Tera's Blog

From an IM conversation with Chris W. about his issues with his formerly functioning windows machine and the lack of solutions on Google.

Chris W. : If I pulled out the PCI card, the on-board video worked fine. If I pushed the PCi card back in, the on-board video ceased to exist in this Continuum.
Chris W. : This was antithetical to the situation that the BIOS and Windows supported only 16 hours previous.
Chris W. : Not a cosmic ray had intervened since.
Chris W. : Google offered nothing.
Chris W. : I invented new swear words.

For the full on funny effect, you have to imagine hearing this conversation in Chris' very proper British accent.

Posted by at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tom Lehrer was right when he said the "New Math was so simple only a child could do it."

I had this conversation this morning with Brian M., who has children the same age as mine, so I knew he could relate to helping kids with math homework.

Me: God, I must be getting old
Brian: oh?
Me: I had to look up 'stem and leaf' plots on google to help Diana with her homework
Brian: ??
Brian: what's a stem and leaf plot?
Me: ha!
Me: http://regentsprep.org/Regents/Math/data/stemleaf.htm
Me: I feel better now

Add just for kicks and giggles, here's the song by Tom Lehrer that I mentioned above.

Posted by at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I've been a big fan of Camtasia Studio since I saw it demo'd at the Conference on Instructional Technology four years ago. Camtasia Studio captures screen activity to which you can then add titles, callouts, quizzes, and export the final product to Windows Media, Flash and Quicktime. You can use the same software to create menus for distribution via CD or Web. I've used Camtasia to produce technology tutorials, online lectures and podcasts. Very simple and intuitive (but powerful) software. I presented a workshop on it at the SUNY Training Center last Spring and it was probably the easiest application I've ever had to teach someone else to use.

My only gripe. It's Windows only. Which always amazed me because the interface reminded me so much of iMovie. I've tried SnapzPro for the mac, but it's just not the same. SnapzPro doesn't have any of Camtasia's editting and production features.

Fortunately, Tech Smith has taken note of this and is asking mac users to fill out this survey http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB225KKUB3JMP and let them know how they should go about the development of a mac version. I'd be happy to have access to a bare bones mac version while they're working on a developing the full blown one. I bet it's something Apple would take notice of. If we're lucky it would become part of the iWork suite (Ok, now I'm just daydreaming).

Thanks to Kevin Dangoor on Technology, Business and Everything for getting Tech Smith's attention and getting the ball rolling.

Posted by at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)