See this 'Google Techies for Schools' post about trying to find the perfect laptop for the classroom. Having researched this for the last few months, the Toshiba T130 is the winner. The HP5320 is a better notebook all round, but the 4 hour battery life doesn't cut it unfortunately....
https://groups.google.com/group/techies-for-schools/browse_thread/thread/6cf729506e26a8dc#
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
And I wonder why things seem so complicated these days.....
I Love the Internet. There, I said it, and I'm sure it won't come as a surprise to any of my friends to know that this is true. Occasionally however, I am bemused, and agitated at how our lives, which if you read the small print, should be getting simpler, are so ridiculously complicated these days. And I wonder if the good old interweb isn't to blame.
Case in point. Sunday saw the last breath of my trusty (?) iPhone 3G. Over the last 18 months I've dropped it so many times I've lost count, but the fall from my pocket to the concrete floor by the barbecue was just too much, and the screen and case smashed into lots of little pieces. I was a little dismayed, but it's recent poor performance since the OS4 update was driving me nuts anyway, so I wasn't too upset. Other than the inconvenience of not having a phone for a few days, I'll be honest and say that I was already rubbing my hands at the prospect of a shiny new iPhone 4......
Right up until the time I visited our local Vodafone retailer that is.......
They eagerly wrote me a letter to say that they had checked, and yes, the phone was beyond repair, and provided me with a quote for $1099 NZD to replace it with an iPhone 4. Having initially only paid $549 NZD for the phone from the Vodafone online store for the 3G, I queried the cost of the replacement, and the salesman explained that the original cost of the handset is subsidised when you first sign up to a plan (which I knew already I suppose). And obviously comparing an iPhone 3G against and iPhone 4 isn't a fair comparison anyway, so I happily accepted the quote, knowing that my insurance company would hopefully pay for it anyway.
All was going well right up until the point where I asked the salesman if they had an iPhone 4 in stock, and whether I could come back tomorrow to get one. He then proceeded to explain that, even though they had iPhone 4 posters throughout the store, and had just quoted me for a replacement, that they couldn't sell me one as "at the moment they are only available from the online store". Having dealt with the Vodafone store previously, alarm bells started ringing.
So later in the day, I get confirmation that the insurance company have approved the claim, and that I should go shopping for a new iPhone, and send them the bill, minus the $250 excess. I go to the Vodafone online store as directed, to find that the iPhone 4 is only available to buy with a new iPhone data plan. But I've already got a data plan, I just want to buy a replacement handset for the one I broke on Sunday. But I can't do it. I can go to the Apple online store and buy one, but it's $25 more expensive, and I have no idea whether it will work on Vodafone, and no idea how I can get my existing number put onto a MicroSIM (which the iPhone 4 uses) without going through Vodafone. I call Vodafone, who tell me to go into my local retailer........
Familiar circles. By now, I should be used to it. But for someone who spends his life championing the internet, this is the increasingly all too familiar situation I find myself in. Local retail is disspearing because it can't compete with the web, but the web falls short when it comes to physicality and flexibility. I understand the reasons behind it all, and I find it frustrating. I can't begin to imagine how the average day to day joe public gets on. Maybe that's the problem.
So. Day 2. Vodafone store here we go again..........
Case in point. Sunday saw the last breath of my trusty (?) iPhone 3G. Over the last 18 months I've dropped it so many times I've lost count, but the fall from my pocket to the concrete floor by the barbecue was just too much, and the screen and case smashed into lots of little pieces. I was a little dismayed, but it's recent poor performance since the OS4 update was driving me nuts anyway, so I wasn't too upset. Other than the inconvenience of not having a phone for a few days, I'll be honest and say that I was already rubbing my hands at the prospect of a shiny new iPhone 4......
Right up until the time I visited our local Vodafone retailer that is.......
They eagerly wrote me a letter to say that they had checked, and yes, the phone was beyond repair, and provided me with a quote for $1099 NZD to replace it with an iPhone 4. Having initially only paid $549 NZD for the phone from the Vodafone online store for the 3G, I queried the cost of the replacement, and the salesman explained that the original cost of the handset is subsidised when you first sign up to a plan (which I knew already I suppose). And obviously comparing an iPhone 3G against and iPhone 4 isn't a fair comparison anyway, so I happily accepted the quote, knowing that my insurance company would hopefully pay for it anyway.
All was going well right up until the point where I asked the salesman if they had an iPhone 4 in stock, and whether I could come back tomorrow to get one. He then proceeded to explain that, even though they had iPhone 4 posters throughout the store, and had just quoted me for a replacement, that they couldn't sell me one as "at the moment they are only available from the online store". Having dealt with the Vodafone store previously, alarm bells started ringing.
So later in the day, I get confirmation that the insurance company have approved the claim, and that I should go shopping for a new iPhone, and send them the bill, minus the $250 excess. I go to the Vodafone online store as directed, to find that the iPhone 4 is only available to buy with a new iPhone data plan. But I've already got a data plan, I just want to buy a replacement handset for the one I broke on Sunday. But I can't do it. I can go to the Apple online store and buy one, but it's $25 more expensive, and I have no idea whether it will work on Vodafone, and no idea how I can get my existing number put onto a MicroSIM (which the iPhone 4 uses) without going through Vodafone. I call Vodafone, who tell me to go into my local retailer........
Familiar circles. By now, I should be used to it. But for someone who spends his life championing the internet, this is the increasingly all too familiar situation I find myself in. Local retail is disspearing because it can't compete with the web, but the web falls short when it comes to physicality and flexibility. I understand the reasons behind it all, and I find it frustrating. I can't begin to imagine how the average day to day joe public gets on. Maybe that's the problem.
So. Day 2. Vodafone store here we go again..........
Friday, August 13, 2010
Lego Mindstorms
Thought I'd post this for any of you running Lego MindStorms NXT on your network.
An issue that has cropped up for us has been the save location of the 'MyBlocks' components. Although MindStorms allows you to save the project files wherever you like (our students put them in their home drives), the 'MyBlocks' components don't provide a traditional save as dialog box. After a bit of digging we worked out that they are saved to "C:\documents and settings\%username%\My Documents\Lego Creations\Mindstorms Projects\Profiles\Default\Blocks" which for us (and I'm sure most networks) is a problem. Students have no access to C: and the profiles are deleted on logoff, so our students would work on a PC, create and save a project, then add some MyBlocks. On logging on to another machine, the project would open, but the MyBlocks would be missing.
To get around this we did the following:
- grabbed a copy of the 'settings.ini' file from "C:\documents and settings\%username%\My Documents\Lego Creations\Mindstorms Projects\Profiles\Default\
- edited this file and changed the "Data Directory=/C/...." to "Data Directory=/H/"
- copied this up to a public share
- created a script that xcopies this file to "C:\documents and settings\%username%\My Documents\Lego Creations\Mindstorms Projects\Profiles\Default\" then starts the Mindstorms program
- Edited the desktop shortcut on the student machines to run this script instead of running Mindstorms directly
So the student runs the shortcut, xcopy copies the ini file, then Mindstorms runs (hardly any delay really). When they save a MyBlock now, it goes into their Home drive so it now becomes portable across the network
If anyone knows an alterantive or better way, please comment
An issue that has cropped up for us has been the save location of the 'MyBlocks' components. Although MindStorms allows you to save the project files wherever you like (our students put them in their home drives), the 'MyBlocks' components don't provide a traditional save as dialog box. After a bit of digging we worked out that they are saved to "C:\documents and settings\%username%\My Documents\Lego Creations\Mindstorms Projects\Profiles\Default\Blocks" which for us (and I'm sure most networks) is a problem. Students have no access to C: and the profiles are deleted on logoff, so our students would work on a PC, create and save a project, then add some MyBlocks. On logging on to another machine, the project would open, but the MyBlocks would be missing.
To get around this we did the following:
- grabbed a copy of the 'settings.ini' file from "C:\documents and settings\%username%\My Documents\Lego Creations\Mindstorms Projects\Profiles\Default\
- edited this file and changed the "Data Directory=/C/...." to "Data Directory=/H/"
- copied this up to a public share
- created a script that xcopies this file to "C:\documents and settings\%username%\My Documents\Lego Creations\Mindstorms Projects\Profiles\Default\" then starts the Mindstorms program
- Edited the desktop shortcut on the student machines to run this script instead of running Mindstorms directly
So the student runs the shortcut, xcopy copies the ini file, then Mindstorms runs (hardly any delay really). When they save a MyBlock now, it goes into their Home drive so it now becomes portable across the network
If anyone knows an alterantive or better way, please comment
Friday, August 6, 2010
Be quiet, I AM SPEAKING.......
In my eternal quest for the perfect classroom speaker system, I'm now evaluating the Creative T20 Series 2 system.
A bit of background first. Throughout the school we have a mixture of classroom audio systems, from basic 2 channel speakers that sit on the teachers desks, to big, overblown 'surround sound' amplifier/DVD/VCR systems that were fitted before I started here.
To make things consistent from one classroom to another, I'm trying to standardize the systems in the majority of classrooms. The first thing I'm doing is removing the surround sound systems where I can. Most of the teachers find them too confusing to use and my technician spends an inordinate amount of time explaining (yet again) how to switch from the DVD input, to the laptop and back again. I'm working on the premise that all of our full time teachers have laptops with DVD Players in them and they simply don't need stand alone DVD players any more. So out they go. VCR's are a bit more troublesome. As of yet we don't have a 'video on demand' system across the school network, and a number of departments still use VHS tapes. So for now, I'm leaving those classrooms alone. Each of our classrooms has a docking station for the HP laptops, a projector (some ceiling mounted, some not; more about that in another post I think). My aim is to have a simple system whereby each and every time a teacher docks their laptop they are automatically connected to a wall mounted sound system and the projector. Sounds simple enough, and not unreasonable for teachers to expect I think.
There have been a few issues with achieving this though, including screen resolution problems (solved with Windows 7, the latest Intel drivers and a bit of tweaking). The biggest problem has been trying to find the perfect speaker system. After considering things carefully, I decided that the speakers needed to be:
1) Powered (i.e active 'computer' speakers)
2) Wall mountable
3) Of sufficient quality to fill a room and not distort
4) Ideally 2 speakers with no sub-woofer
I wanted to get away from amplifiers and switches (just another thing for the teachers to have to think about) so the speakers had to be 'self powered'. They need to be able to be mounted up on the wall with brackets or a home made shelf. They obviously need to be able to do the job, and ideally I want a 2 speaker system.
There are a plethora of active speakers on the market, from cheap $20 tinny boxes to $1500 B&W systems. The budget was really no more than $200 per room, and in that range the the Creative T series fits the bill well. I have used the T10's previously in smaller classrooms and they have been good. They manage to fill the room, they are relatively easy to install and power, and they don't 'boom' until you push the volume over 75%. The T20s cost approximately twice as much, and early testing makes me think they are definitely better than the T10's, but not twice as good. They still boom a little at high volume but they definitely hold it together better than the T10's when say playing a DVD in class. I'll get them mounted up over the next week and will post more when I do
A bit of background first. Throughout the school we have a mixture of classroom audio systems, from basic 2 channel speakers that sit on the teachers desks, to big, overblown 'surround sound' amplifier/DVD/VCR systems that were fitted before I started here.
To make things consistent from one classroom to another, I'm trying to standardize the systems in the majority of classrooms. The first thing I'm doing is removing the surround sound systems where I can. Most of the teachers find them too confusing to use and my technician spends an inordinate amount of time explaining (yet again) how to switch from the DVD input, to the laptop and back again. I'm working on the premise that all of our full time teachers have laptops with DVD Players in them and they simply don't need stand alone DVD players any more. So out they go. VCR's are a bit more troublesome. As of yet we don't have a 'video on demand' system across the school network, and a number of departments still use VHS tapes. So for now, I'm leaving those classrooms alone. Each of our classrooms has a docking station for the HP laptops, a projector (some ceiling mounted, some not; more about that in another post I think). My aim is to have a simple system whereby each and every time a teacher docks their laptop they are automatically connected to a wall mounted sound system and the projector. Sounds simple enough, and not unreasonable for teachers to expect I think.
There have been a few issues with achieving this though, including screen resolution problems (solved with Windows 7, the latest Intel drivers and a bit of tweaking). The biggest problem has been trying to find the perfect speaker system. After considering things carefully, I decided that the speakers needed to be:
1) Powered (i.e active 'computer' speakers)
2) Wall mountable
3) Of sufficient quality to fill a room and not distort
4) Ideally 2 speakers with no sub-woofer
I wanted to get away from amplifiers and switches (just another thing for the teachers to have to think about) so the speakers had to be 'self powered'. They need to be able to be mounted up on the wall with brackets or a home made shelf. They obviously need to be able to do the job, and ideally I want a 2 speaker system.
There are a plethora of active speakers on the market, from cheap $20 tinny boxes to $1500 B&W systems. The budget was really no more than $200 per room, and in that range the the Creative T series fits the bill well. I have used the T10's previously in smaller classrooms and they have been good. They manage to fill the room, they are relatively easy to install and power, and they don't 'boom' until you push the volume over 75%. The T20s cost approximately twice as much, and early testing makes me think they are definitely better than the T10's, but not twice as good. They still boom a little at high volume but they definitely hold it together better than the T10's when say playing a DVD in class. I'll get them mounted up over the next week and will post more when I do
Monday, July 26, 2010
HP Laptop magic disappearing network cards
Good post here on an issue we have been having with HP 6730B Laptops
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