Women in Media - Miss Representation [video]

I hope you all enjoy this Monday's bonus inspirational post.

Today's media portrays women in a horrible light. It's hard for a father, like myself, to teach not only my daughters but my sons too, how to be themselves and not succumb to the pressures of today's World and portrayals.

Although I would have liked less of a skin montage, this video addresses all these concerns head on.

Miss Representation 8 min. Trailer 8/23/11 from Miss Representation on Vimeo.

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NeverWet: A Superhydrophobic Spray

This may appear as magic, but it's not; it's science. Ross Technology Corp (RTC) is a company that specializes in steel products, which needed a better way to reduce corrosion. This is where necessity was indeed the mother of invention.

This necessity lead RTC Engineers to identifying a need for "a coating to keep liquid away from steel. What they ended up with is a silicon-based spray that not only kept steel dry, it could also be applied to many different surfaces and materials" yielding the same results.

The rest, as they say, is history.

"When we started getting it to work, we realized it solved a lot of problems rather than just corrosion," said Andy Jones, who leads the new effort.

Jones is the President of Ross Nanotechnology, the subsidiary of Ross Technology Corp. that was formed to develop NeverWet.

In addition to fighting corrosion, NeverWet's nano-particle coating keeps things clean, dry and free of bacteria and ice.

Jones said that once they found a coating that worked on metal, they created different formulations that adhere better to other surfaces, including clothing, plastics and cookware.

The cookware formulation also was tweaked so it can better handle high temperatures.

"Anywhere you don't want corrosion, or ice or things to get wet, this works well," Jones said.

"When you start thinking about it, there are a lot of places where that's good."

Jones quickly mentioned a number of additional possibilities: NeverWet could make ovens, toilet plungers and bed pans a cinch to clean, packaging resist water and white boards free of "ghost" images, he said.

Another application is safeguarding electronics —"I sprayed my iPhone with NeverWet, submerged it in a foot of water for 30 minutes, took it out and it was good to go," Jones said.

Now all of this may sound crazy, but I ask you hold off on that judgment until after you watch this video.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7is6r6zXFDc

What do you think? Can you think of applications for this product? Sound them off in the comments below.  ▣
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Google-Specific Greasemonkey Scripts

It's been a while since I wrote about one of my favorite Firefox extensions: Greasemonkey. In today's article, I wanted to show how the scripts run via Greasemonkey could enhance one of the sites that most us visit & use on a daily basis: Google!

Multi-Column Google Search Results

This can be incredibly useful on wider monitors. It's configurable to 1, 2 or 3 columns.

Google FX

A plethora of options of improvements for Google like Autopager, Sidebars, MultiLanguage Suggest, ThumbShots, Image Preview, Toolbars, Filters & much more - Fully Customizable - includes 8 Theme Colors with Iconization.

Google Book Downloader

Download any book from books.google.com. I must admit, I've not used this one, but it sounds intriguing.

Google Secure Pro

I love this one. Although I have some extensions that cover some of this, none cover this many. Basically, it forces Google products to use (https) secure connection . Also compatible with Opera 9+. Supported: Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Reader, History, Bookmarks, Groups, Knol, Notebook, Webmasters, Voice, Contacts.

Google Enhanced Black

This Black Google script enhances all Google service pages with an inverted color-scheme for reduced eye fatigue; it also removes ads & clutter and improves page layout and readability by widening search results.

There are others out there, and MakeUseOf captures some of them in two articles I hope you enjoy as much as I did:
9 Greasemonkey Scripts For More Productive Google Search
5 Useful Greasemonkey Scripts To Enhance Google Calendar

With the so many Greasemonkey scripts out there, I'm sure there are a few that I don't know about. Should you come across any, please don't hesitate to share them with us in the comments.  ▣
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Google Magazines

Taken with permission from TechnologyNomad.com

Google Books, a digitized library of print materials, has quite a few magazines available in addition to all their other high quality offerings. I remember reading that publishers can choose whether they provide free access to back issues via Google Book Search, or use it to draw traffic to pay-to-view archives, so we assume the same goes for magazines. That said, all of the searches we tried led to free-access page images.

Although there hasn’t been a whole lot of publicity on this, Google books began adding full text magazines. They have digitized at least 100 magazines from cover to cover, showing us the ads, pictures and articles. In addition to the historic aspect, they are really interesting and fun to look through. By digitizing every page, it is almost like going to the Periodicals stacks on the second floor of a library and flipping through them right there on the shelves.

Amongst their digitized work are back issues of many (mostly popular) magazines. Specifically, in September, 2009 Google announced the availability of over 1,860 issues of the iconic LIFE Magazine on Google Books. Every issue of Life Magazine from its debut in November, 1936 to the end of 1972 is available via Google Books. You can browse the cover of each issue and search the text of articles.

As of recent, the entire archives (137 years) of Popular Science is also now accessible, searchable, and free via the PopSci web site.

A few days ago, I learned that Google's magazine archive has expanded with 40 years of digitized content available from IDG Publishing (Free).

With the project, readers can now access issues of CIO, CSO, InfoWorld and Network World dating back to the 1970s. The pages of the publications—including advertisements—have been scanned and digitized, and are available in a searchable archive on Google Books. Additionally, some microfilm issues of Computerworld have been posted and are available on the Google News Archive. “The real value of this project to IDG is in having the content of our enterprise IT publications—going back decades—preserved for all time and accessible to researchers and historians around the world,” Matt Smith, senior VP-COO of IDG Enterprise, said in a statement.

Here's the media release from IDG.

Another popular magazine out on Google Books is SPIN Magazine. "Flippin'" through it is sure to get a giggle or two at what was once considered cool from the 1980s. The contemporary cultural and political articles – as well as exciting fashions featured in the ads of decades gone are now available for perusal from any web browser. You can also browse through archives of New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Weekly World News, Jet, and even Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Years available will vary, but this is a wonderful resource for those looking for 20th century popular culture, and well worth a quick search or an extended browse. Don't forget to check out the LIFE Photo Archive while you're at it!

Ancestry announced in January, 2010 that the magazine would be discontinued, so how great it is now to have access to all the issues they’ve done! This is a great model for any other publishers/organizations that may be discontinuing.

Use the "Magazine" link on the Google Books home page to get to this material. Here's a page on Google Books that lets you browse the available magazine titles. You can also use the Advanced Interface and limit to only magazines and/or publisher.

As Google's official blog adequately puts it "In many cases, these magazines aren't just history as history, but history as perspective — a way of understanding today." If print ever dies, at least there should be a digital copy of all of this history on Google.  ▣

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Must-Have Firefox Extensions & Add-Ons

Provided by TechnologyNomad.com

If you're a Firefox user, then you already know that one of the things that make this open-source browser so popular is its extensibility --the big galaxy of useful extensions you can use with it. I for one, have a couple of add-ons/extensions/plug-ins that I simply cannot continue online without. I'll even go out on a limb and say that Firefox's extensibility is the reason the browser has become my very desktop. But what are those browser extensions that turn Firefox from a regular browser to a down-right necessity?

Let's think of this in a different manner. When you buy a new computer, or you land a new job or whatever it is that presents you with the opportunity to start fresh, what are the first things you do?

You see for me, the first thing I do is jump on the native browser that came with the machine and go download Firefox. And I won't go into what other applications I download and/or seek; but for Firefox itself, I immediately start looking for the following core extensions:

It's worth noting that I'm using "extensions" to include add-ons, plug-ins and extensions (of course).

Like all extensions & add-ons, if you don't like one you can always uninstall it; which's much cleaner & simpler than uninstalling a full-blown application.

Greasemonkey

God, I can spend all day on this alone.

The Greasemonkey add-on allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages. Basically, as Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web pages are executed every time the page is opened, making them effectively permanent for the user running the script.

These scripts do not actually change the web site itself, but it changes the way Firefox interacts with the HTML on a web page to make it act in a way that is more user-friendly and/or befitting of one's needs. This change only occurs in your Firefox browser and only for the current session. It does not change any coding on the server side or to the web site itself. It simply changes how Firefox reads the code on the page and redisplays it to you with the aesthetic and functionality based on the directions/code of the script(s) you have installed. Every time you visit the web site, the script changes the page for you without you noticing it. There is no delay in the changes visible to the naked eye, usually. Some scripts allow you to auto-fill forms. You can even automatically retrieve data from other sites to make two sites act as one ... very mashups-like.

Greasemonkey allows you to stipulate what pages (and sub pages/directories) to run the script of your choice on. And the reverse is also true. Greasemonkey allows you to exclude certain sites/pages as well.

By itself, Greasemonkey does none of these things. In fact, after you install it, you won't notice any change(s) at all, until you start installing what are called "user scripts."

The "Swiss Army Knife" of Firefox extensions may seem like it requires a bit of ramp-up to get going, but it does not. You simply install those "user scripts" without as much as restarting your browser. There are literally thousands already written for you. To install these "user scripts," first you must install the Greasemonkey Firefox extension. Then head out to Userscripts.org and search for a web site or page you'd like to see optimized and in what manner and you're sure to find something.

Like I said, I could write about Greasemonkey alone. The fact is, there are definitely some "user scripts" that I seek out and install under Greasemonkey; but this is not the time or the place for that. I will tell you that you can find some for most popular sites. There are some that modify how Google presents search results, others that modify YouTube, some that add functionality to StumbleUpon, enhance Flickr, etc. What Greasemonkey scripts are amongst the must-haves is truly a personal thing.

Xmarks

Formerly known as Foxmarks, Xmarks syncs all your bookmarks (and bookmarklets of course) across all computers. As a fan and advocate of cloud computing (with some personally-put restrictions), Xmarks simply puts all your bookmarks & bookmarklets into the cloud so you can access them from any other computer connected to the internet. In addition to online backup, Xmarks is available for Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE) and Safari; so if you add a bookmark in one browser, it will automatically become available in your other browsers as well.

Xmarks has many other features that go beyond the scope of this specific post. One worth mentioning, however, is that Xmarks offers profiles allowing you to display certain bookmarks at certain locations (you may not want certain bookmarks, for example, to automatically be shown and/or available at work). For me, this is an absolute must, since bookmarklets I have created cannot become property of the company I work for; or disputed at any point to be so. Should you leave a workplace for which you had a profile location, you simply disable that location in your profile and they're gone once you sync up.

DownThemAll

Ever wanted to download all the articles, images (only GIFs, only JPGs, or both) on a web site but wish that you could grab them all at one time? DownThemAll does just that. DownThemAll is a selective, powerful download manager. It makes short work of snatching all the images on a page (including those links to the "bigger" or "zoom" versions), all the MP3s off a music or podcast blog, or any other kind of filter you can set up.

The only way to elaborate any more on this wonderful add-on is to build a small walk-through of it; which again steers away from the intention here. So ... I encourage you to try it out yourself and go from there. I'm confident you'll like it.

Better Gmail 2

It's no surprise that Gmail has become the web-mail of choice for many of us. However, there are some nuances that many have expressed; including the inability to use folders (as oppose to Gmail's labels). Better Gmail 2 addresses that and many others.

Better Gmail 2 is sure to impress you with what it offers. Amongst its lesser known features is the gem of hiding labels on the message rows. Only on mouse-over do you see the label that the message was tagged with.

Download Statusbar

Once you start downloading any thing, you're sure going to seek a much better tool than the one native to Firefox. When you are dealing with multiple downloads, it’s easy to get confused and lose track of your files. Sure, there are lots of download managers out there, but sometimes you want something that’s so discreet you barely even notice it. Is there a tool that will do the job?

Download Statusbar is a Firefox add-on that is very low-key. In fact, when you are not downloading, it is invisible, and when active, it is very, very discreet. Download Statusbar completely integrates Firefox's standard release, so there is nothing to configure before you start to use it. When you download a file, a very small download indicator (the statusbar) will appear at the bottom of your screen. From here you can control the download, pausing and re-starting in one click, running the file once it downloads, copying the URL and visiting the source website.

The Download Statusbar display makes it very easy to see what files you are downloading and how close to completion they are. If you open the add-on’s configuration options, you’ll find that the display and download are completely customizable. There are also a series of hints available on the Download Statusbar website that make your downloading even quicker. Simply put, it is effective, low-maintenance and very simple, and if you are a frequent downloader, it’s a must-have extension.

This, of course, serves a different purpose than DownThemAll (mentioned above), which allows you to download (automatically) several files at once. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I use & highly recommend both, and for different reasons.

Others

Most other extensions, plug-ins and add-ons are usually added later as you come across them. What I mean is that when you visit YouTube you'll quickly learn that you need to install the Flash plug-in; and if you visit an audio site that serves RealAudio files, you'll need to install that plug-in. And so on and so forth.

Without a doubt, there are other Firefox add-ons that I have installed; but they are specific to my needs. For example, I like having a tab-centric application (like Tab Mix Plus), an easier copy (as in copy & paste) solution like AutoCopy, and a few others. There are extensions that cater specifically to Developers, ones that cater to bloggers, and ones that cater specifically to laptop users ... to which I highly recommend FireFound and Meebo. The web-based instant messaging (IM) site offers an extension that especially goes well with portable (run off of a USB drive or something similar) versions of Firefox. Again, I'm sure there are many other extensions out there, but these are the ones I rush to add when I have a fresh copy of Firefox.

As a Firefox user what extensions/add-ons are the ones you rush to add when you have a fresh copy of Firefox? Share those with us in the comments.  ▣

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Your Online World After Your Death

Re-published with permission from TechnologyNomad.com

In today's online World thinking about what happens to one's online accounts, which to many is a big chunk of their World, after their death might be morbid. Perhaps even a tad superstitious and pessimistic. Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil.

Now I wanted to write about the topic, but after doing a bit of research (as I always do for an article) revealed that blog site MakeUseOf covered it, and covered it quite well. According to the article, email services like Hotmail and Gmail allow next of kin to access accounts of deceased individuals as long as the family can provide proof of death. My guess is that anonymous accounts, where incomplete or incorrect information is provided, mean that the accounts get locked over time due to lack of usage. Whereas other services, like MySpace, will simply delete the account upon request. The infamous Facebook will also delete an account if asked, but they also go out of their way and turn the user's page into a memorial one, if the family so wishes. I highly recommend reading the MakeUseOf article as it covers quite a bit.

Chrome Natively Supports Greasemonkey

Greasemonkey is a Mozilla Firefox add-on that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages. Basically, as Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web pages are executed every time the page is opened, making them effectively permanent for the user running the script.

The original Greasemonkey developer and Google employee Aaron Boodman announced yesterday that Chrome version 4 and later will support at least 80% of the Greasemonkey scripts out there natively. That is, without any additional tweaking necessary; unlike many of the hacks that existed up until now.

This now gives those who contemplate switching to Google's Chrome a serious re-consider. For me personally, not having Greasemonkey alone was the reason behind my lack of interest in Chrome. Potentially, this now makes available 40,000 plus scripts. Although I've not tried it, I'm under the impression that each of the userscripts one would install is treated like an extension in and of itself.

Have you made the switch to Google's Chrome? If not, will the availability of Greasemonkey scripts lure you in now? Let us know in the comments.  ▣

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HTML5: Bridging the Gap Between the Desktop and the Web

I'm running a day behind in writing this week's articles, but I'm still very excited about several topics to put on display before you every week (on Tip Tuesday). This week I intended on writing about something other than HTML5. However, Google made a move that more or less forced my hand on the topic; so to speak.

Let's start with what HTML5 is.
Lifehacker answers the question with:

HTML5 is a specification for how the web's core language, HTML, should be formatted and utilized to deliver text, images, multimedia, web apps, search forms, and anything else you see in your browser. In some ways, it's mostly a core set of standards that only web developers really need to know. In other ways, it's a major revision to how the web is put together. Not every web site will use it, but those that do will have better support across modern desktop and mobile browsers (that is, everything except Internet Explorer).

While about.com answers it with:

HTML was developed by the W3C until 2004, when members of the HTML working group grew disturbed with the direction the W3C was going with HTML. They felt that the W3C was not paying enough attention to the real-world development needs of the language and focusing too much on XML and XHTML. So they formed a new group called WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) devoted to evolving the Web. They started by working on a new specification of HTML - HTML 5.

HTML 5 is a new version of HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 focusing on the needs of Web application developers as well as evolving HTML and addressing issues found in the current specifications.

So what's so fancy about HTML5?
Going into details of the changes would probably exceed both the time and the patience of the average curious user. Instead, I will focus on some of the major changes, and how that will make our online experience better. Ben Galbraith, co-director of developer tools at Mozilla, is in agreement and stated:

HTML 5 features like Canvas, local storage, and Web Workers let us do more in the browser than ever before.

Here are some of changes that are taking place in a more relevant form:

• Offline Storage: The easiest way to think of offline storage as something a lot like Google Gears -—you just won't need to install a plug-in to use it. Modern browsers are starting to implement the offline storage feature of HTML5. Not surprisingly, the current model of text-based key & value storage is expected to grow into a universal structured data storage as the standard matures. This would greatly expand the usefulness of web applications, and could render many desktop applications (with time) obsolete.
• Drag & Drop: Simply put, this could put an end to the "browse" button to upload a file (like one does when submitting their resume online or uploading a profile picture of themselves). This HTML5 feature will allow the dragging files (mp3 files, documents, etc.) from the browser to one's own local storage (USB drive, Dropbox folder, etc.). Knowing that the Google Chrome OS (not the browser) is already in the works, the drag and drop feature of HTML5 simply bring a browser-based OS much closer to reality. The definitions around drag & drop are unclear, and will likely require JavaScript to work. Nonetheless, its uses are abundant and evident.
• Canvas: Simply put, you can programatically (is that a word?) render pictures, charts, graphs, games and whatever else your imagination allows that previously were practical only with third party add ons such as Flash and Silverlight. Having <canvas> as an encapsulated part of HTML gives Web Designers/Artists a freedom, no longer confined to images and boxes, allowing them to use the entire page as an expression of content and design rich interfaces to their hearts' content.
• Audtio & Video: The audio & video APIs are massive upgrades in media embedding. Although support is limited right now, something like video embedding has never been easier. Imagine YouTube no longer needing Flash to play videos. Instead, it's inherent within the page. Well, that's exactly what was announced, albeit in beta, a week or so ago.

There's much more to HTML 5 like Geolocation, Web Workers, Smarter Forms, and many others. HTML 5's web application focus is evident in such game-changing tools (although not yet) like Google's Wave. Whether it's structural in with HTML 5's API, reading further on the many beneficial changes is sure to help those technical and not.

Here are a few reading resources:

• Offline Web Applications
• Offline Application Caching
• Steve Smith on Structural Tags in HTML5
• Lachlan Hunt’s Preview of HTML5
• Elliot Harold on New Elements in HTML5
• Bruce Lawson’s HTML5 Form Demo
• HTML5 Cheat Sheet A handy printable HTML 5 Cheat Sheet that lists all currently supported tags, their descriptions, their attributes and their support in HTML 4. Released Smashing Magazine.

If you're running an up-to-date version of Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Opera—or, basically, any regularly updated browser besides Internet Explorer—give these links a shot:

• HTML5 Demos: Huge list of capability demonstrations, gracefully compiled by Remy Sharp.
• Welcome to Safari: Written entirely with HTML5 and CSS 3.
• YouTube in HTML5: No Flash required at all (for Chrome and Safari only, at this point).
• Canvas drawing and audioNeat interactive site that shows tweets from folks who are digging on HTML5, with streaming background audio and interactive data pieces.

And here are a couple of videos illustrating HTML 5 and what it can do:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4FbF8GKChk

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tLBLVtIk3A

You Can Use HTML 5 Right Now.
I say that because HTML 5 has been a working draft for a couple of years and has undergone many revisions --The first draft of HTML 5 appeared on January 22, 2008, and it has been under revision ever since. HTML 5 is mapping our way into the future, but its final draft is not complete yet. One school of thought puts it W3C Candidate Recommendation stage around 2012, some even later. But the important thing to note is that the standard will be, and is being, implemented in stages. Safari, Internet Explorer 8, and Firefox 3.5 have some of the standard already implemented, with more being planned in future releases. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is resisting some of HTML 5's APIs (like <canvas> ... imagine what it would do to Silverlight).

Per smashingmagazine.com:

To effectively use HTML5 right now, we need to be able to control the environment in which it is used. Since support is not as widespread as we’d like it doesn’t make real sense for it to be heavily used unless, of course, we can lock down the usage to certain platforms which have HTML5 support. With Webkit leading the way for HTML5, we can safely focus on devices powered by Webkit.

The 3 hottest mobile devices right now: The Palm Pre, iPhone 3Gs and the new Google Android phone all have browsers that are based off the Webkit rendering engine.

Safari is even leading the way on the mobile HTML5 front; The iPhone (with the latest software upgrade) is the only device I could get to properly render the

Right now, you can confidently use many of the HTML5 features in iPhone Web app development and mostly likely expect Pre and Android to follow in suit.

This all now brings us to why Google forced my hand in writing about HTML 5. As I'm sure you know, Google Voice was rejected on the iPhone and created a major ripple this last summer (2009) to the point where the FCC was forced to interve. Well, given how Apple's Safari browser on the iPhone in particular is excelling in using HTML5 Google Voice Does An End Run Around Apple And Shows Up In The iPhone’s Browser. Genius! In the words of Borat "high five."  ▣

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Safeguard Schools, Religious Institutions and Your Family Online

There have been a few things that have changed since I last wrote about how to protect your computer and your family. Of course, the applications of this are many. For example, I highly recommend a proactive approach to protect schools, religious institutions, your family (and the family of those you know and care about), etc. The options are very easy and anyone can do one, a combination or all of them.

At the network level, where everyone on your network will be affected (that's a good thing for most), the previously mentioned OpenDNS route is a very good one. Since I've mentioned it, however, I've learned that OpenDNS was responsible for a minimum of 15% impact on my network performance. While the protection is nice, their DNS (a definition was also covered in last year's article) was slowing down all systems using it. This may have just been the case for me, but I did some thorough testing only to be surprised that it was OpenDNS behind my slower connection (both inbound and out). Despite the negative-discovery, I still think that OpenDNS is amongst the top & best option, which allows for maximum customization for the entire network. With the categories they offer, and the option to add domain names via their web interface, OpenDNS makes it easy to protect all internet-accessing machines within your network.

Almost eight months after writing the April article Google offered its own public (and free) DNS. The announcement this last December opened up a whole new option for all of us to use. Despite the lack of customization, Google's Public DNS still offers a lot of security benefits. Albeit, none of those benefits will offer protection against nudity, gambling, pornography, etc. Judging from personal experience, however, I'm very impressed with the speed of the DNS. I'm unable to detect any slowness or impact on my internet connection. On the contrary, it was faster than my ISP's own DNS (is that even possible?). With that speed, and with other options available to protect my network & individual machines from the profane side of the net, Google's public DNS was the right option for; and may be one for you too.

I still highly recommend using a customized hosts file in your Windows machine to help protect against many of the profane, inappropriate and plain-ol' annoying sites. The hosts file solution is awesome and adds a layer of protection that's unsurpassed by any other. Combining that with a good (and fast) DNS and you're well on your way to isolating & omitting more than 90% of the Internet's inappropriate content. To learn more about the hosts, I strongly recommend that you read last year's article. I went to great lengths to explain it and provide you the resources needed to make it happen without much work. Having a site that keeps an eye on such unwanted web addresses and updating a hosts file alone is worth the change to make in your hosts file. In other words, you'll never have to know what bad sites to block, what ad sites to block, what sites known for spyware, malware and the like to block, etc.

After standardizing on Firefox within my household, and within organizations I've helped, it was easy for me implement a few extensions to also help with protecting our children, congregation, company, etc. from all the inappropriate & dangerous content out there. Many swear by NoScript, which's an extension/add-on for Firefox that gives you the power to specify the sites you trust and only those sites will be allowed to run active content like JavaScript, Java (usually in applets) and other executable code. The add-on thus protects you from cross-site scripting and click-jacking attacks. Personally, I rely heavily on Greasemonkey. I always run Greasemonkey and adding to it is a breeze. In particular, I highly recommend the "Block XXX sites" script. Next in line is the "Profanity Filter." Hands down, it's the best one out there. For religious institutions and schools, these two are simply a must. If you're looking to have more control on substitution options for certain vulgarities, then I recommend Jmaxxz's Vulgar Word Blocker.

Many kids are online; and if you're responsible for protecting them directly or indirectly in an IT capacity, then I also recommend that you consider "5 terrific Web-Browsers to safeguard Kid’s internet activities."

My advice is based on my personal set up. It's also the one I recommend professionally or for any volunteer work I do. After I switched away from OpenDNS, it is now Google's Public DNS, a customized hosts file and Greasemonkey scripts after standardizing on Firefox. Did I mention that it was all FREE? And so easy to set up. You shouldn't have any questions, but if you did, I'm more than happy to help.

What's left? You still need a good anti-virus application. And there are several good ones out there that are 100% free and rival many of their commercial alternatives.

If you're responsible for the IT of a company, a religious organization, a school or a bunch of children, then I urge you to consider the above solutions. You do not want a child to come across some horrific images and/or content that many adults detest.  ▣

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Technology and Education: TED Talks for Teachers

I've only mentioned TED, ever so briefly, when I wrote the inspirational Monday article The Winds of Change. In brief, TED is a small nonprofit devoted to ideas worth spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. TED's scope is now much broader providing talks and performances for free (almost 500 TEDTalks are now available, with more added regularly). If you've not experienced TED, I urge you to do so. Don't take my word for it, read what others have said.

As you may know, I like to collect free alternatives to commercial software. Along the same lines, I at one point started collecting information on what free education is available out there from reputable schools like Berkley, Stanford, MIT, etc. As part of the ongoing search and collection of free education, I've come to like and follow Free Technology for Teachers. On one of their posts, the site featured 10 TED Talks for Teachers I thought were worth repeating & mentioning as a way to show how technology can serve education beyond student curriculum; and specifically for the teachers themselves. Here's the exact article from that post:

"
TED Talks provide viewers with insightful and thought-provoking commentary and ideas. The contents of many TED Talks can be directly or indirectly applied to your classroom practices. While you're on holiday break, you may want to watch one or all of these TED Talks. If you're interested in learning more about using TED Talks in your classroom, check out Teaching With TED.

TED Talks directly about education.
1. John Wooden on Winning vs. Success.
What strikes me most about Coach Wooden's talk is his emphasis on teaching and developing character over winning. One of his three most important rules, "no criticizing of teammates, I'm paid to do that," is a great rule that translates well to the classroom and the workplace.

2. Clifford Stoll Teaches Physics to Eighth Graders.
Clifford Stoll has done many cool things in his life including catching a KGB spy, but the coolest thing he's done is teaching college level physics to 8th graders. What I like about Clifford Stoll is that instead of just talking about ways to teach and improve education he is actually getting on the front line and trying his ideas. (Stoll has definitely done enough things and made enough money to sit back and be a "consultant" but instead he's actually teaching, something I have tremendous respect for). In this talk he gave at TED in February 2006 Stoll talks about and demonstrates measuring the speed of sound with an 8th grade class. Stoll also makes a very profound, but somewhat obvious, statement about the future. He says, "if you want to know what the future generation will be like, ask a Kindergarten teacher."

3. Don't Eat the Marshmallow
In this TED Talk given by Joachim de Posada talks about the behavior of children when they are given a marshmallow and told not to eat it for fifteen minutes. In the talk Joachim de Posada reveals that the response of children to this challenge can be indicative of future success in life. In addition to being informative and thought-provoking, the talk includes some really cute video clips. The information shared in the talk confirms what most of us know about the impulse control of small children. None-the-less, it's nice to have a reminder that can inform our planning of day's lessons.

4. Bill Gates Talks About Mosquitoes, Malaria, and Education.
In this interesting TED Talk (they're all interesting) Bill Gates discusses mosquitoes, malaria, and education. The education part of his talk (the last eight minutes) presents some interesting fodder for conversation.While you may not agree with everything that Gates proposes in this talk, it will definitely make you think about what does and doesn't work in education.

5. David Merrill Introduces Siftables
Siftables are the high-tech version of the alphabet and number blocks we all played with as children. Siftables are little computer blocks or digital blocks that contain motion sensors, neighbor detection sensors, digital displays, and wireless communications. The blocks can be manipulated to create words, equations, pictures, and designs. Siftables are not yet commercially available nor do I have any idea what they would cost, but there is a ton of potential for Siftables as an educational resource. Siftables would be great for young students just learning to spell and do arthimetic. Siftables could also be great for older students to develop and try solutions to mathematics problems.

Update: Sir Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity.
I don't know how I forgot this one, but thanks to a comment left by Dolores Gende I was reminded that I should have included this talk. In fact, it probably should be first on the list.

TED Talks with implications for education
6. Tom Wujec - 3 Ways the Brain Creates Meaning.
In this short talk Tom Wujec explains how the brain interprets words, images, feelings, and connections. As an educator I always take interest in research and discussion about how the brain absorbs and processes information. Knowing how the brain processes information should influence how we present information to our audience(s).

7. Jimmy Wales - The Birth of Wikipedia.
Do a Google search for just about any academic term and more times than not Wikipedia is at the top of the results. So how did Wikipedia get started? How does it continue to run? Watch this talk by the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, to find out.

8. Julian Treasure - 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.
In this talk Julian Treasure tells us that people working in open plan offices are 66% less productive than those in quiet rooms. Treasure follows that up by saying if you are in a noisy open plan room, wear headphones and listen to soothing sounds and your productivity goes back up. The ideas and information in the video are good to remember the next time you have students working independently in a large classroom. Perhaps instead of trying to keep them as quiet as possible, we should allow kids to use their mp3 players when they're working on independent assignments.

9. How Cell Phones, Twitter, and Facebook Can Make History.
In this talk Clay Shirky examines how text messaging and social networks empower citizens to report the news without state-run media censorship. This TED Talk could be good for getting students to think about the positive things that they can accomplish using the technologies that they often think of as just fun tools.

10. Matthew White Gives the Euphonium a New Voice.
If you're a music teacher, this two minute performance might be something you'd like to share with your students to encourage them to develop their improvisation skills.

Update: Lead Like the Great Conductors.
Again, this is one that was brought to my attention by Dolores Gende. This talk has great lessons for school administrators.

Bonus: David Pogue on the Music Wars
In this video David Pogue performs a catchy medley about the changes in the way today's consumers access music and television. Pay particular attention to the middle section of song where David mentions how younger consumers watch two minute shows instead of traditional television shows. Watch and enjoy the video it will put you in a good mood for at least five minutes and you might learn something about shifts in media consumption too.

Update #2: More reader suggestions
Pranav Mistry - The Thrilling Potential of Sixth Sense Technology.
Benjamin Zander - On Music and Passion
Dan Pink - The Surprising Science of Motivation
"

As a person who relies on technology for my everyday life, and a geek at heart and by profession, it should come as no surprise that I'm a huge proponent of technology in education. Having technology for children, in the classroom, without a doubt, has its pros and cons. But in order for technology to be effective in today's education system, it needs to be intelligently integrated into a rich, meaning-centered curriculum. You can read more about technology in the classroom (with many excellent resources and references) here.

Having technology, however, as a tool for students, teachers, educators and professionals alike has without a doubt been of great benefit. I can only hope that we see more of how technology, in the form of online videos, podcasts, etc. (like the ones from TED) become part of how we advance as a society for one, and as of humanity as a whole.

It's worth mentioning that TED has (I believe) all their TEDTalks on YouTube (it makes embedding on Facebook and other social networks a lot easier). What do you think of TED?  ▣

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Shrinking Long URLs with Bit.ly and J.mp

The URL shortener space is getting increasingly crowded, with a ton of new and existing companies bringing their offerings to the table. A few come to mind like: is.gd, tr.im, cli.gs and TinyURL. Although not yet for public consumption, Google has even launched its own service called Goo.gl. Google's launch comes on the heels of Facebook having quietly launched its own URL-shortening service called FB.me. Heading there in your browser simply takes you to Facebook's home page, whereas sharing links through Facebook's mobile site will shorten them for you using a shortened FB.me URL. Surprisingly, I've not seen much from Facebook about their new service.

As usual, I digree.

The one service I've failed to mention, and the one that I use the most ... the focus of today's article is bit.ly. Actually, I use the bit.ly powered j.mp, which's two characters shorter. J.mp ("jump") is in fact bit.ly but with a shorter domain name. You can learn more about it here. And in a World where every character counts (especially on the likes of Twitter), j.mp with the power of bit.ly is the best all around URL-shortener (IMHO, of course).

Although I use bit.ly's j.mp domain, I will be referring to the parent company, bit.ly, from here on.

Besides the basic functionality of shortening URLs, it also provide feature for URL analysis. You can track number of clicks, locations, referrers, time of clicks for any bit.ly URL without having to register, login or install any software. Bit.ly also offers customizable URLs, tracking, 301 redirection and a mobile version among many other features.

Bit.ly is trying to stay ahead of the competition with products like bitly.tv (more on that in a few) and bit.ly Pro, which currently allows a limited set of beta users to create their own branded short URLs. In essence, white-labeling the URL shortening service.

Bitly.tv displays a collage of the most-linked videos (through bit.ly) of the moment. Users can also sort by the top videos from the last day or the last two days. The site looks really slick and is well presented. When you click on a video, a light-box pops out, which plays the video as well as displays a variety of sharing options (Facebook, Twitter, e-mail) and shows a live stream of tweets about that piece of content. The live stream is especially compelling since you can see what other people are saying about the video as you formulate your own opinion.

In addition to powering Twitter (replacing TinyURL), bit.ly is baking into its Web service the Yfrog picture-sharing service made by Imageshack. Yfrog competes with other Twitter-friendly image-sharing services such as Twitpic. Imageshack is what power all of ahmadism.com's image hosting needs for free. For users who want to create easy short links to images they upload from their computers, the integration with Yfrong will be a bit of a time-saver. Also, users will get the real-time click through data from their images on the bit.ly site.

Bit.ly also announced on its blog that Google Reader and Typepad now generate bit.ly links natively.

I'm sure I've only revealed a few of bit.ly's offerings. For example, I know that bit.ly provides a very neat API. If you’re as API driven and like to automate the tasks around you, you’ll be happy to know that there is a new open data table that can shorten URL’s using YQL.

But let's go back to the stats feature for a minute. Did you know that if you put a + (plus) sign at the end of any bit.ly URL, it immediately goes to the info page for that link, displaying all those juicy stats, as opposed to the link itself? For example, for url "http://bit.ly/8ifP7w", open url "http://bit.ly/8ifP7w+", this will redirect to "http://bit.ly/info/8ifP7w" and show all the statistics for this shortened url.

With all this talk about shrinking long URLs, and being a cynic & a skeptic, made me want to see where some of these shortened URLs go before I click on them. Enter a bookmarklet. If you know me, you shouldn't be surprised at the introduction of a bookmarklet.

Get Long URLs

Simply drag the "Get Long URLs" link above to your browser toolbar. Alternatively to dragging and dropping, you could right-click the link and click "Bookmark This Link" in Firefox (my browser of choice), or "Add to Favorites..." in IE. Of course, IE will present you with some blocks to running them, which's why most serious-net-browsers do not use IE.

Short URLs generated by URL shortening services say little about the landing site but this bookmarklet can rewrite all short links on a web page so you know exactly where those links are pointing to. Once bookmarked (in your bookmarks), and you're on a page that that has a shortened URL (like a Twitter page, an email, etc.), click on the bookmarklet and it will convert all those shortened URLs back to their source giving you visibility to the destination.

Do you use a URL shortener? Which one? Tell us in the comments.
ahmadism.com is not affiliated in any way with bit.ly or any other URL shortener. This article was written solely out of experience with the various tools.  ▣

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Fast & Free Mockup, Sketching, Wireframing and Prototyping

If you're a Firefox user, then you already know that one of the things that make this open-source browser so popular is its extensibility --the big galaxy of useful extensions you can use with it. I for one, have a couple of add-ons/extensions/plug-ins that I simply cannot continue online without. I'll even go out on a limb and say that Firefox's extensibility is the reason the browser has become my desktop. But this post is not about Firefox or its many plug-ins ... I'm sure I'll cover some of the top ones on another Tip Tuesday here on Ahmadism. Rather, it's about one particular plug-in that I think many, especially for developers (and the geeks-at-heart like yours truly) who know a thing or two about basic design (or think they do): Pencil.

The Pencil Project is a free and open-source tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use. Pencil is an open source (GPL v2) mockup/sketching/wireframing/prototyping environment that works on any platform that runs as a standalone application or as a Firefox add-on (FF3 and above). Pencil includes stencils (standard or custom), on-screen text editing, alignments, drop-in import of image and text, and image export for finished sketches (which, when combined with simple imagemaps, would make it a useful tool for generating interactive mockups).

If you've ever been in a hurry and ended up using any one of the many prototyping tools (and I'm picking on Microsoft here) like Microsoft's Visio, SketchFlow or even PowerPoint to mock up a GUI prototype, then you really ought to check out Pencil. For many of us who are likely to use GIMP, Photoshop (I have serious issues with how Photoshop deals with text manipulation, for example), etc. Pencil is a much faster, easier and amazing product; especially as a Firefox add-on. With Pencil, you can create rapid screen mockups and UI prototypes, add your own custom shapes to new palettes, save your work as a Pencil document format, export your diagram or UI.

Onscreen text editing supports both plain texts and rich texts:

Here's an image illustrating the Page Properties dialog with ability to choose another page as the background:

At first glance, Pencil may seem like a drawing tool; but its tools, shapes and widgets sets apart. Here's a glimpse at some of Pencil's features (from the project's home page):

• Built-in stencils for diagraming and prototyping
• Multi-page document with background page
• Inter-page linkings!
• On-screen text editing with rich-text supports
• Exporting to HTML, PNG, Openoffice.org document, Word document and PDF.
• Undo/redo supports
• Installing user-defined stencils and templates
• Standard drawing operations: aligning, z-ordering, scaling, rotating...
• Cross-platforms
• Adding external objects
• Personal Collection
• Clipart Browser
• And much more...

Imagine getting a big idea or needing to present a conversation in a more tangible form ("you mean like this?"), and without needing anything but Firefox and Pencil as an add-on, you're able to represent the conversation right there & then. It's almost like a mind-mapping tool available whenever you're ready. Hmmm ... I've actually not used it as a mind-mapping tool, or thought of it as such, until I wrote these very words. I need to re-look into mind-mapping tools and evaluate a few; especially as I get older and need to jot things down (ahem!). I digress.

It's not uncommon that projects have wireframes (usually done by Information Architects, Business Analysts and/or both), and Designers have mockups (aka "comps" ... although there is a difference). At one point, there may come a need to have both overlap to see how they "fit." Needless to say, Pencil fills that gap. You can take this a step farther or bring it back a notch. All in all, the tool is truly inspirational in many ways. And given that it's part of your browser (many of us don't use it as a stand-alone), and if you save it to Dropbox-like solution, this turns the entire approach to a cloud-computing one that is accessible from any where. As a repository for your finished work, and to offload some space from your Dropbox-like solution, you can always use Google Docs (if you exported your work to a document of sorts like an OpenOffice or Word document, HTML or PDF).  ▣

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Did You Know Google Could Do That?

Google is no longer just a search engine. The company has become the poster child for most innovations related to the Web. "Google" is now a common verb. And they do almost everything with such style, common sense and a fresh approach. Am I a Google fan? Yes. But that's not the reason. Google came about after Yahoo! and other search engines like Excite, MSN (now Bing), Dogpile, AltaVista, InfoSpace, etc. And despite their late arrival, Google managed to stump all of them and become much more than a search engine.

Take one of the many Google applications & solutions they offer (most are free): Gmail, Google Music, Docs, public DNS, Google Maps and even something as basic and overlooked as Google Groups (which's not really an app, but still). Did I mention Google Voice, Google Calendar (which I LOVE) or Google Reader? There are simply too many to list here. They simply excel at whatever it is they do. And they're leading the way in all things cloud-computing. In addition to all that Google offers, they do it with a sense of humor. For example, they constantly offer hidden jokes/"easter eggs."

But there are many hidden features about Google and its search field/bar. See how many of these you know. And if you know of any that I've missed, by all means please share them with us in the comments.

Time in any city
To see the time in many cities around the world, type in “time” and the name of the city.
time {cityname}

Alternatively, you can ask the time in the form of a question (see the image below).

Weather in any city
Similar to the time above, you can now see the weather for many U.S. and worldwide cities. You just need to type “weather” followed by the city and state, zip/postal code, or city and country.
weather {City Name}

Map of anywhere
Are you new in a city/country? Perhaps you moved to a new area or simply want to learn more about a location. Google makes finding that very easy. Type in the name or zip/postal code of a location and the word “map” and Google will return a map of that location. Clicking on the map will take you to a larger version on Google Maps.
{location} map

Convert Currency
Google Currency Converter, I believe, is a part of Google Calculator; which I will be talking about next. Perhaps you want to find out how much an item costs in another currency ... perhaps where you're traveling. Or perhaps you're trying to see how much the money you have budgeted for a vacation will carry you in the vacation spot. Whatever the reason is, Google can convert that with a great deal of accuracy. Of course, Currency Exchange offices will differ; but you get the idea.
{current currency with or without number} in {desired currency}

Airport & airline-flight status
Whether you're picking up someone, dropping them off or flying out yourself Google's search is ready from any Internet-enabled device (since many phones have them now too). To see flight status for arriving and departing, type in the name of the airline and the flight number into the search box. You can also see delays at a specific airport by typing in the name of the city or three-letter airport code followed by the word “airport”.
{airlinename flightnumber}

Unit Conversion
You can convert weight, distance, temperature, time, mass, energy, and (as I mentioned earlier) currency. For example, you can answer the question of how many ounces are in 2 cups.
{current unit} in {desired unit}

Dictionary/Definitions
Most will tell you to type "define" and the word or phrase you're needing defined. However, there's a difference between the results of that and using "define:" with the colon and then the word or phrase you're needing defined. Google uses many sources to come back with the different definitions out there.
define:{word}

Track your package(s) from UPS, FedEx and USPS
You can track packages by typing the tracking number for your UPS, FedEx or USPS package directly into the search box. Google will return results that include quick links to easily track the status of your shipment.

Calculator
Whether it's simple or complex math, Google's got you covered. Knowing the operators, however, will go a long way in helping you get what you want in the fastest possible way.

These are just a few examples of what Google offers. Others (off the top of my head) include movie times, area codes (although I prefer to type "area code"), zip codes, stock quotes, and many others.

Did you know that Google could do all of that? If you did, which ones are you favorites?  ▣

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