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Protected: How teachers can share multimedia files unsuitable for the LMS on MS-SkyDrive

2013/02/27 Enter your password to view comments.

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OneNote “absolutely loved by everyone who uses it” according to LifeHacker

Top 10 Underhyped Windows AppsMicrosoft’s note-taking application OneNote is one of those apps no one really talks about much, but is absolutely loved by everyone who uses it. Heck, you guys even voted it your favorite outlining tool, personal project management tool, and minutes meeting service, not to mention third place for best note taking app. It’s available for a ton of platforms, too (despite it being part of Microsoft Office), so if you’re finding that Evernote just isn’t quite powerful enough for your organizational needs, give OneNote a shot—you might be surprised at everything it can do given its lesser-known status.” (Onenote makes #1 of Top 10 Underhyped Windows Apps, via OneNote Testing). Now how to spread that love?

Redeemed my SkyDrive Enthusiast Bonus

image

 

Nice, and just in time as I am running out of free space for photos. Guess I would not have qualified in the first place if I did not post such stuff  here.

BTW, MS: I am also an Azure EnthusiastSmile

How to batch-produce animated-GIFs in different speeds

As a little time saver, here is a program (64bit) that automates animated-GIF production with the free UnFreez (a bit hairy to control from AutoIT, hence the mouse-moves) for a dozen or so different speeds. Decompile if you need to adjust it, otherwise no AutoIT software is needed. All other prerequisites are  explained in the startup dialogue, rename the dummy output files to your liking.

How to workaround problems embedding MS-Office web apps into WordPress.com

  1. UPDATE: this is becoming part of a series, it seems.
  2. SkyDrive and WordPress integration used to work much better, but not anymore?
  3. SkyDrive offers embed code with unescaped &, but you need to replace by & for  WordPress.com to accept the embed.
  4. SkyDrive offers embedding a range, but WordPress fails to display it (e.g. Item=’Sheet1′!A1%3AE10 – maybe b/o the parenthesis?);  tables do still display (e.g. Item=Table1).
  5. Wait, there is more: one or both of the following prevent display also:  &ActiveCell=’Sheet1′!C3&wdHideHeaders=True
  6. A working example for the record (to be enclosed between []):
    office width="700" height="443" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" 
    src="https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=4FA3329905D7E1CE&resid=4FA3329905D7E1CE%2143384
    &authkey=AGmGlsvpKj5r0pU&em=2&Item=Table1&wdHideGridlines=True"

How to batch watermark your images for free with Irfanview

batch-watermarking

– just to be a bit more concise than this useful, but long post on yet another great feature of this free program (shout-out to Kai). Not shown here: after making your settings here, click button “Start batch”.

Sanako Study 1200 V6.1 implements text-to-speech with language learner features

  1. Sanako continues its foray into learning materials – this time semi-automated (makes sense to me: what can be automated, will be automated) and into text-to-speech automation (makes sense to me: one of the more robust (since simpler) applications of AI to NLP) for pronunciation help (also makes sense to me: can help my language learners fight their fear of losing face).
  2. Text-to-speech looks like a great addition in Sanako Study 1200 V.61 for the language learner:
  3. image
    1. especially since it
      1. includes play speed options
      2. allows for download of speech rendition for review
      3. can blend with a human expert in the face-to-face classroom
    2. while saving human experts time to record audio learning materials.
    3. Caveats:
    4. Would like to know more about IVONA voices.
    5. Pricing? Available Languages?
  4. We are still on Sanako 5.2, but will be losing our Deskbot text-to-speech wizard with XP soon –  so coincidentally I have just been wondering whether we will be able to hack together a text-to-speech on Windows 7, maybe using Google translate voices, but without the Google translate features that are commonly  abused by language learners? Update: Look here for automating Google translate text-to-speech.