Stephen's Untold Stories

I have used the Windows on-screen keyboard before, but this article is making me think I’ll be using it more often.

Virtual Keyboards Protect Against Keyloggers & Spyware

Here are some great photos of stones (not Rolling) from around the world.

Stones of the World

I visited Gibraltar several years ago when I was studying in Spain, and the airport shares its runway with a road. Here is a site which has some pictures of this most interesting airport. (I did not take these!)

Gibraltar Airport Photos

Here are a couple of good articles on how and how not to use blogs in education.

How to Use Blogs in Education

How NOT to Use Blogs in Education

Cobb County (GA) schools got some bad news.

Superior Court Judge S. Lark Ingram ordered an immediate halt to a groundbreaking laptop computer program Friday because school leaders did not tell Cobb County voters what they wanted to do with a voter-approved special sales tax.

Ingram said the ruling had nothing to do with the merits of the program. But, she said, "fair notice of such use was not given to the public when the referendum for [the sales tax] was held."

Former county commissioner Butch Thompson had sued to stop the program. He and his lawyer, former Gov. Roy Barnes, argued in a hearing July 8 that school officials participated in a "bait and switch" when they promised that the 1 percent sales tax would, in part, "refresh obsolete [computer} workstations."

Barnes argued that school officials should be held to information they distributed at the time of the vote, when they estimated they could buy 30,000 computers for students for about $32 million, as well as use tens of millions of dollars more — for a total of $76 million — to "refresh" things like printers and servers and buy every teacher a "computing device."

School officials later decided they could eventually distribute 63,000 Apple iBook laptops to all teachers and all students in grades six through 12. About $25 million of the sales tax money was to be used for the program’s first phase, which the school board approved in April.

Ingram agreed with Barnes’ argument. As a result of the ruling, the only way school officials could pay for the program would be to use their general fund.

The school board will meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday to talk about the decision. It is likely any decision to appeal would be made then.

Link to AJC article (requires registration)

Georgia’s highest mountain is Brasstown Bald, located in the northeastern part of the state. The Park Service installed a couple of webcams on top of the mountain, and the views are very nice. One of them is being replaced, but one is still working.

Brasstown Bald Webcams

Vista is the name for Microsoft’s newest operating system, which will be released sometime in 2006. Here is a screenshot.

Click here for more

I just found this and I can’t wait to try it out.

Inkscape is an open source drawing tool with capabilities similar to
Illustrator, Freehand, and CorelDraw that uses the
W3C standard scalable vector graphics
format (SVG). Some supported SVG
features include basic shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending,
transforms, gradients, and grouping. In addition, Inkscape supports
Creative Commons meta-data,
node-editing, layers, complex path operations, text-on-path,
and SVG XML editing. It also imports
several formats like EPS, Postscript, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF and exports
PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats.

Inkscape’s main motivation is to provide the Open Source community
with a fully W3C compliant XML, SVG, and CSS2 drawing tool. Additional
planned work includes conversion of the codebase from C/Gtk to
C++/Gtkmm, emphasizing a lightweight core with powerful features added
through an extension mechanism, and the establishment of a friendly, open,
community-oriented development process.

Link to Site

I had been looking at different types of FM transmitters for my iPod, and I wasn’t too keen on any I saw until yesterday. I went to the college bookstore and, lo and behold, there it was! I like the fact that it does not require a battery and it plugs right onto the iPod without adding too much bulk.

You can also tune it to any open spot on the FM band. Some others restrict you to only a few frequencies, and sometimes they are all filled up.

So far, this gadget has pleased me!

Link to More Info

I think this person needs more help than the professor can give.

I am a strait A pre-med student. was majoring in Bio but my life
practically evolves around psychology (read a ton of books and LOVE
learning it), so I thought might as well major in it. I had psychology
in high school and to me it was the most interesting course where I did
the homwork bcuz i want to not bcuz i had to.

Read the rest here!

I wish I could go!

A visit with the Photoshop engineers at 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA. June 16 & 17, 2005.

Link to Site

Do you know all the answers?

1. Government bodies said (A. eminent / B. imminent) domain proceedings were a last resort.

2. Mary said she had an (A. outer-body / B. out-of-body) experience last night.

3. The doctors discussed the merits of (A. preventive medicine / B. preventative medicine).

4. It was a no (A. holes / B. holds) barred discussion.

5. The Ironman competition tests an athlete’s (A. mettle / B. metal / C. medal).

6. The river (A. teams / B. teems) with trout.

7. Before it crashed, the plane clipped a (A. guy / B. guide) wire with its wings.

8. It’s too early to declare that this team is special. But it can be if given time to (A. jell / gel).

9. Charles Barkley commented on the new design of Allen Iverson’s (A. cornrows / B. cornrolls / C. cornroles).

10. All (A. and / B. in) all, the company’s policies were sufficient.

11. The boss decided the office manager could no longer cut the (A. muster / B. mustard), so the employee was let go.

12. The coach was the one to (A. meet / B. meat / C. mete) out punishment to players who broke rules.

Thanks to the Phantom Profesor!

Here is a great free PDF creator. That’s right…FREE!

Convert to PDF from any application by simply ‘printing’ to the PrimoPDF printer – it couldn’t be easier! Within minutes, you can create high-quality PDFs by converting from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and virtually any other printable file type.

Primo PDF

Thanks J-Walk!

You can use this tool to see how many of your pages are indexed with Google and Yahoo!

The Googleizer

Thanks to A Welsh View!

The Quick Online Tips site has some good information on getting a safe E-Mail address for children

Yahoo E-Mail for kids

This one is making the blog rounds today.

Google Logo Maker

Update!!  It has now shut down!! 

If you have Acrobat 7, you can use it to read your RSS feeds.

If you have Adobe Acrobat(R) 7.0, you can use it as a newsreader to
view RSS feeds. Choose Comments > Tracker, choose Services >
Subscribe, and then enter the URL for the RSS feed you want to receive.

I’m not sure I’ll use it for that purpose, as there are better options, but it’s an interesting tip.

This is Microsoft’s attempt to equal Google Maps. It’s worth checking out.

MSN Maps

If you’ve never been to Atlanta, you may not know about The Varsity. It’s a fast-food restaurant located downtown, and it is quite a landmark.

A detective in the Atlanta area writes a funny column for the Atlanta Journal, and this is his advice on your first visit to The Varsity. I would normally just link it, but it requires registration, so here it is:

The Varsity is located at the intersection of North Avenue and
I-75/85, across from the campus of Georgia Tech. It’s a very popular
landmark and I suggest you visit there when in town. You might want to
get acquainted with some of the rules of the Varsity prior to visiting.

It’s a rather large area and the staff is not known for
exercising patience for customers who can’t make up their mind. To
avoid confusion, let me suggest you pick either a chili dog, nekkid dog
(no chili) or a chilisteak. Compliment that with fries or my pick, the
onion rings. The important part is that you don’t forget to order the
fried peach pie.

There are several drinks available but all are called
Cocola. That’s one word. You can get any flavor you want but it’s
called Cocola.

For example: if you want an orange drink, you say: “I’d like
orange Cocola.” It’s like tea. You don’t order tea here, you order
Sweetea. If you don’t want your tea sweetened, you order
“unsweet-sweetea” although we don’t like people who don’t like sweetea.

Once you have the order in mind, get in line. Sometimes the
line is long but don’t worry, it goes fast because if you don’t know
what you want when they ask you what you want, they go to the next
person and you’re out of luck or back in line.

Have the order in mind when you approach the counter. You’ll
notice the counter is rather high up. This is so the employees won’t
slap you when you can’t remember your order. When the cue:
“Whaddyahave” is said, immediately begin ordering. It doesn’t matter if
the employee is looking at you or not. You’ll have exactly six seconds
to complete the order and move to your left.

If not, you’ll be trampled to death by the other 50 people
in line. Move left and prepare to order your drink. This is not the
time to look at the drink menu.

Remember: Cocola. Fair warning: If you order a Pepsi, the
Varsity S.W.A.T. team will emerge from the end of the counter and pelt
you with chili dogs from those air guns that shoot T-shirts.

If you’ve successfully received your food and drink, get out
of the way and go sit down at the tables or the desks provided in
roll-call fashion so that you can watch TV. You may purchase Varsity
merchandise.

I suggest the red paper Varsity hat.

At this point, sit down, enjoy the food, and congratulate
each other over your first successful purchase at the Varsity. Grab
some ice cream or a shake and hit the road!

If you don’t mind registering (it’s free) you can read this guy’s stuff. It is hilarious!

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