Monthly Archives: January 2007

Ozmozr Alpha Launch

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Well…. the day is finally here. I’m happy to finally announce the official alpha launch of COSL’s http://ozmozr.com/. It’s a microformat-aware aggregator / resource sharing / social site that I would love your feedback on. Of course, it’s alpha software, so expect the usual early lumps.

Oz EventsOne of the cool and, so far as I know, unique, things the site does is make use of microformatted information it finds in feeds or bookmarked pages in the following way: any event information found in feeds or on pages is pulled out, aggregated into a dynamically generated ICAL feed, and this can then be harvested into compliant applications. So right now, I have a calendar in my Google Calendar which is built dynamically out of the microformatted event data parsed from the hundreds of RSS feeds I subscribe to. Each individual event can also be added to Google Calendar individually, etc.

Anyway, let us hear what you think… Including *yawn* if that’s how you feel about it…

Bach and Instructional Design

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Every year thousands of music majors graduate from universities around the world. The path to a music degree is a surprisingly difficult road for many. The academic study of music is merciless, annually exposing hundreds of blond-haired, blue-eyed, Andrew Lloyd Webber-loving sopranos to the mathematics of music theory. This introduction is a rather rude awakening for the young girls who just last summer laid in beds with their Les Mis CDs and dreamed of majoring in karaoke. In many ways, university music departments each fall semester are much like exercise clubs in early January. It was always somewhat entertaining to watch the newcomers pop energetically through the door each morning, knowing that in just a few weeks’ time most of them would have stopped coming altogether. Five romps per week through melodic dictation and perfect fifths at 7:00 am are just more than most would-be musicians bargained for. Continue reading →