Christopher Allen › Comments

[What about Open Courseware?] "Between Craigslist and eBay, the Internet is well established as a marketplace where one person’s trash is transformed into another’s treasure. Now, thousands of teachers are cashing in on a commodity they used to give away, selling lesson plans online for exercises as simple as M&M sorting and as sophisticated as Shakespeare. While some of this extra money is going to buy books and classroom supplies in a time of tight budgets, the new teacher-entrepreneurs are also spending it on dinners out, mortgage payments, credit card bills, vacation travel and even home renovation, leading some school officials to raise questions over who owns material developed for public school classrooms. - Christopher Allen

"This manual is revised for use with the 25-10-2009 build of SheepShaver. The build is Universal Binary and will run in Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard. We start with the description of a classic setup with all files together in a folder “SheepShaver”. That folder can be anywhere you like, for instance in your Applications folder or in your Home folder. In this setup, with the needed files in the same folder with SheepShaver, no full paths are required for configuration, just file names will work. However, files and folders can be renamed and/or moved to different locations, provided you make sure the file names and/or full paths to the files are entered in SheepShaver preferences. - Christopher Allen

"So you have downloaded Basilisk II (Basilisk II w/Audio) or SheepShaver and you are dreaming about Getting your old Mac Software up and running huh? Where to start? where to start? With your modern Mac you start opening up the Emulators and start getting to it only to realize that you need a few things don’t you? - Christopher Allen

"After more experimentation and an inspirational tweet by Kory Westerhold, I came across the magical combination of using TiltShift Generator and Mill Colour. TiltShift Generator is an app that at it’s core gives you tools to simulate the look of tilt-shift photography, but as you experiment with the controls you can easily move beyond the typical “miniature” look that’s synonymous with a tilt-shift lens. What I love about this app is that it helps simulate a stronger depth-of-field than the native “touch to focus” feature gives you and you can also get creative in where that focal point exists. From there the app provides color editing for saturation, brightness, and contrast which, regardless of being only 3 sliders, can dramatically alter the look of your photo. Lastly you have a slider for adding a vignette and then the option to save your photo to the photo library or export (I presume to twitter, but I’ve never used it). - Christopher Allen

"The problem is that what we helped usher in is now creating a bottleneck. So many people are making work and the production costs have been reduced so much, that the volume of work being made can't fit the current release structure. It's overburdening festivals, there's not enough shelf space in retail or rental outlets, and the promise of digital distribution just isn't quite there yet. You have a flood of work, but not enough outlets. - Christopher Allen

"But if somebody isn't out there creating a system wherein independent production can thrive, it will wither...The worst thing that's happened in this community is the death of the independent television producer. We have to make sure that that doesn't happen on what is, right now, a public forum, and not a privately owned forum....Especially with the economic disaster that the last bunch of presidents has left us with, independent film production is shutting down. The film and television industry is finding itself in the position the music industry found itself in [a few years ago]. The difference is they have a chance not to do what the music industry did, which was to ossify and to basically lock themselves in their fortress until they ran out of food. - Christopher Allen

"Troll Touch is the acknowledged leader in touchscreen technology for Apple hardware. We have been touch enabling Macintosh all-in-one desktops, laptops and displays since 1987. Our proprietary, custom designed and manufactured touch sensitive overlays feature PSR-1® or Pressure Sensitive Resistive touchscreen technology and are mounted on either optically clear acrylic or chemically strengthened glass depending on the particular application. It is our ability to incorporate a very thin layer of this touch sensitive material inside or on to the hardware we’re modifying that enables us to do what we do. And since our overlays are analog resistive the customer is afforded maximum latitude in how and where the touchscreen is to be used since activation can be accomplished by any type of soft tipped stylus such as a fingertip, pencil point, eraser or gloved hand. - Christopher Allen

"Mac OS X Server v10.6 introduces the ability to have your HFS+ journal on another drive. The HFS+ journal is heavily used under workloads where files are created, deleted, or when file attributes are changed. Many server workloads have these characteristics. For example, a mail server frequently creates and deletes temporary files in the queue area, and also creates new files containing messages in the user's mailbox directory. These activities create synchronous disk activity, which cause the server to wait until the journal entries are complete. Journaled HFS+ file systems can benefit from placing the journal on either a separate disk, or on a smaller, faster device. - Christopher Allen

"An even more striking thing, perhaps, emerges in this second graph, namely that revenues accrued by artists themselves have in fact risen over the past 5 years, despite the fall in record sales. (All the blue bars in the chart above represent revenues that go directly to artists. As you can see, the ‘blue total’ has risen noticeably.) This is mostly because of live revenues, but also because of the growing amount collected by the PRS on behalf of artists, which accounts for a much bigger chunk of industry revenues than most people realise. (PRS revenues in fact break down into 4 categories - Broadcast and Online, Public Performance, Mechanical, International. You can explore this in more detail in this spreadsheet, which contains all our data.) It’s interesting too that, overall, industry revenues have grown in the period - though admittedly not by much - which arguably adds strength to the notion that, when the BPI releases its annual report claiming how much ‘the music industry’ ... - Christopher Allen

"So after probably far too much research, I've come up with the following single register/log in form for Leafy Chat. Log in Sign up The form updates via JavaScript when the user selects a radio button. For the log in form, notice that the submit button says "Log in" and there is a link to retrieve a forgotten password. For the sign up form, the label for the password field prompts the user to "Choose a password" and "Sign up!" while also accepting the terms of service. I like this design because a user can either log in or sign up directly from the homepage and the radio buttons stand out and make the options clear to the user. I love that the page dynamically updates to provide relevant help for the chosen form. Also, the user can easily correct any errors without re-entering their email/password. What do you think? - Christopher Allen

" The Yeti is the most advanced and versatile multi-pattern USB microphone available anywhere. Combining three capsules and four different pattern settings, the Yeti is the ultimate tool for creating amazing recordings, directly to your computer. THX Certified for exceptional sound and performance, the Yeti can capture anything with a clarity & ease unheard of in a USB microphone. The Yeti features Blue's innovative triple capsule array, allowing for recording in stereo or your choice of three unique patterns, including cardioid, omnidirectional, and bidirectional, giving you recording capabilities usually requiring multiple microphones. The Yeti utilizes a high quality analog-to-digital converter to send incredible audio fidelity directly into your computer, a built-in headphone amplifier for zero-latency monitoring, and simple controls for headphone volume, pattern selection, instant mute, and microphone gain located directly on the microphone... - Christopher Allen

"Whether you plan on working in the film industry or just have a passion for all things cinematic, the web is full of resources to help you learn, study and find inspiration for your passion. Here are 100 excellent film sites that will provide you with a range of clips, photos, memorabilia and research archives on everything from amateur productions to big budget Hong Kong blockbusters. - Christopher Allen

[This is the source of those strange little men that I use in my presentations] - Christopher Allen

"I don’t really know why I wrote this. It wasn’t what I set out to write. That happens. But I am extraordinarily fascinated with all aspects of this almost-17-year-old conversation. - Christopher Allen

"The Symphony of Science is a musical project by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form. Here you can watch music videos, download songs, read lyrics and find links relating to the messages conveyed by the music." - Christopher Allen

[Huge list of different instructional design / pedagogy models - great kicking off place for exploring the topic.] "Models, like myths and metaphors, help us to make sense of our world. Whether derived from whim or from serious research, a model offers its user a means of comprehending an otherwise incomprehensible problem. An instructional design model gives structure and meaning to an I.D. problem, enabling the would-be designer to negotiate her design task with a semblance of conscious understanding. Models help us to visualize the problem, to break it down into discrete, manageable units. The value of a specific model is determined within the context of use. Like any other instrument, a model assumes a specific intention of its user. A model should be judged by how it mediates the designer's intention, how well it can share a work load, and how effectively it shifts focus away from itself toward the object of the d - Christopher Allen

"This is an update to Bloom's Revised Taxonomy which attempts to account for the new behaviours and actions emerging as technology advances and becomes more ubiquitous. Bloom's Revised Taxonomy accounts for many of the traditional classroom practices, behaviours and actions but does not account for the new processes and actions associated with Web 2.0 technologies and increasing ubiquitous personal and cloud computing. Bloom's Digital Taxonomy isn't about the tools or technologies rather it is about using these to facilitate learning. Outcomes on rubrics are measured by competence of use and most importantly the quality of the process or product. For example. Bookmarking a resource is of no value if the resource is inappropriate or worthless. - Christopher Allen

"Bore No More Would you like to deliver more engaging, informative, and persuasive presentations? Do you supervise colleagues who must give presentations on a regular basis? If you have wasted enough time with bad presentations – on either side of the podium – this book is for you. Based on unprecedented research across the public interest sector, and incorporating the advice of twenty highly regarded public speaking experts, Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes, can help you avoid the most commonly made mistakes (“The Fatal Five”), structure your information in ways that help audiences absorb it, use PowerPoint more effectively, and deliver your talks with greater confidence. Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes was written by Andy Goodman and was designed and published by Hershey/Cause (the same team that brought you Why Bad Ads Happen to Good Causes.) Unfortunately, printed copies are no longer available, but you can still download the complete text here at no charge - Christopher Allen

"Abstract – In a few pages this paper uncovers the principles of Innovation by Patterns and its field in the theory of innovation. This paper is intended to be a literature study and an overview of the relevant theories of Innovation by Patterns. - Christopher Allen

"Abstract – Present paper elaborates on the development of an innovation process, a continuous assessment tool for innovation opportunities and an agile monitoring and controlling process for driving innovation forward. These processes and tools is seen as initial models of open processes which should be adjusted along the way as the experience build up in the innovation guiding coalition and the business development team. - Christopher Allen

"At the core of our process are the five innovation patterns. We have found that the patterns can help predict the emergence of new products before the appearance of signals indicating market demand. The five innovation patterns described in this article are at the heart of a creative process founded on the notion that function follows form. - Christopher Allen

"Spotless is a simple utility designed to enable and disable Spotlight content indexing of volumes with the click of a button. Spotlight content indexing can cause major slow-downs on volumes that are used for backup purposes, video rendering, Photoshop scratch disks, and a wide variety of tasks that involve the transfer of large amounts of data. Spotless can effectively and indefinitely disable the indexing of volumes that you specify. Even if the volume is a removable device, the indexing status is remembered when you remount it - even on a different computer! Simply adding volumes to Spotlight's privacy list does not achieve the same results as using Spotless. You may cause the Metadata Server to crash, and the volumes may be indexed the next time you mount them. Also, while adding volumes to the privacy list disables content indexing, it also prevents you from finding the files by name. Spotless allows you to delete existing Spotlight indexes. This will free up the space used by... - Christopher Allen

[Advice on the importance of selecting your avatar photo] - Christopher Allen

"PDF to Keynote converts PDF-based presentations (e.g., made using LaTeX with Prosper, Beamer or foiltex) into Apple's Keynote format. Once translated into Keynote format, every page of your original PDF file becomes a PDF image, properly scaled and centered on its own slide. Although intended for presentations, you can also use it to create slides for the pages of regular documents. Because each page of your original document becomes a PDF image, you can't easily edit those pages except by adding new content over the top to mask things out. - Christopher Allen

[too buggy as of 2009-10-30, but could someday be nice front-end for google reader] - Christopher Allen

"This model does two things. First, it defines the eight competencies we think are required for successful community management. Second, it attempts – at a high level – to articulate how these competencies progress from organizations without community management that are still highly hierarchical to those that have embraced a networked business ecosystem approach to their entire organization. We use this model in a number of ways: - Christopher Allen

"Now, as I suggested yesterday, writer’s block as a phenomenon is bullshit — but that doesn’t mean we don’t sometimes get gummed up and feel like we just can’t birth words. It’s just not a thing that’s unique to writers, though we like to pretend it is (we take credit wherever we can, we greedy magpies, we thieving raccoons). Anybody who has done anything ever has sometimes felt like not doing some shit. Party you don’t want to go to? Spreadsheet that needs some calculating? Checkbook that needs balancing? Moon insurgents that need putting down with galactic doom ray? Been there. Done that. You’re not special. Sometimes, we’re just not motivated. We feel frustrated, inert, unable. It doesn’t need a special name just because you’re a writer. Give it a name, and you give it power. Breathe into the paper, and it becomes a tiger. And then it bites your face. Do you want that? I don’t want that. - Christopher Allen

[Interesting - writer's platform as an alternative term for personal brand] "The word platform simply describes all the ways you are visible and appealing to your future, potential, or actual readership. Platform development is important not only for authors; it’s also crucial for aspiring and soon-to-be authors. Your platform includes your Web presence, any public speaking you do, the classes you teach, the media contacts you’ve established, the articles you’ve published, and any other means you currently have for making your name and your future books known to a viable readership. If others already recognize your expertise on a given topic or for a specific audience or both, then that is your platform. Long story short: Your platform communicates your expertise to others, so you don’t have to." - Christopher Allen

[a response to Berrett Koehler's 12 aweful truths about publishing] "Okay nifty, huh? Now what surprises me most about that is not really the declining numbers and the increasing market specialisation. What’s interesting to me is that a publishing company wrote that. Who was their audience? My guess is that the audience is prospective writers — this document is an exercise in expectations management for the clients of the publishing company. It’s a way to make sure that they see the realities of the business and are ready to take on the burden of being an author, which has increased substantially from the Good Old Days. - Christopher Allen

"Wouldn’t it be great if we had a simple model for how to engage people in an online community? There are a number of concepts out there, but none of them are tailored to the social sector. We thought it would be worth sharing our approach: ‘The Community Engagement Pyramid’. Does it strike a chord? - Christopher Allen