e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Category: From the Editors

These posts provide updates about our editorial policies as well as changes to the site itself.

  • (Almost) Back in the Saddle Again

    Well, after a week of being crushed in moving boxes, I’ve managed to dig out enough to find my computer. Lucky for me Al Essa posted a week-in-review summary of the Blackboard EduPatentGate drama that helped me get back up to speed. Al has been doing a fantastic job of attacking the problem from a number of different angles. If you care about this issue and haven’t yet subscribed to his feed, you really should.

    I’m working on some follow-up regarding the impact of patents on standards development and have should that plus at least a few other posts up this week, with the goal of getting back to normal by the beginning of next week. So stay tuned. In the meantime, you might enjoy reading a piece on EduPatentGate from Justin Pope at the Associated Press. Here it is on ABC News’ web site. Business Week, the Washington Post, and USAToday have also picked it up so far.

  • Going Dark for a Little While

    I am moving this week. The moving truck comes on Monday, and I have many a box to pack between now and then (and to unpack afterward). As a result, I will probably not post much (if at all) until late next week.

    Sorry.

  • Posting Pace About to Slow Down

    Since this patent fight is bound to be a marathon rather than a sprint, I feel compelled to slow down my posting pace to a more sustainable rate. Heck, I might even occasionally post about something else once in a while. Please don’t misconstrue this change as a slackening of commitment. Quite the opposite; I want to make sure that I can help us maintain momentum for the long run.

    Over the weekend I’m going to take some time to reflect back (in a post) on the last couple of weeks and also respond to at least a few of the many excellent reader comments that I just haven’t had time to get back to yet.

    We all need to prepare to hunker down a bit. We’re in a trench war now.

  • Today is My Birthday

    No posts today.

    Not even about Blackboard.

  • Not Dead Yet (and Other News)

    I know I’ve been rather quiet lately. I’m working on a couple of new projects that I can’t talk about yet but that I should be able to talk about soon (one within a couple of weeks and another within a couple of months). Between these extra-curriculars, some articles I’m writing, and an impending move to a beautiful house in the Berkshires, I’ve been falling behind on the blog posting thing. I will probably continue to be sporadic through the end of August.

    In the meantime, the one thing I can talk about now is my research into moving to WordPress. I’ve wanted to make the move for quite some time. ExressionEngine is a fine platform, but if you’re just looking for blogging and not so much for a CMS, then you just can’t beat WordPress for its maturity and pace of continuing development. The trouble has been that it would have cost me too much money to migrate, since I don’t have the skills to do my own programming and page design.

    Luckily, there’s some good news for me:

    • While there still isn’t a built-in ExpressionEngine import tool, there are a few utilities floating around that will get me most of the way there.
    • Between new themes, new plugins, and new widgets, I’ve been able to get a test WordPress installation to do about 90% of the things that my current setup can do (and a bunch of things it can’t do) with no programming.
    • There are tons of cheap WordPress hosting options that work even for non-techies like me–particularly since the amazing Fantastico installer that many ISPs now provide includes a WordPress installer.

    So, while it will still probably cost me some money to make the migration (particularly if I want to get some help to make sure all current EE links get auto-forwarded to their new WordPress URLs), it’s looking increasingly affordable.

    I’ll keep you posted.

  • e-Literate is Currently a Little Messed Up for IE Users

    Just wanted to let you know that I am aware that the site is not displaying properly for Internet Explorer users at the moment. (The sidebar is pushed to the bottom of the page.) This might have happened when I upgraded to ExpressionEngine 1.4, but I’m not sure. Not being terribly cross-browser-savvy myself, I have bribed one of my colleagues at work into helping me figure out what is wrong. (The page seems to display just fine in both Firefox and Safari.) We’re working on it. In the meantime, the sidebar is still functional for IE users; you just have to scroll down to see it.

    Sorry.

  • Site Upgrade

    I have upgraded the plumbing to Expression Engine 1.4. You shouldn’t notice any obvious differences. If something has inadvertently broken, please let me know.