OK, am getting annoyed now.

Over the last few weeks (from Melbourne on Optus Cable on their maximum plan) we’ve had frequent dropouts on some sites overseas for up to several hours at a time - this isn’t an issue at my end, or at the servers end (I know because we’ve been testing connection to the Edublogs cluster) but a series of problems with routers (or whatever) - the last one being in Milton.

I’d provide more detailed info but I CAN’T right now because now I’m kicked off gmail… grrr… which makes it impossible for me to run my business.

Naturally I’ve contacted Optus a couple of times but predictably have had NOTHING in response.

Hopefully somebody will pick this up and let us know what’s going on… ‘cos at the moment I’m edging closer to iinet every day.

OK, back now, here’s what’s happening in more detail:

C:\Documents and Settings\b>tracert edublogs.org

Tracing route to edublogs.org [72.34.61.230]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 8 ms 6 ms 5 ms xxxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
3 7 ms 5 ms 5 ms xxxxxxxx.optusnet.com.au [198.142.xx.xx]
4 8 ms 8 ms 7 ms xxxxxxxxxxx.gw.optusnet.com.au [198.142.xxx.xxx]
5 10 ms 6 ms 8 ms xxx-xxx-3.gw.optusnet.com.au [211.31.xxx.xxx]
6 182 ms 180 ms 178 ms 203.208.191.61
7 558 ms 186 ms 187 ms 208.50.13.165

And here’s our server admins explanation:

“It looks like this issue originated in
AU - 203.208.191.61 on that router:

OrgName: Asia Pacific Network Information Centre

So on the AU side of the pond there was latency, which contributed to
additional latency on GBLX (Global Crossing) which you can see here:

5 10 ms 6 ms 8 ms xxx-xxx-xxxx.optusnet.com.au [211.31.xxxxx.xxxx]
6 182 ms 180 ms 178 ms 203.208.191.61

GBLX had some massive latency on an inbound router and inbound traffic is controlled via the user’s ISP, from a source IP hop.”

In the Blackboard patent case, “the jury handed down its verdict that the patent is valid and that Blackboard should be awarded damages of approximately $3 million.” OLDaily

Oucha, let’s hope they haven’t got anything in about blogs huh ;)

Update: More from Michael Feldstein who is - like me - speechless (I think I  just assumed they were trolling).

And a letter on their blog (Stephen’s links doesn’t work).

Michael promises more from the eerily named Jim Farmer (I used to be a Jim!) and I’ll be tuning in… and so should you.

Only a year or so late :)

Have been browsing around looking for a good example of an blogger using CommentPress in action on Edublogs and lo and behold, check this out.

The Biology Space is actually not using the main CP skin but rather their ‘blog’ version (which we also provide :) and I really like the way that it allows for paragraph-based commenting outside in this format - see this post for a great example.

Rock on!

I think it’s time to hand over the reins of Blogsavvy to someone who can make a decent business out of it given that I’m pretty much flat out with Edublogs and Incsub stuff these days.

So, here’s your chance to get hold of not just a great established PR 5/6 ‘about blogs’ site that could easily be converted into a damn good publication with ads sorta thing, but also a business in it’s own right that’ll get you heaps of contacts for blog consultancy, development, design and whatever else you fancy.

Check out this Google for Blog Consultant, for example.. .not hard to get to number 1 again :)

Bidding starts at $5K and you can walk away with it today for $10K.

Brilliant :)

How To Behave On An Internet Forum

Support for 34 different languages.

Brand new global tagging feature - check this out for example.

3 Gig of upload space now available (existing subscribers already upgraded)

New themes and widgets.

Copyright protection for RSS feeds.

The Edublogger rocking out (go Sue!)

Edublogs Campus becoming cheaper every day (if you’re not in the US… in which case it’s the same price).

Even more new and exciting stuff coming v. soon too!

And yet, for some reason, we’re not cool for Open Courseware… even though we offer themes like CommentPress for essays and the ideal platform to share, brilliant education focussed support and, even if I do say so myself, some much nicer themes alongside much more extensive functionality… and we won’t even insert sneaky adsense into your material.

C’mon guys… what do we have to do next!

Big day at Edublogs… we’ve just launched Edublogs Supporter (announcement post here).

I’ve never been a fan of donations, for a whole heap of reasons, and I hope this treads the line between purchasing extra features and supporting the site. Basically, existing users (or new ones :) can purchase an upgrade to ‘Supporter’ which gives them some neato extra features (massive Twitter integration, FeedBurner automation, blog post versioning and more…) and also respect and listing as a Supporter of Edublogs on the front page (we select 10 random Supporters every hour).

And we’ll be adding lots more, hopefully based on requests!

Of course the free feature-set will continue growing (we’ve got some very nice plans regarding stats and other elements) but this is aiming to be the icing on the cake of that, and something that will allow us to carry on and even accelerate improvements across the site.

Whaddya reckon? Sound like a good plan?

Yet again Bloglines aren’t answering emails to assist with either their crawlers invasive behavior on WPMU sites or their inability to successfully track some edublogs feeds for which I (and some users) have been contacting them for over a week.

The last couple of times posting here was the only way to get their attention (although they didn’t respond to the poem) so here’s hoping it works again.

And Paul, who was so helpful last time, seems to have left them… ho hum.

So unless you want us to advise every Edublogger not to use bloglines and recommend to all of their readers that they don’t too…  which is really the only course of action left if you don’t help us… please get in touch guys!

Good news on the extra funding for Widgetbox - they basically allow any Edublogs user to install pretty much any widget in their sidebar… so are worth the third party risk!

Now, maybe they could plough a little of that cash into making it even easier :)

New post up, on The Edublogs Magazine, responding to Judy’s utterly OTT criticism.

I second all of D’Arcy’s requests.

Plus, can I have passwod save on Safari please, especially for free wifi spots I need to log into (i.e. the library).

Not only do we now have the brilliant Sue Waters writing The Edublogger, but we also have the Queen of WordPress (TM ;) , Lorelle VanFossen editing The Edublogs Magazine.

More information of both publications here.

I’m pretty chuffed to say the least :)

So…. am thinking in 2008 that I should mix things up a bit, and get to work in some more social environments… in other words move out of the shed for a few days a week and see if I can find a decent office sharing space in or around the North / North East of Melbourne.

So far the most promising possibility I can find so far is The OpenHub… although am somewhat peterbed by their lack of any, um, address and also some pretty stringent bandwidth limits… although it looks like a nice central place. However, while it’d be nice to be in the city I wouldn’t mind somewhere I can easily drive and park at… so maybe Fitzroy, Collingwood or Northcote?

Have been having a look at a gumtree search too but nothing really stands out.

Anyone know anywhere good as a shared working space I could take a look at? Recommendations would be great!

(small drumroll)

Ladies and gents, we give you Edublogs Campus.

It’s the next generation of ‘Edublogs Premium’ (which always was a bit of a silly name) and is much more than a bit of rebranding.

Now with every installation you can batch create users and blogs, manage plugins and privacy to the nth degree and even monitor every post and comment on your site for ‘bad’ (or good!) words.

And of course it’s got everything that you find in the regular Edublogs, except in a box, all for you, with a bow on :)

Heck, in case you weren’t sure why you needed it, well, we’ve even put together a list of 10 straightforward ways you can use Campus in your school, uni or organization.

And what’s more, it’s pretty competitive too… our ‘Unlimited’ license comes in at less than a decent managed server for a year, which is what you’d have to buy before you even considered the software.

So, get in touch with us and we’ll see what we can do for you, mention this post and we might even be able to cut you a deal!

Sitting outside my office right now, quietly hooting.

He’s a Tawny Frogmouth. Not an owl, but a night jar (I think) and I’m sure his mate is nearby too.

New stuff at Edublogs today, a brand new (and official!) blog… The Edublogger, by the most excellent Sue Waters (of Mobile Tech in TAFE fame).

Sue’s going to be providing something that I reckon we’ve been needing for a long time,  a regularly updated hints, tips, idea, feedback-orientated blog about edublogs and other online educational software (with an edublogs slant).

Sue’s starting off by asking what interests you? So why don’t you scoot on over there and tell her :)

Some pics from my Melbourne WSG presentation last month.

Voting closes tomorrow, so if you haven’t yet, and want to do the nicest thing ever, then spare a few seconds and vote for Tessa Farmer here.

… vote for Tessa Farmer in The Times/The South Bank Show Breakthrough Award!

You can vote here… you do have to be a registered timesonline user but I promise that the registration isn’t too time consuming :)

And naturally, you shouldn’t just vote for her cos she’s my sister, she also happens to be the most talented of the bunch:

“Farmer creates a reflection in miniature of our society. She shows us its fragility and its ferocity, its poetry and its repulsion, its beauty and its brutality. Damien Hirst did something like this with his dead animals. But if Hirst is Francis Bacon in 3-D then Farmer is probably Albrecht Dürer. ” [from the article]

And you have my solemn oath this is the one favour I’ll ask of you for the next 12 months so go support Tess!

We’ve just introduced a new feature to edublogs, simple email subscription.

All you have to do is drag the ‘Email Subscription’ widget to your sidebar (or sidebar of choice) and readers will automatically be able to easily subscribe to your blog by email (and manage their subscriptions to any edublogs blog)

It’s not ‘official’ yet (will make a splash in edublogs.org about it next week) so if anyone wants to have a look at it, test it, share any ideas they might have or generally fool aroudn with it… and let us know how you go… that’d be much appreciated!

You can leave any feedback below or on the forums.

WTF is this about?

From the ABC: Conroy announces mandatory internet filters to protect children.

Surely this is some sort of bad joke… it’s more Howard than Howard.

“If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree.”

Bud I thought this was to stop children stumbling across porn???

Vote for Toni (and WP of course).

And next year for me :)

How odd, just back from a nice break and browsing my stats to see how many hits I’m getting from the new movie (starring Denzel Washington as a much worthier James Farmer than I!) and I noticed that I’m getting quite a few ‘eduspaces’ queries so ran a search on them and, kaboom, there I am at the top… and there’s eduspaces.net at, well, about number 60!

Which…. and I’m entering into the lands of wild speculation here (I’m also tired and have had a couple of beers, so could well be completely wrong!) would seem to indicate that google has in some way put the kabosh on them… if not just recently then in the last month or two.

I know all about this having been (I finally figured out) kaboshed by google for WPMU theme packs ;)

So what’s going on here? Just a switch of owners or a dodgy SEO play?