How to reset your SJSUOne password

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When the official password format fails!

Steve Sloan’s Recommended (Unofficial) SJSUOne Password Format Suggestion. These are not requirements, only my personal suggestions. If you have a current SJSUOne account, and the official SJSUOne Password Format fails, this works. Please do not tell anybody I (or anybody) said these suggestions were requirements. It is suggested by me that your SJSUOne password have the following attributes:

• From eight to eleven characters
• No spaces
• One upper case letter minimum
• One lower case letter minimum
• One number minimum
• Just one (and only one) exclamation mark (do not use any other so-called "special" characters)

Example: 1Porcupine!

Why? My best guess as to why this may make a difference is that you are trying to get a Linux server (Google) to work with a password from a Microsoft Active Directory Domain Controller (SJSUOne). This is not official; it is a suggestion, but it usually works.

No, you cannot reuse your old password. Just forget that idea.

Adding EPUBs & PDFs to iBooks App for iPhone or iPad

Have the EPUB somewhere on your computer where you can navigate to it. This may require downloading it from an external source.

In iTunes, select the file menu, File > Add to Library

This then opens up the Add To Library navigation box:

Select and Choose the Title you wish to add.

Now be sure the Books > Sync Books setting for your iPhone / iPad is either set to All Books or Selected Books with the title you wish to have on that device selected.

Now, Sync your iPhone / iPad

Gmail users no longer forced into threaded mail view

In a September 29, 2010 Googlewatch post, Clint Boulton explains that now Gmail users can turn off threaded view of their Gmail. Boulton said, "Hewing to its pledge to provide choice for its 180 million or so e-mail users, Google has backed off its adherence to its beloved "conversation view" by allowing users to receive e-mail messages in chronological order."

In another post TothePC offers detailed information on how to turn off the feature:

You can easily turn off conversation view in Gmail settings and get each reply listed as separate message in the inbox. [Read Detailed Easy Instructions]

Boulton said, "The thread, which Google calls conversation view, makes it super easy for users to find entire message exchange sessions between users. Ideally, this saves time. Still, enough people used Outlook, or Eudora for enough years to become comfortable with the traditional chronological view."

Installing KompoZer

Click on video to view.

KompoZer is a free, open source, what you see is what you get, HTML editor. KompoZer is maintained as a project on Sourceforge.

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system. KompoZer also provides web file management.

KompoZer is designed for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

KompoZer is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

In this demo we will be showing how to download and install KompoZer on an Apple Macintosh computer running Mac OS X. We will be using the also free Firefox Web browser.

Solutions: Linking Apple and Google Calendars

This video, by Gary Rosenzweig of MacMost.com, shows a free way to link Apple iCal Calendars and Google Calendars so that when you put an event in one it appears in the other. This is a good way to get Google Calendar events to appear on your iPhone, for example. There are other, not free, solutions as well including Spanning Synch. I like Spanning Synch if you have multiple Apple Macs where you will be entering calendar events, or want granular control to link multiple calendars.

How we use Google Docs at the Help Desk

We have been using and are crazy about Google Docs at the San Jose State University Help Desk. Why? Because Google Docs have greatly improved our ability to collaborate efficiently. Rather than e-mail copies of Word files from person to person and hope the end result is not mass confusion; we invite users to work together of the documents we have stored in Google's Web cloud.

We build right sized collaboration teams of subject matter experts (SMPs), staff users, writers and editors around a document based around the need to get the job done. In this post we will illustrate how we do this.

For any of this to make sense; you need to understand the concepts in the following video. This is how Google Docs works:



Sharing a document with others is very simple. Here is another video that shows you how to add people to collaborate on a Google Document.

As you follow the progress of a team around a document, you may want to view the revision history to see who did what to the document. It is easy to do this. Select "see revision history" from the file menu of the Google document.



After you make this selection you can see the work of the multiple editors of, or contributors to, the document and/or roll back to a previous version.



Using Google Docs we have been able to create teams around on-line and training documents based of the expertise and the skill sets needed to create successful documentation. We have also been using this approach for several years for asset management. This work flow has significant potential also for group efforts like department newsletters. It is hard to imagine reverting to our old inefficient work flow of mailing Word files and tracking changes to those files.

How I remove hot spots on shiny skin in Photoshop

This works very well. One of the best and easiest ways to fix hot spots, like flash reflections on shiny skin, on a photograph is this:

1. Make a duplicate layer, choose that layer and work from that layer.
2. Choose the healing brush tool and in the options bar, for mode choose "DARKEN" and check the option "SAMPLE ALL LAYERS".
3. Set your healing brush tool hardness to 0% (this is a soft brush) and size of the brush (use a brush size slightly bigger than the hot spot) and with OPTION+click (MAC) or ALT+click (PC) choose a skin tone you like. Then, paint on the shiny areas with the healing brush tool. Painting, as used here, means clicking and dragging on, or over, the areas where you want to cover the hot spot(s).
4. Apply slight a slight Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur) and lower the opacity of the layer.

What is great about this technique is you have cloned pixels on a separate layer and you can apply the slight Gaussian Blur filter and lower the opacity of the layer to blend your adjustments in and achieve a great end result.

Here is where I learned this technique.

Easy Wi-Fi for SJSU Wireless

A company called Devicescape has created an iPhone application that is really, really cool. It is called Easy Wi-Fi and it works great on our not so easy SJSU wireless network. UPDATE --> This program is also available for Macs and PCs!

What does this program do?
Simple, think about how you have to log onto the campus network. Assuming your computer finds the SJSU wireless network you then have to open your iPhone web browser. Then, you enter in your SJSUOne user name and password user credentials. It is that part that is the pain, because with a hand held device like an iPhone you have to do the two finger zoom thing and then type in your user credentials. That is a real annoyance.

To add to this annoyance if you make a mistake, your log-in session times out, your device goes to sleep and/or you roam to another wireless access point you have to repeat the process. This where Devicescape's Easy Wi-Fi comes in.

This little three dollar iPhone app has settings for tons of wireless networks in the country including SJSU's.

UPDATE --> This program is also available free for Macs and PCs and costs $1.99 for iPhone and iPodtouch! (That is cheap and well worth it. It works great @ SJSU.)

Here is how it works. You enter in your user credentials into the application then it, and not your web browser, logs onto the SJSU wireless network. (Yes, you will have to change your password in Devicescape's Easy Wi-Fi software when you change your SJSUOne password.)

It just works! It makes it look like our wireless network is an open network. It transparently mymicks how a Web browser works and it is very cool. The most publicized use for this product is using it for logging onto ATT Wi-Fi at Starbuck's. This is fine but I am at work a lot more than I am at Starbucks!

This is the first iPhone app I paid money for. They have versions for PC's, and Macs available as well. I have not tested these. UPDATE ---> I have tested it on Macs and it works great!

More is on their Web site. This could make a lot of people at SJSU's lives easier. UPDATE --->This will make a lot of people at SJSU's lives easier.

This is a killer app!!!!

Technorati Tags: iphone, sjsu, San Jose State University, devicescape, Easy Wi-Fi, Apple, ssloansjca

YouTube in HD

[Click to see Movie]

YouTube is Higher Dev

It is not new news but it is good to know and it provides some options for folks like me who use YouTube so much in the classroom. Especially when you use it full screen in the classroom. Keep an eye out for the button!

How we use Google Docs

Tech Tips: Google Docs and the Help Desk

About Google Docs
According to Wikipedia, "Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Google Docs combines the features of two services, Writely and Spreadsheets, which were merged into a single product on October 10, 2006. A third product for presentations, incorporating technology designed by Tonic Systems, was released on September 17, 2007."

Google Apps @ SJSU
According to a Web page maintained by the SJSU Web Services team (at the time of this writing), "San Jose State University is in the early stages of using Google Apps Education Edition. Currently only faculty and staff are given access. We hope to include students at a later time, when technical challenges around associating student email addresses with Google Apps is resolved." Currently this is being called, "Google Apps @ SJSU".

Known Issues
There are issues using Google Docs if you are intending on inviting university employees into collaboration with people with non-sjsu.edu e-mail accounts. A person with an sjsu.edu e-mail account cannot be invited into collaboration using Google's own brand of Google Docs. We have found, at the help desk, that the best bet is for all parties involved in collaboration to have e-mail accounts that are not in the sjsu.edu domain. We have found, Gmail accounts work best. If you have an sjsu.edu e-mail address and you try to access Google's own Google Docs after being invited by a person not from an sjsu.edu account, you will be forced into an SJSUOne authentication. Even then, you will not be able to get to the document you have been invited to edit. The best bet is to stay off the reservation, for now!

Help Desk Google Docs Work Flow
At the university help desk we use Google Docs extensively for preparation of documentation. This way teams can collaborate on our documentation easily. Because we invite students to collaborate on our documentation we are using the Google's own version of Google Docs. Our work around has been to ask our help desk entire staff to get Google Gmail accounts and to issue invitations to the Google Gmail account for the users we wish to invite to collaborate on the document. We may, as an option, invite them via a seperate e-mail to their sjsu.edu or other e-mail address telling them, "please check your Gmail e-mail account for an invitation to collaborate on a Google Doc."

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

Make Vista Like Windows 2000

Make Vista Like Win2K
I just installed Vista on my Intel equipped MacPro. One thing I hate is operating systems that get in the way. I want to be anle to get to my applications fast! For doing that nothing for me beats the work flow made fast by the way the start button and menu was implemented in Windows 2000. I even like to emulate that behavior in Mac OS X. Windows XP deviated in large measure the fast to use Win 2K "classic" interface. Vista took the interface farther away in my opinion. But, you can get it back!

1. Right-click on the Start button, select Properties, then choose Classic Start Menu. After doing this you get a Start menu that's composed primarily of cascading menus that lead to programs. But, it still is not labled Start. The next step will fix that.
2. Right-click the desktop, select Personalize, and double-click Theme to choose the Windows Classic theme. This does away with much of Vista's (ugly) slickness and provides a Start button labeled "Start," like God and Bill intended.

If you take both of these steps Vista will have a decidedly old-school, Windows 2000-like "classic" flavor. Vista doesn't seem to have a way to make its Start menu behavior and other aspects of the OS behave more the way they do in Windows XP. But, since I do not like Windows XP's interface that much this is fine with me.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Apple, Macintosh, ssloansjca

Andrew Unplugged

Andrew Venegas writes, "A virus infected my main computer, wiped it out completely, and quickly spread to my laptop, connected on the same network." Mac users should not be smug either. Security by obscurity is a lousy plan for "protecting" your digital assets. Microsoft has a good page with basic security tips. It is wise for Mac users to pay heed as well!

Mouse without a table

A new way to control your computer
This cool new gadget from Logitech could be very useful for faculty using their computer in the classroom. According to a recent press release:

“The MX Air mouse offers a radically new way for people to control their PC entertainment,” said Rory Dooley, Logitech senior vice president and general manager of the Control Devices business unit. “It’s for anyone who has listened to music on their PC and been frustrated by having to return to the desk to change songs or volume. It’s for people who want to share vacation photos with friends and family without being tied to the desk. It’s for any of the millions of people using the Internet to browse and watch videos on sites such as YouTube or Grouper. And it’s for people with a living-room computer or media PC who want to navigate their media content on their terms.”

With this you no longer have to be on a flat surface, or any surface, to use a mouse. You can use this is thin air.

Technorati Tags: gadgets, mice, Teaching Tools, Instructional Technology, ssloansjca

Recommended Listening: Gayl Murphy

Recommended listening: Interviewing Techniques
This podcast, from the Podcast Academy, is for all podcasters and applies equally well to broadcast journalists and even print journalists and journalism students. This audio podcast is by Gayl Murphy, the title is Killer Interviewing Tactics: Get The Most from Your Guests. This is from last year's Podcast and Portable Media Expo. According to the description of the show:

Murphy has the experience to back up what she says, having over 14,000 interviews to her credit. Most of these have been with celebrities from the entertainment world but the principles that make a good interview - and a good interviewer - are the same no matter who the subject may be.

Gayl Murphy is a veteran interviewer [bio] and author of the book, Interview Tactics! How To Survive The Media Without Getting Clobbered!

Technorati Tags: podcasts, Podcasting, J-School, Journalism, Web 2.0, Gayl Murphy, ssloansjca

Converting from Adobe PDF to Word

Luanne Fose, Ph.D. an Instructional Technology Consultant for The Center for Teaching & Learning, at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo has a blog post that is pretty cool. She shows step by step how to take a PDF file and convert it to editable Microsoft Word format. This is done using Adobe Acrobat Pro. This is one to remember. I would think this would only work in documents where the text is created and saved as text and NOT where a document is scanned as an image and then turned into a PDF as in the latter case the text would actually be a picture of the letters and not letters with associated font information.

Google's Purchase of Feedburner

Google + Feedburner = Hooray
I was thrilled to learn of Google's purchase of Feedburner. I learned when my friend Diana sent me sent me a text message as I was driving across rural Oregon. She knew it would make me happy, it did. This is such a perfect fit. Google + Feedburner is such a natural. Google + Feedburner is almost as good as Google + Technorati. Google + Feedburner makes a lot more sense to me than E-bay + Skype ever did.

I see so much potential in this. Google + Feedburner has been one of my favorite combinations for creating Podcasts. For video Google + Feedburner gives you a Vlog plus a Video Podcast. This is the combination that Rayanne Hodson of Freevlog recommends. Google + Feedburner worked very well for my class last semester. All of my students created there own Blogs, Vlogs and Podcasts using this method. This is the workflow I use for my own Vlogs.

It is a great way to create RSS feeds and podcasts, and keep track of who is viewing them. I hope soon Google creates a quick and easy way to enable this to be your default feed for your Blogger blog (and dumps Atom.)

Google + Feedburner is a great way to produce RSS advertising. RSS advertising feeds are a fantastic way to create, engage and build an audience of passionate users. These passionate users, in turn, are your quality consumers who can help you build a better product or service by telling you what works and what doesn't. These are the folks you want seeing your ads and the cool thing is, they want to see your ads. Google + Feedburner will help make this happen.

For educators Google + Feedburner is a great way to see if your students are really consuming your RSS Feeds. Google + Feedburner is good for me. I am stoked!

Technorati Tags: Google, Feedburner, RSS Advertising, RSS and Education, ssloansjca, Instructional Technology, j-school

Cool Tip on Making PDF's on Mac OS X

This is a great Apple Tip:
"This is another one of those “secret, buried-in-a-vault” killer tips that addresses something Mac OS X users have complained about: The file sizes of PDFs that Mac OS X creates are sometimes too big (vs. Adobe’s Acrobat PDFs). believe it or not, there’s a way to get smaller PDFs."
Read More!