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educational technology, eLearning & emerging technology

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Zoho has just launched offline editing capabilities for their Writer application. I’ve yet to gain test this out, but the prospect sounds promising. I’ll post my findings here as soon as I can.

In the meantime take a gander at this video for more information

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I’ve only just run across this video but it seems to cover the fundamentals of what I’m trying to learn how to implement in Drupal at the moment. The author of the video has a blip.TV channel that has a fair amount of content on it, so I plan on having a closer look when I get a chance.

His Channel is: http://awakenedvoice.blip.tv/

You just gotta love the passion and community spirit that the Drupal community brings to the table. I love open source!

Via Mashable, Zoho Writer Gets More Professional:

“Zoho has added a couple new options for its web-based document creation tool, Zoho Writer. None of the changes are all that significant, but I think Zoho missed out on some potential here.”

I’ve just had a quick look at this tool and was pleasantly surprised with what they’ve done with it. I use Google Documents quite frequently, and yet find its lack of functionality somewhat irritating.

Zoho Writer by contrast seems to offer a substantially deeper toolset that is much more comparable to offline word processing applications such as OpenOffice and Word. For example, whereas Google Docs offers a paltry WYSIWYG toolbar with sparse formatting options, Zoho Writer has several rows of options that include a variety of functions - including notably TABLES. For some incredible reason, Google Docs doesn’t have this yet, which never ceases to amaze me.

Add to this functions that are increasingly becoming web-standards, such as tagging and folksonomic identifiers, and at least on the surface you have something that’s quite useful.

I for one am on so many different machines from day to day that web-based documentation programs such as Writely and Google Docs are really valuable because they help minimise version control problems. I use wiki’s quite frequently as well, but wiki’s aren’t appropriate for everything - take sensitive information for example.

The main gripe that I have about Zoho Writer is the fact that its use of Google Gears doesn’t enable offline editing. It’s nice to be able to unplug after work and read the same document on the way home - but to me without an edit option it offers no major benefit. In fact it’s several extra steps to view that a PDF doesn’t require. Why offer offline functionality if it’s only in a static form?

Hopefully this is something in the works, because it’s severely lacking in the current web-wide offerings. For me personally, the first application that offers this is going to be the one I go with as my online word processing program of choice.

If you’re going to compete with the offline Big Boys, you can’t overlook offline activities.

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Forrest: Is tumblr an alternative to … twitter?

Mike: Sort of - Twitter is a microblog, which limits you to text entries of 140 characters or less, which is virtually nothing; only a sentence or two at most.

Tumblr falls into a category of web apps called tumblelogs, which do not have character limits and can also include mixed media such as images and video. However like microblogs, posts to tumblelogs are expected to be quick and relatively unedited - perhaps a quote here or a thought there, but not like the long well-thought out content you see in blogs and wikis.

Tumblelogs - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblelogs
Blogs - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs
Microblogging - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-blogging

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Just had a look at the showcase video for the new version of Mac OSX - Leopard - and I’m quite impressed. Preliminary news reports have deemed this new version “an evolution rather than a revolution” and based upon what I’ve just seen in the video I agree with their assessments - and yet the improvements that Apple has made to iChat in particular are phenomenal.

They’ve taken what was an already excellent IM video chat program and turned it into a web conferencing tool that is on par with any of the major server side software programs out there - including Adobe Connect (formerly Macromedia Breeze). The options to share desktops, files and videos are absolutely stunning, and in typical Apple fashion they’ve done it with both style and usability as well.

The main issue will be its capacity to operate cross platform, or cross version with previous incarnations of OSX. If the bulk of iChat’s functionality is restricted to the Leopard platform - as it has historically been with Tiger - it will pose a substantial barrier for uptake.

Like it or not, Microsoft still dominates the personal computer realm. Mac is definitely catching up; but even so you’re talking about a brand new operating system as well. So users running Tiger will only be able to do so much with iChat as well.

The other consideration is bandwidth. This is an issue for any type of web conferencing as sharing documents and desktops in particular require a substantial amount of grunt under the bonnet of your web connection. However in the case of the previous version of iChat for example, their compression was high enough that it could accommodate most high-speed web connections - be they home or office - and importantly the video quality was not compromised in the process.

There is a lot to like about the Leopard and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy for a test run, and yet my interest in the iChat web conferencing functionality is paramount. I’m seriously impressed with what they’ve done there.

More information on Mac OSX 10.5 “Leopard” here.

OS Trifecta
Originally uploaded by acousticdad

This OS triple-play was not nearly as difficult to pull off as you might think.
Ingredients

1) Intel-based MacBook
2) VMWare Fusion
3) Windows XP Professional
4) Ubuntu Feisty Fawn
Steps to Implementation

1) Download VMWare Fusion and install on Mac OS X.

URL: http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/features.html

Installation directions are exceptionally easy to follow and require only 10 to 20 minutes to complete including reading time. 30-day evaluation licenses are available for those interested in preliminary inquiry only. Retail price for a single license is USD$80.

2) Launch VMware Fusion Library

Select New and follow the prompts. You will first be asked to Choose an Operating System, followed by a series of prompts that configure the settings. If you’ve read the instructions there won’t be any surprises; nor is there anything particularly complex.

NB: Be sure to have the installation disc/s ready for the virtual machine you intend to set up.

3) Install OS as per normal

When you reach the end of the set-up prompts in the VMware Fusion Virtual Machine Library you will begin the installation of your virtual OS. At this point the process becomes exactly the same as though it were a fresh install on a brand new machine.

NB: At the end of the Windows XP installation most drivers and hardware were detected automatically, though I have so far been unable to get either Ubuntu or Win XP to see the internal Mac web camera. Everything else has been smooth sailing.

4) To install another OS repeat steps one through 3.

You can do this as many times as your harddrive space permits.

Note though that running multiple virtual machines - as I have in the first picture - is not advisable as the system resources required to run it are likely more than your machine can handle. My laptop spat the dummy shortly after this screenshot was taken.
Additional Screenshots

Installing Ubuntu on Mac OS X

Windows XP Professional on Mac OS X

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That’s Your AIM in My GTalk

Now here’s a feature I’m looking forward to seeing launch: AIM - Google Talk interoperability. Via TechCrunch, screenshots of development versions have surfaced on blog, Google Operating System.

Based on the screen grab depicted by TechCrunch you’ll be able to chat within Gmail just as you currently can with Google Talk. What remains to be seen is whether they’ll roll this option into the IM client, which is not always a sure thing.

Features such as group chat for example, while available in the web interface version of Google Talk, is NOT yet available in the IM client.

Stay tuned as more details are inevitably leaked.