If you’re reading this, that means you’re accessing our blog from its brand new server. As far as I can tell everything’s in working order. Feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line at help@stratepedia.org if something doesn’t look right.
Don’t forget: The Stratepedia Guidebooks may be unavailable for awhile on Friday while we move them to the new server. After that I’m planning to move the Learning Labs and After School Literacy Online–stay tuned for more information.
Thanks!
Aaron
If you’re using Twitter, the popular micro-messaging service, you’ve no doubt come across hash tags. We talked about hash tags a few months ago, and how they’re useful for tracking messages around a particular subject. A new site called What the Trend? makes it easy to follow hash tags, particular those you aren’t sure of a meaning. For example, #aclfest is a popular tag right now because the Austin City Limits Music Festival just announced its lineup for this year, and #swineflu is also trending right now for obvious reasons.
Don’t forget–our hash tag for this summer’s SIM® conference is #sim2009. Be sure to include it in all your tweets related to the conference, and watch it trend!
So far the server migration I mentioned last week is moving right along. I’ve added one item: This coming Wednesday, April 29, this blog will be offline beginning at 4:00 PM CDT while I move it to the new server. Anything posted here will be unavailable for up to six hours following that time.
The March 2009 issue of Stratenotes, en route to your mailbox as I type this, includes a suggestion that readers learn more about RSS technology. I’m happy to say the piece includes three links to this blog. (If this is your first visit here, welcome!) One link is to something I wrote last fall, referring to a piece by marketing guru Seth Godin comparing RSS to radio. Lately I’ve been thinking my RSS reader–the piece of software I use to read my RSS feeds–is a little more like a newspaper. Let me explain.
Most RSS readers (or “feed readers”) allow you to sort individual feeds into folders, kind of like how you’d sort files on your computer or saved messages in your preferred e-mail client. How your folders are labeled and sorted is up to you. My client is set up kind of like sections of a custom newspaper–I have my Current Events section, with feeds from CNN, Google News, and NPR; my Sports section, fed by ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and the St. Louis Cardinals; Local news from the Lawrence Journal-World and the University Daily Kansan; Education (the U.S. Department of Education, Educause, and others); and tons of special interest sections based on personal and professional interests. I’m also experimenting with the filtering feature my client (NetNewsWire; Mac-only, free, and easy to use) provides–I’ve got a few filters set up to show me all items matching given parameters.
The end result? I’m currently getting information from 106 feeds via my own, personal, customized electronic newspaper. (I’ve trimmed this down lately; I’ve usually got a few hundred in there). I’m able to quickly skim these information services for news and features that interest me.
I hope that, if you’re not using an RSS reader yet to keep up on news that interests you, then this has piqued your interest. If you’re still not sure, take a few minutes to download a news reader like NetNewsWire (or its Windows counterpart FeedDemon) or configure a web-based reader like Google Reader. Coming to this summer’s SIM conference? We’ll also be happy to help you get up and running with RSS, Twitter, or other technology that can help you keep up with an ever-expanding information stream.
Longtime readers of our blog know that Google is more than just a search engine. Today, tech blog Switch offers tips on being a better Googler, including using it as a handy online calculator or calculator, tracking flights and sports, and learning some of the advanced search lingo to perform power searches.
Of course, if you have been reading this blog, you know that you can also do things like supercharge your searches with special keywords and characters, search Google visually, or improve your searches through Boolean queries.
I’m in the slow process of moving our various services over to new server hardware. This will be an ongoing project over the next several weeks. The following migrations are coming shortly:
Lots more after that. As always, stay tuned to this blog or Stratepedia on Twitter for the latest updates.
This week’s Newsweek has a short article about the United States military’s use of iPods for connecting and training soldiers. The device is being used for, among other things, translation purposes and data analysis. The article notes that “since most recruits have used one—and many already own one—it’s that much easier to train them to prepare and upload new content.” Using commercially-available devices in such endeavors is a break from the norm in the military, and is testament to just how much you can do with a smartphone these days.
We’re ramping up our own support for these devices. Did you know that the new online Stratedirectory and Hello (the blog you’re currently reading) feature mobile-friendly interfaces when accessed via an iPhone, iPod touch, or Blackberry? Try them out the next time you’re at your smartphone. Mobile access is also a core feature of the new version of Tutoractive, and we’re currently writing proposals to do further work in this area.
(via Daring Fireball)
Also from Google Labs today is a useful new addition to image search: The ability to find and compare similar images. Similar Images helps you narrow the images found based on, you guessed it, similarity to one another. TechCrunch provides a nice example, using apple as a search term–you might be looking for Apple the company, or maybe apple the fruit.
(via TechCrunch)
