RSS in Plain English

A very simple explanation of why (and how) you might want to use a feed-reader.

Zentation

Zentation is an on-line service that allows you to add a video track to a pre-existing Powerpoint presentation. You host the Video on GoogleVideo, upload your presentation to the Zentation site and then synch the two together. As an example, this is a presentation given by the Head of IT and Media Services at the University of Wales in 2006 (and yes, he should have taken more effort over the sound quality).

IWMW 2006: Developing A Web 2.0 Strategy 30:05 Talk by Michael Web on ‘Developing A Web 2.0 Strategy’ by Michael Webb at IWMW 2006 event.

via Read/WriteWeb

Shift happens

 

Widely blogged presentation about Web2/futures. I’m sceptical abut some of the facts and it has the stink of xenophobia hanging over it (to me), but the line-graph’s speak to the point.

My favourite quote is from Einstein:

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

via The Fischbowl

Welcome to the soap factory

The first rule of blogging is “write about what you know” - so I’ve split off another site to write about web2 from a technical/dry perspective. The next 18 months are going to be massively challenging to IT Services just as much as to anyone else - the soap factory is where I’ll talk about the detail of what it feels like to be flipped on your head. First post is just a link: network operating systems - coming our way.

Enrollment de-stressor

Stumbling around in the ICT blogosphere I come across ict in my classroom, a blog by Tom Barret about his use of ICT in a primary/nursery school in Nottingham, and this absolutely lovely link: morning sunshine is a collection 0f 60 interactive games that he describes as “utterly, jaw-droppingly beautiful.” and they are. He uses them to teach foundation pupils mouse control skills - my favourite at the moment is The Bottom of the Sea and I reckon a little burst of that every now and then over the next 3 weeks should do me no end of good.

Protected: proposition - blogging is the most time efficient….

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I forgot how to write!

Mark Cuban blogs about finding himself in a meeting without any technology he can type or thumb type on. End conclusion - he’s forgotten how to do cursive script effectively. I was a bit skeptical at first (because I *love* to write even though I can type) but looking at the comments, a whole slew of people pop up to tell the same story - someone says “isn’t that like doing math without a calculator or excel?” A student, who’s “too poor to own a laptop” recounts the cycle he goes through when he doesn’t have access to a computer - someone else says “Just don’t try to write cursive. Its more dead than Latin is.” The general consensus seems to be that you’ll pick it up again, soon enough, if you’re forced to do it - but no-one wants to. What strange times.

via techmeme

where’s the soap?

I’ve been looking at the Google Custom Search feature, this allows you to setup a search page that will use Google to search only the sites/resources that you specify - pretty neat. What moves it into the “seriously useful” category is a gadget, available here, which allows you to tell it to automatically use the sites listed on your blog roll or links page as the resource list it will target. Since you’ve already selected those links for relevance - you get a focussed “deep” look into them for about 60 secs work (that’s how long it took to do) - or it would have done, but….

One Laptop Per Child, Reviewed by a 12-Year-Old

And a very articulate 12 year old at that. Reading through the comments it appears s/he is reviewing the Beta2 version, which may explain their experience of the machine as being “slow”; and s/he criticises the battery life, but otherwise it’s a favourable review. Pictures of the OLPC can be found here and a history of the project (including criticisms) can of course be found on Wikipedia.

skydrive goes live

Skydrive is Microsoft’s place to keep your digital stuff. They’ve been testing in the US for a while but now they’ve opened it up to the UK and India - so I can get in and take a look at it. Must say, I’m impressed by the interface - very clean, and lays out the options well: stuff you want to keep to yourself, stuff you want to share with your friends, stuff you want to share with the world - simple.

You only get 500MB of space though. I’m sure they’ll upgrade that once they know how things are panning out (there’s a lot of people in India!) but, do I expect Google to trump them - soon - completely? Kind of, lets see.