A few months ago the District of Columbia schools shut down eight schools because of under-enrollment. The DC Public Schools administration -- along with the DC government's Office of Planning -- is seeking ideas for the best possible community uses for these vacant schools. A call went out to interested parties to share possible usage ideas.
In typical bureaucratic fashion, proposals were to be submitted in hard copy -- with 10 copies needed, along with the proposal on a CD-ROM. I interpreted that to mean that they also accepted proposals in video form on the web, as long as the videos were less than 20 minutes in duration.
I'm an adjunct professor of education and a supporter of the FIRST robotics movement. FIRST robotics was founded in 1992 by renowned inventor Dean Kamen. I've seen a FIRST robotics teams up close at Banneker Academic High School in DC -- and what I saw was quite simply amazing: youth learning tons of skills and knowledge in an active, engaging way. What I've heard about the other FIRST robotics teams in the city has been equally impressive and inspiring.
So with the help of other FIRST robotics enthusiasts in the DC-area I created a screencast and emailed a link to this 16.5 minute QuickTime video to Howard Ways at the DC Office of Planning. (An alternate link to this video can be found here.) You'll need a recent version of QuickTime to view this 136 megabyte file. QuickTime can be download for free from Apple's web site.
Most of this presentation was created using free software programs, including OpenOffice, Firefox, and Audacity. The presentation was pulled together using ScreenFlow, a popular new screencasting program for Macintosh computers.
I uploaded this video to the Internet Archive, which provides free, unlimited hosting for media files.
I don't know if the people at the DC Office of Planning will view this video I sent them. I did my duty, though, which is to convey to them the best possible use I could think of for that closed school building. I did so in collaboration with other educators whose work I tremendously admire.
In the future, you'll be seeing many more uses of screencasts to communicate matters of civic interest. Screencasts are not just for explaining how to use computer software or web site services. They can be a useful tool to convey just about any idea.
Phil Shapiro
The blogger is a community activist, an adjunct professor of education and a technology commentator in the Washington DC-area. He can be reached at: philshapiroblogger@gmail.com
Prior blog postings -
YouTube Reaches a Billion Video Views per Day
After Lightning Strikes, One iMac Becomes Two
It Feels Like Freedom is Coming
Book Review - Google SketchUp for Dummmies
Businesses offering wireless Internet access to their guests is a very common practice these days. Typically, this wireless access is offered in one of two ways. Either each guest laptop must be individually configured with the proper wireless security settings; or the wireless access point is left completely unsecured (not recommended). In either case, once the guest has established a wireless connection, the guest typically gains direct access to the host business' network resources (most people don't realize this). Obviously, this is less than ideal.
Thankfully, a new very economical device named GuestGate is available that allows your guests to easily establish a wireless network connection with no configuration and gain access to the Internet. The beautiful thing about the device is that it shields your network from your guests. The guests can share your Internet connection without seeing any of your network resources or anyone else on the wireless network for that matter.
The solution is perfect for any business that has a waiting room where people might want to jump online or for those businesses that have occasional visitors with laptops.
Happy teching,
Ryan Williams
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I had a conversation with a client/friend this past week about things that still amaze us even though they are commonplace. For me, the two things were overnight delivery and the Internet. Our children will never know a world that is not "connected." They watch their cartoons "on demand" from cartoon websites. I remember when we had to wait until a specific time to watch our favorite cartoon.
If you are interested in the origin, growth and adoption of computers and the Internet, here is a phenomenal interactive website in which you can browse and explore the history of the Internet. It includes videos and other interactive content. It is in and of itself a good example of just how far Internet multimedia has come. Checkout The Birth of the Internet presented by the National Science Foundation.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsf-net/
Happy teching,
Ryan Williams
Ask Me A Tech Question
http://www.techbetter.com/question.aspx
View & Subscribe To My Tech Tips
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About Me & TechBetter
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Over time we all accumulate junk files on our computer. Files that were important at one time but not anymore may linger on our computer needlessly taking up valuable disk space. One program that can help make hard disk clean-up easier is FosiX. FosiX scans your computer and visually graphs the space each folder is utilizing. The bar graph is clickable so you can drill down into folders as you discover which folders are responsible for consuming disk space. I used the program to analyze my computer before writing this entry and easily discovered a folder of audio files which I had completely forgotten about. I deleted this folder since I no longer needed the audio files, and I instantly freed up over 2 GB of disk space.
You can download FosiX here:
http://www.hushpage.com/FoSi/fosi.html
Happy teching,
Ryan Williams
Ask Me A Tech Question
http://www.techbetter.com/question.aspx
View & Subscribe To My Tech Tips
http://blog.techbetter.com
About Me & TechBetter
http://www.techbetter.com/aboutme.aspx
I've been keeping a close eye on which netbooks offer the most value, and to my eye the Linux-version of the Acer Aspire One netbook is the current front runner. Imagine my delight when I heard last week that Acer dropped the price on this netbook by $50.
Here is what the Acer Aspire One (nicknamed AA1) has over the original Eee PC. Faster processor, more comfortable keyboard, greater pixel dimensions (1024 x 600), and better storage expansion. The AA1 is not without fault, though. The mouse buttons are placed on either side of the trackpad -- a most inconvenient place to use them. Given that fact, I would use this netbook primarily with an external USB mouse.
Technical information about the AA1 is also hard to find on the Acer web site. When you reach the Acer web site, you mostly encounter a sales presentation. Sales presentation? How quaint! So 20th century.
To get the real scoop on the AA1, head to YouTube, where some very smart people will tell you -- and show you - the ropes. First thing is to activate the Advanced Mode, which is nicely described in this YouTube video.
One of the best AA1 explainers on YouTube, SkateAsian, will tell you the things you want to know -- such as how to add Compiz effects to your AA1. Check out Compiz in its full glory here.
Yes, smart computer users install Ubuntu on their AA1. Here's a YouTuber telling you about that.
Back in 1987, Apple Computer had a fine promotion idea for the Mac SE. They offered a full-money-back refund within the first month of purchase. Guess what? Almost nobody sought to get their money back. Acer should try something similar. The netbook category of computers is as new to people today as the graphical user interface was to people in 1987. Let people try out the AA1 in the comfort of their own homes -- and almost nobody will choose to return it for a refund.
If I were Acer, I would add the proviso that this offer is only open to peple who have a blog they have been posting to for more than a month, or who to people who have uploaded videos of their own creation to YouTube. Setting up a blog can be done in less than 5 minutes -- and uploading your own videos to YouTube is so easy that an adult could do it. The videos that SkateAsian and others are uploading to YouTube are invaluable. They tell us the things we really want to know.
And in case you haven't figured it out yet, when you come across the video of a great explainer on YouTube, click on the subscribe button. In the same way they're teaching you the things you want to know today, just as surely they'll be teaching you the things you will want to know tomorrow.
Phil Shapiro
The blogger is an adjunct professor of education and a technology commentator in the Washington DC-area. He can be reached at: philshapiroblogger@gmail.com
Note - You can keep up-to-date with lots of tips about the AA1 on the Acer One User Forum.
Prior blog postings -
YouTube Reaches a Billion Video Views per Day
After Lightning Strikes, One iMac Becomes Two
It Feels Like Freedom is Coming
Book Review - Google SketchUp for Dummmies
No matter what business you are in, you have projects. Projects are how businesses make progress. How does your company manage projects? What tools do you use? Email, white boards, post-it notes? Something I see all the time is people managing projects with Microsoft Excel. Although Excel can do a fine job of tracking projects, it is very manual. Obviously, Excel is far better than sticky notes. However, technology makes project management so much easier nowadays that it is almost sad to see businesses struggle with a manual project management methodology.
So why should you consider a more automated approach to project management? Well the number one reason in my mind is communication. Many projects fail because of a lack of communication, and if there is anything technology is good at, it is communication. Here are some examples of automated communication:
- Emails to people when they are assigned a task
- Emails to remind people when due dates are approaching
- Email alerts to management when due dates are missed
- Email alerts to management when customer interaction takes place
- Emails to customers when a task pertaining to them is updated
- Email alerts to management when AR balances exceed a certain threshold
There are also other ways technology can automate project management including:
- Logging who reads and edit files associated with a project
- Prompting for change orders when the project scope changes
- Verifying available resources (people, projectors, trucks, conference rooms, etc.) for each stage of the project
Basically, if you can dream it, there is probably a way to automate it and the return on investment is usually strong and easy to calculate.
Have you ever been eating out and wondered about the nutrition facts of the meal you were about to order? Well wonder no more. Just send a text message to DIET1 (34381) and type the name of the restaurant and name of the meal you are about to order. Within seconds you will receive a reply that will tell you the number of calories, fat grams, carbs and protein in the meal. Use this with caution, however. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
For example, send an SMS to 34381 with the following text:
McDonald's Big Mac
Diet.com will reply with:
Cal: 540
Fat: 29g
Carb: 45g
Prtn: 25g
Have you ever had to call and communicate the same information to numerous people? (For example, to cancel a meeting, to change a meeting location, or to tell everyone you'll be late for an event.) I know I have.
At Nexxtep we are all going in so many different directions helping clients throughout the day that we usually try to converge at the same place for lunch so we can all touch base. We have two ways of disseminating the lunch location to our team. The first method is via a text message group. We send a text message to an SMS group and everyone gets a text message with the lunch location.
The other way we can disseminate the information is via Phonevite.com. I'm sure everyone is aware of those phone tree solutions that call a bunch of people with a prerecorded message. Well Phonevite.com does the same thing and it's FREE if you are calling less than 25 people. To setup Phonevite just go to their website, create an account and create groups for your contacts. Then, assign a telephone number to each group. Now all you have to do is call the assigned telephone number for a group and record your message. Phonevite will call every number in the call group and play the recorded message to them. Even if you can't find a legitimate reason to use this service it's still worth trying.
Happy teching,
Ryan Williams
Ask Me A Tech Question
http://www.techbetter.com/question.aspx
View & Subscribe To My Tech Tips
http://blog.techbetter.com
About Me & TechBetter
http://www.techbetter.com/aboutme.aspx
On Friday morning I stopped by the Bethesda Row Apple Store in Bethesda, Maryland, to buy a MacBook. I reached the parking garage 1/2 block from the store at 9:55 am. When I put money in the parking meter, I had to decide whether I was going to be in the store 1/2 hour or one hour.
Foolishly, I thought I could walk into the store and purchase a MacBook in less than 30 minutes, so I dropped a single quarter into the parking meter. When I reached the store at 10 am, it was mobbed.
Upon entering the store, a friendly store employee showed me a stool near the front door and told me to sit and wait. That I did, for about 10 minutes. A friendly, but harried, salesperson came over to take my order. I knew exactly what I wanted. He committed my order to memory, which seemed a little unusual considering how frantic the store was. In that kind of environment, you're bound to forget something when you reach the stock room.
The salesperson apologized several times for the delay. I didn't have the heart to tell him that if he apologized less, the people waiting behind me wouldn't have to wait so long.
After returning to my car after the purchase, my parking meter had expired -- and I realized I forgot to order iWork. The store was just too franctic for me to be able to think clearly when I was making my order. The whole experience was un-Zen. I barely had a chance to reconnect delightfully with my inner child.
Before I left the store, I noticed on the monitor above the Genius Bar that there were no more free slots for the day. Is Apple a victim of its own success? You tell me.
Is one way to address this situation to expand the number of hours the stores are open? Uhm, yes.
I'd go one step further. Remove some of the merchandise on display. Those central tables in the miniscule Bethesda Row store -- those have got to go. They impede the sales transaction.
Phil Shapiro
The blogger is an adjunct professor of education and a technology commentator in the Washington DC-area. He can be reached at: philshapiroblogger@gmail.com
Prior blog postings -
YouTube Reaches a Billion Video Views per Day
After Lightning Strikes, One iMac Becomes Two
It Feels Like Freedom is Coming
Book Review - Google SketchUp for Dummmies
Excellent! The iWork apps are great, too.
I"m seriously considering going to OS X! I used to have an OS X PowerBook... man I loved that thing!
I recently had the opportunity to interview Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of the extremely secure Unix-like operating sytem MINIX 3. Andrew is also the author of Operating Systems Design and Implementation, the must-have book on programming and designing operating systems, and the man whose work inspired Linus Torvalds to create Linux. He has published over 120 works on computers (that's including manuals, second and third editions, and translations), and his works are known all over the world, being translated into a variety of different languages for educational use universally. He is currently a professor of computer science at Vrije University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The following is my interview with Andrew Tanenbaum. I would like to thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions.
When and how did you first get into computer programming and operating system design?
I have been programming since I was at MIT as an undergraduate. Operating system design happened much later, in the 1980s, first with Amoeba, an experimental distributed operating system, then in 1984 with MINIX.
What influenced you to start developing MINIX?
I was teaching a course using UNIX V6 and then AT&T changed the license forbidding people from teaching it courses, the stupidest thing they could have done. They should have paid bounties to people teaching it in courses. I guess their attitude was "The fewer people who know about UNIX,
the better." At that point I decided if I wanted a UNIX-like system to teach, I'd have to write one myself. So I did.
Have your students ever helped you in the development of MINIX?
In the beginning, no. I wrote V1 entirely alone. Later on, many students had ideas and wrote code. I also got funding to hire some students to write code.
What made you decide to make MINIX based on a microkernel rather than a monolithic kernel?
Good software engineering principles dictate that your programs are modular. You don't want a bug in one piece to bring down the whole thing if that can be avoided. A microkernel is much better engineered and is more modular and easier to understand. Monolithic kernels are still too big
and unreliable. My metric is the TV set. The system should run for 10 years with a total of zero failures for 99.9% of the users.
Do you believe that there are certain drawbacks to making MINIX POSIX-compliant?
Not really.
Are there any drawbacks to running device drivers as separate user-mode processes?
There is a small performance penalty. We haven't really focused on performance, but the L4 people have shown the overhead for a microkernel can be reduced to 5-10%
Will MINIX ever have a windowing system besides X11, or is X11 stable and functional enough for MINIX?
Never say never, but X11 seems pretty good to me. I believe it is the only windowing system on Linux.
How well does MINIX run on dual-processor machines? Will MINIX ever be optimized for these types of computers?
We are just starting to work on multicore. It is MUCH harder than single core. I expect all multicore software to be riddled with errors.
Do you expect a lot of Linux users to switch over to MINIX?
Probably not.
What other projects have you been working on besides MINIX?
I have been involved with work on RFID security and privacy. See www.rfidvirus.org and www.rfidguardian.org.
What can we expect to see developed for MINIX in the future?
We are adding some missing features now like virtual memory and USB support, but the focus of the research is very high reliability and self healing.
If Linux's Tux penguin and MINIX's raccoon faced off in a fight to the death, who would win?
Raccoons are quite aggressive. Penguins are not. There would be chicken for dinner.
Andrew Tanenbaum can be contacted through a variety of ways listed at his website, www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/.
Matthew Mikolay (matt.mik<AT SYMBOL>hotmail.com) is a software developer and student in New Jersey. He has interests in open source software, Linux, and security.
Would you like to be a Community Voices blogger? If so, please send a letter of interest and a sample blog entry (what you would post here if you were already a blogger for us) to forums@pcworld.com. We'd love to hear your perspective.
Penguins are not aggressive? Spoken like a mackerel with a short life expectancy. And just how long can a raccoon tread water?
