I’ve just finished a tutorial that will show you how to annotate your programs using PATH statements so you can specify where a file is relative to the file or program that is running. This information is essential for web pages (displaying graphic files stored in a graphic folder), as well as applications (looking to open databases and text files).
If you are working with files of any kind you’ll need to understand how to write a path statement.
There’s a new web site, Animoto, that builds animated videos automatically from your photos and music. Here’s a sample version of some shots from my Mexico trip:
You can make a short video for free or a longer video for $3. Use your own music or choose from the music on the Animoto site. You can email the results or embed them in a web page like I did here.
One idea is to make the video and then record a voice over and replace the music track with your voice over. You can also include images with words to get titles and key ideas across to the user.
This is LOTS of fun.
The best time to look for a job is while you are still employed Just ask anyone that has been unemployed for awhile.
To that end its always good to keep your resume up to date and this new service offers a great way to do that. You get a choice of resume designs, created by a top-notch designer as well as tools that allow you to track who is looking at your resume.
The interface is excellent. The site takes you through a step-by-step process in filling out your resume and offers excellent advice and tips include positive action words and spell checking. (How many great applicants have I ignored because of the typos on their resume? Far too many!)
Currently there is a 7-day free trial period and then a subscription fee but this business model may be changing with a multiple-tiered service. Hopefully a basic resume and one design will be free with the multiple resumes, cover letters, and tracking tools being available for a small subscription.
Howard Rosten from SMILES sent me this story:
The Technology Race
After having dug to a depth of 10 meters last year, Scottish scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the Scots, in the weeks that followed, British scientists dug to a depth of 20 meters, and shortly after, headlines in the UK newspapers read: “British archaeologists have found traces of 200 year old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the Scots.”
One week later “The Nordic Klub,” a Minot, North Dakota newsletter, reported the following: “After digging as deep as 30 meters in corn fields near Velva, Ole Johnson, a self-taught archeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Ole has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, North Dakota had already gone wireless.”
You can say you heard it here first.
Thanks Howard!
Photo from iStockPhoto.com
I’m using Writely, the Word clone from Google Docs & Spreadsheets to write this blog entry. This is an amazing free service that allows you not only to write online but to collaborate with others. I can save the document on my hard drive in a variety of formats including Word, HTML, OpenOffice, RTF (Rich Text Format), and PDF. It also keeps track of the revisions I make to the document. I had heard that this was a pretty remarkable tool but it offers so much more than I expected. I can hardly wait for my next collaborative writing project.
What Are Your Classes Worth? Jeremy Alford is graduating soon, and yesterday he made this suggestion, “Have your students go out to monster.com and do a job search with the skills they will be learning at South Central College to see how valuable these classes are.”
Later, I spoke with my brother who has just landed an excellent job with Verizon in the Twin Cities. He recommended both monster.com and dice.com and suggested that the students put their current resume on-line to help them find internship positions while they go to school. (Monster covers many different fields and Dice focuses just on technical careers.)
We have designed our Computer Career degrees so you can specialize in the areas you are interested in. Here’s some keywords you might want to use to see what jobs are available for each specialty:
Web Programming I
- Do a search for: XHTML CSS SEO Web Design
Networking Services
- Do a search for: A+ Networking Linux
Web Programmer Certificate
- Do a search for: ASP.NET PHP Java XHTML CSS JavaScript XML
Information Systems A.A.S. Degree COBOL Emphasis
- Do a search for: COBOL CICS DB2
Information Systems A.A.S. Degree Java .NET Emphasis
- Do a search for: Java VB.NET
Information Systems A.A.S. Degree RPG Programmer Emphasis
- Do a search for: iSeries RPG
Information Systems A.A.S. Degree Web Programmer Emphasis
- Do a search for: ASP.NET PHP Java XHTML CSS JavaScript XML SEO Web Design
Computer Assistant Certificate
- Do a search for: Access Excel A+ Linux XHTML CSS SEO Web Design
Knowing what opportunities are out there will make your course work much more interesting and worthwhile. As you can see from these searches, what you learn at South Central College will directly affect your employment opportunities.
For those taking classes here at South Central College, working on a two-year degree can be very rewarding. Here’s the top ten highest paying jobs for two-year degrees. This list is based on the facts from the Bureau of Labor. Notice that Computer Specialist is number one at $59,000. Pretty nice salary for a two-year degree!
How about job availability? Our faculty in Computer Careers gets two to three calls from employers for Web Programming, Network Support, and Computer Programmer every week. There’s a lot of jobs out there right now. They all want motivated people with problem-solving and communication skills as well as computer/programming expertise. It looks like this will continue for several years to come.
Last July, fifteen high school students participated in the first annual TechNow Programming Camp. For three days they learned how to program using a language called Alice- creating 3-D games and animated movies. Each day, during lunch, employees from the corporate sponsors, Wells Fargo Bank, James Tower, Inc., and Carlson Craft Business Solutions, joined the students and talked about career possibilities. The instructors during the summer camp were Peter Johnson, Tom Edwards from the Computer Careers department here at South Central College, North Mankato campus, and Jeff Seehafer, from GFW High School in Winthrop. The students represented several area high schools including Waseca, GFW, East, St. Clair, and Loyola.
The programming camp was a resounding success and there are plans to expand the camp so more students from different grade levels can participate. If you are interested in next year’s camp contact Peter Johnson peter.johnson@southcentral.edu. Here’s more information about the TechNow initiative.
Here are some shots showing the students during the session and a view of the program named Alice.
The SCC Administration visits the Programming Camp (left to right: Larry Wall, Steve Sletcha, President Keith Stover, W.C. Sanders, Nancy Genelin. )
Here’s a great tool you can use to see how fast your Internet connection is. As you can see it is very graphical and will show you the download speed as well as the upload speed.
When I first ran this I saw that my upload speed was very slow. I called my Internet provider only to find that they hadn’t upgraded the upload speed! I wouldn’t have known without this wonderful tool. No wonder it was taking me so long to upload my course files!
Here is the URL for Speed Test: http://speedtest.net/
I’m working on a web site re-design for CCI, a non-profit company that offers support for people with disabilities. I thought it would be interested to see the various steps of a web site re-design as it unfolded.
Here’s the original home page:
Click on it for a larger view
The first thing I did was meet with the director and come up with a list of things to be done. This formed the basis of project. Here’s the summary list. (And here’s a detailed list if you are interested in using it for your own web projects.) These were both created using Microsoft Project.
Looking at the to-do list you’ll see a basic process that can be used for most web site projects:
I’ll be re-designing the CCI website in a few weeks and received an email from the director asking if I could create an on-line calendar that they can use as a master scheduler for the employees.
I did a quick web search and came up with WebCalendar out on SourceForge which looks exactly what they are looking for.
Going through the process made me very aware of how much the Web is being used as a business tool and no longer as simply an on-line color catalog. They aren’t as interested in publishing information about the organization as they are in offering their employees tools to make everyone’s job easier.
We will use the calendar to display upcoming events for anyone to use on the Web. But, more importantly to the director of CCI is a “hidden” calendar for the employees so they will know when he is in the office and so they can schedule staff. These calendars will be accessible using user IDs and passwords and will be maintained by the employees at CCI, not myself.
Notice that I didn’t start writing my own code to do this. Instead I went out and did a search for “PHP group calendar” to see what was available as open-source. I’ll be able to include this multi-purpose tool in a few hours instead of weeks or months. Along the way I may create a few Flash tutorials for the CCI staff which I’ll give to the WebCalendar project as a resource for other people using this software.
Last week two representatives from Wells Fargo made a presentation to our programming students talking about the growing need for mainframe programmers and the great benefit package that Wells Fargo offers. (I’ll be posting some of the highlights of their presentation in a future entry.)
I also received an email from the IT manager at Precision Press, looking for interns. They have lots of IT specific tasks that they need help on, and the internship could turn into a permanent position.
And, that same week I got a call from a previous boss that I worked for. He’s now in charge of the R&D software section of Taylor Corporation (CC Business Solutions) and he’s looking for programmers that want to play with and explore new, disruptive technologies.
The only problem is we have so few students coming into Computer Careers. Over the last few years enrollment has dropped over 50%. Some of that is due to the dot.com bubble bursting as well as the media coverage about all the jobs outsourcing to India. There are more Information Technology (IT) jobs available now than before the dot.com bubble burst and companies like Wells-Fargo are hesitant to outsource, especially after September 11th. The security risks are just too great.
Two of our graduates are now working at Wells Fargo (they started this last month), two others have gotten jobs at James Tower Media Design (another Taylor Company). I referred another student to Precision Press, but he never followed up.
Now is the time to get into IT. Things are booming once again.
Here’s a great tool that will make your Windows XP screens much easier to use. Microsoft offers the ClearType Power Toy as a free download. This uses the technology that was developed for the PocketPC and it is amazing how much easier it is to use the computer when the text is crisp and clean.
I don’t like customizing my Windows because I use so many different machines through the course of the day, but this Power Toy is definately one to have on the machine you use the most.
Heck, with ClearType installed my laptop the Windows dialog boxes and file lists look almost as good as my Mac! ;-)
How do blind people “see” a web page?
In 2005 Earle Harrison from Triumph Technology visited my Web Programming I class. He spoke about building accessible web pages and demonstrated JAWS, System Access, and several other interesting programs that convert HTML markup into speech.
You can listen to his presentation on your computer or any MP3 player such as an iPod or iRiver. I’ve broken the presentation into two parts. Here are the files:
Here is a transcript Julie Peek typed up from the recording.
My thanks to Earle for allowing me to publish this material as well as Julie for taking the time to type out a transcript.
