UPLISSA offered an Alternative Classroom Learning Experience (ACLE) entitled "Outsourcing Members in Organizations at the Campus Level" last September 4, 2007 at the Computer Lab 1 and 2, UP SLIS.

A different mix with UP Danza, UnPLUG and PE class bellydancers (I think they're establishing an org too). Some revelations...

One was I finally got to talk to JM of UPLISSA and UnPLUG, University of the Philippines Linux Users Group (http://uplug.org) and we exchanged ideas about Linux, distros and open source alternatives (loved the Linux Mint you guys used). :D I think the UPLISSA and UnPLUG guys are preparing for Y4IT.

Another was seeing Kit bellydance. Marunong ka palang sumayaw. Sa inyo bagay, sa aming may belly e hindi bagay. O_o;; So weird that the blurred bellydancing pics were viewed more than my other pics on Flickr. Mga tao nga naman....

Update: Si Mashiel, one of my old students, pala yung isa sa mga sumayaw sa UP Danza, dehins ko sya nakilala! :D
  

Semi-geek time. I wanted to do things differently this semester. That being said, I started using different things in the classroom.
 
One of the things I am using is David Ayton's CDisplay for Windows as presentation software for my lectures rather than Powerpoint, Impress or Slideshare. I used to just use plain HTML years ago.
 
CDisplay is a free sequential image viewing utility and is widely used to view digitized comic files. Digitized comics are usually in PDF or in CDisplay readable CBR or CBZ formats (which essentially are ZIPs or RARs of sequential images like JPGs). In the CBR or CBZ file, page 1 would be 001.jpg and so one, depending on your naming convention. Renaming to ZIP or RAR yields the original archive and the images can be extracted individually. I was thinking that since I use this for viewing / distibuting some of the comics lettering work I've done then why not use it for class?
 
Pros: Very fast.
Cons: Since they're already flat images, there's no way to extract text except for running the extracted images through OCR software. And the CDisplay software has to be installed on the computer you're using.
 
CDisplay is no longer maintained but there's CDisplayEx, an open source version as well as other MacOS and Linux versions. (CDisplay wikipedia link with similar software here.)
  
Another thing I started using was a PSP (Sony Playstation Portable). Yes, I indulged on my birthday in the guise of academic computing. The last of my birthday purchases, the PSP, I now use to while the time away when waiting for people or when traffic is really bad (I watch my DVDrips in really bad traffic). The predecessor? I used to watch matchbook-size video on my ASUS V80 but it's proving quite a strain on the eyes. Now it's just an audio player.
 
*GASP!* A PSP in the classroom? Am I out of my mind? Nope. One of my students, Jay Layson, always lugs a PSP around and he was lamenting on the fact that he was the only with a PSP in SLIS at the start of the sem. He plays games on it, listens to music, watches vids and reads ebooks on it too. Now, including me, I think there are 3 PSPs in the hallways.
 
You see, I can view the CBRs and CBZs of my lectures and class reports on the PSP with PSPComic. If the document or report is in PDF, I can view it with Bookr. It saves me from neck stress having to look behind me at the projection screen all the time. Plus now I can read my ebooks, pdfs and plain text files wherever I go (no Harry Potters just yet, it's still Stoker, Mary Shelley and J Sheridan Le Fanu for me). And just to demonstrate the possibilities, I googled and followed the instructions I found in several old webpages like Matan Gillon's "Windows and Linux on the Sony PSP", Chris Mulhearn's "uLinux on the PSP" and "The Bochs IA-32 Emulator Project" and eventually got DLXlinux and Freedos / mulinux13r2 disk images to boot (had no success with TinyLinux, though). Of course all I need now is to get a keyboard (Pikey?) for basic text entry (nevertheless, I probably still have to get a laptop upgrade to replace my old second-hand Sony Vaio PCG-505SX).
 

Running Linux in PSP

Generated by Flickr Album Maker

Notes:
 
CDisplay
http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay
CDisplay is a free sequential image viewing utility used in viewing images one at a time, or two at a time just like comic pages.
 
PSPComic version 0.9.6 Beta
http://dl.qj.net/PSPComic-v0.9.9-Beta-PSP-Homebrew-Applications/pg/12/fid/14312/catid/140
A Comic Book Reader for the PSP! Copyright (C) 2007 Jeffrey P. (AKA Archaemic) & Christophe Rudyj (AKA Kip)
 
Bookr
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bookr/
A document reader for the Sony PSP with native PDF rendering.
 
CDisplayEx
CDisplay on wikipedia
Matan Gillon's "Windows and Linux on the Sony PSP"
Chris Mulhearn's "uLinux on the PSP"
"The Bochs IA-32 Emulator Project"

Before I start, here's a pink sleepy pig with an outie belly button I got at Tom's World SM South Mall Las Pinas.

Anyway, I wanted to set up my second hard disk with different Linux distributions. SO I did the usual formating, partitioning and adding an OS loader. In this case it was GRUB. Things were going great, I had WinXP, Nimblex, Ubuntu, Damn Small Linux and Geexbox up and running then WHAM! Blue Screen of Death... WinXP or Linux. Seems my PC was overheating, the processor temperature was reaching the auto-shutdown point set at 60 degrees celsius. I suspected that the culprit was the lack of cooling air reaching the processor or lack of contact between the processor and the heatsink. I was right. I replaced the power supply a couple of months ago and had to remove the processor fan to get at it. Back then the grease was already drying up. The PC is a year old so I was half-expecting it to dry up already.

I took the fan and heatsink apart and I was right. Damn things were dirty and air wasn't reaching the processor. Plus the thermal grease was already dry. I didn't have any thermal grease around. The stores in SM Southmall didn't have any in stock as well. So I had to make my own. The grease is important since it allows contact between the heatsink and processor so heat is conducted from the processor and makes for easier cooling by the fan and heatsink. So I googled for alternatives. I found Homemade Thermal Grease! at overclockers.com and Thermal Transfer Compound Comparison at dansdata.com very helpful. Hmmm... Seems toothpaste plus grease could do the trick, so could Brylcreem, but I couldn't find that particular page again since the PC hung before I could bookmark

I cleaned the dirt off the fan and heatsink with alcohol so they would dry fast (couldn't use water, WATER BAD!) Ditto for getting the dried thermal gunk off the processor. There were different recipes for homemade thermal grease, one suggestion was 75% toothpaste and 25% grease. I experimented and came up with a 50%-50% mixture using toothpaste and joint grease. The green gunk I lathered on the processor and slapped on the fan and heatsink. Well... So far so good. It's been a week now and no trouble yet. The processor temperature is down to 48 to 51 degrees. it's been a week and it's still going strong.With the PC in fighting form, I was able to finish the updates on FlipSpin.org (the Summer Swimming Party) and TeatroSanJose.org (Salubong)

Crossposted: gokitomo.com, gorilla.multiply.com, gorilla.vox.com.