What is USB isochronous data transfer? #vmvwiki #vmvhw

Have been trying to connect a web cam via an enhanced USB cable, but the audio is not very clear. Some discussion with JJ revealed that USB has different ways it transfers data.
isochronous is one way, and looks like my enhanced cable does not support this (I tried a non enhanced one and the audio was heaps better)
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB  for more info on USB.
Our next solution is to try and use a
Webcam>USB-Ethernet Adaptor>Ethernetcable>USB-Ethernet Adaptor>PC
Apparently this will allow up to 100m extension which should be enough for my classroom web cam.
Next stop is to find a pair of inexpensive USB-Ethernet adaptors !

#Facebook RSS in #MediaWiki (#Wikieducator) #vmvwiki #vmvdlt

Following from the Twitter/Wordpress RSS into MediaWiki, I now have a Facebook page RSS feed working. Note that due to Privacy setting Facebook Groups do not RSS Feed.

• Sample Page: http://wikieducator.org/VirtualMV


• Experimental Page: http://wikieducator.org/User:Mverhaart/Wikieducator/TechTips

Christina Bergey has written a blog providing good instructions for this at  http://christinabergey.com/blog/2013/03/get-facebook-group-feed-via-rss/ (note she has "groups" in the URL but this only works  for Facebook pages.

The following code will insert a Panel into your MediaWiki Wiki ( replace YourID, and YourPage)

<div style="font-family: menu,Arial;border: 1px solid #808080; width: 250px; margin-right:auto;margin-left:auto;background-color: #F6F9ED;-webkit-box-shadow: 5px 5px 7px #999;">
{|
|[[File:Facebook.png|25px]] RSS from: https://www.facebook.com/YourPage<br /><hr width="248px"/>
|-
|
<rss>https://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?id=YourID&format=rss20|short|date|max=5</rss>
|}
</div>

Teacher confidence in using technology #vmvwiki

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="614"] Teacher Confidence in use of technology[/caption]

Diagram based on Mandinach & Cline by Mark Anderson where they talk about various stages of confidence related to technology ( http://ictevangelist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Teacher-confidence-1024x485.png )

http://ictevangelist.com/teacher-confidence-using-technology/

Photoshop CS6: What happened to png? #vmvwiki

Had a pdf with an image I wanted to save, but Save option was missing PNG. Quick search by Dr. Google revealed that you need to change the Image > Mode > to RGB.

Getty Museum announce Open Content Program releasing 1000s of high quality public domain images. #vmvwiki

Open Content, An Idea Whose Time Has Come

James Cuno | August 12, 2013

The initial focus of the Open Content Program is to make available all images of public domain artworks in the Getty’s collections. Roughly 4,600 high-resolution images of the Museum’s collection free to use, modify, and publish for any purpose.

- See more at: http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/open-content-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/

It all depends on your perspective (Rhino view)

Love this cartoon

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="360"] From https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150329890840190[/caption]

PC-iPad screen share: [1] Windows 7 starter, ad hoc network

According to Microsoft Win7 starter is unable to create an ad hoc network. Am trying to screen share an iPad with a laptop without 3G needed.

A quick search on Dr. Google reveals that the ad hoc network option is actually there in starter, but the link is missing. To set up an ad hoc network just click on start and in the box "Search programs and files" type "ad hoc".. this will bring up the wizard and away you go.

Will add to the post how well this goes with screen share with iPad

 

Computing e-books for $5

Computing e-books for $5

https://app.packtpub.com/#

Make sure you go through the app store for the discounted books.

Google Drive Crop Drawing

While there is no actual cropping tool, this is achieved by

1. putting the image on the top left of the canvas then click and


2. drag the bottom right hand corner of the canvas until the canvas is the same size as the image.

Actually quite simple really !!!

Handbrake DVD rip

Some Open Source software that (apparently) allows DVD ripping. As far as I know it is ok to burn a personal backup copy. I read somewhere that it works with VLC but haven't had time to play around with them yet.

http://www.winxdvd.com/resource/handbrake-windows-tutorial.htm

Future (and present) uses of Glass

A Day Made of Glass... Made possible by Corning

Miku 39 on youtube. Computer performer using #Vocaloid s/ware in a live concert. http://trunc.it/f1yst

 

Web page Colour scheme designer

Another link from JJ to help you with the colours in your web site.

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

Bloated Word files .. why is my file so big????

One issue / problem  I have with students creating electronic storyboards where the scan/photograph/cut and paste images is that the Word documents can become very large. Often there are a couple of offending images that are magically very large. So how can we find them to see where the problem is.

Simple solution (use compress pictures)

1. Click on one of the images,


2. Click on the Picture Tools menu (Top right of Word), then


3. Select [Compress Pictures] in the Adjust group on the ribbon bar


4. Choose Apply to All pictures in the document, and [Ok]

Finding the problem images

If you have Word 2007 or 2010 they will save a Word document as a docx file (rather than doc). This is actually just a zip file with a docx extension.  So, to find out your problem images:

1. if your file is a doc file save as a docx, or make a copy of the file if it is a docx.


2. rename the new docx to zip


3. double click the zip file (or open the archive in your un-zipper program)


4. Look in the folder word/media, and you should see the images and their file sizes.


5. Double click on the images to see which ones they are,


6. Remove the images in the original document and resize.

Microsoft Tech Ed Online 2010

http://www.msteched.com/2010/NewZealand

Videos from the Microsoft Tech Ed - link from Paul Lo

Best/worst web sites page in wiki

Just added a best/worst web site page to my wiki. Feel free to add/comment (you will need to login first)

http://www.virtualmv.com/wiki/index.php?title=Multimedia:Design:Examples

50 Open Source Tools That Replace Popular Education Apps

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/12068_3888901_4/50-Open-Source-Tools-That-Replace-Popular-Education-Apps.htm

Google is bringing Android software development to the masses.

The company will offer a software tool, starting Monday, that is intended to make it easy for people to write applications for its Android smartphones.

The free software, called Google App Inventor for Android (http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/), has been under development for a year. User testing has been done mainly in schools with groups that included sixth graders, high school girls, nursing students and university undergraduates who are not computer science majors.

Lohr, G (2010, July 11) Google’s Do-It-Yourself App Creation Software. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/technology/12google.html?_r=1

Google’s Do-It-Yourself App Creation Software

Screen Recorders

After a post on givaway of the day http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ had  feedback about free screen recorders

Two that came up were

1. Cam studio (open source) http://camstudio.org/ and


2. the online  Screenr http://www.screenr.com

GimpShop (Photoshop emulator)

A free Open Source image editor is Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/).

A hack is available to give it a photoshop feel (http://www.gimpshop.com/index.shtml)

Free Digital Transcription Audio Player Software

A typist can install it on their computer and control audio playback using a transcription foot pedal or keyboard (with 'hot' keys). This computer transcriber application also offers valuable features for typists including variable speed playback, multi-channel control, playing video, file management, and more.

Express Scribe is completely free and can be used without any restrictions

http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.html?ref=nchtwitter

Good for those of you doing interview research I would guess