Bruce's Blog

Where does all the money for schools go?

Bruce — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:02:42 -1300

I occasionally break down and have to write about something off-topic that is wearing on my mind. One such thing is school funding, and that is all over the news lately. So, quick post – click the back-button now if you were hoping for something more typical on my blog.

So the Michigan budget woes have brought up the issue of school funding again – the Governor wants to cut $100-$200 from the per student payout to try to balance the budget. This would bring the minimum per-student payout down to ~$7,300 with the average per-student rate in the state going down to between $8,000-$9,500. Some in the state are worried that this will not be enough to provide an adequate education for the kids in the state. Everyone seems to be ready to say what they would cut first if money got tight – usually hot-button areas like bus transportation, after-school programs, or even football! But I haven’t seen anyone explain what it is they do with the money they do get. Someone has got to know this – please help me out here.

Let me break this down to start the discussion. In order to do this math I am going to try to use approximate numbers – I’ll try to use a lower/fair number to keep the discussion fair. Let’s say that students in Michigan get $8,000 each per year for school.

That’s sounds like a decent amount to get an education. It isn’t a fortune but it has potential. Especially if you match it with some other students in a classroom. When I was in school we had about 30 kids in a classroom 5x6 grid of desks – this is too many. Let’s say you had a classroom of 28 students in it, how much money would we have then?

Nice jump – up to $224,000 – nearing a quarter million dollars for a classroom of students. Now we are talking. Let’s say we had a school then with two classrooms per grade K-6. This is a nice sized school, but not overly big – again, like I remember from growing up. How much money would we have then? Well that is 14 classrooms so ……

OK, now we are talking - $3.126 million dollars. Almost took out my computer copying and pasting that many virtual $1000 bills.

So our hypothetical school with 392 kids has a nice budget to work with for the year (each year). So what do we do with this money – that is what I am trying to figure out.

Let’s pay the staff first – they are the ones that do the work (and many/most do a great job – that is totally not the point of this post).

Staff

Let’s build a nice staff

14 Teachers
1 Principal
1 Secretary
1 Maintenance Person
1 Nurse
1 Librarian
1 Computer Guy

Again, I said they do a great job – let’s give them a $100,000 package every year for salary and benefits. Anyone who tells you teachers work a short day and a short year have probably never known any real teachers. I can tell you from experience that they put in as many hours or more as people who are on the clock year-round.

So that is $2,000,000 just in salaries.

That takes our budget down to 1.126 million dollars.

School Building

We also want a great building. Let’s build a $4,000,000 building with a 30-year mortgage. That is about $20,000/month for the loan or $240,000/year. If you argue that this is too little or miscalculated, also please realize that school districts typically pass a millage (additional taxes) to pay for facilities which are over-and-above the per-student payout every year.

Budget now at $886,000

Utilities

We have to heat and light the place and keep the computers running. Let’s budget $5,000/month or $60,000 a year for electricity. The nice thing about schools is that they do get a nice rate on public utilities so this money will go a long way.

Budget down to $826,000

What’s Left – Stuff for the Students

So here then is my problem. We are left with $826,000 per school or about $2,100 per student after we’ve built the school, kept it lit and heated, and paid all the paid staff (lots of volunteers in there as well).

Even if you bought every kid a netbook computer every year ($400) and bought all new textbooks every year ($600) you would still have $1,100 per student left. That buys a lot of paper, pencils, science experiments, sports equipment, etc.

The Point

My main point here is that we are struggling as a state with unemployment and the economy – less people paying taxes on less salaries. Everyone is cutting back. All other government programs are cutting budgets. Schools should be able to do the same without that big of a deal.

To get right down to it – Charter schools have 50% the budget of public schools, private schools 15-30%, and homeschools are on their own – and all of these options continue to produce results.

Let’s ride this economic crisis out together and wait for the day when things swing back upward, without bemoaning the small sacrifices that everyone needs to make right now.

Success in drying out waterlogged Laptop

Bruce — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:32:56 -1300

Here’s a not-so-hypothetical situation – one night when 15 or so kids are running around the house you happen to leave your laptop in a very public location near where the Wii games are underway. Inevitably the laptop gets used as a coaster and soon after the cup empties over the laptop. The top of the laptop gets wiped clean (according to alleged eye-witness testimony), but, hours later, when you pick up the laptop unknowingly, water literally pours from the openings for the fan. Taking out the battery and DVD drive confirms the worst – everything is at least damp – probably as wet as you could get without submersion.

Don’t Panic. I’ve been using Windows 7 Hibernate mode lately instead of Sleep so the machine should be powered down. Damage from water/coffee/liquid is usually from an electrical short being caused in the system – no power, no short. Remove the battery so no power is supplied to the unit. Take the (dripping) laptop into the laundry room and put it on a towel to sop up as much as possible. Then proceed to remove all of the user-serviceable panels and parts as possible. I didn’t say this would be easy.

Removed the panels for the hard drive, memory, wireless card (all with water drops on them), then removed the components (i.e. hard drive, memory, card, etc.). I Also removed the keyboard, which pretty much concludes all the parts that are designed for regular humans to add/update/replace. Lastly, I did pull out the little “watch battery” on the main board which was exposed to further let air get in there and remove another source of power. Looks like the screen is sealed really well and isn’t showing any fog or moisture – hope for the best.

Put all the bits and pieces on a new dry towel and put a fan on the lot for a full 48 hours.

Time of Reckoning: reassemble all the pieces (only 3 lose screws from the keyboard). Attach the battery, and start it up (mentally remembering the fire extinguisher is about 6 feet away). It makes the typical sounds on start up, but has a weird error I haven’t seen. The CMOS/BIOS values are “corrupted” (doesn’t sound good) but [F5] will enable the default values if I would like – sure. Windows 7 hibernate/resume starts and I am starting to be cautiously optimistic. Machine thinks it is January 2001 but a quick settings change corrects that.

Success.

One other thing worth noting is that my initial lack of panic, even though I had a user group presentation scheduled for the next day and all my stuff was on the laptop, was because I had live copies of everything “in the cloud” using Dropbox and Live Mesh (trying them both out for now – like the Dropbox iPhone app feature).

Final note, from past dry-outs of cell phones, if the laptop screen was foggy/wet a way to remove water from a mostly-sealed system is difficult, but not impossible. If you can carefully package the laptop and introduce it into an environment with some ultra-absorbent material (e.g. instant rice, cat litter) and seal it up, the resulting dry air will pull moisture quite effectively out of just about anything.

Why I am voting for Nessie

Bruce — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:37:03 -1300

My family has had a great time at ArtPrize these last few weeks visiting as many of the different venues and artists as possible. The final vote is upon us this week and I feel strongly enough about one of the top 10 that I am going to make my intended vote public and let others know why.

First, full disclosure, I am a full 50% Scottish, have been to Loch Ness, and have seriously considered the matter of whether there is or has been a Plesiosaurish orphan in the deep waters (not fully decided either way). Beyond this heritage, I have no other connections with the artists themselves or any of the others or the contest.

Let me list my Top 5 reasons that I think "Nessie on the Grand" tops the Top 10 for ArtPrize.

Let me start by saying my enthusiasm for Nessie in no way minimizes my respect for the other artists in the contest. In my mind, anyone why was able to pull a piece together and find a venue to show it off, is already a winner. Of the amazing artists in the Top 10, I have seen all but 2 and feel badly that I did not have more time planned to see them all.

The first reason I think Nessie should win is the quality and creativity of the piece - it is very well done. My first thought when seeing the water worm for the first time was that it looked like an Egyptian styled version or something out of Stargate. It is described as "art deco" style, but I just thought it was a nice fresh take on the Loch Ness monster that was updated and very striking.

Second, the sheer size of Nessie is impressive - she is huge! Would the Calder or Da Vinci's Horse be as spectacular if they weren't bigger than life? When ArtPrize was announced I wondered if anyone would create a piece that would not be restricted by the downtown venues, but actually take advantage of one of the venues downtown. Many artists did this, but Nessie uses one of the greatest features of downtown - the river itself - and makes that part of the art. Brilliant.

Third, I like the fact that Nessie's installation is in a venue that is fully public, and would necessarily be public if it were permanently installed. One of the greatest aspects of ArtPrize is that is brought art to the public. Many of the pieces at ArtPrize will go behind closed doors after the competition. If Nessie were to find a permanent home it would need to be outdoors in a river/lake somewhere for people to enjoy. I also like the fact that the artists and team blogged and collected video of key moments of the process, and also added social media like Facebook to add a public community aspect to the project.

Fourth, there is no doubt that Nessie has broad audience appeal across ages and cultures. A big part of my excitement over the piece was the response from my children when they saw it. It is impressive, fun, exciting, and doesn't depend on a particular age, culture, or background to appreciate.

Lastly, Nessie was implemented by a group of people who are local to the area. The top four of my reasons would be reasons enough for me, but the fact that the artists responsible are local, outgoing, and very community focused just seals the deal in my mind. I wouldn't want artists to think that you had to be from the area to win this wonderful contest. But I would want people to know that, all other things being equal, ties goes to the person or group that can take the prize and encourage others in the area to get out, be creative, and bring their best works forward.

Brother Color Laser Printer HL-4040CDN

Bruce — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:43:12 -1300

So I have been looking at printers for home since my old HP multifunction printer died in the spring, and used some birthday money and a great sale at OfficeMax to get a new one. I decided on a color laser printer, the Brother HL-4040CDN.

Now you might be thinking “color laser printer” isn’t that overkill and/or really expensive. I first used a color laser printer in the mid-90s – the HP Color Laser Printer. It was terribly slow, needed a lot of maintenance, cost a ton to buy (close to $10,000) and the supplies were prohibitively expensive (~1.50/page). Needless to say this was not for home/personal use. Today this color laser printer is $279 and costs far less than an ink jet printer to operate, oh and it prints about 20 pages per minute.

I’ve had it less than a week now, so this is more about first impressions than a review/recommendation.

My requirements

What I need is something that I can print to every day, and that my family can print to every day, without having to worry about the correct paper being installed, the expensive photo ink being installed, and with less concern about the cost per page to print.

I am teaching some classes now, so I may need to print 20-40 pages on the way out the door, and copies of web pages and articles on the fly. The kids are writing a number of reports each week and similarly need to be able to print before taking off for the day or night.

In this, color is actually not a requirement, but is very nice to have. The problem with ink jet printers and color is that they are so expensive to run, and if you print a big enough image, they still come out wet and need to set a while before using.

Pros

XP, Vista and Windows 7 drivers – local and network: This is very important for us because the kids have XP netbook computers, we have one Vista laptop, and my main machine is now Windows 7. XP and Vista drivers came on the disk, and Windows Update found Windows 7 drivers immediately (which was very nice). So now everyone is set up to print to the printer from wherever they are on the network.
Speed – 20 ppm, black and white or color. It might be just me, but I end up printing things right as I exit the door going somewhere. It is nice to know that I can do this and have the printouts ready by the time I get my shoes on.
High duty cycle – this is a workgroup/office class machine and is duty rated for thousands of pages per month. This is well more than we will use, but it is good to know.
Large sheet capacity (250). The bottom third of this unit is just a paper tray that can hold 250 pages – this is nice for big print jobs or just not to have to worry about it.
Long print life. The standard toner cartridges last from 2,500-1,500 pages, and the high capacity carts last 4,000-5,000 pages. Again, it seems like with the ink jet I am always changing carts and paper.
Duplex – this was not a requirement, but is very nice. Duplex means that I can print on both sides of a sheet of paper automatically. This saves paper, and is great for printing workbooks on 3-hole paper. Then I can take the sheets and bind them directly with the facing pages set up correctly.

Cons

Size, weight – huge. Even when the Office Max guy de-boxed the thing with me it barely fit in my car. This thing is a monster and the box it comes in could be a kids play house. In case you think I am exaggerating, the carton size is 22.4" x 24.6" x 22.2" and weighs 74lbs. The unit alone is 16.5" x 18.7" x 12.5" and weighs 65lbs.

Ethernet, but no wifi. Fortunately where I was going to put the printer was next to a network hub, but others may need to put it somewhere unwired. It should be a feature that could be added, but I don’t see that anywhere.
Features I won’t use, like direct USB printing of PDF, Jpeg, PictBridge. For the price and added tech to support these rather useless features I would have rather had WiFi.
Brother is not a known brand to me. Nothing really good or bad here, it is just a brand I have never dealt with.

Impressions

Overall I am really happy with the printer so far and will follow up in a few months with a longer term review. The kids used it over the weekend for different research projects and I am ready for class this week already. So far so good.

Fearless by Max Lucado

Bruce — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:13:09 -1300

The last book on the Summer 2009 reading list was Fearless by Max Lucado. This book was very timely for me and was a nice break from technical and fiction books. Fearless is a book by author and pastor Max Lucado out of San Antonio which attempts (and succeeds in my opinion) to counter all the negativity and spirit of fear in seemingly all the headlines today.

What's to be afraid of? This week kids are going back to school (scary to start with), and they'll have to face H1N1 swine flu. There is political controversy on the first day with a live speech being presented by the president. Michigan has 15% unemployment so one or two kids at the bus stop has a parent that is looking for a job. A look at the headlines just for today will show issues on Health Care, Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Recession, Bankruptcy, Climate Change, Car Accidents, Nuclear Power, Infidelity, Death, Fallen Leaders, Vaccine Issues, Truck Bomb, Texas Execution, Plane Hijacked in Mexico, and more - but there is a cool new iPod nano (sigh).

I started reading Fearless with high expectations, having really enjoyed past books by Lucado, and was really surprised - in a good way. This is one of the rare books that I read, and then want to read again with someone else or with a group of people and discuss over coffee and maybe a donut. It may be one of the best books he has written, and I already know a few people who I want to get a copy of the book.

Fearless is really a book about overcoming fear. Fear is not the spirit that we are supposed to have, but instead one of power, love and self-control. Lucado explains that fear comes about as we perceive a loss of control in our lives. It is faith, not fear, that should be our reaction when these challenges come.

Lucado uses an amazing variety of styles in the book to illustrate very common fears among us - fears like not mattering to people, protecting your kids, challenges, violence, death, and others. In one chapter he uses a "Dr. Seussian" style poem to tell the story of the people of "Stiltsville". In another chapter he will tell the true story, with detail and insight that few authors can accomplish, of his experience flying in an F-16 on maneuvers. Some of the ideas are common sense such as focusing on today, not worrying about yesterday or tomorrow - do the next thing. He takes an amusing tour through "Worst Case Scenarios" (i.e. surviving an Octopus attack) but brings the reader back to focusing on faith, peace and hope instead of falling into fear and doubt.

Overall I was very pleased by reading Fearless and recommend checking it out or picking up a copy for a friend who needs a lift.

Programming for Today’s Kids

Bruce — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:56:41 -1300

Programming for Today’s Kids: Why NXT-G, Kodu, Scratch, Alice, Small Basic, KPL / Phrogram and others can reignite the imagination and understanding of technology for today’s kids.

As Kids growing up in the 70s and 80s, we did not have all the technical resources available to us as they do today. Computers were rare, under-powered, and very difficult to use. Hand-held calculators weren’t even widely available, no public Internet, 3 TV channels, etc., etc.

What we did have was an accessible programming language that came with most computers: BASIC. In fact, there wasn’t even much software that you could buy for your computer. You had to write your own, and the language and environment was built-in to the machine. A little later came LOGO, and even later came HyperCard for the Macintosh. So for a kid with access to a computer, and a little interest, motivation, and summer break, you could spend hours programming and creating basic games with text, graphics and even sound.

Ironically, with all the advances in 30 years we have largely lost the entry-level development environment that kids can experiment and get started with. Sure there are free tools for .NET, Java, PHP, etc. but they start at a much higher level and have so many commands and options that it is easy to get confused. What kids need is a “level 0” or “level 1” type environment that is limited but easy to use (and did I mention fun?).

Not every kid needs to learn to write complex programs. But a generation of kids growing up without even a basic knowledge of how computer programs are written make them unaware of how things work and end up victims or slaves of the very technology that is meant to help them.

So for the last 4-5 years I’ve been on an active search for current options for kids who are even mildly interested in programming. They need to be risk-free (i.e. kids can play around with them without damaging anything), fun (no kid-assembly language primers here), and have the ability to scale to average homes.

I have made no conclusions here, but I wanted to list the environments I am using and “tracking” currently. We started the “Bots on the Rock” robotics club in January 2008 and that has been doing well with kids 8-15. In just the last month I started using Kodu on the XBox 360 at home, and now on the PC with the idea of using that with the club as well. I am going to do a quick listing of what’s available, with more details to follow.

Kodu: Game Programming Lab (XBox 360, PC (in Beta)) – 400 XBox “points”

The latest item on my list is Kodu: Game Programming Lab from Microsoft Research. I put it first mainly because that is what I’ve been “talking” about on Twitter/Facebook which lead to this post (i.e. can’t explain all of this in 140 characters). Kodu is available today for the XBox 360 and and Academic version is in beta test for the PC for release in the near future. As of today I have the PC version running on my laptop and I will be working with that more over the weekend. We’ve been using the XBox 360 version for just under a month, and all of my kids really love playing with it and are making their own games – in fact they’d rather “play” Kodu than many of the other “real” games.

Kodu is difficult to explain in words, and really needs to be demoed – here is one of the better YouTube videos out there.

Basically all of the programming is done with an XBox controller (even on the PC) with a very intuitive series of “sensors” and “commands” (e.g. when I see a ball go towards it). It also controls a very robust scene generator which enables a huge variety of terrains and elements to be included in the games.

The recent update of Kodu on the XBox 360 allows for much easier sharing of games that you have created. You can even create multiplayer (local) games, and quickly learn about the headaches that come from multiplayer games on the same screen.

There are a whole series of posts that could be written just about this environment, but for now I’ll leave you with the links.

NXT-G: Lego Mindstorms (PC, Mac) – Included with LEGO Mindstorms Kit ($275)

NXT-G is the graphical programming environment that comes with the LEGO Mindstorms Robotics kits. The environment is a “click and drag” programming surface where programs are created by stacking and ordering blocks on the screen (much like building LEGO buildings, hmmm). Blocks are called “Move”, “Loop”, and have sensor blocks that correspond to the robotic sensors in the kit (e.g. touch sensor, ultrasonic (distance) sensor, sound, light, and now color in the 2.0 kit). The NXT-G application is actually an implementation of National Instruments LabVIEW graphical programming software which is used professionally by engineers and scientists. In fact, you can use LabVIEW to do some advanced things with the robots that NXT-G will not handle.

The Education version of the NXT-G kit is now up to version 2.0 and contains separate modules for doing data logging and support new sensors like the temperature sensors. In addition third party sensors can be added for specific needs – for example we added Compass and IRSeeker sensors from HiTechnic when we were doing our series with the robotics club on LEGO Soccer (i.e. needed to “find the ball” (bright IR source) and know “which way” was the opponent’s goal).

Dragging and dropping controls is quite easy for most students – in fact the biggest challenge continues to be slowing kids down and having them try to think through and plan out a solution instead of just barreling right into programming. Probably an ongoing struggle for many programmers out there.

Small Basic (PC) - Free

Small Basic came out of Microsoft’s DevLabs as a simple programming language for kids to get started with. It is unique among many of the rest in that it allows for the direct entering of programming code, whereas most of the others have gone to a graphical programming language. It also preserves a lot of the BASIC syntax (15 keywords) so it will be comfortable for many adults that are assisting and mentoring kids who are starting to program. It also means that the age range probably scoots up a few to perhaps 10-16.

The power of Small Basic comes in it’s simplicity (look at the tool bar compared to Visual Studio, Eclipse, or any other professional tool set). There is only so much you can do and experimentation is easy to get into and execute. Another part of the power comes from the .NET Framework. There are many libraries included (Flickr one is shown) and others are being developed. If there is something you want your Small Basic program to do, that it doesn’t to right now, develop a Class in your favorite .NET language and Small Basic will be able to access the functionality.

Scratch (PC, Mac) - Free

Scratch has been developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab as programming language for kids 8 and up.

Like Kodu, this is better demoed than described (pardon the music and volume level, but the later content is very helpful).

Many educators using it with a lot of materials freely available and ready to go. With the backing of the Media Lab and some key educators (and as it is free) this is a platform that is growing in general adoption and use. It is probably also in the 10-16 year age range and has many key features.

One of the other programs, besides BASIC, that I really miss is “Storybook Weaver” which enabled students to write stories with animated and multimedia features included. Scratch, and next Alice, offer a lot in the way of storytelling in addition to programming.

Alice (PC, Mac – Java) - Free

Alice is unique programming environment out of Carnegie Mellon in that allows creation and manipulation of custom 3D characters and objects – which is really cool. Creating 3D objects is hard but not impossible, and better tools are coming out all the time. There are freely available 3D models that are being created by the community for use by others in Alice.

I have not used Alice, but that is only because of a lack of time and resources and not because of any other reason. Here’s a video promoting Alice and showing many of its features.

Like Scratch there is a nice storytelling component in Alice which is currently called “Storytelling Alice” (soon to be “Looking Glass”). So whereas the Alice 2.0/3.0 environments themselves are better suited for a formal class in programming, a more informal and easy-to-use version for storytelling (and basic programming) is available.

Now strongly allied with Java, Alice is extensible via Java which makes many other possibilities available for more advanced porgrammers.

KPL / Phrogram (PC) - $35-$50 + more for additional libraries

Lastly, to be complete in this list I wanted to include the Kids Programming Language (KPL) which has been retired, but has resurfaced as Phrogram. The KPL effort was intended to create a simple programming language for kids that would allow for rich graphics capabilities and be extensible using the .NET Framework. Admittedly I have not used or tried using the product since it became Phrogram, so I can’t make any recommendations. On the surface it appears that the communities surrounding the other products are more active and current.

In Conclusion – there are no Conclusions

I am glad that the market for kids programming environments is heating up and that there may actually be competition instead of a big giant hole. I am actively using NXT-G on a regular basis and am really starting to like Kodu (more each time I use it). In considering a class or even formal curriculum for “next steps” I am watching Small Basic, Scratch, and Alice and expect to be using one or more of these in 2010.

Post Interesting Links to Blog 07/31/2009

Bruce — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:30:37 -1300

GR Social Marketing (grsm) on Twitter
tags: no_tag
- GRSM is tomorrow, 12pm @ the GRCF building. @spearia is presenting. Take some time, learn in the small groups after the presentation

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Post Interesting Links to Blog 07/30/2009

Bruce — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:30:49 -1300

Where’s Lou » Blog Archive » Spark output caching
Potential caching option for MVC
tags: MVC, ASP.NET, Caching

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Post Interesting Links to Blog 07/28/2009

Bruce — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:31:03 -1300

Free Samples!: :
tags: Clip, Art, Vector

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Kodu Review and First Impressions

Bruce — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:57:00 -1300

One of the other fortunate things we were able to spend some time on last week was Kodu for the XBox 360. Kodu is one of those things that is difficult to describe in words or even screen shots, and really needs to be experienced to understand. In a nutshell it is a programming environment and visual programming language that lets kids create fully functional games using just the XBox 360 controller.

So how complex or cool could these games really get with such a significant limitation?

In the end all three kids want to use Kodu more than play any other games or videos at the moment. And for them to use up their limited computer/game time on a programming environment is quite amazing.

The game works by adding programming commands using the XBox controller. They are set up in a “when-do” type format (i.e. and “if-then” or “condition-action”). So, for example, when-kodu-sees-apple do-move-towards-it or when-kodu-bumps-apple do-eat-it. Sounds strange, but ends up being really powerful when you get into it. Not only can the robots/actors in the environment have programs, but all the objects (stars, coins, castles, apples, balls, trees, etc.) have their own programs which can be cloned to make an army of autonomous elements.

The kids have created a few race, shoot-em-up, and Mario-style, games – be glad to share if anyone else gets going online. Check it out and let me know if you get going.

I applied on Microsoft Connect to try to get our Bots on the Rock robotics club into the beta for using the PC version – I’ll let you know if that works out.

Check out the Kodu Forums online for more information and community around this cool new environment.

Homemade Kubb Set Plans and Report

Bruce — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 04:32:00 -1300

I first saw the game Kubb [Wikipedia Link] [Kubbin Link] (pronounced k-oo-b) a few years ago and it caught my interest. My interpretation of the game is that it was invented many many years ago by the Vikings in the islands of Sweden. They had time on their hands between raids and needed something to do, sometimes in the middle of winter, sometimes in the middle of summer. They liked the outdoors and had to be mobile, so the game had to work with their lifestyle. All they really had to work with were a bunch of trees so they needed to make a game. Since their main skills were knocking down people with sticks and taking over towns/castles/kingdoms this became the basis for their game.

So they found one decently large tree (say 3.5” diameter – a 4x4 from dimensional lumber) and cut off a 12” piece. This would be the “king”. Find a slightly smaller tree (say 2 3/4” diameter – trimmed down 4x4) and cut off 10 pieces (5 per team) and we’ll call these “kubbs”. Now we need sticks to throw at them - let’s cut 6 pieces from an even smaller tree (1 1/4” to 1 3/4” diameter). Find a four stakes to mark off the playing area, and we’ve got a Kubb set.

Over the 4th of July weekend I saw a guy selling Kubb sets at a craft show for $45 a set. My first thought was to buy a set, but my second thought was about our new written budget and that wouldn’t work. I looked at the set closely and thought that it wouldn’t take too much effort to make one of these at home. When plans changed for camp this week, I thought it might be a fun activity for us to try to make a set at home. The result was quite successful.

Instructions

Here is a pic and a PDF of the basic instructions for what we did.

The first thing to remember is that Kubb sets vary quite a bit. Some use round/cylinder pieces, some use squared off pieces, and the sizes vary quite a bit. Sure there are the World Championship Rules if you want exact dimensions. But since they are in meters, cm and even mm, and my stores (and measuring tape) do not use metric, I used English measurements. My plans (above) are within 97% of the “official” rules and are probably much more practical for home use.

Wood

A word about which wood to use. Online and crafty sets come in pine, oak, cedar, ash and even more fancy woods. Pine is the easiest to find, cheapest, and easiest to cut and work with – this is what I picked. After playing a few games you will see that the Kubbs and sticks will get a few small dents and pick up some grass stains. For me this just shows some character and wearing of a fun game and doesn’t impact the play at all – a few “battle scars” make the game even more fun. If this would bug you, buy harder wood and finish with some polyurethane.

Getting Started

You can make a basic Kubb set with just the wood described in the plans and a miter saw / box. Just cut the King and Kubbs from the 4x4 and cut the dowels to size. You will have a fully usable and fun Kubb set then with about 20 cuts on the wood you bought home – done. You will need 4 stakes/sticks to mark the corners of the playing area, and you are off.

If you want to take it one more step, you can cut down the Kubbs so that they are 2 3/4” x 2 3/4” x 6”. This makes them a little “leaner” than the King. You’ll need a table saw to do this, and of course my simple one will not cut all the way through a 4x4. This ended up being the most work (and mess) of our whole project, and 3 1/2” x 3 1/2” x 6” Kubbs probably work just fine.

The final/finishing step is putting a quick crown on the King to make him look a little more important. This could easily be done with some paint or even a Sharpie (or skipped altogether). I cut a double-V on both faces of the top for a simple crown and a little v-shaped notch on each side for the “neck”.

We sanded the sides of the Kubbs and sticks as they are handled by the players (don’t want scratches or splinters). We have a bucket that they fit in nicely but I am looking for a canvas or drawstring back to store and transport the set.

Conclusions

In the end I am very happy with the result. We’ve played two games and it is quite fun. The rules sound a little complicated to start but after playing through two games we’ve all figured it out. If you search for “Kubb in sand” or even “Kubb in snow” you will actually find results. A fun, outdoor, 4-season game is rare and this is very useful (especially in Michigan). Let me know if you make your own set or think of other ways to customize your set.

Post Interesting Links to Blog 06/30/2009

Bruce — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:30:10 -1300

Dell Latitude 2100 Netbook Sold in More Than 500 US School Districts - Dell sees successful launch of Atom-based netbook - Softpedia
tags: 2100, netbook
Dell Latitude 2100 “kidbook” - Detailed First Impressions and Tips
Getting some good feedback on the Dell 2100 blog post - may need to write a second one with updates and more info.
tags: no_tag
Text Message (SMS) Polls and Voting, Audience Response System | Poll Everywhere
Interesting Ruby app to use Polls in presentations and other areas where audience can use cell phones, Twitter or the web to vote on active questions.
tags: no_tag
neccunplugged - home
Online from NECC for those of us who can't be there to see this exciting conference for those involved with Educational Technology
tags: no_tag
Sugar on a Stick - Sugar Labs
May be a way to try out the Sugar / XO OS on a netbook.
tags: no_tag
Diigo - Web Highlighter and Sticky Notes, Social Bookmarking and Annotation, Social Information Network! - Annotated
Interesting tool for finding and sharing links
tags: no_tag

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Dell Latitude 2100 “kidbook” - Detailed First Impressions and Tips

Bruce — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:51:00 -1300

Kidbook vs. Netbook

I wrote almost a year ago of how I’ve been looking for a netbook that would meet some basic requirements for use by kids for their daily work. There have been a lot of netbook models which are basically all the same specs, but none have really stood out as something that was designed and intended for kids, especially younger kids, to use on a daily basis. Enter the Dell Latitude 2100 “kidbook”. I’m calling it a kidbook because it adds some important features.

The 2100 is designed from the ground up for daily use in schools – it is not generally intended to be a consumer netbook. This means some important things. First, it amazingly comes with no promo/demo/annoyware installed. While this isn’t really a feature, it saves perhaps an hour or more of uninstalling to get up and running.

The unit feels solid, has a rubberized shell, and is somewhat ruggedized – perhaps not to warehouse/government standards, but it definitely feels sturdy. It immediately makes me think that this is what a “Little Tikes” or “Rubbermaid” laptop would look and act like. Also, the bottom of the unit has no access points for memory or drives, etc. In fact if you even remove the four screws on the access panel it will not come off – there are three more screw under the keyboard (see below) that need to be removed to access the hardware. This adds a nice level of security from interested eyes, but adds some complexity of adding memory, etc. Interestingly this also means that desktop spills could avoid damage as there are no access holes or vents on the bottom surface. The 6-cell battery option raises up the base even more for additional clearance.

The 2100 is a barebones and utility machine. It is not a tablet (though we did get the touch screen, see below), there is no thumb scanner, or firewire ports (3 USB). The keyboard is solid and nearly full sized, but there are no multimedia keys other than volume/mute controls. Did I mention there is no CD/DVD drive – typical for a netbook, but still something to get used to from desktops and laptops.

Finally the 2100 is very budget conscious – starting under $400, about $450 with the additional memory, touch screen, and webcam on these units. I remember in 1991 when I was teaching computers and we got some Apple PowerBook 100s to pilot with some teachers and students. These were $2,500 each in 1991 money. Even the Newton-PDA inspired eMate 300 device was $799 in 1997 and didn’t even run “real” software. The netbooks are finally a device that has enough power at a reasonable price for 1:1 student use.

Screen

Let’s get right to my biggest concern about the units the screen resolution - 1024 x 574? Huh? Computer monitors have traditionally been in a 4:3 ratio (e.g. 640x480, 800x600) and more recently 16:9 (1280x720) but netbooks have commonly chosen WSVGA resolution of 1024x600. This is trouble enough as it doesn’t match any typical resolutions of monitors, but by the 2100 dropping a mysterious 26 pixels off of this causes additional problems.

Many web sites are expecting at least 700 pixel vertical resolution, so you end up having to scroll down to get to the active parts of many web sites. But this is true of all netbooks and web sites are adapting to the netbook trend.

However, software installers can check minimum resolution before installing or setting themselves up. Some software will see a vertical resolution of under 600 and set up for 640x480 which makes an awkward little box in the middle of the relatively big screen. Others will not install without at least 800x600 resolution. To get around this you can temporarily change your screen resolution to 1024x768. This means you end up scrolling the screen up and down to see the full screen by moving the mouse up and down. This will allow the software to install. Then you can change the resolution back and the software will typically run (may clip the bottom a little).

But, 1024x576 is not one of the choices in the typical “Display Properties” dialog box – so how do you switch back. It turns out it is not that straightforward, but here is the scoop.

In “Display Properties” Settings, choose the Advanced Button. One of the Tabs will now be called “Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile”. Here there are two things: 1) the button that takes you to the actual screen you need, and 2) a “Show Tray Icon” checkbox that will enable access to this panel directly from the System Tray. If you find yourself needing to switch resolutions to support certain software, having easy access to his panel will be helpful.

On this screen, finally, you can find the “native” resolution of the 2100 (1024x576).

An additional tip, the new Chrome web browser from Google has a unique functionality (that I hope gets picked up by IE, Firefox, etc.) that allows you to find a page on the web and then “Create Application Shortcuts”. This does two important things: 1) Drops an icon on the desktop, start menu, quick-launch bar, etc. for that web site (and picks up the favicon as an icon for the shortcut) and 2) removes all the UI chrome at the top (i.e. no address bar, tabs, menus, just the window title). This enables kids to get to pre-selected sites very quickly and maximizes the vertical “real estate” on the screen for maximum use.

Touch Screen

I opted for the touch screen because I am developing some software that uses it, but I was surprised at how the kids started using this feature right away in many of the applications. The kids must not have the hang-ups I have about touching a screen to get it to do things because they use it all the time. In fact in some software like Rosetta Stone (foreign language – nice) it is much more instinctive and natural to use the touch screen than maneuver with the touchpad. Not much more to say about this yet – I am eager to get some software going that will use it even more.

CPU

The 2100 uses the common combination of the Intel Atom N2170 CPU and Intel 950 GMA (graphics media accelerator). This combination does a very respectable job of running most software very well.

The notable exception is software that requires significant graphics memory and 3D acceleration. Two failures in this regard were Age of Empires III and Civilization IV. A general rule, if you considered buying a new video card to run a game or program, then it will probably have issues on a netbook

The 2100 plays video well (avi, mov, mp4, and even DVDs, see below), but don't expect to record or edit videos on the machine itself. The performance was very respectable with photos (even large ones) consider the higher-end (2Gb) of memory if editing and manipulating images will be important..

Integrated Camera / Microphone

We also opted for the integrated webcam and digital microphone. I was very pleased when installing Skype (video conferencing) at how well it worked with the hardware with the standard install. The device comes with software for basic webcam recording and still picture capture.

The one trick we found was actually enabling the integrated digital microphone in applications like Skype and Audacity (audio/podcasting). There is only one microphone driver/input in the software but there is an external jack for microphones and an internal digital microphone. I only found one place to switch between the two. If you open the control panels there will be one called the “Realtek HD Sound Effect Manager”.

Opening this up you will find a tab called “Mixer”. Once selected you will have the option to select the radio button for either the external or integrated/digital mic.

Memory

There are really four configurations of memory in the 2100: 512Mb, 1Gb, 1.5Gb, and 2Gb. The interesting thing is that the initial memory configuration is very important. The first 512Mb or 1Gb of memory is actually permanent on the motherboard of the laptop – that is, it can’t be removed or upgraded. There is one slot for memory that can take an additional 1Gb of memory. So starting with 1Gb maximizes your memory potential. This is how I ordered the units because additional memory was $29 for 2 1Gb DIMMs online (and I was over budget because of the touch screen and webcam already).

Adding the second sticks of memory turns out to be more involved than any laptop I have ever used or owned, and this is saying a lot. It turns out that you first need to remove the keyboard (2 screws) to get to the internal screws attaching the bottom cover (3 screws) and then you need to remove the bottom access cover (4 screws). One note here is to be careful with the keyboard cable clip.

This clip opens upwards (see above) and stays attached – or should stay attached. One one of the units I had this clip (the white part) completely detach which lead to 20 minutes or so of anxiety before my wife (with better eyes and smaller fingers) got the clip to click back on (thanks Laura).

The second 2100 memory upgrade went fine with the keyboard clip but the memory did not “seat” correctly so I had to re-remove the 9 screws, keyboard, panel, etc. and do it all over again – good experience, but, again, not as “friendly” as many other laptops. Perhaps having Dell install the 1Gb when building the machine is worth saving $10 on memory.

On the plus side, this really keeps curious kids from getting into the device (it’d be nice if you could get a replacement set of outer screws that were Torx or at least not Phillips-head screws to slow them down even more. On the down side this makes a typically easy memory upgrade a much more involved task.

Operating System

Ubuntu Linux, Windows XP SP3, or Windows 7 – not considering Vista as a practical option right now.

This is actually a pretty easy decision for us. Linux won't run most of the educational software (out of emulation). Likewise Windows 7 won't run much of the software and “Virtual XP” mode is not supported on Atom processors.

Macintosh OSX not available on non-Apple equipment - will Apple release a netbook / kidbook?

So Windows XP SP3 is probably the most stable and understood Windows operating system in use (since Windows 98SE) and runs the important software we use. Microsoft has stated that the XP downgrade option will be available for 18 months after the release of Windows 7, after that a CPU and memory upgrade will probably be necessary to achieve similar results.

Networking

Unsurprisingly the 2100 supports Wi-Fi and wired connections (no 3G or WiMax, but not needed). But surprisingly it supports 802.11n high-speed Wi-Fi and 1000 Gigabit Ethernet wired connections which are not common on typical netbooks. They also have the ability to “wake on LAN” which enables solutions like the upcoming “Managed Mobile Computing Station”.

This unit enables 24 of the 2100s to be docked for charging, storage/security, and remote updates (even includes it’s own wireless router so you can plug in one Ethernet cable and wirelessly power a room). But at close to $4,000 this kind of kills the whole “on budget” theme for a classroom – hmm, 10 more 2100s or a fancy cart.

Bluetooth 2.1 is available as an added option (we didn’t opt-in). This was tempting for use with the LEGO Mindstorms NXT robotics kits, or wireless mouse, but I can imagine the pairing and management of a classroom full of Bluetooth devices could get challenging.

One other thing is the somewhat hyped feature of the Network Activity Light.

This is included on the cover of the netbook and shows if any network interface is being used (i.e. light on if activity, light off if no activity). I’ll stop short of calling this a “gimmick” but in our experience the light is always on because the network is always on. If there were an easier way for kids to turn the network on and off, or some software uses this for other purposes (a promised API from Dell for educational software programmers may be coming soon), then this may have a larger use and impact.

Battery

Dell offers a 3-cell and 6-cell battery for the 2100. The 6-cell adds a little bit of height but is barely noticeable. One unique feature is that there is a clear plastic “window” on the battery where you can slide in a strip of paper with a particular student’s name (or other identifier) on the unit. This gives a clear way to identify different machines in what may be a crowded classroom situation.

Keyboard

The keyboard is nearly full-sized and I had no time with my huge hands typing e-mail and other tests. Another unique option here is an antimicrobial protected keyboard option. In a shared environment could be a real plus with the flu and colds going around. For 1:1 use this may not be as much of a benefit (did not opt for this either).

CD-DVD Options / Issues

Sometimes there is no getting away from using external media. Ironically all the backup and recovery software for the 2100 comes on CD, which you can’t ever access from the 2100 directly. Also, some curriculums include physical DVDs (e.g. One Year Adventure Novel) and others have a lot of media that needs to be accessed from the disc (e.g. Rosetta Stone language software). In these cases you have two options.

The first is an external CD/DVD drive. The best of these will require no external power and can be powered directly from the USB port. Dell has an option for this when building the machines for $90 which includes PowerDVD (playing DVDs) and Roxio Creator software (burning discs). I was watching for deals and found a Samsung drive on sale at NewEgg for $49 which included Nero 8 (playing and burning). This has worked well for installing software, running CDs, and playing DVDs – I was impressed that the laptop played the DVDs so well with the limited power. I am sure when you are running off of battery power that this would significantly reduce battery run time.

The other option is to use disc images on the hard drive. Utilities such as PowerISO will allow you to create an image of most CDs/DVDs and store them on the hard drive, and later mount these images as virtual disks. This essentially mirrors the content of the CD/DVD to the hard drive. This image can then be run using just the hard drive. This raises all kinds of copyright issues and licensing headaches. This is a topic for another post, but make sure your licensing allows for this type of use and that you are covered for the number of simultaneous installs and users that you have. Some discs have copy protection on them and will not work with this method of mounting – this clearly shows the intent of the publisher – contact them directly as I am sure this will be a common issue going forward.

Ideally software will move away from distribution by disc, and even installing locally on the netbook at all (more below on this). But until then there are still options for curriculum that is distributed and/or must run with a disc.

Pros

Marketing material is one thing, but a well designed “kidbook” is worth lauding. If I haven’t mentioned it before I am in no way associated with Dell and don’t get any compensation from them. That being said, I really do like the 2100s. They are solid and do what they claim to do, and don’t do what they don’t claim to do. The price point is quite reasonable considering the power and functionality provided. Unique options like the touch screen, anti-swine flu keyboard, rubberized and secured exterior, etc. are very nice to see. The touch screen and web cam enable more “natural user interface” options that enable use of the 2100 beyond the keyboard and mouse/touchpad.

Cons

The biggest “con” is the screen resolution (1024x576). I would predict that this gets a remedy fairly quickly because of the non-trivial impact that it can and will have on software installs and execution. Unfortunately early adopters will be somewhat left behind by this – but that is one of the risks of being early to any technology.

Recommendations

When I was young and foolish I leased a 1995 Dodge Cirrus based on a popular consumer's magazine "Car of the Year" award (because I had finished my Masters degree, and had a full time school administrator's job, and "deserved" a new car). I only mention this because it was the worst car I have ever owned, recalled twice, in the shop for mechanical failures 5 times, and all in the 24 months of the lease. This is/was the last new car I ever bought and I learned an expensive lesson about cost and value (and how leasing is 95% of the time a terrible option). I also learned not to give or trust recommendations without a significant amount of hands-on time for new models. Interestingly the said consumer magazine has also adopted a similar policy for new models.

And you probably realize where this is going - I am going to hold off on recommendations concerning the Dell 2100 until we've spent some real-world time using it. Unfortunately models change so fast with computers that waiting a year to make a recommendation will probably find the Dell 2115 in production with the first or second round of enhancements. But I am in no way sending them back, and am cautiously optimistic that these will really be helpful going forward. I am also realistic that there will be improvements (1024x576) and tweaks and being on the cutting edge is exciting but sometimes you get a little cut up in the process.

Overall I’d give the 2100 “4 of 5 stars” or a solid B+, which means there is a little room for improvement but it is a solid offering and unique today in the marketplace.

Products Installed / Mentioned Here

Rosetta Stone (Language Learning) http://www.rosettastone.com/
Skype (Audio/Video Calls/Conference) http://www.skype.com/
Lego Mindstorms NXT (Robotics) http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/Egypt_dest/Default.aspx AND http://www.legoeducation.com
Teaching Textbooks (Math, 4th-Pre-Calc) http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/
PowerISO (create/mount disc images) http://www.poweriso.com/
One Year Adventure Novel (Writing 8th+) http://www.oneyearnovel.com/
Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org
Google Chrome (web browser) http://www.google.com/chrome

Implications

This is already 2 or 3 times the size of a good blog post, but I plan to add another post at some point about the implications of netbooks in the marketplace. Some technology analysts predict that in 5 years 50% of internet connected computers will be netbooks. Software and services targeting (or at least supporting) netbooks will be an important market. Software distributed via the network, or better yet delivered in real-time over the network, will be in demand. Also, software that can adapt to the screen size of the user (from 10” netbook to 30” desktop monitor) will be popular to enable use and features based on the power and size of the particular install. Some examples of recent posts on products of this type are below. I’ll have to also post some samples of what we are doing with Silverlight and dock panels and view boxes to show some of the latest technology to help enable functionality in installations on different screen resolutions.

http://eeepc.net/netbook-office-suite-launched-by-corel/

http://eeepc.net/thinkfree-office-suite-available-for-purchase/

UPDATE: Had to fix the URL "slug" it was messing things up (never include a quote in a slug).

NECC 2009 Themes

Bruce — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:04:01 -1300

NECC is the National Educational Computing Conference put on yearly by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2009/). This is the group that sets national standards for technology in education, and brings together creative and intelligent speakers and attendees for a lively discussion each year. I’ve been to the conference twice, presented once, but haven’t been in the last 10 years. I do remember it fondly and follow the outcomes when I can from afar.

This year I was impressed to see a planned debate at the conference with the provocative topic, “Bricks and Mortar Schools are Detrimental to the Future of Education”. It will be interesting to hear the outcome of that.

I speed-skimmed the program over lunch and found the following list of topics/themes. My main goal is to learn a little about the ones that are completely foreign to me, see the themes that never seem to change, and wonder why there are some topics missing at a conference in 2009.

Quick-skim of topics for NECC 2009

1:1 (Laptops)

24/7 Learning

Adobe Captivate 4

Alice

Animation

Art

Assistive Technology

Astronomy

Authentic Learning

Blogging

Bookmarking/'Digg'ing

Cell Phones / PDAs

ChatBots

Classroom 2.0

Claymation / Stop-Motion

Collaboration

Constructivism

Content Management

Cost Control

Data Recovery

Data-Driven Decisions

Datamapping / Analysis

Differentiated Learning

Digital Storytelling

Digital Textbooks

Foreign Language

Formative Feedback

Games / Using & Building

GIMP / Photoshop

Global / Remote Assignments / Projects

Go Green

Google / Google Earth / Google Sketchup

Individual Learning Plans for All Students

Inspiration

Intel Visual Ranking Tool

Interactive Generation HEAT (higher-order thinking, engaged learning, authentic assessment, and technology) - Nintendo Generation

Internet Safety

iPod Touch

ITRT

Jing

Knowledge Management

LEGO Robotics

Making Movies

Marzano's categories of classroom instruction

Math

MindMapping

Moodle

Multimedia pictures, narration, music

netTrekker

NING

Parent-Child Collaboration

Performance Assessments

Personal Finance

Photography

PicoCrickets

Podcasts

Portfolios

PowerPoint

Primary / Quality Sources

Primary Sources

Professional Learning

Project-Based Learning

School Improvement

Scratch

Second Life

Shmoop

Small Basic

SMART Board

SMART Sync 2009

Social Networking / Communities

StarLogo TNG STEM

Synergy

Tablet

Technology Integration into Curriculum

Technology Proficiency

Tux Paint

Video Conferencing

Whole-Class Learning

Wikis

Windows 7 Makes Vista Look Like “New Coke” – Tips and Impressions

Bruce — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:18:16 -1300

Since Windows 7 was released to developers last week I have installed it on my two personal machines – laptop and desktop. In the short time I have used it in both environments I have been so pleased with it that it is worth noting. But I realized that most of the features and performance that have been so welcome, are mostly because of the corresponding disappointment with Vista. My overall impressions follow – technical tips for those installing the Release Candidate are at the end.

In the last three years I bought these two machines with Vista on them. Even though the specs on these machines were near the high-end of their category, both seemed to perform even slower that older XP machines when running as shipped with Vista. Both are HP machines and came with the typical demo-ware and expire-ware and general junk software that seems to come with all new machines now. I rebuilt them with Vista Ultimate x64 (laptop had 4Gb and desktop had 6Gb – wanted to access memory and CPU features) and had an immediate speed increase. But many of my USB devices would not work with Vista – and less would work with Vista x64. My printer, phone, and Bluetooth devices were all without drivers, so things wouldn’t work. Also, much of my 3rd party software would not work with Vista – utilities, anti-virus, and even development tools would not run or were restricted and stopped working because of Vista’s new “security” features. Even Microsoft software like office and Visual Studio seemed to conflict with Vista – don’t these people work together? Needless to say, I was nearing buyers remorse with both machines after their showing with Microsoft’s new flagship operating system. In fact, I passed up opportunities at work to move to Vista and kept working on Microsoft XP until early this year when my work PC was upgraded.

So fast-forward to May 2009 and the release of Windows 7 RC – a completely different experience. I installed the x64 version on my desktop and the x32 version on the laptop (just to see if x64 was still more of a pain). The install process was painless and fast and all of the devices on the desktop were found and compatible drivers were found. Windows 7 even correctly identified my two LCD monitors (one of which is really old) and set them for optimum resolution. Now boot-up is quicker, sleep actually works on the laptop (Vista sleep/hibernate is terrible), only 2-3 security prompts so far during installs, applications are running. Overall things seem really tight, fast, and stable. It is like Vista should have been. I can’t stress enough how dramatically different these two installations feel and perform.

Why the dramatic difference between these two seemingly similar operating systems? I think there are at least two reasons: 1) Time and 2) Damage Control. The immediate analogy to the “New Coke” fiasco in the 80s. Coke changed their long-time formula for Coke and spent a lot of money on marketing to convince people it tasted better than the old standard. Nobody bought it, and die-hard Coke fans revolted. It was a dark time and Coke seemed to be going down, but then the re-released “Coke Classic” and regained their market share and more. Vista really is Microsoft’s “New Coke”.

Microsoft has had time during the release of Vista to get all the technical bits worked out – the missing drivers, the UAC and data execution blocking issues, and software and hardware vendors have been able to come out with new versions of their software that are more compatible with the new underlying OS architecture. Remember, Windows 7 is really more like Vista SP3 with “extras” and “junk removed” – which is fine by me. Vista will get the blame for being so difficult to use and incompatible, but Windows 7 will get the credit simply by being years later in the game. Microsoft also has recently added the Virtual XP Mode to Windows 7, which is really a huge win for older software in corporate and educational installations where software has been orphaned and will not be updated. Vista also failed on the new category of netbook machines – small/cheap/portable laptops – where XP has been so popular. Windows 7 is much more performant on laptop devices.

As for damage control, Microsoft, like Coke, stepped back and looked at all the complaints of their best customers and realized that this wasn’t just “growing pains” and that they wouldn’t just “get used to it” and move on. These were significant and real problems that weren’t going away. So what could they remove from Vista that was the most glaring issues, and what could they add back to justify a new operating system. The combination of removing the most annoying problems of Vista, while adding significant features in, is really an operating system worth looking forward to.

In the end I think Windows 7 will be a big success for Microsoft – like I said, it is what Vista should have been. But if we all had to go through the pain of Vista to get to Windows 7, I think the short attention-span of consumers will quickly forget and move forward. Vista may join the ranks of Windows Me, Microsoft Bob, and other well-intentioned mistakes in the evolution of Windows OS.

Here are a few tips and details of what I have installed – in case this helps anyone.

Mounting .iso images on Windows 7 - PowerISO is working to mount .iso files, Daemon Tools is not.
Virtual XP Mode is a set of separate downloads – not included with the base Windows 7 RC. They are in MSDN in the Virtual PC area.
After installing the base OS, let Windows Update go get all the OS and hardware updates it can find before proceeding.
After installing all your Microsoft stuff (e.g. Office, Visual Studio) to the same (updates).

Installed and working:

Development

Visual Studio 2008 w/SP1
Silverlight 2 Tools / Toolkit
Microsoft Expression Studio w/ Blend SP1

Personal Productivity

Office Ultimate (Word, Excel, etc.)
Visio 2007

Communications / Networking

Microsoft Live Messenger / Live Writer
TweetDeck / AIR
Chrome / GMail

Utility

PowerISO
AVG Anti-virus
VLC Player
Virtual XP Mode x64
Virtual PC Beta x64