Firefox 3.0 to be released at 10 PDT (1:00pm for those on the east coast)
Posted on June 17th, 2008 by Mr.Rcollins
Go and download it! (At the proper time, of course. 
)
Test post from TypePad's Blogit
Posted on June 12th, 2008 by Mr.Rcollins
This is a test, posting from my iPod Touch.
Would a rose by any other name smell just as sweet?
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by Mr.Rcollins
According to a recent study, names really do make a difference:
Parents are being warned to think long and hard when choosing names for their babies as research has discovered that girls who are given very feminine names, such as Anna, Emma or Elizabeth, are less likely to study maths or physics after the age of 16, a remarkable study has found.
Fascinating research. They even examined twin girls and found that what they were named could put them on two entirely different career paths. Also, naming a child with a ‘lower-status’ name, spelled in an unusual way or including punctuation, lowered exam scores by 3-5%.
One more thing for new parents to worry about.
Happy 35th Birthday Ethernet
Posted on May 24th, 2008 by Mr.Rcollins
May 22, 1973: Enter Ethernet
1973: Bob Metcalfe of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center writes a memo outlining how to connect the think tank’s new personal computers to a shared printer. The memo puts forth the basic properties of — and names — ethernet.
Looking at his diagram, he had the foresight to see networking not only over a local area network, but also telephone lines and radio waves.
Wiimote interactive whiteboard success
Posted on May 16th, 2008 by Mr.Rcollins
Since I am home this week, I decided to get caught up on some projects. The big one was working on getting an interactive whiteboard setup going with a Nintendo Wiimote and an infrared pen. This morning, I finally got my infrared pen working. What I did was bought a cheap LED flashlight from Walmart and replaced one of the LEDs with an infrared LED, the Radio Shack 276-143 to be exact.
After checking that the pen worked, I downloaded the Wiimote interactive whiteboard software and it worked! I’ll try to get some pictures and a video up, but I don’t know if I’ll have time today.
Next goal is to find some whiteboard software to use with it. For right now I’m just using Inkscape.
Why do students need email?
Posted on May 15th, 2008 by Mr.Rcollins
On the Ohio Technology Coordinator’s listserv this question was posted:
We already had one case of student to teacher generated e-mail that originated on a student computer inside the school. The FIRST question I got as the Tech Director was ‘Why are you allowing students to send and receive email in school?’
And my question would be, “Why are you letting them use pencil and paper? They could be sending notes to other students or staff!”. For discipline we do not distinguish between computer generated or person generated correspondence. The punishment may change if it’s on the computer because they’d lose computer privileges due to the AUP.
You’re not going to be able to stop it. A student could simply fire up telnet and use your existing mail server to send email to whoever they want, saying anything they want.
No access to telnet on the machine? Then throw up a Java telnet client on any old web host and access it from there. Actually, if I wanted to get around a school’s filters, this is the route I’d probably go. Once I get SSH somewhere, I can get full access to the Internet, and it only requires port 80, a web browser, and Java. (This is what I use at places that have network access locked down. I open a SSH tunnel over port 443 to my home computer, and then have full access to anything on the Internet.)
Not only is email use part of the State of Ohio Technology Standards, it is our job as teachers to educate the students on the proper use of email. How to use it, what’s appropriate, etc. Part of the problem with the garbage that students send through email is that they’ve never seen anything else. It’s pretty foreign for them to see an email message with proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. (I hope I have everything correct in this post!
I bet you have students right now using a free email services, ssh tunnels, etc.
We like to think we have things locked down, but unless you’re working for the NSA, you do not have it locked down. Education of the students, punishment for inappropriate behavior is a good way to go. We as Technology Coordinators we have a habit of putting up technological road blocks instead of solving the real problems.
Thunderbird Email
Maybe, finally, found the perfect blog editor
Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by Mr.Rcollins
Although the built-in editor for Wordpress works pretty well, it still feels a little bit kludgy. If I’m on my MacBook I like to use Windows Live Writer or Textmate, but Windows Live Writer requires me to fire up VMware and Textmate seems to also be a little kludgy.
I’ve looked at the ScribeFire Firefox extension in the past, when it was Performancing, but the latest version seems to be almost perfect. What I’ve always wanted is to not only post drafts to my blog, but to also edit the drafts. The latest version of ScribeFire not only allows me to save my drafts, but I can then re-edit those drafts from ScribeFire or from Wordpress itself.
For pictures you can either select a picture on your computer and it will automatically upload it or you can do a Flickr search.
I will really be pushing it to my teachers as we increase our blogging use, and maybe put it on as a global extension on my next disk image for school.
Free access to Encyclopedia Britannica articles
Posted on April 19th, 2008 by Mr.Rcollins
Encyclopedia Britannica, through their Encyclopedia Britannica Webshare program allows web publishers free online access to the encyclopedia and the ability to give their readers free access to an article in its entirety.
A special program for web publishers, including bloggers, webmasters, and anyone who writes for the Internet. You get complimentary access to the Encyclopaedia Britannica online and, if you like, an easy way to give your readers background of the topics you write about with links to complete Britannica articles.
I don’t see anything in the FAQ about limiting access to educational institutions, but they do check any who is applying to see if they really have a blog and publish regularly (left up to them whether you qualify).
This free access is in no doubt related to the popularity of Wikipedia (for every page view on EB online, 184 pages are viewed on Wikipedia). I applaud their effort to stay relevant and to offer this ability to Internet users.
And what a great motivational tool to get teachers blogging!
Where’s the outrage?
Posted on April 17th, 2008 by Mr.Rcollins
photo credit: jigpuAfter I first read this story, I thought that it was a pretty cool:
When Victory Baptist School, a small private school in Sherwood, Ark., was struggling to keep its computer network together last year, an 11-year-old student named Jon Penn stepped in as network manager.
Upon reflection I realized that this story is a big reason why IT departments are looked down upon as less than professional in organizations school districts today. For example, replace “network manager” with “1st grade teacher”. Would this student receive accolades or would the district be singled out as harming the educational experience of their first graders? What would fellow teachers think of an 11 year old attempting to do their job?
Unfortunately for IT people, if you’re doing your job well, it appears that you’re not doing anything at all. Everything just works and people question why you are getting paid.
Articles like the above do not help promote the professionalism of IT. Your boss, upon reading that article, could believe that they could just hire people off the streets and save money.
As IT professionals, we need to promote and market ourselves, separate the wheat from the chaff. Anyone can install an Internet appliance, but it takes a little more knowledge and experience to run the IT department of a school district.
P.S. I don’t want to belittle Jon Penn’s accomplishments, I wish I would’ve had the opportunity at his age.