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Syd Barrett |
Syd Barrett of
Pink Floyd fame
disappeared entirely this week, at age 60.
Elsewhere on the Floyd front, the latest
incarnation of the band (??)--at least from the '94
Division Bell tour--appears on the just-released
Pulse DVD (amazon - with free
preview video). You can hear an EMI
sponsored podcast related to Pulse
here.
On today's show we have .... A ton of
download and local tech news. A new training
opportunity among others. Dave, in his
Blackboard Feature of the Week, will talk about
"Getting Ready for Fall." Yep. It is
that time already. Haydn will speak on "Why
Johnny Won't Post" and the basics of excellent
online courses. My
tech-talk-topic will be on the new Microsoft Private
Folder, and amounts to a very simple little how-to
feature. For our gizmo of the week, we are
featuring "the Terranaut."
Palomar Tech and Download News
-
Apple
iTunes was updated to version 6.0.5 along
with Quicktime, to version 7.1. As far as
I can tell, the purpose of the software upgrade
was to add functionality for syncing the iPod
nano to you
Nike running shoes. Yes. Vendor
description: "Thanks to a unique partnership
between NIKE and Apple, your iPod nano becomes
your coach. Your personal trainer. Your favorite
workout companion. Introducing Nike + iPod."
If you already have the nano and the shoes, the
software kit to link the two costs $29.00.
Tune - run - sync.
-
A new Windows genuine advantage (WGA
- visit the Microsoft WGA site;
read the wikipedia article about the
program) tool was released this week (KB905474),
which you will need it you want to download the
usually free value added products Windows
provides (like the one featured in the next
item), asking only that you confirm the genuine
status of your OS. They also released a
new network diagnostic tool, which you probably
will not need, intended for use in
troubleshooting network issues with a network
administrator (KB914440).
The WGA program gets a lot of
bad press, but I see nothing unreasonable
about it. Why shouldn't Microsoft be
allowed in as discreet a fashion as possible, to
fight piracy and give away useful and
interesting software as a motivator?
-
Microsoft Private Folder 1.0 is free,
available and, as with their other powerful
toys, unsupported. Microsoft description:
"Microsoft Private
Folder 1.0 is a useful tool for you to protect
your private data when your friends, colleagues,
kids or other people share your PC or account.
With this tool, you will get one password
protected folder called 'My Private Folder' in
your account to save your personal files.
Download and have your private folder today!"
That exclamation point just makes you have to do
it!! Please note, this, as with many other
free enhancements, requires
WGA verification.
-
Also from Microsoft,
ActiveSync 4.2 is available, for those with
handheld devices. Read the system
requirements section carefully before
downloading and installing.
-
While we are dealing with Microsoft, we might as
well cover the products made available through
the monthly (second Tuesday) GIANT UPGRADE.
Here they are:
- Security update for Windows XP (KB914388):
"A remote code execution security issue has been
identified in the DHCP Client service that could
allow an attacker to remotely compromise your
Windows-based system and gain control over it."
More...
- Security update for Windows XP (KB917159):
"A remote code execution security issue has been
identified in the Server service that could
allow an attacker to remotely compromise your
Windows-based system and gain control over it."
More...
- Update for Windows XP (KB916595):
"This is a reliability update for Windows XP
machines. Install this update to prevent an
issue in which you may receive a "Stop 0xD"
error message on a computer that is running
Windows XP Service Pack 2. The error may occur
during startup, or after the system has
started."
More...
- The July release of the malicious software
removal tool (KB890830):
"After the download, this tool runs once to
check your computer for infection by specific,
prevalent malicious software (including Blaster,
Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps to remove any
infection found. If an infection is found, the
tool will display a status report the next time
you start your computer. A new version of the
tool will be offered every month. If you want to
manually run the tool on your computer, you can
download a copy from the Microsoft Download
Center or run an online version from
microsoft.com. This tool is not a replacement
for an anti-virus product. To help protect your
computer, you should use an anti-virus product."
More...
- Security update for Office 2003 (affecting
Project and OneNote -
KB914455): "A vulnerability exists in
Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office Project
2003, and Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 that
could allow an attacker to run arbitrary code on
a user's system."
More...
- Another security update for Office 2003 (KB917151):
"A security vulnerability exists in Microsoft
Office 2003 that could allow the elevation of
rights."
More...
The easiest way to keep up with these updates,
and to remove the bother, is to sign-up for the
automatic update program,
or, if you object to automated updates, simply
use the update tool in IE (Tools > Windows
Update) and then selectively choose what to
install.
-
Horizon Wimba unveils Pronto
(Yahoo Finance
news story). What is Pronto? A
Blackboard plugin allowing school-centric instant messaging
through the Blackboard interface. The idea
is to enhance the ability of students to help
each other and cooperate in group learning
projects. Since we
have deployed the other Wimba voice tools, we
will also be deploying this one Fall 2006.
For more information on Pronto, here is the
product page from Horizon Wimba. To
see a demo,
click here.
-
Blackboard Backpack has been upgraded to version
2.5. They have a
summer preview program on now, if you wish
to try it. If you are a current user of
Backpack 2, you CAN run 2 and 2.5 on the same
machine and the upgrade--according to
Blackboard--will not overwrite your 2.0 data.
We will report more on this later.
-
Congratulations
to
Dr. Phil DeBarros, whose personal web page
has won the StudySphere award of excellence, and
has been added to the
StudySphere learning portal. Phil's
page was cited as especially useful in linking
to the various excellent
archaeology resources at Palomar College, of
which there are many and of the highest quality.
Palomar has been rated one of the three top
schools in the United States for archaeological
training. If you are local, and have an
interest in archaeology you will want to take
Anthropology 120, "Archaeological
Excavation" this Fall.
-
On
the topic of web awards, modesty almost--I said
almost--prevents me from mentioning my own
"award" this week. My site "Mr.
William Shakespeare and the Internet" was
added to the
Thomson Scientific ISI Web of Knowledge:
"ISI Web of Knowledge is a dynamic, fully
integrated research environment. It is a
platform built on a foundation of quality that
includes stringent and objective content
selection standards, unmatched depth of
backfiles, and true cited reference searching.
The high-quality content available to
researchers includes data from more than 22,000
journals, 23 million patents, 12,000 conference
proceedings, 5,000 books, 2 million chemical
structures, and 5,500 scholarly web sites."
For those interested, here are their
selection criteria.
Training Opportunities
- A new @ONE "Introduction to Teaching Online"
summer session has been added since the first
section completely sold out. The new
session will run from July 17 - August 11.
Click here for information and registration.
- Of special interest should be the
facilitated online course they are offering "Introduction
to Teaching with Blackboard 6.0" from July
24-August 11.
-
July 24-Aug 18 "Internet Research Strategies"
will also be offered by @ONE.
- Microsoft is offering free eLearning on the
Office 2007 family of products through their
eLearning Portal. You can choose from
any or all of 10 different eLearning courses and
will be granted free 90-day access. Course
on the new Access, Excel, InfoPath, OneNote,
Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, Visio, Groove, and an
overall course on the Office 2007 interface are
offered.
- For those just beginning to look at their
Fall 2006 Blackboard course shells, and perhaps
staring at the vacancy, there are a series of
screen videos created by the Academic Technology
department which will help you along your way.
Access them at the PCOnline
Faculty Services page.
Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray
Dave's topic this week is "Getting Ready for Fall."
It is one month until new faculty orientation day, a
month and a week until the start of Fall 2006
semester. Gulp. Dave goes over the
Blackboard steps to be taken by one of three groups:
- Those with pre-existing Blackboard content.
- Those with pre-existing Blackboard content
from another institution.
- Those starting from scratch.
Along the way we talk about recommended document
formats and how to get help.
Screen video references (flash
player required):
Copying Course Content into Another Course
Copying Items into Another Course
Exporting and Importing Course Content
Adding a Content Area to the Course Menu
Create An Item
Converting a Word Document to Acrobat (PDF)
Palomar's
PCPDF document conversion service (login
required).
For other screen videos, go to
http://www.palomar.edu/pconline/facultyservices#Videos.
Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time =
10:32]
Teaching with Technology - Dr. Haydn Davis
Haydn's topic today is twofold: "Why Johnny Won't
Post," and "Best Practices for Teaching." In
addition, Haydn presents his "Checklist for an
Exemplary Online Class" in our references today.
Reference
Notes from Haydn's presentation [pdf -
27K]
Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time =
17:53]
Tech-Talk-Topic - Terry Gray
I'm going to do a how-to segment today on a very
limited topic: the new
Microsoft Private Folder version 1.0. The
availability of Private Folder was just announced
this week (see the
CNet news article). It is among the
various software offers you can obtain freely
from Microsoft if you participate in their
Windows Genuine Advantage program. Unless
you strongly suspect your OS is pirated--and no one
working at Palomar should have this problem--you
should not hesitate to take advantage of these
offers if you are interested. The product is
for Windows XP Home Edition, Professional Edition,
or Media Center Edition with Service Pack 2.
Here is Microsoft's description of the
product:
"Microsoft
Private Folder 1.0 is a useful tool for you to
protect your private data when your friends,
colleagues, kids or other people share your PC
or account. With this tool, you will get one
password protected folder called 'My Private
Folder' in your account to save your personal
files. Download and have your private folder
today!"
There are two things to know up-front: the
product is free, and UNSUPPORTED. There is an
even more important thing to know: if you store data
in this folder and forget the password, there is
absolutely no way to open the folder and there is no
one on earth who can help you. BE FOREWARNED.
After downloading and the usual install wizard,
you will go through a setup wizard that guides you
in creating your folder and assigning a password to
it:
Note the strength indicator, indicating whether
you have chosen an easy to guess password, a
moderately difficult one, or a very strong one.
Note also the restriction on characters. You
are only allowed to use letters and numbers, so for
all you who have memorized obscure passwords using
special ascii characters, what were you thinking?
A special icon is assigned to the folder within
Windows Explorer for its locked and unlocked state.
Once the folder is open, right-clicking this
icon allows for locking it without having to
reboot.
The real controls for the folder are found
when right-clicking its icon in the system tray:
As you can see, this is where you can set up
an auto-lock after a certain amount of time,
change the password, or import/export encrypted
files. This is where you can also access
the help files, which some will find useful.
One cool feature allows exporting documents
from the folder in an encrypted format.
They can later be imported into the folder again
in order to be read, but only by knowing the
original folder password.
That's it. Simple but effective.
Microsoft says it is not protection against a
hacker, but will stop others who share your computer
from seeing your private files. Now the
question is, what will the IS staff think of all
these files they can't see, but are taking up a lot
of room on their backup server?...
Resources
Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time =
7:17]
Gizmo of the week
The
Terranaut. AT last, our fishy friends'
dreams come true: a way to navigate the other 30% of
the planet. The terranaut is a fish powered
vehicle. I don't mean it runs on fishmeal, I
mean, A fish guides the vehicle. "The vehicle
conveys a fish-pilot, or Terranaut, in an aqueous
vessel that is propelled by two drive wheels, each
driven by its own highly efficient servomotor. The
vehicle’s power is stored in a bank of electrical
cells that deliver energy ot the motors at 36
volts." The terranaut was made by
Seth Winer as an exhibit for
Exit Art.
(Source:
neatorama.com)
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 "There
is no map" by
Tom Paul. "I write about the world as I
encounter it," he says. "I have a fairly positive
outlook without being blinded by optimism."
We
used tracks 1: "Essence of a Smile;" 2: "She's My
Girlfriend;" 4: "Physical Girl;" 6: "Hey Now Babus;"
8: "You Let Me In;" 9: "I Saw a Rainbow;" 13: "Take
a Ride with Me;" 12: "A Little Part of Me;" 11:
"There Is No Map."
Visit
magnatune and reward them for their generosity,
and if you like this album, buy it. Magnatune is not evil!
"Finance is the
art of passing money from hand to hand until it
finally disappears." ~
Robert Sarnoff
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for July 14, 2006 - Episode 24
