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 Podcast
for August 3, 2007 - Episode 66
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Play time 38 minutes - Program Notes
"Not even computers will
replace committees, because committees buy computers."
~Shepherd Mead
 |
|
How to Succeed |
On the show:
The iPhone gets updated; iTunes has sold over 3 billion
songs; Windows on almost 1 billion computers; VMWare's
Fusion out next week; a tech industry association names
the 10 most influential products of the last quarter
century; Adobe and Java products were updated this week;
the Pew Internet Life project analyzes the YouTube
generation; Apple releases 24 OS X patches; and we
feature a new tech book online about podcasting.
Both Dave and Haydn are absent today, so there will be
no Blackboard Feature of the Week or Teaching with
Technology segments. My Tech Talk Topic this week
is "Searching with Internet Explorer 7." Our gizmo
feature is a laughing matter, but only if you are a
robot.
Technology News Briefs
-
 For
those of you who couldn't restrain yourselves and
ran out and bought the iPhone 1.0, the
1.0.1 update is now out which addresses the many
security and stability problems of the Safari
browser on iPhone. Just connect your iPhone,
iTunes will start and you will be prompted.
-
Apple announced on Tuesday that they have now sold
over 3 billion songs through their
iTunes store. "iTunes recently surpassed
Amazon and Target to become the third largest music
retailer in the US" (Apple
press release).
-
According to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, the
Windows installed base will surpass 1 billion by the
close of this fiscal year (6/30/08). "There
will be more PCs running Windows than automobiles at
that point." Ballmer also pointed out that in
the last five years Microsoft has doubled profits
and nearly doubled revenues. (bink)
Microsoft's revenue for the past fiscal year
exceeded $50 billion (MS
press release).
-
It has long been rumored and now confirmed by
Microsoft, the next version of Microsoft Works, about to be released, will be free
and ad-funded. It is thought that at some
point it will also be released as a
free, hosted low-end productivity service in
order to compete with
Google Docs & Spreadsheets (bink).
-
 Now
a story involving both Apple and Microsoft:
The two companies have agreed to extend their font
licensing agreement so that Apple users will
continue to be able to use Microsoft registered core
fonts, like Times New Roman, Arial and Verdana, so
that "Apple customers, developers and Web designers
can safely specify fonts knowing that their
documents, presentations and Web pages will appear
as they are meant to be seen on screen and in print"
(Microsoft
press release).
-
And speaking of Microsoft and Apple, next week
VMWare will be releasing the production version of
Fusion, which will allow the smooth running of any
Windows programs under Mac OS X. To find out
more about Fusion or to download the beta (not
recommended for Palomar College production
computers)
click here.
-
According to Computing Technology Industry
Association, the most influential technology product
of the past 25 years is Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Microsoft products captured 4 of the top five
positions in the recent CompTIA poll, with the iPod
tied for fourth.
Click here for the article.
-
 Software
updates: There were updates to all the new
Adobe CS3 products this week. Adobe reader was
updated to version 8.1, and there was a java update
to version 6.2. For the Adobe products, click
the Help menu and then "Check for Updates" to get
them, if you do not have auto-updates turned on.
For java, once again, if you do not have it set to
auto-update, go to the control panel, click the java
icon, the update tab, and choose Update Now.
-
The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently
published
a report [PDF] indicating that 57% of all
Internet users have watched videos online and most
of them share what they find. Other
interesting findings: 74% of broadband users watch
video online; just 31% of dial-up users watch video
online; 76% of young (18-29) Internet users watch
video online as opposed to 39% age 65 ot older.
49% of young Internet users say they have consumed
videos from YouTube.
Source: Pew Internet & American Life
report, p.5.
-
On Tuesday this week (7/31) Apple released 24
patches for their OS X operating systems, affecting
both Mac and Server editions of OS X versions 10.3.9
and 10.4.9.
Click here for the Apple download site,
here for the CNet article that describes the
major vulnerabilities being patched.
-
 Featured
Safari Tech Book Online:
Podcasting with Audacity: Creating a Podcast with
Free Audio Software - Mac, Windows, and Linux,
by Dominic Mazzoni and Scott Granneman.
"Audacity is universally recognized as the number
one software program for creating podcasts. Hundreds
of thousands of amateurs and professionals alike
have created podcasts using Audacity." Palomar maintains a
subscription to Tech Books Online, and the books can
be accessed from any computer on the campus network,
or from off the network with a password
obtainable from the library.
Listen to the news [mp3 -
14:52]
Training Opportunities
- Academic Technology Training
- We have published the Academic Technology fall
2007 training schedule.
Click here for the training overview page,
here for the schedule. You can also
view/download the schedule in PDF format by
clicking here.
Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray
David is on vacation and should be
back for the August 17 podcast.
 |
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
Haydn is off today.
|
|
See
the index of
Haydn's previous "Teaching with
Technology" segments. |
Tech-Talk-Topic - Terry Gray
Searching in Internet Explorer 7
The best thing about Internet Explorer 7 is the
instant search box and its new built-in search
capabilities. Here are some tips for searching like a pro.
Setting the default search provider.
First, be sure Google is the default search
provider. When IE is first installed, Windows
Live Search will be the default provider. To
change the default search provider click the
drop-down at the far right of the search box and
select "Change Search Defaults..." The
resulting Change Search Defaults dialog box will
contain a list of installed Search Providers.
Click on Google and click "Set Default," then "OK."
Shortcut to the search box. To place
your cursor (technically, the "insertion point")
into the instant search box without having to click
it with the mouse, press Ctrl+E (i.e., hold down the
Ctrl key and press the E key).
Search results on a new tab. If you
want your search results to appear on a new tab
press Alt+Enter after entering your term in the
instant search box.
Searching from the address bar. It
is not commonly known, but you can also search from
the address bar in IE 7. To do so, click the
address bar to select the URL shown there, type a
question mark, a space, and then your search term.
Press Enter and the search will be performed using
your default search provider. As with the
standard search box, pressing Alt+Enter will place
the search results on a new tab. You can use
the words "Find" or "Go" rather than the question
mark if you wish.
Using other search providers. To
search using the non-default search provider, enter
your search term in the search box, click the drop
down at the far-right of the search box, and click
on the name of another provider. The new
provider will remain the default until you click on
a different provider or restart the browser.
Adding new search providers. If you
wish to add more search providers to the instant
search box's drop-down list, click that drop-down
and select "Find More Providers..." You will
be taken to a web page at Microsoft.com that
contains a list of web search and topic search
providers. Simply click on the provider you
wish to add. You will see a "Add Search
Provider" dialog box that asks the question "Do you
want to add the following search provider to
Internet Explorer?" Click "Add Provider" and
the new provider will be placed on your list.
Note: I have seen OEM installations of IE 7
where the add provider function has been suppressed.
In this case, simply go to the Microsoft Add Search
Providers web page at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/searchguide/en-en/default.mspx
to add new providers (or add custom providers as
demonstrated below).
Adding a custom search provider. As
stated, the Microsoft Add Search Provider web page
lists several standard web search and topic search
providers, but by no means all providers. To add a
provider not on the default page it must be a search
provider where the search term is passed from the
search box to the database and whose resulting URL
displays the term. The procedure is explained
on the Microsoft Add Search Provider web page in the
yellow box on the right of the page:
In order to add the excellent custom search
provider "Shakespeare Searched" from Clusty Labs to
your instant search box drop-down list of providers,
visit its URL:
http://shakespeare.clusty.com/
Type the word "TEST" in the search box (in all
caps without the quotes) and click the "Search
Shakespeare" button.
You will observe a very long, complex URL in the
address bar. The key to knowing whether your
search provider will work with this procedure is to
see whether the word "TEST" appears in this URL.
http://clusty.com/search?input-form=simple-billy&query=TEST&v%3Asources=billy-bundle&v%3Aproject=billy&character=All+Characters&title=All+Works
Click the address bar to select this URL.
Now, right click your selection in the address bar
and choose "Copy" to copy the URL to the Windows
clipboard.
Now go to the Microsoft Add Search Providers page
by clicking the drop-down at the far right of the
instant search box and choosing "Add More
Providers..." or by going to the URL listed above.
Paste the URL you copied in the previous step into
the URL box after step 3 of the instructions in the
"Create Your Own" yellow box. Type a name for
your search provider in the box after step 4, and
click the "Install" button. When the "Add
Search Provider" dialog box appears, click the "Add
Provider" button and you are finished. You
will now see "Shakespeare Searched listed among the
providers in your instant search box drop-down.
Note: The drop-down list of search
providers is sorted alphabetically. If you
wish a certain provider to appear at the top of the
list, precede its name with a high-sorting ASCII
character like an exclamation point.
Search Term Strategies. For most
providers, the following search syntax and
strategies will help you narrow your searches.
- Use specific rather than generic terms:
"Elizabethan missionary priest" rather than
"Jesuits." The order in which you enter
the terms will vary the search results, as will
the case. "Elizabethan missionary priests"
and "Elizabethan missionary priest" produce
somewhat different results. The more terms
you enter the more specific your search results
will be.
- Place quotation marks around words or
phrases that you want matched exactly.
Note: Google is not case sensitive even if the
word or words are placed within quotes.
- Place a minus sign immediately before words
that you want excluded from the search:
excludes the famous fishing tack manufacturer
from your search results. Be sure there is
not a space between the minus sign and the term.
- Prefix a search term with a plus sign to
make it a reqruied search results:
- Do not use common words in a search, like
"a," "an," "the," "my," "I," "of," "how,"
"where" and so on. You can force a search
on these so-called "stop words" by placing your
search term in quotes or by placing + signs
before the stop words.
- Perform multiple searches using synonyms to
be as inclusive as possible. At Google, at
least, placing a tilde before your search term
will cause it to search on the term and its
synonyms also.
- Sometimes you wish to restrict your
search to a specific domain. To search
only palomar.edu resources enter the search
qualifier site:palomar.edu after your search
term:
This also works with geographic domains.
To search for sites that mention "Robert
Southwell" only in the United Kingdom, enter
this search:
Happy hunting!
Gizmo of the Week
Android Humor
 The
dead batteries were given out free of charge.
Free of charge. Get it?
My rechargeable batteries are revolting.
Re-Volting?
Q: Will this computer last five years? A:
Obsoletely!
But seriously folks... My new online dating
service is called dater-processing.
These and other worse (much worse) puns ("A man
walks into a bar: "Ouch!") mark the last frontiers
of the human/robot interface. The problem has
always been that the android lacked a sense of
humor. Until now.
According to
New Scientist two AI researchers and programmers
from the University of Cinncinnati "...have built a
computer program or 'bot' that is able to get a
specific type of joke - one whose crux is a simple
pun." The researchers first built a database
of words extracted from a children's dictionary,
then supplied rules and examples of how words can
relate to one another to create different meanings,
finally they created logic so that when a word usage
does not seem to fit its surroundings a
pronunciation guide is searched for similar sounding
words, and if one of those words fits better with
sentence in which it is used the robot "gets" the
joke and laughs. Something like this:
Something like that, anyway.
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 "Equilibrium"
by
Shane Jackman. "With
half a million miles and over a thousand concerts in the
rearview mirror, recording Artist Shane Jackman is a
consummate performer who has shared the stage with
Howard Jones, Peter, Paul and Mary, Shawn Colvin, Marty
Stewart, the Mavericks, Michael Martin Murphy, and Pete
Segar."
"No one really
listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a
while you'll see why ."
~ Mignon McLaughlin
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