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Showing posts from May 20, 2012

Memorial Day: Remembering

Memorial Day honors men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. To remember those who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom,  put up your flag (it stays at half mast until noon then raised to full staff for the rest of the day), visit cemeteries or visit memorials. Don't forget to pay tribute by observing a minute of silence at 3:00 PM, local time. As for myself, I will be changing my Facebook timeline picture for the holiday. You can also change your desktop image. Where can you find images? Well, Wikimedia Commons is a great source for public domain photographs. United States Flags - Click for larger image Arlington Cemetery - Click for larger image United States Marine Corps War Memorial - Click for larger image Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial - Click for larger image Vietnam Veterans M

How Do We Prepare Students for a Global Knowledge Economy?

I recently participated in a discussion regarding the direction of our community here in Northwest Georgia. Although many candidates for our county commission would like to see more manufacturing jobs, I truly feel that we are not preparing our students to be part of the 'global economy'. Why are we happy with more retail jobs at minimum wage or warehouse  jobs for $10 per hour?  In our community we can strive to provide a better education geared toward the future. We can also improve our local economy with drawing technology related businesses that are required to have access to highways and won't require more truck routes into our area. We, as a community, aren't preparing our students to strive for better jobs. We, as a community need to move into the 21st century before its too late. Check out this seminar on preparing our students for a global knowledge economy.  I hope you will consider the need to prepare your children for the world with soft skills such as d

Audio Books: A Time Saving Device

Hola! ¿Hablas español? First day of class and I have quite a drive to school. Yes, I can enjoy the scenery, but I prefer to make better use of my time, so I downloaded a couple of books to my Kindle online from the library. On the way to school, I was learning beginning Spanish.  I probably won't be proficient after the semester but I know that it is a good use of time. Even if it is just listening to a fictional book it makes the drive less stressful and the time goes by much quicker.  So, I came home and did some checking.. Not only does my library allow me to borrow and listen to audio books, there are tons of audio books or podcasts online that can be downloaded and added to your mp3 player, iPhone,  burned to a CD, or even downloaded to a tablet. Our older car has a cassette player and with an $5.00 or less cassette adapter . With that I can plug in my tablet and use the audio system of the car to listen to my audio.    Tiene un gran día. (Have a great day! ☺)

Facebook: Tagged on Shoe Photos?

So, have you recently seen the vast amount of "shoes" that you and/or your friends are being tagged?  Did you really want your name associated with these advertisements and how can you stop them? The first thing to do is to change the settings on your Facebook account so you are allowed to accept or reject when you have been tagged in a photograph. There are also some scamming apps out there so be aware of the applications that request access to your Facebook account. Access the your FB account privacy settings.  Go to your account by going to the dropdown arrow next to "Home", at the top of Facebook.  (See image) Select "Privacy Settings". Select "Edit Settings" to the right of "Timeline and Tagging". Enable the setting for "Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline" Click the back button and then the done button. You can now leave the privacy settings area by clicking on the Fac

New Gadgets: Voice Activated USB

Security is always an issue for something as small as a USB drive. A USB Drive can be password protected or encrypted for protection of your files but this new cool gadget uses voice authentication.  That is pretty fantastic stuff.  Note: Alternate access options are provided in the event of a cold, laryngitis, or a forgotten voice password. ☺ Hammacher Schlemmer has  the 8GB Voice-Authenticating USB Drive available now, priced at $49.95.