links for 2008-11-20
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This looks very neat–take a photo with your iPhone and instantly get product reviews and other useful information. I'll have to install it myself this evening.
LIFE Magazine’s Photo Archive
One of the top buzz items across the internet this week is that LIFE Magazine, with the help of Google, has scanned and archived millions of photographs from its archives and put them online. This collection includes photographs and etchings dating back to the 1750s and by the time everything has been put online (only about 10% is there now), there will be more than 10 million photos available worldwide. The archive includes photographs taken by some of the most well respected photographers in history including Margaret Bourke-White and Robert Capa .
Of course, this isn’t the first time a valuable image collection has been put online. In early 2008, the Library of Congress put a section of their collection online and invited Flickr users to help them add tags to the photos. Shortly thereafter, several other institutions followed suit and helped create the The Commons on Flickr.
These online resources are a priceless way to learn more about history and culture that was previously only available in museums. Now, people all over the world can enjoy these treasure troves of photography.
A few stats on Depot and Learning Labs
I’m preparing for a presentation this Friday, and just pulled up these statistics on Depot and the Learning Labs:
Depot:
- 2,740 accounts
- 86 groups
- 1,400 shared Content Enhancement examples
- 4,100 visits since January 2008
- 54,000 page views since January 2008
Learning Labs:
- 562 accounts
- 32 groups
- 4,800 visits since January 2008
- 42,000 page views since January 2008
These numbers were compiled using a combination of tracking built into each application, and Google Analytics. I know they aren’t staggering when compared to the likes of big media, search, or social networking sites, but for a couple of little sites served from little computers in my office, catering to a relatively niche audience, I don’t think they’re too bad.
links for 2008-11-19
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An hour-long video about using micromessaging for business–how does it apply to professional development and education?
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A lot of great tips for newcomers and Twitter vets alike. We need to all agree to start using the # mechanism when tweeting about conferences, meetings, etc.
links for 2008-11-18
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Ready to get started with Twitter? This blog post has some simple steps to ease you into microblogging.
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Journal article on how professors are using Twitter to engage with students.
FormatFactory: Video conversion tool for Windows
We love to talk up the dearly-departed VisualHub and its new, open source progeny Transcoder Redux around here. I’ve never seen a way to convert video from one format to another more quickly or easily–whenever you see a video clip anywhere on a Stratepedia-hosted site (or the handful of kucrl.org sites we handle), there’s a good chance VisualHub or Transcoder has touched it at some point.
One thing that’s not a problem for us, but may be a problem for you, is that these applications are Mac-only. Over the weekend I learned about a Windows program with similar features to VisualHub, called FormatFactory. I know absolutely nothing about this software other than that it exists and that it’s free. If you’re a Windows person and need to convert video, check out FormatFactory and let us know what you think by leaving a comment on this post.
links for 2008-11-15
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Neat-looking alternative to receiving RSS feeds through a feed reader.
Font Management
For me, fonts are kind of like t-shirts. They tend to accumlate over time and, although they’re all fun to wear, I don’t necessarily need all of them them in my closet all of the time. As a designer, I use a ton of different fonts for the work I do (and clearly, metaphors as well!) If you’re loading a lot of fonts into your system every time you start your machine, you may find that it needlessly slows your computer down. That’s why I’ve been trying out some font management software lately to help alleviate the problem. These software programs allow you to install your fonts into their interface and then turn them on and off as you need them. They can also scan your computer for damaged fonts that might be causing problems.
If you are a Mac user, there is a program that comes pre-installed on new machines called Font Book. To be honest, I haven’t had much luck getting this to work the way I need it to. If you want to give it a try, I’d definitely recommend reading the help documentation before giving it a shot.
Another program that I’ve been using for a few years now is called Extensis Suitcase (now called Fusion 2). This piece of software is relatively inexpensive ($99) and works extremely well. The interface is very simple and it even interacts with some pieces of software like those from Adobe. They have software available for Mac and PC.
A third option is one that I just started using a few days ago. It’s a free program called Linotype Font Explorer X created by the Linotype Font Foundry. The interface is similar to iTunes and the setup is extremely easy. They even have a “store” so you can buy fonts that you need directly from them much like buying music in iTunes. After just a few days of using it, I’m extremely impressed.
If any of you have had similar problems or successes with fonts, be sure and leave a comment below!
links for 2008-11-13
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Need a sound effect for your next presentation? Lots of free, downloadable files here.
Coaching Calendar: Small addition to appointment scheduling
Per request I’ve added a field to Coaching Calendar to let teachers specify the room in which they’d like to meet for coaching. Teachers can also edit previously-scheduled appointments to add this information. Let me know if you see any problems.
Speaking of Coaching Calendar–I know I owe you all a couple more updates. Those will be coming soon.
