A Brief History of Time and Space and … Jeopardy at The Computer Help Desk

A Brief  History of Time, Space & …
JEOPARDY
At The Computer Help Desk

                  The CALL Facility

The Computer Help Desk had our first ALL STAFF In-Person Training session this past Saturday in The CALL Facility! Around 2.5 YEARS since our last one,  probably around February in 2020 before … well … you know what happened after that!

               The CALL Facility

CHD has still had training sessions throughout working  remotely, but used other collaborative software applications such as Blackboard, Zoom, Skype and now TEAMS to offer training for all our new Coops and returning Consultants! SPOILER ALERT – I prefer TEAMS to all of the alternatives! YAY TEAMS!

This post will be a brief recap of ALL the CHD ‘Jeopardy’ training sessions and how it has changed from the very first workshop I presented at .. and it was not even Jeopardy back then!

CHD Workshop
                   CHD Workshop

The very FIRST Saturday CHD Workshop presentation was a general introduction to The CALL Facility and WICKET! WICKET was essentially an attendance program, custom written for CALL to keep track of student ‘attendance’ in CALL. Many Departments, including Spanish, Italian, German, French, Linguistics and more, required a lab component to their classes for students, typically an hour a week, with at least one visit. WICKET would identify the student and class(es) they were taking and staff would assign a location for them. When they left, they would ‘sign out’ at the front counter and their time and visit would be logged!

CALL Jeopardy I
                     CALL Jeopardy I

Next was the first ever CALL version  of Jeopardy! And I take NO CREDIT for the template that was used! Sherri originated the template for a Systems social event, so ….  I just acquired the template! And it truly was a CALL Version. But over the years,  I have mostly titled them ‘CALL Jeopardy’, but they really are just ‘Jeopardy’ or ‘CHD Jeopardy’ now! It was bare bones, no Trivia, and just pick a number under a category. But it was a start for Jeopardy!

CALL ++ Jeopardy
                  CALL ++ Jeopardy

Then I started to get a bit more … imaginative … and introduced Jeopardy II CALL ++ Version! I started playing around with themes, backgrounds, puns, jokes and … TRIVIA under each category! Yeah, you are probably saying .. what took you so long! I even put in a ‘Daily Double’ but only for cosmetic reasons! Why not! And the side benefit was … I was learning about more features of PowerPoint! Many of my CALL orientations were using Keynote slides – which have awesome special effects! But PowerPoint has been a mainstay of Jeopardy from the beginning!

Jeopardy III Knee-d-Full Things
       Jeopardy III Knee-d-Full Things

And then even more adventurous with the next rendition of Jeopardy III – Knee-d-Full-Things! At the time I was having knee surgery, and I think Stranger Things was just taking off too! AND a Star Wars movie was out too so .. the theme basically wrote itself! I even started to use some graphics within the trivia part of the categories too. But that has fallen a bit to the side! Trivia was barely an option back then!

Jeopardy IV Endgame
               Jeopardy IV Endgame

Then came the truly first ‘themed’ version of Jeopardy ENDGAME! Most of us at CHD are huge fans of Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Pokémon … OR ALL OF THEM! So this version full  blown Trivia was in force as each question required knowing where each Marvel movie ‘quote’ came from, either the movie or the character! And of course, Endgame had just come out too! So … Spoiler Alert: there WERE SPOILERS in Jeopardy! 

Jeopardy V Pop Culture
             Jeopardy V Pop Culture

Next up would  be Jeopardy V Pop Culture! This was fun because I started to put a few more GIFs in each slide and … it was becoming quite challenging to come up with new and fun questions for all the new Coops, and Consultants to try and figure out! Each new Jeopardy I add a new layer of … something … to make it better and more interesting for everyone, especially myself! Pop Culture let me pick SO MANY NEW Trivia questions too! This was one of my favourite Jeopardy sessions!

Jeopardy VI Reboot Version
            Jeopardy VI Reboot Version

Then came a series of remote training sessions, based on the idea that we were all really trying to ‘reboot’ ourselves into a new world of remote computing and nobody, NOBODY, had any idea how much our work at the CHD would be affected by being home for so long. Jeopardy VI Reboot Version was the first attempt at using Blackboard, I think, and it was a bit disastrous! I ran out of time, the AV was a bit wonky too. I had been in Teams and perhaps Zoom just PRIOR and I was in the wrong Blackboard channel and the problems just continue to mount with a weird double-echo in my headset. So I basically abandoned this one mid-training! LOL! But this was a learning moment for  me too! What NOT to do .. before Jeopardy!

Jeopardy VI Dual re-Boot
             Jeopardy VI Dual re-Boot

And of course, the obvious title  for the next session would be Jeopardy VII Dual re-Boot! That was also a pun on all the CALL computers … which were Dual Boot MAC/WIN at the time! There is always a slightly skewed reason for all the titles, question, trivia and answers! Spoiler Alert: That won’t change anytime soon! 🙂 And, I also ran out of time with this version of Jeopardy! But the silver lining to having incomplete Jeopardy, is that CHD Review was introduced and given about 5 minutes at the conclusion of each CHD (Super) Review, there was time to finish of any Jeopardy questions! YAY! Jeopardy was no longer … in Jeopardy! 🙂

Jeopardy VIII Triple re-Boot
         Jeopardy VIII Triple re-Boot

And then came the first ‘Triple Header’ called Jeopardy TRIPLE re-BOOT! This was not the first use of actual video links in Jeopardy, but I included a link to a brief orientation of CALL for everyone, and also

Jeopardy VIII Triple re-Boot
          Jeopardy VIII Triple re-Boot

for when I would be away for my major knee surgery – I am either part Borg or part Terminator with my new left knee! THAT was 6 months away from work, so there was a gap in training session participation for me! And I seem to have a version of Triple re-Boot Jeopardy with a different start screen! Ah, I need a RAM upgrade soon as I am forgetting my own Jeopardy sessions! 🙂

Jeopardy IX Memes "R" Us
           Jeopardy IX Memes “R” Us

Then came a ‘ground breaking’ version of Jeopardy IX MEMEs ‘R’ Us! I discovered a site that EASILY made a custom meme with whatever you wanted to put on it! Every slide had a unique CHD Meme on it, usually poking fun at the question, CHD, staff and even myself! This was a fantastic new addition, for me, as it opened up all kinds of possibilities! And if I could not find a ‘blank’ existing meme/gif then I was able to create one with Handbrake as a brief video from a source video, slice out a few second, then turn that video, complete with my own text, into the EXACT meme I wanted, at ezgif.com!

CHD Jeopardy Poll
                   CHD Jeopardy Poll

And then a new approach to be inclusive of all our CHD staff! I wanted to ask THEM what kind of Trivia questions they would like to answer, prior to the actual CHD style question! CHD was mastering Teams and I created a Poll to ask what Trivia and … the winner was … DISNEY! 

Jeopardy X Generation CHD
         Jeopardy X Generation CHD

But the runners up were all Disney too – so that narrowed it down considerably … but also made it more challenging too, to find more recent as well as classic quotes from … DISNEY!  LOL! And the CHD crew were up to task and it was another favourite training session that was Jeopardy Generation CHD

Jeopardy XI Greg's Playlist
                     Jeopardy XI Greg’s Playlist

And the most recent one, last Saturday was Jeopardy Greg’s Playlist and is also my most favourite Jeopardy of All Time! This version had everything – GIFs, Trivia, Emoji Hints, Animation, Puns, Jokes, Links on almost every page … and the best part … LIVE AND IN PERSON FROM THE CALL FACILITY! Yeah, I had fun and I sure hope everyone else did too! And also for the first time, JEOPARDY RECORDED! I should go and look, but would probably just … not sure what! LOL!

And the next Jeopardy will be a continuation or … arguably … a sequel to Greg’s Playlist … Greg’s Playlist II! And I have already started to work on it … AND … I am asking Consultants when they are in CALL, what is THEIR #1 song on THEIR OWN PLAYLIST! So that way I can make it even more inclusive and involve more people from CHD! And I will  still  have some of my own songs too – Maybe including ‘Hotel CALL-ifornia‘ from The Eagles! LOL! You can check out … but you can never leave … CALL!

The entire roster of Jeopardy PowerPoint slides is here, or click on the BOG BLOG PAGES to the left and then on CALL Jeopardy Opus. And each of the individual slides above, if you click on each one, takes you DIRECTLY to that particular version of Jeopardy in pdf format! They don’t have all the animations, GIFs, etc. So if you want to see those, let me know and I can send you the PowerPoint file through Teams.

Thanks to EVERYONE at CHD for participating and your support too! I can’t make Jeopardy without all of you! Thank you!

TTFN!

My Favourite ‘Favourites’ at OAC!

! MY Favourite ‘Favourites’!
! AT OAC !

It occurs to me that …  I really like blogging here at OAC! I published a daily blog in the initial months of remote computing and all of a sudden, I had published almost 230 Posts! And a handful of Pages too. What is the difference between a BogPost‘ and a ‘BogPage‘, welPages and Postsl, I wrote a Post about that called Pages and Posts … What Gives?

And of course, that led me to think about which ones were my … favourites amongst them all! Yeah, not fair, but … I make the rules here! So I will now attempt to list, in no particular order, my “Top 10 Favourite Posts

I will  have one ‘filter’ though … the Post had to have the word “favourite” in  it somewhere – preferably the title! So that will sub sort it quite a bit! So,  HERE GOES!

TOP 10 FAVOURITE POSTS
AT MY BOG BLOG

  1. Think Different or . . . Apple Commercials Through the Years” would be a favourite at anytime, simply because of the sheer imagination of Apple Commercials. A long ago summer project was to learn how to create a DVD and what better source than … Apple commercials! And I think my favourite Apple commercial is for an iPad … “Your Verse Apple iPad Commercial – What Will Your Verse Be?” Watch it and try to disagree with me!
  2. I’m Sorry Dave or . . . My Favourite Computer AI Voices in Movies and TVeasily makes my Top 10. A gimme if ever  there was one as we reference many phrases and moments almost DAILY at CHD! In other  words, Make it So,  Bogman!
  3. 1, 2, 3, . . . . or My Favourite Language Lesson of All Time!” and to this day, it is STILL my favourite language lesson of ALL TIME! My first ever TEACHING job was in Calgary,  teaching  basic computing  skills. Including BASIC as a programming language! Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code! Literally … BASIC!
  4. Open Book Exams . . . . or . . . . My Favourite Textbooks“. How can anyone LIKE a textbook much less make it a Favourite? Well, I did! I have kept many of my favourite textbooks throughout the years! Why not! They helped me get through many a tough course and … that I enjoyed them was a side bonus!
  5. CART2D2 – There is no try! Do or Do Not Young Skywalker!THIS is a favourite because CART2D2 is a favourite! We are still playing around with this to find some great uses and the next big use will be at our first IN PERSON  CHD TRAINING SESSION on May 28th! YAY! There is no try … Do or Do Not!
  6. Comparing Apples and Oranges but not actually ….. Oranges!” Recycling is HUGE at UVic and I try to recycle as much as I possibly can. And when CHD had quite literally a MOUNTAIN OF TECH show up last summer, CALL was used as a staging area for so much tech! And with so much PACKING AND CARDBOARD TOO! So any chance I get to promote recycling, I take it! And we are in the beginning  stages of a new refresh so … warm up your Blue Bins, UVic!
  7. Throwback Thursday . . . or . . . Language Quotes! (and a bit of nostalgia!)” Who doesn’t enjoy a quick quote as a comeback or as a poster in their office! I probably only have a few stored in my long term PRAM that could be ZAPPED at any moment! So quotes about computers, life and especially Languages, is right up my alley in CALL!
  8. Bold Italics Comic Sans . . . or Word Processors Through the Years” One of my first ever Computer  Science assignments, on punched cards no less, was to write a program to replace 3 words (that my Instructor had set in a paragraph (read from a mainframe!) with 3 other words. THAT WAS VERY HARD! But now, Gmail docs, Office, Pages … all have keyboard SHORTCUTS for Find and Replace! And none of them use punched cards as source code! Only shows that I correctly guessed that my future career … was NOT to be a Programmer!
  9. I Excel at PowerPoint . . . or Computer Puns and Jokes” What would any Top 10 List be without including a post about my favourite jokes and puns! I never let an opportunity to ‘pun’ go unpunished! And I am usually RESTRAINING myself too!
  10. CALL CHD JEOPARDY OPUS“. How could I create a Top 10 and NOT include Jeopardy! Okay, a bit of a cheat here as this is actually a PAGE that can be accessed anytime from any of my Posts. AND is always updated to the most recent version of JEOPARDY! In fact, the first IN PERSON CHD Training will be on Saturday, May 28th and I will have a brand new Jeopardy – Greg’s Playlist! And it will have new elements such as Fill-in-the-Blanks, Multiple Choice and even some Scavenger Hunts for prizes!

So many Posts/Pages … so little time! I am not writing at the same pace, but reserve my Posts/Pages for my remote day, unless something comes up.

It might take awhile, here’s to my next 230+ Posts and Pages and Randomness at UVic! YAY!

TTFN!

New CHD Staff Training
Coming UP
… and a new Jeopardy too!

Video Playlists at OAC – COOL!

! VIDEO PLAYLISTS!
! AT OAC !

I discovered a feature of WordPress here at OAC that can create Video Playlists in a post! I have used Photo Gallery quite a bit, once I learned how to use them, and published some of my favourite photographs I have taken at this post, Photography Gallery.

This feature allows you to build a .. Video Playlist .. as the name indicates. Very much like a YouTube Playlist, but for OAC purposes, based on media you have at your own OAC Media Library.

The Online Academic Community has some great Tutorials on Organizing Content and the using The Dashboard too!

All you have to do is have some video media (MP4/M4V work best) uploaded to your Media Library. Then in your new or already existing Post/Page, click on the “Add Media” button. Under “Actions“, click “Create video playlist“.  All the videos that are in your Media library will now appear. Click on the ones you want to be in your playlist and a Blue Checkmark will appear on each one.

Then in the bottom right hand corner, click on “Create a new video playlist“. Then click “Insert video playlist” …
et voilàyour video playlist is inserted into your Post!

You can change the order if you want by editing the Video playlist quite easily, if you want to change the order from how you  uploaded them.

If the OAC Media Library does not want to upload your video, use Handbrake to convert to either MP4 or M4V. Free software for both Mac and WIN and works like a charm for converting SO MANY FORMATS! 

A few more helpful links for creating a Video Playlist at OAC. Not all the features mentioned  will work at OAC but there are many hints and images at these sites to help create your Video Playlists at OAC. ENJOY!

  1. Tutorial: How to create a WordPress video gallery
  2. Insert an Audio or Video Playlist
  3. How to Create a Video Gallery in WordPress (Step by Step)
  4. How To Make A Playlist On YouTube (2022)

TTFN!

New CHD Staff Training
Coming UP
… and a new Jeopardy too!

CALL Dual Monitors

! CALL DUAL MONITORS !
! NOW INSTALLED !

CALL Instructor Stations #37 & #38
                            CALL Instructor Stations #37 & #38

The CALL Facility now has dual monitors on each workstation! Well, not all of them. The Instructors stations (#37 & #38) are connected to the VDP and can project to the entire room. And room is needed for laptops and materials at each station. 

The idea to install them came from a Poster Session for Linguistics, described in an earlier post! It was so successful that the monitors at HSD (in storage) that were headed to be recycled, a box of HDMI-DVI dongles and some DVI cables were found …. DUAL  MONITORS! And at absolutely no cost at all! I joke that I found a penny under a station, so my budget not only came in UNDER budget .. but showed a profit!!!!

There are combinations of Portrait and/or Landscape and relatively easy to switch around. I will survey students throughout the summer to see what combination might be preferable. 

Most students are away for the summer and fewer classes are actually scheduled so it will still look like ‘new’ equipment for September!

Thanks to colleagues T, H and G for helping me set them up! Those cable trays are heavy, awkward and filled with .. cables! LOL! And a very green mini-project, saving tech from a landfill too!

Some previous posts on recycling are “The Recycling of CALL and HSD!“,  “CALL Computer Refresh Deja Vu ….. All Over Again” and “UVIC Recycling Links“.

TTFN!

BE READY!!!!

READY!

CALL me Bog Stats

! CALL ME BOG !
! OAC STATS !

I recently found out just where my ‘CALL me Bog‘ blog … ranks here at OAC at UVic in terms of number of Posts and number of Views! NOT that anything I write here is ‘earth shattering’ but … it might just be able to kick up some dust from under an old serial port keyboard some days! LOL!

So, the Top 5 OAC websites at UVic for number of Posts are:

#1 – Centre for Youth & Society’s Community Resource Hub1801 Posts
#2 – My UVic Life1358 Posts
#3 – UVic Teach Anywhere820 Posts
#4 – Scholarly Communication @ UVic588 Posts
#5 – The World From Here (Gustavson School)586 Posts
#17 – CALL Me Bog at …. 230 Posts!

 

 

 

Yeah,  okay,  comparing Apples and Oranges and … WINDOWS! But all the rest are all Faculties, Departments, Groups, Organizations, etc. so … maybe I am the #1 individual blog! But each of those sites are amazing and I have actively followed My UVic Life and UVic Teach Anywhere. I recommend them all!

CALL Me Bog Page Views
                                 CALL Me Bog Page Views

And one more stat is the number of Page Views and with that I rank a bit higher! CALL Me Bog is #7 in Page Views at 13,624!! Always room to improve, grow and get more Views and more Posts and Pages!

The  gap to move up is fairly significant so I doubt that I can move up too much with Page Views! But you never know when one of my Posts will go viral at UVic! To Infinity and Beyond! LOL!

And some more mini-updates in CALL – almost done putting in .. TWO MONITORS AT EACH WORKSTATION! Only 5 left to go! I will update the next post, next week with a photo! YAY DUAL MONITORS! Many thanks to my colleagues T, H and G for helping me out and setting them up!

PS: I have a new laptop and monitor and .. added another one too!

Trio Grande
                                                                            Trio Grande

Stay tuned for when all the monitors are installed! .. SOON!

TTFN!

GOOD LUCK
ON ALL YOUR  FINAL EXAMS!
This is the last week of Finals!
BE READY!!!!

READY!

MORE OAC WordPress Tips . . . at least . . . for ME

MORE
OAC WordPress Tips . . . . 
. . . or . . .
Copy Cat Post!

TIME for more OAC WordPress Hints and Tips! I have a previous post about OAC WordPress Tips here so this will be some new, brief ones that might save you some time or make your publishing a bit easier and more satisfying!

                                   Copy Post

10) Copy a Post! If you have a previously published Post that is very similar to what you want to create in a NEW Post, then .. just Copy it, and edit out what you don’t want, keep what you want and start creating! That is what I did for THIS post, from my earlier post! Just click on Posts/All Posts, find the Post you want to ‘Copy’ and .. click on Copy! Rename it and you are off to the races!

                            Add Media to Library

9) Media Library Images – Simply drag any .GIF, .JPG, .PNG, .PDF into the .. Media Library! That is it! I have found that if you want to put a new image INTO your post, then SAVE your draft post FIRST. Then drag the new image resource(s) into the Media Library, then you can add them. If you drag them into the Media Library first, then try to place them in your post, they will not be visible .. until you update your new post.

                    Snipping Tool (WIN)
                            Mac Screen Grab Keystrokes

8) Screen Capture to Media Library! Ah, if only a simple screen grab (Mac or WIN) could be simply .. taken and pasted into an OAC post. Nope! It must be saved as an accepted format (.jpg or .png) and then put into the Media Library. So Mac is (Command-Shift-4) and WIN (WIN-Shift-S) will give you a crosshair to  capture a portion of your screen. Mac instantly makes it a file on the desktop (BONUS!) ready to put into your Media Library. WIN – I use the built in ‘Snipping Tool’ application, then I can edit it in Paint 3d, save it as a .png and then drag into my Media Library. A couple of extra steps, but still quite easy!

Click for BIG NAMED colourful GIF iMacs!
  Use ezgif.com to resize GIFs!

7) Small .GIFS are BETTER! I ran into a problem creating some .GIFs in a previous post. Turned out … the ORIGINAL .GIF files were simply TOO LARGE for OAC to animate! So I used ezgif.com to shrink them down to about 25% of original size and they worked fine after that!

Media Library
             Media Library Add New
Insert as URL
                                     Insert as URL

6) YouTube videos! Although I have tried to resize them, I can’t figure out how. So, you can insert them with the original URL copy/pasted where you want the video to be IN your Post, or copy/paste and Insert them through the Media Library/Insert from URL section. Both work! Neither can be resized! The trick to resize them is to do a screen grab of a frame. Then put that screen grab in the Media Library, then link it to the actual YouTube Video. Cludgy, but it works, such as at my Post about UVic’s YouTube Channel!

        Captions Here NOW!
                 Edit Image

5) Captions for Images! Once I discovered how to put a Caption BENEATH each image, I was off to the races! Adds a nice little touch to each image. AND you can also make it a clickable link to open in a new Tab to a site or even a larger image. It is basically anchored text to the image!

Adding the Caption can be done when you add a new image to the library or on the fly, by clicking on the inserted image, then on the Edit icon and then update the Caption field. It is THAT easy! I do NOT want to go back and edit EACH image, to include a Caption. So when I place one, and it does NOT have a caption, I update it .. and it is there for all the subsequent uses. It does not update older placed images, as far as I know.

     Search my Media Library for ‘Capybara

4) Search your Media Library! I have … many … images in my Media Library! I should have been including Captions, ALT-Text and Descriptions initially but … did not know! About as simple a search as possible! Will find your criteria in any of the categories associated with your images (Alternative Text, Title, Caption, Description etc.) and even including the file name if you edit it BEFORE adding it to your Media Library. The image above is when I searched my own library for ‘Capybara‘.

SHIFT RETURN or ENTER
     shift-return (enter)

3) SINGLE SPACING! This is simple. Sometimes you want to separate a paragraph, image, text by a single line, not the default double when you hit Enter. Just hit SHIFT-ENTER (or RETURN) and … single space. Works especially well for formatting … poetry!

Paragraphs
           Paragraphs

2) Paragraph/Section Titles! You can use Paragraph and Headings throughout your Post! I use them for titles to YouTube videos and seemingly … out of the blue too!

THIS IS AN OUT OF THE BLUE
“HEADING 1”!

          Take chances! Make mistakes!

1) JUST CREATE! TRY SOMETHING NEW! This will probably ALWAYS be my #1 Hint and Tip! I tried creating a Table a few posts ago and it was slightly tricky, but now .. it is my new favourite OAC WP TOY! Go find some other OAC posts and just …. Surf OAC for ideas!

The links below are the same ones from my previous post on OAC WP Hints and Tips. Newer ones are below and are
                                🔥 HOT OFF THE PRESS WINNERS 🔥

OAC Online Academic Community
                     OAC Online Academic Community
  1. OAC – Get Started – What is the OAC? (and more!) 
  2. OAC – Get Started: -How to Create a Site (and more!)
  3. OAC Tutorials – The Dashboard (and more!)
  4. OAC Tutorials – Posts (and more!)
  5. OAC Tutorials – Pages (and more!)
  6. OAC Tutorials – Media Library (and more!) 
  7. OAC Community Members – FIND UVIC BLOGS!

                              🔥HOT OFF THE PRESS WINNERS🔥
(Note:
Not all Hints at these sites will work/are permitted with OAC)

  1. Learning Management System: Online Academic Community (OAC) 🔥
  2. 55+ Most Wanted WordPress Tips, Tricks, and Hacks
  3. 101 WordPress Tips, Tricks and Hacks Every Serious Blogger Must Know
  4. 7 Essential Tips for WordPress Beginners
WordPress YouTube Channel
                                         Official WordPress YouTube Channel

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic

 

On Campus Photo Shoot

ON CAMPUS
PHOTO SHOOT!

(mostly!)

I have actually been working on campus, every Tuesday, since September. I alternate sharing an office with three incredible colleagues, strictly following our Safe Return to Work plans, set out specifically for our return to work.

My anxiety level has lessened but is still there, even though I take ALL the precautions necessary. But it was nice to be back ON CAMPUS for the first time since late last March. And with the Fall session, it looks like we might all be back on campus, Full Time. So, why not celebrate a bit with some great spots ON CAMPUS to check out .. and a few … slightly OFF campus!

One of the best parts of working at UVic is biking up to work. I have been biking every day, for 22 years! Well, not 2020/2021 due to Covid, and not most of 2018 (knee replacement) but I was fully back in the saddle by 2019! And the best part of biking … SUNRISE! SPOILER – I actually took this last week, while … GASP … driving to UVic, but I did bike last Tuesday to campus and will each day from now on … barring horrible weather! Mea culpa!

Oak Bay Sunrise
        Oak Bay Sunrise
Oak Bay Sunrise II
                        Oak Bay Sunrise II
Click on the title below the photo for a much larger image.

And I really like using a Gallery too! And I will include some video for some soothing UVic fountain moments for everyone too! Okay,  some aren’t QUITE from campus, but they were taken on the WAY to campus!

Mystic Vale Sunrise Bike Ride to CHD
Who doesn’t miss the fountain and the sound of water?
Just sit back and enjoy the sound of moving water!

UVic Cool Sites … Just for fun … when you need them!

  1. Campus Virtual Tour (Until we can go back!)
  2. Finnerty Gardens (Ducks and Flowers!)
  3. Munchie Bar(Great coffee!)
  4. Cinecenta (Best popcorn in town!)
  5. Mystic Market (Food galore!)
  6. David Petch Fountain (WordPress site)
  7. Mystic Vale (OAC WordPress site!)
  8. Legend Pole 
  9. Cadboro Bay & Gyro Park (10 minute walk from Campus … TO THE OCEAN!)
  10. TOFINO & Pacific Rim National Park! (Technically … not UVic, but a favourite place of mine!)
  11. Restored Legend Pole in centre of campus rededicated and blessed
  12. Indigenous Art on Campus Tour
  13. The Raven Soaring Pole (Replica of a Gitxsan Memorial Pole by Kweenu)
  14. S’YEWE Legend Pole rededicated(I actually helped out back then, but not in photo!)

ENJOY!

Territory Acknowledgement
University of Victoria

UVic Impact Day

UVic United Way Campaign

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic

 

Social Media at UVic or … LIKES and FOLLOWS

SOCIAL MEDIA AT UVIC
or
LIKES & FOLLOWS!

Social Media
          Social Media

“Social Media” – absolutely …. everywhere!  And that includes UVic!

SPOILER ALERT #1 – I personally am not that much into “Social Media“. Go ahead and use Google to search for me, but .. not much there! Besides this post is about UVic social media!

… AND THERE ARE
MORE UVIC SITES
THAN I IMAGINED!

OAC Online Academic Community
                   OAC Online Academic Community

OAC or Online Academic Community (WordPress) is the most visible and most used by yours truly, so it is #1 on my list of UVic social media!

If you are reading this … YOU ARE AT OAC! Valid UVic NetLink credentials gives you not just a free site, but FREE SITES PLURAL! Make one for courses, for photos, for recipes or for … anything you want! In fact, some courses might even allow for it to be a project or an actual assignment!

UVIC Facebook
                        UVIC Facebook

And of course, Facebook. EVERYONE has a Facebook account! Spoiler Alert #2 – I DO have a Facebook account … but good luck finding it!

One of the BEST UVic OAC sites is My UVic Life! Written by and for students at UVic always has a timely, informative and FUN perspective on life at UVic!

My UVic Life - OAC
                                                               My UVic Life – OAC
Computer Help Desk
Computer Help Desk Twitter

And The Computer Help Desk (shameless plug, yet again!) has a Twitter account to let the UVic community know about any issues affecting them!

Official UVIC Social Media
      Official UVIC Social Media

When I went to find a list OF all the social media at UVIC, I found the following site of all the Official UVic Accounts … to the right …

A great list of sites! But then ….. right at the bottom, there is a line that says ‘See the full list: uvic.ca/socialmedia and it takes you to THIS BELOW! The treasure chest of ALL UVic social media sites! WOW AND WOW!

UVIC Social Media
                                                                      UVIC Social Media

It is truly amazing how many Departments, Programs, Services, Galleries and …  YOU NAME IT …  have a social media account of some kind! Everything from “Academic Communication, Centre for (CAC)” to “Youth and Society, Centre for” … JUST shy of a ‘Z’ category … and missing ‘X’ too!

UVic Ecogastronomy
                        UVic Ecogastronomy

And I wonder what is at UVic Ecogastronomy! Click and find out!

Enough UVic social media sites to surf to .. Hawaii! 

UVic Social Media Sites to Surf Towards …..

  1. OAC Online Academic Community (WordPress)
  2. Official UVic Accounts (UVic)
  3. ALL ACROSS UVIC Social Media Sites (SO MANY!!)
  4. My UVic Life (OAC Blog!)
  5. My First Year @ UVic (Facebook)
  6. University of Victoria (Facebook)
  7. University of Victoria (Instagram)
  8. University of Victoria (Twitter)
  9. University of Victoria – Computer Help Desk (Twitter)
  10. University Systems (Twitter)
  11. This is UVic (YouTube)
  12. UVic 2021: What you need to know (YouTube)
  13. Why Choose UVic – Undergraduate Studies
  14. Why Choose UVic – Graduate Admissions

ENJOY!

This is UVic (YouTube)

This is UVic (YouTube)
                                                                                This is UVic (YouTube)

UVic 2021
What You Need to Know

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic

 

OS Emulators on WIN and macOS

 Did You Know
You might be able to experience . . .
macOS on a WIN computer?
. . . OR other neat EMULATORS too?

You can actually try legacy operating systems … on a browser! And it does not matter if you have WIN or macOS either! There are websites that … almost … let you Time Travel to see what earlier version of (then) current Operating Systems were like! They are not intended to be functional, only descriptive and ..  kinda fun, most of them! And no implied guarantee of success here! Just some emulator sites I found out there! 

And a HUGE distinction between an emulator of an OS, running on a browser and … actually remote access TO a real computer on campus. That is through  a real service at: remotelab.uvic.ca and is EVEN COOLER! The screen grab below is of my old  MacBook Pro, accessing a WIN computer in Clearihue! A rather existential question arises … is this Windows IN a Mac, or Windows ON a Mac! 🙂 This will be a future post, just to whet your whistle!

remote.uvic.ca
                                                                               remote.uvic.ca

Emulators! According to Wikipedia an emulator is:

In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the host) to behave like another computer system (called the guest). 

There are many, many, MANY browser based emulators out there! So I will show a few of them, and then put a list below to try out.

Let’s try Mac emulators first!

Quite a few of these sites have both operating systems listed, so … a Treasure Trove of Emulators!

7 classic versions of Windows and Mac OS you can run in a browser lets you try Mac System 7! This is even before the Cats took over the Mac! Fun Fact – I still own a functioning Mac SE, bought way back in … 1989!!! Such a cool computer!

And what is regarded as the single greatest Macintosh game of all time is … DARK CASTLE! And you can try it out at the same Mac System 7 site! A bit more on games later ….

MAC 8.6
                MAC 8.6

Inevitable updates to all operating  systems are … inevitable! And one of the next ones was Mac OS 8.6: The classic Mac OS nears the end of its life and this was a HUGE upgrade from System 7 – the number alone is … 1+! You can go directly there from here or click the Mac desktop to the left.

OSX 10.2 Jaguar
           OSX 10.2 Jaguar

And one final Macintosh emulator OS X 10.2: The classic Mac OS is retired …ah, good times, good times …. A HUGE selection of MANY emulators is at VirtualDesktop.org, including OS X 10.2.

 

And now WINDOWS

The one that started them all .. well, at least in 1995 .. WINDOWS 95! And again, these are all from VirtualDesktop.org, amongst many others! Considering The CALL Facility started out with DOS based machines, running McMaster French, more closely resembling a text adventure game … WINDOWS 95 WAS CONSIDERED SLICED BREAD at the time!

WINDOWS NT
           WINDOWS NT
WINDOWS ME
       WINDOWS ME

And a final pairing of WINDOWS ME and WINDOWS NT! Microsoft sure like using lots of letters of the alphabet! But, to be fair … Apple liked using cats before Roman Numerals and then portable devices started to show up and now all kinds of … flavours …  just like an ice cream shop!

For more Virtual Experiences, I will list a few sites below, but the best to see the most, is at VirtualDesktop.org. Not all there, but .. enough to do a decent days work of Time Travel and see how Operating Systems have changed considerably over the years!

C64 Emulator
              C64 Emulator

And one last emulator, from my first ever computer that I bought … COMMODORE – C64 Online Emulator! The drawback here is that you need to upload some kind of file FROM an original C64, then it works. So, not much to try here. But I am going to find out HOW to do it though! And even more Online Emulators from the same place too!

I mentioned games earlier, but will have another post in the future about games. Spoile – I am NOT a Gamer!

Emulator Sites to Surf Towards …..

Virtual Desktops
                              Virtual Desktops
  1. List of Emulators (Wikipedia)
  2. List of Computer System Emulators (Wikipedia)
  3. Commodore 64 emulators (Wikipedia Category)
  4. 7 classic versions of Windows and Mac OS you can run in a browser
  5. Mac OS 8 emulator lets you relive the past for the first time
  6. 5 best PC emulation software for Mac [2021 Guide]
  7. Emulators can turn your PC into a Mac, let you play games from any era, and more — here’s what you should know about the potential benefits and risks of using one
    VICE – the Versatile Commodore Emulator
  8. Commodore 64 emulators (Wikipedia)
  9. Commodore 64 emulators for Windows 10
  10. C64 Forever 8 “R3”: Create & Play
  11. C64 online emulator
  12. CCS64 – A Commodore 64 Emulator – By Per Håkan Sundell
  13. On-line Emulators
  14. Virtual (Complete) Desktops – SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST!

ENJOY!

How to Play Commodore 64 Games on PC!
Commodore 64 emulator! Vice Emulator Setup!

Kim Justice’s Top 50 Commodore 64 Games
of All-Time (YouTube)

Pawn Stars:
A Working Commodore 64
(Season 14) | History

 

 

Did you know UVic has a YouTube Channel?

Did You Know
UVic ...
has a
YouTube Channel?

You probably thought, yes, I … suspected that UVic has a YouTube Channel, but have you BEEN THERE? Probably not! But it is worth your while! So, if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a video apparently worth 1.8 MILLION WORDS!!

UVic’s YouTube channel has some amazing videos for learning about UVic, Departments, Airiel views by Drone, National  and International stories about UVic and many Hints, How-To’s and just plain FUN VIDEOS!

In no particular order, sort of, are some of my Favourite UVic YouTube videos. There are so many …. and I am sure you will  find many of them fun, useful and informative! And many student bloggers are posting about their experiences at UVic throughout the semester at another OAC site, My UVic Life (another shameless promotion of UVic here at Bog Blog!)

And you can also find my video, from a PowerPoint at YouTube too! Just go to my Page, “The CALL Facility … and other Mysteries of UVIC” or just find the link to ALL my Pages, on the right-hand side of each post.

You can click on the text link, or the thumbnail of the UVic video below to go to a new tab with that video.

ENJOY!

University of Victoria aerial highlights

 

UVic Campus Tour

Humanities at UVic

UVic Channels

UVic ranked as a global leader in climate action