Aaron Smith @theartguy@is.aaronbsmith.com

#Introduction / #Introductions

I'm Aaron, a Media Arts / Technology teacher for a K-8 Creative & Performing Arts Academy.

Before I did this, I was a Visual Arts teacher.

I'm very much into #DIY, #STEM, #STEAM, #DnD, #photography, the #Maker movement, and the idea that artists should be fairly compensated for the work they do (vs reposting said work without even attribution).

My politics lean left, but I don't talk about that much here.

I'm a widower.

I talk about games on @Crash.

*"Follow-for-follow." Life's too short to clutter my timeline.

*Post, boost, or favorite profanities. Yes, even the ones included in super-insightful posts. My students can find me.

*Post, boost, or favorite copyright infringement or endorsements of the same. Copyright law needs reform, sure, but it is still used to protect artists. If you're punching down and up at the same time, You're still punching down.

1/?

I have returned from auditions! Outlet I tried to use to keep my PineBook charged was dead, but it still lasted the entire 8-5 shift.

As much as I think the PineBook is still a niche market, I think it's far more versatile for me than a ChromeBook and with the ability to boot from a MicroSD that I can easily image and reimage as needed I am encouraged to take more risks with it, thus helping me learn more.

I want to do stuff like this with my students, but I've seen the way the ChromeBooks are treated in other classes and I worry.

I've been almost exclusively using my @PINE64 PineBook Pro for school for the past two weeks.

(I had to edit/display video on Wednesday so for that I used a more powerful computer that had the right connectors for our projector, but that's the exception.)

I will NOT say that it's as quick and snappy as the $800 Notebook computer I have been using for the last three years, but it's lighter than my (much smaller) ChromeBook and CAN do almost everything I need it to do.

Today is the day students who are not currently attending one of our three Creative & Performing Arts Middle Schools audition to gain admittance.

It's a big deal. I'd argue we're three of the best schools in our fairly large school system.

I'll be on one of the two teams adjudicating for the Media Arts program, and will likely be busy from 8-5.

Today will likely not be easy, but I anticipate it WILL be very rewarding.

Strategy Share: Stop Motion Filmmakers in the Classroom – National Geographic Education Blog
https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.org/2020/01/21/strategy-share-stop-motion-filmmakers-in-the-classroom/

The top of my @PINE64 PineBook Pro was too plain.

I don't know who needs to hear this but have you remembered to save your work and/or back up your files recently?

@PINE64 Is there a specific key I should be pressing to wake my PineBook Pro up when I close it and it suspends?

Currently I see a green light saying it's on but can't do anything with it. I have to force a shutdown and turn it back on and then it's fine ... until the next time I close it.

Still overall liking the PineBook and my students think it's cool as well, though I have two things bothering me.

1. Trackpad sensitivity isn't dialed in the way I like it yet. I don't think this is a bug so much as I need to find the sweet spot.

2. If I close my PineBook it suspends, but will not wake up. I get the little green light saying it's on but have no ability to actually do anything. I have to force a shutdown and then boot it back up.

Worth noting that the first time I tried to boot to MicroSD the PineBook wouldn't boot at all. Solved it by ejecting the card, booting to the internal HD, putting the card back in, and then RESTARTING instead of my usual habit of shutting down, waiting, and booting back up.

After the first successful boot this was no longer necessary.

Only real issue I had with the PineBook yesterday was an annoying habit of mine to activate a click when typing, then getting a word or three inserted in a previous paragraph before I can stop myself.

Still rocking Manjaro KDE as I've had no time to swap out to another install, but I have every intention of doing so. Default booting to MicroSD is a very useful feature.

It still bothers me that the default installed OS is 32bit when the PineBook hardware is 64bit. There are things I want to use that just don't run (or pretend to before crashing) in a 32bit OS.

A shame, as the custom PineBook MATE interface for Debian looks rather nice.