My last Vaughantown slide show consisted mainly of people. I did intend to make one of the scenery later, but, with one thing and another, I never got around to it. So, on this latest ones, I’ve put a few scenery shots in as well as ones of the participants.

As last time, if any participant wants a copy of a picture they like, and can’t download it, drop me an email (for a quicker response, use the address Vaughantown gave you, rather than the one you’ll find here) quoting the serial number and I’ll try and sort you out.

The video will take a little longer. I have extensive footage I took in France to edit first, but I’ll try to get something up before Christmas … even if it’s only Jerry singing ‘One Ton Tomato’ to the tune of ‘Guantanamera’!

ces_244_06

[slideshare id=645393&doc=ces24406slideshare-1223507962888374-9&w=425]

So recently I had to make a PowerPoint presentation and I was looking at the effects and transitions in PowerPoint and I noticed that most of them were either boring or just plain out cheesy. So I know that apple's Keynote is awesome but I don't have a Mac, so I did a little research and discovered a neat little web app called SlideRocket. SlideRocket is a app that makes you pretty cool presentations and the transitions and effects are something like in Keynote. SlideRocket allows you to publish your slide show onto the web which allows you to see what others think of your work.

SlideRocket also allows you to collaborate your presentations with colleagues or friends. But I'm guessing that half of you who are reading this must be wondering if you can import from PowerPoint and the answer is yes. But the effects and transitions from PowerPoint don't work in SlideRocket yet, but I'm sure there working on it since there still in beta. SlideRocket also has a offline player so if where your going to present somewhere with no internet or the internet is slow. But what my favorite part is that this app is free to use all you have to do is register. SlideRocket said that in the future there planning on charging people for better packages of SlideRocket but they also said that they will have a free edition that doesn't contain all the nice goodies. So go to SlideRocket.com and enjoy.

Como exemplo, uma apresentação sobre Ferramentas de Comunicação em Rede, feita por mim:

http://www.slideburner.com/slideshow/1618

Aproveitando as sugestões do Professor Stein, existem alguns programas, como o Picton, que produzem quadrinhos, com formas padrão (cenário e personagens "pré-montados", podendo ser modificados a gosto do usuário), que possibilitam até quem nunca levou jeito pra desenhista (como eu) criar uma tira de quadrinhos...

This morning was a fun trip to our local McDonald's.

Matthew thinks he is now big enough to go alone down the "big boy" slides.

He slid down after I took this picture, backwards on his belly.  He loved it and repeated it over and over again.

After tiring slide rides, he enjoys taking control over his own bag and eats everything.  He holds nothing back.

Pierce was too busy playing with "friends" to let me take his picture.  He and his "friends" kept hiding at the very top where they could not be seen.  It scares me when they are up there all alone.  You may wonder what 3 and 4 year olds could do up in a slide at McDonald's.  The answer...ALOT!

He wanted to show me his new toy when we were in the car, he was very proud of it.

Question???  Why are the treats at McDonald's a "must have", but when we get home they become forgotten?  I just don't get it.

Matthew is showing off his talent again.  He loves to have his leg off somewhere.  Of Course, I gave in and gave him his bag.  Notice the french fry on the window.  I have no idea how it stayed there.  He would play with it and take it off and on the window the entire way home.  He never ate it.  Weird.

Pierce was actually quiet today.  He only took a 30 minute nap.  He isn't feeling very well and is running a low grade fever.  Poor thing. :(

This picture of Chica explains they way we all feel in my house tonight, exhausted!

You can start from scratch or base it on an existing PowerPoint presentation.

"SlideRocket allows you to track your presentations and gives you access to some extensive metrics. These metrics allow you to see who is viewing your presentation, where they viewed it, who they’ve shared it with, which slides they looked at and for how long."

Free online service.

4-kursusgang-digital-interaktion-efteraret-2007

It's exhausting.

BUT it's all worth it. There's not a single thing we do that we don't see benefits from. AND I'd like to make very clear, there's not a single thing we do that he doesn't enjoy. We wouldn't do the therapy if he didn't like it, regardless of any potential benefits.

Because we're so busy, I made a decision that during school holiday periods when there's no early intervention and horseriding, that we would do NO therapy, NO appointments, NOTHING.

So what do we do? We hang out. Some days the boys sit around in their pyjamas until lunchtime watching ABC Kids on TV while I either get stuff done or catch up on emails, with friends on the phone or (as often happens) sit with them and enjoy the fun of Macca Pacca, Upsy Daisy, B1 and B2, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Caillou, Postman Pat, Justine Clarke and Rhys Muldoon on Play School etc etc. It's fun. Even more so now that BC loves to give me a running commentary on everything that's happening. I can't get enough of hearing him speak. Every little word is a mini miracle to me. The Little Bean meanwhile, just wants to dance. So he dances at any sign of a song. Otherwise he's loving driving our little Postman Pat van all around the loungeroom.

In case you're getting ready to report me as an unfit parent, of course it's not all about sitting in front of the TV. Even for hardened TV viewers like my kids, a few hours of TV at a time is definitely more than enough. We've been doing lots of playing as well - puzzles naturally, playdough, painting, building blocks etc.

Out of the house, we've spent some of the time visiting friends and favourite places (we love the Museum!). BUT MOST OF ALL we spend time at our local park.

We are very lucky to have a very big park near our house complete with wide open spaces for playing ball and flying kites, a duck pond (huge favourite with animal loving Little Bean) and TWO playgrounds to choose from.

I love both these playgrounds and I love taking my boys there. I love it even more these days now that they can play together - sit on opposite ends of the see saw, swing side by side, take it in turns to drive the 'car'. It's so calming to watch them play together.

And I've realised, visits to the park are akin to even the very best of the physical therapy for a little guy like BC.

A year ago, I would hold him from behind as he 'climbed' up the rope ladder to the top of the slide. NOW he can do this virtually on his own. I am still behind him, just in case, but he has mastered the skills for the most part. He just can't right himself if he loses his balance. But he's working on it. And as for going down the slide, the months and months he worked on bringing his feet out in front of his body so he could go down the slide has FINALLY paid off and he can now do this on his own.

6 months ago, he needed to sit in the half shell swing, now he can sit, unassisted in the 'big kid' swing. We don't go too high up (despite his demands!) but considering he doesn't have the balance to stand unassisted for more than 10 seconds, I find it amazing that he can stay seated while in a swing in motion.

There are more things I could share, but I think you get the idea. The park is just a great place for him to be.

There's still a lot more to 'master' in the playground. There's the flying fox he wants to be able to do on his own. There's the regular ladder that he wants to do on his own. And I still carry in my heart the possibility that one day he'll be able to walk around the park on his own, rather than with his walking frame, getting bits of tan bark stuck against the wheels and stopping him from moving forward.

There's also dealing with other kids in the playground. I see that kids fall into a few different groups. There are some that try to help him (even when he's not looking for help!), those that get frustrated by his slow movements (especially those waiting turns at the top of the slide) and then those that are fascinated by his walker and slow movements almost to the to point where they are more interested in watching him than playing. It's interesting.

BC copes pretty well with most of these variables, but I just can't wait for the day that there's none of these variables and he's just seen as another kid in the park.

I could go on to talk about accessibility in parks and playgrounds for the disabled, but that would be another WHOLE LONG post.

And I don't have time for that right now, because it's nearly the end of the school holidays and we're off to the park ;-).

A slide is when you take your finger and drag a whole half or not, in some cases, perhaps, in several cases, identifying the sound of an increasingly high note. Slides are commonly used in blues and rock. Not to be confused with a simple slip of the finger, slide guitar is a different form of a slide guitar metal which is carried by hand and used to play the melody of lead. Slide guitar can produce a very different and it is common in the blues and rock.

A whammy bar is another form of guitar players can make a single sound interesting. A whammy bar, or tremolo bar, the ground drops a note and can be used to create this "dive bomb" sound that is so common in many guitar solos in music today.

[slideshare id=625988&doc=ces-24405slideshare-1222744684176913-9&w=425]

Zend Developer Zone has just released the slides from the 200 end Conference. A lot of good stuff incluinding the one with PHP PDO that can be very ususefull for the PHP5 Zend Exam.

Check it out: ZendCon 08 Slides

[slideshare id=623712&doc=thedangersofplasticbags-1222656663459471-9&w=425]

Slideshow transcript

Slide 1: Data released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency shows that somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. National Geographic News September 2, 2003

Slide 2: Less than 1% of bags are recycled. It cost more to recycle a bag than to produce a new one. - Christian Science Monitor News Paper

Slide 3: “There's harsh economics behind bag recycling: It costs $4,000 to process and recycle 1 ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold on the commodities market for $32” - Jared Blumenfeld (Director of San Francisco's Department of the Environment)

Slide 4: Then… Where Do They Go?

Slide 5: A study in 1975, showed oceangoing vessels together dumped 8 million pounds of plastic annually. The real reason that the world's landfills weren't overflowing with plastic was because most of it ended up in an ocean-fill - U.S. National Academy of Sciences

Slide 6: Bags get blown around…

Slide 7: …to different parts of our lands

Slide 8: …and to our seas, lakes and rivers.

Slide 9: Bags find their way into the sea via drains and sewage pipes - CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007

Slide 10: Plastic bags have been found floating north of the Arctic Circle near Spitzbergen, and as far south as the Falkland Islands - British Antarctic Survey

Slide 11: Plastic bags account for over 10 percent of the debris washed up on the U.S. coastline - National Marine Debris Monitoring Program

Slide 12: Plastic bags photodegrade: Over time they break down into smaller, more toxic petro-polymers - CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007

Slide 13: which eventually contaminate soils and waterways - CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007

Slide 14: As a consequence microscopic particles can enter the food chain - CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007

Slide 15: The effect on wildlife can be catastrophic - World Wildlife Fund Report 2005

Slide 16: Birds become terminally entangled - World Wildlife Fund Report 2005

Slide 18: Nearly 200 different species of sea life including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die due to plastic bags - World Wildlife Fund Report 2005

Slide 19: They die after ingesting plastic bags which they mistake for food - World Wildlife Fund Report 2005

Slide 20: So… What do we do?

Slide 21: If we use a cloth bag, we can save 6 bags a week

Slide 22: That's 24 bags a month

Slide 23: That's 288 bags a year

Slide 24: That's 22,176 bags in an average life time

Slide 25: If just 1 out of 5 people in our country did this we would save 1,330,560,000,000 bags over our life time

Slide 26: Bangladesh has banned plastic bags - MSNBC.com March 8, 2007

Slide 27: China has banned free plastic bags - CNN.com/asia January 9, 2008

Slide 28: Ireland took the lead in Europe, taxing plastic bags in 2002 and have now reduced plastic bag consumption by 90% - BBC News August 20, 2002

Slide 29: In 2005 Rwanda banned plastic bags - Associated Press

Slide 30: Israel, Canada, western India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan, and Singapore have also banned or are moving toward banning the plastic bag - PlanetSave.com February 16, 2008

Slide 31: On March 27th 2007, San Francisco becomes first U.S. city to ban plastic bags - NPR.org (National Public Radio)

Slide 32: Oakland and Boston are considering a ban - The Boston Globe May 20, 2007

Slide 33: Plastic shopping bags are made from polyethylene: a thermoplastic made from oil - CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007

Slide 34: Reducing plastic bags will decrease foreign oil dependency

Slide 35: China will save 37 million barrels of oil each year due to their ban of free plastic bags - CNN.com/asia January 9, 2008

Slide 36: It is possible...

What is it?

Slideshare is a community for sharing presentations.  From their about page:

SlideShare is the best way to get your slides out there on the web, so your ideas can be found and shared by a wide audience. Do you want to get the word out about your product or service? Do you want your slides to reach people who could not make it to your talk? Are you a teacher looking to share your lesson plans? It only takes a moment - start uploading now, and let your slides do the talking!

Some of the things you can do on SlideShare

- Embed slideshows into your own blog or website.
- Share slideshows publicly or privately. There are several ways to share privately.
- Synch audio to your slides.
- Market your own event on slideshare.
- Join groups to connect with SlideShare members who share your interests
- Download the original PowerPoint / Pdf file

How does it work?

You can view and use presentations without registering for Slideshare, but you will need to register in order to upload any of your own presentations.  Basic registration is Moderate (email, username, password, gender)m, but Slideshare also views itself as a social network, so they encourage you to create a more detailed profile and invite your friends.  Fortunately, you don't need to do all that if you don't want to.

Once you've registered, uploading a Powerpoint presentation, for example, is quite easy.  You just choose the "Upload" button, find your presentation on your computer, and send it off.  Slideshare takes a few minutes to fully load the presentation into their slideshow format - the few I did took around 3-5 minutes, but I was multitasking and not paying close attention, so it might have been quicker or slower.  You can upload Powerpoint, Open Office, or PDF formats.  As you're uploading a presentation, you can choose from variety of privacy settings - private, public, or by invitation, and whether you allow downloads - as well as enter in tags and other metadata, and licensing options.  Once your presentation has been converted, you can see it online.

The presentation in Slideshare has a very Youtube feel to it - the presentation is front and center, with the description and sharing options in the right column, and user comments below.  The sharing options are particularly nice - you can use a permalink, or embed (and I'm thrilled they have a Wordpress friendly version!), email it, or post to a variety of social sites such as del.icio.us, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

I spent a little time browsing through the available presentations.  As you might imagine, there are a number tagged "library" so I thought I'd share one of them.[slideshare id=23351&doc=flying-librarians-of-oz-whats-all-the-fuss-about-second-life-and-whats-it-got-to-do-with-libraries-24600&w=425]

Slideshare offers a variety of community options - creating or joining groups, hosting events or slidecast presentations which sync an audio file MP3 with your presentation.  Additionally, there are the aforementioned friends and creating a social profile for networking and such.

Possible Library Uses

Well, I've already demonstrated Slideshare's usefulness this week in uploading slides from Tuesday's Tech Talk presentation.  I just can't emphasize enough how happy I am that it is compatible with Wordpress!  I think this is the absolutely easiest way I've seen to share powerpoint presentations with a variety of people - the embedded widget is very attractive and intuitive.

More ambitious librarians could have a profile and perhaps create a group with weekly presentations and such - though I doubt you'd talk your patrons into joining it.  If they're like me, they are already burned out on making profiles on social websites.  But they might be into it.

Any other suggestions?

Reviews

• Techcrunch
• Digital Inspiration
• Gantico.com
• Lifehacker