January 2007 Archives

Today we continued brainstorming a useful, relevant path to take our nation's schools to a different place, a place where technology is seemlessly integrated into instructional delivery (students and staff), data aggregation and disaggregation for data-driven decision making (assessment), and communication and immersion of stakeholders. Tim Magner, the Director of the Office of Educational Technology for the US Department of Education, is bright, articulate, and a razor sharp thinker. I was immensely impressed with his grasp of the scope and complexity of the technological and political ecosystems in which America's schools live. And he is a young man. He quickly grasps ideas and issues brought to the table and distills them to their core components while reframing them in a more quantitative and qualitative context that creates new thinking for me. That is rare and utterly delightful!

The others in the room, mostly principals, are also amazing leaders in their own right. We were asked to come to DC to work with SRI and Xplane, who were contracted by the DOE. SRI is a think tank designing materials to shape policy and planning for the DOE (and many other agencies and companies). They have people sitting in the room word processing as fast as we talk, (and some of these folks break new speed barriers), designing interactive flash-based animations, recording and synthesizing the ideas and concepts being thrown around the room. Xplane is here to help us visualize the ideas brought to the table. The literally draw everything. "If you can draw it, you can do it." Over the past two days we literally repeatedly plastered the walls with color stickies and large sheets of brightly inked paper.

This is what a brain dump looks like I guess. Fifteen bright people brought into a room, being asked probing, stimulating, challenging, clarifying, difficult questions, sharing our ideas, successes, obstacles, and vision for our nation's schools and how technology invisibly fits into this complex stew of human undertaking.

Yesterday, from the 28th floor of what once was the USAToday/Gannett building, we had a spectacular view of the Mall: the Washington Monument, Whitehouse, Capitol Hill, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials as well as several other memorials near the Potomac--impressive and inspiring to say the least.

I am completely humbled by this experience--being asked to share what we have accomplished at Mabry, how we did it, and how this and more can be extended into our nation's schools in meaningful ways. I've never done anything quit like it. The process has been as amazing to me as the outcomes. I will gnaw on this experience for some time to come!

I've spent the day in the capitol city, a guest of the US Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology. I and about 15 others, mostly elementary, middle, and high school principals, were invited to spend time discussing School 2.0. More will follow when my internet connection is happier.

Tonight I ate at Clyde's in Georgetown. Go there and order the crab cakes and the Tiramisu. You will not be disappointed!

I don't watch it often, but this guy, Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, is so funny. And Comedy Central lets bloggers embed their Flash movies (although the links expire). Here is the link to The Daily Show at the iTunes store.

This morning I just finished a video conference with a group of teachers and principals in Shanghai, China. I talk a lot about leveraging connectivity on a global scale, but then it still just amazes me when such things unfold. The world truly is becoming a smaller and smaller place.

I enjoy reading Stephen Downes blog because he tends to see beneath the superficial.  Here is his list of things we need to learn in school:

1. How to predict consequences
2. How to read

Oddly, by this I do not mean 'literacy' in the traditional sense, but rather, how to look at some text and to understand, in a deep way, what is being asserted (this also applies to audio and video, but grounding yourself in text will transfer relatively easily, if incompletely, to other domains).

The four major types of writing are: description, argument, explanation and definition. You should learn to recognize these different types of writing by learning to watch for indicators or keywords.

3. How to distinguish truth from fiction
4. How to empathize
5. How to be creative
6. How to communicate clearly
7. How to Learn
8. How to stay healthy
9. How to value yourself
10. How to live meaningfully

The president’s ratings have fallen through the floor, hovering somewhere around a 30% approval these days. We, as a people, strongly dislike where he’s taken the nation, and greatly fear the fact that he is completely and intentionally oblivious to what the American people want him to do. He feels that he’s American’s God-given-and-directed leader and that he can do no wrong. We feel he’s a lunatic jackass hell-bent on destroying American’s hard-earned goodwill in the world.

Why aren’t we, the people, looking at kicking his ass out?

Source: codepoetry - technology, unabridged.

China confirms satellite downed

China has confirmed it carried out a test that destroyed a satellite, in a move that caused international alarm. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said a test had been carried out but insisted China was committed to the "peaceful development of outer space". The US backed reports last week that China had used a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to destroy a weather satellite. It was the first known satellite intercept test for more than 20 years.

Several countries, including Japan, Australia and the US, have expressed concern at the test, amid worries it could trigger a space arms race. Until Tuesday, China had refused to confirm or deny the reports.

Source: BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China confirms satellite downed

Well, 100%.  But how will you shuffle off this mortal coil?  These are the odds...

(Click to enlarge)

Sorry I don't have the source.

I received this Christmas card from the Japanese Embassy:

Yes, here is a scan of the old menus from the Silver Grill, circa 2004:

(Click both to enlarge)

I really want to disable the Dock, as it annoys the hell out of me, but this eats up my RAM.

Open Terminal, and then type this command, followed by the Return key:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

This tells the system that you no longer wish to have Dashboard available. However, the Dashboard task is actually “owned” by the Dock, so to make your changes take effect, you need to restart the Dock. The easiest way to do that is to type this command into the Terminal (and press Return when done):

killall Dock

After the Dock restarts, hit F12 and you’ll see…nothing at all. If you run Activity Monitor, you also won’t find any Dashboard widgets in the list of tasks, even if you had several open when you ran the above command. Dashboard has been eliminated from your system, and won’t return until you tell it to do so. You can do just that by opening Terminal again, and typing this command:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

Once again, you’ll have to use the killall Dock command to make the changes take effect. Once you do, though, you’ll find that Dashboard is back as usual—and any widgets you had opened on the Dashboard will still be open.

Source:  Macworld

Dreadful!  But, regrettably, I think he's on to something.

...What Bush is proposing now is exactly what happened in Vietnam, Beirut and Somalia.

In each case: 
1)  The United States suffered a pivotal attack that altered their perception of the enemy (the Tet Offensive, the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, and the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident);

2)  The American response at some point after the attack was a show of escalation, not de-escalation  (Nixon/Kissinger escalation in Vietnam, naval and air bombardments in Lebanon, six-month force expansion in Somalia);

3)  After this display of strength, the U.S. withdraws;

4)  Despite the increase in forces and retaliatory attacks, everyone recognizes the withdrawal for what it was. 

I see very little reason to go through this charade again....

Source:  danieldrezner.com :: Daniel W. Drezner :: The thing about credible commitment....

"Under IPv4 there are 4,294,967,296 possible IP addresses - each of which may b assigned to a device or computer on the internet. 4 billion addresses equates to slightly less that tw thirds of an IP address per person on the planet. As you may imagine, the IP addresses are not distributed evenl around the world - they are assigned to individual countries by Regional Internet Registries such as ARIN and RIPE. We take a look at how that information breaks down per person in each country. ...

The map below shows this data. Those countries with more than 1 IP per person are in green, those with 1 IP for every 10 people are in yellow, 1 IP for 100 people in orange, and so on. The top 10 and bottom 10 countries, with the population and IP statistics, are listed in tabular form below.

Rank. Place: Population; Number of IPs; IPs per person

1. Vatican City: Population 783; 8,191 IPs; 10.5 IPs per person
2. United States: Population 299,161,390 IPs; 1,352,246,048; 4.5 IPs per person
3. Canada: Population 32,547,200; 70,313,601 IPs; 2.2 IPs per person
4. Iceland: Population 297,139; 589,790 IPs; 2.0 IPs per person
5. Monaco: Population 35,656; 63,480 IPs; 1.8 IPs per person
6. Gibraltar: Population 27,921; 47,097 IPs; 1.7 IPs per person
7. Liechtenstein: Population 33,987; 51,217 IPs; 1.51 IPs per person
8. Sweden: Population 9,072,269; 13,573,300 IPs; 1.51 IPs per person
9. Finland: Population 5,255,580; 7,705,691 IPs; 1.496 IPs per person
10. Australia: Population 20,555,300; 29,998,170 IPs; 1.459 IPs per person

... This IP shortage is the reason why the move to IPv6 is underway, which supports a markedly superior 3.4x1038 possible addresses - more than enough for everyone on the planet, and no doubt we'll need the extra address space with the lesser economically developed countries catching up in terms of internet usage."

Source: Ip Assignment, Per Capita

Technorati Tags: Internet

So "W" says he accepts full responsibility when something goes wrong. Well isn't that just fine and dandy--an easy thing to do when you have no consequences for your actions! And now he's issuing stern warnings to Iran and Syria. Today we invade the Iranian embassy...

The man is insanely dangerous.

Technorati Tags: Iraq

So I've been busy teaching myself about del.icio.us.  I like it--social bookmarking.  I have had an account for 2 years but didn't really understand what it was all about when I set it up.  Soon thereafter, I was not using it.

Well, now it makes sense to me.  I think this is a powerful collaboration tool.  So, in the months ahead, expect to see tag clouds and the like appearing here at timtyson.us.

But one of the concerns I had was knowing when links die, when sites are no longer up.  Intro Dead.licious.  This little program not only checks the links at your del.icio.us to make sure they still live, it provides you with a simple way to immediately access the dead links through The Way Back Machine!

Cool indeed!

Technorati Tags: Internet, Software

Article from Informit:  Most people use Google in a very inefficient and often ineffective manner. If all you do is enter a few keywords and click the search button, you're one of those users who don't get as much out of Google as you could. In this article, Google expert Michael Miller shows you how to search smarter — and more effectively.

• Tip #1: Use the Correct Methodology
• Tip #2: Conduct an "Either/Or" Search
• Tip #3: Include or Exclude Words in Your Search
• Tip #4: Search for Similar Words
• Tip #5: Search for an Exact Phrase
• Tip #6: List Similar Pages
• Tip #7: Fine-Tune Your Search with Other Operators
• Tip #8: Search for Specific Facts
• Tip #9: Search the Google Directory
• Tip #10: Use Googles Other Specialized Searches

"Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource" (Michael Miller)

Source:  Ten Tips for Smarter Google Searches > Tip #1: Use the Correct Methodology

Technorati Tags: Google, IdeaFactory, Internet, Search, Webware

Source:  macosxhints.com - Working with screen movies in iMovie

If you're using iMovie to create screencasts, e.g. for software demos, there are a couple of things to know to get the best quality.

When you import source videos, iMovie seems to resample them to it's own internal resolution, so resampling on import followed by resampling on export can cause a substantial loss in quality and produce lossy videos full of artifacts.

The main trick is ...

Technorati Tags: HowTo, Presentation, Software, Technology, Tools, Video

Remember back in mid April, 2006?  I'm sure you recall this post on my blog.  Hey!  What can I say!  This post predicted exactly what was announced, even with a demo movie!

But it's what Apple didn't announce that I find of interest--anything else but the Apple TV and iPhone with its touch screen.  The multi-touch interaction screen will probably change computer display forever.

My guess, Apple will announce radically new display technology for its computers, Numbers (an Apple Excel counterpart), and new versions of its main software packages.

Time will tell.

Technorati Tags: hardware, Apple, Reference, Software, Technology

The above quotation was from artist John Mayer who performed Waiting on the World to Change at Macworld.  He said that Apple's inventing new and amazing tools is the exact opposite of terrorism.  He then said, after Steve Jobs had completed announcing Apple TV and the new iPhone, "I'm feeling pretty code green right now."

The current presidential administration has repressed the nation's entire creative mood for the past 6 years, making us all feel Code Orange or Code Red.  Shame on them--how repressive, how stifling, counterproductive, and wasteful of our most precious resource:  our belief in ourselves.

I found this quotation from Psychology Today rather interesting:

We tend to believe our political views have evolved by a process of rational thought, as we consider arguments, weigh evidence, and draw conclusions. But the truth is more complicated. Our political preferences are equally the result of factors we're not aware of—such as how educated we are, how scary the world seems at a given moment, and personality traits that are first apparent in early childhood. Among the most potent motivators, it turns out, is fear. How the United States should confront the threat of terrorism remains a subject of endless political debate. But Americans' response to threats of attack is now more clear-cut than ever. The fear of death alone is surprisingly effective in shaping our political decisions—more powerful, often, than thought itself.

We are our best when we create, invent, empower, and flourish.  We all need to make 2007 Code Green despite the Republicans trying to capitalize on fear.

Technorati Tags: Apple, AppleTV, iPhone, Fear

I tried to resist, really I did. But everyone around me had the creeping crud. I thought I was going to be lucky this year. I didn't even get my traditional chest/head cold this past Fall. Well... yuck. Here's to hoping it doesn't become a chest cold!

In this post, you can see me working hard, doing my duty:  holding up the huge, 3 foot thick pipe of cables that holds together the Golden Gate Bridge.  Someone had to do it!  So here I am at the center of the bridge where the cable is at its lowest point, holding the bridge up, trying to keep it from collapsing.

(Click to enlarge)

Technorati Tags: photos, SanFrancisco

Tonight I saw two great bumper stickers:

"What's Our Oil Doing
Under Their Soil?

and

"I'm already against
The next war"

I inadvertently left 9 pictures from Carmel, California, out of the San Francisco Album. So, the simplest solution was to create an album just for this little town!

(Click above to visit Carmel)

Technorati Tags: CarmelCA, photos

Here and there while vacationing in San Francisco I would ask another person to take a picture of me using my little Canon PowerShot. (As those who know me are aware, I actually hate having my picture taken but must have been feeling wild and crazy in the California ocean air.) I will present some of those pictures over the next few days for your amusement.

This particular picture (click it to enlarge) was taken on the trails of Point Lobos. The wind coming off of the Pacific Ocean was so strong that I had to lean forward to keep from being blown over. I wish I could have known how many miles per hour the wind was blowing as this was extreme and deafeningly loud. I actually think the picture is a little blurred because of the massive salt spray (If you enlarge the picture you will see my glasses are completely covered.) and the fact that you just couldn't hold anything still in this wind.

Just after this picture was taken I approached a pass that I felt was actually too dangerous for me to cross at the time. I was convinced I would be blown off of my feet and plummet into the raging ocean below.

As this picture was taken face forward, you can't really see that I am leaning forward at a significant angle! You can just see that my hair was virtually being plucked out of my scalp by the tremendous winds! Even with your best efforts, you can only dimly imagine what I looked like after spending half of a day having heavily salt-laden ocean wind blasted into my hair: a terrifying caricatura of a punk rocker/southern evangelical minister!

Technorati Tags: photos, PointLobos, TimTyson

With great delight I now present 260 pictures from my first vacation in San Francisco, California. This album can always be found in the USA Gallery in my Photo Collections. Click here or on the picture below to enjoy San Francisco!

Technorati Tags: photos, SanFrancisco

This is documentation of a hidden feature that forces your TiVo to skip 30 seconds ahead to avoid those annoying commercials:

Press the following keys on the remote:

• Select
• Play
• Select
• 3
• 0
• Select
• Then press the ’skip to next track’ button to jump ahead 30 seconds. That button looks something like this: ->|

Technorati Tags: commercials, TiVo

I know I haven't posted for the last several days. I've been extremely busy preparing my pictures from California for their world debut at timtyson.us! Regrettably a spot appeared on the image sensor of my Canon 30D. Every single picture I took therefore has this spot on it. So; every single picture I publish (in print or on the web) has to be "touched" with some time-consuming edits in Photoshop.

Add to this the fact that I took over 1,500 pictures at Point Lobos (official site for the reserve) alone! In my brief five day visit to California over the Christmas holiday, I took over 3,000 pictures--a record for even me! Since I took so many photos, I decided to break them up into two albums: San Francisco, and Point Lobos State Reserve. The San Francisco album will appear soon.

With great delight I now present 86 pictures from Point Lobos State Reserve off California Route 1. This album can always be found in the USA Gallery in my Photo Collections. Click here or on the picture below to enjoy Point Lobos!

Technorati Tags: PointLobos, photos

What a great start to the new year: a gorgeous, sunny, productive day. I had a late lunch at the Atlantic Station Mall. I like the concept, but this is Atlanta. We don't pay to park and shop!

I got a great tie. It was calling my name!

Don't tell anyone, but I even went to the gym!

Technorati Tags: AtlanticStation