Ning is nice....

We had a presentation in class on Ning.com, a social networking, online tool that provides free space and interaction tools for group networking. The instructor set up a Ning site for the CI5323 class members and we have been using it to communicate with each other. Ning provides tools, such as, blogs, email, video uploads, photo uploads and albums, and personal space as well as others, to enhance the social networking and interaction on the site. I have enjoyed checking-out the site and can think of several ways this tool might be used for a course, or for family communication.



As much as I find the site appealing and useful to group sharing, there are a few things that I am not too excited about. The site, while glitzy, is distracting for me, personally. I am finding it difficult to locate specific areas and to navigate the site tools. The learning curve, while not steep, is cumbersome to just getting started with this site. It was good to get a presentation on Ning.com in class and I know that for very specific purposes, I would definitely utilize this tool.

The one thing I really like about the site is that as administrator, it is possible to curtail certain linking activities and set-up administrative approved member sign-in and viewing. Utilizing this tool for a class might work best for older students--since there are advertisements that may be inappropriate or distracting to younger students. The creation of personal pages is also a very good feature and would allow a teacher to portfolio course work for each student in one place so that sharing between the student community would be a possibility. The best feature for myself being quite busy and having several sites going at once, is the email notification of content changes, requests for approval, and other changes, which are directly linked from the email so that changes are only a matter of acceptance or non-acceptance.

Overall, I think ning.com is an online tool that has great possibilities when matched with course objectives and community behavior goals.

Victim, No More...Victorious over Vista...

Yup, problem solved with the help of a Microsoft Software Research Engineer named Kevin! Service Pack 1 for Vista is installed--albeit on a clean (new) harddrive. Evidently if there is any corruption or incompatibility in any program on the harddrive where Vista resides, the Vista service pack 1 is so sophisticated that it identifies any discrepancies in files, corruptions, or needed updates, and refuses to install unless everything in the original Vista is in tip-top shape. When it does finally install (even when it unsuccessfully attempts to install) service pack 1 saves all documents, program data and files, and windows files and settings in a file called c:\windows.old. This is very good.

One drawback of the Vista SP1 is that if you attempt to install it on a harddrive running Vista and the install fails, it is not possible to reverse the failed install. That is not good.

Since I had several failed installs, I have several files, windows.old, windows. old1, windows.old 2, on the harddisk, but the harddisk is now unusable--until I transfer the old files to another harddrive and reformat the harddrive and do a clean install. Very, very, not good!

But in view of all the hassles, once SP1 is successfully installed, wow, the speed of the whole computer improves, the files are renamed and moved to more logical places, and unnecessary folders are eliminated and others are moved to more user-friendly locations. This is good.

Unfortunately, some the software program will not operate properly if a needed file or folder has been renamed or moved by Vista SP1. It is necessary to either reinstall, recreate a missing folder, or find the moved folder or file and copy and paste it into the correct spot. For example, I had to create a folder called c:\temp, since the install program for software I just purchased required the folder--which I did have prior to installing Vista SP1. Hmmmmmm....that is not too good.

But, I must say that I am impresed with the absolutely great support I received from Microsoft--about nine hours of expert assistance over the phone for free. The usual cost of such tech support is steep--approximately $599.99 per hour! Sheesch!

Microsoft is very well aware of how complicated it is to install Vista SP1 and dedicates a free tech support site to resolve any problems. First I used online tech support, but later, received phone calls from Microsoft technicians and research engineers who assisted me in resolving the failed installs and helped me located needed files and documents. The tech support was superb, the explanations, easy to follow, and the customer service was great! The follow-up from the technical staff was first-rate and I certainly was made to feel an integral part of the solution and that it was their pleasure to resolve any issues. That was Very, Very good!