Day: September 7, 2000

Free-Conversant.Com

On his web site, Seth Dillingham, (I think I got the URL right that time), had some nice things to say about this site. Which is pretty cool since there would not be much here without the software he wrote, Conversant, which powers this site. You can get a free web site that uses the same software this site does at Free-Conversant.Com which is a good way to test the system out to see if it is right for you.

I could go on for pages and pages about the numerous features that make this the best web composition/management software out there, but there are two that really stand out.

First, whereas before switching to Conversant I would use maybe 5 or 6 separate applications each day to do various tasks with my sites, today I do 95 percent of the tasks with my web browser and trusty TextPad. For example, something that used to be a real pain was managing all of my bookmarks. I’m use the web heavily and on a given day spend 4 to 5 hours just surfing, visiting upwards of 100 to 120 sites. For a site like LibertySearch.Com, I have a list of 25 to 30 sites I visit every morning to look for new articles.

Keeping track of those used to be a pain. I used to have separate applications manage the bookmarks, tried some of the online bookmarking services, etc. Now, though, when I visit that site and log-in I see a list of all of the sites I want to visit on the left hand side of the page. Changing, adding, or deleting the bookmarks can be done with two clicks of the mouse button. A relatively small feature, but one that really made my life a lot easier — it is very helpful to be able to integrate the background material I need to manage the site on the site itself.

Even better, the software not only is customizable, but it is easy to customize. I used to use Macromedia’s Dreamweaver for day to day editing and updating of my site. Dreamweaver is customizable, but in my experience I could never get such features to work. The macro features of most programs just hate me.

One of the things I always wanted to do, but never had the time, was use more internal links within my web site. For example, on Overpopulation.Com if I write an article on a new treatment for malaria, I want to have the first time the world malaria appears to be a link to the main page about malaria on that site. Without having to remember to highlight the word and then have to remember what I called the malaria page.

With Conversant, all I do is visit a page in my web browser in the administrative area of the web site, and select the page called “Resources.” (Conversant calls what I’m about to explain, a Resource). Click on “Add a Resource” and there is a form asking me for the name of the Resource, the URL I want it to resolve to and any alternative title text. So I type in that I want the resource to be called “Malaria” that I want it to go to “http://www.overpopulation.com/malaria.html”, and hit submit.

From now on, anytime I write about malaria, all I have to do is surround the word with pipes (the “|” character) and the software insert the link automatically. So all I could have to do is write something, like, “|Malaria| is responsible for millions of deaths each year” and Conversant handles the task of inserting the link so when people bring up the page in their browser it looks like Malaria is responsible for millions of deaths each year.

These two features — bookmarks in pages and resources — save me a lot of time and make it possible to start adding features to my site that I had not done before because of the cost in time and that’s just scratching the surface. There is a feature to automatically make site maps of an entire site or just part of a site, the web log feature which makes it simple to update a page like this several times a day, etc. (I am working on a more detailed look at the various parts of the software and how I use it to do some interesting things — hopefully that will be ready next week.)

All that, and the software is affordable. I am running on a dedicated server that I recently had the folks at Macrobyte upgrade for speed (700mhz Athlon, 256 mb, 20 gig hard drive), and the monthly fee is comparable to what you would pay to lease a similar server configuration at some place like Rackspace without the web site management software.

More on the Future of Handhelds

O’Reilly Networks publisher Dale Dougherty has a long review of the iPAQ — Compaq’s PocketPC handheld that is getting rave reviews across the board and is, as a result, in short supply. Dougherty loves the color screen and the ability to do a lot of things with the iPAQ that simply cannot be done at the moment (at least easily or without spending a lot of money) with the Palm.

More importantly, Dougherty wonders if the central idea that made the Palm a hit is getting a bit worn at the edges today:

The insight behind the Palm was to do a lot less: just focus on being a PIM. However, much has happened since the Newton and even the Palm were first introduced. While the PC has remained the same, we have seen a proliferation of small devices, including PDAs, but also cell phones, pagers, digital cameras, MP3 players, digital voice recorders, Gameboys, and specialty reading devices such as the Rocketbook. There seems to be an opportunity — a new niche — to begin combining some of these functions in a single device.

Well said. One of the devices I am really interested in are the e-book readers, and I’m going to have to resist the temptation to buy Franklin’s E-Bookman when it comes out. I use a lot of book-length reference materials that are usually in PDF or HTML form that I’d like to carry on a handheld. I cannot imagine reading a novel on something like the Rocketbook or E-Bookman, but I can see stuffing a 1,000 page reference manual in there rather than having to tote my laptop or, even worse, a physical copy of the book.

And Dougherty is right that the Palm has not kept up. The screen on my Palm IIIx is good enough for reading short articles from AvantGo while I am stuck in line at the bank, but is simply not suitable for more serious reading tasks. On the other hand, buying an iPAQ is probably investing in dead technology since although the iPAQ may be a great machine, the PocketPC platform as a whole seems to be just as dead in the water as Windows CE was (ironically one of the barriers here is that several of the applications I rely on with my Palm do not have Windows CE/Pocket PC versions).

When I needed a lot of different materials at hand during a meeting or speech I used to carry around these large 3″ ring binders. Now I typically take my laptop. It would be nice to shrink that further and put it all in the same handheld where I have my schedule, pictures of my daughter, and a computer chess program, but it looks like I’m still going to have to wait awhile longer for a good all-purpose handheld.

The Houston Texans?

CNN reports today that a name has been chosen for the National Football League expansion franchise in Houston, which was left without a team when the Oilers moved to Tennessee and renamed themselves the Titans. I thought Titans was a stupid name, but now the Houston team has decided to call itself the Houston Texans. Yuck. If I spent $700 million on a football team like Houston owner Bob McNair did, I would go out and hire the guy or girl who came up with name for the Toronto Raptors to come up with a real name so I would not get stuck with Texans (actually, if I had $700 million I would not be buying a football team — I don’t see too many of these teams that have much of a long term economic upside; I would bet the long term return investment for professional, A-level sports teams in the NFL, NBA, etc., is relatively low compared to other businesses). CNN notes that this is the franchise that the NFL tried real hard to give to Los Angeles — see, I knew that “Romeo Must Die” was based on a true story.

I love football, but right now am going through serious fantasy football withdrawal. A couple years ago a friend convinced me to join his ESPN fantasy league. The problem is I am obsessive in everything and I hate to lose. So for the last two years I would spend about an hour a day during the week keeping up on football news, making trades, etc., and then plant my butt with my laptop in front of the TV on Sundays (I reached the point where I was trying to tape ESPN football analysis).

It worked — both years I had the best record in the league, winning the championship the first year and then getting blown away thanks to injuries in the playoffs last year. But this year I decided I could probably make better use of my time in other endeavors (plus like I said I hate losing and did not enjoy getting knocked out of the playoffs).

The Horrors of Home Schooling

On December 26 my daughter, Emma, will turn four years old which has my wife and I focused on how we will provide her with an education. Our most likely avenue will be to place her in a private Montessori school — we’ve taken Emma on several visits to local Montessori schools and have always been impressed. The other option would be to home school, Although for a variety of reasons we will probably choose not to go that route, it is nice to have it as an option.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a renewed assault on home schooling brewing driven largely by the Democratic Party who apparently want to repay teacher’s unions for all of their contributions and help.

Bill Clinton started the attack with a broadside that nominally supported the notion of home schooling, but insisted that it must be “organized.” In reality, what Clinton wants is to federalize home schooling thereby giving the government the ability to pretty much regulate home schooling out of existence.

In fact the Democrats have conveniently laid out their plans for home schooling on the Democratic National Committee web site which lambasts George W. Bush because “Texas is lenient on home schoolers,” when clearly what is needed is a crackdown on those who dare teach their children without asking the government into their homes.

Among other horrors, according to the Democratic complaint

Texas has very few home school requirements…. Texas does not require teacher certification, attendance or notice to the public school the student attended, and the Texas Education Agency advises parents that the state has no role in monitoring, registration or approval of home schooled students. … [Both] … the Texas State Teachers Association and the Texas Federation of Teachers expressed worries that home-schooled students were being taught by parents who did not have college degrees or teacher training.

Lets take each of those accusations one by one.

First, Texas doesn’t require teacher certification. This is almost verbatim from the National Education Association’s criticism of home schooling. The NEA, believes that the only time parents should be able to teach children is if they are certified teachers themselves. Certification involves obtaining a college degree with a specialty in education.

For example, I have a bachelor’s degree and majored in philosophy and political science with a minor in English. My wife has a bachelor’s degree in history and by the end of the year will have her Master’s in medieval studies. In the view of the NEA and the DNC, neither of us are qualified to teach our daughter since we don’t have an education degree. Since neither of us sat through dull classes on Piaget, we’re incompetent to home school our daughter. Personally, I know a lot of good people who are teachers in both public and private school. I also know people who have no business teaching kids and whose classrooms would be much better off being taught by a parent with or without a college degree (I’ve tutored a lot of the kids in my neighborhood on various subjects, and in too many cases it’s clear the teachers don’t really understand the material they’re teaching).

Finally, the DNC objects that nobody is “monitoring” the performance of children in home schooling environments. On the one hand, various studies of home schooled children vs. non-home schooled children have suggested that, on average, home schooled children do better on standardized tests such as the SAT than their public or private schooled peers. This shouldn’t be surprising given the large amount of individualized attention such students get.

On the other hand the proposal that performance of home schooled kids be monitored more closely is the rankest of hypocrisy. Bill Clinton, for example, has said that home schooled children should be tested regularly and those that fail to meet minimum standards be put into public schools. Of course the Democrats and the teachers unions have fought tooth and nail any number of schemes that public school teachers and/or schools should be penalized when they repeatedly fail to education children. It is the NEA’s position that if my daughter, say, can’t read at grade level that I should be forced to send her to the local public school, but their only solution to the 40 percent of freshman at that local high school who fail basic reading tests is to socially promote them. Suggest that teacher pay be penalized or school funding be reassessed if the local high school can’t do something about the 45 percent of freshman who cannot pass basic math skills tests and the teachers union will scream bloody murder.

It is precisely because government-run schools in many parts of the country fail abysmally at their most basic task that the number of children being home schooled has risen rapidly over the last 20 years, with some estimates putting the figure as high as 3 million. Certainly some parents will be unprepared for home schooling and not every home school environment will be an idea, but parents would really have to bend over backward to come close to the reprehensible record that the public schools, especially in urban areas, have foisted on parents and students alike.