Enter Portable Apps. It’s a suite of free and open-source applications that can be installed anywhere, including a USB flash drive. Users can then run the applications from there, in effect ‘taking their settings with them’!

1. Teach in England? Keep reading!
2. A History teacher? Keep reading!
3. Looking to change your Key Stage 3 Programme of Study? Keep reading!

Now that I’ve suitably reduced and targeted the intended audience, let’s get down to business…

I’m not a Head of Department. At the moment, I’ve no intention of being. But I do want an input into the reaction to the changes QCA has specified for September 2008. These change the way in which History is delivered in Key Stage 3 (11-14) in Secondary schools. The best way to get my head around things, I find, and to get to grips with them properly, is to attempt to try and show others in as simple a way as possible.

You might not think that a 30-page document would qualify as ‘simple and straightforward’, but I’m hoping that you change your mind after having a look through it. I’ve attempted to encompass everything I should have, with links to stuff worth including within 8 sections:

1. Rationale
2. Context
3. Opportunities
4. Curriculum overview
5. Key Concepts & Processes
6. Scheme of Work
7. Attainment targets
8. Further reading

I’m aware I should put in a section for ‘general resources’, but felt it was getting a little unwieldy, plus I wanted to get it online before I tinker with it too much. I’ve included the ‘Context’ section so you can understand that my school is perhaps skewed towards the top end of the ability range and the little quirks inherent in each school/department.. :p

The following is released under a Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike License:

Word 97-2003 format

PDF format

HTML (web page) format

So, if you’re a History teacher and/or have an interest in these things, I’d like some feedback please!

(image credit: Pretty Post-Its by blese @ Flickr)

I was delighted, therefore, to come across a short Engadget post entitled Myka sneaks Bittorrent into the living room. So delighted, in fact, that I’ve pre-ordered one of the units which should appear sometime in the summer. “What is it?” I hear you ask…

Well, quite clearly you can see that it’s a box that connects directly to a TV and, excitingly, it sports the official Bittorrent logo. This means that various TV shows and films can be downloaded directly to the device instead of having to download separately and then transfer over.

You see, I don’t really want companies telling me what I can or cannot do with my media. I also don’t want people telling me what I can or cannot download from the Internet. I just want a device that can play everything I throw at it, without complaints. Oh, and if I can download stuff straight to it, so much the better. Enter Myka and ‘her’ tech specs:

Key Features

• WiFi enabled – 802.11/g
• Direct ethernet connector for direct connection
• HDMI, Composite, S-Video and SPDIF ports for maximum flexibility
• Internal hard drive choice of 80, 160 or 500 gigabytes
• BitTorrent peer to peer software built in
• USB port for expansion

More geeky specs here. You can gather the sheer wonder and joy it’s likely to bring by just gazing at the plethora of ports at the back of the device:

Component and S-video in, digital out, LAN, USB, HDMI… wonderful! I’ve gone on the pre-order list for an 80GB version ($299) with no obligation to buy. It’s all done via Google Checkout, so I’ve every confidence in my (potential) purchase.

This. Could. Be. Awesome.

I think everyone knows my stance on copyright and which side of the fence I sit on. Given that literally millions of people download TV shows, etc. from the USA before they air in the UK (technically illegal) then I think the government could have a bit of a fight on their hands (ID cards anyone?)

(via TechCrunch)

It’s taken me the couple of weeks since I bought one to trawl through blogs, forums, wikis and websites about the Nokia N95. This post is dedicated to putting what I’ve found out so far in one place to help others who have just invested in the little marvel!

Note: I shall be adding to this post as I find out more information, so bookmark it for later.

Tips:

1. Change from your N95 scanning for both UMTS and GSM networks (i.e. ‘Dual mode’) to just GSM) unless you have a very good reason not to. The constant scanning for a UMTS network really affects battery life. Change this setting under Settings/Phone/Network.
2. Don’t use the red ‘disconnect’ or ‘hangup’ key to exit out of an application. In many apps, this just keeps it in the background, eating up memory and slowing down the OS on your N95.
3. You can change the shortcuts on the home screen to the apps you use most frequently by going to Settings/General/Personalisation/Standby Mode/Shortcuts.
4. You can create sub-folders within the Applications folder. This makes it easier to navigate when you have many programs installed. Go to Options/New Folder to do this.
5. Press and briefly hold the multimedia key (the one next to the camera button) to go to the gallery and do the same for the camera button, or open the camera shutter to go to photo mode.

Applications:

There’s a plethora of applications for the Symbian S60 platform. Trouble is, not all of them are compatible, or at least play nicely, with v3 of that OS. Here’s a list of some I have found to be worthwhile along with a brief description of what they do:

• amAze – free GPS software (Java-based)
• Clock screensaver – replace the tiny one that kicks in by default.
• DivX Player for Mobile – plays DivX-encoded video. If you have no joy with the link, try P2P…
• Fring – mobile VoIP – bring together your Skype, MSN, Google Talk, SIP and Twitter contacts!
• Google Mail – get a GMail application for your N95.
• MobiReader – read eBooks on the go.
• Nokia Podcasting – allows you to download podcasts directly to your N95 (via WLAN, GPRS, etc.)
• Nokia Sports Tracker – much better than Nike+ as it allows you to export your run to Google Earth, see average time, etc.
• Opera Mini – although the built-in Nokia browser is pretty good, some may prefer this.
• Screenshot – take screenshots of your N95 to post on blogs, etc.
• Yahoo! Go – search, find addresses, chat and check email with this free software.
• Y-Browser – free file manager software

Games:

Some games that work on the N95 aren’t worth playing due to the block graphics and/or small screen real estate. The following can be obtained through various means (some websites are more expensive than others) and work well. The ones marked with an asterisk (*) are my favourites!

• Ducati 3D Extreme*
• FIFA Street 2
• Medal of Honor
• MiniBlaster
• Need For Speed Carbon
• Project Gotham Racing
• Real Football 2007
• R-Type
• SCUMM
• Sim City
• Splinter Cell 4*
• S-Tris
• Tetris Mania
• vSun (emulator)
• Worms Golf (slightly blocky, but worth it!)

Sat-Nav:

• The inbuilt Nokia Maps application works reasonably well, but you have to pay to use it for actual turn-by-turn directions. It’s based on Smart2Go software, so you can use their MapLoader to download the maps onto your N95 for the areas you want.
• Wayfinder 7 works really well but downloads maps on-the-fly, thus eating up data (and therefore money if you’re not on an unlimited data tariff).
• TomTom have not released a version of their software that works with built-in GPS units as found on the Nokia N95. Therefore, an external bluetooth GPS unit must be used. This works well, but is somewhat redundant.
• Route66 is other software which which some have reported success. I have not used this so cannot comment on it.

Reviews:

• AllAboutSymbian.com have a great multi-part, in-depth review of the Nokia N95.
• CNET rather scandalously only gave the N95 7 out of 10 in their review.
• Engadget have a ‘hands-on’ review of the N95.
• Gizmodo have what they call a ‘long-ass review’ of the N95, but it’s actually shorter than all the above!
• Softpedia have a review entitled ‘between agony and ecstasy’ which is photo and screenshot-packed.

Other links:

• Wikipedia entry for the Nokia N95
• My del.icio.us links tagged with ‘n95′

Photos taken from khedara’s Nokia N95 set @ Flickr

Hannah’s laptop was running Windows XP and I had a spare copy of Windows Vista Ultimate lying around (a legitimate version, thank you very much!) so I decided to install it. Unfortunately, unlike the wonderful easy-to-use world of the Mac, things weren’t exactly straightforward on her Lenovo 3000 N100. So this post is to document what worked for those in the same boat.

One would think that installing the System Update software from Lenovo would do the trick, but oh no… After downloading c.500MB and restarting, the hard disk started churning away and the wireless LAN card wasn’t recognised. And the sound still didn’t work! So a quick System Restore later and a return to the Lenovo support website beckoned.

It turns out the files you need to download are:

• SoundMAX audio driver
• Broadcom Bluetooth EDR driver
• Fingerprint reader driver
• Inbuilt webcam driver

It’s still not plain sailing, though. You have to persuade Windows that you do actually know the best driver to install thank-you-very-much by going to Device Manager, right-clicking on the device you want to update the driver for, and selecting the option to update the driver. Navigate to the place where the files you downloaded have been extracted, and Windows should install the correct driver. I can’t guarantee this, however – it’s a bit hit-and-miss!

If, like me, ‘tapping’ (using the trackpad as a mouse button) drives you insane, you need to download the Synaptics driver which will enable you disable this ‘feature’. Simply go to the Mouse settings in the Control Panel, then the Synaptics tab, click on the ‘Settings’ button, then the ‘tapping’ option and untick the box. Quite why you’d want to enable by default something that causes windows pop up seemingly at random and productivity all but impossible is anyone’s guess.

I was actually quite impressed when Vista first loaded up: it’s a lot more polished now than the early beta version I downloaded this time last year. The amount of hassle I’ve had just getting things to work, though, has reminded me why I prefer Macs…