Hyde Park Technology Corner

Coding Fun Starting next Tuesday, (November 7th) I'm going to be teaching a programming class.  This class is going to be about using programming skills to make applications using MIT's Application Inventor 2. (See  http://appinventor.mit.edu .) The interesting thing about this developmental environment is it's all contained in the cloud and can produce some very complex Android applications.  To get a feel for App Inventor 2, see the video below: Application Inventor 2 This class will starts with the basics of the environment and then go on to make some nifty stuff!  If you're interested, take a look! mikel

Last Thursday,  Integrity Communications , Inc. put speakers up around the hallways on the second floor, in the hallway in ffront of the Kindergarten room, and in the Art and Music rooms on the first floor.  These speakers use an IP phone to get their sound.  If the IP phone isn't up, the speakers are limited only to the original handsets that worked before the new paginig system was installed. Now last Thursday, Integrity tested the system and it seemed to work g=fine.  However over the weekend the phone reset and without that phone working, there was no sound on speakers.  Yesterday Integrity stopped by and reset the phone.  Now all seems fine. You may hear me testing the speakers a few times.  I want to make sure the system is stable and will meet our needs. thankx, mikel

The NEW Chromecast Rational  Cables, cables cables...  Several years ago I started to look for a good solution to replace the USB and VGA video "hook-ups" from a User Device (read: chromebook, tablet, laptop, cell phone) to a projector (or a display device). Why? You might ask.  First off, by today's standards, VGA is a "low resolution" standard.  The projector connection also required a USB to the audio systems of the device presenting so not one but TWO cables were required to the device.  One of a laptops or tablets strength is "portability", but when tethered to a projector, it looked more like astronaut to a space station; very limited "portability".   (Along with the cords looking like a lifeline!) Enter HDMI .... "HDMI  ( High-Definition Multimedia Interface ) is a  proprietary  audio/video  interface  for transmitting  uncompressed video  data and compressed or uncompressed  digital audio  data from an HDMI-c

Web pages can drive people crazy.  If a web site doesn't change often, or does what some call "go static", it's hard to get people to look at it ever again.  Also "old information" will tend to make this problem worse. The HPES web site ( http://www.hpes.org ) is made from basic Google "Sites" web pages.  It's GREAT at what it was designed to do: give information as a tool. Now the thing about Google is, as a company, they are WONDERFUL at producing "tools".  You might like to think of them like you think of the "generic" brand you might pick up at the grocery store: functional but generally "basic", especially when new information isn't passed on to keep information more current. This, by the way, is not designed to be a rant on anyone doing the maintenance or design of the web site.  I know from experience it's a Herculean attempt to do and I think that's done very well here, especially withou

In case you missed it, here are the current HPES Public Printers..... To install a Printer below, you must be logged into Chrome (Chromebook or Browser) and "click" on the Printer listed below.... HPES-1ST-FLOOR COPIER HPES-OFFICE-COPIER HPES-SPED-COPIER HPES-6th-GRADE-COPIER Note: Printers installed in this way are available from a Chrome Browser or a Chromebook and may not be available to Window's Office products. If you have issues or need help, contact me... thankx, mikel

Do you want a Chromebook, or a Laptop?  In education, there is a constant debate between having a Chromebook or a Laptop as your "main" computing device.  It's budget time, and I am looking to make a few changes, but I'd love some feedback and input from everyone so I can make informed choices.  I also know it's nice to have some facts to base a decision on, so I thought I'd give you my take on using both Laptops and Chromebooks.  Here goes.... Laptops Desktops were the first small computers, but soon it was clear that users wanted  "portability", the ability to take the whole computing environment with they went somewhere else.  Thus the "portable computer" was created.  Pictured above (Compaq), you'll notice there wasn't anything  REALLY  portable about it! IBM offered one of the first Laptops (Seen above). Although they called it a "Laptop", it was really a "tabletop", but it had all the powe