Author: jamesclay

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Pleaaaasssee be a little faster!

I have no idea why, but my iMac can be so slow at times…

This is a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 2 GB of RAM, so I am guessing that this really should be a fast computer, certainly faster than my old G4 PowerBook!

However at times it slows down to a real crawl, so slow that all I get is the spinning beachball of death!

However all is not lost I know why.

I run too many applications at once and I run them hard.

For example I will usually have three browsers open all with multiple tags. I also visit sites which have lots of javascript and ajax in them (such as WordPress blogs and Jaiku).

I do run a few PowerPC legacy applications (namely Word and Firefox).

I will have iPhoto and iTunes running in the background as well.

I would suspect that running EyeTV and EyeHome in the background also adds to the load.

So it’s not really the iMac’s fault, I know it’s all mine!

In theory what I should do is run a single application only and then open the others as and when I need them.

In theory that is a good idea.

In reality I don’t work that way.

Maybe I need a stack of computers with multiple spaces on a single monitor that allow me to work the way I want to without loading the lot so much so slow it right down to a crawl.

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PDFs (well Acrobat) crashing Safari

Having a few issues since I had my MacBook Pro upgraded to Leopard with the way in which Acrobat interacts with Safari.

Everytime I try and open a PDF from Safari, it crashes…

error message…

It appears to be related to Acrobat, specifically, the AdobeSelfHealing plug-in!

Solution delete the Adobe PDF plug-in hopefully. Though this does mean Safari will use Preview instead of Acrobat.

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Web 2.0 Adverts

BBC reports on how credit companies are using Facebook to advertise their wares.

Credit companies are using the Facebook social networking site to target young people, a debt charity has warned.

Credit Action says adverts promising cheap loans for people with poor credit ratings are appearing on the site and many break advertising regulations.

In particular, they are promoting two new products – payday loans secured against a salary or logbook loans secured against a car, it says.

It is an issue with any advertising based Web 2.0 service and one that you do need to consider if you are considering using Web 2.0 services within an educational institution.

Blocking the ads though may be considered one option, this generally doesn’t work for learners who are accessing the services outside the institution.

Even this blog has advertising inserted by WordPress.com over which I have no control and therefore if you found this blog through Google I suspect that there may be a credit advert embedded into the page.

On my eLearning Stuff blog this happens most times that a new viewer searches Google and finds a link to my site in the search results and clicks through as seen here.

Web 2.0 Adverts

I have no control over those adverts and they are based on the text of my entry (and who is visiting), therefore you could potentially have an unsuitable advert. Now these are text based adverts so offence is less likely.

I could of course move the blog to my own web host and lose all the advertising, but the advantage of WordPress.com is that it is a free service and I don’t need to pay for hosting or bandwidth. Of course the real price I then have to pay is on the inserted advertising.

No such thing as a free lunch!

However other Web 2.0 services (such as Facebook)  use banner and image based adverts and therefore there could be some unsuitable advertising.

I recall looking at a video streaming service and the two I looked at Stickam and Ustream, I chose Ustream as the adverts on Stickam could potentially cause offence.

As with any website (or service) which depends on advertising, there is a risk that there may be unsuitable advertising content over which you have little or no control.

It’s all about making a compromise between paying for services through upfront costs or using free services which are funded through advertising. What should we do as institutions?

Personally I believe that the decision about which services we should use it being made for us, by our learners.

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Fed up with Facebook

It would appear that I am not the only one fed up with Facebook applications. I do like the social and interactivity that Facebook provides, however I am fed up with the super pokes, the zombies, the quizzes and so on…

Mashable undertook a poll of their readers and the resounding response was people were fed up with Facebook.

The results were a fairly resounding “yes.” In our most active poll ever, only 13% of you said that you are “Not At All” fed up with the social network and are still enjoying it just as much as when you signed up.

Does this mean we are seeing the decline of Facebook (as we did with Friendster) and seeing an opening for a new social networking site?

Are you fed up with Facebook?

What is going to be the next “thing” that will replace Facebook?

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Slow

I maybe getting spoiled.

I am feeling that my G4 PowerBook is somewhat on the slow side.

Now it could be that I have been using way too many Intel Macs recently and as a result, the G4 is not slow, just slow compared to them!

Or it could be the wealth of Web 2.0 services out there and Ajax is playing havoc with my browsers and memory. If I surf simple sites such as the BBC News, then no real problems; problems arise if I use Jaiku, Twitter or WordPress (ie this blog).

The thing is it doesn’t really matter which browser I use either, whether it be Flock or Firefox or Safari.

I think I am getting spoiled, now the question is, if I upgrade the PowerBook to Leopard 10.5, will that make any difference, make it worse or make it better.

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Good article on wireless security

When it comes to wireless security there are lots of myths out there.

Ars Technica has published a nice article on wireless security which covers many of the key issues and importantly debunks some of the myths out there as well.

The SSID (Service Set Identifier) is an identification code (typically a simple name) broadcast by a wireless router. If a wireless device detects multiple SSIDs from multiple access points (APs), it will typically ask the end-user which one it should connect to. Telling a router not to broadcast its SSID may prevent basic wireless access software from displaying the network in question as a connection option, but it does nothing to actually secure the network. Any time a user connects to a router, the SSID is broadcast in plaintext, regardless of whether or not encryption is enabled. SSID information can also be picked up by anyone listening to the network in passive mode.

Read more.

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Video killed the internet… or will it!

Ten years ago most of used the net for usenet, e-mail and browsing was in the main text with a few pictures.

Today the internet is a much richer in terms of content, and video is a big part of this, anyone for YouTube?

However will this growth in video be the death of the internet?

The BBC reports on this very issue:

There is no doubt that video is big on the net. But is it getting too big?

Ask AT&T and it will answer – yes.

Speaking in London in late April, Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s vice president of legal affairs, said the burgeoning amount of video would consume all the net’s bandwidth in two years.

So will the interent collapse under the weight of a new richer internet, well I think not!

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Mobile Flash

The BBC reports that

Adobe has announced a plan to try to get its Flash player installed on more mobile devices and set-top boxes.

Dubbed Open Screen the initiative lifts restrictions on how its multimedia handling software can be used.
Adobe will stop charging licencing fees for mobile versions of Flash and plans to publish information about the inner workings of the code.

In taking this step Adobe hopes to repeat on mobiles the success its Flash technology has enjoyed on the web.

Interested to see if Flash lite supports more Flash content then it does now.