Byte of the Week

People have sent me emails on being safe today. The world of safety differs from “how to fall from great heights” to Internet security – but it seemed as if someone was telling me to do a Safety Byte. Here are some of the resources – I hope that there are helpful but that you will never need them.

(Oh a couple people have asked about my kids’ podcast – they actually have been updating it recently: http://www.10questionsabout.com/.)

Survive a Long Fall http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-Long-Fall
It made my palms sweat just reading about it. But

Security Evolution Quick Hits http://www.secev.com/news/bulletin.htm
A fun and helpful newsletter on Internet security from Mike Endrizzi (MN security guru)

USFA Kids http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/kids/flash.shtm
A fire safety site for kids. (Warning: they will ask about batteries in the smoke alarms if they see this – so be prepared.)

National Crime Prevention Council http://www.ncpc.org/Topics/Personal_Safety/index.php
They have topics on nearly everything for adults and kids.

Keep Schools Safe http://www.keepschoolssafe.org/
Info for parents, kids, and educators. (Warning: if I had this much info on lab safety as a high schooler I could have led an effective campaign to ban chemistry or at least make it an elective.)

OK I guess I’m kind of into podcasts now. Lily is my 7 year old daughter. We just recorded her first podcast yesterday, “10 Questions About.”

She started by writing down 10 questions she had about lions. Then we researched lions together online using Yahooligans (www.yahooligans.com), Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), and an online dictionary (www.dictionary.com).  

We went to Odeo (www.odeo.com), which I mentioned in an earlier Byte. (It’s a free, phone-it-in blog creator.) I logged in. Then I went to the Odeo Studio page (http://studio.odeo.com/create).  I set up a new podcast (http://studio.odeo.com/create/channel). Then I called their phone number: 1-415-856-0205.

I went through their brief login progress and menu options, introduced Lily and handed the phone over to her. When she was done I pressed the pound key and went through their brief signoff process.

It is now available here: http://odeo.com/channel/111903/view

Or for the kid who has everything, I bought the www.10questionsabout.com domain name for $9 at GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com) and redirected it to the site above. Now when the teacher asks about her summer vacation she can almost literally phone it in!

And since I’m all about family today, I’d like to tell anyone in the Twin Cities about an upcoming one-day Irish culture Summer School for adults. My husband is running the event. Guests include Liam Clancy, and experts on F Scott Fitzgerald, JM Synge, Irish music and more. You can learn more here: http://www.irishfair.com/summer_school/index.php  

After last week’s Byte a few people asked me about safety and sites such as MySpace (an online teen haven). So I’ve done a little research about online safety for kids.

Surf Swell Island (http://disney.go.com/surfswell/index.html) – My older kids (ages 6 & 7) love this game! They started playing it before they could read. It’s all about online safety and isn’t scary. My hope is that safety is ingrained before they can read or type well enough to join online chats or other “social networking sites”.

NetSmartz Workshop (http://www.netsmartz.org/) – This looks good for teens. The blog quiz brought up some great points, such as “college recruiters can get info on me through social network web sites.” Taking this quiz with your favorite teen would introduce some important topics – and provide guidance on the how’s and why’s of safety.

Wired recently ran an article on MySpace (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70287-0.html) – The article is pretty interesting. Feedback from readers found below the article is very interesting.

And just so we don’t forget that the Internet is worth the risk, here’s my new favorite site for kids (http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/). The site creates quick worksheets for kids. Most worksheets seem to be for grade school kids though they mention a word-of-the-day vocabulary builder for high school kids (to prepare for PSAT & SAT tests).

New Byte Feature – IndeNewsletter

I work with a lot of different companies – most are independently owned. Sometimes they have fun news to share. The news isn’t always Byte material but often I think it might be interesting to some readers. So, I’ve decide to start a blog that features client news – and just quickly mention the topic in the Byte in case it’s a topic that might interest you.

This week IndeNewsetter – OneStopLenderApps (http://www.onestoplenderapps.com) is a neat tool for mortgage lenders that was recently unveiled. Apparently mortgage brokers need to fill out big applications with multiple wholesale mortgage lenders to get mortgages for end users. These guys have created one online form that a mortgage broker can complete to be submitted to multiple wholesale lenders (they have more than 200 in their database.) Learn more on Indenews (http://www.indenewsletter.com)  

I want to thank my friend Mick in Colorado for the Byte today. He had sent this message to another list of his. His timing was perfect for the first day of spring – as until spring those of us in Minnesota don’t really want to know about the weather…

The NWS gridpoint forecast is an online tool that provides very specific weather forecasts. It takes a latitude and longitude to the nearest 0.02 of a degree and produces a 10 day forecast that maps to the modeling the weather service considering location and elevation.

To determine your latitude and longitude go to the web site below and fill in your address.

http://stevemorse.org/jcal/latlon.php

Open another web browser window to

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ifps/gridpoint.php?site=gjt

…and scroll to the latitude/longitude field is at the bottom of the page.

Copy the decimal lat/long from the address conversion tool produces and paste that into the NWS Lat/Long tool. Make sure the longitude is a negative number.

Mick was able to get a forecast within about 1/2 mile of my house. The forecast has been fairly accurate in both temperature and precipitation ranges for my house. I have this forecast page bookmarked.

You can also use the Mapquest latitude/longitude tool to map how close the gridpoint forecast is to my house.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp (Ann’s note I tried this and then visited “places nearby”, which was a very fun way to find home-run businesses in my area. Some I didn’t know about!)

This time I enter the latitude and longitude of the forecast gridpoint uses and view the map to see where that point is in relation to my house.

My kids are back to school next week. We’re very excited! To get back into the swing and because we’ve had lots of questions we have been researching weather (hurricanes) online, which has led to today’s Byte – online resources for students and parents.

Scholastic
These are the people who sell the books you always wanted to order when you were at school. They have a nice hurricane site.

FEMA for Kids
This is the Federal Emergency Management Agency site. Their “what’s happening now” link tells you about any recent disaster areas and what FEMA is doing to help.

Yahooligans
This is Yahoo for kids, with fewer ads and more access to information. They only index sites that are good for kids.

Here are some good homework helpers:

BJ Pinchbeck
An index of sites organized by a teenager to help kids with homework.

Homework Spot
Looks like good info for projects and reports.

Your public or school library – you knew I was going to mention them. Online or in person the libraries are great. Online and in person – the librarian will help your student find information without doing the homework for them. The Internet Public Library is a great place to start.

Today’s Byte is for anyone who ever plans conferences. (For those who don’t, here’s a quick link to kids’ worksheets. It kept my kids going for hours during spring break.) Back to the conference planners…

Last month I worked with an online registration service that was new to me – Regonline. As the name implies, it facilitates online registration for events. It’s not free. The cost is a few dollars per registrant add 5% transaction fee IF you use them as a merchant account to accept credit cards. We were really happy with it – so happy that even though it wasn’t free I’m writing about it here.

Of the 100+ registrants, only one had trouble using Regonline – and she eventually figured it out. Attendees received an automated email confirmation of registration and were able to modify their registration at any point with an assigned password. Attendees could register and/or pay on site.

All of the conference planners had access to the registration and attendees through the web site. I could run reports and post them on a password-protected web site for the less technical or less involved planners. It was easy to set up name tags, tickets, and a voucher system. There were a lot of lodging options that we didn’t use.

So, there you go – - an unsolicited (and unrewarded) plug for Regonline for conference planners. (They appear to do member management too – but I can’t speak to that service.)

Just for fun, today’s Byte is a Thanksgiving quiz today. You can share it with your families tomorrow – or just slip some interesting Thanksgiving facts into conversation and let them think you’re the smart one. You can get the answers here below:

1. What year did the Pilgrims have their first Thanksgiving Feast?
1621
1619
1564
1702

2. The Horn of Plenty, or Cornucopia, which symbolizes abundance, originated in what country?
Ireland
Holland
Greece
Turkey

3. With which Nation of Native Americans did the Pilgrims celebrate?
Ojibwe
Wampanoag
Sioux
Lakota

4. About how many people participated in the first Thanksgiving?
14
41
140
410

5. What president didn’t like the idea of having a national Thanksgiving Day?
Adams
Jefferson
Nixon
Lincoln

6. Which president first established the date of Thanksgiving as a national celebration?
Washington
Jefferson
Adams
Madison

7. How long did the Pilgrims’ voyage to the ‘New World’ last?
27 days
66 days
99 days
200 days

8. Who was in favor of making turkey the National Bird of America?
John Turkey
Benjamin Franklin
Ponce de Leon
William Bradford

9. When did Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade start?
1910
1917
1920
1924

Answers
1. 1621
2. Greece
3. Wampanoag
4. 140
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. George Washington
7. 66 days
8. Benjamin Franklin
9. 1924

If you have kids, here is a great site to learn more about Thanksgiving (while you watch the game).

Today my oldest daughter starts school. In honor of this momentous step I thought I’d look into some online homework helpers:

BJ Pinchbeck’s Homework Helper – apparently created by a high school student, and hosted by Discovery.com, this is a directory of great sites to use for your homework (like Cliff Notes)

The Internet Public Library – manages virtual shelves of web resources, a teen area that includes guides for writing papers, and kidspace for younger kids. IPL also offers Ask a Librarian sections where you can ask questions of librarians. (I am a former volunteer.)

Check with your local public library. Most offer email-base reference services, which I use and love. Many will provide even more support and guidance to students. For example, St Paul provides supplies and mentors to help students in the library.

Two Byte subscribers recently started blogs; I thought we might all be interested in them:

In Pursuit of a Master’s Degree – Sue Stromquist writes about her experience as a student in the first class of a degree in advocacy and public policy out of UMD.

Sheldon Mains writes two blogs, the first relates to nonprofit management issues; the second is a personal blog on politics and community issues of local interest ( Twin Cities).

The population in the library is getting younger and quieter – that means that homework season is back in swing. Here are some resources to help any homework victims you might know. (Some of these resources are great for life-after-school too!)

Internet Public Library
A fantastic directory of resources maintained by librarians. You can also submit a question. I volunteered here for years – the questions and answers are great. It also reminds me that you should also check with your local library for help online and off.

NoodleTools
Enter in data for a research resource and NoodleTools will give you the formatted citation. MLA formatting is available for free. Enhanced (and APA format) access is $8 a year. Where was this when I was in class?!

Yahooligans
A search engine and directory for kids. They provide a parent’s guide and curriculum for teachers. (I used some lesson plans when I was a computer teacher and I thought they were pretty good.)

Free Online Lookups
OK this is more for the workers out there. It’s a list of 23 database of info – from demographics of zip codes to place name locators. (This is really worth the look!)

InfoPlease
Great advice on how to be a students and how to do homework. The general site has links to reference resources. Unfortunately this site has popup ads.