Karulkar Thanksgiving

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving in Champaign, IL. My brother is finishing up his Ph.D (his dissertation needs to be finished in a few weeks) so we figured it was best to come to him instead of having him come to AK.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Panraven still smells but kudos to the marketing manager

If you check out my post about Panraven, you'll realize I ripped it a brand new one. However to my surprise Andy Katz, the marketing manager addressed my concerns in this comment. I was very pleased to see that while I don't like the product at the moment, the people behind it are working to make it fit my needs. Anyways here is what he wrote to me. You can find it in my "comments" section on the post below.

"Hi Nik,
I'm a marketing manager for Panraven. Thanks for taking the time to create a Panraven story and provide your feedback.

We do plan to introduce font control and more flexibility with the layouts in the future, as we have learned that is something users would find useful. One reason the font is small is because it is proportional to how it will look when printed. We want to give users the most realistic representation of what their book would look like in a printed form so that when they receive a printed version of their Panraven story, they are not surprised or disappointed.

You also hit on another feature we plan to build out: out library of templates. We continue to add more to the selection, and we have plans to allow users to create their own.

I believe the truly powerful possibility with Panraven in the classroom is the ability for your classes to share their stories with classes from other places around the world. This is something that can't be done with a physical scrapbook.

I welcome your ongoing feedback. You clearly know your way around some of these web 2.0 products.

If you have any further questions or comments about our product, don't hesitate to contact me.

Andy Katz"

I decided to write back to him, this is what I said,

"Andy,

I was very surprised to see your response on my blog. I don't know how you found it considering it was pretty much designed for my class to see, but I also made it a public blog so I guess someone outside of the class was bound to find it. I think Panraven's issue is it's asking a web browser to do too much. I think Panraven could do so much more if the building of a story book was done from a freeware application and not through the web browser. This way people can just load images from their hard-drives, flash-disks, etc. without loading the images onto your servers thus eliminating the need to depend on a good internet connection(I'm in Alaska and internet can be on the fritz sometimes). Once the user has finished their story book, the file can then be sent to Panraven to be posted on the internet. This also will remove the issue of your servers crashing and losing peoples archive of photos and slideshows, though I think you guys would be smart enough to back everything up. I'm not an expert on these kinds of things, I just have used a lot of them. I just felt that mine and my classmates storybooks would have been better if the features I was so frustrated about not being there were there. Once again thanks for the response back but it still doesn't change my opinion at the moment, it reeks of BETA stage. It's good to know you guys cared about what I thought and I hope you can improve Panraven to make it something I'd want to use.

-Nik Karulkar"

Panraven storybook

Reflection

I do not like Panraven. I think it is really tacky and extremely non user friendly. I don't like that I can't resize the images or text boxes myself. If it is possible then it needs to be clearer. Not to over-toot my own horn, but I know my way around these types of things and if I am having trouble, I'm confident other people will. I think I have to use HTML to make the text bigger. Even though I can do that, I know many people can't. I would not recommend this to any teacher to use. I think having the kids make a story book with hard materials(i.e. with paper, pencil, coloring, etc.) is much more effective and worth their time. Yes, I can embed it in a blog, but honestly I could careless because, the product is so tacky in the end(no matter who makes it) that I wouldn't really care to share this. I think the backgrounds are weak and it takes to long to load things. Overall of all the things I was introduced this semester, the only thing I gained from this, is that Panraven is a waste of mine and my childrens time. I don't mean to be so hard on it but I refuse to say "I had fun" and "Panraven is awesome" when the truth is I think Panraven is garbage.

Slideshow

Checkout this slide show I made with Flickr. I like Flickr and I think it's a good tool but it isn't the only tool people could use. There are many other websites and programs available to make slideshows with besides Flickr. As I was making this slideshow I realized how a lot of senseless pictures could really tell a story. For example had I not taken a picture of Jordan mowing the lawn, or Mike using my MacBook camera I wouldn't be able to let the people I know in Alaska about who I am. I really enjoyed making this slideshow and I even though I tried to rush ahead I found myself constantly reworking it. But enjoy my slideshow, they all have picture of my family and life growing up.

Slideshow

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The importance of being a part of the whole class

My friends always tell me that my school is too easy. I think this school definitely has a unique composition of staff and students that does allow for more flexibility then other colleges but the commitment to the class is more prevalent in this school then any other. There are some classes in which a student can miss a fair share of lectures but still get by but then there are the courses in which students have to be ready to really buckle down and consider themselves a part of it. It doesn't mean their lives have to be the course but the student's presence and input only strengthens the course and it always seems like the bullseye in securing a good grade.

For some reason, sports like skateboarding and snowboarding attract a bigger market. As a result rollerblading has taken a decline in popularity. So check out my video trying to encourage people to tear it up. I got to note that all this video is taken from YouTube.Com clips. I wish I could have had access to skaters to get footage like that, but I couldn't.

Music Credit: "Benjamin Franklin Music" - Grand Buffet

I guess one thing that media can do is deliver a message. In this case I felt that a lot of kids are getting over exposed to skateboarding and snowboarding. While those are all a lot of fun I feel that rollerblading has taken a back seat. So I decided I'd create a video encouraging kids to give the sport a try. I think persuasion is a key aspect of media. I think by showing images of people doing crazy things on rollerblades, I can convince people it's a cool thing to try. Therefore if I wanted to work an assignment for persuasion I'd probably show my kids how media images play a huge fact on persuasion. Then I would have them make a video persuading people to try something. I feel that I can tell people to try rollingblading all I want, but without the images my argument is weak. The same thing can be said if kids are trying to convince me not to assign homework. They can tell me not try to give them homework, or they can tell then show me the benefits from me doing that.

Idea for ED 486

I realized that a bunch of people in this class are either in my Ed 486 class or probably need to take it at some point. I was trying to figure out how to organize those journals and I realized there is a good chance the teacher would be up for a blog format. That way if I review a TV ad I can post it on the blog, as well as an image of from a newspaper. I don't know if this helps anyone but I think it might be a good idea.

Computers in the classroom

I have noticed a lot of people in the class have been posting their thoughts about computers in the classroom. I realize that it's pretty important not just because technology is all over the schools it's everywhere. My bank, school, and many other things are always encouraging me to go electronic and most of the time it really does make things a lot easier or efficient. I realize I live off my computer. I lost all my CD's a couple years ago and I have yet to replace any of them because my computer is a data base of more music then was on those 30-40 CDs. I remember there was a particular episode of Law and Order I wanted to see and I was able to download it off I tunes for pocket change. I think textbooks with technology incorporated materials are really important for this to work because books haven't been eliminated from the academic world and most college courses require textbooks. My fear would be kids leaving the school district or graduating and struggling in an environment that use mostly print texts.
I think at a young age computers will really show their benefits. Programs like Garageband and I-movie both extremely easy to use will spark children's imaginations more then ever. That spark could potentially raise these children into true pioneers of the future.

My weekend

This weekend I checked out Starvation Gulch. I have actually never went to it before so I decided this year I would go. The honest truth was I found it kind of boring. There really wasn't anything going on, it was a bunch of people hanging around a massive fire. I kind of wish the had a band playing or something else. I kind of feel a lot of the events here on campus are weak. I understand their isn't a whole lot of access to things but I feel like their should be more large gatherings for students. I think an event like Starvation Gulch should be like a big concert of local talent. If people put in the time it's possible to make that event 1000 times better then it is. I understand there are little events on campus but even if any of them are cool, I never know, they're advertised pretty poorly. The point is the school doesn't have enough epic events. Epic events are like Starvation Gulch where someone like me, who never knows about anything, still knows about. The second problem is the epic events they do have doesn't really seem to have a whole lot to them. I think while this school truly provides top notch education, it lacks in student activities and that can make going to this school kind of difficult sometimes.

Why I hate the Redskins

I was extremely excited to see the Redskins lose. As a Ravens fan I have deal with Redskins riding the excitement of winning three Superbowls. I hate the Redskins so much I had to make a separate post about it because it over flooded my other football post. One that I wasn't alive for, another when I was about 10 months and then other was won when I was 5. I know the Ravens Superbowl win was quite awhile ago but since that Superbowl they have consistently been a solid team with only a couple losing seasons. Since the Ravens came to Baltimore the Redskins have been a splotchy mess of losing seasons, with a couple playoff berths. In fact since the Redskins won their last superbowl the Browns/Ravens* have made it to the playoffs 4 times the Redskins only 3. The overall playoff records of each team is Ravens 6-3(2000-01 Superbowl championship) and Redskins 3-3. I guess my argument is the Redskins don't have a right to say the "Ravens suck" or anything like that when considering the fact that the franchise has made a giant turn around since the Redskins last Superbowl. The Redskins tradition of excellence was ruined when Joe Gibbs left the first time, then guaranteed to years of miserable seasons when Daniel Snyder came. For such a young guy, he's very old fashioned asking to be called Mr. Synder and things like that. I don't really care too much in that regard but he pretty much throws bags with "$" markings at players that aren't worth it. In conclusion this is why I hate the Redskins or more particularly the lack of respect for the Ravens from their fans. Until they start impressing today, I don't care about their past, I never use the Ravens past to justify why my team is better and neither should they.

*the Ravens were initially made with the Cleveland Browns roster from the 1994-95 season because they were floating on bankruptcy and had operations suspended until 1999.

Nik's weekly NFL jibba jabba

So this week was quite an interesting week in football. Teams like the Lions and Texans who were showing promise at starting 2-0 both suffered losses. While I felt Houston put up a fight and is still a contending team, I think the Lions smell like an 8-8 season. I was pretty pumped to see Brett Favre open a can on the Chargers. Particularly Brett Favre tying Dan Marino's all-time touchdown record. I'm not sure if thats total touchdowns or just passing touchdowns. The Gold Rush got super loud when he made the score. The Philadelpia Eagles wore the craziest uniforms ever. I feel like a real bozo this week because Kevin Curtis who is on my fantasy team scored 45 points. So why am I bozo for having Kevin Curtis on my team..because I started Hines Ward over him. How many points did Hines put up...0. I did kind of weak in fantasy but I should put out the W.

Nik's first entry WOOT WOOT!

So this is my first entry. HOLY COW! I have never had a blog before, I've tried to Xanga and all that goodness and I don't think it will work. Seeing how this is for a class I look forward to being forced to blog. This allows me to get some steam off or brag about how I am owning in Fantasy Football.

Speaking of Football, how about them Ravens(My team). Yeah how about them. Why would any coach pass the ball on 3 and 2(or whatever the yardage is) with a lead and that amount of time. The point is with a one point lead and a defense that would have stopped the Cold War just by staring, there was no need to pass. The Ravens traded for Willis McGahee who was having a productive game, this is why they have him, for these situations. Even if the Ravens didn't get the first down and they had to punt, the Bengals offense was falling apart and the defense would have stepped up. The team played like junk the whole game...at least the offense. The sad thing is I think it was poor play calling. They passed when they should have ran and just called the wrong plays. The players are too good to let Brian Billick mess around like that. For once the Ravens receiving game is not called "Pass it to Todd Heap", for once I can go to the store and buy a jersey of a Ravens receiver besides and for once they actually look scary on Madden 08 good on offense and here is Billick messing it up. I know Billick can call plays, he called 9 wins worth of them last year. He needs to understand he has a passing game with solid receivers but he is not fielding Randy Moss via 1998, Reggie Wayne and Jerry Rice with Brett Farve via 1997 throwing. Hopefully next week they'll balance the whack passing calls with better run plays and utilize all the players properly. Otherwise it's gonna be a long and disappointing season!

In Fantasy Football this week. I OWNED. Manning to Harrison HECK YES. T.O. came through to. I might start Big Ben this week but I'm not sure..we'll see.


In other notes with the NFL. I was very troubled to hear about the condition of Kevin Everett. It's not the first time it's happened in sports but it doesn't make the incident any less disturbing. As a former football player myself it's a risk we all put ourselves in when we play this game. Anyone whose plays football, play safe. Listen to your coaches and seriously try using a cowboy collar(D and O lineman, RBs, LBs) or some other type neck roll(there are ones that don't restrict receivers). I believe these tools prevented me from quite a few injuries and while anything still can happen in football(no matter how much gear you wear).