Netbooks

I'd always thought of netbooks as toys or auxiliary machines to compliment a primary PC until I attended the NCCE conference a few weeks ago and saw them in use by a large number of folks in attendance.  After seeing them actually function as usable machines and playing with them for a while at a few vendors booths (and spurred by the $200 sale Dell had on the Mini9 a few weeks ago) I decided to venture forth into this miniature new world and see what a few manufacturers had to offer.  My goal is partially to judge the different makes and models on the ups and downs of using them as daily computing devices but my primary goal is more to see if the netbook class of computers is really a feasible class of machine for use in a school environment.  If they seem to function well in general then I'll focus more directly on particular makes and models.  

I currently have 3 different models on loan from different manufacturers for a few weeks and I'll set up separate blog posts (look under the labels for netbooks if you don't see the posts right away) on each to detail each machine and their pros & cons.  Currently I have a Lenovo S10e (which I'm using to type this entry), a DakTech PlaidMate, and a MSi Wind.  These machines are available for loan to any staff who would like to demo them for a few days and give me feedback, just let me know if you're interested.

I'll post my individual thoughts on each machines separate page but here are some general pros & cons for netbooks:

Pros

• Small size - most netbooks are the size of a hardbound novel and weigh less than 3 pounds
• Low power need/high battery life - the architecture in the machines (Atom processor, etc.) requires less power to run allowing for longer time between charges
• Long and light power cord - all three machines I have here shipped with the exact same power cord, it's light enough to not substantially increase the weight of the machine and long enough to plug into the most elusive plug at your favorite coffee shop.
• All come standard with webcams & wifi (thus the NETbook designation)

Con's

• Small size - while the size has advantages the shrunken keyboards and screens on these machines may not work for some users, although the target population (students) is so accustomed to functioning on phones and other miniature devices I don't anticipate this being an issue.  I have however run across a few sites and dialog boxes that are set to a higher screen resolution than the display and I had to figure out a work around.
• Speed - most of these machines sacrifice capability and capacity for efficiency.  They excel at surfing the web, typing papers/emails/blogs, and doing basic daily computing . . . they aren't created to render 3D graphics and play games more intense than Tetris.

Anyhow, I'll update this as I see fit and create a series of separate posts on the particular machines.  Please feel free to comment on netbooks in general below, for comments on the specific models please comment on their individual pages.

Scott

Mobile file security (or oops I lost my USB drive!)

So you now have one of these marvelous little USB drives (or a portable hard drive, iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) and the ability to carry around a whole encyclopedia’s worth of information in your pocket.  Unfortunately, that also means that you have the ability to efficiently lose all of that information and have it land in the hands of the wrong individual.  It seems as though a day doesn’t go by when there isn’t at least one USB drive left in the computer lab.  And stories about lost drives & laptops containing thousands of names and personal files are now so commonplace that they don’t even make the news.  Taking all this in you may be tempted to ask – is there any way to absolutely, positively secure the files on my portable device? 

The short answer is . . . no. 

You read that right, no.  There is no such thing as data security – isn’t paranoia fun?  That said we do have a responsibility to do our best to make sure that if the device goes astray it’s really (REALLY) hard to access the information.

1. The first and most basic thing is to identify your device so if someone finds it they can easily return it to its proper home.  This can be accomplished very low tech by simply labeling the device with your contact information.  A little more technical approach (and one that won’t wear/peel off after repeated use) is to place a text (MS Word, etc.) file on the drive with your contact information and name it something obvious to someone trying to access the drive (e.g. “owner.txt” or “return this to John Doe.doc”) so when they open it up they can figure out where to return it to.
2. Keep a synchronized copy on your hard drive so that if (when) your device goes AWOL you only lose the physical device and not the data.  Microsoft has a free tool called SyncToy which will automatically synchronize files between any two folders which is pretty simple and basic.  There are countless other ways to sync files back and forth so feel free to use whatever tool you want, just use one!
3. Now your files are backed up and your drive is easily identifiable for when it is lost, what options exist to secure the actual information on the device?
1. File Level – Many programs offer the user the ability to password protect individual files, while generally not NSA level security this will discourage casual attempts to access the file.  In Microsoft Office 2003 (Word, Excel, etc.) a password can be applied when saving by choosing File>Save As… and in the save dialog box choose the Tools>Security Options… drop down menu in the upper right hand corner.  Or with the document open choose Tools>Options… and click on the Security tab.  Either of these methods will take you to a box with relatively straightforward options for file security.  For more information do a web search on password protecting your specific file type/program or feel free to contact me (I have a more detailed description of MS Office file protection available.)
2. Directory Level – If you have an entire directory to protect there are a few different ways to go about it.  The simplest (and one that doesn’t require administrative rights on the computer) is to compress the file into a “.zip” format using WinZip, WinRar, 7-Zip or similar software and use the password protection feature built into the software.  For an actual NSA level encryption there is software available such as TrueCrypt or FreeOTFE which have the ability to lock the files down to such an extent that it’s virtually impossible for today’s technology to get past it (note the emphasis on today, by tomorrow or next week the capabilities will have changed and all bets will be off.)  Most of these options however require that software run on the host computer so the files may not be accessible at a workstation with the heavy user restrictions in place such as many libraries and computer labs.  The use of these tools is also beyond the scope of this article so if these options sound interesting check out the FAQ’s on the respective programs pages or feel free to contact me (I use TrueCrypt and have a more detailed description of its usage available.)
3. Device Level – Just in case you inherit the rights to the formula for Coca-ColaÔ or the Cols. Original RecipeÔ there is a class of devices which include hardware encryption.  What that means is that in addition to the flash memory these devices have a chip or piece of hardware which runs the encryption independent of the computer so no administrator or special rights are needed on the computer.  While none of them will blow up Mission Impossible style if an unauthorized user tries to access them they do offer about the most secure solution possible.

So your drive is labeled and secure now, you haven’t lost it, everything is synchronized on your computer . . . except you forgot it on the counter.  Now what?  While it falls outside the scope of this article there are other options for transferring files from one point to another; email it to yourself, use any number of the online storage spaces to house it, create it or save it to Google Docs or MS Office Live, etc. 

In reality, the only limitation in our ability to secure files is the motivation to do so., just remember that the only thing standing between these files and the ability of an unauthorized user to access them is time and the forward march of our technological capabilities.

I apologize for the wordiness of this, please feel free to comment or mention any other software you may have used or are curious about.

 

Green Eggs & Ham

Dr. Suess was once challenged by his editor to create a book using 50 words or less, the culmination of which we know and love as the classic "Green Eggs and Ham."  As educators we are often challenged to come up with a method to capture and keep our students attention focused, and, like Dr. Suess, we strive to do it as efficiently and effectively as possible while cutting through all the outlying chaff which gets in our way.  A tool I was introduced to at the NCCE 2009 conference a few weeks ago gives us a quick, easy, fun, and FREE way of doing this.

Worldle.net is a web application which can take a chunk of text from various inputs and push back out a graphical image representing the frequency of the word in the text. In honor of the recent birthday of Theodor Geisel I have input the text of "Green Eggs and Ham" into the application and in less than 5 minutes arrived at this:

If you're like me you look at this and think, "Gee, that's neat, but how is it relevant?"

Imagine that you've just finished a book, chapter, section, etc.  Now ask your students to type and email you the top 10 concepts from the material. When all the responses are collected copy 'em to the appropriate box in the application, hit the "Go" button, and then spend as much (or as little) time as you want to create your image.  As I stated previously, the above representation was created in less than 5 minutes.  Another application springing to mind would be to take census data (surnames, place of birth, occupation, etc.) from a certain place, time, etc. and feed it in to acquire the most popular surnames and then to see what information presents itself.  Below is another example utilizing a list of 100 best novels.

Please feel free to leave comments or links to your own Wordles below or share ways in which you can use them.

Thanks
Scott