Thoughts on teaching, technology, learning and life in an era of change.

Archive for February, 2005

No freedom of choice with Windows XP SP2 update
February 27th, 2005

“Windows XP systems configured to auto update will be unable to prevent the downloading of service pack 2 from April 12 onwards, according to information available from Microsoft” (Sydney Morning Herald, February 23rd). Microsoft will force users of Windows XP to update their operating system. They will have no choice and will be unable to “prevent the change”. This company is an example of megalomania. Consumers forced to accept change. No choice. This is unbelievable. Time to change to another operating system. Get a Mac or switch to Linux. More.

Singapore February 2005 Day Seven
February 27th, 2005

I walked around Mount Sophia, Mackenzie Road and Short Street area of Singapore taking photographs. I often went through Mackenzie Road in a taxi and I had promised myself I would photograph some of the old buildings there. A bypasser advised that I should walk around the Sophia Road area.

The flight home was better than the flight to but as always there was a bunch of thoughtless, noisy imbeciles who do not realise that the majority of passengers want to sleep when it is 4:30AM in the morning. Well, I got that off my chest. Last time I fly British Airways by choice.

Singapore February 2005 Day Six
February 26th, 2005

I conducted my last workshop yesterday. Digital Still Photography. It went well and I am sure the participants picked up some skills. There were participants from other workshops present yesterday. It was a pleasure to see them again.

Afterwards Daniel, Vivien, Sharon, Paul, Woan Ling, Alan, Daniel’s son, Jonathan, and I went to Tiffany’s at the Furama Hotel for dinner. We ate well and we laughed well. I was exhausted by the end of the night and I crashed at the hotel.

Flying home today. British Airways. Can’t have all the luck. Hope this red-eye flight is not that bad. Today I will do some shopping and take a few photographs.

Singapore February 2005 Day Four
February 23rd, 2005

The second workshop was a great experience. The venue was packed and it was full on the whole time. I dispensed with the presentation… summarised the main points on butcher’s paper and focused on the illustrative examples, the curriculum integration components and the fact that the tool must match the task if the application of technology in the classroom is to succeed. A number of the particpants are captured below.

I will have dinner in Chinatown tonight.

Safari does not force refresh the proxy
February 23rd, 2005

Safari presented a mystery to me today. Look at my two emails to Dave, David, Siva and Phil and the explanation below:

“Dear all,

How are you all? Safari, Firefox and caches, etc. I have reset Safari, emptied the caches for both and even forcibly emptied the caches from the library. But tell me why… If I type “www.larkin.net.au” into the location bar I get a completely different (updated) page to the one I get when I type “www.larkin.net.au/index.html”. I get the latest page when I add index.html. But, with respect to other pages I get the older page when I add “index.html” to the url in the address bar. Is Safari over caching? Is it the proxy server? Is it safari’s memory? What is it? I am mystified. Does not happen in IE or on a PC. Any ideas?
Cheers
John”

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“Dear all,

Further on this… Running Cocktail, etc, makes no difference. Is the file stored in RAM? Restarting the machine made no difference. If one adds index.html to the url you get a different page. Why?
Cheers
John”

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Dave’s informative reply:

“Hi Guys,
Unfortunately Safari is unable to force refresh a proxy server — It has no ‘super refresh’ (option-refresh) like most other browsers. I have flagged this with some Apple Developers who claimed it would be looked at with the last Safari update, but I don’t think it is resolved yet.
Actually Windows IE can be just as bad as Mac IE (which is a dead product). On Windows IE, you hold the shift key while clicking refresh to force the proxy to reload. Other variables include the type of proxy server too. Almost all Mac browsers other than Safari will super refresh or the refresh itself forced the proxy — but still not Safari.
So until Apple do fix this, we really need a second browser to occasionally use as needed. Oh, in a classroom where kids publish web pages, only ONE computer is needed to ‘force the refresh’ (of the server). Once the server has ‘got’ the new page, others will get the same. Adding .html can be a once off request, but does NOT FIX the problem.
Regards..David”
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and Siva’s nice addendum!

“Hey Johhny boy,
What David has written sounds right. I find that in 40% of the time, I may have to type ctrl-R furiously a few times before I see a refresh. 5% of the time, it never seems to change and I switch over to Firefox or Camino. They are more responsive and usually a better idea to use when you are doing this a lot. Suspect besides Safari’s inabilities, the server or its distance may be a factor because on most days, its magnificent and all’s well. It’s a much better idea to view changes locally until 100% satisfied before upload the pages – somehow I never do this.
Cheerio!
Siva”