Author: Dale

Have it Your Way with Firefox’s Profile Manager

Dale

My FirefoxRecently my laptop had to go into the shop and I was forced to use our home computer. Not a problem except that my wife has become quite the Firefox fan. Each time I went online, I had to log her out of sites like Google and Yahoo. Once I realized that she didn’t have my favorite Firefox extensions installed, something had to be done.

The solution is Firefox’s Profile Manager. The Profile Manager allows multiple users to have their own cookies, bookmarks, passwords and extensions without having to log out of the operation system.

Use the instructions (for Windows, Linux and Mac) at Mozilla.org to create your own additional profiles.

I know what you did this summer

Dale

Elmo SprinklerI relaxed this summer and I’m not ashamed of it. I spent time playing in the sprinkler with my children. I enjoyed the fine weather from my back patio. Some mornings I watched the Today Show while enjoying my morning coffee. There, my secret is out. I’m a teacher and I like the summer break.

For a long time, I found myself going on the defensive when I talked about my summer with non-teachers. As if I was being audited, I’d go into a long list of all the education related tasks I did during June, July and August.

A story from NPR’s All Thing’s Considered shows that other teachers do the same. Their four minute clip presents teachers who are taking extra courses and attending workshops. One teacher is actually working as a waitress to supplement her income.

Many teachers work hard during the summer. I myself attended a few workshops and conferences. Yet, we should not be ashamed if we enjoy some much needed time off. After all, we’re not being paid to work the full year.

NPR implies that summer is the busiest time of the year for teachers. I disagree. Our work, like several other fields, is seasonal. We have a peak time and we have an off-season. The summer is our off-season.

I grew up on a farm. In the summer, we spent long hours on the job but during the winter the work slowed down. My parents would plan for the next growing season by setting up seed vendors and preparing equipment for another summer in the fields. No one ever asked my parents, “What did you do this winter?”

During my summer, I do all the things I want to do during the school year but can’t find the time for because my desk is always full of papers to grade or lessons to prepare. I think about what worked and what didn’t. I learn new material and teaching strategies for the next year. Teachers need the down time that the summer break provides. It provides us time for the important job of reflecting on the past school year.

In my subject area, science, we’re having a harder time recruiting new people to become teachers. I wonder if we’re underselling the summer break. Do we really want to send the message to the potential educators out there that this job is a rat race year-round?

5 favorite Firefox extensions for web design

Dale 1 Comment

As a web page designer, I am please with all the options that the Firefox browser provides. Even though Microsoft has made some significant advances with the release of Internet Explorer 7, they simply haven’t matched what Firefox has been able to accomplish.

I consider the vast collection of Firefox extensions its biggest strength. Here are my five favorite extensions for web page design:

  1. MeasureIt
    Draw a ruler across any webpage to check the width, height, or alignment of page elements in pixels.
    measureit
  2. ColorZilla
    get a color reading from any point in your browser
    colorzilla
  3. Aardvark
    See how the page is created, block by block
    example01.png
  4. Web Developer
    Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools
    webdev.png
  5. IE View Lite
    IE View Lite opens your current page in IE with just one-click

Apple already doesn’t trust me?

Dale

Don’t stealToday I opened my first iPod only to be greeted with a sticker across the screen that stated, “Don’t steal music.” What? Talk about killing the mood. Apple, what were you thinking? Does the iPhone have a sticker that reads “Don’t make prank calls” across its screen?

With only a few more weeks before the start of school, this reminds me of that ever so important first day of class.  Since first impressions are important in almost every environment, I like to kick-off the year with an activity. I want to capture the spirit of the course and send the message that my class is about laboratory investigations and working together.

Some teachers choose to take care of the nuts and bolts of their course by passing out forms to be signed, assigning seats and going over those dreaded classroom rules.  Don’t get me wrong, I think clearly stated classroom expectations are important, I just don’t think you should start off with that as your introduction.

I was so surprised to see Apple, who I thought was the master of first impressions, make this mistake.

Dear Jaiku Letter: It’s not you, it’s me

Dale

Jaiku Break upDear Jaiku,

I think we’ve both known for some time now that things are just not working out. In the beginning, everything was going great. I loved the way you would listen to my other feeds and let me make comments. And the icons were amaaazing! But I need more than just a quick icon here and there.

You spend most of your time talking about your big plans while all my friends are moving on with their lives. I just can’t do this any longer. I think it’s time we see other people.

We don’t have to call it quits completely. I’ll still keep your gadget on my iGoogle page. Maybe we can just be friends and take some time to figure things out. I hope you understand.

Yours Always,

Dale Basler

Discovery Stores close, free DVD online

Dale

As Discovery Channel programming becomes more hands-on (Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch), their stores are closing up shop.

Discovery Stores Close

According to a company executive, the Discovery Stores were losing about $30 million a year. The loss has caused Discovery to close their 103 brick-and-mortar stores and cut 1,000 jobs. This after Discovery’s CEO David Zaslav eliminated 200 jobs in April.

I hate to see stores like this go.  It is getting harder and harder to find stores that showcase education in a positive and exciting manner.

There is one good thing coming out of this decision.  Discovery is offering a free Planet Earth DVD with your first purchase from their online store if you order before 2008.

New look at your files with SpaceMonger

Dale

Every few months the IT folks at my school send out a note to all the teachers who are using too much disk space.  I’m never sure what to do when I get this message.  What exactly should I delete?

SpaceMonger is a little piece of software that gives you a quick visual of your disk space.

Spacemonger

Each file is a box– the bigger the box, the bigger the file. (The display above is from a drive I use for video editing. Converting those VHS tapes of our wedding to DVD has taken up most of the drive.)

There are two versions of SpaceMonger. The new version can do more, such as display your drive information with graphs and charts. However, it is a trial version; it costs $20 to use it after 30 days.  I’m just using the free version.  It is one little file that can run from a USB flash drive so you can check any computer you want (well any Windows computer, sorry Macs and Linux users).

Make some noise with SlideShare

Dale

Just a day after I posted my article about sharing presentations, SlideShare added what we’ve all been waiting for— audio.

SlideShare, a site that allows you to upload and easily share your presentations, has created Slidecasts. Take any mp3 file from the web and synchronize it with your SlideShare presentation. They have an easy-to-use synchronization tool that makes the process a snap. (Watch their screencast for instructions on how to use the tool.)

SlideCast

Here is my first Slidecast:




It should be noted that SlideShare doesn’t support presentations with animations, so this isn’t the best tool if you are looking to demonstrate software. Another shortcoming is that SlideShare doesn’t let you upload your audio to their site. You’ll need to post the mp3 file somewhere else.

All in all, Slideshare is a free and simple tool that just got better.

Bot or Not: Are you human?

Dale

Okay, here’s the problem— bots. Bots are little programs created to crawl all over the Internet looking for ways to cause trouble. Often they’re made to help spammers do their dirty work. Bots will create accounts and pretend that they are real people. They might signup for online email accounts or leave comments on a blog.

Because of bots, websites need a way to verify that only humans are signing up for their services. They need to ask a question that humans can answer but computers cannot. Enter the CAPTCHA. CAPTCHAs are those squiggly letters you’re asked to enter when you signup for things online. Here is an example:

CAPTCHA

A recent estimate suggests that 60 million CAPTCHAs are solved by humans each day— that’s a lot of reading and typing! The folks at reCAPTCHA have decided to put all that human power to work. Using their service, you enter words taken from books that have been scanned in but couldn’t be converted by a computer. The system turns both words into CAPTCHAs for you to solve. It knows the answer for one of the words but not the other. Since humans can read better than computers, you’re actually helping to digitize books and preventing spam.

reCAPTCHA

You can help the book digitizing effort by adding reCAPTCHA to your site. You can use it to protect your email or your blog’s comments section; reCAPTCHA makes implementation easy.

Hear more about reCAPTCHA on a podcast from the Museum of Science in Boston.

Hear an in-depth discussion about CAPTCHAs on Security Now—a podcast by security expert Steve Gibson. (Episode 101- the discussion starts at 33:47)