Senuti

This week my nephew Aaron asked me how to get his iTunes music from his iPod onto his MacBook Pro (running Leopard). He had all of his music synced to his old PC.

We used Senuti (iTunes spelled backwards) which allows you to transfer songs from your iPod to your computer. It worked fairly well. I had used Senuti once before to move music from my daughter's iPod to her MacBook (running Tiger).

Tansferring songs on a Tiger machine was simple. We could select all the songs at once and click on transfer. But Leopard offered us a challenge. We could only transfer about 50 songs at once. When we tried more than that, the transfer did not work. I do not know if this is a Leopard bug or a Senuti bug. Nevertheless, the songs are transferred and Aaron is happy with the result.

Senuti has written explicit instructions on how to transfer music from your iPod to your computer, so be sure to read them before you use it.

Utah 6th Graders Tour the Globe

What an exciting day we had in the computer lab. Mrs. Robison's 6th grade class toured Google Earth, locating their favorite place on the planet. We turned an iPod into a recording studio by attaching a device called a MicroMemo, sold at XtremeMac.com.

Mrs. Robison and I interviewed students, asking the which place they chose as their favorite. The answers ranged from Pearl Harbor to the Roman Colosseum to Brighton, England. The students did a super job at responding to questions and recording a podcast.

We also had the class give a loud cheer on the podcast for their favorite football team: BYU or the U of U. Give it a listen and we will leave you to judge who the winner was.

Please notice a poll on the right hand side of this page. Please will you vote for your favorite place on earth---well, actually you only get to choose the continent upon which your favorite place is located--- but please vote. Inquiring minds in Mrs. Robison's class want to know.

Music to My Ears

Today I learned something new about music. Our team had a music Professor Alan Kaschub from the University of Southern Maine (School of Music) show us how to use USB keyboards along with an Apple application called Garageband.

We created a short song such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, added some percussion sound effects, and learned a bit about writing a music score in a free program called FinaleNotePad. You not only write the music in Finale, but you can listen to it as well. This is an amazing program!

The most fun I have ever had in my music lessons was to watch my sister Annie crawl across the piano teacher's living room floor to retrieve a penny that I had rolled across the floor. Having baited my poor sister to crawl after the penny, I was in an advantageous position to watch Mrs. Geiger's reaction.

With Garageband and FinaleNotePad, I can actually write a cool rap song about that scarring experience!

Mrs. Robison's Class Loves Google Earth

We traveled from Edgemont Elementary to Pyramids of Giza to Lagoon Amusement Park to a student's house to Mile High Stadium in Denver and we saw people walking around the Eiffel Tower.

We hope enjoy listening to a few comments from Mrs. Robison's class. Check back next week for more Google Earth fun.
Mrs. Robison's Cool Class

Bungee Jumping Anybody?

I figure if you can view a bungee jumping platform from space, it's got to be a doozie. This bungee jumper's delight is found near Victoria Falls in southern Africa. Can you see it in the bottom left quadrant of this image? For a visit to this area, check out Google Sightseeing.

Situated on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, Victoria Falls is one of the most amazing sights on earth. The falls are, by some measures, the largest waterfalls in the world, as well as being among the most unusual in form, and having arguably the most diverse and easily-seen wildlife of any major waterfall site. (wikipedia.org)

People in the area call Victoria Falls “the smoke that thunders”. Looking at this image from Google Earth, we begin to understand why. I hope someday to travel to Victoria Falls, but I may have to work up the courage to strap on the bungee cords and take a dive from the bridge.

The students in Mrs. Robison's 6th grade class at Edgemont Elementary will go on a virtual tour of Victoria Falls with me this week. They are really nice students so I enjoy visiting their class. I hope they like the bungee platform, and maybe they know of some really cool places seen on Google Earth.

Special note: Happy birthday Jeannie!

The install, at last

Here it is! The install. Kelly Dumont was the first person on our team to receive the Leopard DVD. The install took about 45 minutes and he was off and running, trying out new features.

I wanted to install Leopard so badly, but I know from past experience that I should always backup my entire hard drive before installing a new operating system. That night (Halloween) I used Carbon Copy Cloner (thanks to Bombich Software) to do a complete backup of my laptop.

Nov 1st arrived, and I installed Leopard. I got the blue screen of death that I have been reading about. I waited about 25 minutes and finally said Ah Heck, restart. My laptop seemed OK and I began using this new cat. My first impressions of Leopard are as follows:

• QuickLook is visually stunning
  
• Mail and iCal work together so well
• Mail has beautiful templates
• Spaces are fun
• Time Machine is worth the upgrade to Leopard

• I am not fond of the reflection in the dock
• Not crazy about blue folders
  
• Transparent finder menu a bit of a nuisance
  
• Side dock a bit dark for my tastes
  

But I do give Leopard 2 thumbs up. Overall it is great. While I find certain visual aspects disconcerting, I am enjoying Leopard a lot. Thanks Apple.

Suede Wall? Cell Phone Helps Again.

I am trying another use of my cell phone. I took this picture of a sample paint color I am trying for my wall, sent it to go@blogger.com. Within a couple of minutes I received a confirmation message back containing a claim code. I went to go.blogger.com, entered that claim code and asked blogger.com to send all futher photos to this blog. So when I am at the Apple event in Lehi on Tuesday, I will take some photos and submit them to this blog.

If you are interested to give this a try, it is as easy as pie.

1. Snap a picture
2. Send it to go@blogger.com
3. When you receive the claim code, simply go to go.blogger.com, enter the code, and voilá, you will have your mobile blog.
4. If you wish to move future pictures to your regular blog, select that option when you see it.