Talia’s Social Commentary Blog

I am a new convert to WordPress. Before this I was a blogger blogger though and through. Since my conversion though I’ve learnt that there are some really great things about WordPress, and still some thing that I prefer about Blogger.

1. I like that WordPress allows you to create multiple pages. It really makes it look more like a website then a blog and for a lot of people, their blog is their website. For me I have 87purpleelephants.com and this site is linked to it with /blog. Anyway, I find this to be a really positive aspect of WordPress.

2. It took me a long time to start using WordPress, partly because I really liked blogger, partly because I was proud and stubborn, but mostly because I had tried to come over a few times, and it was hard to work out. I am certainly not techno-idiot, I know more then the average person about computers and websites, and so that’s why it surprised me how… not simple, it was. My recommendation? It would have be so much better with a quick tutorial page.

3. The options for sidebar widgets in wordpress impressed me. There were lots of them. I missed not being able to easily put my adsense in, hence not having any on this site. The thing I really liked about blogger is that it linked to so nicely with everything google. Having a gmail address made it really easy, and also having picassa on my computer, before I switched to linux, made putting photos on my blog easy as well. WordPress is just… WordPress, nothing else much combined with it, and I miss that.

4. Having your categories down the side, and such a range of things to do when you post made the transition a little bit more enjoyable, even if it was a little overwhelming at the start. Trackbacks, the upload section, do I need this?!

5. As I just said in number 3 I really miss how blogger use to work with everything. If I used google calender, or any of the google apps then I could easily blog them. I liked also having the option to access to the google programs at the top of blogger as well. I felt like everything I was using was working well and together. WordPress doesn’t have that, which is a minus.

6. Want to know one thing I don’t like? The fact that when I post I can’t just have something ONE LINE BELOW it has to be two below, like a new pargraph. And I think that somtimes WordPress is to clever for its own good. If I press backspace ONCE, I only want it to go back once, not twice.

7. Overall, when I use WordPress (now) I find the site relatively easy to use. It looks clean and has lots of options- something I like. I also like that most of the WordPress blogs look clean, and the majority professional as well. A sitemap, or as I’ve said before, tutorial would definitely be helpful though, just so I don’t have to click through so many things to find what I’m after.

So those are some good and bad things about WordPress. I would recommend it, it’s professional and works well. Just don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it.

 There are cracks in seven Brisbane Transport buses.

X-Rays have shown that one quarter of the 32 Brisbane buses scanned have cracks in them. Brisbane-ites will remember 5 years ago the metroliner fleet had widespread problems due to cracks.

The cracks this time are in the top section of the buses, and all the buses with the cracks have been taken off the roads, says the Brisbane city Council’s Public Transport Committee.

Hopefully this will be fixed ASAP, and won’t effect our public transport to much.

Last night an elderly woman was struck dead while crossing Cavendish Road in Cooparoo. The man who killed her was taken to the Princess Alexandria Hospital suffering shock.

The woman, who was walking alone, was believed to be in her late 60’s. The moral of the story? Cross the road with your friends, and BE A CAREFUL DRIVER.

If you Thunderbird you will know that creating a signature in it isn’t as easy as File, Propeties, Create Signature. It’s easy enough to do, just hard to find…

Step One: Open any text edit program and write in your details. Make sure you save it as a plain text file.

Step Two: Click on local folders, then view settings for this account.

Step Three: Click on the email address you want to add the signature to (with the + or – sign next to it). The second last option is a tick box saying, add a signature, tick it.

Step Four:  Click choose, next to it, and locate the file you’re after. Press Open. Click save, and you’re done. Compose a message to check that all the settings are right.

 In the town of Tamworth, Australia’s country music capital, convential light bulbs are set to become a thing of the past. The city, who were the first to have electric street lights, are leading the way on this national ban the bulb campaign. This campagin is also part of a new special on televsion called Cool Aid: The National Carbon Test.

Eco-store Neco, in Tamworth are replacing all the city’s old incandescent and halogen light bulbs for free and replacing them with more energy efficient bulbs.

Due to level 4 water restrictions in South East Queensland, residents are banned from watering their lawns, washing their cars too frequently (or their boats at all), and are asked to try and conserve power.  We are in the worst drought our state has ever seen, and it is vital that we don’t waste water.

It’s a shame that our own Government backed South Bank lagoon, located along the Brisbane River leaks 1000 liters an hour. It may even need to be dug up to try and clean up this mess.

Water wastage is also apparent in the state government’s water department’s building. Water used has increased by 11% in the last year.

A few weeks ago my fiance and I installed Ubuntu on my laptop. Obviously there are pros and cons to both Ubuntu and XP. I thought that it would be interesting to look at a few basic aspects of each operating system and possibly determine which one is better.

There are heaps of programs available to use in Ubuntu, so I’m just going to use whatever the default one is, and then talk about other options.

Here’s the criteria:

1. Office Tools

2. Photo Editing

3. Folders

4. Music/Video Players

5. Instant Messaging

6. ‘Outside’ Programs

7. Internet/Email

1. Office Tools

Ubuntu’s office programs, Open Office.org Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation and Database all work just as well as Windows’ Microsoft Word, Excell, Powerpoint and Access.

The positive with Ubuntu’s programs is that they’re free, their open source, and there is no annoying little cat that keeps popping up and interupting.

Winner: Tie

2. Photo Editing

The only default photo editing program in Windows when you install it for the first time is Paint. You’ve got to face it, there’s not much to do in paint, and Ubuntu is better than XP in this area. GIMP image editor reminds me a lot of photo shop, just with lots more right clicking.

Winner: Ubuntu

3. Folders

It’s easiest to explain it like this:

This is Ubuntu’s file system:

This is Window’s file system:

Can you see how much more sense Ubuntu makes? If you can’t read it, in the windows diagram that ‘My Network Places’ and ‘Control Panel’. I couldn’t find them from c:// drive, or my computer or anything.

Winner: Ubuntu 

4. Music/Video Players

XP starts with Windows Media Player. You can rip and burn CDs, you can watch movies in it, you can visit the media library etc. Ubuntu starts with Rhythm Box Music Player. This does the job, ripping and burning CDs. Movie Player is aptly named as that’s what it does- play movies. The easy thing about Ubuntu is that in the add/remove section there are piles and piles of programs that you can easily install and run that do things better then the ‘mainstream’ ones.

VLC is my preference for movie player when I want to watch movies located on my iPod, and use Grip, and sometimes AmaroK for my music listening.

Winner: This one’s hard. XP’s default is better then Ubuntu’s, but the options that Ubuntu gives makes it easier to use and more personal. As far as defaults are concerned though, Windows wins.
5. Instant Messaging

Gaim instant messaging is Ubuntu’s default instant messaging applicaiton. It lets you sign into multiple accounts (gmail/jabber, msn, yahoo, aim) at the one time and access all your contacts for those accounts in the one program. Pretty nifty. Windows Messenger (MSN) is the Windows default. Sign up for either a hotmail accout, or use your current email to create a passport account. You can sign into one account at a time. There aren’t any frills in Gaim, but there aren’t any problems like the program signing your out every 3 minutes either (is that just me, or has everyone had that bad experience with msn?). You can use msn if you really want to in Ubuntu though, it’s one of those programs in the clever little add/remove section.

Winner: Ubuntu

6. ‘Outside’ Programs

What about the programs that neither use as defaults, which is better for that? Well, windows is the most used opreating system in the world. I’m making up stats now, but it’s over 90% of the computing population use Windows. It makes a lot of sense that any software developer is going to create their product for Windows first, and if there’s a need Mac and Linux later.

The good news for Ubuntu users is that wine is available. This allows you to open windows operated programs in Ubuntu.

Winner: Using outside programs is definitely a lot easier with Windows, but still possible with Ubuntu.

7. Internet/Email

Ubuntu is all about freedom and open source programs, so it is no suprise that Mozzilla Firefox and Thunderbird are its default internet and mail applicaitons. Thunderbird far outstrips Internet Explorer, tabs are just one of the reasons, and all the add-ons and extensions created by third partys make firefox a lot easier and better to use. This is the same with Thunderbird vs. Outlook Express. There are plenty of add-ons and extensions to make your email experience a hell of a lot easier. The RSS feature is really great.

Winner: Ubuntu 

So what’s the scores? Ubuntu 4, Windows 2, Ties 1.

Am I biased to Ubuntu? Absolutly, hell, I use it. But I use it because I know that it works better for me. There are definitely a few confusing things about it, and if I didn’t know anything about computers I might have a hard time installing some things like flash. So if you’re a complete novice and don’t really care then by all means, keep using Windows, after all, it’s what you’ve been brought up on. But if you’re unsatisfied with some of the stupid things in Windows and are willing to search on google or the ubuntu forums for a little help, then I would definitely recommend giving it a go.

Dual boot your computer, you’ll be right.

According to Microsoft, “The Wow Starts Now”, but not everyone agrees. I’m sure they’re talking about their new operating system, Vista, but I can’t help but look at their ads and think to myself, “Wow”. For those of you who’ve seen one of the ads you’ll know what I mean, here’s one word to sum it up: corny.

On my recent trip to Melbourne I saw one of these ads at a tram stop.

I don’t know who thought of the slogan, but the should be fired.  It sounds like something Steve Ballmer would say.

I hate to say it, but some things will just never be cool.

So I have finally recieved my Uni timetable. I start the year in less then three weeks, and today is the first day they’ve given us a timetable. I know, it’s rubbish.

9:30-3:45 on Monday and Tuesday each week is pretty good though. I already knew from calling the Uni and speaking to them that we were on Mondays and Tuesdays, but not the times.

To say it annoys me that they are so slack in putting out this information is a bit of an understatement. In fact, there are a fair few things that I am disappointed in with my Uni. Here is a list of a few.

1. Technology. My Uni couse is big on using ICTs- at least in the way that that’s what they teach, not in the way that they actually USE them themselves. Last year I created a virtual classroom that the kids in my class used and explored. It’s the same as what they use for their student site- Blackboard.

My Virtual Classroom:

The point is that my classroom was easy to use, and easy to find things in, theirs is not. My first year at Uni I think I spent most of my time on the computer just trying to navigate through their messy, messy site.

Blackboard:

Solution: It’s no good stating a problem if you don’t have a solution, so here’s mine: Pay someone to make your site better. I will gladly do the job, but anyone with a little experience and creativity will do. Things like linking more and naming things correctly and just putting things in a neat order… ek. It hurt my eyes to look at that site.

2. Another tech related tip, create RSS feeds. I should be able to have an RSS feed of all the announcements, all the lecture notes, and anything else I bloody well want on the site. Wouldn’t that make life just so much easier?!

Solution: The solution is to have RSS feeds. They could easily create on with Feedburner, and recommend that people use any number of the available RSS agrigators around. We all know that my favourite would have to be Thunderbird, just for the fact that it is combined with my email, and I don’t have to be online to view past enties.

3. I think that part of my problem in first year is that I used Internet Explorer for the most of it. I now use Firefox, which means that I can open all their confusing little sub categories in new tabs, and save the confusion, and the space on my toolbar (who like having 20 WINDOWS open?).

Solution: Use firefox, or clean up your site. This one goes a bit hand in hand with the first dot point. It’s always good to fix the problem BEFORE it’s a problem though…

4. Communication is the key, or so they say, which leads me to wonder why my Uni is slow to communicate anything that’s happening, or at all. A simple email would be so helpful sometimes. If it were sent to my real email address, instead of my Uni one that no one ever checks, that would be helpful as well. Letting me know about things like “3rd Year meeting, Thursday the 1st March. At the new campus in Noosa. Very important” more than a week and a half in advance would be really great, especially when I’ve got work and things like that on…

It would have been nice if someone had have told me that we had a new campus as well…

Solution: Email is your friend. The RSS idea would make that a LOT easier as well. Just put everything in the annoucements section and that way we can all dowload it ourselves and not try to log on to the icky webmail that doesn’t work with programs like Outlook, Thunderbird and Mail.

Here’s an idea, use a better webmail as well.

5. Consistency is also one of those highly regarded aspects of… life. I would really life it if I had the same timetable every week, and if you say that you’re going to start in week one, that we don’t wait till week two before the first lectures.

Solution: Plans, organisation, thinking ahead. These are all things that I like, and I find my life to run a lot smoother and everything I do to be more benificial when I do it. Maybe this will help with the problem of getting assignments BACK to students graded. It is the end of February and I have not yet received any marks for the course I did finishing in December. Two months. At least.

6. It is still unclear to me why we go to lectures. Tuitorials I can understand- they tell us exactly what we need to do for the assignments (presumably….), but lectures? I prefer to spend my time sending text messages to my fiance, planning my week, and writing down ideas for the wedding. Anything I need to know for the assignment I can google and find, or better yet, just download the lecture notes. If they’re up there before the assignment is due. And if the lectures actually stuck to the lecture…

Solution: A podcast of the lecture would be a great alternative, even if it were just audio, with no visual. I know that would kill a lot of people’s downloads (including mine) but download it AT uni and stick it on your ipod or USB while you’re there. Oh wait, I forgot, our campus is (or should I say USE TO BE) in Pomona, and their internet connection there SUCKS.

7. Whenever I write blogs that have a list I always end up doing 7. That was just because that’s all I could think of on the first blog I wrote like that and I like to keep in consistant the whole way though.

Communication with schools is the last thing on my list. My Prac teacher at the moment has no idea about anything to do with me. In regard to things like when I’m meant to be doing my pracs and what’s required of me during these times.

Solution: Be more organised and have a package out there and ready to ship to the teachers with everything they need in it. Including someone’s phone number.
There is one product that I would highly recommend for Uni students, and really for anyone, and that’s Firefox. Never has opening all your task sheets, assignment help sheets, and links pages been so easy. One word for you, tabs.

This morning I watched a group of 21 Prep students (4 and 5 year olds) operate a SMART board. Chancellor Park State College has a number of SMART boards, and they use them quite frequently. When staff in schools are trained properly, these electronic white boards can serve as incredibly useful learning tools, as well as great planning tools for teachers.

SMART boards are not limited to use in Primary classrooms. Secondary, TAFE and some Tertiary campus’ use them, as well as businesses- to train staff and plan meetings.

SMART boards are large, touch sensitive displays that look very similar to regular white boards. There are three types of SMART boards- front projection, rear projection and LCD modifcations. Students can use their hands, or the special pens provided to draw, write, type, or do anything that they would do on a regular computer, on the SMART board.In 1991 SMART sold the first SMART board to educators. Since then there has been over 250, 000 classrooms equipted with SMART boards around the globe. There are SMART boards in nearly every region in Australia including the outback, rural mining towns in Western Australia, and also up in far North Queensland (Thomas Net). Education Queensland has provided grants to schools to upgrade their ICTs, (Information Communication Technology), and many schools have chosen to do this by putting SMART boards in their classrooms.

The benefits of using SMART boards as opposed to regular computers is the fact everyone in the class can see their work. ICT time changes from being either a cramped lesson, or a small group lesson to an exciting, whole class activity that everyone can be involved in.

SMART boards can control and access any computer application- it is just like a regular computer, just with a very large touch screen! The beauty of it is that you can save and edit your work easily. And print it out when you need to make hard copies. This is great for children of a variety of learning styles- so many different aspects to learning and teaching.

“It (SMART board) is the number one choice among primary and secondary school educators in more than 75 countries worldwide because the pioneering software interface captures the imagination of students of all backgrounds and abilities in order to help them learn together, understand better and achieve more.” (Electroboard)

Still, I can’t wait for the day when we’re using multi touch interfaces in our classrooms, not just as regular computers, but as teaching tools as well.

The fact that the SMART board isn’t multi-touch is a real disadvantage, and the front projection SMART boards have the problem of kids heads getting in the way. Ones that were mounted on the wall with the projector from the roof may work better, but even then you run the risk of blocking out some of your picture.

My only other gripe was the fact that it’s not ‘easy’ to touch. It works best if you use your nail- the back of your hand, to draw with. But a lot of kids, and adults, don’t like to press to hard because they’re afraid that they might wreck it.

This is a really great learning tool, and a big step forward in education.