Unbreaking the Broken Blog

You might not be able to read this. Apparantly ye old CogDogBlog has been crashing much this past week with Error Establishing Database Connection errors. Oh no, Mr Bill! One or two folks notified me (thanks Brian B and JR), but it hardly seems to have created havoc on the intern … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 15 days ago

Hey Thingvellir, That’s a Mighty Big Atlas You Were Published In

Way out here on the marginal reaches of the withering web, the connections that weave together are of statistical aberration, where no language model of any size would draw a path. As thus it was following the adventures of Stephen Downes as he bicycles around Iceland that got me … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 27 days ago

This Should Be Easy[ier]: Count Number of Posts in any WordPress Site with Javascript

As often, what begins as a simple question or small need spins out a series of digging, experimenting, and ultimately spending more time remixing a featured image (by hand) and writing a blog post that 4 people may read. Ahhh, 2026. That’s another grumbly post. But here it is, I … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 1 month ago

Down the Web Rabbit Hole With a Hammerhand

My wandering down into Web Rabbit Holes of interest happend much more frequently than the rate of blog posts. It’s where I find the most sanity in the pile of poop much (but not all) of the web is piled with. It started with a Mastodon post by Bonni Stachowiak referencing her own … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 1 month ago

A “Deep Dive” (!) into Statements of GenAI Transparency for Open Education Awards

Amongst the many blog post drafts still bouncing around upstairs is one about being the last person ever to vibe code anything but of more interest is writing about what is my major project at the moment over at Open Education Global, the Open Education Awards for Excellence. Ain … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 1 month ago

Ahhh, Retirement

Indeed the golden dreamy soft gel focused ideal of the leisurely retirement lifestyle, you know, out there shopping for vinyl or sitting at cafes writing novels (hee hee, that pingback is for you, Martin). Nope not me, I am still at full time work at Open Education Global and the … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 1 month ago

Web Domain Castles in the Sand

I always did this as a kid on the beaches of Ocean City, Maryland. I would use my shovels and plastic containers to build some kind of sand castle with big walls and a deep moat. I would place them just out of reach of the water in low tide, and the game was to […] | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 2 months ago

Catching up on Felix at the Dozen Mark

CogDogBlog awakes from a case of the techno-flu. It got into the server and the database requests were coughing for 2 weeks — no just the tired blog operator. The only way out of not blogging is picking the thing up (old story). In that flu fog many key dates were missed – the da … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 2 months ago

Finally! Unlocked the Code to be on a Shareski Podcast

It’s easily taken the 20+ years I have known Dean Shareski to figure out the secret to be on his podcast — I had to be a Canadian, which is something I finally accomplished in September 2019. The big moment for my fame happened April 22, when we met at the Hive Coffee Shop on […] | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 2 months ago

Cough Cough Cough Cough

Cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough, cough cough cough cough, cough cough. Cough cough cough cough cough cough– cough cough cough — cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough! Cough cough cough cough cough: Cough, cough cough cough c … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 2 months ago

Virtual Painting Tractors

In the fuzz of being laid horizontal on the couch with a flu that feels worse than covid, I glanced at the phone noticing an app I had not opened in maybe 8+ years (is there a name for these apps we just leave dusty on devices). It’s called “Virtual Painter” and is in a […] | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 2 months ago

The Best Holes of Curiosity

… are the ones you dig yourself. After more years than I prefer to calculate, little matches the joy and super charge energy of a session of web rabbit holing, of hopping from one link to another, and finding something at the other end I might never have thought existed. That’s w … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 2 months ago

The Blog Light Is On

Hey, it’s back on! Like as if anyone noticed. The week of no blogging has passed for the annual / well sort of annual Week of only Commenting on Other Blogs, so the posts can come flooding out. I posted Zero posts over the last week and (tried to) keep my Mastodon posting to just … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

Blog Muzzled Again for a Week (more?) of Comment Blogging

I accept being way out of sync with the current state of connected communications, holding stubbornly to ideas as old as a well chewed bone that no one else desired. An old bone, indeed. Hey, beyond bloggingaboutblogging I invent bloggingaboutnotblogging (newly minted tag)? A wel … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

This was yesterday’s post

It eeked out today. Why even mention? I have a reason, a plan. But it was meant to be this past week was old school blogging the way I wrote them in say 2004. Short bits of anything. Everything. Mostly text. Where the “blogiverse” as it was called poured attention, into their own … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

There Will Be Even more North of the Fourth (month of daily photos in 2026)

Howdy May day for all those dancing around the poles. My dance was for getting the last few photos uploaded tonight to for another perfect month of daily photo action seen in the album and blogged like the months south of April–  that’s 120 on the 120th day of the year, April 30, … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

The Flickr Love Never Flickers

On a psychoanalytical scale, it’s likely problematic to profess love to a web site. Eff that. In yesterday’s early morning Mastodon scroll I saw a link to Anil Dash’s post that seemed to be, if you judged on title alone, an inquiry about NASA Artemis II photos. I gave it the quic … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

Memory Game Is

Let’s play the game of quibbling about how memory works. In ever so epically and humanly and Audrey-ly written, in her recent post Foolin’ Audrey Watters says: I sometimes joke that my brain is full of all sorts of stuff like this — useless stuff, one could easily dismiss it as — … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

ASU Atomic Rips a Page from the WebinarTV Playbook

Way to go Sun Devils! 404 Media is sizzling with coverage these days, with today’s spotlight where I spent much time 1987-1992, Arizona State University (though I di not think the 404 folks are zeroing in on the Geology department or whatever they call it now). But holy chili pep … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

Revolution

I’m not here today to foment insurrection (maybe tomorrow), but this the time to mark another orbital round. A loop that is round, but not back to the original start. More spiral. My sister’s card came timed exactly right offering wishes of mailing Baltimore steamed crabs. And I … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

Strapping on Snowshoes

That’s a phrase I never expected to be using as a kid growing up in the Baltimore burbs. Sure we had snow there, sometimes a big amount. But snow activities were limited to shoveling it, making snowmen from it, and sledding down it on the “huge” hill across the street near Sudbro … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

Paining

It’s back. Four months since the last shot, that was ever so more effective, I had forgotten the 2:30am wakeups. The throbbing in the elbow, the wrist. Numb fingers. No position of lying down could allow sleep. So I standup, go downstairs. Stretch. Drink an unfinished pop left on … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

Monkey Meme/Même

I’m giving away what is set up for a DS106 Daily Create scheduled for April 29 (the link will not work until then) “Monkey Prompt. Monkey Create. Monkey No Copyright.” This is a fascinating, legendary, and before it happened, likely improbable story. I leave it for the unfamiliar … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

A Friendly Pack of RSS Mutts: Be More Web Dog

Oh, yes, I keep forgetting that the open web is dead or is ended or all the web is swirling down an AI slop river of grey sludge. Just don’t tell the frisky dogs, who still know how to romp freely, share their toys, and build bits of web stuff with toys like RSS. Just […] | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

Stealing Your Webinar as a Service: Enpoopification Poster Child

Decades from now what kind of legacy stories will the “founders” of WebinarTV tell their grandchildren? “This was my contribution to the world, remember me for it.” I had read about this sleazy outfit from 404 Media in This Company Is Secretly Turning Your Zoom Meetings into AI P … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

Johnson & Jenkins Smashing the TV concept, SXSWi 2008: Breathing Life into a Dull Old Post

For another blog post in my head about non content course videos, I had a memory jaunt back to a pivotal experience amongst many when I got to attend South by Southwest Interactive in– gulp doing the time math– 2008. This was a keynote session featuring two media narrative giants … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 3 months ago

Sweeping Out My Domains

This month in digital cleanup is taking a broom to a pile of domains that have accumulated a not so tidy pile. I can’t full explain why i needed a cogdog.casa domain some ____ years ago? I had some rationale. In today’s fast-paced world, it is important to note that I will delve … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

T-Shirt Empire

I never saw this one coming. And it’s not really going anywhere. But I have a shop. I have items for sale. I have a whopping seven t-shirts for sale at cogdog’s tees. And I do not make a bloody cent of profit. I am aiming to show I have zero business savvy, not a […] | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

[Not Shaken but] Stirred for the Third (month of daily photos in 2026)

Nobody but me is tracking, and a delightful thing for my streak to keep on its Bond-like precision in going purrfect for daily photos in 2026 (on the heels of a purrfect 2025) as recorded in the album and blogged on the 90th day of the year March 31, 2026. And this month there wa … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Panning For Flecks of Gold

For an ever diminishing number of web heads, this phrase will generate a connotation with not even an explanation or link needed — “Bags of Gold.” Anyone? I for one was in that Robson Square conference room in Vancouver at the 2009 OpenEd Conference, for Gardner Campbell’s talk o … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Web End Gamed

I saw the link to Anil Dash’s End Game for the Open Web shared Friday, scanned it quickly. I’ve been a long fan of this man’s writing and staking a position. He sure outlined the ills of the game. The open web is something extraordinary: anybody can use whatever tools they have, … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

15 years 411 photos 106

Some obsessions are healthy. That’s what we re-assure ourselves. Thanks of course to the King of the Blog Jim Groom for posting today a photo to jump started this post. If you are confused, well, better just stay that way. But Jim shows the ds106 call sign but noting where it liv … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Strapping on Web Side Cars from the Small Web: human.json and wander

Among the best reasons to own your own domain and host a web site is to be able experiment, acts that are verboten on your easy, slick, hosted spiffy site. I will take tinker-ability over ease any minute of the day. If you are unaware of the Small Web, maybe just stay that way. Y … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Current, Stream, Puddle?

Sometimes I spot things in my information flows that just feels like I have something akin to spidey sense, not the sensation of danger, but the sensation of, let’s call it “web woah.” I claim no accuracy nor super power (c.g. relevance). I felt that when I read a post by Terry G … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Greetings from Irrelevance

Hello and greetings as far as one could be from the hub of Being Relevant. It is blissfully calm here, away from the bright lights of LinkedIn and its burdens of reposting liked comments. I am so out of the latest news on Blue Sky, how can I breathe? I also am free of having […] | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Memorial Stadium Memories Memorialized

So many times I was at the 33rd Street in Baltimore to watch sorts at Memorial Stadium and no one told me it was The World’s Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum. Fitting, the inmates never know. The structure I knew is gone; I never knew it was first called “Venable Stadium.” Also appa … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Water Pumps, AI Agents, and Guido Sarducci’s New University

On Saturday morning I was stuck getting a machine to work. For a change this was not a web thing, it was a real machine. A few years ago, we bought a Champion Semi-Trash Water Pump but I had never used it. With the lack of snow, our front slough (a pond) is really low, […] | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Chasing Raildog: The rabbit hole path to the anti-algorithmic edge of the internetz

“Raildog is the Ansr” but the question is how the heck did I end up following a curiosity trail where logic and the dull stasticical parroting of GenAI leaves a mind wanting? I blame / credit Jim Groom. He posted today of his pleasure in the saner mode of travel. It got me thinki … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

My 1-step approach for authentic AI-non-assisted blogging

This is prefacing statemen , Doug! I am not criticizing you, I think the world of you. I’ve read Doug Belshaw’s writings for longer than I can pinpoint, blogs, articles, papers, tweets (what are they?). I continue to read regularly what flows in from the RSS feed of his newly red … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

This is Not an Attribution (the Treachery of Non Attributed Images?)

Oh no, yet another tirade on attribution, or lack there of, of open licensed media. Isn’t this post a repeat episode? Something about Always Be Attributing? But as they never say in tinseltown, “inspired by real non attributed images.” I saw a Mastodon post linking to the Why Joi … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Turning Up the Speed of RSS Fetches in WordPress

How about a break in the blog action for some old school WordPress Tech mumbo jumbo? I did not hear any complaints. RSS is always on the plate here, so there’s a connection. Long ago in a web not so far away, I built this thing called Feed2JS (web site no more, but an aging […] | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Weaving the Story of a 1996 Storytelling Conference from Shreds on the Web

My dreams continue of an epic long blog post story of my journeys through digital storytelling, yet every thread ends up being a tangent worth chasing worthy of its own post. Yesterday it was the CoolIris gizmo I resurrected for 50 Web Ways to Tell a Story and today it was a pivo … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

50 Ways To Tell A Story (at almost 20) Gets the CoolIris Update Treatment

I have been head drafting posts (where the ideas just swirl around, sometimes slipping down the drain) I have been contemplating one about my now long path with digital storytelling. That one will be another Long Running Blab for sure. But it also got me thinking about one of the … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

NYT Connections Non Fame: From “CogDogBlog” to “Toothed Wheels Portmanteaux Bull__”

And today I felt a rush that the clever editors of the New York Times were big fans of CogDogBlog. It had to be, as I was featured apparently in today’s Connections game (of which I have never seen nor will as its for subscribers). The first clue came in a Mastodon call out from … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

Blogs are Back! (where did they go?) RSS Makes the Web Bearable (read in my dead reader!)

Blogs are Back?! Folks are dusting off their dormant blogs! It’s a new thing! A Revival! Strap yourself in, my three readers, this post is going to be a douzy. Back to blogging, Huh? Who left? Not to brag, but why not, this blog has gone on steadily– HEY WAIT A MINUTE I GOT DATA … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 4 months ago

[d]e[a]dupunk

Edtech zombies may live out there somewhere, but are oft forgotten, maybe now arising out of some obscure LLM garbling, but heck, research papers can summon them too. Who better to shine a light in the creepy fields than Stephen Downes? His March 1o OLDaily post surfaced Open Edu … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 5 months ago

Inside / Making of Open Education Week

Managing Open Education Week, one of my major responsibilities at Open Education Global, is just well sort of over… well not really over as I have managed to munge it out in time beyond the March 2-6 dates. I’ve been recasting it for the last three years but yikes, have yet reall … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 5 months ago

#TDC5168 Acrostically Cori #IWD2026

For the most recent DS106 Daily Create, a special one (well all 5167 of the other ones are still special) for International Women’s Day. tdc5168 #ds106 Acrostically Her, Poem for International Women’s Day #IWD2026 Today is the 115th International Women’s Day all day, worldwide. H … | Continue reading


@cogdogblog.com | 5 months ago