Popular Tags



Currently browsing Blogging Tips.

Writing Tips from the Lab

May 22nd, 2008 by Mr. D. Sader

What I should do….

Bucky says, “Determining the factors that will be most powerful is on of the greatest pressures.”

Megan says, “Reread to find mistakes like writing you, it, and thing.”

Shustyn says,” Stop generalizing everything at the beginning of the post.”

Chetter says, “Make more debatable topic sentences.”

Sarah says, “ Quit writing (x=x) statement!”

Amie says, ” Write defiant opinions from within yourself. Tie into personal experiences.”

Myles says, “make sure your make contains more voice.”

Justin says, ” Avoid A vs. B in halves.”

Jordan says, “to start putting personal experiences.”

Conor says, “Make better thesis.”

Yarmz says, “Align picture” or “In the life there is a lot of decisions to be made.”

Kaitlyn, “I have been through an experience with cancer, one that I have learned from, knowing the consequences and fears it caused.”

Jacq says, ” I’ve been in my living room for countless hours working on this work of art.”

Brett G. says, “Start with an example of your own voice.”

Owen says, “he had afflicted lost of pain.”

Derek says, “The best way for the boy in the story stains to learn a life lesson.

Aubrey says, “Make your topic sentences.”

Tanner says, ” use your own voice.”

Nicole says, “I have long pondered over an invention that could make me famous.”

Chantal says, ” In my spare time I really enjoy reading stories and novels because they help me to leave doctor mode and just enjoy my spare time

What I need to stop doing…

Bucky says, “Emotion and feelings play.”

Chetter says,” Both John and Jonny attend a banquet.”

Tanner says, “there are any issues.”

Shustyn says, “possessing values is a key part in my life. My everyday decisions are based on my values.’

Megan says,” There are many pressures in the teenage life styles.”

Sarah says, ” There is a way” or “Somehow”

Justin says, ” What their beliefs are.”

Amie says, “The characters in the story.”

Myles says.” ThiS way we can make the right decisions.”

Curtis says, ” There are many similarities, along with many differences.”

Conor says, “There are always.”

Jordan says, “I think.”

Jacq says, “Being surrounded by the people who love them can help the person pull through the tough times.”

Kaitlyn says, “differing life views can affect the decisions made.”

Yarmz says, “stop putting elementary words, start using high school words. start to not put x=x.”

Owen says, “He has to learn from mistakes.”

Brett G says, “Avoid thing all time and places.”

Derek says, “Use words that are grade 10 appropriate.”

Aubrey says, “Don’t argue the obvious.”

Jason says, “stop writing good inconstantly.”

Nicole says, “almost always.”

Print

Book Reviews for LA 9

April 18th, 2008 by Mr. D. Sader

Today I was asked: “How do I write a book review?”

Here’s a quick trip about what I found: 

My first stop was at Amazon. With each book is a snippet of a responses from readers/buyers/sellers. The purpose of the reviews are simple – take a few seconds to write a sharply worded sentence or two and recommend the book for sale. In a few minutes and swift clicking I can read hundreds of reviews. The reviews are brief, many amounting to glowing praise or stark rebuffs. Some attention is made by review writers to carefully craft sentences, few reviews amount to more than a sternly worded paragraph. The reviews are focused on the text and personal preference, but with so many sweeping generalizations there was rarely a focus at all. Little is learned about the reviewer. These “pesky” reviews are not what we need to mimic.

My second stop was the more personally focused site, One Minute Reviews. The reviews here are written by one reviewer. The reviews range in length, depth. Some a few sentences to recommend a sale, others quite elaborately synthesize a variety of information. The summum bonum of the experience is to grow in an understanding of the reviewer. I like this approach to the book review better. However, I could not relate to the bulk of the experiences of the reviewer, and shared few if any common interests. The focus was too narrow and I lost interest in the site. 

Quality Book Reviews was just too busy. Too many links, too many distractions, too many book reviews. It would take a while to find a reviewer I liked as the “finding” would be left to chance. Something this big is more than I need. Searching for author, title, reviewer is useful, but I need a smaller focus, a more modest audience, a warmer welcoming.

Real Reader Reviews looked the most familiar to what I’d expect for beginning reviewers. But again, the focus was amiss. After a few clicks, it felt like I was reading the same review over and over again, with no real exposure to the personality of the reviewer.

The Teen Book Review is by far the best fit in my hastily assembled survey. I spent so much time reading and marveling, that I have run out of time to write much here.  The focus was clear. The text easy to read. The text linked/bolded. There were no distractions in the sidebars. The post layouts were simple and varied. The variety of posts reflected the author’s identity. The personality of the reviewer beams through: “Gone is a huge book, over 550 pages, but the time passed so quickly while I was reading it, and I just couldn’t put it down! Last night, taking a break from my history homework, I picked it up, intending to read a chapter or two and then  get my brain back on track. Instead, I read two hundred pages. That’s how absolutely engrossing this book is!”

Have a long close look at Teen Book Review. These are reviews we should mimic.

Print

Writing Tips

February 21st, 2008 by Mr. D. Sader

I found a scribbled, hastily assembled, crumpled piece of paper simply titled “Tips” in my desk today.

As far as I recall, it was the product of grading a set of essays a couple years ago on the novel Wild Geese by Martha Ostenso.

A common practice of mine after reading/marking a set of essays is to assemble a list of “pet peeves,” or writing errors, or tips that emerge from the set.

Here is the list:

  • practice writing a thesis/topic statement that can be parsed
  • the inclusion of a detail must support it’s purpose
  • structure, connect, state clearly, order, each subtopic as it develops the thesis
  • avoid “if…then” as logical proofs of what is
  • when discussing technique, consider the degree of complexity
  • avoid pronoun shifts: “you”
  • avoid plot summary
  • develop a Linking Lexicon
  • avoid dropped quotes
  • No X=X (see Rule 3 of 6):
    “These things…”, “There is nothing…”, “… shows us something important…”, “In this essay…”, “Many examples…”, “The quote…”, “In the book…”, “On page…”, “… the same thing…”, “I don’t think…”, “This is the end of my essay…”, “She was herself…”, “As a human…”, “… the way it did…”, “… start doing things…”, “… many times…”, “After reading…”, “I will be writing…”, “These symbols are the things…”, “… good with the bad…”, “It made things…”, “They did what he told them to do…”, “Her true feelings…”, “… an effective way…”, “… a secret way…”, “… the way…”, “… many ways…”, “… a different way…”, “… it speaks…”, “We, as readers…”, “… finished reading…”, “… the ideas of…”, “… something in the end.”

This invasion of one’s mind by ready-made phrases [X=X] can only be prevented if one is constantly on guard against them, and every such phrase anaesthetizes a portion of one’s brain. George Orwell

Print

Semester Begins: Overcoming Tech Obstacles

February 4th, 2008 by Mr. D. Sader

Welcome to new STJ bloggers. No doubt you are learning new skills very quickly, but take your time to figure it all out, depend on each other, and ask questions of your teacher.

Grade 9 bloggers overcame a snag in the STJ email server(again!). The server simply stopped sending email until our division techies fixed the clog(again!). Emails sent out at 9:15AM Thursday did not get to their inboxes until Friday morning. I was able to sign-up bloggers manually but bloggers need to now edit their user profiles to set their password and website URL, … a task handled by the auto-magic email registration/confirmation before. I see a couple duplicate users/blogs now as students responded to late arriving emails, so I’ll be sorting that out right away.

Grade 10 bloggers for the most part were already registered but hit a snag of a different sort. The topology of the STJ LAN has all school workstations accessing the Internet through a single IP address, a common scenario. This requires me to make sure that the IP address of the STJ outgoing server is entered into the firewall of the stjschool.org incoming server so it doesn’t ban our IP for exceeding the limit on simultaneous connections. Our division techies changed our outgoing IP in December, … stjschool.org firewall now has the correct IP to bypass. Coincidentally, a major failure in the mediterranean undersea Internet cable caused higher loads on many router/server farms so diagnosing the problem had some sluggish “trace-routes” as well. Did you know you can monitor the health of the Internet in real time?

The “tens” are sharing their first posts and comments as well, but we’ll soon be in the regular classroom continuing our study of Julius Caesar. Blogging about Shakespeare, an anachronism that is not so out of place.

I wonder what challenges this week will bring?

Now, the “niners” are adding friends to their RSS aggregators and blogrolls. And sharing their first posts/comments with each other.

I’d like Grade 9s to trackback their first post here.

Print

Hamlet: Final Response

November 2nd, 2007 by Mr. D. Sader

Choose a focus for your final response to Hamlet.

Synthesize alternative points of view, (include links to sources: your posts, STJ blogs, etc.).

Review your responses throughout our study:

Writing tips:

Trackback.

PS: “To thine own rubric be true.”
rubric.png

November 9th is the “cut off” day for submission of my marks to the office.
Any assignment to be (re)submitted for grading must be “in my hand” before 2:00PM November 9th.

Print

Kimberley Klein Wins $10000 Scholarship

October 29th, 2007 by Mr. D. Sader

Congratulations Kimberley! The two runners up, Jess Kim and Shelley Batts, will each be awarded $1,000.
The remaining 7 finalists in the top 10 will be sent a $100 award for their participation. This includes:

  • Thomas Peters
  • Matthew Burden
  • Grant Brisbee
  • Paul Stamatiou
  • Shane Lavalette
  • Stephanie Collins
  • Karin Dalziel

Any surprises?

Kimberly Klein was a clear first place choice by many STJ bloggers.

Print

Student blog will win $10,000 Scholarship

October 17th, 2007 by Mr. D. Sader

One blogger chosen by “the internet” will win $10,000 US scholarship … for keeping a blog.

As the ratio of high school student blogs I read to the number of college student blogs I read approaches infinity, I think it a good time we troll a few of the best college bloggers in the US.

All STJ student bloggers have been involved in assessment of one another’s blogs since the beginning of STJ iblogs in 2006. I’m certain we’d pick a deserving “Final Four” from the list of 20 finalists.

I’m curious to know for what blogs STJ bloggers vote.

Submit your comment (or trackback) here with a brief reason/detail/example justifying your vote for the $10,000 US scholarship.

Consider our recent emphasis on structure and voice: How are these college bloggers defining themselves through voice? What structures/patterns do successful bloggers adopt? What role do comments play in the development of the blog?

Yaaar, there be pirates in one of the blogs . . . but don’t let that influence your vote.

Print

LOTF: Focus on Voice

October 17th, 2007 by Mr. D. Sader

Consequences
How do we live with the consequences of our decision making?
Related Questions:

What are the consequences of an important decision that you have made recently?
What are informed decisions? What are uninformed decisions?
What role does foresight play in our decision making? What are the advantages and disadvantages of hindsight?
What is the effect of making a decision when we are uncertain of the consequences? What are the consequences of making decisions which go against what other people think? What price do we pay for each decision we make?
What role does emotion and feeling play in our decision making?

Choose a focus. Write a post. Trackback.

Blogging Tips:
Pay particular attention to your own development of your voice in your style. Attempt to engage your audience to comment critically on issues of your choosing.

When commenting on another’s blog, look for the issues that invite your critical response.

Print

… I would not have heard of Paul Potts.

October 16th, 2007 by Mr. D. Sader

Print

Outcome-Illustrating Verbs

September 20th, 2007 by Mr. D. Sader

AKA Strong Verbs

  1. Knowledge of terminology; specific facts; ways and means of dealing with specifics (conventions, trends and sequences, classifications and categories, criteria, methodology); universals and abstractions in a field (principles and generalizations, theories and structures): Knowledge is (here) defined as the remembering (recalling) of appropriate, previously learned information: Arrange; defines; describes; duplicate; enumerates; identifies; labels; lists; matches; names; order; reads; recall; recognize; records; relate; repeat; reproduces; selects; states; views.
  2. Comprehension: Grasping (understanding) the meaning of informational materials. Classifies; cites; converts; describes; discusses; estimates; explains; generalizes; gives examples; makes sense out of; paraphrases; report; restates (in own words); select; summarizes; traces; translate; understands.
  3. Application: The use of previously learned information in new and concrete situations to solve problems that have single or best answers. Acts; administers; apply; articulates; assesses; charts; choose; collects; computes; constructs; contributes; controls; demonstrate; determines; develops; discovers; dramatize; employ; establishes; extends; implements; includes; informs; interpret; instructs; operate; participates; practice; predicts; prepares; preserves; produces; projects; provides; relates; reports; schedule; shows; sketch; solves; teaches; transfers; uses; utilizes.
  4. Analysis: The breaking down of informational materials into their component parts, examining (and trying to understand the organizational structure of) such information to develop divergent conclusions by identifying motives or causes, making inferences, and/or finding evidence to support generalizations. Analyze; appraise; breaks down; calculate; categorize; correlates; diagrams; differentiates; discriminates; distinguishes; examine; focuses; illustrates; infers; limits; questions; outlines; points out; prioritizes; recognizes; separates; subdivides; tests.
  5. Synthesis: Creatively or divergently applying prior knowledge and skills to produce a new or original whole. Adapts; anticipates; assembles; categorizes; collaborates; collects; combines; communicates; compares; compiles; composes; contrasts; creates; designs; develops; devises; expresses; facilitates; formulates; generates; incorporates; individualizes; initiates; integrates; intervenes; manages; models; modifies; negotiates; organizes; plans; prepares; progresses; rearranges; reconstructs; reinforces; reorganizes; revises; structures; substitutes; validates.
  6. Evaluation: Judging the value of material based on personal values/opinions, resulting in an end product, with a given purpose, without real right or wrong answers. Appraises; argue; assess; attach; choose; compares & contrasts; concludes; core; criticizes; critiques; decides; defends; evaluate; interprets; judges; justifies; predicts; rate; reframes; supports; value.
  1. Adapted from: Bloom, B.S. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals: Handbook 1, Cognitive Domain. (New York; Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1956).
Print

Leaving STJ? Take your blog with you.

June 11th, 2007 by Mr. D. Sader
  1. Dashboard–>Manage–>Export
  2. Save the xml file to your disk/USB.
  3. Start a new blog at Wordpress.com or Edublogs
  4. Dashboard–>Manage–>Import–>Wordpress
  5. Done.

You could start your own blog on a shared server, but for true blog freedom, master your own domain and install WAMP MAMP or LAMP and Wordpress yourself.

I don’t plan on “pruning” the server database till the fall, but export before you leave in June.

Print

1 Million Spams and counting

January 31st, 2007 by Mr. D. Sader

The best story today concerns the STJ email server. Good luck to those with email inboxes that have close to 4000 messages. My sympathy as you begin deleting over over 800 pages of messages, 20 per page. I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes.

Every email account I have has a quota, a couple megs at yahoo, a hundred megs at mac.com, 15 megs at Telus. My Telus account gets full every time a pal of mine sends pictures of his kids, and then I get no more mail. I thought that was annoying of Telus. But today . . ..

I had no idea our email server had no quotas at all. Every account, and there are hundreds, must just be swelling with thousands and thousands of spams. Each account must just grow on forever till the crack of doom. Holy schmoly! Lets see, I’ll guess there are at least 250 idle accounts, if each had say 4000 messages that would be . . . ONE MILLION SPAMS!

1,000,000 spams, that’s 50,000 pages at 20 per page. It takes 10-15 seconds to delete one page. How long to delete 50,000 pages?
A) 10 years
B) 10 days
C) 10 hours
D) 10 minutes

Oh, and the idle accounts I saw today had only been idle for less than a year. What if an account created 5 years ago had remained idle all this time and swelled at the same rate? That’s 20,000 spams in one inbox.

I’m going to pass out now.

Print

Looking for News

January 8th, 2007 by Mr. D. Sader

Try the following suggestions to increase your daily intake of news feeds.

  • Surf the latest headlines from all over the world. Results are based on google search rankings, the larger the font –> the more hits in google, I recall. Headlines link to an array of news organizations.
  • Aggregate a few headlines from, say, cbc.ca/rss in your own blog sidebar.
  • Create your own online newsreader at bloglines.com or google reader.

Add your own suggested news feeds or feed aggregators in a comment or trackback here.

Print

In the News(CTS bloggers)

December 3rd, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

CBC RSS feeds. Browse the many RSS feed categories. Select at least one to be added to your blog’s sidebar.

  • Copy(right-click or control-click) a feed url from CBC RSS feeds.
  • Go to Dashboard–>Presentation–>Sidebar Widgets–>Add RSS widgets.
  • Drag RSS widget to your sidebar.
  • Paste the url into the RSS widget.
  • Save and view site.
Print

Personal Universe Lexicon

November 28th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

To construct your Personal Universe Lexicon, start with a new post. You may wish to construct the list with pen and paper first and transfer it to your blog later. Begin by following these instructions:

Write down as many words as you can then sort the words into the categories outlined below. Complete each category. Write as quickly as you can.

Categories:

  • 16 words of each of the five senses (16 x 5 = 80 words). The words must mean, suggest: taste touch, sight, smell, and hearing. For instance, desiccated or frozen might suggest touch to you, or birdsong hearing.
  • 10 words of motion. The words must mean, suggest motion to you. They do not necessarily need to be verbs. Baby could be a motion word for someone, for example.
  • 3 abstractions. Such as love or freedom or truth.
  • 7 anything else. Any word with meaning to you that does not fit into the other categories.

All the words on the list must

  1. have significance to/for you
  2. be specific; that is the word must not be “bird” but “robin,” not “tree” but “aspen.”
  3. sound good to the ear.

Use no adverbs. Use no plurals.

Keep track of the words with your blog. Move them around each other in the list every day for a week. Choose one word at random from the list; write what the word(s) sparks, what the juxtaposition of words builds for you.

Trackback/pinkback your list to this post.

Print

Pingback Trackback of the Canadian Outback

November 19th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

English 20(Chem)
Your task is to complete Writing Activity 1 from my canpoets blog.

Just following those instructions will not be enough, however.

Your assignment will not be complete until a “trackback” or “pingback” appears in the comment section on my Writing Activity 1 post.

trackback_options.png

trackback_url.png

I’ll have a bag of cookies on standby. Cookie of choice to STJ blogger(s) who completes a pingback trackback of the Canadian outback.

Print

New features Gallery2 and Subscribe2

October 31st, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

Gallery2 integration works, mostly. Well the sidebar and full page embedding works, more to come. Activate WPG2 by pointing it to http://stjschool.org/gallery2/ and it should autodetect the rest. Then place the STJ Galley widget in your sidebar.

Subscribe2 allows you to email, automagically, site updates(a new post for example) to your subscribers. A new Subscribe link appears in your footer.

Print

Audio Posts (But not quite podcasts, yet)

October 21st, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

Or rather, Audio in Posts.

They’re not iTunesey podcasts, yet, but they’re simple enough.
Your mp3 file must be less than 2MB and uploaded to your blog in the normal way.

Go find the menu in Dashboard–>Options–>Audio Player.

Read the check boxes, the third check box will automagically change your mp3 links in your posts to embedded flash players. Easy-peezy.

Look at wmcauley’s mp3 links.

Print

Flickr Plugin works, again.

October 14th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

Flickr changed how you access your images in early September. So I’ve updated the plugin. You’ll need to have an “API Key” and a “Shared Secret”, now.

It is a good idea to put images on Flickr instead, or in addition to, stj servers. Flickr badges are cool, too.

Do not activate the Flickr plugin if you don’t have a Flickr account. You lose the ability to browse your blog’s upload folder while Flickr plugin is active, I still don’t know the fix.

Look here, see if you can find a fix, too.

Print

Been searching CSS/HTML/PHP code? Try this.

July 16th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

snow_poodle

A very “crystalline” structure to iblog.stjschool.org.
Print

Flickr is now enabled.

June 13th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

If I could figure out how to use Flickr smartly, so can you. Flickr is “third party” to snowotherway. Read it’s terms and conditions carefully. You are only invited, not required, to enable an account with flickr, but . . . what fun.

100_0005.JPG

Print

Moving, Graduating, Take your blog with you.

June 13th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

In your dashboard, under ‘Options/Reading’, you need to check that the number of posts under ‘Syndication feeds’ is set to At LEAST the number of posts in your blog, and that the feed is set to ‘Full text’ before saving it as an .xml file.(look for the xml link in browser bar or meta somewhere in your theme header/sidebar/footer)

In your new blog at “wordpress.com” or “edublogs.org” for example simply import the .xml file and you are back in business.

Sadly, once you are no longer a student at St. Jerome’s your blog is gone. (Usually I don’t get around to cleaning things up until the fall, though).

Print

cool smilies

June 12th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

:cool:

The following smilies have an extra space after the first character so you can see them here in text form. Remove the space and the smiley appears in published posts.

‘ : )’ => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
‘ : D’ => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
‘ : -D’ => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
‘: grin:’ => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
‘ : )’ => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
‘ : -)’ => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
‘: smile:’ => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
‘ : (‘ => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
‘ : -(‘ => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
‘: sad:’ => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
‘ : o’ => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
‘ : -o’ => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
‘: eek:’ => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
‘ 8 O’ => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
‘ 8 -O’ => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
‘: shock:’ => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
‘ : ?’ => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
‘ : -?’ => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
‘ : ???:’ => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
‘ 8 )’ => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
‘ 8 -)’ => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
‘: cool:’ => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
‘: lol:’ => ‘icon_lol.gif’,
‘ : x’ => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
‘ : -x’ => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
‘: mad:’ => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
‘ : P’ => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
‘ : -P’ => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
‘: razz:’ => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
‘: oops:’ => ‘icon_redface.gif’,
‘: cry:’ => ‘icon_cry.gif’,
‘: evil:’ => ‘icon_evil.gif’,
‘: twisted:’ => ‘icon_twisted.gif’,
‘: roll:’ => ‘icon_rolleyes.gif’,
‘: wink:’ => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
‘ ; )’ => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
‘ ; -)’ => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
‘: !:’ => ‘icon_exclaim.gif’,
‘: ?:’ => ‘icon_question.gif’,
‘: idea:’ => ‘icon_idea.gif’,
‘: arrow:’ => ‘icon_arrow.gif’,
‘ : |’ => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
‘ : -|’ => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
‘: neutral:’ => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
‘: mrgreen:’ => ‘icon_mrgreen.gif’,

:) => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
:D => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
:-D => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
:grin: => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
:) => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
:-) => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
:smile: => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
:( => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
:-( => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
:sad: => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
:o => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
:-o => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
:eek: => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
8O => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
8-O => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
:shock: => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
:? => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
:-? => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
:???: => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
8) => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
8-) => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
:cool: => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
:lol: => ‘icon_lol.gif’,
:x => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
:-x => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
:mad: => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
:P => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
:-P => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
:razz: => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
:oops: => ‘icon_redface.gif’,
:cry: => ‘icon_cry.gif’,
:evil: => ‘icon_evil.gif’,
:twisted: => ‘icon_twisted.gif’,
:roll: => ‘icon_rolleyes.gif’,
:wink: => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
;) => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
;-) => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
:!: => ‘icon_exclaim.gif’,
:?: => ‘icon_question.gif’,
:idea: => ‘icon_idea.gif’,
:arrow: => ‘icon_arrow.gif’,
:| => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
:-| => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
:neutral: => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
:mrgreen: => ‘icon_mrgreen.gif’,

Print

New Widgets for Widget Enabled Themes

June 5th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

Quick SMS has evolved into “Snow-Mobile.” It’s still a cell phone text messenger, though.

Created a “Snowblower.” Look at snowflakes for a demonstration.

Enjoy.

PS. Thanks for your patience, if dropping Quick SMS borked your theme with a fatal error it’s not all that fatal. Click on “Sidebar Widgets” in your Dashboard and all is well again.

Out,

D. Sader

Print

Hotlinking Images? We have all done it. Warnings!Warnings!Warnings!

June 4th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

When adding an image to your page on iblog.stjschool.org with a link to an image on another site, you may get unexpected results. This is called hotlinking: when images appear to be embedded on your page, but are simply linked to someone else’s page.

Advantages: no bandwidth or disk quota used from your account because you are not storing/delivering the image here.

Disadvantage: many “smart” sites forbid and display a 404 error. Some may just limit to a finite number, say 5 visits per day. Unscrupulous sites will surprise your visitors with a redirected hotlink path to images you didn’t want to show. YIKES! Hence, HOT- linking, as in play with fire? … gonna get burned.

The ethics of “hotlinking” can be equated to the ethics of stealing an image without the original author’s permission. Look for a “you are forbidden” message. But that’s not all, a web server can simply detect a hotlinked image and replace it with anything they like. Be warned, if I can program the snowotherway server to refer all attempts at hotlinking to a 404.html file, so can any other. Judge wisely, test and retest a “hotlinked” image before committing it to publication. Unscrupulous webservers fight this “theft” in unscrupulous ways, so be very careful.

Now, a smart web host, like snowotherway, will use server settings to eliminate the practice of “hotlinking” into your file folders to “steal” our bandwidth. And, no, I won’t refer redirects to “unscrupulous” images.

Commercial sites like Amazon.ca, and imdb.com, may even encourage the practice of hotlinking for obvious commercial reasons. But they are huge, have tonnes of bandwidth, and they may profit if you follow an image from their site.

Conclusion, a human is the only judge of what a picture image on the ‘net looks like. No computer or software can actually “see” an image. So be warned, what you tell another site to deliver in an image to your web page, may not be what your visitors get.

Out,

D. Sader

Print

Found snow mold

June 1st, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

I have noticed some themes generate error messages under certain conditions. I am trying to fix code so broken themes, widgets, and plugins work perfectly.

The most popular errors in the server logs are when widgets are used to display content you haven’t created yet. For example, including a recent comments widget in your sidebar, before you actually have any comments will result in an error message. I included a Links widget in PingoLino, but I didn’t have any links, hundreds of errors.

Trying to sort out which errors I need to pay attention too, and which errors are merely the result of carelessness is tougher than I expect.Feed validator helps.

If you notice errors occurring in a particular theme, widget, or microcontent, let me know ASAP. Show me while you are at school.

When activating a new blog, don’t be in a rush to delete the default Mr. Wordpress links or Hello World posts or comments. Having empty posts or comments or empty Blogroll causes errors to be reported as well. Most errors vanish after content, links, categories are added to your blog.

I’m certain you’ll see a rash of bizarre behaviour if you allow anyone else to be an administrator, author, contributor of your blog, I did in testing. If user A and user B both administer the same blog, all links/content appear on the pages they are supposed to, but when user A tries to Manage Links or Posts, only A’s posts and links appear and can be edited. This merely confused me, causing momentary panic, then confusion. Add users to your blog at your own risk. Do not make them Administrators, unless you know what you are doing and why. Anything you actually delete from your blog is gone. But stuff can be hidden in very many mysterious ways. Take care.

D. Sader

Print

To feed, or not to feed . . .

June 1st, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

The slings and arrows of outrageous plugins are enabling and disabling site feeds(RSS).

I’m working on the problem.

If you haven’t noticed the problem, thanks.

D. Sader

Print

Snowsuits for Grades 9-12

May 30th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

Something very new has been built into iblog.stjschool.org, “snowsuits.”

Be up to date with your posts.

Hand in an up to date “Assessment Data Sheet.”

If you think you can handle the responsibility, and if I think you’ve got the skills, I’ll enable your access to “snowsuits.”

D. Sader
(Fed your inner geek lately?)

Print

Grades 7-9 can catch snowflakes

May 28th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

Check out the snowflakes feed in your dashboard for blog ideas.

Print

Do you want to send free text messages to a cell phone?

May 25th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

Look for the Quick SMS widget on any theme that has sidebar widgets. Mine works(vmobile.ca). I need someone to verify that the Telus Mobility widget works, too. If your provider is not listed, and you want it, let me know. Receiving texts messages on my cell phone, for me, is free. It’s sending them that costs me a dime. How much is Telus to send/receive? The Quick SMS widget lets me send at no cost. You can put any number(10 digits), so behave. Enjoy, report abuses to me.

D. Sader

Print

Soccer fans notice anything different?

May 23rd, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

Look for “Football” links at stj.snowotheray.org. Register, activate, login, play. No money, no bets, no promises.

D. Sader

Print

Capatchas Stop Spam

May 10th, 2006 by Mr. D. Sader

Check your plugins, activate, learn, manage access to your blog/comments.

Print