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Traveling
While I am traveling I will not have time to publish the newsletter so look for the next newsletter to be on Sunday May 6th.
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Netvibes vs Pageflakes vs Yourminis – Round ...
Back in February I commented about all three of these sites vying for you home page honors.
Now that I have worked with each for a while, I would like to give you an update on who won round 2, but first some new features from each.
Netvibes – Netvibes has to its credit hundreds of modules, thousands of feeds, hundreds of podcasts, thousands of tabs, and events. This gives Netvibes the edge on total number of items that can be configured or added to your page.
The key here is to be able to search through all this vast data to find what you want. This is very difficult as their search engine will only find each word and not combinations. Results returned aren’t necessarily relevant. Why don’t they use Google or Yahoo’s search engine? They need to fix this NOW. Are you listening Netvibes?
I would also like to see the ability to make my own color theme. The colors that are available through their “settings” are very pastel and too bright for my liking. Since just about everything is customizable, why not the themes?
Ok, so I have pointed out some good stuff and some stuff that needs to be fixed. It still is a good host to have as your home page. With all that is available plan to spend lots of time getting it configured like you want.
Pageflakes – Pageflakes has everything Netvibes has, but uses different terms to represent the same items. Podcasts, tabs, flakes (Netvibes modules), are all available with Pageflakes. The selection is much smaller in each category therefore you are more limited in what is already pre-made. You do have the capability to build whatever you want similar to Netvibes. If you want anything specialized you will have to do some building on your own.
Pageflakes has the same problem as Netvibes in that you can not customize the themes. Where is my CSS editor?
The visual quality is much better than Netvibes. The interfaces is clean and resembles MS Windows. I find it easier to use since it has scroll bars and Netvibes does not.
Yourminis – Yourminis is built with Flash so its interfaces fits the Flash mold and not the AJAX metaphor like Netvibes and Pageflakes. This also limits you to the prebuilt widgets and items that comes with Yourminis. There are plenty to choose from so you won’t be disappointed if this is your selection for a home page.
To be fair I have not spent as much time with Yourminis as I have with Pageflakes and Netvibes. So a revisit will be in order after I give it more time and try all that is offered.
SUMMARY – Right now, at least for round 2, I will give the nod to Pageflakes. All 3 are done quite well and the decision will take some time if you really evaluate what each has to offer.
Stay tuned for round 3 in a few weeks.
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Newsletter 4-15-2007
CSI fans, this site is for you. Read on and enjoy. The rest of you can continue to the next review.
We, the living, instinctively recoil in the presence of death. Whether the deceased is a beloved, a friend, or a stranger, the shock of death’s finality registers. When a life is unexpectedly extinguished, we need answers and seek the cause. Today, this need is addressed in police investigations, laboratories, courtrooms, and all of the venues in which scientific medicine interacts with the law—the field of forensics.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/index.html
This site from the federal government has links to just about any kind of statistical information available. It cover everything from abortion to woman owned business. The length to what the government says is your personal wealth was interesting. Lots of stuff here.
http://www.fedstats.gov/cgi-bin/A2Z.cgi
If you are thinking about traveling to Indonesia, you will find this site very helpful. It also has quite a bit of information on local hotels and places to visit. Most of the info is about Bali and where to stay when you visit. Reading about each hotel gives a different light on what you might expect in this corner of the world.
http://www.indo.com/index.html
The Census Bureau. What does this bring to mind? Once you visit this site and look up some of the fascinating information it hold you may totally change your mind. There are quick links to the most requested information or you can just search on your own. Try the American Fact Finder and see what come up. There many PDF files you can download if you want to study further.
http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html
The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a nationally recognized source of career information, designed to provide valuable assistance to individuals making decisions about their future work lives. The Handbook is revised every two years. For hundreds of different types of jobs – such as teacher, lawyer, and nurse – the Occupational Outlook Handbook tells you: the training and education needed; earnings; expected job prospects; what workers do on the job; working conditions.
http://www.bls.gov/oco/
Our US Senate has many committees and they perform multiple service like writing bills, performing studies, spending our tax dollars, etc. I decided to see what each committee does, what their charter is, who is on each committee, what they are suppose to accomplish, etc. Below is the link that give you the above information and a lot more. Boring to sum, exciting to others so take a look if your interested.
http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/committees/d_three_sections_with_teasers/committees_home.htm
“Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor”
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Newsletter 4-8-07
Happy Easter
This site from our US government is a great resource for kids that want to explore learning on the web. It is set up for different grade levels and provide many items directed related to school classroom work. The site covers subject from Animals to Transportation. The contestants
on “Are you smarter than a 5th grader” should visit this site.
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/
While we are on the subject of kids learning, another site that provide a great homework resource is homeworkspot. There are references for elementary school through high school. The are things “to do”, themes to discover, field trips, must see, tips, on exhibit, and a cool section on “Do you want to know” with answers to everything you want to know.
http://www.homeworkspot.com/
OK, here is another really cool site for kids. Yahoo has this great site that features games, sports, studyzone, jokes, movies, TV, and a lot more. You can let you kids roam this site and not have to worry. Lots of graphics and fun stuff.
http://kids.yahoo.com/
“To help us think, talk and teach about the rights and responsibilities of citizens in our democracy, we invite you to explore 100 milestone documents of American history. These documents reflect our diversity and our unity, our past and our future, and mostly our commitment as a nation to continue to strive to “form a more perfect union.” Be sure to check out which documents We, The People, chose in a recent vote as the most influential in U.S. History.
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/
What is our dollar worth? Your answer should be as compared to what. Well how about what our dollar is worth now compared to some time in history. This site answers that question and many more. It is based on the CPI (Consumer Price Index). The CPI is used to calculate how prices have changed over the years. Let’s say you have $7 in your pocket to purchase some goods and services today. How much money would you have needed in 1950 to buy the same amount of goods and services?
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/research/data/us/calc/
Looking for someone? A phone number? How about some public records, email address, telephone directories. It is all here at this site. There is also a good tutorial on how to conduct a background search. Not a bad reference from a group of lawyers. It is worth a visit.
http://www.virtualchase.com/topics/people_finder_index.shtml
“He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe”
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Newsletter 4-1-07
I had a great time at this fun, time wasting, web site that lets you create your own comic strip and publish it on the their web site for all to read. Check out my review and more about the site on my blog. See previous post. ( I published 7 comic strips under the name seniorgeek)
http://seniorgeek.wordpress.com
Speaking of fun.
http://www.google.com/tisp
Next we are off on a medical adventure this week.
This is from the excellent CDC web site.
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person’s weight and height. BMI provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems. This web site has both calculators for adults and kids.
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/index.htm
The Weight-control Information Network provides the general public, health professionals, the media, and Congress with up-to-date, science-based information on weight control, obesity, physical activity, and related nutritional issues. They offer publications, research, notes, and statistics areas for you to explore.
http://www.win.niddk.nih.gov/
While you are at the nih.gov site you might as well look at Medline Plus area. The site offers current database of health information for consumers and health professionals. Coverage includes conditions and diseases, drug information, dictionaries, physician and healthcare directories, and links to other medical resources. I found very good information on prescription at this site.
http://medlineplus.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
Don’t stop at the above web site with out visiting the section on :Evaluating Internet Health Information”. It is very important to know where you are receiving your information and how accurate it really is, so if you can’t trust the National Institute of Health who can you trust. Take time to view the tutorial.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/webeval/webeval.html
From the web site.
OmniMedicalSearch.com founder talks about why he felt the need to create an authoritative based medical search engine.
“OmniMedicalSearch.com was created to bring the best sources of medical information together on one comprehensive search platform to help make user research more thorough, practical and convenient,” Founder Jason L Morrow said. “When it comes to health and medical information, the integrity of the search results is a priority.”
http://www.omnimedicalsearch.com/
“To discipline a child produces wisdom, but a mother is disgraced by an undisciplined child.”
