Memorial Day-Thank you to all who serve

This weekend, we celebrate Memorial Day 2011, a day meant to remember and give thanks to all those serving in our military and especially those who have served and have since gone home to heaven...

I received this poem a few weeks ago and feel that it's a wonderful tribute to all those whom we remember this weekend. So as we take a moment to remember and be grateful for the selfless sacarafices so many have and continue to make on our behalf, take a moment to say a prayer of thanks for each and everyone of them - and for those still serving, we thank you and pray that you all come home safely to your families.....

THE FINAL INSPECTION

The Soldier stood and faced God,
Which must always come to pass.
He hoped his shoes were shining,
Just as brightly as his brass..

'Step forward now, Soldier ,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?'

The soldier squared his shoulders and said,
'No, Lord, I guess I ain't.
Because those of us who carry guns,
Can't always be a saint.

I've had to work most Sundays,
And at times my talk was tough.
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.

But, I never took a penny,
That wasn't mine to keep...
Though I worked a lot of overtime,
When the bills got just too steep.

And I never passed a cry for help,
Though at times I shook with fear..
And sometimes, God, forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.

I know I don't deserve a place,
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around,
Except to calm their fears

If you've a place for me here, Lord,
It needn't be so grand.
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand.

There was a silence all around the throne,
Where the saints had often trod.
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.

'Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burdens well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell.'

Author Unknown~

SKYPE HAVING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Many of us use SKYPE daily and if so, you know they are having some technical difficulties right now. They are working on the problems and hope to have a fix soon. You can check out this information for yourself as to what to do in the interim to fix it, which we copies from the MSNBC website:

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/26/6722180-skypes-not-working-right-now-heres-how-to-fix-it?GT1=43001

While you wait for Skype to fix things though, you can still use the service if you're willing to do a little bit of work. The "Next Web" has helpfully provided instructions on a trick which will let you sign in through your official Skype desktop client of choice (or you can wait until Skype fixes the problems):

WINDOWS VISTA & WINDOWS 7

1. Close Skype

· a. Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
· b. Choose Quit

2. Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.

· a. Click Start, type run and press Enter
· b. Type control folders and click OK.
· c. Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.

3. Locate the shared.xml file.

· a. Click Start, type run and press Enter.
· b. Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
· c. Delete the shared.xml file.

4. Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

WINDOWS XP

1. Close Skype
· a. Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
· b. Choose Quit.

2. Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.

· a. Click Start and then Run…
· b. Type control folders and click OK.
· c. Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.

3. Locate the shared.xml file

· a. Click Start and then Run…
· b. Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
· c. Delete the shared.xml file.

4. Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

MAC OS X

1. Quit Skype.
2. Go to the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/
3. Delete the file shared.xml (it will be recreated once you open Skype again, this is fine).
4. Start Skype.

Please note on the MAC OS X that the ~ sign means your home folder. You can find your home folder by opening Finder and selecting Go > Home from the menu bar or pressing Command (Apple), Shift and H keys at the same time.

OS stands for Operating Systems

Photo Scanning Tips

Most of us have old family photos that we would like to share - either in a book or movie maker project, or in online photo albums or facebook - or just to have additional copies made.. So scanning allows us to "convert" those photo to digital and save them on our computers.. Here are a few tips when you are scanning photos and documents...

1) Be sure to remove any dirt, lint, or smudges from what you are scanning with a soft brush or lint-free photowipe. I don’t recommend “Canned air” especially for older photos that could be damaged…

2) Make sure your scanner glass is clean of all lint, fingerprints, smudges and particles-use a camera lens wipe, or if you use a glass cleaner, never spray it on the glass surface; always spray it on a lint free cloth and then wipe the glass.

3) Have clean hands, so you don’t leave skin oil on your photos or scanner glass. Many professionals wear white cotton gloves (available from photo stores and hardware stores) when they handle photos...

4) Choose the type of scan-it’s always best to scan in color, even all those old black and whites, so you have more manipulation options when you use your photo editing software, such as Picasa, Photoshop etc.

5) For the best scan resolution (quality), rule of thumb is a minimum of 300dpi (Dots Per Inch) for decent quality for enhancement and restoration techniques and 600dpi or greater if you plan to store these on CD or DVD.

6) Only scan “1” photo or document at a time. If you put multiple photos – you will have 1 scanned item with multiple photos or documents in it…

7) Once you scan your item, before you "save it" be sure the “sizing handles” are around just the actual photo and not the entire scan plate. And don’t do cropping here – save the actual photo, and then you can crop and enhance with your photo editing software.

8) Saving what you've scanned - Some scanners allow you to choose the folder where you want to name and save the scanned photo – others will automatically save it in the “My Scan Folder” and name it with a numbering sequence (the folder will have the date you did the scanning, and each scanned item will have sequential numbers, ie Scan 0001, Scan 0002, Scan 0003 – and the folder name might be: 2011-3.7 (9) – the number in parenthesis indicates the number of scans you did that day.

9) Once you are done scanning – if your scanned items are in the “My Scan” Folder, be sure to “rename” your scanned items instead of leaving them with the scan numbers – otherwise if you combine several days of scanning into one folder – multiple items would then have the same numbers which is unacceptable and you could lose photos…

It's wonderful to scan as many of our old photos and documents as possible, so that they are identified and in a format for "the future" versus sitting in boxes or closet drawers that may then be someday thrown away because no one knows who or what they are ...

Yes, it's time consuming, but so worth the effort...Enjoy

Websites to find new font style designs - free

What’s a font you ask?? Fonts are the design style of what we type – letters, numbers, characters… and there are countless design styles to choose from and new ones being developed as we speak…

Over the years many of us have made the mistake of “purchasing” software so that we could add more font design style choices to our computers – or we have downloaded thousands and then wondered why our word processing program was running so slowly….

Personally I enjoy using different fonts when I’m creating maybe a new invitation or writing a story or new flyer or designing a new power point presentation… Instead of installing all of them to my computer, I have a list of websites in my favorites – in a folder named free fonts – that I then visit when I’m looking for a new font style design… here they are in alphabetical order.. once I find a few that I’d like to try, then I download them…

http://www.ddfont.com/

http://www.fonts.com/

http://www.fonts500.com/

http://www.searchfreefonts.com/

http://www.typenow.net/

Improve your typing skills for free

Want to improve your typing skills – get a little faster or improve your accuracy? Did you know there are many programs online available to help you do just that and that they are free… Here are some favorite websites recommended by fellow students – and as always if you know of a website that others might enjoy, be sure to let me know…

Although most of these websites teach typing for the QWERTY keyboard, which is what so many of us use – some of them also offer typing help for those who might be using a DVORAK keyboard.. not sure of the difference – check our blog posting topic list – either keyboard, dvorak or qwerty for a detailed explanation…

Like so many other things in life, it just takes a little practice.. so Enjoy…

http://www.typingweb.com/

http://www.freetypinggame.net/

http://www.alfatyping.com/

http://www.powertyping.com/

Greetings from MCC Library

Good morning everyone… Just a reminder that with the summer month’s ahead we hope you will stop by and visit us at the Mohave Community College Library here in Lake Havasu City and take advantage of all the wonderful features we have to offer you..

If we haven’t met, my name is Wendi Birkhead and I am the campus librarian of the Hodel Library on the Lake Havasu Campus of Mohave Community College.

I want to invite you to visit us and find out about all the wonderful books, DVDs, audiobooks, and electronic materials we have to offer. Many people don’t realize that we are open to everyone – students and non-students, alike – and anyone can get a library card for free. We carry bestsellers, fiction and nonfiction.

Through our website, www.mohave.edu/library, you have access to fantastic databases such as Ancestry.com, Heritage Quest, Consumer Health Complete, the Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center and more. You can also use our databases to look at articles from journals such as Consumer Reports, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, PC World, U.S. News and World Reports, etc.

Please give us a call at 928-453-5809 to ask for more information. You can also come on by and visit with us in person at Mohave Community College 1977 Acoma Blvd. West (we’re located toward the back of the campus, not far from the 500 Building). Let us know how we can help.

Wendi Birkhead, MLS
Campus Librarian, Hodel Library - Lake Havasu City Campus
Mohave Community College
1977 W. Acoma Blvd, LHC, AZ 86403
Tel 928-505-3311; Fax 928-453-8335
Toll Free: 1.866.664.2832
wbirkhead@mohave.edu or
www.mohave.edu/library

System Restore & Backup for Windows 7

System restore, a great feature in earlier operating systems since Windows XP, is a little different in Windows 7, with lots of improvements, so that it quickly and easily back-ups and allows restoration for not only our system but all files & folders, so you're always prepared for the worst …

First, understand the difference between backing up the system and backing up our “files”:

SYSTEM IMAGE BACKUP: Windows Backup in Windows 7, provides the ability to create a system image, which is an exact image of a drive. A system image includes Windows and your system settings, programs, and files. You can use a system image to restore the contents of your computer if your hard drive or computer ever stops working. When you restore your computer from a system image, it is a complete restoration; you can't choose individual items to restore, and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced. Although this type of backup includes your personal files, we recommend that you back up your files regularly using Windows Backup so that you can restore individual files and folders as needed. When you set up scheduled file backup, you can choose whether you want to include a system image. This system image only includes the drives required for Windows to run. You can manually create a system image if you want to include additional data drives.

FILE BACKUP - Windows Backup allows you to make copies of data files for all people that use the computer. You can let Windows choose what to back up or you can select the individual folders, libraries, and drives that you want to back up. By default, your backups are created on a regular schedule. You can change the schedule and you can manually create a backup at any time. Once you set up Windows Backup, Windows keeps track of the files and folders that are new or modified and adds them to your backup

Windows 7 can choose what to back up, or you can pick individual folders, libraries, and drives yourself. Windows 7 can back up files on whatever schedule you choose, so once you set it you can forget about it. You can also back up to another drive or a DVD.

Note-for those of you who are using Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate editions, you also can choose to back up your files to a network.

TO BACK UP YOUR FILES:

Open Backup and Restore by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Backup and Restore.

Now you will do one of the following:

If you've never used Windows Backup before, click Set up backup, and then follow the steps in the wizard. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

If you've created a backup before, you can wait for your regularly scheduled backup to occur, or you can manually create a new backup by clicking Back up now. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

TO RESTORE FILES:

You restore files using the Restore Files wizard. You can restore individual files, multiple files, or all files in a backup. You can also restore just your files or files for all people that use the computer

System Restore for Windows XP & Vista

System restore is great feature in Windows XP & Vista that allows you to take your computer back to an earlier time to undo any harmful changes that might have occurred – and you won’t lose any recently stored work, such as emails, favorites/bookmarks, documents, photos, music etc.

Your computer automatically creates restore points (called checkpoints) or you can create your own (something many of us do prior to downloading new software or making major changes)…

START YOUR COMPUTER..

• Log on to Windows as an Administrator



• Click Start, the click All Programs, then click Accessories, then click System Tools



• Now when the list of Tools appear, choose/left click on "System Restore"



• The "Welcome to System Restore page/dialog box opens"



• You will see three options: 1) Restore my computer to an earlier time, 2) Create a restore point, 3) Undo my last restoration



• Choose/click on “Restore my computer to an earlier time” - click Next



• The calendar will appear – dates that are bold are dates when restorations “checkpoints” were created and are saved for you to "restore to"



• Choose/click the date you want and in the left side of the screen you will now see the date & time of that restoration



• Click Next, restoration will be done and it will confirm that it was successful

Happy Mother's Day

First of all as we celebrate "Mothers Day" this weekend, on behalf of everyone at Mohave Community College and me, we want to wish all our students who are moms, grandmothers, aunts, godmothers and those of you who fill these rolls without the official titles – a very wonderful Mother’s Day Holiday and thank you for all that you do for those around you…Cherie Houston

Mother’s Day is and should be a time to celebrate, not just by buying gifts, cards and flowers (now don't get me wrong those are very nice gestures) but ask any mom and she'll tell you that more important than gifts are the hugs, phone calls, the touches, being included, remembered and thought of throughout the year, not just on Mother's Day. Now those are the "gifts" that are more important than anything purchased…

A poem that might just say it all:

UNSAID

~ Author Unknown

Somehow we always say the least

to those we love the best

And hope our thoughts are understood,

Although they're unexpressed.

That's why it means so very much,

when days like this are here

To say how very much you're loved

each day throughout the year.

Happy Mother's Day

Not sure why and how the "Mothers Day" holiday began, you might want to check out a few websites we found…

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/mothersday/a/early.htm

http://www.biography.com/womens-history/mothers-day.jsp

http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/about-mothersday/history/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother's_Day

What do Internet Error Messages Mean?

From time to time when you are browsing on the Internet and trying to open a website or e-mail you might get “an error code” – The following is a list of the most common Internet error codes and what they mean so that you know what to do and why you received them…

Common Internet Error Codes/Messages and what they mean:

Error codes/messages, number #400-499 tell us that the web server cannot find the content/web page or that we don’t have the correct permissions to access it.. The most common error messages received are:

• 400 - This means the Internet address you typed in was incorrect and the server couldn't understand your request. So be sure you haven’t made a typing error and spelled the web address incorrectly
• 401 – This means the page/web address you were trying to access can not be loaded until you first log on with a valid user ID and password, so double check that you aren’t making a mistake when you are typing in your username and/or password
• 402 – This is a “Payment Required” Error
• 403 – Means you are trying to open a website or page that is “forbidden” and you are being blocked by that domain (web address)
• 404 – The host server can’t find the “website” at the web address/URL you typed in. Either you have mistyped the URL, the website no longer exists, or you’ve been given the wrong URL/web address. This browser error message also often appears as “The page cannot be found”.
• 408 - This is time out error – it simply means you didn’t send the request within the allotted time that the server set for you.

URL stands for Universal Resource Locator

Domain/Domain Name is the “core” of identity on the Internet. It is the web address that is used to find your website. This web address name is yours entirely and there is only one website (web address) with that name, because once you register a “domain name-web address” no one else can use it – much like a telephone number.

QR CODES (Quick Response)

While in Las Vegas recently, we stopped at the Hard Rock Café and noticed throughout the hotel, almost all of the countless items on display worn by various entertainment artists had these little squares.. . These little squares were new – they were black & white, probably 6-8” sq. tiles – quite similar to sections of what we call “bar codes” but different. I couldn’t find any explanation as to what they were…

I’d intended to “Google” them, but hadn’t done that yet and when I mentioned them during one of our classes here in AZ a student solved the puzzle. By the way Harley-thank you… Harley is keeping current on technology and had recently read an article which explained they were QR Codes. Harley was kind enough to send me an article he’d read, some of which I've included below.. So combined with what he sent me and a little more research here’s an “English” explanation of how & what they are for…

They were initially designed and used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, but now these QR codes are used everywhere both commercially and residentially. One use growing in popularity is that which was intendd at the Hard Rock Café – in the display cases, they encourage/allow Smartphone (cell) users with the right app (called mobile tagging) to aim their Smartphone at the code, which in turn display all the info & a photo of what’s in the case OR it can compose an email or text message for use later… Users can also generate and print their own QR codes for others to scan and use by visiting one of several free QR code generating site – WOW…

Here’s the article quote from March 28, 2011|By Umika Pidaparthy on CNN News
“A confused crossword puzzle. A psychedelic postage stamp. A bar code on drugs. This is how a QR, or Quick Response, code may appear to most people. You may have noticed these black-and-white squares showing up in subway ads or in pages of magazines. Thanks to our growing addiction to our Smartphone’s, you'll likely be seeing more of them. QR codes are showing up in more and more places: posters, storefront window displays, TV advertisements, business cards, websites and even on T-shirts. When accessed with your phone, a QR code takes you to a landing page where you'll usually find special promotional content” The QR code was invented by a Japanese company called DENSO Corp., a subsidy of Toyota, in 1994. The codes have been used in Japan for years and are quite common there. But only now are they becoming mainstream in the United State”

Now that I know what they are, I’m seeing them everywhere – Amazing how this technology continues to change…