Monday, January 27, 2003

iCalendar and RSS for course calendars I'm teaching an introductory Japanese language course this semester (yet another reason for the recent scarcity of my posts). It has been wonderful to be back in the classroom. We use WebCT on our campus, and I have been quite frustrated with the hoops I'm required to jump through to get it to work. The primary value (both current and future) is the integration of the system with our student information system, financial resource system, human resources system, etc. Because it is frames-based, however, I have been able to get around some of the limitations of WebCT by simply pointing to resources on a different server within the main frame of the WebCT environment. This is transparent (for the most part) to the student, and I can use the tools I'm familiar with. I've been quite pleased with my course calendar. I use Apple's iCal application, which publishes calendars in .ics format (Windows users can use Mozilla's calendar for a somewhat similar feature set), to publish my calendar to a server running PHPiCalendar. This set of PHP scripts takes the .ics file and renders it in very attractive HTML, complete with links to details, etc. Once I have everything set up, I simply make a change in iCal. The software automatically connects to the server and the changes are immediately visible to anyone who loads the calendar. Deceivingly transparent. Another bonus that I'm just getting my mind wrapped around...PHPiCalendar automatically produces an RSS feed of the calendar in day, week, and month formats. That means that if I make an addition to the schedule via iCal, it is available not only on the web, but via the news aggregators of my students (if they were using them--they're not...yet...). What if every course had a day, week, and month RSS feed? As a student I could aggregate each of these feeds and have my schedule, complete with details for every course, automatically rendered in multiple formats. There is no central application to be updated when a change is made by an individual faculty--they update their calendar and it filters out to those who need it. ....[Fudd chuckle]...Vewy intewesting... 2:03:24 PM    comment []

Making a switch I'm thinking of migrating this weblog away from Userland's servers and toward the Moveable Type implementation in my office. I've already got Moveable Type configured and the server is running nicely. My only concern is I have no idea of the future load this might place on my office server. I'd like to think I'll someday participate in a conversation profound enough to bring it to its knees with the unbelievable traffic generated...[thoughtful pause] ...OK, OK...I'll look into moving it over this week some time. ;-) 1:47:08 PM    comment []

back for now Unbelievable! I'm able to make a post. I'm sure I've obtained a trojan of some sort because the system I'm using to publish this weblog crawls to a halt and doesn't allow me to post a thing. I just rebooted and will type quickly before this window of opportunity expires! I've migrated almost exclusively to Moveable Type for my blogging activities. The combination of performance and reliability were the deciding factors for me--I've had so many fewer problems since I switched over. This weblog, Stand Up Eight, has suffered from my inattention in part because of those very issues. The demands that Radio puts on my system have contributed heavily to the processor all but grinding to a halt. Although I am happy with the switch, I find myself missing some of the features I had become accustomed to in Radio. Most noticable is the lack of aggregator integration, but I have fallen in love withRanchero Software's NetNewsWire Pro (still in beta) and I believe it will fill the gap nicely. I also miss Marc Barrot's activeRenderer--I had just begun to realize the potential of its functionality when I switched over. Is there any way to duplicate it in Moveable Type? I doubt it...it seems tightly integrated with Radio's outliner. The final big hole is the automated email distribution of my aggregator content that I had set up via Doug Kaye's news2mail tool. I can't find any replacement for this in Moveable Type, either, but the more I get used to using NetNewsWire Pro, the less it matters. Anyway, I'm going to try and post this...wish me luck! 1:41:07 PM    comment []

test post Testing? 1:22:32 PM    comment []