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Friday, March 21, 2003 |
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Wednesday, March 12, 2003 |
I've almost completed my migration to Movable Type. My new address will be
http://itc.uncc.edu/dale/su8/
(there is nothing there yet--I'm still working (with the help of my local techno-genius, Jason) on getting all of my Radio posts imported into Movable Type)
Once the migration is complete, I will try to establish javascript forwarding for both the HTML and RSS versions of this site. Wish me luck!
10:20:30 AM 
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Thursday, February 27, 2003 |
I'm in love. For the past couple of days I've been using the Sony Ericsson Clicker application created by Jonas Salling of Salling Shareware. I never imagined that my phone could function as a remote control, but now that I have it, I could never give it up. The best usage, so far, is to control my presentations during my lectures. No klunky software, and I already had the phone, so that's one less gadget to carry around. Now add the fact that I can also control my music software (launch, next track, last track, volume up/down) and it becomes that much better. It is the simplicity of the whole thing that makes it so valuable. It just works.
There is a "proximity sensor" feature that keys a script of your choice when you come "in range", and another script when you leave. I had iTunes start playing when I came in the room and pause when I left, but every once in a while the Bluetooth connection gets flaky and when it reconnects, the script is activated, so my music was popping on and off at odd intervals. I have also noticed that keeping the Bluetooth connection active sucks the life out of my t68i faster than with normal usage. If I'm using Clicker off-and-on during the day, the battery is usually at about 60% by evening. I'm anxious to get my new laptop (next month sometime...) that has Bluetooth built in so I don't have to plug in the little USB dongle to 'tooth-ify my current PowerBook.
Altogether, though, I am very impressed with this unexpected gem. Does anyone know about similar tools that would work on my Palm? This seems like a natural candidate for a PalmOS-based solution, but I haven't seen anything...
3:21:01 PM
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Tuesday, February 25, 2003 |
OK...I know I'm a gadget junkie, but this is really cool. This morning I installed an application called the Sony Ericsson Clicker. From the Read Me file:
Introduction
Welcome to the first preview release of Sony Ericsson Clicker! Clicker lets you remotely control your Macintosh from a compatible Sony Ericsson phone. Here are some ideas on how to use Clicker:
- Control PowerPoint or Keynote when giving presentations.
- Control DVD Player or iTunes from your sofa or bed.
- Use AppleScript to control anything you like!
Further, Sony Ericsson Clicker has a built in "proximity sensor", allowing you to trigger actions when you leave or come back to your Mac. Again, here are some ideas:
- Pause iTunes when you leave the room, turn it on when you come back.
- Use AppleScript to let your presence (or absence) control anything you like!
10:14:25 AM
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Friday, February 21, 2003 |
I'm very interested in all of the new weblog entry/storage methods being explored. I'm sure that, in short order, audio blogging and video blogging will be available to the masses. I am also fairly certain, however, that it will be much longer before such applications of the technology are mainstream. A couple of reasons:
- One of the primary benefits of weblog technology is that through aggregation of multiple sources, you can skim through a tremendous amount of data in a (relatively) short period of time. Content contained in media must be viewed (at least currently) in real time--even to be previewed. While excerpts could be entered in text, such duplication of content would raise the bar for making an entry. Ultimately we may have voice-to-text transcription happening behind the scenes, which would really bring media-blogging into the fold. Add GPS-enabled time/date/location stamping and other useful meta-data and the picture has real potential, especially for small vertical applications of weblog-like technology.
- I guess my number two is really an extension of number one. How do you permalink an excerpt of an audio or video entry? Unless I'm missing something (which is entirely possible), you can't--at least today. When automatic computer-generated transcriptions are associated to the time code of the video source, we'll be cooking with gas. I can then point to a specific word or sentence in your entry. TrackBack and comment strings could be very interesting in this context--I could watch/listen to the whole conversation "thread", with multiple participants, in my media tool.
I am very excited about the possiblity of multimedia weblog entries, but I see them as an augmentation of the existing text-based medium as opposed to a replacement.
Some related articles:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/webwatch/story/0,12455,858719,00.html
http://www.audblog.com/
http://www.denniskennedy.com/realtime.htm
9:15:03 AM
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Monday, February 17, 2003 |
Well, we got hit by another ice storm here in St. Paul....er...Charlotte. They sort of lose the small bit of romantic charm they had when you keep being pelted by them...
5:36:03 PM
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Monday, February 10, 2003 |
Many systems and phenomena are distributed according to a power law distribution. A power law applies to a system when large is rare and small is common. The distribution of individual wealth is a good example of this: there are a very few rich men and lots & lots of poor folks. A familiar way to think about power laws is the 80/20 rule: 80% of the wealth is controlled by 20% of the population... [kottke.org]
I'm seeing quite a bit of conversation on this type of topic over the past few days, primarily revolving around the fact that a very few people seem to get a majority of the traffic. To be completely honest, I'm not sure what the problem is. I think the "waves" that David refers to are quick to rise, but all too often they are quick to subside. I'm much more interested in building a community, and such construction happens quietly, over time. I'm fairly certain that the tools we use to publish and aggregate our ideas will evolve over time, but I am also certain that whatever those tools are, I'll be using them to listen and correspond with those who are working toward goals that are similar to my own.
Serious applications of any tool, including weblogs, in an academic environment will require an understanding of not only teaching and learning theories, but the perspective that comes from having seen several other "must have" technologies rise and fall in the educational technology domain. I think Dave Winer's foray into academia is quite exciting not because I believe he'll be producing the most influential research, but rather because the spotlight he brings may help influence political momentum ("See how much press Harvard is getting? We could do the same here with very little investment...").
Weblogs are exciting because they are messy--community building is unpredictable and the power to build is decentralized. Such distribution of authority is behind most every modern application of learning theory, so the technology behind weblogs may just make itself into something we can't yet imagine...we just need to figure out how to get it into the hands of our learning communities in ways that will empower such discovery and growth.
5:18:59 PM
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I'm curious about how others are using weblogs in combination with systems on their campus? At UNC Charlotte, we use WebCT as our web-based courseware. We are also implementing Campus Pipeline's Luminus Portal system. I've been working at ways to integrate Moveable Type and Radio into a WebCT course so that, in the end, the combination of the systems is invisible to the student.
It would be helpful to have some sort of index of weblog implementation that is organized by environment. I guess I see something like the BlogChalking tag for educational bloggers? As I understand it, BlogChalking allows you to filter or search for sites based on geographic location. They also include some optional codes to indicate demographic information and interests. What if we had a similar tag (or maybe as a part of the Edublog WebRing tag?) that indexed information such as:
- Educational Institution
- Position (faculty/staff/administration)
- weblog software used (Radio/Manila/MoveableType/Blosxom/etc.)
- personal desktop operating system (Windows XP/Mac OS X/etc.)
- courseware name & support status (or supported/unsupported)
- instructional technology support (yes/no)
- general tech environment (supportive/unsupportive)
- general funding environment (well-funded/partially funded/not funded)
I'm not making an official proposal here--I can see holes in my list already. I guess I'm fishing for interest. Would it be a helpful thing to include some sort of meta-tag index that would allow someone in an environment similar to mine to find me? How about finding someone in an environment different from mine? I know it is easy to get carried away with this sort of thing--it must be simple if it has a chance to work. I don't anticipate that this would narrow my field of weblogs that I read regularly, but if I'm a lonely Widget XXL user who writes her weblog using MovingStereo software and is trying to figure out how to integrate it with ChalkBoardCT courseware, wouldn't it be cool to hook up with someone, wherever they are, who is doing the same thing?
I guess the conversation wouldn't be complete if we also didn't consider the privacy issues involved. Would such tags expose individuals or institutions inappropriately? I don't think so, but I'm interested in opinions that support or refute the thought.
2:06:59 PM
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© Copyright 2003 Dale Pike.
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