This class will give you a visual tour about how to use Second Life ® (SL) and find interesting places using your avatar in SL.

I will show you how to teleport to interesting places in SL, how you move your avatar and get information about the virtual world.

The class will start as presentation (using desktop sharing) to show you my own view in the SL Viewer Version 2. The second part will be a live hands-on tour directly in SL where you need to start up the SL Viewer along with the Elluminate virtual classroom.

Syllabus:

- How to find interesting places
- How to teleport
- Walking, Running, Flying around
- Getting information
- Finding schools and classes in SL
- visiting an SL school in world

Prerequisites:

You need to have an account at Secondlife already. If you don’t have a (free) account yet, please create one before you come into class at:

https://join.secondlife.com/?lang=en-US

Please make sure you will be able to run the SL viewer along with the Elluminate virtual classroom to take part of the second part of this workshop. To do this, your computer needs to have enough power to handle both windows side by side. Usually a fast Windows desktop computer with a DSL-1000 Internet connection will be sufficient.
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URL: http://www.learncentral.org/node/82790

Date/Time: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?day=25&month=8&year=2010&hour=12&min=0&sec=0&p1=37

FREE WEBINAR WITH JASON FRIED
Thursday, July 29, 11AM EST | 8AM PST
In this webinar you’ll learn:

* Why you can’t work at work.
* How to break a big idea in half.
* What drug dealers can teach the digital world.

http://www.brazencareerist.com/webinar/jason-fried/watch

http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/350522-how-to-improve-your-english-pronunciation

I will present my proven method to improve English pronunciation very easy and without any cost. All you need is available on the Internet. To perform this method you need only these resources:

1. An audio software to playback MP3 files in a loop

I use audacity that you can download at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

2. An audio book in MP3 format

I just pick some favorite stories from http://librivox.org/ where you can download audio books, read by volunteers. You should pick one that is read by a native speaker.

3. A text file for the audio book that you have in MP3 format

This text can be obtained from the same site http://librivox.org/ where you can find the text link on the gutenberg project for the audio book.

And optional:

4. A set of headphones

this is not necessary but helps a lot understanding the nuances of the language.

5. A microphone

also not necessary but it helps to control your own pronunciation in the process.

6. A mixer (hardware)

not necessary but useful if you can mix your computer output with your microphone so that you can hear both the audio book reading and your own voice.

You also need:

7. Some patience and time (preferably 10-20 minutes every day).

I will walk you through the process of finding the audio books, downloading audio and text files, playing back the audio while speaking the text along with listening to the audio.

Kawasaki is not a motorcycle, in this case it’s one of the most well known web celebrities. You can check out his blog here. I must say, that I don’t know him very well and I haven’t read much from him but I heard his name several times when people discuss Web 2.0 and business on the internet. So I’m excited to learn more about him in this live lession.

Here is the agenda from the site:

In this webinar you’ll learn:

• The fastest way to start your own business.
• How to identify your biggest hurdle and get past it.
• The difference between a dreamer and a doer.

Find out the starting time in your time zone.

And here is the link to the webinar.

Brazen Careerist

I’m a member of brazencareerist.com for a while and I regularly scan their group discussions. Yesterday I’ve received a new newsletter from their mailing list that caught my attention, so I thought it’s about time to tell my readers more about this community.

Brazen Careerist feels a little bit like LinkedIn or Facebook. It’s an online community that you can join for free and it’s dedicated to careers (as you may have already suspected by the name).

After you’ve joined the network by creating an account with your email address and a password (you can also log in via an existing facebook account), you can join several networks. These are the equivalent of “groups” that you may know from other social networking sites. I am a member of these networks for example:

Creatively Inspired

Freelancing

Location Independent

PR & New Media

Social Media

Social Media Marketers

and Web 2.0

You can decide if you want to get email notifications when new discussion entries come up in each of these networks. I get notification emails daily but you can also choose to receive them in real-time, weekly or not at all.

If you find some members interesting, you can follow them as a fan and you can be followed by other people also. For example, I’m following Penelope Trunk because I’ve found one of her articles recommended on somebody else’s blog and I like her writing style and the topics she write about.

If you have an account at brazencareerist, you get your very own “Social Resume” which is your profile page that can be used to show off your ideas, your qualifications and your work history.

I’ve found two articles that I want to recommend along with my short overview on this platform.

The first one is from Penelope Trunk and came with yesterday’s newsletter that I mentioned earlier in this post. A Note From Penelope Trunk: How to Skip the Entry-Level Track

The other one is an interesting article from Carlos Miceli that I found under “Featured Posts” today: Why Do We Fail?

As you may know, I’m not looking for job as employee (yet), but I think that this site is also interesting for all people who care about their professional career.

You may have asked yourself what makes the economy tick and if people will always continue to earn money the way they did in the past. Daniel Pink says “no” this will not be the case in the future. He has several arguments why the economics will change in the future and work will not be like the work you are used to in the past.

He says that people in the past were working with their left half of the brain which is dedicated to logic, mathematics and organization. But nowadays we live in a world of abundance and we have too many people who can do this type of job faster and less expensive. Companies are outsourcing left-brain work to asia for example, where high-tech programmers develop software for a North American bank for a salary of not more than $15.000 a year. We are now connected to the whole world and left-brain workers (like computer programmers for example) can be hired for little money somewhere on the globe.

According to Pink, we started with the agricultural age in the 18th century, moved on to the Industrial Age in the 19th century to the Information Age in the 20th century. Now we are facing a new challenge with the Conceptual age in the 21st century. Pink’s solution seems very straightforward and logical: We must stop being left-brain workers and we need to be right-brain workers in the future.

In the second part of the book, Pink describes the six senses that we need to develop as the new right-brain workers: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning.

Designers are usually right-brain workers and we need more people like these in the future. Look at Apple and their products. Most of them are sold so well because of their exceptional design. Design is difficult to outsource or to automate.

You have the same situation with story. Good storytellers are hard to find and good stories are key in the industries of the future. Think about advertising. Nobody buys a product because it’s ads are interrupting your favorite movie or TV-show. Only few people watch these ads in the first place and for the web browser most people have installed ad blocker software. But a good story can sell any product. Viral ads on youTube work so well because the story is good or the video is funny, so that everybody wants to pass it to their friends.

The book contains a lot of examples and explanations why we should improve our right-brain thinking and it also gives good clues how to do that. Each chapter in the second part has a special section called “portfolio” that is filled with website links and book recommendations that gives you more information and resources into each of the six senses that he describes in the chapter.

I can really recommend Daniel H. Pink’s book to everybody who wants to survive the upcoming century. So it’s especially useful for all entrepreneurs and freelancers who currently have to compete with an army of cheap service providers in lower-wage countries like Asia or Eastern Europe.

You can use this link if you want to buy it from Amazon.com:

It’s also available for the Kindle eBook Reader:

These are both affiliate links, so I will get a few cents if you buy via this link. But you can also just put the book title in the amazon search box if you don’t want to use my link. The price for the book will be the same though, as long as you buy it from amazon.

If you have any comments, if you have read the book and want to add something, feel free to contact me at heddesheimer@gmail.com or post a comment right here after this blog post.

Das Programm Gimp gilt als kostenlose Alternative zu teuren Grafikprogrammen wie Photoshop. Leider ist die Bedienung auf den ersten Blick etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig. In meinem 3-teiligen Kurs “Gimp für Einsteiger” erkläre ich, wie man sich recht schnell und einfach mit diesem Programm zurechtfinden kann.

Die hier erlernten Grundlagen bieten auch einen geeigneten Grundstock zur Erstellung von SL-Texturen, Kleidung und Skins. Ein spezieller Kurs zur SL-Kleidungsgestaltung mit Gimp ist zu einem späteren Termin geplant.

Gimp Grundlagen – Objekte retuschieren
Termin: Donnerstag 15.07.2010 um 20:30 Uhr
Dieser Kurs zeigt eine einfache Retuschier-Technik, mit der sich beispielsweise Logos oder unerwünschte Objekte aus einem Foto entfernen lassen.

Bilder retuschieren mit Gimp

Gimp Grundlagen – Nahtlose Texturen erstellen
Termin: Donnerstag 22.07.2010 um 20:30 Uhr
Dieser Kurs zeigt eine einfache Technik, wie man nahtlose Texturen (für Second Life oder Webseiten-Hintergründe) erstellen kann.

nahtlose Textur aus einem Bild erstellen

Gimp Grundlagen – Objekte Freistellen mit Pfad
Termin: Donnerstag 29.07.2010 um 20:30 Uhr
Dieser Kurs zeigt eine einfache Technik, wie man fotografierte Objekte (für Second Life, Webseiten oder Fotomontagen) auf einen transparenten Hintergrund freistellen kann.

Blatt mit Gimp auf transparentem Hintergrund freigestellt

Anmeldung bitte direkt bei der Anmelde-Box im Infotreff der vhs (bei den Ausstellungstischen, der erste Tisch links).

Der Gesamtkurs (3 Abende) kostet 3.000 Linden-Dollar (ca. 8,70 Euro), die bei Anmeldung fällig werden. Der Kurs ist für maximal 10 Teilnehmer ausgelegt.

Falls du noch nicht sicher bist, ob du dich anmelden willst, komme bitte in eine der kostenlosen Infoabende:

Dienstag 06.07 um 20:30 Uhr oder
Freitag 09.07 um 20:30 Uhr oder
Samstag 10.07 um 20:00 Uhr

Falls du noch kein Gimp installiert hast, kannst du an einem der folgenden kostenlosen Einführungskurse teilnehmen:

Samstag 10.07 um 20:30 Uhr oder
Mittwoch 14.07 um 20:30 Uhr

*********** Voraussetzung: ***************

Die aktuelle Quicktime-Version sollte auf eurem Computer installiert sein, damit Ihr den Videostream in SL problemlos sehen könnt. Das Programm Teamspeak sollte auf eurem Rechner installiert sein.

Die Volkshochschule im Second Life – Ihr Weg zum Erfolg

Some days ago I found this post from makeuseof.com in my google reader listings and I downloaded the PDF file “The Ultimate Guide To Gmail” from their website. I haven’t read it yet but I could see from a first overview that it might be a valuable document for you. Meanwhile I have read it myself and it’s really a valuable document. Couldn’t have done it better.

Let me know in the comments if you like the style of this document. I will have a closer look at this and other PDF eBooks from their site. If you sign up for their newsletter, you can download a bunch of other free books. I have currently downloaded books about iTunes, Mac, Twitter, Productivity, Internet Searching and WordPress. If I’ll find some of these worth recommending in particular, I’ll put up another post here with more details about it.

Gimp: How to improve brightness and contrast in your photos using Gimp

This workshop shows some easy techniques to improve contrast and brightness to show more details in your picture using the free and open source software Gimp.

You will learn how to
- fit an image into a window
- adjusting color levels
- adjusting color curves

Prerequisites:

We will use the software Gimp, please make sure you have it installed and running on your computer before you enter the workshop.

You can download the software here:

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

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Date and Time: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?day=23&month=6&year=2010&hour=12&min=0&sec=0&p1=37

Location: http://www.learncentral.org/node/76985

1. Learning Environments like Moodle

2. Blog Software like WordPress

Since I want to offer to create one comprehensive tutorial/video/eBook for free, and this is a one time opportunity for all to get really what YOU want and what helps YOU most in your daily work, I have set up another survey to decide if it will be Moodle or WordPress.

Please fill out this survey and feel free to add any comments and suggestions you have. I want to make this one a really outstanding product that will be available for free, released under Creative Commons License for everybody to use for their work. So I want to make sure that it’s really the stuff that YOU need most to make your daily work more productive.