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We want to and will make it easy for schools to keep their staff, pupils, parents, partners, other stake-holders and wider community informed, updated and engaged.
Now, by merely typing in the text you can do it too!
It's so easy even 7 year old children can do it. If you are able to move a mouse, click a few buttons and string a few sentences together you can maintain a cutting edge site.
We'll give you all the training you'll need, support you on the phone or with email, all to make sure you get the best out of your investment.
Our killer features are:
Superb content management and blog software. Excellent Google optimisation.
An email to weblog interface, making updating your school blog a doddle.
Top draw support and feedback.
Try a demo or build your
Now, by merely typing in the text you can do it too!
It's so easy even 7 year old children can do it. If you are able to move a mouse, click a few buttons and string a few sentences together you can maintain a cutting edge site.
We'll give you all the training you'll need, support you on the phone or with email, all to make sure you get the best out of your investment.
Our killer features are:
Superb content management and blog software. Excellent Google optimisation.
An email to weblog interface, making updating your school blog a doddle.
Top draw support and feedback.
Try a demo or build your
30 day free trial
school website yourself. What will you write today's school news to be?How tos
Convert PNG to JPG
Batch convert PNG to JPG:
"This is a command line script to convert all .PNG-files to JPG. We will show you how to convert .png-files by right clicking on a folder. All the png-images will then be converted to jpg and saved in a sub folder (named ´jpg)"
I had this one my Apple Mac... Needed it on a PC and instead of paying £25 for some software I followed the instructions and it worked perfectly. Just adding this here for others who may need it and for me to find again easily later.
Google video how to
Though you can email in small videos to your site, larger ones, and many cameras now are capable of effusively recording broadcast quality (640 x 480 x 30 fps) these smaller videos are generally only 5Mb big. Shot off a mobile phone, they last a minute or less.
Larger videos are 50Mb or more! Eeek! Don't email those to your site!
Better is Google video. I'd say YouTube, but there are size limits with YouTube. And with Google Video, there's a handy application with which you can upload many videos in one go. I generally add several at night, and come back in the morning to finish off adding the tags to my site.
First, you need to join Google Video. Fill in the form and then respond to the email that is sent to you to confirm your address. If you don't confirm, you're sill (apparently) allowed to upload video, but you're wasting your time (I know this from experience).
On the front page, there's a link (top, right) to upload your videos. There, you're asked to sign in or create an account.
Create an account, and respond to the emailed confirmation.
Then, decide if you want to upload one video, or download the application which allows many to be uploaded in one go. I'd download the application, especially if you're going to use the one machine, all the time. If you're going to be a hot desk uploader, it may not be useful.
Web form uploading
One at a time, just fill in the fields and add your video to the form, hit the upload button and wait... Or, go make some tea. It can take ages to upload one video of 50Mb size. Ages. And ages.
20 minutes? An hour? Depends on your bandwidth, how many others in school or in your street are online. Depends on the time of day, tea time being the slowest.
Once it's done... You can see the video, and to the right is a button to 'email and embed HTML' You'll need to copy the HTML code and paste it into your new news item description box. But there's a trick here...
Pasting HTML
You need to switch to source mode to paste the HTML. Then switch back to HTML view mode. Now, you can't see the HTML you just pasted in! Which is correct, though a little worrying.
If you don't switch to HTML mode and paste in your embed HTML, you'll see your HTML and all will look well, though the angled brackets have been munged (in the source mode view). And all you will get on posting will the be HTML, or rather what looks like HTML.
Uploading via the application
(My preference.) You need to hit the log in button first! And login. Then, add some videos to the application. Tick the box to certify the video is yours, then hit the 'upload now' button. And go to bed... At least this is what I do. I've no idea how long it takes, though I'm sure it's several hours to upload several hundred megabytes worth of several videos.
Again you're presented with a screen, which lists all your videos. One by one, you have to fill in a web form about each video. Which language, a description, a title... If you want it public or private. (I don't know if there's a downside to private. I always do public.) [Later:] The downside is that it's not embedable into your site, if it's private! So, always do public.
One by one, you have to copy paste the embed code into your news item(s). It's a chore. But worth it!
If you're pasting several embed codes into the one news item box... Be careful! It can get quite messy and certainly not for the faint hearted HTML novice. Far better to write a description, switch to source mode, paste your embed code below your text, switch back to HTML view and post the news item. Then, create a new news item for each video.
Formats
As with emailing in, any format will work with Google Video.
Larger videos are 50Mb or more! Eeek! Don't email those to your site!
Better is Google video. I'd say YouTube, but there are size limits with YouTube. And with Google Video, there's a handy application with which you can upload many videos in one go. I generally add several at night, and come back in the morning to finish off adding the tags to my site.
How to
Join upFirst, you need to join Google Video. Fill in the form and then respond to the email that is sent to you to confirm your address. If you don't confirm, you're sill (apparently) allowed to upload video, but you're wasting your time (I know this from experience).
On the front page, there's a link (top, right) to upload your videos. There, you're asked to sign in or create an account.
Create an account, and respond to the emailed confirmation.
Then, decide if you want to upload one video, or download the application which allows many to be uploaded in one go. I'd download the application, especially if you're going to use the one machine, all the time. If you're going to be a hot desk uploader, it may not be useful.
Web form uploading
One at a time, just fill in the fields and add your video to the form, hit the upload button and wait... Or, go make some tea. It can take ages to upload one video of 50Mb size. Ages. And ages.
20 minutes? An hour? Depends on your bandwidth, how many others in school or in your street are online. Depends on the time of day, tea time being the slowest.
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The embed HTML section found on the right of the Google Video screen.
Once it's done... You can see the video, and to the right is a button to 'email and embed HTML' You'll need to copy the HTML code and paste it into your new news item description box. But there's a trick here...
Pasting HTML
You need to switch to source mode to paste the HTML. Then switch back to HTML view mode. Now, you can't see the HTML you just pasted in! Which is correct, though a little worrying.
If you don't switch to HTML mode and paste in your embed HTML, you'll see your HTML and all will look well, though the angled brackets have been munged (in the source mode view). And all you will get on posting will the be HTML, or rather what looks like HTML.
Uploading via the application
(My preference.) You need to hit the log in button first! And login. Then, add some videos to the application. Tick the box to certify the video is yours, then hit the 'upload now' button. And go to bed... At least this is what I do. I've no idea how long it takes, though I'm sure it's several hours to upload several hundred megabytes worth of several videos.
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Google video uploader application
Again you're presented with a screen, which lists all your videos. One by one, you have to fill in a web form about each video. Which language, a description, a title... If you want it public or private. (I don't know if there's a downside to private. I always do public.) [Later:] The downside is that it's not embedable into your site, if it's private! So, always do public.
One by one, you have to copy paste the embed code into your news item(s). It's a chore. But worth it!
If you're pasting several embed codes into the one news item box... Be careful! It can get quite messy and certainly not for the faint hearted HTML novice. Far better to write a description, switch to source mode, paste your embed code below your text, switch back to HTML view and post the news item. Then, create a new news item for each video.
Formats
As with emailing in, any format will work with Google Video.
Valentines comes early
Here's some teaser screens of the upcoming multi Valentines theme. This
time all schools will be able to switch to it, even though they've
changed the buttons at the top (are you listening Sue Broadbent!)
I don't know if you'll switch to it for a few days of just the one day.
Eventually, when I have enough of these themes, I'll make up an
interface so you can program your site to change automatically to the
correct theme: St Davids, St Andrews, Easter and so on. After seeing a
few schools who hadn't changed back to their regular themes after
Christmas, after the 12 days, it just looked so... Hungover, I guess.
So, computers should take care of this.
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Ancient Greek romance.
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Cupids knit hearts
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On the moon, past cloud nine.
New training manual
I've been updating the training manual.
After reading some sections that went far back into 2001, I thought I better had. It's now jumped from 47 pages to 84 and is likely to reach 120 pages once I've finished with it, or finished with version 3.0 rather.
If you want to download it as I update it, I'm uploading nightly versions.
I've redone the section on email to weblog since that's been the big change. And have still much to do here.
There's plenty of updates and expansions of sections. I've also added many tips and warnings.
I'm going to add the writing for different audiences, since there's so much in there that's relevant.
I'd like to add a whole chapter on best practice, but this will have to wait till version 4.0
Once it's finished, I'll be mailing copies out to all our customers.
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Spreads of the training manual
If you want to download it as I update it, I'm uploading nightly versions.
I've redone the section on email to weblog since that's been the big change. And have still much to do here.
There's plenty of updates and expansions of sections. I've also added many tips and warnings.
I'm going to add the writing for different audiences, since there's so much in there that's relevant.
I'd like to add a whole chapter on best practice, but this will have to wait till version 4.0
Once it's finished, I'll be mailing copies out to all our customers.
Blackboard graphic engine
Sometimes, I add a news item that's just text. It can look a little boring. "What would be nice," thought I, "is if I could automatically create an illustration to go along side my news item..."
I guess, these days this should be on a white board. I'll change that. [Later: I have changed it, see the new whiteboard below. When this feature arrives, there'll be several different templates, blackboard, whiteboard and several others using different typefaces.]
This, is a fun feature brewing here at Walsallschools.org. You fill in the form:
It goes off and gets the first image for that search from Google images, adds it to the text and makes a shortcut of the graphic, ready for you to add to your news items or stories or side bars.
Big serendipity! You may have to refine your search and try again. Sure, I've strict search switched on, but you need to make sure it's clean. It's fun, so you will, look that is. You could look in images Google first, but there's no guarantee that what you see as first will be what the server sees as first. If it finds nothing, no results, it'll obviously not add an image, to your image.
See the below examples for the Google search strings, which is the first input in the caption, followed by the magnetic coloured type and then the chalk lettering.
I guess, these days this should be on a white board. I'll change that. [Later: I have changed it, see the new whiteboard below. When this feature arrives, there'll be several different templates, blackboard, whiteboard and several others using different typefaces.]
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whiteboard, Whiteboard, Can't get it all on -)
This, is a fun feature brewing here at Walsallschools.org. You fill in the form:
| Google search: | ||
| Fridge magnet lettering: | ||
| White chalk text: |
It goes off and gets the first image for that search from Google images, adds it to the text and makes a shortcut of the graphic, ready for you to add to your news items or stories or side bars.
Big serendipity! You may have to refine your search and try again. Sure, I've strict search switched on, but you need to make sure it's clean. It's fun, so you will, look that is. You could look in images Google first, but there's no guarantee that what you see as first will be what the server sees as first. If it finds nothing, no results, it'll obviously not add an image, to your image.
See the below examples for the Google search strings, which is the first input in the caption, followed by the magnetic coloured type and then the chalk lettering.
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runner cartoon, Sports, Charity run Dec 26
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romans, class 6, Learning about the Romans
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great fire of london, class 3, The Great Fire of London
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Christmas star, Thursday, Christmas play
Theme swapping
In the olden days, we had lots of themes. But they were table based instead of stylesheet based. Stylesheet or CSS (cascading style sheets) are better, because they're more powerful, and they render in the browser faster.
Anyway, I'm adding some default themes to each school's Customised design. This Christmas one I'm 'wearing' here is an example. There's a Winter one too. And, I'll do an Easter, St Davids Day... (I'm looking for a good list of high days and holidays.)
I said CSS is more powerful, in this theme we have 14 different designs, which the reader can pick from. Each time they revisit, we will remember which deign they picked.
It's fun, but it also clocks up more buy-in from the reader, it's more 'theirs' if it's a little customised. More buy-in means more visits.
And it's a fun for the editors. To be able to swap and back-up themes at a drop of a hat, like changing your socks, just shows off the power of a good content management system.
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The theme page from Editors only: ==> Prefs ==> Themes
Anyway, I'm adding some default themes to each school's Customised design. This Christmas one I'm 'wearing' here is an example. There's a Winter one too. And, I'll do an Easter, St Davids Day... (I'm looking for a good list of high days and holidays.)
I said CSS is more powerful, in this theme we have 14 different designs, which the reader can pick from. Each time they revisit, we will remember which deign they picked.
It's fun, but it also clocks up more buy-in from the reader, it's more 'theirs' if it's a little customised. More buy-in means more visits.
And it's a fun for the editors. To be able to swap and back-up themes at a drop of a hat, like changing your socks, just shows off the power of a good content management system.
Right captions aligned too
As I said below, I wanted to right align some of these captioned thumbnails. Now, I can!
I've just added a -cr to the list of shortcut appends. The full list is now:
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And then there was the right version of the caption too.
I've just added a -cr to the list of shortcut appends. The full list is now:
- none. A plain old shortcut, no captions, no alignment, nothing.
- -l Aligns left, with no caption.
- -r Aligns right with no caption.
- -c Aligns left with a cation.
- -cr Aligns right with a caption.
- -plain. No thumbnail! Just the original you uploaded, this could be very big as it's same sized. This effectually duplicates the Editors only: Pictures function.
Emailed thumbnails are simpler
Emailing them is simple enough, you just email them. But when they arrived, I put the shortcuts surrounded with stylesheet divs into the news items. I thought this was best, as I could get in and edit the HTML easily.
However, none of my teachers have successfully edited the HTML. I always have to go in and clean up.
Now, all that HTML is wrapped up and hidden in the shortcut. No longer will you see any HTML (if you ever pressed the 'see source' button). You just see your shortcuts.
"But how do I edit my captions?" Easy, and hopefully intuitively, you click the edit link under the thumbnail's caption. In the edit thumb screen, where you can resize, or flip, flop, is the description box. Initially, this is set with the image's file name, but you can do what you want, make it bold, green, add links, even more shortcuts, perhaps to pages or to more thumbs, knock yourself out.
Better, is that there are more shortcuts available. You know you have the plain one, this is the one we used to use in the emailed news items. Now we use a new version with -c appended to the end of the shortcut. Rather like the -l and -r for aligning left and right.
You can easily switch from cations to no captions just by deleting or adding that -c.
And, the thumbnail viewer page has been updated. Now, with just one click in the text field you can select (then copy) the shortcut that you want.
I can already see, as I make this news item (I've not emailed anything in, just doing it the old fashioned way in the browser) that as all three of these thumbnails in this news item are left aligned, that I want a right aligned one too. I'll go an add that now...
BTW: you should ignore that I get an edit in Radio button. I sometimes use another application to edit pages. You too would see such if you too used this app, as you don't you won't see the button. Just wanted to be complete here.
[Extra tip] Here's a little bit of HTML... Now that there's less HTML in the news items, one, one very small bit of HTML you may want to learn is <br> or <br /> (they're the same) and <p>. BRs are breaks, line breaks. To make one in Explorer, you 'soft return' that is you shift return, that is you press shift, then return. This will add a line break. Two such will add two line breaks, two <BR><BR>, which equals a paragraph break.
Paragraph breaks are written as <p> in HTML. There's usually an ending one too, </p>. Normally you don't need to worry about the ending one, as the WYSIWYG will delete the errant ones for you—self correcting, if you like.
Sometimes, when using thumbnails, ranged left (and right) they 'flow' or more correctly, float, and little too much. You can sometimes correct this by adding a clear=all to the break tag. Like this <br clear=all>.
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The old, messy HTML version of one thumbnail (it's red underlined because I use a spell checker in Firefox).
However, none of my teachers have successfully edited the HTML. I always have to go in and clean up.
Now, all that HTML is wrapped up and hidden in the shortcut. No longer will you see any HTML (if you ever pressed the 'see source' button). You just see your shortcuts.
"But how do I edit my captions?" Easy, and hopefully intuitively, you click the edit link under the thumbnail's caption. In the edit thumb screen, where you can resize, or flip, flop, is the description box. Initially, this is set with the image's file name, but you can do what you want, make it bold, green, add links, even more shortcuts, perhaps to pages or to more thumbs, knock yourself out.
Better, is that there are more shortcuts available. You know you have the plain one, this is the one we used to use in the emailed news items. Now we use a new version with -c appended to the end of the shortcut. Rather like the -l and -r for aligning left and right.
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How I added a captioned thumbnailed to this.
You can easily switch from cations to no captions just by deleting or adding that -c.
And, the thumbnail viewer page has been updated. Now, with just one click in the text field you can select (then copy) the shortcut that you want.
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The new thumbviewer page, showing where you can copy the sortcuts.
I can already see, as I make this news item (I've not emailed anything in, just doing it the old fashioned way in the browser) that as all three of these thumbnails in this news item are left aligned, that I want a right aligned one too. I'll go an add that now...
BTW: you should ignore that I get an edit in Radio button. I sometimes use another application to edit pages. You too would see such if you too used this app, as you don't you won't see the button. Just wanted to be complete here.
[Extra tip] Here's a little bit of HTML... Now that there's less HTML in the news items, one, one very small bit of HTML you may want to learn is <br> or <br /> (they're the same) and <p>. BRs are breaks, line breaks. To make one in Explorer, you 'soft return' that is you shift return, that is you press shift, then return. This will add a line break. Two such will add two line breaks, two <BR><BR>, which equals a paragraph break.
Paragraph breaks are written as <p> in HTML. There's usually an ending one too, </p>. Normally you don't need to worry about the ending one, as the WYSIWYG will delete the errant ones for you—self correcting, if you like.
Sometimes, when using thumbnails, ranged left (and right) they 'flow' or more correctly, float, and little too much. You can sometimes correct this by adding a clear=all to the break tag. Like this <br clear=all>.
Now there's more sizes
Feedback is that you want more sizes.
Now there's three more: 200, 500, 800. All you need do is append the switch at the end of the shortcut.
Below is my original— the default, without any size information. Its actual size is 320 pixels wide. The (2) merely means that this is second shortcut.
Appending the number to the end of the shortcut, give me a small one (200) and a largest one (500) for news items.
The 800 size will not fit into the central news items column! It's only for internal pages, stories. It's huge, nearly full sized.
Here's the 500 pixel wide one, see how it takes the full width of the column? Personally, I prefer the 200 version. Readers get a gist from this and if they're interested they can pop it out, bigger. This 500 version is too wide, too high for my liking, but it's what you've asked for.
But! What I've also done is to take out the stylesheets gumph. This means that you can no longer edit the captions—you just can't see them. Now, it's much easier to move your document around, you just need the shortcut, as everything is hidden in that shortcut.
If you get your caption wrong, that is if you make a misspelling in your file name of the document, then you're screwed. You'll need to email it in again. Of course, many of you merely add the switch [nc] to the subject line or the file name anyway, for no captions.
I'm done this for thumbnailed pictures too. I see many are moving the emailed thumbs around, and getting into a mess. Were there no stylesheet divs I know there'd be no mess. You're still be able to edit the captions, but in the same place you edit the thumb, with the edit link under each thumb. This is much cleaner, much easier. I'll write a how to on this soon, though it's that simple...
Word document: Dinosaurs
Below is my original— the default, without any size information. Its actual size is 320 pixels wide. The (2) merely means that this is second shortcut.
Appending the number to the end of the shortcut, give me a small one (200) and a largest one (500) for news items.
The 800 size will not fit into the central news items column! It's only for internal pages, stories. It's huge, nearly full sized.
Here's the 500 pixel wide one, see how it takes the full width of the column? Personally, I prefer the 200 version. Readers get a gist from this and if they're interested they can pop it out, bigger. This 500 version is too wide, too high for my liking, but it's what you've asked for.
But! What I've also done is to take out the stylesheets gumph. This means that you can no longer edit the captions—you just can't see them. Now, it's much easier to move your document around, you just need the shortcut, as everything is hidden in that shortcut.
If you get your caption wrong, that is if you make a misspelling in your file name of the document, then you're screwed. You'll need to email it in again. Of course, many of you merely add the switch [nc] to the subject line or the file name anyway, for no captions.
I'm done this for thumbnailed pictures too. I see many are moving the emailed thumbs around, and getting into a mess. Were there no stylesheet divs I know there'd be no mess. You're still be able to edit the captions, but in the same place you edit the thumb, with the edit link under each thumb. This is much cleaner, much easier. I'll write a how to on this soon, though it's that simple...
Adding the bookmarks
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Don't forget to get jiggy with the depth of your site. Just add bookmarks. Then, you'll find everything on your browser's tool bar.
Advanced power
Our system has been around years, and some wonderful stuff has been done
with it. Just look how your site looks in an outline.
I'd like someone to step forward and try the 'outline interface.' Seeing your site in an outline structure. My long pages, where I need to do my thinking: my essay pages--if you like, and FAQs, are written in an outline; it's great way to think.
(This is only a very small part of the wonders!)
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How your site structure looks. See some of my stories?
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The rest of the site structure, it goes deep, way deep into your site's pages and systems
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(This is only a very small part of the wonders!)
Zipped to email
Here's the how-to. Zip a bunch of files (jpegs, gifs, videos, Word docs, Excel sheets, Powerpoint slides, PDF documents. Email the zipped document to your site. Couldn't really be simpler.
A more verbose how-to...
Highlight all the files you want to zip.
Right click ==> Add to some folder.zip and email
This will open up an email with the folder zipped and attached. Of course, this depends on you having a more complex zipping package than the default Windows version (see below). In the screen grab to the left I have AlZip and WinRar installed. But I'm geeky like this. Most of you will have Jemma's set up—below.
In Jemma's case she need to just zip the folder and then attach to her Hotmail email. Which means, effectively, uploading the zipped folder. But, though it's a bigger file to upload (it's full if pictures—usually) it's just a one time operation, rather than attaching many, sometimes 30 pictures.
She would highlight the pictures, right click==> Send to ==> Compressed zip folder. Then she would need to attach this (it has a zip on a folder as its icon) to her Hotmail account.
A more verbose how-to...
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Highlight all the files you want to zip.
Right click ==> Add to some folder.zip and email
This will open up an email with the folder zipped and attached. Of course, this depends on you having a more complex zipping package than the default Windows version (see below). In the screen grab to the left I have AlZip and WinRar installed. But I'm geeky like this. Most of you will have Jemma's set up—below.
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In Jemma's case she need to just zip the folder and then attach to her Hotmail email. Which means, effectively, uploading the zipped folder. But, though it's a bigger file to upload (it's full if pictures—usually) it's just a one time operation, rather than attaching many, sometimes 30 pictures. She would highlight the pictures, right click==> Send to ==> Compressed zip folder. Then she would need to attach this (it has a zip on a folder as its icon) to her Hotmail account.
Hotmail and zips
Bodnant Infants... Jemma who has folders, 
and floppies of pictures to send, and uses the email-to-blog so much... She's sent 1136 thumbnails into their site so far.
But! She's complaining. It isn't fast enough. So, I listen and think... Her problem is this, she uses Hotmail — her LA's mail system and ICT dept ain't 'hot.' With Hotmail she has to upload each picture one-by-one. Which kinda defeats the point. It's fine when she merely forwards emails sent to her from a parent photographer.
So, the fix is, she should zip a folder full of pictures, video, Word docs and attach that one thing. I'll go and add it as a feature. I'm ever the-one-to-please :-)
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and floppies of pictures to send, and uses the email-to-blog so much... She's sent 1136 thumbnails into their site so far.But! She's complaining. It isn't fast enough. So, I listen and think... Her problem is this, she uses Hotmail — her LA's mail system and ICT dept ain't 'hot.' With Hotmail she has to upload each picture one-by-one. Which kinda defeats the point. It's fine when she merely forwards emails sent to her from a parent photographer.
So, the fix is, she should zip a folder full of pictures, video, Word docs and attach that one thing. I'll go and add it as a feature. I'm ever the-one-to-please :-)
Fake Tools
After reading a Guardian story about Russian cyber criminals I found a list of fake spyware tools. Now, I know that there are dozens and dozens of schools who are part of these botnets—I get spammed from them. Botnets are: networks of zombie computers which run tiny applications which allow them to be controlled, to send out spam or even host more malware, or even the worst kind of porn.
I've seen may popup ads for spyware, but I immediately become suspicious. I wonder if any children, or even teachers aren't so suspicious? If you've downloaded any of these, get yourself some real anti-spyware! Free ones:
Spywaredata <== my current fav
Javacool <== old but venerable
Yes! You'll need to do this on ALL machines in school! All, means the Head's, the one connected to the printer that's hardly ever switched on, all laptops, mail servers too! Everything.
Here's the blogspot news item about the Russian fakes...
Russian Business Network (RBN): RBN - Fake Tools, Rogue software
adprotect.com
adwareremover2007.com
antispyzone.com
antivermins.com
antiverminser.net
antiverminspro.net
antivirgear.com
antivirusgold.com
antivirusgolden.com
bravesentry.com
drives-cleaner.com
eprotectpage.com
magicantispy.com
malware-alarm.com
malwarealarm.com
malwarewipe.com
sigmacode.biz
spyaxe.biz
spydawn.com
spyheal.com
spylocked.com
spysheriff.com
spy-shredder.com
spyshredderscanner.com
spytrooper.com
spywall.net
spywarequake.com
thecleanersystem.com
thesafebar.com
thespyguard.com
virusburst.com
virusheal.com
virusprotectpro.biz
virusprotectpro.com
virusray.com
virusrescue.com
wildgadgets.biz
windowsafesurf.com
xmalwarealarm.com
xspy-shredder.com
1stantivirus.com
Adwarebazooka.com
adwaredelete.com
Adwarepunisher.com
Anti-virus-pro.com
Hitvirus.com
Innovagest2000.com
pesttrap.com
razespyware.net
Remedyantispy.com
Spycontra.com
spycut.com
Spydeface.com
spydemolisher.com
Spyiblock.com
spywareno.com
Virushammer.com
If you think your machine or one of your school's machines has been acting weird, look for symptoms, but don't think that as you can't see any signs, that you're not infected. There are apps that are only 35K big, and can hide themselves too well.
And never, ever, ever open any emails attachments (particularly PDFs) unless you're certain you asked for it. Do not trust your friends! They're machine may be a zombie and be sending out emails with out the owner's knowledge.
I've seen may popup ads for spyware, but I immediately become suspicious. I wonder if any children, or even teachers aren't so suspicious? If you've downloaded any of these, get yourself some real anti-spyware! Free ones:
Spywaredata <== my current fav
Javacool <== old but venerable
Yes! You'll need to do this on ALL machines in school! All, means the Head's, the one connected to the printer that's hardly ever switched on, all laptops, mail servers too! Everything.
Here's the blogspot news item about the Russian fakes...
Russian Business Network (RBN): RBN - Fake Tools, Rogue software
adprotect.com
adwareremover2007.com
antispyzone.com
antivermins.com
antiverminser.net
antiverminspro.net
antivirgear.com
antivirusgold.com
antivirusgolden.com
bravesentry.com
drives-cleaner.com
eprotectpage.com
magicantispy.com
malware-alarm.com
malwarealarm.com
malwarewipe.com
sigmacode.biz
spyaxe.biz
spydawn.com
spyheal.com
spylocked.com
spysheriff.com
spy-shredder.com
spyshredderscanner.com
spytrooper.com
spywall.net
spywarequake.com
thecleanersystem.com
thesafebar.com
thespyguard.com
virusburst.com
virusheal.com
virusprotectpro.biz
virusprotectpro.com
virusray.com
virusrescue.com
wildgadgets.biz
windowsafesurf.com
xmalwarealarm.com
xspy-shredder.com
1stantivirus.com
Adwarebazooka.com
adwaredelete.com
Adwarepunisher.com
Anti-virus-pro.com
Hitvirus.com
Innovagest2000.com
pesttrap.com
razespyware.net
Remedyantispy.com
Spycontra.com
spycut.com
Spydeface.com
spydemolisher.com
Spyiblock.com
spywareno.com
Virushammer.com
If you think your machine or one of your school's machines has been acting weird, look for symptoms, but don't think that as you can't see any signs, that you're not infected. There are apps that are only 35K big, and can hide themselves too well.
And never, ever, ever open any emails attachments (particularly PDFs) unless you're certain you asked for it. Do not trust your friends! They're machine may be a zombie and be sending out emails with out the owner's knowledge.
An extra feature
I've been thinking about these emailed documents.
One thing I don't like about such is that they're not indexed by Google. Which is important.
But Google does index Word docs and pdfs. And, Excel sheets, Powerpoints, too, I've seen in their index.
If you look underneath the Flash version, you'll see a link to the actual, original document. I've greyed it to match the rest of the caption—you'll need to mouse over the caption to see the link. Remember, the link is not really for your readers, it's for Google. You want your readers to be able to read the caption, and not be distracted. Of course, if you were to add [nc] for no caption to the subject line or the file's name, you won't get the link.
Now, Google can index it too.
A byproduct is, if you lose your original, here it is.
BTW: my daughter made this. I was surprised. She was quiet upstairs in my office one afternoon. I figured she was looking at puppy pictures though Google... But, no! She'd created and saved two such documents. Chip off the old geek.
Obviously, she's been doing this at school. So, I guess other 9 year olds in other schools will be doing the same.
Wouldn't it be nice (and easy) to upload some of your best?
Word document: Girls only
But Google does index Word docs and pdfs. And, Excel sheets, Powerpoints, too, I've seen in their index.
If you look underneath the Flash version, you'll see a link to the actual, original document. I've greyed it to match the rest of the caption—you'll need to mouse over the caption to see the link. Remember, the link is not really for your readers, it's for Google. You want your readers to be able to read the caption, and not be distracted. Of course, if you were to add [nc] for no caption to the subject line or the file's name, you won't get the link.
Now, Google can index it too.
A byproduct is, if you lose your original, here it is.
BTW: my daughter made this. I was surprised. She was quiet upstairs in my office one afternoon. I figured she was looking at puppy pictures though Google... But, no! She'd created and saved two such documents. Chip off the old geek.
Obviously, she's been doing this at school. So, I guess other 9 year olds in other schools will be doing the same.
Wouldn't it be nice (and easy) to upload some of your best?
How to of the item below
The email I sent to create the item below is in this thumbnail.
One picture and a bunch of text. Added the size I wanted the image to be, knowing that 475 pixels is is as wide as it will go. After that you'll lose some to the right. And I wanted some text to flow down the right edge.
I added the [[community]] department too, to the subject line.
HTML? Well, I know it well since I started writing it when it first came out! Yip! I was there before there were picture tags! It was all just text, back in the day.
I use a speell checker [sic] Called Spell Catcher Plus, I've recommended it many times. Go get it! It's got a shortcut editor. You type your shortcut and it expands it for you. Good for boiler-plating. Maybe for signature files. Auto correcting spelling. And... Writing HTML I type href and it expands to <a href = ""></a> ready for my links. I type bold and italic links as I write. Sometimes also add unordered list too. I've also set up templates on my mobile phone, for double line spaces and links for my blog.
But then I'm geeky like this.
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An email to blog ready to go
I added the [[community]] department too, to the subject line.
HTML? Well, I know it well since I started writing it when it first came out! Yip! I was there before there were picture tags! It was all just text, back in the day.
I use a speell checker [sic] Called Spell Catcher Plus, I've recommended it many times. Go get it! It's got a shortcut editor. You type your shortcut and it expands it for you. Good for boiler-plating. Maybe for signature files. Auto correcting spelling. And... Writing HTML I type href and it expands to <a href = ""></a> ready for my links. I type bold and italic links as I write. Sometimes also add unordered list too. I've also set up templates on my mobile phone, for double line spaces and links for my blog.
But then I'm geeky like this.
Email documents
Merely email in your Word doc, or in this case a rich text format (.rtf) and we'll do the rest.
As is usual there are some switches that are useful for you, certainly the [[department]] is one. I see Heads sending their letters to the [[notices Heads letters]] department.
The [front] or [pending] will also be useful for when you just want to post it to the front page and dash off home.
Or perhaps you don't want it on the front page. You want it to go into a normal web page, or as we say here, a story. Then, you'd use the [story] switch.
I like the captions under the flash document. But some wouldn't so the ever useful is the [nc] switch for no captions.
As you can see, one attachment is nicely formatted, with the text flowing around the flash document. I think it's always useful to add a bunch of text to your letters even if they are 'letters home,' and should stand up by themselves. IMHO I think it's a good idea to add a more personal note, perhaps about how the week has progressed, perhaps about the weather...
The flash document itself, should be self explanatory. There's a slider to enlarge, another button to 'size to fit,' another two to jump back and forward between the pages. One to print and one to open in another window. It's these two that are the most useful for the home reader.
The problem with uploading just the Word document is that some people don't have Word. With these flash documents, 99% of web surfers have the flash plug-in installed. So they can print!
So far the formats we support here are:
Keep your fonts simple! If you use a fancy, unusual font, we may not have it installed here. If you see some of your text replaced by weird characters, it's likely that this is the problem. Either tell us which font it is, and we'll install it, especially if you regularly use it, or change font to something more, more common.
The flash documents created are fairly large, in weight, in kilobytes. This means they slow down the user experience. Try to keep images to a minimum, pages as few as possible. Or...
Post them to a story page, with a link from a news item pointing to it. With this in mind I've created another set of switches! Don't worry, my next task is to make a cheat sheet, and I'll be mailing this out to each editor soon.
New switches
You want to create a story and a news item pointing to the story at the same time. Add [newsstory], [news story] or [news item story] to your subject field. If the last attachment is a document of some sort the new story will be created in the /letters/ folder or category in your site structure (the little green folders). If the last item is a picture it will be created in /pictures/myTitleOfMyStory. If it's a video, /videos/myTitleofMyStory.
But, if you want it to go directly into a category that's different to the above three, or even a new category, then use the switch with three, yes three square braces. Such as [[[whatever]]] which will create your story in the directory /whatever/ and the page's name will be taken from the subject line of your email. Thus, /whatever/mySubjectLine
The text of the news item is a little prosaic. But it does the job. The title of the post, again is taken from the subject line of the email (as is the story's title and the page's file name, see above). The text will be something like:
A new picture has been posted.
All this means, that you should save a lot of time putting stuff into your site. A lot of time! Me? I still like putting everything into the front page. But, I hear off some that they don't want 75 pictures in one news item. So, sure, this is going to save them a lot of time.
Word document: Megan's dyslexia homework
The [front] or [pending] will also be useful for when you just want to post it to the front page and dash off home.
Or perhaps you don't want it on the front page. You want it to go into a normal web page, or as we say here, a story. Then, you'd use the [story] switch.
I like the captions under the flash document. But some wouldn't so the ever useful is the [nc] switch for no captions.
As you can see, one attachment is nicely formatted, with the text flowing around the flash document. I think it's always useful to add a bunch of text to your letters even if they are 'letters home,' and should stand up by themselves. IMHO I think it's a good idea to add a more personal note, perhaps about how the week has progressed, perhaps about the weather...
The flash document itself, should be self explanatory. There's a slider to enlarge, another button to 'size to fit,' another two to jump back and forward between the pages. One to print and one to open in another window. It's these two that are the most useful for the home reader.
The problem with uploading just the Word document is that some people don't have Word. With these flash documents, 99% of web surfers have the flash plug-in installed. So they can print!
So far the formats we support here are:
- Word documents (.doc)
- Excel spreadsheets (.xls)
- Powerpoint presentations (.ppt)
- Adobe portable document formats (.pdf)
- Rich text format (.rtf)
- Text (.txt)
Keep your fonts simple! If you use a fancy, unusual font, we may not have it installed here. If you see some of your text replaced by weird characters, it's likely that this is the problem. Either tell us which font it is, and we'll install it, especially if you regularly use it, or change font to something more, more common.
The flash documents created are fairly large, in weight, in kilobytes. This means they slow down the user experience. Try to keep images to a minimum, pages as few as possible. Or...
Post them to a story page, with a link from a news item pointing to it. With this in mind I've created another set of switches! Don't worry, my next task is to make a cheat sheet, and I'll be mailing this out to each editor soon.
New switches
You want to create a story and a news item pointing to the story at the same time. Add [newsstory], [news story] or [news item story] to your subject field. If the last attachment is a document of some sort the new story will be created in the /letters/ folder or category in your site structure (the little green folders). If the last item is a picture it will be created in /pictures/myTitleOfMyStory. If it's a video, /videos/myTitleofMyStory.
But, if you want it to go directly into a category that's different to the above three, or even a new category, then use the switch with three, yes three square braces. Such as [[[whatever]]] which will create your story in the directory /whatever/ and the page's name will be taken from the subject line of your email. Thus, /whatever/mySubjectLine
The text of the news item is a little prosaic. But it does the job. The title of the post, again is taken from the subject line of the email (as is the story's title and the page's file name, see above). The text will be something like:
A new picture has been posted.
All this means, that you should save a lot of time putting stuff into your site. A lot of time! Me? I still like putting everything into the front page. But, I hear off some that they don't want 75 pictures in one news item. So, sure, this is going to save them a lot of time.
Front or pending?
I've added another switch to override the default in your email to weblog Prefs.
I did this because Helen, the Head, at Bodnant Infants, Prestatyn posts little snips to her site, while Jemma, the nursery nurse, bulk posts dozens of pictures, and wants then to hang in the pending news items for her to clean up and delete the Hotmail sig file.
(Hmmm! Just remembered Helen's emails come from her school's system, and they too have a sig file, though at least that's constant, so I can snip it out on the way through. I've tried to snip Hotmail's too, but it keeps changing.)
Anyway, the result, will be that The Head can email in little pieces of news, directly to the front page, while Jemma, can keep the way she has always posted.
All Helen would need do is add a subject line such as:
Coffee morning [[notices pta]] [front]
For me, I always post directly to my front page. I have the email to weblog Prefs set for this. But occasionally, I want it to hang in the pending so I can add more video. Thus I'd have a subject line like this:
We go swimming [[kids]] [pending]
Now, the next step is to get Jemma to add [h149] to the front of the subject lines so that her mixtures of portraits and landscapes are nice and straight ;-)
I did this because Helen, the Head, at Bodnant Infants, Prestatyn posts little snips to her site, while Jemma, the nursery nurse, bulk posts dozens of pictures, and wants then to hang in the pending news items for her to clean up and delete the Hotmail sig file.
(Hmmm! Just remembered Helen's emails come from her school's system, and they too have a sig file, though at least that's constant, so I can snip it out on the way through. I've tried to snip Hotmail's too, but it keeps changing.)
Anyway, the result, will be that The Head can email in little pieces of news, directly to the front page, while Jemma, can keep the way she has always posted.
All Helen would need do is add a subject line such as:
Coffee morning [[notices pta]] [front]
For me, I always post directly to my front page. I have the email to weblog Prefs set for this. But occasionally, I want it to hang in the pending so I can add more video. Thus I'd have a subject line like this:
We go swimming [[kids]] [pending]
Now, the next step is to get Jemma to add [h149] to the front of the subject lines so that her mixtures of portraits and landscapes are nice and straight ;-)
Tea making
Yesterday, I sent out a link to my l o n g how to email to weblog. I wish it wasn't so long. To email to your site, you just need to do that, email to your site. That's pretty simple.
But, with all these [switches] we can do so much more! I do a lot of my personal blogging, via my mobile phone. Since I take pictures and video with it it seems easier, certainly faster to do it directly from that machine. And I can do it quite quickly! But I also need more control, as I post directly to my front page, sometimes from the beach, the river, sometimes from up a mountain. I'm doing this now. You too will be doing this soon :-)
This type of blogging is going to increase. Phones will become even more powerful, for instance the Nokia N95, or the iPhone.
So, I'm sorry the how to is long, it's very detailed. But pause for a moment and consider the British Standard for making a cup of tea. BS 6008 costs £24. It's been replaced by ISO 3103. The Guardian has a take on it.
Here's the real thing, an 11 page PDF.
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But, with all these [switches] we can do so much more! I do a lot of my personal blogging, via my mobile phone. Since I take pictures and video with it it seems easier, certainly faster to do it directly from that machine. And I can do it quite quickly! But I also need more control, as I post directly to my front page, sometimes from the beach, the river, sometimes from up a mountain. I'm doing this now. You too will be doing this soon :-)
This type of blogging is going to increase. Phones will become even more powerful, for instance the Nokia N95, or the iPhone.
So, I'm sorry the how to is long, it's very detailed. But pause for a moment and consider the British Standard for making a cup of tea. BS 6008 costs £24. It's been replaced by ISO 3103. The Guardian has a take on it.
Here's the real thing, an 11 page PDF.
Expert email to blog
Finally, I've cleaned up the how to for the email to weblog interface. It was a feature, now it's an interface.
Now, you can easily (I hope) figure out what else you can do with the interface, that is, if you're using it already. If you're not call me, or mail me. If you want a site like this call me or mail me.
Check out the complex layouts. The best, most simple, is my today's post, Two days up The Wrekin. All you need to is add [h149] to the subject line and make one image bigger by adding [450] to its file name. Easy.
Now, you can easily (I hope) figure out what else you can do with the interface, that is, if you're using it already. If you're not call me, or mail me. If you want a site like this call me or mail me.
;newWindow.focus())
Check out the complex layouts. The best, most simple, is my today's post, Two days up The Wrekin. All you need to is add [h149] to the subject line and make one image bigger by adding [450] to its file name. Easy.
Creating PDFs
Here's a tip that I just emailed one customer, Kersey Primary in Suffolk. She wants to create a PDF of her school brochure which is a Word doc.
I'm not sure with Word, I don't have it, I believe there may be an export function to export as a pdf.
Regardless, this is the other way, the way that I use, and have used for years. You need to download this PrimoPDF
Once installed, it will add another printer to your list. Then, you just print your brochure, to that printer. Of course it won't actually print, but it will save it, in the primopdf folder as a pdf. Simple. You can use it in every application, too. Cool :-)
I'm not sure with Word, I don't have it, I believe there may be an export function to export as a pdf.
Regardless, this is the other way, the way that I use, and have used for years. You need to download this PrimoPDF
Once installed, it will add another printer to your list. Then, you just print your brochure, to that printer. Of course it won't actually print, but it will save it, in the primopdf folder as a pdf. Simple. You can use it in every application, too. Cool :-)
Stats and damned stats
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Busy behind these scenes—working on getting accurate stats for each site.In the spirit of 'eating my own dog food' I wanted to know how many hits there are going to a particular site. I wanted to remove the search engine bots, which can be extremely high, the images and the other rubbish that throws out this type of stats.
So, we'll be able to see, on a site by site basis, what traffic you've been getting over the past months. You'll be able to see how much Mbytes you've shovelled out (OK, perhaps that's only of interest to me), how many monthly hits to your RSS feed(s), how many unique IP addresses have visited you too (which is of big interest to advertisers).
Still working on the data, and crunching through years of logs... Coming soon.
More email interface
The email two weblog interface is growing, again. Now, you can email into your discussion group or to a story (as well as the normal news items).
Want to create a new page? Perhaps you want to show students work, but didn't want it on the front page. Perhaps, there's some building work, or you want to create a history of your school... In all these cases, I'd always put them on the front page, but some schools don't like this and want them deeper inside.
Now, all you need do is send your email with the switch [story] in the subject line. Later, you'll probably want to put the story in the site structure so it becomes part of the little green folders. Just edit the story and add the path to the yellow admin box.
What if you want to use your discussion group more, want to email a message into the site specifically for discussion? Perhaps you want to use your site as an adjunct to a mailing list. (The bulletins feature is perfect for informing all that a new 'something' is on the site and ready for discussion.)
Just add [dg] to the subject line.
Want all email into your site to go in as a story or discussion group message? There's a new preference on the Editors only: ==> Prefs ==> Email-to-weblog that allows the setting of the default position of all your emails.
Pick discussion group, and ALL emails will be places into your discussion group, same with stories. Leave it as it is for it to remain as news items.
If you want to override this setting, just add the switch to the subject line of your email.
[newsitem]
[story]
[dg]
For more switches see the long and growing how tos.
So, a good subject line maybe [xl] The buzzing of the bees [[notices school trips]] [newsitem] [nc]
Or, [xs] The buzzing of the bees [story] [nc]
Remember, you needn't add anything to the subject line... It will always become a news item (if you've not changed the Prefs) and give you 200 wide thumbnails. You can always edit the captions and alter the sizes of the thumbnails later, as well as picking which department the news item ends up in.
Want to create a new page? Perhaps you want to show students work, but didn't want it on the front page. Perhaps, there's some building work, or you want to create a history of your school... In all these cases, I'd always put them on the front page, but some schools don't like this and want them deeper inside.
Now, all you need do is send your email with the switch [story] in the subject line. Later, you'll probably want to put the story in the site structure so it becomes part of the little green folders. Just edit the story and add the path to the yellow admin box.
What if you want to use your discussion group more, want to email a message into the site specifically for discussion? Perhaps you want to use your site as an adjunct to a mailing list. (The bulletins feature is perfect for informing all that a new 'something' is on the site and ready for discussion.)
Just add [dg] to the subject line.
Want all email into your site to go in as a story or discussion group message? There's a new preference on the Editors only: ==> Prefs ==> Email-to-weblog that allows the setting of the default position of all your emails.
Pick discussion group, and ALL emails will be places into your discussion group, same with stories. Leave it as it is for it to remain as news items.
If you want to override this setting, just add the switch to the subject line of your email.
[newsitem]
[story]
[dg]
For more switches see the long and growing how tos.
So, a good subject line maybe [xl] The buzzing of the bees [[notices school trips]] [newsitem] [nc]
Or, [xs] The buzzing of the bees [story] [nc]
Remember, you needn't add anything to the subject line... It will always become a news item (if you've not changed the Prefs) and give you 200 wide thumbnails. You can always edit the captions and alter the sizes of the thumbnails later, as well as picking which department the news item ends up in.
Keep clean
BBC: Google searches web's dark side: "Drive-by downloads are an increasingly common way to infect a computer or steal sensitive information."
My advice? Don't go to these places, if you do you should have a malware/spyware detector. My current fav is SpyWare Doctor but there are plenty to chose from.