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New book published: Drupal 5 Views Recipes News and announcements · Drupal 5.x mroswell - June 16, 2009 - 14:38 I'm looking at a fresh new copy of Drupal 5 Views Recipes. I wrote it, and I'm thrilled to see it in print. I have a mix of Drupal 5 and Drupal 6 sites out there. If you've got any Drupal 5 sites, consider this book. Appendices I'll start by mentioning the appendices, since I think that's one of the most information-rich sections of the book. (The rest of the book consists of 94 step-by-step recipes.) Appendix A - List of all default views available for Drupal 5 Appendix B - Comprehensive list of Drupal 5 field formatters, by module Appendix C - Comprehensive list of Drupal 5 style plugins, by module Appendix D - Views 1 hooks Appendix E - Modules included in recipe ingredients Appendix F - Additional resources and modules Appendix G - Selected noteworthy patches to Views, sorted by topic Appendix E can serve as an index to the recipes, and also includes a column indicating which modules are available for Drupal 6. Appendix G unlocks a whole host of functionality not available in Views 1 by default. Recipes Interesting content includes: - How to overcome the case of the missing term in taxonomy views - Views arguments - Proximity search (Find every trailhead within 6 miles of a Senior Center, for instance) - Views Bulk Operations (such as mass updates of taxonomy) - Views Fusion, and the Views Fusion Node Reference patch - Using !$ and Ctrl-U in command line editing - Detailed steps for upgrading the Date and Calendar modules from 5.x-1.x to 5.x-2.x - Three options for setting up cron - Grouped views with the Views theme wizard - Overriding themes_view_view - Table of debugging techniques, including the author's favorites - Browser plugin for searching the Contributions API page - A quick way to format SQL queries for easier reading

"If copying is the sincerest form of flattery, then journals are publishing a lot of amazingly flattering science. Of course to most of us, the authors of such reports would best be labeled plagiarists - and warrant censure, not praise."

I was reading about the small window that opened the other day in the "Great Firewall of China" and then read this article. It bothers me that so many people seem to be ready to send printing presses to a junkyard and rely entirely on electronic distribution of information. First, there is still a HUGE demographic who does not have regular access to the internet. Secondly, what would happen if all of our information could be controlled with a filtering program? And finally, printed material still gets into places that a computer cannot. I read an opinion piece in the NYT before Christmas that discussed how an Afghanistan woman learned to read with the help of her young daughter and the newspaper pieces that wrapped her fish. Are we turning information into something elitist? Is there a parallel between a push to make everything electronic - so only people with Kindles and laptops can get information, and a time not-so-long-ago when literacy was a class distinction? DO WE REALLY WANT TO CREATE A NEW CLASS DISTINCTION BY RESTRICTING INFORMATION TO ONLY THOSE WHO CAN AFFORD ACCESS TO IT?

Fascinating points!!! The printed word has been responsible for the American colonists ability to read the words of the great Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and perhaps be inspired to foment the continued revolt that brought us America. It brought the thoughts of the imprisoned Nelson Mandela and Adolf Hitler to the world. For good, and less so, the printed word has been a catalyst for change that has moved the world and impacted people around the globe. While there are many who have access to the Internet and PC, there are far greater numbers around the world who have no such access, for them even a phone is a luxury. Many represent the populations of the third world, but high numbers are the disadvantaged right here at home or in other developed nations around the globe. When oppressive regimes and less then optimal economic or geographic conditions prevent technology from bringing information via wire or air wave, the printing press will continue to spread the message. Education, found in the pages of textbooks, passed down from generation to generation or moved around the world, bring knowledge and potential to those who have no access to the Internet. Until, in some distant future when the earth is truly the global nation envisioned by some futurists today, the printing press will hold its place as a global facilitator of knowledge and information.

Privacy and freedom of expression are always the early victims in spread of repression.

Nice short piece on some of the downside of the Google Books settlement.

Echoes of Shepard Fairey.  Fair use defenses based on the transformative nature of the work are expense and often "won" by copyright holders on the basis of the cost of defense.

Interesting piece by one of the speakers at this year's Ethics and Publishing Conference.

Greed, greed, greed to supersede the voice of the public. There has to be and needs to be and open eformat. Collusion of any kind by any companies to monopolize is wrong. Why be mad at the government actually doing its job by trying to stamp unfairness. Is this not the land of the free and home of the brave where we are afforded the right to compete on fair terms, or are we just capitalist to the harshest degree, with no wiggle room? Uncle Sam will always be the ref in these battles of monopoly. Does Amazon, Apple, and Goggle with there wholesale pillaging scan scam holding the lions share of the ePub tech and licenses make it a safe place for upstart like I would like to have in the future? I say "NO"!!! Change the game Uncle Sam for the consumer, loyalist, and publisher in this ePub wild west.

As more journals shift from being run by university presses and scholarly societies to corporate entities, the goal is better management, better sales (since packages of journals are frequently sold together) and economies of scale. The fear of some involved in journal publishing is that corporate interests will limit the role of scholars in making key decisions.

I think this is an excellent read on the rapid speed of the digital divide. Written about England, but applies everywhere.

British tabloid News of the World is publishing its last edition Sunday, News Corp executive James Murdoch has announced. The close comes in the wake of series of phone-hacking scandals involving high-profile celebrities, including members of the Royal Family. The latest involved the phone of a missing 13-year-old British girl, later found dead.

Here's more to that: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2011/opinion/editorial/07/11/ethics-no-self-preservation-yes/ Oh, that Rupert.

No penalty for misrepresenting a work of fiction as truth. The lesson of "A Million Little Pieces" is publishers will not worry about misrepresentation when it generates publicity for book.  We have a new category of work "semi-fiction" - formerly know as BS.

Can Google continue to "Not be evil" and dominate the global market for search and user-generated content (YouTube, Blogger). Discussed how Google balances among free speech and privacy, the censorship demands of governments and its financial interests.

The E.U. and the U.K. are usually more diligent the the U.S. in protecting the privacy of the public, but not in this case of cooperation between ISPs and a the manufacturer of an invasive targeted marketing device.

TechCrunch is reporting that Flipper is a visual version of Google News, enabling people to see images of publications . . .

This is all just speculation at this point, but maybe Google Flipper will mend the relationship that Google has had with some newspaper publishers. We'll see . . .

A fairly open and shut case of copyright infringement. The destruction of evidence eliminated any chance Usenet had of mounting a defense.

A talk by David Weinberger - author of The Cluetrain Manifesto and Everything is Miscellaneous - on the morality of the Web and of Drupal

American research journals publishes the most rapid and reliable information of open access journals in the development area of agricultural sciences.

LBF gives a platform to the censors of Chinese Communist Party and stifles the voices of Chinese ex-pats and critics.

Spotted by Meredith.

"I would love to go [home] with the Kindle during the holidays." This brings into mind the joy in the winter spent here in the states on Christmas with my family and electronic gizmos. With the day to day hustle we sometimes forget about the "have nots." This young man Eperence Uwera, a 13-year-old student is thankful for what some take for granted as just another toy for fun. The poignant thought of this article is that the digital the divide is hampering growth in poor or remote areas globally. An E-Book Revolution for Africa? duly notes that Amazon is lending a hand to bridge the digital gap in Africa, also prompting technological literacy; if there is such a term. The problem raised in this article is that programs such as Worldreader sometimes get neglected, because of maintenance delays or high overhead cost to keep operations afloat in poverty stricken areas. This program brings hope to the less fortune children of African to see the wealth of knowledge gained from ePub. Quickly disseminated information at 1,000 young minds access gives a decent outlook for Africa's future. Though the program touches a small fraction, the fact is this Kindle program is tripling the libraries of these impoverished provinces; and is a milestone for further development. Hopefully, Worldreader and programs like it can be sustained through the digital era and beyond. Publishing can change the world!!!