Keep in mind I’m in LAUSD, so my posts may be more relevant to teachers in LAUSD.

Q: Can I download a YouTube video to my computer to show in class later?
(Some background info on this question: All LAUSD schools block access on their networks to YouTube (and other sites). Even if you don’t have this problem, you may want to save a YouTube video in case you don’t want to rely on having internet connection during your lesson.)

A: Yes. There are several methods to save a YouTube video onto your hard drive, but this one is probably the most convenient and straightforward: http://www.zamzar.com (works for PC and Mac). Click the “Download Videos” tab. Enter the video URL, and the format of the video you’d like to download (try “.avi” if you’re not sure). Type in your e-mail address and hit the “Convert” button. You’ll be e-mailed a link, which you click to save the converted video file. The site has conversion tools for various other types of files. There are other sites that do the same or similar things.

Q: Can I “make” a PDF file?
A: Yes. Macs have this feature built in. If you try to print a file, there might be a “PDF” button somewhere. I don’t have access to a Mac right now so I’m not sure. For the PC, you can download and install free software: http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp. You’ll need to download/install both links on the left side of that page. Once you do that, you’ll be able to create a PDF file out of anything you would otherwise print to a printer. For example, if you’re in MS Word, you go to File => Print, and instead of selecting your usual printer, select “CutePDF Writer” (screenshot below). When you hit the “Print” button, you’ll get to choose the file name and location to where you’d like to save the PDF file.

With new adventures come new experiences, which means I learn more. And, since this site is about things I learn, that means more content! Woohoo! However, comics are still on hold because of laziness. :oP :o) Sorry!

I’m trying to find a job teaching either physics or computers at one of LAUSD’s high schools or middle schools. My first step is to find schools I’m interested in teaching at, then distribute my resumes to them. If you’re also doing the jobhunt thing, you may find some of the tips below helpful, even though you’re not applying for a teaching job in LAUSD.

This guide is geared toward beginner and intermediate computer users, but like my other guides, I try to include at least something for everyone. My goal now is to efficiently fax a personalized cover letter and resume to each school I’m interested in teaching at. Your goal may be different (“Huh? Fax?”), but again, you may still find some of my steps common with yours. Breaking it down, here’s an overview of the steps we’ll go through:

1. Create a list/database of places we’re applying to
2. Write a cover letter template
3. Merge the template with our database
4. Convert our documents to PDFs
5. Fax our cover letters and resumes

“Merge” is in bold because this is one of the key shortcuts we’ll be taking. To be honest, for this case I’m not sure you’ll save that much time going through all this, but the important thing is you’ll be learning new skills that may help you in the future. Let’s start.

The problem

Okay, just kidding about starting. First, let’s look at the problem. Assuming we’re sending a standard cover letter that includes the recipient’s name, title, school, address, and greeting line, we’ll be typing the same information into each cover letter we want to send. Then, we’ll have to print out each letter, sign them, find a fax machine, and sit by the fax machine punching in fax numbers and waiting for the letters to go through. If this is a fax machine we’re paying to use, we’re probably paying a lot.

So what do we do instead?

Create a list/database of places we’re applying to

You may think of this as a table or spreadsheet, but I’ll refer to it as a database. Basically we want a central resource with contact information of all the places we’re applying to. This needs to include the information we’ll be putting on each cover letter. I recommend using Excel, and create separate columns for school name, principal’s first name, principal’s last name, school street address, zip code, and fax number. Other options are to add each school as a contact in Outlook or to create a real database using Microsoft Access (advanced, possibly overkill).

Write a cover letter template

Using Microsoft Word, we’ll write our cover letter as we normally would. We can personalize the body of the letter according to the recipient later.

Merge the template with your database

Here’s the magic many people don’t know about. If you already know, good for you. Microsoft Word has a “mail merge” feature, where you can take entries from a database and plug the info into a template. For example, you can automatically create addressed envelopes by pointing Word to an Excel spreadsheet containing that information. No need to copy/paste fifty times for fifty recipients. I’m not going to teach you how to use the mail merge feature, but you can learn on your own with using Microsoft’s online mail merge tutorial.

Convert your documents to PDFs

Microsoft Word documents don’t appear consistently across everyone’s computers. However, PDFs do (more or less). To avoid unpredictable faxing results later (such as what was a one-page document on your computer end up as two pages over fax), we convert our Word documents (.doc) to PDFs. Even if we don’t fax our cover letter and resume, attaching the resume to an email as a PDF beats attaching it as a DOC (or goodness, the new DOCX).

“Um… cool… but… how do I do that?” You can “print” almost any document to PDF using the free, simple software, CutePDF Writer. Be sure to click “Free Download” and “Free Converter” on the left. You’ll need to install both.

Fax your cover letters and resumes

Unfortunately, this part costs money. If you have free access to a fax machine, then yay. Otherwise, another choice would be to go somewhere that charges you to fax things per page. The cost is often high, which is definitely what you don’t want, especially when you’re trying to blanket an entire district with your resume. :oP :o)

Instead, I went with TrustFax, which allows you to upload a document, type in the fax number, and the document gets sent as a fax. I’m not pushing this service in particular, but I’m just saying it’s one of the better services I found, and it worked for me. If you have better suggestions, please leave a comment!

There are different plans, but I went with the $9.95/month plan, that allows you to send 125 pages a month. If for each school you sent a fax cover page, a cover letter, and a resume, that’s three pages, so 41 schools. :oP :o) I would consider it just $9.95 flat since you’re only sending out your resume once, and most likely would not need this as a monthly service. Yes, it’s like $10, but compare that to your other options and if you think $10 is not worth it, then don’t do it.

“Wait wait… if it goes straight from the electronic version to fax, how do I get my signature on there?” It’s probably not a huge deal you don’t sign the thing, but if you want, you’ll have to do a bit of handiwork. I signed a blank paper, scanned it to a JPG, then inserted it into the Word document as part of the cover letter template. If you don’t know how to do all that, ask someone who does. :oP Don’t worry too much about the signature’s image quality, since sending the document through fax will degrade the quality of the whole thing anyway.

Why not email?

I initially considered going all electronic, and that might work with most other jobs. However, not all the schools provided email addresses, whereas LAUSD’s directory shows the fax numbers for all schools. I also figured the schools weren’t very on top of technology and still somewhat rely on faxes. Another option is to fax your documents and if you can find an email address, send them an email with your resume attached as a PDF.

Hey, that didn’t save me time

You might have noticed that even though you didn’t have to type the schools’ information into each cover letter, you still had to type it into the database, so how did the mail merge save you time? In that respect, it probably didn’t. However, I personally prefer having the schools’ contact info in one place anyway, so I don’t consider the time creating the database as time wasted. In addition, you can add more columns to your database to track other things, such as the date you faxed your resume, when/if you heard back from the school, possible interview dates, etc.

Again, if you didn’t know about the mail merge feature before, I felt this was a good time to learn and apply it since most likely it will come in handy in the future.

This isn’t necessarily the “best” way to get your resume out to schools, but it’s the way I chose to do it and I hope you found certain parts helpful. I’m also intentionally dealing with just resume distribution, as I know there’s much more one can do to get a teaching job in LAUSD, such as getting your foot in the door with substitute teaching jobs, or attending LAUSD’s job placement fairs. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.

I set this up with the purpose of a school library catalog in mind, built from scratch from salvaged parts, so my instructions are for exactly that. However, this system can be used for many other things, such as a home media library, or equipment checkout system, and can be built in many ways as long as the heart of the system (OpenBiblio) is there.

This procedure is for someone at least somewhat familiar with Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (or “LAMP”). You should be familiar enough with the system to do basic application installations and take precautions such as disabling directory listing. If that’s not you, find someone who is.

Features

• Basic mixed media catalog (books, CDs, DVDs, etc), with bibliographic info and search
• Open public access catalog (OPAC)
• Easy barcode and call number label printing (on a standard printer)
• Circulation system, aka checkout system with database of library patrons, fines, book statuses, etc.
• Ability to lookup bibliographic information when inserting books (optional)

Sounds good? Of course it does. Let’s get crackin’…

Get a computer

The software will run on pretty much any junk PC, since the software really isn’t resource-intensive. I did this setup on a PIII 500MHz machine with 256MB of RAM and it ran just fine, even with 10-15 people simultaneously cataloging on it. Ask your friends for hand-me-downs, or worst case, buy something for uber cheap off Craigslist. You can also install everything on your current computer if you want to run an Apache/MySQL server on it (assuming you know what you’re doing).

Install LAMP

LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

Follow the LAMP Installation Walkthrough (using Ubuntu, a popular distribution of Linux recommended for beginners)

I recommend also installing PHPMyAdmin (listed as an optional step after setting the MySQL password).

Install OpenBiblio

OpenBiblio is the heart of the system, the “library software”, if you will. It’s a web application that runs on PHP/MySQL, and it has a quick and easy installation, very similar to WordPress.

Download OpenBiblio

Login to MySQL and follow the OpenBiblio installations instructions (install_instructions.html), beginning from step 5.

Install Lookup Addon (Optional)

The Lookup addon adds functionality to OpenBiblio by allowing you to lookup books from the Library of Congress database, or other library databases, and downloading their MARC (bibliographic) information.

Download Lookup if you know Linux pretty well and want bibliographic lookup capability: http://www.flos-inc.com/projects/ (“download Lookup files”). Refer to “lookup_install.txt” for installation instructions.

For step 2, your OpenBiblio MySQL data directory is most likely under “/var/lib/mysql/”. For example, if you named your OpenBiblio MySQL database “OpenBiblio” and you’re in the Lookup installation directory, you’d type “sudo mv cutter.* /var/lib/mysql/OpenBiblio“.

Install Z39.50 Search (part of Lookup installation)

This is a protocol required by the Lookup addon. This is where you need Linux know-how… something I don’t have. At this point, I don’t have much idea what’s going on, but try entering the commands and hope it somehow works. :oP :o)

1. Install PHP PEAR: sudo apt-get install php-pear
2. Install phpize: sudo apt-get install php5-dev
3. Download, uncompress, build, and install YAZ:
   cd /tmp
   wget http://ftp.indexdata.dk/pub/yaz/yaz-3.0.14.tar.gz
   tar -zxvf yaz-3.0.14.tar.gz
   cd yaz-3.0.14
   ./configure
   make
   sudo make install
   sudo pecl install yaz
4. Edit php.ini: Add the line “extension=yaz.so” to the end of the file. (sudo gedit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini)
5. Restart Apache: sudo etc/init.d/apache2 restart
6. Run a phpinfo() to verify there is a section on yaz (“YAZ Support: enabled”). If you don’t know what that means, just try the “Z39.50 Search” that should appear in OpenBiblio now and see if it works.

Results, woohoo!

Get a Barcode Scanner!! :oD

No library checkout system is complete without a barcode scanner. This may be the only purchase you need to make. Typical “gun”-looking scanners cost ~$100, but you can get a contact/swipey scanner for ~$15 (including shipping). The CueCat barcode scanner (pictured below) is available on eBay or www.cuecats.com. Make sure you purchase a modified version, or search for the simple mod instructions on Google. The CueCat is available in PS2 and USB.

Using and Maintaining the System

If you made it this far, I assume you can poke around and figure out how everything works. As for maintenance, I recommend periodically backing up the database by exporting it using PHPMyAdmin.

Here’s some documentation for your own use or for you to distribute. Please give credit where credit is due, and if you believe you can make improvements, please do so and drop me a note. :o)

Instructions for Use and Maintenance of Library Electronic Catalog (PDF)

Yes. Yes, it would.

[Update: If you are a UCLA alumni and want to use your lifetime forwarding to have your UCLA email forwarded to your Gmail, click HERE to read the FAQ. Click the blue "Set Up Forwarding" button. You don't need to do anything in Gmail.]

There are two ways to do so.

Forwarding UCLA email to Gmail

One way to use Gmail to check your UCLA email is to have your UCLA email forwarded to your Gmail account. One problem with this is you’ll have to login to UCLA mail to send from that address, or if you hit “reply” to an email in Gmail, your Gmail address will be displayed in the “from” field. Another factor to consider is you’re forwarding only future emails, so what’s currently stored in your UCLA mail will stay there.

If that doesn’t sound good to you, skip down to the next section. If you’re okay with all that, here’s how to forward your UCLA email to your Gmail account:

1. Login to your UCLA email at http://mail.ucla.edu .
2. Click Filters in the left-side menu.
3. Click Forward in the top menu.
4. Type your Gmail address in the Forwarding Address field.
5. To keep a copy of your forwarded mail on the UCLA email server, check the checkbox labeled Keep a copy in Inbox.
   • If you do this, you may have to login to your UCLA email once in a while to delete some mail. Otherwise, the mailbox will eventually fill up over its quota and you’ll stop receiving mail.
6. Click Save Changes

You’re done. Or…

Have Gmail “grab” your UCLA email from the UCLA mail server

A more attractive option to some, is you can have Gmail pretend to be you and “grab” (that’s not a technical term) emails (including your old mail) from your UCLA email account. Doing this provides an extra feature, that you can also appear to be sending from your UCLA email account.

Be aware that having Gmail “grab” your UCLA email requires storing your UCLA email password on Gmail’s servers. Even if you trust Google to handle the information responsibly, I’m sure their servers are also a huge target for hackers.

Here’s how to set up your UCLA email in Gmail:

1. In Gmail, go to Settings (upper right) => Accounts tab, in the row labeled “Get mail from other accounts”, click Add another mail account
2. In the window that appears, enter your UCLA email address and go to Next Step
3. Leave the default settings, but enter your password where indicated and you may check the unchecked options if you’d like.
   1. If you want to move all your mail (in other words, empty your UCLA email account) to your Gmail account, uncheck Leave a copy of retrieved message on server. To copy your UCLA email to your Gmail account, check this option.
4. Click Save Changes to move on.
5. Check Yes, I want to be able to send mail as …, unless you don’t want to. :oP Go to Next Step.
6. Gmail will walk you through the remaining steps, which includes them sending you a verification email to your UCLA email
   • Your UCLA email may be downloaded to your Gmail as unread mail, even though they were marked as read in your UCLA mail. To search for all unread mail to mark them as read, perform a search for is:unread.

A caveat about having Gmail send “from” your UCLA email is since it’s not really sending from your UCLA email, it tries its best to pretend it is. Most email clients receiving mail from you will display it’s from your UCLA email, but sometimes people might see something like “From moebruin@gmail.com on behalf of moebruin@ucla.edu” or something similar.

Deleting UCLA emails when over quota

On an unrelated note, when your UCLA mailbox is full, BOL mail (mail.ucla.edu) has a quirk where it seems impossible to delete any mail. If this is the case, login to MyUCLA and use their mail interface to delete some mail until it’s below the threshold, then you can continue using BOL mail to delete more mail.

If you want to prevent people from leeching your internet and snooping around your network and possibly even messing with your router’s settings, take the following steps:

1. Enable WPA (recommended) or WEP encryption on your router
   To oversimplify, enabling encryption “password-protects” your wireless network. It’s like your router and your computer doing a secret handshake before each transmission. Yes, WEP and WPA can be hacked by moderately knowledgeable geeks. WEP can be hacked in minutes, but to do so is beyond casual Joe who just wants free internet. WPA is well… much stronger… so use WPA. If your router is so old it doesn’t offer WPA encryption, either use WEP (better than nothing) or buy a new router.
   Whichever one you use, always use a strong password (random is better) or the encryption becomes more or less useless.
   To enable encryption on your router, refer to the manual :oP. You may need to configure the wireless profile on the computers connecting to the router, but in most cases you’ll simply be prompted for the “password” (or key) upon connecting to the network.

Oh ummm… I guess that’s just the key thing for a relatively secure network. There’s a few other things you can try to make your network more secure, but I don’t mention them because they’re mostly crap. They don’t hurt, though. It comes down to this:

• If Joe Shmoe wants to steal your internet, either of the aforementioned encryption methods is enough to keep him out.
• If Joe Shmoe is actually l337 h@x0r, he’ll quickly get through WEP and the other crappy “security measures” most articles suggest.
• It will be quite difficult or near impossible (not worth the effort) to get through WPA that has a strong key (“password”).

If all you do on the internet is read webcomics and blogs, you probably don’t have much to be concerned about, but if you manage any finances, consider using WPA encryption.