I figured it might be possible to record myself doing a problem on my tablet PC and then post it online at my math website.  It just seemed like it would be too time-consuming to do that.  That’s when I ran across Screentoaster.

Screentoaster runs a Java applet that will record your screen or a portion of the screen, with or without audio.  Since its a Java applet, it is compatible on any operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux).   After recording, you can make quick annotations which appear at the bottom of the screencast.  After finishing the video, you upload it to Screentoaster, which then makes it available via link, embedding, or as a downloadable .mov or .swf file.  The quality is fantastic while the file size is incredibly small.

Here’s an example of a math problem I worked out and posted to my website:

I almost gave up on local files altogether in favor of a completely online workflow using Google Docs.  But Google Docs was a bit too simplistic for some of my needs, especially when some of my files were graphics files made with Fireworks or Photoshop.  That’s when I ran into an article about Dropbox.

What Dropbox does is so elegant and simple its the kind of thing you wonder, “Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?”  After downloading and installing Dropbox, it places a folder (under My Documents by default) labeled “My Dropbox”.  When you put a file in here, Dropbox syncs it with their web servers and makes it available to you via a simple, clean online interface.  But that’s not where the magic happens.  If I have more than one computer, I can install Dropbox on every computer I use and configure it with the same login credentials on each computer.  Now, when I place a file into the Dropbox folder, it syncs it with every other computer that I have installed Dropbox on.  So, I create a file or change a file on my personal laptop, that creation/change gets synced out to my school laptop, my personal desktop, my office computer, etc.  The online interface keeps track of versions as well so I can revert to a previous version of a file if I need to.

Another plus to this is that each of those files is being backed up in multiple places as well as online.  If every one of my computers crashed and burned, I could still access my files through the online interface.  If I delete a file by accident, no problem, I can find it in the trash in the online interface for a certain number of days after I deleted it.

The best part about Dropbox is that its basic version is free.  Using the basic version, you get 2GB of space.  So far, using it regularly, I’m up to 1GB.  I’ll probably need to upgrade soon, which will be $10 a month for 50GB.  Or you can get 100GB for $20 a month.  Pretty good pricing for online backup, not to mention the ease of accessing your files on any computer you use.

For me, Dropbox has completely replaced flash storage.  I naturally store any file that I think I might possibly need to access on a different computer in my Dropbox folder.  And if I’m at a public computer, like at the library, I can upload a file to my Dropbox account using their online interface.  Awesome.

The only downside is that you need a broadband internet connection.  Some files can be very large and need to be transmitted over your internet connection to sync with your other computers.  I’ve had basic DSL as well as cable internet and have had good luck so far.

So visit getdropbox.com and watch their tour and see if it would work for you.  I’ve been really pleased with it so far.

FWIW, xkcd is normally hilarious and insightful, but occasionally a bit raunchy.  Read with caution.

First, some background info.  My blog was using a free template from Smashing Magazine called Color Paper.  When I set it up, my CSS coding skills were still a bit weak.  So I left it the way it came with no customization.  It looked good and seemed to work fine.  I was writing a post on tithing and realized it was time to upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress.  I found a plugin to upgrade automatically, installed it, ran it, and presto, my blog was gone.

That’s right, gone.  Blank page, no matter what I did.  I checked my database and thankfully everything was still there, I just couldn’t get anything to show up.  I tried reverting back to a previous version of Wordpress.  No luck.  Changed all the file permissions, just in case.  Nope.  I finally tracked down the problem which was with the free template I was running.

After fixing the template, running the upgrade, and finishing up my tithe post, I decided to go looking for a new template.  I went back to Smashing Magazine and found this free one, Agregado (portuguese for syndicate).  I really liked the layout and the extensions, but the color scheme was a bit girly for me.  So I decided to flex my CSS muscle and take a shot at customizing my own template.

Here it is.  I’m pretty pleased with how it came out.  I’ve still got some image icons to redo to fit my new color scheme, but I think the CSS stuff is basically done.  Let me know what you think.

So I thought maybe IE8 would work better (I was using IE7).  I went to download IE8 Beta 2 and when I clicked run, I was told that IE8 didn’t work with Vista.  Did you get that?  MS’s new browser doesn’t run under their new operating system.  Wow.  

So, I turned to my old trusty pal, Firefox (I’m actually writing this under Google Chrome because I thought I’d try it out).  I downloaded FF3 went to the MS site and started the Download Manager.  It worked.  I downloaded my copy of Vista Business and went about my upgrade.

To clarify, in order to get a copy of the software I was entitled to from Microsoft, I had to go to a different company’s browser in order to use Microsoft’s website.

A while back, I wrote sort of a position paper on why schools, churches, etc. should move away from Microsoft.  I’ll rework some of that and post it here soon.

So I logged into the backend, assessed the damage, contacted our host, and removed the offending files.  I got the site back up and it got hacked again.  As a matter of fact, it was the church site that got hacked, but they’re both on the same server so it affected both sites.  Well, I finally fixed it and found the problem and corrected it.

It turns out, when I built the church site, I used the then-current 1.5.4 version of Joomla.  They are now up to 1.5.8.  Apparently, there were some security issues with 1.5.4 that the hacker exploited.  So now the church and school sites have been upgraded to the latest versions and I’m keeping an eye on security updates.   And my task list is now longer than ever.

What?  Wordpress is at 2.6.3?  What am I running?  Oops, gotta go make some updates.