iriver - Ultra Portable Players

iriver - Ultra Portable Players

I recently gave a presentation on Blogs and Wikis and used an iRiver voice recorder to record the presentation. I told people about it briefly in the presentation, if for no other reason to let them know they would remain anonymous in any use of the audio. I got an email from one of the participants asking about it, and here was my response:

What I used is not a microphone [by itself] but rather a multi function digital audio device.

I use an 256 MB iRiver audio device.

It records your voice through a built in Microphone.

It allows for listening to and recording digitally tuned radio broadcasts.

It allows for recording external audio sources via line in.

You can then transfer the audio files from the device to your computer for editing, email, web sites, uploading to Blackboard, etc.

It is a highly recommended and fabulous device, but it does not function as an external microphone for a laptop.

You can find the details about the device at http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/

You can get it, like I did, at Circuit City.

I have one of the 700 series devices.

I hope this helps, and I hope you get the iRiver device.

John LeMasney.

On buying a laptop.

I often get asked how to buy a great laptop. After I say get an Apple, and the person tells me all the reasons why that won’t work, and I explain that it doesn’t matter, and they say, well, what’s a nice windows laptop, and then I sigh a little, and then we talk about what makes for a good laptop universally speaking, at least for the next ten days or so, when things get faster and cheaper.

Upon being asked about this topic in an email today, I decided to share my answer with this blog.

This kind of topic really requires an interactive discussion because there are so many variables. I would prefer to discuss the topic with you over the phone, if only to get a better feel for your needs.

However, here are some guidelines:

Get as much hard drive space, processor speed, and ram as you can afford.

Hard drive should have 80 Gigabytes or more.

Processor should be 1.5 Gigahertz or more. Much more.

You should have 1 Gigabyte of RAM, but less is okay. The more the better.

Your screen size will likely be determined by the amount of weight you’re willing to cart around. 3-5 pounds is a heavy laptop. 1-2 pounds is ultra light. Some laptops are as many as 7-9 pounds. You can get a 15 inch, rather than a 12 inch screen, but it will add extra weight to your laptop. 17 inch laptop screens are typically overkill for the average user, but are great for photo and video applications.

The discounted Dell specials at Rider’s academic discount page often limit your choices.

You want wireless, definitely. You will want something that is compatible with the 802.11b wireless standard, since that is what we use at Rider. Most wireless setups in new laptops will work with this standard, also known as ‘wi-fi’

You may need to purchase an external cdrom drive, since smaller laptops often do not have the extra space for a built in drive. If you get an external drive, you might as well go all the way and get a DVD+/-RW burner, since that will give you a lot more flexibility. If you go this route, you will want either USB2 or Firewire [aka ieee 1394 or iLink] on your laptop, and the drive should have USB2 or firewire [aka ieee1394 or iLink] as well.

My suggestion? Get a 12 inch iBook from Apple. You may spend a little more, but the investment is a good one, and it will have all of the features you want.

position open for an Instructional Design Coordinator at FDU

Colleagues,

Please pass this on as appropriate. We have a position open for an Instructional Design Coordinator at FDU, at our Metropolitan Campus (located in Teaneck / Hackensack).

Thanks,

-Cathy Kelley

The job is listed here:

http://inside.fdu.edu/jobs/cid.html

Catherine L. Kelley, Ph.D.

Assistant Proovst for Educational Technology

Fairleigh Dickinson University

1000 River Rd., H-DH2-15

Teaneck, NJ 07666
201-692-7060

clkelley@fdu.edu

Excavating ancient abbreviations in Linux

This is a nice, quick overview of some of the more cryptic abbreviations in the Unix world. I knew a few, but I had no idea what TTY stood for.

Excavating ancient abbreviations in Linux
Perhaps the most confusing jargon in Linux relates to terminals. TTY is an old abbreviation for a TeleTYpe. Teletypes, or teletypewriters, were originally printer-keyboard combinations that read and sent information over a serial line, not too different from an ancient telegraph machine. Later on, when computers only ran in batch mode (when card readers were the only way to get your program loaded), a teletype was the only useful “real time” input/output device available. Eventually teletypes were replaced with keyboard-and-screen terminals, but the operating system still needed a program to watch the serial port where the terminal or TTY was plugged in.

Technology-Enabled Teaching/eLearning Dialogue

While slashdot.org is promoting the death of the blog, campus-technology.com is talking about best practices for instructional blogging. A good, idea provoking read.

Technology-Enabled Teaching/eLearning Dialogue

Experiences collected during spring semester 2005 demonstrate this learning tool’s versatility. Instructional blogging was used in a wide range of courses including: Freshman Composition, graduate seminars in English and Philosophy, an upper level Spanish conversation course, art appreciation, and MIS. The applications are as varied as the disciplines adopting blogging. Faculty have introduced blogging to: promote peer review, foster student-to-student, student-to-faculty, and faculty-to-student interaction; discuss course readings; promote discussion and public comment; address class concerns; extend learning beyond the classroom; and develop writing skills because it encourages students to reflect on what they compose.

Building Community Through the Application of Technology

The following is an announcement from NJEdge.net for Rider Faculty regarding NJEdge.net’s upcoming Annual Conference. Rider University is a proud member of NJEdge.net.

John LeMasney, Manager, Instructional Technology, Rider University.

Dear Colleagues,

This year’s conference, Building Community Through the Application of Technology, will address the broad interests and concerns of the New Jersey higher education community and provide opportunities to explore innovations in educational and administrative technologies. Preconference workshops, plenary-session demonstrations, concurrent track sessions, and ePosters will cover a wide range of educational technology issues, specifically: eLearning and Libraries; Online Services; Policy Issues and Strategic Planning; and Network and Systems Computing. Throughout this year’s conference we plan to highlight higher education and K-12 partnerships.

NJEDge.Net 3rd Annual Conference, November 2, 3, 4 at the Harrison Conference Center in Plainsboro, NJ. (Mark your calendars now. Registration begins June 15th.)

1) From now through June 30th, the Program Committee invites proposals for:

* Pre-conference workshops
* Plenary-session demonstrations
* Concurrent sessions
* ePosters

covering a wide range of educational technology issues represented by our four Tracks:

* eLearning and Libraries (including higher education/k12 partnerships)
* Online Services
* Policy Issues and Institutional Strategic Planning
* Systems Computing

Call for proposals: http://www.njedge.net/conference2005/register-eposter-proposal.html

2) The Program Committee invites you to suggest possible keynote speakers for this Conference and for future Conferences. If you would like to suggest a keynote speaker, that is, a major speaker to address the attendees in plenary session, please provide as much information as you can: Name, institution or organization, area of expertise, email address, other contact information.

Keynote speaker suggestion form: http://www.njedge.net/conference2005/keynote-suggest.html

Have an enjoyable and productive summer.

SHERI PRUPIS prupis@njedge.net or 973 596-5494
http://www.njedge.net

NewsForge | The Eighth Commandment of system administration

More good advice from a great series.

NewsForge | The Eighth Commandment of system administration

A system log is one of the most effective ways to monitor a server’s health and underlying problems. Often before a major hardware or application crash takes place there are indicators of impending disaster within the syslog. As a good and attentive administrator, you should be reviewing your logs on a regular basis, but oftentimes these logs are forgotten due to other duties or important data is lost within pages of white noise telling about normal events.

Falk AdSolution

VIII. Thou shalt not lose system logs when a server dies

NewsForge | Extensions add wings to Thunderbird

This is a great introduction to the many extensions available for Thunderbird, including QuickText, Dictionary Search, and Contacts Sidebar, plus many more. Good stuff.

NewsForge | Extensions add wings to Thunderbird

One of the reasons for the popularity of Mozilla’s Firefox browser is its ability to enhance itself with extensions. Extensions are small programs which when assimilated into an application enhance its features. The email application from the Mozilla stable, Thunderbird, can use extensions as well. Here are some Thunderbird extensions that make emailing a tad easier and more fun.

Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006

All I can say is… wow.

Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006

WWDC 2005, SAN FRANCISCO—June 6, 2005—At its Worldwide Developer Conference today, Apple® announced plans to deliver models of its Macintosh® computers using Intel® microprocessors by this time next year, and to transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007. Apple previewed a version of its critically acclaimed operating system, Mac OS® X Tiger, running on an Intel-based Mac® to the over 3,800 developers attending CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote address. Apple also announced the availability of a Developer Transition Kit, consisting of an Intel-based Mac development system along with preview versions of Apple’s software, which will allow developers to prepare versions of their applications which will run on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

NewsForge | The Seventh Commandment of system administration

Another great entry into this fantastic series. Down with Telnet! Long live SSH!

NewsForge | The Seventh Commandment of system administration

VII. Thou shalt use encryption for insecure services

Believe it or not, security-related information can often be found in plain text floating around your network. I invite you to plug into the gateway to your network and capture traffic. At your leisure, go through the traffic and follow what you can follow. If you haven’t stressed the implementation of various encryption mechanisms within your servers and network, you’re likely to be shocked at what you will find. If you’re using Ethereal, look for a Telnet session and then select “Follow TCP stream.” You’ll see the entire Telnet session, login, password and all, naked to the world. The same goes for logins to internal Web pages that are not encrypted with SSL. If you add a wireless network into the equation without encryption, your troubles triple. Now malicious people don’t even need to physically be plugged into your network to catch valuable information.