Internet – Page 2 – Random Connections

Ten Years of Random Connections

May 1, 2014May 16, 2014 Tom No Comments

It hardly seems possible. This month marks ten years that I’ve been blogging at RandomConnections.com. The new website was announced on May 6, 2004 on a post on my previous website as follows:

I have a new website….

www.RandomConnections.com will be online shortly. The new site will be the host for my web log (which will be replicated here, as it always has) but I wanted something without my name plastered all over the place. I’ll move my workshop information to the new site, and leave all my personal stuff here – resume, personal interests, etc., etc. The only personal item on the new site will be the blog.

With the new site in place, I’ll be able to create blog entries for specific categories, probably one for each of my alter egos that I use on various bulletin boards. I’m also going to post our travelog and vacation gallery there.

I love the Internet! Instead of boring just one small set of humans with your vacation pictures, you can annoy the entire planet!

The first post on the actual site was on May 14, and went something like this…

The new website is now active (Duh, obviously). This site features a much more interactive weblog than my old site, while keeping things lean and clean. The other site turn [sic] into self-indulgent blathering, was over-designed, and cumbersome. I make no guarantees about this site, but at least the blathering will be categorized.

I also don’t intend to plaster my name over everything on this site. Certain portions will be kept more professional, and will focus on Education Technology and Web Design.

Yes, both of those posts are still online, as evidenced by the links above. I haven’t fulfilled the promises in those early posts, but I had no idea I’d still be doing this ten years later, or what those ten years would have brought.

Super Simple Timelines

March 26, 2014May 16, 2014 Tom 2 Comments

EdTech, General Technology, History and Genealogy, Internet

I’m just getting around to writing about this, and I’m probably late to the party as far as this product is concerned, but I’ve discovered a very simple, very effect way to create timelines for websites.

Back in the 1990s Tom Snyder Productions made some of the coolest EdTech software around. One of my favorites was Timeliner. Users could input dates and events, then print out long timelines on fan-fold printer paper with a dot-matrix printer. Along with Print Shop, it was one of my go-to tools for classroom printing.

Timeliner is still around, and has been updated to take advantage of modern technology. I haven’t played with it in ages, so I don’t know what the new version has, and, quite frankly, I no longer need to. I’ve found a much, much better (and free!) product in Northwestern University’s Knight Lab’s Timeline JS.

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Pointing the Way in Concrete

January 31, 2014April 8, 2015 Tom 3 Comments

Geocaching and Maps, History and Genealogy, Internet

Ghost towns, odd bits of masonry, abandoned towers, derelict schools, old cemeteries, old dirt roads – these are items that speak of a hidden history. These are the things you may pass many times daily and never give any thought. However, if they are brought to your attention, you never look at that area the same way. Just recently my Geocaching friend Larry Easler (aka HockeyHick) made me aware of a whole new genre of interesting historical remnants – Airway Beacon Markers.

Larry found one of these things fairly close to us and did the initial research and background history. He has since placed a geocache at the location as part of his “Hidden History” series of geocaches. On a cold morning after the recent snowfall, Tommy Thompson and I decided to check it out.

Flickr’s Trojan Gift

May 21, 2013July 25, 2013 Tom 2 Comments

Internet, Photography

Huge changes at Flickr – some excellent, some not so good, and some downright deceitful. Right now I’m still processing how I feel about all this, but here are some of my initial thoughts…

Layout

At first glance I really like it. It looks clean and professional, and highlights the photography in a very flattering way. I especially like that it goes to a full screen view of the photo automatically, with comments, etc, down below.

New Flickr Layout

There are a few drawbacks, though. Collections seem to be missing. This is one of the MAJOR ways that I organize my photos. I have multiple sets, usually one for each outing, and the number of sets can be unwieldy. If I can organize those into broader categories, that helps. The Collections link is tucked away on an obscure link to the right. I think it needs to be up there with Photostream, Sets, and Favorites.

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Street View Time Lapse

February 2, 2013 Tom No Comments

Geocaching and Maps, Internet, Photography, Weirdness

I’ve been enjoying creating time-lapse videos while driving. Unfortunately, I’ve just been driving back and forth to work or rehearsal, so the scenery doesn’t change much.

So while I was looking at Google Earth the other day it occurred to me – I could use the images from Street View to create the same type of time-lapse.

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Blog Round-Up

October 12, 2012 Tom 3 Comments

Internet

The Death of Blogging has been touted for years now. Even the term “micro-blogging” for services such as Twitter has fallen out of favor, being replaced by “social media” and the like. Therefore, it’s very encouraging when I come across new blogs that have lots of potential. Some of these have been around and I’ve … Read More “Blog Round-Up” »

Going Google

July 13, 2012 Tom No Comments

EdTech, Internet

We’ve done it. This week I flipped the switch to transition our school district to Google Apps, with GMail as our primary e-mail system. We had been a Novell/Groupwise shop every since I’ve been in the district. Novell had been a reliable, rock-solid product. However, their latest version was on a linux-based platform, and it … Read More “Going Google” »

Research Tools in Google Docs

June 10, 2012 Tom 2 Comments

EdTech, Internet

I really miss Google Notebook. Combined with the Firefox plugin, it was one of the most useful tools for online research. I was very disappointed when Google decided to discontinue the service. At least they copied all of my notes into my Google Docs account when they ended the service.

So, I’ve been trying to use Google Docs when I do research for this blog. It’s not quite as elegant, but it gets the job done. Now Google has released a new tool for Google Docs. While it doesn’t completely replace Notebook, it does have potential as a great research tool.

Creative Spam

February 24, 2012 Tom No Comments

Internet, Rants

So far my blog is recovering nicely from the hack attack on it last week. I’m not seeing any of the incoming links for various pharmaceutical products. I do still get spam comments, though. Fortunately, Akismet is doing a pretty good job of making sure I don’t have to waste time on those. Even so, … Read More “Creative Spam” »

Pixlr Photo Editing

February 16, 2012 Tom No Comments

Internet, Photography

I had tried Pixlr a long time ago, but had completely forgotten about it until my friend and fellow instructional tech geek Tony Thompson posted something about it on his blog last month. With Picnic being assimilated by Google and with Aviary acting a bit weird, I was hoping another option for online photo editing would come along, and Pixlr seems to be the best option right now.

Pixlr comes in several flavors. There is the full-fledge photo editor, but there are also several quick tools for adding preset effects. There is Pixlr Express for quick touch-ups and Pixlr-o-Matic for effects such as vintage photos, etc. Android and iOS apps are available for these last two services. There is also Pixlr imm.io, an image sharing service and Pixlr Grabber, a screen capture plugin for Firefox and Chrome.