Archive
No Java on PC35?
Plus restart request:
Google Calendar embedded aggregated calendar won’t show calendar names?
- When I add "Calendars to Display" in the "Google Embeddable Calendar Helper" ,
- Google calendar lets me select calendars I added from iCal sources,
- but it does not "remember" the names I have given these calendars,
- displaying only the default name "Calendar",
- both in the "Google Embeddable Calendar Helper"
- and in the iframe embed:
- both in the "Google Embeddable Calendar Helper"
- rendering the aggregation feature useless (Which is which?).
- Is there a workaround or hidden feature like a “name parameter” in the embed query-string? What is it? I cannot find it in the Google Calendar API reference.
How to configure Java not to check for updates in the frozen computer lab
- Many applications – both web-based or standalone – in the LRC rely on Java. They currently all start Java with the autoupdater:
- and may at least temporarily allow for Java versions not tested for compatibility with LRC applications
- which should not cause permanent problems, since the computers are frozen, but does cause client s unnecessary hassle and delays
- provided that
- the LRC applications have been tested to work with the reasonably recent version of Java in the LRC image
- and staying on this version for, say, a term, causes no overarching security concerns (if it does, the more recent Java version should be frozen into the underlying software image anyway, after testing for compatibility with LRC applications).
- The answer how to shut out the autoupdater is likely in the Java control panel. This screenshot is from version 7.51 while we have 7.45, but likely similar
- Registry keys note 32-bit and 64-bit)
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy EnableAutoUpdateCheck
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy EnableAutoUpdateCheck
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy EnableJavaUpdate
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy EnableJavaUpdate
- For programmatically configuring this, a quick web search finds this:
-
deployment.expiration.check.enabled
Boolean
true
Must be “true” to prompt users to update the JRE when an out-of-date JRE is found on their system. Set to “false” to suppress the prompt.
-
This is a setting in here: The deployment.config file is used for specifying the System-Level deployment.properties in the infrastructure. By default no deployment.config file exists; thus, no system-wide deployment.properties file exists. If deployment.config exists, it is located in one of the directories shown in the following table.
Operating System:Windows
Location
• <Windows Directory>\Sun\Java\Deployment\deployment.config
• ${deployment.java.home}\lib\deployment.config -
in addition, likely this should be included: “SomeKey=SomeValue, may be locked by including another key, SomeKey.locked … so that the user cannot change it”.
-
Information is from http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/jweb/index.html which may likely contain other information needed to configure JAVA in the LRC environment.
Sanako Student crashes on startup
- UPDATE: looking at the Saanko log files now.
- PC24 and others during Chinese, and again (+ PC36) during Russian class –
- no details available
- is this specific to
- PCs (all imaged and frozen?), but different hardware (headsets?)
- logged in users?
- Workaround: “close the program” – helper.exe seems to autorestart the student.exe.
“Sanako License service has not responded to the license query”
The dialogue popped up again after my restarting the study server (running on the same computer). After another “new license query”, the system seemed to operate normally (only that it became unresponsive and crashed (after doing heavy screen sharing and screen recording activities for a considerable time)
This is on a Dell Optiplex 760 – Might this be the root cause, and could running the server on a different computer help?.
Sanako text messaging: How teacher sends URL to all students, to individual, and closes individual response
Save yourself some valuable face-to-face class time with instant messaging of clickable URLs.
Quizlet.com for Vocabulary learning practice
Neallt 2014 is featuring a presentation on “Using Quizlet.com to generate and share vocabulary activities” (William Price, University of Pittsburgh). I cannot attend, but the program inspired me to hold my own sneak preview:
Quizlet.com is yet another site that provides a variety of flashcard and quiz activities for a given wordlist. A nice example is the “Speller”activity – which proves a text-to-speech generated aural cue for dictation (not included in this video):
Or step-by-step:
Unfortunately, the AI seems limited to only 1-1 L1-L2 relationships (which precludes how vocabulary seems to be learnt best: in phrasal contexts):
Feedback on “wrong” user input is color red, aural and visual presentation of the correct form: 
Then the application re-prompts for user input and allows user correction:
This is a “Test activity. Foreign language character input seems easy (but does beg the question since the inputs appear only when they are needed…)
Mix-and-match is called Scatter:
Here is the activity overview: 
Wait, there is more: 
Quizlet supports many dozen languages, including non-western, including ancient, not differentiating between modern and ancient Greek, but the browsing capabilities – admittedly a hard task – are somewhat flat (search and language)):
And boasts 20 million sets (as of today – many consisting of 2 terms or few more). As so often, usefulness for class instruction hinges on the availability of textbook-aligned vocabulary lists. However, if you have them with your textbooks, Quizlet makes it automatic to generate uploaded materials into exercises.
However, as said, you may not like how much you have to dumb it down.
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