TTT 14-- Spyware!!!

This week's TTT offering aims to share some information that I actually want to share with you, as opposed to the information you may be unwittingly sharing with unscrupulous operators of spyware programs who have tricked or otherwise convinced you to install their automatic reporting software on your machine. This one's closely related to TTT 13, when we looked at Internet Pop-up Messages, because those messages often provide the way a lot of this stuff can propogate.

Be sure to see the original Wired Wednesday card in the sidebar if you're a paper-collecting sort of a fellow or lass, and I'm adding one link that might help you understand this whole topic better. Knowledge is power, don'tcha know: Wikipedia's comprehensive Spyware entry.

Download TechTipTuesday episode 14 here!

Music courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, a tidy little song called "Walkin' the Beat" by a one-man group appropriately named "Electric Spy!"

TTT 13 -- Internet Pop-up Messages

Greetings from the Sundog Bookstore coffeehouse in Seaside, Floriday. We're down here for Spring Break but I'm not forgetting what day of the week it is! In fact, I'm posting this on Monday! Okay, well, if you're a purist you don't have to listen until Tuesday!

If you've done any web-surfing at all you've encountered them, nagging very official-looking messages designed to make you click and hit a website which means to sell you something you don't want, don't need, and certainly won't be better off downloading onto your computer. Two words: "Ignore" and "them."

This week's TTT has some words of wisdom to help you identify and ignore those pop-up or embedded-on-the-page ads whose only real purpose in life is most likely to generate one more click an unscrupulous for which a web host can charge an advertiser. So what if it's only a tenth of a penny: enough of those, pardner, and you've got a buck...

I'm not sure how I pulled it off in one minute and 13 seconds, but this week's show features somewhere around 55 guest stars. Ms. Pitt's, Ms. Ackerman-Scott's, Mr. Amore's, and Ms. Noel's students help me out with TechTipTuesday shoutouts and my son Colin lends his voice-over talents when it comes time to demonstrate the pop-up examples. Life is grand! Listen to it here.


Music, as usual, is provided by the fine folks at the Podsafe Music Network, Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, mvt. 3 by Joseph Haydn, performed by Mario Ajero. Thanks to Joseph, to Mario, to Colin, and thanks again to my great kids at USN for their help!

Cheers!

TTT 12 -- Listservs!

It's an old concept, really--or at least relatively old as these things go. You sign up to receive periodic email messages from a group of like-minded collaborators. You can set your message preferences so that you receive every message any member sends to the "listserv," or one message a day, or one a week (called "digesting" one's messages). On all but the sleepiest of lists, I prefer the digest, else my email inbox becomes even more choked and unmanageable than it usually is. It's not blogging or wiki'ing or podcasting or any such trendy tech; it simply gets the job done. Want to discover a 3rd grade classroom somewhere that'll videoconference with yours? Pop out a post to ed1vidconf, the busy listserv for educators interested in IVC (interactive videoconferencing). Want to know what's new in cooking and food science? Join a listserv dedicated to that discussion. Gardening? Mandolin? Fishing? There's a listserv for every one of these and pretty much any interest you can name. Image courtesy of http://stuact.tamu.edu/.

TTT12 gives you, especially if you're an educator, some excellent starting tips on how to begin taking advantage of this sturdy technology. Get started today: You're missing the discussion!!!

Download TTT12 here. Be sure to grab the printable .pdf file in the bar to the right, should you be a hard-copy sort of earthling.

Music for today's podcast once again courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, a little untitled dance ditty from a guy who calls his "one-man-band" Roll On Red. Must be from Alabama, methinks!!! Cheers, and roll on listserv!!!!!


Links mentioned in today's podcast:

Topica--http://lists.topica.com
Yahoo!Groups--http://groups.yahoo.com
E-Mail Discussion Lists and Electronic Journals--http://www.ibiblio.org/edweb/lists.html
LISTSERV list by Subject--http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/listservs/subjectsearch.html

TTT 11 -- Get the Picture?

Our world is flooded with 'em: images, pictures, graphics, all those things you can look at and that you can use to support what you have to say--for others to look at. You have found the perfect example for your students or your audience, whatever it might be. How do you use it?

TTT episode 11 is all about getting the picture: Go to the Internet, find the picture, get the picture. It's as easy as all that. An important term in this episode is "right-click," that term denoting the use of the middle "tall man" finger on the mouse button you don't use very much. That button is designed to give you what's termed a "context menu," one that will differ depending on where your mouse cursor is located when you click it. Think of it as a "WhatCanIDoHere?" button. Yeah.

Copyright issues are as connected to this topic as cake is to ice cream, ya'll. It's not okay to use someone else's hard work for your own profit. If you're using it for an educational project with limited distribution and not for commercial purposes, you're sliding inexorably into that gray area known as "fair use" and you'd best be aware that you may be held accountable should your gray area turn profit-black. When in doubt always give credit, prominently and accurately.

Listen up to TTT episode 11!

Music today is from the Podsafe Music Network, a loverly little techno-ditty from "Xenotoxin" called "Scanning all Frequencies." Enjoy.