Comments for BlogDale http://dale.ethink.org.uk Explorations in education and technology, and other stuff. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:34:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.2.1 Comment on Interactive whiteboard with a Wiimote by Carol Rainbow http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/06/01/interactive-whiteboard-with-a-wiimote/#comment-2548 Carol Rainbow Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:47:20 +0000 http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/06/01/interactive-whiteboard-with-a-wiimote/#comment-2548 Hello. I have a few questions rather than comments if I may? Have you used it in a classroom situation? My fear is that the angle of the wiimote will affect how far the reach is and the responsiveness of the “Wiitboard” and that it will only work in a very limited area or that the positioning of the wiimote will make it almost impossible in a classroom, needing a shelf at a certain height, just to the left or right in front of the wiiboard etc. I know there are many people who would love to make this as an instant whiteboard, but my fear is that they will be so frustrated and disappointed at the functionality that at the moment my advice would be to buy an infra red keyboard and mouse and use that instead. I would love to be told I am wrong :-) Also I have recently stopped a friend spreading the news about the wiimote wiitboard because of my fears - I may need to make grovelling apologies to him and the poeple he was trying to inspire:-) Thanks! Hello. I have a few questions rather than comments if I may?

Have you used it in a classroom situation? My fear is that the angle of the wiimote will affect how far the reach is and the responsiveness of the “Wiitboard” and that it will only work in a very limited area or that the positioning of the wiimote will make it almost impossible in a classroom, needing a shelf at a certain height, just to the left or right in front of the wiiboard etc.
I know there are many people who would love to make this as an instant whiteboard, but my fear is that they will be so frustrated and disappointed at the functionality that at the moment my advice would be to buy an infra red keyboard and mouse and use that instead.
I would love to be told I am wrong :-)

Also I have recently stopped a friend spreading the news about the wiimote wiitboard because of my fears - I may need to make grovelling apologies to him and the poeple he was trying to inspire:-)

Thanks!

]]> Comment on Offline mashups by Kristianstill http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/06/05/glover-magic/#comment-2542 Kristianstill Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:10:27 +0000 http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/06/05/glover-magic/#comment-2542 This I like! Good to meet you Daniel - hope to catch up via Twitter and would love to see / hear how you use the No Limits Rollercoster. We have a lot of disaffect boys at our College and I know they would love to see how many of their passengers they could kill off on their rollercoster. Looking forward to catching up. This I like! Good to meet you Daniel - hope to catch up via Twitter and would love to see / hear how you use the No Limits Rollercoster. We have a lot of disaffect boys at our College and I know they would love to see how many of their passengers they could kill off on their rollercoster. Looking forward to catching up.

]]> Comment on Interactive whiteboard with a Wiimote by admin http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/06/01/interactive-whiteboard-with-a-wiimote/#comment-2523 admin Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:58:00 +0000 http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/06/01/interactive-whiteboard-with-a-wiimote/#comment-2523 At a demo today, we spotted what we thought was a flaw in the system The wiimote was picking up 3 or 4 IR sources. The PIR sensors in the room were blamed and it is only now that I realise they can't have been (since they're PASSIVE IR Detectors). There must have been some other IR sources somewhere - needs further investigation. Anyway, the wiimote system worked as expected with Darwiin on the Mac and showed that the system could be made to work with no real problems, thus an IWB can be had for the price of a Wiimote (about £30). At a demo today, we spotted what we thought was a flaw in the system The wiimote was picking up 3 or 4 IR sources. The PIR sensors in the room were blamed and it is only now that I realise they can’t have been (since they’re PASSIVE IR Detectors). There must have been some other IR sources somewhere - needs further investigation. Anyway, the wiimote system worked as expected with Darwiin on the Mac and showed that the system could be made to work with no real problems, thus an IWB can be had for the price of a Wiimote (about £30).

]]> Comment on Asus eeePc by dale http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/19/asus-eeepc/#comment-2493 dale Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:54:17 +0000 http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/19/asus-eeepc/#comment-2493 Wireless is OK on WEP and WPA protocols, but on the WPA-TKIP it has problems. There are tweaks involving ndsiwrapper and possibly some othernetworking daemons - no doubt Asus will sort things out. I got a new protective bag for mine. What a dilemma - do I go for a distinctive colour so that I won't lose the Asus or a more businesslike black? Either way, the Tesco Value sandwich bag fits perfectly and I bought the pink one rather than the black. Cost me £2.00 rather than £1.30 though. I've been experimenting with the full desktop mode, and with adding extra icons to easy mode - both work great. Will do a post one day soon about this. Wyvern Business Systems are doing a great deal on these machines - they can personalise them too in an awesome kind of way. See them at the Shropshire ICT Conference on the 14th April. Wireless is OK on WEP and WPA protocols, but on the WPA-TKIP it has problems. There are tweaks involving ndsiwrapper and possibly some othernetworking daemons - no doubt Asus will sort things out.
I got a new protective bag for mine. What a dilemma - do I go for a distinctive colour so that I won’t lose the Asus or a more businesslike black? Either way, the Tesco Value sandwich bag fits perfectly and I bought the pink one rather than the black. Cost me £2.00 rather than £1.30 though.
I’ve been experimenting with the full desktop mode, and with adding extra icons to easy mode - both work great. Will do a post one day soon about this.
Wyvern Business Systems are doing a great deal on these machines - they can personalise them too in an awesome kind of way. See them at the Shropshire ICT Conference on the 14th April.

]]> Comment on Asus eeePc by John Rowe http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/19/asus-eeepc/#comment-2490 John Rowe Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:31:55 +0000 http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/19/asus-eeepc/#comment-2490 Thanks for bringing this innovative device to my attention Dale. It works great and is very easy to use. One snag I have found is that the wireless networking has been a bit tricky to set up. It's on our school network now, but can't connect to the internet - some error message about the ISP?? I'll continue to have a play... Great device though and a low cost way of achieving a 1:1 pupil to PC ratio. Thanks for bringing this innovative device to my attention Dale. It works great and is very easy to use. One snag I have found is that the wireless networking has been a bit tricky to set up. It’s on our school network now, but can’t connect to the internet - some error message about the ISP?? I’ll continue to have a play…
Great device though and a low cost way of achieving a 1:1 pupil to PC ratio.

]]> Comment on Talking Photos by Marcrossen http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2007/12/23/talking-photos/#comment-2485 Marcrossen Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:26:42 +0000 http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2007/12/23/talking-photos/#comment-2485 <a href="http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=5594313189 " rel="nofollow"> Talking Photos </a>hey here is an other application where u can add movie lines and voice to any Facebook photo and share it with friends. Sure your pictures are already worth a 1000 words but adding a few more couldn't hurt.Isn't this a great fun!!!!! So wht are you waiting for???? Just click here and have fun!!!! http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=5594313189 Talking Photos hey here is an other application where u can add movie lines and voice to any Facebook photo and share it with friends. Sure your pictures are already worth a 1000 words but adding a few more couldn’t hurt.Isn’t this a great fun!!!!! So wht are you waiting for???? Just click here and have fun!!!! http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=5594313189

]]> Comment on Assimilation is nearly complete by dale http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/14/assimilation-is-nearly-complete/#comment-2460 dale Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:00:55 +0000 http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/14/assimilation-is-nearly-complete/#comment-2460 No worries John - it was taken in jest. You'll be pleased to know that the 8 core is behaving nicely. I wonder if I just had a Friday Afternoon one before. This one has the aluminium keyboard too, which apparently has shown a difference in the mouse stutter arena. Linux - I love Linux! Glad to know that you're a user too. It was the knowledge that Mac OS is based on Unix that helped me make the leap in the first place. Didn't quite believe it at first, but the joy of having everything work in Terminal the way I'm used to caused quite a few chuckles of glee. One of the first things I did with my last Mac was to put Parallels on it and install Fedora, and then Windows as virtual machines. Not done it yet with this one, but soon. I want to get Bootcamp working nicely first. I've used Linux a while now - apart from a few Tank Engine games on the Windo$e machine, my children have rarely touched Windows - theirs is a Linux box, and a new Asus eeePC found them perfectly at home in Xandros Linux. Which goes to show really - it's not the OS that counts, it's what you DO with it. No worries John - it was taken in jest. You’ll be pleased to know that the 8 core is behaving nicely. I wonder if I just had a Friday Afternoon one before. This one has the aluminium keyboard too, which apparently has shown a difference in the mouse stutter arena.

Linux - I love Linux! Glad to know that you’re a user too. It was the knowledge that Mac OS is based on Unix that helped me make the leap in the first place. Didn’t quite believe it at first, but the joy of having everything work in Terminal the way I’m used to caused quite a few chuckles of glee. One of the first things I did with my last Mac was to put Parallels on it and install Fedora, and then Windows as virtual machines. Not done it yet with this one, but soon. I want to get Bootcamp working nicely first.

I’ve used Linux a while now - apart from a few Tank Engine games on the Windo$e machine, my children have rarely touched Windows - theirs is a Linux box, and a new Asus eeePC found them perfectly at home in Xandros Linux.

Which goes to show really - it’s not the OS that counts, it’s what you DO with it.

]]> Comment on Assimilation is nearly complete by John http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/14/assimilation-is-nearly-complete/#comment-2459 John Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:20:42 +0000 http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/14/assimilation-is-nearly-complete/#comment-2459 Hi Dale, Sorry my second comment was off the cuff and I forgot the smiley at the end of the second one, I wasn't really expecting you to change theme just a wee joke. Hopefully the 8 core will behave better with leopard, if not you could run linux. In fact you can run lunux on <a href="http://www.parallels.com/" rel="nofollow">Parallels</a> or <a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/" rel="nofollow">VM Fusion</a> which might help you with your desire to spend a bit more time with linux (I've not tried these myself, but they get good press). Another thing that might help a move towards linux is the fact that macs are unix machines, I've found that on the rare occasions I've used linux my baby steps with the terminal have helped me. Thanks for the link to the children's blogging, it is of course the main point. Hi Dale,
Sorry my second comment was off the cuff and I forgot the smiley at the end of the second one, I wasn’t really expecting you to change theme just a wee joke.
Hopefully the 8 core will behave better with leopard, if not you could run linux. In fact you can run lunux on Parallels or VM Fusion which might help you with your desire to spend a bit more time with linux (I’ve not tried these myself, but they get good press). Another thing that might help a move towards linux is the fact that macs are unix machines, I’ve found that on the rare occasions I’ve used linux my baby steps with the terminal have helped me.

Thanks for the link to the children’s blogging, it is of course the main point.

]]> Comment on Assimilation is nearly complete by dale http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/14/assimilation-is-nearly-complete/#comment-2458 dale Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:09:20 +0000 http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/14/assimilation-is-nearly-complete/#comment-2458 Thanks John, 8 year old computers weren't an avenue I was thinking of following but it's an idea. Looking forward to the new beast arriving and praying that it copes with Leopard better. Not thinking that I'll go for the new blogtheme but I'm flattered by the suggestion. Personalisation being such a big thing these days, I'm wondering why I Really Don't Care what the theme is but I'm more impressed by people Doing Important Things like <a href="http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/pivot/index.php" rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a href="http://hopeblog.ethink.org.uk/" rel="nofollow">here</a> and.. I could go on. You know who they are. Keep up the good work, folks. (Edit - On reflection this sounds way too terse and I really don't mean it that way - thanks for commenting John I appreciate it. Of course, I understand that an attractive theme will draw a readership and server the community it is intended for. Never was a graphical type mesel', but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate art when I see it). Thanks John, 8 year old computers weren’t an avenue I was thinking of following but it’s an idea. Looking forward to the new beast arriving and praying that it copes with Leopard better.

Not thinking that I’ll go for the new blogtheme but I’m flattered by the suggestion. Personalisation being such a big thing these days, I’m wondering why I Really Don’t Care what the theme is but I’m more impressed by people Doing Important Things like here and here and.. I could go on. You know who they are. Keep up the good work, folks. (Edit - On reflection this sounds way too terse and I really don’t mean it that way - thanks for commenting John I appreciate it. Of course, I understand that an attractive theme will draw a readership and server the community it is intended for. Never was a graphical type mesel’, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate art when I see it).

]]> Comment on Assimilation is nearly complete by John http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/14/assimilation-is-nearly-complete/#comment-2457 John Mon, 14 Jan 2008 07:16:19 +0000 http://dale.ethink.org.uk/2008/01/14/assimilation-is-nearly-complete/#comment-2457 You need a much older mac, no stuttering cursor on born in 2000 box. Hopefully your mac will last a long time bringing down the 'total cost of ownership'. If you are a macfan you might want a <a href="http://www.ndesign-studio.com/demo/wordpress/index.php?wptheme=iTheme" rel="nofollow">new theme</a> for your blog. You need a much older mac, no stuttering cursor on born in 2000 box. Hopefully your mac will last a long time bringing down the ‘total cost of ownership’.

If you are a macfan you might want a new theme for your blog.

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