cd /var/cache/apt/archives
sudo dpkg -i --force-all initramfs-tools*
sudo apt-get -f install

Having spoken to a few people recently about how I handle my data, I thought it’d be useful to post the process. Here’s how I keep two laptops, two Operating Systems and a USB stick synced with Dropbox, shared partions and Synctoy.

It looks complicated, but it’s out of necessity; I have to share data between 3 locations and two Operating Systems.

Macbook

The Macbook is my main laptop which runs just Kubuntu. This is nice and simple, anything changed on here gets synced via Dropbox.

Samsung NC10

The NC10 is my school laptop bought as it was super-light, and also I didn’t have a Windows install before that. I use it to deliver lessons, but I don’t have access to wireless or the school network. It runs dual-boot, with a shared FAT partition between Windows and Linux. The hard drive is paritioned into two, the latter being mounted as ‘My Documents’ in Windows. This is then mounted to /media/ under Linux and my Linux folders are symlinked to the appropriate ones on the partition. This lets me have data on just Windows, and just Linux, and to share certain folders which are always the same. Both OS are running Dropbox too so the shared folders are synced to the Macbook.

USB Drive

As mentioned, I don’t have access to the school network so I need to use a USB drive to get data to and from it. I use Windows Synctoy to keep the folders from the Windows’ Dropbox synced with the folders on the USB. If I add anything to the USB it gets back to Windows and therefore Dropbox (and vice-versa).

So there we have it (I think), a setup which stops me having to think about my data and let software keep it organised for me.

So I’ve had the G1 for a good few months now and it’s pretty awesome except for the well-publicised battery issues. Now, I’ve recently started commuting which involves a fair period on the train and tube. Since I started, it seemed to be even worse battery life but I thought I was just imaging it; the battery didn’t seem to last until I got home however, this definitely seemed shorter.

It turns out that for whatever reason, the G1 really sucks when it doesn’t have a signal; it seems to rape the battery when it loses a signal while it frantically polls to find a reception. I installed Locale (a must-have app anyway) and an airplane mode plug-in for it and turned on airplane mode for the times I was travelling. The results are amazing, it literally lasts about twice as long.

Now, it goes without saying that this shouldn’t be necessary, the iPhone doesn’t need dirty hacks to last the day, but the battery issues were well publicised before I bought it. I hope this helps someone with their battery woes.

How to change o2 router’s DNS

I spend far too long messing about with various websites and tools and I sometimes think whether they have any use in teaching or not. I’m going to post a few I think might be useful in certain circumstances but I’d like some suggestions and comments from other teachers and (more importantly!) students on the websites I posted and also if you have any others you think might be useful?

Twitter
If you haven’t heard of twitter now you must have been living under a rock. A cross between instant message and SMS, a user sends 140-character messages which everyone who “follows” them can read.
Although Twitter is great for the general public, it has a few problems in the school setting, namely it being public and mainly personal use. Interestingly, there’s an open-source version of Twitter which allows you to install you own hosted version of Twitter which would be really useful for schools (http://status.net/).

Possible Uses

• Homework deadline notices
• Getting help from other students
• Disussions/debates

Pros

• Easy to use
• Makes it quick easy to contribute

Cons

• Might be too public unless status.net is used
• 140 characters might not be enough!

12Seconds
The video equivalent of twitter in that your videos can only be 12 seconds long. They also have an iPhone app which allows you to record from your phone.

Possible Uses

• Mini presentations
• Short debates

Pros

• Encourages you to be concise and focused

Cons

• Like twitter, 12 seconds might be too short

Google Wave
Google Wave is a fairly new tool that has been described as “email done right”. “Waves” are stored centrally so there’s no forwarding and replying and people can be added in after the fact and replay the wave to read it from the beginning.

If you edit a wave at the same time as someone else you will see their replies happening in real time; multiple people can be editing or adding replies at the same time. Files and widgets can be added inlne with the widgets being all sorts of things from embedded videos and maps to full-fledge applications.

Possible Uses

• Collabarative creative writing
• Real-time minute taking
• Collabarative marking
• Surveys
• Organising school trips/activites

Pros

• Very flexible
• Collaboration is central

Cons

• As yet unfinished, still a way to go until it reaches its potential

Google Docs
An online suite of office applications with a focus on sharing documents. People can be invited to view, edit or comment on your documents. Not as full featured as Microsoft Office however.

Possible Uses

• Creating class/group projects

Pros

• All documents are available on any computer
• Very easy to share and collaborate

Cons

• Not as feature-packed as Microsoft Office

Pixlr
An online image editing program

Possible Uses

• Editing images!

Pros

• Free for anyone to use at home or school
• Features are close enough to other applications so it feels familiar

Cons

• Obviously not as good as Photoshop

My email was in the form username@live.uni.ac.uk.

Email address: username@live.uni.ac.uk.
Server address: m.exchangelabs.com
Username: username@live.uni.ac.uk.
SSL: On

**05*$puk_code*$new_pin*$new_pin#

and press call. A nice sign of the times is that you can also obtain your PUK code online, with T-Mobile at least.

You can use a Google Apps account with Android by clearing the saved data in the Google Apps application under Settings->Applications. The only snag with this is that your Google Apps account doesn’t have a Checkout account associated with it, this means that any apps your bought in the market on your old account won’t let you upgrade without buying again.

Hardware
The first thing you notice about the G1 is the looks. I can’t say I’m overly bothered about how my phone looks but it’s fair to say it’s not about to win Miss Mobile UK; if the iPhone is Brad Pitt, the G1 is Adam Sandler. It’s not horrible by any means but the generous touchscreen and slide-out keyboard (both pro’s in my eyes) unfortunately do nothing for its “lines”.

Being a Linux user, looks and fashion obviously hold little to no weight in my eyes and it’s all about the software and it doing neat stuff. Android the platform is good, very good. Again, it’s probably still not quite at iPhone standards but with today’s release of cupcake (which spurred me on to write this) it’s getting pretty damn close.

One key point to note is the battery life: shitty. Really shitty. Turning off most superfluous services and not raping the internet means you can make it last from getting up ’til bed. Accidentally, I forgot to charge overnight once and it was just about alive in the morning. If you turn off absolutely everything and don’t touch it, it could probably last maybe two days but that sorta defeats the point of having a phone.

Software
The layout of the home page is pretty good, the top bar doubles as a notification area which can be pulled down to reveal more information about the notifications received. The main area on the home screen is available to place shortcuts to apps and widgets, and as of cupcake, live folders and a better selection of widgets. The interface pre-cupcake was nice and smooth, however the upgrade has really brought some more polish to the system with some nice animations which make it feel more natural.

One of the key factors in getting the phone was the integration with Google products. Now, this might not interest some people, i.e. the people that think Google is going to crack one off while reading your smutty email to the girlfriend, but if you’re not a fan of Google’s products then this probably isn’t the phone for you. The products available are: Gmail, Calendar, Contacts (which make much more sense now), Maps, Youtube and Picassa. Notably missing is Reader which I can only assume is for a good reason.

Having all the Google services on your phone only adds to their usefulness, Contact for example automatically pulls in your Gmail contacts and vice-versa syncs your phone contacts back to Gmail, which would help cut down on the number of Facebook groups created when phones are lost by a factor of at least 10. Gmail and Calendar integration is slick and unobtrusive, the usefulness of having one place to keep all your calendar appointments can’t be understated for someone who has no clue what date it is. I finally see the appeal of a Blackberry. Google Maps was pretty much for the mobile, I had a chance to use it walking around London with Street View turned on and it was the most fun I’ve had sans-lubricant.

With the cupcake upgrade, the ability to upload video to Youtube and photos to Picassa was introduced, which both work really well. If the quality of the recorded video wasn’t bad enough though, uploading Youtube wrings any last drop of quality out of it, leaving a bone-dry, shitty mess.

Apps
The Android Market is fairly new but has expanded to a fairly respectable size. It’s obviously nowhere near Apple’s but once you factor in that every 2-bit handset company will be shipping Android over their fucking awful piece of shit software they insisted inflicting on us for so many years, the user base of Android might be rivalling that of the iPhone in a few years.

Despite the relative youth of Android Market, there’s still some very decent apps. A few that spring to mind:

• Qype: a mobile version of their website but with ability to search nearby, very useful when in new places
• Quickipedia: Wikipedia formatted specifically for Android, never has taking a crap been so informative
• Locale: time- or location-based profiles that can trigger actions such as altering ring volume, enabling wifi etc. Useful for switching off ringtones whilst in lectures for example.
• Twitdroid: very capable twitter app so you can tell people you’re reading wikipedia on the shitter
• Pixelpipe: links in with their website and gives you the ability to post your blog/picture to pretty much every service with a shiny logo and a beta label

Honorable mentions to Last.fm, Shazam, aNetShare, Scoreboard.

I think that’s all the bases covered. All in all, a very good phone albeit with a few faults, namely battery life and looks. Are they big enough to detract from the quality of the software? Not a chance. Android has changed the playing field for phone software; a worthy competitor to the iPhone.