The Geedord Files

I broke down and got an iPhone 3GS earlier this year.  Now that it is the end of the year I decided to list my personal list of the top 10 apps I use for the phone.

1.  Facebook – This is quite easily the most addictive app on the iPhone.  The app allows near complete access to the social networking site and has caused me to waste a lot of time.

2.  Wordpress – The newest iteration of the Wordpress app allows me to quickly post materials to my class blogs so that I can always update students while on the move.

3.  Pandora – A great music app that creates custom stations based on your tastes, and it is free!

4.  Documents to Go – It isn’t mobile Office but pretty good for quick work.

5.  Dropbox – If you have never used Dropbox on your Mac/Linux/PC then I highly advise you check it out as a way to keep all of your files readily accessible.  A hidden bonus is it allows you to display PowerPoint presentations on the iPhone (sans animations), a feature that has sorely been missing.

6.  Civilization Revolutions – A great strategy fix for fans of the series, almost a direct copy of the DS version.

7.  PS Mobile – A great easy photo editor to help with minor problems on iPhone photos.

8.  Nikon Live and Learn – A reference program that has helped with my photography in general.

9.  Trivial Pursuit – The ultimate time waster.

10.  Mark the Spot – AT&T’s app to help them improve service… hopefully they will follow up on the entries I have made.

I will start by saying that I usually love Google Apps.  Gmail is my defacto cloud storage solution and Google Reader is the only RSS reader in my opinion, so I went in hoping that the Google Office apps would do as well for me.  Unfortunately I have to say that they lack a lot of polish and are not quite ready for primetime.

In my field, education, I do a lot of writing and formating (making exams, lab report templates, etc.) and here is were Google Documents failed me.  The overall page formating options were limited to nonexistent and simply not up to any decent complexity on the page.  This type of criticism can be leveled against all of the other Google Office apps, they are good for easy stuff, but lack any complexity in use.  Given the availability of other freeware office suites (Open Office and Abiword/Gnumeric for example) with much better performance and options Google needs to up its game.  Granted it is in the cloud, but this is not a reason to sacrifice performance to the degree that Google Docs and such would ask you to.

Unlike most people I cannot effectively outline material.  I think much better in a network model, or what is more often called a concept map.  The system is the innate way in which my brain works, but it differs distinctly from the way most of my students think.  In order to assist my students in understanding my thought processes I have taken to draw rough, incomplete concept maps (which I am calling connection maps) for my students to use in their studies.  Creating these maps on the computer can be accomplished with an good vector drawing program (Inkscape being a good example), but these generalist programs lack the features and shortcuts of a dedicated diagraming program.

The dominate diagramming program in the commercial world is Microsoft Visio, and while it has a number of highly useful features the typical Microsoft price (Visio is not in any Office bundles) keeps it out of the hands of us starving professors.  In my neverending quest for open source alternatives to overpriced commerical software I looked to the Linux community.  There are plenty of mind-mapping software programs out there, but few general diagramming programs.  The best I have found is Dia for Windows (an offshoot of the Linux Dia program).  The program is an excellent diagramming system that allows quick diagram production and ready exporting to the open-source .png format (my favorite for web publishing).  The interface is intuitive and simple to understand.  On the downside, there are some artifacts present in the system menus from its Linux heritage, but they are easily overcome.  If you have diagramming needs, please give Dia a try.

I have a wintel computer in my house, well actually two.  My wife’s laptop is a newer HP stock edition and my gaming machine is a fairly high end HP system.  However, for my work laptop I use a perpetually updated gently-aged Compaq X1030.  I have a partioned hard drive that allows me to utilize WinXP for things such as Netflix, but most of my work is done on a second partition utilizing linux.  Here is my current edition.

OS – Ubuntu 8.10 Beta – Ubuntu is by far the most well developed and user-friendly distro of linux out there.  Though many would argue that the KDE desktop (in Kubuntu) is more “windows-like” I prefer the Gnome interface in Ubuntu.  It is a beta version, but I have found it to be incredibly stable.  The one huge advantage I have found with 8.10 is that it connects my WiFi much faster than the 8.04 version.  (cost $0, www.ubuntu.com)

Office Software – Open Office 3.0 Beta – Easily a viable alternative to Microsoft Office (minus Outlook) with developed programs that provides save formats for MS Office (cost – $0, www.openoffice.org)

Email – Evolution – Easily a match for Outlook, and it has the added benefit of syncing with Microsoft Exchange Servers (cost – $0, included in Ubuntu)

Vector Drawing – Inkscape – I utilize Adobe Illustrator CS3 at work, simply because it is what IT puts on the machines (when asked), but Inkscape does just as much for the low-low price of $0 (www.inkscape.org)

Photo Work – GIMP – Again, more than a match for Adobe Photoshop without the cost (www.gimp.org)

Media Player – VLC – There is no way Windows Media Player, iTunes, or any other player can match the sheer number of formats that VLC can play (cost – $0, www.vlideolan.org/vlc)

Financial – Microsoft Money 2003 (under WINE) – My Compaq came with an OEM copy of Microsoft Money 2003, so I simply deleted it from the WinXP partition and reinstalled it in the linux partition utilizing the WINE system.  It runs fine and allows me to stay in linux.

Browser – Firefox 3.0 – Come on, is there another choice (www.firefox.com)

Cost of Compaq Presario X1030 US on EBay – $160.00

For less than $200 I have a computer that runs all I need to for work, with a 15.4″ widescreen and the ability to run plenty of games (under the WinXP partition) and the ability to watch Netflix.  Granted, most of the programs I use can be run under WinXP, but linux offers peppier performance and the free upgrade of my SD reader (built in to the computer) to an SDHC reader.

I am a huge fan and proponent of ebooks.  I utilize a number of devices for mobile reading and a number of programs.  On my computer I have copies of Microsoft Reader (.lit files), Mobipocket (.pbd), Adobe Reader (.pdf) and Sony Reader (.lpf/.lpx), while my PDA has Microsoft Reader and Mobipocket, and my mobile phone (Sony z750a) has a beta of mobipocket (with a few attendant beta issues).  Of all these programs my favorite is Microsoft Reader.  I think Reader has the best interface and text display options (ClearType actually does make a difference)… but I am a little worried that the program has become abandonware at Microsoft.

I recently upgraded to Office 2007 and was shocked to learn that there was no longer the option to save files in the Reader format (.lit), an add in feature in Office 2000-2003.  This is weird in that the program worked so well in the earlier Office version and was very useful to me as an archiving feature and distribution system (since Microsoft Reader is a free download).  There are some commercial programs (i.e. ReaderWorks), but they have all been lacking in features or ease.  The Reader Add-In allows simple point and click conversion of Word files (.doc), but does not work in Word 2007 (CSS crashes throughout).  My suspicion is intensified by the difficulty in finding the Microsoft Reader homepage at Microsoft’s website.

I really hope that Microsoft is retooling the Add-In for Office 2007, but I am concerned that my favorite e-reader may be on its last legs.

One of my favorite programs in the new Office 2007 package is the revamped One Note.  I think this is an excellent note-taking and archiving system that really integrates the Office experience into something I can use to collaborate with my colleagues.  I was thrilled to see that One Note comes packaged with a mobile version that can operate on Windows Mobile devices and promptly installed it onto my trusty Dell Axim x51v.  While I give Microsoft credit for creating this mobile version, and making it an absolute breeze to install, I must contend that this version is probably the weakest note system I have seen for Windows Mobile.

In short One Note mobile allows you to create autosaving notebooks that can be easily synced with the Desktop One Note program.  However, the ease of syncing files does not make up for the lack of features in the mobile program.  First and foremost, there is no ink support in One Note mobile.  The lack of ink support is troubling, as many “notes” are best served with quick drawings or jotted notes.  Second, formatting options are limited in the mobile version.  In a notebook I want the ability to use different colors, type (or write) where ever I want, and so on, One Note mobile is limited to an anemic set of list and easy font formatting.  Third, One Note mobile offers no feature that cannot be done better by the already present WM Notes or WM Word.

Please oh please Microsoft listen to the masses and spend some time improving One Note mobile so that it can be a worthy addition to my PDA, rather than a simple tag along of the more mature WM programs.

First let me say that those of us teaching the courses in college have little to no control over textbook prices.   I cannot dictate how much the store buys back books for, or even if they buy books back.  The publisher decides when new editions come out, and accrediting agencies mandate new editions every so many years.  My colleagues and I definitely take price into consideration when choosing new books, but the price range doesn’t always allow for much flexibility.

An interesting alternative to the traditional textbook is the ebook.  In my opinion electronic books hold a lot of potential in the educational market, but only if some severe shortcomings can be addressed.  The biggest problem is one of availability.  A quick search of the major ebook retailers (amazon.com, fictionwise, and mobipocket) so few, if any, undergraduate science texts (my discipline).  This isn’t surprising when you peruse the large textbook companies (i.e. Prentice Hall) and find all ebooks linked to purchase of the hardcover book (an added benefit I guess).  So before we can even consider ebooks as an alternative we have to get the major publishers to come on board.  Hopefully the entry of the big name Amazon.com into the market will cause publishers to reevaluate their positions.

The second problem to address is the state of technology in ebook readers.  There are two technology solutions available, the dedicated reader (Sony Ereader and Amazon Kindle being the major players) and the software solution on portable computers (mobipocket reader and microsoft reader).  The dedicated readers offer a greater selection of books (esp. the Kindle), but are limited by their black and white eink screens.  I know some would disagree, but frankly I think it is impossible to write a good intro text in biology without the use of color.  Software solutions allow the use of color, but are tied to larger systems.  To me the current ideal is the use of mobipocket on a windows mobile PDA (later in the year mobipocket is supposed to be out on the iPod Touch).  Hopefully in the near future we will see a color eink device to fill in the current gaps.

Hopefully these shortcomings can be corrected and ebooks find a place in the educational market… but we will have to wait and see.