Knowledge Handler

Information Sources & Information Sifting Techniques

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Location: Independence, Ohio, United States

I am a retired librarian, most recently serving at Indiana Wesleyan University's Cleveland Education Center.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Poverty Among Military Veterans

Miranda Leitsinger reports that former soldiers are often hungry due to low incomes.

According to Eric Morath, most welfare recipients already have a job. The need exists for higher-wage employment for many in the U.S.

-DD

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Removing Bloatware

Preston Gralla lists the common sources of bloatware installed on a new computer, and then suggests the use of utilities to remove the unneeded programs.

-DD

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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Unused Features In Automobiles

Lucas Mearian finds that car buyers can be confused about high-tech features . Mearian cites the 2015 Driver Interactive Vehicle Experience Report, which indicates that:

The five features owners most commonly report that they "never use" are in-vehicle concierge (43%); mobile routers (38%); automatic parking systems (35%); heads-up display (33%); and built-in apps (32%).

"In many cases, owners simply prefer to use their smartphone or tablet because it meets their needs; they're familiar with the device and it's accurate," said Kristin Kolodge, executive director of driver interaction and human-machine interface (HMI) research at J.D. Power. "In-vehicle connectivity technology that's not used results in millions of dollars of lost value for both consumers and the manufacturers."

-DD

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Writing for the Public

Ann Trubek offers suggests to academics who want to write for a popular audience . Tips include learning the interests of your audience, and using active verbs in writing.

-DD

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Network Security

Roger Grimes recounts the weaknesses that exist in current network security technologies .

-DD

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Saturday, August 29, 2015

Programming Certifications

Bob Violino evaluates programming certifications . The article includes numerous links to outside resources for learning and test success.

-DD

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Educational Games from the 80's

Benj Edwards suggests the best educational games from the first few decades when computers were available.

-DD

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Friday, August 28, 2015

New Windows 10 Features

Brad Chacos describes new Windows 10 features .

Melanie Pinola compares the differences between Windows 10 and the prior two versions.

-DD

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Popular Browser Extensions

Howard Wen nominates several extensions which should be ported to the new Microsoft Edge Web browser.

-DD

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Thursday, August 27, 2015

Ants and Telecommunications

Rainbow Technology warns about the dangers of ant infestations on telecommunications equipment.

-DD

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Animated Writing

Ben Yagoda opines that animated writing should be more like conversation , sentence fragments and all.

-DD

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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Japanese Invent Privacy Visor

Tim Hornyak observes that the Japanese have developed a privacy visor that makes it impossible for cameras to identify a person visually. This provides privacy in an age when cameras are ubiquitous.

-DD

 

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Homeless at the University

Kelly Field observes that homeless students have a difficult time obtaining financial aid and yet lack the family support which is a key element to student success.

-DD

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Tuesday, August 25, 2015

U.S. Housing Market Statistics

Renee Lightner, Andrew Van Dam and Nick Timiraos have developed charts showing U.S. housing market historical statistics.

This is an article from a series of charts published by the Wall Street Journal.

-DD

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Google Search Embraces Tweets

Zach Miners reports that Google search now provides tweet results from major personalities.

-DD

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Empowering Creativity

Stephen Herr comments on the value of unstructured assignments in education , something that has become less common in an age of standardized classroom curricula and evaluations.

-DD

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Monday, August 24, 2015

Success Through Gaming

Sarah Brown tells how a phone app developed at Ball State University is improving student success, by scoring positive choices in a game-like environment.

-DD

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Identify a Failing Hard Disc

Bill Snyder warns of signs your computer's hard drive is about to die .

-DD

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Poverty and Educational Attainment

David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy report that the middle class in the U.S. is faltering , in part due to poor educational attainment:

Educational attainment in the United States has risen far more slowly than in much of the industrialized world over the last three decades, making it harder for the American economy to maintain its share of highly skilled, well-paying jobs.

Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 have literacy, numeracy and technology skills that are above average relative to 55- to 65-year-olds in rest of the industrialized world, according to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international group. Younger Americans, though, are not keeping pace: Those between 16 and 24 rank near the bottom among rich countries, well behind their counterparts in Canada, Australia, Japan and Scandinavia and close to those in Italy and Spain.

-DD

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Sunday, August 23, 2015

Back-to-School Technology

Jake and Liam Widman list some clever back-to-school technology , including power cubes and scholarship web sites

-DD

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Saturday, August 22, 2015

Swapnil Bhartiya lists the best free Windows 10 apps .

-DD

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Friday, August 21, 2015

Early to Rise

Centers for Disease Control indicates that U.S. high schools begin classes too early in the morning . My co-workers who teach 8AM university courses might be able to speak to this as well.

-DD

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Thursday, August 20, 2015

Best Time to Post on Social Media

According to Rachel Gillett some times are better than others to post on social media . From examining her infographic, the best time for most services is near the close of the work day when people take a break from their paid employment.

-DD

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Windows 10 Privacy Settings

Andy Patrizio provides an overview of what needs to be disabled in Windows 10 to provide users with privacy . For those who want an intro to other Windows 10 features, try viewing this slideshow.

-DD

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Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Google Docs Add-Ins

J. R. Raphael supplies the names of eight add-ins for Google Docs .

-DD

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Monday, August 17, 2015

Data Analytics

Bob Brown offers the names of 13 cloud data companies which are attempting to grab market share in the data analytics market.

-DD

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Educational Websites

Michael Gordon has curated fifty educational websites which he thinks educators must know about. He displays ten per blog post, so some navigation of his site is required to obtain the full list.

-DD

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Poverty

Jordan Weissman contrasts the lot of the poor in the U.S. with the poor in other nations.

The UN has a short essay which attempts to poverty, which has differing meanings for different people.

-DD

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Sunday, August 16, 2015

Leadership Skills

Linda Musthaler suggest critical leadership skills for those in information technology management.

-DD

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Saturday, August 15, 2015

Router Roulette

Taylor Armerding suggests that hacked routers will disrupt home Internet security in the next few years. He offers a few remedies, but in most cases an equipment update is required to remove the vulnerabilities.

-DD

Offering Constructive Criticism

Mark Murphy offers a tip for constructive criticism . He notes that most managers do not focus on actionable, performance oriented feedback, but blame events or other people for bad news. Murphy states:

Approach the feedback with fact-based communication that tells your people “awesome performance looks like this, and your performance doesn’t look like this, so let’s talk about how to get you to awesome.” Owning feedback in this way, instead of blaming someone else, carries weight. It lets your people know you’re serious, it engenders respect, and it makes them accountable to making the desired behavioral changes.

-DD

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Icebreakers for Kids

Shelly Terrell offers some "back-to-school" classroom icebreakers for teachers and other child care workers. As these appeared in a technology-oriented magazine, the initial activities require devices with apps, but the later entries use old technologies such as pen and paper....

-DD

Friday, August 14, 2015

Uneven Employment Outlook for New Teachers

Ross Brenneman observes that a decline in students entering the teaching profession is leaving some areas underserved, while employment prospects remain dim in old urban markets .

-DD

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Thursday, August 13, 2015

Slack

Lee Skallerup Bessette recommends the web service Slack as a replacement for much email sent between team members. Slack.com is not a free service, though it offers a free trial.

-DD

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Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Tips for Public Speaking

Sweeney and Gosfield share strategies for successful public speaking .

-DD

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How Ants Convey Information

Prabhakar, Dektar and Gordon determine that ants regulate their foraging based on information derived from foraging parties . Bruno Skvorc noted in a SitePoint article that the ants use a method similar to TCP to route the foragers.

-DD

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Monday, August 10, 2015

Lamp Free Data Projectors

Casio Corporation is advertising the virtues of its lamp-free data projectors . The big takeaway is that consumables such as bulbs, filters and electricity need to be considered in the cost of ownership of technology equipment, not just the sticker price.

-DD

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Sunday, August 09, 2015

Cloud Storage Options

Brandon Butler shares information about free cloud storage options .

-DD

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Saturday, August 08, 2015

Maximizing Personal Privacy When Using Windows

Ms. Smith suggests Windows users should create a local user account on Windows PC to minimize the amount of information the device forwards to Microsoft.

In my experience, establishing and using a "standard user" account results in a malware resistent system. When Windows is installed, an "administrator" account is created with the power to modify all of the computer's settings and to install any program. If an account with lesser privileges is created for everyday use, then a malware attack has a hard time installing programs unless the user can be tricked into providing the administrative password.

-DD

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Friday, August 07, 2015

Telemedicine

Sarah White lists five telemedicine firms which save some patients time and money.

-DD

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Thursday, August 06, 2015

Hypen Usage

Ben Yagoda reviews the use of hypenation in the English language.

-DD

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Wednesday, August 05, 2015

Travel Tips

CNN offers ways to travel smarter .

-DD

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Tuesday, August 04, 2015

When to Cease Striving for Academic Work

Julie Vick and Jennifer Furlong discuss when it is appropriate to cease striving for an academic position . The sad fact is that for many fields, universities churn out more qualified graduates than can find full-time work.

-DD

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Monday, August 03, 2015

Televised News On The Web

Jared Newman shares web resources for obtaining news programming .

-DD

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Sunday, August 02, 2015

Use a Unique Example For Demonstrations

The Social Security Administration website tells of the most abused Social Security number of all time. A wallet maker distributed the number of a secretary as a sample in tens of thousands of wallents, and thousands of people assumed the number was their own.

-DD

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Reading Statistics

Robb Brewer developed a reading infographic . His concern for proper citation I find refreshing.

-DD

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