Arts IT Savvy

As more and more of the Faculty computers are now having Office 2007 installed the one biggest problem some users are finding is “I used to know where a particular command was in the old Office (Word, Excel etc), but I don’t know where it is found in the new ribbon interface” (or perhaps in language less fitting for this blog). This question followed very quickly by a second – “I was perfectly happy with Office 2003 – why have I had to upgrade?”

The second question can have a very long answer, but it boils down to: because everyone else (Monash, nationally, internationally, education and corporate) is adopting it as well, and very quickly.  It will rapidly get to a point that if you don’t upgrade, you won’t be able to read a majority of the documents out there. Some have gone early, some later, but in the end everyone using Office will find themselves needing to transition to 2007.

The first question (finding how to do things in 2007) can be made quite a bit easier with some programs Microsoft have created. If you are on a computer, supplied by ArtsIT that came with Office 2007, you will find some shortcuts on your desktop labeled “Interactive Word….” “Interactive Excel….” and “Interactive Powerpoint…..”

If you have installed Office 07 on a home machine, or have had your current work computer upgraded to Office 07, these icons won’t be there. Instead, we have placed the 3 programs in a folder here:

N:\artsit\faculty-readable\Office 2007 Help

You can either run the 3 programs from the N drive, or copy them to your computer, or USB Key.

In any respect, these programs provide you with a representation of the old Office 2003 interface, and when you navigate via the menus to the command you want and click on it, it then changes to the Office 2007 interface, and shows you how to find that command in the new interface.

Harder to describe than it is to use. Give it a try, and I think you will find it a very useful tool indeed as you transition to Office 2007

If you still need help, don’t forget the ArtsIT Helpdesk (52250) and also my Micro-sessions (you can book a one-on-one session with me on a wide range of IT topics/programs, Mac or PC)

First app to look at is iiQuota.

iiQuota is used to keep track of your mobile phone usage, remaining credit, data usage.  Even some ISPs are included. The app has some significant benefits over the competition.  Firstly, it is NOT restricted to a single carrier – you don’t have to buy the VirginMobile version, or the Optus version, or the Telstra version etc.  You can use any of the major carriers with the same app.  Another benefit is the app will track multiple accounts, across multiple carriers.

By clicking on an individual name (on the iPhone, not here!), you can bring up more specific, and extended information.  Oh, and the interface (skin) is customisable.

I have had a particular interest in the history of computer gaming, and love reading about the developments and how one game led to the creation of a genre, such as Dune2 starting the whole Command and Conquer phenomenon (which incidentally also led to Warcraft), and early games like Wolfenstein 3D tht is now the first person shooter etc.

A great (online) TV show is called Play Value, and is a very well produced, short (10 minute episodes) look at the whole game development, hardware, software, personalities behind the scenes etc

Currently hosted by On Networks (I pick up episodes through iTunes)

If you are interested in computer gaming, and are interested in how we have gotten to where we are today, this is definitely worth a look.

A book that may also be of some interest (if only for the various game screen shots), is called “High Score!”

This is not to be mistaken for the documentary “High Score” made back in about 2005, where Bill Carlton attempted to break the 80 million point record for “Missile Command”

The documentary byline reads “One Quarter. Two Days. No Pause Button” Hopefully the documentary isn’t as long as the game lasted!

Today’s IT Info Session will be focussing on Backup – that subject that everyone puts into the too hard basket, but bitterly regrets not taking that step to ensure their data / computer is actually backed up when it is lost.

The session will be from 1:10pm to 1:50pm in S403, Building 11, Clayton Campus.

No charge or RSVP necessary.  Come along and find out the different backup options that are available, and how to finally have a little bit of confidence that all that work you keep doing, the photos you are taking etc etc is actually safe from (the very commonly occurring) disaster.

Today’s IT info session is an introductory look at Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Most people would be aware at least of the existence of Photoshop – a powerful digital image editing program.  However, few are aware of it’s newest cousin, Lightroom.

Designed specifically with the professional photographer in mind, it is never-the-less a very suitable program for anyone with a library of digital photographs (and most of us now have a digital camera), or a collection of scanned digital images.

Session will be from 1:10pm to 1:50pm in S403, Building 11, Clayton Campus.

No charge or RSVP necessary.  Come along and see what the program is about, how it can be used to keep your photos sorted, and it’s non-destructive editing capabilities.

Which may not mean a lot to most people, but they produced the software I blogged about on here recently called VisualHub and AudialHub.  The second I didn’t get to try out in the end, and the first is the primary solution I use for converting video files from one format to another, and in my case specifically, producing the iPod compatible mp4 files (H264 codec).

Apparently the products will still be compatible with the next Mac OS (10.6 – Snow Leopard), but with the recipient hardware changing regularly and rapidly (iPods etc), the software will become dated very quickly.

It is disappointing, and somewhat surprising that they’ve simply closed their doors and discontinued the product, rather than selling it.  Guess I will be looking for a new conversion solution in the near future.

The Turbo264 is ok, but doesn’t produce as small a file with the same quality, and more importantly, cannot handle static images (such as powerpoint slides) inside the video file – they tend to run like a watercolour painting in a rainstorm – weird, and unusable.

A message from QSR that may be relevant to some.  Note, the course cost is around $400/day.

QSR International will be hosting two one day workshops in NVivo 8 in a few weeks time in Melbourne. For more information on the workshop format and costs, and to download an enrolment form, click the relevant link below.

QSR Hosted Workshop: NVivo 8 Fundamentals

QSR hosted workshop: Moving on in NVivo 8
For those who would like a complete overview of the software, you are welcome to enrol in both workshops. However, if you’re short on time, you may like to attend the first day only to gain an introduction to the NVivo 8 fundamentals

The NVivo 8 Fundamentals workshop is ideal for those using research software for the first time, or for those who have used previous versions of QSR software. Workshop costs include lunch and morning and afternoon refreshments. Desktop computers are provided and you’ll receive a comprehensive workbook.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7 have just been released.  These are cut-down versions of Photoshop (for digital image editing), and Premiere (for digital video editing), however what they have left out 90% of users wouldn’t miss anyway – the Elements packages are still very powerful.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 & Adobe Premiere Elements 7

Also fwiw, CS4 is almost upon us as well.  Included is OnLocation which in CS4 is now able to run on Mac for direct-to-disk capture which is quite exciting if you do a lot of video production.  (I’m leaving it here as a footnote, because it is exciting to all of about 3 people (myself included!))

In my recent drive failure, it happened that the files that got damaged were large movie files (around 4GB on average, although the size ranged from 2GB to 11GB).

Nothing I tried was able to recover them – they could play (with a hiccup at the damaged point), but could not be copied, resaved to a different location etc.

Turns out (after some research), that I already have to solution on my computer.  A program I have discussed previously – VisualHub.  It has been able to take each of the files that I couldn’t do anything with, and make a copy of them on another drive, which is a feat not even the file recovery programs I utilise was able to achieve.

It’s not a perfect solution however – some are recovering, others are too far gone so I suspect the drive either has surface damage, or a failing read head.

At a computer far far away, I taught myself machine language on the 6502 processor (which at that time was the heart of the Apple ][e, the BBC and a number of other computers).

The book that I referred to was called "Machine Language for Beginners", and if you are incredibly interested (and/or incredibly bored), you can now access a copy online here:

Guess I was always doomed to work in IT, given this is (one of the things) I did for fun at 14.

I still have the original copy, and even sadder, there is still a fully functional Apple ][e in my office.

(Pictured is an Apple ][, but the image looked more authentic being B&W and grainy!)