Geocaching

This weeks blog assignment was to investigate Geocaching. After reading about the subject I became very excited about the Idea. It is actually a very brilliant Idea, incorporate technology with the love for the outdoors and adventure to create a sport that almost all can participate in. Geocaching is where you get a set of coordinates from a website. Then you use a G.P.S. to navigate your way to the cache point, this is where the, “treasure” that you are seeking is located. As the online introduction states, it’s deceptively easy. It's one thing to see where an item is, it's a totally different story to actually get there.

To participate in this activity you need three main things, the first is a set of coordinates marking a cache, these can be found using the internet or by going to a place that has cache point coordinates. The second thing you need is a G.P.S. or a Global Positioning System. A G.P.S. can be purchased at any outdoor store, electronics store or online for $100 to $1000, they vary in features such as screen size, color quality and accuracy but they all serve the same general purpose. They use satellites to find the position of the G.P.S. device and directions to any point you impute into the G.P.S. The only rules involved with Geocaching is that it you take something from the cache you should leave something in the cache and write in the logbook.

A similar, but much older activity is known as letterboxing, this was supposedly invented when a man simply left his calling card in a bottle near a pool in Dartmouth England. Today the game is played by finding directions to a letterbox, stamping the logbook with your own personal stamp, the stamping your personal logbook with the stamp found in the letterbox. This game is similar to Geocaching in principal, but is much older and does not offer any prizes other than getting to the box. I have not actually participated in either activity but I would be very interested in trying Geocaching, I find this more interesting because it incorporates modern technology, with outdoor exploration, and I will be looking for a cache on my next hike.

Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word

After using Google docs and its features I’ve come up with several comparisons between the free online program and Microsoft Word. They both contain advantages over the other and each has their own faults. As an overall review I would suggest using Microsoft Word if it comes free with the computer you purchased over the online word processor, Google Docs. If your computer did not come with the Microsoft Office package and you don’t use your computer for a great deal of word processing, I would definitely recommend using Google docs as your word processor, it does an acceptable job, and the Microsoft office package can cost up to 200$ is stores.

Google docs are missing some of the very helpful features that Word users may be accustomed to such as in text spell check, clearly expressed margins, and easily accessible text formatting. There are many features missing from the online word processor, but few you will miss because they are very rarely used. Some features found on Word can be found on Google Docs, only with less options, for example on Microsoft word there are 171 different font styles available, whereas Google docs only offers 14. The same is true for text size, in Microsoft word you can impute your own text size, whereas in Google Docs only 7 font sizes are available. The only formatting feature I found on Google Docs that was not available on Microsoft Word was the ability to insert Chinese characters, which I wouldn’t consider a huge advantage. Word however offers several features not available online.

Google Docs have two evident advantages over Microsoft Word. One is cost, Google Docs are free; Microsoft word is not. The second advantage is the ability to access your saved documents from any computer with internet access at any time. Obviously Microsoft Word has many advantages over Google Docs, but three stand out to me. The first and most important to a poor typist such as myself is the in text spell check. Second would be the number of font choices, and last would most likely be the ease of knowing where you’re at on a printed page. On Google docs it is hard to tell how much you have actually typed until you hit print.

Internet based photo storage

The Internet storage program I choose to research is Zoto version 3.0. Zoto is a web based photo storage program that allows you to store, access and share your photos at anytime, anywhere in the world. The web address needed to access this is, http://www.zoto.com/. Zoto is not a free program, but it does offer some key advantages that other free sites do not. Using Zoto there is no storage limit, files are automatically configured to your browser, and there are no pesky advertisements to deal with. As I said there is a cost, it is a yearly fee of $29.95 and for those who are not sure if they want the service there is a free seven day trial available.

Zoto offers a wide variety of features to its members such as drag-n-droppable homepages, sort able liquidized light boxes, highly customizable albums, 50% larger image detail photos, extremely fast photo tagging, powerful photo searching, unlimited storage, and no advertisements. Another very helpful feature of Zoto is that they offer video tutorials to beginners. There was one thing I found that made me suggest that you should wait to join Zoto for a while. That was that their tech support section is currently under development and would not be able to help you if you experienced problems early.

Zoto has several advantages and a few disadvantages that you should be aware of. One of the biggest advantages is the ability to access your personal pictures anywhere, anytime. Another advantage to using a web based photo storage system is that you have the opportunity to view other user’s pictures that may be of something that interests you. As I said there are disadvantages to the program that you should be aware of. The obvious disadvantage is that you have to pay for the service. Another disadvantage is the ever dangerous internet abusers that could use the pictures you post on the internet for things you didn’t intend them to be used for. Overall I would recommend this site to anyone looking for hassle free photo storage that doesn’t mind the service fee.

Searching the Web

Web Based Search: Genghis Kahn

For my web based search I chose to study the life of Genghis Khan; the leader of the largest empire the world has ever seen. I decided to use Lycos as my search provider. I used Lycos because I've heard that it is a very reputable site yet I had never used it before. I was very pleased with the results I received, not only were the search results accurate within the first 10 hits provided, but I also found useful information within the first 25 sites provided.

The keywords I used to find my results were initially, “Genghis Khan”, and although these results were very helpful I found that by narrowing my search using, “The life of Genghis Khan” I reduced my number of hits by over 200,000 results. An odd note to mention is that when I refined my search, my second hit presented was the least helpful of my top 10 results. This was because the search focused on the Phrase, “the life of Genghis Khan”. After seeing this, Lycos found an article titled, “a timeline of the life of Genghis Khan.”, which only focused on a very broad overview of Khans life and accomplishments.

Just as an experiment I tested the exact same search on Google, which is my regular search engine. I was shocked to find that Google turned up over 800,000 more results than Lycos, however the top 10 search results we much less helpful than those provided by Lycos. This just goes to show that it’s about quality over quantity, and I believe I may have found a new search provider.

1st Blog Assignment

After being told that this Blog was to be written on a subject of our choice, I felt it was my responsibility to voice my opinion on the changes necessary to put the Philadelphia Flyers back in Stanley Cup contentions for the 07-08 season. As any hockey fan very well knows, it has been a rough season for the Flyers to say the least. After a stellar season and an admirable playoff run, the last place you would expect to see the Flyers the following season was last place. Yet shocking as it is, that is exactly where they find themselves. The Flyers have not seen a more dissapointing season in over 25 years. Despite this pitfall, I feel there are a minimal number of changes needed to be made to put the Flyers back on top for the next hockey season.
First I'll start with what the Flyers are finally doing right at this point in the season. They fired the teams general manager Bobby Clarke. The man was a legendary hockey player, but had no business sense, nor could he adapt to the changing NHL. The next step in the right direction made this season is serious talk about turning Peter Foresburg into a free agent. At the salary he is making, he is simply not delivering what was expected from a player of such high regaurds; he misses too many games and has failed to adapt to Flyers hockey. With this salary free to spend, the Flyers could draft other players who can benefit the team. The biggest hole the Flyers have finally filled was putting a new man between the pipes. Nittamaki and Esche have been having less than stellar seasons in goal, and the introduction of a new and promising goalie from the farm league named Michael Leighton, may be positive foreshadowing of things to come.
Now for the revisions to the team not yet made, although it is a short list, here are necessary changes the Flyers need to make by next season. Defense, Defense, Defense, you can’t stress it enough. The Flyers need new defensive pointsman. They have been allowing far too many pointless zone clears, neutral zone errors, and worst off, defensive zone turnovers. The Flyers also need a strong center; another Eric Lindros to get in the crease and fight to punch the rebounds in, or create deflections. Last but not least, they need to improve communication, in Hockey you have to talk a lot, and with so many players on the team speaking different languages this is a big problem. So despite the popular opinion, the Flyers are not a dying team by any means, they are simply a team that had to break down completely to finally see the faults they had been neglecting to fix.

Billy Blogged a Boiling Bottle of Buttercups

Hello there my faithful readers, I know my popularity on the internet has exploded since I've posted this blog, but I just want you to know that I dislike you all and think your a big group of poor lonley degenerates for finding nothing better to do with your time then read some morons forced blog assingnment. I prey thee to concider thy gloryios victory a testimate to our all-powerful ruler
!!!BLOG!!!
Go Colts