Category: Just Rambling

My Week Ending 2021-05-16


Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week.

Sunday

  • Of course, Google would do something special for Mothers’ Day
  • I know that I’m married to a nurse but it just seems to me to be fair that they get better pay at this time if doctors are

Monday

  • I found this story particularly disgusting and a reminder to keep your guard up when you’re headed into stores – those on commission or quotas may be particularly aggressive
  • I think this is so appropriate and if I lived nearby I would want Dracula to jab me with my vaccination. What could go wrong?

Tuesday

  • I certainly do. There was a time when commenting on the blog made it worthwhile – but that was in the days when people actually visited your blog. There are so many other options these days
  • I was curious about Clubhouse when it came out but was only available on iOS products. That was a show stopper for me and I don’t see any value in it now

Wednesday

  • This is an issue around technology that has largely gone unthought of in public but really should be addressed
  • I had to read this story when I saw the word “dung” in the title

Thursday

  • It’s hard to believe that the government for big business would make a $4.4B financial flub
  • Obviously, a great deal of money has to be thrown to schools to make significant changes but something needs to be done

Friday

  • Time really flies – have Chromebooks really been around for 10 years?
  • If you were thinking that you might go to Toronto this summer for the CNE or Indycar or …, think again – it’s all cancelled

Saturday

  • Some good ideas here about asking questions
  • It’s so scary to think that 2000 people have had to be moved to another part of the province to find a hospital bed

Blog Posts on
doug … off the record

My daily contributions to this blog are linked below. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – May 14, 2021

https://wke.lt/w/s/uj7ZJ1

voicEd Radio

On this week’s show, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about Interviews, Teaching Ontario, Perspectives, Time, and Daily Habits

The show, stored as a podcast is available here:
https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/virtual-inteviews-online-teaching-ways-of-seeing-and-our-daily-habits/

  • Sue Bruyns – @sbruyns
  • Paul Gauchi – @PCMalteseFalcon
  • Melanie White – @WhiteRoomRadio
  • Lisa Corbett – @LisaCorbett0261
  • Joel McLean – @jprofNB

Opening Song:

Closing Song:

All of the podcasts are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 8:45 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

Spring can be a frustrating time of the season if you have a backyard pool like I do and are too cheap to hire someone to open it for you like me.

In a typical spring, we would have a storm one day and I’m out there with the hose syphoning off the water. Then, before I can get the cover off, it rains again.

This spring is typical COVID. Everything is topsy turvy around here. But we have a stretch of days where there is no rain predicted and I had the hose going all day yesterday.

With no rain in sight, I just need to get out and scoop off all the maple leaves which are still soaked and then the cover should easily come off.

Then, it will be time for the maple tree to release its keys and the poplar tree its fluff.

Wish me luck.

Video of the Week

A guy can wish, can’t he?

Photo of the Week

Sometimes, the best beach is on a Tip.

Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

If you find it anywhere else, it’s not original.

My Week Ending 2021-05-09


Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week.

Sunday

  • I found this interesting; readers know that I do a lot of dog walking – yesterday 15 000 steps. Can you get fit from doing this?
  • When I read lists list this of popular baby names, I know why my kids were always the odd ones out. They didn’t make the list

Monday

  • If nothing else, the pandemic has shown us the need for fastest internet speeds. here are the fastest in the world
  • With the price of lumber these days, maybe this will really take off

Tuesday

  • When I read articles like this, I’m reminded why I use an advertisement blocker or a browser with blocking built in
  • A part of my past has now been torn down – the Hespeler Road bridge and I can’t even drive by to see what’s there now

Wednesday

  • Listowel is a great town and now is recognized world-wide for their sign wars. Gotta love it
  • There might have been more consequences if she had confided in the first lady, an educators

Thursday

  • Somehow, I think that Facebook is getting things right although I’m generally not in favour of censorship
  • This might give you renewed appreciation for Gmail and make you turn on two factor validation immediately

Friday

  • Cinco de Mayo brings out the inquisitiveness in some people
  • This article looks at technology in the classroom as we realize that we should have paid more attention to technology use years ago

Saturday

  • For the record, I still shower daily
  • I don’t think the effect of cancelled sports on kids should come as a surprise to people

Blog Posts on
doug … off the record

My daily contributions to this blog are linked below. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – May 6, 2021

https://wke.lt/w/s/Uhzc4Y

voicEd Radio

On this week’s show, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about Mathematics, teaching online, yoga, cameras, and Minecraft.

The show, stored as a podcast is available here:
https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/online-on-the-yoga-mat-and-on-camera/

  • Alice Aspinall – @aliceaspinall
  • Terry Whitmell – @TerryWhitmell
  • Tim King – @tk1ng
  • Peter Beens – @pbeens
  • Shawna Rothgeb-Bird – @rollforlearning

Opening Song:

Closing Song:

All of the podcasts are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 8:45 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to solve this problem for people. I had to do it again yesterday.

“I can’t upgrade my iPad because there isn’t enough free space.”

I love the fact that schools are embracing technology and all that but device management needs to come into play somewhere.

So I did what you would. I uploaded the content to my cloud space, performed the upgrade, and then downloaded the content. It doesn’t solve the original problem but at least the iPad is running the latest and greatest.

You’d think that, with what Apple charges for these devices, that there would be a little more storage to come with the device. But, that just pushes the problem into the future. The true answer comes from knowing what’s happening and addressing it.

On the other hand, if I’m Apple, I know that I’m going to be pushing out these updates so I’d reserve 5GB or whatever as headroom for the updates. Then, they’d go seamlessly. And, for the advanced user, they could turn it off and then be on their own to manage things.

Video of the Week

This is great news. I wonder if storage would have been an issue if done in the winter.

Photo of the Week

I get to see this every morning.

Image

Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

If you find it anywhere else, it’s not original.

My Week Ending 2021-05-02


Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week.

Sunday

  • These were an awesome collection of Eagle Cams for use in the classroom. When I visited one in particularly, mom was ripping apart something for lunch
  • If you get to the point where you want something besides Google applications on your Chromebook, look to these tips

Monday

  • Given all the patches and bug fixes, I’d hate to not be running the latest version of Windows 10
  • Ubuntu 21.04 is here and here are the new features

Tuesday

  • Here’s how to be King for a Day, at least in Google’s Argentina
  • This is a great story about how librarians are stepping up getting people COVID shots in the Middlesex County area

Wednesday

  • I don’t consider myself too old to get into a remake of The Flintstones. I grew up with the modern stone age family
  • A new browser that runs in the Cloud – Mighty

Thursday

  • Trust it to the Opera browser to support unstoppable domains
  • An interesting update to the Vivaldi browser as more and more websites become annoying

Friday

  • I’m not sure that I agree that a high end tablet is needed for Android. There are high end Chromebooks that flip over into one
  • I think everyone would agree that the logic of going back to big lecture halls isn’t something we want to see happening any time soon at universities

Saturday

  • I had to smile at this. Back in my day, we walked to school even during snow storms going up hill both ways. In a way, school districts closing local schools in favour of larger schools further a way caused this problem
  • All I can say is that I love the name my parents gave me and I’m not a fan of what is currently trending

Blog Posts on
doug … off the record

My daily contributions to this blog are linked below. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – April 30, 2021

https://wke.lt/w/s/PfZrTG

voicEd Radio

On this week’s show, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about Principals, failure, poetry, me, and sick pay.

The show, stored as a podcast is available here:
https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/cheer-leaders-feelings-of-failure-and-self-care/

  • Anne-Marie Kee – @AMKeeLCS
  • Amanda Potts – @Ahpotts
  • Setared Dabbagh – @TESLOntario
  • Aviva Dunsiger – @avivaloca
  • Diana Maliszewski – @MzMollyTL

Opening Song:

Closing Song:

All of the podcasts are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 8:45 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

Bluetooth is a great technology until you let it take over. Then, it just becomes annoying.

At various points in time, I have my bluetooth headphones connected to various things around here. They’re only connected to my MacBook Pro on Wednesday mornings for my TWIOE show on voicEd Radio.

Annoyingly, or as a feature, they want to reconnect to the device that I last used. That’s basically everything that I don’t want it to connect to. The technology is such that it can only connect to two devices at once.

So, my solution is to leave some devices out of range and then scramble to turn it off on my PC so that there’s room for the Mac. It seems easy enough but every week, I have a “holy cow” moment as I don’t get it right.

That’s the problem with correct solutions; you actually have to implement them.

Video of the Week

I know this but sometimes still get confused. Then there’s the whole European Union and Brexit thing.

Photo of the Week

You might think this is Northern Ontario but it’s actually just down the road from us after a heavy rainfall. I love the resolution that the new Android phone provides for the camera.

Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

If you find it anywhere else, it’s not original.

My Week Ending 2021-04-25


Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week.

Sunday

  • It was sad to see Art in the Park cancelled again this year. It’s always a big event that gets you into the Willistead Manor grounds and to explore the artwork. It always seemed to rain though…
  • Browser developers are never done. In this case, it’s ditching the browser history in Chrome for something called Memories

Monday

  • A blast from my personal past. Our backyard neighbour is hosting a Professional Women Summit
  • It’s the reality for many who don’t have enough desks in the house – student learning moves to the dining room table

Tuesday

  • COVID-19 hits London, Ontario schools
  • If you’re looking for a career change in Ontario, here are some jobs that are paying over $100 000

Wednesday

  • There are places to go if you suspect that someone has grabbed your password. Or, to check that they didn’t
  • If your kids don’t have you enough already, use this application to give them a mathematics question to answer before they can use their devices

Thursday

  • An interesting opinion piece from TVO explaining the effectiveness of the Premier over the time with the pandemic
  • An interesting look at how Vincent Van Gogh handled nature in his worki

Friday

  • This looks really interesting and shows that the Ontario Art Education Association are staying relevant to its members
  • If I was still looking after technology needs for the classroom, I’d definitely have one of these on order to evaluate

Saturday

  • If you’re thinking about getting an Ad blocker, there is a great article to read. If you’re not, why not?
  • This Linux fan did a double take when I read that Microsoft might soon be embracing this in Windows 10

Blog Posts on
doug … off the record

My daily contributions to this blog are linked below. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – April 23, 2021

https://wakelet.com/wake/HueG7Zpv_QY6OF6OK9NTK

voicEd Radio

On this week’s show, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about Cultivating learning and community on and off line

The show, stored as a podcast is available here:
https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/cultivating-learning-and-community-on-and-off-line/

  • Deb Weston – @DPAWestonPhD
  • Lisa Ann Floyd – @lisaannefloyd
  • Steven Floyd – @stevenpfloyd
  • Anne Marie Luce – @turnmeluce
  • Mike Washburn – @misterwashburn
  • Beth Lyons – @MrsLyonsLibrary

Opening Song:

Closing Song:

All of the podcasts are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 8:45 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

A couple of years ago, royalty around here decided that we need to keep the people from out of town off the grass at the Navy Yard Park and fishing for Lake Whitefish in designated areas.

So, up went signs, bylaw officers on patrol and a big fence to keep the nature in. Does anyone remember the Five Man Electrical Band?

Well, the fish are running and the fences are back up – but repurposed in the time of COVID. The pages, instead of making one big wall are not turned 90 degrees to create socially distanced fishing areas.

I would have taken a picture but the places were full of people fishing.

Video of the Week

Is it a sign of a poor plan that something like this had to be created?

Photo of the Week

Last week, I showed what social distancing looked like if you were a tulip.


Now that the enhanced policing rules have been relaxed, the tulips are ignoring the rules.

Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

If you find it anywhere else, it’s not original.

My Week Ending 2021-04-18


Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week.

Sunday

  • I checked and, to date, Google isn’t tracking me with the new FLoCed. At least not yet.
  • OK, dumbest thing I’ve heard for a long time. I shudder whenever an episode of Rescue 401 is in Toronto

Monday

  • People should try on these 404 messages for style to see if they fit
  • If the thought of the new Google FLoC tracking has you worried, maybe it’s the time to finally switch to DuckDuckGo

Tuesday

  • This actually would be a better problem for Google to solve right now
  • I think that this concept is rather cool – get out of the classroom and go to the beach

Wednesday

  • Well, I did actually know a couple of these things but it’s still nice to read an article like this and indeed find something new
  • Every now and again, you read an article like this and it just confirms that the kids are all right

Thursday

  • Like many, I watched the Premier’s latest press conference and all all kinds of things running around my mind. Not all of them were good
  • If you’re looking for something new and inspirational to do with your Raspberry Pi, you might look at some of these ideas

Friday

  • This looks really interesting and shows that the Ontario Art Education Association are staying relevant to its members
  • How has your community changed over the past 37 years?

Saturday

  • Ideas if you updated to the latest Windows and got the blue screen of death and would like to get back into your computer
  • This is an important read about how Canada ended up in the third wave

Blog Posts on
doug … off the record

My daily contributions to this blog are linked below. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – April 16, 2021

https://wke.lt/w/s/RPDxbi

voicEd Radio

On this week’s show, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about Bitmojis, Online Learning, Looking Back and Looking Ahead.

The show, stored as a podcast is available here:
https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/bitmojis-online-learning-looking-back-and-looking-ahead/

  • EduGals – @edugals
  • Charles Pascal – @CEPascal
  • Tim King – @tk1ng
  • Matthew Morris – @callmemrmorris
  • John Hodgkinson – @Mr_H_Teacher

Opening Song:

Closing Song:

All of the podcasts are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 8:45 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

An update on my wife’s newly acquired Chromebook. She now regrets putting me off ordering it for her this long. She’s loving in.

She opened her MacBook Pro that had been fully charged to see that it was down to 27%.

Yep, sometimes the best thing to do is just upgrade.

Video of the Week

You know, I get it. If everyone would then maybe we could take the steps necessary to get our lives back together.

Photo of the Week

When a tulip listens to Doug Ford.


Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

If you find it anywhere else, it’s not original.