Blog on the topic of assistive technology, eLearning, mind mapping, project management, visual learning, collaborative tools, and educational technology
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Saturday, July 31, 2010
The Echo Smartpen from Livescribe
So what do you get when you purchase the Echo Smartpen? In the box you get the Echo Smartpen, a mini USB cable, one digital A5 Starter pad, two pen tip covers, and some Quick Start guides. To get started using the Echo you will first need to download the Livescribe Desktop software from the Livescribe website and register your pen. By registering your Echo Smartpen and setting up an account you will be given space on the Livescribe server to store your penscasts. More about pencasts later in this review. Once you have downloaded and installed the software you are ready to start using the Echo Smartpen. Now the fun begins, just touch the Record button on the bottom of the dot paper and everything you write is synchronized with what was said at the time. The quality of the recording is very good but on some occasions you do here some pen tip noise as you are writing on the paper. To listen to what you recorded you can use the Paper Reply feature by tapping the text with the pen tip on the dot paper to hear the recording. That part is almost magical!
The Echo Smartpen does not ship with the 3D noise cancellation ear buds as the previous model did, which I found to be very useful when recording in large lecture halls. Once you have written on the dot paper you can download the notes to your computer using the mini USB cable that plugs directly into the top of the pen. Changing to the mini USB cable I think is a move in the right direction and makes it easier for those that travel to carry it in their bag for fast syncing. The OLED display gives you visual feedback letting you know that the Echo Smartpen is transferring data to the Livescribe Desktop software. Once the process is done the Livescribe Desktop software provides you with a message that the transfer is complete. The process is straight forward and easy to do.
There have been lots of changes to the Livescribe Desktop software that bears mentioning. One of the new features which I believe will be used a great deal is the ability to create custom notebooks from selected pages you have downloaded. This works very similarly to how you can create Play Lists in iTunes. Simply create a Custom Notebook and drag pages into it. This gives you the ability to group pages of your notes as you see fit so that you can quickly access them. Having the ability to search through your notes to find specific information is one of the most powerful aspects of this system. Of course if you like you can listen to any of your pages played right from the desktop.
Sharing your files in different formats is one of the strengths of the Livescribe digital pen system. Educators will be able to export saved notes as a Pencast, PDF, orImage file. If you decide to save your notes as a Pencast anyone who has the Livescribe Desktop software will be able to view and listen to the recording. You can if you like also just download the audio portion of your pages which gives you another way to share information that was recorded. What I am really excited about is the announcement that I will be able to share my recordings as a PDF pencast that will be able to viewed using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. I am told that this feature will be available sometime in the Fall. Likewise, Livescribe is working on an app for the iPad that will let me view my pencasts on the Apple iPad to be released later this summer. For those of you who missed my post about hand writing recognition and the Echo Smartpen click here to see how easy it is to convert your handwriting to editable text. It is really exciting to think about all of the possibilities for extending learning in the classroom with the Livescribe Echo Smartpen.
For those of you who may not be familiar with pencasts - this has got to be one of Livescribe's real strengths from and educational perspective. Over the past year educators have posted thousands of pencasts on all different subjects for others to access and view. With a Echo Smartpen a teacher can quickly record and model how to solve an algebraic problem for example that can be accessed from the web. Creating a pencast is as easy as writing and recording your voice and then uploading it to your Livescribe account. Once you upload your pencast to your account you can embed it on your website or link directly to it. You have full control of the file and who has access to it right from within the Livescribe Desktop software application. Just imagine the possibilities as a teacher being able to model a process and having your students watch you do a problem step by step. As more schools move to Learning Management Systems having a tool like the Echo Smartpen will become indispensable for creating digital content is straight forward and natural way. You can view a pencast that I did on how to solve for x below.
The Livescribe ecosystem has really developed since the Pulse pen was released and with the release the Echo Smartpen, Livescribe continues to develop a very strong platform for pen computing that opens the doors for all kinds of possibilities. Look for another post on using apps with your Echo Smartpen and for ideas on how to use this technology in the classroom. For those of you that are using Livescribe smartpens I would invite your comments.
Friday, July 30, 2010
OAT plugins: Do it yourself! / Plugins para o OAT: Faça você mesmo!
Este artigo está escrito em Inglês e Português
English version:
Some time ago, during a customer engagement, I felt the need to be able to show them if there were lock waiting sessions in their most busy system. Of course any old time Informix DBA will tell that onstat -k/K is able to provide this. But in their environment they needed this to be available to a broader audience than just the DBA team (who are the ones with database server command line access). So we decided to create a simple PHP script with Informix connection that showed it in a web page available in their Intranet. They're currently moving into using Open Admin Tool (OAT) and I though it would be nice to move that into OAT. Note that OAT already includes some reports that provide similar (although with less detail) information (session waiting report).
So I thought it would be nice to do it properly and create a plug-in. I searched around, specifically in OAT's home ( http://www.openadmintool.org ) and found a link to an article about creating plugins in OAT: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0808vonbargen/
The author of this article is Erika Von Bargen, an IBM colleague, which is very active in the OAT specific IIUG mailing list. People who went to this year's IIUG conference possibly also know her since she was there presenting sessions about OAT.
Now... To tell you the complete truth, sometimes I'm very lazy (aren't we all at times?) when it comes to properly read documentation. So I just jumped into a terminal and started looking at an example plug-in provided with OAT. In a few minutes I had changed the query and I was seeing the information we were used to see in the customized web page. Obviously every message and column header was missing, the menus were wrong etc. But It was enough to become enthusiastic about this subject. I posted a few messages in OAT's mailing list, and had a quick feedback from Erika, which was a great help.
After the initial startup I decided to do it properly, and I read the article above, and it's a nice, clear and concise article. It's perfect to get you started.
So, after the initial "code, test, fix error, test....", instead of the "read, plan, code, test, fix..." I was ready to do it properly and I took some time at home to play with this. And I kept adding some features, some usability details and finally got to a point where I think I have a working plug-in. It has four options:
- List all the instance locks
This shows information similar to onstat -K, but most of the information is immediately readable (meaning you don't have to query sysmaster to get the table names, and you don't have to run onstat -u | grep .... to get the session number. - List locks with waiters
This shows information on every lock that has a lock list. The information includes:
- The owner username, session number, process id and client machine
- The waiter username, session number, process id and client machine
- The table/index in question, the time the lock was established and how long the wait is waiting - List locks per table
This shows information about locking for every active table in your system. The information includes the number of currently held locks, the number of lock requests made on the table, the number of lock waits, the number of deadlocks and the number of lock timeouts - List locks per session
This shows the number of currently held locks, the number of lock requests made by the session, the number of lock waits, the number of deadlocks and the number of lock timeouts
Also, I'd love to receive feedback about bugs or improvements. I have a few ones on my mind, but it's always better to listen to others...
So, where is it? I've just upload it to IIUG software repository. It's the first time I do it, so I'm not sure how long will it take to become available
[UPDATE 31 Aug 2010]: It's already available on the IIUG repository .
If you want to check the aspect of it, before giving it a try, please see below some snapshots.
How stable is it? It wasn't tested on big systems. But all it does is query the sysmaster. So, the worst thing that could happen would be giving you some wrong information. It should not do any harm to your system. In any case treat this as a beta release for now. One thing that can happen is that the pages show all the information fetched by the queries. In large systems, with thousands of locks, sessions, or tables, this can translate into very big HTML pages... Be aware of this.
To the best of my knowledge the queries return proper results. The locks with waiters page is based on a query being used for a fairly long time. The other queries were created and tested in a very controlled environment, so admittedly it's possible that they don't cover some situations.
Every feedback is welcome. Although OAT already includes some functionality in this area, I think this will give you a more direct and condensed tool to monitor your database locking activity. As such I believe the plug-in can be useful and it certainly can be improved.
Versão portuguesa:
Há algum tempo atrás, durante um trabalho num cliente, senti a necessidade de lhes mostrar se tinham sessões à espera de locks no sistema mais utilizado. Claro que qualquer DBA Informix com alguma experiência dirá que o onstat -k/K é capaz de responder a esta necessidade. Mas no caso que refiro, era necessário que esta informação estivesse disponível para uma audiência mais alargada que apenas a equipa de DBAs (os únicos com acesso à linha de comando no servidor de base de dados).
Por isso, decidimos criar um script PHP, simples, com conexão ao Informix, que mostrasse a informação numa página Web disponível na Intranet da empresa. Actualmente estão a começar a usar o Open Admin Tool (OAT) e pareceu-me adequado colocar esta funcionalidade dentro da mesma ferramenta. Note-se que o OAT já fornece informaçao semelhante (embora com menos detalhe) no relatório de sessões em espera.
Assim pensei que seria bom fazer isto como deve ser e criar um plug-in. Procurei informação, especificamente no website do OAT ( http://www.openadmintool.org ) e encontrei uma ligação a um artigo sobre criação de plug-ins para o OAT: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0808vonbargen/
A autora deste artigo é a Erika Von Bargen, uma colega da IBM, bastante activa na mailing list do OAT do IIUG. Quem teve oportunidade de estar na conferência do IIUG este ano também teve oportunidade de assistir a sessões apresentadas por ela, precisamente relacionadas com o OAT
Bom... Para ser franco, ocasionalmente sou bastante preguiçoso (não seremos todos de vez em quando?) quando toca a ler documentação. Por isso, abri uma sessão e comecei a estudar um exemplo de plug-in fornecido com o OAT. Em apenas alguns minutos, tinha mudado a query que lhe serve de base e estava a ver a informação a que estávamos habituados na página personalizada. Naturalmente, todas as mensagens e cabeçalhos de tabelas estavam errados ou em falta, os menus estavam errados etc. Mas foi o suficiente para me tornar um entusiasta do assunto. Coloquei algumas mensagens na mailing list do OAT e obtive respostas rápidas da Erika que foram uma grande ajuda.
Após o arranque inicial, decidi que devia fazer as coisas devidamente, e li o artigo mencionado acima, que é bom, claro e conciso. Ideal para quem quer começar com a tarefa de criar um plug-in.
Assim, após a abordagem inicial de "codificar, testar, corrigir erros, testar....", passei para a de "ler, planear, codificar, testar, corrigir....". Estava preparado para fazer isto como deve ser e disponibilizei algum tempo em casa para "brincar" com isto. E fui adicionando funcionalidades, detalhes para melhorar a usabilidade, e finalmente cheguei a um ponto onde julgo ter um plug-in que funciona.
Tem quatro opções:
- Listar os bloqueios na instância
Isto mostra informação semelhante ao onstat -K, mas a maioria da informação é de leitura imediata (ou seja, não é necessário pesquisar na sysmaster para obter os nomes das tabelas, e não temos de correr um onstat -u | grep ... para obter o número da sessão - Listar os bloqueios com fila de espera
Isto mostra informação de cada bloqueio que tenha uma lista de espera. Esta informação incluí:
- O dono do bloqueio, incluindo nome de utilizador, número de sessão, número de processo e a máquina cliente
- Quem está à espera, incluíndo o nome de utilizador, número de sessão, número de processo e a máquina cliente
- A tabela/indíce que tem o bloqueio, o instante em que o bloqueio foi estabelecido e há quanto tempo existe a espera - Listar os bloqueios por tabela
Isto mostra informação sobre os bloqueios para todas as tabelas activas do seu sistema.
A informação incluí o número de bloqueios activos no momento, o número de pedidos de bloqueios feitos sobre a tabela, o número de esperas por bloqueios sobre a tabela, o número de deadlocks que envolveram a tabela, e o número de vezes que os tempos de espera por bloqueios expiraram - Listar os bloqueios por sessão
Isto mostra o número de bloqueios que cada sessão mantém activos, o número de pedidos de bloqueio feitos pelas sessões, o número de esperas por bloqueios, o número de deadlocks da sessão, e o número de tempos de espera por bloqueios expirados
Adicionalmente, terei todo o gosto em receber comentários sobre bugs ou melhorias. Tenho algumas em mente, mas é sempre melhor escutar opiniões de outros...
Então, onde está o plug-in? Acabei de fazer o envio para o repositório de software do IIUG. É a primeira vez que o faço, e sinceramente não sei quanto tempo levará a ficar disponível.
[ACTUALIZAÇÂO 31 Aug 2010]: Já está disponível no repositório de software do IIUG.
Se desejar ver o aspecto do plug-in, antes de o testar, por favor veja as imagens abaixo.
Quão estável é o plug-in? Não foi testado em sistemas grandes. Mas tudo o que faz é pesquisar a sysmaster. Por isso, além de alguma possível informação errada não deverá causar qualquer problema nos seus sistemas. Em todo o caso trate isto como uma release beta por enquanto. Algo que pode acontecer é que as páginas mostram toda a informação obtida nas queries. Em sistemas grandes, com milhares de bloqueios, sessões ou tabelas, isto pode traduzir-se em páginas HTML muito grandes.... Tenha algum cuidado com isso.
Tanto quanto me apercebi, as pesquisas retornam resultados correctos. A lista de bloqueios com lista de espera baseia-se numa query que utilizo há bastante tempo. As outras pesquisas foram criadas e testadas num ambiente muito controlado, logo é possível que possam não prever algumas situações.
Todo o feedback será muito bem vindo. Apesar de o OAT já incluir alguma funcionalidade nesta área, julgo que este plug-in será uma ferramenta mais directa e condensada para monitorizar toda a actividade relacionada com bloqueios nas suas instâncias Informix. Como tal, acredito que o plug-in possa ser útil e certamente poderá ser melhorado.
Snapshots/Écrans:
Lock List
Lista de bloqueios
Lock waiters
Lista de bloqueios com fila de espera
Locks per table
Bloqueios por tabela
Locks per session
Bloqueios por sessão
Mindjet MindManager 9 Giveaway
So here is an incredible opportunity to land a free copy of Mindjet MindManager 9. Ok so what is the hook? To enter the Mindjet MindManager 9 GiveAway all you need to do is be a Guest Blogger and share how you are using mind mapping in your business or educational setting. If you would like you could create a screencast or video and demonstrate how mind mapping has had an impact on the work that you do. It is really that easy. Each winner will be highlighted on my blog which is a great way to give you and your company or school great exposure. To enter the contest please click here. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment! Good luck!
Chat with the Labs: Post End of Service Support Options and Upgrade Best practices / Opções de suporte após fim de serviço
Este artigo está escrito em Português e Inglês
English Version:
Andrew Ford already announced this in his blog, so for the English version I'll just recommend that you check his article. Basically there will be a very important Chat with the labs session on August 26. For all the customers still in version 9.40 and v10, this may really make a difference.
Portuguese Version:
No dia 26 de Agosto decorrerá mais uma sessão "Chat with the labs" sobre o tema "opções de suporte após o fim de serviço e melhores prácticas para upgrades ou actualizações".
A IBM disponibiliza várias opções de suporte para clientes cujos productos tenham atingido o fim de serviço, e esse será o tema principal desta sessão.
O tema será mais relevante para clientes que estejam ainda a correr as versões 7.31 (sem suporte normal desde Setembro de 2008), a 9.40 (sem suporte normal desde Abril de 2008) e a 10 que deixará de ter suporte normal no próximo dia 30 de Setembro.
Na sessão serão também abordadas as melhores estratégias e prácticas para migrações da versão 10 para a 11.50.
Para assistir à sessão deverá registar-se em:
https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=d6def198fd&l=en-US
Os slides deverão estar disponíveis antes da conferência em:
http://www.ibm.com/informix/labchats
Caso não lhe seja possível assistir em directo poderá obter os slides e mais tarde som. Caso o tema seja útil, e em caso de dúvida não deixe de contactar o seu representante IBM.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Using Text-to-Speech in an eLearning Course
This is third post in a series on Text-to-Speech for eLearning written by Dr. Joel Harband and edited by me (which turns out to be a great way to learn). In the first two posts, Text-to-Speech Overview and NLP Quality and Digital Signal Processor and Text-to-Speech, we introduced the text to speech voice and discussed issues of quality related to its components: the natural language processor (NLP) and the digital signal processor (DSP). In this post we will begin to address the practical side of the subject: How can e-learning developers use Text-to-Speech (TTS) voices to narrate their courses? What tools are immediately available?
Text-to-Speech (TTS) Tools for eLearning Applications
There are a number of possibilities available today for using TTS for eLearning; they fall into two categories or approaches:
- TTS Stand-Alone. A general approach in which developers use any standard authoring tool such as Articulate or Lectora and use stand-alone TTS on-demand services/products to create audio files that are then linked or embedded in the presentation.
- TTS Integrated. Products/services that have TTS voices bundled and integrated with an authoring solution, including Adobe Captivate and Tuval Software Industries’ Speech-Over Professional.
In this article, we are going to concentrate only on using TTS Stand-Alone tools to create audio files that are embedded into a course.
TTS Stand-Alone Web Services
TTS stand-alone products can be used by eLearning developers irrespective of the authoring tool they are used. Several of the voice vendors offer on-demand TTS voice web services which accept text and produce sound files. Here are a few of the top web services for TTS:
Company | Web Service |
Loquendo | |
NeoSpeech | |
Acapela-Group |
These web services have the advantages:
- Choose any voice among a set of vendors voices
- Set pitch, speed volume of voice for the entire file
- Select type of sound file output (wav, mp3, etc)
- Preview function
- Pronunciation dictionary
- Pay as you go
Disadvantages
- Because they are web services, there’s no automatic connection with the desktop file system. Most of the time you are creating audio files locally and thus having access to the file system means it will keep files up-to-date. In some cases, this also applies to things like storing scripts and default settings.
This can be a major disadvantage and cause significant extra steps. Because of this, we are going to concentrate on a particular desktop stand-alone product to illustrate the eLearning production workflow.
Acapela Virtual Speaker – a Desktop Stand-Alone TTS Product
Acapela-Group offers a desktop stand-alone product, Acapela Virtual Speaker, that is better suited to eLearning production than most of the web services solutions listed above.
As an example, let’s see how to work with Acapela Virtual Speaker. Virtual Speaker works with input text files (the narration scripts) and output sound files organized into directories. Narration scripts (text files) are stored for easy updates and the system makes it easy to generate the associated sound files based on updates. The sound files are generally easy to find and access from any authoring tool.
To create a sound file from narration text for an authoring tool using Virtual Speaker, you perform the following:
- Define a file naming system to identify the text and sound files for the authoring tool
- Set working folders for input text files and output sound files
- Enter new narration scripts or open a stored narration script file from the text files working folder
- Select the language and voice for this sound file
- Select the volume, pitch, speed of the voice
- Press the Play button to preview the voice reading the text
- Make changes in text and voice settings as required
- Name the text file according to the naming system (for new text) and save it in the working folder
- Select the output format: wav, mp3, etc
- Press the Record button, a sound file is created with the same name as the text file and stored in the working folder
To import the sounds files into the authoring tool use the File Import function of the tool to import the file from the working folder as required.
It sounds really easy and it is. Stand-alone TTS tools are used to create sound files just as you would if you had a human recording audio for the course. These sound files then need to be associated with the content using the authoring tool. In later posts, we’ll get into more specific comparisons of TTS vs. human narration. In terms of taking the resulting audio files and using them via an authoring tool, the level of effort is similar.
Of course, both human narration and TTS tools that produce audio files means that it takes some work to get the audio files embedded in the authored course, including importing the files and in some cases synchronizing them with a time-line editor. Tools that have embedded TTS, like Adobe Captivate, make this significantly easier. And if you make changes to the script, you will need to create new audio files and import them again. This is much easier than having to go through another round of narration. But it still takes work.
Personal TTS Readers Not Licensed for eLearning
Some readers may be wondering why we haven’t mentioned the TTS “personal reader” products such as: Natural Reader , TextAloud, Read the Words, and Spoken Text as possibilities for eLearning tools. The reason is that sound files produced by personal readers are for personal use only and are not allowed, by license, to be distributed. This restriction means that these products cannot be used for eLearning, where sound files are distributed to learners. We’ll talk more about this important subject in a future post.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Augmented Reality for Learning
A colleague just asked me if I knew anyone who was using Augmented Reality for learning. I’m not and I gave him the standard advice about looking through LinkedIn Guide for Knowledge Workers, LinkedIn for Finding Expertise, and Searching for Expertise - LinkedIn Answers. He did that, but didn’t find particular people. Probably I need to update my posts because there have to be lots of people who would be involved in training and augmented reality found via LinkedIn. I just tried a search for “augmented reality” as a keyword along with either title contains “training” or “learning” and found some interesting folks.
My next suggestion was to use eLearning Learning to search. This gave rise to the additional of a new keyword Augmented Reality on eLearning Learning. You may have wondered where the keywords come from. :)
Actually, this leads to quite a treasure trove of great posts:
- Tools for Developing Augmented Reality Applications- Upside Learning Blog, April 30, 2010
- Fighting Phobia's with Augmented Reality- Kapp Notes, July 6, 2010
- Augmented Reality, Future for eLearning?- Designing Impact, June 8, 2010
- Augmented Reality: does it have a place/future in education?- Dont Waste Your Time, February 23, 2010
- More Augmented Reality Videos- Dont Waste Your Time, March 26, 2010
- Mobile Augmented Reality Training, April 30, 2010
- Augmented Reality To Help Military Mechanics Fix Vehicles, January 25, 2010
- Augmented Reality and the Future of Learning & Work, September 22, 2009
- Google Goggles will rock m-learning., December 7, 2009
- Augmented Reality and The Coming Tsunami of Location Learning Apps- Electronic Papyrus, October 26, 2009
- Layar the first mobile augmented reality application- Ignatia Webs, June 23, 2009
- The two types of augmented reality- E-learning in the Corporate Sector, July 20, 2010
- Advantages and Drawbacks of using Augmented Reality #AugmentedReality- Dont Waste Your Time, March 30, 2010
- In 2015 augmented learning in a ubiquitous learning environment will be fact- Ignatia Webs, May 11, 2010
- Augmented Reality in Learning- Upside Learning Blog, April 15, 2009
- Learning - augmented- Lars is Learning, September 9, 2009
- Augmented Reality – Now A Reality at Upside- Upside Learning Blog, March 2, 2010
- Augmented Reality on campus- Dont Waste Your Time, July 7, 2010
And this naturally leads to both the people/companies in the various case studies as well as suggests some folks to contact such as Judy Brown, Karl Kapp, Lars Hyland, David Hopkins and more. At least they’ll likely have a bit more clue as to who to talk to.
If you have suggestions for my colleague, we are all ears.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
A bug can undermine your troubleshooting / Como um bug pode minar a resolução de problemas
Este artigo será escrito em Inglês e Português.
English version:
A few articles ago I tried to lecture on how to do a good troubleshooting. And I wrote that it all starts with an error or a bad behavior. When we have an error we should start from there. If we don't have it, it's harder.... But what about the situations when we have an error that says:
"No error message available"
Not good... I faced a situation on a customer where this happened. It's a Web application written in ASP using the windows driver (OleDB) and running on IIS. After an engine restart they started having an error that says:
No error message available, result code: E_UNEXPECTED(0x8000FFFF)
ErrorCode -2147418113
So, we had an error, but it wasn't really helpful. It wasn't too hard to find out what happened, since this particular engine has some variables to avoid problems with code set conversions and it was started without those variables in the environment. But It would have been quicker to understand if we had a proper error code. So, after solving the main issue, I dig in to the subject and found a very interesting APAR:
IC64220: THREADED OLEDB DOES NOT RETURN THE CORRECT ERROR MESSAGE
Basically, the driver was doing a bad use of the MS API to expose errors and in some situations the error structures were not properly initialized. This caused the "No error message available" information.
The fix is in CSDK 3.50.xC5 and if nothing else, this would be a good reason to upgrade.
It was not the first time I had "weird errors" in Windows environment, and in fact there were other similar bugs reported. So I leave here the suggestion to upgrade. Obviously, like with any other upgrade, test, test, test....
Portuguese version:
Há alguns artigos atrás eu dei um "sermão" sobre como fazer um bom despiste de problemas. E escrevi que tudo deve começar com um erro ou com um mau comportamento. Quando temos um erro devemos começar por aí. Se não tivermos é mais dificíl.... Mas e se tivermos um erro que diz:
"No error message available"
Nada bom... Encontrei uma situação num cliente onde isto apareceu. É uma aplicação Web escrita em ASP utilizando os drivers Windows (OleDB) a correr em IIS. Após uma paragem de um motor, começaram a ter o seguinte erro:
No error message available, result code: E_UNEXPECTED(0x8000FFFF)
ErrorCode -2147418113
Portanto, tinhamos um erro, mas não era grande ajuda. Não foi muito difícil descobrir o que se tinha passado, dado que este motor em particular tem algumas variáveis posicionadas para evitar problemas na conversão de caracteres entre diferentes mapas ou codesets, e estas variáveis não estavam posicionadas quando se arrancou com o motor. Mas teria sido mais rápido de entender se tivéssemos tido um código e mensagem de erro válidos. Assim, após resolver o problema principal, investiguei um pouco mais e encontrei o seguinte APAR:
IC64220: THREADED OLEDB DOES NOT RETURN THE CORRECT ERROR MESSAGE
Basicamente, o driver estava a fazer uma utilização errada da API da MS para expor erros, e em determinadas situações as estruturas de erro não eram devidamente inicializadas. Isto causava a mensagem "No error message available"
A correcção está no CSDK 3.50.xC5, e mesmo só por isto já seria uma boa razão para fazer a actualização.
Não foi a primeira vez que me deparei com erros "estranhos" no ambiente Windows, e na verdade havia outros bugs semelhantes reportados. Assim, deixo a sugestão para se fazer a actualização. Claro que em qualquer situação de actulização de versões, a ordem é testar, testar, testar....
MyScript for Livescribe Plug-in
Dragon Dictation 2.0 Released for the iPad
Tools like Dragon Dictate open up all kinds of possibilities for students with learning disabilities and as I work with more and more students with writing disabilities I now have my iPad available to see how well it can work for them. I recently worked with a 6th grader who happened to be using an iPhone and we installed Dragon Dictate to see how well it would work. The beauty of Dragon Dictate is that there is no training involved. The student opened up Dragon Dictate on his iPhone and began to dictate and within seconds text appeared on the screen. I was amazed how accurate it was for this particular student. I have tried it with other students where the transcription was not that accurate. So if you have access to an iPhone or iPad give it a try when you are assessing students and see what happens. I would be interested in your experiences using Dragon Dictate 2.0 with the students you work with. It is incredible to think how far this technology has come in such a short amount of time and how we can harness this technology for the students we work with with learning disabilities.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Rethinking Your WorkFlow with the iPad
The software companies that understand the essence of the iPad know that users want the total experience of being able to access their documents and synchronize information in the cloud.
Over the past couple of weeks I come to learn the value of being able to store information and synchronize my data. I have been using iThoughtHD a mind mapping app on my iPad to do more of my work and really enjoy the ability to be able to export my mind maps to Box.net in many common mind mapping formats that I can access from my desktop mind mapping applications. The integration is seamless and really delivers the user extra value. The same can be said for ToDo for iPad, a task management app that seamlessly integrates with Toodledo on the web withthe touch of an synchronize icon. Moving forward I can see developers are beginning to think about the integration from the desktop computer to the web that can then be accessed with an iPad.
Just this past week MindMeister released MindMeister for the iPad which synchronizes with their cloud based mind mapping application. It is exciting to how companies are beginning to build iPad applications that either act as a go between or as a way to synchronize the information that lives in different applications. As an example FileMaker, this week released FileMaker Go, a iPad and iPhone app that allows users on the go to query and modify their databases that were created on the desktop with FileMaker Pro. I can remember back to the days when FileMaker released a version of FileMaker for the Palm platform that gave you similar functionality. It is certainly exciting to see all of these developments and makes you rethink your work-flow and how you will harness the information you need- wherever and whenever. I would be interested in learning how tools like the iPad are making you rethink your work-flow. Please post your comments below- it would be great to get your thoughts on this topic.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Informix Editions revisited / Versões Informix revisitadas
Este artigo será em Inglês e Português
English version:
After the announcements in May, new changes were made to Informix packaging. Basically the free versions for Windows and Mac OSX (Ultimate-C) were withdrawn. To replace them the Innovator-C version (also free, but with lower usage limits) will be available for all platforms (including the Windows and Mac OSX).
Also a new edition will be available, called Choice Edition, just for Windows and Mac OSX. This one will have license costs, but is cheaper than Growth Edition. The limits are higher than Innovator-C and lower than Growth Edition.
I believe these changes have created some confusion, but there are some important points to note:
- Clients will still be able to use a version without license costs for all platforms supported by Informix (Innovator-C). The usage limitations are fairly acceptable for a lot of usages
- Windows and Mac OSX are target platforms with a more aggressive price, considering Choice Edition (again, with fairly respectable functionality and usage limits)
- Existing customers are not necessarily affected by the new editions. They already payed for the licenses, and are (probably) paying maintenance/support. Obviously they can consider the new editions for new deployments
- Existing Enterprise Edition customers get more value, because Ultimate Edition includes more features than the Enterprise
http://www.iiug.org/news/announcements/new_prices.php
I delayed the publishing of this article because I was expecting the website comparing the different versions to be updated:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0801doe/
This is the best, and the official place to check each version available functionality.
Other links:
- Article from Andrew Ford about the same topic. It includes links some detailed analysis about each version limitations:
http://www.informix-dba.com/2010/07/new-phone-bookss-here-informix.html
Versão Portuguesa:
Depois dos anúncios em Maio, novas alterações foram feitas nas versões de Informix disponíveis. Basicamente as versões grátis para Windows e Mac OSX (Ultimate-C) foram descontinuadas. Para as substituir a versão Innovator-C (igualmente grátis, mas com limites de utilização mais baixos) estará disponível para todas as plataformas (incluindo Windows e Mac OSX)
Uma nova versão estará disponível, designada por Choice Edition, apenas para Windows e Mac OSX. Esta versão terá custos de licenciamento, mas será mais barata que a Growth Edition. Os limites situam-se entre a Innovator-C e a Growth Edition.
Acredito que estas alterações provoquem alguma confusão, mas há que salientar alguns pontos:
- Os clientes poderão utilizar uma versão sem custos em todas as plataformas suportadas pelo Informix (Innovator-C). As funcionalidades incluídas e os limites impostos não deverão ser obstáculo a um leque grande de ambientes.
- Windows e Mac OSX são plataformas alvo, com preços mais agressivos, considerando a versão Choice (também com funcionalidades e limites de utilização bastante respeitáveis.
- Os clientes existentes não são necessariamente afectados pelas novas versões. Na realidade o custo das licenças já foi pago, e o que estarão (provavelmente) a pagar são os custos de manutenção/suporte. Naturalmente poderão considerar as novas versões para novos projectos.
- Clientes actuais da Enterprise Edition obtém mais valor, porque a versão Ultimate incluí mais funcionalidade que a Enterprise
http://www.iiug.org/news/announcements/new_prices.php
Atrasei um pouco a publicação deste artigo porque estava à espera que o website que tem a comparação entre as versões fosse actualizado:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0801doe/
Este é o melhor sitio (e o oficial) para verificar as funcionalidades e limites de cada versão.
Outros links:
- Artigo do Andrew Ford (Inglês) sobre o mesmo tema. Tem links para análises detalhadas das limitações das várias versões:
http://www.informix-dba.com/2010/07/new-phone-bookss-here-informix.html
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Success Formula for Discussion Forums in Financial Services
I received a question this week related to Discussion Forums for Knowledge Sharing at Capital City Bank:
I successfully launched a discussion forum for a small group of lending assistants within my bank. That forum is still up and running. Since that time, I have attempted to introduce the discussion forum tool to two other work groups within the bank but I have not been very successful. I’ve used examples from the lending assistants as well as other benefits of the tool to demonstrate how its use would benefit the bank and these work groups. They see the benefit of the tool in a strict learning environment, but have difficulty seeing its use in an expanded role.
One of the things that this group has identified as one of their “problems” is that they receive too many emails. I presented the discussion forum as a solution to this problem, in that it would reduce the number of emails they receive because the information would not be in their in-box, and more importantly would allow discussion between the all the members (one to many) rather than one to one or one to a few. They pushed back because they felt that this was just one more place to go and one more thing to do. They were also concerned about the accuracy of the information that was published on the forum. I pointed out the benefit of correction of inaccurate information on a discussion forum is that it is visible and correctable - unlike information that is sent through email or other back channels of communication. I could go on… but I’m sure you get the picture.
I’m just having trouble getting traction and wondering what I can/should do better/different.
The one thing they were interested in finding out, is whether other financial institutions are using discussion forums and if so how. I was wondering you could help me find out if there are others, who they are and if they’d be willing to talk with me.
Great question. Of course, there’s no easy answers here, but lots we can discuss and learn around this.
In terms of finding people with experience on this, my first suggestion was using LinkedIn and particularly looking through LinkedIn Guide for Knowledge Workers, LinkedIn for Finding Expertise, and Searching for Expertise - LinkedIn Answers. This is in process. I’ll also reach out via twitter. If you have other ideas or if you are at a financial institution and are willing to have a discussion with this person, please drop me a comment/email.
Of course, there’s a lot of great information out there on this via eLearning Learning under terms like Discussion Forum, Collaboration in Discussion Forums, Discussion Forum Adoption, Benefits of Discussion Forums, Discussion Forum Case Studies. I also checked out Nancy White’s Communities and Networks site under Discussion Forums, Case Studies of Discussion Forums, and Community Building and Discussion Forums.
I found a lot of great stuff. Let me start with some of the ones that are probably more relevant to this particular inquiry:
- Examples of online communities in the financial services industry- FreshNetworks, March 17, 2009
- 7 Creative Ways to Introduce Social Media to Your Team- Learning Putty, October 22, 2009
- Using Online Forums in Social Learning- Learning Putty, October 19, 2009
- Change agents, group forums and the one percent rule.- Business Casual, October 29, 2008
- Making Intranet Discussion Groups Effective- eLearning Technology, June 15, 2006
- Requirement to Social Learning Adoption #2 - Compatibility- Engaged Learning, February 24, 2009
- The Holy Trinity: Leadership Framework, Learning 2.0 & Enterprise 2.0- trainingwreck, May 8, 2010
- Ten tips for choosing & using social software- Learning Conversations, February 23, 2009
- Promoting Social Learning- eLearning Blender, May 23, 2009
- Get involved and make the most of your online community- FreshNetworks, June 3, 2009
- Examples of online communities in healthcare- FreshNetworks, April 8, 2009
- Blogger in Middle-earth: Working With Online Learning Communities- Blogger in Middle-earth, April 14, 2009
- How To Kill A Community, February 12, 2009
- Online Success - a recipe for learners and facilitators- Designed for Learning, February 14, 2010
- eLearn: Best Practices - Discussion Management Tips for Online Educators, September 30, 2009
- Franchisees Benefit from Learning 2.0 at Zaxby's - 1/15/2009 8:54:00 AM - Chain Leader, January 17, 2009
- Facilitating online communities - WikiEducator, June 11, 2009
- HOW TO Sell Social Media to Cynics, Skeptics & Luddites - Tips, Resources & Advice - UPDATED, June 2, 2009
- Intel Communities: IT@Intel Blog: Why Intel is investing in Social Computing, February 15, 2009
- Community of Practice for Facilitators : pilot, adoption and participation- Library Clips, September 13, 2009
- Team-based communities : Transparency and Crowdsourcing for a more cohesive workplace- Library Clips, March 9, 2009
- BT Web 2.0 adoption case study " Inside out, February 20, 2009
- How to kick start a Community | Connie Bensen, May 20, 2008
- Cisco on Collaboration: Know Your Enthusiasts & Laggards | Future Changes, October 2, 2009
- Essential reading for online community managers- FreshNetworks, January 5, 2010
- Insight from online communities: 2. Focused discussions- FreshNetworks, January 19, 2009
- Is this the Future of Forums?- eModeration, May 4, 2009
- The top-down and bottom-up creation of enterprise communities, and wikis- Library Clips, December 18, 2008
- More thoughts on community structure and creation- Library Clips, January 11, 2009
- Forums Are Everywhere and Here to Stay, So Skip the Tools Discussion and Focus on Your Objectives, March 25, 2010
- Discussions Are Not Warfare; Forums Are Not a Battlefield, December 9, 2009
- 5 Easy Ways to Find Stories, Topics and Discussions to Post on Your Online Community, February 24, 2009
- Understanding the difference between Forums, Blogs, and Social Networks, February 10, 2008
- How to Develop Robust Moderation Methodology- Community Guy, March 23, 2010
- Back to Basics: Want to Know What Your Community Members Need? Just Ask., January 19, 2010
- Creating Passionate Users: How to Build a User Community, Part 1, June 17, 2007
- Why so many community initiatives fail to take flight…, January 17, 2009
- Social Media and the insurance industry- FreshNetworks, February 18, 2010
- Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Booz Allen: The Series- Portals and KM, January 20, 2010
More Resources on Discussion Forums, Communities:
- Forums vs. Social Networks?- eLearning Technology, September 15, 2008
- 5 Easy Tips for Teaching Online Courses- Learning Putty, January 18, 2010
- Forums – Day 1 – What is it?- Engaged Learning, November 23, 2009
- Discussion Forums for Knowledge Sharing at Capital City Bank- eLearning Technology, September 15, 2009
- The new look Captivate forum- Adobe Captivate Blog, April 8, 2009
- I want to facilitate online discussions but how do I choose the right platform?- Joitske Hulsebosch eLearning, November 14, 2009
- Top 10 Ways Social Media Will Impact Employee Development and Training in 2010- Learning Putty, October 29, 2009
- 22 Social Learning Strategy Questions to Answer Before Your Next Lesson- Learning Putty, July 1, 2010
- From formal courses to social learning- Learning Conversations, November 26, 2009
- Tips for facilitators in Ning- Joitske Hulsebosch eLearning, March 13, 2009
- Making the case for social media- Good Practice, November 2, 2009
- Social learning: all talk and no action?- Spicy Learning, February 5, 2010
- Communities of practice- Learnforever, May 31, 2010
- Make way for virtual learning communities- Electronic Papyrus, March 25, 2009
- An Introduction to blogs, wikis, and RSS - New Technologies for e-Learning, September 20, 2007
- ONLINE FORUM: Lights, Camera, Action - Using Media to Engage the Learner, June 2, 2009
- Online social networks, learning and viral expansion loops- Sticky Learning, December 14, 2009
- Community of Practice for Facilitators : pilot, adoption and participation, September 13, 2009
- Distributed Network Learning FAQ - WikiEducator, December 20, 2008
- Seed, feed, & weed- Learnlets, September 17, 2009
- Online communication is not second best- Clive on Learning, October 11, 2007
- The Power of Community | workforce.com, May 28, 2009
- conversation matters: What Do We Get From Conversation That We Can't Get Any Other Way?, April 14, 2009
- Case Study: Comics in Community Communication- Community Guy, August 10, 2009
- Designing an online and face-to-face learning trajectory- Joitske Hulsebosch, July 15, 2009
- Employee social networking case study : Sabre's cubeless product, September 1, 2008
- Understanding the difference between Forums, Blogs, and Social Networks, February 10, 2008
- I want to facilitate online discussions but how do I choose the right platform?- Joitske Hulsebosch, November 14, 2009
- Should anonymous comments be allowed in an online community?- FreshNetworks, March 7, 2010
- Oldie but goodie: "CompuServe's Intranet Forum"- Endless Knots, February 23, 2009
- What’s the biggest mistake a community manager can make?- FreshNetworks, December 24, 2009
- Are your community's lurkers healthy lurkers?- Joitske Hulsebosch, June 15, 2009
- Preparing for community release- Library Clips, April 11, 2009
- Community Netiquette: How to Avoid Stepping on Virtual Toes- Community Guy, August 4, 2009
- Facilitating an online discussion to foster cooperation between two development organisations, December 27, 2006
- Full Circle Online Interaction Blog: Updating my basic article on online facilitation, April 29, 2007
What other resources or case studies would you point to around this topic?
Any thoughts or advice?
Help would be sincerely appreciated!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Livescribe Launches the Echo Smartpen
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Mindjet Announced MindManager, Version 9 for Windows launches on August 10
FYI!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Last night, Mindjet made an important announcement!
That’s right. MindManager, version 9, is coming! It’ll actually be here before you know it — August 10th to be exact.
And, more importantly, we’ve packed this release with capabilities that you’ve been asking for!
MindManager 9 is built around the following three major themes:
- Accomplish more, faster: If you’re using MindManager to get your work done, and we’ve made it easier to bring relevant information into your maps with less effort. This will let you maintain perspective, work in context without having to constantly switch apps looking for the information you need to complete your work. For instance, you can tap into Outlook’s wealth of emails, tasks, notes, etc.. and bring in any or all of that information into your maps. Our new Outlook integration is built upon either pre-defined or simple-to-create queries that synchronize information with MindManager. You’ll setup your Outlook branch once and it’ll continue to refresh and present up-to-date content without any additional effort on your part. What will you do with that info? Make better plans, strategies and decisions!
- Planning for everyone: We recognize that many professional project managers use MindManager for developing plans. But we asked the question, what about the rest of us? The marketers, developers, HR managers, etc… We need planning tools that let us build out quick lists of the things we need to get done in order to make any plan a reality. MindManager does just that. In MindManager, Version 9, we let you build out a plan and then, instantly, visualize it in our new integrated project schedule (Gantt chart). We also provide guidance by highlighting where trouble spots exist (e.g. if someone is assigned too many tasks to complete on any given day).
- Communicate more effectively: We’re also excited about a brand new way to present your mapped concepts, strategies and plans. With the new MindManager slide show, you can create slides from any topic within your map. Unlike other presentation software apps which let you ‘broadcast’ your message, MindManager’s slides are still interactive, letting you collaborate instead of simply present ideas. Capture feedback, track new action items, and evolve your content while delivering your presentation.
Beyond these major improvements, we’ve also made many improvements including:
- Enhanced usability and interface improvements
- Significantly faster performance
- Integration with Microsoft Office 2010
- Improved integrations with Office applications
- Brand new galleries of images, icons, and map templates
- And much, much more…
Stay tuned for more news as we get closer to August 10th!
Wikis and Learning – 60 Resources
I’m involved in several discussions around how to use Wikis as part of learning solutions. I wanted to collect a few resources around this topic for use in these discussions. So, of course, I went to eLearning Learning and I looked at Wiki, Collaborative Learning with Wikis, Wikis and eLearning 2.0, Wikis Corporate eLearning, Social Learning with Wikis, Wiki Security and a few others. Here’s some of what I found:
- Why a Wiki?- Experiencing eLearning, July 27, 2009
- Wikis at Work- eLearning Technology, February 25, 2007
- Control and Community: A Case Study of Enterprise Wiki Usage, May 4, 2009
- Blog or Wiki?- Kapp Notes, January 20, 2009
- Wiki activities 5 stage model, April 7, 2008
- Control and Community: A Case Study of Enterprise Wiki Usage, May 4, 2009
- Really Cool "3-Minute e-Learning" on Social Networking - Wiki, Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, RSS, October 10, 2007
- Wiki working, June 19, 2009
- Wiki: Intro to Emerging Tech, July 18, 2009
- Could A Wiki Be Your Next Talent Management System?, October 23, 2008
- Using Toolkits to Aggregate Learning Resources, February 6, 2009
- Enterprise Wiki as Intranet - a success story, September 20, 2007
- Lurking and loafing, March 9, 2010
- Activities, Workflows and Structured Wikis (Augmented Social Cognition), February 9, 2009
- Wikis for Improving Productivity- Experiencing eLearning, June 10, 2008
- Wiki's For Professional Development- Learnadoodledastic, September 26, 2007
- One more time: what's the difference between a blog and a wiki?- Clive on Learning, April 13, 2007
- Wikis: Ways to use them for a more Collaboration and Interaction- Dont Waste Your Time, August 28, 2009
- Do wikis work for any topic? How about math?- eLearning Acupuncture, March 25, 2009
- eLearning Tools - Wikis, Blogs and More- eLearning Technology, April 2, 2007
- Wiki – Day 2 – How Wikis are Used- Engaged Learning, December 1, 2009
- Wikis – Day 3 – Privacy & Adoption- Engaged Learning, December 2, 2009
- Wikis – Day 4 – Overcoming Bad Stigmas- Engaged Learning, December 3, 2009
- Top 10 Ways Social Media Will Impact Employee Development and Training in 2010- Learning Putty, October 29, 2009
- Conference Wiki Examples- eLearning Technology, November 25, 2008
- Use of Wikis as Compared to Other Tools- eLearning Technology, February 23, 2007
- 22 Social Learning Strategy Questions to Answer Before Your Next Lesson- Learning Putty, July 1, 2010
- TCC09: Wikis that Work: Effective Wiki Practices for Virtual Learning Communities- Experiencing eLearning, April 15, 2009
- Wiki as repository for a virtual community- Joitske Hulsebosch eLearning, January 21, 2009
- How Wikipedia Works and Wikis in the Enterprise - HBS- eLearning Technology, July 23, 2007
- Wikis - Public vs. Controlled - Why There's No eLearning Wiki- eLearning Technology, September 14, 2006
- 10 Social Media Tools For Learning- The eLearning Coach, November 16, 2009
- Collaborative Learning Using Web 2.0 Tools - A Summary- eLearning Technology, May 16, 2006
- Benefits of Collaborative Learning- Dont Waste Your Time, July 8, 2010
- Enterprise 2.0 - Community Spaces can lead to Walled Gardens- Free as in Freedom, March 27, 2010
- Examples of eLearning 2.0- eLearning Technology, September 22, 2008
- Collaborative Learning « Social Enterprise Blog, June 3, 2009
- A Learning Paradigm Shift: Cybergogy, April 9, 2010
- Learning space mashups, July 13, 2009
- Case studies of corporate (social) learning, March 12, 2010
- Using SharePoint- eLearning Technology, December 16, 2008
- SharePoint 2010: The New Employee Gateway?- trainingwreck, January 23, 2010
- Social Learning Strategies Checklist- Social Enterprise Blog, January 11, 2010
- Extending elearning?- Learnlets, November 30, 2008
- SharePoint Social Learning Experience- eLearning Technology, February 1, 2010
- Time for “new” training approaches- Daretoshare, February 28, 2009
- Checklist of Social Learning Strategies- Engaged Learning, January 12, 2010
- The Future Of Learning Design- The eLearning Coach, November 23, 2009
- Wiki Owner- eLearning Technology, March 19, 2009
- Social Learning Tools Should Not be Separate from Enterprise 2.0- eLearning Technology, April 7, 2010
- SharePoint 2007: Gateway Drug to Enterprise Social Tools :: Personal InfoCloud, March 16, 2009
- Driving the Informal with the Formal, February 10, 2010
- groundswell - confirming my e-Learning 2.0 ideas, August 27, 2008
- TELUS Case Study - Using Sharepoint to embrace social computing and streamline formal learning , May 15, 2010
- Driving Change: Selling SharePoint and Social Media Inside the Enterprise, January 30, 2009
- How to Find the Right Wiki for Your Project or Organization, February 15, 2009
- From formal courses to social learning- Learning Conversations, November 26, 2009
- Requirement to Social Learning Adoption #1 - Relative Advantage- Engaged Learning, February 23, 2009
- Characteristics of Emergent Communities- Social Enterprise Blog, April 14, 2009
- Promoting Social Learning- eLearning Blender, May 23, 2009