The latest craze on the World Wide Web is Social Software. Chances are, if you have a teenager, you probably have heard about one of the biggest social networking software sites on the web and that is MySpace.com. Even if you don’t have a teenager you may have heard other people discussing it or you may have heard about it through the news. Here is a list of social networking sites found through Wikipedia.com.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
With the USB Flash Drive or Thumb Drive slowly becoming dominant as far as storage resources go, the usability and capabilities of the flash drives have changed so that you can use them for a variety of reasons besides a storage center for all of your important information. One such purpose is the concept of portable apps (or applications). These are just your normal applications that you would use on your PC. The only difference is that these apps are portable which means that you can download the app to your flash drive and run the app from the flash drive. This is good when you are in a situation in which you cannot download an app to the hard drive for many reasons.
This is a site where a lot of portable apps are available for download. It is http://portableapps.com/. Here are some advantages of using portable apps.
Here is a list of apps which are available:
The new computer class brochures have just arrived this morning. You may go by any local library in Jefferson County to pick one up. The schedule contains classes for the months of July-November. Classes are held either at the RLCC, Five Points West Library or the Springville Road Library. For further questions, please call 205-226-3798 or 205-226-3799.
Last night I discovered something new on Microsoft Word. Since I have Microsoft Office 2003 I thought that it was a new feature for this version. As I was working on Word today, I checked to see whether the same feature was on the 2002 version. And guess what! It was and I would have never known it was there if I hadn’t been working on my project last night.
It is a pretty neat feature. Especially for those who write for a living. It is called “Autosummarize”.
It allows you to create a summary, highlighting the keypoints of the message. You have a lot of control over what you create. Here is a screenshot of what you will see after you select Autosummarize.
After you decide how you want it to summarize you will automatically be given the new page with the changes on it. The “autosummary” is at the top of the page.
Yes, you have read it. I am seriously considering ditching Google and going for a more sophisicated search engine. Not to say that I am going to totally stop using Google but I have found another search engine that has impressed my socks off. This time last week I would have never given a thought to abandoning my old friend Google but times are ‘achanging and even with technology we have to be subject to some change.
What has prompted me to make such drastic measures? Or a better question would be what search engine has enticed me with their offerings that they bring. The answer is:
Since last week http://www.ask.com has changed dramatically. It is better known as Ask3D this week. Don’t try to use that as your URL. The URL has remain the same. 3D does not mean that you need red and blue glasses to view it. The 3D stands for the three dimensions of searching—query expression, investigating results, and digging deeply into content. Before you had to visit three different pages or websites to search all dimensions. Now it is all available on one page for your viewing pleasure.
Unique Features of Ask.com
These two features themselves are enough for me to warrant a change in search engines but if you don’t like all the frills that Ask.com offers consider the functionality of what Ask.com offers:
You can visit http://sp.ask.com/docs/about/site_features.shtml to see more features of this innovating search engine.
We are currently out of computer brochures for the January-June schedule. We are expecting our new brochures, which will cover the months of July-November, in a week or two. In the meantime you can look at The Reader to see a listing of classes being offered after the month of June. As always, if you need to register for classes please give us a call at 205-226-3799 or 205-226-3798.
We are the staff of the Regional Library Computer Center and this is our blog. The RLCC is on the third floor of the Linn Henley Research Building of the Birmingham Public Library.
The RLCC has 21 computers available for the public to use. There is an hour time limit and patrons do need to have their library card number in order to log in to the computers. If you don’t have a card, you can get one! They’re Free!
Twitter Updates BPL Blog
