Microsoft System Sweeper

System Sweeper is an important tool that Microsoft apparently uses to scan computers that are manifesting problems that are otherwise not identifiable. I gather that people calling Microsoft for help and still have weird problems will be directed to this free utility. It's a shame that more people don't know about this utility because it finds viruses, trojans, and even root kits.

One of the problems with antivirus software is that once a bad piece of software gets on a computer, it can hide from the av software. This is especially true of root kits -- which dig under the operating system. The only way to find such deeply buried malware is to scan the computer's hard drive before it has been booted. That means booting from another device. System Sweeper comes from Microsoft as a bootable system. The image file one downloads is burned to a CD-ROM. The CD-ROM boots into a specialized version of Windows that has as its own function the running of System Sweeper. So far, most of the people I have given this disk to have come back reporting at least minor problems that they previously did not know about.

I suspect the main reason Microsoft does not make this important tool well known is because most users don't understand the idea of downloading ISO images and how to boot the CD-ROM drive. Because problems on your users' systems will come to haunt your network, it makes sense to make disks for your users and help them run this utility on their home computers.

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Installing Snow Leopard: Not an obvious decision

Snow Leopard, Apple's newest OS, is an interesting decision for educators. The school year is about ready to start and it's always easiest to do major upgrades during the vacation periods. Snow Leopard has a number of significant advantages that make it compelling to schools. The advantage I like the most is that the new OS is actually smaller than the current OS. If your drives are packed to the gills, then this move will be potentially quite interesting.

The problem is that not every application your school may be running will operate on Leopard -- or will at least take a re-install. If you are using older versions of software because you cannot afford the upgrade, you may locked out permanently. See Computer World's story on Adobe's statements about their software on Leopard. While Adobe's position is defensible on an economic basis, it's none too comforting to people stuck with old software.

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Alternative To for knowing your options

One of the great difficulties with working on the cheap is that the software your school uses or would like to use is beyond your budget. While there are many places to find which Mac or Linux based program can replace a Windows program, there are not many sites that provide lists of alternative programs on the same OS. Alternativeto.net does just that.
Alternativeto.net lets you click on a program you use or might want to use to see what other programs do the same thing. The site is still quite basic, but given the lack of alternatives, this site is a lot better than nothing.
If anyone knows of better sites, please put them into the comments area.

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Anyone who has purchased a fully functional calculator knows they don't come cheap. You also cannot use the calculator that Microsoft or Apple supplies. SpeedCrunch is an open source project that matches the features of a top-end calculator and then adds some features that only a computer interface allows. With the new nettop computers, it may not be much of a difference between an expensive calculator and nettop computer in terms of expense. SpeedCrunch runs on all major OSes.

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$40 Smart Board using Wii Remote

Johnny Lee, of CMU, has created a very useful hack of the common Wii remote to effectively replace the need for a smart board. Here is a video showing him demonstrate his technology. The system is based on the fact that the Wii remote is a high quality infrared camera. By connecting the Wii remote to a PC/Mac via Blue Tooth -- rather than to the Wii game console -- the camera can now be used to track infrared sources. Because many people have Wii remotes and Blue Tooth enabled computers, the only thing they need is an infrared source. A number of devices are now being produced. I have a customized key chain light, but a commercially sold version can be had for a few dollars. There are other versions, but I like this one because it does not require the person press on the surface to activate the light. That's important to me because I use LCD TVs to display. Pressing on the surface could cause damage. If you know that you are going to be using a firm surface, such as a white board, you can use a light pen that turns on as it is pressed to the surface. That can be lot better than having to remember to press a button every time you start to write.

The Wii sees where the infrared light is positioned on the surface -- which can be anything flat -- and relays that position back to the computer via Blue Tooth. The combination of the light pen and the Wii emulates a mouse. You can move, write, click, etc. as you could with a normal mouse.

The key to making this work is the software Johnny Lee created and the versions that have subsequently taken his code to the next level. The most sophisticated on the ones I found was Smoothboard. There is a cross-platform version that also works nicely. It's less feature-rich, but could be a good option for schools with Linux and Mac systems.

One thing I learned from my tests is that it's a good idea to use two Wii remotes. The reason is that when I'm writing I can inadvertently block the light of the pen from the Wii. Things are improved when I put the Wii remote to one side of the screen, but two units would certainly help.

The possibilities of this system is great. You could project on a brick wall via a LCD projector or view your computer via a large TV screen. The Wii will work with both.

Give it a try. It's a lot of fun and it could save you a great deal of money.

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Ultimate Boot CD: A toolkit with something for everyone

The Ultimate Boot CD is a collection of open source/free utilities. It has tools to check a computer's CPU, RAM, and hard drives. It can use the information of these tests to both stress-test your hardware and to generate a comprehensive technical support document. There is little that a technical support person could ask regarding the computer's hardware that these reports would not answer!

There are so many tools on this free CD that I cannot describe them all. I'll probably cover a few of my favorites in coming posts. I would highly recommend downloading a copy and trying it out on an unused computer. I should note that some of the applications are intentionally dangerous, such as the disk wipe, and should be used after gaining confidence.

For a school, this disk is a real help. Not only can it create useful technical reports, but it can clone and wipe hard drives. Both of these services are important as you receive donated computers or dispose of old equipment.

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Clone2go for video madness

One of the main problems with working with video is the large number of incompatible standards. I'm always looking for ways to convert video from one format to another. Clone2go is a well-reviewed application that has an impressive number of formats. Plus, it's free to use.

Oh, it also allows you to download YouTube videos. A nice feature given that YouTube videos are increasingly becoming a source for other videos. As Google continues to increase the quality of the videos on its site, I expect YouTube to become a great source of video content as well as a great hosting site for produced content.

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Take your wiki with you

Wikis are great for storing all types of information. Usually they are used in a collaborative environment, but not always. TiddyBackpack is an amazingly small wiki server. The zipped install package is only 20k. I've seen many application notes files that large.

This is a great application to take notes and play around with wikis. As a means to practice, it makes a lot of sense.

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SoftMaker when Open Office will not do

Many people are looking for alternatives to Microsoft's Office suite -- few find one. MS Office is a powerful tool and meets most user needs. The primary limitation is its price. Because any program that wants to compete has to be compatible with Office, this forces alternatives to be different while still being totally compatible. This is not easy to do and one wonders what interesting new office suites might have been possible if coders did not have to maintain document format and visual interface standards. Anyone who remembers the days before Microsoft dominated the office suite area will remember that there were many office applications and some of them, such as Framemaker, had very different ways to produce documents. The dominance of Microsoft has limited what can be done.

SoftMaker is a commercial entity located in Europe that strives for quickness and MS Office computability. The reviews of their new 2008 version make it sound very promising. They apparently have a great mobile version that can turn your Windows smart phone into a little desktop substitute. The price of $99 for an entire school is close enough to free.

Of course, there is Open Office/Star Office and a number of other alternatives that should be considered. While I like Open Office/Star Office, I know that some people believe it to be slow -- which was true in the past -- and others will not look at it because it based on an open source process. Personally, I don't find these to be problems, but I know that more than a few risk-adverse bosses would. At the very least, SoftMaker Office should be on your list of office suite alternatives.

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Screentoaster shares your desktop for no $$$

One of the reasons for using Adobe Connect is to share one's desktop. Adobe Connect is a great tool, but it is synchronous and expensive. Screentoaster is a screen capture program. While it does not help when someone asks you to show something specific, it is a great solution for situations where you are showing a canned set of tasks. Let's face it, if you are showing how to do something in a software application, the steps involved are fixed. You gain nothing from doing it live.

When you use real-time tools, the costs and difficulty factor go up. Many times the things we want to teacher are just as well done beforehand.

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Recorded with screentoaster.com

Open Office 3.0

Open Office is one of my favorite open source programs. For those who do not know it, it's a full office suite not unlike Microsoft Office. While it is open source, it also receives substantial support from Sun Microcomputer. Sun puts out their own version called "Star Office". For educators, Star Office is free.

In terms of which version to get, I would go with Open Office unless you have requirements only addressed by Star Office. There are a few things that Star Office does that Open Office cannot do. However, Open Office tends to be ahead of Star Office with new features. While that may not be so important for Windows users, the last jump for Mac users was a big one. Star Office will not be incorporating these new features until its next release -- version 9.

But Open Office is a great tool and does not cost a thing. It can read and write MS Office documents and anyone who knows one office suite will be comfortable on the other suite. With version 3, there is more reason than ever to try it out.

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FlyPaper turns Power Points into Flash Videos

Power Point presentations are key tools in the instructor's tool kit. But, as multimedia becomes more the norm, the inability to produce a video from the Power Point has been a short-coming.

Flypaper is a product that allows for Power Points to be converted into Flash video files. For one, this allows for presentations to be placed on YouTube. Currently, to put up a Power Point on YouTube one would have to turn Power Point into a series of images, pull them into Movie Maker, and then create a video. Flypaper looks like a very good solution for obtaining a superior result in far less time.

Let's face it, Power Points have been abused so frequently that having a bit of an edge is something worth having.

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Frontline SMS

Frontline SMS is one of those great communication tools that I wish were more common. I especially admire the social mission values that they strive for.

Frontline SMS is a PC-based server that can send and receive SMS messages. Doesn't sound impressive given that any cell phone in the world can make the same claim. What makes their system different is that it can serve as a communications hub for very large number of SMS-enabled users. In locations such as South Asia and Africa, SMS messaging is really the only viable electronic communication system other voice. The Internet is still missing in many parts of the world and where it can be found, it's too expensive and/or unreliable.

If you are living in South Asia or Africa, you should certainly look at this software. It may be the best -- if not only -- means to communicate with students, parents and staff. In locations lucky enough to have cheap and reliable Internet access, this server can still be used with great effect. It could be used as an alert system for school staff and parents. The system also collects data. Teachers could use it to report absent students from home room. They would just send the student's code to the SMS address of the server. The possible list of uses is a long one. Give it a whirl. It's free.

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TurboDemo brings screen capture to education

I've long used screen captures to illustrate manuals and Power Point presentations. TurboDemo, while costing money, looks to be a good solution for computer lab instructors who need to introduce new applications and then test the students to how well they understand what they have seen. TurboDemo has the ability to capture the screen in a continuous mode and then have to provide a voice over and ending quiz.

I could see this application saving a tremendous amount of time at the beginning of each semester. It would also work well for helping distance-learning students learn the distance-learning platform. I find that it can take a week or more for a new student to learn the ropes of a new online learning system.

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Another free Project Mangement Software

GanttProject is another project management software program that came to my attention via a posting on yesterday's OpenProj software. I'm not sure which is best, GanttProject has more screen snapshots and more listed features than does OpenProj. They both look great and they both work on all the major operating systems.

They both look like they are worth a shot. I don't use this type of software; please leave a comment if you have used one or both of these programs.

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Project Management Software for free

Project management has been one of those applications where there has not been a lot of open source activity. Now there is OpenProj to take on Microsoft Project. The difference is that OpenProj is designed to take on the desktop version of MS Project. If you need a server based version, the same firm has a commercial version that runs in cooperation with a server. For most schools, the desktop version will be just fine. District offices and construction projects will need to spend some money.

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Remote control and beyond

Controlling a remote computer can be useful for troubleshooting or for demonstration purposes. There are many expensive ways to do this and there are few free systems, such as VNC.

I've always liked VNC for remote control but it was not easy to use, especially when used with SSH encryption. ShowMyPC.com eliminates all that complexity and adds the additional service of allowing multiple units behind a firewall to communicate. This is not an easy thing because home users have rotating IP addresses. ShowMyPC can also be used for broadcasting a desktop for demonstration purposes. This often requires a lot of money. The expensive alternatives include neat features, such as voice, but it's been my experience that these advanced features don't always work well on less than great bandwidth.

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20Q is more than fun and games

2oQ is an online "game" that allows users to answer a series of 20 questions about something they are thinking about. 20Q uses artificial intelligence to figure our what the answer is. As more people uses the system, 20Q learns to be better. The system can even accept a few wrong answers and still figure out the answer. This system is very useful for your students to learn a bit about artificial intelligence and about how regular computers operate.

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Google's new presentation application

Google's announcement that they are going to offer a presentation application along the lines of Power Point is of particular interest to schools. The reason I believe this to be the case is because students usually don't require the advanced features of a Microsoft Office. They also don't require Outlook or Access. The applications they need are presentation, word processing, and spreadsheets. They also need a graphic editing and/or paint program. But that's not really in Office, so the comparison is not relevant.

This means that you can have your students use Google Docs for all their school work. Because of the free storage and collaboration features, your work will be reduced significantly. I'll make another posting after I get to play with new application.

And, BTW, Google Spreadsheets now has charts. Students love to create charts.

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Getting up to Speed on Word 2007

The new version of Microsoft Office is a major shift. The addition of a menu ribbon is new to the Windows platform. There is something like it in Word for the Mac, but it's not called the same thing. ComputerWorld has written an article that describes the tricks to learning Word 2007. Normally, I tell people to hold off on new versions of software, but everything I've read indicates the new version of Office is worth looking at sooner rather than later. Do remember that the new file format is not compatible with older versions of Word unless the recipient downloads a free file converter. You can also save in an older version of Word. In any case, you should be testing out the new version on your personal system so that you are ready to roll it out to your users.
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