Experiment with Screencast

Well here we go. The original Non-Techno Geek will attempt to link a video via screencast.

The video is something my very techy son made. He creates Machinima (sp?) videos to publish to YouTube. Most of his clips are much longer. This was a practice clip. It is only 12 secs. long.
For you Halo fans :-)

Screencast has a maximum space of about 100MB that you can use for free. Anything larger and you have to pay for the Pro.

So, let's see if I did this correctly
Remember...I did not do the video. I am only the wo(man) behind the curtain.

Ciao

http://www.screencast.com/users/Bumzzzerrr#

Mental Health Apps

On my way to work the other day I was listening (as usual) to NPR. There was a spot on the newest Applications for Smart Phones. My ears perked up. The apps they were talking about were developed for Psychology and Psychiatry. I really started to pay attention. Maybe there was something I could use to lower my current stress level while on the go.

One app that was explained was very simple. You opened the app and on the touch screen indicate how your feeling: good - not so good...stressed - really stressed...!!!
When you've related you state of mind the app will give you a suggestion on how to handle your mental situation. For example, if you tell it you are feeling extremely stressed it might respond with "Breathe dummy".

All kidding aside. The only reason I mention this is because they also interview someone from the University of Pittsburgh. Judy Callan, a researcher at Pitt is developing one of these apps. the app moves progressively along as the patient's mental health moves forward. I'll attach the link so you can listen to one of our own.

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3&prgDate=5-24-2010

What may become Nostalgia

Being immersed in technology and the internet for the last two weeks a particular segment of Weekend edition on NPR caught my attention and left me feeling a bit nostalgic for the "good ol' days" of music stores where one could "browse" the vinyl lining the shelves. I was always anxious to see what photo my favorite musical group had chosen of themselves to decorate the front of their albums.

MP3 technology, Ipods and online downloadable music will probably do away with the "walk-in" music store all together. We will have traded an activity that stimulated both the audio, the visual as well as the tactile experience for convenience. The connectivity will be changed and I'll be able to reminisce with my grandchildren about how we used to buy music in the "good ol' days".

I've tried to link the audio file to my blog so you can hear for yourself the story about the oldest record store that may die of natural causes:
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=7

Chat room experience

I am enjoying the class work for both courses of the MLIS program, but the connections that have to be made with the university via blackboard and Pitt remote are frustrating. I could not join the chat last night. It gave me the message "Mac OS 8 & 9 are not supported" Well, that's fine because I run OS X so why am I having problems?

I like using Firefox as a browse but that is something new for me as well. I am used to safari. I am not a computer geek. It takes me a while to assimilate.

In the May 19th lecture there was discussion or reference to writing htlm code in the future. The last time I did any sort of programing was as an undergraduate at Shippensburg as a Chem major in the 80s ("how old is she?"). Fortran was a programming class that all majors had to take (Chem majors as a rule no longer take programing classes).

This was before PCs. You entered the program you had written from a terminal, hit the run button and it was fed into the mainframe.

I remember sitting at my terminal (terminals had numbers) along with at least 20 other students who either had entered their programs or were in the process of loading it and slowly but surely all activity would come to a stop and we would all sit and wait...

Finally, a tech would come out of the mainframe room into the terminal room and shout, "Who loaded their program on terminal number so and so? You've a loop. We have to shut down the mainframe. It will be an hour before we can run the other programs" Invariably it was my program with the infinite loop.

So...along with the technical difficulties that I am having with connecting to important software that I need for the courses I now have to face my worst nightmare...programming.

I am calm now, but this morning at 2:30AM I was not.
Oh did I mention that I get up for work at 5AM...
Yes, I am venting...why don't I feel any better...maybe chocolate?

Setting Up the Blog

After the first wave of nausea subsided I set off to create my first blog.

I have never thought of myself as the blogging type.
I think I understand the purpose of the exercise.
It is a way for like-minded individuals to share ideas and information.

I have viewed the class video and the powerpoint.
I have read the 3 chapters for the first week.

I'll comment on the video for this week and the OCLC report in a future post.

Forward Hoo!