Friday, December 30, 2005

XML, MODS, etc.

Random notes on applying XSLT to XML docs...


[2006-01-07]

Install Saxon in C. saxon8.jar is principle file and should be placed in XPath (cf. Web Logic or better Dynamic Apps): "The class path is normally represented by an environment variable named CLASSPATH: see your Java documentation for details. Note that the JAR file itself (not the directory that contains it) should be named on the class path." (from installation notes).

Save xml and xsl files in "data" folder under SAXON, then point Firefox to the xml and the processing takes place automatically. Tryiing to use Saxon itself though is a problem. Its author Michael Kay wrote the book (see below) but also some articles for IBM DeveloperWorks. One is called "What Kind of Language is XSLT" and the other is "Saxon: Anatomy of an XSLT Processor"

[2006-01-06]

Having a real hard time retracing the steps from Patrick Yott's XML class. Some files missing. Try replacing with samples from Rutgers page. I think the key challenges are these: (1) Save MARC data file in program readable/parsable format; (2) Convert MARC to MARCXML or MODS using Terry Reese's MARCedit or some other mapping tool; (3) Apply stylesheet to convert XML to HTML.

Voyager can save bibs as .mrc files to desktop: Voyager--Options--Preferences--Folders/Files--Save to Local File--File--:\documents and settings\dlovins\desktop\avantgarde\export.mrc

Terry Reese's MARCedit program can do things like convert MARC files (with .mrc extension) into MARCXML): http://oregonstate.edu/~reeset/marcedit/html/index.html

W3C's XML page; note XSL working group page, and then the bit on XSL transformations might be worth reading more closely.


[2005-08-26]
Here's XML course home page courtesy, I think, of Brown University Library Center for Digital Initiatives (CDI) This is distillation of 5-day ARL workshop, including CML, XSLT, PERL, and Web architecture. Contact: patrick_yott@brown.edu. Yott is librarian, head of CDI, heavily invested in XML (insufficient funds to purchase Encompass). Recomends getting rid of OPAC, build our own simple version via xml, thinks we'll be getting there eventually. Get rid of III.

Further reading: xml.org; Michael Kay's book XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference; ask Patrick for style sheets. visit coverpages.org. Subscribe xml4lib. zend.org ("has fabulous tutorials"). Pat teaches ARL-sponsored course, 3 days intensive and far more expensive.

Worth checking LC Standards page on regular basis, e.g., XML MARC instance, with which one could, as Brown digital library , could take MARC record out from OPAC, run through style sheets to convert MARCXML to MODS

XSLT: Extensible Stylesheet Language [for] Transformations. Handled through stylesheet engine, takes source xml file, with xslt file, and spits out html browser readable files. This class to use SAXON stylesheet engine, obtained through sourceforge, written by Michael Kay, worth buying his book on XSLT ("only book I keep on my desk"). At Brown, since we're PHP based, we use someting called Sablatron, also free, from gingerall.com. Can be compiled into PHP on Webserver or command line.

XML not good tool for all tasks, e.g., OED takes gigabyte of XML. But for smaller docs it's good. What Yale does for EAD database is just put html bitstreams on their own servers keeping original xml files in 'vault'. Otherwise one could creat HTML on the fly through stylesheet engine, so permanent HTML doesn't really exist. Problem with OED example is that it forces user's browser to do heavy lifting.

Class example: pie.xml is called 'source tree', while HTML documents are instances of 'results tree'.

Today's goal is to get handle on rudiments of XSLT documents.

Every XML doc has one thing in common: root element, i.e., the only element with no parent. It can have any number of children. Grandchildren are called 'descendents'. Going the other direction you get 'ancestors'. There are siblings but no cousins. Paradoxically, attributes (circles in Venn diagram) are not 'children' of attached element; but elemenet *is* parent of attached attribute.
Use "Wonkavator".

Imaginary node behind root element called "root node", which is it's parent. This is truly the one thing that all xml docs have in common, since it doesn't really exist, little box with diagonal lines. In Unix, root node is represented by slash. Two dots and a slash .. / are the way to go up a level in the directory tree. X-path: go up, go up, and from here, down into title [../../title].

Style sheet always begins (though not required) with search for root node. Stylesheet is based on templates. Says: look for root node and apply template. My template for root node might be: 'print out 'hi mom''. Or a template can invoke other templates, or activate "Wonkavator". Default rules (keep going through the tree) only apply to elements, finally ending with text. Attributes are not elements, so only a specific rule would allow attribute text to be printed. Otherwise, text is default child of its element.

Templates are children of stylesheets, never children of other templates.

For "Run XSLT Transformation" clip, don't use extensions, since system-supplied. HTML file name is arbitrary. In current example, browser output is "blivet", everything smooshed together. Only spaces to appear are those that are embedded in pc-data. Templates over-ride default rules; but default rules can come in handy.

"Wonkavator knows every node in the source tree"

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Friday, December 23, 2005

"The Heart of the University" (David McCullough)

Amanda Patrick writes on yullib: "For any of you who missed the David McCullough lecture on October 21st and are interested in seeing it, you are now able to view it on line at http://library.yale.edu/75th/1021gallery/index.htm along with some photographs of both the lecture and reception."

Categories:

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Thursday, December 22, 2005

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Vanessa

2006-06-03
Recently working as consultant with Cambridge Hill Partners, and on documentary on religious diversity in health care.

Mosque in Sumatra
Plowshares Invited to Assist with Aceh Peace Initiative

Hartford Seminary

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Friday, December 02, 2005

Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide

Cruxus comments on Slashdot regarding newly published book: Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide : "Ruby's Quite Nice, Really. I can understand why he noted Ruby as a primary contender with Java. I've been learning it from an online primer [rubycentral.com], and it seems quite flexible and elegant. Java, on the other hand, is much too bloated. "

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Thursday, November 03, 2005

Open-ILS.org

Jason Etheridge posting on XML4Lib provides link to blog on open-source ILS "Evergreen".

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Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Expanded Sick Time Policy

Excerpt: "Sick time may be used for those family members in the following circumstances:
The care of an eligible family member who is ill or injured
Accompanying an eligible family member to a medical or dental procedure or checkup related to illness or injury
Attending to an eligible family member who is hospitalized

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Monday, October 31, 2005

Critique of LCC and other "Ontologies"

Shirky arhived his speech on his own blog: Ontologies are Overrated.



William Denton on Web4Lib recommends a provokative talk by Clay Shirky. Shirky contends that LC Classification and other "ontologies" (which he defines as "assertions about essnece and relations among a group of items") may have outlived their usefulness. In the case of LCC, he maintains that driving force has been arrangement of things (i.e., books on shelves) rather than authentic relations among ideas. Complains about inconsistencies in LCC, where "Balkan Penninsula" stands as a top geographic category alongside "Asia." (What does he mean by this? In the G1994 Atlases part of the schedule, the region is subsumed under Southeastern Europe; in GB457 "Physical geography" section, it's subsumed under Medeterranean Sea region; I checked other areas as well, and nowhere does it appear as a top term).

He also complains that LCC is flat, and that it doesn't accommodate polysemy (though he refers to it as polypheny): "it enforces cookie-cutter categorization that doesn't reflect the polyphony of its contents--there is a literature of creativity, for example, made up of books about art, science, engineering, and so on, and yet those books are not categorized (which is to say shelved) together". LCC does allow multiple classification, though, and in any case, it is complemented by the LC Subject Headings which can accomodate as many different conceptual relationships as people can think of.

Shirky delivered his remarks at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. The audio recording is archived at ITConversations

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Friday, October 28, 2005

"Google is replacing the professional librarian"

Article in indystar.com on PR expenses, but also source of quotation

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Thursday, October 27, 2005

Stew and Terri Wedding

How close is Timberline Lodge to Crater Lake? Here's a pdf map of the Crater lake area. Not very close I'm afraid.

There's an exhibition on the Lewis & Clark expidition at the Oregon Historical Society, but that doesn't start until November 11th. Currently there's an exhibition on Hessian Art, including the Madonna and other paintings by Hans Holbein.

Stew and Terri's wedding blog. Event to take place Saturday, Oct. 29, 5pm. Left comment, that we're staying at Timberline Lodge Oct. 29 through Nov. 1.

From invitation: Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood, Oregon.

Rooms available at Lodge: 503-622-7979; rm. reservations 800-547-1406.

Mazama Lodge, already rented for guests. On southern slope of Mt. Hood. Staying there is free; only pay for breakefast 7 dollars, lunch 10 dollars and dinner same. Dormitory style with a few private rooms. private rooms don't costs extra but are first come first serve. Bring sleeping bag if taking this option. For reservations etc call Clif and Dae Todd at 503-272-9214 or email lodge@mazamas.org.

Gift: http://www.heifer.org. Prefer that we by a gift animal for family living in poverty. Rather than Crate and Barrel (though they are registered there too at number 8802513), or Home Depot gift certificate, etc.

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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

NELINET courses

Here is a browse display of upcoming courses from NELINET. Of particular interest (to me) is the "bibliographic services conference" entitled "Google vs. the OPAC: The Challenge is On!", taking place in Worcester Friday, November 18th.

Here are the topics and speakers:

10:45am "Metadata That Supports Real User Needs"
David Lindahl, Director of Digital Library Initiatives, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

11:30am "The Social Life of Metadata"
Casey Bisson, Software Developer and Information Technologist, Lamson Library, Plymouth State University

1:15pm "OCLC in a Web-based World"
OCLC Research Speaker (TBA)

2:30pm "Catalogers Wanted: Metadata Practice in the Web Era"
Mary Kurth, Head of Metadata Services, Cornell University Library

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Japan Association of Yale

See section on "Language partners"

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Sunday, October 23, 2005

St. Francis House

Public hearing to take place on Dec. 6

October 13, 2005 piece by Ryan Kearney in New Haven Advocate. Another, from Oct. 20th.

This is from way back, when I first discovered what St. Francis House (aka Highland Heights) is. An article in the New Haven Register, dateline November 28, 2003: Alumnus of City Orphanage Now Its Benefactor".

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Saturday, October 22, 2005

Independent Living Aids

Wrightstuff.biz catalog has Around the House category. Nothing of particular interest though. $84 calendar and Wall Clock, from SightConnection. Consider $84 calendar and Wall Clock, from SightConnection. Latter ordered 10/23/05. In terms of watches, note WatchMinder II Vibrating Reminder Trainer Watch from independent living aids, inc. Here's another one, the VibraLITE III, which seems to be less sophisticated, but (possibly in contrast with the first) water-resistant. Here's a blue iper Vibration Watch, also water resistant, for $55. Also check Casio sports watch for $25, or the Casio women's Illuminator for $25.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Jan Kominsky Comenius

Announcement from Kevin Glick invokes Moravian pastor and educator Jan Komensky Comenius (a.k.a. Johann Amos Comenius), who maintained that universal education could produce a utopian society, and that, pedagogically, the perception of objects presupposes the comprehension of words.

Note that Comenius appears on window in Education Seminar [SML 409] alongside:

Friedrich Froebel.
Jean Jacques Rousseau.
Heinrich Pestalozzi.
Horace Mann.
Roger Ascham.
Henry Barnard.

Comenius published Orbis Sensualium Pictus in 1658, and an English translation, A World of Things Obvious to the Senses in 1659, and thereby "shaped a model of children's literature in which images played a central role." Glick continues: "Thorugh the nineteenth century, illustrated books were considered a crucial means of social and poiticial education."



Context is SML LH lecture "The Elusive Child: Illustrated Children's Books in Early Twentieth-Century Germany," by Martin Blumental-Bary, Yale doctoral candidate in German Literature. This lecutre coincides with a Sterling exhibition of German children's literature from the 19th through early 20th centuries.

Categories: ,

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Sunday, October 09, 2005

Japanese songs

Saeko sent me a link to the lyrics and audio for the song う み. Just need life to calm down enough so I can sit back and listen to it.

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Saturday, October 08, 2005

CCQ News

CCQ News, as described in CCQ 31:1, 2000. Categories of submission include:

(1) Research and Opinion (e.g.: abstracts or reports of on-going or unpublished research; bibliographies of materials available on specific subjects; Analysis or description of new technologies; Call for papers; Comments or opinions on the art of cataloging);

(2) Events (e.g., notes, minutes, or summaries of meetings, etc. of interest to catalogers; Publication announcements; description of grants, Description of projects);

(3) People (e.g. Announcements of changes in personnel; announcements of honors, offices, etc.)

Upcoming deadlines: "Please plan to submit a news column on or before August 31, 2005 and December 31, 2005. I currently expect that these will fall in v. 42 no. 1 and no. 4 respectively and will confirm this with you later. As we discussed, submission via an email attachment is easiest for me" (May 31, 2005). Keeping personal copies on Pantheon page.

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Sunday, October 02, 2005

Open Letter (Political)

Scathing letter: published October 5, 2005 in Democratic Underground, written by Jim Chandler. Here's an excerpt: " We're sorry, but you cannot have God. He belongs to all of us, throughout the world, who choose to believe. He is not unique to Americans. He has not singled out the U.S.A. for special blessing. He does not regard American citizens to be more worthy than the citizens of any other country, and He does not regard our form of government to be superior."

And another choice selection: "We're sorry, but you can't have September 11, 2001. It was a horrific event that has become part of the fabric that defines us all as Americans. The roots of this unspeakable act of terrorism are deep and complex, and will require an equally complex solution. It doesn't fit on a lapel pin. You pretend to speak for the families of the victims, yet you use their tragedy to further your ideological agenda. You are no better than the looters in New Orleans whom you love to deride, even as you continue to loot your political goods from the true victims of 9-11, years after the disaster. You squandered the good will and sympathy of an entire planet, and you've done precious little, these past four years, to make us safer. You don't deserve to own this."

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Friday, September 30, 2005

Social Software in Libraries

Sent to Blogroller (Yale).

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Sterling Library: 75th Anniversary

Read about and sign up for events honoring the 75th Anniversary of the Sterling Memorial Library. See my review of McCollough's and Walker's talks on my Yale blog posting.

Categories:

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Thursday, September 29, 2005

Saturday, September 24, 2005

David Swenson on Personal Finance

Reviewed in Yale Alumni Magazine July/August 2005 by Marc Gunther '73, author of Faith and Fortune: The Quiet Revolution to Reform American Business, and a senior writer at Fortune magazine.

Swenson's guide for individual investors is called Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment, and is published by the Free Press.

During Swenson's 20-years as chief investment officer at Yale, the endowment has risen from $1.3 billion 1985 to $14 billion today. His unique contribution is valued at $7.8 billion, namely, "the difference between the value of Yale's endowment today ... and waht its value would be had the money grown at an average rate of return for all college and university endowments." (p. 28). Moreover, measured against performance at other major research universities, Yale still comes out $4 billion ahead. Net investment retuns have averaged 16.1% per year (cf. Harvard at 14.9%).

Swenson is apalled at what he sees in the mutual fund industry, where investors are cherged large fees despite fact the fund returns typically fall below market average. He also directs his ire toward CEOs like Jack Welch who manage to obtain oversize perks and retirement benefits, and government officials who promote the privatization of Social Security.

For his part, Swenson has also been accused of amoral investing. GESO activist Ben Begleiter is reported to have commented: "they're doing a fabulous job of making money, but what are the social and environmental costs?", as the Unions have attacked his willingness to back (through a hedge fund), for example, in an environmentally dangerous water extraction scheme from the San Luis Valley of Colorodo.

Swenson was paid $1 million in 2002-2003, far less than his private sector counterparts (though he's still the University's highest paid employee). Harvard investment directors earn 15 to 20 times as much. Hedge fund managers can earn as much as $100 million in a good year. He became Yale's endowment manager at age 31, after working 6 years in corporate finance. "it wasn't the right place for me," he's quoted as saying, "because the end result is that peple are tyring to make lots of money for themselves. That just doesn't suit me."

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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Yale WebMail beta

From Chuck: "IMPv4 is based on the PHP scripting language, which historically has been perceived as providing scant support for unicode implementations. PHP is getting better about this though, and the minimum version required for use with IMPv4 is PHP 4.3.0. The latter is probably what Yale is depending on using now, but there is a later release of PHP, 5.0, which could also be used with IMPv4 and would (I think) offer better unicode support. In any case, all the horde products are completely open source, so there's nothing stopping us (except putting in the dev time) to customize it."

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Monday, September 19, 2005

SAC-Interop

Index to SAC Interop files.

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Sunday, September 18, 2005

FranklinCovey Compass Journal

Looks like too many pages (224?), but closest thing to a refill in their catalog: FranklinCovey > Shopping > Compass Wire Bound Journal

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Friday, September 16, 2005

Friday, September 02, 2005

Code Converter v3

Excellent tool from Gary Smith, OCLC Software Architect. He writes:"This page helps you convert between Unicode character numbers, characters, UTF-8 and UTF-16 code units in hex, and Numeric Character References (hex and decimal). Type or paste text in any of the boxes (separate hex values with spaces) and hit Tab or click outside the box (not return). The answers will appear in all the other boxes. You can then cut & paste the results into documents."

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Thursday, September 01, 2005

Long-term Care Insurance (Yale plan)

Yale is publicizing a group-rate RetirementGuard >insurance plan from Allianz, to preserve assets in the event one needs to obtain long-term medical care

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Saturday, August 27, 2005

"Future of Cataloging" (Marcum)

Interesting speech by Deanna Marcum, addressing EBSCO Leadership Seminar on "The Future of Cataloging". Marcum is Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress. Points out that LC spends $40 million per year on cataloging, and wonders whether the efforts will continue to be worth while in the age of full-text online via Google search engine.

See also Barbara Tillet's 2004 lecture on "Cataloging for the Future" and Dale Flecker's January 2005 presentation on " OPACs and Our Changing Environment".

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Friday, August 26, 2005

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

NETSL (Conference)

NETSL held its spring conference in Worcester, Mass, April 8, 2005. One of the main speakers was Grant Campbell, who discussed the Semantic Web in the context of cataloging. Along the way, he showed a frequently-cited schematic from Tim Berners-Lee, illustrating the architecture of the Semantic Web. It is worth noting that Berners-Lee considers Unicode and URIs to be the foundation of this architecture. Unfortunately, Campbell's presentation not yet mounted on the Web, at least I've had no luck finding it, but here's a link to his bibliography.

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Map thefts at Yale

[2005-08-29]
Article published 8/29/05 "Our Nation of Thieves", by Rachel Shteir, author of Striptease: The Untold History of the Girle SHow, in the LA Times. She claims "we are in the middle of an epidemic of stealing," citing the various financial scandals, and online music file swapping as evidence. And she says shoplifting is increasingly called "theft addiction", which I've never heard. Interesting positions, but not entirely persuasive.

Home page of E. Forbes Smiley III, map collector and dealer caught red-handed on June 8th with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare maps stuffed in his jacket and briefcase. Boston Globe article by Jenna Russell includes interesting details. For example, one of the items Smiley appears to have stolen from Yale is a $50,000 map of New England from 1614 drawn by Captain John Smith of Jamestown. The article also contains Smiley's mug shots, and ends with a quotation from his competitor W. Graham Arader III: "It's time these things [i.e., the antique maps] were cataloged like diamonds." Tony Campbell maintains an index of articles on the map thefts, and there's a page dedicated exclusively to Smiley-related events, wherein Campbell opines, "Rare books librarians, this is your call. Map specialists would certainly be ready to assist. But if you do no more than wring your hands over the present disaster you could reasonably be held responsible for the next [theft]" (emphasis his). Report from Yale Detective posted by Everett Wilkie August 18 2005.

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Monday, August 15, 2005

DSpace and FEDORA

DSpace developed by MIT Libraries and Hewlett-Packard Labs, open source application, serves as a comprehensive digital archive. Compare with FEDORA (Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture) from University of Virginia.

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Sunday, August 14, 2005

Friday, August 12, 2005

Botany of Desire (Michael Pollan)

Michael Pollen's Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, 4 chapters:

1. Desire: Sweetness / Plant: The Apple
2. Desire: Beauty / Plant: The Tulip
3. Desire: Intoxication / Plant: Marijuana
4. Desire: Cotrol / Plant: The Potato



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Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Computing (MySQL, etc.)

[2005-06-12]
Reminder: Dynamic Drive site has script for opening links in new window.

Categories: , , , ,

bin.yale.edu
"provides users with access to a variety of scripting and programming tools [e.g., MySQL]. The goal is to allow users to experiment with development tools that are not available on other institutional servers." But there's a caveat: "can be overkill for small data sets that do not change frequently. If you are unfamilair with SQL, but are comfortable with a scripting language such as PERL, it may be easier to store your data in a tab-delimited file" (from http://bin.yale.edu/mysqlover.html).

Categories:


There's a list of PERL Modules installed on bin.yale.edu (with several broken links). There's a PERL FAQ page, and a URL for downloading latest release. How to access MySQLthrough BIN account. Note MySQL Reference Manual for version 3.23.41 available on Yale site.

Server specifications
bin.yale.edu is a SPARCstation 20, running SunOS 5.8, with Apache 1.3.14
httpd server installed. Documentation on the Apache server is at
http://httpd.apache.org/

How to access bin.yale.edu:
Connect to the server bin.yale.edu using your NetID and password. You can
use any of a number of methods to log in and to transfer files. All of
these methods protect your password.

Logging In
You can log in to bin.yale.edu using either Kerberized telnet or Secure
Shell (SSH). Clients for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux are available at
http://www.yale.edu/software/network/secure/

Transferring files:
You can transfer files either using SAMBA or Secure Shell File Transfer
(SFTP) under Windows, and Secure Copy (scp) or Secure Shell File Transfer
(SFTP) under Unix, and Kerberized FTP (KFTP) for the Macintosh. More
information on secure file transfer can be found at
http://www.yale.edu/webmaster/secure-ftp.html

Once you have connected:
Upon connecting you'll find yourself in your home directory:/export/home/NetID

Within this home directory is a subdirectory,
public_html, which is the directory from which web pages, including web
pages generated by scripts, will be served. Within the public_html
subdirectory is in turn a directory called cgi-bin, into which scripts
should be placed.

The corresponding URLs:
/export/home/NetID/public_html = http://bin.yale.edu/~NetID/
/export/home/NetID/public_html/cgi-bin = http://bin.yale.edu/~NetID/cgi-bin/

Because we've configured the Apache server to run with suEXEC enabled,
you can protect your cgi-bin directory so that only you can read and
write to it.

Also, there are no shared group affiliations. Your NetID is also your
group ID. Your scripts belong to you individually, not your www.yale.edu
group. If you stop having access to bin.yale.edu, be sure to hand over
your files to someone else who can maintain them.

Note: Change of server software from Netscape to Apache:

Any Netscape-server specific behavior in scripts or pages you have ported
from www.yale.edu must be modified to work under the Apache server.
The most obvious change is in the syntax for .htaccess files.
If you currently have .htaccess files on elsinore, which uses a
Netscape server, you'll need to modify the syntax of those files.

http://apache-server.com/tutorials/ATusing-htaccess.html contains a tutorial on using .htaccess files under Apache.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/directives.html contains a list of directives that can go into .htaccess files.

Perl has moved: Perl on elsinore was in a non-standard location. On bin.yale.edu it's been installed in

/usr/local/bin/perl

which is a more normal place for it to be. If you're porting scripts from www.yale.edu, you'll need to change the header in your scripts to reflect this change.

MySQL
To access MySQL, type the following at the command line:

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -p

You will then be prompted for your MySQL password. When you have entered your MySQL password, a prompt will appear:

mysql>

At the prompt, type use netid (substitute your netid) to access your database.

PHP
According to BIN Tools: "You will have to put #!/usr/local/bin/php at the top of your php pages contrary to the 'common' way of doing php where it is parsed directly by the server."

suEXEC environment:
All your scripts will execute as you, not the web server. You no longer
need to have your files world-readable to have the web server look at
them, nor will you need to have them world-writable to have the web
server edit them. However, you do need to be sure that you (the owner)
have execute permission for the script, or it will not run.

If you have any questions about the new server, please reply to us at
webmast@pantheon.yale.edu, or call us at (203)-432-6598.


[2004-11-25]
Start with DreamWeaver Exchange tutorials.Webmonkey also has tutorial on PHP with MySQL. Another is available at freewebmasterhelp.com, where one is encouraged first to read specific tutorial on PHP. But dev.mysql.com might be the best.

[2004-11-21]

Blogger article "How to create expandable post summaries" including critical piece:

[span class="fullpost"] [/span]

where the expanded post text is insterted inside the span tags.


[2004-11-24]

Set up mailing list for SAC-FAST, but still waiting for confirmation from fellow subcommittee members that the invitations were distributed. The Administrative page allows modification of settings for members or list. Users are directed to the information page. These Web pages are customizable using HTML.


[2004 10 16]
HTML Cheat Sheet

Julie Linden, discussing good web design, recommends two web sites: Electronic Library Initiatives and Web, Workstation and Digital Consulting Services

For blog technical assistance, htmldog.com might be worth a look. Includes handy tags reference sheet.

July 8, 2004
The website SiteExperts.com seems like it might be useful. Also take a look at dive-into-xml.html and CSS Online which is actually a part of SiteExperts.com, I believe. Also check out SourceForge.net: Software Map for additional java script snippets. Here's a bit of java script that forces selected link to open in new window, which I've used on both Blogger and my static html homepage.
[2005-03-09]
Yale-hosted Tiki Wiki , a PHP/MySQL -backed opensource Wiki solution used by Yale ITS Technology & Planning to drive departmental webpage, superceded by uPortal, based at Princeton.

Consider Dream Weaver 2 for Learning Plan.

[2005-04-14]
MediaTech Solutions on Whalley Avenue offer classes in XML, DreamWeaver, ColdFusion, MySQL, and other web and database tools of interest to the Library. Less convenient, but better known, is New Horizons in Trumbull, which has lots of stuff on database-driven website development, but almost all of it presupposes a Windows OS environment. Here's their Course Catalog. It does have a DreamWeaver level 2 class, which might be worth taking. Would need to read course outline and make sure it's new territory. Also consider taking Programming with XML in the Microsoft .NET Framework, though it appears I don't have proper prerequisites. HOTT offers specific class on php programming, but rather expensive ($1895), and takes 4 days.

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Yiddish language class

Beginning Yiddish language class offered at Slifka Center, taught by Yedida Kanfer, Mondays at 7pm @ Friedman Library

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Saturday, August 06, 2005

quetzalcuatl | LibDB - Asset Management

quetzalcuatl | LibDB - Asset Management

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Reading Lists

What various smart and famous people are currently reading, as gathered by the New York Observer. For example, Harold Bloom has "been rereading all of Henry James and all of Faulkner and all of Whitman in preparation for a book ... "

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Testing Bloggar editor

Does this message post directly to my blogspot blog?

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Thursday, August 04, 2005

SML to celebrate 75th anniversary

David McCullough will deliver a lecture entitled, "The Heart of the University" on October 21st. There's supposed to be additional information about the anniversary celebration on the Library's RSS News Feed, but I don't see anything here (or in the News archives).

Categories:

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Monday, August 01, 2005

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Librarians under siege?

[2005-04-19]
Carnegie Report article: Do Libraries Still Matter?. "The answer seems to be a resounding yes," he writes in the lead sentence, "because libraries are more than just a place to keep volumes on dusty shelves."

[2005-02-11]
Johns Hopkins University president William R. Brody has pro-librarian piece in Dec. 6, 2004 issue of Johns Hopkins Gazette

"Librarians under threat" article by Tony Tysome p. 8 of Times Higher Education Supplement, Feb. 11, 2005, on plan at University of Wales, Bangor, to eliminate 8 out of 12 librarians

And here's the story from the Library Journal Academic Newswire Publishing Report, February 17, 2005:

SUBSTANTIALLY DESKILLED? IN WALES, A UNIVERSITY MAY CUT MOST OF ITS
LIBRARIANS In a move that has rankled librarians and teachers throughout the
United Kingdom, the University of Wales, Bangor, is proposing to eliminate
eight of its 12 librarians, on the premise that students can find most
information they need online. According to the GUARDIAN, a "consultation
document" issued by the university last month said that a £300,000 (about
$566,000 USD) savings could be realized by reducing the library staff to one
cataloguer, an acquisitions expert, a chief librarian, and a law librarian.
"The support to the academic and student communities from the qualified
subject librarians, whatever its contribution to the teaching and research
roles of the institution," reads the document, "is hard to justify in
value-for-money terms at a time when the process of literature searches is
substantially deskilled by online bibliographical resources."

Librarian Eileen Tilley told the newspaper, "The university thinks that
because we have the Internet it no longer needs skills teaching. I would say
[the Internet] has, in fact, complicated the resources...users are confused
and need guiding through this." Meanwhile, the university's registrar said
the document was to stimulate discussion and that no decisions have been
made.

Read more...

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Costume Bazaar

Largest selection of costumes in New Haven area may be Costume Bazaar on 1593 State Street (New Haven). Unfortunately, they're still on summer hours, which are M-F, 9:30-4:30; and closed Sa-Su. Phone: 787-3600.

Read more...

Monday, July 25, 2005

Cascading Style Sheets (New Horizons)

"Cascading Style Sheets", New Horizons' Taurus Wright, July 25-26, 2005.

Style sheet is "any rule or sequence of rules that affect appearance of a document". Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) is "core technology of HTML".


Types: inline rarely used, applied to specific elements, appropriate for overriding linked CSS when necessary. More common are embedded (controlling a single page) and linked (controlling several pages). Imported CSS only recently supported in Firefox and Netscape, creates secondary link to another external stylesheet.

Syntax:

Each statement is a "rule", which includes a "selector" and a "declaration"

For the rule "P {font-size: 10pt; color: blue}", 'p' is the Selector; 'font-size' and 'color' are properties; '10pt' and 'blue' are values.

In Dreamweaver, F12 to preview.

Manual p. 5: group elements together using comma. Spaces within css rule syntax don't matter. Semicolons only matter when separating values (but OK to leave in).

Consult w3schools.com for css elements and tutorials.

Separate style sheet contains only rules, no "style" tag. HTML document points to it like this:

  • [link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="IlluminatiStyles.css"]
Font shorthand, p. 54;

Lesson 2: Designing with the Cascade

To solve conflicts between styles:

  • Top to Bottom

  • Specificity: weight of given style to determine its importance over another style (see table p. 66)


Elements: 1 point
Classes: 10 points
IDs: 100 points

  • Inheritence --> way css properties flow from parent to child elements.
Class Selectors: 2 types ...
  • Element classes (e.g., div.header {property: value; }

  • Independent classes, more flexible (e.g., .author {property: value;}

Class Selectors (cont.)

Why use ID Selectors? functions more as an anchor (for hyperlinks, etc.) than classes. Oftentimes, an ID will already be in document functioning as bookmark (formerly handled by 'a', now 'id'), and this same tag can also carry formatting information through the ID selector (=#). Also: IDs are unique per page, while classes are repeatable.


e.g., at footer, [div id="footer"] (with angle brackets though) toward bottom of HTML body.

In new rule on style sheet: #footer {color: white; letter-spacing: 2px; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; }

Contextual & Attribute Selectors

Contextual selector: p b {color: red} means find bold text within any p tag, and make it red. (just p space b)

Attribute selector: e.g., identifying table by its width, to be formatted differently. Not supported by IE.

table [align] {font-family: Georgia, serif; } = "find the table that has the align attribute in it, and change font to Georgia"

The Cascade II
  • Cascading --> hierarchical order in which styles are applied when there is a conflict
  • General--> Specific

  • Types of Style Sheets:
    • In-line,
    • Embedded,
    • Linked/External
  • Order of Appearance
  • Modularity--> placing a style in the most approproate location:
    • Better organization;
    • More design options
Imported Styel Sheets
  • An external style sheet linked within another style sheet
  • No braces
  • Needs terminating semi0colon
  • 2 syntax options:
    • @import url(styles/stylesheet.css);
    • @import "styles/stylesheet.css";
  • Must be first rule in Style Sheet
  • Inherits its priority in the cascade from style sheet that imports it (i.e., where it is typed)

Designing with the Cascade
  • Create Cass Styles
  • Create ID Styles
  • Create Contextual Selectors
  • Target Specific Attributes
  • Style Sheets that Cascade
  • Import Style SHeets
  • Create Inlline Styles

Designing Content Sections
  • Control Margins and Padding
  • Create Borders
  • Control Element Dimensions
  • Floating Elements
  • Control Content Overflow

Formatting with the Box Model

  • Box Model: elements consist of a box which includes the element itself and its optional padding, border, and margin (concentric squares, from center: element->padding-->border-->margin-> Window edge)
  • Box properties are not inherited (they won't appear around individual child items by default)
Margins and Padding
  • Margin
  • Padding
  • Shorthand examples
    • {margin: 10px;} = all four sides
    • {padding: 5px 8px}=top/bottom, left/right
Borders
  • Border: lines that display on the edge of the box
  • Properties - (-top, -right, -bottom, -left)
  • Borders around tables and lists can be buggy
  • Not all border values are supported at all, or the same ones in the same browsers
To create beveled-look (3D): "border: white outset 2px;"

To create horizontal dashes (and other heading attributes):
h1, h2 { color: #366;
background-color: #cff;
text-transform: capitalize;
letter-spacing: 4px;
font-size: 18px;
font-weight: 900;
font-variant: small-caps;
border-top: 1px dashed #699;
border-bottom: 1px dashed #699;
width: 300px; }

Floating
Float property: to wrap text around picture or other object
Floating allows elements to arrange on page by defining
  • e.g.: #main img {float: left; padding-right: 5px}
Clear prevents wrapping around an element (can only be used on floated elements)

Overflow
  • Ensures that browser will know what to do with content that exceeds their allotted space. Fixed problem of overlapping divs in Firefox (IE had been more forgiving); generated scroll bar when height attribute in #main was jacked up

  • Property

    • Overflow Values

      • Scroll

      • Hidden

      • Visible

      • Auto

      • Inherit

  • Scrollable Content


    • Use [div] to apply the overflow property

Day 2

Content Overview
  • Introduction to Style Sheets

  • Controlling Color and Typography

  • Using the Cascade

  • Designing Boxes

  • CSS Positioning

  • Enhancing Elements

  • Alternate Style Sheets

  • Extras
Lesson 4: Positioning
  • Types of Positioning:
    • declare preciely where you want certain elements to appear on page
    • Position property- to choose type of positioning
      • Absolute- from parent element
      • Relative- from its normal position
      • Fixed- from top-left corner of viewport
      • Static- removes postioining, same as 'none'
    • Coordinates of positioin controlled by 2 propoerties
      • Top- vertical coordinate
      • Left- horizontal coordinate

  • Absolute Positioning
    • Abosolutely positioined elements are independent of other elements

  • Fixed Layouts

  • Fluid Layouts

    • Will reposition with browser size
    • Can be used with fixed layouts

    • Use the 'right' and 'bottom' properties

  • Relative Positioning

    • Position elements without disturbing other elements in document
    • Elements that follow a relatively positioned itme not distrubed
    • Positioned according to [its own] default position in HTML doc
    • Will re-flow and change position with browser resizing
    • Use position: relative, and the left, right, top, or bottom
    • Use neg values to move elements up
    • [cf: activity 4-6]

  • Layered Elements
    • Z-Index

      • Positioning creates layers
      • To control stacking order of overlapping items
      • By default, last element in doc appears at top of stack
      • Older Navigator->all items must use z-index in order for browser to recognize property
      • Use positive numbers

  • Fixed Positioining

    • Not supported by IE--ignored

    • To fix element to browser window (aka viewport)

    • Allows you to keep object visible at all times

    • Element revmoved from doc flow

    • Fixed item won't scroll with rest of pageUse z-index property to control ...
    • ....

Enhancing Design
  • Scrollbars
  • Cursors

    • element: {cursor: keword;}

    • element: {cursor: url("filename.cur");}

      • Must be image with a .cur extension

      • Not supported by Netscape, or Explrer pre-6.x

    • element: {cursor: url("filename.cur"), keyword;}, ex.: a.help {cursor:url("mycursor.cur"), help;}

    • Appendix E p. 233

    • [cf.: Activity 5-1-,5-2]

  • Link Pseudo-Classes

    • Color hyperlinks at various stages

    • a:link--not yet used

    • a:visited--clicked links

    • a:hover--when moused over

    • a:active--when mouse button is down

    • Should be listed in the above order to avoid browser confusion
Background Images
  • Background-repeat:
  • repeat repeat-x repeat-y no-repeat
...

Generated content
  • Not supported in Explorer [but unnumbered list can achieve much the same thing in both browsers]
  • Content specified from sytle sheet that is not specified in HTML
    • Display text before or after an element
    • Display image beofre or after element
  • 2 pseudo-elements
    • before and after
  • Content Property
    • element:before {content: url(filename.jpg);}
    • element:before {content: open-quote;}
    • element: after {content:"string of text"}
    • ...

Enhancing Elements

  • See Appendix A :first line :first letter

  • Script Styleswitcher creates cookie on users harddrive. See example on CD-ROM (or snippets in book?)

  • Accessiblity tools: bobby.watchfire.com

  • Manipulate display properties, can change text and menu display in Windows menus, including high-contast (for color-blind) and variations in type, size, color of font, etc.

Print Styles
  • Style sheet to control way page looks when printed

    • use absolute measureements

    • set background-color to white or shade not requireng lots of ink

    • set font color to black or dark color

  • link [rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="filename.css" media="print"] (where square brackets should be angular]

  • Use display: and visibility: properties to control layout and hide unnecessary items (Display removes page from flow of document, whereas visibilitiy is just what it says, where empty space replaces images or blocks ordinarily on screen)

  • Integrated Learning Manager:
    my.newhorizons.com
    TW99-BXEW3-3JGC
    • Spoil date--> 8/24/05

    • 6 months

    • Disable Popup blocker

    • AOL--> Internet Explorer

    Read more...

    Saturday, July 23, 2005

    House of Flying Daggers (2004)

    Or Shi mian mai fu, I guess in Chinese. Unrealistic swordplay doesn't stop the love story from being believable. Ziyi Zhang is the ravishing rebel "Mei"; Takeshi Kaneshiro is the playboy soldier Jin who suffers from divided loyalties. Directed by Yimou Zhang, who also directed Hero.

    Read more...

    Friday, July 22, 2005

    NELINET Course Calendar

    A lot of great courses offered through NELINET and the Connecticut Library Association can be found on this Annual Course Calendar

    Read more...

    Ethnologue piece in New York Times

    Article in July 19, 2005 New York Times on Ethnologue, entitled " How Linguists and Missionaries Share a Bible of 6,912 Languages." Begun in 1951 to help missionaries identify languages into which the Bible had not yet been translated, it is now a huge database (and 1,200-page book) consulted 'religiously' by linguists, librarians, software developers, the federal government, and others needing a panoramic view of the world's languages. Ethnologue estimates number of the world's extant spoken languages to be about 7,000. There's a nice map showing language diversity by country. North Korea has the least with 1 spoken languages; Papua New Guinea the most with 820.
    Ethnologue has assigned a three-letter code for all 7,000 languages. 400 of these have been mapped to their (similarly 3-letter) equivalents in MARC. It wouldn't be hard, then, for libraries to convert to this more robust set of codes some day).

    Read more...

    Monday, July 18, 2005

    Yale Library iconography

    Yale Digital Library no. 8098 "Savage, the Leffingwell Professor of Painting, Yale School of the Fine Arts, described his retable [REE-tay-bul] as follows: 'Under the spreading branches of the tree of knowledge is a golden portal within which stands Alma Mater, laurel crowned, clothed in white, and wearing a blue mantle. She holds in one hand the sphere of learning and in the other an open book illuminated with the ancient characters which 'Lux et Veritas' translate in the seal of the University. On the left of the composition, Light bearing a torch, and Truth holding a mirror have led their followers to make grateful acknowledgment to Alma Mater. Science and Labor present to her the fruits of the earth; Music, Divinity and Literature attend on the right, while the Fine Arts places a figure of Winged Victory at her feet.' See Yale University Library Gazette, v.VII:no.3 (1933:Jan), pages 75-76."

    When one enters Sterling Memorial Library through its main portal, the most striking feature are the inscriptions carved above its doors: literary passages from Assyrian cuneiform, Hebrew, Arabic, Mayan, Egyptian hieroglyphic, Greek, and Chinese scripts can be found there. There are even engravings reproduced from Cro-Magnon caves dwellings.

    Another great resource is Nota Bene, many issues of which (perhaps all?) are available online.
    Categories: , ,

    Read more...

    Sunday, July 17, 2005

    Johnson's Dictionary

    Rutgers English professor Jack Lynch has 7/2/05 op-ed piece in the New York Times on occasion of 250th anniversary of Samuel Johnson's dictionary. Compares Johnson's achievement favorably with that of Noah Webster, whose celebrated 1828 dictionary turns out to be little more than "a terse utilitarian spelling guide." Despite Webster's patriotic credentials, it is still Johnson to whom constitutional lawyers and supreme court justices turn when they want to know the original meaning of 18th century words. Ironically, Johnson had little affection for the American adventure, especially as it pertained to slavery and money-grubbing. "I am willing to love all mankind, except an American," he wrote. "They are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging." Webster, for his part (according to David Littlejohn, 1971) was disgusted by Johnson for using the profane Shakespeare has one of his principle authorities.

    Read more...

    Friday, July 15, 2005

    Pseudoephedrine

    According to the DEA, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine "are highly coveted by drug traffickers who use them to manufacture methamphetamine, a Schedule II controlled substance". Shop owners can be found criminally negligent, it seems, if they do not take measures to prevent shelf-clearing, shoplifting, and "smurfing". The meth empidemic has brought dentists untold cases of "meth mouth", where teeth assume the "consistency of ripe fruit" In the mean time, Pfizer and its Sudafed clones are using phenylephrine as alternative decongestant.

    Read more...

    Wednesday, July 13, 2005

    Access 2005

    Speakers at Access 2005 (October 17-19 at University of Alberta) include Clifford Lynch keynote, Art Rhyno/Peter Binkley session on Vannevar Bush, Lorcan Dempsey on "The library and the network," Dan Chudnov on "Digital Library Dialtone: Bootstrapping with Service Registries and Autodiscovery", William Moen on "A Radioactive Metadata Record Approach for Interoperability Testing Based on Analysis of Metadata Utilization", Roy Tennant on "Creating Customized Metasearch using an XML API".

    Read more...

    "Developing Digital Libraries"

    Britta refers me to Connecticut Webjunction course list, including online tutorial "Developing Dgital Projects" (and another on XML), developed together with OCLC.

    Read more...

    Tuesday, July 12, 2005

    Jessica Williams at Yoshi's

    Extraordinary performance by Jessica Williams at Yoshi's 6/22/05 at Jack London Square, Oakland. Surpised I hadn't heard of her before. Picked up one her CDs ("Live at Yoshi's vol. 1"), and it's just as brilliant.

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    Sunday, July 10, 2005

    Frank Rich: Iraq machinations worse than Watergate

    [added 7/10/05:] Frank Rich's scathing Op-Ed column in today's Times, We're Not in Watergate Anymore, maintaining that John Dean was right, the illegitimate war in Iraq is "Worse than Watergate," and unpacking the strange story of how fellow Times reporter Judith Miller wound up in prison. In order to understand what happened, one needs to remember Joseph Wilson's July 6, 2003 Op-Ed piece in the Times, where he recounted his 2002 CIA-sponsored mission to Niger that convinced him reports of yellow cake uranium purchases by Iraq were bogus. "[S]ome of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program," Wilson wrote, "was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." This threw the spotlight on Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address, in which he claimed: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa," since the Administration had mendaciously ignored Wilson's findings. It took five weeks for the administration to issue a retraction, but then the invasion of Iraq would begin just a few days later. Five months later, and the week after Wilson's Op-Ed piece was published, George Tennet wanly conceded that "these 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president." According to Rich, Wilson's public assertions provoked the Administration's to take revenge by divulging the covert CIA operations of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, and insinuating that his Niger mission was done on partisan and nepotistic grounds. The betrayal of Plame's covert identity reminds rich of what Nixon hacks tried to do when they broke into the office of Daniel Ellgerg's psychiatrist, hoping to find something with which to smear the man who had revealed the Pentagon Papers (and therefore the true facts about the Vietnam War) to the public. Rich cites the Washington Post story, that "two otop White House officials" contacted 6 or more reporters, not just Robert Novak, in order to "destroy" Wilson and his wife. I'm a bit confused on this point, but it seems the connection here with Judith Miller's imprisonment is that she was working on the same story, and was protecting sources that specialy prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerals was demanding that she reveal.

    Read more...

    Saturday, July 09, 2005

    Paul Bass and Douglas Rae: "Eminent Disdain"

    Op-Ed contribution from Paul Bass and Douglas Rae on last month's ill-conceived recent Supreme Court decision. The City of New London is being allowed to re-develop a 90-acre neighborhood, removing current residents and shopkeepers to make room for office space, hotel, and conference center. This brings back bad memories for those who lived through New Haven's "urban renewal"in the 1950s. Meant to improve the city's quality of life, the long-term consequences were catastrophic. According to the authors, "In 1970, as urban renewal ended, the census ranked New Haven the 38th-poorest city in America. Ten years later, it was ranked seventh, with 23.2 percent of its population living below the poverty line. Today, more than a quarter of the city's families live in subsidized housing. So much for combating poverty."

    Read more...

    Friday, July 01, 2005

    Documenting Invasion of Iraq

    Truth out has archived video footage documenting the U.S. decision to invade Iraq.

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    Google Maps API Key

    Google Maps API Key. View API documentation. Roy Tennant mentioned that the City of Chicago has mapped crime statistics along with other layers of data onto the now-freely-available Google API.
    Categories: ,

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    PHP + MySQL in slashdot

    Michael J. Ross June 30, 2005 Slashdot book review of Vikram Vaswani's How to Do Everything with PHP and MySQL. Doesn't assume prior knowledge of database programming, but does presuppose familiarity with HTML. Chapter one is freely available on publisher's Web site.

    Categories: , , , ,

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    Thursday, June 16, 2005

    Larson Place

    Larson Place, Hamden, Connecticut for "senior living", 1450 Whitney Ave. Hamden, Connecticut 06517 Telephone:248-8880 on hill overlooking a scenic reservoir. Norma is in room 108 in Pathways section, and many not yet have private phone line. Categories:

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    Firehouse 12

    Jazz recording studio in New Haven is also performance space: Firehouse 12, at 47 Crown Street. July 8, 2005 performance by Categories:

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    Tuesday, June 14, 2005

    Blogging

    [2005-06-29]

    Read article on wordpress, free blogging software based on PHP and MySQL. Announcement on wordpress development blog of new release 1.5.1.3

    Interesting article from blogfresh on using delicious tags to create blog categories. I'm. realizing for the first time that my blog is not just my invisible private note-pad. It is out there be bumped into. Need to be more careful about my quotations and attributions.


    [2005-06-08]
    Blogging in Academic Research Libraries, presented by Terrence K. Huwe librarian at UC Berkeley and columnist for Computers in Libraries. Viewed noon to 1 p.m. at CCL experimental room via "Elluminate Live!". Audio and running transcript, but no video (major drawback). Direct messaging window on left allowed audience chatter and 'hand raising'.

    Huwe cites fastcompony.com article: "Its a blog word after all" on creative use of blogging to increase productivity and profitability. Business Week recently had cover story on blogs.

    Bloglines for rss great and free but not customizable. We use it for content.

    Fragmented notes:

    Aboriginal Resources Scholarly Portal example of could usability and design, looks like a well-developed web site; Minnesota Public Library newscasting service (w/RSS) pull (not push) technology; "Current copyright readings" good design reference blog";
    Two tools used by Berkeley Indusrial relations blog: Radio User Land ($40/yr) and blogger.com. rss is lightweigt xml. Each story defined by tag. Radio land tool allows archive by category(?) and easy rss and shortcuts.

    New blog for work: Cataloging Problems and Resolutions. Try to get it moved to Yale blogging system.


    Read more...

    Thursday, June 09, 2005

    IMAP vs. POP email protocol

    U. of London Computing Services has chart comparing IMAP with POP. IMAP would seem better for those who access mail from multiple computers, since client and server directory structure are kept in synch. Note that Eurdora-->Options-->Incoming Mail requires "IMAP Mailbox Location Prefix". Check Email FAQs from Medical ITS. Also see document: Eudora Setting for Yale, the latter says to leave IMAP Mailbox Location blank. Also "Minimal" for downloading new mail; "Mark it deleted" for deleting messages; and "Passwords (or Kerberos)" for Authentication style.

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    Tuesday, June 07, 2005

    Dreamweaver MX Level 2

    [2005-06-07]
    Full-day class at the Learning Center with New Horizons instructor Taurus Wright.
    Starts class off with "Fast Track Wheels" exercise. Preview in browser: F12. Need graphics editor to create gif images like Photo Shop or Fireworks. With educational discount Adobe Illustrator isn't too bad. Yale is pushing for Adobe Illustrator. Correl tends to have least expensive application.

    FIRST unit: Roll-overs and navigation bars. For navigation bars: Insert bar: Common tab; Click navigation bar button: Element name; UP image; over image, down image, oer while down; alternative text; URL; Insert and Table options; Click OK.

    SECOND unit: Libraries: let you use same items over and over, changing only one central file ... To get to Library, click "Assets" tab, save altnavbar.htm as "Library" file. Using Library items: Place cursor; Select library item; Click Insert button Assets panel, or Drag and Drop. Similar to templates and Server Side Includes, just change the element once and universal update.

    THIRD: Style Sheets: Nice effect when hyperlink hover style different color and bold weight. Class tags can use whatever names one wants. Size: Dreamweaver default is in pixels. Click new CCS Style button ... , e.g., "heading" in bold and dark grey (looks good). After class is defined it must be applied. So highlight text to be formatted, and click "apply styles" mode of styles palette.. Rules of cascading style sheets stipulate that it should take precedence over ad hoc formatting; DreamWeaver does not seem to adhere to this. Possible to export style from original page to make separate css document, here titled "ftwstyles". Link external style sheet as link rather than import, since latter is often not supported by browsers. Small caps effect more dramatic in Firefox than in IE, where subsequent caps are smaller than the initial one. "Internal takes precedence over external", so need to delete internal style sheet if still present in initially modified file.

    Recap: (A) Define a style: (1) Design panel --> CSS Styles tab: (a) Click New CSS Styles button, (b) Choose type: (i) HTML [a] Chose Tag; (ii) Custom [a] Type desired name (w/# or .); (iii) CSS Seletor: [a] Link pseudo-classes (i.e., hyperlink states such as 'a:hover'); (c) Choose location for style; (2) CLick OK; (3) Choose formatting options; (4) Click OK. (B) Applying Sytles; (C) Edit a Style [compressed from slide]. For more on CSS, w3.org (more technical),http://www.w3schools.com(better organized for our purposes), and don't forget reference DreamWeaver's own reference tab.

    LUNCH BREAK

    ANNOUNCEMENTS:
    Integrated Learning Manager: Register as new member, fill in starred fields. After account set up, enter key TW99-L9PNC-44Q5, must be entered by 6/14/05 , and account lasts for 6 months. Includes online tutorial, pdf version of manual with tasks included, and exercise files that can be downloaded. Look for Dreamweaver MX Level 2. Need to disable pop-up blocker to use this program.

    Also: 6-month free course re-take policy, call 203-375-3370. No more "Dreamweaver 3" (database-driven Web sites), since there was never enough interest expressed.


    FOURTH UNIT

    Layers. Create a Layer: Insert--> Layer or Insert bar--> Common tab, click Draw layer button, properties inspector--> Spediviy Left, Top. With , Heidgh. Put Item in Layer

    Window-->Other-->Layers, to get "Layers panel". Dynamic HTML = CSS, Layers, and HTML.

    Hyperlink with just a # sign can invoke java script, even if there's no movement on page or site. Technique used for getting hover over simple text to change image by invoking different layers. Be explicit about showing or hiding layers [F2 for menu] at point of mouse event.

    For "browser targetting", sometimes need to create alternative pages (without, say, layers function) and browser switch code. File menu-->Check page-->Check target browsers. Don't go too far back with browser versions since then even such thngs as CSS will be invalidated. File menu-->Convert-->3.0 Browser compatible (should be "Layers to tables")


    FIFTH UNIT: FORMS

    Client side versus Server side. Focus here is on making a form: Insert bar>Form tab; CL form element button to create form, Name, action

    Insert form invokes dotted red box. Put table inside it. Width 100% (% good for flexibility). Click form tag in tag selection area, and name it "feedback". Action: where to send data: database, email address (mailto:feedback@ftw.com). If data is sensitive, than should use method: "Post" (default and most common). "Get" typically sends data as string, and is visible in address bar). Leave target blank. Enctype: blank sends it as string, maybe ok for db; or "application/ ... " or "text/plain" is simplest; Insert menu-->form objects-->text field-->


    Column 1 Column 2
    Optional
    Name [text box ]
    Gender [radio group]
    Region [drop down]
    General Information
    Comments/Questions [text area ]
    Which topics would you like to learn more about? Check box: Name: topic; value: cycling
    [blank] [insert button]

    Read more...

    Friday, June 03, 2005

    E-Bay

    [2004-12-11]
    SUNPENTOWN 12,000 BTU PORTABLE AIR CONDITIONER (SUN WA-1200E). Purchased from Compact Appliance, July 7, 2003. Order no. M0063961 599.00. Shipping was free. Too noisy for living room, so better to sell off through ebay. For something heavy like this, though, the New Haven version of craigslist might be better. eBay good for finding Visor Edge units though. As of July 4, I seem to be the highest bidder on this one, and there's only a day or so left of bidding. Check inbox for replies to my query.

    [2004-11-21] Listed Handspring Visor Platinum on eBay. Clock runs for 7 days. Need to track how it's doing.

    Categories: , , , , ,

    Ebay power seller nicole Teriault is selling same thing, item number:
    5941722086
    , for $409. Shipping costs not specified. "Buy it now," rather than auction. Compact Alliance is selling same item for same price. Spare filter is additional $25. Standard ground shipping (UPS?) is $50. Three-day select is $170.

    Here are specs from Compact Appliance:

















    Portable Air Conditioner Quick Specs
    Model: WA-1210E
    BTU: 12000
    Recommended room size: 400 square feet
    EER: 12.63
    Controls: Electronic
    Noise level: 51.5 dB
    Modes: Portable ac anda fan
    Condensate: Partially exhausted
    Number of hoses: 1
    Hose length: 5'
    Diameter of exhaust hose: 4.75"
    Window kit max.: 48"
    Voltage: 115v
    Amperage: 7.9 Amps
    Dimensions: 30"h x 15"w x 16"d
    Warranty: 1 year of Mail In Service
    Portable Air Conditioner Quick Specs
    This Portable Room Air Conditioner from Sunpentown (model WA-1210E) boasts 12,000 BTU of power and versatile electronic controls. Sunpentown has listened to customer feedback and introduced some of the best portable room air conditioners ever. This portable room air conditioner features a self evaporating design that minimizes the amount of times you must empty the condensation bucket - 65-75% of water condensed out of the air is vented through the exhaust hose! The ergonomic design with an integrated handle and built-in oversized caster wheels makes this the easiest portable room air conditioner to transport.

    Additionally, the WA-1210E features the highest EER of all portable room air conditioners in its class - an amazing 12.63 EER. The electronic controls and digital temperature display make the WA-1210E easy to use. Use the integrated timer to run the portable room air conditioner for just as long as you need cooling (up to 12 hours). The included remote control makes it easy to adjust the temperature - even from across the room!

    All in all, the Sunpentown Electronic Control Portable Room Air Conditioner model WA-1210E presents features and value unmatched by any other portable room air conditioner.

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    Thursday, June 02, 2005

    ALA AJL 2005

    AJL 2005 Convention at Oakland Marriott City Center. $129/night (+ 11% Oakland Occupancy tax) room has been reserved. Check-in: June 18; Check-out: June 23. Conference registration not submissable on-line; $385 and paper form submitted 3/25/05. Still need to purchase plane tickets. Note that Lee Wixman has posted information about discount air fares.

    ALA 2005 Chicago, including Event Planner. SAC-LCC meets June 26 at the Palmer House Hilton, 2:30pm-5:30pm.

    Staying at Club Quarters Chicago (Central Loop). Download reservation from Yale Travel Services, or Yale etravel.

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    Wednesday, June 01, 2005

    Digital Libraries

    [2005-04-29]
    Applications for Davis Foundation Grants in support of technology-based library initiatives used in classroom instruction. "Applications are solicited for support of courses taught during the 2005-06 academic year and should be sent by e-mail to Maryetta Russell no later than April 4, 2005".

    Note Anne Green’s work on Economic Growth Center Digital Library—helping make their data more easily mined, more useable

    ARL Digital Initiatives Database

    [2005-04-14] David Germano's Tibetan Digital Library; note use of php on Resources page and elsewhere. (See basic php tutorial on developer website.)

    [2005-06-29]
    JNUL Digitized Book Repository might be useful for obtaining missing title pages.

    [2005-03-05]
    "The New York Public Library's collection of prints, maps, posters, photographs, illuminated manuscripts, sheet-music covers, dust jackets, menus and cigarette cards is now online," writes Sara Boxer of the New York Times. "If you dive in today without knowing why, you might not surface for a long, long time. The Public Library's digital gallery is lovely, dark and deep. Quite eccentric, too."

    ResourceShelf, a project funded by Institute for Museum and Library Services, "an independent federal grant-making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities."

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    Sunday, May 29, 2005

    Hebrew Literature course

    Consider auditing Ayala's Introduction to Modern Hebrew Literature (NE 266b), if she's willing, and if it doesn't interfere with Japanese instruction.

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    Thursday, May 19, 2005

    Monday, May 16, 2005

    Yale Library International Projects and Activities

    [2005-06-15]
    Ann Okerson announces Library's new International Web site.

    Categories: , ,



    Thanks to Graziano Kratli, George Ouelette (Web, Workstation, and
    Consulting Services in ILTS, for development of the database that is a key
    part of this site); Sarah Prown (Independent Consultant, for the graphical
    design, image presentation and cycling, and look/feel of the site), and others. Site includes News and Events, Database, Documents, Profiles, Partners, Area Studies Website


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    Tuesday, May 10, 2005

    Biographical Sources

    [2005-05-20]
    Biographical Sources workshop presented by Emily Horning and Sue Lorimer, May 20, 2005. Handout from Manon on AACR2 22.1B, LCRI 22.1B, regarding "artists, cartographers, pre-1800 authors and composers; persons not primarily known as authors."

    Sue Lorimer starts off with General and Worldwide Sources. The first one listed is the excellent, huge German-language resource: Lobles, Jean-Pierre. IBN: Index bio-bibliographicus notorum hominum. Osnabruck: Biblio Verlag, 1972-92. Pt. B; Pt. C, v.1-58 (in progress) in Starr Reference Room. Also, one of the best, especially for older names: Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne (Michaud). Nouv. ed. … 1843-65. 45v. Now to primilarly online sources: Biography Resource Center, very useful, indexing ca. 100 biographical sources, almost exclusively published by Gale or one of their subsidiearies, (almost all including full-text?). Good place to start, but keep in mind only 100 sources. Biography and geneology master index great, but not full text. Biography Resource Center indexes ca. 150 periodicals culled from "other" Wilson databases; Goes back to 1940 in print; recent years online. World Biographical Index, Sauer publication, since 1982, series of biogr archives, arr. by parts of the world; through beginning of 20th century; microfilmed all the sources, rearranging all entries, so that all those fo a given person appear together on the microfilm set. Still purchasing new sets. One on Christendom costs $11,000, typical. Yale has every set (= hundreds of thousands of dollars). But now full-text is available online. One-time charge of 5,000 will grant yale its access, plus 500/year for access to each artchive. So online index will be online at Yale,but otherwise, Yale sticks with its investment, and only offers the full text in microfiche. American National biography, all 40 volumes are now online. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography also online. Will link reader to earlier (original) entry, so no need to go to printed edition. Last one: Algemeine deutsche Bibliographie (ADB), also online, (equiv to American National Biography), along with Neue deutsche Biographie (NDB).

    Emily focuses on works that identify obscure, lesser-known, minor figures, mostly in print resources. (See handout). By profession ... for Arts: Allgemeines Kunstlerlexikon. "Tremendously useful source": even for people only known for signing initials on manuscript, e.g., engraver on printed work, etc. but keep in mind that artists, etc., names need to be est. from form of name in language of counrty of residence. Biogrpahical dictionary of actors etc... and ompaion Dictionary of Actors and of other persons ... 1929. Joyce Bellamy's Dictionary of labour biography, 1790-present (excludes living persons). Good military source: List of officiersof the navy .... by Callahan. 1901. Who's who in American politics, good for identifying minor political figures from state and local governments, party chairpersons, etc. RELIGION: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirechenlexikon, 2004, http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/, also in print at Divinity library. In German. Good for minor figures in European and North American church history. Not all entries are available online. They are also looking for contributors to fill in gaps. Jacob Rader Marcus's Series Episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, traces church figures going back to St. Peter. Yale copy (of this and two other of Marcus's books to which it was bound) has been lost for a long time. Rare Book Team has copy though. Judisches Biographisches Archiv [microform] SML, Starr, Fiche B3902. Consice dictionary of American Jewish Biography has 24,000 brief biographies.

    Oxford Reference Online-->Dictionary of Scientists.

    Time Period: Who's who in the classical world (online) Biographical arvhicve of the Middle Agaes (BAMA) [microform]

    Giant full-text databases, .e.g, Early american imprints, helpful for finding things like sermons delovered on occasion of someone's death. Ability to search by *type* of material, e.g., eulogies. (Emily loves to show this tool to students for this reason.) So, good source for biogr information, even though doesn't seem like it, perhaps, at first-glance. Same goes for obituaries. Newspaper archive full-text; e.g., NYT back to 1881. Printed indexes may be easier to use than the ones online. Same goes for London Times.

    Sheahy's Guide to Reference Books: includes lists of biography resources. Kept at reference desk. Eventually to come out online. Bob Baily edited most recent (11th) edition.

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