Beens' Blog

According to  http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/what-you-should-know-about-apples-tablet-246?page=0,0 Apple has also created a version of its iWork desktop productivity suite for the iPad -- that could make the iPad a competitor to both Windows netbooks and Apple's own MacBooks as an entertainment device that also doubles as a lightweight productivity device. Each app -- Pages, Numbers, and Keynote -- will cost $10 each and be compatible with the Mac OS X versions. The iPad versions of iWork can open both Microsoft Office and iWork files, but save only to the iWork and PDF formats . So sharing with Office users won't be as easy as it is on the desktop version of iWork. I understand the reason for doing this -- it's to reinforce their bottom line. But in this day and age there is a huge push for collaboration and openness. By forcing users to only save in Apple's iWork format, they are moving in the opposite direction of what the public wants. Apple had an opportun...

Inventor Nikola Tesla Is Back in Tech Fashion - WSJ.com tags : Tesla , history , TEJ , TEJxx , Edison , electricity Google Chrome Extensions: Quick Tabs tags : chrome , extension , tabs , QuickTabs , tweeted Screenpresso - Home tags : utility , free , software , screenshot , capture , screen YouTube - Personal Learning Networks tags : education , PLN , video Bring Lost Cameras Home with a Digital Summoning Spell « Photojojo tags : photography , photojojo , lost , camera , tips The unbootable Mac mini | Desktop | Mac 911 | Macworld tags : mac , HardDrive , booting , troubeshooting Make: Online : Get started in accurate design with Sketchup tags : make , magazine , SketchUp , TDJ , TDJxx Professional Development - Google Sketchup FTW tags : SketchUp , overview , video , TDJ , TDJxx , education Tips and Tricks for Mac 10.5 | Bits 'n Bytes from Ann Carnevale tags : mac , osx , tips , keyboard Google Chrome Extensions: LastPass tags : no_...

Motorcycle Sales Statistics - webBikeWorld Motorcycle sales statistics and information. tags : Motorcycle , sales , statistics Create an Internet Shortcut (.URL) file using Delphi tags : delphi , ICS , URL , shortcut , code , snippet Motorcycle Tours tags : Motorcycle , Tours , Africa Trailer Lift Combo | Motorcycle Trailer | Motorcycle Lift tags : motorcycle , trailer , lift , maintenance , combo Digitally Speaking / Social Bookmarking and Annotating "The driving force behind the Web 2.0 revolution is a spirit of intellectual philanthropy and collective intelligence that is made possible by new technologies for communication, collaboration and information management. One of the best examples of collective intelligence in action are the wide range of social bookmarking applications that have been embraced in recent years." tags : Diigo , social-networking , bookmark , social-bookmarking , education , delicious - post by irisdd Shareaholic for Go...

Seven Waterfall Photo Tips « Photofocus "I don’t know why, but human beings seem to be strongly attracted to waterfalls. One of the first photos most newbies want to make is a serious waterfall photo. It’s not hard to do well, and here are seven tips to get you started on your way." tags : TGJ , TGJxx , photography , waterfalls How do I change my site's URL? - Google Sites Help tags : GoogleSites , mapping , domain , subdomain Broadband speeds (graphic) tags : broadband , speeds , costs , world , TEJ , TEJxx , graphic , tweeted iWebKit - Make a quality iPhone Website or Webapp Iwebkit is the revolutionnairy kit used to create high quality iPhone and iPod touch websites in a few minutes and is based on an LGPL license. tags : iPhone , webdesign , ICS , ICSxx , iPod , app - post by jtmassey famfamfam.com: Silk Icons An amazing set of 700 16x16 pixel icons, icensed under a Creative Commons license (attribution). The zip file contains a useful webpag...

"motorcycle gangs are one of the biggest abusers of wearing leather, and we decided it was high time that we let them know that we disagree with them using it…ergo, they should stop." Hehe, read the rest of the story here .

I'm currently in the process of converting my very old and tired website to a Google Sites website , and have been searching for small icons I could use to represent Adobe Acrobat files, Word files, etc. Almost by accident, I came across a set of 700 (!) nice looking 16x16 icons which are perfect for my application. I was only going to tweet about it, but I found I wanted to say more than 140 characters would allow... :) The icons are available at http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/ , and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license , meaning they are totally free to use or modify as long as you attribute the source of the icons to the creator. To use the icons in your own projects, simply download and extract the zip file (see the website ) to your local computer. Luckily for us, the creator included an html file which allows you to view all the icons in your web browser , making finding the icon you're looking for quite easy. Here are some examples, ta...

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Bob "An homage to early Bob Dylan (the lyrics consist entirely of palindromes) - from "Weird Al" Yankovic's 2003 album "Poodle Hat" " tags : palindromes , English , education , video , WeirdAlYankovic , Bob How can we ignore Social Media? « doug – off the record tags : social-networking , education , issues PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING (PBL) "PBL is not a new model of instruction. Plato and Socrates required that their students think, retrieve information for themselves, search for new ideas and debate them in a scholarly environment. However, this process differs from the teacher-dominated approach used in most educational settings." tags : ProblemSolving , PBL , BBT , education , ProblemBasedLearning Powers of Ten A good overview of the basic terminology used in computer storage. tags : ICT , Ten , Terminology , literacy , ComputerLiteracy , TGJ , TGJxx , ICS , ICSxx , ICS2O Google Press Center: Twitter Directory t...

Weebly - Create a free website and a free blog This is the link for educators. tags : TGJ , TGJxx , education , web2.0 , WebsiteCreation Posting style - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia tags : MailList , posting , wikipedia Usenet quoting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia tags : MailList , Quoting , wikipedia » Magazine tags : magazine , free , photography , TGJ , TGJxx , pdf PixelatedImage Blog tags : blog , TWIP , photography , TGJ , TGJxx , ebooks Make: Online : MAKE presents: Ohm's Law tags : OhmsLaw , TEJ , TEJxM , TEJxx , electronics , Make , video Web Programming Software Stack tags : PHP , ICS , ICSxx , Xampp , netbeans , tutorial , RussellGordon , Java ICS 3M - Computer & Information Science - Grade 11 tags : PeterMcAsh , ICS , ICSxx , ICS3M , javascript TIK 20 - Computer & Information Science - Grade 10 tags : TIK2O , PeterMcAsh , javascript , ICS , ICSxx Bell - Mobile solutions for business - Mobile Connect tags : BellMobility , tethering , software , blackberry...

Google Chrome Extensions: IE Tab tags : google , chrome , extensions , myplugins , IETab uwnews.org | Of girls and geeks: Environment may be why women don't like computer science | University of Washington News and Information tags : ICS , ICSxx , issues , Girls , ComputerScience , ACSE , tweeted Google Chrome Extensions: Email this page (by Google) tags : chrome , extension , email , myplugins Google Docs (Google Workshops For Educators) tags : google , googledocs , web2.0 , education , video Ontario a loser in immigration points game - thestar.com tags : TechEd , issues , canada , immigration , skilledWorkers Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

It's been awhile since I updated my trip log, and with two big trips this past year (Florida, West Coast), I thought now was a good time. So now the challenge will be how to fill in some of the gaps this coming summer. Perhaps a loop around the southern states, like this: http://bit.ly/5UzYTL ? It's just over 5000 miles, and I can easily do 500 miles per day. If I take two weeks, it should give me time to stop and take a few pictures, hehe... Free, personalized travel maps at mytriplogs.com

Cairo Integration with wxPython - Installation of Python, wxPython, pyCairo, and Cairo 2-D graphics library on Windows XP | Alex Matan tags : python , ICS , ICSxx I Don't Understand My Colleagues Sometimes - The Educators' Royal Treatment tags : education , administration , web2.0 , social-networking National Geographic's International Photography Contest 2009 - The Big Picture - Boston.com tags : photography , boston.com , best_of , TGJ , TGJxx How To Use An Apostrophe - The Oatmeal tags : apostrophe , grammar , English , education Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom: What Do You Mean I Can't Twitter? tags : Twitter , banned , social-networking , issues , conference Google Goggles - Use pictures to search the web tags : goggles , google , CoolTech , search , visual Beginner's guide to HD video: Guides: Learn: Digital Photography Review tags : TGJ , TGJxx , videography , HD , HDSLR , photography Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Please share this with grade 7 and 8 teachers in Ontario. "The Year 2010 has been declared the Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Simply put, biodiversity is the variety of plants and animals in the world, or in a particular area. If the earth's living systems are to remain strong, those systems must have a high level of biodiversity. Our well-being depends on it. In keeping with UNEP's efforts to raise awareness about the critical importance of biodiversity for a healthy planet, the topic for this year's Ontario Nature Youth Writing and Art Contest is: Wild species and wild spaces: why biodiversity is important to me. The contest is open to students in Grades 7 & 8 across Ontario." To continue reading about this contest, please visit http://www.ontarionature.org/events/youthchallenge.html .

Google Goggles (type that three times fast!) is a visual search tool that uses your phone's camera, and depending on the search type, your phone's compass and GPS. To learn more about it, visit the following link, and be sure to check out the video. http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/#landmark Alas, it's only available for the Android phone. Shame.

Here's an interesting article about the disconnect between the high number of vacant "high tech" jobs and the high unemployment rate. It's specific to the Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge area, but there are lots of good generalities applicable elsewhere. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/jobs-disconnect-in-rims-hometown/article1359650/

Well, not really! I'm embarking on a grand experiment to replace my current website with one done entirely in Google Documents. I'm not sure if the transition will ever be totally complete, but I'll be moving content from the old site to the new one as it's needed for my students. Eventually my old site ( www.beens.org ) will be dismantled and replaced by Google Docs. At least that's my goal...  :) If you want to visit the new site, you can visit here: http://www.beens.org/docs/ Why am I doing this? Well, as I explain on the new home page, the bottom line is I want something that lets me makes changes FAST, and that gives me more flexibility for working on collaborative projects that are embedded right on my website. I think it will make me a better teacher because I'll be able to be more responsive to my students' needs. Right now, I often have to delay getting information posted for my students because of the software I am using (RoboHelp) and the networ...

Here's a quick video from cnet showing you how:

ACSE Executive, When I started the Yahoo mail list for the ASCE membership back in 2003, Google Groups and the popularity of Gmail, Google Documents, Google Calendar, etc., did not exist. Since that time, there has been an explosion of services available with a Google account, the most popular, I would guess, being Gmail and Google Documents . But that Google account you may now have also buys you membership into Blogger , Google Wave , Google Reader , Picasa Web (photos), Google Video , YouTube , and many, many others . Never mind the hundreds of gadgets from outside parties that integrate with Google, like my Remember-the-Milk gadgets that I use in Gmail and Calendar, or the weather gadgets that I use in iGoogle . Personally, I think it's time to move from Yahoo Groups to Google Groups. I run over a dozen mailing lists at Google Groups very successfully, and I see so much more potential there than at Yahoo, particularly with the ability to collaborate on resource developme...

http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2009/12/put-your-town-on-3d-map-google-model.html This looks like an amazing project to do in class! Take the students for a photo-walk, let them choose the buildings they want to model, take lots of pictures, then head back to class and have some fun! Perhaps schools within the same town can collaborate so the work is divided. (Be sure to check out the video)

In my grade 11 Communications Technology class I've asked each of my students to look at the " Explore " pages in Flickr and then mark at least 10 photos as their favourites. I've then asked them to create a Presentation using Google Docs and share those favourites with their classmates. Here is a quick presentation I created that my students can use as an exemplar. As I explain in the presentation, these are not actually my favourites; they are just my own top flickr photos, rated in terms of their " interestingness ". This presentation is also available for download or sharing here .

This is quick tutorial for uploading files to a Google Group. Feel free to share this information with others. If you spot any errors, please notify me at pbeens@gmail.com , and if you learned about this tutorial via twitter, please RT! Thanks! Note: this tutorial is also available as a PDF copy for printing. @pbeens 1. Log In, Step 1 First, go to the address of the Google Groupand log in using your Google ID. If you are not a member, select "Sign in and apply for membership". 2. Log In, Step 2 Enter your login details, then click "Sign in". Do not check "Stay signed in" unless you are on a private computer. 3. Enter Files Area Click on "Files", near the top right corner of the screen. 4. Upload File, Step 1 Click on "upload new file". 5. Upload File, Step 2 Click on "Choose File". 6. Upload File, Step 3 Browse to the file you want to upload, then click "Open". (repeat these last...