Andrew Witte’s Blog http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/ en-us Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:32:09 EST Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:32:09 EST andrew.witte@case.edu andrew.witte@case.edu http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Movable Type v3.121 Movie Posters http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2008/06/21/movie_posters http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2008/06/21/movie_posters cynicism design movies case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:32:09 EST movies.jpg

]]> LED madness! http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2007/11/27/led_madness In one of my crazier moments, I recently purchased a surplus Schauf LED message board. It's a pretty nifty piece... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2007/11/27/led_madness case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:16:20 EST In one of my crazier moments, I recently purchased a surplus Schauf LED message board. It's a pretty nifty piece of hardware - it has two 2x16 character displays (one on each side) that can also go into a 1x8 mode with double-sized characters. The two sides display the same message; I have not checked yet whether they can be addressed individually, but I suspect not. The innards are OEM'ed by PolyComp, and they talk to a PC over an RS-232 serial link, via a proprietary (but fortunately fairly well documented) protocol.

Currently the sign is hanging in Project Club and displaying headlines from some RSS feeds (Newsvine, Ars Technica, and Case News, if you must know). It's also possible to send a message to the thing using AOL Instant Messenger, though I'm not going to publish the screenname on this blog. :) The software to accomplish this is written in Ruby, and, on the off chance that any other Ruby programmers happen to have one of these signs, I've put the code for communicating with the sign on opensource.case.edu.

]]> MyCase http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2007/08/31/mycase When I first paid attention to the logged-out state of the new my.case.edu this afternoon, I was pleasantly shocked to... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2007/08/31/mycase Case IT start.case.edu case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:41:48 EST When I first paid attention to the logged-out state of the new my.case.edu this afternoon, I was pleasantly shocked to see the following two portlets in the default view:

forum.gif
planet.gif

I was surprised not only by the choice of content, but by the choice of iconography. Both seemed rather un-ITS-like (in a good way). Bravo.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, thanks for the compliment.

Now get a proper small caps version of Garamond. :)

]]> 9 http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2007/01/16/9 Floor numbers were stenciled onto the doors in the Clarke Tower stairwell over winter break.... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2007/01/16/9 case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Tue, 16 Jan 2007 01:33:32 EST Floor numbers were stenciled onto the doors in the Clarke Tower stairwell over winter break.

9

]]> Some dots http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/11/08/some_dots http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/11/08/some_dots Politics case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Wed, 08 Nov 2006 16:30:21 EST Some dots

]]> Ironic indeed http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/09/29/ironic_indeed "Implicit in the term 'national defense' is the notion of defending those values and ideals which set this Nation apart.... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/09/29/ironic_indeed case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Fri, 29 Sep 2006 17:32:40 EST "Implicit in the term 'national defense' is the notion of defending those values and ideals which set this Nation apart. For almost two centuries, our country has taken singular pride in the democratic ideals enshrined in its Constitution, and the most cherished of those ideals have found expression in the First Amendment. It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties - the freedom of association - which makes the defense of the Nation worthwhile." — Earl Warren

]]> What not to play on the Leutner jukebox http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/09/06/what_not_to_play_on_the_leutner_jukebox The Macarena by Los Del Rio. You're in college, you should be mature enough to refrain from doing things... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/09/06/what_not_to_play_on_the_leutner_jukebox Case Music Rant case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:37:32 EST
  • The Macarena by Los Del Rio. You're in college, you should be mature enough to refrain from doing things whose sole purpose is to annoy others.
  • It Wasn't Me by Shaggy. The song is dumb. Plus, the staff play it more than enough already.
  • Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. Not a bad song, but if you're not careful, the CD will wear out due to overuse. There's other good music in there, find it.

    • Am I the only one with these "jukebox pet peeves"? Do you have others? Do tell.

    ]]>         Online Calendaring at Case http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/09/03/online_calendaring_at_case An online, campus-wide calendar system is a commonly-desired IT system at Case. In fact, demand for the service is so... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/09/03/online_calendaring_at_case Case IT calendars case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Sun, 03 Sep 2006 22:47:37 EST An online, campus-wide calendar system is a commonly-desired IT system at Case. In fact, demand for the service is so high that, to my knowledge, at least four groups (ITS Middleware Services Engineering, SIS, CaseLife, USG) have considered addressing the problem. I have been involved in a few discussions of the issue over the last year. But, not much progress has been made. (CaseLife does include data from various calendars, but not a very large number of them, and it does not yet provide any sort of machine-readable version of the data it collects.) This is because the problem is a difficult one.

    ]]>         A Tale of Two Wikis http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/08/31/a_tale_of_two_wikis http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/08/31/a_tale_of_two_wikis Case Tech case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:33:29 EST

    ]]>         Use of Document Cameras Considered Harmful http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/08/30/use_of_document_cameras_considered_harmful Just about everyone at Case has encountered the ubiquitous WolfVision document camera. For any non-Case readers, I'll explain: the document... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/08/30/use_of_document_cameras_considered_harmful Case Rant Tech case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:13:38 EST Just about everyone at Case has encountered the ubiquitous WolfVision document camera. For any non-Case readers, I'll explain: the document camera, present in many classrooms on campus (the so-called Level 2 and Level 3 Technology Enhanced Classrooms), is essentially a high-tech overhead projector. It's a video camera mounted on a stick, which points downward at a small surface. One places a sheet of paper, transparency, book, or whatever on the surface. The camera transmits an image of the document to a ceiling-mounted LCD projector which then projects the image onto a screen at the front of the classroom.

    The document camera is a powerful tool, but unfortunately it is also an easily abused one. I believe that abuse of the document camera is directly responsible for some of the poorer lectures I have experienced here at Case. Read on to find out why...

    ]]>         On the advantages of staying up until really early in the morning (5 AM, for example) http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/05/08/stayingup #1. You get to see the [[Spirit Rock]] fountain! OK, so it's actually just a malfunctioning sprinkler. But it's still... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/05/08/stayingup case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Mon, 08 May 2006 14:22:52 EST #1. You get to see the Spirit Rock fountain!

    Spirit Rock at night with stream of water in foreground

    OK, so it's actually just a malfunctioning sprinkler. But it's still kind of cool in that geyser-of-cold-water sort of way. As long as you don't step in the resulting mud puddle.

    ]]>         Slow/Dropped Internet Connections Lately http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/04/13/slowdropped_internet_connections_lately Over the past week or two I've noticed some abnormalities with the off-campus [[Internet]] connection. The main symptoms seem to... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/04/13/slowdropped_internet_connections_lately case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Thu, 13 Apr 2006 09:10:17 EST Over the past week or two I've noticed some abnormalities with the off-campus Internet connection. The main symptoms seem to be (1) web sites loading slowly or not at all (but working fine upon refresh), and (2) long-lived connections (VNC, IRC, instant messenger) being cut off.

    Pings to the affected servers did not seem to be dropped (I ran "ping google.com" for roughly 20 minutes, with a 100% packet return rate). However, a simple analysis with Ethereal showed a higher proportion of TCP retransmission packets than I would have otherwise expected.

    There's some discussion of this issue over at the Case Forum.

    ]]>         Energy http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/04/05/energy Yesterday I happened upon an interesting article at the European Tribune. Actually what really caught my attention was not the... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/04/05/energy Life linkage case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Wed, 05 Apr 2006 11:27:54 EST Yesterday I happened upon an interesting article at the European Tribune. Actually what really caught my attention was not the article itself, but the first comment, by De Clarke ("DeAnander").

    Clarke applied the laws of thermodynamics to industrial civilization. Her conclusion should not be surprising to anyone with even a basic knowledge of those laws, or even to anyone aware of the statement "there's no such thing as a free lunch". Though the conclusion is not surprising, it's unsettling. Maybe that's why others don't talk about it much.

    ]]>         Oh PerceptIS, how I love you... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/03/27/oh_perceptis_how_i_love_you ... let me count the ways. Submitting a problem report to FCGIS causes Safari to hang and eat up my... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/03/27/oh_perceptis_how_i_love_you Case IT Rant case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Mon, 27 Mar 2006 22:53:48 EST ... let me count the ways.

    1. Submitting a problem report to FCGIS causes Safari to hang and eat up my CPU, requiring the process to be forcibly terminated.
    2. See #1.
    3. See #2.

    Obviously the browser authors are not completely blameless, but still, this is ridiculous. Tell me again why help@case.edu was shut down?

    ]]>         Black Pearl TextMate Theme http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/03/22/black_pearl_textmate_theme I've been searching for a while for the perfect syntax highlighting color scheme for my text editor of choice, TextMate.... http://blog.case.edu/ajw33/2006/03/22/black_pearl_textmate_theme TextMate case cwru Case Western Case Western Reserve University Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:28:42 EST I've been searching for a while for the perfect syntax highlighting color scheme for my text editor of choice, TextMate. I finally found one that's close: Ruby Blue. Half an hour of modifications later, it's morphed into Black Pearl.

    Black Pearl TextMate Theme Preview

    Black Pearl II TextMate Theme Preview

    If you like it, grab the Black Pearl theme file.

    ]]>