Just found this page today when hitting my news feeds. A very cool set of commands to run from a CLI. Some are OS X only while others are just BASH or even emacs dependent. The least useful but coolest one is

emacs -batch -l dunnet

What fond memories that brings up… on a more useful side were

Quickly check what is eating all your memory:

top -o vsize
And for your CPU

top -o cpu

See the whole list at http://superuser.com/questions/52483/terminal-tips-and-tricks-for-mac-os-x#

Its that time again where I’m configuring several new switches at work. In the past, to do this I’ve either used a Windows machine combined with Hyper Terminal and a null modem, or a third party terminal application for OS X and a USB to Serial converter to create a SLIP connection to configure the switch.

In OS X 10.6 the old terminal program I used to use doesn’t work anymore so I started googling around for another solution and found a solution using the built in tool, Screen.

Essentially, it involves using a USB to Serial converter, I have the 19HS from Keyspan, and directing the Screen program to access the device that is created through the keyspan driver. In my case the command was:

screen /dev/tty.KeySerial1 15200

That opened up a terminal window that let me configure the switch… give it a try…

I’ve had a 4 year old MacBook Pro sitting on a shelf in my office for a couple of months not doing much. I looked at it today while cleaning up some books on the shelf and discovered the battery had swelled to about twice its normal thickness. Boy am I glad it didn’t explode or start a fire! I’ll have to take care of it when I get back from my trip… It’s always something.

Just making the first post to the Blog from the iPad. Love it so far.

I just read a post by Lucy Gray on how to draw the line with LinkedIn relationships.  Lucy says she is sometimes uncomfortable denying relationships, but really wants to keep LinkedIn for professional relationships.  I agree with her on this stance and think her outlook is one that I share, but with one addition.  If I meet you at a conference and have some sort of meaningful discussion, I will try to follow that up with a LinkedIn connection to maintain the relationship.

Keep LinkedIn for professional relationships only.  Credibility in that space is important.

Just got the blog updated to WordPress 2.8.2.  I’ve needed to update for a while but just never seem to find the time.  Also updated the iPhone theme and my twitter plugin.  One of the thing that is so nice about WordPress is the ease of maintenance.

Last week the department of Information Technology and Communication at the University of Virginia released a memo announcing the closing of most of the computer labs in the university over the course of the next couple of years.  The reason?  In their survey of incoming freshmen for the class of 2012 the found that all but 4 students showed up with their own computers.  When each student has their own computer, why have all of the overhead of maintaining computer labs? 

In 2008 a total of 651,900 hours of computer use were logged in UVa labs.  95% of those hours were students running non-technical software like Firefox, IE, Acrobat Reader, or MS Office.  All of these programs are generally available or come preloaded on the computers that the students were already bringing to class.

These two factors, along with the recognition that the university must “recognize emerging trends and align services accordingly,” has led the university to come to the conclusion that closing the labs and shifting to another model for the delivery of specialized software will better serve both the university and its students.

The reason this story interests me is that it parallels the shift toward 1-1 computing that I am knee-deep in at work.  Our 6th-8th grade students are, for the most part, taking great advantage of the mobile, anytime-anywhere style of learning that the hardware and software allow.  Several teachers are really pushing the envelope in digital content distribution, evolving their use of classroom time to more of a discussion about topics where basic background information can be delivered via text, audio, video, or interactive formats outside of normal class time. 

Our students will be ready for the future as they move on to universities where on-demand learning is the order of the day.

This is a test from the WordPress iPhone app.

I’m spending some time tonight going through my open Firefox tabs that I’ve been babysitting for the last couple of weeks and posting the best ones to the blog here.  One that I picked up somewhere along the way was a link to a conference for 1-to-1 laptop initiatives in Memphis, TN from the 19th to 21st of July.  It’s called the Lusanne Laptop Insitute and it looks like just what the doctor ordered in terms of staff development opportunitites for teachers who are in or are moving into a 1-to-1 program.

It looks to be one of those conferences where you could really take a team of 6-8 teachers plus a principal or tech coordinator and do some real curriculum work, build a more solid team, and get your brains on the same page in regard to what is and is not possible or desirable in a laptop program.

My staff development dollars for the year are already allocated to other projects unfortunately, but I’d love to attend or even speak at this conference about how i’ve gone about building a 1-to-1 program and the successes and areas for improvement we’ve experienced along the way.

Hats off to Lucy Gray, an edublogger and nationally recognized speaker who has been putting out lists of daily links.  I usually find one or two of them that tickle my fancy including this one on the five stages of twitter acceptance…

I go in spurts using Twitter.  That in itself is problematic for me.  In order to get real value on twitter, you need to be regular with your postings.  People need to learn what you are about and you need to filter through the noise to find the people you are interested in following.  When I had my unlimited text message account I used twitter much more than I do now.  I’ve got the 200 message package with my iPhone and that just doesn’t get you very far when you are using your phone as  your main twitter conduit (and IMO the best way to stay active with it).

I’m using TweetDeck as my interface lately.  There are some advantages to the three column layout it has, but I’m still learning how to get the most out of it.

I think I’m only on stage 3 of twitter acceptance, but not because that’s where I want to be, its because that’s all I have time to be these days… There just isn’t time to do it all.

Posted while drinking hot chocolate and listening to “On the Radio” by Urban Knights.