Search results matching tag 'internet'

Protecting Your Personal Information on the Web

wag.mado@evpl — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:16:00 GMT

Do you know what kind of personal information about you can be found on the internet? Almost everyone who uses the internet has questioned at one time or another, the safety of their personal information on the web. Most people wonder if they are doing everything they can to protect that information.

If you are interested in finding out more about this important topic, please join us for the next Savvy Senior Series program on Wednesday, July 11 at 6:00 PM in Central Library’s Browning Room B. Dr. Kenneth Shemroske from the University of Southern Indiana will present, "Protecting Your Personal Information on the Web. He will offer information and tips, as well as answers to your questions.

As always, this program is free and open to the public.

For information on future Savvy Senior Series programs, please click here.

SOPA & PIPA gaining attention after protest blackouts

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:51:00 GMT

With some websites (such as Google and Flickr) making statements today, along with other sites completely shutting down for the day (such as Wikipedia, reddit, and WordPress), the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) are gaining mainstream attention.

SOPA, in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PIPA, in the U.S. Senate, are bills are aimed at foreign websites that infringe copyrighted material. The US Department of Justice would have the authority to block access to, as well as force advertisers to cease business with, an infringing site. Search engines would also have to remove these sites from their search results.

Arguments against these bills (made by the tech giants named above, as well as eBay, Craigslist, Twitter, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and many more) claim that they're too vaguely written, they won't actually curb piracy, and that they could be applied to their own websites. This is a big concern with sites that allow users to upload content, as the sites fear that they could be completely shut down due to infringing content that a single user might upload.

However, SOPA/PIPA supporters claim that things are being blown out of proportion. Cary Sherman, CEO of the RIAA, has stated that there are safeguards in place to prevent false claims against sites.

This is an extremely basic look at SOPA & PIPA. This post is intended to be an informative post, leading readers to additional/complete information; this is NOT an opinion piece. Take a look at the additional info yourself, and if YOU have an opinion feel free to post it in the comments section!

More Information

Library of Congress: Read both the SOPA and PIPA bills in their entirety.
InfoWorld: "SOPA and PIPA: The pros and cons" article.
CNET News: "RIAA chief: Copyright bills won't kill the Internet" article.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context database: In this database, search for SOPA or PIPA for news, audio recordings, and magazine articles about these bills.
Stop American Censorship: AmericanCensorship.org, an anti-SOPA/PIPA site, provides infographics and videos about the bills.
SOPA Strike: A list of the websites striking and/or shutting down today in protest to SOPA/PIPA.

DISCLAIMER: These links are provided as a convenience, offering differing viewpoints. The links are NOT an endorsement of these sites, nor the content contained within.

Know before you go: travel planning online

googler@evpl — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:50:00 GMT

Wow. There are a LOT of travel websites out there. This is the time of year when blogs and magazines start rounding up some good sites for booking, researching, and deciding on your travel plans, which is a really good thing, because I think most of us would be lost without recommendations in this area.

Lifehacker published a post in April about the basics of buying airline tickets, figuring out the right time to buy, setting up a few passive tools for making the best deals come to your doorstep, and in general highlighting how to go about finding great deals on airfare. It includes information on

RetailMeNot : a source of coupon codes
Sidestep's list of current airline fees
Wikitravel's article on how to fly discount airlines

Booklist just published "Know Before You Go" (April 2010), focusing on sites that reach a particular niche in the world of travel. They include

Eurotrip : an online travel planner for European destinations, covering rail and air travel, lodging, activities. Especially recommended for backpackers.
MomsMinivan : ideas to keep kids entertained on those long car rides.
RoadsideAmerica : a guide to weird and wonderful roadside attractions

Kiplinger's "28 Best Travel Sites" (published in Augest 2009) presented what they felt are the best sites for airfares, lodging, car rentals and other key areas. They recommend many of the sites you've already heard of, like Kayak, Priceline, and Trip Advisor, but some others they cover are

Laterooms : for snagging last-minute bargainss on lodging
US Parks : for stretching your dollars while taking advantage of our amazing national parks system
CruiseComplete : where more than 300 travel agents vie to give you the lowest prices for dates, ports and ships you specify.

Happy travels! And if there are other sites you swear by, leave a comment!

Word Clouds as Works of Art

Bufkinite@evpl — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:51:00 GMT

Noodling around on the web is great fun because in doing so, I sometimes find things that I end up being amazed by, but would otherwise never have thought interesting. The web site wordle.net is one such example. You can enter any text into it - love letters, web pages, emails, anything! - and it will create a word cloud which gives greater prominence to words appearing more frequently in the source text.

You can play around with the results, changing fonts, color schemes, the direction of the type (e.g. horizontal or vertical), and the overall layout. The results are surprising, and very often stunning.

I'm a word person - I not only love to use words, I enjoy finding just the right word, and am frequently peeved (friends say more than I should be) by the unnecessary use of words, or the incorrect use of words. (Don't even get me started on words like "digitalization" or "irregardless"!) So finding a web site that does nothing but render words into things of striking beauty is a real pleasure for me!

Just to give you an example, here is a word cloud - courtesy of http://www.wordle.net - using the text of this blog post!

Check it out!

Speak your mind…opinions welcome, wanted, and appreciated

SuDocQueen@evpl — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:11:00 GMT

Hello out there to everyone in EVPL blogland,

I have a dilemma that I could use your help with. Every year I sit down to plan a workshop on useful government documents and websites (more websites than actual documents now-a-days) and every year I get overwhelmed with the glut of information I could offer… Do I focus on how to find useful health and nutrition information? Or on how to find those interesting statistics you always hear quoted from the Census and Labor Departments? Or what about consumer safety information? Or how to navigate Social Security’s website? Or how about following legislation? The list can go on and on. So, I’m opening the floor to all of you, the people that the government is trying to reach with all of this information. What do you most want to know about? What do you need help discovering? Let me know how best to help you.

Sound financial advice…

SuDocQueen@evpl — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:49:00 GMT

There’s a lot that goes into understanding money management, from learning how to budget, to how to save and invest wisely. You have to look in a lot of different places for good advice on these subjects which takes a lot of time. So, the U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Commission decided to lend a helping hand and shorten the search for information. They’ve created http://www.mymoney.gov/default.shtml. The website pulls together good, solid advice on all aspects of budgeting and financial planning throughout life. It includes calculators, advice on avoiding scams, how to deal financially with life changing events, taxes, and even information on starting a small business.

There’s an immense amount of information right at your fingertips from the site, but if it’s all just a little overwhelming to you, and you’d prefer to sit down with some good old-fashioned paper in your hand, you can do that too. You can order their free “My Money” Tool Kit from the website, or over the telephone. Just call 1 (888) Mymoney. That's 1 (888) 696 – 6639, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. eastern time (except Federal holidays). The tool kit won’t give you quite the depth and breadth of information that the website will, but it will offer a good start for those seeking basic financial advice.

Services available to laptop users at EVPL libraries

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:31:00 GMT

Do you have a laptop? Bring it in on your next visit to the EVPL to take advantage of the following services!

Wireless Internet Access

Wireless internet access (aka Wi-Fi) is available for free at all locations. If your laptop has a wireless network card (odds are that it does), you'll simply need to enable it and connect to the "evpl-public" network.

Wireless internet access is compatible with Windows & Mac laptops, and most portable devices containing a Wi-Fi radio (such as cellphones, PDAs, etc). Check out our Wireless Internet Access page for step-by-step instructions on connecting with your specific operating system.

Wired Internet Access

If your laptop doesn't have wireless capabilities, wired internet access is also available at all locations. Bring an ethernet cable with you and ask a staff member for assistance. Wired internet access is compatible with Windows & Mac laptops.

Laptop Printing

A service we just recently added, laptop users can now print to library printers while at any EVPL location! By running a small print client from our website, library printers at the user's current location will appear on their laptop just like locally-connected printers would. Upon printing from the laptop, the print job can be paid for & retrieved from any Print Release Station at the user's current location.

Laptop printing is compatible with Windows laptops; Mac compatibility is not available. Check out our Laptop Printing page for step-by-step instructions on using the Mobile Print Client on your laptop. As the Mobile Print Client is only available on personal laptops used within the library, the "Launch Mobile Print Client" button is purposely disabled on all other computers.

With the increasing popularity of laptops, netbooks, and other connected portable devices, we're pleased to offer these connectivity options to our users. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please post them in the comments section below!

Library Elf now a paid-subscription service; here's our free alternative!

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:07:00 GMT

Library Elf, a free service that library patrons all around the world could use to keep tabs on their & their family's due dates, is no longer free. Check out their announcement here, which details the reasons for the change.

Since Library Elf began, we've been adding features to our own "My Account" section, many of which duplicate Elf's features. This means two things:

The EVPL is not currently planning on subscribing to Library Elf.
You don't need to either!

As long as we have your email address on your library account, you'll receive these email notifications free of charge! Follow these steps to make sure we have your correct email address on file:

Hit up the My Account page and log into your account using your name & library card number.
Click on the "Modify Personal Info" button.
Make sure the "I would like to receive my notices from the library by" option is set to "Email", and ensure we have your correct email address.
Click the "Submit" link.

Once this is completed, you'll begin receiving the following notifications via email:

Hold Pickup Notice: When an item you've had on hold is available at the requested library, you'll receive this notice within 24 hours.
Due Date Reminder: These emails get sent out 2 days before an item is due. A nice reminder to avoid those late fines!
First Overdue Notice: Sent out when an item is 4 days (for feature DVDs & Bestseller Express titles) or 7 days (all other materials) overdue.

Patrons are still free to subscribe to Library Elf's Premium service; however, the need to do so has greatly diminished. Those with Library Elf accounts who will be relying on our own email notifications from now on have been asked to close their Elf accounts; instructions on doing so can be found at http://www.libraryelf.com/FAQ.aspx#closeAcct.

If you have any questions or comments about our email notifications, please post them in the comments section below. Questions, comments, or feedback about Library Elf should be submitted to them. Library Elf is and has always been a third-party company with no affiliation to the EVPL, offering their notification services to patrons at libraries all over the world.

Government Fuel Economy Website Updated to 2009 Model Year

Bufkinite@evpl — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:03:00 GMT

The US Department of Energy (DOE) and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have developed a fuel economy web site to try and get the word out about the benefits of using more fuel-efficient vehicles. The web site contains an electronic version of the 2009 Fuel Economy Guide, and features updated fuel economy data for new and used passenger vehicles dating back to 1985, allows side-by-side comparisons of up to four vehicles you choose, and offers fuel-saving tips.

The web site also contains vehicle-specific air pollution emissions information and safety ratings, and provides links to car buying Web sites. This web site can help you make informed automotive purchase decisions, and can help you gain fuel economy with the car you have.

How does your car compare? Find out!

Meta-search engines

googler@evpl — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:06:00 GMT

A meta-search engine is a web searcher that sends your inquiry to Google and to other search engines, rather than searching its own database. This review at a "search engine optimization" site (which basically means they're more concerned with results placement than doing effective research, but still they know their search engines) takes the view that meta-search engines aren't really all that much better than Google. I generally use them only when I have a very specific inquiry with a lot of search terms. (For some reason this review don't consider AllPlus, although it may not be any better.)

The review did tell me something I didn't know before, though -- there's a meta-search engine, FuzzFind, that includes Delicious in its search. Delicious is a social bookmarking site. Social bookmarking means that instead of (or in addition to) website bookmarks that are stored on one's own PC, people can store them online, in a central location. This creates a sort of recommendation system -- if more people have bookmarked site A than site B, you might want to look at site A first. It's a basically another way to get some kind of indication of quality in a results search, so it's great to see that included in a meta-search engine.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!