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Google Bookmarks
Posted on May 15th, 2008 No commentsBookmarks(or Favorites in Internet Explorer) are often a mangled mess of links that you don’t always know where they go or you have a different collection on each computer, one set for your work computer and one set for your home computer.
Enter Google Bookmarks(http://www.google.com/bookmarks), google allows you to keep track of all your bookmarks online. And the great thing is if you use Firefox( if you’re not you should be) is that they have a great addon to help ease the use of google bookmarks. Here is the addon: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2448, so no matter where you are you will always have your bookmarks with you.
Another great thing about google bookmarks is that you can assign categories(I know IE and Firefox do this too) to make is easier to manage those links you were saving and to make it a bit easier on the eyes to sort through.
Words of Wisdom: Organizing your life with online access makes it much easier to work from anywhere at anytime.
Here’s a great resource for free online learning.
Til next time,
Ken -
Google Apps for Saline Area Schools
Posted on May 15th, 2008 No commentsLet’s talk about Google Apps (http://www.google.com/a/)
Next year Saline Area Schools will be moving to Google Apps and I wanted to give some links to some great training, faqs and resources that Google has provided for us. Here are the video tutorials: http://services.google.com/apps/training/index.html, here you will find all the training you will ever need along with FAQs and discussion boards.
Also, here is a short flash presentation showing all the Google apps features: https://services.google.com/apps/site/overview/index.html
If you have a gmail account then you will easily pick up Google Apps, it’s basically the same thing, just specific to Saline. Let me take a moment and answer a few questions regarding our migration:
Question: Will I have all my old email and folders?
Answer: Yes, you will have all your email and it will be labeled according to your folders, gmail uses labels instead of folders.Question: What about my Contacts?
Answer: We will transfer over all your contacts currently in your personal address book. The global addresss book, which has all saline.k12.mi.us addresses will also be available.Question: Will my email address change?
Answer: No, it will remain username@saline.k12.mi.usQuestion: How will I get to my email?
Answer: The same way you do now, either by logging into the website and clicking the link(the name of the link may change).Question: When will the migration occur?
Answer: In June, I can’t give an exact date yet but it will defintely be in June.If you have any more questions that the tutorials or FAQs can’t answer please email me: lupok
Words of Wisdom: The old software model of the past is an aging dinosaur, everything will be online and it will happen sooner than you think.
Interesting find: http://www.daskeyboard.com/ , it’s the craziest keyboard I have ever seen but it’ll rid you of looking at the keys.
Until next time,
Ken -
Creating PDFs
Posted on May 13th, 2008 No commentsMy topic for today is creating pdf files from any document.
On the Mac this is easily done. From the application you are working in go to File->Print(or ⌘ P for you short key people). When the print menu comes up you’ll see in the lower left hand corner a ‘pdf” button. Click the “pdf” button and select “Save as a PDF”. Here’s a picture:
On a PC it’s a little harder but not much. You’ll need to download an application called PDFCreator. The nice thing is it’s free and it works great. You can download it here. I’ve used PDFCreator for years and it has always worked great. Once you have it installed and you have your document open you want to create a PDF with go to File->Print or Alt+P(shortcut key) and choose the PDFCreator printer. That’s it! You’re done.
For Saline Area Schools Staff to quote Eddie:
“Keep in mind you staff out there that the Windows tip above will not work for you here in the district. Since you can not install any software on a district workstation, you should go to our PDF Creator on the Printserver instead (Start>Run then enter \\printserver and then double click to install it in your profile). After you have printed to it, you then go to the Commons folder and then go to the PDF folder within. Your document will be inside. Remember to delete it afterwords, please.
On the Mac it still works the same way as above.”Thanks Eddie.
Words of Wisdom: Don’t always think you need to buy software to do the task at hand, lots of time with a little googling around I’ve been able to find a solution that is free or nearly free.
If you have the time, here’s an interesting website I found for all the parents out there.
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Spam!
Posted on May 11th, 2008 No commentsLet’s talk about Spam…
Lately, I have been working diligently to get Saline up and running with our own Spam filter and here are some quick statistics since it’s been up and running.
2 day total volume: 78,941 email messages
percentage of Spam: 87.4%
dropped for no known user: 3,241
dropped because server is on a blacklist: 36,417
As you can seen very little email is actually valid email, it’s absolutely amazing how much junk comes in. So here’s a few tips to help reduce Spam:
1. Don’t sign up for lists – when given the option when you’re buying something and looking at a product, DO NOT sign up on their mailing list, make sure you uncheck that little box that says “keep me updated” or “send me emails”.
2. Do not respond to Spam or click any of the links in a spam message ever.
3. Think of your email as your personal phone number, only give it to people you would trust to call you either at home or the office.
4. Disguise your email address if you have to post it on a website, forum or blog. For example: user@user.com would be user(at)user(dot)com, this way the data miners won’t be able to pull out your email.
5. If you do want to sign up for things use an alternate email address. I myself use my gmail account for all purchases, mailing list info,etc. You have to remember that your school email is for school business only.
Words of Wisdom: Avoid using the “@” sign on the internet at all costs.
For those of you math nuts out there, this made me laugh:
