Just for fun: Worldwide Telescope

This is free software from Microsoft that is actually pretty cool.

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

Immerse yourself in a seamless beautiful environment.

WorldWide Telescope (WWT) enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world. Experience narrated guided tours from astronomers and educators featuring interesting places in the sky. 

 

A web-based version of WorldWide Telescope is also now available. This version enables seamless, guided explorations of the universe from within a web browser on PC and Intel Mac OS X by using the power of Microsoft Silverlight 3.0.

Good tech-related vacation reading [articles]

Good vacation reading:

Another firing over Facebook comments: Lawsuit pending Yet another reminder that Facebook is NOT a private forum  
iPad competitors: The top 20 to watch I like the iPad, but these are verrrrry interesting.....  
Top 10 Tech Scandals Yes, a bit o' scandalous junk reading.......  
Steampunk: A way of life for some designers Steampunk computers, anyone?

================= Tom Rule The MaconMacGuy Computer help, training,  Websites, Processes http://MaconMacGuy.com  Web Hosting under  $5.50 a month http://MidGaHosting.com ==================

Tuesday 11/16 List for Class

You'll see what this is about when you get to class.

1. Position cursor keybd shortcuts -Line, Page,Document:
2. Invisible characters / show – demo paragraph break, space, tab, non breaking space
3. Autotext: define, setup, use
4. Views: Web vs Print vs Layout vs Reading – describe diffs
5. Margins – define, set – different ways
6. Breaks: page, column, section [a few different types]
7. Horizontal line – diff ways to insert one, format it
8. Centering Horizontally between margins AND/OR Vertically on a page
9. Page numbers in footer [Page 1 of 5]
10. Find / Replace – use it to get rid of double spaces
11. Spell / Grammar check – how, limitations, customizing
12. Font / Size / Style / Color – measuring scale, any customizing possible
13. Format Painter – a single copy, multiple copies
14. Heading 1/2/3/4 style – define, demo, modify
15. Tabs – modifying, setting, types
16. Non-breaking space – define, insert, where would be useful?
17. Indents – different kinds, how to set [multiple ways]
18. Line Spacing / Border / Shading – define, demo
19. Tables – column/row insert/delete/move/ /merge cell
20. Tables – formulas, format number
21. Word Art – ALL the options to customize
22. AUTOMATIC Table of Contents: Index Entry/Create it/format options
23. Set Username – why, how, what used for
24. Track Changes/Final showing markup
25. Reject/Accept Changes
26. Audio Comment – add audio
27. Compare/Combine/Syncronize scolling
28. Insert Subdocument
29. Citations feature
30. Hyperlink – make a graphic a hyperlink
31. “Center pix to a line”
32. Graphic Captions – a Word feature
33. Table of Figures – automatically created

Free events on Friday

1) The colloquium will feature the Mercer Binary Bears, who just won a programming competition last weekend. Should be interesting, and free food/free points as well!

2) Should be interesting - and believe me, you won't know what's coming next.... and it's free.

Why you should never trust Facebook

From
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=4708&tag=nl.e064

Facebook has a dismal reputation when it comes to privacy issues. This is evidently a problem that starts at the top, with Facebook co-founder, President, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Nick Bilton summed it up neatly in a Tweet:

Off record chat w/ Facebook employee. Me: How does Zuck feel about privacy? Response: [laughter] He doesn’t believe in it.

This does not appear to be a new development, either. In 2003, when Facebook was called “The Facebook” and Zuckerberg operated it from his Harvard dorm room, he said some regrettable things in an IM conversation about users of the fledgling social networking site, according to a SocialMediaNews article:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard.

Just ask. I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

(Friend): What? How’d you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it. I don’t know why.

They “trust me”

Dumb f**ks.

This has manifested in a number of ways that show significant negligence, sometimes to the point of appearing to be hostility, toward issues of Facebook users’ privacy. Lifehacker reported that “Facebook ‘Delete’ Can Take 16 Embarrassing Months,” for instance.

It gets bigger than that. The Wall Street Journal reports, in its article, Facebook in Privacy Breach, that many of the most popular Facebook apps have been giving users’ identifying information — and that of their Facebook friends — to advertising and Internet data mining companies:

The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook’s strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook’s rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users’ activities secure.

It has gotten so bad that, as ClickZ puts it, “Congressmen Question Facebook About Alleged Privacy Breach.”

The way Facebook is insinuating itself into everything else on the Web, from other sites’ login mechanisms to the now-ubiquitous “Like button”, the problem seems destined to grow worse. Arnab Nandi explains that “Deceiving Users with the Facebook Like Button” is easy:

Users can be tricked into “Like”ing pages they’re not at.

There's more. 


Bottom line: Don't trust Facebook to keep your private data private. It won't happen.

Capstone Access 3 notes, screenshot

We had an interesting conversation in the 10:40 Stetson class about Access Capstone 3 - so here is an attempt to clear some unclear language up.

There is ALREADY an error list posted in the same folder where you download the instructions:

1. Step 1j "Create a copy of this query – call it Your Name Rentals Money Owed" is in the wrong place. You should ACTUALLY create a copy of the first query you created - Your_ Name Rentals Query - and take the date limitation out of the design view.
   
   The original query should have 86 records - this modified copy should have 89.
   
2. Step 2b "Select By Movie" - i.e. you want the report grouped by the name of the movie.
   
3. Step 2K "Delete the  “Date Rented” column." - that is referring to the column that STARTED out as :"Date Rented", NOT the column you just changed from "Date Rented By Day".

In no particular order :

1. Step 1E - you are to create a calculated field that figures out how many days late the rental was returned. Normally, you would calc DateReturned - DateDue, right? But if it was returned EARLY, then the result would be a negative number - not a good idea! So the instructions state to use the IF function [remember it from Excel?]. It works exactly the same in Access as in Excel, BUT the function is named IIF.   IIF(test, value-If-true, Value-If-false). 
   
   So what you want to happen is to calculate the days late. If they are zero or less, then the days late calculated field will be zero. If it is indeed late, then put in the number of days late it is.
   
2. Step 1J - how do you copy an existing query? Try right-clicking on the query name.
   
3. Step 2F is where you select the Stepped and portrait options - and then you LATER complete the process of creating the report. The "do NOT...." warning there is very important!
   
4. Step 2H - 2page view?????? Well, you could switch to print preview and notice the report doesn't fit on one page, or you could scroll the window to the right and say to yourself, "Hey, i'll bet this doesn't fit on one page".
   
5. Step 2N - you are resizing the fields so they show all the data but they don't waste any space.
   
6. Step 2L - uh, "Grand" total, not Grant!
   
7. Step 2O - mentioned above.
   
8. Steps 2P and 2Q - basically you are making the report easier to read by making some stuff on less verbose and tightening up the deisgn a bit. The "Summary for Shrek" title will be spread across three pages, for example - it needs to be quite a bit narrower. The data summarizing Shrek [or whatever movie] needs to be moved closer to its title. You should also see a line that says "Shrek = " plus some other stuff - carefully work with it so that it says “Summary for Shrek (2 detail records)”
   
9.  Below is a screenshot. Notice that the report is organized by title - then each rental is listed by date, and you can see how many days late it was returned. The "summary" shows how much in late fees the store made for that movie. A lot of  2P and 2Q is dealing with making that one line happen.

We'll be looking at this during part of Thursday's class. We'll also be taking some time to work on this stuff, and I'll be the "floating tech support guy".