More from Google Labs

When I logged into my google account this morning I saw a message that google labs had cooked up a couple of applications that I thought might benefit the group--at least anyone who uses a google account.

Their first offering is one that acts as a task function

Keep track of what you need to do with a lightweight task list right inside of Gmail. Just click and type to add new tasks, convert emails into tasks, and (most satisfyingly) check them off as you're done.

The second is pretty cool. It allows you to send SMS messages from your gmail account...

Send SMS text messages right from Gmail. You chat from your comfy computer and reach your friends on the go; they get your messages as texts and can peck out replies on their little keyboards.

sort of like twitter in reverse.

These quotes were taken from this announcement page.

Alternative to Photoshop

Paint.net

So this blog could have come about two or three weeks ago for the purpose of our Blackboard project. For me, I had trouble coming up with a course banner, and even something for the group Wiki project. I don't have Adobe Photoshop and have no idea on how to use it (I hear its difficult). Adobe Photoshop is not free, but Paint.net is! It is compared to Photoshop and Microsoft Paint and considered the free alternative. "It is a powerful editor with support for layers, blending, transparency, and plugins." (from Wikipedia) There are tutorials that show you how to create excellent graphics. I watched the tutorial on how to create a collage. Check it out! (here is a snapshot of the interface)

Microsoft Releasing Free Anti-malware Tool

Microsoft in the second half of 2009 will be releasing a free anti-malware (rootkits, spyware, trojans and viruses) tool code named “Morro”. They are releasing this suite of software due to the increasing demand of PC security.

The current consumer security offering, Microsoft Live OneCare will be discontinued at the latest on June 30, 2009. The new Morro suite will use many of the same technologies found in Live OneCare. It will lack several features currently found in the Live OneCare suite (printer sharing and automated PC tune-up) in order to minimize the use of system resources.

The package will be able available for the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems via download.

The only problem with this suite is many independent reviews have found Microsoft’s current offerings for Anti-Malware, the OneCare Anti-Virus and Windows Defender, lacking in capability and often missing infections. Let’s hope that Microsoft has improved their overall product for this release.

Source: Microsoft discontinuing OneCare, will deliver free security offering instead

SearchWiki

I will freely admit that I'm addicted to Google. I'm not sure how I survived without gmail, Google Docs, iGoogle page, Google Maps, and even basic Google searches before the site was around. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't use Google for something. It seems that they are always adding new features and apps that make using Google even more fun and useful.

I noticed when I logged in the other day that they've added yet another new feature called Searchwiki. Basically, this will allow you to customize your search results, save your results, and make notes about the search pages that you find. This brief video from Google can explain it better then I can.



I haven't gone and played around with this at all in my own Google account, but I thought it looked interesting. It seems like a form of social bookmarking. I could see myself using this to save the sites I go to often or to make a note to remember something about a site. The possiblities could be endless!

Google Chrome

I guess you might have seen Google Chrome doing big roars in the world of bites for being the new light browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

Features of this new browser include:

• One box for everything
  
  Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages.


• Thumbnails of your top sites
  Access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab.


• Shortcuts for your apps
  Get desktop shortcuts to launch your favorite web applications.


• Safer downloads


• Better crash control......But I am not sure how long will this last. As we all know firefox was very efficient for crash control when they started in 2004 but after all those plugins its now a heavy application almost capturing more than half of my memory resources and susceptible to wild crashes.

Check out the notes from the developers themselves on why they built this browser.
"A fresh take on the browser
At Google, we spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And like all of you, in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends - all using a browser. People are spending an increasing amount of time online, and they're doing things never imagined when the web first appeared about 15 years ago.
Since we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if you started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build.
So today we're releasing the beta version of a new open source browser: Google Chrome.
On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff - the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.
Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better . By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built V8, a more powerful JavaScript engine, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.
This is just the beginning - Google Chrome is far from done. We've released this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and we'll continue to make it even faster and more robust.
We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we're committed to continuing on their path. We've used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others - and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.
The web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better.
But enough from us. The best test of Google Chrome is to try it yourself."
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....................................
You guys simply rock what would be Google's next project. A Operating System?????????????Who knows time will tell.........Sayonara....adiós....GoodBye folks.

R5 Productions

R5 Productions
This website is, in my opnion, the best compilation site for indie shows in Philly. R5 allows users to access info using Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. Some of the Philly venues that are listed on this site are the 1st Unitarian Church (my favorite venue!), Starlight Ballroom, Johnny Brendas, and The Barbary. The site displays show-listings for each day, offers sample music downloads for the bands playing in that show, a link to purchase tickets to the show, and a brief review of each band. This is a great site for finding new music on the indie scene. Since R5 uses "social networking" tools, I figured it was a good opportunity to post about the site. Enjoy!

Hate Vista? Next Windows may be sooner than you think.

It has been rumored since early in the year that Microsoft wanted to get it's next operating system, Windows 7, finished by mid-2009. It now looks that Microsoft has made it official they'd like to have Windows 7 on the market for the 2009 holiday season. I would assume this is in response to Apple's Snow Leopard and the luke-warm consumer response to Vista. Here's hoping Windows 7 works better than Vista and isn't nearly as delayed.

Learning tools powered by Google

Google has always been in the spotlight for the powerful search engine. Apart from being a search engine Google provides a variety of tools, to organize data online free of charge.
Top tools
http://groups.google.com
To share information in a group.

http://www.google.com/calender
organize your work using calender

http://images.google.com
Share pictures and images with your loved ones

http://books.google.com
Search online e-books and printed books online.

http://www.google.com/bookmarks
Bookmark your favorite websites.

http://www.google.com/ig
iGoogle
personalize your stuff using iGoogle

http://www.blogger.com
Blog your views with your friends and online community around the world.

http://www.google.com/reader
Read all your news and favorite websites in one place with Google Reader.

http://sites.google.com/
Design your own websites using Google.

http://docs.google.com
Share and view douments with friends world wide.

Getting Organized With Milk!!

“Remember the Milk” is a free personal productivity and time management tool that helps users to organize and manage their tasks. It allows the users to manage and add tasks easily, receive and set up reminders, organize, prioritize and locate tasks as well as share your lists and tasks to co-operate with others.

Some tools that “Remember The Milk” interacts with to make this all possible are Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, iPhone/iTouch, iGoogle, Google Gears (to make offline functions available) MilkSych (allows synchronizing with Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices) and Twitter (“micro-blogging” tool for sending updates via SMS, IM, the website and email). With these collaborating tools and partners “Remember The Milk” can organize your tasks, send reminders to your computer or mobile device as text or instant messages, RSS-feeds, or emails.

This site application looks really neat! I think it would be a wonderful resource for someone (including me) who sometimes has a hard time juggling between deadlines, to-do lists and managing tasks and time. The basic account is free and the Pro-account that comes with some extra features costs $25 annually.

Give it a try and tell us how it works! I know I’m curious!

iDVD

Over this past summer I became addicted to Expert Village, so much so that I even recommended that it be placed in an online high school course that I had created! You can learn how to do pretty much anything on there, from riding a bike to cooking Knocchi. (I am impressed if you can tell me what Knocchi is. it's a Servant family staple.)

Anyway, Expert Village put up a tutorial on how to play with iDVD. While i'm not totally enamored with the user interface of the MAC (sorry Dr. Nich!) I think their software is pretty out there in a cool way.

anyway, IDVD is a a pretty cool yet simple program that you can upload projects and iPhoto slideshows and export them to DVD. iMovie projects, scene selection menus are automatically created with chapter markers that are set in a Movie. iDVD also has a Media section that provides an iTunes library, iPhoto library and Movies folder. There is a map view, which shows the current project's menu system in a graphical form. You can also hide or show the 'TV safe area' (because old televisions often cut off some of a video's outer areas). iDVD can also upload to Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro.

It's actually a pretty cool program to play around with if you have a Mac. One thing you can do is Creating intro Animations to play with homemade movies or other mash-ups.

Matt Nichols has a pretty cool tuotial on how to do just that.

Creating Introduction Animation in iDVD

Sorry about the post order Dr. N. I forgot my own last name. :)

Geode, Location Application for Firefox

Mozilla’s Geode is an experimental extension that adds geolocating capabilities to the ever popular Firefox browser. It features GPS abilities in locating waypoints and points of interest especially useful in business travels. Educational applications can include geospatial awareness, calculation of distances, and places of historical or general interest to the community.

Google Translate

It looks like the theme for the week is all about Google. Not to disappoint my blog is about yet another tool this powerful resource has to offer. Not all websites are in English, but just because they're not in English doesn't mean that we can't read and enjoy the content. Google has an excellent tool to translate any web page into English or Spanish or Czech or any of the major languages spoken throughout the world. While there may be minor errors in exact translation by all accounts this is a useful tool for those attempting to expand their horizons and see what others have to say even if it's not in their own language. This site allows you to translate text or an entire web page. I translated our blog from English to Spanish and although I'm not completely bi-lingual from what I could understand the translation was about 95% accurate.

Not only will it translate pages that you supply, you can search for pages in other languages by a specific topic. Basically Google translates your query into another language and returns all matches, similar to if you had just went to Google.com and entered a search term. Not only does it find pages that match in another language it translates it back to English. No more language barriers. How cool is that?? If your interested in a specific language translation hover your mouse over the translated text and the translation pops up in a window. Who knows, you may even be able to teach yourself a second language with this tool. One limitation I did find is that it couldn't translate embedded images, but hey use your imagination!

There's also a gadget you can add to your own toolbar to instantly translate any page. What will they think of next??

Here's an elearning Blog that was originally in Spanish but I used Google Translate to get it in English Spanish Blog

If you run into a page that's not in your primary language, have no fear Google Translate is here (I know it's kind of cheesy but it fit ;~) Check it out here http://translate.google.com/

Now for something a little different...

Now we all love E-Learning and such...but many times our windows based PC computers don't. Many major computer problems are caused by lack of proper updates, inadequate programs, and primarily Spyware. I bring this subject up now as I've had to repair two computers for friends that in the past week. They suffered from a mix of Trojans, that downloaded installers, and attacked the machines with fake programs. One repair was successful, one was not. It is very expensive to get computers repaired, another bill that everyone does not need.

There is no clear definition for Spyware, it isn't even known under one name. It is also known as Adware, Malware, and Badware. Trend Micro defines Spyware as "Spyware is any piece of software, installed or employed without a user’s knowledge, that watches, logs, and reports on that user’s electronic movements."

Now that we have a brief idea what it is, how can we prevent it or remove it?

Anti-Virus : Many people do not know that commercial anti-virus programs tend to stop updating after one year. Ensuring your Anti-Virus is up to date can help prevent Spyware from being installed. Some programs that are free and I recommend are:
AVG Free: AVG is free, updates frequently. Including some Anti-Spyware features.
avast! antivirus Home Edition: Free, modern looking Anti-Virus. User interface is very different from your usual Anti-Virus.
AntiVir Free Antivirus - Small, Lightweight, and Simple Anti-Virus.

Anti-Spyware: While many free Anti-Spyware programs do not provide real time protection, they provide excellent removal features for already infected systems.
Spybot Search & Destroy - While not the most effective program the program catches most common Spyware and provides system immunization features.
SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition - Horrible name, superior removal. This program is not as well known as others, but I have thrown allot of Spyware at this program, and it was removed most problems easily.
Spyware Blaster - While not a scanning program, Blaster will allow you to immunize your system against various spyware, adware, and browser hijacker.

Windows does offer their own Anti-Spyware program, Windows Defender, and its own Anti-Virus program in the Windows OneCare Suite, but neither are recommended as it is generally found they do not do a very good job.

Other measures that can be taken to protect your PC:
Run Windows Update: Many rouge programs attack your PC using holes in both Internet Explorer and Windows. Patching these holes will at least partly protect your computer.
Dump Internet Explorer: If your using Internet Explorer, your opening yourself up for attack. Internet Explorer is not highly secure with un-patched holes being common place. Other browser options including Mozilla Firefox should be considered as alternatives.

Good luck!

Googling over Google

I recently wrote a paper for another class and stumbled upon the awesomeness of Google. I was trying to find published papers and articles on my subject matter and I found Google Scholar.

What is Google Scholar?
"Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research."

I thought this was a great resource and I will be using it for years to come.


http://scholar.google.com/

Google Tutor!

Check it out! - Google Tutor

Google just gets more amazing by the day - now you can even find how-tos and advice on all of Google's awesome tools right on (you guessed it!) Google!

You can even:
Your choice! It doesn't get any easier.
Entries are tagged so that you can easily find what you are looking for and comment!


Here's one example to get you started:

Online spreadsheets....there are many!

I was really struggling with my blog topic this week and didn't know where to start. I've just been exposed to Google Docs and their online spreadsheet, as well as NumSum, and decided to research this a little more. What I came to find that there are at least 12 more online spreadsheet programs! They are:

http://badblue.com/

http://blist.com/

http://editgrid.com/

http://exxprsscorp.com/

http://inputwebwizard.com/

http://jotspot.com/

http://numbler.com/

http://peepel.com/

http://sheetster.com/

Simple Spreadsheet - part of the Simple Groupware Solutions

http://thinkfreedocs.com/

Zoho Sheet - part of the Zoho online software applications

Some of them do cost money and others are free. In most of the applications you can upload an Excel file and easily share with others. Numsum is a social spreadsheet - think of it as a "blogsheet" - it is completely open to share with the public and have others comment on it. Blist, pictured above was designed to make spreadsheets more eye-appealing. Rather than just creating another spreadsheet with boring data, they offer templates to make it look exciting, i.e., wedding planning and fantasy football sheets. Make sure you check these out!

Glogster: A new kind of Mash-up

I found this new Web 2.0 tool while searching for someway for student posters to be online. It is a totally new way to approach a poster project; it is essentially a mash-up poster. You can not only have images and text, but add music, hyperlinks, and videos. The text can look like a stickie note, but extend for a bit more with a scrolling feature. Just like this blog, it has a tagging feature, so you can search for a particular poster. You can also share your posters and/or bookmark them using Myspace, Facebook, Hi5, Friendster,Digg, or Twitter, StumbleUpon, or Bebo. They are also part of the Del.icio.us bookmarking system.

OpenOffice.org 3.0, Set to Release Soon!

OpenOffice.org is a free office suite that is widely used across multiple Operating Systems. The current stable release is 2.4.1. However, OpenOffice.org is set to release version 3.0 with a bevy of new features. One of the biggest features is support with Mac OS X. OpenOffice.org will run like an Aqua application and will include functionality Mac OS X accessibility APIs. Another nifty OpenOffice.org feature is added functionality with Microsoft Office 2007 with import filters. Here is a comphrensive new features list for OpenOffice.org 3.0.

For those who want to jump right into the fray here is the download page for OpenOffice.org 3.0.

Student Response Systems

I have recently begun my internship for my final MSIT requirement and I have been researching TurningPoint, a company partnered with Microsoft that manufactures Student Response Systems (SRS). A student response system is similar to the small hand-held devices used on the popular television game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". These devices are a powerful tool for obtaining audience feedback during lectures and presentations and are great in the classroom to increase student participation. I am sure you all remember those huge lecture hall classes in college where you're in the last row in a room full of hundreds of students. It's hard enough to stay awake let alone pay attention! The SRS is perfect for keeping the class motivated and interested. Similar to the 30 second quizzes that Dr. Nicholson inserts into our Online Course Design class, professors can add a short quiz or single question to their PowerPoint lecture to keep students focused on what they're learning. Within seconds, the professor will have instant feedback from all students. This feedback can be used to determine learning retention or even interest in the subject. SRS may also be used to take class attendance, completely eliminating the time it takes for 100 students to say "here!" and can also track student participation points. If answers are graded, students will have to pay attention instead of messing with cell phones, iPods and other gadgets during class. Results are displayed in may types of charts and graphs, so the class will see what percentage picked "B" and so on. It makes learning fun and interactive. It is also an easy way for a teacher to determine what areas the students are having trouble with. If 75% of the class guesses the incorrect answer, it is clear to the instructor that the class needs a review of that information. Technology is really changing (and improving) the face of education. I can't wait to see what's next!

Interactive PowerPoint Presentation you say? Indeed.

How can you make the presentation created in PowerPoint more interactive? Well, if you have Windows and Office 2007, download and install pptPlex, a free Office add-on. The plug-in provides an alternate method of viewing the PowerPoint slides presentations. Instead of the traditional slide movement, pptPlex allows for a movable and zoomable canvas. It also allows for grouping of slides based on content. Here is the download link.

Check out the video here: