Because of the ever-growing importance of computers beyond school, it is vital that students have a great amount of experience with them and the numerous services and tools they have to offer. One of these major services is Google Apps, which is Google’s productivity services – email, calendar, document creation and editing, and video sharing, to name a few – packaged for businesses, as well as for educational institutions. All of these services are Internet-based and require nothing more than an Internet connection and modern web browser to access, allowing students, teachers, and administration to get things done, no matter where they are in the world.

Google Apps is an excellent tool for a school district, as it provides great tools for both the classroom and the management end of schools and the district. For example, Google Docs allows students to work on assignments online from any computer, meaning that jump drives and district student drives become pointless because it opens up the possibility of working on a project across several computers, somewhat like an online flash drive, as well as creation and editing of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations within the comfort of a web browser. Another benefit for students is that they do not have to worry about losing assignments because of corrupted files or forgetting to save. Everything on Google Docs is stored on Google’s secured servers and automatically saved. Collaboration is another one of the key elements of Google Docs, as it allows students to work on assignments together over the Internet, getting group assignments done quickly. Once assignments are complete, students can easily turn in assignments by simply sharing it with their teacher through Docs.

Not only is Google Docs convenient for the students, though, but it is also great for staff use. Data sheets can be shared between staff, and when something must be fixed, the original document can be edited live and anyone that views it will see all the latest edits, without having to send out a new revision or worry about people looking at the wrong version of the document. On top of Docs, Google Apps offers a video sharing utility that gives teachers the ability to upload videos of their lessons for students who miss the class, or administration to distribute recordings of presentations to the other staff that may have missed the meeting. Google Apps also offers Gmail to its users, eliminating the need for the expensive and unstable Microsoft Exchange system and replacing it with a more user-friendly, online interface, and to make life a little easier for the IT guys, Apps has migration tools to help move everything over. These are just a few services that are available. Apps also offers calendars, sites, which could be useful for teachers who like to post assignments in easy-to-access places, and the “Apps Marketplace”, which makes Google Apps infinitely extensible, providing just about any service that could be desired.

Google Apps for Education is easy to adopt, and reliable. Rather than having to make sure everything works right on every computer in the entire district, the Google Apps services are run by Google, require no more than an Internet connection and web browser, and have almost zero downtime, ever. On top of this, for educational institutions, the services are free. There is absolutely no cost to use Google Apps for education, and the number of accounts that can be created is “practically limitless.” On top of the zero-dollar price tag, Google Apps will save paper, allowing work that can easily eat up a whole tree worth of paper to be done on the computer, from anywhere. This will cut the amount of paper parents have to buy for their students, as well as also reduce the paper used in printing up announcements and other documents that could just as easily be sent out digitally. And, of course, the reduction in paper usage is both good for the wallet and a great start towards meeting the demand for environmental friendliness.

Switching to Google Apps will also help build the district’s image. If the entire Marana district can adopt it, it will be only the second district in the entire state to fully switch, placing its schools among the thirty or so other schools that have switched. These include universities like ASU and U of A and high schools such as Yuma and Sunnyside High School. This recognition and use of technologies that many schools have yet to take advantage of would help promote our area, as well as possibly even prevent some students from transferring to other districts that haven’t adopted this excellent tool just yet.

Overall, the switch to Google Apps will make many activities that are regularly required for teaching students, learning material, and administrating schools much easier, more efficient, and more collaborative, making the entire district more productive and more in touch with some of the excellent tools modern technology has to offer.

The information used in this article along with more information about Google Apps for Education can be found at http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/index.html

What is Boxee, you ask? Well it’s this pretty awesome Media-Center that was originally made for Linux/Mac/Windows, then was put onto it’s own hardware called the “Boxee Box.” You can check it out at http://boxee.tv/.

Good news for PC/Mac/Linux users – we are working to update the downloadable software version of Boxee and hope to have builds available this fall so you can enjoy the updated browser, improved playback, and lots more content that are currently available on the Boxee Box.

We know Boxee users on computers have been frustrated with the long wait and we want to be open with you about our priorities, growth, and the future of Boxee.

Read the rest of the post at the Boxee Blog.

UPDATE: The update hasn’t come yet, but I’ve been told by one of the people on their support team that the update is still going to be released by the end of the year.

It’s been jsut about a year since I’ve posted anything. I tell ya, it’s been a crazy year. Starting today, however, things are going to be a lot better – time to focus on what I love most – computer stuff. Be expecting more stuff from me here, and on Joanne vs. Nienhouse (http://joanne.vs.nienhouse.net/).

DVD

I finally got around to making a sort of light box out of some k’nex and a blanket and I must say, it turned out pretty well. I uploaded several photo’s I’ve taken in it.

Check them out in my photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flakepardigm/

Death Grip (and still getting service!)

You can check out putting froyo on your Droid here:
http://www.droid-life.com/2010/06/08/download-newer-motorola-droid-froyo-leak-frf57/
(Also, there are some newer baseband updates available on droid-life)

Here is a list of all of the new features – the links will take you to a sreenshot of new feature in action.

All screenshots I have taken for this article are free to use as long as they have proper attribution – http://tan-com.com/blog/licenses/.

An index of all of my froyo screenshots is available at
http://tan-com.com/tyler/screenshots/froyo

1. New home screen.
   1. Phone and Browser quick launchers on either side of the
   2. 3D app drawer (Which now works in landscape mode!)
   3. Buttons bottom left and right on the screen that change screens along with the usual dragging.
   4. When pressed and held, previews as a sort of shortcut (which also works in landscape) to get to any of the
   5. 5 home screens
   6. Power Control widget has new Auto Brightness setting
   7. New widget: Home screen tips
   8. New widget: Market
2. New look for the recent app list (list is longer – 8apps)
3. Search bar has option to choose between “All, Web, Apps, Contacts”
4. Changed Settings Menu (Settings)
   1. Under Wireless & Network settings, the ability to tether – right now it only has USB tethering available (Settings > Wireless & Networks)
   2. Enable and disable Edge/3G data connection (Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile networks)
   3. Sound and Display items separated
   4. Ability to set specific rules for vibrate (Settings > Sound) this setting will determine what the silence/vibrate slider will do on the lock screen.
   5. Volume management for Ringtone, Media, and Alarm in one place (Settings > Sound)
   6. Sounds for locking and unlocking the screen (Settings > Sound)
   7. New screen lock options – PIN and Password along with the original Pattern method (Settings > Location & Security > Set up screen lock)
   8. Tab based filters in application manager (Settings > Applications > Manage Applications)
   9. Ability to move apps to the SD card (Settings > Applications > Manage Applications)
   10. New voice recognition settings (Settings > Voice input & output > Voice recognizer settings)
   11. “Power Button Ends Call” (Settings > Accessibility)
5. Market gets some updates
   1. “Update all” option
   2. Choice to automatically update specified apps
   3. Separated Description and Comments tabs for apps
   4. Search suggestion (and other search features, I have heard)
6. New Enable USB storage or Disable USB storage screen (Accessed from the notifications tray still)
7. New camera app
   1. Icons will rotate no matter which direction you turn the phone
   2. Video recorder does not do this though (yet?)
   3. Video recorder supports using the flash while recording
8. New Car Home
   1. Has a second screen accessible from the first.
9. New Clock app
10. Dragging finger off the top of the software keyboard will bring two extra rows of numbers and symbols onto the screen
11. Apps with light themes
    1. Messaging
    2. Google Talk
12. Gmail app gets updates
    1. Switch accounts by tapping the current username in the top right
    2. Colored Labels
    3. Previous/Next buttons when viewing emails
    4. Install apps (.apk) from an email
13. Call log items are grouped together
14. Contacts list view settings
    1. Sort list by first or last names
    2. Contact name options (First name, last name vs. Last name, first name)
15. Landscape mode also available when device is turned to the right

Other things I missed:

1. Multiple Google calendars
2. Threaded download history

source: http://www.droid-life.com/2010/06/07/additional-froyo-tips-for-motorola-droid/

A collection of computer graphics that I have made.

Flickr > Flakeparadigm > Graphics

TIMPA.org

I just finished up the timpa.org web site – http://timpa.org/

Film Dump – Pen, originally uploaded by flakeparadigm.

Direct scans of my negatives. The only photoshop work was inverting from negatives and adjusting curves and levels to make the picture visible. More coming up, Just used a whole roll and am going to post them too.

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx

Well We are now around to Ubutu Lucid Lynx (10.04) and it looks like nothing has changed support wise, so to get the backlight to adjust, just add:

nomodeset acpi_backlight=vendor

to the “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT” section, right after “quiet splash” and before the closing quotation mark. Now run

sudo update-grub

and you will be good to go! Reboot and try out your freshly brewed screen backlight adjustments!