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Memory Eternal Metropolitan Philip

We talk with Fr. Thomas Zain, Vicar General of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America just 2 hours after the falling asleep of our beloved Metropolitan Philip, Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America.




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Hagia Sophia Classical Academy

Bobby Maddex interviews Fr. David Wey and Dean Theodore Nottingham of the Hagia Sophia Classical Academy, located in Indianapolis, Indiana.




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Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia

John Maddex talks with the team behind the Icons of Sound project that resulted in Cappella Romana's chart-topping surround-sound recording, Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia. He talked with the four people integral to the project: Alexander Lingas (Music Director of Cappella Romana), Bissera Pentcheva (Professor of Art and Art History, Stanford University), Jonathan Abel (Professor at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University), and Mark Powell (Executive Director of Cappella Romana). Order the CD and related resources Also check out Icons of Sound at Stanford University




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Hagia Sophia Orthodox Classical Academy Interview

Bobby Maddex, Director of Digital Media for Ancient Faith Ministries interviews Zachary Waltz, the headmaster of Hagia Sophia Orthodox Classical Academy located in Indianapolis, Indiana. As well as Fr. David Wey, the rector of the Academy. Please visit https://www.hagiasophiaclassical.com for more information about the academy




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Agia Sophia - Fresh Coffee, Ancient Wisdom

A 26 minute documentary on an Orthodox coffee house/bookstore in Colorado Springs




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An Autobiographical Parable

In the parable of the Vineyard and the Vinedressers, Jesus is not giving a moral teaching, as might be expected, but rather is presenting His own story about His relationship to God and to the people of Israel. Fr. Pat discusses this.




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Christian Philosophy

Fr. Pat explores the literary source of Christian philosophy as found in the Holy Scriptures.




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Three Aspects of Philosophy

The story of Jesus healing the man born blind in John 9 provides the context for Fr. Pat's reflections on epistemology, anthropology, and history.




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Joy, Peace, and Thought (Philippians 4)

On Palm Sunday, at the beginning of this saddest of weeks, St. Paul exhorts us, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice."




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Tribute to Metropolitan Philip

In a touching and emotional special edition of Ancient Faith Today, Kevin Allen welcomed the Vicar General of the Antiochian Archdiocese Fr. Thomas Zain as well as former EOC (Evangelical Orthodox Church) Bishop Fr. Wayne Wilson to discuss the life and legacy of Metropolitan Philip Saliba. The program also included listener calls and a tribute from Fr. Jon Braun.




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Philippines says China is pushing it to cede claims in South China Sea




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Paedophile who filmed abuse jailed for 13 years

Lee Rider betrayed his victim's trust in "the worst possible way", police say.




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Introducing TODS – a typographic and OpenType default stylesheet

Introducing TODS, an open source typography and opentype default stylesheet. One of the great things about going to conferences is the way it can spark an idea and kick start something. This project was initiated following a conversation with Roel Nieskens (of Wakamai Fondue fame) at CSS Day, where he demonstrated his Mildly Opinionated Prose Styles (MOPS).

The idea is to set sensible typographic defaults for use on prose (a column of text), making particular use of the font features provided by OpenType. The main principle is that it can be used as starting point for all projects, so doesn’t include design-specific aspects such as font choice, type scale or layout (including how you might like to set the line-length).

Within the styles is mildly opinionated best practice, which will help set suitable styles should you forget. This means you can also use the style sheet as a checklist, even if you don't want to implement it as-is.

TODS uses OpenType features extensively and variable font axes where available. It makes full use of the cascade to set sensible defaults high up, with overrides applied further down. It also contains some handy utility classes.

You can apply the TODS.css stylesheet in its entirety, as its full functionality relies on progressive enhancement within both browsers and fonts. Anything that is not supported will safely be ignored. The only possible exceptions to this are sub/superscripts and application of a grade axis in dark mode, as these are font-specific and could behave unexpectedly depending on the capability of the font.

In order to preview some of the TODS features, you can check out the preview page tods.html and toggle TODS.css on and off. (This needs more work as the text is a bit of a mish-mash of examples and instructions, and it's missing some of the utility classes and dark mode. But that’s what open source is for… feel free to fork, improve and add back into the repo.)

Walkthrough of the TODS.css stylesheet

You can download a latest version of the stylesheet from the TODS Github repo (meaning some of the code may have changed a bit).

Table of contents:

  1. Reset
  2. Web fonts
  3. Global defaults
  4. Block spacing
  5. Opentype utility classes
  6. Generic help classes
  7. Prose styling defaults
  8. Headings
  9. Superscripts and subscripts
  10. Tables and numbers
  11. Quotes
  12. Hyphenation
  13. Dark mode/inverted text

1. Reset

Based on Andy Bell’s more modern CSS reset. Only the typographic rules in his reset are used here. You might like to apply the other rules too.

html {
  -moz-text-size-adjust: none;
  -webkit-text-size-adjust: none;
  text-size-adjust: none;
}

Prevent font size inflation when rotating from portrait to landscape. The best explainer for this is by Kilian. He also explains why we still need those ugly prefixes too.

body, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, address, p, hr, pre, blockquote, ol, ul, li, dl, dt, dd, figure, figcaption, div, table, caption, form, fieldset {
  margin: 0;
}

Remove default margins in favour of better control in authored CSS.

input,
button,
textarea,
select {
  font-family: inherit;
  font-size: inherit;
}

Inherit fonts for inputs and buttons.

2. Web fonts

Use modern variable font syntax so that only supporting browsers get the variable font. Others will get generic fallbacks.

@font-face {
  font-family: 'Literata';
  src: url('/fonts/Literata-var.woff2') format('woff2') tech(variations),
       url('/fonts/Literata-var.woff2') format('woff2-variations');
  font-weight: 1 1000;
  font-stretch: 50% 200%;
  font-style: normal;
  font-display: fallback;
}

Include full possible weight range to avoid unintended synthesis of variable fonts with a weight axis. Same applies to stretch range for variable fonts with a width axis.

For main body fonts, use fallback for how the browser should behave while the webfont is loading. This gives the font an extremely small block period and a short swap period, providing the best chance for text to render.

@font-face {
  font-family: 'Literata';
  src: url('/fonts/Literata-Italic-var.woff2') format('woff2') tech(variations),
       url('/fonts/Literata-Italic-var.woff2') format('woff2-variations');
  font-weight: 1 1000;
  font-stretch: 50% 200%;
  font-style: italic;
  font-display: swap;
}

For italics use swap for an extremely small block period and an infinite swap period. This means italics can be synthesised and swapped in once loaded.

@font-face {
  font-family: 'Plex Sans';
  src: url('/fonts/Plex-Sans-var.woff2') format('woff2') tech(variations),
       url('/fonts/Plex-Sans-var.woff2') format('woff2-variations');
  font-weight: 1 1000;
  font-stretch: 50% 200%;
  font-style: normal;
  font-display: fallback;
  size-adjust:105%; /* make monospace fonts slightly bigger to match body text. Adjust to suit – you might need to make them smaller */
}

When monospace fonts are used inline with text fonts, they often need tweaking to appear balanced in terms of size. Use size-adjust to do this without affecting reported font size and associated units such as em.

3. Global defaults

Set some sensible defaults that can be used throughout the whole web page. Override these where you need to through the magic of the cascade.

body {
    line-height: 1.5;
    text-decoration-skip-ink: auto;
    font-optical-sizing: auto;
    font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures no-discretionary-ligatures no-historical-ligatures contextual;
    font-kerning: normal;
}

Set a nice legible line height that gets inherited. The font- properties are set to default CSS and OpenType settings, however they are still worth setting specifically just in case.

button, input, label { 
  line-height: 1.1; 
}

Set shorter line heights on interactive elements. We’ll do the same for headings later on.

4. Block spacing

Reinstate block margins we removed in the reset section. We’re setting consistent spacing based on font size on primary elements within ‘flow’ contexts. The entire ‘prose’ area is a flow context, but so might other parts of the page. For more details on the ‘flow’ utility see Andy Bell’s favourite three lines of CSS.

.flow > * + * {
  margin-block-start: var(--flow-space, 1em);
}

Rule says that every direct sibling child element of .flow has margin-block-start added to it. The > combinator is added to prevent margins being added recursively.

.prose {
  --flow-space: 1.5em;
}

Set generous spacing between primary block elements (in this case it’s the same as the line height). You could also choose a value from a fluid spacing scale, if you are going down the fluid typography route (recommended, but your milage may vary). See Utopia.fyi for more details and a fluid type tool.

5. OpenType utility classes

.dlig { font-variant-ligatures: discretionary-ligatures; }
.hlig { font-variant-ligatures: historical-ligatures; }
.dlig.hlig { font-variant-ligatures: discretionary-ligatures historical-ligatures; } /* Apply both historic and discretionary */

.pnum { font-variant-numeric: proportional-nums; }
.tnum { font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums;    }
.lnum { font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; }
.onum { font-variant-numeric: oldstyle-nums; }
.zero { font-variant-numeric: slashed-zero;    }
.pnum.zero { font-variant-numeric: proportional-nums slashed-zero; } /* Apply slashed zeroes to proportional numerals */
.tnum.zero { font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums slashed-zero; }
.lnum.zero { font-variant-numeric: lining-nums slashed-zero; }
.onum.zero { font-variant-numeric: oldstyle-nums slashed-zero; }
.tnum.lnum.zero { font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums lining-nums slashed-zero; }
.frac { font-variant-numeric: diagonal-fractions; }
.afrc { font-variant-numeric: stacked-fractions; }
.ordn { font-variant-numeric: ordinal; }

.smcp { font-variant-caps: small-caps; }
.c2sc { font-variant-caps: unicase; }
.hist { font-variant-alternates: historical-forms; }

Helper utilities matching on/off Opentype layout features available through high level CSS properties.

@font-feature-values "Fancy Font Name" { /* match font-family webfont name */

    /* All features are font-specific. */
    @styleset { cursive: 1; swoopy: 7 16; }
    @character-variant { ampersand: 1; capital-q: 2; }
    @stylistic { two-story-g: 1; straight-y: 2; }
    @swash { swishy: 1; flowing: 2; wowzers: 3 }
    @ornaments { clover: 1; fleuron: 2; }
    @annotation { circled: 1; boxed: 2; }
}

Other Opentype features can have multiple glyphs, accessible via an index number defined in the font – these will be explained in documentation that came with your font. These vary between fonts, so you need to set up a new @font-font-features rule for each different font, ensuring the font name matches that of the font family. You then give each feature a custom name such as ‘swoopy’. Note that stylesets can be combined, which is why swoopy has a space-separated list of indices 7 16.

/* Stylesets */
.ss01 { font-variant-alternates: styleset(cursive); }
.ss02 { font-variant-alternates: styleset(swoopy); }

/* Character variants */
.cv01 { font-variant-alternates: character-variant(ampersand); }
.cv02 { font-variant-alternates: character-variant(capital-q); }

/* Stylistic alternates */
.salt1 { font-variant-alternates: stylistic(two-story-g); }
.salt2 { font-variant-alternates: stylistic(straight-y); }

/* Swashes */
.swsh1 { font-variant-alternates: swash(swishy); }
.swsh2 { font-variant-alternates: swash(flowing); }

/* Ornaments */
.ornm1 { font-variant-alternates: ornaments(clover); }
.ornm2 { font-variant-alternates: ornaments(fleuron); }

/* Alternative numerals */
.nalt1 { font-variant-alternates: annotation(circled); }
.nalt2 { font-variant-alternates: annotation(boxed); }

Handy utility classes showing how to access the font feature values you set up earlier using the font-variant-alternates property.

:root {
    --opentype-case: "case" off;
    --opentype-sinf: "sinf" off;
}

/* If class is applied, update custom property */
.case {
    --opentype-case: "case" on;
}

.sinf {
    --opentype-sinf: "sinf" on;
}

/* Apply current state of all custom properties, defaulting to off */
* { 
    font-feature-settings: var(--opentype-case, "case" off), var(--opentype-sinf, "sinf" off);
}

Set custom properties for OpenType features only available through low level font-feature-settings. We need this approach because font-feature-settings does not inherit in the same way as font-variant. See Roel’s write-up, including how to apply the same methodology to custom variable font axes.

6. Generic helper classes

Some utilities to help ensure best typographic practice.

.centered {
    text-align: center;
    text-wrap: balance;
}

When centring text you’ll almost always want the text to be ‘balanced’, meaning roughly the same number of characters on each line.

.uppercase {
    text-transform: uppercase;
    --opentype-case: "case" on;
}

When fully capitalising text, ensure punctuation designed to be used within caps is turned on where available, using the Opentype ‘case’ feature.

.smallcaps {
    font-variant-caps: all-small-caps;
    font-variant-numeric: oldstyle-nums;    
}

Transform both upper and lowercase letters to small caps, and use old style-numerals within runs of small caps so they match size-wise.

7. Prose styling defaults

Assign a .prose class to your running text, that is to say an entire piece of prose such as the full text of an article or blog post.

.prose {
    text-wrap: pretty;
    font-variant-numeric: oldstyle-nums proportional-nums;
    font-size-adjust: 0.507;
}

Firstly we get ourselves better widow/orphan control, aiming for blocks of text to not end with a line containing a word on its own. Also we use proportional old-style numerals in running text.

Also adjust the size of fallback fonts to match the webfont to maintain legibility with fallback fonts and reduce visible reflowing. The font-size-adjust number is the aspect ratio of the webfont, which you can calculate using this tool.

strong, b, th { 
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size-adjust: 0.514; 
}

Apply a different adjustment to elements which are typically emboldened by default, as bold weights often have a different aspect ratio – check for the different weights you may be using, including numeric semi-bolds (eg. 650). Headings are dealt with separately as the aspect ratio may be affected by optical sizing.

8. Headings

h1, h2, h3, h4 { 
    line-height: 1.1; 
    font-size-adjust: 0.514;
    font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; }

Set shorter line heights on your main headings. Set an aspect ratio for fallback fonts – check for different weights of headings. Use lining numerals in headings, especially when using Title Case.

h1 {
    font-variant-ligatures: discretionary-ligatures; 
    font-size-adjust: 0.521;
}

Turn on fancy ligatures for main headings. If the font has an optical sizing axis, you might need to adjust the aspect ratio accordingly.

h1.uppercase {
    font-variant-caps: titling-caps;
}

When setting a heading in all caps, use titling capitals which are specially designed for setting caps at larger sizes.

9. Superscripts and subscripts

Use proper super- and subscript characters. Apply to sub and sup elements as well as utility classes for when semantic sub/superscripts are not required.

@supports ( font-variant-position: sub ) {
    sub, .sub {
        vertical-align: baseline;
        font-size: 100%;
        line-height: inherit;
        font-variant-position: sub;
    }
}

@supports ( font-variant-position: super ) {
    sup, .sup {
        vertical-align: baseline;
        font-size: 100%;
        line-height: inherit;
        font-variant-position: super;
    }
}

If font-variant-position is not specified, browsers will synthesise sub/superscripts, so we need to manually turn off the synthesis. This is the only way to use a font’s proper sub/sup glyphs, however it’s only safe to use this if you know your font has glyphs for all the characters you are sub/superscripting. If the font lacks those characters (most only have sub/superscript numbers, not letters), then only Firefox (correctly) synthesises sup and sub – all other browsers will display normal characters in the regular way as we turned the synthesis off.

.chemical { 
    --opentype-sinf: "sinf" on;
}

For chemical formulae like H2O, use scientific inferiors instead of sub.

10. Tables and numbers

td, math, time[datetime*=":"] {
    font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums lining-nums slashed-zero;    
}

Make sure all numbers in tables are lining tabular numerals, adding slashed zeroes for clarity. This could usefully apply where a time is specifically marked up, as well as in mathematics.

11. Quotes

Use curly quotes and hang punctuation around blockquotes.

:lang(en) > * { quotes: '“' '”' '‘' '’' ; } /* “Generic English ‘style’” */
:lang(en-GB) > * { quotes: '‘' '’' '“' '”'; } /* ‘British “style”’ */
:lang(fr) > * { quotes: '«?0202F' '?0202F»' '“' '”'; } /* « French “style” » */

Set punctuation order for inline quotes. Quotes are language-specific, so set a lang attribute on your HTML element or send the language via a server header. Note the narrow non-breaking spaces encoded in the French example.

q::before { content: open-quote }
q::after  { content: close-quote }

Insert quotes before and after q element content.

.quoted, .quoted q {
    quotes: '“' '”' '‘' '’';
}

Punctuation order for blockquotes, using a utility class to surround with double-quotes.

.quoted p:first-of-type::before {
    content: open-quote;
}
.quoted p:last-of-type::after  {
    content: close-quote;
}

Append quotes to the first and last paragraphs in the blockquote.

.quoted p:first-of-type::before {
    margin-inline-start: -0.87ch; /* Adjust according to font */
}
.quoted p {
    hanging-punctuation: first last;
}
@supports(hanging-punctuation: first last) {
    .quoted p:first-of-type::before {
        margin-inline-start: 0;
    }
}

Hang the punctuation outside of the blockquote. Firstly manually hang punctuation with a negative margin, then remove the manual intervention and use hanging-punctuation if supported.

12. Hyphenation

Turn on hyphenation for prose. Language is required in order for the browser to use the correct hyphenation dictionary.

.prose {
    -webkit-hyphens: auto;
    -webkit-hyphenate-limit-before: 4;
    -webkit-hyphenate-limit-after: 3;
    -webkit-hyphenate-limit-lines: 2;

    hyphens: auto;
    hyphenate-limit-chars: 7 4 3;
    hyphenate-limit-lines: 2;    
    hyphenate-limit-zone: 8%;
    hyphenate-limit-last: always;
}

Include additional refinements to hyphenation. Respectively, these stop short words being hyphenated, prevent ladders of hyphens, and reduce overall hyphenation a bit. Safari uses legacy properties to achieve some of the same effects, hence the ugly prefixes and slightly different syntax.

.prose pre, .prose code, .prose var, .prose samp, .prose kbd,
.prose h1, .prose h2, .prose h3, .prose h4, .prose h5, .prose h6 {
    -webkit-hyphens: manual;
    hyphens: manual;
}

Turn hyphens off for monospace and headings.

13. Dark mode/inverted text

Reduce grade if available to prevent bloom of inverted type.

:root {
  --vf-grad: 0;
}

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --vf-grad: -50;
  }
}

* {
  font-variation-settings: "GRAD" var(--vf-grad, 0);
}

Not all fonts have a grade (GRAD) axis, and the grade number is font-specific. We’re using the customer property method because font-variation-settings provides low-level control meaning each subsequent use of the property completely overrides prior use – the values are not inherited or combined, unlike with font-variant for example.

There are probably better ways of doing some of these things, and the preview page is rather lacking at the moment. Please let me know on Github, or better still fork it, edit and resubmit.

Read or add comments






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Insurrection à Washington - Assaut du Capitole: culpabilité pour l'homme photographié dans le bureau de Nancy Pelosi

(Belga) Un Américain, qui avait été immortalisé les pieds sur une table dans le bureau de la cheffe démocrate Nancy Pelosi lors de l'assaut sur le Capitole, a été reconnu coupable lundi de plusieurs délits.

Après une courte délibération, les jurés ont déclaré Richard Barnett, 62 ans, coupable, entre autres, d'entrave à une procédure officielle, vol et intrusion dans un bâtiment officiel avec une arme dangereuse (un bâton de marche capable d'envoyer des décharges électriques). Le 6 janvier 2021, il avait envahi, comme des centaines de partisans de l'ex-président républicain Donald Trump, le siège du Congrès au moment où les élus certifiaient la victoire du démocrate Joe Biden à la présidentielle. Il avait été photographié par l'AFP dans le bureau de la cheffe de la chambre des représentants, Nancy Pelosi, les pieds sur un meuble. Le cliché avait fait le tour du monde et permis à la police de l'interpeller rapidement. Selon le dossier d'accusation, ce partisan de la mouvance complotiste Qanon avait laissé un message insultant à la démocrate et volé une enveloppe qu'elle avait signée. Pendant son procès, il s'était montré défiant, assurant avoir été "poussé à l'intérieur" du Capitole par la foule. Sa peine sera prononcée en mai. En attendant, il reste assigné à résidence avec un bracelet électronique. En deux ans d'enquête, plus de 950 participants à cette attaque ont été arrêtés, et près de 200 condamnés à des peines de prison. (Belga)




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A Meta-ethnographic Synthesis of Support Services in Distance Learning Programs




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Utilizing BlueJ to Teach Polymorphism in an Advanced Object-Oriented Programming Course




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Using Autobiographical Digital Storytelling for the Integration of a Foreign Student in the School Environment. A Case Study

Immigrant students face a multitude of problems, among which are poor social adaptation and school integration. On the other hand, although digital narrations are widely used in education, they are rarely used for aiding students or for the resolution of complex problems. This study exploits the potential of digital narrations towards this end, by examining how the development and presentation of an autobiographical digital narration can assist immigrant students in overcoming their adaptation difficulties. For that matter, a female student presenting substantial problems was selected as the study’s subject. Data was collected from all the participating parties (subject, teacher, classmates) using a variety of tools, before, during, and after the intervention. It was found that through the digital narration she was able to externalize her thoughts and feelings and this, in turn, helped her in achieving a smoother integration in the school environment. In addition, the attitudes and perceptions of the other students for their foreign classmate were positively influenced. The intervention was short in duration and it did not require special settings. Hence, it can be easily applied and educators can consider using similar interventions. On the other hand, further research is recommended to establish the generalizability of the study’s findings.




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Creatıng Infographics Based on the Bridge21 Model for Team-based and Technology-mediated Learning

Aim/Purpose: The main aim of this study was modeling a collaborative process for knowledge visualization, via the creation of infographics. Background: As an effective method for visualizing complex information, creating infographics requires learners to generate and cultivate a deep knowledge of content and enables them to concisely visualize and share this knowledge. This study investigates creating infographics as a knowledge visualization process for collaborative learning situations by integrating the infographic design model into the team-based and technology-mediated Bridge21 learning model. Methodology: This study was carried out using an educational design perspective by conducting three main cycles comprised of three micro cycles: analysis and exploration; design and construction; evaluation and reflection. The process and the scaffolding were developed and enhanced from cycle to cycle based on both qualitative and quantitative methods by using the infographic design rubric and researcher observations acquired during implementation. Respectively, twenty-three, twenty-four, and twenty-four secondary school students participated in the infographic creation process cycles. Contribution: This research proposes an extensive step-by-step process model for creating infographics as a method of visualization for learning. It is particularly relevant for working with complex information, in that it enables collaborative knowledge construction and sharing of condensed knowledge. Findings: Creating infographics can be an effective method for collaborative learning situations by enabling knowledge construction, visualization and sharing. The Bridge21 activity model constituted the spine of the infographic creation process. The content generation, draft generation, and visual and digital design generation components of the infographic design model matched with the investigate, plan and create phases of the Bridge21 activity model respectively. Improvements on infographic design results from cycle to cycle suggest that the revisions on the process model succeeded in their aims. The rise in each category was found to be significant, but the advance in visual design generation was particularly large. Recommendations for Practitioners: The effectiveness of the creation process and the quality of the results can be boosted by using relevant activities based on learner prior knowledge and skills. While infographic creation can lead to a focus on visual elements, the importance of wording must be emphasized. Being a multidimensional process, groups need guidance to ensure effective collaboration. Recommendation for Researchers: The proposed collaborative infographic creation process could be structured and evaluated for online learning environments, which will improve interaction and achievement by enhancing collaborative knowledge creation. Impact on Society: In order to be knowledge constructors, innovative designers, creative communicators and global collaborators, learners need to be surrounded by adequate learning environments. The infographic creation process offers them a multidimensional learning situation. They must understand the problem, find an effective way to collect information, investigate their data, develop creative and innovative perspectives for visual design and be comfortable for using digital creation tools. Future Research: The infographic creation process could be investigated in terms of required learner prior knowledge and skills, and could be enhanced by developing pre-practices and scaffolding.




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Towards Understanding Information Systems Students’ Experience of Learning Introductory Programming: A Phenomenographic Approach

Aim/Purpose: This study seeks to understand the various ways information systems (IS) students experience introductory programming to inform IS educators on effective pedagogical approaches to teaching programming. Background: Many students who choose to major in information systems (IS), enter university with little or no experience of learning programming. Few studies have dealt with students’ learning to program in the business faculty, who do not necessarily have the computer science goal of programming. It has been shown that undergraduate IS students struggle with programming. Methodology: The qualitative approach was used in this study to determine students’ notions of learning to program and to determine their cognitive processes while learning to program in higher education. A cohort of 47 students, who were majoring in Information Systems within the Bachelor of Commerce degree programme were part of the study. Reflective journals were used to allow students to record their experiences and to study in-depth their insights and experiences of learning to program during the course. Using phenomenographic methods, categories of description that uniquely characterises the various ways IS students experience learning to program were determined. Contribution: This paper provides educators with empirical evidence on IS students’ experiences of learning to program, which play a crucial role in informing IS educators on how they can lend support and modify their pedagogical approach to teach programming to students who do not necessarily need to have the computer science goal of programming. This study contributes additional evidence that suggests more categories of description for IS students within a business degree. It provides valuable pedagogical insights for IS educators, thus contributing to the body of knowledge Findings: The findings of this study reveal six ways in which IS students’ experience the phenomenon, learning to program. These ways, referred to categories of description, formed an outcome space. Recommendations for Practitioners: Use the experiences of students identified in this study to determine approach to teaching and tasks or assessments assigned Recommendation for Researchers: Using phenomenographic methods researchers in IS or IT may determine pedagogical content knowledge in teaching specific aspects of IT or IS. Impact on Society: More business students would be able to program and improve their logical thinking and coding skills. Future Research: Implement the recommendations for practice and evaluate the students’ performance.




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Evolution of academic research in French business schools (2008-2018): isomorphism and heterogeneity

In the perspective of institutional theory, business education is an institutional field, in which two major institutional forces are accreditations and rankings. In this context, French business schools (BS) have adopted an isomorphic response by starting to engage in research and publishing in academic journals. Studies have discussed their research as a new institutional trajectory. However, what remains unknown is how they differ from each other in such research dynamics. To bring new insights to the discussion, this quantitative study examines, over the period of 2008-2018, the evolution of research of French BS by systematically comparing the 'best' schools with other schools in all analyses. The results indicate a strong isomorphism in terms of publication quantity and productivity, scale of research collaboration and the internationalisation of research. However, these schools are heterogeneous in terms research quality and scale of international research collaboration, reflecting the diversity in their research strategy.




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"We Work as a Team Really": Gender Homophily on Australian Cotton Farms




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Quality of Informing: Bias and Disinformation Philosophical Background and Roots




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Evolution of the Philosophy of Investments in IT Projects




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Navigating the Virtual Forest: How Networked Digital Technologies Can Foster Transgeographic Learning




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An Evolving Road Map: Student Perceptions and Contributions to Graphic Organizers within an Academic Wiki




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Analysing Socio-Demographic Differences in Access and Use of ICTs in Nigeria Using the Capability Approach




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Demographic Factors Affecting Freshman Students' Attitudes towards Software Piracy: An Empirical Study




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IT Service and Support: What To Do With Geographically Distributed Teams?




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Reflections on the Gestation of Polymorphic Innovation: The Exploitation of Emergence in Social Network Development via Text Messaging




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Strengthening the Online Auction Culture of the Philippines




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Investigating Ways to Use Facebook at the University Level: A Delphi Study




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Executive Higher Education Doctoral Programs in the United States: A Demographic Market-Based Analysis

Aim/Purpose: Executive doctoral programs in higher education are under-researched. Scholars, administers, and students should be aware of all common delivery methods for higher education graduate programs. Background This paper provides a review and analysis of executive doctoral higher education programs in the United States. Methodology: Executive higher education doctoral programs analyzed utilizing a qualitative demographic market-based analysis approach. Contribution: This review of executive higher education doctoral programs provides one of the first investigations of this segment of the higher education degree market. Findings: There are twelve programs in the United States offering executive higher education degrees, though there are less aggressively marketed programs described as executive-style higher education doctoral programs that could serve students with similar needs. Recommendations for Practitioners: Successful executive higher education doctoral programs require faculty that have both theoretical knowledge and practical experience in higher education. As appropriate, these programs should include tenure-line, clinical-track, and adjunct faculty who have cabinet level experience in higher education. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should begin to investigate more closely the small but growing population of executive doctoral degree programs in higher education. Impact on Society: Institutions willing to offer executive degrees in higher education will provide training specifically for those faculty who are one step from an executive position within the higher education sector. Society will be impacted by having someone that is trained in the area who also has real world experience. Future Research: Case studies of students enrolled in executive higher education programs and research documenting university-employer goals for these programs would enhance our understanding of this branch of the higher education degree market.




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Assessing the Graphic Questionnaire Used in Digital Literacy Training

Aim/Purpose: To capture digital training experiences, the paper introduces a novel data collection method – a graphic questionnaire. It aims to demonstrate the opportunities and limitations of this tool for collecting feedback from socially disadvantaged participants of digital literacy training about their progress. Background: In training of digital skills for disadvantaged audiences through informal educational interventions, it is important to get sufficient knowledge on factors that lead to their progress in the course of training. There are many tools to measure the achievements of formal education participants, but assessing the effectiveness of informal digital skills training is researched less. The paper introduces a small-scale case study of the training programme aimed at the developing of reading and digital skills among the participants from three socially disadvantaged groups – people with hearing impairments, children from low income families, and elderly persons. The impact of the training on participants was evaluated using different tools, including a short graphic questionnaire to capture the perceptions of the participants after each training. Methodology: We performed a thematic analysis of graphic questionnaires collected after each training session to determine how the students perceived their progress in developing literacy and digital skills. Contribution The findings of the paper can assist in designing assessment of digital literacy programmes that focus not only on final results, but also on the process of gaining digital skills and important factors that facilitate progress. Findings: The graphic questionnaire allowed the researchers to get insights into the perception of acquired skills and progressive achievements of the participants through rich self-reports of attitudes, knowledge gained, and activities during training sessions. However, the graphic questionnaire format did not allow the collection of data about social interaction and cooperation that could be important in learning. Recommendations for Practitioners: Graphic questionnaires are useful and easy-to-use tools for getting rich contextual information about the attitudes, behaviour, and acquisition of knowledge in digital literacy training. They can be used in applied assessments of digital literacy training in various settings. Their simplicity can appeal to respondents; however, in the long-run interest of respondents in continuing self-reports should be sustained by additional measures. Recommendations for Researchers: Researcher may explore the variety of simple and attractive research instruments, such as “honeycomb” questionnaires and similar, to facilitate data collection and saturate feedback with significant perception of personal experiences in gaining digital literacy skills. Impact on Society: Designing effective digital literacy programmes, including engaging self-assessment methods and tools, aimed at socially disadvantaged people will contribute to their digital inclusion and to solving the issues of digital divide. Future Research: Exploration of diverse research methods and expanding the research toolset in assessing digital literacy training could advance our understanding of important processes and factors in gaining digital skills.




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Development and Testing of a Graphical FORTRAN Learning Tool for Novice Programmers




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Continuous Use of Mobile Banking Applications: The Role of Process Virtualizability, Anthropomorphism and Virtual Process Failure Risk

Aim/Purpose: The research aims to investigate the factors that influence the continuous use of mobile banking applications to complete banking monetary transactions. Background: Despite a significant increase in the use of mobile banking applications, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, new evidence indicates that the use rate of mobile banking applications for operating banking monetary transactions has declined. Methodology: The study proposed an integrated model based mainly on the process virtualization theory (PVT) with other novel factors such as mobile banking application anthropomorphism and virtual process failure risk. The study model was empirically validated using structural equation modeling analysis on quantitative data from 484 mobile banking application users from Jordan. Contribution: The study focuses on continuing use or post-adoption behavior rather than pre-adoption behavior. This is important since the maximum and long-term viability, as well as the financial investment in mobile banking applications, depend on regular usage rather than first-time use or initial experience. Findings: The results indicate that process virtualizable and anthropomorphism have a strong positive impact on bank customers’ decisions to continue using mobile banking applications to complete banking monetary transactions. Meanwhile, the negative impact of virtualization process failure risk on continuous use has been discovered. The found factors explain 67.5% of the variance in continuous use. Recommendations for Practitioners: The study identified novel, significant factors that affect bank customers’ decisions to use mobile banking applications frequently, and these factors should be examined, matched, satisfied, or addressed when redesigning or upgrading mobile applications. Banks should provide users with clear directions, processes, or tutorials on how to complete monetary transactions effectively. They should also embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to improve their applications and products with anthropomorphic features like speech synthesizers, Chatbots, and AI-powered virtual bank assistants. This is expected to help bank customers conduct various banking services conveniently and securely, just as if interacting with real people. The study further recommends that banks create and publish clear norms and procedures, as well as promote tolerance and protect consumers’ rights when the process fails or mistakes occur. Recommendation for Researchers: The study provides measurement items that were specifically built for the context of mobile banking applications based on PVT notions. Researchers are invited to reuse, test, and modify existing measurement items, as well as submit new ones if necessary. The study model does not consider psychological aspects like trust and satisfaction, which would provide additional insight into factors affecting continuing use. Researchers could potentially take a different approach by focusing on user resistance and non-adoption. Impact on Society: Financial inclusion is problematic, particularly in underdeveloped nations. According to financial inclusion research, Jordanians rarely utilize mobile banking apps. Continuous usage of mobile banking applications will be extremely beneficial in closing the financial inclusion gap, particularly among women. Furthermore, it could help the country’s efforts to transition to a digital society. Future Research: The majority of study participants are from urban areas. Future studies should focus on consumers who live in rural areas. It was also suggested that the elderly be targeted because they may have different views/perspectives on the continued use of mobile banking applications.




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Kindergarten Children’s Perceptions of “Anthropomorphic Artifacts” with Adaptive Behavior




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Development of a Video Network for Efficient Dissemination of the Graphical Images in a Collaborative Environment




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Applications of Geographical Information Systems in Understanding Spatial Distribution of Asthma




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Picture of the Bibliographical Information of the Planet to the XXI Century by A.V. Kumanova: Book Review




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A Philosophy of Informing Science




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Informing on a Rugged Landscape: Homophily versus Expertise




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CLEAR & RETURN: Stopping Run-Time Countermeasures in Cryptographic Primitives

Myung-Hyun KIM,Seungkwang LEE, Vol.E107-D, No.11, pp.1449-1452
White-box cryptographic implementations often use masking and shuffling as countermeasures against key extraction attacks. To counter these defenses, higher-order Differential Computation Analysis (HO-DCA) and its variants have been developed. These methods aim to breach these countermeasures without needing reverse engineering. However, these non-invasive attacks are expensive and can be thwarted by updating the masking and shuffling techniques. This paper introduces a simple binary injection attack, aptly named clear & return, designed to bypass advanced masking and shuffling defenses employed in white-box cryptography. The attack involves injecting a small amount of assembly code, which effectively disables run-time random sources. This loss of randomness exposes the unprotected lookup value within white-box implementations, making them vulnerable to simple statistical analysis. In experiments targeting open-source white-box cryptographic implementations, the attack strategy of hijacking entries in the Global Offset Table (GOT) or function calls shows effectiveness in circumventing run-time countermeasures.
Publication Date: 2024/11/01




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Ex-Philippine President Duterte says ICC should ‘hurry up’ on drug war investigation

MANILA: Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said the International Criminal Court (ICC) should ‘hurry up’ with its probe of his war on drugs, remaining firm in his defence of the brutal campaign as he said the investigation should start immediately.

“I’m asking the ICC to hurry up, and if possible, they can come here and start the investigation tomorrow,“ Duterte said in a congressional inquiry on his war on drugs.

“If I am found guilty, I will go to prison.”

According to police data, more than 6,200 people died in anti-drug operations under Duterte’s presidency, during which police typically said they had killed suspects in self-defence.

Human rights groups believe the real toll to be far greater, with thousands more users and small-time peddlers killed in mysterious circumstances by unknown assailants.

“I assume full responsibility for whatever happened in the actions taken by law enforcement agencies of this country to... stop the serious problem of drugs affecting our people,“ Duterte said.

The ICC last year cleared the way for an investigation to into the thousands of deaths and other suspected rights abuses.

The Philippines withdrew from the ICC in March 2019, when Duterte was president. Appeals judges at the ICC subsequently ruled prosecutors still had jurisdiction over the alleged crimes because they occurred when the Philippines was an ICC member.




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Philippines eyeing natural gas tie-up with Norway

The Philippines is pursuing a partnership with Norway to unlock the potential of natural gas in sectors beyond power generation, including logistics and aviation.




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Philippine Airlines Q3 profit: P789M (down 82% y/y)

Philippine Airlines posted a Q3 net income of P789 million, down 82% y/y from its Q3/23 net income of P4,278 million, and down 70% q/q from its Q2/24 net income of P2,590 million.




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Philippines, Australia to join key military drills for the first time in 2025

Philippine troops will join Australia's largest military exercise for the first time next year, while the Australian Defense Force will make their debut in Philippine-led war games, both countries' defense chiefs announced Wednesday, November 13.




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Intel Arc Graphics Driver for Windows 11 & 10 - 32.0.101.6297

Intel Arc Graphics Driver for Windows is a driver specifically for Windows 10 and 11 with support for the 12th Gen Intel Core processor family and Intel Arc A-Series Graphics.... [License: Freeware | Requires: 11|10 | Size: 1 GB ]