Assignment #25

Goto http://www.funtrivia.com/

Type Moses into the Search.

Click THE BIBLICAL STORY OF MOSES.

Play the flash quiz version.

Copy and paste the HTML version for your Bible Class.

Play!!

Assignment #24

Find a used book.

The first book I ever read all the way through was LEE BAIRD SON OF DANGER (I was 7).

Copy the title and paste it at Search at

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/

Ebay http://www.ebay.com/

ABEbooks http://www.abebooks.com/

Alibris http://www.alibris.com/

Play!!

Assignment #23

Kim Komando recommended this part of Google this week-Google Alerts. I’m using it to tell me whenever Guam baseball player John Hattig makes the news somewhere.

Goto Google

Click on MORE then EVEN MORE

Google Alerts is the first one.

Also, a med tech friend of mine says don’t just use Google, use Dogpile. Dogpile is a MetaSearch engine that includes Google.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_search

Dogpile was cool and I found it the best search to look for those music files that are so hard to find since AOL shut down Singing Fish.

Find it here.

http://dogpile.com/

Play!!

Assignment #22

Midi Files

Midi files are wondrous things, especially for musicians. Midi files are small files (20-50k) that tell a sequencer how to play a particular song.

Goto http://www.jazzware.com/zope and download the Jazz++ Midi Sequencer. Install it.

Goto http://www.zianet.com/jw_laurie/midipage.html and download the old 60’s hit Rhythm of the Rain. Left click to hear it and right click SAVE TARGET AS… to download it. Don’t blink-it’ll only take a second.

Open the midi in the sequencer, play it with the arrow at the top and then 1. change tempos (r or l click on speed) 2. mute or solo instruments (click on P) 3. change instruments (click below PRG) Here’s a list http://www.pgmusic.com/tutorial_gm.htm

I use midis to give my aspiring rock star 11 year old a back-up band and to hear how, for instance, a bass line is played. Find midis by searching (name of song) midi on Google. Here’s some more midi programs http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/

Finally, if you can’t find a midi for some song but you have the chords, here’s a $10 program that allows you to quickly turn those chords into an accompaniment. I use it. It works great. It’s called Band Minus One and it’s here: http://www.1manband.nl/bmo/index.htm

Play!!

Assignment #21

Go to Google. http://www.google.com/

Click on Maps.

Put your hometown into Search.

Click on SATELITE over on the right.

If your area has high definition, use the slider on the left to find the house you used to live in.

Play!!

Assignment #20

Goto Google

Type in DEFINE ESOTERIC

Knowing that Google does this is somewhat esoteric.

Now Goto http://www.urbandictionary.com/

Note the changing definitions under the letters

Search for HOALE (pronounced howly)

Finally, my brother told me about this cool application at answers.com

After you’ve installed the app you can ALT-Click on any word and it goes to answers.com and gets the definition, pronunciation, whatever.

It’s at http://www.answers.com/main/product_info.jsp

Click Answers Seeker- It’s called 1-Click Answers^TM

Bit of a memory hog, however, 4-5 Megs.

Play!! and pass me on.

Assignment #19

I have a new favorite application—Digg. I’ve got it hooked into my Netvibes and it’s like someone saying “Hey! Look at this. It’s cool.” This is what I collected just this weekend. The Assignment is to click on a few. They’re all real quick.

http://mapsofwar.com/ind/imperial-history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_deaths

http://www.weatheranswer.com/public/Best_lightning.jpg

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/02/egg_drop_make_v.html

http://www.wildcard.jp.org/

http://www.glowfoto.com/users3/Soviyet/view.php?aid=13883

http://www.frogview.com/show.php?file=1376

http://www.wisebread.com/top-5-ways-to-hustle-free-drinks

http://www2.adelaider.com/google-cheat-sheet/?cheatsheet&page=all

http://www.joerogan.net/main.php?archives=1&article=53945

http://digg.com/design/PICTURES_World_s_Greatest_Car_Security_Alarm

http://www.constantlythinking.com/?p=374

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50715482@N00/350486125/

http://digg.com/design/Cool_Picture_of_the_Day_Elevator_Floor_Illusion

http://www.brazilianartists.net/home/flags/index.htm

http://funny.karmark.org/Funny%20pictures/images/19335286661_jpg.jpg

http://digg.com/design/Incredible_picture_of_sunrise_over_Teton_Mountains

http://digg.com/design/Amazing_Stereo_Pictures_Must_See

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/the-real-hustle-credit-card-cloning

http://digg.com/general_sciences/Fish_with_human_face

http://digg.com/general_sciences/Amazing_An_Apple_Experiences_A_Super_Sonic_Wave_Pic

http://digg.com/gadgets/SwissMiniGun_Should_Be_Called_SwissNANOGun_The_World_s_Tiniest_Gun

http://everythingelse.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/opencola-open-source-coca-cola/

http://digg.com/gadgets/Very_cool_image_of_a_naval_fleet_PHOTO

http://digg.com/gadgets/Pirate_toaster

http://digg.com/playable_web_games/Doodle_in_3D_with_this_incredible_web_toy

Play!!

Assignment #18

Goto http://www.zillow.com/

Put in a (stateside) address. Click GO.

Now Read http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117142055516708035-O6WPplch_duU0zq_zhjQaI19vIg_20080214.html?mod=rss_free

Play!!

Assignment #17

How to keep Youtube (Flash) videos

Goto http://www.download.com/

Search for FLV PLAYER

Download FLV Player 1.3.3, the first one on the list. Install it.

Goto http://youtube.com and find a video.

Highlight and EDIT- COPY the stuff which is in the box labeled URL for that video.

Goto http://keepvid.com/

EDIT- PASTE the URL into the box. Click Download.

When Download box comes up, Click ›› Download Link ‹‹

The video will be saved as GET_VIDEO.

Rename the file (SOMETHING).FLV

The video will change Icons and you can now play it with your Player.

Play!! and pass me on.

Assignment #16

This is cool!

Goto http://www.netvibes.com/ and register.

Now

Customize your desktop by editing the little blocks.

Put Yigo (or whatever) into the weather thingy.

Here’s a couple RSS feeds that I use.

http://www.kuam.com/marketingprograms/kuamnews-rss.aspx

http://www.sciencedaily.com/rss/newsfeed.xml

(RSS??? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29)

Find feeds by looking for the initials RSS or this at websites.

The URL address is what they want.

This one is already connected to NetVibes.

http://www.pheedo.com/f/newscientist_online-news

You might not want to use NetVibes for your main email address:

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-02-07-n86.html

but I use it to check my Gmail and Hotmail.

Don’t forget to put in Digg.

Play!!

Assignment #15

Digg is a site that feature’s news stories (and videos and podcasts) that have been voted good (or bad) by… anybody. The most popular articles are usually IT related as most of the people using Digg are geeks. However, you’ll see articles here you might otherwise miss.

Goto http://digg.com/

Click on Entertainment

Click on Celebrity

Play!! and pass it on.

Assignment #14

Go to Ebay http://www.ebay.com/

Type in Guam –cover –rock (Guam stuff but I don’t want stamps and stuff from the Hard Rock Café).

Click on something interesting.

On the right side, click on the number in the first line under the heading Meet The Seller. That’s the seller’s Feedback Score. Can you trust him??

Play!! and pass me on.

Assignment #13

MP3(Generic) vs WMA(Microsoft) Compressed Audio Files

From the people that brought us Audacity, here’s a CD ripper that goes directly to MP3’s.

Goto http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=567&package_id=584&release_id=427186 -you have to bring the page down.

Download CDEX. You have to right click SAVE TARGET AS… on the cdex_170b2_enu.exe The first one in line. Install it.

Put a music CD in your drive.

Bring up CDEX and after putting in the Artist, Album, etc, Click on CONVERT-Extact CD tracks to a Compressed Audio file.

Files should be in My Documents-My Music.

NOW

Bring up Windows Media Player

Depending on your version you may have to find the Copy (Rip) CD or it may already be up. Use WMP to Also Rip this CD to WMA files. The start button is on the right under MUSIC.

After you’re done you can access and play the files using the LIBRARY tab on WMP. Right click (the song) and Properties to find where the files are located.

Finally, compare the MP3 and WMA files for size, information, fidelity and whatever else.

For more info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Audio

Play!!

Assignment #12

Goto http://www.answers.com/topic/friedrich-nietzsche

Under the DICTIONARY click on the little speaker to hear how to

pronounce Friedrich Nietzsche last name.

Play!!

Assignment #11

This is a cool browser that searches for songs you can download.

Goto http://www.songbirdnest.com/

And download Songbird. Install it.

It’s a little quirky so the learning curve might be a tad longer but it’s fun.

On the left click BIRDHOUSE

Search for TOM DOOLEY

Click to play it.

Below the SINGING FISH search results should be another window with all your search results in Songbird. Right click the first and hit DOWNLOAD.

After that go to the left again, down to RADIO-SHOUTCAST.

Search for Russian Rock

Use Audacity to record something to impress your friends with your sophistication.

Play!!

Assignment #10

Today’s assignment came from radio personality Kim Komando in her Cool Site email yesterday. Kim’s program and site http://www.komando.com/ are excellent for computer users of all levels. Be sure to sign up for her daily emails. They’re very good.

Goto http://youtube.com/superbowl

Play!!

Assignment #9

Go to YouTube http://youtube.com/

1)Type in Blues Guitar Lesson

2)Type in ElVIS JAIL HOUSE ROCK

Use Audacity to record it and change it to an MP3.

Play!!

Assignment #8

Here’s one of my favorite and most useful programs. It’s a sound recorder and editor.

Goto http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

and Download Audacity 1.2.6. Install it.

Also Download a LAME file (lame-3.96.1) from

http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/lame.html

(Right Click-SAVE TARKET AS…)

Click to unzip and put it into the Audacity folder. This allows you to change what you record to MP3s.

Set Audacity to STEREO MIX

Goto http://bluegrassradio.org/new/index.php

And click on the Click To Play Broadband WMA (or one of the others)

When it starts playing punch the red button on audacity.

After you get a whole song stop Audacity, highlight the part you don’t want to keep and EDIT-DELETE that part.

Finally FILE-EXPORT AS MP3. Tell Audacity where the LAME file is (first time only). Name it and keep it.

Play!!