DAILY JOURNAL
Laura Strickman

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September 4, 2002:	Over the summer I'd vaguely imagined some sort of genetic simulation; today Yulin Zhuang suggested we make a MOO together, and I abandon my former idea to take that one on. We get a lot of papers about the techlab project. Another class, another dead forest. Sigh.
September 6, 2002:	I start developing a library of good MOOing links; I also discovered an online version of the LambdaMOO programmer's manual, which should prove very helpful. I begin a simple version of this webpage.
September 9, 2002:	We explained what a MOO is to Mr. Latimer and got his ideas on the research aspect of our project; maybe using sockets. I began work on our project proposal and started looking for a good design for the webpage.
September 11, 2002:	I finished work on our project proposal and designed a webpage for it, using a design scheme based on wallpaper from Digital Blasphemy. I also spoke with Thomas and Rhiannon, two "wizards" who have already created MOOs, on the basic software needed for writing MOO code.
September 13, 2002:	I researched various pieces of MOO-building software and tried to decide which would be most effective for our project. Also discussed with Yulin how we can expand the research-oriented side of our project.
September 16, 2002:	I made a Helpful Links page to help keep track of some of the MOOing resources I'd found. I also updated my Project Proposal so that it reflected what I was going to be doing, rather than Yulin and I as a team.
September 18, 2002:	Talked to Yulin about the differences between his proposal and mine. Read up on several of the MOO FAQs I found last time; now we need to decide which core to use for our MOO. My current first choice is LambdaMOO. Also- where are we going to host it? Either here at school (Linux) or on my dad's computer at home (Windows). If the latter, we need to download WinMOO.
September 20, 2002:	We began getting our MOO up today! Whoo-hoo! Downloaded the LambdaCore and compiled it; now we're planning out what sort of elaborations to make on the project. Perhaps for our research aspect we'll explore the limits of MOO-code. Cool.
September 23, 2002:	Yulin was out sick today, so I worked on reading through the LambdaMOO manual a little more. I also logged on to several already-developed MOOs to check how they implemented various commands.
September 25, 2002:	Today I got our MOO up and running on my computer. I reset the welcome message, enabled character creation and guest log-ons, and created several rooms. The only trouble is, it was really easy. Clearly this isn't going to take all year, even for one person, let alone Yulin and I both. So we discussed changing our projects. Yulin wants to work on a java client for MOOs; I'm interested in making a website where you can put in all of your pertinent information (such as name, class, schedule, insurance, etc.) and for each form or teacher that requests that information, you can select which things to give them access to and the website will fill out the form. This could be part of the intranet; it would really be handy. I need to discuss this idea with Mr. Latimer.
September 27, 2002:	I brainstormed on my new project today, and came up with a name for it: Datakeeper. I wrote out a new progress report for it as well as my first iteration report, and got both online. I think this one will work out pretty well.
September 30, 2002:	Absent today.
October 2, 2002:	I got my project approved by Mr. Latimer today. He's getting me a MySQL account so I can start setting up a database for the project. I don't really know much about databases; time for some online research.
October 4, 2002:	Today I got together a library of helpful links on MySQL and PHP. I think I'll combine the two and use them to make an interactive webpage, rather than the offline version of Datakeeper I was considering earlier. In other news, today the cast list for A Knight of One Axe went up, and I got the part I wanted- Mrs. Trotsky! Whoo-hoo! That's gonna be an excellent play. Moo is playing Trotsky, too, so I'm sure we'll have a ball.
October 8, 2002:	Today I wrote my first ever php page! It's a simple form-response test, but I can see how it could be expanded to create my project. It's really cool! Check it out here.
October 10, 2002:	Today I worked out a page to display my test programs, as well as writing up the source code to display. I also created a Table of Interests and began learning LaTeX for my oral proposal later this month.
October 16, 2002:	Today I redesigned my webpage using a new galaxy background that I made myself using Gimp. I also wrote a new Iteration Progress Report and made a page to index them all.
October 18, 2002:	Listened to Ben's presentation on his project today. I signed up to present my own project on the 25th of October, which is next Friday. Then worked on updating my LaTeX document for that purpose. The internet was down today, so I couldn't work on making my website prettier. Arrrgh!
October 21, 2002:	I am afraid I may be going crazy. Today I unthinkingly went to Geosystems 2nd period, took a test and everything, and only when 6th period (normally Geosystems) began did I realize I should have been in techlab. So I scrambled around like a crazy person and ended up going to techlab 6th. So it worked out okay... but I really worry about me sometimes. Today in class I finished updating my LaTeX paper, adding two more sections and several subsections.
October 23, 2002:	Today I prepared for the oral presentation I'm giving on Friday (next period). I'm going to use my LaTeX document for a visual, so I updated it, re-did the whole latex2html process, and fancied up all the webpages. Before, they were black-on-white and full of broken images; now, they're pale-yellow-on-galactic-wallpaper with matching yellow arrows. Supercool. I also fixed the Iteration Progress Report index page, which was having some table troubles. Now it's all pretty again.
October 23, 2002:	George, who's also using php for his project, showed me this webpage that will hopefully make dealing with php a whole lot easier. I gave my oral report today- it went pretty well. Ben gave me an idea- I could have a little database of common forms (emergency care form, field trip form, etc.) with which field goes where listed; then a user could just hit "emergency care form" and print one out. Today I also taught myself the basics of MySQL using the helper sites on my link list. I edited my database, created a table, played with adding and changing entries, and stuff like that. My next step is to make a simple PHP-MySQL interfaced webpage.
October 24 - November 5:	Off I go to VTA, a theatre competition in Richmond. I'll be missing a couple days of school, as well as half of the four-day weekend. Wish us luck!
November 6, 2002:	Final touches on my website for the end of the quarter- I made a separate page explaining my weekly goals, fixed a couple html mix-ups, and made sure all the links worked. And there's the first quarter, over and out.
November 8, 2002:	Today I looked at a couple more PHP - MySQL websites. I'm working on writing my second Test Code project, this one involving both PHP and MySQL. It should be done by the middle of next week. I'm partway done- check out the PHP code that prints my database here, and the PHP code that (supposedly) allows users to enter data here.
November 11, 2002:	Worked on debugging my new PHP/MySQL code. Now you can retrieve data from the database using the website all right, and supposedly you can also update the database from the website, but I don't think the updates are going through. Need to fix that.
November 13, 2002:	I added my new test programs to my test code page and got interviewed by Mr. Latimer for my Latimer Log. Also watched the Risk play-offs in AI. We never got to do cool things like that when we were in AI. And we had to use LISP. How unfair the world is.
November 15, 2002:	I got my last test program working today! Now you can submit your data and the website updates the database successfully; then you can go to the data access page and see your student data. I also wrote the code to convert the Senior/Junior/Sophomore/Freshman menu to numerical grade values. I rock.
November 20, 2002:	Happy birthday to me. Absent today; doing Russian Essay Contest.
November 22, 2002:	Began coding Datakeeper 1.0. Things to do *Make more input fields *Make address field four lines long *Double-type password and check for accuracy *Check that each field has a valid input *Have password show up as *s when it is typed
December 2, 2002:	Okay, got Datakeeper 1.0 set up! Now I need a way to access the data; I'm working on writing a log-in screen and searching the web for a pretty image set for Datakeeper. I also changed the password box so that it comes in in stars instead of showing up.
December 4, 2002:	What a productive day. I finished the login screen and added the ability to email your teachers with your information, then updated my Test Programs page to display all the new programs and code. Datakeeper v. 1.0 is up and running! Next addition: the ability to access and change your data.
December 6, 2002:	Snow day! No school! Huzzah! (Amazing, snow in early December...)
December 9, 2002:	Today was the first day of As You Like it tryouts during lunch, so I was (regrettably) late to class. Over the weekend I went to a Swarthmore interview and told the college guy about my techlab project. He seemed impressed. Today I worked on writing my next iteration progress report.
December 13, 2002:	Today I couldn't access any of my .php3 sites, for reasons unknown to me, so I couldn't do what I had wanted to, which was to make the login / data altering site for DKv1. So instead I worked on all the administrative type stuff Mr. Latimer wants us to do. Ah, well.
December 16, 2002:	Apparently, the school's MySQL server is b0rken, which explains why none of my webpages are working. Finally, a problem that isn't my fault! So I worked on getting together the graphics for DKv2, which is going to be all pretty and blue and white. See my test page!
December 18, 2002:	Today, I finished writing my iteration progress report for December, added it to the progress report page, added my pretty-graphics datakeeper page (with labelled buttons!) to my test page, and found out why my MySQL programs weren't working! Apparently, they've been moving the MySQL server all around, so I had to change everywhere I tried to log in to "localhost" to "mysql.tjhsst.edu" instead. Now all my beautiful programs work again. Yay.
December 20, 2002:	I added links to the DKv2 page and got DKv2's log in working. Now my dilemma is how to keep the user logged in between pages; i.e., if she logs in and then goes to "view data", how to let MySQL know that she's still logged in. Online research indicates that I need to use something called "sessions", but I think those are only available for PHP version 4, and I think we have version 3. Hmmmm.
January 6, 2003:	I checked, and we do have PHP 4 on the school computers, so now it's time to start researching sessions. This page looks particularly helpful. ...Oh, wait! I don't have time to work on my actual project, because it's time to *trumpet fanfare* design my poster, which is apparently also our semester exam. Sigh. Okay, Datakeeper goes on hold while I think about color schemes. I'm thinking the same blue-and-off-white tones that I'm using for my prettied-up DKv2 pages, so that the screenshots won't clash with the poster.
January 8, 2003:	Did lots 'n lots of stuff today. I... finished writing content for my poster page, added a link to it to my main page, made a source code page for DKv2, and added DKv2 to my test program page. Then I left early for a field trip.
January 10, 2003:	Today I fixed up my links page so that it actually has some links, rather than just a pointer to my LaTeX doc. I also did some online research on PHP sessions, and attempted to implement the beginnings of a session sequence in DKv2. Right now it's giving me a bunch of error messages about cookies. Oh, well.
January 13, 2003:	Got sessions up and running! The problem, it turns out, is that you have to register the session before you do any html, because the html header needs to know whether or not there's a session. So now you can log in and log out (I also made a log out page) and travel around the site and it always knows who you're logged in as. Very cool. Check it out.
January 17, 2003:	Worked more on Datakeeper v. 2.0. Stuff done: Log-in page. View data page. New account page. Send form page. Log out page. Stuff to do: Edit data page. Add more data- use emergency care form. Make send form page so that you can choose what data to send. I also did a little tweaking with the send-form code so that now emails generated from Datakeeper list "Datakeeper" as the sender, rather than "www-data". Then I changed the big lists of stuff in view data and create account into tables, so it all looks prettier and more organized.
January 22, 2003:	Began the printing and cutting for my poster. Love that creaky papercutter.
January 24, 2003:	Finished my poster today! Instead of the bright yellow book and pencil pictures, which clashed horribly with the blue stuff, I just pasted in some geometric shapes and bars in various shades of blue construction paper. Techlab? What techlab? We're talking color schemes here.
January 27, 2003:	Lots of work today- mainly getting stuff ready for the end-of-semester check. I wrote my iteration progress report for January, posted all the code for the various pages of DKv2.0, made a page about the research topic of my project, and wrote another weekly goal. Oh, and changed all the January dates from 2002 to 2003. Heh.
February 3, 2003:	Today I made the DKv2.0 Edit Info page work. Or at least I think it works. It worked when I tried it. Still needs more testing, though.
February 5, 2003:	I tested the Edit Page, fixed one or two thingies, and slapped it up. Now DKv2.0 is officially done. And it works, and you can use it, and la-dee-dah. Next on the schedule: Add many more information fields (all that are needed for an Emergency Care Form). Make it fill in the blanks on a graphic of an ECF.
February 7, 2003:	We got an assignment about applying the scientific method to our project. Huh. I updated all of my code.txt files so that they showed my current code rather than two or three versions ago.
February 10, 2003:	Today I wrote my scientific method page. Now I can pretend I'm a real scientist, with a lab coat and goggles and everything. Yahoo. I also fixed the "Edit Data" button image for DKv2.0, which for some reason had stopped showing up. It was very mysterious- all the other gifs were doing just fine, and this one miraculously disappeared. I checked with Gimp, and the file was still there, still looking fine- it just wouldn't show up online. Finally I changed it from a gif to a jpg and now it works fine. I don't understand.
February 12, 2003:	And now we have to write up our project for Teknos. Grahhrg.
February 14, 2003:	Noooo class.
February 17, 2003:	Snow! Almost two feet of it!
February 19, 2003:	The snow shows no signs of melting. Thick, cold white snow.
February 21, 2003:	Gradually the snow is trickling away- but the sidewalks are still covered, so whoops! Still no school!
February 24, 2003:	Finally back to school. I think I've forgotten what this class looks like. Worked more on the Teknos write-up thing.
February 26, 2003:	Fixed the thing where you couldn't edit your phone number. Now you can edit your phone number. So if anybody wants to edit their phone number, they're all set. Yay.
February 28, 2003:	Snow again! No school! Again! Bwa ha ha ha ha!
March 3, 2003:	You know I went to this class a total of seven times in February? Seven. That's it. Heh heh.
March 5, 2003:	Today I made my project description page, including drawing a rather nifty diagram of how information travels through Datakeeper. Too lazy to click on the little link? Here, I'll show you:
March 10, 2003:	Thing is, Datakeeper is... well, done. It's all there, it all works, it does what I intended it to do... Of course, there are many directions I could take it from here- I could expand the types of data stored, I could work with printable gifs of forms, I could do all sorts of stuff. So I spent today brainstorming what I'm going to work on next.
March 12, 2003:	So today I got all these forms from Mr. Latimer. The plan is to make users input all the data needed on the standard forms, and then they can print out copies of 'em. There's a whole lot of information, and some of it is fairly private; I may have to look in to security beyond the simple password protection.
March 14, 2003:	Getting ready to expand Datakeeper to fill out everything needed for an Emergency Care form. Here's the data needed: First Name, Last Name, Middle Name, School, ID No, Birthdate, Sex, Social Security No, Bus No, Grade Level, Teacher/Counselor, Language Spoken at Home, Who Student Resides With, (Father, Mother & Legal Guardian's: Language, Address, First, Middle, Last Name, Home phone, Work phone, Car/pager phone), (2 people to call in an emergency's: name, relationship, language, telephone), (2 people authorized to pick child up), (Before & after school care's name & telephone), Medical Care Provider's Name & Phone, Medical Care Coverer's Name & Phone, Health Problems, Medications It's a whoooole lot. Today I created a new database including all the information.
March 21, 2003:	Nooo energy. My play is keeping me at school 'til 7:30 or 8:00 every night. Next week it's 'til 10:00. Sigh. Today I thought about how to best make the new information entry page- should I put all the fields together on one page? That'd be awfully intimidating for a new user.
March 31, 2003:	Today I got my title page all set up, with links to proper places and all.
April 4, 2003:	Fixed a few not-quite-optimal aspects of my title page. Made sure Mr. Latimer knew that my project description is, in fact, here.
April 28, 2003:	I've been in Russia for the past couple weeks; thus the lack of techlab work. And I thought not having a cable internet connection was bad- in Russia, none of the students we spoke to had home computers, and it was impossible to find an internet connection. And today Mr. Latham told me he'd selected my project to put in Teknos. (Technos?) That's nice.
May 2, 2003:	Workin' on my techlab paper. 15-20 pages?!

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