Saving web page to pdf

February 12th, 2010

Sometimes it is a good idea to save a web page to a pdf file. For instance, I have just discovered that the quality newspaper Bangkok Post’s online pages are just free for the first 60 days after publication.

wine

The article above discusses how sensors are used in a Thai vineyard. Since my students are hungry for local use of sensors I wanted to save the page as pdf.

There are several ways to do this. The best result I got with PDF Download which is a free Internet service. I dragged an icon called ‘Save Page as PDF’  to my browser’s Bookmarks toolbar (I use Chrome), and when I find a web page to convert, I simply click Save Page as PDF and wait a moment to receive my PDF copy.

I tried PrimoPDF, but when I printed to its driver the result was not identical to the original. There are add-ons for Firefox that saves the entire web page as an image, but since people are more familiar with PDF files, and one may add text to them with CuteFTP, I prefer the pdf solution. It should be noted that the PDF files are really just images, one may not select part of the text.

When will we train students to be more than second hand calculators?

February 12th, 2010

Maxima is a piece of software that can solve problems symbolically as well as numerically. I downloaded it last week and have played with it for two days. Yesterday I gave it a test my students struggled with earlier this week. Click here to see how it did.

I found lots of help at this forum.

The questions it raises are: Why train the students to solve problems the computer can solve faster and better? It is similar to the question, Why teach students algorithms for square roots or long division when calculators do it better?

The second question I find more interesting: How may students be trained to solve problems the computer is not good at? There is no algorithm for discovering problems, for setting up a model that fits a situation, for interpreting the result the model gives you, for discussing the weaknesses of a model, … When will we train students to be more than second hand calculators?

Macros makes life easier

January 16th, 2010

The last two weeks my year 10 ICT students have designed a booking sheet for cinemas. The client (me) had these requirements:

Client’s requirements:
1. Simple to use and learn.
2. Should show all seats for a given performance (rows=23, seats in a row=20, you decide where the passageways are).
3. Use colour code to show seats taken (vacant or free, reserved, taken, price, backup seats)
4. Calculate:
a. # seats taken (total number and in %)
b. total income
New requirements:
1. The price of a seat depends on the location in the cinema and if the customer is a child or an adult.
2. Please protect the cells where one is not supposed to enter information so they will not be overwritten by mistake.
3. Add pie charts to show the various incomes.
4. The prices may change often so make it easy to change them.
5. The program should calculate the cost for each customer and the change they should receive.

1. Simple to use and learn.

2. Should show all seats for a given performance (rows=23, seats in a row=20, you decide where the passageways are).

3. Use colour code to show seats taken (vacant or free, reserved, taken, price, backup seats)

4. Calculate:

a. # seats taken (total number and in %)

b. total income

New requirements:

1. The price of a seat depends on the location in the cinema and if the customer is a child or an adult.

2. Please protect the cells where one is not supposed to enter information so they will not be overwritten by mistake.

3. Add pie charts to show the various incomes.

4. The prices may change often so make it easy to change them.

5. The program should calculate the cost for each customer and the change they should receive.

Today each student or student pair demonstrated (defended) their solution for their peers using the projector on the front computer. Many solutions were excellent, but I could see how macros could make them even more useful.

Macros and programming are not part of the syllabus, but even so on Monday I will tempt their intellectual taste buds with the following.

Sub costandchange

Sheet = thisComponent.Sheets(“Sheet1″)

income = Sheet.getCellRangeByName(“D4″)

oldincome = Sheet.getCellRangeByName(“D5″)

cost = income.value – oldincome.value

received = InputBox (chr(13)+ “The cost is ” + cost + “.” + chr(13) + chr(13)+ “Received:”,”Cinema”)

moneychange = val(received) – val(cost)

msgbox “Change = ” + received + ” – ” + cost + ” = ” + moneychange,,”Cinema”

oldincome.value = income.value

End Sub

The user enters a and c for adults and children and with countif() functions the total income is calculated in D4.

What happens when a new customer buys some tickets? Without a macro you have to type a and c in the cells/seats where they will sit and then type the number of as and cs to find the total cost and later the change they should receive.

With the macro above it is enough to mark the sheet with as and cs. The trick consists in having the total income in both D4 and D5. When as and cs are entered D4 changes, but D5 does not. D4-D5 gives therefore the total cost for the customer.

I found the code tips I needed here.

Sharing Internet links

January 15th, 2010
From time to time teachers at my school emails all their colleagues recommending web sites. The last one I got yesterday:

If you do get on the internet, this will interest many: http://www.global-issues-network.org/

I have been wondering how these web site recommendations could be saved and made available to anyone interested (teachers, students, parents, …).

One possibility is to use the free Internet service diigo.com.

Diigo is about better ways to research, share and collaborate on information.

Please have a look at my diigo as an example: http://www.diigo.com/user/jannordgreen.

The My Library tab lets you see links posted. Links can be added to lists. Links can be found by tags or by various searching techniques.

The My Network tab shows what others say about the links I have and allows me to see the links of those who share a link of mine. It also gives a link to the people I follow and who follows me.

The My Groups tab shows the groups I follow and description of them. At the moment I have four groups. Diigo in Education is one of them.

I am wondering if the school librarian could be in charge of this service for the school. People could continue to email suggestions of educational links and the librarian could add them to the school’s diigo site. The difficult task is to decide on tags and lists for easy location of links. Who could do this better than a librarian?!

A link can be assigned tags and that way I can give a link to students of my classes showing just the relevant links for that class. http://www.diigo.com/user/jannordgreen/itgs news gives my links for my ITGS class.

Diigo has other features, but this is a beginning. Personally I have a free educational account and can add students to it. My first thought was to to use delicious.com for this, but the Yahoo ID requirement they just launched put me off.
http://support.delicious.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=3499

Writing on a pdf file

January 15th, 2010

Let’s say you want your students to practice past exam papers that you have in pdf format. Do you print them out and give a copy to each student or is there a way that uses less paper?

With Foxit Reader you can let your students write on the pdf file electronically. The same can not be done with Adobe Reader.

foxit

The text in blue was typed using the Typewriter Tool.

When the file is saved and opened again there are three lines at the top of every page that can be removed if you buy the Foxit Reader Pro Pack. Foxit Reader is free and the added lines don’t bother me for this use.

How to post at a shared Wordpress blog

December 3rd, 2009
Below are instructions for how to create a post.
If you need practical assistance, please see me in computer Lab 1. On Wednesdays I am not teaching the first three periods and on Tuesdays I am available periods 3 and 4. If that does not suit you, please talk to me so we can find another time.
To log in:
———-
Go to http://www.easyquestion.net/gardenrayong/wp-login.php
Username: Mr Moroney
Password: d5veGEfe
To create a post with text only:
——————————————–
Click “New Post” at the top of the screen.
Wait till a new window opens.
Where the cursor is blinking, type a title.
In the big box below, type a post.
On the right, choose a category. If you don’t find a suitable category ask Dave to add one.
On the right, click “Submit for Review”.
Wait till a new window opens.
At the top it says “Post submitted. Preview post”.
In the upper-right corner, click “Log Out”.
To create a post with text and images:
——————————————————-
As above, plus add an image like this:
Place the cursor in the post where you want the image to appear.
Below the title, next to “Upload/Insert”, click the first icon. When the mouse hover over it, it says “Add an Image”.
Wait till a new window opens in the center of the screen.
Click “Select Files”.
Select the image on your computer and click “Open”.
The image should be max 500px wide. If it is wider, use Irfanview to reduce it. If you don’t know how, please ask.
The image should be gif, png, jpg, or jpeg. Do not upload bmp.
The file name should have no spaces in it. Rename “nice flowers.jpg” to “nice_flowers.jpg”.
Wait while the program is crunching the image.
Scroll down and click “Insert into Post”.
Wait till a new window opens.
Now do as above, choose category and click “Submit for Review”.

If you need assistance, please email me at jannordgreen@gmail.com or come and see me.

To log in:

  1. Go to: http://www.gardenrayong.com/newsblog/wp-admin
  2. Username:  (this you will receive by email)
  3. Password:  (this you will receive by email)

To create a post with text only:

  1. Click “New Post” at the top of the screen.
  2. Wait till a new window opens.
  3. Where the cursor is blinking, type a title.
  4. In the big box below, type a post.
  5. On the right, choose a category. If you don’t find a suitable category ask Dave to add one.
  6. On the right, click “Submit for Review”.
  7. Wait till a new window opens.
  8. At the top it says “Post submitted. Preview post”.
  9. In the upper-right corner, click “Log Out”.

To create a post with text and images:

As above, plus add an image like this:

  1. Place the cursor in the post where you want the image to appear.
  2. Below the title, next to “Upload/Insert”, click the first icon. When the mouse hover over it, it says “Add an Image”.
  3. Wait till a new window opens in the center of the screen.
  4. Click “Select Files”.
  5. Select the image on your computer and click “Open”.
  6. The image should be max 500px wide. If it is wider, use Irfanview to reduce it. If you don’t know how, please ask.
  7. The image should be gif, png, jpg, or jpeg. Do not upload bmp.
  8. The file name should have no spaces in it. Rename “nice flowers.jpg” to “nice_flowers.jpg”.
  9. Wait while the program is crunching the image.
  10. Add a descriptive title. It will show when someone moves the mouse over the image.
  11. Add a caption if you like.
  12. If you are not going to show the image in full size, click “File URL” and “Thumbnail”.
  13. Click “Insert into Post”.
  14. Wait till a new window opens.

Now do as above, choose category and click “Submit for Review”.

To improve the description above please post a comment below or email me at jannordgreen@gmail.com.

Remote control

October 8th, 2009

When you want to solve a problem for someone far away it may be easier to take control of their machines for a while while they watch on their monitor what you are doing.

There are several free services for this:

TeamViewer establishes connections to any PC or server all around the world within just a few seconds. You can remote control your partner’s PC as if you were sitting right in front of it. Find out why more than 15.000.000 users trust TeamViewer!

Fast – simple – safe.

It is interesting to see how a teacher discovered the service through Twitter.

Video cropping

August 30th, 2009

Sometimes I need to show to my students only part of a video I have downloaded. So, how does one crop a video?

Format Factory is a free program that does the job perfectly. Below is an example of a crop I just did. Find the mistake in what is being said by the math expert.

In the UK around 3,400 people die each year in road accidents. That means there is a 1 in 200 chance that anyone of us will die the same way.

Format Factory also converts wav files to mp3. Very convenient as my voice recorder uses wav files while the plugin for playing sound on a Wordpress blog requires the mp3 format.

IBM Office for free

August 22nd, 2009

ibmoffice

With the introduction of Lotus Symphony age-old rivals, IBM and Microsoft, will again compete with each other. The Lotus Symphony is a free office suite, targeting Microsoft’s golden hen, MS Office. IBM reports that its new office suite offers millions of companies and consumers the chance to save hundreds of dollars on each of their Microsoft Office licenses by providing support for Microsoft Office 2007 with the newest version of Lotus Symphony, IBM’s free of charge productivity software suite. This could translate into millions of dollars in savings at many large companies that are looking for financial relief in the current economy.
The ability to import Microsoft Office 2007 files into Symphony means that Microsoft Office customers can save on licensing costs by switching to Symphony while retaining access to, and easy use of, the contents of their Office files.

With the introduction of Lotus Symphony age-old rivals, IBM and Microsoft, will again compete with each other. The Lotus Symphony is a free office suite, targeting Microsoft’s golden hen, MS Office. IBM reports that its new office suite offers millions of companies and consumers the chance to save hundreds of dollars on each of their Microsoft Office licenses by providing support for Microsoft Office 2007 with the newest version of Lotus Symphony, IBM’s free of charge productivity software suite. This could translate into millions of dollars in savings at many large companies that are looking for financial relief in the current economy.

The ability to import Microsoft Office 2007 files into Symphony means that Microsoft Office customers can save on licensing costs by switching to Symphony while retaining access to, and easy use of, the contents of their Office files. – Read more

IBM Lotus Symphony has a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and browser. It does not have a data base program.

However,

The new version of Symphony allows users to drag-and-drop plug-ins, extending its use to other business applications.

By the way:

Symphony is based on an older version of OpenOffice.org, although the code has been heavily modified by IBM.

I downloaded it from here.

Protecting the data on your USB stick

August 22nd, 2009

I have put all the data I currently use on an 8GB USB stick.

The other data has been archived on an external hard drive with copy on another external hard drive.

My main reason for putting all the data on a USB stick was for it to be portable. Regardless if I am at home, at school, or travelling I will always have the data available.

The data is backuped regularly to my laptop’s hard drive using the free and easy to use backup and synchronisation program EZBack-it-up.

Now, what can go wrong with this setup? Quite a few things, actually.

I may forget the USB stick in a computer
For this not to happen I put the USB cap near the keyboard to remind me that the USB stick is not in my pocket. Other people attach the USB to their key chain, so when they try to get into their car or house they suddenly remember that they have left the USB stick behind. Others tie it to a string that goes around their ancle. And so on, and so on.

Somebody wrote a little program that reminds the user that a USB stick is in the drive when they shut off the computer. The sad thing is that the script does not work with Windows XP Home Edition. A more serious objection is that I want the script to run when I log off, not when I turn off the machine. I have searched high and low for such a program, but without any luck.

Rename the USB stick

RENAME

Students and teachers rather often leave their USB drive behind. To find who the owner is I normally have to open some of the files (break of privacy) to get a clue. A few knowledgeable users have named their USB stick. When I open it in My Computer (Windows Explorer) I immediately see who the owner is. In the illustration above, two USB sticks are connected to the computer. One has been renamed (drive E) while the other (drive G) still has the name of the USB brand. To rename the USB stick, just right-click it and choose Rename.

Adding a text file called ‘Contact information for the owner of this USB stick’ in the root folder is another good idea.

If you find this USB stick please call 123-456789 or send an email to elvispresley@gmail.com.

Kind regards,

Elvis Presley

I may lose the USB stick or it may be stolen
To avod this, you may carry the USB in a string around your neck or keep it in a pocket or compartment with a zipper.

If the worst comes to worst
Some of the data on your USB stick may be personal or confidential. If that is the case, you should password protect and encrypt the files. Who would carry in their pocket confidential information that is easily lost or forgotten? The sad truth is that we almost all do!

Password protect and encrypt your files
When you save a document in Open Office Writer you may add a password on the file:

save

password

When the file is saved it is also automatically encrypted so it can not be read by another program.

A more expensive option to keep all the data private is to use USB sticks that are unlocked using a finger scan.