The NorthEast Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogy Society
QUARTERLY
> News and
Views
> Getting
Good With Google Docs
> Eastman
Newsletter is Twelve Years Old!
> Geni
Introduces Timelines and Family News in Bid to Become Top Digital Scrapbook
> "Show
Me the Nation's Records,"--2008 NGS Conference and Family History Fair
> Coming
Soon: The Mother of All Genealogy Databases
> DNA Kits:
Secrets Of Your Past Or Scientific Scam?
> Scanning
Old Photographs
> Laptop XO a
potent learning tool created expressly for children in developing countries
> Online
rival to Microsoft Office launches clone of Microsoft Office 2007 /It's on an
uphill road
>
News and Views
It obviously is way
past January 1, so I can’t tell you how pleased (relieved) I am to finally put
this edition “to bed.” Many of you know of the many tribulations Margaret and I
have gone through during the past year, so suffice it to say that the one major
problem we are now facing is my diplopia, or double vision, one of the many
issues that occur as we get up in years. Quite of number of you are familiar
with this problem, and it has been a big help to me to hear your suggestions as
I am struggling through this time.
The reason I can
offer that as an excuse for my tardiness is that (1) I can’t drive, so we are
dependant on the senior citizen vans to get us to our many appointments. This
usually means that what should take an hour usually wastes half a day. That
really cuts into the time I can spend at my computer (and other household
chores.) And (2) though I am pretty good at word processing and projects like
this newsletter usually are completed quickly and easily, it is now a slow and
tedious struggle since it is so difficult to see the screen. Things are
improving, however, so hopefully life will be more normal after a few more
weeks.
Speaking of impaired
vision, however, gives me the opportunity to remind you that Windows includes
many helps for the handicapped. In the Control Panel you will find the
handicapped icon with the title Accessibility Options. Here Microsoft has built
in many aids for those with a wide variety of needs. It may be worth a couple
of minutes to check it out._____LO
Having
the file stored on Google's site is an advantage for people who move from
computer to computer. No more remembering to save the file to your flash drive
before you leave school.
Just save your Google Doc and when you go home you can access the most recent
version. Even if there's no Internet access where you are word processing is no
real problem and you can still use Google Docs. Simply create your file while
you are off-line and then import it into Google Docs when you want to
collaborate or publish it. Currently the Mac-based browser, Safari, is not
supported. However, Firefox is supported on the Mac platform.
Each
user has a limit of 1000 documents and 1000 images. Each individual document can be up to
500KB, not including embedded images. Formatted text creates larger documents
than unformatted text and choices of font and page formatting clearly make
documents vary widely. You will get about twenty-five pages of formatted text
in a 50KB file. Of course you could always break larger documents into multiple
files. If you embed images in your document, each image is limited to 2MB.
According to Google Docs 'Help' you can upload documents from any of the
following file formats:
HTML
Plain text (.txt)
Microsoft Word
.rtf
Open Office (.odt)
Privacy
The public aspect of a document
stored on a Web server may concern some users. Google assures users that unless
they make documents public, they cannot be found by anyone not invited to share
the document. To test this, I used Google to search for my documents, and
didn't find any of them. See the Google Docs and Spreadsheets Help Center for
more information.
Different from Wiki
If you are familiar with wikis,
you may be wondering why you wouldn't just create a wiki, also highly
collaborative and Web-based, instead of a Google Doc. The answer is that the
format tools available in Google Docs set it apart from wikis. The basic
keyboard shortcuts for italics, bold, and underline all work in Google Docs.
You can create a bulleted list or change font size and color with one click on
the tool bar.
There are several handy features
for bloggers. You can post to your blog directly from Google Docs using the
Publish tab.
It took me a few tries to get my
blog settings (user ID, password and host) configured correctly. However,
settings established posting from Google Docs is very easy. In contrast, I have
used my old friend, Word, to compose blog posts and have found it cumbersome.
In Word hyperlinks don't transfer and you have to add images after pasting.
Google Docs carries over any hyperlinks that you create and even transfers
embedded images beautifully without having to code in HTML. I did have to add
the title and tags to the post afterwards. I will be looking for this feature
in future versions of Google Docs.
If
you want the world to have access to view your document, you can publish it in
a blog or make your document public by sharing the link. To do this you click the Publish tab and
click the Publish Document button. You are given a link to share. If an
authorized collaborator follows the link it opens the Google Docs program with
the document in question already loaded. For other viewers it opens an HTML
document with a white background and your formatted text and images.
Google Docs is so easy to use
that most people can start by just creating their first document. You do have
to create a Google account if you don't have one, but you do not need a Gmail
account. None of the members of my committee had ever used Google Docs before.
I sent them a link and no one had any trouble.
If you want to get to know
Google Docs before making a commitment, you can take the Google Docs and
Spreadsheets Tour. Or you can take a look at the Google Doc that I created for
this article.
from Educators' eZine
TechLEARNING is brought to you by
NewBay Media LLC
Copyright © 2007
>
Eastman Newsletter is Twelve Years Old!
Boy, the time does fly! Twelve
years has slipped by in almost the blink of an eye. It seems like only
yesterday that I sent the first e-mail newsletter to about 100 people, mostly
members of CompuServe's Genealogy Forums. None of them knew in advance that the
newsletter would arrive; I simply mailed it to people who I thought might be
interested. In 1996 nobody objected to receiving unsolicited bulk mail; the
phrase "spam mail" had not yet been invented. I shudder to think if I
did the same thing in today's Internet environment.
In that first newsletter on
January 15, 1996, I wrote:
Well, it's started. This
newsletter is something that I have been considering for a long time, but I
finally decided to "take the plunge." I've subscribed to several
other electronic newsletters for some time now and have found them to be valuable.
On many occasions I have said to myself, "Someone ought to do a weekly
newsletter for genealogy news." One day the light bulb went on, and I
decided that perhaps I was that someone.
I hope to collect various bits
of information that cross my desk and appear on my screen every week. Some of
these items may be considered "news items" concerning events and
happenings of interest to computer-owning genealogists. Some other items will
be mini press releases about new genealogy software or other products and
services that have just become available. I may write a few articles about
things that are not genealogy-related but still seem to be of interest to me
and probably to the readers. This may include articles about online systems,
operating systems or other things that affect many of us.
You will also find editorials
and my personal opinions weaving in and out of this newsletter. Hopefully I
will be able to clearly identify the information that is a personal opinion.
The expected audience of this
newsletter includes anyone in the genealogy business, any genealogy society
officers and anyone with an interest in applying computers to help in the
research of one's ancestors.
I chose to distribute in
electronic format for two reasons: (1.) it's easy, and (2.) it's cheap. In
years past I have been an editor of other newsletters that were printed on
paper and mailed in the normal manner. The "overhead" associated with
that effort was excessive; I spent more time dealing with printers, maintaining
addresses of subscribers, handling finances, stuffing envelopes and running to
the post office than I did in the actual writing. Today's technology allows for
a much faster distribution, and it is done at almost no expense to either the
producer or the subscribers. I want to spend my time writing, not running a
"newsletter business."
Since the expected readers all
own computers and almost all of them use modems regularly, electronic
distribution seems to be the most cost-effective route to use. It also is much
lower cost than any other distribution mechanism that I know of.
The original plan has been
followed rather closely in the twelve years since I wrote those words. The
newsletter still consists of "events and happenings of interest to
computer-owning genealogists," "mini press releases about new
genealogy software or other products and services," and "a few
articles about things that are not genealogy-related but still seem to be of
interest to me." I have also frequently featured "editorials and my
personal opinions."
One thing that has changed is
that the newsletter was converted from a weekly publication to a daily effort
more than three and a half years ago. I still send weekly
"collections" of all the articles by e-mail to all Plus Edition
subscribers as well as shorter e-mails to Standard Edition subscribers. I am
delighted with the change to a daily format. There is a lot more flexibility
when publishing daily and, of course, I can get the news out faster. Reception
of the daily edition has been gratifying. The newsletter is now available on
the eogn.com web site, using a professional e-publishing platform, complete
with RSS news feeds and other technology, all of which make life easier for
subscribers as well as myself.
Another feature that I like about
the current daily publication is that each article has an attached discussion
board where readers can offer comments, corrections, and additional
information. The result is a much more interactive newsletter that benefits
from readers' expertise. The newsletter originally was a one-way publication: I
pushed the data out. Today's version is a two-way publication with immediate
feedback from readers.
The 2008 newsletter does differ
from one statement I wrote twelve years ago: "Today's technology allows for
a much faster distribution, and it is done at almost no expense to either the
producer or the subscribers." If I were to re-write that sentence today, I
wouldn't use the phrase, "at almost no expense." I would write,
"...at lower expense than publishing on paper." Since I wrote the
original words twelve years ago, I have received an education in the financial
implications of sending bulk e-mails and maintaining web sites, complete with
controls of who can access which documents. I now know that it costs thousands
of dollars to send tens of thousands of e-mails. There are technical problems
as well. Someday I may write an article about "how to get your account
canceled when you repeatedly crash your ISP's mail server."
The truth is I did crash mail
servers a number of times in the early days of this newsletter. And, yes, I got
my account canceled one day by an irate Internet service provider. I was
abruptly left with no e-mail service. The Internet service provider discovered
that their mail server crashed every week when I mailed this newsletter, so
they canceled my account with no warning. I also have encountered significant
expenses for hardware, software, web hosting, bulk mailing services, and office
expenses. In order to carry on the effort without breaking the piggy bank, I
split this newsletter into two versions: a free Standard Edition and a for-pay
Plus Edition. At least the newsletter now pays for itself, including paying for
a professional grade bulk mail service.
I was amused a while ago when someone
sent a message to me that started with the words, "I hope someone on your
staff will forward this message to you." After twelve years, my staff
remains exactly the same as when I started: myself plus one very talented lady
who edits this newsletter every week. I do the up- front work; she then
converts my written words into real English. She also functions as a business
advisor, confidante, and good friend. She has done this for nearly every
newsletter since the very first edition.
Pam has edited nearly every
newsletter article despite the travel schedules of both of us; sometimes we
both have been in hotel rooms but in different countries. I well remember one
week several years ago when I was writing newsletter articles from a hotel room
in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Pam was editing the articles from her hotel
room in California. (We both live in Massachusetts.) In fact, tonight she is in
Atlanta, but the newsletter is going out anyway, complete with her edits.
As a computer professional, her
travel schedule has been at least as hectic as mine. She and I have passed the
proposed newsletter articles back and forth by e-mail time and again. Thanks,
Pam. I couldn't do it without you.
To each person reading today's
edition, I want to say one thing: Thank you for being there and for making it
possible for me to enjoy three of my hobbies: genealogy, computers, and online
systems.
Also, one other sentence I wrote
twelve years ago still stands: Suggestions about this newsletter are always
welcome.
Posted by Dick Eastman on January
20, 2008
Mon Jan 7, 2:01 AM ET
Geni.com, the website that combines
genealogy with family networking, today announced the launch of two new
features to help families preserve their history and stay connected: Timelines
and Family News.
The Timeline is a new profile section that shows
a visual history of the events in a person's life. Each event has its own page that can
contain additional information, photos, attendees, and comments. When an
attendee is added to an event, the event appears in their timeline too. In the
process of building their own timeline users are likely to help complete the
timelines of other family members.
"We are making the process of building
family history collaborative, in the same way that we made the process of
building the family tree collaborative," said Geni's CEO David Sacks.
"The most important events in people's lives involve family. The benefits
and workload of memorializing these events should be distributed among family
members," he added. Sacks continued, "Next Geni will introduce a
Family Timeline that rolls up the individual timelines of family members thus
creating a digital family scrapbook."
"Scrapbooking is a huge offline
business that should move online, not only because media is now digital but
also because collaboration and sharing are much easier online," explained
Sacks. "Our goal is to enable family and friends to build together digital
scrapbooks of their lives and the lives of their family."
A related feature that Geni has launched is
Family News. Family News provides a single page where users can track
everything going on in their family, including additions to their family tree
and timelines, birthdays, photos, discussions, comments, and more. It does this
by surfacing all the new content created on Geni by a user's family. Users can
also quickly post news themselves. Privacy settings allow users to control who
is in their Family group and which of their activity will appear in Family
News.
"Before Family News, users had to dig
around the site to figure out what was new or what had changed," explained
Sacks. "Now you can easily see what your family members have contributed
to the site and build on it."
Sacks summarized Geni's overall product
direction: "Social networks tap into the need for communication. We are
doing that for families, while addressing another fundamental human need:
self-preservation."
Since Geni's launch in January 2007 as a
simple tool to create a family tree, Geni has continued to add features and
enhancements. Among these additions are enhanced privacy settings, unlimited
photo sharing and tagging, birthday reminders, GEDCOM export, family
discussion, map and calendar.
Geni was a winner of the 2007 Webware 100
Awards, which named it one of the top 100 sites on the internet and one of the
top 10 reference sites. It is by far the youngest site to receive this honor.
Geni.com (www.geni.com) is a privately held
company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Geni was founded by former
executives and early employees of PayPal, Yahoo! Groups, eBay, and Tribe. It is
backed by venture capital firms Founders Fund and Charles River Ventures.
Geni, Inc.
JoAnne Rockower
(310) 651-2006
E-mail Information
Trackback URL:
http://prweb.com/pingpr.php/Q291cC1TdW1tLVNxdWEtRW1wdC1Mb3ZlLVplcm8=
UpFront with NGS
The Online Newsletter of the
National Genealogical Society
Volume 8, Number 1-1 January 2008
Registration is open for the 2008 NGS Conference
in the States in Kansas City, Missouri, 14-17 May 2008. Conference and hotel
information can be found at http://www.eshow2000.com/ngs/2008/. The Hyatt Regency Crown Center is offering
the discounted conference rate of $129 per night, single or double, from 8 May
2008 through 20 May 2008.
The entire event will be in the Hyatt
Regency Crown Center and adjacent Exhibit Hall, which is connected to the Crown
Center shopping area by "the link," an indoor elevated walkway. A
variety of restaurants and small shops in the Crown Center await attendees.
If you would like to become an Exhibitor at
the Family History Fair, please visit our website at <http://www.eshow2000.com/ngs/exhibits.cfm> for
more information. There are only a few booths left.
* Librarian's Workshop, Tuesday 13 May, is
available for librarians who work with family history patrons. This event
requires a separate
registration and is sponsored by ProQuest.
* The Opening Session on Wednesday morning
14 May 2008 will feature Robert M. Sandfort, Ph.D., speaking on
"Emigration to the Mouth of the Missouri - and Beyond." Dr. Sandfort
will discuss the waves of emigrants to the area, including the French, early
pioneers moving west, Germans, and later, Italians. Many moved through the area
and further west after the Mexican-American War. Others chose to make the area
their permanent home. The session will include the reasons for the emigration
with an eye toward the richness of the genealogical records available to
researchers.
John P. Colletta, Ph.D., will be the featured
speaker at the National Genealogical Society banquet on Friday evening, 16 May
2008, with his talk, "The Keepers and I: Show Me the
Records...Please?" Always entertaining, Dr. Colletta will share the skills
and techniques he uses to obtain access to record collections, including
cooperation, diplomacy, negotiation, good humor, stealth, and groveling.
On Saturday, 17 May 2008, Dick Eastman will
be the NGS/GENTECH luncheon speaker, bringing us up to date on many of the new
partnerships in the genealogical community and what we can expect from these
new relationships.
Other highlights of the "Show Me the
Records" conference include an Ethnic Track of Lectures:
- "Marriage and Courtship in Germany
1500-1800," "Deciphering Handwriting in German Documents,"
"German Immigrants in American
Protestant Church Records," and
"Status in German Society 1500-1800: Where Did Your Ancestors Fit
In?" by Roger Minert
-
"Finding German
Ancestors in Published Sources," "Finding Your German Ancestor's
Place of Origin," and "The World Wide Web of German Genealogy"
by John T. Humphreys
-
"Como Comenzar:
Beginning Hispanic Family History Research" and "Desde Lejos:
Researching in the Archives of Spain and Mexico from the USA," from George
R. Ryskamp, J.D., AG
- Several lectures on African American
research: "Beginning African American Genealogy" by Lyle Gibson;
"Harlem Hellfighters: Heroes of the 369th U.S. Infantry" by Edwin
Bailey, Ph.D.; CG, CGL; "Civil War Border States' Records for Slaves and
Slave Owners" by Ruth Ann Hager; and "What's Your Story?" by
Traci L. Wilson-Kleekamp, reviewing resources available via the Internet.
- Native American lectures: "Indexes
and Databases for American Indian Research" by Paula Stuart-Warren, CG,
and "Doing the Dawes: Locating Ancestors in the Final Rolls of the Five
Civilized Tribes" by Kathy Huber, MLS. - "European
Methodology" by Richard Camaur, J.D., CG.
- "Top International Sites for
Researching Ancestors in France" and "Ancestral Research in France:
Starting Points" by Earl F. Charvette
- "Out of the Ashes: Irish Genealogical
Collections," by David Rencher, AG, CG, FIGRS, FUGA.
- "Researching Irish Here Before Going
There" by Elizabeth Kelly Kerstens, CD, CGL
- "British Isles Internet Strategies I:
General and England," and "British Isles Internet Strategies II:
Scotland, Ireland, and Wales" by Paul Milner
More details are available about each
lecture at <http://www.eshow2000.com/ngs/2008/>
The local host societies include the
Missouri State Genealogical Association, the Mid-Continent Public Library, the
Northland Genealogy
Society, the APG Heartland Chapter, and the
Johnson County (Kansas) Genealogical Society.
===============================================================
Thanks again to Jerry Kliot for
recognizing the potential of this fantastic creation, and passing it on to you.
It should be interesting to follow this project, knowing the seemingly
impossible task undertaken by Google—and carried off without a hitch. It would
be great to have one of our members send in a follow up and let us know your
opinions._____LO
> Coming
Soon: The Mother of All Genealogy Databases
September 26, 2007
Mike Elgan recently wrote an article in
Computerworld with some interesting predictions. Among other things, he
believes that Google will someday unveil "Google Maps" of genealogy,
which will result in a massive, interactive, mashable, public, and free online
Human Family Tree. In short, he believes that Google will someday be able to list
information about all humans who ever lived and left records behind. Not only
that, but he also predicts that the records of most of these people will be
linked together to point to similar records of their parents, children,
siblings, and other relatives.
Is combining all genealogy data too scary?
Elgan also takes a look at the DNA
databases. He writes, "A team of computer scientists, mathematicians and
biologists have come up with a computer algorithm that can trace the ancestry
of thousands of people in a few minutes based on a DNA sample, according to the
September 2007 edition of the journal PLoS Genetics. The researchers claim that
their method is 99% accurate. They plan to build a massive database of people
and how they're related."
He also makes other predictions:
Such a database would enable you to do
absolutely amazing things. For example:
Is he correct? I read Mike Elgan's article and
found it to be a bit simplistic and short on details. I disagree with some of
what he wrote, and yet I do think it makes for interesting reading. In fact,
perhaps we should read his article and then stop to consider what might happen
if we are not careful. Perhaps concerns about privacy and other issues should
be addressed now in order to prevent the "Big Brother" image that
Elgan paints.
You can find "Coming Soon:
The Mother of All Genealogy Databases" by Mike Elgan at http://tinyurl.com/229clg.
===============================================================
Yahoo! Top Stories
Monday December 10, 2007
REUTERS - A range of genealogy companies now
offer DNA testing to those curious about their ancestry.
Here are a few facts about DNA genealogy
tests:
- Tests cost between $119.00 and $895.00 and
are available from a variety of online vendors.
- Different tests are used to trace maternal
and paternal ancestry.
- Paternal DNA is found on the Y chromosome,
which is passed down unchanged from father to son. Because women do not have a
Y chromosome, those wishing to test their paternal line must have a brother or
father take the test for them.
- Maternal DNA is found in mitochondria, the
organelles that provide energy to cells. Women and men can take this test.
- DNA tests can't give a complete picture of
your ancestry because they are only capable of tracing direct matrilenial and
patrilineal lines, in other words, your mother's mother's mother, or your
father's father's father. The test does not reveal the genetic makeup of other
forebears, such as your maternal grandfather.
- The tests show your broad genetic
category, or "haplogroup," and where in the world that group is
commonly found. But the tests cannot identify more specific ancestral
information such as which town or river valley your ancestors came from.
- Tests can indicate that two people are
related if their results match up closely.
Scientists have called on test providers to
better educate consumers about their limitations and have warned that the tests
should not be used to resolve legal disputes, such as whether somebody
qualifies for membership in an American Indian tribe.
Meredith F. Small LiveScience's Human Nature
Columnist LiveScience.com Sun Dec 9, 2007 One of the by-products of human
consciousness is self-consciousness, that is, knowing deeply that you are
alive. Part of self-consciousness is also wondering where we came from; it's
clearly human nature to seek one's roots. For some people, that task is relatively
easy because there are oral legends or written words that go back at least
several generations (assuming family history is passed down accurately). But
for most people, the path backwards is rocky, cluttered with confusing detour
signs, or simply blank. For Americans, citizens of the
quintessential melting pot, the quest for identity often propels older people
(it's interesting that we often search for our dead relatives while looking
death square in the face) to the lists of immigrants into Ellis Island or other
ports of entry into the United States and to the repository of genealogy in
Salt Lake City. It also leads unwary seekers of the past
right into the hands of scam artists who claim they can trace anyone's DNA back
to its source. Anyone with a spare $100 to $900 can buy a
"DNA ancestry kit." Self-collection of DNA requires only a quick swab
of the inside of the mouth to gather cheek cells. Mail that smear back and the
company will then compare your DNA to various other samples. But claims that this analysis will tell you
much about where you came from are downright fraudulent, anthropologist Deborah
Bolnick of the University of Texas at Austin and 14 co-authors recently reported. Instead of tracing our genetic past, what we
get is a scientific scam. "It sure looks like science," says
anthropologist Jonathan Marks of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte,
one of the authors of the study. "Well, it is science. It’s done by
scientists, and it’s done on DNA samples. And it produces real data." But, Marks points out, these companies are
preying on the public because they simply don’t have enough comparative
information to pinpoint a gene on a world map. They might match your DNA to
some group on some continent, but what they don’t tell you is that you would
probably also match the group next door if only they had some of those samples as
well. More insidious, these companies pretend to
trace your unique ancestry through mitochondrial DNA, but that’s simply not
possible. A few hundred years, a few generations, and every person's history is
a genetic mishmash. One little gene isn't going to inform anybody about
anything. As Marks puts it, "That’s the beauty of
this scam. The companies aren’t scamming you. They’re not giving you fraudulent
information. They are giving you data, real data, and allowing you to scam
yourself." Humans have, in fact, turned the whole world
into one large genetic melting pot. We have always been a species that crossed
mountains, continents and oceans; we have always loved to mate outside our
ancestral group. If you want to know who you are, look in the
mirror. Written on your face is countless generations that have survived to
reproduce, and the only thing you can realistically do at this point is thank
them and then move forward. Meredith F. Small is an
anthropologist at Cornell University. She is also the author of "Our
Babies, Ourselves; How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent" (link)
and "The Culture of Our Discontent; Beyond the Medical Model of Mental
Illness". ========================================================== > Scanning
Old Photographs by Kay Spears Genealogy Gems: News from the
Fort Wayne Library, No. 45, I’m sure that some of you have
wondered, as have I, how those in distant third world countries or in
geographically isolated areas would be able to access this digital information.
Much of the world that is the target of this project is so poor that purchasing
the hardware and software as we know it would be out of the question. With the
next article we discover the XO project that is meant to fill this need. It
appears that this work has been going on for some time, and that they are
continuing to update. BRAVO! _____LO The XO is a potent learning tool created
expressly for children in developing countries, living in some of the most remote
environments. The laptop was designed collaboratively by experts from both
academia and industry, bringing to bear both extraordinary talent and many
decades of collective field experience for every aspect of this nonprofit
humanitarian project. The result is a unique harmony of form and function; a
flexible, ultra-low-cost, power-efficient, responsive, and durable machine with
which nations of the emerging world can leapfrog decades of
development—immediately transforming the content and quality of their
children's learning. XO is built from free and open-source software. Our commitment to software freedom gives
children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. While we do
not expect every child to become a programmer, we do not want any ceiling
imposed on those children who choose to modify their machines. We are using
open-document formats for much the same reason: transparency is empowering. The
children—and their teachers—will have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and
reapply their software, hardware, and content. The desktop metaphor is so entrenched in
personal computer users' collective consciousness that it is easy to forget
what a bold and radical innovation the Graphical User Interface (GUI) was and
how it helped free the computer from the “professionals” who were appalled at
the idea of computing for everyone. OLPC is about to revolutionize the existing
concept of a computer interface. Beginning with Seymour Papert's simple
observation that children are knowledge workers like any adult, only more so,
we decided they needed a user-interface tailored to their specific type of
knowledge work: learning. So, working together with teams from Pentagram and
Red Hat, we created SUGAR, a “zoom” interface that graphically captures their
world of fellow learners and teachers as collaborators, emphasizing the
connections within the community, among people, and their activities. As first conceived, the XO laptop display
used LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) in the form of a projector. Nicholas
Negroponte demonstrated the concept in early 2005, using a set of black sticks
sliding across a frame to convey some sense of how the folding optics would work. The laptop began to evolve in June of that
year, when Mary Lou Jepsen, newly named as acting CTO, began considering a
dual-mode display: one a conventional color LED laptop screen, the other a
sunlight-readable, black-and-white e-book. The concept made abundant sense for
the developing world, where outdoor classes are common and the cost of shipping
textbooks is a major expense. At a July board meeting, Design Continuum
presented an array of innovative prototype designs that would lead, by November
2005, to the famous “green machine”, with its distinctive pencil-yellow crank,
which was unveiled to the world by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the World
Summit on the Information Society at Tunis. The yellow crank, while cute, in the end
proved impractical; it migrated to the AC adapter as it also morphed into one
or more other types of human-power devices. Its status as an icon for OLPC
would be supplanted by the mesh-network antennas, or “ears.” At the same time,
Quanta Computer, our ODM, made a strong case for fitting the laptop with a
so-called transformer hinge to simplify the machine's transformations from
classic laptop, to game device, to e-book reader. In the spring of 2006, Yves
Behar, the noted San Francisco industrial designer, came aboard to complete the
final design of the Generation-One XO. In November of 2006, the first XO test machines,
the B1 (Beta1), rolled off the Quanta assembly line in Shanghai. In early 2007, the B2 iteration of XO, stronger, sturdier,
with a slight increase in tilt, was ready for its debut. B3 followed in May
2007, and pallets of B4 machines arrived in OLPC offices on July 6, 2007. Most of the nearly two–billion children in the
developing world are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One
in three does not complete the fifth grade. The individual and societal consequences of
this chronic global crisis are profound. Children are consigned to poverty and
isolation—just like their parents—never knowing what the light of learning
could mean in their lives. At the same time, their governments struggle to
compete in a rapidly evolving, global information economy, hobbled by a vast
and increasingly urban underclass that cannot support itself, much less
contribute to the commonweal, because it lacks the tools to do so. Given the resources that developing
countries can reasonably allocate to education—sometimes less than $20 per year
per pupil, compared to the approximately $7500 per pupil spent annually in the
U.S.—even a doubled or redoubled national commitment to traditional education,
augmented by external and private funding, would not get the job done.
Moreover, experience strongly suggests that an incremental increase of “more of
the same”—building schools, hiring teachers, buying books and equipment—is a
laudable but insufficient response to the problem of bringing true learning
possibilities to the vast numbers of children in the developing world. Standing still is a reliable recipe for
going backward. Any nation's most precious natural resource is
its children. We believe the emerging world must leverage this resource by
tapping into the children's innate capacities to learn, share, and create on
their own. Our answer to that challenge is the XO laptop, a children's machine
designed for “learning .” XO embodies the theories of constructionism
first developed by MIT Media Lab Professor Seymour Papert in the 1960s, and
later elaborated upon by Alan Kay, complemented by the principles articulated
by Nicholas Negroponte in his book, Being Digital. Extensively field-tested and validated among
some of the poorest and most remote populations on earth, constructionism
emphasizes what Papert calls “learning learning” as the fundamental educational
experience. A computer uniquely fosters learning learning by allowing children
to “think about thinking”, in ways that are otherwise impossible. Using the XO
as both their window on the world, as well as a highly programmable tool for
exploring it, children in emerging nations will be opened to both illimitable
knowledge and to their own creative and problem-solving potential. OLPC is not, at heart, a technology program,
nor is the XO a product in any conventional sense of the word. OLPC is a
non-profit organization providing a means to an end—an end that sees children
in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap
into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to
contribute to a more productive and saner world community. Until then, stay tuned. Content is available under Creative Commons
Attribution 2.5 Designed by Pentagram | Powered by Nurun You can subscribe to the OLPC
community-news mailing list by visiting the laptop.org mailman site. =============================================== > Online
rival to Microsoft Office launches clone of Microsoft Office 2007 /It's on an
uphill road By Egan Orion THE TIMES reported yesterday that the co-founder
of the Hotmail webmail service has released a web based software clone of Microsoft
Office 2007 to compete with the Vole. Microsoft bought Hotmail for $400 million
ten years ago. At the time, it probably didn't anticipate that the acquisition
would help fund the design of a rival to its crown jewels, the Office suite
cash cow that generates $20 billion annually, a third of Microsoft's revenue. Sabeer Bhatia calls his web based office
applications suite Live Documents.
He believes it can challenge Microsoft's dominant Office suite by being
significantly less expensive, with a subscription business model that allows
customers to avoid the high initial cost of Office. The software suite will be given away to
individuals along with 100MB of free online data storage space. Companies can
subscribe to use the software, hosted either remotely or in-house, for less
than the cost of Microsoft Office. Its first customer has 6,700 employees. Live Documents was developed over four years by
just 32 software engineers at Bhatia's company InstaColl in Bangalore, India. The company is backed by SoftBank's Bodhi
Fund. Google Docs is another web based group of
software as a service office applications like Live Documents. Released in
February, Google's office suite already has major corporate customers,
including CapGemini, General Motors and Proctor & Gamble, who see it as a
lower cost alternative that handles both Volish and Open Document Format (ODF)
files. Other free, local client based alternatives
to Microsoft Office are the several ODF based offerings including open sauce
Open Office, Sun's StarOffice and IBM's Lotus Symphony, all compatible with
Microsoft Office, though that might not continue in the future as the Vole
changes its formats. Live Documents is better than Google Docs and the
other alternatives, Bhatia contends, because it closely imitates Microsoft's
latest Office 2007. He believes office applications delivered as
a service over the Internet is the wave of the future, due to lower up front
and later upgrade costs. He said, "This will do for documents what Hotmail
did for e-mail. Why spend $400 on an upgrade when you can get it for
free?" "We are just a few years away from the end
of the shrink-wrapped software business. By 2010, people will not be buying
software," Bhatia
said. Mr. Bhatia might be onto something with his
Live Documents office suite, delivered as a service, but we're not convinced.
The overwhelming majority of users of Microsoft Office haven't yet upgraded to
Office 2007, and many might not for quite a while yet. There is significant
resistance among Office users to the many user interface changes Microsoft made
in Office 2007, and that will limit the appeal of Live Documents as an
alternative for office applications. Then there's its dependence on Microsoft
file formats, which the Vole changes regularly in order to disadvantage
competitors and slowly force users through network effects to pay for expensive
Office upgrades. Bhatia's potential customers can't be confident that Live
Documents will keep up with Microsoft's future changes to its Office file
formats, and since it doesn't support ODF files, they can't use it to migrate
away from the Microsoft vendor lock-in of Office to ensure that their files
will always be accessible. Google Docs has the first mover advantage
and has already attracted recognition and the respect that comes with an
impressively large early customer base. It has the advantage of being
compatible with both Microsoft Office and ODF file formats, too. And Google
certainly has the financial resources to persevere in an extended contest with
Microsoft. We somewhat like the idea of office software as a
service, but Google was there first and Live Documents is chained to the Vole,
so we think it's going to have an uphill road to go. But then, maybe Microsoft
might eventually just buy Live Documents, like it did Hotmail. The Times THE INQUIRER (News, reviews,
facts and friction) 23 November 2007 ==================================================== CONTRIBUTIONS: When you come across something
you think would be of interest to others who are involved in genealogy, whether
it be about genealogy, software, or hardware, please send it to our editor,
Marcy Milota at < milota@jcu.edu>. Please include your name and all
credits of author and publication. Information from online genealogy
newsletters can be used with these credits. EASTMAN NEWSLETTERS The following article is from
Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, printed by *Footnote.com, and is
copyright 2008 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the
permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at
http://www.eogn.com. FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE Reprinted with permission from
Family Tree Magazine Email Update, copyright 2003 F+W Publications Inc.
To subscribe to this free weekly e-mail newsletter, go to
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/newsletter.asp. For a free sample copy
of the print Family Tree Magazine, America's #1 family history magazine, go to
<http://www.familytreemagazine.com/specialoffers.asp?FAMfreeissue> ROOTSWEB REVIEW Permission to reprint articles
from RootsWeb Review is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, provided:
(1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the
following notice appears at the end of the article: Previously published in
RootsWeb Review: Vol. 5, No. 40, 2 October 2002. LANGALIST STANDARD EDITION The Langalist Standard Edition
is a free email newsletter from Fred Langa that helps you get more from your hardware,
software, and time online. Plus! Subscribers have access to over 100,000
additional Words in special features, extra content and private links, All on a
private web site? All that, plus 30% more content In every issue, for just a
dollar a month! Full Plus! Edition info:
<http://www.langa.com/plus.htm> ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY'S
HISTORICAL GENEALOGY DEPT. This electronic newsletter is
published with the intent to enlighten readers about genealogical research
methods, as well as inform them about the vast resources of the Allen County
Public Library. We welcome the wide distribution of this newsletter and
encourage readers to forward it to their friends and societies. UPFRONT--NGS Each issue of UpFront is under
copyright of the National Genealogical Society. Permission is granted to share
the news and events portions of UpFront provided you include the following
statement: "Originally published in
UpFront with NGS, The Online Newsletter of the National Genealogical Society. http://www.NGSgenealogy.org/upfront.htm" Permission for sharing other
articles contained in UpFront requires approval. Contact
UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org and include the issue date and title of the article
you wish to share or reprint elsewhere. ========================================================== TELL A FRIEND -- SUBSCRIPTION
INFORMATION: Others interested in genealogy
are welcome to receive these updates; if you know of anyone else interested,
tell him or her to send us an E-mail To subscribe or unsubscribe to
this publication, send an Email to Luther Olson:
<lutherolson@sbcglobal.net> ============================================= * * * * NORTHEAST OHIO
COMPUTER-AIDED GENEALOGY Society * * * * ……………….Past issues of this
newsletter are available …………..* * * * Visit our web site
at <http://neocag.net>* * * *
November 30, 2007
Do you have some old photographs you want to scan, but you're not sure what
format to use when saving them? Well, here's the definitive answer:
it depends. Yes, what format you choose for saving images depends on how
you intend to use them once they are scanned. Here are some general
guidelines.
1. If the image is to be used for the Web/online, use JPEG, PNG or GIF. If the
image is to be printed or used in a print publication, use
TIFF.
2. JPEG should be used when you need to keep the file size small and don't mind
giving up quality for a significant reduction in size.
JPEGs are optimal for posting and transferring photos online. JPEGs
aren't suitable for images with text because crisp lines will blur.
If you plan on doing any kind of restoration work on your photograph, JPEGs are
not the format to use.
3. PNG is ideal when you need smaller file sizes with no loss in quality.
PNG supports alpha transparency (soft edges). PNG files
offer greater compression and a much wider range of color depth than
GIFs. However, not all web browsers support PNGs.
4. GIF is a good choice for simple Web graphics with limited colors. GIF should
rarely be used for photos.
5. TIFF is good for any type of bitmap image. If you want to archive your
family photographs, this is the format to use. This is also the
format to use if you are planning on doing restoration work. Unlike
JPEGs, TIFFs do not lose any compression when edited and resaved. I
recommend that you scan your family photos as TIFFs; you can always reduce them
to JPEGs for sending through emails or putting online. Always keep the original
TIFF saved in a separate file. The downside: TIFF files are extremely large and
take up a lot of storage space. However, the cost of disk storage continues to
plummet while options continue to increase.
6. BMP may be used for any type of pixel-based image. BMPs are huge
files, but there is no loss of quality. BMP has no real benefit over
TIFF, except you can use it for Windows wallpaper.
A final tip: for sharing a photo via the Web or email, scan at 75 or 100
dpi. A standard computer monitor is only 72 to 96 dpi, so it's
not necessary for anything larger. For printing, scan at 300 dpi. Printers have
higher resolution than monitors. If you're planning on
enlarging an image, the general rule of thumb is double the resolution when
doubling the size.
======================================================Laptop News 2007-12-01
1. During the first years that our members owned computers they needed much
help and advice. Many had been doing genealogy for decades, but now it was how
to use this complicated machine that was of much greater concern.
2. Software was also of concern and members looked forward with anxiety to the
release of new versions that promised to have more changes and the addition of
new "bells and whistles." By now we all know pretty much what to
expect so new releases are hardly mentioned. Members have now gone through a
half dozen new versions and know how to do most of the chores they desire.
3. Before the internet as we know it, the CD was medium that brought all the
new information to our computer. Remember the "12 free CDs with this
version" and 24 if you bought the most expensive. We sometimes made our
decisions more by the CDs than by the software itself. Special databases were
all available on CD, seldom by download.
4. The many presentation topics that we heard at our society meetings were
often new to us, and we looked forward to them with anticipation. By now, many
of these (or offsprings of these) have been brought back in up-to-date
offerings, but the interest and enthusiasm is often not what it was in earlier
times.
We have to recognize that many of our members during the past decade, are for
one reason or other, not going to be with us much longer. Fortunately, we have
more and more prospects for new members if we can find a way to reach them. It
seems that the number of those who have an interest in genealogy is growing,
not declining.
However, these new members are going to be much different that those of the
past. They will come to us with a greater knowledge of computers (and other
digital devices)then we have, and software and the internet are just taken for
granted. Hopefully, our societies can adapt quickly enough that we can attract
these younger members--who will be the leaders of tomorrow.
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