Ed's Tech Tips

If you do not already know, the Alumnae Association has a large online photo gallery. I upload photos and manage the gallery with a free application called JetPhoto which I've written about in the past. I really like the many features of the online gallery which include:

• Themeable pages
• Keyword Searching
• Categories
• Multiple Views
• Flash Slide Show
• Ability to write descriptions for each photo 
• Easy upload of images with automatic resizing

One of the significant things that was missing for me was the ability for visitors to post comments about the pictures. I contemplated developing the feature myself in PHP. What looked like a rather simple project soon became much more complicated when I started contemplating how to combat spam, how to store the messages associated with the images, how to monitor the comments and how to easily delete or edit them. Then I wondered if someone had already developed a script I could integrate into JetPhoto without having to reinvent the wheel.

After searching the web for a while I came across a free open source script called Comments from ScriptsMill.com that fit the bill. It does everything but allow me to easily edit the comments. For that I can use PhpMyAdmin, another cool open source tool that allows for management of MySQL databases. 

The program installed easily onto the web server and integrates easily within the  gallery with just one line of code. I discovered a bug on the admin control related to the long URLS generated by JetPhoto. I emailed the developers and they got back to me within a couple hours with a solution. In my experience with web software and services, it appears that the turn around time for support is in proportion to what you pay for it. Assistance on free open source programs is usually the same day. Whereas, for commercial applications resolutions can be days, week or months.

In addition to the comments feature I added the ability to easily hide or expand the comments, as well as, the photo details which show the exposure, camera, ISO speed, aperture and so forth.

Another free open source option for hosting your online galleries is a program call Gallery which is a full featured application written in PHP with numerous options and add on modules and themes. I like the fact that there now many ways to upload your photos to gallery including plug-ins for Picasa and iPhoto. If that was available a year ago I would have probably went with Gallery instead of JetPhoto. JetPhoto was the tool of choice when I needed to easily upload numerous photos the same day they were taken during Reunion.

Coppermine is another open source option with many features. I used it for the Alumnae Image Gallery where alums could upload their own pictures during reunion, unfortunately it was under utilized.  With services like Flickr, I may not offer it next year, especially with spam being a concern.

After I stopped renewing my .Mac account, I was looking for a new place to post my family photos and decided to check out Flickr to see what all the fuss was about. Well, I'm glad I did. It is an awesome photo sharing web site. Not only do they have numerous tools to help you manage and upload your photos, but there are also so many ways to interact and connect with others. The only downside was that the free account is limited. You can only create 3 sets, you only upload a certain amount of photos per month and of course you can only store a limited amount of photos. The upside is that the cost of a year long account is only $24.95, a fourth of what my .Mac account costs and there are virtually no restrictions. There are unlimited sets, bandwidth and storage space. It is a very good deal.

 

 

 

Although the Alumnae Association has it's own online photo galleries, I thought a prescence on Flickr would help connect with alums that are also  on Flickr. I have also created a group on Flickr that alums can join. It helps that the same software I use to manage our online galleries, also has a built in option to easily upload photos to Flickr. The program is called JetPhoto Studio. It is a free application that works on Windows and Macs. It's a fantastic tool for organizing your photos, as well as creating wallpaper, screensavers, flash galleries and publishing galleries to the web.

Another very useful tool for working with Flickr is the social web browser called Flock. It is based on Firefox and integrates with Flickr and PhotoBucket. It also has builtin blogging tools and a RSS news reader. 

 

Then check out ThinkGeek.com, the online store for all your geek products. Where else can you get a USB Missle Launcher for your desk or a t-shirt with the caffeine molecule diagram on it? Other items you can find at ThinkGeek.com include the following, which I am not making up:

• Yoda Plush Backpack You can be Luke, and Yoda can carry your books!
• USB Snowbot A snowman-robot hybrid with scanning LED eye and eerie sound effect
• Shower Shock Caffeinated Soap Soap with caffeine infused in it! Believe it. A truly clean buzz...
• Bluetooth Retro Handset A new way to use your cell phone's Bluetooth
• Great Scientists Finger Puppets   Four brainy friends you can play wear on your fingers.
• RFID Blocking Wallet   Protect your identity and your money from RFID hacking
• LED Blow On-Off Candles
• Marshmallow Shooter   New Camo version available!
• Titanium Spork Perhaps the coolest and most powerful spork ever created.
• Periodic Table Shower Curtain Lather, rinse, repeat...ooh, argon!
• Duct Tape Wallet by Ducti® Wallets made from the most useful stuff on the planet - Duct Tape !
• There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Door/Floor mat The ultimate techie door/floor mat. Yup.
• Staple Free Stapler Jam together your paper without injury inducing metal shards!
• Star Wars Force FX Lightsabers high quality, official Lightsaber replicas with real lighting and sound effects!
• Star Trek 40th Anniversary Phaser Type II phaser with lights and sound (and detachable Type I!)
• Artoo Potatoo Droid and spud in perfect combination.
• SRV-1 Mobile Surveillance Robot Mobile Robot is Controlled Via Web Browser with Live Video Feed
• Curiously Strong Magnets A set of herculean strength eighty-seven mini rare-earth magnets!

 

The short answer is no. This is important because, like the ever increasing CPU speeds and McDonald's Super size meals, many people equate bigger with better, although that's not always the case that does not stop manufacturers from squeezing more megapixels into a camera in order to squeeze more dollars from your wallet. To paraphrase B.B. King, the great blues guitarist says, it's not how many notes you play, but how well you play them.

There are a couple articles online that illustrate this point. The first I read was by David Pogue, the technology columnist with the New York Times. I'd love to have his job. He enlarged a photo to 16x24 inches at three different resolutions:5, 8 and 13 megapixel. He taped the pictures to a window in Time Square and asked people on the sidewalk passing by if they could tell the difference. Only 1 out of 95 could. The one was a professor of photography. Someone who commented on the article referenced an a website by Ken Rockwell, an avid photographer.  He has an article that compares a a $150 camera to a $5,000 camera with photos that you can easily compare with each other. Guess which one takes the better photo? This is not to say that your new digital SLR camera is not worth it. However, it pays to shop, compare and eudcate yourself about digital photography.  Kodak has an excellent area on their website for helping consumers take better pictures. Start out by reviewing their Top Ten Tips.

Ken also has a helpful 2006 Holiday Camera Shopping Guide. Ken is prefrential to Canons. I lean toward Sony's because that is what I know. The new compact Sony DSC-W30 is great little six megapixel camera that is is availble for around $200. We have a new gallery of photos taken with the camera by Emily Weir while she was in Austraila and New Zealand.

 

Some of my co-workers have asked me for recommendations regarding new Mac computer models this holiday season.

As far as Mac vs PC (Windows), I prefer Macs. This is coming from a guy who has used Microsoft operating systems since the early days of DOS and has provided tech support for every variation of Windows. The Macs, although not perfect, are simply more reliable, secure, easier and more enjoyable to use on every level. Especially if you are going to use it primarily for photos and music. The iLife suite is superior to anything else bundled with Windows computers. I'm not impressed by the upcoming Windows Vista. It is more bloatware than anything else  with a shiny new interface that looks more like the Mac.  For more Mac vs PC, just search Google:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang_en&q=mac+vs+pc&btnG=Search

As for this year's models, here are my suggestions:

For an iMac desktop model, I would not necessarily go for the least expensive model. Spend $200 more for a total of $1,199 and get the 8X dual layer DVD drive, twice the RAM and a better graphics card. You'll have a system that should last you a long time. A 160 GB is huge and 1 GB of RAM is very ample for Mac OS X. The Dual layer DVD will let you store over 9 GB on to a disk. $300 more will get you the 20 inch model with a 250 GB hard drive. The 24 inch model is extravagant, but has a great screen.

Some people may be concerned about the all-in-one design, because it is not as easily upgradeable, but they come with everything you would need. Adding more storage is fairly easy with a USB or Firewire external hard drive. Otherwise, I find most people do not upgrade components in their computers. For those that do, they should be looking at the Mac Pro line. However, the 24 inch model would probably be sufficent for many graphic and web designers. The pro line is more suited for video editing, 3D design and animation. A positive attribute of the all-in-one design is that it takes up very little space. There is no tower to get in the way. If you really want to eliminate clutter, opt for the wireless keyboard and mouse then you'll only have a single cable running out of the back of the iMac which is for power. Well, make that two cables, you'll need the ethernet cable for an internet connection, unless you go wireless with that too,  since it does have a wireless network card built-in. 

For a laptop, the MacBook is a good deal. Once again, I would recommend spending a little extra money on the next model up ($1,299) because you will be happier with it longer, because it has twice as much memory (1 GB vs 512 MB), a slightly larger hard drive (60 vs 80 GB, still half the size of the iMac's) and a dual layer DVD burner. Why do you need a DVD burner? You may not, but making DVD's of your vacation and holiday photos to share with your family and friends is cool and easy to do with iPhoto and iDVD - you do not even need video or to open iMovie. Plus, the dual layer DVD is great for backing up those photos and the music you convert from CD's or buy from iTunes along with your other documents, such as, taxes, resumes, recipes and so forth.

The 13 inch wide screen is smaller than the 17 inch of the iMac, but I like the portability of a notebook even around the house. However, to be wireless at home you'll need a wireless router, such as, the AirPort Express Base Station with AirTunes. However that costs $130. For half the money you could get a LinkSys, DLink or NetGear wireless router.

Both models have the latest Duo 2 Core processors and built-in iSight cameras and mics.

Some students and alums have asked me for advice on how to best develop a web site. I try to steer them toward some free open source tools, because many of the projects are for non-profits. The ideal tool is a CMS, which is short for Content Management System. A blog can be considered a min-CMS, but a blog is usually one component of many in a CMS which will usually also contain a calendar, multiple pages, multiple members, newsletter, forums, photo galleries, forms and anything else that helps to create a full fledged web site.

As I was doing some research for this post I came across an article that reviews the three most popular open CMS applications currently available: Drupal, Plone and Joomla used by three different web design companies that specialize in non-profit web sites. Since the article says the same thing I would and then some, I going to link to it instead of writing the same thing. Check it out at idealware.org. These three programs won top places in the Packt Publishing 2006 Open Source Content Management contest.

There are many more than the three CMS's listed above. To learn more and get some first hand experience, visit OpenSourceCMS.com which host a wide variety of open source CMS applications, along with blogs, forums, wikis, and galleries for you to try for free. This save you the time of downloading and installing the applications yourself. They only host applications written in PHP and MySQL. To learn more about other CMS's written in Java, Python, among other languages, visit CMS Matrix.

This brings up an important point of CMS's. They usually require a server side scripting or programming language, such as PHP, Python or Java and a back-end database, such as, MySQL or PostgreSQL. Unfortunately, some of the servers that students and departments have to host web sites on do not support server side scripting languages and databases. Therefore, web sites have to be built and maintained the old fashioned way with individually linked pages. However, using CSS, XHTML and Javascript the job can be made easier. Learn more about them at W3 Schools. You can control the look and feel and feel a web site from a single CSS (cascading style sheet) file. For some fascinating CSS examples, check out the CSS Zen Garden. Menus can be maintained via a single Javascript file. 

There is a free editor to help create and maintain your pages, called NVU. There is also a free graphics editor, similar to PhotoShop, called GIMP to edit your pages. To help give yourself a head start with the layout of your pages, check out Open Source Web Design. 

 

If you read through the articles posted on this blog you may notice a bias towards Apple computers. Why? Because they just work. Overall, they are just easier to use and maintain. I have been using Microsoft products since the mid 1980's with MS-DOS, then Windows-386, Windows 3.x, '95, '98, NT, Me, 2000, 2003, and XP. I was a technical support specialist for Sony Electronics and Yankee Candle, as well as, for a small computer store and as a freelance consultant. At home I do not want to have to fool with blue screens of death, freezing up, trojans, viruses, worms and so forth. A Mac is not perfect, but it is much more pleasurable to use than a Windows PC from the user interface, to the performance. 

 One of the long standing complaints about Macs was that there was not as much software available for them as there is for Windows. This is still true, but much less so than in the past. When Apple moved to the OS X operating system, which is based on BSD Unix (known for it's security) they opened the door to many more developers and porting applications from the open source Linux world, plus easier development of applications in general on the Mac platform. It helps that Apple gives away the Xcode programming tools for free, where as, a programmer has to purchase Visual Studio from Microsoft.

This brings me to free stuff for your Mac. There are numerous excellent free and open source applications for the Mac. In addition to programs, you can also find free photos and music. Check out FreeMacBlog.com and it's sister sites: FreeMacWare, FreeMacUnix, FreeMacMusic and FreeMacPhotos. This site offers a wealth of free applications, plus articles on how to better use your Mac, especially in regards to photos and the underlying Unix applications. Apple itself also features an extensive nicely organized catalog of Mac OS X applications on their web site.

For for those of you that are tempted, but just could not imagine giving up Windows, you can now run Windows within your Mac using a program called Parallels. See the photo above. Many Mac retailers are offering Mac and Windows bundles.

Here's the first of my bare bones audio podcast or audio versions of my blog articles. Nothing fancy, otherwise I would not be able to do it on a regular basis.

No electronic gadgets here. Although I have seen a Dremel electric carving tool and strobe lights. I like my Jack-O-Lanterns simple. I did not even use a pumpkin carving kit with the specialized tools. Just a pencil, sharp paring knife and a large metal spoon for carving out the insides. I got  a number of compliments on it. I was happy with it. It was inspired by the Pumpkin King from the Tim Burton movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Do you remember the prediction of "paperless offices"? It was made as early as 1975 in Business Week magazine and was repeated often during the early days of the personal computer in the 1980's. However, with the advent or word processors, laser and ink printers, photocopiers and fax machines we appear to have more paper than ever before despite the development of e-mail and the campaigns to save our environment and use less paper to save trees. 

Adobe's Acrobat PDF file format can greatly reduce our dependence on paper. It is a file format that has been around for years. It is based on Postscript, the printer language that is preferred by graphic designers, because it can render any image. PDF is supported on most computer platforms and preserves the look and feel of the original document.  Many applications and forms are available in PDF format

I have encouraged the Alumnae Association staff to use a program from Macromedia (now Adobe) called FlashPaper. It came bundled with Contribute, the tool we use to edit the pages on the Association web site. Anything that can be printed can be outputted as a PDF file. Fortunately, you do not need to purchase FlashPaper to do the same thing. If you have a Macintosh, printing to PDF is built into the OS X operating system. For Windows users, you can download a free open source program called PDF Creator. Here are the features which include some capabilities that FlashPaper does not support:

• Create PDFs from any program that is able to print
• Security: Encrypt PDFs and protect them from being opened, printed etc.
• Send generated files via eMail
• Create more than just PDFs: PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, EPS
• AutoSave files to folders and filenames based on Tags like Username, Computername, Date, Time etc.
• Merge multiple files into one PDF
• Easy Install: Just say what you want and everything is installed
• And the best: PDFCreator is free, even for commercial use! It is Open Source and released under the Terms of the GNU General Public License.

Well, never get lost again if you have a cell phone signal and a cell phone that is compatible with the new mobile Google Maps. Many phones are supported. This is a cool new application from Google that is going to increase my data charges on my cell phone plan, but will help prevent me from getting lost again.

Just like the version you can view on your computer, you can browse and zoom a detailed map including the satellite photo view. Get directions, search for businesses, get traffic reports, save favorites and more. You can also use Google Maps in the U.S., Canada, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. After selecting a particular business, select the "Details" tab for hours of operation, hotel amenities, and more. See where the congestion is, and estimate delays in over 30 major US metropolitan areas. Save time (and avoid sore thumbs) by keeping a list of residential or business locations, and driving routes.

Google has created an interactive demo so that you can test drive Google Mobile Maps from your computer for free and learn all of the ins and outs of the program, before you start paying the data fees to your cell phone company. Just click on the keys of the on-screen phone pad.

In addition to maps, you can also easily access your mail, Google news and Google search in general. Google Mobile is now my homepage. The SMS text message search feature is also very cool. For instance, send a text message, such as, "sushi 94040" and a list of sushi restaurants in Mountain View, California will be sent back to you. Get movie times, definitions, translations, prices, calculations, stock quotes, sports scores, directions, trivia, and more. This really expands the capabilities of your cell phone. 

Thanks to Olga for pointing out a cool new free service for websites from a company called Conduit Connect that allows you to quickly and easily create a fully custom browser toolbar. Click on the banner to the left to go to the download page and install it.

If you have used the Google tool bar, it is very similar. It even incorporates  a Google search box with the highlight option which comes in very handy when you are doing research and are looking for certain terms or phrases in a page. Additionally, the toolbar can be customized with the a logo and icons, menus, chat, RSS reader, links, email notifier, local weather, web radio and much more. It is compatible with Firefox on all platforms and in Internet Explorer, as well, if you are still using that browser. 

I'm not sure what the business model of the company is, but I'm certain it must be tied into searching and ad revenue. Whatever it is, it is unobtrusive. The toolbar is very well done and thought out.  The steps to create it were clear and easy to follow. 

The Association toolbar features direct links to the Association web site. I've included a drop down menu for the different features of the Virtual Cafe and another menu for the different online directory tools. There is a link for the events calendar and a RSS menu that displays the latest blog articles.

There is a chat feature that allows you to chat with whoever else has the tool bar installed. Unfortunately it does not tell you who is online or provide you a method of notifying them that you are online. I'm not sure how well this feature will be utilized.

There are numerous other options, but there is only so much room on the tool bar to include them.  If I change my mind I can update the toolbar and the next time the end users open their browsers the toolbar will be refreshed and reflect the new changes.

Currently the staff is testing the toolbar to insure that there are no major issues. So far, I do not see any. It looks very promising and that's why I am writing this blog article.   I think it will be a very nice compliment to our web site.

Sony has recently released their Reader (original name) ebook device. Ebooks are not new.  A few years ago RocketBook was a ebook hopeful, that while it was well designed using the technology available at the time, it disappeared because of costs of the hardware and the ebooks. In addition weight, battery life and legibility of the screen were lacking. However, I like the concept.

Sony's new product looks very promising from a technology point of view. It uses eInk technology that provides a high contrast sharp display viewable in direct sunlight at a 180 degree angle. It weighs 9 ounces. The battery last 4 hours or 7,500 page turns. It is smaller than many paperbacks measuring at 7x5 inches and is only half an inch thick. Unfortunately it only comes with 64 MB of RAM. With the price of RAM being so low Sony could have easily included at least a gigabyte of RAM. I recently bought some 512 MB flash drives for $11.50 each. It does have a memory card slot and supposedly the 64 MB can hold 80 average size books. Since the display is black and white, you'll really only looking at text, not graphics or video. The device can view Jpegs and Adobe PDF's, as well as, playback non-DRM MP3 and ACC audio files (headphones not included). 

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Here are some pictures of campus around Mary Woolley Hall taken and sent with my Sony Eriscsson Z500a cell phone. The resolution is not great and I probably should have cleaned the lens. It gets a lot of pocket lint on it. But I wanted to demonstrate what can be done with a cell phone and a blog, what some have coined as moblogging - short for "mobile weblog". I think it would be great for travel and sports blogs.  

Moblogging is not exactly new. The first post from a mobile device was done in 1995. Read more about the history of moblogging at Joi Ito's web site. If you are still interested check Picostation, a site dedicated to mobloggers and textamerica.com, another moblog portal that has some great photos.  Of course Blogger.com allows you to easily post items from your phone.

 

 

 

 

Earlier I wrote about PriceGrabber which is a great price and product comparison tool for online retailers once you decide on what product you want to buy, however, a lot of research can go into deciding which product you should purchase. I read a lot of reviews and try to distinguish "true" reviews versus glorified press releases or promotion articles. I do not trust magazines that only have glowing and positive remarks to make about every product they review. It appears that they just want to keep their advertisers happy. The magazine becomes more like a catalog than a true journalistic endeavour.

Unfortunately, it can be very time consuming to read various reviews, that's where ConsumerSearch comes in handy. Unlike Consumer Reports (which is a excellent source because they do not accept advertising) that actually reviews the products themselves, ConsumerSearch pulls together articles from different resources on similar products, analyzes their results and summarizes the results for you identifying the best products. They include links to the actual reviews and offer a Credibility Rating for the various reviews. They offer summaries, as well as, detailed overviews. They then offer listings where to buy the products showing price comparisons for various retailers.

The only complaint I would have about ConsumerSearch is that the articles may be dated or old. They can't keep current on all of the different product categories all of the time, but they do have a list of recently updated categories.  It is still the best single location I have found to read balanced and accurate comparisons and reviews of a wide variety of products.

 

There is a new plugin that allows our blog authors to post YouTube or Google videos in their blogs. Google has a new feature where you upload videos longer than 9 minutes and keep them unlisted, so that you can kep them private and only show them to people you want to. Here is a test. The following is video from the Alumnae Council 2006 Awards Dinner: