Stet » Metablogging

State of the Internet 2011

Ria — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:43:54 +0000

Working in the publishing section of the UN a few years back, I was familiar with acronyms such as, SOTWF or SWP (State of the World’s Forests and State of World Population, respectively), which represent the “flagship” publications of the UN. A new flagship can now be added, although it’s by Online Schools rather than

Continue reading State of the Internet 2011

Come together

Ria — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:21:35 +0000

Ten days into the summer break and I feel a change coming on: no longer thinking about teaching projects and grading, my mind has been increasingly filled with personal geeky projects, driven in large part by the recent purchase of my first smartphone. I’m not going to give in to the boring clichés (it’s like

Continue reading Come together

Head in the clouds

Ria — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:08:05 +0000

I recently took advantage of the cheap software available for university staff and ordered Adobe CS5.5 Web Premium, bundled with InDesign and Captivate for … 26 euros … and MS Office 2010 for … 12 euros! I know! GTFOOH, I hear you cry enviously.

I actually hesitated about the second purchase since so much of

Continue reading Head in the clouds

Pissing in the wind

Ria — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:15:45 +0000

I’m halfway through an Outlook training day for which I signed up after Outlook 2010 was introduced at our university over the summer, replacing the previous Groupwise system. I had hoped for a sleek overview of an ultra-efficient workflow, but instead we’re working our way along the toolbar, stopping every now and then to send

Continue reading Pissing in the wind

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’

Wordle your scrobble

Ria — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:06:11 +0000

As if I didn’t have better things to do, including 48 assignments to review on Moodle, I got distracted — intrigued then captivated — by a nifty java applet to represent my Last FM recent listening into a wordle, or text picture. Here it is:

Image of my recent listening

Now back to the

Continue reading Wordle your scrobble

Hiatus interruptus

Ria — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:43:31 +0000

Since the start of classes in September, I’ve had very little time to blog. In addition to teaching and its concomitant demands, I’ve been getting busy with developing a learning management system (LMS) for the modern languages department. It’s based on Moodle, one of the most popular LMSs around, and offers almost infinite possibilities of

Continue reading Hiatus interruptus

Future proofing

Ria — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:07:33 +0000

I’m trying to get my head around joining up various online activities. It’s a challenge, which may be ultimately pointless, but the potentialities of crossover are too inviting.

Current linkups include Squeezebox to and from Flickr, LastFM and Facebook; Stet (this blog) to and from Flickr, LastFM and Twitter, with a pending bug query

Continue reading Future proofing

Resolutions

Ria — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:46:11 +0000

Pre-dawn awakening to the sounds of baby Sam, our attic bedroom muted grey from the snow-covered skylights. From the panoramic kitchen windows downstairs, we enjoyed the views of virginal roads and footpaths. It was another hour before another soul stirred outside and spoiled the pristine effect. Another hour before the sun rose.

Went sledding with

Continue reading Resolutions

What does not kill me, makes me stronger

Ria — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:21:45 +0000

After spending a few days in the north of Senegal, I returned to Dakar to find one of my sites had been hacked. Each page of my photoblog, Ria Galleria, had a long list of ads and links above my own photo posts. The ads were all related to travel, which is preferable to zoophilia,

Continue reading What does not kill me, makes me stronger

Click for $1.5 million – A win-win-win situation

Ria — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:31:48 +0000

In a speech to the World Economic Forum earlier this year, Bill Gates presented the concept of “Creative Capitalism” as a means of reducing poverty through free market mechanisms. Describing himself as an “impatient optimist”, Gates cited the many improvements in people’s lives in many parts of the world — improved governance, life expectancy and

Continue reading Click for $1.5 million – A win-win-win situation