Among many teachers I meet, I have noticed a trend that it has taken me a long time to realise applies equally to me. This trend is summed up by the phrase:

"Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." 

(* There is also an addition to the phrase, most oft heard at teacher trainer schools:
"… and those who can't teach, teach teachers!!!”)

I have always disliked this ugly phrase since first hearing it as a child - after all how could you have teachers who were skilled at what they taught or skilled people who can pass on their skills? - but I’d also noticed that it was often somehow accurate. Capable people chose to teach what they chose not to do.  Teaching is all well and good - for how would anyone learn without teachers? - but should it be at the expense of doing?

To all Final Draft users:  Screenwriting software Final Draft has been shown to have a security vulnerability which can allow your computer to be accessed remotely by an attacker using a maliciously-coded Final Draft (.FDX or .FDXT) files. The solution to this is to download the patch provided on Final Draft's website. The website requires you […]

Hmmmm have noticed that since I've upgraded to IE9, Outlook is continually crashing (and restarting). You can also reproduce the fault by clicking Tools | Trust Center I've tested it on three machines (both 32 and 64 bit) and does it every time. I've done some searches but so far no one at Microsoft seems […]

Yes, BitDefender trouble strikes again! On Saturday March 20th, 2010, some BitDefender customers received a nasty surprise when the company released virus definitions update that crippled Windows 64-bit PCs. The buggy update caused hundreds, and some systems thousands, of critical system files to be placed in quarantine, which resulted in the machine becoming unbootable. Over […]

Software – Just like hardware manufacturers, software houses love a new OS because it’s a good opportunity to introduce a whole new version of their software.  And unlike more minor upgrades it’s also a good excuse to take a fresh look at their products.  This often means that functions will be altered or moved around and some features […]

Well I think I’m finally done yo-yoing between Vista and XP.  I’ve finally upgraded permanently after three (or was it four?) previous attempts.  It has been incredibly frustrating and not without its casualties (eg software and hardware that will have to be replaced because there are never likely to be any drivers/upgrades that work on […]

I said in an earlier post that I was experimenting with speeding up my workflow in Photoshop by making more use of the keyboard shortcuts and that I would write more as well about using the Wacom tablet’s built in buttons (called ExpressKeys).  These are a group of buttons on either side of the active […]

I’m working on speeding up my workflow in Photoshop CS2.  There are two aspects that I think will help me most – mastering the shortcut keys and making more use of the functions on my Wacom graphics tablet (more on this here). Shortcut Keys There are literally hundreds of keyboard shortcut keys in Photoshop – […]

Remember that DST (Daylight Saving Time) is early this year in the US and some provinces of Canada thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005.  This means that we spring forward on the second Sunday in March and fall back the first Sunday in November instead of the usual slots of the first Sunday in […]

This morning sitting in my PJs listening to some tunes, when I noticed a track in [TAG]Windows Media Player 11[/TAG] wasn’t showing a picture of the album cover.  So I idly clicked ‘Update Album Info’ thinking that it would go off and find the Art.  Was I wrong! In fact what it did was change the details […]