Archive for December, 2003

Bluetooth Remote Control

Just read about this on Mobilewhack and gave it a try. Romeo, and Veta Universal turn your Nokia 3650 into a Bluetooth remote control for your Powerbook. It can be used to do all sorts of things like advance slides in a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation, control iTunes, iDVD and even control the mouse.

Whittier GIS Project

EdBlogger Praxis: Whittier School contemplates use of blogs for NSF project.
Al Delgado’s school in Chicago is involved with an NSF project looking at using geographical information systems with his elementary students. The official title is… “Designing Learning Environments for Teaching Scientific Argumentation and Mathematical Reasoning with Geographic Data.” A description of the project can be found here.

Al has been asked to help integrate the use of web logs into the project.

Moveable Type 3.0 Coming Early ‘04

movabletype.org: News
The other day Ben Trott posted information about the upcoming release of Moveable Type 3.0. New features will include comment registration. This feature will be very helpful for teachers looking to utilize Moveable Type with students, but who have been worried about comment spam and also unwelcome comments. He notes that those interested in posting from mobile devices will find 3.0 a welcome release…

Blosxom….

blosxom :: the zen of blogging ::
I installed and played with Blosxom last winter. After reading about the latest version of this weblogging tool on Pat Delaney’s site, I tried it again and I am very impressed. I have it running up on my web space and also on my Powerbook.

I have been looking for a tool that will allow me to keep notes on my laptop. I have been writing notes about my experiences as a first year principal at Lewis Elementary. I had considered using a tool such as Moveable Type, but did not want the notes on a public web site. I also wanted access to my work when not online. Blosxom is just what I was looking for. The CGI will take text files placed in a folder and create them as posts. You can add folders to organize your posts and magically Blosxom will reorganize your site based on the folder structure. For example someone could send me meeting notes from a staff meeting in Word format. I can open them in word, save them as a .txt file into a directory in my Blosxom directory and they are automatically posted.

In addition to posts saved as text files, Blosxom also allows for the creation and editing of posts via the browser.

A very nice tool from Rael Dornfest…

Weblog about Widgets and UI elements

Widgetopia
Elizabeth Lane Lawley points to Widgetopia, a weblog about user interface components found on web sites.

WiFi SD card for Smartphones coming

SyChip say they’re close to introducing an WiFi SD expansion card that’s compatible with Microsoft Smartphone-powered cellphones like Motorola’s MPx200 and Samsung’s i600. Now if only someone would make one that works with the Treo 600. Read… [Gizmodo]

My friend has a Treo 600. A very nice phone with a SD slot. If it can take a Wi-Fi card then you have a very interesting device. My Nokia 3650 is working well for me, but if I had a phone that also could connect via Wi-Fi, then I would have a device that would allow me to move about my school and stay connected via our wireless network…

Flat Stanley Author Dies at 77

Jeff Brown, Children’s Writer

Jeff Brown, a magazine editor and short-story writer who created Flat Stanley, the two-dimensional hero of an enduring series of children’s books, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 77 and lived on the Upper East Side.

My students always liked the Flat Stanley books… I mean who wouldn’t want to read about a boy squashed paper-thin by a bulletin board… who possesed the ability to slide under doors and down sewer grates…