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Correction: Kathy tells she's been programming since 1974, which is a couple of yearsa before I have

It'll be interesting to see what she gets her Chumby to do!

Kathy doesn't quite get Chumby, but she isn't as techie as I am — for a teacher type she is really techie, but there are things I get she doesn't, and that's okay.  However, she does get the vanilla, get out of the box features.

The cool parts about Chumby, and especially Chumby 1, is hacking. My Chumby1 thinks one of my Windows Share is it's USB drive … see the Chumby Forums for that.

Quoted from http://kathyschrock.net/blog/2009/12/chumby-is-your-friend.html:

Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch: Chumby is your friend!

Chumby is your friend!

Have I said how much I like Typepad.  I LOVE Typepad.

I've been blogging for a long time.  Since February 2003.  That's like 100 years in blog years. 

I started out with Movable Type, that I set up on my own site.  Pages of instructions, pain in the butt.  When they moved to a pay model, I tried WordPress for a few weeks, HATED it, went back to Movable Type.

However, I got sick of having to reinstall updates every few months, and would get major writer's block, every time my control page said i needed to update, and I needed lots of quiet time to do it in.  That's hard to get when you're a teacher and have two dogs at home.

It finally took last year, but I jumped to Typepad.  It's been SO easy since then, I tweak things from to time, they add features, and all is good.  The good thing — I only have to blog and don't have to worry about the hosting.

Love it.

Again.

I usually end up dropping these things.

http://www.kweaver.org/adventures_in_training_th/

I've made two videos that should be helpful for XNA development:

The first shows how to deploy with an XBox: 

http://kweaver.us/xboxDeploy/XboxDeploy.html

Used my favorite application — Camtasia and had a camera on a tripod pointing to the TV.

http://kweaver.us/XNA_Zune/XNA_Zune.html

The Zune video was done with a web cam. 

Both are picture in picture.

Quoted from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/2009/12/learning_by_accident_or_design.html:

Learning by Accident or Design – Should Computer Tech Classes Be Required in High School? – LeaderTalk – Education Week

One argument for the elimination of the requirement is that today’s students are so immersed in technology – starting in kindergarten – that by the time they take a basic computer class in high school the content is already mastered.

As I snort ….

I have three classes of students who, for the most part, can’t sign up for an email account, send an email, and read them.

Not entirely sure why, but they are remedial math and science students — were they pulled out of the tech classes for tutorials?  Are they just really bad students in every classroom (true in many of these cases), or just take pride in not being good at computers –some, certainly.

Each student should be pushed to take a tech class that is equal to their academic achievements, whether it’s a business class, computer science, webmastering or tech apps. All of our students can use the extra skill set.

I tend to build a lot more flash movies and do more web develoment when there is a Chumby in the office.

Out of sight, out of mind. 

My favorite channel is my go to bed channel, which right now features Macy and a clock:

I have also been making flash movies of my photos from agility trials.

Not sure that will show up well, since the widgets are private, but we'll see.

I've also got my Chumby fooled into thinking my Windows Home Server is a usb drive, so it will play music off the server, that's working quite nicely and better than Squeezebox.  I just have to put the right music on the Windows Home Server share.

And really loving the Windows Home Server (HP brand), but that's for another blog post.

I dropped by TAC today to pick up one of our laptops I asked them to be reimage.  Sadly the hard drive is broken, so they couldn't.

TAC is short for Technical Assistance Center and they are the go-to for any type of technical problems.  From Desktop Support, laptop support, software applications (Novell, Groupwise, Chancery, etc), to Televisions, Telephones, Wireless and Network Connectivity.

In other words, I'm the go-to at my school to them, and every technical support problem flows through me and the librians to TAC (they send them other requests including AV stuff).

They are SUPER people.  I really like working with them because I know they care.  They have a gruff exterior (well, Ron does), but you can tell that they work at our district because they truly care to have technology in both the adults and kids hands.  In fact, I've even asked because they are even more overworked and underpaid than I am.  And yes, like me, they are all about the kids.  And the teachers, but mostly the kids.

My wish is that they were better appreciated by the district — and I'm not just saying this because they told me they knew that I blog :-)  I really do mean it.

First an unboxing video.

Now a review.

I love the original Chumby's, technically I have three, but the third is put away because his screen is too dark and depressing.

However, they are better made, cuter, etc. AND cost more money.

Honestly, I'm not sure why I bought a Chumby One because I have all the functionality in different devices on my desk at home, and can't use it at school as it shouldn't be on the network (it's a none network device).  i bet some of Chumby's websites are blocked.

Why do I like Chumby.

I love the programmable alarms.  I love the sleep feature.  I like being able to schedule alarms on my computer.  Chumby Widgets make me happy (love the egg timer, love some of the news ones and the Woot one), and I am learning to like to make Flash Widgets.

One thing I really like — the "Go To Bed" widget I made, and I've about to make a couple more, as they are easy to do, since I have and know Flash.

Yes, I need a life.

I wish I could remember exactly what a lady at my doctor's office said to describe me, it was very nice, very sweet, and something to the affect that not only was I a nerd, but that it was good thing, given by god.

Very cool.

I have my photos on my Windows Home Server, and made a bit of a mistake last night — was trying to create a jpeg thumbnail for a project, and ended up resizing the real picture instead.  Yikes.  However, deleting it and restoring it from the most recent backup took literally less than 5 minutes.

Loving the Windows Home Server….