Pensacola Junior College Library Blog: May 2006

The Official U. S. Time

The Official U. S. time provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U. S. Naval Observatory.

You can download software from NIST and the USNO in order to use the Internet to automatically set your computer clock to the correct time.

Isn't it Ionic? Air Purifiers Make Smog

Here's how to create your own personal Stage 2 Smog Alert: Buy an indoor air purifier.

Windows Live Messenger Launches

Windows Live™ Messenger Beta is the next-generation MSN Messenger. It has everything you already love about Messenger—your contact list, emoticons, and instant access to your friends via text, voice, and video—plus new ways to connect and share documents with almost magical ease. As always, it is free to download Messenger and use most of its features.

Surf The Web As It Was

The WayBack Machine

The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine lets you search indexes of archived web pages from years gone by.

The WayBack Machine puts the history of the World Wide Web at your fingertips. The Archive contains over 100 terabytes and 10 billion web pages archived from 1996 to the present.

Nebula Awards for 2005

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have listed their 2005 Nebula Awards winners. Since 1965, the Nebula Awards have been given each year for the best novel, novella, novelette, and short story eligible for that year's award

Celebrities Map Their Favorite Places

A new Windows Live Local map mashup, CelebFavorites.com shows you around celebrities’ favorite places, like Anna Kournikova’s Miami, Florida and Eva Longoria’s San Antonio, Texas.

"For instance, actress Brittany Murphy waxes poetic about her home state of New Jersey: "If you don't have the time or the resources to travel the world, then come to New Jersey. It's is a microcosm of the world. New Jersey has EVERYTHING, and it has my family and my heart. I am a Jersey girl through and through," she writes. Her blurb accompanies a list of her favorite spots in her hometown of Edison, N.J.--among them are Tastee Subs and the Jersey Shore." -- Media Blog

Immigration Resources

The Librarians Internet Index has a excellent list of links to Immigration Resources on the internet.

Windows Tip: Rename Multiple Files With 1 Click

Picture this: You've dumped all those arcanely named photos from your camera to your PC. But rather than leave them with names like IMG0484.jpg, you'd like them to have descriptive titles like VacationToParis1.jpg. Sounds good, but manually renaming files in Windows one at a time is a massive pain in the backside. Here's how to rename them with one click.

CBS Launches Innertube

CBS has launched it's new service called Innertube. It is an ad-supported video channel available directly from their website.

The site will be premiering a selection of video broadcasts that are unavailable anywhere else. The three video shows currently available are "Survivor Live", "Beyond Survivor" and "Greek to Chic". Survivor Live and Beyond Survivor tie into the successful Survivor television series, "Greek to Chic" is a program where college frat brothers are encouraged to be polite to the opposite sex and use correct manners, etc.

More shows are planned for Innertube including: "BBQ Bill" (a comedy), "Animate This" (animated lives of celebrities) and "The Green Room" (described as a irrevent look at CBS programming).

Operation Photo Rescue

In an effort to help the residents of Pass Christian, MS in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, photojournalist Becky Sell and photo editor Dave Ellis have embarked on a mission to recover the photos and memories that would be lost to the storm.

If you have PhotoShop skills and would like to volunteer to help restore photos damaged in Hurrican Katrina go to the site.

Also read about HP Photo Restoration project.

Wal Mart To Sell Build Your Own Computers

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will start selling build-your-own-computer components in more than one-third of its U.S. discount stores this month as it looks for ways to tempt shoppers to buy more than just low-margin food.

The retailer began testing build-your-own computer counters in about 20 locations last year, and is now introducing them in 1,200 of its 3,200 U.S. discount stores, spokeswoman Jolanda Stewart told Reuters.

It expects to offer the merchandise in some 1,400 stores by the end of the year, and possibly more in 2007.

The First Person To Appear on Television Dies

Elma G. "Pem" Farnsworth, author of the Distant Vision: Romance and Discovery on the Invisible Frontier and wife of Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of electronic television, died May 2, 2006 in Bountiful, Utah at the age of 98. She was the first person ever to appear on television on September 7, 1927. See the GizMag.com article.

Two Thirds of American Young People Geographically Inept

After more than three years of combat and nearly 2,400 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 still cannot find Iraq on a map.

Other findings of the National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study:

Thirty-three percent of respondents couldn't pinpoint Louisiana on a map.
Seventy-five percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.
Forty-seven percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.
Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.

See the story at CNN.com and check out the survey at: National Geographic

Google Maps Sea Level Rise

Watch global warming in action! Google maps plus an elevation overlay from NASA data, and a box where you can enter the sea level rise in meters.

Outlook Good For 2006 Grads

While grads from the first half of this decade faced a leaner job market, many from the class of 2006 will have their pick of career opportunities. It's a buyer's market for many college grads looking for their first jobs this spring. Job-market analysts and career counselors see hiring growth in many sectors of the economy. Read more at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0501/p13s02-wmgn.html

New Blog Search Engine Sphere Launches

Sphere, which follows in the footsteps of previous blog search engines like Feedster, Technorati and IceRocket, as well as offerings from Google and Yahoo, is doing things quite a bit differently than its predecessors.

The site is segmented into three main areas: blog search results, featured blogs, and related media.

Create Your Own Book

Blurb is a service that allows you to create real, hard copy, offline books from blogs and other content and buy them for yourself or sell to others. Prices start at $30 for a 40-page hardcover coffee-table book with a custom dust jacket, and go up from there.

Study Shows Americans Sicker Than the English

Yahoo News reports that "white, middle-aged Americans — even those who are rich — are far less healthy than their peers in England, according to stunning new research that erases misconceptions and has experts scratching their heads."

"Americans had higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, strokes, lung disease and cancer — findings that held true no matter what income or education level."

"Those dismal results are despite the fact that U.S. health care spending is double what England spends on each of its citizens."

The study appears in Wednesdays' Journal of the American Medical Association.

Novel Twists

Novel Twists is a constantly evolving novel that you can add to. The story is undecided and YOU can influence the direction it takes. So far, 11 writers from various countries have contributed pages to the novel. The novel will eventually be 250 pages long.

Recover Deleted Photos From Your Digital Camera's Memory Card

The tech help site Of Zen and Computing has a tip for anyone who accidentally deleted that perfect photo from their camera's memory card.

The free, Windows-only PC Inspector Smart Recovery software restores deleted data from your camera's memory card. Important -- If you take any more photos or save any data to your memory card, you may quite possibly ruin your chances of photo recovery.

The Vatican Web Site is at Work on a MySpace for Catholics

BusinessWeek Online (May 8, 2006) reports that the Vatican Web Site is currently at work on a "second Vatican Web site, set for launch in the fall, that is aimed at bringing together the faithful so they can interact. Think of it as MySpace.com for Catholics. There will be personal news updates, e-learning programs, and areas set aside for families, young people, and parishes."

Song Lyric Database Wiki

LyricWiki is a free site which is a single source where anyone can go to get reliable lyrics for any song from any artist without being hammered by invasive ads. Over 200,000 songs already available.

The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week from May 15-19 and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 19. Their site is the official website for National Bike Month.

Book Recommendations From the First Lady

Suggestion from Helen Oram at Book Sale Finder: "Our First Lady, Laura Bush, is a devoted lover of books and supporter of reading for everyone. Mrs. Bush, a former librarian, has recommended a wonderful selection of books - even categorizing some to be read as a family, some to be read to young children, and so forth.You can see a list of her selections on the White House web site at reading recommendations from Laura Bush".

Google News + Suggest

Google adds its Suggest technology to Google News searches, which automatically drops down a list of common terms that match your search as you type. See it in action at the Google News site.

Don't Overlook What Community and Junior Colleges Offer

Here's an opinion piece from Newsweek magazine that celebrates how community and junior colleges benefit our system of education. From the article: While Americans are waking up to the idea that we need to sharpen our competitive edge in the world, many still overlook our system of community and junior colleges. The truth is, these schools can be the solution for what our K-12 programs might not be getting done.