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ATRC Podcast
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 Podcast
for October 13, 2006 - Episode 36
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Play time 50 minutes - Program Notes
"History
is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to
be surprised yet again."
~Kurt Vonnegut
(Slapstick)
 |
|
Kurt Vonnegut |
Tech news briefs: IE7 will be out any day;
Firefox 2 RC2 has been released and official release
is expected in November; Patch Tuesday was a
whopper; the annual Campus Computing Project report
has been released; Google announced beta
availability of Docs and Spreadsheets, and followed
it immediately with the release of Google for
Educators, incorporating those same tools; and, by
the way, Google bought YouTube for 1.65 billion;
finally HP released its vision of the personal hub,
a Dick Tracy wrist device that serves as
headquarters for all your wireless gadgets. We also
have news of training opportunities at Palomar and
beyond, including @ONE, Microsoft, Adobe, and
Horizon Wimba; Haydn has a Teaching with Technology segment titled
"Instructional Strategies to
Enhance Online Learning;" David is concluding
his vacation this week and will not have a
Blackboard feature of the week, tune in next week
for a new one; my Tech Talk
Topic is about Microsoft Live Writer, a terrific,
free blogging tool,
and finally, our for gizmo this week, think 1984,
think Superbowl, think that Mac ad, its back, but
this time from Hasbro. It's like Kurt Vonnegut
said, "History is merely a list of surprises."
Palomar Tech and Download News
-
The release of IE 7 is rumored to be next week,
though all Microsoft is saying is October--maybe
very early November.
In the mean time,
Firefox 2 RC2 has been released by Mozilla,
which
seems to be on a November trajectory for
release. Blackboard has said that they
will not certify use of the new browsers until
after they have tested them, after they are
officially released, so it could be some time.
We will continue to support the
certified versions of the browsers [PDF]
until Blackboard issues its own certification
statement, though the feature set (see
our review from episode 23) in the new
browsers is very compelling, and we have been
using IE7 with Blackboard for some time without
noticing a problem. The new version of IE
will be released along with security patches
installed as automatic updates. It was
unclear whether the Palomar IS department
planned to block its installation in that
fashion. If so, they cannot block its
installation from the
IE web site.
-
Microsoft announced this week that the next
version of Office for Mac will not be released
until the second half of 2007, while the PC
version is expected to ship for business
customers next month, and for consumers in
January, 2007.
-
It was Patch Tuesday for Microsoft this week,
and it was another big one:
- Windows patches:
- A denial of service vulnerability in Windows
XP (KB922819).
- A remote code execution vulnerability (KB923191).
- A stop-responding vulnerability in
Windows Server service (KB923414).
- An XML core service vulnerability in
Windows XP (KB924191).
- A Windows Object Packager vulnerability
(KB924496).
- An ASP.NET vulnerability that could
allow information disclosure (KB922770).
- Office 2003 patches:
- A general Office vulnerability that
permits malicious code to run (KB923272)
- An Office 2003 information disclosure
flaw (KB924424).
- A security vulnerability in Excel 2003
that allows arbitrary code to run when a
maliciously modified file is opened (KB923088).
- A security vulnerability exists in
PowerPoint 2003 that allows arbitrary code
to run when a maliciously modified file is
opened (KB923091).
- A security vulnerability in Word 2003
that could allow arbitrary code to run when
a maliciously modified file is opened (KB923094).
- An update for Microsoft Office 2003 that
provides the framework for SharePoint Team
Services to open and save files by using the
Open XML file format that is new to the 2007
Microsoft Office system (KB923097).
- The usual junk mail filter for Outlook
2003 (KB923095)
- Windows Genuine Advantage validation
required
- General tools:
- The results of the 2006
Campus Computing Project survey have been
released.
Click here for the report summary [PDF].
The report itself is available for sale.
In summary, the findings show that half of the
540 colleges surveyed have deployed wireless
access to their classrooms, up 10% from 2004;
the single most important IT issue on campuses
remains Network and Data security, though
security incidents are reported down, while
virus and spyware incidents are down
dramatically; the struggle goes on between
academic departments and centralized IT managers
as to who should manage servers; IT disaster
recovery plans are incomplete and difficult to
develop; and Open Source tools continue to show
promise, but have problems in deployment and
follow-up.
- Google this week announced the availability
of their new "Google
Docs and Spreadsheets" site, that brings
under one roof their free web-based spreadsheet
and word processor (formerly known as "Writely").
The interface looks "Google-like." The
offering is still labeled as "Beta," and is
being released preemptively, it is thought, to try to curb some
of the enthusiasm for Microsoft's new
Live services and betas.
-
 Following
hot on the heels of the docs and spreadsheets
announcment,
Google also announced the opening of another web
portal this week, incorporating those self same
tools. Last week they opened
the
Google Literacy Portal, and this week,
Google for Educators. According to the
site, "We think of this site as a platform of
teaching resources--for everything from blogging
and collaborative writing to geographical search
tools and 3D modeling software--and we want you
to fill it in with your great ideas." The
Google for Educators site is just another
episode in Google's apparently never ending
quest to figure out just what to do with their
stand alone tools to make them seem something
more than stand alone. It is a collection
of:
- Web Search
- Google Earth
- Book Search
- Google Maps
- Google Video (not including YouTube, yet)
- Docs & Spreadsheets
- Blogger.com
- SketchUp (a web-based 3D drawing
application)
- Google Calendar
- Picasa (a photo management/sharing tool)
- Google Page Builder (for creation of
personalized home pages)
- Google Apps for Education (a repackaging
hosted communications suite including Gmail,
Google Talk, Google Calendar and Google Page
Creator)
Each of the tools at the "portal" are linked
to supporting pages that briefly describe how to
use each tool and contain links to the tools, or
features of the tools, themselves. The
focus of the site is on K-12 instruction, but it
serves as an excellent introduction to the tools
for those who have never used them.
Ancillary to the portal is something Google is
promoting called the
Google Teacher Academy, restricted to K-12,
which plans an in-person meeting of educators
for training on Google tools with instructional
resources provided. The first one will be
held at Google headquarters in Mountain View,
California. Graduates will become a
"Google Certified Teacher."
- And, by the way,
Google bought YouTube (BBC) this week for 1.65 billion.
YouTube will continue with its own brand,
independent of Google, at least for the time
being, and Google videos will
also continue unchanged, for now.
- HP this week unveiled
their vision for a personal hub, a
wristwatch-type device that acts as a
communication center for all your personal
wireless devices (via ultra-wideband
communications, or, for older devices, bluetooth).
Don't rush to the store yet. They estimate
that it will take until 2016 to make it
commercially viable. Meanwhile,
Sony Ericsson and Fossil launched a bluetooth
watch, the MBW-100 which features analog
dials with a small LED screen that permits
caller ID, accept/reject incoming calls, and can
control other features of your phone. The
price? €300, or around $375 USD.
Training Opportunities
- Academic Technology Training
We have only one workshop scheduled next
week: On Wednesday, 10/18 from 1-3pm in room
LL-111 Terry Gray will be presenting "Creating
Academic Podcasts." We will be
learning about equipment--the minimum and
up--software, production, distribution, and
cost.
Register for all Academic Technology workshops
through the
Professional Development web site.
Click here to access our entire training
schedule,
here to access the new "competencies"
approach to our workshops, and other training
information.
- The @ONE system is continuing with their
Lunch 'n' Learn series of online desktop
seminars throughout October. Registration
must occur no later than the Wednesday prior to
the seminar. The offering for October
includes:
- Microsoft webcasts of interest coming up
next week:
- Horizon Wimba will be offering webinars,
using their Live Classroom interface, next week
on the new
Voice Tools (5.1, including Podcaster), and
Pronto (a class specific IM client).
Both webinars are on October 18.
- Adobe is offering several Acrobat 8 webinars
coming up in October.
Click here to register.
Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray
Dave is concluding his vacation this week,
and is expected back next. Tune in then
for a new feature of the week...
 |
See
the index of Dave's previous "Blackboard Feature
of the Week" segments. |
Note: To get to David's vodcast site,
click here.
Teaching with Technology - Dr. Haydn Davis
Instructional Strategies to Enhance Online
Learning
Haydn visits once again the topics of student
motivation, the Objectivist vs. Constructivist
approaches to online learning, and strategies
for enhancing online teaching and learning.
He discusses 10 strategies that were developed
for face-to-face teaching, and shows how they
can be modified for online teaching.
Tech-Talk-Topic - Terry Gray
Windows Live Writer (beta)
 A few weeks ago (episode
30) I reviewed a Word add-in from
blogger.com called Blogger for Word, which
installed a toolbar in Word 2003 that permitted
publishing posts directly to blogger.com blogs.
It was fraught with difficulties, but did work
and did eliminate the need to login to blogger
to post. Uninstall that tool immediately,
if not sooner, in favor of Windows Live Writer,
which is still in beta, but is a far superior
blogging tool. It is a free, downloadable,
stand alone program that is intended to post to
MSN Spaces, but can be configured to post to
most of the popular blogging services, including
blogger. Here is a rundown on features:
-
WYSIWYG editing: Edit
using the style of your blog, including
fonts, colors, line spacing, margins, etc.
-
Rich content: The
ability to insert and customize rich
content like photos, maps and more
-
Offline editing:
Support for offline editing to compose
posts even when you're not connected to
the Internet
-
Blog preview:
Rich HTML and source-code previewing of
your blog post before you upload it
-
Smart image
publishing : Smart image publishing
directly to your blog automatically
links your thumbnails to larger images
with more detail
-
Compatibility:
Support for publishing to Windows Live
Spaces, as well as Blogger, LiveJournal,
TypePad, WordPress, and many other
services, change the size of your
graphics, and add borders and other
effects
To get more information and download,
click here.
Let me run you through the process. The
first time you run the program you will be asked
to configure your blogging service.
Be sure to choose "Upload images to an FTP
server, if you are using blogger.com as I do,
because blogger does not support images.
That's it. You're ready to post.
Your style sheet will be downloaded from your
blog, so that the posts look like
the actual posts as you compose them.
Live Writer gives you the ability to insert
Links, pictures, Live local maps, and even
supports tags from various services, like
Technorati, Flickr, or de.licio.us. If you
also install the
Windows Live Toolbar, you will tet a "Blog
It" button at the top of your browser that will
invoke Live Writer from any web page, and
include a link to the page in the blog post.
A small complication? Even though I inserted a
border = "0" in the html for image tag
(yes, Live Writer has a nice little switch that
allows editing the html directly), I still
was getting a faint grey border around graphics
I paste in to Live Writer then posted to my blog.
Of course, I realized, styles override
attributes. It took going into the blog template and editing
the post image style to eliminate border.
The "inheret from web log" image style also
worked correctly after doing this.
Bad news? As soon as I started using
Live Writer, blogger thought that I was a
splogger, and turned on mandatory word
verification before it would accept my posts (ie,
where you have to type the letters of a
graphically distorted word in an input field
before you can post). This is annoying,
but not the fault of Live Writer. I
submitted a blogger form complaining that I was
not a splogger. They got back to me within
2 days with the following message:
"Your blog has been reviewed, verified,
and cleared for regular use so that it will
no longer appear as potential spam."
Unfortunately, it was not so. I logged
in and out a few times, but whenever I use Live
Writer I still experience word verification.
Live Writer may actually trigger it each post.
I have written back to them, and will report on
their response next week. It may be time
to try some other server...
The tool works superbly, and the only
complaints I have are directed at blogger.com,
really, and not Live Writer at all. I
recommend it.
If you want to see my blog and run through
the various posts from Live Writer,
click here.
Gizmo of the week
 Hip-Hop
Hygiene. Hasbro
officially announced this week the
commercial release of
ToothTunes, from Tiger
Electronics. ToothTunes is a
"revolutionary new toothbrush" that will keep
kids brushing for a full two minutes. How
does it work, you ask? "The two-minute
recording is stored on a microchip no bigger
than a dot atop the letter i. Push a button on
the toothbrush, and a minicomputer starts
playing the song. Sound waves are transported
through the transducer to the front teeth,
traveling from there to the jawbone and then to
the inner ear" (we
make money not art). "Users
will hear two full minutes of the hottest music
from today’s biggest stars which will keep them
brushing. Some brushes will feature a
congratulatory message upon completion"
(Hasbro). "Someone standing nearby would hear only a
hum" (MSNBC).
There are 12 songs from different artists,
mostly hip-hop or pop offerings by the likes of
Black Eyed Peas (Let's Get It Started"), and The
Cheetah Girls ("Shake A Tail Feather"), but
parent-congenial acts have not been ignored
either: there are tunes by The Beach Boys,
Queen and The Village People ("YMCA," of
course). The brush goes for $9.99.
No word yet on the cost of replacement songs
when the hottest new song isn't so hot any more.
Questions: If you get the Milli Vanilli
brush, does it just sound like you're brushing
your teeth but it's really your sister scrubbing
on a wash board? Will there be a Charles
Manson model that plays "Helter Skelter?"
Can I buy audio books for mine?
The
video ad for it (Hasbro) is a hilarious takeoff on the
famous
1984 be different Mac ad
(YouTube) with the guys
in the prison suits and the girl in the red sports
shorts throwing the hammer through the jumbotron.
According to
Brand Autopsy, "For six years, Hasbro has
been trying to develop the right use for their
invention of a tiny devise that can transmit
sound through enamel and bone. They first tried
to use the technology in a lollipop but at $10
bucks a pop, consumers balked. Next, Hasbro
considered using pens, spoons, and forks but
none of those prototypes made it to the
marketplace. Hasbro finally settled on a
toothbrush..."
You see, lollipop, toothbrush, Hasbro doesn't
care, as long as you buy the $10 item. Now
they have dentists singing its praises. If
they had gone with the lollipop, do you think
they would have had a dentist shilling for the
product? Probably not.
I think I head version 2.0 will have wi-fi and
can download tunes from your Zune, pending
approval from Sony.
(Source: linked in post)
Music
 The
music for today's show was provided by
Magnatune.com,
and is used through their Creative Commons license
for podcasts. Today's album was
"The
Looking Glass" by
Roots of Rebellion. From the band's bio: "the
band's unconventional hard rock combines melodic
keyboard and vocals over complex rhythms and chords,
creating a unique rock sound that is equally
appropriate on the dance floor, car radio and mosh
pit."
We
used tracks 7: "A Way to Stay Awake;" 2:
"Control;" 3: "Shift;" 5: "Legend;" 6: "Amnesia;" 4:
"Pure;" 1: "The Order."
Visit
magnatune and reward them for their generosity,
and if you like this album, buy it. Magnatune is not evil!
"If you can't
say anything good about someone, sit right here
by me." ~ Alice Roosevelt Longworth
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