Ed's Tech Tips

BuyYourFriendADrink.com is a new site where you can actually buy your friend a drink or at least a gift code to go toward a drink at bar that is part of the BYFAD network. Right now it is limited to New York and Boston, but is expanding. Here is how the founder of the company described coming up with th eidea:

In June of 2005, I graduated from business school. As is very common with these life events, a lot of my friends went their separate ways after graduation. I moved to New Jersey and one of my closest friends moved to Texas. On a Fall afternoon, my Texas friend and I had a phone conversation where we discussed “the good old days” and how we used to enjoy grabbing a beer on a Friday afternoon. He also told me about some exciting news that he had at work. After I hung up the phone, I was left with an overwhelming desire to buy him a beer and celebrate his good news. And that is when the idea hit me…while it would be better if I could enjoy the beer with him…BuyYourFriendADrink.com is the next best thing.

You can send the gift code to an email address or to a cell phone. You can even include a widget like the one below on your web site, blog or MySpace page. You can use a credit card or PayPal account. The web site is very attractive. So you do not have to wait for Reunion to go buy your classmate or old room mate a drink.

The Alumane Association is now on YouTube and we will gradually upload more videos that you can watch online, as well as, your iPhone with the help of the new iMovie '08 from which I can upload directly to YouTube. We also have links to other videos from the campus including some musical performances.

Here is the video of the Alumnae Parade on the first Reunion weekend. I'll post the second Reunion weekend shortly.

 

 

iMovie '08 has been completely rewritten from the ground up and the best word to describe is "fast". While some people will complain about the removal of some features, such as, the video effects, I think there is much to appluad about this release. I never used the video effects, because I thought they were a little cheesy. I like the speed in which I can quickly scrub through video and select and cut clips, as well as, drop in transitions and titles without having to wait for them to render. The original Parade video was over 16 minutes long, 6:30 minutes longer than what can be posted on YouTube. However, I was able to easily go in and remove the less desireable scenes and the bring th video down to 9:26 minutes.

iMovie '08 also also has a new workspace that is flexible and can be rearranged to what you feel most comfortable with. There are some new features borrowed from iPhoto to help you organize your video library and it works well with external drives. There is no traditional time line, no themes and you cannot do as much with the soundtrack, but never fear while all of the other iLife applications are upgraded, the previous version of iMovie is put in a folder labeled "iMovie (previous version)". If you are not upgrading and buying iLife for the first time, you can  download iMovie HD from the Apple web site. However, although it has fewer features, this is a case of less is more. I never really used the features they removed and the speed and ease is incrediable, so I may never go back to the previous version, but if I want to it is there.

You can now easily include Google's interactive maps into your web page or blog in a just three easy steps. It was possible to include Google maps in your web site before, but it was more complicated and required some familiarity with Javascript and XML files. You also had to get a API key and register your site with Google. That is no longer necessary. You could also always include a link to the map in the past, but this keeps your visitors on your site and is much more graphically interesting. This is a great way to include directions on your site, highlight your favorite businesses, etc.

Here is a map of Mount Holyoke College: 

View Larger Map

Network performance or the speed of your internet connection is affected by many factors which include:

• server hardware (memory, processors, hard drive arrays, etc.)
• network connections/bandwidth
• routers
• application software

Determining which of these factors is contributing to the degradation of overall performance can sometimes be difficult and the more data that is available, the easier it is make an accurate diagnosis. Unfortunately the traditional network diagnostics tools, such as, traceroute or ping may not help provide you with a complete picture because servers are more commonly behind firewalls. To learn more about traceroute check out the Wikipedia article on the subject.

However, there are solutions to the problem with new diagnostic tools, such as, Path Analyzer Pro which is traceroute on steroids. There is a free trail version you can download for Mac, Windows or Linux. It is easy to use, it graphically charts latency and you can export the data to a csv file. It uses a TCP NAT-friendly adaptive trace mode to perform a complete trace that the regular traceroute program could not via ICMP or UDP protocols.

Why is this beneficial? When you connect to a web server you are not making a direct connection between your computer and that computer. Instead there are numerous computers in between. For example, there are 14 hops or other servers or routers between my computer and the web server that this blog is hosted on. Tools like Path Analyzer Pro  help you to see where the bottle necks are  in the network. Is it your computer, the server on the over end or somewhere in between.  You can do a single trace, timed trace or continuous trace with Path Pro Analyzer and it graphically displays via a number of charts the minimum, maximum and average latency or delay at each point along the way.

Here is a screenshot of my connection to the Alumnae Association web server:

 

 

If you use a Mac there is a free Dashboard widget called Dashalytics that offers quick access to Google Analytics statistics. You can easily have multiple widgets open to track statistics on multiple sites. Dashalytics also uses the Keychain to securely store your password.

Dashalytics will work with any Mac running OS X 10.4+ specifically using the Dashboard functionality built into Tiger. You also need a Google Analytics account (downloading Dashalytics pointless if you dont).

You can also see Dashalytics 3 in action with this short video:

 

 

Are some of you uncertain about what "Web 2.0" is? For example, are the following acronyms or names unkown or unclear to you:

• RSS
• Social Bookmarking
• Social Networking
• Wikis

Would you like to understand these technologies in plain English? Have them explained in such a way that even your grandmother (OK, maybe not her, but your mother) could understand them in just a few minutes each?

Please the Common Craft Show and watch the short video clips which use paper craft to explain high tech. Why should you? To get a better understanding of new technologies we have been using on a our web site and will start to be using more of. They save time and can make you more productive.

If you do know what all thi sWeb 2.0 business is all about , but have difficulty explaining it to your friends, relatives and co-workers send them the link to these videos. They are short (around 3-4 minutes each), entertaining and effective.

Here is one clip on Social Bookmarking and explains the icons you'll see at he bottom of each article on this blog: 

 

 

"The Zonbu device consumes only about one third of the energy used by a typical light bulb — and yet it has plenty of power for all your bright ideas." - Zonbu website

I like that quote from a different kind of computer company that produces a device that weighs less than 2 pounds. Like the Mac Mini you supply your own keyboard, mouse, video display and other desired accessories. Unlike the Mac Mini you can buy it for as little as $99 and $12.95 a month or outright for $249. The monthly service fee will get you free online backups, free patches, free upgrades, unlimited Internet technical support, a replacement warranty and free recycle program. It comes preinstalled with  all of the applications most people would ever need, then some. It also comes preinstalled with thousands of drivers so that you should be able to connect a camera or printer without having to install any additional driver software. It will also sync with your iPod, but it does not run Windows, it runs Linux that looks and behaves a lot like Windows so that anyone that has used Windows will easily be able to use this computer.

I think this is probably the idea computer for most people that primarily use their computer for email, browsing the web, sharing photos, playing music, typing homework assignments and banking online. It is a zero maintenance design. There are no moving parts and as long as you subscribe, the updates and patches are applied transparently. All of the data is stored on Flash memory instead of a hard drive and is automatically backed up and accessible from anywhere in the world via the web. Zonbu provides a too to easily help you transfer your data from your Windows computer to your new Zonbu. My mom has a four year old eMachine that has seen better days.  think I will recommend this computer to her.

This little box can easily sit on your desk next your monitor and keyboard and like a lot of other computer manufacturers, you can customize the exterior of your Zonbu with various graphics or upload your own, such as a photograph.

Check out the demo video below: