Two more GREAT TED presenters

I was able to sit down today for a while and just browse. How nice that is to do, from time to time, eh? This time I took some time to again stop at TED, and I was able to watch two more outstanding presenters.

The first one I watched is one that you will HAVE to send to your art and music and Drama teachers. Natasha Tsakos presents part of her one woman show, a multimedia show that is just SO creative and ... amazing, you're going to have to watch it to see what I mean. Very cool stuff. Your arts kids will LOVE it! Here she is on Ted.

The second one, which I'll embed here, is another from Hans Rosling, the creator of that WONDERFUL site, Gapminder. You may recall his first presentation at TED a while back. Or maybe you saw this presentation. This time, however, I think he's outdone himself. In this funny and very informative presentation he uses his data to challenge our ideas about what it means to be a Developing country. As you watch this, think about how your students might be able to use Gapminder to make such a presentation. They'll have to do this in teams, I think, but I do think it would make for some powerful, long-term learning.

Here it is. Watch this from start to finish. Then share this with your favorite Social Studies teacher. This is GREAT learning!

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Dashboards for Project Management

by Brian S. Friedlander, Ph.D. & Wallace Tait

Sitting in any vehicle; what’s the center of visual control? It’s the instrument panel, better known as the “dashboard”. Every vehicle has one, we require them and they give us an accurate measurement of performance and capability. Consider the vehicle analogy while using information mapping software. It makes perfect sense for the information manager to use a dashboard to measure key process variables (KPV”s) within business.

Have you considered a dashboard approach as a “single point of access” to all of your KPV”s while using the tools, methods and mindset of visual mapping? Another pertinent question may be asked of the developers of visual mapping software. Why is a dashboard approach unavailable in most of the applications that utilize a mind mapping approaches to information management?

A visual map can, when used effectively, be an ideal tool for graphically communicating ideas and gaining team buy in right at the genesis of a project; and as a dashboard, an excellent way to graphically track the progress of any project. While a visual map is extremely effective as a communication tool, it’s much more effective and powerful when used as, or synchronized with a dashboard.

ConceptDraw Office is a product suite that, in our opinion, has a very unique and powerful dashboard function that enables tracking and reporting of critical KPV’s within a business management project. Analysing CD Office through the eyes of a busy project manager; the power of the dashboard function is evident. For those of you who may not be familiar with ConceptDraw Office; it consists of three distinct applications:

All of this is supported by the CS ODESSA InGyre technology; the tool that seamlessly synchronises the information exchanges between the three products within CD Office. In any business there are many shift points where data is transformed to meet particular audience requirements. InGyre Technology Adds Value at any Stage of a Business Process. InGyre Technology supports delivery of information in an optimal visual manner for specific audiences.

CD Office provides a turnkey approach to creating, managing and exchanging information and knowledge, while easily generating reports and utilizing the graphical power of the product. Using the “Generate Reports” function, the project manager can generate an impressive report of KPV’s within seconds.



The process from mind mapping your project in CD MindMap and sending it to CD Project is processed with ease while using CD MindMap. Making it easy to communicate ideas and brainstorm project paths before moving into project management is what CD Office does well. You can determine which branches of your mind map are moved over to CD Project which gives you lots of control. Once you have synchronised the mapped information with CD Project you are in the full featured project management function and ready to go.

CD Project has several different views which are useful in planning your project. Most users of project management software will spend most of their time in the Gantt Chart as they set up the dependencies, schedule, and track the tasks. You can also view the Resource Sheet, Network Diagram, as well as Resource Usage from within CD Project.

The absolute power of ConceptDraw Office is the generation of the business system reports. Simply chose the “Generate Reports” function, and you can create highly visual reports to keep you and your team up to date with project status, capabilities and performance measures. Communicating project information in a clear and succinct manner ready enables the elimination of ambiguity for stakeholders and shareholders alike. So we encourage you to take a closer look at ConceptDraw Office, use the dashboard approach and manage your projects, while keeping them on time and within budget.

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Posted in: ConceptDraw MindMap 5,ConceptDraw Office,ConceptDraw Project 4,dashboards

Post weekly (weekly)

• class_startersCATESOL.pdf (application/pdf Object)

  50 interesting and fun ways to start your class - a pdf

  tags: classroom

• RepRap on Vimeo

  Once upon a time there was just ONE printing press in the world. Now anyone can have one (printer) or more. Today we hae to go to a store to purchase items we want. In the not-too-distant future we may all be able to just make the item ourselves. What does that mean to Business? What does it mean for education?

  tags: future

• 10 Youtube URL Tricks You Should Know About - Annotated

  Some very interesting little tips for playing youtube videos

  tags: youtube

• What Else? / How To Diigo

  Nice site with videos on how to use Diigo

  tags: diigo

• About | Youth Voices

  Youth Voices is a meeting place where students and their teachers share, distribute, and discuss their inquiries and digital work online. It's a space where teachers nurture student-to-student conversations, collaborations, and civic actions that result from publishing and commenting on each others texts, images, audio and video.

  tags: youth, wiki

• Online image / photo editor pixlr free

  If you're not familiar with this, take a look. Bookmark it for when you need it.

  tags: tools, photos

• - Governing Dynamo - Take a look at some Historic American Rhetoric

  Underneath the image is a link that will step you through the word clouds for all the inaugural speeches. Each one is also printed so that you can read the full text. This is not only good for Social Studies, but also VERY good for English. My how our language has devolved over the years. Read Madison's speeches, for example.

  tags: wordle, socialstudies

• History Tours - home

  A nice site for History Tours in Google Earth

  tags: history, googleearth

• Add Gadget to Your Webpage

  Embed this Google Earth player on your webpage. Point it to a kmz tour file. This is great! http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2009/07/best_google_earth_tour_to_date_apol.html

  tags: gadget, googleearth

• Mental Health Break: Social Media Addiction - All Tech Considered - Technology News And Culture Blog : NPR

  This is FUNNY! Social Media addiction. ROFL!

  tags: npr, socialstudies, twitter

• All Passage Middle School classes will blog this year -- dailypress.com

  Imagine! And they, too, are following the CIPA laws - the same laws that some of our schools are using as reasons to BLOCK all blogs!

  tags: blogging

  • Passage teachers have been encouraged to create an account on Twitter, an online social networking site that limits each posting to 140 characters. Teachers will attend a morning screening of the movie "Julie & Julia" and "live blog" the experience with their Twitter accounts. Rogers chose the movie, based on the experiences of two real people, because one character uses a blog as an education and communication tool.

• Wired Up: Tuned out | Scholastic.com - Annotated

  Interesting article.

  tags: scholastic.com, research

  • Recent reports from the Pew Internet and American Life Project show that 93 percent of youth ages 12 to 17 go online. Of those kids, 55 percent use social-networking sites (like Facebook and MySpace), and 64 percent are creating their own original content (such as blogs and wikis). Unlike watching television, using the Internet allows young people to take an active role; this move from consumption to participation affects the way they construct knowledge, develop their identity, and communicate with others. "Technology, from my perspective, has created an opportunity for students to use new digital-media resources to express themselves in ways that earlier generations could never have imagined,
  • Students today "more quickly tune out a teacher or someone who doesn't relate," she adds.
  • This is something Jim Gates hears a lot. As a coach for Pennsylvania's Classrooms for the Future project, he works to make technology available to students and teachers. He's also got a blog of his own called TipLine. "There's a growing disconnect between how kids embrace technology and where teachers' skill levels are," he says.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Table Dynamis tanpa Echo Nama Field dengan PHP dan MySQL

Maksud dari tutorial ini adalah kita tidak perlu lagi membuat skript untuk nama nama kolom yang sering digunakan dalam pemrograman PHP MySQL..

Contoh :

<?php
include("conn.php");
//$query = "select field1, fieldn from table [where clause][group by clause][order by clause][limit clause]";

if (empty($_GET[action])){
$query = "select KecId as ID, KecCode, KecDesc, RegionID, RegionCode from m_kecamatan";
$result = mysql_query($query);
if (($result)||(mysql_errno == 0))
{
echo "<table width='90%' border=1 align=center><tr>";
if (mysql_num_rows($result)>0)
{
//loop thru the field names to print the correct headers
$i = 0;
while ($i < mysql_num_fields($result))
{
echo "<th>". mysql_field_name($result, $i) . "</th>";
$i++;
}
echo "<td align='center'><strong>Keterangan</strong></td>"; //mypoints --> picas
echo "</tr>";

//display the data
$j = 0;
while ($rows = mysql_fetch_array($result,MYSQL_NUM))
{
echo "<tr>";
foreach ($rows as $data)
{
echo "<td align='left'>". $data . "</td>";
$j++;
}
echo "<td align='left'><a href=fieldname.php?action=edit&id=".$rows[0].">Edit</a> | <a href=fieldname.php?action=delete&id=".$rows[0].">Delete</a> </td>"; //mypoints --> picas
}
}else{
echo "<tr><td colspan='" . ($i+1) . "'>No Results found!</td></tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
}else{
echo "Error in running query :". mysql_error();
}

}
?>

Jangan lupa file koneksinya..

<?
$server = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "picas";
$database = "db_combo";

// Koneksi dan memilih database di server
mysql_connect($server,$username,$password) or die("Koneksi gagal");
mysql_select_db($database) or die("Database tidak bisa dibuka");
?>

dan contoh hasilnya...



Oh Ya..hampir lupa..
Nama Field bisa di Customize dengan Query semisal

----> Select nm_kec as Nama Kecamatan from ....

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Posted in: PHPMySQL

Tiga atau lebih dropdown menu dengan PHP dan MySQL

Membuat tiga atau lebih dropdown /combobox terkait dengan PHP dan MySQL tentunya bukan hal mudah bagi kita yang awam dan newbie dengan PHP, MySQL dan Ajax.

Perlu cukup waktu untuk membuat saya hampir gila (mode berlebihan = on) dan menerima beberapa sindiran karena sering terlihat tampang yang lesu dan pucat (mode berlebihan = on)..Salah satu penyebabnya karena tidak dapat membuat sendiri tiga dropdown combobox yang saling berkaitan satu sama lain. Yang ada hanyalah bisa memanfaatkan source code orang lain. Tetapi tidak apa-lah. yang penting primary target nantinya tercapai.

Cukup berbasa basi..supaya terlihat mudah bisa diperhatikan gambar berikut :


Beberapa hal yang perlu diperhatikan adalah file index.php yang meload langsung combobox negara, kemudian

1. combobox provinsi diload terpisah dengan PHP dan digabungkan ke index.php dengan Javascript atau Ajax
2. combobox wilayah diload terpisah dengan PHP dan digabungkan ke index.php dengan Javascript atau Ajax
3. combobox kecamatan diload terpisah dengan PHP dan digabungkan ke index.php dengan Javascript atau Ajax

Javascript cukup terkenal dalam teknologi AJAX dan bisa memanfaatkan elemen id dari tag html div.

Mohon maaf bila saya tidak menjelaskan terlalu detail dan rasanya kurang lengkap. untuk lengkapnya bisa dipelajari dari file file yang saya upload (program PHP, Javascript dan database MySQL).

Inti program ini hanya menyediakan 4 Combobox yang saling terkait. Untuk Jumlah Combobox yang lebih banyak, misalnya 5 Combobox terkait anda bisa memodifikasi sendiri dengan menambah database dan file PHP untuk tingkatan ke 5.

Jika ingin mengurangi menjadi 3 Combobox terkait, sebelumnya sudah ada artikel Membuat Tiga Populate Combobox With PHP, MySQL dan AJAX atau anda dapat memodifikasi skript berikut..

Download File Empat Populate Combobox With Ajax, PHP dan MySQL

Jika ingin mencoba, pilihlah
Negara Indonesia
Provinsi Bali
Wilayah Denpasar
Kecamatan Pilih salah satu...

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Posted in: PHPMySQL

Keseharian dengan Facebook, Cek Update Status Facebook

Tidak dapat dipungkiri Facebook, yang populer dengan FB menjadi situs favorit saat ini (2008-2009 dan mungkin juga beberapa tahun kedepan..). Bagaimana tidak, setiap hari kita bisa mengaksesnya beberapa kali.

Saat pagi, kita cenderung akan melihat update status facebook ataupun mengecek notifikasi / pemberitahuan yang terjadi malam atau dini hari saat kita tertidur dan tidak di depan komputer di kantor. Sebelum makan siang, lagi-lagi saat yang tepat mengecek facebook, karena waktu sekitar 5 menit sebelum makan siang adalah sedikit waktu yang bahkan lebih dari cukup untuk mengecek update status facebook kita.

Sore hari sebelum pulang kerja, lagi-lagi saat yang tepat membuka facebook. Apa mau dikata, rasa penasaran benar-benar dimanfaatkan oleh perancang sistem facebook agar kita tetap tertarik dan penasaran terhadap update status facebook kita.

Hanya di malam hari saja dan hanya bagi yang tidak memiliki koneksi internet saja tidak dapat membuka facebook di malam hari. Bahkan lingkupnya bisa lebih dipersempit lagi, karena koneksi internet dengan HP, Blackberry dan mobile device lain dapat digunakan untuk mengecek update status facebook.

Bagaimana kita menilai entah itu suatu perilaku buruk atau tidak? tergantung apakah kita sampai dibuat gila...? tentunya kita tidak menunjukkan perilaku berlebihan terhadap hal tersebut sampai-sampai sama sekali tidak menyelesaikan pekerjaan atau hal hal lain.

Fenomena seperti ini sangat jarang terjadi karena sebagian besar orang akan mencari suatu jalan refreshing dan salah satunya membuka facebook saat kondisi kerja sudah suntuk dan tidak bergairah.

Apa yang saya tulis ini mungkin sudah ketinggalan kereta. Sebelumnya fenomena facebook bahkan sudah dijadikan lagu lagu yang cukup terkenal saat ini (08-2009), tapi daripada tidak menulis, lebih baik menulis...

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Posted in: MySelf

Twitscoop - signs of the times

I'm sure that many of you have already seen twitscoop before, so for you this won't be anything new. But, for others it might be. I just think it's such a VERY cool idea. It filters through the twitter stream looking for commonly used key words, eliminating the's and and's, etc. Then it forms a tag cloud with those words. But the cool part is that this tag cloud changes in front of your eyes as the conversation in the 'twitterverse' changes.

There have been a couple especially interesting twitscoops lately, and those folks have made youtube videos of them. Here's one that shows what happened the day that the new of Michael Jackson's death started to spread. Watch as his mention comes in very small (fewer mentions) and then grows as more folks spread the word. Here's another (part 1 and part 2) of the day when there was an earthquake and Tsunami in New Zealand, as well as a plane crash making the news.

Wouldn't this idea be excellent if somehow you could sign in and it would make a tag cloud based on what is being said only by those whom you follow? Wow. VERY nice - if it ever happens.

In the meantime, here's a little widget that they offer. It's not as cool as the one on their site, but pretty neat, nonetheless. Of course, depending on when you look at it, it may have references to people or things that you wish weren't there. (Another reason to limit it to just those you follow) Still, it's signs of the immediate times. A visual reminder of how information is being transmitted and gathered every second of every day.

How are we helping our students make sense of all this?

---

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Where do you stop as a DBA? Thoughts about problem solving....

This is one of my few posts that are not about Informix features. I will write about a real life situation and use it for developing some thoughts about problem solving ability (or lack of it).

I will not use real names from either customers or suppliers except of course Informix and my employer. The scenario is this:

Several IBM Informix Dynamic Servers will be upgraded from version 10 on platform P1 to version 11.50 on platform P2. P2 is from a third party supplier, let's call it S1.
Currently the customer uses ontape utility for backup, but wants to take advantage of OnBar. So tests were made using OnBar, IDS 11.50 and a Storage Manager from another supplier S2 on platform P2. After some issues the tests run fine and some development instances are migrated. Suddently we start having issues. OnBar reports a BAR_TIMEOUT in BAR_ACT_LOG file... This message informs us that OnBar executed a BSA (XOpen standard for backup API) call which failed to return (successfuly or unsuccessfuly) within a specific ammount of time. OnBar will not give up, and will keep logging messages in BAR_ACT_LOG file. The Informix error message description is this:

"-43296 Warning: BAR_TIMEOUT Storage Manager Progress may be stalled. The current command has exceeded the BAR_TIMEOUT value. This might indicate a normal transfer of a large data set or it can mean the storage manager needs attention. Check to make sure the storage manager is still running and that data is still being transferred to/from the storage manager. Refer to the storage manager message log (or equivalent) for more information. If the cause of the error is still unclear, contact your storage manager Technical Support. If you are using IBM Informix Storage Manager, contact Technical Support at tsmail@us.ibm.com"

The message looks explicit and clear, but the Storage Manager operators decided that it should be a problem with OnBar. Let's make a small pause here... this is the first point I'd like to raise... What would you do? Trust the Informix error message that explicitly says to contact the Storage Manager technical support or do your own investigation?
Well, as an onsite consultant I decided to do some investigation... First things I did were:

1. Running truss against onbar_d processes
2. Running dbx/gdb/adb against the onbar_d processes
3. Running lsof against the onbar_d processes

These simple steps revealed that:

1. truss showed OnBar was "stuck" on send(). This is an OS function used to send data through a socket
2. gdb showed that onbar_d had called the BSASendData() function which in turn had called send(). BSASendData() is part of the dynamic library we have to configure in $ONCONFIG (BSALIBPATH)
3. lsof showed that the file descriptor (fd) used in the send() call was a socket opened to the storage manager "media server". This is a host which has direct access to the storage manager allocated tape drives

So, it was clear (only for me as we shall see...) that there was a problem in the storage manager while it tried to send data from the database server to the media server. The next logical step would be to analyse the status of the process receiving the data in the media server. Since I had no access to that server I asked for it, but without success... In the following days I received all kinds of evasive replies and useless requests both from the storage manager team and from the storage manager supplier (S2) technical support. Some of these were:

• You cannot run a whole system backup with more than one concurrent process
  True for versions earlier than 11.10, but incorrect for version 11.50 (and this suggestion ignored all the debug info above)
• We were trying to use more onbar_d processes than what the storage manager was configured to support, leading to waits on the OnBar side
  This could make sense, but when this happens, the onbar_d processes wait for a free "slot" at the begining of a dbspace backup.... they don't get "stuck" in the middle (usually it happened around 90% of a dbspace backup)
• They suggested that we should change the BAR_TIMEOUT parameter (it exists only in XPS, not IDS....)
  
• They even suggest me that I should consult the OnBar manual ;)

Finnally the tech support guy from S2 was on site, and I managed to have him collect the info (truss, gdb, lsof) from the media server processes. At that moment I understood why they ignored the info above. He didn't knew how to use or what were these utilities...
But I got a big surprise when I saw the outputs.... The process receiving data was "stuck" on recv(). This is an OS function used to get data from a socket. So, in short, we had an ESTABLISHED socket between two servers, one of them was on send(), and the other was on recv().... But no data was being transferred.

This made me think about network or TCP layer issues. But usually this are the last places to look for issues. Note that I don't consider network problems a rarity, but these usually translate into broken connections, not exactly hangs...
This observation was a turning point. I immediately assumed that the platform provider (S1) would have to be involved. The situation was even more complex because the media server was a Linux machine. So the problem could be in either platform...

During the next two months (!), I've been through a real nightmare, because the customer insisted that there could be something wrong with OnBar, I spent several hours in useless conference calls (customer and S2) and meetings. They insisted in making all kind of weird tests like:

• Running onbar with few and more processes
• Reconfigure their whole backup infrastructure
• Reconfigure their storage manager parameterization

At some point they asked me the following:

• Do you have customers running with this setup?
  They seemed desesperate to prove OnBar was doing something wrong...
  They don't understand we don't keep any kind of tracking on customer environments. We do keep an incredible useful internal knowledge base where customer problems are recorded, but as expected I was tired of making exhaustive searches on that KB without finding any similar cases...
• They proposed to use another storage manager (interestingly from vendor S1)
  The point was more or less this: If it doesn't work with that, surely the problem is not with the storage manager (and that again would imply the problem was with IDS...)
• They insisted in having a tech support case opened on IBM
  This seems reasonably, but the behavior of OnBar was completely explained in detail by me previously

At this point I was rather tired of the whole issue. Interestingly the tests with the second storage manager revealed two things:

1. The new environment hit another problem
   This problem was already reported in IBM knowledge base and it was a problem in that storage manager BSA library. I had to wait one week in order to know if the version they were using included the necessary fix... it turned out it didn't ;)
   
2. After solving that first issue the backups aborted with some sort of storage manager timeout... The real difference was in the storage manager behavior. First one waited indefinitely and this one establishes a timeout (much like OnBar does, but since it's the one calling the low level OS function it aborts the process instead of just warning the administrator like OnBar does)

After about two months of outstanding time waste I understood the only way to solve this in a timely manner was to reproduce the issue without any Informix or storage manager layer. Let me point that some people in the customer team had made exhaustive tests sending data across servers using scp for example. All these tests were successful, and they concluded it couldn't be anything in the TCP layer. I warn them (and showed them using the tools above that scp didn't use the same functions, block size etc.). if the tests had failed it would have beeen nice, but a working scp session didn't proove us that there was nothing wrong with the TCP stack.

After a few more days and a lot of GB sent, I was able to create a test case with just C programming. A simple client/server program that kept sending data through a socket. I made sure I established the socket options and block size similar to what the storage manager's BSA library used.

After this, they finally accepted that something was wrong with the vendor OS functions (specifically send() ). In the next day we had a conference call with all the parties involved. And in less than a week we had a fix (newly coded) for the OS. After installing we never had another similar hang on send() function.

The purpose of this post is to show how important it is to know how to debug a problem. Tools like truss, dbx/gdb/adb and lsof are invaluable for this. I personally think anybody working on IT problem solving independentely of their role (DBA, programer, system administrator, network administrator etc.) should have a minimal knowlege about how they work and what kind of information you can collect with them. There are obviously other tools equally useful in some scenarios. Tools like tcpdump, netstat etc. This whole case revealed that many people involved in this area don't have a clue about how these tools work and the info they can collect.
Everybody involved had a theory about the problem. But none of those theories were based on facts or real observations. They were merely speculations of what could be happening and all these tend to pass the problem to a different team...
Some facts about the situation:

• lots of emails including polished accusations were exchanged
• during two months I spent a considerable amout of time paying attention to this, trying to lead people into the righ direction (mostly without success)
• Vendor S2 had a very large team involved. They even sent a consultant from another country into this customer site (when he arrived we were about to receive the fix, so apart from politics this guy was not able to do much about this problem)
• The problem could have been solved in around two weeks (one for debugging and another for the vendor investigation and code fixing)
• No one admitted that didn't understand the output of the tools above and no one (even after the conclusion) took the opportunity to ask me to explain how to use this kind of tools
  I don't think I know everything (and in fact my knowledge about these tools is somewhat superficial), but I only learn how to use this kind of stuff because in some situation in my past I came across some references to them and I took the time to experiment and read about them. In other words, we should use the problems as opportunities to gather more knowledge and to learn new things.
  

I keep receiving reports about problems without any useful information. My favorite ones are:

• I tried it and it doesn't work!
  Surely I believe it doesn't work... But usually when something "doesn't work" it raises an error. Only rarely people include the error code/description. More often they include possible causes (usually not related to the error) than they include the error code or error message
  
• The process was hang! It was probably in some kind of loop! So I killed it
  Well... processes don't "hang". They wait on something or they effectively stay in some loop. And the way to see that is by using the tools... And the tools don't work on a process that doesn't exist anymore...
• I've found a bug!
  Sure... A bug is a malfunction. Something that works differently from what's documented or what is expected. Most of the times people find a problem. After some analisys (many times involving supplier's technical support) it may be mapped to a bug. People tend to expect something. If it doesn't happen they "found a bug". Usually they don't bother to read the documentation and try to understand the reasons for the unexpected behavior.
  Obviously people do hit bugs. Most of the cases that I open within IBM end up as bugs. But this is just a very small portion of the problems that customers report.

In short, I feel that in general, people's ability to study a problem in the IT world is vey limited. Usually people spend more time trying alternatives than collecting and understand problem data. Error messages and codes are ignored many times. And all these translate into a big waste of time, and obviously money... And of course, this directly impacts the quality and availability of the IT systems.

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Posted in: lsof,problem solving,stack trace,strace,tcpdump,truss

Wireless Electricity - Redux

Back in 2007 I blogged about an article on NPR about wireless electricity. I thought at the time it would be a good writing prompt for a science class, at least.

Today, when browsing through the Ted talks videos I came upon this video of Eric Giler demonstrating wireless electricty. This really is something that could truly inspire one of your students to set out in a career to advance this even further. This is HUGE!

Of course, we still have to HAVE electricity in order to send it wirelessly, but that could also be part of your newly inspired student's vision. I hope you'll send this to your favorite science teacher.

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Kepribadian dan Potensi Diri

Kepribadian dan Potensi Diri harus diketahui dan dimanfaatkan sebaik-baiknya. Sangat sulit merubah kepribadian dan bahkan digunakan sebagai ketentuan perekrutan Karyawan.

Dari Informasi yang sering terdengar dan membuat resah hati diantaranya..

Bagaimana Nasib orang yang memiliki kepribadian buruk..? Dia tidak akan pernah lulus tes tahap kepribadian / test psikotes...

Bagaimana bila kita belajar dari psikolog atau pakar kepribadian..? Bisa saja. tapi kepribadian asal tidak berubah, jadi kita hanya mengetahui teknik menjawab saja..Biaya untuk hal seperti ini juga tidaklah murah..

Terlepas dari semua keadaan, mengapa kita ribet..jika kita tidak cocok atau belum diterima di tempat kerja yang diperebutkan banyak orang, kita harus tetap fokus dengan keadaan kita sekarang. Kegagalan yang ada adalah suatu hal biasa yang patut kita cermati penyebabnya.

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Posted in: Health,MySelf

Bali dan Nusa Tenggara

Tidak dapat dipungkiri, Bali dan Nusa Tenggara sering dikelompokkan menjadi suatu bagian yang utuh dalam Suatu ikatan tertentu seperti Wilayah Kerja. PT Telkom misalnya, menamakan Bali Nusra.

Keadaan cuaca dan suhu wilayah Bali dan Nusa Tenggara semakin ke timur semakin panas, namun perkecualian tentunya ada di wilayah pegunungan dan pedesaan dengan banyak mata air.

Beberapa keajaiban dan keindahan alam dapat ditemui di wilayah Bali dan Nusa Tenggara. Potensi Pariwisata sangat besar di wilayah Bali dan Nusa Tenggara. Tidak hanya kekayaan budaya, tetapi juga kekayaan alam. Pulau Komodo, Gunung Rinjani, Pantai Kuta, Danau Kelimutu, dan lain-lain.

Wilayah Bali terkenal dengan dunia pariwisatanya, potensi tertinggi wilayah ini datang dari budaya, kemudian pesona alamya.

Wilayah Lombok, Nusa Tenggara Barat memiliki potensi pertanian yang sangat bagus. Gunung Rinjani sebagai gunung berapi memberikan tingkat kesuburan tanah yang tinggi. Selain kondisi kesuburan, beberapa tanaman juga sangat cocok dengan kondisi alam Lombok seperti Cabe dan Tembakau.

Wilayah Nusa Tenggara Timur memiliki kekayaan alam dan keunikan budaya yang tinggi. Pesona Alam Nusa Tenggara Timur yang paling terkenal ke seluruh dunia adalah Pulau Komodo yang bersaing menjadi 7 Keajaiban Dunia.

Besarnya kekayaan yang ada di wilayah Bali dan Nusa Tenggara seharusnya dikelola semaksimal mungkin demi kesejahteraan masyarakat wilayah ini.

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Posted in: Entertaintment,Holiday

The 20th Carnival of Computer Help and Advice

Seasonal greetings and welcome to the twentieth monthly Carnival of Computer Help and Advice. Another digest of blog articles that help you to avoid problems with and to get the most out of your PCs.

I will let the first contributor introduce their own article. Josh Allison of Modern Geeks presents a "simple how-to on researching properly before buying yourself a new laptop or computer along with effective methods to not get conned." Find out more at How to research before buying a new computer or laptop. In a similar vein, Michel asks Apple Macs or PC’s? at Computer-Tech Blog.

After spending all your spare cash on a new computer, you may want to check out Pinyo's list of Best Free Essential Software For Windows posted at Moolanomy Personal Finance. You may also want to consider Mike Pettinato's article Turn Any Web App into a Desktop Application on his gadgetphix blog.

Staying on the subject of software. With the academic year about to start in many parts of the world, Allison Johanson of Best Online Universities.com. lists her 25 Must-Have Firefox Extensions for e-Learners.

Last up this month we have Jules Peters post that offers a variety of Windows Registry Maintenance Tips at PCauthorities.com. Jules says, "With the Windows registry being such a critical component in Windows XP and Vista, you should consider some actions to ensure the registry is optimized. Here are a few tips."

If you have a blog with posts about computer issues and would like to host the next carnival then please leave a comment on this post or use the contact form over at our Blog Carnival page, where you can also submit your blog posts for inclusion in a future carnival.

If you would like to host a future carnival but don't wish to have the responsibility for selecting articles or writing the carnival post, don't worry I can do that for you.

Drop by next month for another selection of blog articles.

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Posted in: Blog Carnival

Looking forward to the new year

I've been hearing folks talking on Twitter about starting back to school and how excited they are for the new year. Some are starting a new position. Others are excited because of the challenge of teaching a new grade level. And others are excited because this year they are finally able to use a wiki or a blog, or maybe they've got their own Moodle server. Simple things, yes? But, it has taken years of effort to get to that point so they are rightfully excited about it. Here's to them. I can't wait to hear about all the great things that they're now going to be doing.

We KNEW it would happen eventually, didn't we? It was never a question of if it would happen. Only when. Let's just hope that it happens before the next big technological advancement renders today's tools obsolete, putting us right back in the same situation - but just with different tools.

I, too, am looking forward to some wonderful new opportunities. First, there's the fact that my role as a Mentor in the Classrooms for the Future program will be morphing into something new this year. The global economy and the struggles with PA's budget have put an end to the CFF program as we had known it. But, the principals of the grant were solid and will be still be promoted. The only question is what it will look like. CFF was about using technology to engage students, and to get students involved in activities that are truly meaningful in today's world - AND tomorrow's. So, the push will continue there, and I'm very pleased and proud to be a part of it.

And, I'm excited about the opportunities I have to work with schools directly in my business at gatesideas.com. I've got what I believe to be a very good set of timely and important workshops that I offer, as well as being willing and able to be a third party, independent observer to determine whether or not the huge investments in technology are making a real difference. We like to think that it is, but an outsider can see things more clearly, sometimes.

So, this will be a fun year for me, too. I'm a lucky man.

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Adobe Presenter 7 Updated

Adobe Presenter, one of the key rapid authoring tools in the Adobe eLearning suite, has released an important product update. Paresh Kharya, the Project Manager for Adobe Presenter, has covered some of the key highlights of this release in his post on the Connect User Forum.

A couple of key feature enhancements that are sure to get users excited are:

• Improved PowerPoint Conversion and PPTX format support: This update would include support for various PowerPoint SmartArt Animations. It would now be possible to work with and synchronize PowerPoint SmartArt animations. This release would include enhancements for improving the flash conversion fidelity of embedded images in PowerPoint. The release would also enhance the conversion fidelity for various text and shape effects created in PPTX format. Resolved issues where alternative text inserted using PowerPoint was not being exposed to screen readers. Based on what I’ve seen, the PPT conversion capability with this update will whip the other presenters out there.

• Tighter integration of Captivate Content in Presenter: We have enhanced the support for embedding Captivate created flash content in Presenter presentations. Captivate content having full motion recordings would now play properly without the need to manually copy the Captivate output files to Presenter data folder. We have also fixed issues related to loss of display fidelity when Captivate content would sometimes get imported with incorrect dimensions.

• Fixed some of the audio errors and sound clipping

• This update addresses a number of issues related to making Presenter content more accessible.

You can download the Adobe Presenter 7 Update by clicking on this link. I plan on demonstrating how I use Adobe Presenter 7 at the DevLearn 2009 Conference in San Jose, CA in mid November. If you are planning on attending please stop by my session and say hello.

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Posted in: adobe presenter 7

TheBrain Expands Worldwide

FYI:

TheBrain Expands Worldwide through Rapidly Growing Partner Network

A Complete Turnkey Affiliate Program and Global Alliances with Top Tier Resellers Augment PersonalBrain’s Market Reach for Growing User Community of Dynamic Mind Mapping.

Marina del Rey, CA.—August 25, 2009—TheBrain Technologies announces the expansion of the PersonalBrain product line, securing key partners in Europe, North America, South America and Asia Pacific.

The company reseller program now in full swing makes its acclaimed PersonalBrain software available for resellers to pass on to their clients. With PersonalBrain any idea or file can be linked to anything else. Users can connect their ideas associatively and create networks of information that concretize thinking, illustrate complex relationships and visualize business processes. In contrast to static mind maps or folder structures, PersonalBrain’s dynamic visualization shifts contexts, enabling multidimensional data organization. The program’s fluid interface and unlimited linking capability is popular with Fortune 1000 companies due to its context rich view and scalability.

TheBrain Affiliate Program and Reseller Network

TheBrain offers several programs for both small and large resellers. TheBrain’s affiliate program offers a turnkey purchasing system that allows participants to receive commission for users who purchase from their web site. This highly accessible program makes it easy for anyone with a web site to sell and market PersonalBrain. Additionally software resellers gain access to latest product releases, special marketing and training. Although the program has just started the company has signed up key partners worldwide including: SHI, Creation Engine, Mindsystems Pty Ltd Australia, Dynamic Logistics Systems GmbH Germany, Boss Japan Co. Ltd. Japan, Olympic Limited and Draughtmark Limited both in the United Kingdom.

“TheBrain has enabled Olympic to offer a powerful alternative to the current choices for information mapping applications,” said Nigel Goult Managing Director of Olympic Ltd. “TheBrain’s unique way of navigating and representing information makes it a popular consideration for customers who value simplicity and speed when it comes to organizing and accessing data.”

Benefits of TheBrain Partner Program include:

• Increased market distinction by providing award-winning knowledge management software
• New powerful solutions to help customers succeed who are struggling with organizing and accessing information
• Access to TheBrain Partner Network which includes: marketing materials, updates on product releases and go-to market sales tools
• Training on how to organize information and implement visualization software

“We are thrilled with our new partners and the traction our affiliate and reseller programs have gotten” said Shelley Hayduk, Vice President of Marketing of TheBrain Technologies LP. “This program underscores the worldwide demand and need for solutions to overcome information overload and provide a more intelligent context for information organization and delivery.”

For more information on TheBrain Partner program potential partners can go to http://www.thebrain.com/partners to apply online or email dberman@thebrain.com.

About TheBrain Technologies
TheBrain Technologies helps people see, share and find information faster. TheBrain’s PersonalBrain™ dynamic mind mapping software helps users see and organize their information the way they think about it. TheBrain also offers an Enterprise Knowledge Platform, BrainEKP™, which combines a natural language search engine with a compelling visual display of topics so users can see and discover critical information relationships. TheBrain’s customers include: Encyclopædia Britannica, Navy Special Warfare, Tyco, Accenture, Park Nicollet, Medtronic, US Department of Defense, California Casualty Insurance, a leading media research company, retail chain, financial services company and other Fortune 500 organizations. Download PersonalBrain at www.thebrain.com or e-mail info@thebrain.com for more information.

If you are interested in learning how theBrain can help you or your business, please consider contacting me for a free on-line session. If you decide to purchase theBrain from this link I will provide you with a free 1-1 on line session to get you started.

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Posted in: mind mapping 2.0,PersonalBrain,theBrain,WebBrain

Pre-Industrial Occupations?

I thought this Dilbert cartoon was especially appropriate, don't you?

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News from Diigo

This is potentially some EXCELLENT news from the folks at Diigo. You may remember that a while back Kevin Jarrett and a few of us met online to experiment with the teacher-student roles in Diigo to really explore it. In that experiment Kevin discovered that students were able to see some of the groups that non-teachers had created, and some of those groups were less than appropriate for school. Teen love, etc.

Since that time both Kevin and I have been in contact with Maggie Tsai and her team of programmers there at Diigo as they worked to create a solution to this issue. Well, I'm very happy to announce that I just received an email from one of the programmers who stated that the issue is now resolved, and that students are only able to see other groups that had been created by teachers.

YES!!!

Now, I've not gone in, as yet, to experiment, but I'm confident that this is the case, and I again feel ready to promote Diigo as THE TOOL to help students and teachers manage the information that they find when researching the web.

Of course, Kevin, I'm sure, will be putting the changes to the ultimate test very soon (when he gets his labs set up ;-) ) but for now, I'm quite pleased with the announcement by the programmers.

WAY TO GO, DIIGO!!!

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Interview with Brandon Conrad from Matchware Inc.

I had the opportunity last week to interview Brandon Conrad, Sales Manager for Matchware the developers of MindView 3 Business Edition to get his insights about their new release and the visual mapping field. It was great having the opportunity to speak with Brandon to find out about Mindview 3 Business Edition and how it is positioned in the visual mapping marketplace.


Brian S. Friedlander: Tell us about the Matchware organization and the products?

Brandon Conrad:MatchWare is a leading provider of multimedia, screen recording and visual thinking software that enhances individuals' ability to create, visualize, manage and distribute information. MatchWare's easy-to-use professional software empowers business, education and government worldwide to produce and deliver dynamic multimedia content that will engage and inspire. A fast growing, highly profitable, and self-financed company, MatchWare has its headquarters in Denmark with subsidiaries in the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and France.


BSF: Please share with us about the latest release of MindView 3

BC: While retaining the user friendliness of previous editions, MindView 3 Business Edition has introduced several new and innovative features that make it more powerful and flexible than ever. Firstly, MindView 3 Business offers the industry’s most intuitive Office 2007 interface. The new Office templates ensure seamless integration with MS Office, increasing productivity and making the use of Mind Mapping more efficient than ever.


Secondly, to complete its integration with the MS Office suite of tools, MindView 3 Business now offers integration with MS Excel using impressive new Excel import and export functions.

Thirdly, MindView 3 Business includes a new calculation module. This module allows users to associate numbers with each mind map branch and to instantly perform complex calculations. The data can then be exported to an Excel spreadsheet with the simple click of a mouse. Conversely, users can also import numbers from Excel to MindView. This new calculation module makes budgeting, forecasting and calculating costs faster and easier than ever!

Other features include an advanced filter, a numbering scheme, and “focus” mode, which allow you to optimize your work, boost your productivity, and communicate more effectively than ever before. Read on to find out why MindView 3 is the only mind mapping tool you need!

BSF: How do you differentiate MindView 3 from the other leading visual mapping tools?

BC: Simplify put, we classify ourselves as an overall business tool and not just a mind mapping software. We substantiate this claim by referencing out multiple views and our full integration with the MS Office suite. When I say full integration, we can import/export to the entire MS Office suite. We cater not only to the right brain thinkers (organic) but also to the left brain thinkers (linear) too. We do this by adding different views such as the Gantt, Outline, WBS, Org. Chart, Timeline etc. So are we a mind mapping software, project managemnt software, Timeline software etc? We are both none of those and all of those. We have successfully developed the complete business tool to increase efficiency and maximize productivity.


BSF: What do you see as the benefits of users using MindView 3?

BC: It's pretty simple, this tool is optimized for planning brainstorming and project management which initially captures our customer base. As our customers become more involved with the tool they see it as an overall productivity tool and efficiency tool because of the multiple views and superior MS Office integration. This tool has endless capabilities across multiple business departments. That being said, the tool is extremely successful in all environments too, from middle school children to top CEO's. Everyone has the need to communicate more effectively and we all look for ways to make our work more efficient and productive. MindView 3 Business satisfies these needs.



BSF: What do you see in the field of visual mapping as trends going forward?

BC: To stay on top of the software industry you have to listen to your customers and produce software that captures the majority of the market. Our customers have been wanting a more collaborative tool which can be a tricky venture when referencing a desktop application. Also, customers define collaboration many different ways. For instance, web based tool which have their pitfalls of refreshing and internet speed. As a trend, collaboration is the road most desktop applications will be traveling down if customers keep requesting these features. It's very difficult to predict long term technology trends because it moves and changes too quickly. We listen to our clients which drives out product development.


Thanks so much to Brandon Conrad, Sales Manager for Matchware. For more information please visit the Matchware website. If you are interested in purchasing MindView 3 you will be glad to know that I have become an Affiliate Partner and would be happy to support you should you decide to invest in MindView 3.

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Posted in: Brandon Conrad,Matchware,mind mapping,MindView 3,MindView 3 BE

Post weekly (weekly)

• kmlfactbook.org

  kmlfactbook.org can use either Google Maps or the Google Earth browser plugin to preview the KML files that you create. To switch between the two modes press the 2D Map and 3D Map buttons to the right in the screen.
  The Preview in Map button will show the selected data-set in the Google Maps or Earth plugin preview window.
  The Download KML file button will download the same file to be saved locally on your disk or opened in the standalone Google Earth application.

  tags: maps, googleearth, visualization, Factbook

• Wolfram|Alpha Blog : What We’ve Been Doing This Summer

  What's new at Wolfram Alpha. Can it get even better?

  tags: wolframalpha, search

• Top 7 Places to Watch Great Minds in Action

  below is a list of the top 7 places to watch great minds in action. What makes these conferences special is both the people they’re able to assemble together in one place and that they put videos of the experiences online for everyone to enjoy. What other conferences attract the top minds in the world?

  tags: ted, presentations, speakers

• Skype Other Classrooms! | The Edublogger

  Looking for another class to skype with? Start looking here.

  tags: skype

• Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com - Annotated

  Nice article about the effectiveness of online education.

  tags: nytimes

  • Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the comparative studies were done in colleges and adult continuing-education programs of various kinds, from medical training to the military.
  • “The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,”
  • But the report does suggest that online education could be set to expand sharply over the next few years, as evidence mounts of its value.
  • The real promise of online education, experts say, is providing learning experiences that are more tailored to individual students than is possible in classrooms. That enables more “learning by doing,” which many students find more engaging and useful.
  • “People are correct when they say online education will take things out the classroom. But they are wrong, I think, when they assume it will make learning an independent, personal activity. Learning has to occur in a community.

• Template 2 - Single Column

  We're very happy to announce that over 700,000 historical images from The New York Public Library's Digital Gallery are now freely and instantly available whenever you're creating a VoiceThread.

  tags: voicethread, images

  • We're very happy to announce that over 700,000 historical images from The New York Public Library's Digital Gallery are now freely and instantly available whenever you're creating a VoiceThread.

• YouTube - Imagine Leadership | By XPLANE & Nitin Nohria

  What does 'Leadership' mean to you?

  tags: leadership, video, youtube

• How to Create a Walking Tour with Google City Tours

  This has great possibilities for the classroom, don't you think?

  tags: tours, googlemaps

• Top Ten Images from The Hubble Space Telescope

  This is too much for my feeble mind to handle

  tags: hubble

• YouTube - Six Word Memoirs by Teens

  Interesting. Will something like this work as writing prompts for your students?

  tags: memoirs, writing

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a great story about love struggle. The Actor and the actress is very talented. Claire Danes stars as Juliet to Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo in this modern day remake of Shakespeare's tragic love story.

Some of the scene take place in Verona Beach, Mexico. I like the background and creative way make this film become modern.

This Story is more about a love tragedy....So Sad Ending...

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Posted in: Entertaintment

Shakespeare In Love

This is great love story.

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Posted in: Entertaintment