Google Drive (encompassing Sheets, Docs, etc.), Google Maps, and Google Earth, as well as Zotero, are all programs which I have used in the past. I had not used Google Charts however up until I was doing the homework for this week’s class. I know it is supposed to be simple to use but I actually found it kind of confusing. I didn’t like the interface and how there were no directions on the main page. The Google Docs and Sheets instructions were ok yet I thought there were too many links to go through before one could get to the actual instructions which explained how to use the different tools. I was also disappointed to find that the software on my computer is not up to date enough to run the Google Drive app on my computer thus I can only access it through my online google account. I am able use the Google Drive app on my phone which is great but it would be nice to have been able o have it on my computer. A function that I like a lot about Google Drive is that I can make docs and sheets available offline. I have found this function really helpful in the past as I am able to have quick and easy access to certain schedules I need to refer to often and which do not usually change. I have also found that it is a really good way to work on group projects and papers for a class, especially if you can not meet up as a group in person very often.

Google Maps is also a cool program, one I actually learned how to use last spring when I was preparing for my study abroad trip to London. I used to to create a map of places I knew I would be going to often/every day (such as where I would be living, where class would be held, and where my work was located) as well as potential sites I wanted to visit while in London (such as museums, other tourist sites, and tea shops). I did not know however that I could have put the whole map into google earth and viewed it that way so I found it really neat to be able to go back and do this today while I was doing the homework for class. If you want to view that map I had created for my trip you can find it here: Summer in London .

Zotero is a really great program and is my favorite of all the programs we were supposed to look at as part of this week’s assignment. I know that another student mentioned in her  blog post for this week’s homework hat she thought it was the least intuitive of all the programs and I totally understand where she is coming from with this for the first time I used this program I thought it was a bit confusing. However ever since when my History 300 professor had the whole class spend spend a lot of time in the JC library computer lab with one of the librarians who taught us how to use it, I have been a proponent of it and use it all the time for almost every class I have to do research for (I have even showed multiple friends how to use it as well). It has helped me tremendously as an aspiring historian who spends long hours researching and compiling sources for papers. It is great because it makes it not only much easier for me to create bibliographies in multiple formats but also to relocate and access sources multiple times. I also like how I can link PDF files/ images on my computer to the saved sources in my Zotero library and then later pull them up really quickly without have to search my whole computer for them. The fact that your library can be saved and sync to your online account is another awesome feature because it means you can access it from other computers. Since my computer has had a lot of problems in the past year this program has lessened my fear of one day loosing all my research I have done for all my classes, particularly projects and papers I am working on this semester, for I know I have it stored in my online library account. I find that this program which lives in the FireFox browser is more beneficial when doing research than using the bookmark function on my computer.

When I was doing readings for this week’s class, particularly the article about password security, I’ll admit I identified with the “average Web user” and began to question my stance about using “weak” passwords because they are easier to remember and began to reconsider whether or not the “pros” of reusing passwords really actually outweighed the “cons.” I have never though that much about the possibility of being hacked and was a bit shocked to see how quickly someone can destroy your whole digital life if they get only the slightest bit of your personal information or gain access to one of your many online accounts. When Matt Honan was describing how it was flaws in Apple’s and Amazon’s security system coupled with his main password he used for most everything that lead to him hacked it hit me that if huge companies such these which are used by thousands of people use are not safe the digital life of so may people is in danger. I used to think it was great that Amazon could keep my credit card information stored in their system so that it made it really fast and easy for me to purchase items but now I am tempted to go and take my information of their site. I think I finally understand why my dad is always sending me  examples of false emails that are viruses, cautioning me about not writing my passwords down anywhere, and the importance of signing out of online accounts. Thankfully I have never saved, at least not to my knowledge, any password keychains on my computer and usually always request that security questions be asked when trying to get into certain online accounts of mine as a precaution.

The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a website which gives one online access to portions of primary source documents as well as other useful material for teachers. It claims to be abiding by the Fair Use policy and that the documents that can be found on this site are copy-permitted.  In analyzing this website according to the 4 factors of fair use – Purpose, Nature, Use, and Effect (simplified description according to Copy Right Tutorial by Rosemary Chase GMU’s Copyright Officer) – I would say that it does abide by the legal terms  fairly well however it could offer more restriction on who can access the site. Many of the documents on this website are old enough in which the copyright laws do not apply as strictly (though this does not mean they do not still apply at all) however the Modern section links to sites and material in which those right can be applied more strictly. Because this site is open to anyone I think it comes close to violating the distribution to the public domain/purpose factor for although it seems fair in the sense that anyone can access it this also means that even though the site was designed for educational purposes, specifically for classroom use, it cannot be assured that only educators will use this site and the material. Non educators could use this site and forgo these principles. Thus, for the most part this site in my opinion is legally and ethically ok however some parts could be debated.

A.] Here is my Whois.com Query Results for shorpy.com:

Registrant:
Domain Privacy Group
10 Corporate Drive
Suite 300
Burlington, MA 01803
US

Domain name: SHORPY.COM

Administrative Contact:
Privacy Group, Domain shorpy.com@domainprivacygroup.com
10 Corporate Drive
Suite 300
Burlington, MA 01803
US
+1.6027165339
Technical Contact:
Privacy Group, Domain shorpy.com@domainprivacygroup.com
10 Corporate Drive
Suite 300
Burlington, MA 01803
US
+1.6027165339

Registration Service Provider:
MyDomain, support@mydomain-inc.com
+1.8004057875
This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.

Registrar of Record: Domain.com
Record last updated on 30-Jan-2013.
Record expires on 14-Feb-2014.
Record created on 14-Feb-2007.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS.SHORPY.COM 63.247.140.18
NS2.SHORPY.COM 63.247.140.19

Domain status: clientDeleteProhibited
clientTransferProhibited
clientUpdateProhibited

B.] For my critique of a Wikipedia page on a historical topic I looked up Calling Cards (a.k.a. Visiting Cards).

Since I was familiar with the subject of calling cards, or visiting cards as they often are referred to and which is the name I found them listed under on Wikipedia, from having written my History 300 paper on them, I thought it would be interesting to see what other people knew about them and what information Wikipedia offered on the subject.

My paper had focused on calling cards and how they pertained to women’s etiquette in America during the Gilded Age and even though that greatly narrows a topic which could be expanded upon much father it seems that it is one which has not been of interest to a great many people and thus the Wikipedia entry for it was quite short. The information listed in the history section was to my limited knowledge fairly accurate although I was reminded on how little this subject had been studied as I noticed how there was not any real mention of the contrast in format and color between the cards printed in the U.S. and in Britain in the 19th/20th c. There were hardly any inline citations which calls into question where in the information explicitly came from yet this makes sense when one remembers this is a cite edited by many people who have varying degrees of knowledge and understanding of the subject. This page was created in 2003 and developed from a few sentences to now containing an “intro/definition”, “history”, and “see also” section. The last update for this page was in January 2013. Images have also been added since the page was first created giving the reader an clearer idea of what a calling card actually looked like. The cites listed as links to where more information could be found were informative however it was unclear as to how accurate they even were. I did find it interesting however that one of the sources listed (a book by Emily Post) in the “References” section was one which I had actually found in my previous research.

 C.] Student Blog

This was an interesting blog, especially since it was not created by any one real person. The point to take from it are that one should never believe everything that can be founded online. Just because a video looks real or an article or blog post sounds like someone’s honest writing one can never be sure until you do some solid research into the author and history of the online source.

Experimenting with HTML

Hopefully this post in which I am supposed experimenting with writing HTML will turning out how it is supposed to because I have never written anything in HTML before and thus I am not sure I am doing this right!

Did you know that if you have a Mac (and maybe this is true for other types of computers as well but I am not sure) you can make your computer read documents, books, text, etc.  for you? I didn’t until last night when I was telling my roommate how the I had to read chapter two of Digital History for class on Monday. As I was not very enthusiastic about reading such a long amount online she told me to try listening to the computer read it to me and see if that made it any easier or faster. Thus after playing around with the settings we got it to work and it was kind of cool and did help me concentrate more.

Here’s how we got it work:

1.  Go to System Preferences
2. Click on Speech
3. Click on Text Speech
4. Check box which says Speak selected text when the key is pressed
5. Click Set key and proceed to set the key command you which to use when wanting to tell the computer to read a portion of text to you that you have selected

Now all you have to do is go to the document or text you want read to you, select it, and press the key command which you decided on and then listen.

Things I found tricky about HTML:

• Not all the code abbreviations had the same terms I would have used to designated commands I was trying to execute
• I found out to writing HTML in WordPress i had to use the text needed to use the text tab when writing my post
• linking data and working with images in HTML is much more complicated than I thought it would be

Here’s an image about Creative Commons (I even used CC to find it):