News about nformation systems throughout MIT
Volume 14 • NumberI 1 S e p t e m bS e r / O c t o b e r 1 9 9 8 . . . Berliner sehen Lets Students Hanno Baethe, are combined with an . . Explore Two Neighborhoods extensive archive of texts, images, and . historical audio and video documents. . Lee Ridgway . Students explore the material through . . contextual links and from differing . IS Training Services Offers . W hen it comes to harnessing perspectives with no set pathways, . Several New Courses This Fall ...... 2 . technology for innovative approaches with each student discovering her or . . to foreign language learning, MIT’s his own themes or threads to pursue. Software Spotlight . . faculty continue to pioneer the way. Since Berliner sehen is not organized Adobe Photoshop 5: History, . as a linear narrative or along any pre- . Their development of learning envi- Type, Magnetism, Color ...... 3 . determined plot lines, the possibilities . ronments for foreign languages and . cultures began about ten years ago are limited only by the student’s inter- Network Notes . . with A la recontre de Philippe (Meeting ests and inquisitiveness. Stopit Still Tackles Electronic . . Philippe) for French, and No recuerdo While Berliner sehen takes advantage Forms of Harassment ...... 4 . . (I don’t remember) in Spanish. These of recent technologies like DVD-ROM Computer Corner . (high-density digital storage) and the ...... 4 . were followed by the Star Festival in . Japanese and further projects in French Java programming language, it’s the MIT Computer Connection/ . . and German. content that counts. Crocker and Fendt, Bits and Bytes . . The common thread through these aided by Baethe, came up with the IS Supports New Products . . language projects is interactivity: concept of going into two neighbor- from Apple, Dell, and HP ...... 5 . . students can follow or create various hoods, one in former East Berlin and . one in former West Berlin, and filming Y2K Today . paths through videos and other mate- . the residents within the neighborhoods Year 2000 Team Provides . rial. The idea behind these tools is to . give a more natural experience of the in conversation with each other. Resources for the Community ...... 5 . . language and a more realistic cultural These conversations take place . Publishing Pointers . and social experience of that country. during daily activities, as residents . Don’t Overlook Meta Tags: This . Making its debut in the German talk about their lives, work, and rela- . tionships – of how things are changing HTML Element Has Many Uses ...... 6 . classroom last spring was Berliner sehen . (Seeing Berliners seeing themselves), a and how things were in the past. Given Telecom Talk . . hypermedia documentary coauthored the locales of the neighborhoods and . On the Phone Front: Caller ID . by Ellen Crocker, lecturer, and Kurt the backgrounds of some of the people and a Switch Upgrade ...... 7 . . Fendt, research associate in MIT’s For- involved, it’s not surprising that the . conversations often include a consid- MIT “Blue Pages” Now Online...... 7 . eign Languages and Literatures section. . erable amount of politics and history. . Getting Help ...... 8 . Inside Berliner sehen The Berliners converse as people . Berliner sehen . The basis of is thirteen do everywhere: in colloquialisms and Surf Sites: Learning Foreign . hours worth of short (45 seconds to . dialect; with unfinished sentences, im- Languages...... 8 . three minutes) video clips of conversa- . plicit understanding, hand gestures. . tions. The conversations, captured in . ▲ . the summer of 1995 by Berlin filmmaker continued on page 2 ▼ displayed in the periphery of the in the periphery change accordingly, BERLINER SEHEN viewing space. The eight main figures providing a new context for the video continued from page 1 represent a real cross-section of their clip. No order of viewing is presented communities, including Herr Tapp, or presupposed. It is up to the student to The student hears and has to make a former Communist party official in decide what videos to watch (repeat- sense of everyday German, not aca- the eastern neighborhood; Frau Sipp, edly, if need be, to better understand demic classroom German. a single mother in the western section the conversations). The workspace lets As Crocker and Fendt began editing who runs a well-known bakery; and the student collect clips and other the initial 28 hours of film that covers Jana, a young stage set designer whose materials for future reference. about 50 people, they settled on eight personal ties and family history extend Through this back-and-forth view- main figures, four from the east and into both neighborhoods. ing, the student begins to discover four from the west, as the focal points In addition to the main figures, connections between the stories told for the student’s explorations. These students can select among nine content in the conversations and between the main “characters” relate within and categories, that express what Crocker people themselves. Depending on his sometimes across the two neighbor- and Fendt call “notions.” Among or her interest, the student may wander hoods, either through knowing each the notions are Ich (self) and Andere about, getting acquainted with the other or sharing mutual acquaintances (others), Öffentliches (public sphere) neighborhoods and the people, or or pasts. Thus, the raw material is in and Privates (private sphere), and delve deeply into ideas or topics. The place for the student’s encounter with Tun und Machen (activities; what uniqueness of Berliner sehen is that the Berliner sehen. people do in everyday life). One of student can repeatedly reconfigure the The Student Experience the key notions is that of Kiez, literally relationships between clips and other Berliner sehen can currently be meaning community, but in Berliner related documents. This encourages launched from networked workstations sehen encompassing how the residents the student to explore cultural and in the Language Learning and Resource see or think of their neighborhood. social issues from different points of Center (in its new home in 16-644). The To view a video clip or related ma- view through the eyes of people who main interface is comprised of a view- terial, the student drags a thumbnail live in that culture. ing space, a navigation panel, and a from the periphery to the center of the workspace. A student can start by se- viewing space. When a video clip is in A Look at Language Projects lecting among the main figures and the center, additional notions are high- For overviews of Berliner sehen and aspects of the content, which then leads lighted in the navigation panel to in- related projects from MIT’s Foreign to a selection of materials involving dicate other ways of relating people Languages and Literatures section, see that person. The clips are represented and content. When the student clicks http://web.mit.edu/fll/www/ as a collection of thumbnail images on a highlighted notion, the materials projects/ ø
IS Training Services Offers • Year 2000. The Y2K team is offering Several New Courses This Fall a noontime seminar and hands-on MIT Information Systems course to help you prepare your computer for the next millennium. IS Training Services has added new Managing Editor The seminar (October 27 and De- Robyn Fizz computer courses in three topic areas: cember 4) outlines how to locate Writer/Editor • Macintosh OS 8. This three-hour potential problems and how to ap- Lee Ridgway hands-on course (offered November proach upgrading your hardware 10) is intended for those coming and software. The hands-on course i/s is published six times a year. MIT faculty and staff receive copies through campus mail; i/s is from a Windows environment or (November 4) focuses on known also available in lobbies around campus. Indi- upgrading from earlier versions software problems and solutions, viduals at MIT may subscribe by contacting the of the Macintosh operating system. and includes actual practice up- managing editor. Topics include file management, dating the systems on the class- Send comments or subscription requests to: customizing the desktop, shortcuts, room computers. MIT Room N42-290b, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, system maintenance, and Personal Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 Web Sharing. Full Schedule Phone: (617) 253-0540 You can view the entire IS Training Electronic mail:
. . 2 . i s . Software Spotlight
Adobe Photoshop 5: History, By default Photoshop 5 tries to correct Type, Magnetism, Color this “distortion” when loading old im- ages by converting them to a generic Oliver Thomas RGB color profile, which it then trans- lates to printer or display color profiles W hen Photoshop 4 was released, as appropriate. If you don’t want this it lacked quite a few of the features process to happen automatically, you users had hoped to see, and many con- can disable it by following these steps: sidered it a relatively minor upgrade. 1. Go to the File menu and choose Adobe Photoshop 5 not only makes Color Settings: Profile Setup… good on these long-awaited features, 2. Deselect the Embed Profiles check- but delivers a slew of new tools and boxes, and set the Assumed Profiles enhancements. fields to None and the Profile Mis- The History Palette match Handling fields to Ignore. Perhaps the most anticipated new The History Palette shows snapshots There is also an Ask When Opening feature in Photoshop 5 is the History and a chronology of recent operations. setting that lets you make the choice palette. It keeps track of every opera- for each old image as you open it. For tion performed on an image in chrono- ible type editing through Type Layers. full information on the rich new color logical order. To discard one or more New text is placed in a Type Layer, management system, see Chapter 5 in operations applied to your image, sim- which keeps it separate from other the Photoshop 5 manual. ply click on the corresponding step in layers of the image and retains some Other Features the history list. editing ability. Photoshop 5 also offers better script- In its most straightforward applica- You can apply most formatting op- ing tools, customizable layer effects, a tion, the History palette gives you un- erations and filters to placed text; they limited undo capability (the single most will be automatically reapplied if you new angle and distance measurement requested feature for a Photoshop up- edit the text. You can also select mul- tool, a multipoint color sampler, and a grade). In combination with the History tiple fonts, sizes, and styles without 3D Transform filter. brush and snapshot feature, it becomes having to apply the Type Tool sepa- System Requirements a powerful painting and editing tool. rately for each change. Photoshop is very demanding of The History brush lets you paint Magnetism system resources and storage space. with the contents of a historical version Photoshop 5 introduces a small fam- While the program will run on a sys- of the image. It works much like the ily of magnetic tools. With the Magnetic tem meeting the minimum require- rubber stamp tool, except that it can Lasso, you can draw freeform selections ments, it is not advisable to do so for use any previous version of the image around parts of an image and it auto- serious work as you will quickly run in the History palette. Let’s say that you matically looks for nearby edges (based into resource constraints. wanted to give an object the appearance on contrast) and snaps the selection to The minimum requirements, for of speed, but keep certain details, such those edges. If an object stands out from Macintosh or Windows, are: as the leading edge of a person’s face, the background, you can select it and • PowerPC or Intel Pentium processor sharp and clear. Simply apply the Mo- cut it out quickly and precisely. The • 32MB of RAM (64MB recommended) tion Blur filter to the entire object. Then contrast threshold can be adjusted. check the step in the History palette The Magnetic Pen operates on a • 60MB of available disk space (large- right before the Motion Blur filter was similar principle, creating a bezier path capacity hard disk recommended) applied, and, using the History brush, that follows the outline of an object. • CD-ROM drive paint over the details you want to re- Paths can be saved, loaded, and re- • 24-bit display adapter card vert to their original sharpness. shaped, and used to create clipping You can save intermediate results regions, selections, and outlines. Pricing, Online Resources using the History palette’s snapshot If you are a serious Photoshop user, New Color Profiles feature. This lets you combine different the History palette and Editable Text Photoshop 5 has a sophisticated new effects or compare different versions features alone make this version worth color management system and support of the image. the upgrade price ($171.09, through The number of steps retained by the for ICC profiles. It is designed to give maximal color accuracy and consistency MCC/Online-NECX). If you are buying History palette depends on available Photoshop for the first time, the aca- scratch disk space. You can set an up- across different displays and in print. It does this by translating display colors demic price is very reasonable ($212.48 per bound on steps via History Options… at NECX, compared to $600 retail). on the History palette pop-up menu. through the ICC profile for a device, such as an RGB monitor. This function The Adobe Web site offers a tryout Editable Text is usually transparent to the user. version, as well as more product infor- The Type Tool has been significantly Photoshop 4, like most graphics mation and a Tips page at enhanced in this release. Photoshop 5 programs, creates and displays images http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/ seeks to address the problem of inflex- using the monitor color space (or gamut). photoshop/main.html ø . . i s . 3 . . . Network Notes . Computer Corner . . . . Stopit Still Tackles Electronic . To get the word out, IS publishes . This column presents news and tips Forms of Harassment the MITnet/Athena Rules of Use in . from the consultants who staff the . Welcome to Athena. Large posters in the . Computing Help Desk. Check out Joanne Costello . Athena clusters point students to re- . their Web site at . sources for dealing with harassment. . http://web.mit.edu/helpdesk/ This year, bookmarks outlining when . A bout six years ago, in response . . to the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas to send mail to stopit are available in . I will be typing some foreign the Libraries and have been distrib- . Q language documents in Microsoft controversy and the growing aware- . uted by some offices at MIT. . Word. How do I create characters with ness of sexual harassment, MIT and . many other universities began to re- The main option stopit . accents and umlauts? . examine how they were dealing with gives complainants is . . Position the insertion point issues of harassment on campus. STOPIT to report incidents to . where you want the character to Information Systems had a particular @mit.edu
quoted individually for each product ○○○○○○○○○ splash. It offers easy future versions of Windows NT and comes loaded with 128MB of RAM. in the online catalog. ø
Y2K Today shops will be held throughout 1999, with special events during IAP. The team is also working to create Year 2000 Team Provides The Y2K team is working to assist two campus-wide groups, one to work Resources for the Community the MIT community in managing an on compliance issues and the other on uneventful transition to the year 2000. Y2K contingency plans. Gayle Willman It intends to provide It continues to maintain the MIT • Education around Y2K issues Project Year 2000 Web site at T his article inaugurates a regular • Communication about potential http://mitvma.mit.edu/mity2k/ i/s column on Year 2000 (Y2K) issues, problem areas This site provides an overview of the especially as they apply to MIT. Future • Consulting services to Departments, problem, outlines steps to take, and articles will cover a range of topics, Labs and Centers offers a compliance list and links to from assessment procedures and com- vendors, conferences, and other Y2K • Testing and assessment resources pliance testing programs to employee sites. concerns about campus financial sys- • Assistance with legal and contin- The MIT community can also take tems, such as those in Payroll and the gency planning advantage of the technical information MIT Credit Union. For this issue, the • Risk management reporting to in the MIT Libraries, particularly in the spotlight is on MIT’s Y2K team. senior management Barker Engineering Library (10-500). Role of the Y2K Team “We aren’t familiar enough with Y2K Questions? The Y2K problem has received local systems to go out and fix every For help with specific Y2K questions, ample coverage in the media, and has potential problem on the MIT campus, send mail to
Don’t Overlook Meta Tags: This The description attribute returns your Web robots may delete expired HTML Element Has Many Uses description of the page in place of the documents from a search engine or summary the search engine would or- schedule a revisit. Robyn Fizz and Deborah Levinson dinarily create (from the first several Automatic Redirects words it encounters on a page). Keep A meta tag that uses the refresh your descriptions accurate but short, If you’re like most people who pub- attribute lets you automatically re- under 20 words. lish on the Web, you’ve probably heard direct users to a different page. This about meta tags but aren’t sure what Be aware that a few search engines is helpful in cases where a URL has they do. While these tags aren’t re- (most notably, Excite) ignore keyword changed and you need a quick way quired elements in Web page code, and description attributes when to let people know about it. they can perform several useful tasks. weighting their rankings. Since some older browsers don’t This article gives a brief overview of recognize this tag, it’s important that their functionality and how to use them. Robot Indexing Instructions Sometimes, rather than trying to you also place an actual HTML link to The prefix “meta” means, among your new file on the redirection page. other things, comprehensive or tran- make your page more visible to search engines, you don’t want a page to be In the code for automatic redirects scending. In HTML, meta tags let you (see the box below), the number before specify information about your docu- indexed at all. In this instance, use the robots attribute with a value of the semicolon represents the time, in ment as a whole. In practical terms, seconds, before the browser loads the you can “noindex, nofollow.” “Noindex” tells the robot not to index the page, and specified URL. Using “0” will cause a • Specify keywords and a description “nofollow” tells it not to follow links nearly instantaneous redirect to the for your document that can help from this page to other pages. other page. search engines rank the page within their listings Author Information More about Meta Tags You can specify a name and e-mail The document “Using Meta Tags at • Instruct Web robots not to index a MIT” served as a source for this article page address for the document’s creator or maintainer. While many search engines and provides more in-depth detail, • Supply a name and e-mail address including a template for a simple re- don’t pick up this information, it’s still for the document’s author direction page. It’s online at a good idea to include it. • Set an expiration date for a page http://web.mit.edu/cwis/faq/ Setting an Expiration Date • Automatically redirect users to metatags.html If your data changes on a regular another document You can view the source for this docu- basis, use the expire attribute to tell ment to see assorted meta tags in use. A Few HTML Basics browsers when to look for a new copy You can also learn more about meta Meta tags belong in the
of your document. In short, this attribute tags by visiting webdeveloper.com. section of an HTML document, before sets limits on how long your browser This site offers a Meta Tag Tutorial at the tag. They do not take a caches a file. closing tag. The date should be expressed as a http://www.webdeveloper.com/ You can use several meta tags with two-digit day, three-letter month, and categories/html/html_metatags.html different attributes within the same four-digit year. (While not standard and a Meta Tag Resource Page at document. For the correct HTML code, practice, setting the expires attribute http://webdeveloper.com/categories/ see the examples in the screened box to “0” forces a reload each time.) html/html_metatag_res.html ø to the right. Make sure that your meta tags don’t include line breaks, since these can cause some search engines In HTML: A Meta Tag Sampler to balk. Keywords and Description Keywords and Description By indicating content, the keywords and description attributes aid search