My Technology Addictions

I seem to have started a few posts saying I can’t believe it is ……. since I posted to my blog and here I go again. Wow haven’t done anything since December ‘07 . I came to have a look at the many many spam comments that have come into my blog and delete them, because of this I have set comments to approval before they are seen. Then I thought I would have a look at what new themes were available and selected one.

After doing this I thought I had better not be so slack and actually create a post so ……. here it is.

I have been so busy over the past term, I have taken on some extra work at TAFE and most of my classes have kids between 16 - 18 who would normally be in the school system but due to one thing or another school has not worked for them. In Western Australia we have a policy where students need to be in full time education or work until the end of the year they turn 17. So if school doesn’t fit they have come to TAFE. Having these kids for 13 hours over three days is full on and this combined with my software development business has not left me much time and as such almost all of my online activities have suffered, until now - school holidays the following images sums things up nicely especially with my recent train trips to Perth and my lack of internet access on my ancient nokia phone.

Geek and Poke Sounds of Silence

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Geek and Poke Twitter Abstinence Syndrome

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I have met some really great people on twitter and facebook and my friends and followers continue to grow. Having these online contacts is good especially when working from home as it stops me feeling isolated. So if you haven’t yet used twitter or facebook have a go and see what you think. As with most things on a computer if you have a use for it whether it is software, online communities or even surfing the internet you will pursue with it if not you may view these things as time wasters but you wont know unless you try them yourself. Anyway enough chat for one night and with lots more thoughts rattling around in my head I will be coming a back a bit more often, hopefully someone will still be reading this.

1. Delegate Christmas Shopping

I know I haven’t been around much but seemed to run out of steam as the year comes to a close. I had a week of not being well and that just rounded it all off. I didn’t even get one Christmas present brought and had to send the family out to do it all on the Monday before Christmas. They did really well and only took 2 hours - maybe that would be a better plan for next year also. So after 25 years this year 2007 was the first time the hubby did the Christmas shopping

2. Created New Domains and Website for Software

So I am slowing getting back on board. I have set up a new site for my business software at http://redfrogsoftware.net and obtained a few new domain names for our EnviroHealthManager software, so watch out for envirohealthmanger.com.au

3. Created new Blog

When I created the new website http://redfrogsoftware.net I also learnt how to create a new blog using wordpress and even how to add new themes and customise. That was fun and new as when we using edublogs some wordpress features are locked down. I will use the new Red Frog Software blog for software updates and to keep clients informed of new developments etc.

4. Installed Snitter

After catching up with Sue Waters I have also installed and am running Snitter to view and use twitter - that is really fun and easy to use. Sue has written a create post about how you can get more out of Twitter go have a look.

5. Created an Elf or two

I had some fun after everyone disappeared from twitter tonight and got elfed - actually Sue and I got elfed. You can see all the action dancing and singing Frances and Sue elfs and even create your own.

6. Train trip from Mandurah to Perth

Today we went on our first train ride from Mandurah to Perth, the service opened on 23rd December after a few delays. It was fantastic , I was so impressed its such an easy way to travel to Perth and the many stops in between. I went with my husband and our teenage daughter (she has never been to the city shops before, she had a ball) a all day family pass was $8.10 . We are going back on Monday for more shopping!!

The trip takes 48 minutes to Perth stopping at all stops and about 25 minutes from Mandurah to Murdoch. It will certainly make university, work and further education a lot easier for those living in Mandurah and mean that a lot of kids won’t have to move away from their families to go to university. And also for people who live in Perth it gives you a quick and easy way to come down and see us and the wonderful place where we live. Last train from Perth on Friday night leaves around 2am - cheaper than a speeding or DD fine and quicker too Whoo Hoo!!

7. Sunset Photos

Over the road from my house is land that was undeveloped bush when we brought our house two years ago. Since then it has been developed into tiny 300m2 blocks which after 12 months still remain empty - no houses. This creates a fair bit of dust that blows straight through our place but also means we have an unobscured view of the wonderful sunsets we get living so close to the Ocean. I noticed the great clouds formations on the way home from work last month and went in and got my camera. These photos are taken from the front of my house.

8. Discovered Fly Lady

Twitter is a truly wonderful thing. It can be a bit of a time waster if you let it but I have found that it has opened the world to me. I have many people in my twitter stream that I have never met but we have common interests. Tonight I was given a link to a website called Fly Lady - your Personal Online coach to help you gain control of your house and home. This is something that I definitely need and will be pursuing - thanks to Russell Montgomery

9.Weather Watch

I found a great weather watch program that gives me a 10 day forecast Weather Watcher there is also a mobile version Weather Watcher Mobile for Pocket PC’s and Smartphones and the best part is that it is freeware.

10. Used Amazon

I used Amazon to order some books for the first time. I have used Amazon to search for books and reviews but have never purchased from them as I prefer to buy ‘local’. I decided to give it a go as the books I wanted were cheaper than I could get locally even with the shipping factored in. So I am eagerly awaiting my first order from Amazon, should be here in a couple of weeks.

So thats my quick warp up of some of the things I have been up to, see Sue I did get it done !! Now that it is 4am I think I will go off to bed . I have just realised that I could have added another one - made it through our sweltering 44c Boxing Day heat - so thankful we have air conditioning.

I hope to be back posting more regularly in 2008 see you then

Last week I spent my days checking, checking , checking my code in my Enviro Health Program as we had a demonstration to a new client on Friday. As usual while doing this I was also fiddling with some of the graphics I have made for buttons and logos that are used in the program. Depending on which device I test it one and the screen resolutions I can get a great looking image or a really bad looking one. I was trying to get images that worked well on any device.

This is when I got a bit distracted. I decided to create a desktop wallpaper with the Red Frog logo and that turned out really well. Then I thought it would be good to have the same logo on the device so went of hunting for a program to create themes.

I came across a couple of different programs when reading forums and settled on was ThemeGenCE. This is a freeware program and has a great tutorial that makes it very easy to understand and follow, and is also a very quick process.

You can make themes for all different versions and screen size Windows based PDA’s

Here are a few I made - Have a go yourself it is great fun

Beach Theme

Sunset Theme

Red Frog logo Theme

Tafe Theme

Enviro Health Manager

We were all told that as technology advanced we would have more leisure time, time to spend with loved ones and pursuing our recreational desires. So why do I now find that I need a 10 day week so that I can get through all my work and still end up working most weekend?

Well in my case I can’t really blame anyone else for my need of more days in the week or working through the weekend. I have been in the last stages of software development for the Mobile Audits program that I have developed in my business About Data to be used by Environmental Health Officers of Local Governments.

This enables them to complete audits of Food Premises, Lodging Houses, Public Buildings and General Premises all through a PDA. The information is collected in the field and then on return to the office the PDA is connected to the desktop computer and then all data is synchronized to a SQL Server database.

My business partner Sandra Morley from Sanmor Computing has developed the desktop component of the software. The Enviro Health Manager system that is on the desktop is very complex and includes, Health Notice, Pest Management, Unit Cost and Waste Management.

The software with the PDA component has been tested in the field by the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder over the past two years.

On October 4th and 5th we visited the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder and installed the latest version of the software. It has been upgraded to now include:

: Property based data

: SQL Server data file

: PDA component to manage in the field audits

: Proprietor/manager signature capture

: Fully compliant with the new legislation

: Health Notice, Pest Management, Unit Cost and Waste Management

: Onsite Training

: Ability to integrate the EHM application with LGA’s financial management system

It has been a massive project, and we encountered several hurdles but in the end we have come through it all with a solid product that allows Local Government to manage their data in an efficient and effective manner.

So now all the hard work is done we are on the marketing trail, flyer’s have been produced and are in the process of being sent to all Local Governments in Western Australia. This will be followed by information packs to be delivered in early 2008.

So now you know why I haven’t been around online, and may not be around much in the nest few months. I will now start working on Swimming Pool audits and the list goes on, but I do really enjoy my work so it is all worth it in the long run.

Five Weeks of Fun

I haven’t written a post for nearly 2 months but have been spending nearly ever day of the past 2 months on my laptop, I have been teaching and developing software. This is a short rundown of my experience with a group of great teenagers that I introduced to the web one day a week over a five week period.
In the last term of school I have had a group of 14, 15 year olds for one day a week over 5 weeks showing them all the wonders of the web. They were a great group of kids from 3 different high schools, they created blogs, added to a class wiki, created iGoogle pages and lastly created podcasts.

I was surprised how little of these technologies they knew or had even heard about. I think the more we use these things like blogs, wiki’s flickr, twitter and facebook ourselves we assume that others, especially the teenagers also know about them. They had a great knowledge of what games they can play online, chat programs and some knew about MySpace and most had an email account and all knew about YouTube, but that was about it. They did not know what Blogs, wiki’s or podcasts were.
The challenge with this group was how to show them how to use these technologies, keep it interesting, relevant and get through the work in the small amount of time we had. They had set tasks to complete each week and this was all detailed for them on a class wiki that I set up, this also contains links to their blogs, del.icio.us accounts and podcasts.

When it came to creating podcasts I had visions of copyright issues spinning around in my head and eventually I thought of using Nursery Rhymes. I decided that the easiest way to get them to create their podcasts was to give them a list of Nursery Rhymes. These are the steps that they followed:

They each picked one Nursery Rhyme and then created a PowerPoint presentation of the Nursery Rhyme.

A new slide was used for each line of the Nursery Rhyme and they had to add appropriate images.

The slides from the Presentation were saved as images, a handy feature of PowerPoint.

Then using Windows Movie Maker they imported the slides, recorded the Rhyme and added transitions and effects.

Once this stage was completed they saved the Movie file.

Then using SUPER © they converted it to a mp4 format.

I created a podomatic site for the class, they uploaded their podcasts and now they can been seen by all.

Most of them created 2 podcasts and really enjoyed it, although some of the recordings don’t sound “too enthusiastic“, as the first thing they said when recording their voices was ” I don’t sound like that!”.

All in all it was a great exercise, exhausting but enjoyable. My adventure into the world of web 2 and more my inspiration and knowledge comes from my friend Sue who introduced and taught me how to use them. She is a wealth of knowledge and shares it with all, thanks Sue