techNOcool

Since James would probably veto this as not being relevant to techNOcool, I'm posting this. He can correct me or fill in the details later.

I'm calling him Fadden 2.0, until I hear for sure about a name. But he was born around 7pm last night, 7lb 12oz. And hey, he may not be technology, but he is emerging. So there....

Congrats to the Fadden family!

Posted by Jason Ramsey at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After reading Jason's post about the Group that Shall Not Be Named, I came across a post about Google Apps for Your Domain on a blog that I can not remember the name. (Ah, this no name thing is spreading!) I wondered what impact will this have on people expectations for software and access in the future.

Before I begin, let me set the record straight. I am not advocating that organizations, particularly our organization, should be signing on to use a third party for these types of services. But the door it opens as to what the future holds for personal computing. Will users expect to create, store and share all of their documents from any networked computer or device all through their web browser? What if now instead of people buying personal computers loaded with the latest desktop suite and email client they buy a computer set up as a portal to the web complete with domain name and web-based apps? It is impossible to predict the future, but is this what the personal computer will become?

Posted by James Fadden at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So the blog-o-sphere is ever expanding as 'You' know. This could very well lead to information overload and actually much has been documented on this. Just Google it, forgive me Librarians and you will see what I am talking about. That is probably where these to sites came from lifehack.org and lifehacker.com.

On these sights you will find tips, tricks and technology to simplify your life. These posts on these pages often include software, gadgets and processes that are just emerging on the market. For this reason I added them to the blog roll.

Posted by James Fadden at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm on a group that is considering options for campus for calendar/email/file sharing/collaboration/etc.... It's a very long term discussion, nothing official yet. (Kind of like this blog, except it has a more narrowly defined agenda and a finite goal to reach and be done.) Phil recently posted some options he heard about from Microsoft, and I thought I'd cross post a little to discuss some of what is going on out there. I think people expect that all of these components should talk to each other seamlessly, and it reflects poorly on computing when they don't. Integration has become my new watchword. If it doesn't integrate, then it should go home. Integration makes even a mediocre interface and lack of features look okay.

Posted by Jason Ramsey at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The last weeks have been busy ones investigating LMS, meeting end of semester needs of the faculty, and the impending birth of a second child have really gotten in the way of posting. Fortunately Brian, Jason and Susan kept the conversations going. (This is not to say they aren't busy, just that I have not posted and I am thankful that they have posted.)

Today, I planned a little blog time into my schedule to catch up on my bloglines reading and post a little about mobile computing, which has been a focus of conversation lately. In reading my bloglines, I came across a weblogg-ed post titled 'One Phone Per Child (?)'.

The post pushes the idea that while the idea of one-laptop-one-learner is finally catching on, it's time to start thinking about one-phone-one-learner. Obviously, this line of thinking hit a cord with me as I have been thinking about the next generation of mobile computing devices and even wrote a little about it. (Okay I guess that it hasn't been as long as I thought since my last post. But I am still thankful for my colleagues and their contributions.)

Mobile phones are becoming fairly ubiquitous and more powerful now including mp3 players, internet access, and higher quality cameras. The author promotes the idea of finding ways to harness this computing power for learning particularly in the K-12 setting. The article and others in his The Shifts category are worth a read.

I agree with the quotes and commentary he uses that it is difficult to predict the future but that we are probably 5 years out from phones as mobile computers for a majority of users. We are seeing ripplings of this today in the techno-savvy pockets of our community with the pioneers finding great value in their personal computing devices. We are also seeing universities moving to find way to incorporate phones in to course work as personal response devices. We could be on the brink of moving to the next level of computing where people caring their computer comfortably in a pocket, on a belt, or in a handbag. It is quite exciting to think the next personal computer is something everyone knows how to use.

When was the last time you heard someone state with exasperation, "I am cell phone illiterate can you help me?"

What does the future look like?

Will this actually become reality?

Who knows, but it seems possible.

Posted by James Fadden at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've talked about my venture into the Mac world before on this blog, but not about my attempts at emulation of other operating systems.

I installed a wonderful program called Parallels. It puts virtual machines on your Mac, which you can install any operating system on. It's like having a little window on your screen that connects to another computer. (Except that computer is a big file just sitting on your main computer.)

I installed Windows 2000 in one virtual machine, Windows 95 in the other. (If you're wondering why I picked those, they're the two versions of Windows that I have official copies of. Since Parallels acts as a virtual computer, you need an operating system to install on each instance.)

I can run them both at the same time from within MacOSX, and I should grab screenshots. Windows 2000 boots in under 10 seconds, and I have Microsoft Office installed, as well as some work related programs that are only available in Windows. Compatibility has not been an issue at all so far. (Haven't tried any 3D games, but even DirectX based games seem to work just fine!) I also got Windows 95 to install, although drivers were a bit dicey at first.

The proof that I'm a geek is that this weekend I installed a Macintosh System 7 emulator that acts as a virtual Mac Plus, on my virtual Windows 2000 computer. I did it, just to say I could. The fact that it took me virtually 90 minutes to do on a sunny weekend, proves that I am a geek. Not virtually, but actually.

How is this work-related? Operating systems are becoming little more than fashion statements. Note the recent Mac vs. PC commercials we've been innudated with - (which by the way, make me ill as to how arrogant and snarky they make the average Mac user look.) And don't get me wrong, PC's can do virtual machines just as well as Macs. I've run a Commodore Amiga virtual machine for years on Windows. Virtual PC for Windows does for PC's what Parallels does for Macs. However, the interchangeability between Windows, MacOS, and Linux is making it less important what operating system is used to start with. Content, reliability, ease of use, price and even style will drive computing more than compatibility concerns. (Does it work with Windows? Who cares?)

I bought a Mac not to make a big change in the way I do my computing, but because it no longer felt like such a big change. Now, if only it came in black...

Should we just switch the whole campus to Mac or Linux, if we could even afford that? I'm not asking that question. The time is coming soon though that migrating to Windows Vista and Office 2007 may not be the no-brainer path it's been in the past.

Posted by Jason Ramsey at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The other day Jason posted about the Palm Treo. Today, the reference librarians and instructional technologists talked about viewing websites on mobile devices. It was a pretty interesting conversation that prompted me to talk Jason into borrowing his Treo for the afternoon to take experiment with it. Susan and I spent a few minutes kicking around the Angel Learning Management System course site, google maps, and a few other things on it. Text based pages seem to work best but that seems obvious.

I am hooked and can see application of use in daily work life.

How nice would it be to have the ability to take notes in a format that I will actually reuse right in my pocket.
Or to be able to grab the resource from the web as I have an impromptu meeting on Brooks walk.
Or to be able to check my schedule and email without having to return to my office.
Or to be able attend a conference without having to lug my tablet.

Posted by James Fadden at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've been listening to a lot of CNET podcasts and my TiVo gives me a 15 minute CNET tech product review that I started watching every week, as part of trying to be better informed about technology, and get a sense of how to talk about technology in an accessible way for this blog.

One of the senior editors at CNET who I listened to was James Kim, whose name has unfortunately been plastered across the news when he attempted to find help for his stranded family and vehicle in the mountains of Oregon. His wife and two children stayed with the car and after five days were found by rescuers, but James who went out in the cold and snow for help was only found after it was too late. As a kindred spirit, I wanted to say something in memoriam and link to the CNET website where they have put up a web and video tribute. It has clips from some of his better reviews - and by the way, it's a chance to look at a site that is a really good starting place for thinking about technology purchases. They do some of what we're trying to do on this blog really well.

Posted by Jason Ramsey at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I call my Palm Treo 650 a Plam because of how often I misspell it at first.

I just set up my fourth Palm Treo, this one a 700p, up in Athletics. These little wonders can do everything a road warrior needs, and I love mine. I know the other folks on campus love theirs too. Moreover, the 650 and 700p are basically compatible with everything at Allegheny that can be compatible with a mobile device.

I check and send work email via Versamail.
I keep my calendar and contacts synched with work via MeetingMaker.
I check and send personal email through the Gmail for JVM client.
If I get lost, I can check Google Maps.
I check the local radar through the web browser, which is handy for downloading anything else I need.
I synchronize our inventory of computers that we keep in Excel format on a shared folder using Documents To Go.
I store meeting agendas and how-to documents from Word (Ditto - Documents To Go).
I store pdfs, using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

I used to lug a laptop along with me on trips, but you can do FTP on this baby, which means hello any work document I could possibly want. It plays my music on a 1GB flash card, takes movies, takes pictures.

Oh, yeah, it's also a bluetooth enabled telephone, although why I'd actually use my phone for talking is beyond me.

You can make a case for each of those tasks being easier to do on some other device (phone, computer, TV, iPod, digital camera, plus finding a wi-fi hotspot somewhere), but if I want to write a novel, I'll bring my laptop. If I want a professional photographer, I'll hire my wife. If I want to do all of the above pretty well from anywhere, at anytime, I'm set.

Posted by Jason Ramsey at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)