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A response to Margaret Wente’s Sep 21 2009 article…

September 24th, 2009 CodeBlink Comments

This post is a response to the following tweet:

@ju_bro: I just blogged about this, http://bit.ly/ghwfn, here, http://bit.ly/uLO1X Does Wente’s articles describe your uni experience?

Tweeted on September 21, 2009

Thanks for posting this Julie.

Margaret Wente’s argument in her article, to me, sounded very weak. She only interviewed two people and gave a few obscure and unsupported statistics (I always treat stats with extreme skepticism, especially when no background is given on them. As an aside, what is up with online articles not having any references??? I’m sure plenty of writers use web sites for research now).

I can’t really comment on the state of today’s post-secondary education, as I have none. The reason for that being mostly because I have never had the strong desire to take any courses. However, I think I do know what a great education experience is all about (from high school).

Please correct me if I assume that high school, college, university, and etc all have the experience of learning in common, as well as having students and teachers. I think the relationship between teacher and student is very important to learning and that both share the responsibility of education with the majority of the responsibility being on the student – not the teacher. The student is always in the driver’s seat with the teacher being the passenger. Over the life of the student, he/she will have many different passengers and it’s up to the driver what they take away from their passengers. This is why i see most of the responsibility of learning being on the student.

The teacher has a responsibility too though. As a passenger, you have an obligation of being accessible and patient. You’re not the one that’s driving, so you never know if you’re going for a quick trip to the store, or mud-running in a four-by-four. You can provide navigation, problem solving in all kind of situations, or just be there to listen.

As the teacher, you have the advantage of giving knowledge and wisdom. As the student, you have the advantage of choosing where you go and how far you make it.

The best year I had in high school (and it earned me honors) was in grade 11 where I actually spent time to stay behind class and ask questions. I really learned that there is no such thing as a stupid question, and that after I graduated, I would never see the faces of the students who gave me drity looks for enjoying my studies and so their approval of me mattered for shit in the long run.

Don’t mind the stares

- David Bowie

My experience in grade 11 sound very similar to what Julie Breau says in her response to Wente’s article:

I encountered the best and most encouraging teachers. And smart too! They had brilliant research projects of their own – though probably neglected because of all the time they spent with us -, and offered thought-provoking and enriching classes. I was never turned away when asking for help and further explanation. I would pop by my professors’ offices to chat about class, current issues and career preparations.

So why is there this general opinion of the education system being so terrible? Where is the real disconnect between a smart student failing in a class led by a professor who earns six figures a year?

I think, you won’t find it in statistics. I think, it is a deep social and philosophical issue. I bet, if you looked at the curve comparison between the evolution of technology and the evolution of the institution and methodology of education, you will see two very different curves. The tech curve is exponential and steep, where the education curve would be plateaued and slow. I think, that technology and education are irrevocably entwined. That technology is now moving at an exponential rate and we will continue to see the discontent a large portion of people have with the education institution.

So Wente: It’s easy to ask a couple people their opinions and then point the finger, but what have you really learned and does that give you the right to share your findings?

Categories: Random Tags:

Google Analytics tech support in under 140 characters

July 30th, 2009 CodeBlink Comments

Google Analytics on Twitter

I started following @googleanalytics today and noticed their bio: “Tech support in 140 characters or less doesn’t work…”.

This makes sense, but to prove them wrong, here are some canned answers they can use for free:

Press F5 to refresh.
Restart your computer.
Upgrade your browser from Internet Explorer 6!
It works in Chrome.
Do not copy and paste someone else’s analytics code on to your site.

Categories: Random Tags: analytics, google, tech support, twitter

The taste left in my mouth by moonfruit is bittersweet

July 15th, 2009 CodeBlink Comments

Sorry for not updating sooner. I’ve been very busy at my day job and afterwards with work on the next Project Peru site. My mind has been a-buzz all week!

So no, I didn’t win jack from the MoonFruit contest. Didn’t even get a “wow, this guy’s site idea sucks balls!” (or something along those lines) tweet from @moontweet.

Only one of my friends tweeted about it and left a comment on the site (thanks @DonnaVitan!) even after I e-mailed a bunch of people that I figured would totally help me out. Am I bit tweaked about that? Ya of course. Don’t want to make a sob story of a blog posty, but WTF?

What the hell happened here? Why was this such an epic fail in networking? This is something that will haunt for quite a while I think.

I know the people I e-mailed when to the site, and some people from Twitter went to the link I tweeted about (who knows if @moontweet was one of them). In 6 days, the site received 136 unique visitors, with 900 page views. That’s about the only thing that I found remotely successful about this little endeavour.

Sorry MoonFruit, I will work on my lame YouTube video acting and solarizing Photoshop filters for the next contest :Pem

Oh and the icing on the cake was that they ended up giving out morn 3 iPods after the creative contest was finished!

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Categories: Development Tags: contest, moonfruit, randommoonfruit, twitter

And the cow jumped over the #moonfruit

July 4th, 2009 CodeBlink Comments

Well I just woke up after a long night of waiting for the Twitter iron to get hot (Twiron?) and have my creative entry (http://randommoonfruit.info) for Moonfruit’s contest to get noticed by them. @moontweet seems to come on at very late times and retweet (aka RT) creative entry tweets. The norm seems to spam #moonfruit and @moontweet sees it. I’m not sure if they RT everything just what they like. I don’t think it’s everything because I did not receive a RT.

This has left me wondering: Is my entry lame? A few times in the past I’ve had (what I thought at the time was a smash hit) fall on it’s face.

My bit.ly links are getting hits at least and the site has had over 70 uniques in under a day. Here are some of the bit.ly links:

Twitter Sara Palin #moonfruit http://bit.ly/KGc0x
Michael Jackson #moonfruit http://bit.ly/1DMhI
Nortel #moonfruit http://bit.ly/3ZAYH8

Categories: Random Tags: bit.ly, fruit, humor, michael jackson, moon, moonfruit, nortel, sarah palin

Random Moonfruit Launch

July 3rd, 2009 CodeBlink Comments

I just finished launching and announcing http://randommoonfruit.info. A site with a little twist! Hopefully it will bring you a few giggles and for ME – a free iPod Touch! So please visit and Tweet about it: http://randommoonfruit.info/ Make sure to use the #moonfruit hash tag to have your own chance to win a MacBook Pro for free!

This idea came around from the Twitter contest Moonfruit (http://www.moonfruit.com) has been having. By using a #moonfruit hash tag in a tweet, Tweeple are being entered for 1 daily draw of a free MacBook Pro (details found here: http://www.moonfruit.com/macbook-pro.html). Moonfruit is also giving away 3 free iPod Touches for the best creative ideas. 2 have already been given away.. I just hope I’m in time for being considered for the third!

I’ll keep you posted on events as they unfold.

Categories: Development Tags: fruit, humor, images, moon, moonfruit, photos, pics, Random

A Simple Unicode Decoder/Converter Function for PHP 5

June 18th, 2009 CodeBlink Comments

I wanted to use the unicode_decode PHP function for something I was working on today, but, of course, this function is only supported in the new PHP 6. I don’t know how it is for my fellow programmers reading this, but getting your I.T. department to upgrade all servers from 5 to 6 can be like getting your grandfather to change from a rotary phone to a iPhone. I.T. is uber apprehensive about such serious change. Their servers are their babies and ‘upgrade’ translates to ‘extreme security risk’ in their minds.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my company and my I.T. department, but when it comes to upgrading – I would be very thankful for a little more progressive thinking. At the same time, I understand the apprehension and can’t fault it completely, but PHP is no longer a light-weight in the world of server-side scripting.

Rant aside, I came up with this really simple function to help me decode Unicode text. Hope it helps!

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function simple_unicode_decode($str) {
$str=str_ireplace("u0001","☺",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0002","☻",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0003","♥",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0004","♦",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0005","♣",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0006","♠",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0007","•",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0008","◘",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0009","○",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u000A","◙",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u000B","♂",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u000C","♀",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u000D","♪",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u000E","♫",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u000F","☼",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0010","►",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0011","◄",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0012","↕",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0013","‼",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0014","¶",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0015","§",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0016","?",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0017","?",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0018","↑",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0019","↓",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u001A","→",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u001B","←",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u001C","∟",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u001D","↔",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u001E","▲",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u001F","▼",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0020"," ",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0021","!",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0022","\"",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0023","#",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0024","$",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0025","%",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0026","&",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0027","'",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0028","(",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0029",")",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u002A","*",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u002B","+",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u002C",",",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u002D","-",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u002E",".",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u2026","…",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u002F","/",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0030","0",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0031","1",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0032","2",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0033","3",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0034","4",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0035","5",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0036","6",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0037","7",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0038","8",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0039","9",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u003A",":",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u003B",";",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u003C","<",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u003D","=",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u003E",">",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u2264","≤",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u2265","≥",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u003F","?",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0040","@",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0041","A",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0042","B",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0043","C",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0044","D",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0045","E",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0046","F",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0047","G",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0048","H",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0049","I",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u004A","J",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u004B","K",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u004C","L",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u004D","M",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u004E","N",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u004F","O",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0050","P",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0051","Q",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0052","R",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0053","S",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0054","T",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0055","U",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0056","V",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0057","W",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0058","X",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0059","Y",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u005A","Z",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u005B","[",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u005C","\\",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u005D","]",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u005E","^",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u005F","_",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0060","`",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0061","a",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0062","b",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0063","c",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0064","d",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0065","e",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0066","f",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0067","g",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0068","h",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0069","i",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u006A","j",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u006B","k",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u006C","l",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u006D","m",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u006E","n",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u006F","o",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0070","p",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0071","q",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0072","r",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0073","s",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0074","t",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0075","u",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0076","v",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0077","w",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0078","x",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0079","y",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u007A","z",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u007B","{",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u007C","|",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u007D","}",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u02DC","˜",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u007E","∼",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u007F","",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u00A2","¢",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u00A3","£",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u00A4","¤",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u20AC","€",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u00A5","¥",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0026quot;","\"",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0026gt;",">",$str);
$str=str_ireplace("u0026lt;",">",$str);
return $str;
}

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Please leave a comment or suggestion below!

Categories: Development Tags: convert, decode, Development, free, function, open source, php, php 5, php5, unicode, web

50 Inspirational Quotes on the Art & Science of Design

May 26th, 2009 CodeBlink Comments

1. James Randolph Adams
Great designers seldom make great advertising men, because they get overcome by the beauty of the picture – and forget that merchandise must be sold.

2. Milton Glaser
The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire and persistence.

3. Charles Eames
Design is an expression of the purpose, and it may (if it is good enough) later be judged as art; design depends largely on constraints and it is a method of action (there are always constraints and these usually include ethic).

4. Douglas Adams
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

5. Milton Glaser
To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master.

6. John Maeda
If there were a prerequisite for the future successful digital creative, it would be the passion for discovery.

7. Kate Krebs
Waste is a design flaw.

8. Clement Mok
Design, in its broadest sense, is the enabler of the digital era – it’s a process that creates order out of chaos, that renders technology usable to business. Design means being good, not just looking good.

9. John D. Berry
Only when the design fails does it draw attention to itself; when it succeeds, it’s invisible.

10. Jorge Frascara
Good graphic design solutions to communication problems can improve the flow of information in society and, therefore, substantially and positively affect education, social well-being and the daily enjoyment of life. In addition, good graphic design solutions can also have a positive economic impact.

11. David Hockney
Art has to move you and design does not, unless it’s a good design for a bus.

12. Scott Adams
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep.

13. Freeman Thomas
Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition.

14. Milton Glaser
There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.

15. Stanley Morrison
Type design moves at the pace of the most conservative reader. The good type-designer therefore realizes that, for a new fount to be successful, it has to be so good that only very few recognize its novelty.

16. Jenaiha Woods
Design is the contrast of the core of limitations therefore there are no boundaries. It is simply an interpretation of creativity.

17. Jeffery Veen
Designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organizing and manipulating of words and pictures.

18. Adrian Frutiger
If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page… When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.

19. Jan Tschichold
Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy.

20. Massimo Vignelli
I see graphic design as the organization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistent and pragmatically understandable.

21. Zuzana Licko
The most popular typefaces are the easiest to read; their popularity has made them disappear from conscious cognition. It becomes impossible to tell if they are easy to read because they are commonly used, or if they are commonly used because they are easy to read.

22. Adrian Frutiger
Helvetica is the jeans, and Univers the dinner jacket. Helvetica is here to stay.

23. David Carson
If you have no intuitive sense of design, then call yourself an “information architect” and only use Helvetica.

24. Alexander Gelman
Any good typeface can be completely destroyed when misused or extensively overused. Helvetica seemed to sustain a beating like no other. Still fresh, still popular, Helvetica is king.

25. Paola Antonelli
Designers may be the true intellectuals of the future.

26. Erik Adigard
Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It’s a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy.

27. Steff Geissbuhler
I have never designed a logotype without first trying it in Helvetica. It is still the most versatile, classic and readable of all typefaces.

28. Michael Ian Kaye
What a graphic designer tries to do is make sure the typography is emotionally consistent with the brand.

29. Massimo Vignelli
The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.

30. Roi James
Great design is all about details. With innovative material selection, sensible construction techniques and modern aesthetics one can craft a unique design language that sets a new standard.

31. Frederic W. Goudy
Anyone that would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep.

32. Eric Gill
There are now about as many different varieties of letters as there are different kinds of fools.

33. Wolfgang Weingart
Berthold is still a good typeface, but even Berthold has some less than attractive features, and then I just cut them off because I didn’t like them.

34. Luke Wroblewski
Visual organization is the deliberate prioritization of meaning within a visual design. It’s the process of applying the principles behind perception – how we make sense of what we see – to illuminate relationships between content and actions.

35. Jeff I. Richards
Creative without strategy is called ‘art’. Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising’.

36. Serge Zuev
The original idea makes design distinctive, function makes it work and quality adds value.

37. Don Newgren
Design is intelligence made visible.

38. John Maeda
Skill in the digital age is confused with mastery of digital tools, masking the importance of understanding materials and mastering the elements of form.

39. Paul Rand
It is no secret that the real world in which the designer functions is not the world of art, but the world of buying and selling.

40. Linda van Deursen
Grids do not exist in a vacuum. They exist in relation to the content. We never start with a grid. We start with an idea which is then translated into a form, a structure.

41. Steve Jobs
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

42. Richard Grefé
Design is the intermediary between information and understanding.

43. Nolan Bushnell
The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.

44. George Santayana
Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors.

45. Hans Hofmann
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

46. Jon Franklin
Simplicity, carried to an an extreme, becomes elegance.

47. Edward R. Tufte
Confusion and clutter are the failure of design, not the attributes of information.

48. C.W. Ceram
Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.

49. Jim Jarmusch
Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it.

50. Robin Mathew
Design is where science and art break even.

Categories: Random Tags: inspirational inspiration inspire quotes design famous

Birdnapper 1.1 Now Available

April 29th, 2009 CodeBlink Comments

1.1 Update

Added a line of code to fix inline links to Twitter profile pages. Links will now be external to http://twitter.com. I discovered this flaw when I checked out my Google Webmaster report!

Birdnapper now has a home of it’s on on codeblink.com here: http://www.codeblink.com/codeblink-open-source-projects/birdnapper-the-php-twitter-feed-widget/