Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Dell Support Call

Ok..so it's off-topic, but what a great article from the New York Times on How to Survive a Tech Support Call.

We've all had to do it at one time or another. David Pogue gives you some wonderful advice!

Monday, February 27, 2006

MHRIC RSS Feed


Finally! The MHRIC web site has its own RSS feed. The link is on the home page. Scroll down and look for the familiar orange XML button.

I had some problems validating it but finally figured it out. I was not putting in some of the code, such as so it was running items together.

I will try to keep it updated, as long as I get the information from people here.

If you don't understand what these RSS feeds are, you can always google them. Basically, it's a way of putting all the news or other items from a web site in one place for subscription. I don't have to read the twenty-some web sites anymore. I just subscribe to their RSS feeds and I can read all their updates in one place - in my RSS reader. I happen to use Bloglines so I can read them no matter where I am.

If you need help with RSS readers or the whole concept, contact me. I was teaching it combined with the Blog Class but it was too much information in a 3 hour course.


Saturday, February 25, 2006

Friday, February 17, 2006

WDUG - April 7, 2006

Don't forget to register soon for the Spring Web Developer User Group Meeting on Friday, April 7 here in New Paltz at the Ulster BOCES Conference Center. Registration, coffee, and tea will be available from 8:30 on and presentations will begin at 9.

We have two informative presentations slated for the morning. Please invite others in your district if you think they may have an interest in the software that will be showcased.

Agenda:
- 8:30 - 9:00 - Coffee, Tea, and Sign-in
- 9 - 9:10 - Welcome and Opening Remarks
- 9:15 - 10:15 - Rose Malpica, Orange-Ulster BOCES Webmaster - Photoshop Elements
- 10:15 - 10:30 - Break
- 10: 30 - 11:45 - Jim Tracy, New Paltz High School - Webcasting
- 11:50 - Noon - Closing Remarks and Comments from Participants

Photoshop Elements is a wonderful graphic program from Adobe. It is similar to Photoshop but has a much shorter learning curve and is a lot less expensive to buy. From what I understand, it has some wizards that can help you as well.

I will also give you a preview of what we may showcase in August. It is really exciting and something you all have been asking about for a long time.

If you have any questions about the April meeting, please feel free to contact me. This is definitely one workshop you won't want to miss.

BBC - My Web My Way - Homepage

My Web My Way

From the BBC, this is a fantastic site on accessibility, not just for web sites but how to change your hardware to help make web sites more accessible. Well worth taking the time to read some of the articles here!

KeePass - The Open-Source Password Safe

KeePass - The Open-Source Password Safe

I have so many passwords to remember that they are getting muddled im my mind. I found this program (free of course) and have been using it. It works great for what I need but, don't forget your main password to open it! There is nothing you can do if you can't remember it....

Experts to students: Watch what you post

Information on sites such as MySpace.com could come back to haunt

From eSchool News staff and wire service reports

With the rise in social networking sites such as MySpace.com, experts are warning that students need to exercise more discretion in what they post about themselves online. Besides the obvious danger of posting personally identifying information, they say, the potential exists for embarrassing information to come back to bite students later in life when they apply for college or a job.

February 10, 2006—Much has been made of the danger of posting too much personal information on web sites such as MySpace.com, where millions of people--including online child predators--can, in seconds, find out where site users go to school, learn their interests, download their pictures, and instantly send them messages.

But there is another, less widely reported danger as well: that the information students post online could come back to haunt them later in life.

In recent weeks, a Dover, Del., newspaper reporter was fired from his job after someone alerted his editor to racially offensive comments he had posted to his personal blog on MySpace.com--and seven Lincoln, Neb., high school students were suspended for two weeks when a school staff member found a MySpace.com posting that mentioned the students drinking alcohol.

"This is a new arena for us," said Wendy Henrichs, athletic director for Lincoln East High School, where the seven suspended students were all varsity and junior varsity basketball players. "In the '70s or '80s ... people would say those things. Today, they write them."

She added, "The difference is putting it in print, basically documented proof of what's been said. I don't know if kids understand that."

MySpace, one of several popular social networking sites, is a free service that allows users to create web site profiles of themselves that can be personalized with information, pictures, and movies. MySpace reportedly boasts more than 180,000 new members per day and, according to web site traffic ranking service Alexa, was the seventh most popular destination for English--speaking internet users as of press time.

While today's students are undeniably savvy in their knowledge and adoption of technology, they aren't always as savvy in how they choose to deploy it--and often they are only vaguely aware of the digital "footprint" they leave behind when they post personal information.

And this footprint could play an increasingly important role in whether students land their dream job or even get into the college of their choice, experts say.

A recent Harris Interactive poll showed that 23 percent of people search the names of business associates or colleagues on the internet before meeting them--which probably means many employers are doing the same with job applicants, said Andrea Kay, a career consultant and author of "Interview Strategies That Will Get You the Job You Want."

"It's a wake--up call: You better be careful what you say and do, because it is your reputation. You're developing it early on," Kay said.

Many employers hire companies to conduct background checks, but "Googling" job applicants serves as an additional tool. It makes sense, especially when young applicants have few references or the job involves responsibility for people's health or finances, said Charles Fleischer, an employment lawyer and author of "The Complete Hiring and Firing Handbook."

Given the relative ease of investigating someone online and the rate of technology's penetration into the college admissions process, it's conceivable that college admissions officers, too, could soon be Googling prospective students.

College admissions officers who spoke with eSchool News said it wasn't part of their typical practice yet--but if the trend of employers Googling applicants spreads to education, that could change.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=6106

Sunday, February 12, 2006

HallDavidson.net

I have been getting a lot of questions about copyright and web sites again. I always caution people in my web design classes about this important issue but it also holds true for using graphics in Word, PowerPoint, etc.

I have a lot of resources listed at www.mhric.org/pat on the Webmaster Resource Page.

I also came across this link this morning. Hall Davidson writes for several magazines and presents at conferences. His site is plain, simple, and has a lot of links to his handouts and presentations. This is a must site for you to check out.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

The Blog of Music for All

The Blog of Music for All

Interesting blog about Music and Arts in Education...

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

WP

I finally installed WordPress for 2 private blogs. It really isn't all that difficult. It hooks into a MySQL database and that's where all the data goes....You can change your templates and the data knows where to go! Not bad for a beginner....

Current style in web design

Current style in web design

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Interactive CSS Box Model Demo

Interactive CSS Box Model Demo

HTML Dog

There is enough information at thsi site to keep you reading and learning new things for a very very long time: HTML Dog

From basic html to css to more advanced topics, you will learn quite a bit here