Definitions that strip away context make us stupid. Literacy, out of context, is the ability to read and write. In more fortunate circles, the ability is unremarkable and its meaning is a matter of common sense, something agreed upon and obvious. And in this way we begin to take the world for granted, and we lose the ability to think about what we experience.

In context, in a particular life or segment of society, that changes. Literacy grows urgent and powerful in particular ways, and its natures are manifold and fascinating. As we move toward specific lives and experiences, literacy sheds bad definitions and muscles its way past dopey common sense and becomes itself. A poor question is this: What is literacy? A better one is this: What is literacy in this place, for these people?

In this course we will try to put the first question out of our minds and proceed with the second. We will look at a variety of lives and social contexts and see how far we can take our understanding of this rich subject.

A few hours ago I couldn't open Fargo in Chrome or Safari any longer--it would show me the pre-login stuff but never drop my name into the upper right or add the icons on the left. My first guess was that tinkering with an old copy of TiddlyWiki on the same browser had messed things up--it too operates in the browser, I believe, but I didn't imagine the conflict until later. Anyway, that's my guess. When I tried to open my published pages, I started getting error codes that said something like tag opml incomplete line 2. I know, I should have written it down exactly.

I tried restarting the computer. I tried emptying browser caches. I picked up a new browser and then another. I logged into Fargo via another Dropbox account, finally, in one of those browsers, and it did operate. I inspected the opml files from the original Dropbox account in that handy OPML software from deep in Dave's site and saw that the named outline was full of code and looked kind of like RSS but the other outlines were just outlines. So I guessed that the named outline was corrupted. I was able to load a backup copy of the named outline from Dropbox into the OPML editor and see that it was not wrapped in code but looked like a regular outline.

So I guessed that a backup copy from earlier in the day of the named outline might load, and I tried it, and it did. Fargo opened again and all the files were there, all the tabs, all the scripts, etc. Current theory: somehow the named outline became corrupt, and it wouldn't surprise me if it had to do with tinkering with TiddlyWiki while Fargo with sitting in another tab. Something like that. Browser memory wars?

My impression: the Dropbox backup is strong, with so many copies on hand to use if needed. From a position of ignorance I will guess that there is a danger if two apps that play in the browser memory are in the room at once. Or maybe if the two apps both use Java? I don't know, but in trying to be a good citizen I report the afternoon's festivities! It's good to be home safe.

In the mountains, when the trail grows faint, hikers sometimes set up cairns for those who follow--stacks of rocks, small rough pyramids that mark the path, guides where a guide can make a powerful difference, generous little messages that matter. I see this same generosity and care on the web, too, even though the web's PR often overlooks that profound part of its nature.