Reflections on Computer Assignments: Need CSS help!!!

As I went through the past announcements on our course management system, in order to find out more about how to do an external style sheet for a webpage, I found an announcement on how to delete reserves from Koha. For some reason, I had missed this before. It might be the solution to the problem I had with Koha, where some books were listed as "nonreservable" - see my earlier Koha Assignment post. However, I will not have time to investigate this possibility.

Also I would like to report that my search engine page is now appearing on the web - apparently it did publish, but did now show the other day. So, if I need to, I will be able to link it to my main personal webpage. However, I don't need to right now.

I might not complete the final leg of my computer assignment, I am sorry to report. I have started it, by including the Thoreau excerpt as Thoreau2.html document in Kompozer, and, following directions given, I tried to link el to the external style sheet provided by the instructor. However, even though the sheet showed, the formatting of the document did not change, and I couldn't get the editor to work.

The problem might be that I couldn't directly link to this particular style sheet without first making sure it was in the same directory. I am not sure how to make sure it is in the same directory, unless I upload through FileZilla through my public and html directories. However, I am not sure where and how to save it first. I don't even know where or how to use notepad, which others keep mentioning in their posts on a discussion board. Can I save it in microsoft word, and, if so, what type of document should I save it as? CSS is not available there, at least not under that name.

I have been looking through some instructions from a website on external CSS stylesheets, but I am still not sure how to link them up. These instructions tell you how to include the information in the code of your html document - would that be the Thoreau document? And how do I find an external style sheet. I simply do not understand. I understand why an external style sheet is useful, because it can globally control format, but I don't understand where you find such sheets or how you would create them. I tried checking the code of some of my fellow students webpages, but I still don't understand what I am supposed to do.

I have a similar problem publishing webpages. I know how to do it in FileZilla, but when I create new webpages, I do not know how to do it in Kompozer - am I supposed to publish to a new site and fill out new information? When I try to do that, it reports that directory was not found, although it seems to say it is published. Nonetheless, I can't find it on the web. Although I understand the importance of public and html directories, I do not understand how to actually fill out the menus that Kompozer has. I end up wildly trying to different things.

Only recently have I figured out how to make a folder in Kompozer.

Sometimes I feel very foolish asking the questions I do. Really, I often find that nobody wants to answer them. It could be for a variety of reasons: 1) I post the questions really late, and nobody sees them; 2) My questions are not clear, so nobody understands what my problem is; 3) The information is available elsewhere in the course (although I might not realize it), and people figure I should know this. 4) I might give the impression that I have not even tried to find the solution before asking the question. This is seldom true - sometimes I have spent hours and hours trying to solve a problem, without any success. 5) People think I have not read elsewhere in the discussion board - I actually spend a lot of time reading the discussion board, but sometimes I do forget what I have read, even if I have copied it down. 6) Other students - especially those posting to the discussion boards - are just as confused as I am.

However, sometimes some fellow students have been very helpful.

For all the hours of time I have put into this course, I don't expect that I have accomplished all the goals that were set for us. However, I do get the impression there are some other students who have also had had difficulties. I am sorry to hear that, and I wish I could have been more help than I have been. However, at least, I realize that is not simply a personal problem.

Search Engine for Chemistry!!!

Here's a link to research on designing a search engine for chemistry which won't return as many irrelevant results. The algorithm was designed in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology. "With the new engine, scientists searching for research on CH4 or methane no longer have to wade through search results about Channel 4 or Chapter 4 as ChemxSeer will only return documents with references to the chemical formula."

This seems to be an important achievement in search engines, because one common problem with search engines, such as Google, is unusually large search return sets. The other problem is a null set, when you think some information should be available. I had some trouble with the latter when I was searching for links to my Thoreau fragment, and had to think of some more creative ways to search.

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Exhaustion!!!! (Webpage, Kompozer, Filezilla)

exhaustion

Click on the above link to see a whole page of photos from Flickr on "exhaustion", which happens to be how I presently feel. My professor suggested that I try to create my search engine and my GRAZR widget on a separate webpage and then link to my main webpage, in order to avoid conflicts in code. Thus, I opened a new page in Kompozer, and inserted the code to my Google Search Engine, which should have showed up like the one on the sidebar of this blog (except without being cut off). Nothing whatsoever showed. I tried to publish anyway, and all that came up was a blank page (which, I assume is not surprising, given the preview).

However, when I saved my personal webpage to my desktop, the desktop copy still contained the code, and both the search engine and GRAZR widget showed up. Thus, it seemed to me I might simply have a publishing problem. I tried to publish again from FileZilla and it worked!!!!! Something worked without taking 3 hours, how exciting!!!! I will not try to fix what is not presently broken. In other words, it might be better for me to have these items on a separate page linked to my main page - certainly it would be more sophisticated - but I don't think I should touch it now.

At the same time, I am still worried, because I need to do the last segment of the assignment, which is the external style sheets for the Thoreau. I will do that on a separate page, but then I will need to link it to my main page, which means resaving and republishing my main page. Will I be able to do this again without losing the search engine and the GRAZR widget? It is so hard to tell, because sometimes things don't show up in Kompozer, but do show up when I save to desktop. I think the code is still in Kompozer, but lots of items don't show on the page in Kompozer, so I don't know if I will lose them or not.

I am also running short on time. I still need to finish grading 50 midterm exams, I will need to post twice on 4 books, which I need to finish reading, and I have to make time to do the Thoreau external stylesheet, as well as be prepared to redo a few elements of my main page in case I do lose them in resaving and republishing.

I have learned a lot in this class, but there is a lot I still don't understand about both formatting a web page and publishing it. It is nice to see a completed project, regardless of how unsophisticated, but it is frustrating getting to that point.

Mechanical Computers superior?

Here's a link to a blog post in NewScientist technology blog (from BBC) that discusses the advantages of mechanical computers based on nanoparticles over the present silicon based computers. This would be interesting to compare to my previous blog on optical computing. In any case, the field of computing hardware remains a place with great potential for change, and, for all we know, it will go through a paradigm shift. After all, recording technology has often gone through such shifts - from varieties of analog recording to varieties of digital recording.

Disappearing Google Search Engine

My google search engine in the sidebar sometimes disappears, although when it is there, it seems to work. When it disappears from the side bar, an icon remains. When I click on the icon, the code for the search engine shows, but I don't know what to do about it.

I also had the search engine as an element in an older post - although it was there for a long time, it recently disappeared completely, and I don't know why. There is no icon left on that blog post.

You may also see my google search engine on NonHuman Primate Morality on my website. So far, it has remained there, but I am a little concerned about it. Some people seem to include the entire search engine page, which shows favored sites, but mine only includes the actual engine.

More on Autism Exhibit at Penn State Library

Here's an article with images on the autism exhibit at Penn State Library that I referred to in an earlier post. I liked the addition of images. This exhibit seems to correspond to a national conference on autism held each year at Penn State for families of people who are autistic, educators, neuroscientists, and others.

New Computing Technology

Here's a link to a NewScientist article on optical computing. Will this eventually render our present computer technology obsolete, thereby requiring migration of all data once again? There is also an interesting article on what is wrong with Web 2.0 from the point of view of Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger in the latest print issue, but I don't have a link to it.

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KOHA Assignment

I have finished my KOHA Assignment (see list of 15 books below in blue), although only the first 3 books show on the virtual shelves. I did the first three books and then came back to the assignment later, and no books since then have shown on my virtual shelves (most of them were done by July 9th). I thought it was because they were duplicates (as I mentioned in a previous post), but I have checked quite a few of them in the KOHA catalog, and they aren't duplicates (for those just added, the catalog reports ''no items returned" after checking both through ISBN# and title), except for one title I accidentally entered twice. (I tried to delete my duplicate, and although the record deleted, the duplicate title remains when I run my subject search, "Good and Evil"). By the way, after I started to check for duplicates, I did reject a few books that were already in KOHA's catalog, which means that I must have been searching the catalog correctly.

When I run a search on the virtual shelves, my entire list of 15 shows, with 12 labeled as "not reservable". I had asked on the discussion board about this, and one person told me that this meant they were duplicates; a second person told me that this did not matter, because our professor did not tell us the books had to be reservable. I tried to contact the professor by e-mail, but he did not reply. Therefore, I am not sure what the problem or the solution is.

In any case, I am not getting my webpage assignments done because of the time I have devoted to the KOHA assignment, so, having reached an impasse, I have declared this done. Here is my list of books, and their ISBNs:

"Anatomy of Evil", by Anshen, Rugh Nanda: 0918825156

"Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy", by Davis, Stephen T., ed. : 0804205175

"An Essay on the Origin of Evil", by King, William: 082401782X

"Evil: A Reader", by T&T Clark: 0567089754

"Evil: A Historical and Theological Perspective", by Schwarz, Hans: 0788099108

"Evil and Suffering", by Neusner, Jacob, ed. 0829812849

"Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy", by Neiman, Susan: 0691096082

"Facing Evil: Light at the Core of Darkness", by Woodruff, Paul & Wilmer, Harry, eds. 0812690788

"Freud, Women, and Morality: The Psychology of Good and Evil", by Sagan, Eli. 0465025706

"Imagining Evil", by Horne, Brian. 0232521611

"The Power of God: Readings on Omnipotence and Evil", by ed. Linwood Urban & Douglas Walker, 0195022017 (This is the one I myself duplicated - I put it in twice accidentally).

"Powers of Good and Evil: Moralities, Commodities, and Popular Belief": 1571819924

"Radical Evil: A Philosophical Interrogation", by Bernstein, Richard J. 0745629547

"The Trouble with Evil: Social Control at the Edge of Morality", by Lemert, Edwin McCarthy. 0791432432

"Wickedness", by Midgely, Mary. 0415255511

I rather enjoyed this assignment until I could not resolve my problem. If anyone has the answer, please let me know. I noticed that there were a few other students who had very books on their virtual shelves, although many students had more than 15 books on their virtual shelves.

There were also a lot of recent electronic resources or e-books in the Library of Congress Catalog on this subject. There were also a lot of foreign language books, especially in German, on this subject. This was a very broad subject, as you should be able to gather from the diverse focus of the books listed above - some theological, some philosophical, some social, etc.

Autism Exhibit at Pattee Library, Penn State

Here's a link to the list of exhibits presently at Pattee Library of Penn State. Unfortunately the link does not include any images; it just includes information. I noticed this list of exhibits because there is an exhibit from July 15 through September on autism, and I had a previous post on autism - how autistics like the virtual game, Second Life. On the way back from Pittsburgh, I hope to stop and see this exhibit, and stop in Paterno Library to say hello to the librarians who recommended the library school at Pitt.

Blogs, State College Arts Festival & Pittsburgh

On my way to Pittsburgh I stopped to stay overnight at a friend's place in State College, PA, where presently there is also an arts festival going on. My friend, an engineer, is unfamiliar with blogs, and said the name "blogs" sounded something like "dog poop". So there's an interesting thought!!! Click the link above for some images from the State College arts festival. It is an annual event.

My drive to Pittsburgh from State College, which should have taken 3 hours, took twice as long, because I was going 1 mph in the last several miles due to the detour from 376 West. Then I got lost trying to find the location of the hotel. So it turned out to be a frustrating and hot day. At least I was able to locate my cohort and go out to dinner. And today, Sunday, I was able to locate a computer lab on campus at the Hillman Library.

Recent Frustrations: KOHA & others

Today, I just have a list of frustrations. My KOHA assignment for library school is not yet handed in, because I only have 3 out of 15 books on my virtual bookshelves, despite the fact that I tried to catalog 11. It seems that KOHA already has all my books in the system, and I haven't had the chance to find more books that aren't in the system. I even tried to start a virtual bookshelf on another topic, but KOHA had those books in the system, too. In any case, the first set of books was on the subject of good and evil, and the new set was on film noir, but I really haven't added anything to film noir. Perhaps I should choose a topic like "skiing". In any case, I plan to go back and try to finish the topic of good and evil. Finally, someone on the discussion board let me know how to check KOHA first to make sure KOHA does not yet have the book. I guess it works like a catalogue. That might seem obvious, but it did not occur to me. Sometimes things do occur to me, and I learn how to make my way around, but other times, things just do not occur to me.

My second frustration is that I haven't had a chance to try to publish my web page. I did it the other day, but I need to download FileZilla and go through all the steps to publish it. I have not been feeling well in the 97 degree heat of the last couple of days, and I have found it very difficult to work. (My stomach is also bothering me rather badly.) However, I hate to make excuses, and I just cannot afford to get behind. I am also supposed to be adding all sorts of elements to my web page this week, and I am held up. I have been following the discussion boards on these projects.

I teach 3 courses, 2 preparations right now, so there are some nights that I simply cannot devote to these projects, especially because I need to devote a substantial amount of time to them in order to achieve anything, and similarly, if I am grading or preparing what I teach, I need to devote a substantial amount of time to that. Therefore, I tend to chunk my time, instead of divide it among many different tasks each day.

Although I look forward to my trip to Pittsburgh for library school, I actually need the time to fulfill my assignments. I am worried that I will not be able to complete the courses, especially the computer course, because when I get back from Pittsburgh, I will have grading to do in all three classes. It would help if I was feeling better physically (and I hope that this heat wave breaks up just a little - I have no air conditioning at home.)

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Recommended Book

Here's a link the Amazon.com site for a book I strongly recommend, called "Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?" which addresses the effects of patents and copyrights internationally.

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Moore's Law and Power Laws

Here's a graph of Moore's law as applied to the increasing power of processors in computers. Power laws can also be applied to social networks found on the web, according to Bernardo A. Huberman, in his little, but dense work, "The Laws of the Web: Patterns in the Ecology of Information".

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GRAZR Widget

I hope this is my GRAZR widget. Unfortunately it links to a file that cannot be found, because my registry of my computer does not recognize OPML files. When I have a chance to download a program that fixes that, the widget should work.

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Problem with links

I am having difficulties with my links - some do not seem to work, that is, they are not bringing up the pages to which they are linked, and I don't know why. As far as I know, the material to which I link is not part of a private subscription or licensed database. I have been able to fix some of my links - http:// appeared twice in a row in some of the code, which is why the linking wasn't working for some of them.

Disabled access to library?

Here's a link to a NewScientist Article which suggests that parapalegics and other disabled people might be able to use a computer by controlling a cursor with their tongues. This opens up the possibility that libraries will be able to provide even greater access to their electronic resources.

I am not able to make a link to NewScientist, print edition, but the latest issue includes a discussion of how autistics, especially those with Asperger's syndrome are really benefitting from the virtual game, Second Life. Originally a neuroscientist started an island in Second Life, to be of therapeutic value to autistics, but many of those who participated then wandered off the island to participate in the larger game. Some autistics rejected the island, and started their own communities, because they see their "condition" as not a disease which needs therapy, but as a variation that should be accepted.

In any case, this shows how web 2.0 and cyberspace, which, according to Lawrence Lessig in Code: Version 2.0, is a richer experience than the internet and one entirely dependent upon virtual space, might be more all-inclusive than the web and the internet have been thus far. The book, Leonardo's Laptop, discusses how universal usability should become a goal, although that book provides a precising definition in terms of approximately 100% of the population. For universal accessibility to become a goal, social networks and relationships, and not just technology will have to be taken into account, and technology will have to be designed with users' needs in mind.