I don't even know what we want to do any more, what we can do. There are so many options for sharing media across all the platforms in your house. One really has to be careful about what you choose, because there could be something out there that does it better. Internet research is so important now days.
I'm going to have to answer these questions for myself soon because I'm going to want to play vob's I have on our HDTV without hooking up a lot of extra AV units. All we really have hooked up is our TiVo, Wii, and PS2. There's so much more we can do! But I really can't spend any more money on anything for like five years!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
phpESP
One of the best things about running your own server is the flexibility to add tools that you would otherwise have to pay money for.
I've been experimenting with phpESP, a survey tool that I hope we can use here at CE@UP to handle our own surveys without having to go to Marketing Research. They are fantastic there and are great for large-scale surveys. But, I wanted to have a tool that we could use here as well.
After I was able to install it the first time, I lost access to the account because of a bad password, or something like that. I'm giving it another try. I use a different set of install instructions and I hope I got it right this time.
The server seems to be holding so far. The survey site is available here. Now I just have to populate it with a basic survey.
I've been experimenting with phpESP, a survey tool that I hope we can use here at CE@UP to handle our own surveys without having to go to Marketing Research. They are fantastic there and are great for large-scale surveys. But, I wanted to have a tool that we could use here as well.
After I was able to install it the first time, I lost access to the account because of a bad password, or something like that. I'm giving it another try. I use a different set of install instructions and I hope I got it right this time.
The server seems to be holding so far. The survey site is available here. Now I just have to populate it with a basic survey.
Buffalo LinkStation Live
I've been trying to solve this problem of how I can share all our documents, music, photos, installers, etc. across our network and when I'm at the office.
Previously, I had to use my MacBook as a file server. Given it's relatively small drive, I had to hook up my two external hard drives to it directly. It ceased to be portable. I couldn't use my G4 PowerMac or PowerBook, so that left me with my MacBook.
I took the plunge for a NAS last week and it's up and running. It looks like a great system that can serve up our files and provide backup options if I hook up an external drive to it.
My biggest problem right now is getting our files on to it. I've got over 350GB of files and transferring them via ethernet is going to take a while. If it were only that, I could wait. In fact, we'd probably be finished now. The real problem is that my Mac isn't copying all of the files. I'll leave it and then return to find that the copying process has halted and I don't really know what has and what hasn't been copied.
I should probably write the MacCast and find out what they have to say, because this is really frustrating.
Previously, I had to use my MacBook as a file server. Given it's relatively small drive, I had to hook up my two external hard drives to it directly. It ceased to be portable. I couldn't use my G4 PowerMac or PowerBook, so that left me with my MacBook.
I took the plunge for a NAS last week and it's up and running. It looks like a great system that can serve up our files and provide backup options if I hook up an external drive to it.My biggest problem right now is getting our files on to it. I've got over 350GB of files and transferring them via ethernet is going to take a while. If it were only that, I could wait. In fact, we'd probably be finished now. The real problem is that my Mac isn't copying all of the files. I'll leave it and then return to find that the copying process has halted and I don't really know what has and what hasn't been copied.
I should probably write the MacCast and find out what they have to say, because this is really frustrating.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Seesmic
Larry just stopped by and introduced me to this site. It's a videoblogging site that emphasizes threaded discussions. Looks like it's Flash-based and free. Could be an interesting tool for online and blended courses.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Oracle to iPhone
There isn't much out there, but I did find this pretty cool way that will potentially allow me to at least pull my Oracle calendar into Apple's iCal so that I can sync events that way. I found this article from a different UIC webpage on general Oracle use.
