Ubuntu 8.04 Released… so what

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Alvin Trusty

I have been waiting to get my hands on this release of Ubuntu.  I got up this morning and went to the Ubuntu site.

This Site is Temporarily Unavailable

It was that way until the afternoon.  At the rate my download is going, the 700 MB file should be ready tomorrow when I get up.  I will install it tomorrow and have the weekend to mess around with it.  Most people downloading it will probably do the same.  In a month, all of us will still be using what we were using yesterday. 

I have never understood all the bickering over operating systems.  I remember a Slashdot article from last month where someone asked the only important question that should be asked.

What does (another OS) do that (my OS) doesn’t do?

Fill those names in with whatever you like.  The list of features unique to one operating system is short. 

I run them all.  I have to have access to the same programs my students use and my online students can choose to run any operating system.  Mainly they run Windows, but some run OS X.  I have yet to have a student that uses Linux as a desktop OS either at home or at school.

Just for the record, I have never purchased an operating system.  I use what comes on my computers.  My main OS right now is Windows Vista.  I run Home Premium on my desktop and Ultimate on my laptop.  My MAC has 10.4 and my iPod Touch runs some version of OS X.  The rest of the family runs XP Pro.  We all use IE as our main browser.  All the machines have the free version of AVG anti-virus except for my machines.  I don’t run anti-virus software on my personal machines.  We don’t run anti-spyware software on any of our computers.

We don’t have spyware and have never had a virus.  I have been using a computer for twenty years and I have never had a virus.

Here are most of the things we do on the computers in our house:

  1. Browse web pages and read email
  2. Create and organize documents, spreadsheets and presentations
  3. Create and query databases
  4. Schedule work and family activities
  5. Draw pictures
  6. Manipulate photographs
  7. Digitize and watch videos
  8. Create and listen to audio files
  9. Play games

I am back to the question that no one ever asks.  What OS can’t do these things?

Until someone creates an OS that has useful functionality that no other OS has, we will all probably continue to use what we have.  That’s why the version of Ubuntu I’m downloading right now won’t change much.

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All human knowledge… in your pocket

Posted on April 22, 2008 by Alvin Trusty

I haven’t posted very much about my iPod Touch.  I can assure you it has become one of my most used pieces of technology.  Today I added something to it that is mind boggling.

I installed wikipedia on my iPod Touch.  By this, I don’t mean that I enabled my iPod Touch to go over the Internet and access wikipedia.  Instead, I have the whole searchable database installed on my iPod Touch. 

iwiki.jpg

This is a two step process.  First the application is installed and then a dump of the official wikipedia site is transferred to the iPod Touch.  Since the data dump involves a file that is two gigabytes, it took about 90 minutes to complete the second step.

I basically used 1/8 of my Touch’s memory to install this application.  That’s OK.  I had only managed to fill half of the 16 GB in the last six months.  I still have plenty of free space.

The data set is from October of 2007.  I’m certain an updated dump will happen periodically.  It does take considerable massaging to get the database into the proper format for the iPhone/Touch.  Also, all the pictures are removed.  Otherwise the data set would be too large for the device.  The dump I have is in English.  There are German and Portuguese dumps available.

To search the database begin by typing a few letters of the name or term.  As letters are typed, possible matches are listed.  As soon as the target term is listed, clicking it directs the browser to the listing in the database.  From here on out, it works just like the online version without the option to edit entries.

Now I can look up everything from the atomic weight of aluminum to the history of ZZ Top… and all that is in between, stored on a device the size of a cell phone.

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Scribd

Posted on April 17, 2008 by Alvin Trusty

Here is something I stumbled across today. I was looking for a way to dump a lot of files into an online location so that those files would be easy to access from other sites. My files are Word docs, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. I found Scribd. The service is free and you can upload as many files as you like.

Take a look at the file below.  It’s Alice in Wonderland (a document in the public domain) formatted in Word.  I added some pictures and all the formatting found in a normal Word document: page numbers, chapter headings, etc.

Read this doc on Scribd: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Here are a couple of really cool things about the way Scribd handles files.

1 – The files are displayed in a browser.  The original application (Word, Excel, etc) does not have to be installed on a machine to see the formatted documents.

2 – I can make my files available to the public or keep them private.

3 – If I choose to make my files public, I can control the format that is downloaded by public users.  I can permit the original file to be downloaded in the original format.  Other options include text only and PDF.  Because one of the download options is PDF, I now have a free web-based file converter.

4 – All the Creative Commons licensing options are included in the publishing area.

I have uploaded my private document library to the private area.  I haven’t tried PowerPoint files.  I’ll upload my eTech presentation as the acid test.  If it can handle all 327 slides, I will be impressed.

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Tyranny of Filtering

Posted on April 13, 2008 by Alvin Trusty

I managed to squeeze in an extra podcast this week.  Teachers Teaching Teachers #95 dives into filtering first hand with the people that run the filters in an assortment of districts.  The panelists ranged from a New York City department of education system engineer to a tech administrator from Alaska.

The federal government requires filtering in any district that receives E-Rate funding.  Even though the federal government’s contribution to the bottom line of the local district is somewhat small compared to state and local funds, most schools comply with federal filtering requirements.

Specifically, districts must have several policies in place.

These include: measures to block or filter pictures that (a) are obscene, (b) contain child pornography, or (c) when computers with Internet access are used by minors, harmful to minors. (CIPA)

At every conference I attend where vendors of filtering software are on the show floor, I always ask the same question.  “Do you guarantee your filtering solution will block 100% of those items required by CIPA.”  So far not a single filtering vendor has been willing to guarantee anything like that.  The Internet grows too fast to make this claim.

Filtering by definition cannot be perfect, but the government still requires it.

This podcast quickly gets beyond the CIPA mandates and into how filtering at the district level really works.  I was glad to hear about one aspect of filtering that most teachers and students don’t think about: bandwidth.  Many schools block streaming media because the district doesn’t have the bandwidth to handle it.  In these cases, blocking streaming media has little to do with the content of that media.

The most important point in this podcast was that teachers need to find out how the filtering rules are modified in a district.  All of the panelists said that most requests to unblock sites are granted, but a teacher has to know how to make her voice heard.

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Google Docs

Posted on April 11, 2008 by Alvin Trusty

Google Docs is another one of those applications that everyone is clammering about as a Word replacement.  It is a free web-based word processor that has incredible “sharing” features.  Without installing software, you can create a document and then share that document with one or more people.  Anyone in the group can edit the document and everyone can see all the edits.

You can’t do that in Word.

Unfortunately, this is where the Word/Google Docs comparison ends.  Although Google Docs does wonderful things for free, with nothing more than a browser, it hardly has the basic requirements of a modern word processor.

I tried to complete a simple project using Google Docs and here is what I found.

1 – You can type and format text in basic ways.  After selecting some text, the font, color and size can be changed.  You’re ok as long as 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24 or 36 point fonts are all you want.  There is also no way to format paragraphs or line spacing.  It’s all single spacing with no adjustments between paragraphs.

2 – There is no Find command, but you can use your browser’s built-in find utility.  The Find and Replace has no undo.  Be careful with that.

3 – Forget about page numbers.  If you print something, you can format your browser so that print job add page numbers.  There is no way to tell how many pages you’ll print ahead of time because Google Docs doesn’t tell you more than the word count.

4 – You can insert a picture from a file.  After that, the picture tools fall apart.  You can’t crop a picture.  If you resize a graphic, there is no way to control the aspect ratio.  There are no tools that permit fine adjustments.  If you need a picture to be three inches wide, you’ll need to print it, measure it on the paper using a ruler and adjust accordingly.

5 – A header is something that appears at the top of the first page and a footer is something that appears at the bottom of the last page.  In between no pages have either.

6 – There is no style control.

7 – There is no tab control.  I think a tab is half an inch, but the lack of a ruler leaves me guessing.

8 – There is no margin control.

9 – Ctrl-B, Ctrl-U, Ctrl-I… that’s the end of the keyboard shortcuts that aren’t built into the browser.

10 – There is no way to fully justify a paragraph (margins straight on both sides of the pages).

11 – There is no “reveal codes” that can show formatting marks.  It goes without saying that formatting cannot be adjusted in bulk using Find and Replace.

12 – The only way to get multiple columns is to insert a table and paste your text into it.  I crashed my browser trying to get a long document into two columns.

If you want a full featured word processor for free, get Open Office.  Although the sharing features of Google Doc can be incredibly powerful, it’s not much of a word processor.

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