Begin your Amazon purchase by visiting the Combsing Store.
Purchase your favorite gadgets for yourself or as gifts from ThinkGeek. Click on the image below to begin.
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Students and Bookstore Managers should both read this Businessweek article. The competition is heating up and the days of “sticking it to the student” could soon be over. As an author myself, I know how expensive it is to publish a book, but I often found that the prices books were being sold for in college bookstores were too high. I also know, as an author, that I never saw any of this mark-up come back to me. The profits were pocketed by the bookstore and the publisher. That’s why my next book will be published through LuLu.
Make Magazine is reporting that the folks that bring us the popular Roomba and Scooba home floor cleaning robots are going to use their technology and release an educational robot. It looks like both the Roomba and the Scooba with the floor cleaning technology removed. In their place are device options such as reticulating arms and cameras. Read more in the Make article (link below image).
I frequently have folks ask me how to take an .iso file and make a usable CD/DVD from the file. They generally all make the the same mistake, they copy the .iso image directly to media and press the burn button. I recorded this screencast to demonstrate the proper method using a MAC and the free Burn software. Short and simple, but effective.
Lifehacker strikes again today with another beneficial tip for the New Year. Be sure to read this one and learn how to learn a new language by listening to podcasts. I’ve said it over and over, the days of professional development activities and conference is over for me. All I need to know, I learn from podcasts!
Lifehacker posted this article to help us fat-bodies out there lose a little weight. I’ll have to admit, I gained a few pounds over the holiday season and needed some inspiration and tips. These fit the bill perfectly. Read the entire article:
If you are a MAC fan, you just have to read this article. Why in the world would an IT guy take away computers that the kids love? And has this guy ever really done a cost justification for such a move? We know that out of the box, the MAC includes all the software a student would need for both work, creative arts and just plain old fun stuff. Not to mention that the usefulness of a MAC seems to have a longer life span than a Windoze machine. Take a read and post your thoughts here.
A colleague of mine at work sent a link to this video. If you are squeamish and don’t like cockroaches, don’t watch this video. However, if you are fascinated by the blend of robotics and nature you have to check it out.
Download the Wikipedia CD distribution and put on a USB drive. Then give to a child. Distribution comprises “over 2500 hand-picked educational articles aimed at helping schools enhance their curriculum.”
Much better than the Encyclopedia Brittanica at a much better price.
This site linked below purports to teach you how to program in C++ in 21 days. Now, I’ve programmed a little bit in my time and have to admit, every time I see these types of site, I know that I am not going to be a programmer in 21 days. It takes time, more time, some more time and some patience to be a good programmer. I tried a similar site with Python and while I learned the basics, the old axiom is true, “if is sounds to good to be true…it is.” Still, if you need a good primer and don’t want to buy an expensive text from your local bookseller, this site should get you started into the world of C++ programming. Good luck to ya programmer wannabes!
Wish this had been available when I was in high school. I might have gotten a much better grade in chemistry. Heck, it might have helped me get a grade period in high school. Not my best subject.
yields Scibuntu. If you don’t already know, Ubuntu is probably one of the most popular Linux distributions available because of it’s ease of installation and use. As of 6.10, it has also become my favorite distribution. When not on my MAC, this is my preferred operating system.
You can download a LiveCD (a version of Ubuntu that runs from a CD so no installation necessary) and give it a try. If you like it, in a couple of simple clicks, you can blow off your Windows OS and have a completely FREE (including all the applications you could ever need) secure operating system. There is also a wonderful version for older machines called Xubuntu. If you have an older machine that just doesn’t seem to be able to handle Windows XP but still want to use it for basic browsing, e-mail, word-processing, etc, this is the way to go.
Now, if you are a budding scientist, follow the directions on the page link below and add the following applications to your Ubuntu distribution to create a Scibuntu:
Tools for reading and writing scientific text: LaTeX, Ghostscript, Ghostview and Acroread.
Math and statistics tools like Octave, Qalculate! and r
Plotting tools like Gnuplot, Grace and Labplot
Bioinformatics packages like Clustalw, Clustalx, Treepuzzle, Treewiewx and T-coffee
Chemistry tools like RasMol, PyMol and GROMACS
More console tools shar, memtest, dos2unix, strings, strip etc.
Development packages for C, C++, Bioperl, Biopython, FORTRAN and Emacs.
If you don’t know what any of this is, you probably don’t need it. But if you do, then you will know that this is a great way to get a good solid operating system on your computer along with some fantastic development tools.
A unique feature is the hand crank that can provide power to the laptop without an AC outlet. If this device can garner support and live up to it’s claims, we may now have the capability to put a laptop in every child’s hand, worldwide!
As an educator and an Instructional Technologist, I am constantly looking online for resources to assist me or my fellow faculty members. This link appeared on Digg.com and the web site presents various Physics concepts presented using Flash. A good site with some good examples. I’m not a Physics Professor, but I do know a little and the concepts I could verify seemed spot on. Physicists; have some fun with the demos and let us know if there are any problems with the concepts presented.
Found this item on Digg and though I would share. Haven’t checked them out myself, so if anyone can provide additional information about the quality of the works, please post your comments.
Download 70 songs on iTunes made by Stanford University folks. the songs include “A wide range of musical performance by Stanford student,faculty, alumni and artists-in-residence.”
Download the Wikipedia CD distribution and put on a USB drive. Then give to a child. Distribution comprises “over 2500 hand-picked educational articles aimed at helping schools enhance their curriculum.”
