VMWare Player rocks

I know, I know, it's like sacrilege to recommend a proprietary product when there is a good open source player in the field (VirtualBox), but wow, the new VMWare player is solid.

I've installed it on Ubuntu x64 and Windows 7 x64. Each did so with no complaint. Then I created an x64 guest on each with the other as the OS. So I have Ubuntu 9.10 x64 as host with Windows 7 x64 as guest and vice versa. Everything everywhere runs as it should!

It's so good that I prefer doing this to rebooting into the desired OS. I just run one, and if I need the other it boot it with VMplayer. All for free. The best thing for me, in addition to simply working, is that it recognizes USB without issue. This makes using USB drives possible. Something that has always been flaky on VirtualBox and ultimately has prevented me from using Virtual Technology seriously.

But now it all works. I should say it does not support 3D acceleration in most setups, so VirtualBox has it beat there. However, if you just want to try an OS, or have one around for that specific app at work. This will work. I've never used a more stable virtual environment and that is saying a lot. I can remember the SoftWindows for Mac back in the day. Yeah ... I'm that old :)

Like Clockwork, it's time for another operating system

About every two months I get an itch to mess up my world. I'm not sure where this masochistic tendency comes from, but it's impossible to deny. Just when my computer is working perfectly, I format and install a new OS.

Lately, this is not as satisfying as it used to be. Now, the install of the OS goes very well. Nearly all my important stuff shows up instantly. What's with that? Oh for the days for searching for drivers or looking for CDs and install codes. Nearly all of that is gone. Why? Basically the cloud and OS maturity.

For example, last week I installed windows 7. Within an hour I was using it to check email, my calendar, connect with friends, collaborate on lesson planning the works. All because of Google email, calendar, docs, and social networking.

Now, I installed Ubuntu 9.10 on the same machine. Very similar results, up and running easily and productively. I use Dropbox too, so all my key documents just started downloading from the cloud without even plugging in a usb drive.

I get the sense, this is only beginning. Soon, the OS may fade away entirely. Or is that the plan ... just what is google chrome os? .... hmmm

We're not yet connecting

So several of us have iPods in class. Sure we can each connect to online content, but how can we share content with each other directly?

I think that is a key step to making iPods an excellent part of daily use.

Thoughts?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

How I'm using my iPod

Well, I've had the device for a few weeks now and I still can't get enough. How am I using it? Here is an email I sent a colleague earlier on that very topic!

• PIM apps
• Right now, just the built in ones, but they all sync to google. So multiple calendars and all my contacts go back and forth between google and the ipod
• I'm considering this since it also works with google and toodle, which i've just started using
• http://www.pocketinformant.com/products_info.php?p_id=pocketinformant_iphone
• Blogging
• BlogPressLite
• iTalk
• This one is knock out of the park cool if used with a postersous blog. Actually this is just a sound recording app. But it will email straight to a blog, like posterous and post the audio file. Too cool.
• Sample - my sciencevc course blog
• http://science20vc.posterous.com/
• Social Networking
• Not sure how much you do SN. But the facebook app is well done. Easy to check on friends..
• TweetDeck. Awesome if you use twitter. Do you?
• Notetaking
• Awesome Note - cool
• Evernote - great because it syncs to online notes I can edit on the computer too.
• News
• All the usual. But I really like BBCReader since it does a great job caching for when I'm not online.
• MobileRSS - to catch all those sites I already subscribe too using GoogleReader, but never read.
• Mashable to see what's trending
• Media
• iTV - I admit, I watch too much TV. I watch it from the table while I work and mark.Anyway I like this guide better than the Satellite guide.
• iTunes remote. We only use our computer for a stereo system so this is amazing.
• For video I like TED and NFB for fun/interest
• OrbLive - streams my video collection right too me. Live TV and any film. Needs a computer set up in the background though.
• Resource
• Dictionary.com
• Wikipedia
• Utilities - Too many to list all of them. Just the highlights from the last week.
• Units
• Alarm Clock
• Air Mouse - I run my PPTs and such in class with this.
• RDP mocha - remote into my computer to make changes and such
• Games - Too many to list all of them. These stand out right now
• Catan
• Sneezies
• Civ Revolutions
• Mr. Aah
• Pre School
• but I'm looking for a school app for kindergarten. Ideas?

Lots of stuff I'm sure you would not use. But it's fun to find new things. Almost my favourite thing to do; surf the app store!"

iPods in Classrooms. I'm in!

This young lad makes a great case for iPods in classroom. I know I'm all for it. I wish our kids bought these instead of the TI83s we force them to in Math.

Moodle needs an iPhone app

I love Moodle. Use it daily. Now I have an iPod, and love it too. It's time to get this great piece of hardware together with this awesome software. I've posted as much to moodle.org, but I'm not getting any traction. So if you have an ipod/iphone please let your voice be heard, run over to moodle.org and post your opintion. Here is the thread where I've been posting these thoughts;

moodle thread on mobile moodle an the iphone.

Thanks.

Picasa 3.5 Rewards Procrastinators

I've used a lot of picture apps over the years. Most do the job. They organize, create folders, do small touch ups, and add tags. Picasa has always been amoung the best. Add free and an easy way to upload and share over the web, and I've been using using it as my main stay for years.

One thing I've been meaning to do though is to tag my pictures with the names of who is in them. Now I have no excuse. The new picasa 3.5 adds face recognition. The cool thing is it works. Start by naming a few sample pictures, then let Picasa run through your whole collection. If you are like me, it may take a while to eat through the 10s of thousands of pictures. But it will. I suggest checking in on it every hour or so. Remove the few miss-identified pictures and then confirm all. After a few hundred examples for a face it gets very, very good. It even recognizes a wide age range amoung kids.

Aside from simply being amazing, I was surprised at how much fun it was. It was a real blast to scroll through the dozens than 100s of pictures it found of my son or daughter. Seriously, this technology should not be missed. Get and use it. Amazing.

http://picasa.google.ca/

Need Bible software, look no further

I usually endorse free or open source. However, these guys recently earned any endorsement I can come up with. Here is the story;

About 2 months ago I finally purchase the NIV study bible for my PALM. I had been using various free bible packages and a very old one I purchased years back, but none of them had the NIV. Then i purchased an iPod touch and said goodbye to my LifeDrive (a very tough move). Of course now, I was lacking an NIV bible, again.

But wait. Laridian sent out an email explaining a new feature they have. Once you purchase a bible with them, they will allow you to change plateforms AT NO COST. That's incredible, and I started to get excited since I they built the software my PALM NIV was running on. An email to their tech support and they explaine how.

Then the trouble. It would not work. In a series of emails I discovered that my software came from Laridian, but the right to the NIV was purchased straight from Zondervan, not these guys. So I'm sad. They encourage me to contact Zondervan, and that they would like to help, but can't. Then, after no response from Zondervan and some time, I get an unsolicited email from their tech support. They've researched the product more closely and found that I do have the right to the content. They explain how, and now .... NIV on the iPod.

Now that's customer service and they have certainly earned my next electronic bible purchse. Thanks Laridian!

Need IM + Social Networking?

Look no further than Digsby. This program really is an all-in-one wonder. I have lots of digital friends, or friends that are digital. One problem I have though is that they are all on different networks. So a program like Pidgin or Digsby helps me run only one program and still get in touch with all of them. A nice touch with Digsby is that by creating a Digsby account, I only have to enter my IM, Social Networking, and email info once and now it follows me on each of the four computers I use on a regular basis. Cool.

MAJOR pain though was the install. Be very careful or you will install all kinds of worthless junk on to your computer. I know they need to make money, but that was over the top.

In the end, a great program. Runs on Mac, Linux, and PC. Great for me since I regularly use all three!

Are you ready for P.O.D's?

P.O.D's are personally owned devices. No one is sure how they will affect traditional education, but one thing is for sure, they keep coming!

Our school has great and open wifi, but then most teachers do not allow ipods or data phones in class. We're missing something. Perhaps this fall is the time to start the discussion.

Check out this fantastic presentation if you have not already done so. Again, a good discussion starter.

http://www.slideshare.net/datruss/the-pods-are-coming

Consider Open Source - Again!

OpenDisc - Education version
Many schools have a tight budget. That is often the reason given for them to consider Open Source. However, there is more that Open software than price. Much more. Lately I've found better tutorials, and a better online user base for Open Source alternatives to mainstream software. I would also like to suggest Open source is a better way for all software to go. Even if we paid for it. Yes I said "paid for it". Programmers need to be compensated for their work. Companies that help host and distribute software also need to get paid. What makes the Open Source model better is it allows innovations to be shared and built on, not re-invented.

Enough of my soap box. If you haven't checked into Open Source in a while, you should. No better place than the OpenDisc-Education project. Those people have done a fantastic job of putting many of the great useful packages into one simple iso image. Download it today at

http://www.theopendisc.com/education/

Web Equation Editor

I've been using this over over a year and it's easy to forget that many teachers may have missed this one. What is it? Well, it's an easy to use online equation editor. You can add it to your iGoogle home page (as I've done), use it in place at www.sitmo.com/latex or ebedd the code into any website.

After you build your equation you can download the .png graphic file or copy and paste into just about anything (the .png is better quality). Simple, useful. Enjoy!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

diigo - a great new Delicious like Bookmark service

I'll need to come back to this after a few weeks of really benching this service. However, out of the box it simply expands what I do with delicious. All the usual tagging and sharing tools, but adds on page comments and better social networking tools. If I can get enough people from my PLN to use this, it will really take off.

Also, you can have it auto bookmark to Delicious as well. Perfect. Check it out.

http://www.diigo.com

Tabs in Moodle

I'm just experimenting with this, but looks to solve one of my number one issue with Moodle. If you've used Moodle (a fantastic open source LMS), you may have run into the problem of courses that scroll on forever. Moodle seems to be ok for a short course, but once you've grown a bit, the students seem to do nothing by scroll and scroll.

Enter Patrick Thibaudeau's tab display. Essentially this add-on allows you to roll up various modules in your course, display them in a side menu with content that breaks out along the page into tabs. Very cool.

I hope it works as easily as the good folks from Faculté Saint-Jean made it look!

2009 Canadian Moodle Moot

Not enough time to post something significant, but having a great time connection with good people down here. Check out MoodleMoot.ca for more information. If you wish to pick up the flavour of the conference, hit search.twitter.com and look for canadamoot

Twitter finally taking off

Twitter actually arrived sometime last year, but this is when it arrived for me. For most of the world, they are not using Twitter to follow famous people or interesting people for fun. While cool, I don't seem to have the desire or time to do that kind of stuff. So twitter remained a novelty. No more.

I'm down in Calgary at the ADETA conference. Some very cool people here and, as usually happens when that is true, I'm learning. One thing I'm learning is the next step in shaping your own personal learning network. First step TWITTER

During one of the keynotes, a speaker put up on the live screen a live twitter search for a tag (ADETA09). Instantly anyone could post a tweet and have their comments up on the board. Very cool, cost nothing. This did two things. First, it deepened the discussion, but two it showed a whole bunch of active twitters from the DL sphere and mostly in or around Alberta. Very cool. I quickly clicked on names and started following them. Now I have a more meaningful group who will likely post tweets that relate to my field. Super cool. I'm slowing building a good PLN

Anyway, if you haven't tried twitter, do so now. Follow me if you'd like I'm: jonxaxkonrad.

Ning looks fun

I played around with Ning a while back and could not get my head around why I would want my own social network. I guess a lot has changed in the past year. Many starting networks have really taken off. Which is good, but also a problem. It's a little harder to stay in touch with just a few people in a specific area. I think that's where Ning can really fit in.

A small group can stay in touch or share info on a related topic or area. For example I just started up this group:

Moodle Alberta

Why would I do that when there are lots of Moodle groups around the world? Mostly so I can stay in touch with this smaller sub group. I live here in Alberta and I want to make sure I don't miss what's going on here while I'm reading tweets or posts from all around the world. Try it out.

Making the most of your USB key

The USB key. Everyone has one .... or should ($7.95 for 2GBs at the local tech store). But are we using them well? Two sites I use that helps the lowly USB key come alive. First,

http://portableapps.com/

It's really amazing what you can carry around with you. All the essential apps and many niche ones too. The top of your list should be from this site though:

http://allwaysync.com/download.html

Unlike the apps listed on the first site, this one is for pay. However, it's worth it. Every penny. Your USB key should be your TEMPORARY doc store, not your ONLY doc store. Having Allway Sync "portable edition" on your USB key means that on any computer; at work, at home, at the cabin, you will have the latest version of whatever you want. Amazing sync software. I don't think I could sleep without it!

Kindle 2 ... cool but pricey

I love the concept of this device, but sadly, I have not laid my hands on it. I have been reading books on electronic devices for years, and this looks dramatically better than anything I've used. The size, the contrast, the easy of access to a library all looks very good. Unfortunately, who has this kind of money lying around for books? or rather, just to access books.

This brings up a major problem I have with ebooks. Why are they not cheaper? Clearly they have no production cost compared to printing books, yet they still are close to books in actual dollars. In fact, if you wait for clearance or good book sales, you can often pick up the paper edition for less than the ebook. Until that changes, ebooks will always be a novelty.

Oh .. almost forgot the link. You can read more or watch a few videos of this device here
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Generation/dp/B00154JDAI/ref=sr_tr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1234206835&sr=1-1

n810 so close to perfection

If you are a tech junkie like me, you probably already have a nokia tablet. If not ... what are you waiting for? These devices are dropping rapidly in price and who doesn't want a linux based PC in your pocket?

In case you somehow missed what this device is, it's basically an underpowered notebook to-go. It has a beautiful 800x480 touch screen, slide out keyboard, mini-SD slot and a built-in mic/webcam. The audio only Skype client works incredibly well, and the Gizmo video client too, though sadly I have no Gizmo friends :(

My only hold back is that I live in the sticks. That means I only have wifi at home, at work, and at "special" spots when we go to town to buy more stuff. That, and my work admin has locked down the public wifi to do only websurfing. Still, this little trooper surfs better than anything else in it's size class, and yes I mean the iPhone too. Why? well the resolution and the flash capable browser. Yes FLASH CAPABLE BROWSER. The CPU is a little underwhelming so it can bog down on complex sites. Still, it's the first pocket web device I've used worth it's weight.

Nokia is releasing a new version in March, so look for prices to go even lower. Way cool. Now ... how can I use this in class ....

Eye OS ... Could this be the Future?

Imagine your whole desktop being a website and you've pretty much got EyeOS. To work, you would point your browser to your Eye server and login. Then run apps as you would on your local computer. Anything from Office software to simple games. EyeOS is in very early development but it could catch on. It has a few cool things going for it.

One, it's open source. That allows everyone to participate in it's development, and should you or your business decide to use EyeOS, you will not suddenly lose access to all your files when the private business changes their sales model.

Two, being web based means it runs on such a large variety of hardware with little or no configuration. Since your device needs only to create the connection, there are "device" drivers exactly.

Three, since it's web based all the processing is actually done on the server (your own server by the way). This is a lot like thin clients, or a remote desktop setup. This means your cell phone could batch edit photos just as fast as your quad core desktop at home ... or just as slow.

Check out the site EyeOS
And pick "Demo" from the top, create a new account, and login to your new computer!

Gazing into the technology crystal ball is a game for fools. Still, it's a pastime, I like to rush in too :) eyeOS is young, but it's definitely one to play with and watch. It could be your next OS!