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Saturday June 9, 2007 5:00 am Lethbridge Sunrise 5:24 Sunset 21:37 Hours of daylight: 16:13
A. Morning Musings
5:00 am It is +12 C with a high forecast of +22 C.
Here are the news.
CBC Headline: US Suspends Some Border Rules To Ease Passport Backlog
The U.S. State Department has temporarily lifted a new rule that requires Americans to carry passports for air travel to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, placating Congress and irate summer travellers. The suspension should allow the department to catch up with a massive surge in applications that has overwhelmed passport processing centres since the rule took effect this year. The resulting backlog has caused up to three-month delays for passports and ruined or delayed the travel plans of thousands of Americans. Until the end of September, travellers will be allowed to fly without a passport if they present a State Department receipt, showing they had applied for a passport, and government-issued identification, such as a driver's licence. At the moment this doesn't help people like myself who are in a 2-3 month backlog within the Canadian system.
Canadian Headline: Bono, Geldof slam Canada as a 'laggard' on African aid
Two of world's most famous anti-poverty activists tore into Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday, accusing Canada of blocking other G8 nations from making clear targets in the group's humanitarian aid package to Africa. "I said some years ago that the world needs more Canadas, and I meant it," Bono said. "I can't believe that this Canada has become a laggard. I think he's [Harper's] out of sync with the people." "A man called Stephen Harper came to Heiligendamm," added Geldof. "But Canada stayed home." Anti-poverty activists have criticized the leading industrialized countries for failing to live up to promises on African aid made two years ago at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. I admire the way they cut through the rhetoric to get at the real problem. Perhaps embarrassing the government will help bring a little ethics into the debate. A promise is a promise. That is different than saying we will try.
Australian Headline: (from The Australian): It's a fair cop, says Fat Tony
Tony Mokbel last night agreed with John Howard and Victorian Premier Steve Bracks that the state's police had done an excellent job in tracking him down to his Athens hideout. The Melbourne gangland boss gave an extraordinary account of his crimes, his life on the run and the murderous war between the Victorian crime gangs in recent years during a 20-minute conversation held in the corner of an Athens courtroom when his trial on Greek charges of using a false passport had been briefly adjourned. The headline is classic Australian.
B. Actual/Notes
5:15 am As soon as I have my coffee brewing I plan to return to working on the XML approach to Dreamweaver 8. I think chapter 5 is short and straight forward. Chapter 6 on CSS is going to be the heart of the book. The wind is up again today: not strong but enough to discourage birding.
I expect to finish reading "The Navigator of New York" today. While reading the novel yesterday it suddenly occurred to me that I had read something about 30 years ago in a book of diaries of polar explorers about a controversy involving whether Peary was the first to reach the North Pole. I pulled the book "Polar Passions" off the shelf and sure enough, there is a chapter on Cook's journey to the pole. I definitely want to reread this chapter as soon as I complete the novel.
Technology 17
June 9
5:30 am I plan to carefully read and make notes for chapter 5 of "Dreamweaver 8" by Short & Green.
Here is a mind map of the overall book (with expansion of the subtopics for chapter 5):
This chapter looks like it is basic Dreamweaver with little new involving XML.
Chapter 5 Linking
Exercise 1 Linking with Point to File
Done. Easy. This is my normal procedure for creating a link.
"The great thing about using this technique is that there is no possible way to accidently set the link to a misspelled or missing file." [p. 82]
"... we strongly urge you to get into the habit of flipping back and forth between Code view and Design view so you increase your exposure to the raw code behind the visual design of your page." [p. 83]
Exercise 2 Linking to New Source Files
Done. Easy. Familiar material.
But the idea of a placeholder image is new to me. Here is one:
![placeholder]()
Exercise 3 Creating Email Links
Done. Easy. A good review.
"Many visitors use a web-based email program [instead of a standard email program such as Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird]. If they click on an email link they will get an error message. ... There's not a lot you can do about this, so you might want to include the email address directly on the page so visitors can copy and paste the address into their email programs." [p. 93]
The above advice is fine unless the email address happens to be your own personal email address. The concern is that spammers may be able to find your email address by scanning your web page. One solution is to give a fictitious email address with additional information on how the user should change it once the email client is activated.
Example: Here is my email address daleburnett@uleth.ca . When the email client appears please change the dale to d. (There is no such email address as daleburnett@uleth.ca).
Exercise 4 Creating Named Anchors
Done. Easy and familiar material.
Exercise 5 Linking to Files
Done. Easy and familiar material.
SUMMARY of the session:
6:40 am This took longer than just a quick skim would. However I did learn about placeholder images and I was able to review material on email links as well as anchors and pdf files.
The next chapter on Cascading Style Sheets is the one I am looking forward to!
9:20 am I have finished reading "The Navigator of New York". Wayne Johnston certainly knows how to spin a great yarn while blending fact and fiction.
8:30 PM I finished reading "Where the Silence Rings", a collection of 14 writings by various authors on being in the mountains and mountain climbing. Pleasant.
C. Plan
Immediate Literature Continue reading "The Navigator Of New York" by Wayne Johnston Read "Where the Silence Rings" by Wayne Grady Technology Read & make notes for chap. 5 from "Macromedia Dreamweaver 8" Science Read & make notes for "The Canon" by Natalie Angier Mathematics Write a paper on mathematics education Later Technology Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac" Learn how to attach a digital camera to my spotting scope Burn backup of images onto DVD Mathematics Read & make notes on The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems Continue reading "Algebra: Abstract and Concrete" by Frederick Goodman Read "Symmetry" by David Wade Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1 Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves Model Trains Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt Continue assembly of coaling tower Purchase DCC system History Begin reading "Maya" Read Watson "Ideas" Philosophy Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell" Begin reading "How Are We To Live?" by Peter Singer Literature New York Times easy crossword puzzles GO Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go" Puzzles The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10
Major Goals Learning Review week's pages each Sunday Review all pages for the month at the end of each month Technology Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006 Model Trains Become proficient with 3rd PlanIt software Install DCC on model train layout GO Learn to play GO at something better than a beginner level Drawing Learn to draw!! (I keep saying this, yet I have yet to put a pencil to paper). Mathematics Continue to play with mathematics. Literature Continue to read Literature Bird Watching Continue to engage in bird watching activities.
D. Reflection