April 2012
2 posts
Amen to this. →
http://slate.me/IOzayQ
March 2012
3 posts
APOD: 2012 March 12 - The Scale of the Universe... →
O.K, this is pretty darn cool.
After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops... →
This should have a place on someone’s timeline of technological change.
February 2012
1 post
All Done with the "Box"
As of today, any article, message, or document that includes the phrase “thinking outside the box” or any of its variants goes right to the Trash.
December 2011
3 posts
"I Can't Make This Stuff Up" item for today
This is a real help desk ticket. The computers in question are Mac Minis connected to Dell displays. There are not a lot of places to look on a Mac Mini for a power button. There is nothing wrong with the computers or the displays.
“Since I have been in this room. This is 3 years now, I cannot just go to a computer in my classroom and use it. Right now on the Dell one I wanted a student to...
Progress?
Yesterday, got the OK to do a full-in 1:1 readiness assessment. Today, learned that Legal is fine with Google Apps COPPA compliance process (with a tweak or two). Feels like progress.
October 2011
1 post
Things No Tech Director Should Have To Do
Explain to grown ups that handing in a filthy school laptop is not OK.
September 2011
3 posts
Fun article on football at U of C →
If a projector fails in the forest....
…and no one is there to see it, will the warranty still cover the repair?
“Drea-mail” is defined as the e-mail you thought you sent but didn’t.”
– an unnamed Lab school administrator
August 2011
1 post
Conceptual Problem
I think there might be something conceptually wrong with selling VIP tickets to a punk rock show. But it didn’t stop me from buying one.
May 2011
1 post
ISM pronounces Social Media "here to stay" →
The Independent Schools Management newsletter offers up a couple of interesting factoids about social media in higher ed and their implications for private K-12 schools.
April 2011
4 posts
Don't take UCLS resources for granted →
Students at a suburban school may be able to log on some time in 2012 or 2013.
Cisco Shuts Down Flip, Its Video Camera Unit -... →
Oh nooooooo!!!! This was such a great tool for schools! They were absolutely perfect for doing video projects with kids.
Spear-Phishing - NYTimes.com →
Oh, good. New categories of phishing attempts.
The Evening News: Does It Matter Any More? →
An astute take on the Katie Couric situation. I haven’t watched a national evening news broadcast in years, so from my point of view the author’s assertions ring true. What do you think?
March 2011
3 posts
Nice piece on Evernote with Bill Stites →
This is a good example of how a synthesis between local and cloud based apps can really work for students. Look for the video under Podcast 25. Bill has shared many thoughtful posts to ISED-L over the years.
My Current Fave Ed Tech Blog →
Steve Taffee is one of the most thoughtful, knowledgeable IT leaders around. His posts are eerily timed to reflect the things I’m thinking about and he writes really well.
Progress Defined
“Progress is trading old problems for new ones.” — T. Barton of UC IT Services
February 2011
1 post
Renting a car in the Atlanta airport is quite the adventure. Not in a good way.
December 2010
1 post
Picture of the Day: Mapping Facebook Friendships... →
OK, this is pretty cool.
November 2010
1 post
Some meetings involving IT make me wonder why I do this.
September 2010
3 posts
New Acronym for My Collection
CDN = Content Delivery Network
Dear Everyone
Just because you put little exclamation points in front of your email message doesn’t mean I’m going to read it any faster. Just so you know.
Today's Version of "I Can't Make This Stuff Up"
A vendor on a cold call today asked me if I was familiar with Microsoft.
August 2010
6 posts
Tapas Translated
I don’t speak Spanish, but I’m guessing that “tapas” means “small portions of food that cost more than regular portions.”
You Can't Make This Stuff Up.
From a real help desk ticket this week:
“One of the machines in the loft has a picture of Vladmir Putin as the desktop for the student account. Somehow this picture is permanent. If one tries to change it in system preferences any new choice simply doesn’t take despite having administration access. I think that Paul and his friend Jeffrey did this to this machine two years back....
Bean is a cooler version of Text Edit for Word... →
Ch Ch Ch Changes
Lots of new University systems to learn this summer — GEMS for travel and small purchase expenses, UChicago Time for reporting and approving absences, eLedgers for online ledger viewing. Sheesh. Oh, and I was expected to learn CPR and using the defibrillators this summer, too.
4 tags
OMG, phones in classrooms - Triblocal - Voice of... →
Thoughts, anyone? Is this not an instance of a school realizing the inevitable and seeing it as an opportunity?
Off Track
Pretty much everything is not going as planned this summer. I’m used to unplanned events disrupting some things—it’s part of the technology territory, and you learn to be flexible. But the required level of flexibility this summer is more in line with what contortionists do.
June 2010
2 posts
Great jargon from InfoComm
“analog sunset”
“Lossy compression”
“carpeting is part of a passive a/v system”
Favorite Song Lyrics
“We learned more from a three-minute record than we ever learned in school” — Bruuuuuuuuce Springsteen, “No Surrender”
May 2010
1 post
Things I Hate
I really hate waiting for people to arrive at meetings. Maybe I’ll start using the old college 7-minute rule: if the professor is 7 minutes late, class is cancelled.
December 2009
1 post
A rose by any other name...
I have learned that a “charrette” is a fancy word for a really long meeting where you might have to break into groups for a while.
October 2009
2 posts
Oh, the splendor of air travel.
“I said that solution was valid, not that it was supported.”
– Apple server support staffer
April 2009
1 post
Whenever I'm sure I've seen it all...
Had a user get all snarky with support staff because we emptied her Trash in the course of tossing some troublesome preferences. Turns out she saves all her important documents in the Trash. Want to guess if she’d backed up her Trash?
March 2009
1 post
Signs of Rampant Disruption
February 2009
3 posts
Another reason to be a White Sox fan
“I hope I die on the field..I hope when I walk to change the pitcher, I drop dead and that’s it. I know my family would be so happy that it happened on the field. They wouldn’t feel bad because that’s what I’ve always wanted to do…..You die on the field — good luck, get him out of here, next man.”
— Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen
“ I can’t believe I got sore from overdoing Wii Fit.”
– my friend, Jill
December 2008
3 posts
“Does your mother know you’re a Ramone?”
– “Rock and Roll High School” principal Evelyn Togar, played by Mary Woronov
This is why they hate us
A toilet that can flush a bucket of golf balls—http://www.americanstandard-us.com/Tools/BestFlush/
Sign of the Apocalypse
OK, this is some of the most exquisite and disturbing prose I think I’ve ever read. I saw it on an IT consulting firm’s web site and now I can’t find the link. It is like some Satanic marriage of IT and Risk Management.
“Forward-Looking Statements: Certain of the statements in the preceding paragraphs may contain projections and other forward-looking statements. While...
September 2008
2 posts
One of the best records ever...it pretty much...
“Snake Farm,” Ray Wylie Hubbard, see title track at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jNWPUFNA2U