Fall 2010 Connect Training Schedule

This Fall's Connect sessions on web development and computer applications begin next Wednesday, on Sept. 1st. All sessions start at 9 a.m. and are roughly 1 hour long. Look for an email explaining how to sign in, or email me directly at Jeffrey.Wood@Colostate.edu.

Sept 1 – What's New In Dreamweaver CS5.
Sept 15 – Working With Pixlr.
Oct 6 – Dreamweaver CS5: Widgets and Behaviors.
Oct 20 – CSU Graphic standards and best practices (w/Joanne Littlefield).
Nov 3 – Internet Safety (w/Darrin Goodman).
Nov 10 - Creative Commons and images (w/Joanne Littlefield)
Dec 1 - Using Connect, Improving Webinars,
Dec 8 - Working With Posters (w/Joanne Littlefield)
Jan 5 – Using Skype, Innerpass File sharing
Jan 12 – CSU Social media policies (w/Joanne Littlefield)

If you miss a session, they will be recorded and archived on the Computer Applications Training Page, approximately 2 days after the session.

Online Privacy

A series of recent articles by Julia Angwin and others in the Wall Street Journal about online privacy revealed some disturbing practices. They used a clean computer to visit the 50 most popular websites in the US, accounting for roughly 40% of web traffic.

The 50 site visits installed a total of 3,180 tracking files.

About a third of these were rather innocuous "cookies," text files that might store a username or account details. Fully two-thirds, however, came from 131 companies that follow Internet users to create databases of consumer profiles that can then be sold. The companies that placed the most such tools were Google, Microsoft, and Quantcast Corp, all of which are in the business of targeting ads at people online.

The worst offender? Dictionary.com, which installed a stunning 168 tracking tools that didn't let users decline to be tracked.

The only site to install no tracking files? Wikipedia.

The series of four articles are linked below.

What They Know

Sites Feed Personal Details To New Tracking Industry

On the Web's Cutting Edge, Anonymity in Name Only

The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets

Sharing Google Docs

There are two strategies you can use to share Google Docs you have uploaded.

The first is to allow access to specific people, via email address, and then invite them to view or edit.

The second way is to choose the "Anyone with the link" option, which allows anyone you email the link to to view/edit the document without the confusion of having to sign in. This is the easiest method, and relatively secure, as you have some control over who is sent the link (you can also reset the link at any time, if you are worried about security).

Both methods start out the same. Upload the document, then click the Share button on the upper right, and choose Sharing Settings.



A new dialogue box will appear (below). If you choose Anyone With the Link you will see the option of allowing them to edit the document at the bottom of the box. Leaving this box unchecked will only give them permission to view the document.



A final dialogue box will appear (shown below) with the link. Cut and paste it into an email and you are good to go. Note the Reset Link option just below and to the right of the link. If you do reset the link, make sure you alert everyone involved of the new link.



To keep the document private, choose Private.



This will bring up a new dialogue box. You allow access to the document with an email address. To the right of the email text box you can choose whether they can edit or merely view the document.



Checking the Send Email Notifications box will automatically send emails to all those who have been allowed access.

If you would like to learn more about Google Docs, my own video tutorials are available on the Video Tutorials page, and Lynda.com tutorials available at lynda.colostate.edu. Sign in and choose Google on the Vendor drop-down menu.

Google Maps Widget

Google Code has an easy to use Google Maps Widget wizard to allow you to embed a Google map of your workplace location (or any other location) into a webpage. The result can be searched and the end user can zoom and pan the embedded map.

Go to the Google Maps Widget site (www.google.com/uds/solutions/wizards/mapsearch.html). Choose a size, a zoom level, and the name, location and URL where you want the map to center on.



Give Google the URL associated with your Google account, and they will generate the code. Cut and paste it into your webpage, and that's it! A screenshot of the result is below.