Omnivorous Surfer

I am ashamed to say I had never check out YouTube for useful information. For fun stuff, absolutely, but never for anything that could remotely be considered helpful. Wow! What have I been missing?? I'm always on the lookout for resources that might become part of a workshop, either for preparation or sharing. I just did searches for "classroom skype," "windows file management," "microsoft office," and found that there are lots of tutorials as well as videos of people sharing what they are doing in the classroom. I can't even begin to imagine what else I might find as I explore more.

SlapStick dry-erase replacement boards are installed on top of existing chalk boards or even on walls. This would be much cheaper than buying dry-erase boards. The company also has SlapTape, a double-sided tape for hanging posters which, they say, should not remove paint on most walls. The website has a link to a YouTube video which demonstrates the ease of installation (video recorded using a Flip video camera, but that's another story).

I think the tape could be useful in the home, but the replacement boards and tape would definitely be useful in the classroom at any level.

If you ever order a decorated cake, be sure to pick it up in time to have it redone if necessary. Don't understand why? Check out the Cake Wrecks blog. Amazing what can happen to a cake. Prepare yourself for lots of laughs on this one!

Animoto lets you create professional-quality videos that can be downloaded or shared using your own photos/video. There's a good description at Mashable, but basically you upload photos and videos, add music and optional narration, and voila, a video appears. Prices are reasonable (30-second videos are free, full-length ones cost about $3, and an annual subscription is $30), but teachers can apply for a FREE all-access pass to use in the classroom to produce full-length videos from photos. Pretty awesome.

I have a new Flip Mino HD video camera and lots of photos...I'm going to have to try this one out fo myself!

Oh, my goodness! Can I ever use this site! I used to be so organized that I would have all my cards for the month in my bottom desk drawer, addressed and stamped, in date order with the date to be mailed on the back flap. Now I’m lucky if I get cards in time, let alone mail them in time. Jack Cards is a site designed to help people like me, and I’m sure I’m not alone on this one!

After you have registered (for free) on the site, import or add your contacts along with with addresses and birthdates and/or anniversaries (or you can have the site ask your contacts to enter that information for you). Then select cards from the wide selection available ($3.95-$4.96 or so) and you will receive each card, ready for you to personalize and mail, in time to send it out. You can also make a special event list (such as Christmas), add contacts to that and have those cards taken care of. I don’t know that I would use that feature, but it’s available.

Why do I keep buying cookbooks when I can find recipes for almost anything on the Internet? I have a Make-a-Mix cookbook which I love. Making my own mixes saves money (and time), so I use it quite a bit. Now I’ve found a few websites that have mix recipes. More fun!

Budget101.com has coupons, freebies, and lots more, but the mixes are what I’m interested in.

And what doesn’t about.com have? The mixes are in the “Busy Cooks” section.

As a Hoosier, I can’t leave out a Purdue 4-H site. There are only 5 recipes on the Make-Your-Own Mix Recipes page (shake & bake, corn bread, taco seasoning, poultry seasoning, and onion soup) , but I plan to use them!

While looking for good sites with free audio downloads, I found Open Culture, “the best free cultural & educational media on the web.” I’ll use the audiobook page, which lists titles available from a variety of sources, but I found more than I bargained for with this site.

Open  Culture provides access to educational resources for almost every discipline and includes, in addition to audio and podcasts, video (YouTube has content for education?), 250 free courses, eBooks, and culture.

A friend brought pictures of some ice formations someone he knew had found in his yard. In doing some research, he found them to be called ice ribbons, frost flowers, or ice flowers. They can take on different forms, and they're fascinating! The photo here, which I believe not to be copyrighted, comes from City-Data.com.  Dr. James R. Carter of Illinois State University, Normal, IL, has links to lots of pictures (his and others') and information available.

In short, it appears that when certain conditions exist, water drawn up through the roots into the stem of the plan and, freezes it and as it expands is "extruded" through breaks it creates in the wall of the stem.

I now want to get some seeds to plant Verbesina virginica (also known as White Crownbeard or Frostweed), one of the plants that seem to support the growth of ice flowers. Apparently there are others, including yellow ironweed, salvia, and vinca. I've planted both in the past; I will do so again and will leave them in the ground over winter to see what might happen.

QDrive.net provides 1G of space for free. Files can be securely transferred. You can Tweet a file by simply clicking "Tweet File to send a download link straight to Twitter. Files will be completely compatible across all operating systems, according to the site. The site has a more complete description of features, which vary by type of account.

NYI PhotoWorld, a photo ezine produced by the New York Institute of Photography, has "Photo Tips, 'How-to' Articles, and Opinion from the Pros." I came across it while looking for help on taking photos of Christmas lights, which I had been experimenting with. This particular article has suggestions for digital as well as film cameras, suggestions for using editing software, and a variety of ideas for different photo moods. If this is any indication of the content, I think this will be a valuable site which I will have to peruse when I have more time! Actually, their classes look pretty interesting, too...

If you want to check the speed at which your computer uploads/downloads data, speakeasy does a free speed test, no registration required.

This tip, "Use Word to type on a printed form without a typewriter," from Tech Republic offers a much better solution than the one I have used in the past. It does require a scanner.

When sharing files over the Internet there are at least two reasons why you might wish to make them available as PDFs rather than as document (.doc, .xls, etc.) files. First, the recipient might be unable to open the file if (s)he doesn't have the same software and version used to create the document. Secondly, sometimes you don't want others to make changes to the file.

Windows, at least through the XP release, doesn't  provide for creating PDFs of documents. I have been using PrimoPDF for several years. Once you have downloaded and installed the free software, you will see PrimoPDF as one of your printers. Simply print your document, choose the PrimoPDF printer, name and choose a location to save the file, and your PDF version will be displayed in Adobe Reader. It's then ready to email or upload to your website. Too simple!

I use PrimoPDF to "print" (read "save") copies of purchase confirmations or web pages rather than printing a hardcopy. Save paper, and I know right where they are!

Some schools provide amazingly rich collections of links to websites for teachers. I just found one such listing from Dillon District 2 from South Carolina. If there's a category that isn't included here, I don't know what it could be! There are links for lesson plans, templates, fonts, and so much more.

Teachers--well, and others, too--would sometimes like additional fonts. Several sites (all of the ones below) have FREE ones available for download. The fonts available will include alphabets and dingbats (typographical ornaments or symbols).

Fonts4Free has some really cool holiday fonts among its collections.

Fontstock.net has literally hundreds to choose from (use the alphabetic selector on the left side; the search box is for another site).

If I didn't have an alarm gadget on my desktop, I'd use Kuku Klok (why do tech people keep missspelling words on purpose??) to help me limit my time on the Internet! All you have to do is set the time. Clean interface. "Swiss made"!

What a great resource! HP Learning Center provides FREE online classes on a wide range of topics of business and home interest from beginner to advanced level. These include such things as technology in the classroom, Office products and other software packages, digital photography, PC troubleshooting preparing effective PowerPoint presentations, Windows basics, and WiFi.

Some lessons are “quick lessons,” which have one session. Others may have 4-6 lessons, with 2 presented each week. Each lesson consists of 4 parts: a lesson (reading), an assignment, a short (10-question) quiz, and the message board. The message board allows for communication with the instructor and other participants, providing a way to have questions answered and extend learning.

I have learned to print my lessons to PDF so that I can go back over them later. Keeping a chart (table in Word) of new learning provides me with a quick way to find things I know I learned but haven’t used for awhile.

If you’re at all like me…is anyone??…you encounter acronyms that you can’t decipher, especially in new environments like Twitter or unfamiliar settings like kids’ (or savvy adults’) text messages. No more googling them for me. My new one-stop-searching place for them is allacronyms.com.  It advertises its content as “Acronyms, Initialisms, Alphebetisms and other Abbreviations,” and it covers a wide variety of categories.

It is often useful to keep a list of links to websites for the classroom to make available for student use. Keeping such a list online is much more efficient that trying to keep Favorites/Bookmarks updated on a number of classroom machines. My first criteria in choosing such a manager is keeping students safe from inappropriate collections; the first one I tried did not.

Then I found iKeepBookmarks.com, which I used in the classroom for years. Problem? It loads far too slowly for whole-classroom use. I recently tried sitejot.com, but had the same problem with it.
I believe I have found an acceptable site in BookKit. It has a clean appearance, and loads very quickly. This will be my manager of preference, despite the fact that it is missing two features of my previous one which I used extensively: the ability to have a combination of public (student) and private (teacher) links, and a tool to add a bookmark for a site while on that site without copying and pasting the URL onto the manager site.

As much as I like this site, it seems to be good for personal use, but I haven't been able to access it without logging in, so it is not public. I have contacgted the BookKit people and am waiting for a response, but for now it appears this will not do what I originally thought it would do. I may have to keep looking.

EduHound is the technology resource site provided by THE Journal.  It provides links to Site Sets (collectioins of topic-based online education resources) on everything from Aaron Burr to Zoos. It includes an exhaustive list of categories including Grants & Funding, Lesson Plans, Museums, Reference, Social Studies, Software, Substitute Teaching, WebQuests, Worksheets, and many more. Links are also included to additional EduHound Websites; examples are Awesome Clipart for Educators (it has fonts, too!), and Educator Templates. This is a top-notch resource!

ShootSmarter.com has lots of photography tips (taking and editing), though some refer to higher-end hardware and software than I use. Very interesting, though, and many tips are useful...even to me, the definite amateur!

SCREENRIP 32 IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. (3/20/2011)

ScreenRip32 (http://www.progency.com/other.html#screenrip32) is a freeware portable screen capture utility that will save me so-o-o-o-o much time when creating training documents! This is the best thing I've seen in a long time!! Thank you, Brent, for sharing!

Don't want to lose these sites!  All free.

Word2Word is a collection of language-learning resources on the web...many languages, many formats...lessons, games, newspapers, blogs, and more.

byky (before you know it) has flash cards and lets you hear a native speaker say the word.

FSI (Foreign Service Institute) courses have been developed by the US Government for diplomats, soldiers, and other officials, and are in the public domain. Many recordings are from the 60's and 70's, but the material is still good and effective.

Livemocha has lessons (the free ones should be all you need), but the plus here is the inclusion of a social networking site so you can practice your skills with native speakers. You can also help those who are trying to learn English. It says it's designed for "all language goals and all skill levels." I might have to think about this one...

BBC Languages will help you learn a language in 12 weeks with lessons and weekly e-mail tips. Audio and video courses are available for several languages. Instruction uses conversation.

Does anyone have comments on any of these or other suggestions that work well?

Cool! The Solar Charger PowerBAR, promoted in a fommy.com blog, has a lithium-ion battery that can be charged by sunlight, computer via USB, AC adapter, or car charger using the included charging cable. SAYS it will work with all cell phones. That would be good, since mine is always dying on me! Might have to try this out...phone, iPod, PDA...could put it to good use!

Kim Komando has great tips, and Calibrate your HDTV for better picture is a good example. Who knew that THX includes tools on some of it's DVD's?

Not everyone has pkzip or similar installed...I just found that out! Using my someone else’s computer, I needed to unzip a file. I have to know a password to install software on that computer...and don't know it. So......
I found My Web Zip, which will zip or unzip files. Now I'm unzipping one I had converted from PDF using the site mentioned in the previous post--so large they zipped it to send it to me (in short order, I might add).
I now have the images from that file that I needed, so all I have to do is to copy and paste them into PowerPoint. Otherwise it would have meant time taking screen shots and cropping them.
Thank goodness for FREE online tools!

I've tried others, but this site really works! Just upload your PDF file to pdftoword.com and you'll receive by email your file converted to a .DOC or .RTF file. The file I tried was fairly large (50+pages) and contained a graphic and several tables. Worked like a charm!

Kim Komando no longer has the tool on her website to download YouTube videos, but I've found a site that will do the same thing. Instructions are here:
http://www.mydownloadvideo.com/. 
Links to a free FLV player and a video converter to convert from FLV to Windows Media or Quicktime format may be in later post.

I'm know it isn't new, but I just found hulu.com. Free registration gives access to free (at least for now) TV series episodes, movies, and clips. These can be watched in your browser or you can download and use the hulu desktop application. I like this one!  Of course, high speed access is a must.

I love to listen to books on my iPod: so convenient wherever I am, whatever I am doing. I have a long-standing subscription to Audible, but thanks to Kim Komando, I have recently found sites which offer free downloads.

Learn Out Loud has a good assortment of free audio (and also offers free video, though I haven't searched through that category).

Project Gutenberg, which I have used for years for online books, now also has free audio books.
If you want to see the myriad other sites offering free audio books, just use this Google search.

I certainly don't want to lose this one! Downloadable from ZDNet (and recommended as one of their Top 10 in December 2008) is Recover Files. It will recover accidentally (or on-purpose, I suspect) deleted files from almost anything: the hard drive, a network drive, flash drive, portable device. It will also recover deleted images from CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia, and Secure Digital cards; I think that's about all of them. It is reported to be "small, fast" with a "clean, simple interface." That would be amazing in this day and age!

These two are unlike anything else I've encountered. The two of these could be used in tandem for a complete Bible study if you had access to no other resources.

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge provides a "nearly exhaustive collection of cross references" (Preface to the edition included with my Logos Library System). I was delighted to find it on the Internet.

The second is the NeXt Bible Learning Environment. It must be seen to understand all that it does. Highlight a word for a concordance search. Choose the Greek/Hebrew tab for word-by-word access to information in the easiest form I have ever seen. A Discovery Box to the right of each scripture passage gives access to Background and History documents and to further information on Names, People and Places included in the passage. It has become my go-to site for Bible study.

I have registered (free, of course) for this one and have the number in my cell phone directory ready to use. I've tried it a couple of time and found it to be somewhat useful.

Get price comparisons while shopping using Frucall and your cell phone. You can call, send a text message, or use mobile web, if you have access on your phone or PDA, to send a product name or barcode to Frucall. You will receive in reply a list of vendors and their prices for the same item. It works online, too, and you can try it out on the website without registering. This uses Yahoo Shopping to generate the listing.

I registered a week or two ago, and my registration has not generated any junk email.

The Internet has a wealth sites providing Bible study resources, which I will not attempt to cover to any large extent. I merely want to record the ones I have found most useful.

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The online parallel Bible at biblos.com is the best of its type I've encountered. (use the link, not "biblos.com") It displays one verse at a time in multiple tranlations and versions, and It includes with each verse parallel commentaries as well.

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If you want to compare only two versions and see a chapte at a time, crosswalk does a good job, and includes many other study aids as well, including a concordance. It also has a Bible-in-a-year reading program which will, if you wish, chart your progress.

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Blue Letter Bible provides for each verse, when available, links to
correlating verses;
lexicon/concordance;
commentaries (audio and text);
maps, images, and hymns;
available translations and versions; and
dictionary aids.
Commentaries, audio and video, study tools, images and maps, devotionals, and free web tools, and other resources are also available. In addition, there is a daily Bible reading program which will take you through the Bible in a year (or 2)  using your choice of available options.

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A number of Bible dictionaries are available at StudyLight.

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BibleGateway has a keyword search and a topical index.

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An interesting resource I have not seen anywhere else is Complete Bible Genealogy. I found some humor here, as well, as the site uses "Childs" to head the list of an individuals offspring.

A friend had the coolest wall photo on Facebook, and I found she had created it at photofunia.com. Fun!

Whether on vacation or just out of town...okay, or even in town...it can sometimes be very useful to find Wi-Fi hotspots. Of course, you can turn your laptop/PDA on and wait for it show a connection, or you can buy wireless signal finder, or...
... if you are able and willing to look for spots ahead of time, there are several websites that provide listings. One such site is JiWire. Simply put in a city or ZIP code and it will give you a listing along with an option to view an area map or to view a map of or directions to any of the locations. For each location, the protocols served (802.11b, 802.11g) and connections options are included. Some use Wi-Fi networks such as Boingo and iPass as well as free options.
You can access JiWire's database using CNET's  Hotspot Zone, which highlights the free access sites by using red text for the word "FREE, making them easier to spot.
You can also focus your search on free access sites by using Wi-Fi Free Spot, though you'll have to do the search through a city's lising after finding the city and state. The site also offers specialty listing pages for companies with multiple locations, airports, hotels, RV parks, and vacation rental properties, etc.
PC World has a Mobile Computing blog entry , "How to Find Hotspots," if you're interested in reading that. It includes several other sites along with the pros and cons of each.
To learn much more about Wi-Fi hotspots and using them, see about.com's Finding and Using Wi-Fi Hot Spots

The web presence of TAzine, transitionsabroad.com is a portal for "learning, living, working, and volunteering overseas. It gives just about any information you could want about...well, just what it says. Here's the listing from its menu.

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WORK ABROAD
International Jobs
Internships Abroad
Short-Term Work (au pair, farm, student, summer, travel service)
Teaching English
Teaching (K-12 to university)
Volunteer Work

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STUDY ABROAD
Academic Study
Educational Travel
High School Study
Language Study

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TRAVEL ABROAD
Accommodations
Budget Travel
Culinary Travel
Cultural Travel
Europe with Rick Steves
Family Travel
Independent Travel
Resourceful Traveler
Responsibile Travel
Senior Travel
Travel Writing
Women Travel

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LIVING ABROAD
Expatriate Websites
Expatriate Resources
Home Rentals Abroad
Living Abroad by Country
Whew! See what I mean? Awesome site!
This site was included in the resources for The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.

While I have other options for keeping myself occupied in retirement, I'm looking into Internet-based opportunities for working at home as well. Since I know there are lots of scams, and I don't think one should have to PAY to earn money, I'm looking to individuals I have come to trust who have checked out Internet sites. Both of these present a wide range of opportunities.
Clark Howard (http://clarkhoward.com/topics/workathome_help.html)
Kim Komando (http://www.komando.com/columns/index.aspx?id=3700)
Reader's Digest also had an article sharing how some individuals have used the Internet to sell their hobbies and services: (http://www.rd.com/advice-and-know-how/using-the-internet-to-earn-money/article28467.html)

The Internet provides lots of ways to help save money. Of course, most of us know about price comparison sites that help you find the cheapest price for a variety of items for purchasing at the listed site or for using the pricing information to purchase offline. Some of these sites include shopping.com, mysimon.com, shopping.yahoo.com, and pricegrabber.com. There are also sites like overstock.com and the clearance sections of retail sites that give access to online bargains. But there's more...
This obviously isn't an all inclusive list, but it's at least a starting point to begin looking for thrift help on the Internet. These sources were included in a Reader's Digest article in the October 2008 issue.
Codes. When you checkout from many online sites, there's a place to put a code that will give you extra discounts. Well, when you're at that point in your purchase, check out one of the sites that offer currently active codes. These include retailmenot.com, currentcodes.com, keycode.com, and rather-be-shopping.com.
Coupons. You can find coupons, rebates, and Sunday newspaper circulars listing weekly deals at dealcatcher.com.
Shoes.  You can order shoes with a free return policy (they also pay return shipping!) from zappos.com. This site carries a wide variety of types of shoes. For athletic shoes, try holabirdsports.com.
There's just too much in this two part article, so for even more sites and suggestions, see both parts on the Reader's Digest website:
Get a Great Deal on Anything and
More Ways to Get a Great Deal on Anything

As I was cleaning out (read that "throwing away") school things, I found a full-size poster from T.H.E. Journal (Technological Horizons in Education) which was covered on both sides with websites categorized by subject area, with each one identified by the education level of its content. I checked on the web and found that T.H.E. Journal is continuing to update this Educational Roadmap to the Web (as it is now titled). While I use search engines a lot, I have often find my best resources by using a lists like this one from reliable sources. Now I can throw away the paper copy, which very welll may be outdated, knowing that I still have access to a great list!

I had a nice long blog entry prepared, but I think I'll go for the quick-and-easy-to-read approach--well, as nearly as I am capable of that approach!
There are many sites which allow you to upload your pictures for different purposes. I've used 3 of those (free, of course!) and have had another recommended that I haven't tried but have seen its amazing product.

flickr
I have uploaded vacation, family, and flood photos here to share with family members. Tags may be added, and you can search flickr by tag to find others' photos on whatever topic or location you wish. Some personalized start pages, like pageflakes, let you add an object that will randomly select and load a photo from flickr based on a tag that you select.

photobucket
I've used photobucket when I want to be able to put a link on a page to a photo that's already on the Internet (some blog sites, like those at schoolblogs, prefer that to uploading photos directly to their site). The presentation isn't pretty, but is very functional. Each photo has with it links for various purposes. For an example, see this photobucket prepared for the Patriots Read blog (see the May 2007 entries; for some reason we had trouble with images on the site during 2008).

shutterfly
I have just registered on this site (which gave me 50 free 4 x 6 photos and a free 11 x 14 collage poster just for registering) based on the recommendation of a friend who has been using it for several years. You can (after uploading photos) get prints (cheaper than local retail stores' photo machines), photobooks, calendars, cards, apparel, and gift items made using your photos. After each family vacation, my friend has had a photobook of the vacation made each family member on the trip. If you have a lot of photos to upload and are on dial-up (I know, I'm stuck in the dark ages!), you can even send them a CD with your .jpg photos on it and they will add them to your account...no charge. Or if you have a film camera, send them the film (small fee) and they will add the photos to your account and send you the negatives. What's not to like?

mypublisher
This site does only photobooks...professional-quality coffeetable books. I've seen one, and they are absolutely beautiful. Both hardcover and softcover are available, and you can order a dust jacket, which makes it look even more professional. See the pricing and examples on the site.

There are several sites that provide a daily tidbit that can be for fun or edification. Most have code that can be added to a personal webpage and also are available for an RSS feed. Here are some that I enjoy. My favorites in each section are at the top.
Quote of the Day (examples included)

• Daily Good – positive news and inspiration from around the world (“When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.” Alan Payton.
• Quotations Page (four quotes each day)
• Cool Quotes ("Commitment in the face of conflict produces character.” Unknown)
• bookreporter.com (“Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.” Samuel Johnson)
• Famous Quotes of the Day (“Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.” Socrates. Includes additional quotes from a variety of topics)
• Quote World (“You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.” George Burns)

Word of the Day

• New York Times (for students) includes the word used in context in a NY Times article
• Dictionary.com
• Merriam-Webster
• Wordsmith (unusual and intriguing words)
• travlang (an English word with its translation in many other languages)

Today in History

• New York Times (student, teacher, parent connections; current and historic birthdays)
• Library of Congress
• BrainyHistory (events and birthdays)
• The People History
• infoplease
• Today in Science History

Quiz/Puzzle of the Day

• The Problem Site (word puzzles; math and strategy puzzles; links to other sites)
• RouteWord (use the link if you need an explanation) – not a true “daily” but too much fun not to include!
• Solve One Puzzle a Day (blog)
• Quizland Crossword Puzzle
• sudoku.org
• Webshots Daily Jigsaw
• A Daily Puzzle/Brain Teaser (blog)

Multiple Facts

• NCES Kids’ Zone (fact, word, quote, history, mindbender, with links to other cool stuff for students)
• Cool Quiz (Daily Trivia Fix: fact, quote, word, history, geo trivia)
• On-This-Day.com (quotes, history, music, sports)

Okay, this one is just for fun. Upload your picture to pikipimp and add some bling! It was fun, too, to see myself with long hair...talk about a change!

Seems like I'm always needing a blank calendar for something. I know how to make them in Word or Excel and have done so, but I've learned that often it is neither necessary or preferable to create things myself. My favorite site is vertex42, "The Calendar Nexus." There are free calendars in pdf format and free templates for use in Excel. I've used the whole-year-on-a-page calendars with a column on the side for notes, and I've used the amazing template that will create a calendar for any month of almost any year. There is an entire package of school calendars which has proven to be very useful in the past. These allow personalization with the name of the school and an image. In addition, a collection of calendar clipart (gif images of individual months) which can be inserted into any document is available for download by month or year. This is one site I definitely wouldn't want to lose track of!

Wonder how I had managed to lose this one! Among the many printouts I had kept for later use which I found while cleaning out papers was one of insults from Use Wisdom. The site has all kinds of fun things like tongue twisters and computer jokes, some categorized quotes, and some useful things like links to portals and to computer-related information and tutorials. Worth a look...and fun to browse through when you have nothing else to do (in case that ever happens!).
Examples of insults:
"A four-hundred-dollar suit on him would look like socks on a rooster" by Earl Long
"Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome" by Oscar Levant
"If you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me" by Alice Roosevelt Longworth
"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends" by Oscar Wilde
"He had a mind so fine that no idea could violate it." by T.S. Eliot (about Henry James)
Okay... I have to quit!

Listening to Clark Howard on WIBC on May 28, I heard a list of 7 tips for avoiding cons that are currently being used for identity theft. This list was in an article by Walter S. Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal on May 1, 2008. One con I might not have thought of was "requiring" special viewing software to see videos on a web site; don't download it from that site, but go to the official site for the viewer needed. The article also includes links to guides for social engineering and phishing.

Comment from Learning & Leading With Technology, September/October 2007: "TrailFire is a Web collection and annotation tool that allows trail blazers to string together a set of existing Web resources and mark-up or annotate the pages for trail users who follow their path. A unique URL is generated for each path that can be shared with others. TrailFire includes collaboration features, including the ability for trail users to add comments at any stop along a trail or the ability to create a "wikitrail" where users can add new stops to a trail started by someone else. This tool could enable students conducting research in digital archives to capture evidence supportive of a theory they are trying to prove (e.g., the eight documents I've marked on this trail provide evidence of racism in the U.S. Supreme Court.)" [This quote is part of the "Learning Connections" feature in the issue. You must be a member of ISTE to download the article which includes this quote.]

It's interesting, too, to look through some of the trails that have been created to get an idea of what can be done...or just to learn  something new! The site also includes search capability.

Particularly when away from home (as on our upcoming Alaska trip), I may want to do some quick photo editing, such as resizing before posting to Flickr or another blog. I read an interesting post on Mashable about FlauntR. Oooh, I see you can upload your photos from Google Picasa, desktop app, to create e-cards--I could like that!
    Three apps are free for use on FlauntR: PhotoStylr, PhotoEditr, and PhotoProfilr. PhotoEditr lets you make standard picture fixes. PhotoStylr adds special effects similar to those you can make using apps like  Picasa. PhotoProfilr lets you "take a picture you've edited and load it to any social network, resized and compatible." According to Mark Hopkins, author of the Mashable post, this app will be good for quick changes and edits and loads faster than many other sites, good for those of us who are still in the dark ages, stuck with dial-up access! (Still slow on dial-up--what isn't!--but tolerable.)
    Wait...there's more! Add text (Textr). Make wallpaper for your cell phone (Mobilr). Apply effects of works of art to photos (Picasr). Looks like this will be lots of fun to play with, too.

Wow! Someone (Jerome Burg, an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Teacher) has done what like to do when I read a book: find the locations on a map and look up information about them. THe took it one step further, and made all that available on Google Earth. On top of that, the author of the Lit Trips has included a quote and discussion questions for each location, at least for The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which is the one I've been enjoying. You'll need to download and install Google Earth to "take the trips." The file will load into the left pane of Google Earth. Just expand the selection and you'll find all the locations the author has provided. If you'd like you can read more about Google Lit Trips.
There's a good post at Infinite Thinking Machine that tells about Google Lit Trip. Also, check out the video at TeacherTube.

These are sites which generate an e-mail address that will expire, good to have for some sites which require you to register. There are several, but the one I have used is mint email . Visiting the site generates a random email address which is automatically copied to your clipboard. The site will keep the address active for 4 hours; leave the window open and it will automatically update to show you any mail that comes to the email address. You can also return to the URL to see any messages that have been delivered if you close the window. There is even a robot that will automatically verify the email address for most websites, so you don't have to click on the URL link to verify it. Pretty cool!
There are other sites which will keep an address active for longer than 4 hours, but this one works well for me.

Need to find a common time when people are available to meet? If your organization doesn't use Outlook or some other software to accomplish this, or if you need to contact a number of people for a personal gathering, Doodle makes it easy. You simply create a "poll" for which you can forward a link to the participants. I've used it a couple of times and it works like a dream. I used to send emails and then tabulate the information myself; this is so much better!

Hmmm. What is that??? Funny you should ask. I wondered, too, when I saw it, so I looked it up and found that it might be useful. Here's the definition given by the individual who collected and made available on the web The Portable Freeware Collection (copyright 2004-2007):

• It must run without installation.
• It must run on older versions of Windows which might not have been updated.
• It must not have any coupling with Internet Explorer, audio/video codecs, DirectX etc.
• It must not write settings to the registry or local filesystem.
• It must not leave any trace on the host machine at all, even when the app crashes (hereby referred to as "stealth").
• It must run with guest access rights.
• It must be able to compensate for USB memory stick drive letter changes.

A further description is available, but this will suffice for here.

Applications include everything from audio (conversion, ediors, iPod managers, players, etc.) to video (authoring, capture, conversion, players, etc.). It's actually a pretty impressive list. I haven't tried any of these yet, but it seems to me they might come in handy when moving around from machine to machine in different locations where you don't know what applications might be available. Having both data and apps on a flash drive sounds pretty cool.

I have found The Unofficial Web Applications List to be a great place to find links to web apps. The site opens to a "Recent Entries" page, but entries are categorized...Business, Communication, Education, Files, Health, Photos, Search, etc...to make it easier to find what you're looking for. This helps me when I didn't bookmark...again...and can't find a site I previously found useful.

Zamzar does free online file conversion for files up to 100 MB. Upload the file and you will be sent an email link to the converted file. Several file types (document, image, music, video, and compressed) can be converted. You can sign up for an account (3 types available) which will allow conversion of larger files.

The Futures Channel (connecting learning to the real world) describes itself as delivering "hands-on, real world math and science lessons." It contains "real world movies" on the following topics:

• Animals
• Art & Music
• Commerce
• Design
• Environment
• Innovation
• Living & Working in Space
• Science & Tech

Under Teaching & Learning, listings are

• Algebra in the Real World
• Hands-on Math
• Jaime Escalante
• Kay Toliver
• Problem Solving
• Science & Technology

It seems that this site might provide items to enhance curriculum, especially as it seeks to link curricular content and concepts to their validity outside the classroom.

I hate it when I want to share a link that is so long it wraps and sometimes doesn't all get included in the active link!  I don't understand how this works, but I'm satisfied at this point to know that it does work. According to 10 links to shorten your links, all you have to do is to copy and paste the URL in a box on the TinyURL website, click the Make TinyURL! button, and voila...the magic happens. It changed the 60-character link for the article mentioned above to a 25-character link, but the example given on TinyURL's home page is much more dramatic. A big plus, according to the article, is that the link created by TinyURL will never expire. Read the article if you want to see the other 9 link shorteners, but I think this is the one for me.

Note: This can be useful, but beware of shortened links you receive, especially from someone you don’t know. Because you can’t tell what site it points to, people have found link shorteners are a way to send you to sites where you might prefer not to go!

An article on Tech Republic alerted me to this downloadable app which allows you to use the space available with your Gmail account for file storage. It's downloadable from SOFTPEDIA. After installation, GMail Drive will show up in My Computer like any other storage media. Uploaded files will show up in the list of emails in gmail with a subject line of GMAILFS: with the name of the file, so they will be accessible even if you are not on your home computer.

Scratch is a free downloadable program designed by MIT to interest kids in programming. It lets them easily create interactive games and programs by stacking "blocks" of code.

Ta-Da List is a free site which lets you create lists online which can be shared. This would work for, among other things, Christmas wish lists (it's coming!). Share with family members and they can check off purchases to avoid duplicates...and you don't have to create different lists to give to different people. Would also be useful for tasks to be completed by a number of people, with each one checking off those (s)he has taken care of.

I want one!  http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/top-vw-1-liter-car.htm

Kim Komando's 5 freebies for working with video at komando.com.

This video is too cool...I want to be able to do this! According to what I've researched, it is NOT fake! 

GetResponse (http://www.getresponse.com/) is an autoresponder. I have used it to set up tech tips to be emailed on a predefined (by me) schedule to those who request to receive them. On the current home page, click on Pricing and choose Free to set up a free account. Works fine with no limitations or expiration, but the messages include some advertising. None were ever found objectionable when I used it at school.

If you travel (or not...I had one stolen from my home!), your computer could be stolen pretty easily. LocatePC from ICONICO is free software that will send you an email message when the thief accesses the internet, giving you the information needed to track down the account used for that internet access. Given my experience, I'll probably install this one. Recommended by Kim Komando, so I trust it completely...well, as completely as I trust anything web related!

Since I'm going to try Windows Live Writer, and it doesn't post to my "old" blog host, I'll start a new one here. The purpose of this blog is for me to record (and share) interesting, useful, or otherwise noteworthy (to me) things I find on the Internet. If no one else ever reads it, it will still be useful to me. If it provides any useful information to anyone else, so much the better.

I don't claim to be an expert at anything; I'm simply interested in a lot of different things. Certainly not everything--or maybe anything--here will be new, but it will be new to me. So...here goes!