I demand a lot from my web browser, with so many applications being online these days, not to mention I do web development so I live in my browser. The following is a review of and posted with Google Chrome after trying it as my sole* web browser for a week. It was tested mostly on Mac OS X, but I did some work on my XP machines as well.

*Almost, I opened Firefox to deal with unsupported stuff.

First off, Chrome is FAST. Fast to open, fast to remember tabs and close, fast to load pages. It just feels much snappier than Firefox. I was impressed right off the bat.

I quickly set up syncing of my bookmarks which was amazing but makes me realize I need to clean my bookmarks out! I have wanted something like that for a while – I hate having bookmarked something at work only to realize I need it at home. I’m sure there are other services out there for this, but it’s so convenient for it to go through my Google Account, which I use for pretty much everything!

Once I got used to not tabbing to the search bar after opening a new tab, I came to really like the integrated address/search bar. My Android-powered phone’s browser does this, so the paradigm is familiar. Most of the time I found that it was easy enough to differentiate suggested search terms, history items, and favorites from the drop-down menu when I began typing. I found I didn’t much miss selecting a search engine like in Firefox – I didn’t even bother setting up Chrome’s keywords for search engines, but probably would in the long run as even more of a time-saver.

Overall I really like how Chrome handles opening a new tab, dealing with recently closed tabs, and hinting from your history. It feels very smooth and easy to access, perhaps more than in Firefox.

I was very curious about Chrome’s philosophy of keeping different tabs in different process threads. Would this be better than Firefox, which would often choke on Flash or other intensive processes and take down all tabs and windows? My answer is yes – Flash did crash in Chrome a couple of times during the week and I was able to easily restart just that process with a simple click on a user-friendly error message. And all of my tabs and windows persisted, yay!

However, I will say that some pages and applications do damage to whatever browser you’re using. Chrome did get sluggish when multiple YouTube tabs were open, or if I had a few different AJAX-heavy pages doing processing at once, just as Firefox would. One difference in handling I saw was that in Chrome when lots was going on I would see a blank white screen for an instant when switching tabs, rather than the rendered page right away. In Firefox, I believe, you see the page right away but page controls may be disabled for a second instead as it changes gears (tabs). In general for performance issues I think I should mostly address my suggestions for improvement at Adobe rather than the browser teams, though!

Then there was the ease of installing extensions in Chrome. I don’t have to wait for it to save my tabs and restart in order to install something? This is great, I thought!

However, the extensions themselves sometimes leave something to be desired.

I love Adblock Plus for Firefox – thanks to it I’ve nearly forgotten that internet ads exist! However, the alternative for Chrome (simply titled AdBlock) just doesn’t catch as many ads out there. There’s also no handy toggle rendered into pages to add certain scripted elements to the block list, that must be done manually. I’m not thrilled.

I am also a heavy user of the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar (so much in fact, I forget that these features aren’t built in to every browser and get frustrated when using non-web-dev friends’ computers). So of course I installed the port of this extension for Chrome and at the end of the week have ended up somewhat disappointed. The interface for the Chrome version is perhaps a bit nicer and less intrusive by default, however, it’s missing a couple of features I’ve grown to love from the Firefox version, namely “View Generated Source” (which you can do natively with Chrome’s “Inspect Element”, but still), “Outline Custom Elements”, and a quick disabling of Javascript. Perhaps with some work this extension will be up to par, but I did find myself opening Firefox for some of these features during the week.

Staying with the web dev theme, I was annoyed at the omission of “View Selection Source” from Chrome’s right-click context menu. I use this all the time in Firefox. I had some troubles with the “Inspect Element” option in the context menu, which seemed to be something of an analog. Sometimes it would bring up that panel, but not have the current element selected. In that case it would have been just as easy to bring up the panel without use of this shortcut menu! I think Chrome’s developers believe they gave web developers a fuller set of tools in the form of the Developer Tools area (“Inspect Element” is part of this). However, when that’s not as easily accessible or navigable as Firefox add-ons written for a similar purpose, it just isn’t as efficient for the user. If I continue using Chrome I will give the Developer Tools more of a shot to make sure it’s not just the case of my learning curve getting in the way, but we’ll see how intuitive they are.

I’m not sure how this ended up to be the final thing on the list, but I must rant about things that are not supported in Chrome. First, Netflix Watch it Now won’t even attempt playing in Chrome, you just get a message about an unsupported browser. Okay, so maybe over time Netflix will support it, indeed, the Netflix player has gotten a lot better with support over the past few years. But the next two “unsupporteds” really grind my gears: Gmail offline access and Google Analytics. I’m shaking my head here because Google developed the browser! Sure, they have a million services, but don’t you think they’d go to the trouble to see that their applications work at least, if not work the best, in their own browser? Really, guys? Offline access just isn’t available for Chrome. In Google Analytics the list of accounts and the charts don’t render. These areas especially definitely need some more work!

In conclusion, will I be sticking with Chrome for another week or hightailing it back to Firefox? Well, it’s probably a bit of a mixed bag. I think I’ll stick with Chrome now to get more acquainted with some of the features I may be able to maximize, and because in general its performance seems better on this aging computer. When doing web dev I’ll probably keep both open all the time. For certain applications I have to use Firefox for now.

Something else that’s come out of this is also reflection on my own use of the browser. Do I really need so many tabs open at once all the time? Do I need my old session to respawn every time I quit and restart the browser? And geez, I need to organize my bookmarks!

1. Logistics and tips for visiting
2. Review of the work as an observer
3. Experience of participating
4. Aftermath

Logistics and tips for visiting

What they don’t tell you anywhere, but if you’re a mathematician you can infer, is that you have to get there early. You might dream of visiting the museum in the afternoon and just walking into her sacred square. Not so! At an average of 20 minutes per visit, only 24 people would get to see her each day. If you get some long-staying devotees, it’s far fewer. This means you have to be first in line. You have to be a member or get advance tickets, get there when doors to the museum lobby open (9:30?), and despite the insistence of the guards (sorry, guards), push your way to the top of the exhibit stairs when it’s go time at about 10:30. If you’re sitting at the end of the L-shaped line after that you probably won’t get in that day. You have to really want it.

Review of the work as an observer

The setup of the performance is both tender and sterile. It is intensely personal in nature – two people sitting relatively close maintaining eye contact. It’s a type of personal that we rarely get these days from anyone but close friends or lovers – never artists or idols. The lack of a time limit in which to complete the performance, or “task” is also a rarity in our fast-paced, action-packed, web 2.0 lives. Every moment must traditionally be filled with something – rushing around between trains and checking our iPhones for updates on multiple media platforms. Those unusual parameters of the work make for a tenderness we’re not used to. But several things take it out of that intimate space as well. By the nature of it being a performance and being in a museum the work is observed. Having others watch the work is a distraction to that intimacy. Being there it doesn’t feel voyeuristic at all, but instead sort of like the masses outside the square are more crude next to the sacred space within. And crude they are – taking photos when that is forbidden, checking their phones, chatting loudly. We even observed people try to run into the square at random and one girl ignore the exhibit altogether in favor of reading a book. The sleek, modern architecture of MoMA’s atrium, the heavy-duty lighting rigs in each corner of the square (cold light, too), the cameras mounted on the walls, and Marco Anelli’s telephoto lens all lend a starkness to the scene.  There’s something very cold and sterile about exposing the technological and architectural setting of the piece so blatantly. How different would it have been if Abramović sat in a small, cushy room with hidden cameras and a plush couch to greet her visitors!

Having the technology so visible brought into focus other questions. What would she do with these hours of video (if it was even archived, or just web-streamed)? And what of those portraits, one for each visitor? Even the way the visitors are referred to on that site – by the time they stayed for, the day, and their order on that day – begs some sort of statistical analysis or meta-project to be undertaken. It really makes me wonder what her view on the technology is. Is it a sharing mechanism to her? How would she feel about visitors tweeting and Facebooking that they were at the performance or reviewing their time with her as I am? It seems like there must be more going on in her intent than pure publicity or going hi-tech because that’s what artists do these days. She does talk about archiving performance art – that pictures or video don’t do it justice but more the accounts of the people that were there, and also the concept of re-performance. Still, it seems that the technology must mean something.

Another intention question I have revolves around the experiences surrounding getting to sit with her. Because there would be mass chaos otherwise, there is this system of a line with a museum guard as gatekeeper of the space. The line is an interesting thing because for the visitor (and co-performer when inside the square), the line is part of the total experience. (More on this in a personal light in the next section.) In practice, it calls up references to our other experiences of waiting – for a flight, in line for a concert, even amusement park lines. Camaraderie forms when spots are held for strangers’ restroom breaks. Boredom, time-passing activities like reading or smart-phone playing, position-shifting, and watch-checking all happen. But does something connect this experience with that of sitting in the chair? If Abramović had her way, would the line exist, or would it be a lazy afternoon wander into the square by anyone interested in no particular order? As for the museum guard, he gets to direct the traffic in and out of the space and convey the artist’s directions to the next visitor. What role does that give him in the performance? I would argue, some! How is it so different for people to hear the instructions spoken rather than read information about a work on a placard next to a painting? Because the guard is outside the square, is he somehow part of the world of the masses instead of her quiet world within, and then perhaps his mannerism, dress, and wording do not need to be considered as much as I think?

Finally, I’d like to discuss some associations we can make to the work. The easy comparison to make is a staring contest. Several people around me referred to this, and I think some participants engaged the concept – seeing for themselves how long they could sit and “challenge” Abramović. My friend who works at MoMA said herself, “Marina always wins.”

The fact that her body is the art, and perhaps somewhat her dress – timeless, long, white, flowing, angelic? calls up images of classical paintings. The eternal fascination of the female figure in art is both contributed to and re-imagined by Abramović.

As a dancer, I also interpret the work in that light. Many years of being in the contemporary/postmodern dance world taught me that anything can be performance, that a body moving is always, in a way, “dance.” I found the moments where Abramović rests between visitors to speak particularly to that. She bows her head and closes her eyes. If the person before has stayed for a long time she hoists herself up with her hands and then to a squat in front of her chair. She often wraps her arms over her head, and sometimes touches her still-bowed face or brushes her hair aside before seeing the next person. Those subtle movements reinforce the ritual nature of the piece. I think the artist was very mindful and specifically chose these actions to rest, and they are effective for the audience (though I’m unsure if they’re optimal for her body). It would be much more jarring to the viewer, for example, if she lept out of her chair and cracked her back each time! I know that she must rest and move for her own sake, but I think it really works as part of the performance as well. We see her hardship a bit in this moment of respite.

Experience of participating

Some of my experience came about by accident. We got there very early, so I didn’t get enough rest the night before (and I’m no morning person!) Also, I hadn’t eaten breakfast for timing reasons and had transportation drama getting to the museum. Needless to say I was a bit spaced out and not in peak physical condition when I got there. I wasn’t talking much and was very focused on just getting a place in line. As the day wore on, my quiet and withdrawn temperament transformed from being a factor of my tiredness and stressed-ness to being actually part of the experience. It’s hard to explain, but after viewing the performance for a while and realizing you’re going to be in that room for hours, it just doesn’t seem right to bust out the phone games or leave the line to get McDonald’s. It’s as if that would take away from the event, the experience, or be disrespectful to Abramović. After all, she doesn’t get to eat, drink, or use the restroom that whole time! I also didn’t feel like talking to strangers in the line. Granted, this was probably partly because I was cranky and not feeling great, but something about chatting casually felt like it would cheapen the experience. So I ignored when fellow waiters glanced over to see who was listening to their open-ended discussion. In summary, from 10:30 to about 3:30 (when Anthony finished his sit) I sat on the hard granite floor; cold; did not eat, drink, pee, or leave the atrium; and barely spoke. It was self-imposed and very difficult, but in retrospect I think enhanced my concentration and understanding of the total experience.

At times I didn’t think I could make it through the waiting. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever waited for anything longer. Near the beginning when one woman sat for an hour and a half I thought, I just can’t do it. I’ll go home and still have the day ahead of me. I really thought that would be the end of it, but I’m so glad I stuck it out.

Finally around 2:30 or so it was my turn. I was nervous, shaking slightly, maybe also out of hunger. I think the nerves were more feeling intimidated by Abramović than stage fright. The guard spoke the instructions to me in a low voice. You must make eye contact. You must be still. You cannot talk. Stay for as long as you wish. When you’re done, bow your head to thank the artist and she will know you’re finished.

So many things raced through my head – how long should I stay? Would any friends see me on the web feed? Is staying longer selfish? Is staying shorter a sign of weakness? What will feel right? How will I sit? Will I feel like crying too?

I purposely slowed my gait as I walked into the square. I sat – the chair wasn’t comfortable and neither was I. I looked in her eyes.

She was tired, I could tell. It was almost the end of the day, almost the end of the project. I tried to tell her a story with my eyes, a million thoughts raced through my head, mostly in words instead of pictures. Could she hear any of it? The background went out of focus, though things would catch my eye – a guard shifting position, a wrinkle on Abramović’s dress. It was both a struggle and a pleasure to stay focused.

Her eyes shifted between staring for the sake of staring and really seeing me. In the latter, one of the lights made a glimmer in her left eye, making it all the more enchanting. What was she really seeing? We blinked at the same time – three or four times in total. Those were uncanny moments.

Partway through I thought I saw her start to crack a smile. It was like a Mona Lisa smile, barely there, filled with silent mystery. So subtle I don’t think anyone but me could have seen. I thought I may have imagined it but Anthony later described seeing it too. I tried to make the same face back. I wanted so badly to communicate.

I found myself simultaneously wondering and trying to estimate how long it had been and telling myself not to think about it. I took some deep breaths. My time seemed cyclical, like a pulse repeating every few minutes. I waited another invisible cycle, thought about leaving, waited another, and bowed my head. It would be easier on her, I thought, to see someone else now. It turned out to be 16 minutes, I had not a clue at the time.

During and after the experience the strongest emotions I felt were sympathy and compassion for Abramović. I wanted to help her in her massive undertaking, to support her when she was worn out, and it was sad and frustrating to only be able to do so with my eyes. It was almost as if I cared not for the people in line (though we spent so many hours together) or the people viewing the piece, but I wanted my decisions to be only what was best for the artist and what she wanted. Needless to say, making faces while in the square (a thought that initially occurred to me) had been ruled out.

Aftermath

I found that Anthony and I had very similar ways of describing the experience, though we were almost too worn out to talk about it over burritos afterward. The whole thing has been on my mind in the days since – I find myself refreshing the web feed periodically to see who is sitting. Seeing myself in the Flickr gallery the subsequent Tuesday was very surreal. People I would have never thought ask about how my visit was.

I will return to the museum tomorrow, not to sit but to witness this and Abramović’s other works. It may be strange. In any case, I think this experience will be with me for a long time. I have a sense that I was part of something very unique.

Marina, if you ever see this, thank you.

All the clichés being said, I have been brainstorming some ways to make this a less expensive gift-giving season and would like to share my ideas.

1. Baking or cooking

   People always need to eat, and good food is a great gift for that recipient to bring home to their family. Trust me, as long as it’s not fruitcake, it will get eaten. You could go simple and bake up a batch of chocolate chip cookies from the recipe on the back of the bag, or go more sentimental: I like to think of things we helped make as children (as gifts for our teachers and classmates for example), things I love that my mom used to make, and foods that comfort me. This year I bought apples in the early autumn, made batches of applesauce and froze them in small containers in anticipation of the holiday season. Other past successes include banana bread and chocolate covered popcorn. Even if you’re not talented in the kitchen, there is something that you can make from a box or simple recipe!

2. Make it yourself

   Think about what are you good at. Maybe you knit or crochet. Perhaps you have some drawing skills. I make websites. Is there someone on your list that would enjoy the fruits of your talents? Remember, it’s not being cheap, it’s actually more special if you make it yourself!

3. Can’t do it yourself? Someone has!

   I bet you have that crafty friend. Think about commissioning some of their work (they may even give you a friend discount) for that perfect gift! For an even wider variety of crafts and crafters, check out Etsy.com. Prices are usually reasonable and the selection is great.

4. Scale it back

   If last year you gave a $25 gift card and you’re looking to save money, think about scaling back to just $20. Maybe you gave someone a larger present and a smaller stocking stuffer – just one of those could be sufficient this year. Generally people won’t even notice the change, and if they do, they’ll understand it’s a rough time for all.

5. Group gifts

   This strategy can be approached in a couple of ways. First, buddy up with a friend to purchase for another friend. You’ll be able to afford something slightly nicer while still achieving an individual cost savings. Or pool money in the office for a gift for the boss. For loved ones, you might propose a different sort of collaboration: agree that your gift to each other will be one item that benefits you both or the whole household: nicer television, housewares, or a piece of furniture. If approached correctly, it will feel not only like a worthwhile investment, but a real gift to each other (try wrapping the item together, not using it until the holiday, and “opening” it together for best effect).

How are you saving money on the holidays this year? Feel free to share your tips and techniques, or ways you’ve used mine!

I knew that meant less people would recognize what I was, but thought it would be worth it! Here’s a bit about my process, pictures of the final product, and a bit about our night at the NYC Village Halloween parade.

One of the most important parts for me was that the suit be one piece. It would be easy to buy a hoodie and sweatpants as the base of the suit, but I had my heart set on the look of that complete suit with a front zip. So I located online and ordered a pair of hooded footie pajamas. Unfortunately, those did not come in that beautiful green, so I went with light blue and crossed my fingers that I could dye the jammies. While waiting for those to arrive in the mail (yay, backordered) I constructed the rest of the parts of the suit:

Cactus "ears": foam balls, felt, stuffing

Star hair bow: foam sheets and sharpie!

Logo zipper pull: foam and silver nail polish

For the “ears” and the large cones on the body I sewed felt pieces over foam spheres and cones, respectively. The ears were particularly difficult – I found a beach ball-like pattern online that I followed to make the felt fit really smoothly over the foam balls. Before sewing it on, I added small felt cones stuffed with regular stuffing. The star hair bow and logo zipper pull were made from colored foam sheets. Sharpie and silver nail polish added accents. Though it was a lot of sewing, and hand sewing at that, it went relatively fast!

The real problems happened when the footie pajamas arrived. They were late (backordered), and 100% polyester. Though I had no experience with dyeing fabric, I knew polyester would be a problem. I gave it a go anyway with some trusty RIT, but no dice. None of it was being absorbed and the PJs remained light blue! With less than 24 hours until the parade, I made an emergency craft store trip. Two options came home with me: neon green fabric spray paint and real deal forest green spray paint. The rest of the evening was spent a) freaking out and b) spraying down the suit in the dark and wind on the roof. Whew!

By morning the PJs weren’t looking too bad. They were definitely more green than blue, so I got to work furiously sewing on the “ears”, spikes, and hair bow. I finished just in the nick of time and am pretty happy with how it turned out!

Cactus girl!

Fangirl pose!

Does she pose like this?

Extreme closeup!

The parade was fun – this was my third year walking in it. It is a beautiful thing, that anyone can dress up as anything and be in the parade. While the rain, the crowded-ness, and the waiting for our turn is not my favorite part, it was totally worth it to see my fellow New Yorkers of all ages and races out and braving the rain to see the spectacle. There were some cute, funny, and crazy costumes. My favorites were the numerous Mario groups, a Kate (of Jon and Kate plus 8), and a couple: woman in a fur coat with red paint on it, man carrying bucket with fake red paint strands. He mimed paint throwing all through the parade.

A handful of folks recognized my costume – mostly girls and all under 30 I imagine. Some even posed for pictures with me

Walking to line up for the parade. Plus Storm Shadow boyfriend!

Walking in the parade (too bad this guy got in the way!)

Overall, a worthwhile experience!

So I present to you, Simone Legno’s (Tokidoki creator) text from the back of my Carina toy‘s box:

The cactus is a dign of protection. Kids are naive and vulnerable and need protection. A monster into a cactus suit would not have made sense in my vision of things. SANDy and her friends zip themselves into cactus suits because they think the world is a cold and scary place, and they need some armor to face it. The cactus is a conserver of water, and water means life. The Cactus Friends for me are the representation of life and pure like water.

I love that it’s kind of Engrish-y (he is a native Italian) – it makes it all the sweeter!

This is a narrative tale of woe and triumph, but also contains advice for those who may be experiencing the nightmare of importing messages to Entourage from Apple’s Mail (and possibly other email clients, particularly those who use mbox files for storing messages). So read on!

Our tale starts long ago, before I even worked at this institution. Employees have always, as far back as I’ve ever known, had simple POP email access. No IMAP, no Exchange, just good ol’ squirrel mail on the web and POP-ing into the client of your choice. A few years back the topic of converting to Exchange came up, though without any timeline discussed. Since that was a possibility and Eudora (ack) was the current client of choice, we all went to Outlook 2003 at the time – around 2005 or so I believe? Mind you, we only used Outlook as a client, still just with POP.

Time chugs along and I eventually get a shiny new MacBook Pro in 2007 to replace my aging Dell desktop. With a new computer and OS came a new choice of email client. We still weren’t on Exchange (look at that non-timeline!) and I knew “Mac people” whined about Entourage, so Mac Mail / Mail.app ended up being my plan. However, at least at the time, there were major issues getting messages from Outlook into Mail. Since it was so long ago I can’t even tell you what all I tried and what all failed. I have the feeling there was a Thunderbird somewhere in there, a million executions of export and import commands in various programs, and maybe more. I do know what finally worked, though, as its influence still shows on my emails today… More on that later. It was this little $10 program, Outlook2Mac. Yes, out of desperation I went with a pay solution. It was a good deal though, the product worked for me when nothing else would, no question.

Let’s skip ahead through nearly two years of happily using Mail. Finally the institution is ready for the great Exchange switchover. This means in lieu of 10.6 Snow Leopard’s Mail Exchange support I had to get ready for Entourage. I was optimistic, it couldn’t be as bad as Mac fanboys made it out to be! So I sat down with our Help Desk manager and we began to import my messages – all 12,000+ of them (heh heh). Things were going smoothly at first, other than lots of waiting for import and sync processes. But then I noticed something weird: about 1/2 of my messages had a received date of (drumroll) the date of import. And that just won’t do. There’s no way I could find anything in that mess!

After poking at the message list with our Help Desk guy for a little bit, I realized what the pattern was. All of the messages I imported from Outlook to Mail in 2007 had that day’s (the import) date as the received date. It was past time to go home for the day so we sighed and decided to attack it the next day.

First thing the next morning, I realized a couple of things:

• I can show the “Sent” column in Entourage rather than the “Received” column and sort by that in order to get the messages to behave and appear in their correct date order.
• However, when they sync with the Exchange server, it does grab the incorrect “Received” date, so when using web access the column sort trick is totally pointless.
• The headers of these Outlook -> Mail messages contained far less information than traditional headers which was probably the problem. Outlook2Mac seems to have stripped off much of that information, leaving only a “Date” field, not a full path of transit, as it were.

Perhaps the most painful part is that I had backups of my Outlook messages in several formats up until a month or so ago, when I said to myself, “ah, my email works fine, I can get rid of these!” Otherwise I would have tried to import them to Entourage in like .pst or some other format. *sigh*

So instead I talked to our Exchange admin to see if he had any ideas. He found and sent over an Applescript called CorrectTheDate. I didn’t even really know that such things existed – editable scripts you can run against your messages? Cool. Windows would never do that for me. I found that this script, however, did not work. We tried editing it slightly, which only resulted in it setting a couple of message’s dates to 2012. Not so helpful.

Well, the Exchange admin went on vacation, and he probably would have gotten sick of me anyway, so I decided to follow the scripting lead and see what I could do. Bear in mind I know some PHP but have never worked with Applescript at all, and wasn’t really prepared to train myself on the entire language just to fix my emails. Therefore I mostly geared my web searches towards pre-written scripts or just descriptions of similar problems, hoping someone would have made a solution already. I was about running out of steam – turning up lots of results about similar problems but no solutions that would work for me – when I found another script. This one is called Modify Date Received and, when applied to a message, prompts you to enter a new date and time for the message to appear to be sent at. I tested this on a message and indeed, it worked. But there was no way I was going through and changing the dates manually on 6000 messages.

So I got an idea: mash the scripts together! Perhaps I could do this without really having to know Applescript! See, CorrectTheDate is good at looping through multiple messages and (maybe) finding out what the date should be from the “Date” field in the header, what Entourage calls the “Sent” date. And Modify Date Received is good at changing the correct dang field! After an hour or so of fiddling with the scripts, inserting “display” commands (the equivalent of echo, print or more like alert in Javascript) at every turn, and admittedly, learning a bit of Applescript in the process, I had a really rough thing that was… drumroll… working! I was able to select big groups of badly dated messages and fix them, and the script doesn’t take too long to execute even on big batches. As always, though, it then took a while to sync those changes back to Exchange.

For those who are interested/plagued by the same problem, you can download my hacked I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing code in a minute, after disclaimers:

1. I don’t know what I’m doing. I know it’s not the best way to code this, but don’t throw eggs please!
2. It worked for me, it may not work for you. No guarantees.
3. Code heavily taken from CorrectTheDate and Modify Date Received. Thanks to those coders!

If you’re going to use this, place it in your Entourage Script Menu Items folder, usually in Documents/Microsoft User Data. Please run this script on the messages BEFORE you sync with the Exchange server (as in, either while not connected to the Internet or run it on the folders in On My Computer > Mail Import before moving the imported folders to the Exchange account area).

Download Emily’s messy but working Entourage “Received Date” fix script

If you used this script or experienced similar problems/solutions, please comment!

1. Divide to do list into manageable, cross-off-able, subtasks.
2. Stop letting to do list manage my life.

Heh, heh, we’ll see. Do to do lists rule your life? How do you handle this conundrum? Am I just OCD?

In response to my own fascination about writing such long entries I installed the Post Word Count plugin. Now you’ll see a word count near the bottom of each of the individual post pages.

When updating the fairly simple (non-dynamic, PayPal cart) online catalog page for one of my clients recently, I discovered it needed a semantic HTML, standards, and accessibility makeover. The first two changes were relatively easy, as I’ve performed similar procedures on many websites. However, I came across a sort of stumbling block as I looked at including accessibility features in the catalog, particularly when it came to images.

Usually alt attributes on images are essential for accessibility. I usually describe alt text as a way to let people who are not actually seeing the image have an alternative experience of it. This means if the image is a graphic and contains text (buttons, logos, etc.), the alt text should definitely contain that text. If it’s a photograph I recommend giving a fairly detailed sentence or phrase literally describing the content. If the image is a spacer or has a caption that would be like what you’d usually use for the alt text nearby, good practice is to use an empty alt value (alt=”").

What about images of products in my client’s online catalog? On one hand, the names of the products are adjacent to the pictures of them. So, the product name could serve as enough of a caption and I could use an empty alt value. I could do this on the product detail page too, and rely on both the product’s name and extended description to serve as that sort of “caption.”

While this solution was my first impulse, I had some hesitation. The particular items we’re selling (hands-on early elementary education materials) are often described on the individual item page in terms of their use and relationship to the other materials, not necessarily by their physical or visual description. Therefore, is it enough to simply rely on our existing verbiage to support the photograph? Could one imagine a case where someone with a disability or simply one who chooses not to have images shown would want to select items based on physical description rather than details of use? Is it right to even ask  those questions or try to figure out a case for that when we should strive for Universal Access (the principle of designing something to be the best for everyone, not making a particular accommodation for a particular group)? Should the item descriptions be reworded to include both types of information? Would that amount of information, either in the description or in the alt text, be too cumbersome for someone using a screen reader? Does that then mean I make the visual description, well, less descriptive? Then does that sacrifice something?

Not knowing quite how to deal with this, I did some searching around for how other folks dealt with the issue. There’s fairly little online literature on this particular conundrum, but I did find a few things. Many, it seemed, were dealing with products whose descriptions were naturally more visual and therefore did not quite answer my conundrum. The web designers in those cases seemed to often use an empty alt text.

So far I’ve sort of settled on the following solution: On the main, gallery-style catalog page I changed the link to each item detail page so that a single instance of the link tag surrounds both the product thumbnail and name. Then I made the alt text for the thumbnail images blank. On the item detail pages I also went with blank alt text, in hopes that the existing descriptions would be enough. What do you think? Do you agree with my choice or one of the other options? Have other ideas about how to deal with this? I’d love to hear.

Further reading: Top Ten Mistakes of Shopping Cart Design Revisited, Accessify Forums on revisiting alt tags, and maybe the best: Alt text on W3C mailing list.

The meeting attendees threw out ideas: Do we have tutoring for struggling students? What warning signs does the Dean of Studies office pick up and how do they act on them? How does general campus morale (including mood of the staff who interact with students) make an impact? What is the role of the adviser?

It is the last of these questions that sort of struck me. At this institution, we have a strong tradition of close relationships between adviser and advisee. As I’ve talked to students, both when I was one and since then, I noticed that they convey a range of very different relationships between themselves and their advisers.

The experience I (and I’m sure many others) had is a very close one with the adviser. In conversations – which are often more frequent than once per semester – academic planning, extracurricular activities, work and internships are discussed. Often the meetings are warm and personal – the adviser asking about the student’s classes and general health/happiness. I enjoyed this kind of advising very much, and even more important, it gave me the care and guidance I needed especially in my first couple of uncertain semesters at college.

In contrast, some say they don’t connect with the adviser. He/she is there to sign off on the student’s academic program each semester and that’s all. It seems that program planning seldom enters the conversation, much less personal well-being, longer term career goals, or graduate school plans. I think that if a student is fairly independent, driven, and has few issues (of any type – academic, health, happiness) there is nothing wrong with this relationship.

However, when the student is perhaps a retention risk, the latter style can be “deadly” to the college career. If the student doesn’t open up to the adviser and the adviser doesn’t ask, academic, personal, or health problems and their potential solutions never come to the surface. This is when things can go from bad to worse for the student, and he or she may feel that they have nowhere to turn. Does that mean I’m saying the former, closer relationship should always be cultivated? Maybe.

What are the obstacles to having that closer connection?

• The adviser: Perhaps the adviser views the student/faculty relationship as more formal. He/she may view asking more about a student as prying. Even laziness could be to blame – if you don’t ask about a student, they may be less likely to take up your time with issues. Mainly I prefer to believe it’s not the lazy option, that it’s purely a stylistic choice in most cases.
• The student: It is obvious that some students don’t want to open up to an adviser, for various reasons – they don’t view the relationship that way, scared the adviser will judge them or get them in trouble (especially in cases where problems revolve around something illegal, like drugs), or shyness.
• A combination of the two: I’ve definitely heard of students even switching advisers because they don’t have the right “chemistry” with them. There may also not be much common ground if the student decides to take an academic path different from the subject area of the adviser, therefore limiting some conversation.

I’d like to also now extend the adviser/student relationship into a manager/student worker one, of which I am now on the manager side. While I only see my students a handful of hours per week, I do try to mentor them as much as I can. I know my campus job (more than my courses, probably) influenced my current career greatly, and I would hope my students have the same meaningful experience. So I do try to be like the open, caring, example of an adviser, as much as I can be.

However, I definitely have come across students who don’t seem to want to talk about what’s going on in their lives. Some are reluctant to discuss even something as simple as what classes they’re taking that may relate to the work they do for me or whether they’ve thought of what to do post-graduation. At that point, do I say, it’s not my business? Do I assume they’re hesitant to share because they have it all figured out, because I’m not faculty, because they’re shy? Am I viewed as too close to their age, too much like a peer to give advice? What if there were a problem that I could have known about had I only pressed them?

I’d like to come full circle with the college’s financial discussions. In these meetings we were told that we should counsel any student who is thinking about leaving the school for financial reasons to visit the financial aid office first, they may be able to get help. I want to know my students well enough that the school doesn’t lose them for this or another solvable problem. But at the same time I don’t want to pry, I just want them to know I’m there.

I started this entry knowing it would be more full of rambling and questions than a provable thesis and answers. In fact, I’m even uncertain of a title for this still! I think the underlying points here are: How can an adviser, teacher, staff member, etc. have an influence to keep a student at the college and doing well? Is a very open and involved dialogue between adviser and advisee the only way to ensure success? And if so, how can both parties make this happen? Lastly, I wanted to draw the comparison between an academic adviser and a work study job manager/boss, mainly their similarities in the role of guiding students. This is very open ended, so I’d love to hear thoughts.