What do you think? I at the very least want to see the film. I love pirates of silicon valley.
Category Archives: technology
Setting up a web forum on your website
So you have a website and want to set up a place where people can chat with each other. One of the best ways to do this is with a web forum as can be seen on my surfing website here. These forums can be very easy to set up but can become very difficult depending on how many modifications you want done to them. In order to run a web forum on your website you need a few things.
Those include your web domain of course, a database (usually provided by wordpress hosting providers), and the information from your database like the master username and password. Once you have all of that information you need to pick your forum. There are two forums that I recommend, one is vBulletin and is the best paid forum software. It costs $250 and does quite a bit. It requires very little technical skill to set up or to use the advanced features. The second I recommend and use myself is called phpBB. This is opensource so it is 100% free. Just like vBulletin it is very easy to use and set up. phpBB get complicated when you start doing advanced things. But it does do everything that vBulletin does it just requires more technical skill to do all of it. But setting each up and getting them up and running is no different. Those are the main differences between these two software packages (very high level differences).
At https://webhostinggeeks.com/versus/inmotion_vs_siteground/ you will find a company that provides innovative and secure solutions specialized for hosting all popular open source applications such as Joomla, WordPress, Magento, Drupal and many more.
Once you have decided which forum you want, you install it on your database. Once installed you will log in as an administrator and set up your forums and take special time to set up security measures like a captcha and such. Now that you are there your community is ready to communicate. You may notice that no one jumps the gun and begins to use it. Many forums go unused. People like to talk on a forum that is active because usually they lurk at first and just read posts before feeling comfortable enough to speak. So a little trick that is not fun but IS necessary – talk to yourself for a while on the forum using several different usernames to make the community seem alive. Even better if a few people can do this to get it going. It really helps and is needed even if it feels like you are scamming people. Trust me no one will post if there are zero posts unless you have a huge community or something.
Well I hope that helps you get started!
How to get a movie off of a DVD?
I just was asked by a colleague how to do this so I thought it would make a great blog post:
Assuming you have the rights to the DVD to do this, otherwise this is illegal, here is how to do it:
Download and install handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/
Handbrake allows you to rip the dvd onto your computer so that you can burn the dvd, play the dvd,, put it on your ipad, etc. without the disk. It is just now simple movie file on your computer.
If you want to then put that dvd back onto a dvd disk to be played on a dvd player you will use a program called burn (http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html) to burn the dvd on a blank dvd.
You can do this with any dvd, even netflix and redbox movies, however, it is illegal unless you have the rights to the disk.
Which video conferencing tools are you using?
There are many free and paid tools on the market now. So which do you use and why? I am going to review some of the more popular ones here:
Skype – Offers both free and paid service. Works on all computers, cell phones, and tablets. You can put up to 25 people on the same conference call for free and share a desktop. With the video feature you can only video conference with one person before you have to pay.
Google Hangout – Works on all computers through a google account, such as gmail and is also available as an app via apple/android. Can share desktop. Can call and video chat with up to 10 people for free.
Facetime – An apple product only. Allows 1 to 1 video conferencing. Is nice but only works with apple.
There are more but these seem to be the ones most people are using. I personally use Skype for everything. Having said that if a user is on another system I have accounts for most of them.
Technology is not just computers…
When I ask my students what are the best technologies for the classroom I always hear the same: smartboards, computers, ipads, etc. But never do I hear anything like robots. Well this christmas I got a small remote control helicopter. These small helicopters, which fit into the palm of your hand are less than $30 and are designed to be flown indoors. Not only that but while they have a remote control, they can be controlled with your mobile phone or iPad. As I was flying it, my 2 year old son was watching. I began to realize all of the things he was learning from just watching me fly it. I then started to think of all the cool things I could teach K-12 classes with something like this. There is so much involved from learning how a helicopter flies, physics, science, engineering, etc. So for less than $30, I could purchase one of these and use it in my class. What is an advantage? Well its really fun to fly. Anything that students can have fun with while learning is something I recommend. So today in my undergraduate class, I am going to begin class by flying a helicopter without saying a word to my students. Then I am going to ask them how this could be used in education. The point I am making is that when we think of technology in the classroom we need to get past the notion that it only means computers and ipads.
Here is a video of one of these helicopters:
Why are people still using CDs?
Check out this article from Mashable. Why are people using DVDs or CDs? Well its beyond me. I havent bought a CD since around 1998 and have not bought a DVD since around 2005. Its all about hard drives, the cloud, and streaming. To me disks just take up space in my office or my house and I hate clutter. This is an interesting stat from the article that just boggles my mind: Consumers bought 193 million CDs in 2012 vs. 118 million digitally downloaded albums, according to Nielsen SoundScan. If you do still love these tangible items, get ready to say goodbye because not too long from now computers will not have them.
2013 Technology Wish List
Here are the top 30 tech gadgets and technologies I am looking forward to in 2013 or hoping are finally ready for prime time:
1. Unlocked smartphones that work with 4G. Right now the Nexus 4 is a good attempt but doesnt even work with Verizon. Lets hope the Nexus X (rumored phone) is just that.
2. Xbox 720
3. No more DVDs – streaming only
4. Tablets that are as powerful as computers
5. Opensource OS (i.e. Android) becomes mainstream for all devices
6. Free cloud storage for k-16 schools
7. Opensource online classroom similar to Webex
8. Skype goes opensource
9. Google hangout changes its interface and name
10. Google drive is called google docs again
11. Online calendars sync flawlessly
12. No new call of duty game
13. A good conversion product from flash to html5
14. A good html5 development tool (ie adobe edge)
15. Apple to open up their app store or create a business app store. Right now their app store is not developer friendly towards businesses that create apps that apple just denies.
16. A robot that watches kids and does house work
17. An invisibility cloak
18. Real life Halo Armor
19. A tv that knows what I want to watch and uses voice commands to change the channel
20. My car, tv, computer, phone, and tablet all synced together
21. Spotify that works for free on wifi on ipad
22. A MMORPG and FPS combined in one to make the ultimate video game
23. Netflix or amazon prime to get all the disney movies on instant play
24. Amazon prime to work on apple tv
25. PHPBB to include good spam protection in their builds
26. Phone carriers to stop charging the cost of your phone when your contract is up.
27. A phone carrier that competes with ATT and Verizon that is just as good that lowers prices, not keeps increasing them to make more money
28. No more cable tv. Let streaming internet take over finally
29. Video conferencing that allows for holograms instead of 2d/3d people so its like the person is really there in the room
30. virtual reality from the 90s that actually works
31. accessibility plugins software for me and my friends!
Bonus – Hover boards – I have been waiting for these since Back to the Future part II
Australian university to issue 11,000 iPads next year
Some excerpts from the article:
“The University of Western Sydney said in a statement that it plans to distribute 11,000 iPads next year to every new student and member of the faculty “to support learning and teaching innovations across the curriculum and in informal learning environments.””
“The iPad initiative is part of a curriculum overhaul at UWS that will stress “flexible study options” and “a blended learning model,” The Australian reports. Traditional lectures will be augmented by a more interactive learning approach, Krause said.
“Mobile technologies will be a key part of this strategy,” she said. “We want to support our academic staff to make the most of iPads and custom-designed apps in class so that, even in the largest lecture theater, students have access to just-for-me, just-in-time interactive learning experiences.””
My thoughts:
While I am personally more inclined to use laptops over tablets because they do so much more, I think things like this can be very beneficial if implemented correctly – and that is the key. If they just buy professors and students a bunch of iPads, I would not expect much good to come out of them…at least not a large % anyway. Now if they train the professors and students how to use them, provide good resources, and support, then it could be an awesome initiative.
UNCW MIT Program featured on The Pulse (UNC Blog)
Here is information and an interview about the UNCW MIT program…check it out: http://epulsenews.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/the-instructional-technology-program-uncw/
Link to interview
Is paper waste killing your business? infographic
Thought this was awesome. I never print paper unless I absolutely have to. I do not print anything for my classes it’s all online. Please think before you print
You see trying to get the customer to pay top dollar at the store isn’t a good business model anymore. Its at the point where people just assume that the store will charge more so its easier to just order online without even comparing. This is where big box stores are losing out and why they are closing. Their theory is that people will come to the store and buy the product without price checking…and sure some people might do that, however, with all of these closings of stores like walmart, sams club, and target, its pretty clear that this line of thinking does not work. Its a bad model. Its not sustainable and if they want to stay in the game they need to change.
How can stores solve this problem? Learning from Andrew Defrancesco and other CEOs will help you create better strategies for your business. Start advertising that they have the lowest prices and that they are comparing with top online sellers to ensure their prices are the lowest. Then people like me would have no problem going to the store and feeling confident that what I was buying was the correct price. Walmart could easily start by just automatically having the same price online vs in store. Smaller stores can do the same too. People enjoy going to stores but they need to do a better job with their prices or they are done. Technology didn’t create this problem, technology is solving a problem that worked against the customer.
