M.A. Hochberg’s Technology for Teaching

Most of the time, it doesn’t take a long time to replace a computer. Most of it depends on the difference in age between their old computer and the new one. Going from OS 10.2 to 10.4 isn’t much of a problem. Going from XP to Vista has some quirks. But sometimes there is a big enough change that everything has to be reinstalled, tested, upgraded, and tested again.

With so many computers and so many different versions of the operating system, I use a lot of checklists to keep track of what I have to do. The current upgrade to Intel MacBooks and the Leopard operating system, the list to make new golden image for teacher’s laptops was huge. Take a look.

New System Checklist

Start up & register w/Apple
Fully charge battery
Rest in charged state 2 hours
Fully drain battery
Rest in discharged state 5 hours
Recharge battery & reset Power Option
Computer Name
Register device w/downtown & cow wireless
Turn Bluetooth off
Set proxys for Airport & Ethernet
Set time to ntp.lane.edu
Add Screen Resolution icon
ARD settings
Set up printers
Adjust Finder settings
Adjust Safari settings
Anti-virus
Install Firefox
Remove trial software
Adobe Shockwave
Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Reader
Flip for Mac
iWork
Real Player
Smartboard Software
Stuffit
Install Oaks
Kid Pix
Kidspiration
ATRT
Math Facts
Accelerated Reader
Read Naturally
Comic Life
MS Office Update
Add Servers to Dock
Clean up Dock
Open all programs in each account
Apple Software update
Create Master Image
Transfer files from old system

In addition, with a new operating system, there were lots of glitches, false starts, and waiting for companies to update their software. For example, the software to run the Smartboards with Leopard was not available until early January.

Thank goodness this doesn’t happen too often! Once the master image is created, I can skip most of the steps above.

When it comes to portability, laptops are unequaled. Unfortunately, they have quite a few drawbacks. One major drawback is how fragile they are and the lighter and thinner they are, the more fragile they are. Here is a new report on damage to MacBooks.

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Portable Mac Damage
By Jon, jon@smalldog.com

Portable computers are lovely, but delicate. We see and service many machines with physical damage, and can often repair machines for literally $1000 less than Apple’s flat rate damage repairs; some of the most common damage we see is with pinched optical drive slots. This is caused when the user picks up his or her machine with one hand, gripping the computer tightly right where the drive slot is. This is probably the weakest area of the whole machine. The torque and force from lifting and holding the unit parallel to the floor is huge, and can result in a completely occluded slot.

This damage is not covered by Apple Care! For MacBooks, the entire bottom case must be replaced, as the bezel is not a separate part. This is quite labor-intensive, as all the guts of the machine must be transplanted from one housing to another. It’s often most cost- effective to use a flathead screwdriver to pry the slot open just enough, taking care not to damage the actual drive mechanism.

The moral of the story is simply this: portables are delicate and should be handled with two hands at all times.

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Small Dog Electronics has several free news letters and I highly recommend them. You can subscribe at

http://www.smalldog.com/subscribe.html

If your MacBook or MacBookPro will not run using the battery, here are some steps to try:

1. Try this first.
   1. Turn off the power.
   2. Remove the battery.
   3. Remove the power adapter.
   4. Wait 30 seconds.
   5. Replace the battery and power adapter and restart the computer.
   6. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, move on to the next step.
2. Reset SMC
   1. Turn off the power.
   2. Remove the battery.
   3. Remove the power adapter.
   4. Hold down the power button for 5 seconds.
   5. Replace the battery and power adapter and restart the computer.
   6. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, move on to the next step.
3. Make sure that it is running OS 10.4.9 or later
   1. If not, run System Update and restart the computer.
   2. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, move on to the next step.
4. Make sure that Battery Update 1.2 is installed
   1. Go go the folder “System/Library/System Configuration”
   2. Click once on “Battery Update” and check the version number.
   3. If it is missing or has an older version, go to Apple.com and download & install it. http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/batteryupdate12.html
   4. If it is there, go to the next step.
5. Check the battery icon & power adapter
   1. If the adapter light is orange and the battery icon on the menu bar shows a jagged line in it, calibrate the battery. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284
   2. If the adapter light is green and the battery icon is black with an X in it, the battery needs to be replaced. There is a special extended warranty replacement available. http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/
6. While you are doing all this, don’t forget to check the battery itself. Press the button on the back of it to see how much, if any, power it has.

Sometimes it gets so confusing that it is impossible to say where the problem lies, who owns the problem, and whether it is worth trying to fix it.

Kid Pix is a venerable, yet very useful and current program–but does it run smoothly on Intel Macs? And why do two different companies own the different versions of it? Even worse, why does the “smaller number” version run better and have the most current support?

Version 3x is owned by MacKiev: http://www.mackiev.com/kid_pix.html

Version 4 is owned by Riverdeep/Broderbund:

http://support.broderbund.com/faq_list.asp?id=1294820710

This article sums up the differences in the programs:

http://k12geeks.com/article.php?story=20070821063610961&query=kid%2Bpix
At this point, all I can say is that I would truly miss KidPix and am annoyed at the notion of having to buy an “older” version of the product to get it to run on a very new computer.

No one likes to lose their work and first graders take it especially hard.