Computer Club Learns to BLOG!

On Monday, April 5th, the SMSCC discussed and started its blog in earnest! That means we all decided to "FOLLOW" our club's blog. Or... most of us committed to the fun challenge.

We added a photo of this cute cat because it is looking at us and will remind us to "FOLLOW" this blog.

The first portion of our meeting today was the "Help Desk" time for asking all sorts of questions about our technology troubles. Today, we discussed the tool bar and how to keep it from moving to the side of the screen. The answer is: Tool bars can be easily moved from the bottom of the screeen to the side or top by left clicking the mouse and "dragging" the tool bar. If you don't wish for the tool bar to move, we learned how to "LOCK" the tool bar by right-clicking and selecting "LOCK TOOL BAR".

New Apple iPAD

Apple released its long-awaited wireless iPAD device on Saturday, April 3, 2010. Some eager fans camped out overnight by stores in order to be the first in line to buy one. There were long lines in the morning. As they waited in line, many "Twittered" about standing in line. :) Here is a CNN article about the iPAD roll-out. Lots of features and fun, especially for Apple fans who like the latest and greatest.

Competitors will soon catch up and prices will drop, so this is the time to watch who is buying it and how it will be used.

READABILITY -- Tool to Cut Clutter

Readability is a powerful new cool tool by arc90 that eliminates website clutter when you want to just focus on the content and not the surrounding "stuff". It is meant for newspaper articles, not home pages. According to its website, it is a 2-step process select your settings; add your bookmarklet. It works like a charm! Try it on an article from the SF Chronicle on SFGate.
See the video:

Readability - Installation Video for Firefox, Safari & Chrome from Arc90 on Vimeo.

New Tool for Searching Google: Deeper Web

"Deeper Web"is a beta test of a new service to help search Google. It's also available as a Firefox add-on. Very nice. It puts search results in tag or phrase clouds. High school librarians think it is useful for helping students identify other helpful search terms. See: http://www.deeperweb.com/

Discovery Learning - Tutorial

We often hear how people "get lost in time when online". Do you like the rhyme?

It is true that we often "stumble upon" interesting items and follow links to more details or additional websites. Discovery Learning is another name for that. In these, the reader learns about a topic such as new technology tools for persons with disabilities or communicating in the 21st century, but they use their own interests and passions to learn MORE about the technology tools that are relevant to them.

Here are a few discovery learning tutorials that you can explore:

• Discovering Assistive Technology: This tutorial is brought to you by the California School Library Association and TransAccess, a community-based organization that provides persons with disabilities access to computer adaptive technology and career transition services so that they can achieve their desired education and employment, and improve their quality of life.

• Learning Web 2.0: Librarians at the College of San Mateo offer this introductory tutorial on blogs, wikis, image creation, news feeds, and more -- at no cost -- enjoy!
  

Apple's iPad

Apple CEO and showman extraordinaire Steve Jobs introduced Apple's new iPad tablet on January 27, 2010 in San Francisco. It was an invitation-only event, but it was captured on video and posted it to the Apple Special Event site. The first half hour is pure Steve Jobs. The next hour is a series of more detailed demos on applications that already exist for the iMac, iPhone, and other Apple products that are also available on the larger device, the iPad.

PC World's review of the iPad lists five "best surprises":

• Price - lower than expected. Priced to compete with netbooks and/or eBook Readers
• Pre-paid, nocontract, unlocked G3
• External keyboard support
• iWork for iPad
• ePub support of International Digital Publishing Forum Standard for open-standards-based-format for digital books.

Another review, "Tablet Makers Rethinking Things in Wake of iPad's $499 Price" points out, among other things, that the iPad has no USB interface ports, so it is more like a larger version of the iPhone. Tricks to keep iPad price low:

• "... iPad left out some key hardware features and will instead charge users a nice markup on accessories designed to give those features back. Specifically, the lack of built-in USB ports and SD card support saved a few dollars per unit, and for a unit that will eventually sell in the tens of millions, that's real money."
• "...the classic up-sell. The company is charging considerably more for the 3G and/or more storage, with the result that buyers of the higher-end models are pitching in extra money to pay for the low-end model's discount."
• "...making up lost hardware revenues with content sales. ... Apple can afford to give away the hardware because it's taking a cut of iTunes, App Store, and iBook sales."

Our First Post

The Computer Club now has a blog! Stay tuned for interesting and timely items. Visit us online or at the San Mateo Senior Center.

We've added our logo of the computer holding a letter. How? It is an old logo and we only have it on an old brochure, so we made a digital image of it, saved it as a .jpeg image, and then added it to the sidebar.

We also added an avatar (representation of a person) in a computer classroom. That's fitting, right? Several of us will be experimenting and "playing" with the words and design, so please don't be surprised if the original orange template is a different color next time you look.

Homework for the computer club: Look over this blog and then learn how to create your own by taking the free & fun online course called "CSM Learning 2.0". There are 23 "Things" to learn -- learn one thing a week or one thing a month. Enjoy!