Welcome to CEDo510

Computer Systems: How they work

As you can see by paging back through my blog, I usually blog when I have classes in session. Otherwise I'd be pretty much writing to nobody.  During our class I will muse occasionally here but mostly the information you need, will be on the Angel Site.

Here is a nice new picture from my back yard... (That's the Homestead High School parking lot in the background)

This little guy came for the crabapples but I think he's going to stay for the lecture.

Things Just Got Better!

People are always telling me that google docs are just not good enough. Well, I think things may be changing. Google seems good at fixing the things that irritate and adding things that amaze.




See what I mean?!

What is this Omer Counter Thing doing here?

As a child, holidays came and went. Each had its own rituals and foods. Some I didn't even notice, others were pretty much good for a day off from school. Now that I am older, and have time to think about these things, I spend a little more time wondering what it is all about.

When my dear daughter asked me to write her an Omer counter I had to look it up to find out what it was. I find the idea interesting for many reasons. Most of which it makes the counter, if you choose to be one, congnizant of the passage of time and the season more than ever. It gives us a chance to prepare for the holiday that celebrates G-d giving us the Torah.

The Torah, everything you need to know about life in one easy to handle scroll, is an amazing gift and however you believe it came to be, it certainly has had a profound impact on Jews and non-Jews alike.


I found a couple of interesting articles on Counting the Omer. The first is from the blog PunkTorah regarding the counting:

So, what does this all mean to us now? Well, it can mean many things. Counting the Omer can be used as a tool of self reflection. We can take this time to recognize the miracle of the Exodus from Egypt, from the gift of our freedom. The Sages tell us that G-d freed us from slavery in order to give us the Torah on Shavu’ot, so this should be a time of preparation. Counting the Omer gives us the time to learn from the gift of freedom G-d has given us and incorporate it into our lives, to grow one day at a time, taking a spiritual accounting, to make sure that we are heading in the right direction, to look at what we are doing that is right or wrong and to try to make ourselves ready to receive the honor of the Torah.
Counting the days is another way of directing our mindfulness to the passage of time. Be aware of the days as they pass, count them, give them meaning. We have been freed from slavery, rejecting the confusion and idolatry (philosophically, literally, and spiritually) of our own Egypt’s and are being made ready to re-focus our lives.

Another interesting article from The United Synagogue Website called Counting the Omer - And Making Each Day Count click over there for an interesting read.

Making each day count is probably a good idea anyway.

Web 2.0 and Collaboration

When one talks about or tries to explain what Web 2.0 is about, (s)he quickly comes to the conclusion that when all is said and done, its about collaboration.  Working together, sharing ideas doing the job together, finding joint or group solutions. Using the power of many minds to solve problems. With that in mind I offer two very cool blog posts on collaboration and web 2.0. 

100 Web Tools to Enhance Collaboration (Part 1) 

 and... 

100 Web Tools to Enhance Collaboration (Part 2)

Think about this for a few minutes...

Two articles caught my attention yesterday. Oddly they made me think of a teary time I had in the Jewish section of Rome. I saw children playing and wondered how many were lost during the war. After reading these two articles my thoughts turned to how many ideas were lost and what the world might be like today if the holocaust had not happened.

Miep Gies, Protector of Anne Frank, Dies at 100

By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN - Published: January 12, 2010
Mrs. Gies was the last survivor among Anne Frank’s protectors and the woman who preserved her diary.

The Tel Aviv Cluster By  Op-Ed Columnist DAVID BROOKS
Published: January 12, 2010
Israelis’ embrace of technology and commerce has had a desultory effect on the nation’s public life, but an invigorating one on its economy.

Stritch Faculty Institute 1/14/2010

This week I will be presenting at thte Stritch Faculty Institute. I am teamed with another Stritch Professor, April Folgert. If you want a peek at our presentation go to: http://dynamit.us/Avn


Interestingly enough, that is not the actual URL I used http://dynamit.us/url to create a smaller, more manageable URL. The original is: http://sites.google.com/a/wolfmail.stritch.edu/intheclouds/ way to long to comfortably email or pass on to someone else.


Try it to make URL's more manageable. There is another site that does the same thing. http://www.tinyurl.com/

My Netbook Runs Windows 7!

A couple of weeks ago I put Windows 7 on my Acer Aspire One. The process was actually pretty simple. I just followed the directions I found at a blog, Into Windows . The directions were clean and direct. I used a portable USB 60 gig hard drive that I loaded with the Windows 7 files on another Windows 7 computer. I had tried to do this with a Vista based computer but it didn't work until I was able to do it on a Windows 7 machine.

The upgrade was easy and all the functions worked as I used them. That is, when I inserted an SD card the SD card drivers loaded, when I tried to use the wireless, then the proper drivers loaded. After rebooting a couple of times, the computer worked perfectly.

One problem I had was that I assumed that all my programs and files would be removed during the installation. On the contrary, they were all placed in a folder, Windows.old. The program files were useless, just taking up space the data files were there but not where I wanted them. My solution would be to uninstall all programs and archive all files then install when XP is as clean as you can make it.

Is it worth the effort?

My Acer was running Windows XP before the upgrade and I am very pleased. The positives are pretty easy to see.

• Networking is easier and it finds the network faster
• It is easier to share files, including music and pictures on my home network
• The machine seems faster both in booting and while running.
• Windows 7 seems to take better advantage of the meager processor in the Aspire One

Windows 7 works great. I like it better than Vista. It seems faster and has several new convienince features that are worth looking at. All in all I am pleased with the upgrade.

BTW: If you are a student you can get the upgrade for about $30
Not being a student I bought a 3 pack from Costco.com for just a bit more than that. The three packs include upgrades for both 32 and 64bit versions. I believe you can do a clean install or an upgrade with these upgrade packs but please don't quote me.

The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time

I love my netbook. why? Read this little article in Wired magazine.

The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time

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CEDo510 - Welcome to My World

Welcome to my blog. I find this a great place to "put stuff" that others can look at. I also want please fill out the class information form on our WIKI. I will be sending you an invititation to join the wiki, you may have received it already. I know you've filled out a lot of forms but this one will help me keep track of you folks on paper. (Yes, I will probably print the results out.)

You may have asked why I didn't have some kind of ice breaker or meet and greet session. My answer is that you know each other and I'm the outsider. I will use the information sheets to get to know you a little better.





Link to the above presentation

CSI - Milwaukee

Welcome, I have assembled some materials that you might want to review after we are done or share with colleagues and students. These will be here because blogs don't go away. In fact, you can look back to July of 2008 when I did a presentation much like this. I recycled some of the materials and added a few new pieces.


Here is a flash version of my presentation:



Thinkfree is an online office app and here is a pep talk about online apps you can look at: Use Online Apps (From Thinkfree) Getting started with Web 2.0:





Here are some interesting Web 2.0 links:

• A Web 2.0 Directory - http://www.go2web20.net/
• Blogger (Google blogs) - http://www.blogger.com/
• PBWIKI - http://www.pbwiki.com/
• GMAIL - http://gmail.google.com/
• ImageChef - http://www.imagechef.com/
• ZoHo - http://www.zoho.com/
• Thinkfree - http://www.thinkfree.com/

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What's an application? Where does collaboration and composition collide? Why use online apps?

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Using Google Docs - An Adobe Publication which is a tutorial of sorts and quite professional.

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Another Google app is the Google Notebook. I put one together, for you about Jewish Blog Sites.

Phyllis, my daughter and favorite rabbi, said I should include two additional items:
So does one keep track of all these great blogs? Here is a video that will describe a program, Web 2.0 App that will organize this for you.

Need a nice description of Social Media? Try this!

A Vista Solution

One problem that I have had with Window's Vista OS is that software publishers do not create installers that are Vista compatible. That means that programs don't install correctly and then, don't uninstall. This leaves pieces of programs all over the computer, especially in the registry.

One of my Vista machines has had several programs that just would not uninstall. What to do? Yesterday I did a search on this problem and I found a new tool for users that will uninstall completely. It is easy to use and best of all, there is a portable version that you can use with no installation and even on a portable drive or flash drive.

It is called Revounistaller and is freeware!