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7 Tips For Effective Facebook People SearchMonday, March 1st, 2010
Even if Facebook’s Friend Suggestions does a wonderful job of helping you discover new friends, there are better ways to conduct a Facebook people search for those you are interested in. In this article, let us look at tips for doing a Facebook people search more effectively. We will cover both Facebook’s inbuilt FriendFinder as well as a third-party application for advanced people search. Note that these searches find people based on the information they have entered in their Facebook profile.
Facebook People Search with FriendFinderFacebook Friend Finder is a collection of search tools to help you find people you know on Facebook. You can access the Friend Finder page from the Connect With Friends widget on the right sidebar on the Facebook homepage.
Let’s see the different ways you can conduct a Facebook people search using Friend Finder. #1: Find People From Your Email Address BookFacebook can find people for you from your email address book. All major webmail services like Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail are supported.
If you use desktop email apps like MS Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, or Apple Mail, click the Upload Contact File link from where you can download an app for Outlook or upload contact lists from other apps. #2: Find ClassmatesBased on information in the Education and Work section of their profiles, Facebook helps you find former or current high school or university classmates.
#3: Find CoworkersSimilar to the Classmates search, you can also search for Coworkers in your past or current organizations by entering the name of the Company.
#4: Find People From Instant Messaging (IM) NetworksYou can simply enter your AOL, ICQ, or Windows Live Messenger credentials to let Facebook find your IM buddies. Advanced Search ApplicationAdvanced Search 2.0 is a better tool to search for friends on Facebook. Visit this link to access and install the application. If prompted to share your email address, click No, and click Click here to add the “Advanced Search” application link at the bottom. Click Allow in the Allow Access? prompt to proceed. Advanced Search first prompts you to fill out your profile and contact information to help others find you. You can choose to enter additional information about yourself if you like or leave it blank and click Save and Continue. You can optionally invite your friends to try the app or Skip that step. Finally, click Add Bookmark to access Advanced Search quickly from your profile.
After you complete these steps, you can access Advanced Search at any time by clicking the Applications link in your Facebook sidebar. #5: Find People by Age/Gender/Relationship Status/Star SignOn the Find People tab, you can search for people of a specific Gender and within a certain Age group. You can search by specific Relationship Status, or by their Star Sign. You can even search for people who have the same Birthday as you.
#6: Find People by Location (Country/Region)You can combine the above search restricting to a specific Country, Region, and City. For example, you can search for single people in your area according to their Star Sign and who they are interested in meeting. #7: Find People with Similar InterestsFor each of the above searches, you can further refine them to find people who share your interests. You can find people according to their Political preferences, or their Religious beliefs. You can restrict searches to people who are members of a Facebook Group.
Best of all, you can use this to find people who are fans of a specific Artist, Celebrity, Politician, Author, or Product/Company Facebook Fan Page. Using Advanced Search 2.0, you can mix and match these search criteria to your hearts content. This app currently indexes profiles of about 240 million people in its database. The lesser criteria you use, the more people you will find. Did you find new friends on Facebook using these tips? Let us know in the comments! Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
Read the rest here: DIY and Danger [DIY Week]Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Photo by nttrbx. Each of us has an idea of what is and isn’t dangerous, but when pressed for specifics, it can be very difficult to make a clear definition. In this way, it’s a little like great art; “I don’t know much about it, but I know what I like.” Having spent the better part of two years talking with parents, teachers, and kids about danger, I can say with some certainty that no two people can agree on what is dangerous. The parent who won’t let his children climb trees may turn around and park the kids in front of the television for two hours a night, and the home-schooling mother who sends her kids into the woods for the day with a sack-lunch and a rifle won’t let them walk through the mall alone. Our perception of danger is as highly personal as our phobias—and often about as rational. These skewed perceptions of the relative risks of various activities lead to fear-based decision making. It’s not just the elimination of shop classes and the removal of trees from playgrounds, but somersaults, cartwheels, running, and even tag have been banned at numerous schools around the country (and the world)—it’s that we start to see this as “reasonable.” Over time, the fear of liability causes us to start to perceive these important activities as suspect, despite the fact that every study ever done on the topic of recess activities shows that the more active the kids are during recess, the better they do in school. The German philosopher Goethe once famously said, “The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety.” By preventing children from running around, climbing trees, and making stuff with their own two hands, we are denying them the very experiences that lay the foundations for genius, creativity, and perseverance. I am often asked by incredulous radio and TV hosts what possible benefit there is in letting a child lick a 9-volt battery, and what is most amazing is that they are surprised that we have a valid answer (it shows kids that taste is an electrical signal sent from our tongues to our brains, and that we can bypass the normal chemical sensing of our taste-buds and stimulate them directly). While this is true for every topic in our book, it is also true for nearly every activity you can think of—but when I say something like that, people inevitably leap to the conclusion that I’m suggesting we give toddlers chainsaws. This is because we are programmed to take things to their illogical extremes. Unfortunately, by always taking things to their illogical extremes, we focus on the worst-case scenario without regard to how unlikely it may be. Yes, letting kids run around at recess carries the risk that they may injure themselves, but what are the chances that it will be a significant injury? Statistically, it is true that every year a number of children will end up in the hospital as a result of playing at recess, but compare that number to number of children who do not go to the hospital and it becomes an statistically insignificant number. Likewise, teaching a child how to solder carries the risk that they may burn themselves, but will they burn themselves badly? Small injuries are part of the learning process and we need to treat them as an opportunity rather than an event to be avoided at all costs, because the cost of a perfectly safe childhood is a lifetime of apathy and underachievement.
View original post here: Make Classes Fun By Teaching History CSI StyleThursday, February 25th, 2010
Fortunately for kids today, times have changed, and the Information Super Highway plowed over the Brady-Bunch approach to teaching and learning. How do history teacher’s make learning fun these days? Some use programs like Teen Second Life or materials from the National Archives, but the teacher still has to create his or her own lesson plans for those tools to work.
My hope was to find a lesson plan site for history that was both free and fun. I wanted to find something that would engage the students and foster a love of learning while relying on ethical use of internet content. In hunting around for a best practice site, I stumbled on a nugget of gold: HSI: Historical Scene Investigation.
Like a CSI, kids solve “crimes” using evidence (historical documents). Although the site is simplistic in style, the creators of the site, Dr. Kathleen Owings Swan, Assistant Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of Kentucky and Dr. Mark Hofer, Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at the College of William and Mary, did their homework in creating these historical investigation lesson plans. The site is easy to use, and students and teacher’s have no problem accessing the links. While the graphics could be a little flashier, the ease of use is most important, and students with dial up (ye gads, they still exist?) can access the materials from home as well as students with speedier networks.
Students with alternate abilities will be able to use screen readers, and homeschoolers or people interested in learning a bit about history can dive right in! While the site appears to be geared toward a younger audience (K-8), the primary documents used in the cases are excellent starting points for teachers or parents in advanced grades who want to buff up the assessment or challenge. The historical investigation lesson plans cover 14 cases, and all of them include a student and teacher view. Readers are encouraged to submit ideas, as well. Each case comes with links to primary documents and offers up a challenge for students to investigate.
One investigation, “The Case of Sam Smiley,” asks students to create a timeline, build a personality profile of him, and then generate a hypothesis for his cause of death. This is the only case that is not historical, but it teaches students the tools historians use to crack cases. All of the historical cases offer accurate documentation and prompt students to rely on their analytical abilities in determining an outcome.
My favorite, “I Smelt a Rat! Constitution Controversy” asks students to look at the men who did not sign the Declaration of Independence. After reading an excellent selection of primary documents, students must determine why men like Patrick Henry and George Mason did not support the signing of the Constitution. Truly, I never really thought about the guys that stormed out the door and ran home to complain to their wives. HSI: Historical Scene Investigation is a rock-star educational site that engages students and helps them think beyond dates and times. Students become stakeholders in the learning process without having to dress up like Benjamin Franklin. Truly, the digital age is good. Are there any teachers out there who source the Internet for cool teaching tools and lesson plans? Share them with us in the comments.
Read the original post: Joomla Tutorials (Part 6) – Installing Filezilla and 7ZipWednesday, December 9th, 2009Joomla Tutorials (Part 6) – Installing Filezilla and 7Zip www.spectraelite.com Part 2 CD2 Software and Tools to develop sites in Joomla. 2.1. Essential tools to build websites in Joomla. 2.2. Download your tools for FREE. 2.3. HTML editor Modify and create HTML code without knowing HTML. 2.3.1. Installing the HTML editor. 2.4. Image Editor Change the look of your templates at will. 2.4.1. Installing your image editor software. 2.5. Home Web Server Building websites without having a hosting account. 2.5.1. Installing your Home Web Server. 2.6. Download and Install the zip utility compression tool. 2.7. Download and install your FTP software. 2.8. Download your Joomla CMS Package. 2.9. Unzipping and creating a folder for you Joomla system.
The rest is here: Joomla Tutorials (Part 4) – Installing Fireworks CS4Wednesday, December 9th, 2009Joomla Tutorials (Part 4) – Installing Fireworks CS4 www.spectraelite.com Part 2: CD2 Software and Tools to develop sites in Joomla. 2.1. Essential tools to build websites in Joomla. 2.2. Download your tools for FREE. 2.3. HTML editor Modify and create HTML code without knowing HTML. 2.3.1. Installing the HTML editor. 2.4. Image Editor Change the look of your templates at will. 2.4.1. Installing your image editor software. 2.5. Home Web Server Building websites without having a hosting account. 2.5.1. Installing your Home Web Server. 2.6. Download and Install the zip utility compression tool. 2.7. Download and install your FTP software. 2.8. Download your Joomla CMS Package. 2.9. Unzipping and creating a folder for you Joomla system.
Continued here: Joomla Tutorials (Part 3) – Installing Dreamweaver CS4Wednesday, December 9th, 2009Joomla Tutorials (Part 3) – Installing Dreamweaver CS4 www.spectraelite.com Part 2 CD2 Software and Tools to develop sites in Joomla. 2.1. Essential tools to build websites in Joomla. 2.2. Download your tools for FREE. 2.3. HTML editor Modify and create HTML code without knowing HTML. 2.3.1. Installing the HTML editor. 2.4. Image Editor Change the look of your templates at will. 2.4.1. Installing your image editor software. 2.5. Home Web Server Building websites without having a hosting account. 2.5.1. Installing your Home Web Server. 2.6. Download and Install the zip utility compression tool. 2.7. Download and install your FTP software. 2.8. Download your Joomla CMS Package. 2.9. Unzipping and creating a folder for you Joomla system.
See the original post: WordCamp NYC 2009 Ignite – Hyperlocal Journalism using BuddyPressThursday, December 3rd, 2009WordCamp NYC 2009 Ignite – Hyperlocal Journalism using BuddyPress At wordcamp NYC 2009 Ted Mann gives a lightning talk on Gannett news use of wordpress MU and buddypress to manage a network of hyperlocal news sites in New Jersey.. Baruch College NYC Nov 15 2009. www.turkeymonkey.com More vids: www.isoc-ny.org ISOC_NY 1686-23
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The best part about 
Ed. note: Gever Tully, DIYer and author of 
As a kid, I shuddered when history teachers tried to make memorizing dates and facts fun. Generally, dressing up and acting out the part of Susan B. Anthony had something to do with my personal distrust of 80s-style active learning techniques.
