Google Hangouts

A handy fourth Google application (Certainly not the last) would be Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts is a free video chatting program with a few extra features, such as screen sharing and special effects that others can see and/or hear. It is comparable to other programs of the nature, although limited to 9 people in a call. This application can be quite useful for businesses, schools, or even personal matters. You can join a meeting from home on sick days, talk with other teachers or help students with work, or call family members who are not nearby, respectively. You may have to download a mic or camera package, but it is perfectly safe. (We tried it out on our school computers. Besides, it's Google. The only viruses you'll find there are websites other people have links to.)

Homepage. Click on the picture to go there.

Google Products Review

I have chosen three Google products to review in this post; Google Drive, Google Bookmarks, and Google Earth.

     I will begin my review with Google Drive. Google Drive is a free, online web storage facility. The space is limited, but not all objects need to stay in the drive (Meaning you can take them out if you don't need to keep them in there). The user can upload files from his or her computer for storage, backing up files and hard drives, or transfer of files between computers, as well as creating documents specifically in Drive. A few examples of documents that can be created include simple documents, slideshow presentations, spreadsheets, and art drawings. Any files created or saved as Google files can be shared with anybody else via the "Share" button, which will give you a link to give out, or let you choose specific people. This will give them permission to view, comment on, or edit your file. I find Google Drive helpful for the purpose of transferring files, usually Minecraft mods. I mention mods because they are usually large, and it does take time for Drive to upload files. I am not just throwing in Minecraft without a reason. I highly recommend usage of this particular feature for businesses and such, because it allows for multiple people to work together on one document.

-Click here to go to Google Drive-

     Next, I will review the Google Bookmarks feature. Google Bookmarks is, as it sounds, an online bookmark-storage feature. You can use it to bookmark websites rather than cluttering your bookmarks bar on your browser, which can now be saved for more important things. There is also a special, downloadable feature that will add a plus to your dashboard at the top. Clicking this plus will create a new bookmark. I can compare this website to Symbaloo, except all of your bookmarks are private on Google Bookmarks. I recommend this to anybody who is tired of clutter.

-Click here to go to Google Bookmarks-

    Finally, I will review the Google Earth feature. This is my personal favorite, as it provides you with a complete satellite view of Earth, Moon, Mars, and the Sky. At one point you could view Saturn, but I have not used it recently enough to know if that is still true or not. Google Earth also has a street view option, as well as time and date controls, leading back to, and my memory may not be correct, about the 1960s. Google Earth has a search bar which allows you to quickly find whatever you need, as well as a special feature called "3D Buildings", which is turned off by default. When you activate 3D Buildings, select important buildings and some major cities will have their buildings raised up, or in 3-Dimmensional form. I would recommend this to everybody. It is fun, and has many useful applications.

-Click here to download Google Earth-

That is all I have in store for this blog post. I hope you enjoy these features I have put under the spotlight. I will talk to you later, in my next blog post.

My Presentation

Today we have been instructed to mess around with the Google Presentations application, and I am posting the link on my blog. It can be found here.

Blogger Gadgets

Today in class we were instructed to explore Blogger's gadgets feature. A gadget on Blogger is a special tool designed to improve user experience or provide entertainment. It is an external feature that can be added to your blog, and easily changed or removed. While searching through the gadgets, I found many things, especially clocks and timers, daily quotes, and virtual pets. I personally added the Google Translate gadget for convenience, and the Digital Clock - DWR gadget for precise time measurement. It also provides you with a way to catch up with me when you are not in my time zone. Gadgets can be very useful in portraying information, or simply just adding something fun and interesting to your blog.

Google Translate gadget.

FEEDJIT Live Traffic gadget.

List gadget.

Digital Clock - DWR gadget.

Flag Counter gadget.

To add a gadget to your blog, you must go to your blog's settings, and choose template. There will be white bars with "Add Gadget" written in blue.

Click on that, and a new window will open. It will ask you to choose a gadget from the provided Blogger list, choose a gadget from the user-provided list, or upload your own gadget. When you have chosen a gadget, click the blue plus sign to add it to your blog. Some gadgets will allow customization, others may not.
Once your gadget is on your blog, you can go back in and edit or remove it by clicking on the wrench and screwdriver tool, shown below.

Five honorable mentions that I have found in my search include the Google Translate gadget, the Digital Clock - DWR gadget, the Daily Spock Quote gadget, the HTML gadget, which I will speak about later, and the Wikipedia gadget.

I added the Digital Clock - DWR gadget, the Google Translate gadget, and many HTML gadgets to my blog. Examples of HTML gadgets include the FEEDJIT Live Traffic gadget, and the Flag Counter gadget. When you choose an HTML gadget, a box will appear where you type in the HTML code. You can also use this function to use gadgets from other sites that give you the HTML code for their product. I did not add the Wikipedia gadget due to lack of usage on my blog, and I did not add the Daily Spock Quote gadget solely because this is meant to be a school blog. Sorry. I added the Digital Clock - DWR gadget to my blog for the purpose of keeping precise time, and to allow users to catch up or slow down to my time zone as to keep up with my post times, along with adding a basis for translating time from wherever the user is to CDT. All it does is keep track of time, as with a watch or such device. I added the Google Translate gadget to allow users to translate my blog into their native language. The user can utilize a drop-down bar to select a language, and every word on the blog is instantly translated into their selected language. The Wikipedia gadget does as it says, and allows you to search Wikipedia from the blog. The Spock Quotes gadget lists off random Spock quotes whenever you refresh the page, despite its name containing the word "Daily".

Symbaloo

In class today we were exposed to a new web tool called Symbaloo. Symbaloo is a social bookmarking website, meaning it allows you to save bookmarks to it and share them with other users. If you have an account, then Symbaloo will save your bookmarks, and they can then be accessed from any device at any point. Bookmarks are added to separate categories of your choice, called webmixes, which you can then publish for other users to find and download to their Symbaloo account. 

Bookmarks are added through a very simple process. To do so, you must click on an empty square on the GUI (Graphic User Interface) where your bookmarks are stored. A whitish HUD will appear, asking you whether you wish to create a new bookmark or search for a bookmark. If you choose to search for a bookmark, you will need to type in the website name. The website will be found for you. But that may not always work, so you might have to create a new bookmark. When you choose to create a new bookmark, you will be asked to input the website domain. When you finish, click the screen. Doing so will allow Symbaloo to attempt to find the website's logo. If a logo is not found, one may upload their own picture for it. Text and logo colors are an option. Click save when you are happy, and voila! Instant easy-access to your favorite or useful websites from anywhere.

To create a new webmix, you must click on a plus in the tab selection area. It will ask you to name your new web mix, or search for one somebody else created. Both options speak for themselves in this matter. Once you have created your webmix, you may then begin to add bookmarks. Be warned: If you download somebody else's webmix, you cannot add or edit bookmarks.

You can share your webmix by clicking on the share button, and filling out the required information. When you share a webmix, others can download it if they would like to. A counter will record your webmix download count.

This is my Symbaloo page for the websites that we learn about in class.

A few benefits resulting from the use of Symbaloo may include:

• Easier access to your favorite websites, or websites that you may want to save, such as information websites for school or business research.
• Discovering new websites that you may not have before using Symbaloo.
• Being able to access all of your said websites from any point with an internet connection, or on 3G.
• Less clutter in your browser's favorites bar - Save space for the important links that you may need to access quickly.

-Visit Symbaloo here-

There is also another option for adding bookmarks to your webmixes - The Symbaloo Bookmark Application. It allows you to add a bookmark to your webmix without going to Symbaloo itself. You just click on the application icon, type in the information, and you are done.

Voki

Using a website called Voki, one can access many different templates that can be given a voice, and added to websites. It will created a picture that follows your mouse and speaks a pre-recorded message when you click on the triangular play button.



Voki is a website that allows you to create an avatar, as described above, called a Voki. There are many different templates that you may add to or remove parts from until you agree with it. You can record a 90 second or less message for your Voki to say when somebody clicks on the triangular play button. The important features are free, with extra options available for the Voki "Classroom", which we have not yet explored.

When you have created your Voki, if you wish to add it to a website or blog you must click on the "Publish" button at the bottom of the GUI (Graphic User Interface, or the Voki creator). Doing so will cause a screen to appear, asking you what size you wish your Voki to be. Choose a size, and then copy the HTML and paste it into your website or blog HTML gadget. There is also an email option. WARNING: If you change your Voki, the changes will update to wherever you may have posted your Voki to.

I believe Voki is a nice tool for a welcoming message, or a quick learning tip (Maybe a fun fact). I would not use it for a lecture or long message, since you can only record messages a minute and a half long.

This is my Voki avatar, as shown on my blog.

-Create your own Voki here-

My Internet Usage

I really started using the internet often in the third grade, when a group of my friends and I found an online game tired "Poptropica". Poptropica is a two-dimmensional storyline game, where you learn new things and play fun levels while following a storyline for the separate "islands" of Poptropica.

-Visit Poptropica here.-

Later on, my friend introduced me to a large social game called Nicktropolis, where you add stuff to your house, called your "room", and explore places added to the game while socializing with others. It was taken down in favor of a new game called "The Place", I believe. I never really cared to check it out, so I am probably be wrong.

Sometime during the fourth of fifth grade, the same friend introduced me to a new game called "Sploder". On Sploder, a user can customize their own avatar, which is a blocky head, and create games using 2D parts available to them. There are many game types, and it receives updates often. Last I checked, it was still in Beta.

-Visit Sploder here.-

While playing Sploder, I kept seeing ads for 3D virtual block games. Eventually, I decided to play one, because I was bored. I clicked on an ad for a game called "ROBLOX", and never looked back. I was hooked from day one. ROBLOX is a virtual building block game where the user builds their own games, socializes with other users, joins and creates groups, uses script to make things happen in-game, and a plethora of fun things to do. It is truly a massive multiplayer online game (MMOG). I would recommend it to anybody.

-Visit ROBLOX here.-

And recently, after watching YouTube video after YouTube video, I decided to play Minecraft. This was mostly because I wanted to know whether Minecraft or ROBLOX was better (This is an ongoing argument). I've decided that the two games are perfectly equal. Minecraft games come in four modes - Creative, where you have all the blocks immediately and can fly, Survival, where you have to collect parts and survive attacks by hostile creatures, Adventure, which is still in development, and Hardcore, which is Survival locked into Hard mode, where the player has only one life (The player usually has 10. These are shown as hearts, which go down as the player is injured). This is a pay-to-play game. Minecraft releases updates often, usually leaking "snapshots" before the update is released.

-Visit Minecraft here.-

Day 5 - Practice Blog Post

USS Enterprise NX-01

Web tool

• Description
• Features
• Benefits
• Picture
• Link
• How can a person use this tool. How will I use this tool?

-Visit Abilene High School by clicking here.-

Day 2

This is my first post on this blog. We've explored a few blogs as examples, and have begun creation of our own.