• The file Yupik_HBday0049.mp3 identified by urn:sha1:KPQRDRWNTGAC5FPTO7JT5KRSZZROMVTG is licensed to the public under the Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license.

Happy Birthday song in Yup’ik Eskimo (mp3) click to play or right click to download and play <—Happy Birthday song in Yup’ik Eskimo (mp3) click to play or right click to download and play

Read all about it here,
Song in Yup’ik to time handwashing and here,
Song to time hand washing for hygiene and disease prevention

and by a user-drive version which should be more like the classic Eudora, Odysseus

A lot of us Eudora users are beginning to lose hope. As one Eudora user put it: “I’d resigned myself to using Eudora until it no longer worked, then throwing myself out a window in despair.”

Eudora, Penelope, Odysseus
http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2007/12/15/10803.html

WordPress Mulituser (e.g., http://edublogs.org and http://wordpress.com) don’t allow posting by email. I have never gotten BlogMailr to work, as a substitute.

(click image to see original)
I am trying a Tumblr as a way to post to WordPress by E-mail: that is, I often have brief links or “bits and pieces” which need mentioning but not discussing. An example is Briefs 5a, now Tumblrd

//engtech guest blogged at Lorelle’s place about
What is Microblogging or Tumblelogging? Pros and Cons He also has done several greasemonkey scripts and Yahoo Pipes that make this process (sharing information via WordPress Multiuser, i.e., Edublogses) easier. (Internet duct tape to keep your on-line life together.)

Tumblr in its set up directions mentions the ability to microblog by cell phone. In fact, this is the same recipe for microblogging by E-mail. There are some quirks in the processing and display which I mentioned in my first test, Test by email.

Here are some other quirks I’ve noticed.

• The e-mail “subject” became the “title”
• The message body is the post
• A signature can be added by Eudora (all scrunched up. No paragraphs) but it takes a bit of extra coding to have it display reasonably. see example below
• Not much width allowed
• blind-copy emails aren’t posted
• cc or “carbon” copy e-mails are posted
STOP. Before emailing to your Tumblr– Tumblr doesn’t care who sends stuff to your secret Tumblr email address, so don’t broadcast the email address for posting.
• tags or categories are not added automatically. I borrowed //engtech’s http://engtech.tumblr.com/ idea of using square brackets [bird flu, teachers] as the initial E-mail subject line. Then hope that users will use their browser search function to find the correct posts (or later, you can add tags from within Tumblr’s edit function). The html site search tag doesn’t work,
• be sure to remove quotes from your E-mail forwards (strip those weird characters)
• Eudora automatically detects URLs and hotlinks them. However, this is lost when forwarded into Tumblr. The solution is to select the hotlinked text, click on the make link button, copy the URL, then paste into the e-mail message.
• Eudora sometimes translates URLs in messages with an angle bracket at either end < >
  Remove these from the E-mail (or space them away from the URL) so Tumblr will hotlink them automatically.
• It does make a difference if mail is sent “plain” or “styled”. Styled isn’t at Tumblr’s end, but Plain is styled. (Now I’ve solved the problem of why some earlier Tumblrs looked differently from others.)

Here’s how I coded the latest signature in Eudora; check it out here–

<br /><hr /><ul>
http://hlthenvt.tumblr.com for <li><a href="http://ykalaska.wordpress.com">Grassroots Science</a></li>
<li><a href="http://13C4.wordpress.com">Biocultural Science & Management </a></li></ul>

Site Search Tags: engtech, Lorelle, Tumblr, micro-blogging, notetaking, RSS, Eudora, E-mail, email

Our mission is to minimize barriers to sharing and reuse of educational materials — legal barriers, technical barriers, and social barriers.
* With legal barriers, we advocate for licensing of educational materials under interoperable terms, such as those provided by Creative Commons licenses, that allow unhampered modification, remixing, and redistribution. We also educate teachers, learners, and policy makers about copyright and fair-use issues pertaining to education.

* With technical barriers, we promote interoperability standards and tools to facilitate remixing and reuse.

* With social barriers, we encourage teachers and learners to re-use educational materials available on the Web, and to build on each other’s contributions.

Today is the official birth date of the Edublogs Magazine. It’s been almost a year from the idea-dancing-around-our-head stage, trying to come up with a way to create an umbrella blog that would bring together the exciting Edublogs community.

We wanted to feature bloggers and news from within the Edublogs Network represented by Edublogs, Learnerblogs, Uniblogs, and ESLblogs.

We wanted to provide a place where Edublog members could publish articles offering their special insights into education today, past, and the future of online education technologies.

This link will get you started. It includes the direct links to the RSS feeds for specific categories of interest or to the magazine as a whole.

• http://magazine.edublogs.org/2008/01/28/ the-birth-of-an-online-education-magazine/

I hope you enjoy an article I wrote as well as the rest of the mag.

• http://magazine.edublogs.org/2008/01/28/ 6th-grade-entrepreneur-wins-top-volunteer-award-for-splat/

Site Search Tags: tags, categories, testing

At one point there were few teachers from the tundra regions writing blogs. Few enough I could put them all into one RSS feed mix in the sidebar as I came across them.

• [Kangirsuk, Nunivik] Not Obscure (John Higham from Nunavik, Canada) http://notobscure.com/
• [Kongiganak, Toksook Bay, Tununak] Alaska The View From Up Here, (Brett Stirling who also writes for the Anchorage Daily News) http://alaskatheviewfromuphere.blogspot.com/

This year there are quite a few new teachers writing about their experience teaching in rural Alaska. All the blogs are different in their approach and frequency of posting. Some are interested in hearing from readers; others are not. Margaret Avugiak and Kendra Krenz have unique perspectives.

I haven’t run across anyone using blogs in the classroom, yet. The Shageluk school is using their website, instead.

• Shageluk school of birds

I wish more schools would use a blogging, especially WordPress.com and Edublogs.org, platform as that enables more communication between classrooms and between writers and readers. Plus, all the blogging platforms offer RSS feeds for subscribing; some offer comment feeds such as WordPress and Edublogs. (Blogspot.com or Blogger has too many hoops for ordinary folks who wish to interact with the authors. However, just about all the major blogging hosts are represented. MSN Live tends to be used more by missionaries. Xanga has too few representatives and TypePad tends to have Alaska journalists.)

Take a look at all and suggest others. The community names are in brackets [ ]. To view information about the Alaska communities, simply put the village or city name where the Xxxx are (case sensitive) in your browser address bar when you get to this link

http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CIS.cfm?Comm_Boro_Name=Xxxx For example, information about Bethel is located here: http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CIS.cfm?Comm_Boro_Name=Bethel

• [Alakanuk] Diane in Alaska http://dianneinalaska.livejournal.com/
• [Atmautluak] Jerry’s Dream Come True, http://alaskajerry.blogspot.com/
• [Atmautlauk], Alaska Place Based http://aan1atmau.blogspot.com/
• [Oscarville, Atmautluak] Tundra Teacher Tales, (Kip Layton, Jr also writes for the Delta Discovery newspaper) http://tundrateachertales.blogspot.com/
• [Bethel] Art Teacher in Alaska, http://alaskanteacher.blogspot.com/
• [Bethel] Tom & Andrea Go to Bethel Postcards from Bethel, (they also have a sidebar blogroll list of Tundra Teachers and resources for teaching science) http://learnscape.org/bethel
• [Bethel] Andrea’s Virtual Science Teaching Adventure http://learnscape.org/blog/
• [Bethel] Alisha’s Bethel Blog, http://alishaadventures.blogspot.com/
• [Chefornak] The world of the Chicken Avenger (a Xanga user) http://www.xanga.com/wcbpolish
• Margaret Avugiak, (raised in the Village of Chefornak) http://avugiak.blogspot.com/ [Chefornak]
• Alaska = Home http://hikecamppaddle.wordpress.com/ [Elim]
• Emmonak, Alaska http://richalaska.blogspot.com/ Richard Brisco [Emmonak]
• Katielong’s Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/members/katielong [Emmonak]
• Kristen in AK http://kristeninak.wordpress.com/ [Huslia, Norton Sound]
• My Adventures http://victoriasjourneys.blogspot.com/ Victoria [Kasigluk] I will be teaching 4th-6th grade and living in a house with no plumbing.
  Classroom Tag http://classroomtag.blogspot.com/ Victoria [Kasigluk] … Exchanging traditions, customs, beliefs, and other cultural identities. … Bringing together two classrooms that are separated by thousands of miles.
• Out There(teacher, spouse) http://indefinitely.wordpress.com/ Peter Schneidler [Kasigluk]
• Rural Alaskan (Kendra Krenz raised in the Village of Kongiganak), http://ruralalaskan.blogspot.com/ [Kongiganak]
• Native Woman Educator http://nativeducator.blogspot.com/ Noel Strick [McGrath]
• Radiate Warmth, welcome home to the fireplace of thought (Kale Iverson) http://kaleiverson.blogspot.com/ [Mekoryuk]
• Fervent Verve {aka Ramblings} http://careyalaska.blogspot.com/ [Nunapitchuk]
• The Middle of Somewhere Teaching, living, and now gestating a baby in Nunapitchuk, Alaska http://smaccalaska.blogspot.com/ [Nunapitchuk]
• Shibby’s Kinda-Public Alaska Journal, http://shibbyalaska.blogspot.com/ [Nunapitchuk]
• Palmer Teacher-Librarian, http://robint.edublogs.org/ [Palmer]
• The Williamson-Logas in Alaska, http://otisandben.blogspot.com/ [Toksook Bay]
• Teaching in Toksook, http://dirksan.blogspot.com/ [Toksook Bay]
• Jimmy and Kerri in Toksook Bay, Alaska, http://jimmyandkerri.blogspot.com/ [Toksook Bay]
• fouldsy.com (teacher spouse) http://www.fouldsy.com/ [Tuntutuliak]
• AK Memories http://mariechristianson.blogspot.com/ [Tuntutuliak]
• Monica in Alaska, http://monicainalaska.livejournal.com/ [Tununak]
• The great white hype, (Jesuit Volunteers) http://sarahjones-thegreatwhitehype.blogspot.com/

• Alaska Mentor Pat http://alaskamentorpat.blogspot.com/ I work around the state of Alaska as a mentor teacher. I travel monthly to 8 different rural communities as well as working in Fairbanks. My job is to collaborate with first and second year teachers on their classroom practice.
• Alaska Professor http://alaskaprofessor.blogspot.com/

And there is this school, not exactly of children, but definitely learning and interesting.

• Nushagak Kennels http://nushagakkennels.blogspot.com/ [Nushagak]

2007-12-27 Bringing the work dog back into mushing APRN.org news story from Dillingham

[revised 2008-03-17]

For another idea of what life in a remote school is like check out this news story. Be sure to read the comments posted at APRN as well.

Teaching in small rural schools presents unique challenges (mp3)

The Lake & Penninsula Borough has 14 schools but only 370 students. The smallest school has 10 students K-12. The largest has 75 students. Small schools in secluded parts of the state resent unique challenges to teachers who have to teach multiple subjects to multiple grade levels. Anne Hillman, KDLG - Dillingham 3/14/2008 06:17

Don’t be without Karen

Read the Web version of Power Tools online, get her wonderful tools on CD.

• http://www.karenware.com/newsletters/2007/2007-09-06.asp

Learning About the Web in Plain English
Having a background in computer engineering has been a great boon to me when it comes to blogging. … I have had an edge from being genuinely interested in the technology behind how things work and finding ways to get them to work for me. But it can be very hard to try to explain how technology works to other people. That’s why I’m such a big fan of the “in plain english” series of instructional videos on [...]
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/08/12/learning-about-the-web-in-plain-english/

offers some additional tutorials.

These would work best if not on dial-up. So, I tried to track down the great tutorials that can be downloaded and saved. These originally came from New Zealand (Life-long Learning tutorials, http://www.cit.ac.nz/smac/csware.htm), developed by R. Brian Brown and were mirrored in various places. I bookmarked these for you at the edublogs.org collection

• http://del.icio.us/edublogs

(see sidebar).

Here is a list of mirrors which may be up to date.

• http://lifelong.freeservers.com/csmirror.htm

• “Self Study Guides Currently Available”
  http://learnat.sait.ab.ca/cit/cscourse.htm

• http://physinfo.ulb.ac.be/cit_courseware/

or

• http://physinfo.ulb.ac.be/cit_courseware/ma200/tutors.htm

Here are mirrors available through the Wayback Machine but not all are complete.

for example,
Learning HTML Basics

• “Welcome to the Central Institute of Technology’s free online self-study IT courses
  mirrored at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.”
  http://web.archive.org/web/20010301212755/goforit.unk.edu/

“Self Study Guides Currently Available”

• http://web.archive.org/web/20010203135500/cit.rcc.on.ca/cscourse.htm

8051 Microcontrollers 80×86 Assembler C Programming Data Communications Data Structures Embedded Systems Excel 2000 Hardware Introduction - I Hardware Introduction - II Internet: An introduction Internet Management MS-DOS Networks: An Introduction Operating Systems Pascal Programming PowerPoint 2000 Research: An Introduction Windows 2000 Server Windows 3.1 Windows 95 Windows NT Server v4.0 Word 2000 WWW/HTML/Multi-media Unix Visual Basic 6.0

• “JPM Asia Pacific Institute”
  http://web.archive.org/web/20010309114305/www.etraining.com.au/llcourses.html

Social Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: newbie, tutorials, Life-long+Learning, html, Internet, guides, //engtech, Lorelle

click to enlarge

Note that this will only work for edublogs.org users. It will take you to your main blog, not any other but from there you can switch.

Uniblogs.org eslblogs.org and learnerblogs.org need to click on “students login here” (see mouse arrow in image) to be directed here, http://edublogs.org/student/

But really, the fastest way to get to your blog’s dashboard is to put this in URL your favorites or bookmarks or as a desktop shortcut–

http://blogname.edublogs.org/wp-admin/

http://blogname.uniblogs.org/wp-admin/

http://blogname.eslblogs.org/wp-admin/

http://blogname.leanerblogs.org/wp-admin/

Site Search Tags: edublogs.org, edublogs+tips, wordpress+tips

Scot’s Newsletter makes a good point.

3. Don’t unsubscribe because you’re going to use the RSS feed instead. The SFNL RSS feed is meant as a convenience service for subscribers only, not as a replacement for your subscription. Please, there’s no future for a newsletter in RSS distribution. If I were to focus on that, I would just transform the newsletter into a blog and send you a newsletter notification. I’ve polled the newsletter’s readership on that very point — and you’ve said loud and clear you don’t want me to do that. At the very least, keep your subscription and use it as a notification to check your RSS reader.

10 Things Good Newsletter Subscribers Shouldn’t Do
—————————
Scot’s Newsletter
—————————
Operating Systems. Broadband. Issues. Reviews. Info You Can Use.
July 2007 — Vol. 7, Issue No. 92

By Scot Finnie

Read the neater website version of Scot’s Newsletter!
http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/92.htm

Social Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: scotsnewsletter, RSS, newsletter, Email, blogs

Simon mentioned using MS Live Writer currently in beta.

Another tool, I mentioned here,
http://cerebraloddjobs.edublogs.org/2006/05/20/coding-long-urls-in-comments/#more-54 is the nice little Show HTML Coding and is from Finn Ekberg Christiansen living in Copenhagen, Denmark. http://hjem.get2net.dk/fec/shtmlc/shtmlc.html

Here’s the direct link to the Live Writer extensions to be able to add code to posts. It’s hard to find their stuff. http://gallery.live.com/default.aspx?pl=8

NB–
The website for adding extensions will not open in FireFox but only in MS Internet Explorer Here’s how to configure a customized tag for searching the blog (site search). Click photo to enlarge.

Social Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: coding, Live+Writer, BlogHerald, Lorelle+VanFossen, FireFox, search+tags

This is what I did:

• Published post is opened from the blog in Live Writer.
• I clicked on the image but changed nothing.
• Post was published as “Post draft and edit on line”

In the text below, the original published post in the blog editor window with image thumbnail that displays correctly. Below the line is the text from after the draft is published for editing.

<p>This was developed as a central place for people (inside and outside the region) trying to plan meetings and trips. Too often meetings overlap or the limited number of venues are full or there are successive meetings requiring people to spend limited travel dollars several times over for the same itinerary.</p> <p>The calendar site is free and pretty easy to use. Holidays and language may be altered.<br />http://www.calsnet.com/ykalaska</p><a href=’http://cerebraloddjobs.edublogs.org/files/2007/07/ykcalendar.jpg’ title=’YK Calendar static image’><img src=’http://cerebraloddjobs.edublogs.org/files/2007/07/ykcalendar.thumbnail.jpg’ alt=’YK Calendar static image’ /></a>
—————————-

<p>This was developed as a central place for people (inside and outside the region) trying to plan meetings and trips. Too often meetings overlap or the limited number of venues are full or there are successive meetings requiring people to spend limited travel dollars several times over for the same itinerary.</p> <p>The calendar site is free and pretty easy to use. Holidays and language may be altered.<br />http://www.calsnet.com/ykalaska</p> <p><a title="YK Calendar static image" href="http://cerebraloddjobs.edublogs.org/files/2007/07/ykcalendar.jpg"><img alt="YK Calendar static image"/></a></p>

My expectation is that what comes down must go up unless I make a deliberate change and save that change (left or right clicking to see what happens but not saving shouldn’t do anything).

By the way, I’m using Firefox. Can anyone else figure out what I’m doing wrong with the image?

Gizmo’s latest newsletter continues his series on portable computing security and his experience with U3 and proprietary USB program launchers. see Port-a-puter for the roadless warrior: U3 and thumbtops, portable computing and How to make a Thumbtop PC

Issue 147, 19th July, 2007

• http://techsupportalert.com/issues/back_issues.htm

Editorial

Securing USB flash drives is not quite as simple as you might hope. Simple no, but possible yes. That’s because drive encryption, one of the simplest and robust forms of protecting a PC, won’t work unless you have administrator privileges on the host PC you plug your USB drive into. This immediately rules out most hotel computers, internet cafes and other public terminals.

2.3 Flash Drive Management Systems

If you are getting into USB flash drive computing you are going to have to quickly make a decision about the approach you are going to take to managing and organizing your portable applications.

4.3 Running Linux from a USB Flash Drive

5.1 How to Improve Your Security When Using a Public Terminal (Part 3 of 4)

Last month [1] I showed you how you can enter passwords more securely using obfuscation techniques. This is fancy way of saying that when you type your password you insert and delete random letters to mask the real password. It works because most keyloggers just record a long string of characters containing the keystrokes you have entered so adding and deleting random letters makes it very hard for an attacker to work out which of the recorded keystrokes form part of your actual password.

Social Bookmarks:

This was developed as a central place for people (inside and outside the region) trying to plan meetings and trips. Too often meetings overlap or the limited number of venues are full or there are successive meetings requiring people to spend limited travel dollars several times over for the same itinerary.

The calendar site is free and pretty easy to use. Holidays and language may be altered.
http://www.calsnet.com/ykalaska

---

Site Search Tags: Live Writer, testing

————————————
below is the code in Live Writer. It seems to have made the image URL a relative URL. The post displays correctly within Live Writer in what ever view is selected.

<p>Live Writer seemed to be adding code to the earlier published post that ended up stripping the image out. So here is a test (the original post has been corrected)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>This was developed as a central place for people (inside and outside the region) trying to plan meetings and trips. Too often meetings overlap or the limited number of venues are full or there are successive meetings requiring people to spend limited travel dollars several times over for the same itinerary.</p>
<p>The calendar site is free and pretty easy to use. Holidays and language may be altered.<br><a href="//www.calsnet.com/ykalaska">http://www.calsnet.com/ykalaska</a></p>
<p><img alt="thumbnail calendar click to enlarge" src="//img498.imageshack.us/img498/1264/regionalcalendar0yh.th.gif"></p>
<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:38926c4b-9a03-4aa8-8a9d-4c0a0f0b1091" contenteditable="false" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px">
<hr>
<b>Site Search Tags:</b> <a href="" rel="tag" ?s=’Live%20Writer"’>Live Writer</a>, <a href="" rel="tag" ?s=’testing"’>testing</a></div>

here is the code as stripped by WordPress

<p>Live Writer seemed to be adding code to the earlier published post that ended up stripping the image out. So here is a test (the original post has been corrected)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>This was developed as a central place for people (inside and outside the region) trying to plan meetings and trips. Too often meetings overlap or the limited number of venues are full or there are successive meetings requiring people to spend limited travel dollars several times over for the same itinerary.</p> <p>The calendar site is free and pretty easy to use. Holidays and language may be altered.<br /><a href="//www.calsnet.com/ykalaska">http://www.calsnet.com/ykalaska</a></p> <p><img /></p> <div><hr /><b>Site Search Tags:</b> <a href="/?s=Live%20Writer" rel="tag">Live Writer</a>, <a href="/?s=testing" rel="tag">testing</a></div>

Mr Joe Cheng has been very helpful pointing out my errors in this testing 7 responses to “This is a test of the newer Windows Live Writer 1(12)”. Not all the errors are yet corrected.

Social Bookmarks:

The bookmarks below were generated using the GreaseMonkey script from Social Bookmarking Helper 4 Wordpress.Com - A Greasemonkey Userscript July 7th, 2007 — Satya Narayan The bookmarks generated at other posts come from a modified bookmarklet from http://archaeoastronomy.wordpress.com/social-linking/

I don’t know if all these bookmarking sites are useful to readers and will have to figure out how to trim the script the way I trimmed the bookmarklet.

Here are screenshots of the difference between the human-eye view of using Live Write and the WordPressMU editor.

If the post needs revising after posting (I haven’t found the post as draft feature yet), Live Write makes it difficult. I like the ease of adding tags, but not all themes use the horizontal rule and others highlight URLs differently. It would be nice to have something that that also includes the equivalent to MS Word’s “view non-printing characters”.

1) normal view in Live Writer

2) post then viewed in WordPressMU editor (non-RTF)

3) human-friendly view of another post in edit mode

Social Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: live+writer, blog+clients, screen+shots

“Click photo to visit http://wellingtongrey.blogspot.com/, the source of the Computer is a Skinner Box *
The computer is not your friend. The computer is a Skinner Box

via

    * Brainbiter http://sophronismos.wordpress.com/

Skinner Box”

Live Writer above and blog editor below–
This is not nearly as awful as the earlier version . It doesn’t add a lot of extraneous coding that has to be cleaned up, but there is still some. It is Beta but certainly has some good possibilities.

Windows Live Betas - Home (No, these aren’t fish. )

The website for adding extensions will not open in FireFox but only in MS Internet Explorer http://gallery.live.com/results.aspx?c=0&bt=9&pl=8&st=5

Here’s how to configure a customized tag for searching the blog (site search). Click photo to enlarge [REVISED]

Until I get the revised image in place, the correct coding should be
<a href="/?s={tag-encoded}" rel="tag">{tag}</a>
Thanks to Joe Cheng http://cerebraloddjobs.edublogs.org/2007/07/16/live-writer-test-screen-shots-of-editor/#comments

Previous client tests (2006) are here testing blog clients (off-line writing and editing)

and Referrers (referer, sic)

Editing or managing of previous posts must be done on-line, unlike Zoundry.

Social Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: Live+Writer, testing, blog+client, tags

Click photo to visit http://wellingtongrey.blogspot.com/, the source of the Computer is a Skinner Box *

via

• Brainbiter http://sophronismos.wordpress.com/

Skinner Box

via

• Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/

Whom the gods destroy, they first make mad

Skinner Box at Wikipedia

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinner_Box

Social Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: Millard+Fillmores+Bathtub, computers

Click to enlarge the roadless version of a USB flash drive. The card reader was something like $9.00 and the CF card was maybe $12 or $20, special at that time. There are shorter USB extension cords available out there.

Below, the CF card in its protective PCI adaptor card is on the left The connector end is inside the adaptor shell. The genuine thumbdrive (SanDisk) is on the right. The split ring is fairly flimsy looking to me. It won’t be easy to replace that as the space to switch rings is tight. I added the “carabiner” clip to make it less likely to misplace or lose. The USB connector is slid inside.

Lorelle VanFossen illustrates a portable drive.

Social Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: PCI+adaptor, thumb+drive, USB, U3, , USB+flash, camera+card, CF+card

Gear pictures here

• http://cerebraloddjobs.edublogs.org/2007/06/27/illustrated-portable-computing-devices/

On the Roadless Again –

Because I’m on the roadless system and needed to go to the nearest Wal-Mart 400 miles away, I decided not to lug the laptop. Extra weight and it left no room for a change of clothes, much less anything I might find at Wal-Mart if I got that far, and no liquids or gels.

First, all I had was a camera card. The laptop I had was too old for USB ports but did have PCI slots. My camera card reader also read CF cards, which held a lot (256 Mb) and were much cheaper than jump drives or thumb drives. Soooo, transfer data from desktop to card reader to CF card to PCI adaptor to laptop. Or, for roadless travel, simply to CF card and slim card reader (USB). I put Firefox Portable and Roboform 2Go on the card.

The motel had a “business center”, two older PCs with Windows XP but did have Internet connection. I found the USB connections (on the back of the machines) but these were only the slower USB1 ports. Nevertheless, I could access my drivette. Unfortunately, the network was set not to allow an Internet connection (also wouldn’t allow other people access to their corporate E-mail. They are working on a solution).

However, I did find a university library. USB2 ports on the flat monitor! (and on the back of the machines). I was able to get everything to work from the camera card. (With an Internet faster than I could read the screen to decide what to do next. Roboform found me in its database to configure itself properly to allow me access to all my passwords.)

A third situation was the only public “terminal” at the medical center, located near the Emergency Room. It was a PC but configured to only access the Internet. It did have a USB port but I had no way to explore my drivette and run Firefox.

The card reader, CF card, the PCI adaptor (to protect the CF card), and the USB extension cord (protects the USB connection from damage) are smaller than a cigarette package but larger than a thumb.

Enter Wal-mart (I finally had a chance to get away) and look for thumbdrive. Wonder of wonders, a 1 Gb SanDisk was only $20. I chose it because the comparable Lexar drive had an indicator of used space which seemed silly. The SanDisk had U3, a term I had seen but knew nothing of. Plus, there was no protector cap to lose (the connection slid in the casing).

What did I learn?

I had to find out what a U3 was. It is not a yet faster USB. It is a pre-configured way to partition a thumbdrive into an “operating system” partition and one for everything else (files and software). Basically, it makes the thumbdrive emulate a CD-ROM drive for the host computer. It also provides a launch menu of your applications, including an explorer function to find what else is there.

There are several U3-configured applications (see below) including Firefox, Skype, etc. However, it is possible to arrange your drive without U3. SanDisk even makes an uninstaller. The PortableApps suite at PortableApps.com also has just a menu launcher. Then, simply drag your portable application folders into the main directory and they are automatically detected. This is simpler than installing U3-configured applications.

I have not tried any of this on public systems like the three examples above. Although the portable applications are designed to run off the thumbdrives they do make some use of the host computer. (Unless you carry Windows XP on the drive, I think.) I suspect that the U3 partition has a chance to work on the hospital ER machine because the ER machine may just think there is a CD-Rom drive attached. Both menu launchers can be configured to automatically load when the USB is connected, just like a CD is on a desktop computer. (Not together, just one or the other.)

I have settled for now on keeping the U3 partition and default launcher. I also use the PortableApps launcher and placed Firefox and Roboform 2Go there, along with an anti-virus program and the portable version of Abi-Word (so I can retype my resume if needed which is normally processed in MS Word. Gone are the days when nearly all of Word could be put on one truly floppy disk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk) and documents on another for use anywhere.)

One thing overlooked in much of the thumb drive discussions is the reminder that these drives use “flash memory” and after a period of use, the drive is jaded and must be discarded. In comparing jump drives for purchase, no one seems to mention lifespan. I don’t know what happens at the end of life. This is another reason for not adding everything to a portable flash drive and relying on it for a primary computer or storage device (back up!!!).

Another concern I have is security of the drive from the host computer and Internet. I suppose the anti-virus may help, but this is most useful when returning home and plugging in the drive (Don’t transfer files without checking for viruses first.) Getting a portable firewall is evidently challenging because of the host-symbiont relationship necessary to get to the Internet. Encryption and virtual machines are possible, evidently, but make things slow. It’s not yet that big a risk for me to figure out. (Password protect your goodies on the drive.)

Here are references I found most useful in addition to those earlier http://cerebraloddjobs.edublogs.org/2007/06/05/how-to-thumbtop-pc/–

Portal for Portability
http://www.no-install.com/ (news, views, self-help)

U3 - ‘Official’ Portable USB Apps Platform
http://www.everythingusb.com/u3.html also a U3 Newbie Guide with USB Apps Popular Questions Answered

Tools and Utils for your USB Drive
http://usb.SmithTech.us

Portable USB Apps - TheInfoBox.com
http://www.theinfobox.com/index.php/Portable_USB_Apps

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“Gizmo’s top picks of the best tech resources and utilities” Issue 146, 21st June, 2007
http://www.techsupportalert.com/

5.1 How to Improve Your Security When Using a Public Terminal (Part 2 of 3)
There is no 100% safe way to enter passwords from a public terminal. That’s a fact….
So what can you do to improve your security when entering passwords?

USB Flash Drive Security
# 1 Encryption
# 2 Password manager
# 3 Virus Scans
# 4 Key Loggers
# 5 Backups
http://www.theinfobox.com/index.php?title=USB_Flash_Drive_SecurityUSB
Flash Drive Computing: Heaven on a Stick?

USB Flash Drive Computing: Heaven on a Stick?
Support Alert subscriber “Briard” takes a break from his expeditions into Linux-land and wanders instead into the very different realm of portable computing (June 2007)
http://www.techsupportalert.com/briard_in_usbland.htm

=======================================

Customize Your Drive’s Autoplay Action, Drive Icon, and Disk Label
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1849712,00.asp

RoboForm2Go-U3 Version and Roboform2Go regular
http://www.roboform.com/
RoboForm, via Fred Langa’s recommendation, really is worth the purchase. So is Roboform2Go to make sure your passwords aren’t left behind. If you need only a few portable passwords then things such as Chris Seaton’s CSPassword (last version, 9.0 is from here http://cspassword.tripod.com/ ) or Oubliette (last version from here: http://www.tranglos.com/free/oubliette.htmll) will work.

« Telecommuting Tools - Pandemic Plan: Preparing for the next flu pandemic.
http://reports.typepad.com/pandemic_plan/2006/04/telecommuting_t_6.html

U3 Software Central
U3 Smart Application Update
http://u3applications.blogharbor.com/blog

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Site Search Tags: portable+apps, jump+drive, thumb+drive, USB, U3, RoboForm, mobile, Gizmo+tech+support, techsupportalert, USB+flash, telecommuting, pandemic+flu, preparedness, continuity+of+operations, H5N1

Wibowo at http://nooventures.edublogs.org/ started this discussion by mentioning www.skweezer.net. He added a whole group of interesting “Dial-up and Mobility Survival Kits” that he uses. Must see his list at http://edublogs.org/forums/topic.php?id=784&replies=5#post-3762

Skweezer can evidently act as an Internet portal but also strips the CSS styles off webpages. This makes for quicker access for dial-ups and those who pay minute by minute for Internet access. It struck me similar applications might include “tiny apps” or software on a “stick” or pen drive or other flash drive. If you use public computers, these can also protect your privacy. And why eat up that heavy laptop storage space when you could be using it for blog research and photos?

I haven’t tried all these out but they are worth exploring for those needing to remain publicly anonymous or to lose weight.

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Gizmo’s Support Alert Newsletter Issue 145, Premium Edition, 24th May, 2007 , lists replacements for an on-the-road computer– the thumb drive (or camera flashcard) including windows XP on a USB Flash Drive http://techsupportalert.com

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from Fred Langa of LangaList now Windows Secrets Newsletter at http://windowssecrets.com/comp/

http://www.TinyApps.org/

a collection of very small PC apps, from email clients to operating systems, under 1.44mb, though most are *much* smaller (in the 100-200k range). Miles Wolbe http://www.tinyapps.org/blog/

Flash-Drive Software , Kim Komando’s site at
http://komando.com/shareware_show.asp?showID=9675

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/thumb-drive/

http://portableapps.com/

searched using Google: http://tinyurl.com/s2uak

“More OS-On-A-Stick Options”
http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-02-09.htm#3

and a step-by-step article on Windows XP On Your USB Thumb/Flash Drive
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177102101

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applications that are small, portable (i.e. no registry dependencies, relative pathing, etc.) and, ideally, free or low cost. http://www.usbapps.com/

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