Technology for performance series: Using LMS for course design  

Posted by arief74

The LMS has many capabilities. In my case, the organisation is using Sumtotal TotalLMS.  So, I'll be sharing bit by bit on how we can do a learning course design on the LMS itself.  Watch this space... I'll be back

Getting the video in a tape in to the hard disk the to the CD or DVD  

Posted by arief74 in , , ,

Last year, I heard one of my colleague asked me about transferring a video tape, a mini DV actually, in to a DVD. Immediately I reflected upon my days in Melbourne. I actually did that with my mini DV Camcoder after me and the family went out for an outing to the scenic Melbourne and outer Melbourne.

It was a tedious process and requires specific hardware and tools in order to do so. During that time, I used a firewire cable to connect the camcorder with my notebook. I was lucky to have a built in firewire port so I can straight away transfer the video. The transfer process also demands a lot of memory resources and a large disk space. So, RAM is at least 1 GB and free space of at least 40GB. For a PC, a firewire card is required, if not, the video cannot be transferred to the PC.

As for software, Pinnacle Studio is the best! Easy to use and the output is almost professional! The only challenge is that the video transfer will take as long as the video it self. If it is a 60 minutes video, then the transfer will take the same time to be transferred to the disk.

Now, one does not need to have a firewire card. Thanks to USB, we cannow use a USB video capture device. Just like the one that we have in the office. The model name is Pinnacle DVC 150. This is an older model that we have. By using this device, we just need to connect the camcorder to the DVC, then the DVC can be connected directly to a computer or to a VCR or a DVR. One prevalent advantage of using the USB DVC is that the conversion is done in the device it self and not one of our office. Therefore, the computer's resources will not be affected too much during the conversion stage. So, the risk of PC to crash or simply frozen is now reduced.

There are now a lot of USB devices like the Pinnacle DVC. In Lelong.com.my, the termed as usb video grabber.

Wanna know more, I'd be glad to show you how to do it :)

Fear to use technology? My personal view...  

Posted by arief74

We got a lot of techie good stuff to use, but we fear them even before we even touch or know more about them. Why? Is this a learning issue? Environmental issue? The notion 'we fear what we do not know' highlights one key element in relation to fear. Knowing! Tinker, tinker, tinker...

Baby boomers and technology don't mix?  

Posted by arief74

LOL [means Laughing Out Loud], lets see whether my topic is going to get some discussion here. I first encountered the word baby boomers when I was in Melbourne for my postgrad degree. One of my fellow master candidate talked about the impact on the whole social and economic impact when she and other people are retiring in a few more years. Not to mention that she was made redundant from he job with just a few more years to retirement. Well, she succeeded to survive the storm and now working for Anecdote Australia.

What does the story got to do with the topic, nothing much just an intro. Recently, the word baby boomer that I now hear most of the time is associated to the matters related to usage of technology. Most of the time it was a comparison with the younger generation, namely gen-x and gen-y. And, in this context, baby boomers are associated to their lack of either interest about technology or that they are not interested about technology. Is this a fact? I want to know for sure.

So, as a typical gen-x, I simply hit the keys into the 'crystal ball' called Google, ... tehehe... just kidding, to find some answer. Want to know what I found? Just click on the link below :)

Although there's been a lot of talk over the last decade about the importance of creating technology for Baby Boomers, the conversation has largely focused on the size of their population, their characteristically different behavior than previous generations (throughout their lives) and the amount of disposable income they have available. When working on the Whirlpool in.home project last year, I realized that there was another compelling reason why design for Baby Boomers is important: their familiarity with computer technology.

http://www.orangecone.com/archives/2006/07/baby_boomers_an.html


If the above is not intriguing, try the one below ;)

HDTV Tops Baby Boomers’ Technology Wish List

Baby boomers’ love affair with technology continues and they plan to keep buying new technology.

http://boomersummit.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/hdtv-tops-baby-boomers-technology-wish-list/

Well, baby boomers are really tech savvy after all!

So then, arguments on baby boomers not really keen with technology or dislike technology may not be true...I don't know... maybe a baby boomer can share his/her view...

Besides, I'm a gen-x :)