In all the years I’ve been teaching at Nova, this is only the second time I’ve had a class cancelled due to weather — I guess it depends on your perspective whether that’s good or bad.  I am disappointed though, as I was looking forward to meeting new people and seeing old students again.  (I won’t normally phone everybody in case of a cancellation, but I made an exception for the first night.)

As noted in the e-mail I just sent everybody, the college has no provisions for make-up classes, so we’ll just have to do a bit of double-timing to compensate.  This week’s homework assignment will be due as originally planned. The good news is that the first two weeks are largely reviewing what you should already know (XHTML 
and CSS), so it shouldn’t be too much of a scramble. If you’re not sure of your LAN ID (that’s the one you use to log in to any of the computers on campus), there are workstations where you can look it up in the Loudoun library and the open computer lab. If you have problems getting your assignment published to your college web space, contact me and we’ll try to get it sorted out.

Have a great week, and be sure to contact me if any questions: e-mail or instant messaging (see Syllabus for details) works best, but you’re always welcome to try my cell phone.

In lieu of me trying to entertain you tonight, enjoy this extract from David Pogue’s New York Times “Circuits” column today:

Imagine (sung to the tune of John Lennon’s “Imagine”)

Imagine there’s no Apple,
No products that begin with “i,”
No monthly iPod models,
No Apple stores to get you high.
Imagine all the people
Finding other things to do!

Imagine there’s no bloggers…
It isn’t hard to do!
No viruses or spyware,
No weekly Windows patches, too
Imagine all the people
Learning to get a life…
(You-hoo-hoo!)

You may say it’d be a nightmare
Without Google, Mac or Dell
We might have real conversations–
But the world would be dull as hell!

Imagine no new cellphones;
Kiss console games goodbye.
No David Pogue or Mossberg
To tell us what to buy.
Imagine all the people
Getting some exercise!
(You-hoo-hoo!)

You may say that I’m a loony
But rest assured I’m almost done.
I’m pretty sure it’ll never happen
So we nerds can live as one!