SD#34 Tech Tips

PhotoBooth for Older Macs | Funny Photographer

2007-01-30T23:08:00.000-08:00

Check out this PhotoBooth for the rest of us. It's called Funny Photographer. It includes a few very cool effects that are not included in PhotoBooth, it's free, and you can use any USB web cam. You will need Mac OS X 10.4. Get it here

Video Yourself in a Browser Window

2007-01-30T22:16:00.000-08:00

You can now video yourself and post the video to the web all in one webpage. No longer will you need to go through all the steps of recording, compressing and uploading your videos. Now you can go to flixn.com and begin videoing youself within seconds. Once you are done the website gives you the embed code to paste in your AbbyNet webpage (remember to format the text as literal html). It couldn't be easier.

Free Phonecalls From a Webpage

2007-01-30T22:10:00.000-08:00

gizmocall I tried this tonight and it works as advertised. It's like Skype without the program...

STEP ONE: Go to https://www.gizmocall.com
STEP TWO: Download the flash plugin and install
STEP THREE: Type +1 and the phone number and click on Call
STEP FOUR: Call for free anywhere for up to 10 minutes per day

VYEW - Online Whiteboard and more!

2006-12-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

VYEW - Share your view...

100% Browser-based - No downloads or installs
Shared viewing of: DOCs, PPTs, XLSs, JPGs, PDFs and more
Real-time Desktop Sharing and Screen Capturing
Tools to Whiteboard, Draw and Annotate
Built-in Text-chat and Teleconferencing

http://vyew.com/

Free Programs from Google

2006-11-21T04:44:00.000-08:00

Is this the beginning of the end of the Desktop PC? Google is one many companies providing Applications that no longer require anything more than a web browser to run. In this CNet article we see most of the Apps from Google being web based, cross platform and free. Link

Yet Another Free Website Creation Tool..

2006-11-05T07:24:00.000-08:00

Weebly is an Ajax based, online tool for making personal or small business websites. It reminds me a little of RapidWeaver as well as having elements of iWeb, all on a website. Weebly's features include:

Drag and Drop Interface
Variety of Themes
Personalized Subdomains
Export to Zip File
Numerous Content Elements
Photos, Videos, Maps, Ads, etc.

Check out their video tutorial.

Free Online File Conversion

2006-11-04T22:11:00.000-08:00

Ever need to convert a word processing file to another format but needed software to do it. How about a quicktime movie that you would like to convert to flash? The and numerous other file conversions can now be done online for free. Check it out at Zamzar.

I Love WAVS: Free sound effects for your MultiMedia Projects

2006-11-03T14:18:00.000-08:00

Often I am looking for just the right sound effect when making a movie or creating a composition in GarageBand. ilovewavs (pronounced: I Love Waves) is a great place to search for the perfect sound. Once you preview the one you want, Right-Click on it and download it to your computer. WAV files are compatible with most multi-media creation programs such as iMovie, MovieMaker, PowerPoint, KeyNote, ect. http://www.ilovewavs.com/

Intro to Mac OS X

2006-11-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

If you are new to Mac OS X, this video will take you through a quick intro to how it can work for you.

PAGEot Creates Embedded Quicktime Code for You

2006-11-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

PAGEot is an application which generates EMBED and OBJECT code for the QuickTime Plug-in. With a single click PAGEot allows you to add QuickTime movies (interactive videos, sounds, panoramas and objects...) to your HTML pages. With PAGEot, you can export fully functional HTML pages, or directly copy-paste HTML code in your preferred web page editor.

Embedded Calculators

2006-11-01T21:05:00.000-08:00

InstaCalc is an online calculator that can be embedded in a web page, edited by anyone, displayed in charts and shared in a given state with a link. If you’ve got a formula and some numbers, you can post it on your blog or website and you can see how things would work out with different numbers. The math is done in real time.

Installing and Using SME Management Tools on Your Computer

2006-10-30T22:31:00.000-08:00

Greetings. It has been a trying first couple of months getting SME running the way we want it to. However, today we have it working well and able to print reports and manage students and groups from any computer anywhere, home or school. Here is how... Note: This will not work on an Intel Based Mac (one bought in the last 6 months or so with an Intel Processor) These steps are for installing the Management Tools for SuccessMaker Enterprise. This is not a full installer needed to run the Courses at home.

STEP ONE: You will need to logged in as the Administrator of the computer. Download Internet Explorer 5.1.2 for Classic Mac.

STEP TWO: Download the SME ReportViewer and run Install SME ReportViewer

STEP THREE: Open the SMe IE 5.1.6 folder and launch SMe IE 5.1.6 NOTE: SuccessMaker Enterprise is ONLY runs properly using this version of Internet Explorer. Not Internet Explorer 5.2 for OS X You should see Classic Launching

STEP FOUR: If you are running this from a school computer, log out of the Admin account and log in as a student would. Go to successmaker.sd34.bc.ca and click on START

STEP FIVE: Choose your school and log in with your admin user name and password

STEP SIX: To run reports, click on Generate Reports. Be patient as the Java Applets launch. Choose one of the many reports available and then click on View Options. Click on "Groups" and then "Add Groups" Choose 1 or more groups to run the report on. Shift Click from top to bottom to include all the groups. Then click Next. Then View Report. If all goes well, you will see your report in this window. Remember, you are in Classic and will need to print using a printer set up in Classic.

STEP SEVEN: Print the Report If you want to convert this report into a PDF and open-print it in OS X, then use PrinttoPDF to create a virtual Printer. Click here to download Print2PDF installer. Find it on your desktop and double-click to launch the installer. Now when you you go to your Classic chooser, you will find PrintToPDF as one of your Printers. Click on it to choose it before printing the Report. It will prompt you to create a PDF of the Report. Save it and open it with Preview or Adobe Reader and proceed to print off your report from the printer setup in OS X.

FirstClass Keyboard Shortcuts

2006-10-29T14:14:00.000-08:00

What to speed up your email tasks 100%? Learn a few keyboard shortcuts for the programs you use to read email. For Abbotsford teachers, the Keyboard shortcuts can be viewed here:

Children's Literature Read Aloud: LibriVox

2006-10-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

From their website: LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. We are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project. They have a growing selection of Public Domain Children's Literature that you may want to have a look at. Combine this with the Public Domain Print Version from Project Gutenberg (19,000 free books and growing) and you have a great Read-to-Me solution. Check it out.

Importing Previous Year's Records into ReportWriter

2006-10-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

Below we have the old Reportwriter (last year's) and the new ReportWriter 3.54. Open the new one, and assuming you have not added any students to it yet, it will prompt you to import records from last year.

Choose Import when this window pops up.

Click Yes in this window.

Click Next

Choose the Report Data.rw1 file from last year's ReportWriter folder. Click Open.

It will import all of your records from last year. At this point you should delete last year's students from your list and keep the template record. Use the template from last year as a basis for this year's template.

Sharing Email Lists with FirstClass

2006-10-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

Step One: Create an email addressed TO the person you want to send the email list to. Step Two: Open your address book and position the new message and the open Address Book widow next to each other. Step Three: Drag the List you are sharing from your Address Book window into the attachments area of the email. Step Four: Send email. Step Five: Recipient opens the email and drags the attached list to their OWN open Address Book.

Make Flash Movies Online for Free: Toufee

2006-10-25T23:03:00.000-07:00

What is Toufee? Toufee is the easiest, most powerful way to create and publish flash movies and presentations online. Create flash movies, banners, presentations, e-cards, etc Point and click editor makes creating flash content a breeze No downloading, installation or plugins - it's all web based Hundreds of special effects for your text, photos and videos Insert images from Flickr & videos from Youtube with a click Small output size makes sure your movies run everywhere! Publish your movies directly to MySpace, eBay, Blogs, etc. Link to website

Making PDF's with Mac OS X

2006-10-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

Making a PDF out of a document couldn't be easier if you are using Mac OS X. Just start to Print the document, but instead of printing to a printer, choose Save as PDF in the Print dialogue window.

Free CD-DVD Burning Software for Mac OS X

2006-10-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

BurnX Free makes it very easy to burn CD's with multiple sessions in an hybrid format for compatibility with other platforms. Available only for Mac OS X, this application lets you burn a CD or DVD by dragging and dropping files or folders to the main window, you can use sessions so multiple burns can be done in the same disc (CD only). It also has the ability to erase a CD or DVD. Download it Burnz Free Homepage

iPhoto for Your PDFs

2006-10-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

You HAVE to try this little app. It's Free, need I say more? Launch it and instantly you will see all the pdfs in your hard drive like they were in iPhoto. Not only that, it builds a database of all the text in the pdfs, then catagorizes the contents and builds groupings of documents based on potential topics...all while you do nothing but watch. Yep then becomes a super Finder for your documents. The cool thing is that it leaves them where they are, in fact you will not care WHERE they are because Yep takes care of all that. Give it a try... Yep

Create Interactive Learning Objects for the Web - Using "Hot Potatoes"

2006-09-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

What is Hot Potatoes?

The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their pages available on the web. Go to the site http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ and download the application for PC or Mac. Using form fill Hot Potatoes will create the HTML for any of the above learning objects - insert the HTML file into your website and presto you have a learning object to match your lessons!

Your next computer? $146

2006-06-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

The Municator from China is going for $146. Built with a very energy efficient "Godson" chip, running Linux, Firefox, Skype, and a version of Open Office, and shipped without a monitor, this computer seems to blur the line between computer and appliance. Check out this (rather lengthy) video of the Municator being introduced at a CeBit 2006.

Blogged with Flock

2006-06-28T12:52:00.000-07:00

LiquidCD makes it easy to burn almost any kind of CD or DVD. Not that this functionality isn’t mostly native to Mac OS X, but LiquidCD puts it right at your fingertips. You can burn an audio, MP3, or picture CD, burn an .iso, .dmg, .cue/bin, or .toast image, or even duplicate a DVD. This freeware really comes in handy when you want to burn a music or audio file to a disk quickly. For example, I download college lectures from the internet. Rather than copying it to iTunes, making a playlist with the file, burning it to a cd to listen to in my truck, and then deleting the file back out of iTunes, it’s much easier to just drop it in LiquidCD and burn it there. It’s also nice for audiobooks that don’t really need to be in the iTunes library because you’ll never listen to them again. Get it here: LiquidCD .

Application Switching

2006-06-27T22:34:00.000-07:00

This tip will help you move between open programs in a great hurry. Open a couple of programs. With your left hand, press the Apple key with your thumb, then tap the tab key with your left pointer finger. You will cycle through your open programs. When you land on one you want to use, let go of the Apple key with your thumb and you will be in the program. This is similar to Alt Tab in Windows. If you want to quit a program or a whole bunch of them, while you are cycling through the programs using Apple-Tab, press the "q" key while still holding the Apple key down with your thumb. The program will quit (unless you have an unsaved document, then it will prompt you to save before quitting.) One way I use this is when copying items from one program to another. Let's say I am copying data from a website into a word document. With the left thumb firmly planted on the Apple key, I select the data, press "c" then "tab" to the document I am working on, place the cursor where I want it, then press "v" to paste, then "tab" back the website again. This can take a under a second to do and help shave a lot of time off repetitive tasks.

Teens Using IT Against Us! :-)

2006-06-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Teacher-proof ring tone latest 'teen buzz' High-frequency sound can't be heard by most adults--and kids are taking advantage A technology using ultra-high frequency sound to drive teenage loiterers away from shopping centers in the U.K. has been hijacked by tech-savvy teens to create an inaudible cell phone ring tone. Students are employing the technology to surreptitiously use mobile phones in class by creating ring tones that most adults cannot hear. Read More.... http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=6350 Can you hear it? http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/atc/atc_teenbuzz.mp3

Slideshows with iPhoto

2006-06-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Every year in June I get numerous calls for help to make year-end slideshows. Often people will want features like titles, custom transitions, and multiple audio tracks but are intimidated by the need to use iMovie to gain all these options. iPhoto 6 (part of iLife '06) can create slideshows with music, and with the addition of AppleWorks or Comic Life to add titles to slides, you can have a year-end slideshow in very little time. Click here to go to my ScreenCast site for this video tutorial.

Cross Platform Screen Sharing Presentation Tool

2006-06-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

Tiffany Screens has just been released. It is a free screen sharing tool that can be used by both Macs and PC's in the same LAN (Local Area Network). If you would like your students to have a closer look at what you are doing on your computer, you may want to use this tool. This program can either be sending or receiving allowing students to share their screens over the LAN as well. For Macs, Network Assistant and later Remote Desktop can do this. These cost money and don't allow each user to have the same ability to decide to broadcast or receive. Check it out while it is still free! http://www.tiffanyscreens.com/

One Laptop per Child Prototype Video

2006-06-02T23:03:00.000-07:00

Creating Web-Ready Images in a hurry.

2006-06-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

Today's digital cameras take beautiful, high resolution photos. This can be a problem for people who want to post their photos on the web. Often it will require using a separate program to down-size the images. Here is a Mac Mac OS X-only (sorry Windows users) tip that will greatly speed up the process of putting web-ready photos in your webpages. 1. Open the image in iPhoto (or any other program with which you can zoom the photo to the size you want). 2. Use the zooming feature to bring the photo to the desired size. Making a reduced image file 3. Take a screen shot of the image. There are two ways to do this. To create an image file on your desktop, hold the Shift and Command (Apple) keys down at the same time. Then type "4"and you will see your cursor turn into a cross-hair. Click and drag over the image on the screen. You will find a resulting image file on your desktop. Insert this image into your webpage. Copy a reduced image to your clipboard 4. If you are creating a webpage using AbbyNet (FirstClass) where copying and pasting images is the way to put them on your page, then you will need to hold the Shift, Command(Apple) and Control keys down at the same time. Then type "4" and you will see your cursor turn into a cross-hair. Click and drag over the image on the screen. Go to the FirstClass webpage you are working on, position the cursor where you want the image to be pasted and then paste. Please contact me, GaryToews, if you have any questions or comments about this tip.

Inserting Fractions and Formulae into AppleWorks

2006-05-16T11:22:00.000-07:00

To insert fractions into a word processing document... 1. Under the edit menu, choose Insert Equation... to bring up the Equation Editor 2. Click on the button to create a vertical fraction or long division equation and choose the correct positioning for the fraction. 3. Fill in the numerals for the fraction 4. Close the Equation Editor and the fraction will be inserted into your document where the cursor is positioned. 5. Pull the handle on the bottom right of the fraction to resize it. 6. Double-click the equation in order to bring up the Equation Editor to edit it.

Take screen shots of the whole webpage

2006-05-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

Many teachers print off screeshots of webpages for use in handouts etc. Often a webpage will be just a little longer than what fits on an 8.5 X 11 piece of paper. This makes it awkward to have to piece together two screen shots, one of the top and another of the bottom portion of the page. To solve this problem, there is a FREE application for Mac OS X that will take a screen shot of the whole web page. All you do it type in the URL of the webpage, press enter and it will appear ready to be captured. It's called Paparazzi. Did I mention it was FREE? Click here to visit their site and download this gem.

Making a FavIcon (Geeky Tip)

2006-05-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

If you have ever wondered how a webmaster got the cool little icon for his website to show up in the address bar, this tips is for you. This little Blogger icon that shows up just ahead of http:// can now be created online. Go to http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/favicon/ and upload a graphic or photo. Follow the screen prompts and it will download for you your own favicon. This is quick, easy and fun!

Why PodCast

2006-05-10T23:41:00.000-07:00

This is an episode from the Cut to the Core podcast. In this episode the question of why we as educators should be involved in podcasting is answered. After watching this episode you most likely will be wanting to learn more about how you can use podcasting to inspire students. Please don't hesitate to email me if you would like me to work with your class creating podcasts.

One Computer - Two AbbyNet Accounts

2006-05-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

Many homes have two people with separate Abbynet or FirstClass accounts. For convenience sake it would be nice to have the login information for the two accounts saved separately thereby allowing you to access any number of FirstClass servers from the same copy of FirstClass.

Here is what you do.

A. Find your FirstClass Settings folder
YourHomeFolder/Library/FirstClass/Settings/

B. Duplicate the home.fc file and name it something else to differentiate it from the home.fc file.

C. Double-click on the new file and the Login Window will appear.
D. Click on the Setup button.

E. FIll in the new server address OR the other users User ID.

Note: It is not recommended to type in the password in the password field since this makes it very easy for unauthorized users to log in to your email account.

F. Click Save

G. Now when you run FirstClass you will have two options for logging in accessed by clicking on the pulldown menu.

Extracting Images from PowerPoint to iPhoto

2006-05-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

1. Export the presentation as a website 2. Put the website into a new folder on your desktop 3. Open the folder in a new window and type .png in the find window. (make sure you have chosen the folder of the website the folder you are searching in). Look for the larger image files so you don't choose thumbnails. 4. Drag and drop the images you want to use into iPhoto

Comic Life: Writing Made Fun!

2006-05-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

Comic Life gives you a super-quick and easy way to create astounding comics, beautiful picture albums and enticing instruction booklets to name a few of the many possibilities. Students won't be able to keep themsleves from this little gem. Imagine asking them to create a Chapter Summary with Comic Life! Have a look at some of the examples below or visit their website to learn more or download a 30 day free trial.

Adding Effects to iPhotos Using AppleWorks.

2006-05-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

One thing that iPhoto does not allow you to do is add text captions and clip art effects to photos. This would be helpful since many of us would like to include these effects in our iPhoto Slideshows. Because many schools do not have access to image editing software, but do have access to AppleWorks, I decided to write a short tutorial on how to use AppleWorks to accomplish this. Click here to see the tutorial

Finally...Microsoft Office in a Web Browser!

2006-05-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

ThinkFree Office is a free, online version of Office. It includes a version of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, all running in a Web Browser Window. It even works with Apple's Safari (which is notorious for not playing well with online applications like Blogger). This is a big deal for schools who can't afford to outfit their labs with $90 copies of Office. Once you set up an account, you have access to 1 GB of online storage and Java versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Now students can continue their work at home without having to log into their school server. This is going to change the way we deploy technology in schools. ThinkFree Office Website.

iShrink: Free Zip Compression

2006-04-30T23:50:00.000-07:00

iShrink can compress and decompress files and folders to or from a number of zip formats. Compression and decompression is easy to do with iShrinks easy to use drag and drop interface.

1 GB Free Storage: Box.net

2006-04-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

Box.net is a free service that allows you to store 1 GB of files for free and up to 5 GB for a mere $5/month. Apparently, this rate is rapidly dropping and will likely raise the limit within a short time. The interface is very friendly. (On the Mac, Firefox is the best browser to use.) I just set up an account tonight and was amazed how easy it was to upload my documents. The Synchronizing feature is also great as it only uploads new files. http://www.box.net/

Image Tricks: Great Free Software for Editing Photos

2006-04-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

Image Tricks 2.0 is a free application to edit and generate images. It uses Mac OS X (10.4 Only) Tiger Core Image filters that transform pictures to unimaginable extent and apply advanced visual effects. The program can create unique artwork you may use as business card background, for web design, print materials and more. This is a GREAT piece of software and the price is right. I can see students loving this program.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

2006-04-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

Everywhere you go nowadays you will hear someone talking about RSS. This website or that website will have RSS. If you see this symbol on a website, the website is RSS enabled. What is RSS? Wikipedia says that

RSS feeds provide web content or summaries of web content together with links to the full versions of the content, and other metadata.

What this means is that through RSS you can have websites automatically checked for new content and have summaries of this content fed right to your computer. So, what programs allow you to read RSS feeds? Check these out...

For a more detailed description of these RSS readers check out this very good article on Ars Technica

FlySketch: Free (Time Limited) Advanced Screen Capture Tool

2006-04-23T07:13:00.000-07:00

Gus Mueller of FlyingMeat has created a couple of very innovative programs. The one I'm interested in is FlySketch. If you ever create howto pages for software or using a computer, you will appreciate what FlySketch can do. The video below is an example of how FlySketch has added features you didn't even know you needed...but won't be able to live without. Yes, and the program will run natively on the new Intel Macs. Be sure to check out Gus's website and download and try FlySketch as well as Voodoo Pad and Fly Gesture.

Gawker

2006-04-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

Gawker is an application for Mac OS X that creates time-lapse movies using an iSight camera. Images from your camera can be shared, allowing other users to record your image stream. Streams can also be combined to create a time-lapse movie with two locations side-by-side.

News Flash: Games are Good!

2006-04-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

You may not be able to access these games from school (click on the popcap icon) so try them out at home and then protest! Marc Prensky, a keynote speaker at the BCEdOnline Conference in Vancouver, spoke on the value of games in learning. Read either of his books..."Digital Game-based Learning" or "Don't Bother Me... I'm Learning" for an eye opener to what games can do for students. Pop Cap is one site he recommended. Caution: these games are addictive. I tried out "TyperShark" in which you have to type the words found on each shark in order to zap them. Get them before they get you! After each round, you find out your typing speed and accuracy. Painless way to improve your typing speed. "Bookworm" is a game in which you connect letters to form words. If you get a burning tile, you have to use it in a word before it burns down the library. I'd write more but I'm heading back to Pop Cap to test out another game!

Google Launches It's Calendar

2006-04-13T00:40:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for an online Calendar, you should check out Google's new calendar service. It is full featured including private and public settings, multiple calendar and the drag and drop - click and pull features of Apple's iCal. Check it out here: http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/tour.html

Enhancing Your Website with Evoca

2006-04-12T23:40:00.000-07:00

Evoca - Online Audio

2006-04-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Evoca's Website

AppleJack

2006-04-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

AppleJack Here is a FREE and handy tool for fixing your troublesome Mac running OS X. From their website...

AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI, or don't have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use.

Click here for their website

Installing Windows XP on Your Intel Mac

2006-04-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

If you have just purchased an Intel Mac, you have an added bonus. APple has released Boot Camp, software that allows you to intall Windows XP on your Intel Mac. It creates a partition for Windows on your Mac which you can choose to boot from at startup. You will need a retail copy of Windows XP SP2 in order to do this. Here is a video tutorial by the guys at UneasySilence.com

iMovie in a Web Browser?

2006-04-05T23:12:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon a very interesting website today. It's called JumpCut. Basically, it allows you to upload video, photos, and audio and remix them into a video that is hosted on their website. It's like a very basic version of iMovie. It requires Flash 8 to be installed on your computer. This has great possibilities for students to work on their video projects from any computer, home or at school as well as provide a very convenient way to share their work. Some of the projects on JumpCut are pretty funny, like this remake of Billy Idol's White Wedding.

Dual Boot Your Intel Mac!

2006-04-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to run Windows, FULL SPEED, on your Mac? Now you can. Oh, except you will need one of those new Intel Macs and Apple's new "Boot Camp" Software. Click here for more details.

Hornby Island Eagle Nest

2006-04-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

You need to check out this live streaming video of an eagle's nest. It's simply the best streaming video I've ever seen! Very educational! Windows users go here to start watching: http://www.infotecbusinesssystems.com/encoder/index.html Mac users need to do a few things in order for it work ...

You will need a Mac running OS X 10.3 or later.
Download and install the Flip4Mac Windows Media plugin. Click here to download.
If you have a new Intel Mac, you are out of luck for now until they release Flip4Mac for Intel.
You will need to be the Administrator of your Mac.
Be sure your proxy is off.

Schools may need to contact their local tech teacher or ITC tech. 604-855-HELP

After installing, restart your computer.

Open QuickTime Player Under the File menu, choose Open URL Copy the following address and paste it into the field mms://lastream001.galaxytelevision.net/hh001 Click OK If you have good bandwidth, you will hear the audio as well. If the video feed freezes or becomes unresponsive, you may need to close the window, and choose the feed again under the Recent Menu Watch it while you can, their webpage states that they get over 2 million hits a day and growing. My guess is that sooner or later their bandwidth will not be able to keep up with all the people watching the birds.... :-( Gary Toews

Playing Windows Media Files on Your Mac

2006-04-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

From a recent article on MacCompanion, "Flip4Mac is a nifty utility that brings more recent Windows Media file codecs to MacOS X. This means you will be able to play just about any WMV or WMA (Video or Audio) file on your Mac. Once installed, you just use familiar programs such as QuickTime or iMovie to work with these files. If you have the need, Flip4Mac offers various levels of capture and editing of these files as well. This program is a must have for any Internet video junkie as well as any person seriously into working with video." Click here to download it.

FolderShare

2006-03-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

FolderShare lets you “create a private peer-to-peer network that will help you to synchronize files across multiple devices and access or share files with colleagues and friends.” There is a 2GB maximum per file, but you can make unlimited file transfers...and it's FREE! More Info...

Log On and Learn!

2006-03-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

Live Homework Help – free online homework help from qualified tutors!
6-minute movie (85Mb - mpeg format) on using Live Homework Help with Steve Dotto ofDotto Tech TV. (Please note - your patience may be required, as this file takes time to download because of its size!).

Inkscape

2006-03-25T20:40:00.000-08:00

Inkscape 0.43.4

Inkscape is an open source drawing tool with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, and CorelDraw that uses the W3C standard scalable vector graphics format (SVG)

Play Stock Market for Fun with Google Finance

2006-03-21T07:42:00.000-08:00

I got this idea from Sharon Christian, teacher at Bradner Elementary. She used to track stocks with her Grade 7 kids. Now, you can create a portfolio of stocks online and compete with each other, all for fun. Just go to http://finance.google.com/ and sign up for a Google account. It's free and you get GMail with it. Set some rules for your kids, like how much they can spend and what kind of stocks they should buy. Then set a time limit and see what happens.

CuteClips 1.2: A smarter clipboard

2006-03-19T06:59:00.000-08:00

CuteClips is a small app that stores the last twelve entries in your clipboard. It can store up images, URLs, text or files in a nice smoked glass dialog, complete with preview and is activated by a hotkey. uteClips is a small app that stores the last twelve entries in your clipboard.

FTP Clients for Mac OS X

2006-03-17T14:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of FTP Clients for Mac OS X. Some are free and others have loads of features for a nominal fee...
Transmit - is an FTP, SFTP, and iDisk/WebDAV client that allows you to upload, download, and delete files over the internet. Cyberduck - is an open source FTP and SFTP browser licenced under the GPL with an easy to use interface, integration with external editors and support for many Mac OS X system technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour, the Keychain and AppleScript. Captain FTP - is the very first FTP Client to allow local network FTP users to share files directly between each other. The challenge behind this concept is to provide users with a platform to share their work, and collaborate on projects before their work is published on a remote FTP Server, particularly benefiting business users or groups of users, who can share their work securely, privately, and quickly. CuteFTP - is a professional version of Mac FTP client. It’s Tiger (Mac OSX 10.4) ready, has a multi-threaded thin “Metal” (Cocoa) interface, powerful features, and strong security for protecting your FTP sessions. Interarchy - is the standard in file transfer software for Macintosh users running Mac OS X (including Tiger). Interarchy has received two MacWorld Eddy nominations, many glowing reviews, and is the most powerful software of its class. Interarchy is FTP Mac software at its best. Fetch - Fetch is an easy-to-use, full-featured FTP and SFTP client for the Apple Macintosh. FTPeel - is a Mac FTP client with features like AppleScriptability and drag ‘n drop file mirroring to make the same files appear on your server as on your local computer. Fugu - Fugu is a graphical frontend to the commandline Secure File Transfer application (SFTP). SFTP is similar to FTP, but unlike FTP, the entire session is encrypted, meaning no passwords are sent in cleartext form, and is thus much less vulnerable to third-party interception. osXigen - is a fully featured FTP/SFTP client application with lots of advanced features. All this power is hidden under a beautiful and easy-to-use UI that can be customized with 4 different icon sets. GSFTP - With GSFTP you can efficiently and reliably fetch and transmit files to any kind of Internet server using FTP or SFTP. The goal of GSFTP is to be simple and to the point. GSFTP will work with servers running on Windows and Unix. Secure FTP - is a client application that allows for a 128-bit encrypted secure connection to be made to a server that supports FTP over SSL (or FTPS). Yummy FTP - is an OS X FTP client featuring super-fast transfers, auto recovery, finder uploads, scheduling and more

Web 2.0

2006-03-17T07:49:00.000-08:00

The internet is becoming more and more a "read/write" interface. Instead of downloading programs to do your work, web applications are allowing us to do our work online, from any computer world-wide. Many of these new web applications use AJAX and JAVA. Three very popular websites you should have a look at are Writely (recently acquired by Google), del.icio.us, and Flickr.

Clear your desktop before presenting

2006-03-17T07:32:00.000-08:00

Ever needed to take a screenshot and had to remove all of those icons from your Desktop before you do? Or maybe you needed to make a presentation and had to tidy up before hooking into the projector? If you did, then Desktopple is for you! Read More here: http://foggynoggin.com/desktopple

Safari Search Bar on Steroids!!

2006-03-17T07:14:00.000-08:00

AcidSearch is a plugin that enhances the search capabilities of the Google search bar in Safari. It is really helpful! For instance, if you want to seach Google images, or just the site you are viewing, you can do it from the Google bar once AcidSearch is installed. BTW, it's free! You can find it here: http://www.pozytron.com/acidsearch

Enable Tabbed Browsing in Safari

2006-03-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

Tabbed browing allows you to have many different web pages open in within one window. This allows you to switch between windows easily by clicking on tabs belonging to each individual webpage. To enable tabbed browsing in Safari, go to Safari>Preferences and select the “Tabs” icon. Just select the first box as follows. (You will also see some intructions on how to use it.)

Spring Cleaning for Mac OS X-Cache OutX

2006-03-12T06:56:00.000-08:00

According to Jim Mitchell (of Jim Mitchell Designs), who recently took over development of the software:

"Cache Out X (COX) is a handy tool that deep cleans your system, getting to, and deleting the multitude of cache files generated by OS X and web browsers. By using COX, you can get your computer back to feeling like it did the first time you bought it. The application deletes virtual memory swap files, system and user cache files, purges system logs, as well as removing cookies, other Internet related navigation and download cache files."

http://www.nonamescriptware.com

Just in time for Spring Break: Media Central

2006-03-10T07:06:00.000-08:00

Be entertained.

MediaCentral turns your Mac into the ultimate home theater system. With support for numerous audio, video and multimedia formats, MediaCentral brings it all together at the push of a button. I just tried this program, and I would say it out performs Front Row easily. It now supports a variety of remotes as well as the new Intel Macs. Oh, and it's free!!! Equinux - Website

Fill Out PDF Forms

2006-03-09T05:29:00.000-08:00

Formulate is a simple Mac OS X application that allows one to overlay text on top of a PDF file. This is particularly useful for filling out forms Get it for free here: http://adlr.info/?Formulate

NewsVine

2006-03-03T08:17:00.000-08:00

Are you a news junkie? Would you like to interact with the news you read or even be an author of a REAL news website? NewsVine may be the service for you! Of course, it's FREE. Visit http://newsvine.com and sign up. If you are not ready to author anything yet, just have a great read. There are 3 things you can do at NewsVine: Read, Write and Seed. For students are interested in trying their hand at journalism, this might be a good starting point.

iPhoto Batch Enhancer

2006-03-01T00:32:00.000-08:00

Finally no more sore fingers if you want to enhance newly imported photos within iPhoto... Plus it's free! Simply drag pictures from iPhoto onto iPhoto Batch Enhancer and immediately all of them are treated to a previously selected built in iPhoto effect: Enhance, B-W or Sepia. Click here to learn more.

MousePose

2006-03-01T00:12:00.000-08:00

Mouseposé is a new, unique and free tool that is essential for everyone doing demos at tradeshows, presentations, trainings or those individuals with huge and high resolution displays. If turned on, Mouseposé dims the screen and puts a spotlight on the area around the mouse pointer, easily guiding the audiences attention or to quickly locate the mouse pointer. Click here to learn more: http://www.boinx.com/mousepose/ MousePose is FREE. Click here to download it. http://media.boinx.net/download/Boinx_Mousepose_1.3.dmg

Universal Binary Applications for New Intel Macs

2006-02-24T07:18:00.000-08:00

You may be interested in purchasing one of the new Intel based Macs from Apple. The Intel iMac is proving to be at least twice as fast as its predecessor in many tasks, but only on certain applications. The programs that take advantage of the new chip are call Universal Binary Programs. They have been re-written to run natively with the new Intel chip. Other programs run in an emulation mode called Rosetta. Older programs that run in Classic mode DO NOT RUN AT ALL. If you would like to find out if the programs you use every day are available as Universal binaries, then check out this webpage hosted be MacInTouch: http://www.macintouch.com/imacintel/ubinaries.html

The New TV

2006-02-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

Democracy is a program that lets you watch TV, but with a twist. All the stations are created by amatures, like you! This is the latest wave that is sweeping the internet. It's called Viewer Created Content. Now that most computers have video editing software, millions of people are creating their own content. This site has tons of helpful guides for making these videos including how to tell stories, what gear you need, how to edit your movies, and how to compress your videos for the internet. It's sure worth bookmarking! Click here to download Democracy. Click here to go to CurrentTV.com

Free GOOD Anti-Virus Software for Mac OS X

2006-02-19T07:21:00.000-08:00

Since Mac users are most surely going to be faced with Malware now that Mac's are becoming more popluar it is about time to look at an anti-virus program that doesn't slow down your computer to a crawl. Check out ClamXAV at http://www.clamxav.com/ClamXav is a free virus checker for Mac OS X. It uses the tried, tested and very popular ClamAV open source antivirus engine as a back end.

Picture Cloud

2006-02-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

This is an inovative webservice where you upload a serieas of photos you take around an object. Picture Cloud then stitches the photos together and creates a 360 object out of them. Here is a hint, downsize your photos to below 640X480 and don't try uploading more than 36 photos. 20 - 30 is more than enough. Check it out at http://www.picturecloud.com/

emily by picturecloud.com

Great Open Source Mac Software

2006-02-11T15:13:00.000-08:00

What do all of the icons on this page have in common? They are all icons of great, free, open source software for the Mac. Click here to go to Open Source Mac Software

Educational Podcast Directory

2006-01-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

If you are interested in podcasts, especially ones that wouldbe suitable for your students, you should have a look at the this website. Podcast Directory for Educators

Better Browsing - Firefox!

2006-01-23T01:21:00.000-08:00

Are you still using Internet Explorer with Windows or Safari with OS X ? Take control of more power on the web. Firefox is more secure, is capable of handling newer websites, and is almost infinitely customizable. Get yours today! Mac OS X - http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ Windows XP/Linux - click the link to "Other Systems"

Speed Up Your Mac

2006-01-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

Many of you may have noticed that your new Mac ran a whole lot faster than it does now. Well there are a few tips that will keep it at peek performance. MacRumors.com has excellent guides on a number of topics. Have a look at the one on Enhancing Performance Of Mac OS X

8 mistakes when creating PowerPoint presentations

2006-01-21T16:14:00.000-08:00

For those of you who make PowerPoint Presentations from time to time, you might want to remember these 8 common pitfalls. I got these from symplebyte.com. Click here to read more...

Embed your fonts
Embed your objects
Bullet your ideas
Use Masters
Spellcheck
Don't copy images from websites
Remember your audience
Stay on point, control your audience

Thumb Through Your Albums

2006-01-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

Ever wish for the good old days when you looked through your record albums and decided which LP to through on the turntable? What? you say.... Well, for those of you who are 40+ you will like this little gem that turns your iTunes library into a stack of LP covers (or CD covers for the 30+ crowd). CoverFlow is a VERY COOL little program you can download for free to help you do this. Click here to download it or here to visit their site.

Tired of typing the same phrases over and over?

2006-01-19T23:31:00.000-08:00

Textpander makes typing easier by “expanding” your “text”. You can set abbreviations for longer phrases that you type often and let Textpander take away the tediousness. For example, you can set it up so typing “mysig” expands into “Sincerely, John Doe.” You can also set abbreviations for the current date and time. Great for anyone that types common phrases often, like responding to a lot of emails. It installs as a System Preference Pane so it works with every application. Click here to go to Textpander's website

Info on the $100 laptop

2006-01-19T00:11:00.000-08:00

The $100 (USD :-) Laptop, is soon to be a reality. Check out the info for yourself - will it change education? http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

Post, Host, and get the Most with your Video

2006-01-18T23:46:00.000-08:00

Do you have short video clips you want to share with family, students, collegues or the world. Do your students need a venue for their artistic media creations? This site will host your images, audio, and video for free - with high bandwidth! Check it out at: http://www.ourmedia.org/

50 Greatest Gadgets

2006-01-18T23:08:00.000-08:00

The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123950,RSS,RSS,00.asp Not exactly a Tech Tip but a very interesting read for many "Geeks" (My apologies for the proliferation of advertizing)

Google Earth for Mac OS X

2006-01-12T17:34:00.000-08:00

If you have been envious of your PC brethren over the fact that they could run the ultra cool Google Earth 3D mapping program, envy no longer. Google Earth was officially released this week. Click here to get your copy

Mac 101

2006-01-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

Here is a GREAT site for learning all you need to know about using a new Mac.

Gary's EdTechCast is now on iTunes

2006-01-07T15:20:00.000-08:00

This is a series of Instructional Video Tutorials with the purpose of training teachers to use software applications in the classroom.

Click here to have a look

Getting your Mac ready for Video Editing

2006-01-05T23:19:00.000-08:00

I subscribe to a Video Podcast called Inside Mac TV. Today's episode has some great tips on getting you Mac ready to do video editing well, be it with Final Cut Pro or even if you are using iMovie. Click here to go to iTunes and download the episode.

Work Collaboratively on 1 document

2006-01-05T12:46:00.000-08:00

Several users can work on one (Word like) document simultaneously from anywhere in the world. Students could use lab (or home) computers to write reports (or whatever) together - without one student being designated as the "scribe." Check out www.writely.com - we three G's are using it to collaborate - WOW! Combine it with Skype and collaborate verbally with other teachers from home or anywhere!

Updating to FirstcClass 8

2006-01-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

Update all your (Mac & PC) workstations to FirstClass 8 at school and at home! FC8 has new features that you will be sure to use. Point your browser to www.firstclass.com and follow the client download links. Need instructions? - don't forget to set the firstclass server to abbynet.sd34.bc.ca

Archiving First Class Emails

2006-01-05T12:06:00.000-08:00

Do you want to save old e-mails to refer to later, but don't want your mail box full of old e-mail? Do you want to save a pile of unread emails to read/work on off line - at home or on a trip? Select the emails you want, click "Summarize Selected," and Save the summary file to your computer or memory stick. (Need help - Call or Skype me!)

SD34 Virtual Staffroom using Skype

2006-01-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

Many of us are using "Skype" communication as a District "Staffroom." Download Skype (www.skype.com - Mac, PC, or Linux - PC is webcam capable) We have been registering in Skype with our SD34 IDs (ie. grant_gasser). Look for other teachers in Abbotsford using Skype - lets talk about and share to how use technology for learning in every Abby classroom! Talk to me!

Better Mac Browsing

2006-01-03T16:14:00.000-08:00

As this is the first of what I hope will be many tech tips posted to this blog, I would like to start where i spend most of my time on the internet - using a browser. On the Mac you have quite a few choices at this point. We used to have Netscape and Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer for Mac is dying a slow death. As of February Microsoft will no longer be supporting it so now is the time to start looking at alternatives. Firefox has taken the PC world by storm and has nearly 10% of the share of all browsers on Windows. Safari, Apple's own browser, has some nice features as well but can be quite non-complient with newer websites that use a new technology called Ajax. Truth is, you will probably use more than one browser. I use Camino for most of my webbrowsing. Camino is built on the same technology as Firefox but looks and acts a lot more Mac like. It is very complient with most websites including banking sites. It has a Google search field in the tool bar as well tabbed browsing and lots of room for all your favorite sites to be listed. I often find that unless I can see my favorites I forget about them. Firefox and Camino work very well with Blogger (Which I am using right now to post this blog) allowing the user to use a number of great editing tools that DO NOT show up if you are using Safari. If you are using the latest OS X version, your version Safari will allow you to subscribe to websites' RSS feeds. Essentially what this is is a way to have the browser check if any new information has been posted to your favorite websites instead of you having to visit it. Below is a picture of Safari with numbers next to my favorite website subscriptions. For example, I have 192 unread articles from websites I follow under the heading of "Mac." So, if you are still using internet explorer on the Mac, I would suggest trying out some very capable and exciting alternatives. Camino, Safari, and Firefox are all excellent and provide a very rich browsing experience.