November 20, 2009 at 6:51 pm (Google, Just Because)
The @ sign was very close to being eliminated from the standard keyboard until 1971, when Ray Tomlinson wrote it into the code used to send the first email.
More interesting facts about all kinds of stuff can be found @
Check it out! Have a great weekend!
November 16, 2009 at 7:23 pm (Just Because)
My husband is a Vietnam veteran and I’m proud and thankful for him everyday - for his courage and love of his country.
Let’s not forget our military and their loved ones – this holiday season.
My dear husband sent this link to me today – and I thought I’d share it with you.
November 16, 2009 at 5:03 pm (Science)
Some interesting events happening in the sky tonight:
One of the best annual meteor showers will peak in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, and for some skywatchers the show could be quite impressive.
The best seats are in Asia, but North American observers should be treated to an above average performance of the Leonid meteor shower, weather permitting. The trick for all observers is to head outside in the wee hours of the morning – between 1 a.m. and dawn – regardless where you live.
The Leonids put on a solid show every year, if skies are clear and moonlight does not interfere. This year the moon is near its new phase, and not a factor. For anyone in the Northern Hemisphere with dark skies, away from urban and suburban lighting, the show should be worth getting up early to see.
“We’re predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia,” said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. Other astronomers who work in the nascent field of meteor shower prediction have put out similar forecasts.
Urban dwellers and suburbanites will see far fewer, as the fainter meteors will be drowned out by local lights.
Behind the Leonids
The Leonids are created by the comet Swift-Tuttle, which passes through the inner solar system every 33 years on its orbit around the sun. Each time by, it leaves a new river of debris, mostly bits of ice and rock no bigger than a sand grain but a few the size of a pea or marble.
Over time, these cosmic streams spread out, so predicting exactly what will happen is difficult.
“We can predict when Earth will cross a debris stream with pretty good accuracy,” Cooke said. “The intensity of the display is less certain, though, because we don’t know how much debris is in each stream.”
When Earth plows into the debris, the bits hit the atmosphere and vaporize, creating sometimes dramatic streaks of light and the occasional fireball with a smoky-looking trail that can remain visible for several minutes.
The Leonid stream is moving in the opposite direction of Earth, producing impact speeds of 160,000 mph (72 kilometers per second) – higher than many other meteors.
“Such speeds tend to produce meteors with hues of white, blue, aquamarine and even green,” says Joe Rao, SPACE.com’s skywatching columnist.
How to watch
The best viewing will be in rural areas. Get out of town if you can. If you have local lights, scout a location in advance where the lights are blocked by a building, tree or hill.
Dress warmly, and take a blanket or lounge chair so you can lie back and scan as much of the sky as possible. “At this time of year, meteor watching can be a long, cold business,” Rao reminds people.
Leonids can appear anywhere, but if you trace them back, they all point to a hub, or radiant, in the constellation Leo – hence the name.
Give your eyes 15 minutes to adjust to the darkness. Then give the show at least a half-hour. The hourly rates stated above typically come in bursts, with lulls that may test your patience. No special equipment is needed. Telescopes and binoculars are of no use because meteors move too quickly.
When to watch
Earth will pass through one of the denser debris streams at around 4 a.m. EST (1 a.m. PST) Tuesday. If you have only an hour or less to watch, center it around this time. Leo will be high in the sky for East Coast skywatchers, putting more meteors into view. In the West, Leo will be low in the eastern sky at this time, so fewer shooting stars will be above the horizon, and therefore Western skywatchers should also try to stick it out until daybreak.
Across Europe, the best bet is to watch anytime between 1 a.m. and daybreak local time.
The planet will pass through an even denser stream later, just before dawn Wednesday in Indonesia and China, but that show won’t be visible from North America because it will be daytime here.
One truth about the Leonids: They always produce, and they sometimes produce spectacular, unforgettable fireballs.
SPACE.com offers rich and compelling content about space science, travel and exploration as well as astronomy, technology, business news and more. The site boasts a variety of popular features including our space image of the day and other space pictures,space videos, Top 10s, Trivia, podcasts and Amazing Images submitted by our users. Join our community, sign up for our free newsletters and register for our RSS Feeds today!
November 10, 2009 at 3:55 pm (Internet Information)
If it seems like everyone is online please check out the stats of world wide usage – third world countries included:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
If you would like to read more about the origins of the Internet – please check out the link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
An interesting fact: As of 2009, an estimated quarter of Earth’s population uses the services of the Internet.
November 10, 2009 at 3:45 pm (Uncategorized)
We have some ‘flakey’ Internet issues today – stay tuned!
November 4, 2009 at 7:39 pm (Uncategorized)
As I understand it……..this has been an extremely popular class……..The Technoloygy Essentials class is being offered by FCS Professional Development. The two scheduled classes filled up quickly – new dates will open soon – and I will email with more information as soon as I hear. Thanks for supporting technology.
P.S. Don’t forget to update your blog!
October 21, 2009 at 1:46 pm (Just Because)
The first ‘portable computer’ (laptop) was developed by Adam Osborne and it weighed 24 pounds and had a 5″ screen.
The first computer was invented by Germany’s Konrad Zuse in his parents living room in 1936 to 1938, and is considered to be the first electrical binary programmable computer.
And just because – the weird word of the week is: plimpplamppletteren – which is the Dutch word for skimming stones.
October 16, 2009 at 3:09 pm (Google)
Thanks Ms. Simmons for this useful information.
October 16, 2009 at 11:20 am (Oliver's Adventures)
Learn more about the science of helium – and yes, this is a cheesy attempt to include one of the newest photos of my grandson, Oliver, (who BTW is 9 months old today) ….please read on.
But it got me thinking – what is helium and where does it come from? I know you can go to the grocery store and have the salesperson fill up brightly colored balloons for all occasions……and I know Helium is an odorless and colorless gas …..but the question still remains……..where does Helium come from?
Information such as the origins of Helium can be accessed via resources such as Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a ‘free encyclopedia’.
Wikipedia is written collaboratively by an international (and mostly anonymous) group of volunteers. Anyone with internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles. There are no requirements to provide one’s real name when contributing; rather, each writer’s privacy is protected unless they choose to reveal their identity themselves. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference web sites, attracting around 65 million visitors monthly as of 2009. There are more than 75,000 active contributors working on more than 14,000,000 articles in more than 260 languages. As of today, there are 3,063,696 articles in English. Every day, hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world collectively make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to augment the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia.
October 14, 2009 at 6:31 pm (Computer Lab)
As always, thank you.
