Technology and CS in Dallas

Blog

  • I love Microsoft Live Search

    Last night, I was finished with my dog agility classes and needed gas.  I also knew that gas was $2.85 in Farmers Branch.  So I fired up my GPS receiver, went into Live Search and told it to find my GPS position and then went to gas prices.

    The program wanted me to go north, but I wanted to go south, different county and the prices ARE cheaper because less tax, but wasn’t worth the drive.

    So finally, I got a south station — a Kroger’s and followed the route. 

    Ended up passing a Tom Thumb, remembered they told me I had a $.10 per gallon discount so I ended up snagging gas at $2.69 a gallon.

    Neat use of technology!

  • Will the Kindle Change the World of Textbooks?

    I hope not.

    Is Kindle the book that changes the world of textbooks in a dramatic way?

    Computer Science Teacher – Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson : Will the Kindle Change the World of Textbooks

    First, the price!  It’s as expensive as a mobile phone with out the connection discounts, and almost as expensive as a laptop.

    I already have the capacity to read books — on my Pocket PC phone, and I keep several on my storage card for doctor’s visits and other places where I have to wait.

    I even have the capacity to download books wirelessly.  Again, Pocket PC phone.  Ereader if you care.

    I am disappointed that Amazon did away with their original book service (I had downloaded a book from them and it wasn’t bad).

    However, I like Ereader much better.

    Besides I can also read the books on my PC.

  • FreeRice

     www.freerice.com is a very interesing website.  It’s a vocabulary "game" that sends 10 grains of rice to needy people around the world.  Snopes says it’s good, and it is advertiser supported.

    Educational AND kind of fun.

    FreeRice

  • No Tree or Server Found error in Groupwise

    This error has driven me nuts for years, and I have finally figured out how to fix it.  My clue came from  when I was trying to reimage a workstation with Ghost and got a “no DHCP server” error, even though the workstation was plugged into the network.

    Sometimes when we reboot, it starts working but more often than not, it doesn’t.

    So here’s the “fix”.  Go ahead and log into the workstation without Novell.  Then disable the networking connection, and then reenable it.  It only takes one try so far.

    The weird part is that I have the IP address of the server hardcoded, so we should ever see that message.  However, I don’t think it is a Novell problem, I think the workstation really didn’t get an IP address correctly.

  • My Chumby is here!

    I first saw the Chumby last year and thought it would be fun for me and my students to play with.  However, I think I’m going to keep this one and replace my alarm clock with it.

    Just got it out, programmed it and haven’t really done anything yet. 

    What’s a Chumby?  www.chumby.com of course!

    And here’s a picture of it, I hope.  Mine is black — though it doesn’t photograph as well.

  • Binders

    What is it with educators and binders?  I swear to god, some idiot either gives us one, or makes us keep up with them.

    I hate binders.

    Seriously.

    Nothing is worse than having to pull something out of a binder, use it and then have to put it back in.

    My system:  folders

    Seriously, folders are much easier.  When I had a real job, worked real hours, and made real money, everything was kept in a file cabinet.  I loved my last cube.  I had a nice square cube, with a really nice horizontal file cabinet.  Everything went in it.  My purse, my files, everything.  When I went to a meeting, I pulled out the hanging folder that contained that project with all the materials that went with it.  When I came back, I just dropped it all into the cabinet. 

    I just went into a huge hissy fit over the binder we are required to keep this year.  We are up for cycle 3 for the Texas Educators Grant and we have to document everything we do to death.  They’ve given us a binder, dividers and tabs for it.  <ARGH!!!!>

    My solution?  A file box.  They make lots of different sizes.  So I have hanging folder for each portion of the things we have to document — like the task force I’m in.  Then I use separate folders for things individual items I have to keep up with.  When I come back from a meeting, I toss the stuff in the box and periodically file it (I never have time to file).   I even toss the binder in the box just in case someone wants it some day and when it comes time to turn in the binder, I’m putting a big rubber band around the files and putting them in the binder and turning it in that way.

    It appalled our department chair until she saw it and then she agreed it was better than a binder.

    And when people give me a binder in the future, I’m just going to do the same thing.

  • GPS is COOL!

    Okay, it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged.  STEM money, family money and some other grant money have all come together, and I’ve been picking up some little toys.

    One is a Cingular 8525.  I was sort of thinking of waiting for the TILT and going with Windows Mobile 6, but I really liked the Cingular 8525 so picked it up a few weeks ago.

    Well, last night I had a few free moments at Frye’s — I’ve been thinking of ordering a GSP Bluetooth Receiver on line, cheap, but I was a bit afraid of it.  You, I had a GPS receiver a long time ago when you could hook one up to a Palm pilot.  Didn’t work well.

    Well, I picked up a Nokia one for $49.99 and man is it sweet.  For me, it’s perfect, with either Google maps or Live Search.  I may have to go somewhere just to play with it.

  • Weaver’s Law

    Somewhat joking, BUT it’s true.  The easiest way to fix a problem, especially a networking problems is to pull plugs, wait for a few minutes and plug them back in.

    Honestly, I wish I understood networking — this morning I came in and my lab was completely down.  Most of the workstations could not communicate with the server and even said “network connectivity is low or limited”.  I couldn’t see the other workstations with Lanschool.  It was a mess.

    At first, I thought the whole building was down, but I isolated it this end of the building pretty quick.  In fact, once I got students in the room, I isolated it to the students on the older switches in the classroom.  All I had to do was unplug them and plug them back in and the network started working again.  Thus “Weaver’s Law”.

    Yeah, it probably already exists under another name, but it works for me.

  • TI Foundation Fellow?

     From the Dallas Morning News:

    Ten North Texas teachers will be inducted as fellows into Texas Instruments Foundation’s new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Academy.

    Education notes | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | News: Education

    I’ll find out what this means next week.

  • Computer Science Teacher – Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson : Department of Learning Prevention

     

    What has happened that we are so afraid to teach students things that are useful and powerful?

    Computer Science Teacher – Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson : Department of Learning Prevention

    I really agree with Alfred on this issue.  For a large school district we probably have the most freedom, but we’re shut down in weird ways.

    For example, I want to use a gaggle.net chat room but it doesn’t work.  I’ve emailed the guy who is supposed to be in charge of this, but still haven’t heard from him after two days.

    The weird thing, is that Instant Messenger works fine, so we may end up using that.