Category: open source
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Embrace Linux
In Tim Wilson’s recent skypecast interview with Paul Nelson of Riverdale High School in Portland, Oregon, Paul explains no one should expect a single operating system to meet all needs and functional requirements. Paul is the school technology director and co-creator of the K-12 Linux Terminal Server Project. Paul’s story and perspective on operating systems…
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Educational Banner Evangelism
I think I need to re-write my “Macintosh evangelist” page linked at the bottom of all my blog entries and most of my other personal webpages, and change it to “21st Century Educational Banner Evangelism” on the following issues. This is not because I am dumping the Mac OS in lieu of Linux or because…
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Open Source Tipping Point?
The following is a trackback response to a post Miguel Guhlin wrote on December 26th relating to open source and intellectual property issues, in part raised by his viewing of the excellent “Free Culture” web-presentation by Lawrence Lessig. I am with you on wanting to support open source alternatives, Miguel, but I don’t think the…
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VPN Speed Hits and Himachi (Hamachi)
It is really important to use a VPN connection to secure the information (including usernames and passwords) that your computer sends out when you use a public WiFi hotspot or hotel wired-Internet connection. Here in Pagosa Springs, Colorado at the Holy Grounds Coffee Shop, I am getting a pretty decent download speed without a VPN…
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New DVR Linux project
After helping a friend setup a new Dell PC at his home this weekend, I am the proud owner of a gifted 1 GHz Gateway PentiumIII computer. As soon as I confirmed all needed files were off the machine today, I installed Ubuntu Linux and reformatted the drive– bye-bye WindowsXP forever on this box! My…
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Next generation videoconferencing
For most Internet users, one-to-one videoconferencing and audio-conferencing (VOIP) functionality will be handled increasingly by software solutions like Yahoo IM, Google Talk, and Skype. With the recent merger of Yahoo IM and MSN IM, along with the upcoming release of Longhorn, I would wager Microsoft may attempt to capture a larger part of this marketshare…
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Inaccessible School of the Future Video
Can someone please hike over to Redmond and provide a concise but blunt lesson on WEB ACCESSIBILITY to the computer industry gurus of yesteryear who still live and work there?! I am mildly glad to see Microsoft sponsoring an educational summit this month on the issue of school reform and designing “schools of the future.”…
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Using Moodle in the Classroom
The curriculum for my workshop this Friday in Lewisville, “Using Moodle in the Classroom,” is available online. Moodle is a powerful, robust, free (open-source) course management system in use by thousands of educators across the globe. In Lewisville ISD (north of Dallas, Texas) educator teacher-trainers are gearing up to teach their peers how to use…
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Webcast of $100 laptop prototype
A webcast of yesterday’s press conference in Tunisia announcing and showing the prototype of the MIT $100 laptop is available online. Some quotations from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s comments follow: Perhaps most important is the true meaning of one laptop per child. This is not just a measure of giving a laptop to a…
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$100 laptop marches on
According to an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, “The $100 Laptop Moves Closer to Reality,” the MIT Media lab and major corporate sponsors like Google, Advanced Micro Devices, Red Hat, News Corp and Brightstar are making excellent headway in prototype development for the $100 laptop project. Tomorrow in Tunisia, MIT Media Lab director Nicholas…