Mar
1
(2006)
Just saw a tip about creating “feed books” in Elgg - subscribing to a bunch of RSS feeds that will be used to populate a blog. It allows filtering by keywords, so you don’t have to have your offsite cat blog post aggregated along with your Chem 350 research notes.
Combined with the cool community stuff in Elgg, I’m wondering how close this might get to EduGlu?
ps. I’m reading Cryptonomicon too much lately. The title of this post almost looks Outer Qwghlmian. Code talkers beware…
Comments
8 Responses to “ElgguGlu?”
I’m assuming you saw my post http://www.edtechpost.ca/mt/archive/000753.html or will soon; snap!
Cryptonomicon rocks! I keep trying to convince Brian that it is the “best book evar” but he’s not buying. If you think you are reading too much of it, just wait until you get stuck into the Baroque Cycle, bwahhaaa! I mean, can you not read a book that has its own wiki?
Scott - saw your post about 10 minutes after I clicked “Submit” - we’re still in sync
I think I’ll be buying a copy of everything ever written by Stephenson…
I’ve been thinking about EduGlu-ish things lately, D’Arcy, and the way it can tie in to elgg is spectacularly cool. Thanks for the tip.
And if you want to read some good Neal Stephenson non-fiction (that is, unabashedly non-fiction as opposed to his essays that lurk hidden within his fiction works), check out “In the beginning was the command line”. Anyone who writes any kind of code - HTML, PHP, Java, whatever - or works with computers should read this. There is a nice version in a wiki at http://www.spack.org/wiki/InTheBeginningWasTheCommandLine
D’Arcy — you may just have saved my butt with this timely reference. I hope I’m not so buzzed and distracted that I forget it in two days. If this does what you and Scott describe, this is exactly what I need right now.
Scott — your post is also well-timed, wish I could comment on it directly. You’re awesome.
Scott #2 (and D’Arcy too) — as you guys recall, I love Cryptonomicon as a book of techo-ideas, and as a “ripping good story”. But my inner literary snob refuses to budge. But then again, NOBODY wants to hang around with my inner literary snob, not even other literary snobs. D’Arcy, I’m really pleased you seem to be liking the book as much as I thought you might.
Rob — thanks for that pointer, I did not know it. You are astute to connect it with the “hidden essays” Stephenson embeds in his narratives (which, now that I think about it, are what I enjoy most in his books).
Brian - I think it had one of the best opening chapters I’ve ever read. I absolutely LOVE that the book doesn’t spoonfeed anything, assumes you’re up to speed and then warps into an apparently unrelated tangent (or 4) only to subtly suggest about 300 pages later that these things may be somehow related. Stephenson has created a backstory as deep and compelling as anything Tolkein came up with. I had to Google/Wikipedia before I realized he fabricated the Qwghlms. I’m only frustrated because I only have time to read 20-50 pages a day - and with this book that means it’s going to be awhile before I get through it…
I’ll download a copy of Elgg and try to populate it as I did with my DrupalGlu prototype to see how the community features behave on top of the aggregated feeds.
Rob - I stumbled across some online resources left behind in the wake of Cryptonomicon - including a fan-run server posing as the Ordo mailserver. Love that Qwghlm has its own page on the Wikipedia, too
I’ll check out the Command Line ASAP. Thanks!
Dude, what are you saying, Qwghlm is fictitious, my entire family is from there! Qwghlm hlmigh flimly dwelopha bwarrr!!
Inner or Outer? In the Inner dialact, I believe you said “Qwghlm is not fictitious at all, you insensitive clod!”
In Outer, it translates as “Why, yes, I would enjoy another salted cod. And would you be so kind as to sheer the sheep while you’re up. The weather is rather brisk this morning.” Or something like that. I get convused on the leading gutterals sometimes…
Well Outer of course! Those damn feinian Inner Qwghlmians, how dare you confuse my family with them! And you’re right, you got slightly confused by the leading gutteral, it should have read… but this is a family publication after all!