Patience pays off. Downloaded Firefox 3 this afternoon with no trouble. Install went smoothly and all is well. The “awesome bar” worked well since my open tabs before the upgrade did not get restored after the installation.
Memory usage, at a quick glance, looks better than Firefox 2. Random and most non-scientific comparison between Firefox 3 and IE 7 with same set of tabs open and both playing a TED video of BumpTop shows Firefox using slightly more memory but at least half the CPU of IE.
The BumpTop desktop resembles mine, just not sure that is a good thing. Tossing something across my desk doesn’t usually result in billiards style reactions. The mess gets worse or something breaks.
Enticing options are the many ways BumpTop allows me to easily sort my piles even while retaining some apparent history of its previous organized (or unorganized) state. I can also flag items or increase the size (and apparent desktop weight) of an item to signify importance. It would be cool to automatically associate item size to priority or an upcoming deadline. If I could also pile items such as email threads and add items to multiple piles without physically creating an additional document, BumpTop would provide all my organizational needs with a very enjoyable interface. The fun desktop.
A few shots posted to flickr of clouds gathering west of Portland before an evening of thunderstorms on May 24. We didn’t get much of the storm near our house but some rain after a walk to pizza and ice cream. Nice lightning show for the way home.
Mark on the acrobat.com team left a comment on my previous post about a snag they had this morning. It seems service was available soon after I tried but I had to go on to other things. I have had a chance to play around a little tonight though.
I still like the Buzzword interface as I reported on before, but the conglomeration of pieces in acrobat.com seems a bit fractured. I am in the Share area where I can upload files and share but this is apparently different than my Buzzword documents that I can also share.
I just recently learned of Jonathan Corum’s Personal Injury Warning System. It is a fun trip through his historic record of personal injuries and the warning signs that might have prevented each incident. Despite the extensive injuries, Jonathan retains a highly detailed memory. Here is my first attempt at a PIWS sign.
1973 Texas
Hide-and-seek does not mean you are invisible or able to pass through immovable objects.
Permanent Damage: Small scar dead-center forehead.
Looking Back: Too bad I didn’t have Dan’s advice to get me through that lamp post.
A new “beta” has been hatched. Acrobat.com is Adobe’s new collaborative platform which integrates Buzzword for collaborative authorship, ConnectNow for online meetings and presentations, PDF creation, Acrobat.com offline AIR application and apparently more. I wrote about my pleasant experience with Buzzword and noted the parent company’s acquisition by Adobe, so it is interesting now to see the resulting offering.
I’d like to tell you of my first experience with the new Acrobat.com beta, unfortunately it will have to wait. The world must be knocking at the door, they are “service unavailable.”
A fun little senses challenge where you’ll get to size up King Kong and learn a little too much about Parmesan cheese. BBC has some great interactive Science and Nature content.
Just ran across an archived EduCause Live! presentation on Outsourcing E-Mail and Other Commodity Services (June 2007). It is a good discussion on the reasonings and concerns around Northwestern University partnering with Google for email and other services. Some of it is dated, so the Google offerings have expanded but here are a few factoids of note:
Any limit on the number of accounts imported to Google?
No, Google has taken on providing accounts for all high schools and universities in Egypt — 12 million accounts.
How is Google addressing accessibility?
No good answer here other than that Google was assessing where they are in terms of Section 508 compliance. For email there is mention that POP/IMAP connections could be used to access email via an accessible client.
I did a quick search and didn’t find much of any updates. I believe most institutions are relying on the valid, but unfortunate, argument that Google email is most likely more accessible than the current tools in use now. (Reference)
Will it always be free?
No identified plans for charging, contractual agreement runs four years which ensures no cost during life of the contract.
Identity protection for Northwestern University?
The University will allow students to request an identity-protecting account name instead of the default firstname+lastname+admissionyear.
FERPA Issues
Google is contractually and legally responsible to protect information. A note is made that they are not obligated to be FERPA compliant — since Google itself is not required to be — but that they work with the institution to ensure their privacy needs are met. Northwestern feels that Google security is a contractual requirement that the institution must agree to (so should support their needs) and is better than what many institutions can provide.
Email Usage
It is interesting that Student Government started this initiative by asking for a better email platform. Most students (90%) already had a private personal email account with 20% forwarding their institution account to this personal account. Two-thirds of these forwarded accounts were to Google email accounts.
Value-added Service
Outsourcing these student and alumni services to Google would improve the services we provide, and be a positive thing to do… IF security, privacy, and policy concerns are adequately addressed.
If email is a commodity service, is it in the best interest of an educational institution to provide this expensive and resource consuming service? If the institution is not providing a service that is unique to the educational environment, would the resources be better served where our institutional expertise is critical? It seems that in most cases an external partner could provide better email services at a lower cost than the institution.
Of course any decision to outsource email must evaluate functionality, security, privacy, policy and cost concerns within the institution’s community. Given that many institutions have already outsourced these services to Google and Microsoft, we can assume that many of the security, privacy and cost issues have been addressed. Functionality of services like Google’s have already proved themselves, as many of us and our students have already declared our preference.
Most issues will revolve around institutional policy and political readiness. This is a difficult process that is reflected in the long list of identified stakeholders and institutional conversations from Northwestern University’s experience.
The Evidence of Spring gallery documents blooms and growth blasting our half-acre with color. The tour includes photos taken over the past two weeks. Unfortunately some early bloomers were missed: Damson Plum and other plum blooms. There are more blooms awaiting the camera, they’ll be added if time permits. Enjoy your spring tour of our yard.
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
Author: Josh Bernoff
Rating: 4
Received this book at Internet Strategy Forum Summit and kindly autographed by co-author Charlene Li. She gave a nice presentation at the conference which I have sadly not written a word on.
Listening
Carried to Dust
Artist: Calexico
Rating: 5
I learned of Calexico from Austin City Limits and archive.org. Thought I'd share their upcoming release with you here. If you haven't heard them, you should.
June 17, 2008 
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1973 Texas
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