I've been getting a bunch of fun links in my e-mail lately, and I like them. I am compiling some of them into a list to be added to our soon to be new and improved Newspapers in Education section of The Anniston Star Online. My intention is that teachers can let their students visit the linked sites without worry.
To make this list, a site has to be fun, appropriate for kids and (shhhhh!) educational. Here's what I've got so far:
Seasonal
Build a virtual snowman
Make a virtual snowflake
Create your own snowflake (a different site, in some ways better) from Helen Maddox, Weaver
Deck the House — Decorate a house for Christmas from Jerry Turner, Heflin
Reindeer Games
Games:
Fun ways to tie your shoelaces
Discover Ancient Egypt
Matchstick puzzles
Boobah — Simple and colorful games from Johanna Wood, Gulf Shores
World of Seven Wonders
Goofy Gopher
Helpful sites:
Convert between English and metric units
Learn about music with San Francisco Symphony's Kids' Site
They Made America — PBS series on American innovators
Calculate your body mass index — Determine your best weight
Nutrition information — Find out about the foods you eat
Auburn University helps you identify plants
Dictionary sites:
One Look
Merriam-Webster Online
Encarta Dictionary
Here are a few links that I probably won't put on the NIE site but that you might like to try:
Zoom Quilt — How did they do that? from Brandon Wynn, Oxford
Virtual reality panoramas (requires QuickTime) from Brandon Wynn, Oxford
If you have fun, educational or interesting links, send them to me and I will add them to this list.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Friday, December 10, 2004
My lexicological lust is fed by online word lists
Those who know me well know that my oldest and most enduring love is for words. You might think I'd have lots of company in that passion, given my line of work — and I do. But a few years ago, when two new dictionaries came out at about the same time, I was the only one I knew who got really excited about it.
My enthusiasm apparently left a mark (perhaps a scar). A few days ago, a colleague who remembered my dictionary review asked if I still had the Encarta dictionary. Unfortunately, I did not.
The last time I looked for it online I learned that it was out of print, but I did another search today and found that it has been revived in several editions. I'm not in the market for a dictionary, but, as often happens, the search turned up something interesting for online use.
A Google search found "MSN Encarta Dictionary" at the top of the list. This turned out to be a site where you can type in a word and get the Encarta definition.
I was already a heavy user of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary site and was familiar with Dictionary.com and a few other word-lookup sites, so this was a chance to repeat my dictionary review experience online.
What a treat! I learned two new words in the first five minutes, and I was reminded what I liked so much about Encarta definitions — they give a clear sense of how each word currently is used and brief, pointed etymologies. I spent some time looking up the two words in different online dictionaries, and if I hadn't been facing a deadline, I might be comparing them still.
I was mostly switching back and forth between MSN Encarta and Merriam-Webster, but for really hard-core comparisons, try OneLook.com. It will search for definitions in 981 different dictionaries, including Webster's, Encarta, The Phronteristery and the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, the free version of the much revered OED, which is available online only by subscription.
While it is educational to compare definitions across dictionaries, count on Microsoft to add useful automation. The MSN Encarta Dictionary offers a downloadable right-click link that lets you right click on any word on a Web page and get the Encarta definition. When you right click on a word, the familiar right-click menu opens. "Encarta definition" appears in the penultimate panel. Click that and a small window opens showing the definition of the word. It only works in Internet Explorer and only on Windows machines — it is Microsoft, after all.
Merriam-Webster Online also offers right-click definitions as well as a right-click thesaurus, but you have to type in the word. They are part of a package with Merriam-Webster's more useful downloadable toolbar, which lets you type in a word from your Web window.
With Encarta's right-click dictionary, you don't have to type the word, but you do have to make two clicks. With Merriam-Webster's toolbar, you can copy and paste the word into the toolbar, so it's about the same effort.
Back when I reviewed the new print dictionaries, I decided the Merriam-Webster would remain on my desk, the Encarta would be shared with the reporters, and the OED would be my Christmas gift. In this updated, online version I can have all three at my fingertips.
My enthusiasm apparently left a mark (perhaps a scar). A few days ago, a colleague who remembered my dictionary review asked if I still had the Encarta dictionary. Unfortunately, I did not.
The last time I looked for it online I learned that it was out of print, but I did another search today and found that it has been revived in several editions. I'm not in the market for a dictionary, but, as often happens, the search turned up something interesting for online use.
A Google search found "MSN Encarta Dictionary" at the top of the list. This turned out to be a site where you can type in a word and get the Encarta definition.
I was already a heavy user of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary site and was familiar with Dictionary.com and a few other word-lookup sites, so this was a chance to repeat my dictionary review experience online.
What a treat! I learned two new words in the first five minutes, and I was reminded what I liked so much about Encarta definitions — they give a clear sense of how each word currently is used and brief, pointed etymologies. I spent some time looking up the two words in different online dictionaries, and if I hadn't been facing a deadline, I might be comparing them still.
I was mostly switching back and forth between MSN Encarta and Merriam-Webster, but for really hard-core comparisons, try OneLook.com. It will search for definitions in 981 different dictionaries, including Webster's, Encarta, The Phronteristery and the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, the free version of the much revered OED, which is available online only by subscription.
While it is educational to compare definitions across dictionaries, count on Microsoft to add useful automation. The MSN Encarta Dictionary offers a downloadable right-click link that lets you right click on any word on a Web page and get the Encarta definition. When you right click on a word, the familiar right-click menu opens. "Encarta definition" appears in the penultimate panel. Click that and a small window opens showing the definition of the word. It only works in Internet Explorer and only on Windows machines — it is Microsoft, after all.
Merriam-Webster Online also offers right-click definitions as well as a right-click thesaurus, but you have to type in the word. They are part of a package with Merriam-Webster's more useful downloadable toolbar, which lets you type in a word from your Web window.
With Encarta's right-click dictionary, you don't have to type the word, but you do have to make two clicks. With Merriam-Webster's toolbar, you can copy and paste the word into the toolbar, so it's about the same effort.
Back when I reviewed the new print dictionaries, I decided the Merriam-Webster would remain on my desk, the Encarta would be shared with the reporters, and the OED would be my Christmas gift. In this updated, online version I can have all three at my fingertips.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Tech news with no bull
One of the most useful tech newsletters I get has the catchy title, "BullGuard Newsletter." It's published by BullGuard software*, a company that markets Internet security products. I stumbled across the site awhile back, looking for statistics on spam, trojans and viruses. It was one of those serendipitous finds that characterize Web surfing. The newsletter is free and I always find one or two useful links in each edition.
Recently, the BullGuard Team added "Curiosities," a short list of fun links that have nothing to do with Internet security. Among the most recent Curiosities are:
OnlineConversion.com ,a site that converts measurements from one system to another, miles per hour to kilometers per hour, for example Go Ask Alice, a Q&A health site hosted by Columbia University SFS Kids, the San Francisco Symphony's site that introduces kids to music Make A Flake, my personal favorite. This is an interactive game that turns your cursor into a pair of scissors, which you can use to make cuts in a virtual sheet of folded paper. When you've made enough cuts, you can unfold the paper and see the snowflake you've just made. If you like it, you can save it. If you make a miswhack, there's an undo button. I did a little backtracking to find out who's responsible for Make A Flake and found that it's LookandFeel.com, a new media company. This a site that's worth exploring, and that's all I'm going to say about it.
Recently, the BullGuard Team added "Curiosities," a short list of fun links that have nothing to do with Internet security. Among the most recent Curiosities are:
*To sign up for the BullGuard newsletter, scroll down their homepage and click on one of the news items at the bottom. There's a sign-up form for the newsletter on the right side of the news page.
Friday, November 26, 2004
Playing catch-up: Where the Internet meets the telephone
It's the day after Thanksgiving, customarily a slow day at the newspaper and a good time to catch up on things left hanging for the last couple of weeks — like e-mailed newsletters I've been meaning to read. It's sort of like panning for gold. There's a lot of junk, a fair amount of valuable particles and now and then a nugget that makes the effort worthwhile.
Here are a few keepers:
Google has launched a service to provide information by phone, the Boston Globe reported Nov. 15. It's not for everyone, including me, but those of you who are comfortable with text messaging on your cellphones might try it out and let me know how you like it. You don't have to have a fancy phone, but it does have to have text messaging capability. You dial 46645 (GOOGL) and then send a short question. The Globe story suggests "pizza" plus your ZIP code to get a list of pizza restaurants. You can look up phone numbers, get price quotes, even have words defined. You can get some results from a Web search by texting "g" for Google and a short query. It's in beta testing now, and it's free from Google, but you still have to pay the phone company's fee for test messaging.
The Weather Channel and its online counterpart Weather.com have launched a similar service that lets you get weather forecasts on your cellphone. Dial 42278 (4CAST) and text a ZIP code or city and state name. This service costs 75 cents.
If spam makes you so mad you could spit, you're going to choke when you read this. The latest intrusion into your Internet experience is spam via Internet telephony — you got it — SPIT. It's not much of a problem yet, USA Today reported Nov. 9, but as more people begin using the Internet to make phone calls, it is sure to grow. "Marketers can program their computers to send 1,000 voice messages a minute over Internet-telephony technology," the story says, quoting a rep from Quovia, a company seeking a patent to stop spit.
Internet telephony, or VOIP (voice over Internet protocol), is faster and cheaper than traditional calling, and if you aren't using it yet, chances are good that you will be within five years, unless spit kills it before it gets established. An estimated 1 million people will use it this year, more than seven times the number who used it last year, and by 2008, the number of VOIP users is projected to reach 17.5 million, according to the USA Today story.
Phish or cut bait: The Washington Post in mid-November had an excellent two-day series of reports on phishing, the practice of sending fraudulent e-mails to gain usernames and passwords for e-commerce Web sites, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and bank account numbers, and the identifying information necessary to use them. I see these scams every day, and I can tell you they are getting more and more believable. Still, I thought I could recognize phishing when I saw it and know what was a legitimate e-mail and what was not. That confidence was shattered by The Post's "Catch A Phish" quiz, which I highly recommend taking. I was wrong about three of the 10 examples when I first took the quiz and missed one of them again today. Fortunately, I guessed that a legitimate e-mail was a fake — my philosophy about phishing is "when in doubt, doubt double." Read the series, take the quiz and never, never, never reveal any personal or financial information by clicking a link in an e-mail message.
Why can't we all have Bill Gates' spam filter? The Microsoft Inc. chairman gets 4 million e-mail messages a day, and most of it is spam, according to an AP story in the Washington Post, Nov. 18 . Gates' right-hand man Steve Ballmer says the boss has special technology just to filter his e-mail. If it's good enough for Gates, it's good enough for me. So c'mon Microsoft, let's have it.
If it's, Delf-HA, don't answer. I don't use my cellphone much, and I have enough fingers to count the calls I've received on it in one pass. But I've heard enough phones ringing in stores, at concerts, even in the class I teach at JSU to recognize that I'm reeling in the wake of a fast-moving cultural behemoth. After reading a Nov. 9 story on cellphone spam in PC World, I don't think I'll be increasing my cellphone use any time soon. Hackers somewhere in this wide world have written a program that allows them to use hijacked personal computers — yours and mine, perhaps — to send unwanted advertising messages to cellular phones. Delf-HA is a trojan horse that is sent over the Internet to infect PCs. Once infected, the computer sends e-mail messages to cellphone numbers generated at random. So far, it has only targeted Russian phone networks, but give them time.
That's not everything, but I've reached the limit of my tolerance. I'm getting depressed about the fight between those of us who want to use the Internet to exchange safe and useful information and those who want to use the technology to hurt us.
Here are a few keepers:
Google has launched a service to provide information by phone, the Boston Globe reported Nov. 15. It's not for everyone, including me, but those of you who are comfortable with text messaging on your cellphones might try it out and let me know how you like it. You don't have to have a fancy phone, but it does have to have text messaging capability. You dial 46645 (GOOGL) and then send a short question. The Globe story suggests "pizza" plus your ZIP code to get a list of pizza restaurants. You can look up phone numbers, get price quotes, even have words defined. You can get some results from a Web search by texting "g" for Google and a short query. It's in beta testing now, and it's free from Google, but you still have to pay the phone company's fee for test messaging.
The Weather Channel and its online counterpart Weather.com have launched a similar service that lets you get weather forecasts on your cellphone. Dial 42278 (4CAST) and text a ZIP code or city and state name. This service costs 75 cents.
If spam makes you so mad you could spit, you're going to choke when you read this. The latest intrusion into your Internet experience is spam via Internet telephony — you got it — SPIT. It's not much of a problem yet, USA Today reported Nov. 9, but as more people begin using the Internet to make phone calls, it is sure to grow. "Marketers can program their computers to send 1,000 voice messages a minute over Internet-telephony technology," the story says, quoting a rep from Quovia, a company seeking a patent to stop spit.
Internet telephony, or VOIP (voice over Internet protocol), is faster and cheaper than traditional calling, and if you aren't using it yet, chances are good that you will be within five years, unless spit kills it before it gets established. An estimated 1 million people will use it this year, more than seven times the number who used it last year, and by 2008, the number of VOIP users is projected to reach 17.5 million, according to the USA Today story.
Phish or cut bait: The Washington Post in mid-November had an excellent two-day series of reports on phishing, the practice of sending fraudulent e-mails to gain usernames and passwords for e-commerce Web sites, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and bank account numbers, and the identifying information necessary to use them. I see these scams every day, and I can tell you they are getting more and more believable. Still, I thought I could recognize phishing when I saw it and know what was a legitimate e-mail and what was not. That confidence was shattered by The Post's "Catch A Phish" quiz, which I highly recommend taking. I was wrong about three of the 10 examples when I first took the quiz and missed one of them again today. Fortunately, I guessed that a legitimate e-mail was a fake — my philosophy about phishing is "when in doubt, doubt double." Read the series, take the quiz and never, never, never reveal any personal or financial information by clicking a link in an e-mail message.
Why can't we all have Bill Gates' spam filter? The Microsoft Inc. chairman gets 4 million e-mail messages a day, and most of it is spam, according to an AP story in the Washington Post, Nov. 18 . Gates' right-hand man Steve Ballmer says the boss has special technology just to filter his e-mail. If it's good enough for Gates, it's good enough for me. So c'mon Microsoft, let's have it.
If it's, Delf-HA, don't answer. I don't use my cellphone much, and I have enough fingers to count the calls I've received on it in one pass. But I've heard enough phones ringing in stores, at concerts, even in the class I teach at JSU to recognize that I'm reeling in the wake of a fast-moving cultural behemoth. After reading a Nov. 9 story on cellphone spam in PC World, I don't think I'll be increasing my cellphone use any time soon. Hackers somewhere in this wide world have written a program that allows them to use hijacked personal computers — yours and mine, perhaps — to send unwanted advertising messages to cellular phones. Delf-HA is a trojan horse that is sent over the Internet to infect PCs. Once infected, the computer sends e-mail messages to cellphone numbers generated at random. So far, it has only targeted Russian phone networks, but give them time.
That's not everything, but I've reached the limit of my tolerance. I'm getting depressed about the fight between those of us who want to use the Internet to exchange safe and useful information and those who want to use the technology to hurt us.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Live Wire
I'm testing a new service from the Associated Press that posts live updates from the wire service. I have two pages set up so far, one for Alabama news and one for national and international news. If the test goes well (and it has so far), I will create pages for sports, business, religion and possibly other news categories.
The news on these pages is updated continuously, so as soon as AP has a story, you can read it.
I don't know yet how this will affect the afternoon update, Since This Morning. The AP service rarely has local stories for this area unless they come from The Star to begin with. Whenever we have breaking local news we'll put it online as soon as we can, so the afternoon update may become unnecessary.
I would like to know your thoughts to the AP news feed and how it compares to Since This Morning. E-mail me or post a comment here.
***
AP also makes some cool interactives available with this service. Two that moved this week are a Flash graphic called Fighting in the Streets and a photo gallery from the war. I have included links to both in the list that appears at the bottom of stories in the At War In Iraq section of The Anniston Star Online site. Click News, then look at the links in the left menu. At War in Iraq is the last link in the News section.
The news on these pages is updated continuously, so as soon as AP has a story, you can read it.
I don't know yet how this will affect the afternoon update, Since This Morning. The AP service rarely has local stories for this area unless they come from The Star to begin with. Whenever we have breaking local news we'll put it online as soon as we can, so the afternoon update may become unnecessary.
I would like to know your thoughts to the AP news feed and how it compares to Since This Morning. E-mail me or post a comment here.
***
AP also makes some cool interactives available with this service. Two that moved this week are a Flash graphic called Fighting in the Streets and a photo gallery from the war. I have included links to both in the list that appears at the bottom of stories in the At War In Iraq section of The Anniston Star Online site. Click News, then look at the links in the left menu. At War in Iraq is the last link in the News section.
Friday, November 12, 2004
Best shots revisited
The Anniston Star's chief photographer Trent Penny has agreed to help choose the best photos from the online galleries. We are working out a plan to have readers vote for their favorites from each season to narrow the field, and then have The Star's professional photographers select the best three from each group.
I want to create an interactive page that will make the voting easy, and that will take a few days since I don't know exactly how to go about it. When it's ready, I'll post a link to it prominently on the front page of the site. Voting will be open to everyone, not just subscribers, since the galleries are part of the site's free content.
I want to create an interactive page that will make the voting easy, and that will take a few days since I don't know exactly how to go about it. When it's ready, I'll post a link to it prominently on the front page of the site. Voting will be open to everyone, not just subscribers, since the galleries are part of the site's free content.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Maxx Headroom delivers the weather
There's a new feature on Accuweather.com that's interesting technologically and has some entertainment value. You can not only read your local weather forecast, you can hear it and see it delivered by an animated newscaster. To see it, click the weather icon on the front page of The Anniston Star Online, then click Live Forecast (or just click this link).
First you choose an area of the country, then click on a dot marking a city. In Alabama, you can choose Birmingham or Montgomery. Well, Birmingham, anyway. When I clicked Montgomery, the word "Montgomery" appeared, but the forecast delivered was for Jackson, Miss.
The animated character's mouth moves approximately correctly to say the words you hear, and his eyes follow the cursor around. (I didn't check enough areas to see if any of the readers are women). It gets old in a hurry. After checking the forecasts for Birmingham, Atlanta and Montgomery, I found it more interesting to put the cursor on his chin and make him cross his eyes.
First you choose an area of the country, then click on a dot marking a city. In Alabama, you can choose Birmingham or Montgomery. Well, Birmingham, anyway. When I clicked Montgomery, the word "Montgomery" appeared, but the forecast delivered was for Jackson, Miss.
The animated character's mouth moves approximately correctly to say the words you hear, and his eyes follow the cursor around. (I didn't check enough areas to see if any of the readers are women). It gets old in a hurry. After checking the forecasts for Birmingham, Atlanta and Montgomery, I found it more interesting to put the cursor on his chin and make him cross his eyes.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
To see ourselves as others see us
This link came from Van Allen. It's Forbes Magazine's take on the PCB litigation in Anniston. Not pretty.
Monday, November 08, 2004
Take your best shot
Jason Cash of Coldwater suggests having readers choose their favorite pictures from the Anniston Star Online galleries. I think that's a great idea. I get several hundred pictures for each season, and most of them are quite good. Readers could choose three favorites from each season and we could create a calendar from them.
We have separate galleries for the work of the staff photographers. We could have voting on those too.
Some of my own pictures are in the seasonal galleries, but I would remove them from contention. I use my photos primarily to get a gallery started and then to fill out a row of thumbnails. Occasionally, I will post a sizable group of my own pictures, depending on how active the gallery has been in the past few days.
I'll work on setting up an interface for voting on the galleries. More to come ...
We have separate galleries for the work of the staff photographers. We could have voting on those too.
Some of my own pictures are in the seasonal galleries, but I would remove them from contention. I use my photos primarily to get a gallery started and then to fill out a row of thumbnails. Occasionally, I will post a sizable group of my own pictures, depending on how active the gallery has been in the past few days.
I'll work on setting up an interface for voting on the galleries. More to come ...
Friday, November 05, 2004
A penny 'saved' is deception
Every so often, Almus Thornton, a friend of mine here at The Star, brings me a stack of ads and preaches what he calls his "sermon." The ads are for all kinds of products, and the only thing they have in common is that the prices of the products all end in 99 cents.
"Here's a tractor for $5,999.99," he began the latest version of the sermon. "Now I ask you, are you more likely to buy that tractor at $5,999.99 than at $6,000? Does one penny out of $6,000 make a difference to you?"
I had to smile. I'd heard it many times before, and I could never argue the other side. I'm the choir for his preaching.
He looks at it from an accountant's point of view and contends that his job would be much simplified if merchants would just go ahead and charge the extra penny. I take his word for it — he's the accountant, not me. It seems to me that by the time the tax is added, the final cost is as likely to end in 17 cents as 99 cents, but apparently that is not an accountant's concern.
I look at it from a consumer's point of view: The penny makes no difference in whether I buy the product, but I am offended at the attempt to make the price look less than it is. And as someone who has set a lot of type, I begrudge the extra keystrokes necessary to type all those .99s.
Part of the sermon is always speculation on why merchants price things at 99 cents and how it got started. His theory is that it began during the Great Depression, when the difference of a penny might really determine a person's ability to buy an item. Almus was a teen-ager during the Depression, and he remembers the first store in the area that began 99 cent pricing.
I couldn't confirm his theory. I tried an Ask Jeeves query, but all I got was a long list of stuff for sale for 99 cents. A Google query gave me a lot of interesting articles on the difficulties of handling micropayments in e-commerce, whether to include shipping in the cost of a product and the travails of third-party payment processing. I didn't find anything that addresses
Almus's question.
The practice has become so ubiquitous that we just take it for granted, and it's no different in e-commerce than at a tool sale at the airport. Tunes for your iPod are 99 cents each. In September, Major League Baseball began selling video game clips for 99 cents. eBay and Overstock.com are littered with items whose prices end in .99 (and some with .88 — whose brilliant idea was that?).
Almus wants us all to rise up in protest of this senseless 99 cent pricing. He's got about as much chance of winning the battle as of defeating a windmill with a lance. But in this quixotic quest, I'm a willing Sancho Panza.
So lead on, Good Knight. I've got your back.
"Here's a tractor for $5,999.99," he began the latest version of the sermon. "Now I ask you, are you more likely to buy that tractor at $5,999.99 than at $6,000? Does one penny out of $6,000 make a difference to you?"
I had to smile. I'd heard it many times before, and I could never argue the other side. I'm the choir for his preaching.
He looks at it from an accountant's point of view and contends that his job would be much simplified if merchants would just go ahead and charge the extra penny. I take his word for it — he's the accountant, not me. It seems to me that by the time the tax is added, the final cost is as likely to end in 17 cents as 99 cents, but apparently that is not an accountant's concern.
I look at it from a consumer's point of view: The penny makes no difference in whether I buy the product, but I am offended at the attempt to make the price look less than it is. And as someone who has set a lot of type, I begrudge the extra keystrokes necessary to type all those .99s.
Part of the sermon is always speculation on why merchants price things at 99 cents and how it got started. His theory is that it began during the Great Depression, when the difference of a penny might really determine a person's ability to buy an item. Almus was a teen-ager during the Depression, and he remembers the first store in the area that began 99 cent pricing.
I couldn't confirm his theory. I tried an Ask Jeeves query, but all I got was a long list of stuff for sale for 99 cents. A Google query gave me a lot of interesting articles on the difficulties of handling micropayments in e-commerce, whether to include shipping in the cost of a product and the travails of third-party payment processing. I didn't find anything that addresses
Almus's question.
The practice has become so ubiquitous that we just take it for granted, and it's no different in e-commerce than at a tool sale at the airport. Tunes for your iPod are 99 cents each. In September, Major League Baseball began selling video game clips for 99 cents. eBay and Overstock.com are littered with items whose prices end in .99 (and some with .88 — whose brilliant idea was that?).
Almus wants us all to rise up in protest of this senseless 99 cent pricing. He's got about as much chance of winning the battle as of defeating a windmill with a lance. But in this quixotic quest, I'm a willing Sancho Panza.
So lead on, Good Knight. I've got your back.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)