Notes at karlstolley.com http://karlstolley.com/ en-us A collection of brief notes about rhetoric, technology, technical communication, digital literacy, and digital production. One of the strangest bits of cognitive dissonance I’ve experienced lately is being unable to genuinely use the first-person singular pronoun “I” on a course website that’s a wiki. It just doesn’t make any sense to...and I’m probably the last person to recognize this w/r/t wikis. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-08-20/ Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:43:37 -0500 My course wikis are almost set up. And it occurs to me that the Wikka Wiki software’s support for Geshi is going to make sharing in-class code examples a snap. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-08-19/ Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:30:23 -0500 Moving sites around from server to server is enough to help anyone see more clearly how and why Web sites can always stand to be built in an ever-more portable fashion. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-08-15/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:27:30 -0500 Suddenly it occurs to me that so-called “div-itis"--where web writers use tons of div tags instead of structural header or list tags--is probably caused, in part, by the fact that web browsers apply no default styling to those blocks. That, in turn, takes the guesswork out of styling. Of course, a reset CSS file is a much better option all around. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-08-13/ Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:37:06 -0500 The limited view of technology as a tool and a tool only is just never going to go away. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-07-10/ Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:48:48 -0500 I am so irritated that RPI’s June 11 Webcast about the future of the Web (starring Tim Berners-Lee) requires the Microsoft Silverlight plugin. Wow. How future-oriented. Another piece of proprietary software technology. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-06-10/ Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:39:30 -0500 To read: an article in Book Forum called “Uncreative Writing.” Recommended by J.Snap. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-06-05/ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:48:36 -0500 To read: John Muckelbauer’s The Future of Invention: Rhetoric, Postmodernism, and the Problem of Change (recommended by Kelly P). http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-05-28/ Wed, 28 May 2008 09:01:54 -0500 To rework JFK a bit: “Ask not what your Web application can do for you; ask what you can do with your application." http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-04-21/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:58:53 -0500 The less design, the less to eventually get sick of. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-04-19/ Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:45:50 -0500 I just discovered that Firefox allows you to drag tabs between different windows; although it copies the tab and reloads the page, rather than just removing it from the original window, this is still really handy for organizing. (I always have at least two FF windows open and half a dozen tabs in each window, and usually one window on each of my two monitors. I know, it’s kind of sick.) http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-04-13/ Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:59:44 -0500 Google Prettify’s claim that it won’t interfere with embedded tags in code examples appears incorrect; if the code example is only HTML, Prettify will remove any embedded tags (like a strong tag used to highlight a code change). Adding non-HTML code to the sample allows the tags to remain, but the expected rendering of HTML code elements disappears, too. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-03-29/ Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:26:13 -0500 Is a possible activity-theory based critique of WYSIWYG digital production that WYSIWYG takes what, at the code level, would be actions and moves them down, outside of a human agent, to the level of operations? And that making so many actions (e.g., bolding text) into operations shared across, say, a Web editor and a Word processor, clouds the entire idea of the activity of digital production? http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-03-24/ Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:01:17 -0500 I enjoy my Kinesis keyboards, especially because they are such conversation pieces. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-03-12/ Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:58:43 -0500 New Media, Old(er) Media alert: why is there such a disconnect between the compelling election primary graphics on broadcast CNN, versus the paltry offerings on CNN.com? http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-03-04/ Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:46:34 -0600 The number of organizations named kairos that use some sort of time piece—a sundial, a clock face, a pocket watch—as their logo is astounding. Especially given that these devices are all rooted in chronos. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-02-19/ Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:29:02 -0600 When using the UNION syntax in MySQL, it is essential that the order of fields in subsequent SELECT statements match the order (and number) in the first statement. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-02-11/ Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:30:08 -0600 This is a dummy code snippit to test the Google prettify script: /*Treat this as a comment*/ function but() { $this = "live code"; } http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-02-11/ Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:56:52 -0600 Added the Cite extension to the MediaWiki installation for COM542. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-01-30/ Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:54:38 -0600 It’s possible to leverage CSS to make radio buttons and check boxes scale in Firefox (elsewhere?) with text by setting the width and height attributes in ems, selected by the unique ID of the form element, e.g., input#my-radio-button { height: 1em; width: 1em; }. Alternatively, use the fancy (but unevenly supported) input[type=radio] selector. http://karlstolley.com/notes/2008-01-29/ Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:57:55 -0600