Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Photoshop Effects

40 Dark and Futuristic Photoshop Effects - PSDTUTS:

"A question: what do exploding planets, energy spheres, ethereal lights, ruined cities, telepathic warriors, gloomy nebulas and light-rays all have in common? Answer: they look freaky awesome when you build them in Photoshop. Here's how to do all of the above and more, for a total of 40 excellent cyberpunk and Sci-fi style effects."

Connect external displays without cables

Connect external displays without cables | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET:

"If you've always wished to connect an external display to your laptop without having to physically hook a cable between to the two, then I have good news for you.

Iogear introduced on Tuesday its Wireless USB to VGA Kit for streaming PC content to an alternate display. This is going to be one of the first implementations of Wireless USB (WUSB)...

The WUSB VGA kit from Iogear will allows for quickly displaying your laptop's visual content on to an external display such as an LCD, a HDTV or a projector, just like you would currently do that by hooking the two with a VGA cable."

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

A keynote to remember - WATCH THIS!

TipLine - Gates' Computer Tips: [TIPS] A keynote to remember - WATCH THIS!:

"Could YOU stand up and deliver a powerful, motivating speech to over 20,000 teachers? I get nervous with just TWO thousand. I can’t imagine twenty thousand. (OK, ok.. So I’ve never spoken to two thousand people before. But if I DID I’d be nervous, OK?) :-)

The POINT is.... You MUST check out this keynote speaker who gets that crowd of 20,000 cheering and applauding and, at the end, jumping to their feet. His message is outstanding -”Do YOU Believe In Me?” Outstanding.

Why would a speaker ask if we believe in him? Well, he looks to be all of maybe 11 or 12 years old.

If you’ve got 5 minutes, stop right now and watch the whole thing. Do YOU believe in YOUR students?

(from
Tip Line - Gates' Computer Tips.

Video Editing: Free Tools

Video Editing: 30 Free Tools and Web Services To Get Things Done:

"30 free web services and tools for video editing. You don’t pay a penny while enjoying the fun of video clips editing."

Fantastic tools linked here!

Free Photoshop Tutorials

Tutorials » Free Photoshop Tutorials | PhotoshopStar:

"Here are 78 Photoshop Tutorials hosted by Photoshopstar.com. These Photoshop tutorials are for both beginners and more advanced users, and will help increase your knowledge and skills with many Photoshop tools and features, including web layout and designing with Photoshop, and many image, photo, and text effects. Each tutorial provides screen shots and numbered step-by step instructions."

Monday, August 25, 2008

FREE -- Federal Resources for Educational Excellence


FREE -- Federal Resources for Educational Excellence:

"FREE makes it easier to find teaching and learning resources from the federal government.

More than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources are included from dozens of federal agencies. New sites are added regularly.

Get new resources delivered to you several times a week: sign up for the FREE RSS."

Open Thinking & Digital Pedagogy

Open Thinking & Digital Pedagogy

I just found this blog by Dr. Alec Couros. He has some of the coolest stuff posted that you really need to check out. Yes, I am subscribed to his blog now and will go back and check out his past postings.

First Graders Can BLOG!

Kathy Cassidy -- Blogmeister: "Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog"

Think blogging is tough? Check out these first graders who blog, skype, and rap with other schools. Yes, FIRST Graders!


"We are learning how to read and write! If you would like to talk to us, just click on the Yackpack below, holding the click down as you talk. If we are nearby, we'll answer you!"

Genealogy - Free Family Tree - Geni


Genealogy - Free Family Tree - Geni:

"Geni is a private place for your family to build your family tree,
preserve your history and share your lives."

Thursday, August 21, 2008

New get a Mac ad: Off the Air

New get a Mac ad: Off the Air - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW):

"Tonight, Apple released a new 'Get a Mac' ad. 'Off the Air' shows PC, Mac, and a Mac Genius. Mac tries to win people over on the fact that the Geniuses will transfer your files from your old PC to your new Mac.

A mad PC then announces that his 'frustrated' customers don't need to hear about that and that 'fear of switching is the foundation of customer loyalty for PCs.' PC proceeds to shut off the commercial by pulling a curtain down."

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

21st Century Educators

21st Century Educators | 21st Century Connections: "What are the characteristics we would expect to see in 21st Century Educators?

We know they are student-centric, holistic, they are teaching about how to learn as much as teaching about the subject area. We know too, that they must be 21st Century learners as well. But teachers are more than this."

Free Media for Deaf and Blind Students

Free Media for Deaf and Blind Students :

"A free-loan program provides educational media for students with a vision or hearing loss. The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) offers audio description and captioning via CD-ROM, DVD, and online streaming.

K-12 teachers and school administrators who teach one or more students who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired, or deaf-blind simply need to register at http://www.dcmp.org/. That will give access to over 5,000 captioned media titles and 300 programs."

Dealing with Copyright

Dealing with Copyright | 21st Century Connections:

"Understanding digital copyright is a new literacy issue. Teachers are responsible for helping their students understand and follow copyright rules. Here's good advice on what to do."

Copyright for Educators

Copyright for Educators:

"This page was created as a simple summary of some basic information. All teachers should be aware of this much about copyright. For more detail look at the links below. This was not written by a lawyer or intended to replace legal advice."

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Clean CSS Code

7 Principles Of Clean And Optimized CSS Code | CSS | Smashing Magazine:

"Optimization isn’t just minimizing file size — it’s also about being organized, clutter-free, and efficient. You’ll find that the more knowledge you have about optimal CSS practices, smaller file size will inevitably come as an direct result of their implementation. You may already be familiar with some of the principles mentioned below, but they are worth a review. Being familiar with this concepts will help you write optimized CSS code and make you a better all-around web designe"

CD and DVD Lifetime and Maintenance

Techworld: CD and DVD Lifetime and Maintenance

High quality CDs and DVDs have a lifetime of up to 30 years, while cheap blanks may fail after less than five years.

Helping a Son With Attention-Deficit Disorder Achieve Gold-Medal

Parenting - Helping a Son With Attention-Deficit Disorder Achieve Gold-Medal Focus - NYTimes.com:

"Phelps’s Mother Recalls Helping Her Son Find Gold-Medal Focus"

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Texas Town OKs Teachers Packing Heat

ABC News: Texas Town OKs Teachers Packing Heat:

"A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported."

Controversial??

Monday, August 11, 2008

How to Use Google Documents

How to Use Google Documents
Free Video tutorials for Google Docs.

Top Ten Web Typography Sins

Top Ten Web Typography Sins | Events | Smashing Magazine
Many of these "sins" also apply to the print medium!

Web Designer Wall

Web Designer Wall - Design Trends and Tutorials

"Featuring tips, tricks, and tutorials, Web Design Wall is chock-full of helpful tips for amateur and professional designers alike."

Online Scrapbooks

Welcome to Scrapblog! - Online Scrapbooks

"Want to do more with your pics than just dump them online? Scrapblog lets you grab your photos from Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Picasa, and many more photo sites, and use them to construct cool (and free) multimedia scrapbooks. You can also use video in your scrapbooks, and the interface is very easy to use."

Yahoo And Google Now Let You Opt Out Of Ads

Yahoo And Google Now Let You Opt Out Of Ads (Because It’s Better Than Letting You Opt In)

All of a sudden, Yahoo and Google want to make it easy for you to opt out of their ad targeting on both their sites and across the Web. Yahoo announced a new one-click opt-out policy today, and Google made it possible to opt out of both Google and Doubleclick ad targeting with one click yesterday.

12 iPhone Tricks

12 iPhone Tricks You Might Not Have Known : iSmashPhone:

"Whether you're an iPhone rookie or a weathered pro, take a look at these quick-and-easy iPhone tips and tricks which not only save you time, but ease your overall iPhone experience."

10 Waus to Save Time

[Re]Encoded dot Com » Blog Archive » 10 Ways to Save Time While Building a Website:


"As a freelance web developer, time is money. I use many different tricks to increase my productivity and these are my top selections for saving time. Please make you own suggestions for other time savers in the comments."

chive »

[Re]Encoded dot Com » Blog Archive » 10 Ways to Save Time While Building a Website: "As a freelance web developer, time is money. I use many different tricks to increase my productivity and these are my top selections for saving time. Please make you own suggestions for other time savers in the comments."

Wyoming district gets 3,000 MacBooks


Wyoming district gets 3,000 MacBooks for back to school:

"Natrona County School District in central Wyoming has worked out a $3.8 million deal with Apple to supply students and teachers with over 3,000 MacBooks this fall."

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Learn Adobe Photoshop

Learn Adobe Photoshop with Photoshop Tutorials on Photoshop Basics - Photoshop Essentials.com

I found this site today and went thru a few of the tutorials. They are fantastic and simple, even for a PhotoShop neophyte like me. There are some things I can do in PS but since I don't use the program very often, I forget quickly.

Great site. Bookmark it...use it!

Saturday, August 09, 2008

100 Extensive University Libraries

100 Extensive University Libraries from Around the World that Anyone Can Access - College Degree.com:

"Universities house an enormous amount of information and their libraries are often the center of it all. You don't have to be affiliated with any university to take advantage of some of what they have to offer. From digital archives, to religious studies, to national libraries, these university libraries from around the world have plenty of information for you."

- Animoto For Education -

- Animoto For Education -

"We’re pleased to announce a new service exclusively for teachers. Animoto for Education (http://education.animoto.com) gives teachers, grades K-12, unlimited access to the full range of Animoto’s services, both standard and premium, for free."

Can’t beat that, can you? For those of you that aren’t familiar with Animoto, it’s an incredibly easy way to make a sleek animated video out of your photo sets. The whole thing is set to music, so it feels almost like a music video.

So what does this mean for educators? For one thing, they can make as many videos as they like, and that’s the full length videos, not the short ones. You can upload your own music, add in voice overs, and import photos from Flickr, Facebook and other social sites. BUT the best part is that with Animoto for Education, you are allowed to give your students access and let them create their own videos.

One feature that they added fairly recently was offline Animotos. You could always email them out or embed them into your site, but now you can actually download them and watch them offline.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Picnik -

Picnik - edit photos the easy way, online in your browser:


Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. It's fast, easy, fun and free! Features include: a) Fix your photos in just one click; b) Use advanced controls to fine-tune your results; c) Crop, resize, and rotate in real-time; d) Tons of special effects, from artsy to fun; e) Astoundingly fast, right in your browser; f) Awesome fonts and top-quality type tool; g) Basketfuls of shapes from hand-picked designers; h) Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux; and i) No download required, nothing to install.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Webvet.com

Webvet.com - Pet News, Information, and Education

WebVet is a content site launching today that aims to provide a comprehensive collection of articles regarding pet health so you don’t have to scratch around the net for this information. It begins by focusing on dogs, cats, bird and other small animals, but founders Hope Schultz and Bill Zaccheo plan to expand coverage to include exotics, fish and farm animals.

MediaCoder

MediaCoder:

"MediaCoder is a program that can convert ('transcode') to and from different audio and video formats. It has a relatively simple to use user interface, and does not require other programs to perform its function. For advanced users there are many configurable options available, and can be an important tool in your multimedia toolkit."

Free..PC and Mac

Apple Bites Back with Increased Corporate Presence and Virtualization Role

Yankee Group :

"A new, independent Yankee Group web-based survey of 750 global IT administrators and C-level executives found that nearly four out of five businesses--approximately 80%--have Macs and the OS X operating system installed in their networks. And although the Apple Mac hardware and OS X operating systems still represent a small niche, adoption and acceptance of Mac hardware and operating system software are growing at a steady and sustained pace not seen since the late 1980s."