Cover letter

Here's a place to learn more about writing a cover letter.

Write a cover letter to a possible employer or for funding and send it to me. I will offer feedback and send it back. This is for a "Word Processing" project due on February 19th 2008.

Don't forget to be working on the project 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B from myitlab.com! Do this before next class!

Add five blogs (including mine) and send me a screenshot of your google reader!!!

Extra credit (3 points)

Go to Google.com/Reader

Send me a screenshot to david.freer@gmail.com

MyITLab

Room 9103

Use this resource if you need any help with MyITLab!

From Monday-Thursday
7am-10:30 pm

Friday
7am-4:30 pm

Saturday
7am-1pm

Shortcuts with the keyboard

Here is a list of shortcuts for Word using the keyboard.

Brevity is the soul of wit.
We are being witty in our use of key strokes with Word. :)

Study them, I believe they will save you a great deal of time in your life!

We are going to begin class on January 31 2008 with a 'group exploration' of all the tabs and options available with right click. IMHO, it's the best way to start studying a subject related to computers.

On to Microsoft Office!

For the first component of Microsoft Office we will be using Microsoft Word.

First, we will be writing a resume using Word. This will become a project in the coming weeks.

Here's a great site to check out how to write a resume:

http://careerplanning.about.com/od/resumewriting/a/resume_writing.htm

About.com seems pretty reliable.

Review of things discussed in class January 22

Click here to view the sites from class January 22, 2008.

Today's supercomputer is tomorrow's PDA

A current model quad core Xeon workstation running at 2.66 GHz will outperform a multimillion dollar cray C90 supercomputer used in the early 1990s, lots of workloads requiring such a supercomputer in the 1990s can now be done on workstations costing less than 4000 US dollars.

-wikipedia

What operating systems are people using? Check it out here.

Test moved til Thursday!

We will be reviewing more on Tuesday. I'll still post a review tonight.

TEST ON THURSDAY NOT TUESDAY!

I'll update the syllabus accordingly.

Here's how to review.

1. Read the book chapter 1, 2, and 4.
2. Answer the questions at the back of the chapter
   
1. End of Chapter Questions, p. 55-57
2. End of Chapter Questions, p. 168-9
3. End of Chapter Questions, p. 233-36
3. Quiz yourself on the following terms:

• Taskbar
• Title bar
• Shortcut menu
• Quick launch toolbar
• Notification area
• Status bar
• Folder
• CD-RW
• File extension
• Wildcard
• Thumbnail
• Compress
• Icon
• Operating System
• Windows
• Linux
• Start button
• What is Firefox?
• When you right click what menu comes up?
• What does it mean to 'maximize', 'minimize', and 'restore'?
• What are the shortcuts for copying, pasting, and cutting?
• How can you alphabetize the files when viewing in 'My Computer'?
• What is a hard disk drive? CD-ROM drive?
• What is a Web browser?
• What is a Web page?
• What is an ISP?
• What is a URL?
• What is a Home page?
• What is a Search engine?
• What is a Portal?
• Think yahoo.com vs. google.com
  
• What are Pop ups?
• What are Frames?
• What is a web site?
• What is a hyperlink?
• Know the address of the class blog : http://mdcoffice.blogspot.com
• What does "WWW" stand for?
• How do government web sites usually end? .gov
• How do education related websites usually end? .edu
• Commercial websites? .com
• What is the feature of the browser that enables you to view your previous browsing? Hint using Ctrl+H will get you there quickly.
  
• What does your mouse look like when you put it over a hyperlink?
• To go backward with the browser, click the back button. To go forward, click the forward button.
• What are tabs used for with browsers?
• How can one open a tab with Internet Explorer?
  
• What is a server?
• How do protocols relate to the Internet? Here's some more info.
• What is software?
• Computer application?
• What is a computer network?
• What is network topography?
  
• What is a port?
• What is a computer?
• What is a laptop/notebook?
• What is a PDA?
  
• What are peripherals?
  
• What is the motherboard?
• What is RAM?
• What is a supercomputer?
  
• Describe INPUT, OUTPUT, PROCESSING, AND STORAGE,
• The control unit and ______________ logic unit are located in the CPU.
• What is the average speed of a modern CPU? What is it measured in?
• What is a GUI?
• What is a laser printer?
• What is dpi as it is concerned with printing?
• What is a monitor's resolution?
  
  Things we'll discuss Tuesday...
  
• Spyware
• System restore.
  

Good luck reading! Email me at david.freer@gmail.com with any questions!

Here's the high school I went to!

How to sign up for My IT Lab

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc65q8nz_215c87ndbc9

An Interesting Article

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/383158.html

Adding pictures and links to the blog...

Three more bonus points.

First, add a picture of your favorite place (maybe you haven't visited there yet but you've always wanted to!) images.google.com is a good way to start.



Second, add a link to the high school you went to. If your high school doesn't have a website you can link to MDC.

Third, embed a video from the awesome UC Berkeley site on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ucberkeley that you find interesting!

Title this post "All About Me!".

Next assignment from the book

Here's the next assignment from the book:

End of Chapter Questions, p. 168-9

You may post the answers on your blog for 3 points.

DF

Five add-ons

The first add-on to Firefox that I installed was "About this Site".

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3673

This add on lets you find out info about who owns a web site, how many people visit the website and much more info! I would recommend this plugin/addon to Firefox!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

The next add-on was "Stumble Upon". StumbleUpon is an AWESOME way to meet people with similar interests and discover great web pages. You wouldn't believe how many cool websites I've discovered and how many DAYS I've spent with SU.

http://fireftp.mozdev.org/

The third ad-on I added to Firefox was FireFTP. This has became an invaluable part of my Internet web browsing. Now I have instant access to my FTP server. NO NEED TO bring a flash drive when I have my ftp access. :)

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843

Firebug is one add-on I don't use very often. It's geared towards web developers (a hobby of mine) and I have found it useful to examine the source code of web pages...but it is an add-on I don't consider vital. It's more of a novelty.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2207

Cooliris is a cool ad-on that allows you to preview a web page before you click on a link. What a cool time saver! I enjoy this add-on for Firefox a great deal!

----

See? The reviews don't have to be very long!

Intro to Internet Explorer and Firefox

• The Internet: What is it? What was it built for?
• How does Google work? What is the Page-Rank algorithm?
• How does Ad-Words work? How much per word?
  
• What is Google Suggest?
• Use shortcuts for Internet Explorer.
• Use shortcuts for Mozilla Firefox.
  
• What is open source software?
• What is Firefox? What are the advantages? Disadvantages?
• What are plugins for Firefox? Try out five and give your evaluation on your blog for an extra three points.
• As a group we will test out StumbleUpon. Click here to install.
  
• Lastly, you will answer End of Chapter Questions, p. 168-9 on your blog, if you wish.
  

First assignment

End of Chapter Questions, p. 55-57

Post on your blog for blog EC

An email!

I would like to get to know you a bit and help understand what your expectations are for the class this year.

Please write me an email with a paragraph about what you want to get out of this class! You may also include something interesting to help me get to know you better.

Blogs are a public media while emails give a bit more privacy and candor.

(+3 points)

david.freer@gmail.com

Second current event article

Today's current event about technology is coming from news.google.com . The summary should be a paragraph long. Get the article from the "Sci-Tech" section!

Only leave a comment here if you didn't leave one last class.

Second lesson...

Need to copy something quickly?
CTRL+C

Need to cut something quickly?
CTRL+X

Need to paste something quickly?
CTRL+V

Shortcuts will save you time and money....

Welcome to class

Please leave your comment here with your blog. The first post will be a review of an article from slashdot.org.

The review should be a paragraph long.