SpeakEasy

Speak Easy is an interesting site to check out if you have a minute or two.  It allows the user to check the speed of his or her internet connection by choosing a server closest to them.  It measures your download and upload speed.  For example my results were Download Speed: 4742kbps (592.8KB/sec transfer rate) and Upload Speed: 465 kbps (58.1KB/sec transfer rate).  Results may vary depending on your internet connection.  Give it a try if you have the time, Speak Easy is just a click away.

Palm Pre

The Palm Pre offers a new sleek design when compared to previous Palm smartphones.  The Pre Palm offers some new features such as; EvDO, WifFi, stereo Bluetooth, 8 GB of storage,  a touchscreen which provides enormous control, a 3MP camera with flash, a removable battery, a ringer off switch and an incredibly fast processor.  Its next generation operating system (webOS) uses a similar window based OS with the simplicity of a browser.  This gives the user an easy and efficient way to use background applications, switch between applications in one step and handle interuptions without losing content.  Also the Palm Pre offers a slider keyboard instead of those difficult to use virtual touchscreens.  This smartphone really illustrates how fast technology is advancing in the world.

OLPC XO

The One Laptop per Child association (OLPC XO) is a project launched by MIT Media Lab.  Their mission is to create laptops which could revolutionize the way children around the world learn.  It was made to be distributed to children in third world countries for the price of $100.  It uses a Linux operating sytems and has flash memory, but does not contain a hard drive.  To aid in the development of the OLPC XO they have launched the "Give One Get One" (G1G1) program. Generally, when someone purchases a OLPC XO another one will be sent to a developing country.  Currently five nations have commited to buying this laptop for their school children.

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day was celebrated at Notre Dame Regional Secondary Vancouver BC in respect to the veterans who have helped reshape the world we live in today. Students fabricated plays illustrating how much effort Canadians have put in the war. There were also video clips depicting what really happened in the second world war. Altogether, the assembly turned out well and was a day to remember.

Visual Basic

Last week, I started to work with a program called Visual Basic.  It is a program which uses underlying code, which is similar to Turbo Pascal, to create a various amounts applications.  But, unlike Turbo Pascal, it uses more graphical features such as labels and commands.  The first program I created was "Hello World," and I will continue working on Visual Basics for the next few days. 

Microsoft Announces New Operating System

Yesterday 10/27/08 Microsoft unvailed details of two new operating systems. Currently the most commonly used Microsoft operating systems are Windows XP and Windows Vista. Although frequently critcized, often by those who have never used it, Vista is actually a very stable rich environment in which to work, particularly when used with up to date machines.

Nevertheless Microsoft has decided to press ahead with successors for Vista. In late 2009 Windows 7 will be released. It will be much like Vista. Around the same time Microsoft will release Windows Auzre, an operating system that lives on Microsoft servers and not in your computer. This is called Cloud Computing, the "Cloud" being the Internet. Basically, this means that you wont need an operating system or programs: they will all live in the "Cloud."

Whether this works out or not remains to be seen. However, many companies are already trying this, both with Microsoft and with Google products.

"Cloud Computing" is one of the most used technology buzz words at present.

Class Blog

ICT 12 Student Blogs (2008-09)
Ava Balingit
Ryan Battistel
Sofia Busse
Nicole Ceralde
Nathan Chiu
Jonathan De Maeseneer
Danila Di Giacinto
Lia Estrellado
Kimberly Francisco
Dilantha Geekiyanage
Nikko Henderson
Nikka Komisarski
Steffani Mastromonaco
Caitlin Nery
Conner Olenick
Andrea Strazzullo
Adam Troczynski
Nikko Tagle
Alannah Villella
Tomasz Cieslik
Sonia Di Palma
Jason Wong
These are the blog URL's for my ICT class colleagues. The class is using blogger throughout the year to record information about various programs and techniques.

This list will be updated to include several blog URL's not presently available.