Grammar Captive

Most languages are written from left to right. Arabic is written from right to left. Working with terms that are bidirectional — i.e., they can run in both directions in the same line of text — is a largely unexplored area on the internet. Alas, I have learned much, but am still unable to solve the problem of coordinating Matomo and Wordcloud2.js in a bidirectional text environment. And, I once thought it would be very easy ….

In preparation for the summer term at the University of Washington Grammar Captive has prepared a new flier to advertise GC Tutor. What is more, the GC subdomain and webpage are undergoing a face lift. Good progress has been made, and all is nearly ready to publish

Roddy

Grammar Captive has just made its first software installation with its newly installed node and npm software. The honored, hopefully permanent guest is xregexp@4.2.4.

xregexp.js will be used to help overcome some of the newly discovered problems brought about by the introduction of bidirectional text — in this case, Arabic and English — and the recently discovered spamming of Grammar Captive’s word clouds.

Roddy

Grammar Captive’s legally binding privacy pledge had been updated and renewed. Thank you, Iubenda!

Roddy

It could be said that one without enemies is a nemesis to none, but of little value to anyone. For, one does not bring new value to a competitive market place without drawing the attention of the one away from another. This loss of attention for the other, if sustained, can lead to unexpected loss for same. For a poor loser, this loss can create animosity and spark vengeful retaliation.

Then too, there are those who are simply malicious by nature, and who seek to raise their self-esteem by taking advantage of the weaknesses of others or by teaching them a lesson that makes themselves feel superior.

And finally, there are those who are wicked, do not want that their crimes are exposed, and seek to defeat any and all who would dare expose them.

To which of the above Grammar Captive has become a victim it is difficult to say, for the internet is a jungle filled with invisible evil.

In any case, Grammar Captive’s custom search engine is being maliciously exploited, and the evidence is clear; one only has to view Grammar Captive’s word clouds to see that no preference is shown. This is because the number of searches is exorbitantly large, and the search entries themselves are heavily redundant. In short, someone is spamming Grammar Captive’s data base.

Fortunately, this discovery has been made before Grammar Captive’s production launch. Unfortunately, further work on Grammar Captive’s word clouds will be delayed indefinitely until the spamming has been brought to a halt.

Roddy

The target and matched Word Clouds under the Visitor Profile menu item are undergoing renovation and are likely to appear missing for the next several days.

The goal is to bring the clouds up-to-date with the newly created Matomo storage table and thus eliminate the long loading delays.

Hang on. At Grammar Captive things are getting better still again.

Roddy

Several days have passed during which the Graphs & Charts and World Map panels under the Visitor Profile menu item have not been updating. This problem was brought about by an ever increasing amount of accumulated data. There were two ways to resolve the problem: increase the size limit or limit the number of observations retrieved at any one time. The latter more efficient course was chosen and acted upon.

Hopefully, the Graphs & Charts and World Map sections will once again begin updating automatically.

Roddy

It has been a long time in coming, but what was before a line and bar chart that was largely inaccurate for 100 values, and then an accurate bar chart for all values since the beginning of the year, is now a line and bar chart with full accuracy for all values since the beginning of the year.

The Arab translation of the first edition of the Seven Gates newsletter is still undergoing revision, but the Eid holiday has past, and it is likely that the final revision will appear soon.

Roddy

GC (Grammar Captive) Tutor’s summer schedule has been posted. If you want to help you and Grammar Captive grow, then sign up for GC Tutor during the summer and discover what applied grammar is all about.

Roddy

The Good (new): When you hover over a country on the world map in the new World Map section of the Visitor Profile not only does the country name appear, but also the number of visits received from that country. Currently, Saudi Arabia ranks above China, India, Brazil, and Russia.

The Bad (more of the same): When the World Map panel loads on a smartphone the map does not readily align. You must scroll past it once in order for it to fill the viewport properly. It remains a nuisance.

Roddy

In celebration of the end of the month of Ramadan and the beginning of the Eid holiday I wish my best wishes to my Muslim friends in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Australia, and Canada.

The CRON scheduler that runs the Graph & Charts section under the Visitor Profile menu is finally performing its job as it should. It has been a long several weeks in coming, but it was achieved on this final day of Ramadan.

The new world map that highlights visitor location is nearly complete, but several problems remain. Hopefully they will be resolved before the end of the Eid holiday.

Finally, the Arabic translation of the first edition of the Seven Gates newsletter is nearly complete. Hopefully this, too, will be ready before the holiday’s end. My best wishes to Jaffer Al Qallaf.

Roddy