techNOcool

I saw this article on CNN this morning. Here you can make a million without leaving your couch. I may become an online real estate mogul. Imagine having enough time to sit on 2L and buy and sell Islands.

Posted by Brian Pelino at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technology has many words that people buzz about so much that no one actually knows what you are talking about when you utter them.

The newest is Web 2.0. What the heck is Web 2.0?

First of all, I hate calling the new ways of the web as applications used by people to create and use content Web 2.0 but I also don't want to describe it every time I talk about the new ways of the web. But you know what? When I say Web 2.0 people look at me with that "Nerd Alert!" look in their eyes and smile politely until I either rehash the conversation to be in much less geek speak or they find a way to excuse themselves.

Secondly, web 2.0 is characterized by programs that provide people the chance to create, share, and connect. For example anyone with a google account can create documents using the online word processor or spreadsheet, share them with friends or colleagues to read or edit, and save them to a personal computer as a .doc or pdf. And it is totally free! (Okay not really it costs you a little(or a lot) of your privacy and a few other things but that is another post.) From that same google account you can have a custom home page of all your favorite news, sports scores, and blog posts. You can also access personal email, maps, blogs, and all of these through a sign username and on the surface it is all at no charge. Yahoo and the other blue chip web companies are in the same boat.

People create and interact and share online through sites like flickr, youtube, or blogger. Users of the new web share and reuse content through .xml files call "feeds" generated by all these technologies. There are new search engines that allow you not only to search for web sites but also individual posts and bits of metadata called tags.

Web 2.0 is quite overwhelming as you think about it but once you step into the rabbit hole you are quickly sucked in by the possibilities and potential of connecting to others with similar interests. But that is what this category is for posts related to our trip down the rabbit hole that is Web 2.0

Posted by James Fadden at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I found this through Chris Warren's blog. I met him at a conference on learning management software(WebCT like software). He started blogging his professional life after that conference. His blog provides his perspective on many of the things we are talking about here at Allegheny.

Before I blow his credibility, I want to share a link to his post on Teaching and Learning in a Virtual World (Second Life).

His post documents some of the strengths and weakness of Second Life as a technology but then also as a teaching learning tool.

Posted by James Fadden at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For an hour this morning I sat at my computer with headphones on struggling through audio feedback and the "hello? hello?" of people entering the Skypecast late, to participate in a skypecast hosted by an instructional technologist at Chapel Hill. While it did not go particularly smoothly it did go well enough that the participants were actually willing to give it a second go. A few things came out of the activity...

1. The question of how is different from a teleconference - the short answer of course is that you have the added advantages of the main communication channel and the back channel (chat and IM) conducted through the same tool. Not to mention that you have your computer's and the web's resources at your finger tips.
2. There is a great need to plan the logistics of the skypecast and clearly present them up front as best as possible. There is not a way to 'lock the door' after you get started so you constantly could have new folks interjecting themselves on the flow of the conversation. This is still in beta so who knows this might be a feature in the first full release.
3. The importance of working with headphones to reduce the feedback. Also the option of moving participants to "listeners" and requesting to talk help minimize the chatter which was good but it also limited some of the conversation as their were extra barriers.
4. I wonder what kind of burden skypecasting puts on the local network. I noticed my computer slowed down noticeably during the conversation and the host had to log off and back on to a different computer as his machine hung at one point.
5. The possibility of recording conversation for play back and the ethics/logistics of it. Skype's resources on this topic.

Interested in joining the second go? Join us at 11:00am Eastern Time on Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Posted by James Fadden at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I thought I'd start a conversation about Macs. Now that Macs can do Windows, I took the plunge about a month ago and bought a 20" iMac. I am very pleased. The first thing people ask me about is why I wasted my money on such an expensive computer, but I recently did a side-by-side comparison with Dell for a friend of mine who is thinking about purchasing a computer. Not only are these similar specs, but they're practically the same off-the-shelf parts, just with a different "brain" controlling it all. Here is the run down (education pricing):

17" iMac
20" display
2.16 Ghz Core Duo Processor
2 GB Ram
250GB Hard Drive
256MB ATI Radeon Graphics Card
AppleCare 3 Year tech support and warranty
Microsoft Office 2004 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
Total = $1750

Dell Dimension 9200
17" Flat Panel Monitor
2.13 Ghz Core Duo Processor
2GB Ram
250GB Hard Drive
256MB ATI Radeon Graphics Card
Dell 3 year tech support and warranty
Includes Microsoft Office 2003 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
Includes PC-Cillin Virus Protection + 2 year subscription (this is a hedge - you don't really need this on the Mac, and you should really plan on 4 years of protection over the life of the PC, but I'm willing to bet in a couple years Macs are going to join the virus party again.)
Total = $1641

You're paying $109 more for a gorgeous looking unit that doesn't come with all the Windows baggage. Plus, if you want, you can still get Windows for it. You'll pay extra, but I use Windows on my Mac because I'm a geek and I like to tinker. All of my mission critical stuff gets done on the Mac side. I think the Mac is becoming a an alternative I can start to recommend to people.

Posted by Jason Ramsey at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While I'm not entirely convinced that users know how technology works now, or care how it works for that matter, I have a different view of it. I tend to look at the back end system side and how it all ties together in the end to make us productive, maybe I just don't give users enough credit for understanding front ends because I don't work with them as much.

Enough rant onto something about technology. James was telling me about Second Life the other day, and me being as anti-social as I am I figured this may be something I want to check out. Forgive me if I'm not impressed. From the limited time I spent with it before realizing it wasn't my thing, it basically reminded me of a 3d graphical chat room. I can already see the Dateline special on Second Life predators. Maybe if I had gotten off of "Orientation Island" things would have been different, but after a few minutes of wandering around under water it was pretty easy to say "what's the point" and log off. I did see the new MS Zune and thought it looked pretty cool, The ability to share from Zune to Zune via wireless has my interest, I wonder if you can steal some unsuspecting Zune patrons playlist?

Posted by Brian Pelino at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Not only do I dig gadgets I dig tv. I would watch it morning noon and night if it were not for work, my wife, my kid, and the need to stay fit. I watch good TV. I watch bad TV. My favorite show at this point is The Office as I think it is very real. I like it so much that I follow the blog and often search youtube for spoilers and mashups. In today's post on Officetally you could follow a link to PARADE Magazine's article on how the five main characters use technology in their personal lives.

Now comes my point -

B.J. Novak's explanation of how technology is integrated into his life is most likely the technology landscape that we will need to support and our campus community will come to expect. His account of hating a gadget until he knows how to use it combined with frustration at the technology and himself is insightful. No longer will technology users understand how or why the technology works in detail but will use it all the same. Much the same way as our current use and understanding of automobiles. His anecdotes of how physical time and space are distorted through personal gadgets is also a good point to remember. No longer will proximity be a condition of community. More so communities are developed and maintained through technology.

Posted by James Fadden at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm stuck right now in part two of a two day, eight hour conference call. The information is useful, but having to listen to seventeen other schools ask some really dumb questions over and over makes my skin crawl, especially when I have other stuff to do.

The good news is I get to post a little while people are chattering away...

I think it's important to note that we plan to make this blog an open forum for discussion about technology. This is not a training session or any kind of official voice of Computing. I fully intend to say some really dumb things on here and I hope other people do too. (Particularly, that Leroy Fitzroy - what a dope...) When we're posting here, we're not the authority. You want answers about Computing at Allegheny, go to the help page.

Posted by Jason Ramsey at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Brian, Jason, and I started talking about how to best keep ourselves informed about new technology that is announced so regularly these days. We figured that this blog would allow us a common place to share our ideas without having to meet. (Meetings are so 1980.)

We hope that this forum will help us raise each other's awareness of the emerging technologies and provide a little comic banter as while we seem to get along publicly we would really rather avoid each other as much as possible. (Another reason to blog instead of meet.)

If you happen to come across our banter please join in with your comments.

DISCLAIMER - We only take credit for the good ideas. The bad ideas are Leroy Fitzroy's.

Posted by James Fadden at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)