March 2012
1 post
What to buy?
With all of the many devices out there I believe many people are confused on what device they should buy. You can buy small things, big things, portable things, powerful things, fast things, multi-functional things, light things… the list seems endless. I’m going to try and make it a simple flow chart so let me know how it works out for you.
I’m not claiming to say that one...
February 2012
1 post
Creating Microsoft Office documents on the iPad?...
People have been screaming for it, and finally it’s here. Even better, it’s free. You can now create Microsoft Office documents right on your iPad and have them automatically transferred right to your computer’s desktop. Using the iPad app CloudOn you can create Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files directly on your iPad. You simply download the app to your iPad from the app store, create a...
December 2011
1 post
Picasa Web Albums. Your Pictures. Anywhere.
Since I have a toddler at home, it’s nice to have pictures available all the time. Our normal trip to the mall or grocery store usually results in seeing people we know and them asking how our daughter is doing. If she is not with us, my wife or I usually whip out our phone and show them a few pictures of her. Not just pictures that we’ve taken on our cell phone, but pictures that actually reside...
November 2011
1 post
October 2011
4 posts
Steve Jobs leaves us with a legacy: iCloud
Steve Jobs paced the stage at the World Wide Developer Conference in June wearing his usual jeans and a black mock turtle neck. He introduced the newest Apple operating system and highlighted all of the new features it would entail. At the conclusion of his presentation he stopped, turned, looked at the audience, and said the phrase that everyone was waiting for. “But there’s one more thing.” This...
US student printing instructions
Upper school students, this morning our print server that houses mainly mac printing failed. Luckily we have another server ready for you to connect to. Below you will find instructions on how to install printers on both Mac and Windows.
IMPORTANT NOTE - Windows users should remain unaffected from this morning’s crash, but if you do experience any problems just follow the instructions...
Live Mesh - syncing folders between devices (PC &...
Does this sound familiar?
You are at work and you spend a good 30 minutes working on a word document for class the next day, you save it and go home. When you get home you realize you forgot to save the document to a flash drive/desktop/folder on your laptop etc. So you have to do the 30 minutes of work again and then continue editing for class the next day.
You are not alone. But there are...
Looking for a video editor?
We all have tons of video. Whether it’s still on our video cameras or computers one things for sure, we all have tons of video. Almost all of us take video for an extended period of time resulting in us having to “cut” certain parts of the video that we don’t need. Have you ever wondered how to do this? It’s actually very easy. Apple ships its computers with a built...
September 2011
2 posts
Basics on using your Skydrive
In this blog you will find the basic features of the Skydrive associated with your @stpaulsschool.org account.
I can’t stress enough how useful this can be to you. You have FREE access to a basic version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (Mac and Windows users)
You also have 25GB of online storage space for any file type (50MB per file max size). This means your homework,...
Directions on how to setup email on your mobile...
We hope that it has been a smooth transition from summer to the school year for all of you. We also hope that you have been enjoying our new e-mail system. We have heard nothing but good things from students and teachers and are very happy with the finished product. If you have yet to setup email access on your mobile smartphone, it’s very easy to do. Below are step by step instructions...
August 2011
1 post
4 tags
The First Post of the 2011-2012 School Year
Welcome Back! We hope that you had a fantastic and restful summer. We are excited to start the SP Tech Blog again for this coming school year. There has been a lot going on at St. Paul’s over the summer and we are eager to fill you in on technology happenings. As most of you already know, we have completely revamped our entire email system. This process was a lot of work for our entire...
June 2011
2 posts
Last Post for the 2010-2011 School Year
So we’re now at the end of another school year and we’re sure many of you are ready to chill out and relax. To help you with that, this will be our last blog until the start of school in the fall. That said, now that you have some extra time on your hands (haha) it could be a good time to catch up on some of the blogs you didn’t get chance to read. We will now highlight some of the more relevant...
The iPad2: What's the fuss all about?
My hunt for an iPad 2 came to a conclusion a few weeks ago. I had been looking for one for at least three weeks. I was calling stores all around the area. From Walmart to Target and HH Gregg to Best Buy. All were sold out and they hadn’t seen a shipment of iPads come in since launch day in mid-March. Finally I caught a break early last week when I called a local area Best Buy store and they...
May 2011
4 posts
QR codes: what are they and how do I use them?
These QR (Quick Response) codes are something that have been around for over 15 years but have only recently come out of the manufacturing industry where they were used to track parts in vehicle manufacturing. You will now see them in commercial tracking and for applications aimed at the mobile phone user.
Essentially what happens is a device with a camera and the correct software can view the...
Windows 7 features Part 2: Using single file...
I am sure at least once before, you have deleted a file accidentally from your desktop or a specific folder on your computer and yearned to have that file back. Well with Windows 7 there is way to get that file back very easily. The video tutorial below shows you the steps to take if this happens to you again.
Windows 7 features Part 1
Over the course of the next few blogs, we’re going to be outlining key features in Windows 7. With Windows 7, Microsoft finally did it right. It’s a stable and speedy operating system that people are really talking about. Below is a video tutorial showing two new features of Windows 7. Please check back often as we will be doing a few blogs outlining Windows 7 features.
Meeting Requests
I have been using meeting requests regularly all year when I have met up with faculty and staff at St. Paul’s. The feedback that I have had has been very positive, “I knew you were coming because it pinged and popped up with a message that you were coming.” “It was handy having that reminder as I had forgotten that you were coming.”
Now the power can be in your...
April 2011
1 post
Ahhh, I have a virus!!
Removing viruses. It just sounds daunting doesn’t it? Maybe, but there are a few things you can try on your own before shipping your computer off to a computer repair shop that will probably do your computer more harm than good.
There are a bunch of signs that your computer has a virus. Your computer may be running slower than normal or you may experience a lot of pop-ups when accessing the...
March 2011
4 posts
Fix that slow booting computer
When you’re at home or at work, depending on what is set on your computer to start during boot up, it could take forever for your computer to fully start up. You turn your computer on, go get a cup of coffee, talk to some people, make copies, and come back to find your computer STILL booting up. 9 times out of 10 this is because many of the programs that you have installed on your computer are set...
Craigslist. So why should I care about Craig’s...
So I did eBay and found it OK (check my blog for details) so the next one to try was Craigslist. Let’s have a little history to start with. Craigslist has been around in some form since 1995 and originally was designed to be an email distribution list amongst friends featuring local events of the San Francisco Bay Area. After a few changes to its model it now stands as the 37th most visited...
Media on stpaulsschool.org
There is quite a lot of media on our school website so here is an 8 minute guide to show what is available to you and also how to navigate around some of it. As always your feedback is welcomed and appreciated.
As an added extra you can also go to Shutterfly (http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/stpaulsschool/20102011) to purchase pictures you see on the school’s website.
1 tag
Installing Printers at SP
Have you ever been in a different room other than your normal room and needed to print something? But the printer you want to print to is not installed on that computer. Now you’re stuck. Watch the video tutorial below to learn how to install network printers at SP so you don’t find yourself in this pickle anymore!
February 2011
5 posts
Calendar's in Outlook
I am sure at some point someone has called/emailed you to view your calendar or to request that you open their calendar. The only problem is that when you do this you probably get a big ugly error message saying that you don’t have permission. In the video tutorial below you will find out how to open a shared calendar and give permission to someone so they can open your calendar. It’s...
Never done eBay? Me neither.
I have always been a little wary of eBay. I think I’ve always assumed I’d be the person who buys the dud item or sells something to someone and then get scammed. I’m not sure why I was so pessimistic about it, in most other things I’m an optimist.
Nevertheless I have a house full of items that needed either donating, throwing out, or turning into cash. I have over the...
Safety First (with online sales/purchases)
I will be posting a blog soon about eBay and Craigslist but thought it prudent to give the warnings and advice first before any of you decide to have a go at (if you have not already done so). And for those of you who already use them it can’t do you any harm to hear what you might already know.
Now I am no expert in scams online with these sort of sites, if I was I’m sure I’d...
4 tags
E-mail Archiving
“I’m over the limit again?!?!?!?” I am sure you’ve said that a few times after getting messages from the “System Administrator” saying your email is approaching it’s size limit and to clean your e-mail out. Some of you may have even gotten e-mails in the past from our Network Administrator, Jenn Schneider, asking you to please clean out your inbox because...
6 tags
System Restore: Your best friend in a bad...
One day your computer is working perfectly. The next it’s littered with viruses and pop-ups, to the point where you can’t even use your computer. What did you do? A lot of things can cause viruses and pop-ups. What if I told you there was a way to restore your computer to a point when it was working perfectly and you wouldn’t lose any documents, pictures, or programs you...
January 2011
8 posts
15 tags
Must Have Software
There is a bunch of software out there. Some good, some bad but there are some programs that are must have’s on any computer.
First, and most importantly, virus protection. Whether you’re buying a brand new computer or getting your hands on a previously owned one, you need to have virus protection if you’re using a PC. Microsoft Security Essentials makes an excellent product and it’s free! Click...
8 tags
Photography: Intimidating? Yes, but you can do it
I am a football fan. I love football. Do you know how sometimes in training camp the veteran players will make the rookies carry their pads and helmet off the field after practice simply because they don’t feel like doing it and it serves as kind of an initiation? Well I am certainly still a rookie at photography and probably couldn’t hold Laura Kurz’ or Ed Brown’s pads at this point. Last year...
3 tags
How to sign up for e-mail web alerts
Are you having trouble signing up for e-mail web alerts through our website? By having e-mail web alerts, you will receive SP breaking news right in your Inbox as soon as it’s posted on our website. Here is a video tutorial on how to sign up!
If you have any other questions about this process please feel free to call us at 410-825-4400 ext 3400 or email us at helpdesk@stpaulsschool.org
7 tags
To pay or not to pay… that is the???
Antivirus Software. It’s important. It protects you. But is it worth paying for? Most new computers come with antivirus software included. McAfee and Norton are two of the main names that come pre-installed on new computers. You know the drill… You are buzzing along on your new computer, all seems well, the Internet is fast, your printing great, and then all of a sudden on day 30 of using your...
6 tags
Sky what? Sky drive? That’s right, Sky Drive.
Digital computing started off with computers having 25 megabytes (25,000,000 bytes) worth of hard drive space and floppy disks that would hold 3.5 megabytes worth of data. Boy did we think we were something with green and black screens to boot. Nowadays, people are used to 400 gigabyte (400,000,000,000 bytes) hard drives and computers that do everything but talk to you. Oh wait, they do that...
How to download video from the internet (...well...
I created this little video to demonstrate to faculty at the school how to download video content from the internet e.g. YouTube. The reason this is useful is simply if you have the file on your computer you do not need to worry about the video buffering as you try to watch it or the tragedy of the internet being down/slow when you are trying to show it to students. Here it is:
Obviously...
7 tags
Windows Live Movie Maker
Windows used to come with Movie Maker built into it and it wasn’t too bad (I’m not saying it was great I fought with it on many an occasion). Then Apple vamped up their built in movie editing software iMovie and therefore Microsoft had to up their game a little bit too and created a well thought out title “Windows Live Movie Maker”. Now if you were to compare the two...
6 tags
Back it up. Get it back. And they mean it!
Home PC backup is cumbersome at best for home computer users. Most people have tons of data on their home computers that they don’t even know where to start when thinking about backing up their files. Even if they do backup their data, their either burning several DVD’s or copying their data to an external hard drive. Either way, both tasks are time consuming and require the user to initiate the...
December 2010
1 post
The First Blog
Where to begin? We should probably begin with explaining who we are and what we intend on doing in this blog. The current idea is for two members of the St. Paul’s staff to share their infinite(ish) wisdom and knowledge on technology so that the St. Paul’s community can benefit. The two members are Jeff Yingling and Darren Holgate. This blog is not always going to be spelled...
