Scifri Videos: Physics Of The Riderless Bike

Scifri Videos: Physics Of The Riderless Bike

Scifri Videos: How Humpbacks Hunt With Bubbles

Scifri Videos: How Humpbacks Hunt With Bubbles

ShoZu uploads pictures from the iPhone

ShoZu is an application for the iPhone which allows direct uploading of images to many other sites such as Flickr, Blogger and Facebook. Give it a try!

iPhone Apps for Educators

I have been using my iPhone for a few months. The iPhone has become a valuable tool for me in the classroom. There are hundreds of iPhone apps that are free or can be purchased from the Apple Store or directly from your iPhone.

The word on the street is that it is better to get the Apps directly from the iTunes Apps store and install them by syncing your iPhone. Some people have had problems installing Apps directly from the iPhone.

Here are five of my favorite Apps:

• YouNote: a productivity tool which combines a note taker, camera, and voice recorder. I find it very useful for storing my "to do" items, photos, or a quick voice recording. "Do not forget to grade the period 1 tests"
• Election '08: a comprehensive breakdown of current and past polling data on the Presidential Elaction. it breaksdown the data by state as well.
• The New York Times: top stories and breaking news
• Google: access to your gmail and other Google tools
• Wikipanion: Wikipedia directly on your iPhone

Stay tuned as I continue to discover new uses for my iPhone everyday.

I love my iPhone...again.

I have returned to Apple fandom after figuring out why my .Mac mail was disappearing. Actually I did not figure out the problem, but my Apple guru, Bob H., did. Bob and I were rookie teachers together in Santa Ana in 1978. I always turn to Bob when I need computer, car, or electronic gadget help of any kind.

If you recall, The gurus at the Apple store, Apple online support and AT&T support had all failed to resolve my missing mail on Mobileme. When I explained the problem to Bob, he started asking questions about when my mail first failed to show up on Mobileme. That line of reasoning uncovered the fact that I had set .Mac to forward my email to my school email account two years ago. I rarely used .Mac mail, so that seemed reasonable. However, when I got my iPhone I started looking at Mobilme and my mail folder was empty. It did not occur to me that forwarding my mail was causing the problem.
Bob suggested I turn off forwarding and the problem was solved. My .Mac email started showing up in Mobileme and all was right with the world again!

I am really happy to be back to my old status as Apple Fanboy. Thanks, Bob.

Apple Fanboy Recants After iPhone Troubles

When I got into the line outside my local Apple Store to buy a new iPhone 3G, all the Apple trainers were wearing shirts that read "No pain, All gain".  If it were only true.

An Apple employee was working her way down the line getting customers partially checked in while they stood in line.  After about 30 minutes, she asked me if I had an AT&T account.  When I told her I did, she proceeded to pull up my account only to find that I could not buy an iPhone at the store because I had a corporate discount.  She told me to call an AT&T number and have it cleared.  I made two phone calls to AT&T over the next 30 minutes before they were able to correct my account settings.  Now I was ready to buy my new iphone!

When I made it inside to the sales person, he asked when I bought my current phone.  When I told him 6 months ago, he told me "the iPhone will be $399" instead of $199.  The $199 price is only for new accounts or for accounts over two years old.  He also told me I could go to my local AT&T store to see if one of my other family plan accounts could be used.  Needless to say I was a little upset that the first Apple worker failed to mention the $399 price before I stood in line for over an hour.

Later that day, I headed over to the AT&T store where a very friendly worker explained that one of my phones was eligble for an upgrade.  She explained how to go buy the iPhone on the other account and then come back to her and get the numbers switched so that I could keep my old number on the iPhone.

The next day, I headed back to the Apple store.  This time the line was only thirty minutes and I was walking out the door with my new iPhone 3G after another 15 minutes.  I immediately headed over to the AT&T store and had my numbers switched.  At last, a new iPhone was mine.

The problems resumed the next day when I noticed that Visual Voicemail was not working!  Back to the Apple store where I was told that voicemail was an AT&T problem and that I should call AT&T customer support.  What they did not tell me was that AT&T does not have phone support on Sundays. I guess AT&T customers never have problems on Sundays.  

So, I was off to the AT&T store to see if they could help me.  Once there, the AT&T worker fiddled with the "special access" phone support that he was able to access on Sundays.  After about 15 minutes, they told him to call Apple support!  

The AT&T worker spent about 15 more minutes with Apple support and the Visual Voicemail problem was fixed at last.  Does anyone think it is strange that an AT&T worker could get Apple customer support to fix my iPhone when the Apple Store could not???

A few days later, I started setting up all my email accounts to work with the iPhone.  I expected problems to arise especially with my Microsoft Exchange based work account.  At this point, you might be feeling a bit of dread, I know I was.

Surprise! My Gmail, Yahoo mail, and Outlook email accounts all worked great, but my Mobile Me email would only send but not receive messages.  Since all the others worked great, I assumed that I had set up the Mobile Me account incorrectly.  Time to head back to the Apple Store for some expert help.

The Apple worker tried deleting my Mobile Me account and checked the settings against his own iPhone 3G.  Still no messages would show up in my Mobile Me mailbox.  We even looked online and my Mobile Me mailbox was empty there as well.  

The next step was to go online in the Apple Store and try "chat" support for Mobile Me.  The Apple worker told me that I might be one of the unlucky Mobile Me users that he had been hearing about.  After waiting about 10 minutes, I began a chat session and went through several trouble shooting tricks.  After about 20 more minutes, the Apple support person told me that Apple would be giving me 60 more free days on my Mobile Me account and that they would email me when Mobile Me was fixed.  I went home with my crippled iPhone 3G, but without a working Mobile Me account.

It has been 2 weeks now and I have not received the magic email from Apple telling me that Mobile Me is finally working correctly.  It is amazing to me that Apple can build a great mobile phone but are unable to make their own email program function.  

Perhaps the next t-shirt Apple gives to its workers should say, "All Pain, NO GAIN".

Black Witch Moths in Orange County

Every few years, Black Witch (Ascalapha odorata)
moths may be found in Orange County. Their last visit to our area was in 2004. The moth usually ranges from Brazil to southern Texas and Florida. The huge moths, with wingspans up to 7", are often misidentified as bats when in flight.
Female Black Witch moths have a white band across their wings. The female Black witch pictured above graced my porch on July 27, 2008.

iPhone 2.0

If you gave the first iPhone a pass last summer, your second chance is just a few days away. The new iPhone comes out on July 11th at a store near you. As expected, Apple added GPS and 3G capabilities as well as dropping the price to $199 for the 8G model and $299 for the 16G model.

The price drop is a bit deceptive, because they bumped up the cost on the subscription side. The details are continuing to trickle out about the AT&T subscription agreement. But from what I have read, the low cost of the phone will be partially made up by higher rates for the 2 year plan.

I think many people will like the reduced price for arguably the best smart phone on the market and will put up with the AT&T requirements. At $199 the new iPhone will be too tempting for many people to resist.

So throw away your Blackjack and go stand in line!

FreeRice?

Have you heard about FreeRice? FreeRice delivers free rice to needy people around the world. On the website, students can practice their vocabulary for the SAT and in the process "win" free rice for the needy. The online vocabulary game is fun to play and you feel good about doing something worthwhile for others.

Teachers are using the website with their classes and encouraging their students to get involved!

Vista for Schools?

A friend and mentor recently told me about his district's experience with Microsoft Windows Vista. Last summer, his school district purchased 800 new computers pre-loaded with Windows Vista. After two months of trying to resolve innumerable problems between Vista and various printers, educational software programs, scanners, cameras, and Eagle software, the IT department solved the problems by reformatting the hard drives and installing Windows XP.

Macs anyone?

Teachertube

Are you tired of digging through all the junk on Youtube looking for a video clip for your class? Then try Teachertube.

TeacherTube is Youtube for teachers. The site is very similar to Youtube, but all the videos are submitted for the education audience. So next time you need a video on the physics of golf or a rap on perimeters find them on TeacherTube.

More Outlook Tips

I have collected emails sent out by my school's network administrators. Most of the tips of are general interest to anyone struggling with Outlook.

1. Making a Group in Outlook
Attached you will find directions for making a unique group from the University High Staff group. This is particularly handy if you have a large number of folks from Uni to put into the group such as Certificated, classified, and or DHH .

A copy of this document is stored in the Shared folder as well.
Vol1/Data/Share/How to documents/Outlook
Vol1/Data/Share/Outlook

If you would like the personal touch, please contact me. I am happy to help you.

Kaye K.

2. Getting Winzip
Several of you have already asked me today about getting Winzip installed on computers so that files can be zipped up for Blackboard. Winzip is no longer a freeware program since the company started charging for its use, but don’t worry, all is not lost! Microsoft comes with a free built-in utility to zip files for you and it’s easy to use…

Right click any file(s) you’d like to zip, select SEND TO, then select COMPRESSED (ZIPPED) FOLDER form the list of choices. That’s it! Look for the new zipped folder within the same folder as the original file and upload away!
Marius G.

3. Search feature of MS Outlook
Many of you use the Search feature of MS Outlook, but when performing a search you’re not finding the items you’re searching for even though you can find it manually. Here’s how to fix that:

Go to TOOLS, then OPTIONS, then the PREFERENCES tab. Click the SEARCH OPTIONS button, and in the “Instant Search Pane” section select ALL FOLDERS.

This will allow searching in all the folders rather than just the one currently open.

Marius G.


4. Spruce up your email
There are various ways to spruce up your email.

HTML format means you can add images or other graphics to your email. The drawback is the email’s file size when sending and receiving. If you want to add a photo to your signature like I did (instructions coming up), then you’ll need to make sure HTML is selected.

RICH TEXT format is similar to HTML but less intensive and accepts only certain image formats. Feel free to experiment with this format if you like. I don’t know if it works with adding a signature image.

PLAIN TEXT format is the plainest form of email. No images, no graphics. Just a stripped down version of email. You will not be able to send images unless attached, or view HTML formatted email if they contain images in the body of the email.

Here’s how to enable, disable or otherwise change your own format:
Go to TOOLS, then OPTIONS, then click the Mail Format tab. In “Compose in this message format” select HTML, RICH TEXT, or PLAIN TEXT as desired. If selecting HTML, also uncheck the “reduce the file size of the message…” checkbox
to prevent unwanted formatting removal.
Marius G.

5.Using commas to separate email
Many of you are used to using commas to separate email recipients rather than semi-colons. Well, your day of comma-freedom has arrived, so if you want to use commas, follow me:

Go to TOOLS, then OPTIONS, then PREFERENCES. Click the EMAIL OPTIONS button and then the ADVANCED EMAIL OPTIONS button. Place a checkmark in “Allow comma as address separator”, and the revolution is complete.

Marius G.

6. Here’s how to set up your Notifications settings.. you know, those annoying popups and sounds that let you know you have a new mail in your INBOX. Many of you wanted to know how to disable these features because they come up during Powerpoint presentations, etc.

At top…. Go to TOOLS, then OPTIONS, then PREFERENCES. Click the EMAIL OPTIONS button, then the ADVANCED EMAIL OPTIONS button. Now, review the “When New Items Arrive In My Inbox” section carefully and make your choices which turns them on or off.
- Play a Sound (obviously will play a sound every time new email arrives. No, the sound can’t be changed to play Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.)
- Briefly change the mouse cursor (the cursor will change to a pointing hand briefly)
- Show an envelope icon in the Notifications area (will display a small envelope next to the clock in the bottom right of your screen)
- Display a new mail Desktop Alert (briefly flashes a small notification dialog with the sender’s name and first few words of the email content)

Additionally users can change the duration and transparency of a desktop alert. The duration can be set from 3 seconds to 30 seconds and the transparency can be set from Solid (0%) to almost clear (80%). Once the choices are made, click PREVIEW to preview your settings and make changes to fit your taste. Users can find these settings by clicking the “Desktop Alert Settings” button.

Marius G.

7. Here’s how to manually add email addresses or domain names (companies) to the JUNK MAIL and/or SAFE LIST. You may find this useful if you know the email addresses of friends or outside-IUSD collegues and you want to ensure that their email doesn’t route to the JUNK MAIL folder but into your INBOX.

At top…. Go to TOOLS, then OPTIONS, then PREFERENCES, and click the JUNK EMAIL button. Select the SAFE RECIPIENTS tab and then click the ADD button to manually add complete email addresses or domain names (in this format: @example.com). All email and domain addresses listed here will always go directly to your INBOX (without passing GO or collecting $200).

Marius G

8. In response to the many email questions regarding Microsoft Outlook and making it more user friendly, I will send you all some tidbits of (hopefully) useful information on customizing Outlook to make it perform more to your liking. To make the email shorter and easier to store and find for future reference, I’ll keep each How-to separate and titled appropriately. Please save these by dragging them into your CABINET folder for future reference.

Here’s how to mark incoming mail as Junk or Not Junk (Friendly or Unfriendly):

JUNK MAIL: Any email that ends up in your INBOX that you know is Junk Mail, go ahead and right-click it and select Junk Mail, then select “Add Sender to blocked Sender’s list” (blocks the sender’s email address from future correspondence with you).

FRIENDLY MAIL: Obviously you don’t have to do anything with friendly mail in your INBOX. However, do check your JUNK E-MAIL folder daily to ensure that friendly mail gets routed correctly. When you find friendly email in your JUNK MAIL folder, right click it and select Junk Mail, then make one of two choices:
∑ Add Sender to Safe Sender’s List (all present and future correspondence from this sender will go straight to your INBOX) or,
∑ Add Sender’s Domain (@example.com) to Safe Sender’s List (all present and future correspondence from this Domain (company) will go straight to your INBOX).

Alternately, you can skip the steps for Friendly email by simply dragging the message from the JUNK MAIL folder into your INBOX if you prefer this method, and all future email from the sender will route into your INBOX as well.
Marius G.

Tips for Working with Outlook

My school district has switched from using Groupwise to Outlook for our email. There are significant differences between the two programs which has caused problems for hundreds of employees. The following tips were provided by Kaye K. with an amendment by Genevieve O. Thanks to both of them for providing some much needed help.

"As we continue adapting to Outlook, I will be sending out solutions for issues as they arise.
Problem #1
You seem to be receiving fewer emails or are not receiving expected emails. That may not be the case; legitimate emails most likely have been rerouted to your Junk Email folder by Outlook due to settings mandated by Microsoft Exchange.
Solution
Unfortunately, there is no solution other than your checking your Junk Email folder periodically. You do have the option to white list the sender for future correspondence as well as to drag an email from the Junk Email folder to your Inbox.

Problem #2
Deleted Items are not retrievable.
Solution

Think twice before you delete an email. Every time you close Outlook, whatever emails you have deleted will be emptied from your mailbox. While there is a law requiring the district to retain all years for 4 years, you will not be able to readily retrieve deleted emails upon closing Outlook.

Response from Genevieve:

"Actually this one is easy.

If you go to the WEB version of outlook (which is also an icon on your desktop), all of your deleted items are there. My oldest deleted item is from December 24th."

Problem #3
In a frenzied moment, you sent an email that you want to instantly retrieve.
Solution
Think twice before you press Send. While there is an option under Actions to recall the message, it is slow and unreliable. In most cases the recipient will indeed read your hastily sent email.
Please do continue to stop by when you have an annoying issue that we need to address. Everyone of us will benefit. Thanks."

Kaye

Questions Anyone?

Please feel free to use this blog as a way to get help with your technology questions at school or home. Educational technology can be daunting. So if you need help with Outlook, Microsoft Office 2007, Blackboard, Making the Grade , ABI, DVD players, other software or hardware, send me your question by using the "comment" section of this blog or by direct email.

If I do not know the answer, I will find some one who does!

Leopard Installed

I took my own advice and installed Leopard on my iMac this week. I planned to erase my hard drive and do a clean install. A genius at South Coast Plaza's Apple Store told me to do an "archive and install". Archive and Install makes a copy of the system folder but saves the rest of your files as is.

The entire operation went smoothly and only took about 45 minutes. Time Machine was my main reason for getting Leopard. I found a 750 GB hard drive on sale at Fry's for $149 and am using it with Time Machine (TM).

When I plugged in the new external drive, a window popped up asking if I wanted to use the drive exclusively with Time Machine. A positive response caused the hard drive to be erased and TM to go to work. TM began to make its first copy of my existing internal hard drive. It took about two hours for TM to copy all 947,000 files over to the external drive. Once it was finished, I could begin to view versions of my internal drive that were copied once per hour. TM only copies any changes made in the previous hour.

After a couple of versions had been saved I tried deleting a digital image from my desk top. It was simple to open up TM, "go back in time" to a previous version and restore my deleted image!

Time machine is great. I now feel better about not remembering to back up my hard drive. Time Machine saves the day every time!

Upgrade to Leopard or buy a Kindle?

For Mac users, the question is whether to upgrade to the new operating system, Leopard. When it first came out a few weeks ago, I was not convinced that it was worth the $129. After all, my new iMac running Tiger was great and did everything I needed. But now after I have read a few reviews of Leopard, I think it is probably a good idea to upgrade. Time Machine alone is probably worth the money. If you are like me, I forget to backup my files on a regular basis and have no real system for doing it easily. With Time Machine and an inexpensive external hard drive, backing up your files is easy and fast.

How about the Kindle, Amazon's new wireless reading device? While at Starbucks near UCI for my Thursday morning hot tea, I noticed a person using a Kindle at one of the tables. I asked him how he liked it and he showed me the newspapers he subscribed to on the Kindle. He really liked the ability to carry three papers in the palm of his hand and be able to get them automatically each morning delivered directly to his Kindle.
That sounds good, but my labradoodle would have nothing to fetch each morning!

Google Android???

If you heard the announcement about Google's entry into the mobile phone market and are wondering what it all means, then take a look at this article. Basically, Google is releasing free software so that they can start to have access to advertising on cell phones. In return, the customer gains access to Google tools similar to what they have on their desktop computer.

Google may be working toward releasing a phone of their own as well. Keep checking back for news about the Gphone.

How to save video clips

Youtube and other video websites are often blocked by school districts because of their questionable content. However, there are many good videos clips that would be great for the classroom. For example, Youtube is a goldmine for science related clips. I was searching for clips about photosynthesis recently and found everything from college lectures to school projects.
So how can a clip be shown in class if your district blocks the website? The answer is Zamzar.com. Zamzar is a free program that will capture any video clip and save it for you. When you download Zamzar a button is placed on the menu bar of your browser. When you find a good video, select the button and Zamzar grabs the video, stores it on its website and sends you an email link for the download. Once the video clip is downloaded, you can save it to flashdrive or burn it on a CD to use on any computer.

In other news, Apple released its new operating system, Leopard. Leopard has about 300 new features. One new feature, Time Machine, automatically backs up your files to a another hard drive. If you do not backup, then Time Machine is for you. After spending all that time finding and saving good video clips from Youtube, a easy-to-use backup program is a must!

Google Presentations

Google has completed their free online suite of office tools with the launch of Presentations. Like Docs and Spreadsheets, Presentations can be used to create and store PowerPoint compatible files. Fully integrated with Docs and Spreadsheets, it is a viable alternative to Microsoft Office. I intend to introduce my students to presentations because of the ability to collaborate. Now students who need to work together to create a presentation do not need to be in the same location. By sharing the file with one or more collaborators, every member of the group can work on the presentation and the teacher can see what contribution each member made to the project.
I encourage you to give Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations a try. Get started by going to Google Docs and selecting the "new" button. Select "Presentation" and you are on your way.

What hit me?

The start of school, that's what.
Each summer, I have great plans for the new school year. But then the first wave of kids arrive in my classes, the papers start piling up and screaming to be graded and...Well, you get the picture. One thing that I have been able to do is continue reading posts on a Google Teacher Academy group email. Today I ran across two tidbits worth sharing.

The first is a Youtube video by our own California State Superintendent of Schools, Jack O'Connell. Jack went back to school on the first day and posted a short video of his adventures. Most school districts block Youtube, so try it out from home.

The second is a blog by Chris Walsh, who is a Tech Education guru. Chris will be posting a video to his blog , School180, each of the 180 school days this year. He has two young children in a California public school. His videos will record is impressions of the school year. Chris is always good for a laugh and you might even be inspired to try out some of those ideas that you had this summer.

By the way, have you tried Google Sky?? If you liked Google Earth, then just wait until you look into the universe with Google Sky.

Now back to those papers.