Tech Dave’s Blog

As the school year winds down and final projects and papers are written many long hours will be spent researching.  Reference books and library cards are traded for late night Google searches and blog reading.  What is understood as fact online can often be fiction.  It is much easier to find information now with technology, but it is much harder to determine if the information is correct.  Wikipedia, though it ryhmes with encyclepdia, is edited by ANYONE.  This article shows how correct information is sometimes less important than quick information.  Student hoaxes world media with fake quote.

As many know, my wife is in her last week of pregnancy with our second child – due April 10th. If you didn’t even know I was married, let alone had a kid already, then you learned something new today. I will be taking off sometime when the baby comes, a week or two. But while I’m gone it is uber important that you put in District Tech Support Requests for anything and everything! Erin Amann, tech support at Enfield, will be coming over when possible to help out while I’m gone.

Many of you have grown accustom to leaving notes or catching me in the halls, but this is not the best way. I will be checking my email occasionally (I felt like I should say that, but its not likely) but only to assist Erin and send pictures. So please submit District Tech Requests.

Some of you may think that I have prophetic or telepathic powers because I won the March Madness pool, thank you, but I don’t. I need to be told what the issues are around the school so that I can fix them. I get confused when a teacher says “This hasn’t been working for a week”, but they only emailed the request 30 minutes ago. So when a problem happens please email District Tech and don’t assume someone else will.

Doing these little things will make the entire world a better place.

P.S. The March Madness money is going toward diapers – pretty exciting huh!

P.P.S. If you don’t know how to send a District Tech Support Request please view my How To page here and watch the video.

In a technology age where individuals can share about their lives and opinions many people have forgotten how permanent and how far their words can travel.
Be careful what you say:
At school all emails are archived and can be retrieved.
At school voicemails are also archived, and your home voicemails/text messages can be saved and retransmitted.
Even personal email is not so personal – this is a exert from a Wired.com article about Google: “A document titled “Google Data Collection and Retention” listed all the ways that Google hoards user information. Google Checkout remembers credit card numbers. Gmail reads private email. Blogger saves draft posts” (emphasis mine).
And then there is Facebook, only your friends can view your posts and wall-to-wall messages, right?
In case you have not heard an Eagles employee was fired for one Facebook post – read this.

Be careful what you say and what you write.  You do not know who’s eyes see it or who’s ears you are reaching.

Everything these days is online; TV shows, movie rentals, social communities, grocery shopping, banking, photo albums, and home videos.  Everything!  And most of it is free, if you don’t mind the ads (by the way if you see links with a double underline in this blog that is an ad link that edublogs puts in, dont click on it).  A computer is a great tool, but more and more if it is not connected to the internet it is useless.  Airplanes now have internet access! (You can finally use the Airplane mode on your phone).  Stores offer free Wifi, iPods can surf the web, and everyone knows that cell phones are no more, now we have SmartPhones, PDAs and MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices).

But are we better off?

I remember when my parents didnt want to get a cell phone because they didnt want to be available always.  Or when I would check my e-mail on Prodigy once a week.  When computers called the internet with dial-up speeds.  And every thing was tethered to the outlets or phone jacks.

And what if you are not connected? There are millions of people without internet connection and many are living happily without it.  Maybe they have never seen Twiggy water ski or Googled themselves, but they are still content.

But are we better off?

Next time you instinctively check your email for the 25th time or log-in to Facebook to view old high school friends Photoshopped pictures think about your life before you were plugged in.

Ok enough nostalgic fluff, since you are plugged in, join my network on Delicious, follow me on Twitter, and bookmark to my blog below.

Now that every printer is 96% online I would like to discuss how you should be printing so that we are able to print in the future. Yes printing at the end of the year is in question so please see how you can help.

• You should NOT print class sets of work sheets and letters home. We own the printers and must buy toner for the printers, which are not cheap. We lease the copiers so you should be printing out one black/white copy and using the copiers to make the class set. This may be an inconvenience, but it is much more inconvenient to run out of toner and not be able to print.

• You should NOT print to a color printer because of a festive clip art picture.  Please only use the color printers when color is NECESSARY. With pictures and colored graphs color is necessary, but not a letter to parents with red heart in the color, please print everything you can to black/white.

• You should NOT print if printing has already failed once. The printers will not always work, sorry, but please make sure that you cancel a print that fails. When the printer is fixed that print command you sent three days ago will go through if you have not canceled it and paper will be wasted. Also don’t try the same Word doc or picture multiple times without canceling because they will come out eventually. Video how to cancel a print.

• You should NOT print emails that you can easily forward.  There is a tendency to print out short emails that should just be forwarded.  Please don’t use paper and toner if you don’t need to.  If you have a question about forwarding or sharing an email with someone please let me know.

• You should NOT print what can easily be shown on an Elmo. If you have a story, picture, or worksheet you can show on the Elmo have the students use regular paper to answer or reflect on.

• You should NOT have extra blank pages in Word documents. One big waste of time and paper is when your Word doc has a blank page at the end. Please check before you print the number of pages and if you need to delete spaces after your page to minimize blank pages.

• This is just a helpful idea – if you could put your name on the pages you print so that other teachers and staff know who’s they are in case you forget to pick them up. There are stacks of pages sitting by every printer that were not picked up. If your name was on it you might not even have to walk and get it if someone is nice enough to bring it to you.

Thank you for your patience understanding this new network and getting the printers online.  As always I will work to keep the printers up and running as much as possible.  I hope that you can take steps that will help prolong the life of our printers and toner so that we can all appreciate them.

I was told about a freeware (free software) today that can capture video and still images from your screen easily.  Jing.com has a very simple yet useful product.  Here is a screen shot example:

And here is a short video example (some readers will not display it):

I have and will be using these to help illustrate instructions and solutions in my blog pages.  Please check out some of the new videos and screen shots in my How To’s pages.  The links take you to the images and videos.

If you are interested in using this on your own computer please let me know.

Last night ‘Lost’ was on again.  The show was watched by millions of viewers.  And as always the episode leaves us with more questions than answers. 

In 2004 the show was thought of as a modern day ‘Gilligan’s Island’ (yes I watched many episodes as a kid) but more realistic like ‘Castaway’.  Through the years the show, and “the island”, have changed so much.  And even if you have watched every episode, the video recaps and “untangleds“, and studied the thousands of blogs and you still do not know what is going on, take heart, you are not alone. 

It seems as though the title ‘Lost’ has always been not about the characters, but the audience.

Fireworks roared in my rear view mirror.
Actually there were fireworks all around. The radio was the only sound I could hear. I was heading back from the airport. William and Jen were in for a long weekend from Indy. More fireworks. They had just flown over Citizen Bank Park, close enough to read the scoreboard. They witnessed history. They witnessed Game 5, if only for a few seconds. They saw it like few would, from the air.

The Phillies had just won the 2008 World Series!! I celebrated in the car by honking, cheering, and yelling. I was less than 5 miles from the stadium. William and Jen were telling me how cool it was to see the stadium and all the people then get in the car for the last 3 outs.

This is not the greatest sports story ever. Its a good one, kind of cool to tell some friends about. But nothing close to this story – the greatest sports story ever.

Growing up I often thought pro athletes had it all.  They all made millions.  They got paid to “play a game”.  Well liked.  On ESPN every night.  Got months off to travel and spend their millions.  Who wouldn’t want that? 

But to my surprise I have found a career far greater than a professional athlete.

I wish I could be a weatherman!  Or should I say a meteorologist! 

Meteorologists have it made.  They are famous, on TV, known by everyone, and never wrong.  They have billboards, TV ads about their greatness, and cutting edge high tech gear.  And they can tell the future!

They make people carry umbrellas with them on sunny days.  They give school children hope of a day-off 5 days from now.  They can make people end vacations early.  They can help grocery stores sell out of bread and water before a spring sprinkle.  They can do whatever they want!!

Pro athletes actually train year round.  Watch what they eat, push their bodies to the limit, and travel often.  Many don’t make millions, many fear for there jobs if they make one mistake.  They are berated on national TV, traded and dropped yearly, and, especially in Philly, can never really be liked.

When was the last time you saw stats for Glenn Schwartz?  Have you seen David Murphy’s record since 2000?  Has anyone tagged Sue Serio’s lawn with gasoline? 

I wish I could be a meteorologist.

But I know I never will.

I don’t know how to tie a bow tie.

Monday, January 5, 2009.
Yes its 2009 already and we are back at school already.
12 1/2 days off to relax, eat, party, eat, open presents and eat more.
The break was full of good and bad stories, difficult times and laughter but the wailing alarm clock laughing at you at such an early time means the end of all of that. Its 2009, Monday January 5th, 2009.
Computers kick back on, students come in wearing new coats, the heat is actually on before 10 AM, its Monday January 5th.
As lunch approaches, the idea of eating more left-overs from holiday parties hits you and you question how many more days the turkey is considered “still good”. Or what to do with the chocolates you devoured at Christmas but resolved not to eat a week later. Its Monday, January 5th.
Then the intercom system’s muffled message to send down your students dismissal comes it is like a call of freedom. You also hear your bed calling from miles away; beckoning you come lay for awhile.
You made it through Monday, January 5th.
One more day down.
Monday, January 5th is gone.
One day closer to June 13th.