Posts from — February 2007

UNIX® Load Average Part 1: How It Works
:
Have you ever wondered how those three little numbers that appear in the UNIX®
load average (LA) report are calculated?

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a bit of interesting info.

Serendipity strikes again:
A brilliant wee story of serendipity to get you started this morning from one of my favourite eduBuzz blogs at Pencaitland Primary School. A few weeks ago the kids had been blogging about the diving experiment they had been up to in class and this got picked up by a real life diver (and clearly part-time blog-reader). She came in to the school with her diving kit and showed the kids what it was like for real. It’s all been captured in the blog and the brill Bubbleshare photostory below. I’m sure for the kids and teachers that alone is enough motivation to keep blogging about their classroom exploits for the next term, and it’s great to see that the guidelines and positive policy we put together with the help of everyone in the Authority have helped open our classrooms’ walls.

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To me, this is how blogs should benefit communities and schools, by bringing people together with similar interests and ideas, to explore and discover the relations amongst people and their interests, both in society and nature.

Useless account:
Best recent web 2.o spoof: Useless Account. Sign up for a shiny new account that does absolutely nothing, but in a way that totally shifts some serious paradigm!

Flame First, Think Later: New Clues to E-Mail Misbehavior – New York Times:
“Kids will say things to each other in their messages that are too embarrassing to say in person,” Jett tells me. “Then when they actually meet up, they are too shy to bring up what they said in the message. It makes things tense.”

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this, to me, is the intermediation factor…. just like we will put things in letters or email that should never be said.

NewsTrust Home – Your Guide to Good Journalism:
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February 19, 2007 – BETA SITE
Here are top rated news and opinions, reviewed by our members. For help tips, check our FAQ.

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interesting new site… Aldon Hynes pointed it out via facebook.

Library 2.0: An Academic’s Perspective: Standards That Don’t Help Us – Yet:
Here’s a coincidence. Over the past couple of days, I’ve been mulling over the role of standards in our profession and coming to the conclusion that a) existing ACRL standards are inadequate, b) toothless standards are not standards at all, and c) exemplary standards might help put on some pressure to move us forward.

Then yesterday, along came a chapter proposal for the hybrid book/wiki publication that I’m editing, Library 2.0 Initiatives in Academic Libraries. The authors referred to a well-known ACRL standard and remarked that it is dated, so they went ahead and developed their own practices based on a Library 2.0 philosophy. What they describe convinces me that they’ve done just that.

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You know… I wonder whether there really is any philosophy to lib 2.0.. other than social software… It doesn’t seem to me that there is anything larger than that.

HAVIDOL®:
Problems can be avoided if you take HAVIDOL only when you are able to immediately benefit from its effects. To fully benefit from HAVIDOL patients are encouraged to engage in activities requiring exceptional mental, motor, and consumptive coordination. HAVIDOL is not for you if you have abruptly stopped using alcohol or sedatives. Havidol should be taken indefinitely. Side effects may include mood changes, muscle strain, extraordinary thinking, dermal gloss, impulsivity induced consumption, excessive salivation, hair growth, markedly delayed sexual climax, inter-species communication, taste perversion, terminal smile, and oral inflammation. Very rarely users may experience a need to change physicians.
Talk to your doctor about HAVIDOL

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this solves so many problems at once….

dmiessler.com | study | lsof:
lsof is the Linux/Unix über-tool. I use it most for getting network connection related information from a system, but that’s just the beginning for this amazing and little-known application. The tool is aptly called lsof because it “lists open files”. And remember, in Unix just about everything (including a network socket) is a file.

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handy primer on lsof

Google Cheat Sheet (Version 1.06):
This two page Google Cheat Sheet lists all Google services and tools as well
as background information. The Cheat Sheet offers a great reference to grasp of
basic to advance Google query building concepts and ideas.

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some handy info

Classic authors ‘too difficult’ for 11-14 age group | News crumb | EducationGuardian.co.uk:
Teachers are fighting the education secretary, Alan Johnson, over his plans to force teenagers to study classic authors like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.Mr Johnson announced 10 days ago that 11 to 14-year-olds must study the classic writers of English literature as part of a reformed school curriculum.
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more b.s., children can read classics.