As many of us begin shopping for holiday gifts, NMC recommends that you take the time to read consumer reviews and feedback on products before buying BUT beware of fake reviews! Techlicious offers some great tips on how to spot a fake review, read the article here.
More:
Today is Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day! Show him or her your appreciation for the hard work in keeping your website and server up and running all year round.
We whole-heartedly support the idea of kids studying science and technology! Here are links to three great articles about kids in science and technology:
Fashion and beauty bloggers with popular blogs which have diverse and engaged audiences are the newest influencers making them sought after partners for fashion and beauty brands. These bloggers post photos of themselves wearing the free clothes, accessories and cosmetics that brands send them, host parties for brands, walk runways and even star in television commercials like Lindsay Calla of Saucy Glossie. Fashion blogging has become a serious business!
Check out the links below to learn more about the business of blogging:
The Business of Blogging | Elin Kling (See Kling's blog, here and a video Kling did with H&M, here)
Who's The New Judge of America’s Next Top Model? BryanBoy! (See BryanBoy's blog, here)
How a Blogging Duo Is Changing Fashion Photography With Animated Cinemagraphs
What I Wore's, Jessica Quirk wrote a book based on her blog
In 2010, fashion blogger Gabi Fresh became MTV's first Twitter jockey
Summer will be here before we know it! If you are planning a vacation for you, your family and/or friends, try using Microsoft's OneNote to organize your travel plans.
This Sunday, April 22, is Earth Day so we're sharing some previous blog posts on e-cycling electronics. Check them out below:
Here are some more helpful links:
Quick response or QR codes such as the one at left are appearing everywhere - in magazines, brochures and newpapers, in stores, on billboards and other advertisements, in BlackBerry Messenger, on your grocery packaging and even on rooftops.
With a scanner app downloaded on our smartphones, we can scan these codes and access online content such as websites, Twitter pages, videos, contests and other multi-media content about products, stores and services. Many of the scanner apps are also able to scan EZ codes, Data Matrix codes and Universal Product Code or UPC codes.
Wikipedia describes QR codes as:
a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside of the industry due to its fast readability and comparatively large storage capacity. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be made up of any kind of data (e.g., binary, alphanumeric, or Kanji symbols).[1]
Created by Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process,[2][unreliable source?] the QR code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. It was designed to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.*
Check out the links below to learn more about QR codes, how they are used and how you can create your own!
With the good news, there is always the bad:
*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code
You may not know what radio-frequency identification or RFID is but you may have already seen one if you have purchased a CD and DVD with anti-theft tag on its case; if you live in the Northeastern US and use the E-ZPass system to pay tolls or if you have obtained a US passport since October of 2006. As RFID's are adopted for more uses in our worlds, we want to share some background on this technology. RFID is defined by Wikipedia as:
a technology that uses radio waves to transfer data from an electronic tag, called RFID tag or label, attached to an object, through a reader for the purpose of identifying and tracking the object. Some RFID tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. The application of bulk reading enables an almost-parallel reading of tags.
The tag's information is stored electronically. The RFID tag includes a small RF transmitter and receiver. An RFID reader transmits an encoded radio signal to interrogate the tag. The tag receives the message and responds with its identification information. Many RFID tags do not use a battery. Instead, the tag uses the radio energy transmitted by the reader as its energy source. The RFID system design includes a method of discriminating several tags that might be within the range of the RFID reader.
Read the full Wikipedia definition of RFID, here.
Check out the links below to learn more about how RFID technology is being used in a variety of industries and applications:
If you want to add a Halloween theme to your website or blog, check out Mashable's 8 Spooky Sets of Social Halloween Icons - See one example below:
Showcase your innner (or outer) techie this Halloween by dressing up as your favorite gadget, here are some ideas:
If you are looking for something to do with your kids this weekend, check out these Halloween templates from Microsoft, here, for some easy Halloweeen craft project templates. If you are a bit more creative and want to creat your own docuemtns or customize the templates, Microsoft also has clip art/images, here....Mashable has also posted a list of free Halloween fonts that you can use in your Halloween crafts, here.
Today is Blog Action Day & World Food Day. To learn more about Blog Action Day and the world's food crisis visit:
We wanted to share a link to the findings from a study by MTV and the AP which reveals that teens are learning faster than adults about online safety. While this is good news, the study also reveals that many young people are engaging in "sexting" or have experienced digital abuse including some form of harrasment from a partner. We encourage parents to learn how to protect their children while they are on-line and to talk with their children about the potential drawbacks of having an online presence.
Be safe and cyber secure!
See also:
Many of us use Google, Yahoo! or Bing to search the web for information and entertainment. Here are some tutorials from the USC Beaufort South Campus Library on searching the web.
More tutorials on web searching:
Web search in the news:
