Category: Uncategorized

OtherInbox Redux

Those nice people at OtherInbox (see previous post) wrote to remind me that they are still in beta and that those who tried to sign up following my post may have been disappointed.Fear not! Simple email me at betaapp@tonygurney.otherinbox.com for …

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Those nice people at OtherInbox (see previous post) wrote to remind me that they are still in beta and that those who tried to sign up following my post may have been disappointed.

Fear not! Simple email me at betaapp@tonygurney.otherinbox.com for your beta invitation. I’ve got 25 to give away. First come first served.

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PIs in Computing

The conference organised by the SFEU addressing the continued problems with Computing performance was fascinating.Speakers, including representatives of the SQA, HMIe, SCQF and SFEU, presented irrefutable evidence that Computing as a subject requi…

The conference organised by the SFEU addressing the continued problems with Computing performance was fascinating.

Speakers, including representatives of the SQA, HMIe, SCQF and SFEU, presented irrefutable evidence that Computing as a subject requires to address its problems, and sooner rather than later.

It was interesting that during the One Minute Challenge ™ where participants were asked to name the one thing that would make the biggest difference to the subject we received many tremendous suggestions although none were reflected inwards at the practitioners.

What do you think? Are Computing staff perfect and the problems lie firmly at the door of, for example, SQA for course design or HMIe for unfair inspection techniques; or are the problems closer to home?

SQA Computing blog: Computing performance problems

Other Inbox

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeOne of the nastiest side effects of using e-mail is the potential for abuse. We’ve all been there; you sign up to some web service or other and shortly you are bombarded with spam from destinations far and near.Oth…

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife

One of the nastiest side effects of using e-mail is the potential for abuse. We’ve all been there; you sign up to some web service or other and shortly you are bombarded with spam from destinations far and near.

OtherInbox addresses(!) this problem by giving you your own sub-domain, such as fredflinstone.otherinbox.com. You then create as many e-mail addresses as you can eat like fred@fredflinstone.otherinbox.com, wilma@fredflinstone.otherinbox.com and pebbles@fredflinstone.otherinbox.com. These addresses are then automatically sorted into folders in your OtherInbox web interface. If you start receiving spam simply block that address. The addresses don’t need to be pre-assigned and you can create a new address for every web site without setting it up beforehand.

This is a cheap way of managing your e-mail. And yes, I know that you can use the same trick with your own domain (I’ve done it myself for a couple of years) but this takes away the technical knowledge required and makes it available for everyone.

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Google Book Viewer

Image via CrunchBaseThere are times when you might want to let students on your VLE have a glimpse into recommended books. This is where the Google Book Search APIs come into use.Simply put the APIs allow you to embed Google Book Search into web p…

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Image via CrunchBase

There are times when you might want to let students on your VLE have a glimpse into recommended books. This is where the Google Book Search APIs come into use.

Simply put the APIs allow you to embed Google Book Search into web pages, either as a button or, as previewed here, as a complete book viewer on your web page.

Even better there are many public domain books that can be shown in their entirety. Bet you wish you were reading one of them instead of this right now…

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This is How Graphics Should be Taught

Image via CrunchBase, source unknown The Mythbusters crew, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, appeared at nVision 08 with a demonstration of using CPUs versus GPUs. While I’m not convinced of the science behind the demo it is still the best (read most…

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Image via CrunchBase, source unknown

The Mythbusters crew, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, appeared at nVision 08 with a demonstration of using CPUs versus GPUs. While I’m not convinced of the science behind the demo it is still the best (read most entertaining) explanation of parallel versus serial operations that I’ve seen.

Watch the video on Nvidia’s site.

Mythbusters at NVISION 08 the Complete Presentation PT. 1

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Last Call for Computing Conference

Image via Wikipedia Following on from the SFEU’s Computing Conference in June, (what do you mean you weren’t there – it was great!) this Thursday, the 18th of September, sees an event focussed on Recruitment, Attainment and Retention in Computing….

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Image via Wikipedia

Following on from the SFEU‘s Computing Conference in June, (what do you mean you weren’t there – it was great!) this Thursday, the 18th of September, sees an event focussed on Recruitment, Attainment and Retention in Computing.

We have speakers from the SFEU, SQA, HMIe and the University of Strathclyde together with plenty of workshops on the programme.

Hopefully you’ll leave bristling with new ideas to make your department as successful as it can possibly be.

Registration closes soon so get moving and I’ll see you on the 18th.

From the SFEU website: The challenges facing computing staff in all of Scotland’s 43 colleges have never been greater, with continuous demands on lecturing staff to keep abreast of an evolving curriculum, emerging technologies and new computing subjects. In addition, staff members need to consider the profile of their learners and their varying expectations, the fact that performance indicators continue to be low compared to other areas across the sector, and that computing recruitment is slipping. Despite such challenges, there is an abundance of good practice and success stories in computing. It is important to harness such practice and help practitioners implement these successes elsewhere. To achieve this, it is essential that computing practitioners work together with learners, policy holders, awarding bodies and employers.

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Google Get Into Browsers

Image via CrunchBase, source unknown Google live on the Internet and so it makes sense that they would want to influence the nuts and bolts of web browsing. To that end they have introduced their own browser, Chrome.Some of the choices made in cre…

Image via CrunchBase, source unknown

Google live on the Internet and so it makes sense that they would want to influence the nuts and bolts of web browsing. To that end they have introduced their own browser, Chrome.

Some of the choices made in creating the browser such as multiple processes, secrecy mode and a brand new Java interpreter are interesting to say the least and are well explained in the accompanying comic. (It’s Google, of course it’s a comic!)

You can download the browser here (Windows only at the moment, Mac and Linux to follow). It’s certainly worth a look and, as the code has been open-sourced, it’s only a matter of time until at least some of the ideas appear elsewhere.

Browser wars in 2008. Who’d have thought?

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Improving Reading and Retention Skills

As part of student induction it is useful to teach some basic tasks like time management, library use and getting out of bed in the morning.Download Squad have a pointer to a rather useful application that helps improve reading and retention skill…

As part of student induction it is useful to teach some basic tasks like time management, library use and getting out of bed in the morning.

Download Squad have a pointer to a rather useful application that helps improve reading and retention skills. That can only help improve results.

Speed Read : Improve Your Reading and Retention Skills – Download Squad

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Flash Based eLearning

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Image via Wikipedia

Flash is a tremendous tool but not even its best friends would describe it as user-friendly. That’s a shame as some of its features are perfect for eLearning purposes.

To address this Adobe have posted some easy instructions for creating Flash based quizzes that are even SCORM compliant.

This works really well and the quizzes can be slightly more student friendly (or flashy if you’ll excuse the pun) than some other tools produce.

Flash Based eLearning from Adobe

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Mac Educational Applications Bundle

Image via Wikipedia MacUpdate do a daily offer for Mac software at vastly reduced prices.The offer today is especially good containing ten applications aimed towards education including:Hookup Alarm Clock Pro Periscope DevonAgent Mellel Norrkross …

Image via Wikipedia MacUpdate do a daily offer for Mac software at vastly reduced prices.

The offer today is especially good containing ten applications aimed towards education including:

  • Hookup
  • Alarm Clock Pro
  • Periscope
  • DevonAgent
  • Mellel
  • Norrkross Movie
  • Bookend

for just $49.99. I think that’s about two jam jars in our money.

If enough bundles are sold MacJournal, Contactizer Pro and LightZone are added. This is a great deal that you should jump on.

Today’s MacUpdate Promo, 40% off

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