Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Blog coding
Turned out that it was quite easy to make my countdown timer recognise time zones. All I had to do was to change the way I initialised the date. Just had to add in GMT+0800. Dwin told me the answer, but when he mentioned it I already went to peek at his blog code to see how he did it. Still have to test it but it should be fine now.
Also, new images have been added for the random display picture on the left. Enjoy.
ZQ has finally fixed the tiling problem on his blog when viewed on resolutions higher than 1024px in width. Actually I told him that as soon as he changed skin, but as I didn't know enough CSS yet, I couldn't help him do anything about it. I was forced to figure it out to make my own blogskin, so this time I could help him out. What prompted it was a public complaint from dwin on his tagboard. Dwin did give him a starting point, but it looks like a public tag will get him moving faster than a private message, haha.
Today's Digital Life talked about technology in schools, especially Crescent Girls School. The lucky students there get to do all their work on tablet PCs with specially designed software to help them learn. Canberra Sec even builds on their students basic Microsoft software knowledge by teaching them Macromedia Flash. While all that is just fine, I think the schools should also highlight free alternatives to commonly used software such as MS Office, Photoshop and even Windows.
Students are poor folk. Younger ones depend on their parents for money. Those who don't obviously won't have much cash to spare. Of course there are the rich ones, but those are in the minority. After giving students a glimpse into the power of the software, there will be those who want to practise more on their own. How can students afford to buy Flash Professional for US$249(education price)? Windows XP Home costs $135 for the OEM version, the boxed version is much more expensive. Adobe Photoshop CS2 is listed as US$649. PS Elements still costs around S$100. MS Office Student Teacher Edition is S$129. Most of this software will probably have newer versions in a year.
With the current focus on IT, it's nearly impossible to do schoolwork without having a computer and the necessary software to open the ubiquitous MS file formats. Schools should also point out the existence of free alternatives like OpenOffice and The Gimp which will allow them to legally enjoy the benefits of the IT age without burning a huge hole in their pockets. The other alternative is software piracy, which certainly isn't a very nice thing to teach our kids.
Note: The above 2 links are alternatives to MS Office and Photoshop. Both are free and have versions which will work in Windows. There are some differences and limitations, but they should be fine for most users.
Also, new images have been added for the random display picture on the left. Enjoy.
ZQ has finally fixed the tiling problem on his blog when viewed on resolutions higher than 1024px in width. Actually I told him that as soon as he changed skin, but as I didn't know enough CSS yet, I couldn't help him do anything about it. I was forced to figure it out to make my own blogskin, so this time I could help him out. What prompted it was a public complaint from dwin on his tagboard. Dwin did give him a starting point, but it looks like a public tag will get him moving faster than a private message, haha.
Today's Digital Life talked about technology in schools, especially Crescent Girls School. The lucky students there get to do all their work on tablet PCs with specially designed software to help them learn. Canberra Sec even builds on their students basic Microsoft software knowledge by teaching them Macromedia Flash. While all that is just fine, I think the schools should also highlight free alternatives to commonly used software such as MS Office, Photoshop and even Windows.
Students are poor folk. Younger ones depend on their parents for money. Those who don't obviously won't have much cash to spare. Of course there are the rich ones, but those are in the minority. After giving students a glimpse into the power of the software, there will be those who want to practise more on their own. How can students afford to buy Flash Professional for US$249(education price)? Windows XP Home costs $135 for the OEM version, the boxed version is much more expensive. Adobe Photoshop CS2 is listed as US$649. PS Elements still costs around S$100. MS Office Student Teacher Edition is S$129. Most of this software will probably have newer versions in a year.
With the current focus on IT, it's nearly impossible to do schoolwork without having a computer and the necessary software to open the ubiquitous MS file formats. Schools should also point out the existence of free alternatives like OpenOffice and The Gimp which will allow them to legally enjoy the benefits of the IT age without burning a huge hole in their pockets. The other alternative is software piracy, which certainly isn't a very nice thing to teach our kids.
Note: The above 2 links are alternatives to MS Office and Photoshop. Both are free and have versions which will work in Windows. There are some differences and limitations, but they should be fine for most users.
posted by cosine @ 5:44 PM 
