Updated 03-Aug-2025 This was a time of innovation. Somewhere between 4,000 and 3,001 BCE (6,000-5000 years ago): Beginning of the Bronze Age Writing systems emerged (Mesopotamian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics), proto-writing may have emerged earlier Probable first domestication of the horse (Ukraine) Earliest known numerals (Egypt) Lyres, harps, flutes and clarinets (Egypt) Desertification of Northern ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 How to teach students who read below expectations The basic arguement is: what to do with students who read beneath their age-indicated reading level? Two approaches: Read less challenging material (that is, if 3rd grade with 1st grade reading skills, read 1st grade material), this is the Guided Reading with Leveled Texts and ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Notion is a flexible cross-platform SAAS application that combines wikis, tasks, kanban boards, and tables (databases). The only problem with it is security and self-hosting (not available), and some things are not easy to do (recurring tasks). It has a pretty good look and feel, and does decent collaboration. For small to medium-sized ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 One of the easiest and most straightforward ways of installing Debian linux is by a USB drive that has a bootable ISO installed on it. To prepare this, one needs three things and four steps: USB drive Any USB drive over a certain size should work. The current Bullseye Alpha 3 is 3.7gb ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Yes, it will take that long, but also yes, we will achieve normalcy once again. Repurcussions of this crisis precipitated by disgraced former president Trump will echo long into the 2020s and beyond, as a scar. Yes it will take that long. 2021? forget about it. 2022? Still reeling from the pandemic, and ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 The Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) is a 4" x 4" board (4.5" x 4.5" x 2.0" case) integrated computer. It comes in kit (without ram or storage) or as assembled computers. With the ATX form factor going away, the NUC form factor is increasingly viable as a general purpose replacement. There ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Google says they don't have a concept of toxic domains. Yet they have a disavow links tool. And in particular there are situations where manual actions are accomplished based on paid links. So, if the domains aren't toxic, certainly links from certain domains might be. The idea that domains or links might not ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Several research studies and a report by the American Association of Pediatrics on Preschoolers and Snacking focuses on parental behavior and child behavior objectives. It is worthwhile reviewing these findings and recommendations, as modern parents tend to fall into problem behaviors due to the convenience of poor eating habits as well as a ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 It is obvious that nearly all babies are not Einstein, the archetypal genius and polymath. Einstein is famously not created but arrived sui generis, emerged out of himself. As a child he didn't speak in full sentences until the age of five. This would be considered severely problematic, though it was obviously not ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Mothering our Boys by Maggie Dent Janet Lansbury spoke on her podcast with Maggie Dent who wrote the book Mothering Our Boys. Several interesting points came out of the discussion. Many people see gender differences in raising children as being purely cultural, and cross-cultural studies definitely bear this out. However, there are as ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025
Daily habit tracking is something useful, but can clutter up a calendar view. Also, not every day is each habit necessarily completed, for example if the target is 5 workouts per week, then missing two days per week is not terrible, but expected. Therefore it can be useful to have a separate widget that helps provide the overview of habits and to quickly check off the habit completion.
Updated 03-Aug-2025
As of early 2021, Notion does not have recurring tasks. There are several workarounds for this, with various tradeoffs. Which approach to use has to do most with what kind of recurring tasks are being supported: daily habits, weekly or monthly tasks, ongoing tasks such as shopping lists, etc.
Updated 03-Aug-2025
In the attempt to remove as much of javascript as possible, certainly not relying on jquery and its ilk, we need a CSS-only sticky header and/or footer.
This is normally quite straightforward. However, the trick comes when logged into WordPress and the Adminbar is present.
If only the #mobile-header, .site-header, #site-navigation, or #masthead is needed for sticky, then voila:
Updated 03-Aug-2025
Thin content that Google clearly does not value (indexed but few impressions and clicks) is a problem for SEO and not only for that page, but for other pages on the site. The idea is that thin content detracts from higher quality content that Google does prize.
Updated 03-Aug-2025
This will be updated throughout 2021. For now, we start with John Mueller's take from SMS Virtual 2020.
Updated 03-Aug-2025
Google PageSpeed and web vitals are clear: a relevant site must load fast and not messily. The should be a speedy first contentful paint (FCP), and there should be little cumulative layout shift (CLS). A better user experience means a better search engine optimization.
Updated 03-Aug-2025
Image optimization is a big deal when it comes to Google PageSpeed. There are several things to consider with images: compression, image dimensions , file format, and number of files.
Updated 03-Aug-2025 WordPress is highly functional, yet expensive to run in terms of resources (ram, processor), and maintain (time). Static site generators are meant to reduce this by a factor of 5 or more. However, there is a lot of functionality to support with the new system as well as a basic learning curve. Let's ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Pelican is a python-based static site generator (SSG). Pelican has been around for a while (~10 years). It takes files, control files, and template files and generates static pages. Those pages can be kept inside git and then pushed to GitLab Pages or CloudFlare Workers. Installing and Configuring Pelican Installing Pelican Pelican Wiki ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 First up, Python 2 is dead dead dead. Long live Python 3. Here are some steps to perform: Update alternatives for Python update-alternatives --remove python /usr/bin/python2 update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3 10 Edit ~/.bashrc to include an alias to python3 nano ~/.bashrc alias python=python3 Install the python-is-python3 application sudo apt install python-is-python3