Category Archives: Internet

Vote: Suzette Steward for Teacher of the Year

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Suzette on Live with Kelly and Michael

I’m sure that all of the teachers up for Live’s Annual Top Teacher are great and all, but none of them are more deserving to win—in my humble, but completely biased opinion—than (my sister-in-law,) Suzette Steward.

Suz and Dracula

Suz teaches children with special needs, and they are, in a very literal sense, her life. When she’s not teaching them at school she’s working them out at the gym or babysitting them to give their parents a much needed break.

Suz at Rodeo

You know those fabulously long summer breaks that teachers get each year? Suzette has not once taken one. She spends all summer (each and every year) running camps where her kids can ride canoes, go down a zipline, dance, make crafts, etc.

Still need convincing? Read what one of her student’s parents said about here here.

Voting closes Monday, April 15th, so head on over to the Live with Kelly and Michael site to vote for Suzette, today.

All images appear courtesy of Suzette Coates’ Facebook unless otherwise noted.

LinkedIn Says I’m One in a Million

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LinkedIn just sent me an email confirming me what I already knew—I’m one in a million. According to LinkedIn, my profile was one of the top 5% most viewed profiles of 2012. Well, isn’t that special (said in my best Church Lady voice)?

So, here’s the email they sent me.

LinkedIn Top 5%

I’ve done the arithmetic and it all checks out. If I multiply 0.05 (5%) by 200 million (the number of LinkedIn users) I get 1,000,000 10,000,000. The numbers don’t lie. Quite literally, I’m one in a million.

Suddenly, I don’t feel nearly as special. I blame math. And reality.

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

Find Anything With Index of Searches

Recently, I taught a couple of friends some awesome Google Fu—the ever useful Index Of search trick. This little baby turns Google into a veritable smörgåsbord of file searching goodness. It trawls the Internet for just about anything your heart could desire.

Here’s an example of how to put this hack in use (courtesy of Lifehacker). Type the code below into Google.

Code:

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "Nirvana"

The above snippet searches Google for shared folders with music files with by Nirvana. It’s as simple as that. You can modify the text to search for movies, TV shows, E-books, comic books, etc.

Search Results

TextExpander by Smile Software is one of the most essential apps in my workflow. It “saves your fingers and your keyboard, expanding custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text and pictures”. It’s also a super convenient way of storing bits of code that are too cryptic and/or lengthy for you to even think about memorizing.

So, for those of you already using it, I’ve created a TextExpander Snippet for your benefit. You can download it here.

Do you have any gnarly Googley tricks up your sleeve? Sound off in the comments below.

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

Stop What You’re Doing and Register to Vote

Will you be online for at least five seconds today? Are you over eighteen years old? Are you an American citizen?

If you answered “yes” to the questions above then you need to stop whatever you doing—once you finish reading this post, that is—and register to vote.

I’m not going to tell you how you should vote. But, I am going to tell you is that election day is Tuesday, November 6th and you can’t just expect to show up to vote.

All images in this post are courtesy of The Internet Votes, unless otherwise noted.

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Certifiably Googled

If there’s one thing we IT geeks love (almost) as much as gadgets it’s certifications. Imagine my contentment when I learned that I would be getting an official certification in Google-ology courtesy of the search gurus in Mountain View, California for completing the Power Searching with Google course!

Certificate - Power Searching with Google

I was thinking about dusting off the old curriculum vitae to include this (ahem) accomplishment, but I don’t think this carries the same weight as a (real) cert from Microsoft or Cisco.

All kidding aside, I found the course worth my time. I definitely learned a trick or two that I didn’t know before and I’ll be anxiously looking forward to whatever future learning Google deigns to impart.

So what do you think, Internet, should I update my résumé and/or LinkedIn profile with my new certification? Sound off in the comments below.

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Free Power Search Course from Google

Can't Find Anything

How many times a day do you look something up on Google? How long does it take you to find what you’re looking for online? Do you just plain stink at the Internet?

No matter how you answered those questions you should still sign up for Power Searching with Google, a free course brought to you courtesy of Google (duh) which aims to enlighten us in the ways of Google wizardry.

Google Power Search

The course is made up of six classes, a mid-term, and final. Classes began last Tuesday, July 10 and will run until July 23. Each class runs abut an hour and consists of several short videos, a series of activities to hone your search ninja skills, and a post-course assessment to gauge your progress.

If you haven’t signed up yet you need to hurry—course registration closes Monday, July 16. Please also be aware that you will need to complete the first three classes and the course mid-term assessment by 7:59 am this coming Tuesday, July 17.

To get the most out of the course you’ll want to take the classes on a desktop (Mac), laptop (MacBook), or tablet (iPad) and not a mobile phone. Also, make sure you are using the most recent version of your browser.

What will you search for after you master the secrets of Google Fu? Sound off in the comments bellow.

What are you waiting for—get Googling!

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

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