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.

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.

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."

Documenting Invasion of Iraq

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

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: Google_Maps, APIs

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: PHP, MySQL, Databases, Vikram_Vaswani, Michael_Ross

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: Mom

Firehouse 12

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

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.

Bally Hamden

Bally Total Fitness | Clubs

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.

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]

Forms tab on "Insert bar" gives buttons like check box, write in word next to box, then shift+enter

Concentric circles around cursor in Windows XP tied to CNTRL button.

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, Handspring, Visor, Edge, Air_conditioners, Compact_Appliance

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.

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.

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."