of the size of your subscriber base over a time period" (FeedBurner Help, What is a Subscriber? How does FeedBurner tally them? How does it look?).

Last 30 Days: Monday, March 08 – Tuesday, April 06

28 subscribers (on average)

• including 27 email subscriptions

All Time: Sunday, February 25, 2007 – Tuesday, April 6, 2010

• since adding Post Feed Redirect URL to blog Site Feed settings
• jumped from two to almost 30 in April 2008

18 subscribers (on average)

• 18 email subscriptions

__________
Source: The Writing Studio Blog: Headlines – Analyze (Google FeedBurner)

The Writing Studio Blog: Posts

Current

55 subscribers

• more than doubles average for Last Seven Days (below)
• almost triples average for Last 30 Days (below)

Last Seven Days: Wednesday, March 31 – Tuesday, April 06

24 subscribers (on average)

• including one email subscription

1 reach (on average)

"At any given time, you can expect that a certain percentage of this subscriber base is actively engaging with your content and this “Reach” measurement provides this additional insight." (FeedBurner Help, What is Reach?, What does it tell you?).

Last 30 Days: Monday, March 08 – Tuesday, April 06

19 subscribers (on average)

• including one email subscription

1 reach (on average) 

All Time: Friday, January 15, 2010 – Tuesday, April 6, 2010

• since adding Post Feed Redirect URL to blog Site Feed settings

16 subscribers (on average) 

• zero email subscriptions

0 reach (on average) 

__________
Source: The Writing Studio Blog: Posts – Analyze (Google FeedBurner)

Removing mail from servers

Now that I've switched to LDAP mail services for most of my accounts (three of five), to enable synchronization across multiple machines, in various venues, I have run into problems where message that I'm sure I sorted, replied to, or deleted, show up again as unread messages. That is, mainly in alternate users areas (Restorers) in which I hardly ever open mail.

In Mac Mail, I used to delete trashed messages permanently from mail servers after a month, just in case I mishandled some, and didn't discover the errors in my ways till more than a week afterwards. I'm resetting preferences to delete them after one week, and may switch to after one day, or to when quitting mail, if necessary.

Mendeley sync's ... [from] CiteULike

I've accepted an invitation to adopt Mendeley desktop and online bibliographic reference management applications, whose features Mendeley Research Networks summarize here. They work with Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows, as well as online, so you can use Mendeley just about anywhere. It was quick and easy to sign-up, and start a profile.

The Import to Mendeley bookmarklet, found through a dismiss-able feature link in the profile sidebar, dragged and dropped sweetly into a biblio. folder in my Xmarks synchronized Firefox Bookmarks toolbar. The CiteULike Importer (Account Settings) set up was almost as dreamy.

I wonder how long it takes to get CiteULike references flowing [in-]to Mendeley, and how seamless sharing references with collaborators will be.

Addenda: Although adding spot-on articles highlighted by Mendeley at login was a piece of cake (shown first by field, perhaps filtered through new research interests), I've found no trace of previous CiteULike citations coming through to Mendeley over the past hour or so. I checked to make sure the CiteULike Importer connection was hot. Anyone know a way to release the backlog?

One of these mornings...

From a message on my Blended Learning and Instruction comment wall (BL&I), I learned that the iCal event I'd collected from BL&I over the weekend had failed to optimize itself into my local time zone (JST). Though the new event was visible in desktop views (Day/Week/Month) at 13:30 JST, 2009.03.28, hidden in the background was the event's actual UTC (GMT), and accurate JST calculations of starting and ending times. Need I add that I missed the event?

[caption id="attachment_44" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Event displayed at 13:30 JST, 2009.03.28"][/caption]

Since I recalled that WiZiQ featuring recordings, I re-drilled the BL&I website (Ning) from top to announcements, to events, to the one I'd missed, and looked for a link to or mention of a recording. Though there was nothing like that visible on-site, there was a WiZiQ sign-in box barely peeking around the edge of my browser window (Safari default size, about a hand-span in breadth).

So after dredging up a suitable mail address and password for the WiZiQ site, and logging in, I found just what I'd been looking for, a "View Recording" button in the center of the window!

The story continues from there, ...:

I tried to "View [the] Recording" (rectangular button below the Tags, Embed[ding] Code, and URL; above). However, the first four out of five times I tried, after successful sign in to WiziQ. I got messages displaying, "You are not authorized to view this recording." Much to my surprise, as I was returning to that recording page to collect evidence of what was going on, it finally loaded! I'm looking forward to watching the show now, and wondering whether anyone can explain the flukiness of access to the recording of it.

(comment yet to appear on WiZiQ,

Integrating Technology into the Classroom Using Moodle and Wikis)

... and resumes here, well, actually, resumed as a draft posted in Safari, and continues now in Firefox:

I started this post in Safari, and got as far as pasting in an overt URL and typing the page of the WiZiQ page (above). In Visual editing mode, twice I tried to insert the link, covered by the display text I'd selected. However, after the page background faded, the link dialog box never un-faded, , and all page controls below the bloxi URL became useless. The only option was to reload at the browser control level, hoping the auto-save had done its thing.

Fortunately it had, but paragraph divisions between default formatted passages (aligned left) above and below the block quotation and reference weren't appearing in the post display, not even in Firefox, until after I came back and hand-encoded them in HTML view. Whenever I get through a troublesome online session like that, I wonder whether ordinary learners or run-of-the-mill site visitors would ever go through all the bother, or ever come back again, much less tell you about it.

Computer Change-Over: Systems and Wares

Got a new Mac mini up and running, networked through a Time Capsule (1 TB) wirelessly at first. Now a PowerBook G4, my previous mainstay, is hard-wired to the Time Capsule. 

• [Add details and illustration about here.]

I followed a colleagues advice, and started with the mini more or less as a blank slate, at least as far as file applications and documents go. I'll add or retrieve what I need as I need it. First of all, I sync'd Address Book, iCal, and Mail particulars from the PowerBook to the mini through MobileMe. I plan to continue to do so after archiving Mail folders and messages, and installing OS 10.5 on the Powerbook (6.5 GB required, 5.8 available on working partition). 

Applications and suites I've installed so far include:

• iLife


• iWork


• Microsoft Office


• Skype


• Time Machine

Mmm..., not necessarily in that order, but that's about it. Next will be:

• NeoOffice (done)


• Foxmarks for Safari (done)


• ... (a multiple clipboard add-on [iClip])

Then we'll see.... [I've embedded a spreadsheet (below) that I'll use to collect initial use dates, and perhaps to log use periodically, as in Tools, types of site, and such (2008.09.03), but it has disappeared {which may happen every time you open and save a document that includes html code for media} (2009.03.12).]