Although we don’t use Google Apps at Rider, it’s nice to know that Moodle could so very easily integrate with it, especially now that we’re getting MoodleRooms.

Google Apps Education Edition is coming to an open source learning management system near you. Moodlerooms, a Moodle partner, is launching a new enhancement to the open source LMS in collaboration with search giant Google to provide access to the application suite using a single sign-on.

Google Apps Education Edition is the widely deployed hosted application suite that includes communications tools like as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Talk; collaboration apps, such as Google Docs, Google Sites, and Google Labs (for software code review); and various administration features and APIs for integration with existing systems.

via Google Collaborates on Moodle Integration — Campus Technology.

1. Open PortableApps’ window, click the “backup icon”

2. Click “Restore from BackUp”

3. You will see a PortableApps Backup-Restore window, then click “Next” button.

4. In the PortableApps Backup-Restore/Restore Settings window, find the backup file which you would like to restore, then click “Restore” button.

Note: PortableApps Backup’s app data backup feature only works with apps in PortableApps Format (since their data is in a standard location). For other apps, you should be sure to backup your entire drive. (www.portableapps.com).

–Robin Lu

This Rapid Reference will introduce you to you how can encrypt files on your computer, files on your USB key, or your entire USB key. TrueCrypt is a free and open source application that does on-the-fly encryption. This reference sheet will show you where to download the software, create an encrypted container to put files in, mount the container, create a password for the container and more. If you want to make your files on your USB key more secure (in case you lose or misplace the USB key), get TrueCrypt today. Click on the click below to download the PDF:

Rapid Reference: Introduction to TrueCrypt

-Angel Brady

1. Open PortableApps’ window, click the “backup icon”

2. Click “Backup Files”

3. You will see a PortableApps Backup window, click the “Next” button.

4. In the PortableApps Backup/Backup Settings window, you can choose a: “Complete Backup”, “App Data”, or “Documents”. After you choose what to backup, click the “Backup” button.

5. After that you will see a PortableAppsBackup folder in the “Backup Directory”

Note: PortableApps Backup’s app data backup feature only works with apps in PortableApps Format (since their data is in a standard location). For other apps, you should be sure to backup your entire drive. (www.portableapps.com).

–Robin Lu

“Portable means carried or moved with ease. Apps means a computer program like a web browser or word processor. A Portable Apps is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device such as USB flash drive, portable hard drive and iPod and use on any Windows computer. You can access to your software and personal data just as on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind” (Source:www.portableapps.com).

1. Go to http://portableapps.com/suite

2. Click “Download Standard” or “Download Lite” button

3. Double-click “PortableApps” icon to install PortableApps Suite

(It’s best to install it to the root of your portable drive and it’ll take from 2 to 20 minutes depending on the Edition you select and the speed of your portable drive.)

4. After you install PortableApps Suite, when you plug in your drive Windows will ask if you’d like to start PortableApps

5. And then you will see the Portable Apps window

Notes:

“When you use portable apps, it’s always a good idea to practice Safe Portable App-ing. Safe Portable App-ing-When you’re done, exit all portable apps and then wait for the activity light on your removable drive to stop flashing. Then select the ‘Safely remove [device]‘ option from the icon in the system tray. If you remove the drive while it is writing, you may lose data” (source: www.portableapps.com).

-Robin Lu

I have been creating short little cheat sheets called Rapid References for different programs. This Rapid Reference is an introduction on how to use Audacity. You can use Audacity to record audio, edit the audio, and export it into different file formats (like mp3). Audacity is free and open source and runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. You can use Audacity to clean up audio or add effects to the audio. Feel free to download and use this Rapid Reference (pdf format).

Audacity Rapid Reference

-Angel Brady

1. Go to http://secondlife.com/community/downloads.php

2. Choose the version of Second Life Installer and then click “DOWNLOAD” button

3. During the download time, go to www.secondlife.com

4. Click “JOIN NOW” button

5. In “Second Life Registration: Basic Details” page, choose your Second Life name (You can create your first name and you have to choose your last name in the dropdown menu.)

6. Enter your birth date

7. Enter your email address

8. Click “Continue” button

9. Select an Avatar and then click “Choose this avatar” button (You can skip this step if you want)

10. After that you will see “Welcome (avatar name)!” page

11. Fill your individual information and password in the text box provided and then click “Submit” button

12. Then a page will tell you your account need to be active from your e-mail account.

13. Go to your email account and make you account active

14. Install Second Life

15. To get started in Second Life, double click Second Life icon,

16. Enter your first name, last name, password, and then click “Connect” button

–Robin Lu

Have you ever wanted to customize the way that your email replies introduce the quoted part of the message you’re replying to? Thunderbird calls this the ‘Reply Header’.

For instance, let’s say you wanted your reply message to a recent email from your friend Jimmy to look something like the following:

The entity known as jimmyjones@verizon.net wrote to John LeMasney, on the date and time 10/13/07 9:44 AM, the following message:
“Hi, John, how are you?”

With Thunderbird, it is easy to make this happen. Here is some information about the preferences that we’re going to change. Below that, I’ll give specific instructions on how to change the settings.

// Change the reply header
// 0 – No Reply-Text
// 1 – wrote: – Netscape 3.xx/4.xx style
// 2 – On wrote:
// 3 – user-defined string. Use the prefs below in conjuction with this.
user_pref(“mailnews.reply_header_type”, 3);
// If you set 3 for the pref above then you may set the following prefs.
// The end result will be
user_pref(“mailnews.reply_header_authorwrote”, “%s said the following”);
user_pref(“mailnews.reply_header_ondate”, “on %s”);
user_pref(“mailnews.reply_header_separator”, ” “);
user_pref(“mailnews.reply_header_colon”, “:”);

Source: Hidden Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird Prefs
Address : http://www.geocities.com/pratiksolanki/
Date Visited: Sat Oct 13 2007 14:39:45 GMT-0400 (EDT)

These changes are made in Thunderbird’s configuration preferences, known better to Mozilla hackers as about:config or prefs.js

Let’s make the changes:

Open Thunderbird, open your preferences (options/preferences menu in Windows or Thunderbird/Preferences menu on MacOS) and choose the advanced tab.

Click on “Config Editor” to open a convenient GUI to edit the about:config file.

In the search bar labeled ‘Filter:’, type in “reply_header” and wait a moment for the list to filter to just show reply_header related preferences.

We’re interested in editing 4 values. You edit a value by double clicking on it, which opens a dialog window with a text box containing the existing value. Enter the new value and click ‘OK’ to make a change, or ‘Cancel’ to cancel. In these exampes, %s indicates a variable that will be replaced with the sender, date and tme, etc. Make sure it’s present as %s in order for this to work.

open mailnews.reply_header_authorwrote and edit it to say The entity known as %s wrote to me

open mailnews.reply_header_colon and edit it to say , the following message:

open mainnews.reply_header_ondate and edit it to say on the date and time %s

open mailnews.reply_header_type and edit it to say 3

This last one is very important – it indicates that you want these edited values to be used instead of none, the default, or a preset alternative (0, 1 and 2 respectively) – look at the blockquote above for a better explanation of what each of these are.

Then, restart Thunderbird, start a reply, and enjoy your new custom reply header!

Close your eyes and smile. Then, reflect on the idea that it’s only because this application is open source that you can make this level of modification to the way your information is displayed.

John LeMasney

Here is the audio from my presentation on Friday night on Free and Open Source Software to the Brookdale Computer Users Group. We had a fantastic time, and I can’t wait to go back. We had a lot of laughs, we all learned a lot, and I feel like I have a lot of new friends out by the shore. Thanks to BCUG for being so welcoming!

http://media.rider.edu/authors/lemasney/2007_lemasney_bcug_foss.mp3

Miro (formally known as Democracy Player) is an Open Source video platform for Mac OS X. What does that mean? It means you can search for videos on popular sites site such as YouTube and save them in your personal library. You can also add channels to your Miro. There are different topics that channels are split into such as Technology or Movies to name a few. Some people have compared Miro to iTunes. Here is one way you can use Miro to share your videos with others. You can get Miro at this link: http://www.getmiro.com/

1. Click on Video Search in the top left column of Miro. You can also use the drop down (that looks similar to the search engine bar in Firefox) located at the bottom left of Miro.

2. Choose a video site you would like to search on for a video. Type in keywords of the video topic you are searching for (ex. YouTube: education).

3. Double click on the video’s icon to watch the video. To find out more details about the video, click on details button in the right hand side of the video text box.

4. Use the controllers at the bottom of Miro to play, stop, and pause the video.

5. If you like the video, you can keep it by clicking on KEEP. If you keep the video, it will put it in your Library.

6. To share this video with others, click on the SHARE button. You have the option of Emailing it to a friend, Post to Video Bomb (need to sign up for but its free-Video bomb is your own personal Miro channel to share w/ friends, staff, or students), Post on del.icio.us (social bookmarking), Post to digg, and Post to Reddit.