Friday, December 23, 2005

The Gift of Teaching

The Gift of Teaching

Parents are truly the first teachers that their children encounter. They are there in those very vital formative initial years of life, when the most basic functions and abilities are taught and practiced. Values, behavior, and living skills are in the process of forming and the child's environment and the examples of parents weight so heavily in this very delicate balance of becoming a fully functioning adult. When a child matures and reaches the age of attending school, something magical takes place. Interests expand, social skills are just beginning to blossom, and imagination and creativity are being explored and tested. Whether a child attends a home school or a local school (public or private) the next vital components in development are being put to the "max." Science, math, language, history, and all the other subjects that make up a curriculum are vying for the attention and abilities of the child. From printing their name for the first time to solving a complicated math process all add to the qualities and essence that will evolve, expand, and let them become a wonderful asset to the entire world. No longer is it correct to assume that this boy/girl should only fit in comfortably and capably in the goegraphical area he/she calls home, but with the advance of computers and other technological achievements, this child is most definitely a citizen of every other continent and country, and in the future, possibly of other galaxies and planets. With the approach of a new upcoming school year, may all the teachers (parents, educators, neighbors, writers, etc.) brace themselves for the wonderful task at hand. To further the education of any child is the richest, most rewarding experience in life. There can be no more noble undertaking than to lead a child to investigating, challenging themselves and their surroundings, attempting, and succeeding at skills and subjects that will let this child open doors to his/her future. From a parent giving an example of honesty, a neighbor pointing out the beauty of a newly born kitten, a teacher who brings a subject or book to life, and a writer who paints a "word" picture of a sunset, all these individuals play such an important role in the formation and the future of this child. When a child's environment is rich with caring, loving people who want only to bring the sunshine of knowledge and capability into this child's world, then the possibilities are endless, the potential without limit. A book contains written words, a fanciful tale, the recorded experiences of an individual, or the peculiarities of a location, but a "teacher" can infuse life and reality into the material. History becomes a wealth of evolvement and ancestry, science is a world of not-yet-discovered solutions, and the realm of language is transformed into building blocks to reach the stars.

Free Tips For Your Child's Success

Getting free tips for a child's success is something mostparents/guardians are interested in. Most want their child'sacademic growth to improve every school year. Most sincerelycare. Unfortunately some don't, but that's a completely differentarticle. For now, I want to focus on improving the readingabilities of our children immediately.This summer is flying by and soon our children will be back inthe classroom with the eager teachers and their fellowclassmates. My concern as an educator, with over twenty years ofinvaluable experience, is the loss of reading and comprehensionskills over the summer months simply due to lack of reading. Children need to read in order to keep up their skills. Theymust read on a consistent basis to not only maintain but to alsoimprove their skills. Just as any skill or talent, if it isn'tused, it will slowly diminish. Do we really need our children'sreading abilities to begin to waste away as they enjoy the summermonths? I don't think so. Our society can't afford this tohappen either.I frequently compare reading skills to that of a runner's skills. A person that wishes to maintain or improve his or her runningability must run almost on a daily basis. What takes much timeand effort to achieve however, can be very quickly lost if thatrunner takes some time off. Basically, to maintain the skills,the runner needs to run on a consistent basis. This is exactlywhat we are looking to achieve with our children and theirreading skills. We want them to maintain and even improve theirskills. This can be accomplished by reading consistently. Perhaps not every day, but consistently.OK, now I have opened up a very large can of worms, haven't I? Don't get discouraged. Many questions do arise, all of which canbe answered. Questions such as: How much time should my childspend reading? How many days a week? What should my child read? The most frequent question: What can I do to get my child to sitand read when he or she can be rather resistant to the idea? Contact me at mailto:frankw@eticomm.net and I will respond.

Kids and Computing

Kids and Computing

Computers can do much more than help children with their schoolwork - they allow them to acquire valuable knowledge and skills for their future careers.Buying a great multimedia home PC can kick-start your kids into a great career, and not just in accountancy. The new PC industry is looking for artists, writers, storytellers, publishers, games players and designers - but they need to start early.According to Plato, the most effective kind of education is that a child should play among lovely things. While he probably wasn't thinking digitally at the time, with the emergence of powerful and affordable multimedia PCs, children can now play among lovely things and at the same time acquire valuable knowledge and skills that will serve them well in whatever career or profession they may decide to pursue.Today, most children take computers like ducks to water. Even the youngest seem to be alarming clever at setting up and operating all sort of gadgets. Whatever they're using a popular game console or any of the other ubiquitous home or arcade systems, technology seems to be more naturally comprehensible to the average child than it is to the average parent or teacher.With an increasingly large percentage of children living in households with a computer of some sort, in many ways they're now becoming just another home appliance. But for parents who want to help their children at home/school, the apparent labyrinth of technological options can appear depressingly daunting.It's now possible to get great job in computers that isn't about science, maths programming or accountancy. Increasingly, `humanity-based' skills are often perceived as more valuable and computers can get you into a whole new range of professions evolving around games production, multimedia, digital video or publishing on the Internet. Within these, and even more traditional professions - such as journalism, film, television, publishing, advertising, design and music - computers and digital technology have become widespread. And there are probably very few jobs or professions in the future that won't require some degree of computer literacy.Ironically, the digital revolution is creating a market not for narrow specialists, but for `renaissance men and women' who have a broad-based education and a wider skill set that will allow them to change careers and move from field to field with an ease and efficiency that was unimaginable in previous generations. Today, perhaps more than any other time in recent history, education needs to be focused on learning how to learn and on development of study skills that will allow children to acquire the information they need as and when they need it.Remember, helping your child with a computer at home isn't exclusively about using so called `educational software' like they do at school to teach spelling, maths or geography. Parents can often provide more help by encouraging their children to simply use computers more actively and creatively as they are, or will be, used in the real world and to develop creative study and research skills that will complement and enhance their learning experience at school. To do that, you need to give your kids their best chance possible by getting them a really good multimedia PC.But to prepare your children for the future, you need more than hardware and software. The most important thing is to think about what they do with the PC and what you can do to help. Don't worry about starting children too early. As soon as they can control their hands, children will find things to do with a computer. It's not unusual to see three and four-year old happily working with paint programs and even creating and saving files. In many respects, having a computer at home can help older children with their school work in nearly every subject, just as having books at home helps them with reading and research. And because of its increasingly multimedia and interactive capabilities, a PC can provide a creative focus or outlet for even difficult children with no apparent interest in traditional education.This concern about `giving the kids the best' for their education is an emotion that computer manufacturers are more than happy to exploit, with many of them offering PCs that are hyped as the `ideal tool for education'. Then, of course, there's the fact that more than a few parents use their kid's education as a way to justify buying a PC so they can play Doom. But the hardware you buy is only half the story and where home computers are concerned, the bundled software is just as important as the hardware.It used to be that computer manufacturers interpreted the phrase `for educational use' as meaning `last year's leftover stock with a copy of Encarta chunked in'. However, as the home market has boomed, some manufacturers have come to realize that education has its own needs, and are producing systems that combine powerful hardware with a good range of bundled software with an obvious educational or informative bent.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Distiller Water Filters

Water distillers use electricity to heat tap water to boiling point. Generally the Impurities are left in the container and the purified contents go back to a clean container. They need a higher level of efficiency and cannot give immediate supply, because the boiling process must be over before water is present. There are a number of reports in that distilled water is not fit for health because it takes away nutrients from the body, being the most 'unnatural' of water.

Ionized Water Filters
These are generally filtered using an acid and an alkaline. They run between the positive and the negative ends of the electrodes and get the charged and acidic water. They are formed using 70% alkaline water and 30% Acid water. Alkaline and Acidic waters have unusual properties and benefits, but anyway their respective uses could not be more different.

Back flush Water Filters
They are costlier compared to charcoal filter units, but justify this by their claims of longevity. They are highly durable and efficient.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Painting Mediums

Paint and paintings materials differ depending up on the place where it is to be painted whether it is an interior painting or exterior. Interior paintings basically use materials such as oil paint, water colors, wooden board, fabric etc where as exterior paintings involves using water resistant base and mediums.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

orlando villas

Sitting here in early August gazing at the grey English skies makes me long to
return to sunnier climates. My thoughts turn firmly to Florida and I find myself
browsing for Orlando villas to rent on orlando
villas
.

I remember my last trip as if it was only yesterday, especially my close encounter
whilst absorbing one of Central Florida’s natural attractions, the swamps.


Although we were staying in an Orlando vacation rental home which are mainly
filled with out-of-state tourists, I bumped into a local called Carl who was
working for www.wireitright.com who suggested that our families meet up one
Sunday afternoon at a country park about 30 miles North West of Orlando. Eager
to see more of Florida’s natural beauty, sure enough one week later we
found ourselves heading up to Wekiva. We met with our new friends and decided
to rent some canoes and head north upriver.


The shallow river was fairly dense with fallen trees and navigating them was
difficult. Whilst rowing with one ore and two you kids was hard-work heading
up-stream, the current made it fairly easy to control the canoe and navigate
the tight corners. As we passed one particularly hairy tight spot, a 7ft alligator
was clearly visible. The kids, aged 4 and 5, were already on the lookout for
alligators and they fell very silent as we passed.


Eventually we found a sand island in the middle of the river and stopped for
refreshment. My 4 year old picked up a stick that was floating down-stream.
When he asked me why the stick was moving I shouted to him to drop it, fortunately
it looked like it was just a water snake.


I need some excitement in my life again, time to fins another Florida vacation
villa for rent on www.fabvillas.com. If I can, I’ll try to stay at Emerald
Retreat again as it was a wonderful villa with everything that I could have
dreamed of, details can be found at www.emeraldislandflorida.com

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Internet

An internet is a more general term informally used to describe any set of interconnected computer networks that are connected by internetworking.
The Internet, or simply the Net, is the publicly accessible worldwide system of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using a standardized Internet Protocol (IP) and many other protocols. It is made up of thousands of smaller commercial, academic, domestic and government networks. It carries various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat and the interlinked web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.
Creation of the InternetDuring the 1950s, communications researchers realized that there was a need to allow general communication between users of various computers and communications networks. This led to research into decentralized networks, queuing theory, and packet switching. The development of ARPANET in the United States would lead to technical developments that made it the center point for the development of the Internet.
The first TCP/IP wide area network was operational in 1984 when the National Science Foundation's (NSF) constructed a university network backbone that would later become the NSFNet. It was then followed by the opening of the network to commercial interests in 1995. Important seperate networks that have successfully entered the Internet include Usenet, Bitnet and the various commercial and educational X.25 networks such as Compuserve and JANET.
The collective network gained a public face in the 1990s. In August 1991 Tim Berners-Lee publicized his new World Wide Web project, two years after he had begun creating HTML, HTTP and the first few web pages at CERN in Switzerland. In 1993 the Mosaic web browser version 1.0 was released, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic/technical Internet. By 1996 the word "Internet" was common public currency, but it referred almost entirely to the World Wide Web.
Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks (although some networks such as FidoNet have remained separate). This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network.
Today's Internet Apart from the incredibly complex physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is held together by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (for example peering agreements) and by technical specifications or protocols that describe how to exchange data over the network.
Unlike older communications systems, the Internet protocol suite was deliberately designed to be independent of the underlying physical medium. Any communications network, wired or wireless, that can carry two-way digital data can carry Internet traffic. Thus, Internet packets flow through wired networks like copper wire, coaxial cable, and fiber optic; and through wireless networks like Wi-Fi. Together, all these networks, sharing the same high-level protocols, form the Internet.
The Internet protocols originate from discussions within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its working groups, which are open to public participation and review. These committees produce documents that are known as Request for Comments documents (RFCs). Some RFCs are raised to the status of Internet Standard by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).
Some of the most used protocols in the Internet protocol suite are IP, TCP, UDP, DNS, PPP, SLIP, ICMP, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, Telnet, FTP, LDAP, SSL, and TLS.
Some of the popular services on the Internet that make use of these protocols are e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, file sharing, Instant Messenger, the World Wide Web, Gopher, session access, WAIS, finger, IRC, MUDs, and MUSHs. Of these, e-mail and the World Wide Web are clearly the most used, and many other services are built upon them, such as mailing lists and web logs. The Internet makes it possible to provide real-time services such as Internet radio and webcasts that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
Some other popular services of the Internet were not created this way, but were originally based on proprietary systems. These include IRC, ICQ, AIM, and Gnutella.
There have been many analyses of the Internet and its structure. For example, it has been determined that the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are examples of scale-free networks.
Similar to how the commercial Internet providers connect via Internet exchange points, research networks tend to interconnect into large subnetworks such as:
GEANT Internet2 GLORIAD These in turn are built around relatively smaller networks. See also the list of academic computer network organizations
In network schematic diagrams, the Internet is often represented by a cloud symbol, into and out of which network communications can pass.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Today's Internet

Apart from the incredibly complex physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is held together by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (for example peering agreements) and by technical specifications or protocols that describe how to exchange data over the network.
Unlike older communications systems, the Internet protocol suite was deliberately designed to be agnostic with regard to the underlying physical medium. Any communications network, wired or wireless, that can carry two-way digital data can carry Internet traffic. Thus, Internet packets flow through wired networks like copper wire, coaxial cable, and fiber optic; and through wireless networks like Wi-Fi. Together, all these networks, sharing the same high-level protocols, form the Internet.
The Internet protocols originate from discussions within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its working groups, which are open to public participation and review. These committees produce documents that are known as Request for Comments documents (RFCs). Some RFCs are raised to the status of Internet Standard by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).
Some of the most used protocols in the Internet protocol suite are IP, TCP, UDP, DNS, PPP, SLIP, ICMP, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, Telnet, FTP, LDAP, SSL, and TLS.
Some of the popular services on the Internet that make use of these protocols are e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, file sharing, Instant Messenger, the World Wide Web, Gopher, session access, WAIS, finger, IRC, MUDs, and MUSHs. Of these, e-mail and the World Wide Web are clearly the most used, and many other services are built upon them, such as mailing lists and web logs. The Internet makes it possible to provide real-time services such as Internet radio and webcasts that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
Some other popular services of the Internet were not created this way, but were originally based on proprietary systems. These include IRC, ICQ, AIM, and Gnutella.
There have been many analyses of the Internet and its structure. For example, it has been determined that the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are examples of scale-free networks.

Friday, February 25, 2005

To avoid confusion, some people use the words "libre" and "gratis" to avoid the ambiguity of the English word "free".

To avoid confusion, some people use the words "libre" and "gratis" to avoid the ambiguity of the English word "free". However, these alternative terms are still used mostly within the free software movement and are only slowly spreading to the outside world.
Others advocate the term open source software. However, according to the FSF, the Open Source movement is philosophically distinct from the free software movement. See the discussion below (Comparison with Open Source software).
There are several variations on free software in the FSF sense, for example:
The freedoms defined by the FSF are protected through copyleft licenses, the most prominent of which is the GNU General Public License. The author retains copyright, and permits redistribution and modification under terms designed to ensure that all modified versions of the software remain under copyleft terms. Public domain software, in which the author has abandoned the copyright. Public-domain software, since it is not protected by copyright at all, may be freely incorporated into closed, proprietary works as well as free ones. BSD-style licenses, so called because they are applied to much of the software distributed with the BSD operating systems. The author under such licenses retains copyright protection solely to disclaim warranty and to require proper attribution of modified works, but permits redistribution and modification, even in proprietary works. Note that the original copyright owner of copyleft-licensed software can also make a modified version under their original copyright, and sell it under any license they like, in addition to distributing the original version as free software. This technique has been used as a business model by a number of free software companies; this does not restrict any of the rights granted to the users of the copyleft version