For Beginner

Over the past few years weve seen lots of Apps Script adoption within the EDU community. Educators need lightweight systems that integrate with the Google Apps they already use. Empowered by a cloud-hosted and simple to use platform, non-programmers have been able to create powerful scripts that have a real impact on the lives of their students. In honor of World Teachers Day were highlighting some popular scripts educators have created and other materials teachers can use to get started.

Earlier this year we sat down with Andrew Stillman, Program Officer for Digital Instruction at New Visions for Public Schools and co-founder of youpd.org. We discussed about how he uses Apps Script to build solutions for the New York City school system. Hes the author of many popular scripts in the Script Gallery, including formMule, doctopus, and autocrat, which he uses to create powerful systems that tie together Google Forms, Spreadsheets, Docs and GMail in a way that teachers and administrators can maintain and enhance.

Flubaroo is another popular script among teachers, as it extends the usability of Google Forms for online assignments. After students have submitted their responses this script scores their answers against an answer key, generates histograms of the classs performance, and sends out personalized emails to each student with their grades.

Even more exciting, however, is that teachers have been writing their own scripts to solve problems and make their lives easier. For example, Adelphi University professor Lee Stemkoski wrote a small script that he uses to populate a Google Calendar with the topics for each lecture hell give during the semester. In just 30 lines of code he was able to complete a long, monotonous task with the click of a button.

Teachers looking to get a better idea of how Apps Script works and what it can be used for should watch our video Google Apps EDU Fireside Chat: An Introduction to Apps Script. In it we cover the basic functionality and use cases supported, and even do some live coding to show how easy it is to get started. More than 20 million students, faculty and staff worldwide use Google Apps for Education, so if you build something interesting and worth sharing, consider publishing to the Chrome Web Store.

Eric Koleda profile Eric is a Developer Programs Engineer based in NYC on the Google Apps Script team. Hes previously worked with the AdWords API and enterprise content management software.

I probably use this little tip at least 30 times a day!!!  How to quickly open a new tab in your internet browser!


For those of you who are a fan of my Thursday Tips, I am sorry to say t hat this is the last one I can think of!  However, this does leave me some time to start a new regular feature: Fonts on the First!  Stay tuned this Monday, April 1st for my first collection of seasonal fonts for personal and commercial use!

So the past two weeks I got mixed up and ended up missing two technology Tuesday posts in a row.  Im so sorry!  Im back today though... with a new Tech Tuesday post and a giveaway announcement!

First things first, here is the tutorial.  The winner on the poll this week was another blogger tutorial... how to see how many email followers you have and see who they are!


Here is the poll:


Now onto the tutorial!




For next weeks poll, Ill be adding the option to change the colors, features or special effects of a shape, picture, or text box in PowerPoint... even if those shapes/pictures are on different slides!

Now... for the giveaway announcement!!!  For all of my lovely followers, check back in tomorrow to see some new products and a chance to win them all!

Hey Guys,
Check-out this latest find that I got, a .bat to .exe converter! Check it out in this link
http://www.f2ko.de/programs.php?lang=en&pid=b2e

Ill post a simple tutorial on how to use it later!

Purpose:
create a cmd.exe (command line) process that you can manipulate (write on its handle) and monitor (read on its handle) so that you can create programs that rely on the output of other programs without waiting for it to terminate. :)

How does it work:
1. open2 will create a cmd.exe process
2. Glib::Timeout will constantly calls the repeat_call sub
   - i did not use Gtk2::Helper because I am having problem with reading the output of the cmd.exe, I need to either move the mouse on the window for it to trigger the update, if anybody can help me, please comment.
3. pressing the button DIR will send a "dir" command to the cmd.exe process
4. pressing button TIME only prints "the current time"
5. the repeat_call sub will then read the unread output of the command line and push all the output to @queue array
6. action_call sub will then read 1 line from the @queue array and prints the result. action_call sub is called constantly even when the array is empty.
7. the @queue array makes sure that you will get the correct chronology of the output.

Below is the sample code I manage to whip up with lots and lots of help from the very nice and good MONKies of the www.perlmonks.org community! Check out our conversations at http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=1064595

Sample Code:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use Gtk2 -init;
use Gtk2::Helper;
use Data::Dumper;
use FileHandle;
use IPC::Open2;
use Win32API::File;
use Win32::API;

my @queue;

{
my $api;
die "PeekNamedPipe"
if ! ($api= Win32::API->Import("kernel32", "
BOOL PeekNamedPipe(
HANDLE hNamedPipe,
LPVOID lpBuffer,
DWORD nBufferSize,
LPDWORD lpBytesRead,
LPDWORD lpTotalBytesAvail,
LPDWORD lpBytesLeftThisMessage
);"));
}

my $wfh = FileHandle->new();
my $rfh = FileHandle->new();
open2($rfh,$wfh,"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe");
my $hnd = Win32API::File::FdGetOsFHandle($rfh->fileno());
if($hnd == Win32API::File::INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE()){ die "bad hnd"; }


my $tag = Glib::Timeout->add(10,&repeat_call);


my $window = Gtk2::Window->new();
$window->signal_connect("destroy",sub{Gtk2->main_quit();});

my $hbox = Gtk2::VBox->new();
$window->add($hbox);

my $button = Gtk2::Button->new("DIR");
$button->signal_connect(clicked=>sub{
print $wfh "dir
";
});
$hbox->pack_start($button,0,0,0);

$button = Gtk2::Button->new("TIME");
$button->signal_connect(clicked=>sub{
print $wfh "time /t
";
});
$hbox->pack_start($button,0,0,0);

$window->show_all();

Gtk2->main();

sub repeat_call {
my $bAvail = 0;
my $ret = 0;
my $buffer;
$bAvail = "x00" x 4;
$ret = PeekNamedPipe($hnd,undef,0,undef,$bAvail,undef);
if(!$ret) {
my $err = Win32::GetLastError();
die "PNP failed $err $^E";
}
$bAvail = unpack(L, $bAvail) . "
";
if($bAvail > 0) {
sysread($rfh,$buffer,$bAvail);
chomp($buffer);
my (@q) = split(/
/,$buffer);
foreach my $qq (@q){
chomp($qq);
push @queue, $qq;
}
}

action_call();

while (Gtk2->events_pending()) {Gtk2->main_iteration();}
return 1;
}

sub action_call {
my $count = @queue;
if($count){
my $line = shift(@queue);
print $line . "
";
}
}

Note:
If you have a better method please share, anybody can comment! :)

Info:
VirtualDJ is the hottest AUDIO and VIDEO mixing software, targeting DJs from the bedroom, mobile, and professional superstars like Carl Cox.
With VirtualDJs breakthrough BeatLock engine, songs will always stay in beat, and the DJ works their mixes incredibly faster than they ever could.

The automatic seamless loop engine and synchronized sampler lets the DJ perform astounding remixes live, with no preparation at all. The visual representation and the cues allow a DJ to clearly see the song structure, and never be surprised by a break. The vinyl controls will let you scratch like on a real turntable, except that with the beatlock engine your scratches will never end out of the beat.

Add to that the infinite number of cue points a DJ can save for each song and large collection of wonderful automatically beat-synchronized effects.

And with VirtualDJs large collection of skin interfaces to suit everybody from the beginner to the professional DJ, the possibility to record the DJs mix to then burn to CDs, to broadcasting on the Internet and/or the DJs own radio station, to use headphones to preview the song, or use an external mixer to perform in a club; VirtualDJ is a DJs ULTIMATE mix software.

Lastly, enter the new era of DJs mixing video enhanced songs (DVD, DivX, MPEG...) which can be sent to monitors, TVs, a projector for display on a giant screen.


VirtualDJ brings all that and more to the DJ in the most easy-to-use way and at the most affordable price for the ULTIMATE DJ MIX EXPERIENCE Read more

Features:
up to 99 independent zero-latency players with:
Standard controls (play, pause, stop, cue)
Pitch control with Master Tempo (from -100% to +100%)
3 band equalizer High, Mid, and Low with Kill and +/-30db gain
Independant key control
Resonant filter
One-click beat matching and synchronization (FAME algorithm)
BeatLock engine for keeping songs in-sync and in-time
Dynamic beat-matching visualizer
Automatic beat-matched crossfading
Automatic BPM and KEY calculation
Automatic pitch matching
Automatic audio gain matching
Real scratch simulation
Automatic seamless and beat-aware LOOP functionality
Synchronized sampler with 12 instant record and playback slots
Time-Stretch and Master Tempo Pitch algorithms
Automatic first beat and last beat detection
Automatic 4/4 phase detection
Infinite number of cue points per song saved for instant recall each time the song is loaded
Beat-aware effect plugins (included: beatgrid, flippin doubles, vocal remover, frequency filter, flanger, backspin, brake, etc...)
VST effects compatibility (PC version Only)
Video mix with windowed or FULL SCREEN TV output using 2nd video output
Karaoke CDG+MP3 and/or ZIP support
FreeFrame and custom video effects
Infinite number of video effects applied simultaneously
DJ-specific video transition plugins
Song database engine with easy-to-use search feature
CoverFlow or text-only song browsing
Compatible with iTunes playlists (iTunes DRM files not supported)
MP3 ID3 Tag compatibility
User-defined automatic filter folders
Automatic Hot-Swap of external hard drives
Ready-to-burn recording of a DJs mix to CD
Broadcast on the Internet
CD to MP3 encoder
Multi-channel sound card, dual-sound card or Y-splitter output for real-time monitoring or external mixer use
ASIO soundcard compatibility
CoreAudio soundcard compatibility
Fully customizable skin engine and shortcut macro engine
VDJScript: powerful macro language used in skins, shortcuts, or controller mapping
Compatibility and customizable mapping with most external MIDI and HID controllers (more than 80 included, many more downloadable)
Optional automatic playlist mixing: VirtualDJ recognizes the style of the music (techno, hip hop, lounge) and adapts the mix accordingly
ContentUnlimited: search and play any song from our subscription plans with more than 15 million audio tracks, thousands of high quality video and karaoke files

LiveFeedback: get live recommendations based on what you play and the feedback from millions of other DJs around the world

System requirements:
MINIMUM system requirements:
Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ XP
1024x768 resolution
DirectX compatible soundcard
512MB RAM
50MB free on the hard drive
RECOMENDED system requirements:
Intel® Core™ 2 or AMD Athlon™ X2
Microsoft® Windows 7 Professional (or newer)
1280x1024 resolution (or higher)
Multi-channel DirectX compatible soundcard
1024MB RAM
200MB free on the hard drive
Additional requirements for Video mixing:
2048MB (2GB) RAM
ATI™ or NVIDIA® video card w/256MB of Dedicated DDR3 RAM
Video card must support dual-screen output
Supported Operating System:
MINIMUM: Microsoft® Windows XP SP3 or newer
RECOMMENDED: Microsoft® Windows 7 Professional 32-bit
Microsoft® Windows 95, 98, ME, or older are not supported
Screen Shots: Click on the image to view large screen