I'm right.
I put my tablet PC in it's case after telling it to standby, and then I went into Target to do a little shopping for graduation (you know, 24 pack of water here, 50' coaxial Rg6 cable there, the usual.). I was in Target for about 25 minutes, and when I returned, I went to grab my tablet out of it's case. In the words of our dearly departed Harry, HOLY COW! The fan was loud as all get out, obviously working overtime. It was physically hot to the touch, and when I opened up SpeedFan, it had charted a spike up to 58 degrees C (136.4 degrees F) for the core. The hard drive sensors, and the two CPU monitors also spiked. I took it out, and let it cool down, and the spikes gradually decreased. I would not be surprised in the least if this is what is taking out laptops. I'm glad I caught it in time, as there have been no signs of hard-locks.
It wouldn't be a bad idea to have the program running, and then set to email the technology staff when the alarm temperature is surpassed.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
More temperature work.
Motherboard monitor 5 was a bit of a bust, it didn't seem to pick up the motherboard sensors.
Speedfan seems to work well, and I am currently running it and charting the HDD temp, the Cpu Temp, and "Remote Temp 1" whatever that is.
Temp 1 has been pretty much rock solid at 42 degrees C, which leads me to believe that it might be a false reading.
The HDD temp has been all over the map from a low of 25 degrees to a high of 33.
The Cpu temp has wavered only slightly up to 38-39 when under load. At idle, it sits at 37 degrees.
Ironically, that is the temperature of the human body.
Speedfan seems to work well, and I am currently running it and charting the HDD temp, the Cpu Temp, and "Remote Temp 1" whatever that is.
Temp 1 has been pretty much rock solid at 42 degrees C, which leads me to believe that it might be a false reading.
The HDD temp has been all over the map from a low of 25 degrees to a high of 33.
The Cpu temp has wavered only slightly up to 38-39 when under load. At idle, it sits at 37 degrees.
Ironically, that is the temperature of the human body.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Feelin' Hot Hot Hot!
Welp, my tablet pc (Gateway E155C), started hard-locking, where it would suddenly and without warning stop responding to any input. We traced it down to a system board failure. The situation happened after an extended time of the computer being in my backpack, when I thought it was off, in 70-80 degree weather. I suspect that the situation was heat related, but I cannot prove it. We had several of these issues in the school, which means it is a common problem.
I'm trying to find a decent program that will log temperature spikes.
I'm currently running Motherboard Monitor 5 and I set it up it email me when it reaches a specific voltage.
We can set all the tablets up to email the technology people when any of them spike in temperature, so that we can determine if that was the cause.
Lets see how that goes.
I'm trying to find a decent program that will log temperature spikes.
I'm currently running Motherboard Monitor 5 and I set it up it email me when it reaches a specific voltage.
We can set all the tablets up to email the technology people when any of them spike in temperature, so that we can determine if that was the cause.
Lets see how that goes.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
May Day 2
Graduation is coming up, and I'm not sure exactly what our needs are going to be.
Last year, Schaumburg had choir and band, which I am guessing they will have again.
We are going to try to do two different cameras this year, with a video switcher to fade between the two.
We will also try to take the stage microphones and pump them into the monitors on the choir/band/etc. They were concerned about how difficult it was to hear on the stage and among the graduates. Last year, SC ran the two mics on stage, but I don't think they have the capability to run monitor feeds.
Last year, Schaumburg had choir and band, which I am guessing they will have again.
We are going to try to do two different cameras this year, with a video switcher to fade between the two.
We will also try to take the stage microphones and pump them into the monitors on the choir/band/etc. They were concerned about how difficult it was to hear on the stage and among the graduates. Last year, SC ran the two mics on stage, but I don't think they have the capability to run monitor feeds.
May Day
The gifted expo stuff seems to have calmed down, and here's hoping, because the expo is just around the corner.
All in all, I believe the form was a big success. I discovered some flaws, which I can address for next year, but I'm going to list them here so I have a reference for next year.
Bugs:
For whatever reason, the Title of the project field was limited to a certain length. When people put in a title that was longer than that, it would totally reject their record. I figured it out, because I was putting in the student records which the database ignored and I kept thinking "Wow, this is a long title" "Wow, another long title"
Possible reasons that the database limited the length:
1) I'm a schmo and I made it that way unintentionally.
2) Frontpage is a schmo and did it randomly
3) Since I used the variable name "Title" it has some preconceived notions that it should be a certain length.
4) Something else entirely.
Functionality changes:
I should make the database capitalize first and last names, and THEN combine them, so that I can use them as LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, and FIRSTNAME LASTNAME.
I should also tell people that the capitalization doesn't matter anywhere but in the abstract, because numerous times students would enter their abstract twice because they forgot to capitalize everything.
Added features:
I'm going to have to add an easy way to select and enter multiple mentors.
I would also like to have a way to review and edit all of the abstracts by the students, so not as much needs to happen on our end.
All in all, I believe the form was a big success. I discovered some flaws, which I can address for next year, but I'm going to list them here so I have a reference for next year.
Bugs:
For whatever reason, the Title of the project field was limited to a certain length. When people put in a title that was longer than that, it would totally reject their record. I figured it out, because I was putting in the student records which the database ignored and I kept thinking "Wow, this is a long title" "Wow, another long title"
Possible reasons that the database limited the length:
1) I'm a schmo and I made it that way unintentionally.
2) Frontpage is a schmo and did it randomly
3) Since I used the variable name "Title" it has some preconceived notions that it should be a certain length.
4) Something else entirely.
Functionality changes:
I should make the database capitalize first and last names, and THEN combine them, so that I can use them as LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, and FIRSTNAME LASTNAME.
I should also tell people that the capitalization doesn't matter anywhere but in the abstract, because numerous times students would enter their abstract twice because they forgot to capitalize everything.
Added features:
I'm going to have to add an easy way to select and enter multiple mentors.
I would also like to have a way to review and edit all of the abstracts by the students, so not as much needs to happen on our end.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Gifted continuances.
I have been finding more things that are circuitous in the whole gifted expo scenario.
Name tags were announced, and email started a-flyin' about making lists of all the kids in the sophomore class. Quickly, I jumped in and suggested that we just take a query of the database that already had all that information in it. Good stuff.
Name tags were announced, and email started a-flyin' about making lists of all the kids in the sophomore class. Quickly, I jumped in and suggested that we just take a query of the database that already had all that information in it. Good stuff.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Sigh. Photoshopped.
So, I did a lab today to show students how to network computers and file share between them. To demonstrate, I put my profile picture from this site on everyone's computer. Not 2 minutes later, there were 2 pictures back in my shared folder, one of me with rudimentry horns, and one as a member of a high school girls basketball team.
Take that, Mr. K.
Take that, Mr. K.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
ACE Computers
Our computer repair computers, which we got from ACE, inexplicably have a 5 YEAR warantee. I've never heard of such a thing. 90 days, sure, 1 year, maybe, but 5 years?
Anyway, we will have our faulty motherboard replaced, and the bad stick of ram, and we will be good to go!
Anyway, we will have our faulty motherboard replaced, and the bad stick of ram, and we will be good to go!
More evil paper
More items that should be E-Awesome:
Evaluations: Form A, Form B
Request for Purchase Order
Evaluations: Form A, Form B
Request for Purchase Order
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Inspired by Cisco
I had a few gentlemen in to talk to my class about careers in information technology. Two of them were from Cisco, and one from AT&T.
The Cisco team mentioned that about 5 years ago, they made a company commitment to go completely paperless for all in-house operations.
If anyone needs to check their information, paycheck, sick days, request leave, etc. It is all electronic.
Why don't we do that?
If we made a genuine commitment to do it, we could shift everything over to electronic format.
A glowing example is the websense unblock/block form.
Why in the world isn't that a web form?
I mean, the laptop and lab request forms are outstanding, but with the amount of paperwork we have to do, I find it irritating when there are still things that must be done by hand.
A running tally of things that should be webified:
Websense block/unblock
Sub Request forms
Request for leave
Work order
Auditorium Request Form
Request for disbursement
More to come.
The Cisco team mentioned that about 5 years ago, they made a company commitment to go completely paperless for all in-house operations.
If anyone needs to check their information, paycheck, sick days, request leave, etc. It is all electronic.
Why don't we do that?
If we made a genuine commitment to do it, we could shift everything over to electronic format.
A glowing example is the websense unblock/block form.
Why in the world isn't that a web form?
I mean, the laptop and lab request forms are outstanding, but with the amount of paperwork we have to do, I find it irritating when there are still things that must be done by hand.
A running tally of things that should be webified:
Websense block/unblock
Sub Request forms
Request for leave
Work order
Auditorium Request Form
Request for disbursement
More to come.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Subtle Humor
In the tech budget, under the comments that everyone probably overlooks, the DVD/VCR combo units who I'm quite certain have "Certain to break!" listed as a feature on the packaging, is listed "$#@&"
Either a heavy pinky turned 4327 into a suggesting censoring, or it really was a visual representation of a hateful emotion.
My guess? It's a synonym for "Expletive Deleted"
Either a heavy pinky turned 4327 into a suggesting censoring, or it really was a visual representation of a hateful emotion.
My guess? It's a synonym for "Expletive Deleted"
Who's a funny fellah? W. P. Kinsella!
Yesterday afternoon I went to a gifted meeting at Palatine High School.
These days, it's unusual to be in a group where there are so few technologically enthusiastic people. Of the twelve people in the group, there was only one gentleman who admitted to being able to create "rudimentary" (his words, not mine) websites. I didn't outwardly offer my skills at the onset, because as a new member of the group, I was still feeling out the dynamics.
Towards the end of the meeting, the problem of student abstracts was brought up, and the fact that it was becoming a major chore to get all of them into the same formatting. It was difficult to get all of the mentors listed as "Mr. John Doe" or Mrs, or Ms, or whatever it was supposed to be, never mind getting the school spelled right, or even the font size and face the same.
I suggested a web form that would be filled out, and would collate the data into a nice, pretty database.
Why do I do that to myself?
Long story short, I created the web form, and it is now posted here in all of it's random red glory.
http://www.fhs.d211.org/departments/appliedtech/mkarasch/gifted/abstract.asp
These days, it's unusual to be in a group where there are so few technologically enthusiastic people. Of the twelve people in the group, there was only one gentleman who admitted to being able to create "rudimentary" (his words, not mine) websites. I didn't outwardly offer my skills at the onset, because as a new member of the group, I was still feeling out the dynamics.
Towards the end of the meeting, the problem of student abstracts was brought up, and the fact that it was becoming a major chore to get all of them into the same formatting. It was difficult to get all of the mentors listed as "Mr. John Doe" or Mrs, or Ms, or whatever it was supposed to be, never mind getting the school spelled right, or even the font size and face the same.
I suggested a web form that would be filled out, and would collate the data into a nice, pretty database.
Why do I do that to myself?
Long story short, I created the web form, and it is now posted here in all of it's random red glory.
http://www.fhs.d211.org/departments/appliedtech/mkarasch/gifted/abstract.asp
Yesterday's sub-par post
Looking back at my post from yesterday during the meeting, it becomes apparent that I cannot pay attention to a presentation and blog at the same time. I'm actually impressed with the bloggers that keep up-to-date blogs during conferences and expos. That would be incredibly difficult.
Mike (Mike B, not me speaking in the 3rd person) has started a wiki for technology. I started making a "Tips and Tricks" page for the tablet PCs, because as they start to roll out, I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be a lot of the same question being asked.
After some tomfoolery, Mike slammed the doors on freewheeling editery, and made it so only writers can edit. I applied to be a writer, so keep your fingers crossed that I make the cut!
I've already prepared my acceptance speech.
Mike (Mike B, not me speaking in the 3rd person) has started a wiki for technology. I started making a "Tips and Tricks" page for the tablet PCs, because as they start to roll out, I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be a lot of the same question being asked.
After some tomfoolery, Mike slammed the doors on freewheeling editery, and made it so only writers can edit. I applied to be a writer, so keep your fingers crossed that I make the cut!
I've already prepared my acceptance speech.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Tech Meeting Today!
Wicked tech coach meeting today!
Learned to use labels! It's easier to search for things if they are labeled correctly.
Talked about social networking and blogs and how they could be used in the classroom.
Learned to use labels! It's easier to search for things if they are labeled correctly.
Talked about social networking and blogs and how they could be used in the classroom.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Moodle Sucka
More moodle work, this time with the auto teacher. One of the biggest uses so far of moodle across the department is posting web links, powerpoints, and information, which, admittedly, could be done with Frontpage, but there doesn't seem to be as much overhead.
Also, frontpage is very friendly, almost too much so, because moodle keeps you honest. You have to enter a description of what it is, a section for it to fall under. For a person like me with some downfalls in the organization department, it is really helpful.
Finally, for those of us using the quizzes on moodle, it has been an invaluable time saver, along with helping the students by giving them instant feedback.
Also, frontpage is very friendly, almost too much so, because moodle keeps you honest. You have to enter a description of what it is, a section for it to fall under. For a person like me with some downfalls in the organization department, it is really helpful.
Finally, for those of us using the quizzes on moodle, it has been an invaluable time saver, along with helping the students by giving them instant feedback.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The
The honeymoon period is drawing to a close, but the tablet and I are still very close. It took a great deal of personal grit to admit when it was time to transform the tablet back into a notebook, and vice-versa. The single most important thing to remember, is that there are indeed many things that a typical notebook does better than a tablet-style PC. For example, sometimes, I just need to do a significant amount of typing. Something that the tablet is not inclined to do.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Tabula Rasa: Tales of the Tablet PC: Episode 3
What an exciting weekend!
My new Epson projector was installed on Friday, so I got a chance to play with it a bit on Friday night, so I was ready come Monday. I love the ability to adjust the projector settings from the tablet. Today I was running a demonstration on my Computer repair PC, and I was able to change the screen back and forth between the tablet, where I was discussing news stories, to the installation to see progress.
Later, we were discussing the freeware program Skype, which is used for videoconferencing. I took the tablet around the room to show everyone the screen, and let students talk through it to other students who were connected across the room.
Other thoughts: Just as a design flaw, it seems silly that the SD card sticks out a bit when it is seated. Any time I put the tablet in it's case, it inevitably gets clicked out, and windows gets a bit angry. Silly gateway.
I am also setting up the PCs in the comp repair lab to use DRBL, or Diskless Remote Boot Loader. This is the method they use at Harper College. Essentially, a student boots up a computer, and it looks to the network for possible boot options. This could be windows 2000, XP, Windows Vista, or any number of linux variants. More on that as it develops.
My new Epson projector was installed on Friday, so I got a chance to play with it a bit on Friday night, so I was ready come Monday. I love the ability to adjust the projector settings from the tablet. Today I was running a demonstration on my Computer repair PC, and I was able to change the screen back and forth between the tablet, where I was discussing news stories, to the installation to see progress.
Later, we were discussing the freeware program Skype, which is used for videoconferencing. I took the tablet around the room to show everyone the screen, and let students talk through it to other students who were connected across the room.
Other thoughts: Just as a design flaw, it seems silly that the SD card sticks out a bit when it is seated. Any time I put the tablet in it's case, it inevitably gets clicked out, and windows gets a bit angry. Silly gateway.
I am also setting up the PCs in the comp repair lab to use DRBL, or Diskless Remote Boot Loader. This is the method they use at Harper College. Essentially, a student boots up a computer, and it looks to the network for possible boot options. This could be windows 2000, XP, Windows Vista, or any number of linux variants. More on that as it develops.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Tabula Rasa, Tales of the Tablet PC: Episode 2
Day 1 of full classroom usage is now over, and it was very interesting. Electronics Tech 1 were more enthralled with it yesterday, as I walked around the room and had people draw circuits. Today, I hard wired it to the projector, and asked kids to come up and write on it. Students were much more reluctant today than they were yesterday, which is odd. I think when I came to them, they were less on the spot. I'm not sure how that will play out when I can walk to them and display it on the projector.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Tabula Rasa, Tales of the Tablet PC : Episode 1
Last Thursday, Mike B. asked if I would have use for a tablet pc in the classroom. I immediately said yes, because I had already thought through some ideas for it while other teachers were piloting the program.
We had a snow day on Friday, so I ended up getting it on Monday. The first night was just courting, as I got acclimated to it's functions, and set it up the way I like things to be.
I hit my first snag when I found that the button that switches screen orientation did nothing when pressed. And nothing when not pressed. So it was a fairly boring button. Looking through the options, I couldn't find anything that jumped out as an obvious solution. I asked Phil for help, and he showed me that it was under graphic options, hotkeys. Who'da thunk it? A button does not a hotkey make. Gateway should pick up a dictionary.
I'm taking the trial rather seriously, as I am a bit critical of how much the tablet itself is contributing to the educational value, as much as just having the laptop. I ask myself, what is it about the writable screen that is making this lesson better. Yesterday, I walked around the room, and had kids draw circuits on it, which stirred up some excitement. I suspect that when I can display it on the projector, it will work better as a learning aid.
So far it's clearest advantage for me has been teacher-centered. Being able to walk around with it in my hand makes it much easier to take notes on which students are working at what levels, who is getting lost on which topics, and how many times I'm getting to each student. There is definately a student benefit there, but again, no more than really a palm pilot could do.
One highlight of the experience was calling Dell technical support via a Voice Over IP service through the tablet, and walking around the room while the class asked him questions.
More on this as it develops!
We had a snow day on Friday, so I ended up getting it on Monday. The first night was just courting, as I got acclimated to it's functions, and set it up the way I like things to be.
I hit my first snag when I found that the button that switches screen orientation did nothing when pressed. And nothing when not pressed. So it was a fairly boring button. Looking through the options, I couldn't find anything that jumped out as an obvious solution. I asked Phil for help, and he showed me that it was under graphic options, hotkeys. Who'da thunk it? A button does not a hotkey make. Gateway should pick up a dictionary.
I'm taking the trial rather seriously, as I am a bit critical of how much the tablet itself is contributing to the educational value, as much as just having the laptop. I ask myself, what is it about the writable screen that is making this lesson better. Yesterday, I walked around the room, and had kids draw circuits on it, which stirred up some excitement. I suspect that when I can display it on the projector, it will work better as a learning aid.
So far it's clearest advantage for me has been teacher-centered. Being able to walk around with it in my hand makes it much easier to take notes on which students are working at what levels, who is getting lost on which topics, and how many times I'm getting to each student. There is definately a student benefit there, but again, no more than really a palm pilot could do.
One highlight of the experience was calling Dell technical support via a Voice Over IP service through the tablet, and walking around the room while the class asked him questions.
More on this as it develops!
It's been a long time (since I rock and rolled)
Well, it has been almost 2 weeks since the last post, because of finals, and then a three day week that I was out two days of.
Excuses aside, it's time to get back to bloggin!
Whilst I was gone, there were a number of interesting things that happened technically.
I had four separate people with issues pertaining to the the "Creating an assignment, then scanning the key" thing. It makes sense to me that the key can't be associated with those assignments, but it isn't immediately obvious. I think it will just take some getting used to. Unfortunately, teachers as a breed seem to be allergic to "getting used to" things.
Also whilst I was non-blogging, I set up Mr. Elza's Moodle site, and introduced him to RSS feeds. "Wait, you don't have to change them?" Welcome to the future, my friend.
I also got a tablet pc as part of the pilot program, but I am going to put in a separate post about that.
Excuses aside, it's time to get back to bloggin!
Whilst I was gone, there were a number of interesting things that happened technically.
I had four separate people with issues pertaining to the the "Creating an assignment, then scanning the key" thing. It makes sense to me that the key can't be associated with those assignments, but it isn't immediately obvious. I think it will just take some getting used to. Unfortunately, teachers as a breed seem to be allergic to "getting used to" things.
Also whilst I was non-blogging, I set up Mr. Elza's Moodle site, and introduced him to RSS feeds. "Wait, you don't have to change them?" Welcome to the future, my friend.
I also got a tablet pc as part of the pilot program, but I am going to put in a separate post about that.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Wiki Updates
The wiki has been going well, some pages better than others. I wouldn't do this if it were the only source for the information, as some students have done a better job than others.
The one really neat thing about it, is that any terms that are defined in brackets by the wiki, for example [CPU], are then auto linked from anywhere in the class site. Any notes, assignments or anything all are context highlighted and linked to the wiki page on it. Pretty cool!
http://www.sciencewithmrkarasch.org/biology/mod/wiki/view.php?id=294
The one really neat thing about it, is that any terms that are defined in brackets by the wiki, for example [CPU], are then auto linked from anywhere in the class site. Any notes, assignments or anything all are context highlighted and linked to the wiki page on it. Pretty cool!
http://www.sciencewithmrkarasch.org/biology/mod/wiki/view.php?id=294
Monday, January 7, 2008
Back from Break
It was a great break, full of interesting things!
I had my students begin working today on a Wiki study guide for their 1st semester final. The project appears to be a pretty big success.
Moodle has (Of course) a built in Wiki engine, which is REALLY easy.
Any time you enclose a statement in brackets [like this] it creates a page for whatever it is. They are dropped into a "Wanted page" section, where you (or someone else) can fill it in later.
http://www.sciencewithmrkarasch.org/biology/
I had my students begin working today on a Wiki study guide for their 1st semester final. The project appears to be a pretty big success.
Moodle has (Of course) a built in Wiki engine, which is REALLY easy.
Any time you enclose a statement in brackets [like this] it creates a page for whatever it is. They are dropped into a "Wanted page" section, where you (or someone else) can fill it in later.
http://www.sciencewithmrkarasch.org/biology/
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