We dedicate this project to sharing two important Applied Tech core values: 1) The concept of “paying it forward” because it is the right thing to do; and 2) sharing useful, timely “tidbits” of knowledge with other people because continued learning throughout life is fun.
At Applied Tech, our staff is passionate about continued learning, and we enjoy sharing what we learn with others. It is in that spirit that we present this series.
Please note: Hardware and software requirements needed to enjoy the full experience of the internet evolve quickly. Older computers and/or slow(er) internet connections will present limitations when when trying to view some of this content.
Need we tell you more?
WineGeekTV says it’s not much more than a site about two guys who love wine. They come off not as snobs, but just cool people who want to help you learn about what to look for in wine, when to drink it and with what (and even with whom!). The fermented friends, Jeff Kycek and Jeff Bovee, have a good time and get to drink at the same time. Check them out at www.winegeektv.com.
Dying for Coffee? Yelp it!
If you haven’t tried this site yet, you must know someone who has.
Yelp is one of the emerging websites that offers a fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what’s great - and not so great - in your town.
With its easy to read and use site, www.yelp.com lets everyone become a critic of restaurants, bars, boutiques, mechanics or dentists. Overall, Yelp proves that you can’t please everybody, as even the best places may have a scathing review from a disgruntled writer. Still, a quick scan through a dozen or so Yelp reviews offers a pretty good idea of what to expect when you choose a place to get your favorite scone or brew.
And what’s even better is the Yelp smartphone app that lets you find the nearest food, gas or service you want. Just type in ”Coffee” when you come off the trail and YELP will tell you the nearest place for your caffeine bath. That alone makes it worth trying out!
The Cure for the Common Bore
Do you find yourself downright BORING because all you can talk about is work?
Then check out Arts and Letters Daily, a website that compiles in briefs (or longer if you want) the day’s best articles and writing on philosophy, trends, aesthetics, language, breakthroughs, ideas, disputes, gossip, art, criticism, culture, history and music.
Compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education, the site http://www.aldaily.com/ is a must for the busy CEO (or even the aspiring one). Samples from today: why pre-obits could save newspapers, how the Order of the Assassins in the 11th Century was one of the most lethal terrorist groups ever, what makes communists laugh and how humans transformed themselves from just another predatory ape into an animal that dominates the world.
In a sense, it’s like the old reader’s Digest format, but without Humor In Uniform. And the editors compile their work from a much wider range of tastes, from the CIA Studies to Salon, Wired, Slate, the American Conservative and the New Left Review. In short, the whole range of thought.
So next time you’re heading to catch that plane or drop in on that party, spend five minutes brushing up on the rest of your life. It might even help you make a sale!
Are you buying or selling a home? Go to www.zillow.com before you see a Realtor.
Zillow.com will give you a thumbnail summary of everything you want to know about a home before you show your hand to a Realtor. Find out what it’s worth, neighborhood comparables, taxes, schools, floor layouts, aerial pictures and even its “Walk Score” to see how many amenities (groceries, libraries, parks, restaurants, etc) are within walking distance. A very valuable resource at www.zillow.com.
In Applied Tech’s “Cool Sites to help expand one’s mental horizons“ series for February, we examine the subject of “social networking”, including a description of the popular sites LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. You’ll discover some amazing tid-bits of knowledge and other information to help start making sense of it all, as well as “20+ mind-blowing social media statistics” that may convince you of the importance of this fast-growing phenomenon.
SOCIAL NETWORKING EXPLAINED:
POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA SITES:
LinkedIn Explained -
Facebook Explained
Twitter Explained
Check out these ”Twitternitions” — do they sound like anyone you know?
SOCIAL NETWORKING IS HUGE!
Still don’t believe us? Check out the Top 5 Online Marketing trends for 2010! (4:09)
… and finally, as promised: 20+ mind-blowing social media statistics revisited (posted January 29. 2010 by Jake Hird).
Mr. Hird concludes, “Impressive stuff, but as always, take these stats with a pinch of salt. As before, no single piece of information can be used to base an online strategy upon, or be used as a forecast as the direct a specific social media channel make take in the future - you need to fully understand your marketing and business objectives before launching off into this apparently vast space.”
We hope you find this information to be useful and informative. Thanks for reading … cheers from the entire Applied Tech team!
Tracking space debris is paramount to all our activities in space. Every time we put a “useful” satellite into orbit - to service our communication needs, monitor the weather or spy on other countries - we are amplifying the growing space junk problem surrounding Earth.
In September 2009 we were reminded of the danger of space junk when a 15-foot chunk of old rocket part passed the space station and Space Shuttle Discovery with less than a mile to spare.
The United States Strategic Command keeps very close tabs on what is orbiting our planet and where they are at any given time. This site, which uses a Google Earth plug-in, lets you see the space debris and do some satellite tracking yourself.
Not only can you get information on the 13,000 objects tracked by the US Strategic Command, it also lets you plot their orbits. All the way from low Earth to geostationary orbits, you can access information about who launched the satellite, whether it is active or not, its launch date, mass and orbital information. You can also check out some information on satellites you may have never heard of, like the active InSat - 3A/4B geostationary communication satellites and many others.
You get the idea that our near-earth space is getting kind of cluttered, don’t you?
Worldwide Telescope is a free Microsoft application that lets you travel through outer space. You can pan in and zoom in close to moons, planets, solar systems and galaxies. Images are taken from the Hubble Space Telescope and ten earth-bound telescopes.
Worldwide Telescope also contains a number of guided tours, some of them created by famous scientists. A few examples of guided tours are: “Dark Matter”, “The First Black Hole” and “Beautiful Nebulas”. There are also guided tours to learn to use the software interface of WWT.
To learn more about Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope, you can watch this YouTube video, where science educator Roy Gould of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics introduces the Worldwide Telescope.
“The Worldwide Telescope takes the best images from the greastet telescopes on Earth … and in space … and assembles them into a seamless, holistic view of the universe. This new resource will change the way we do astronomy … the way we teach astronomy … and, most importantly, I think it’s going to change the we we see ourselves in the universe” (Roy Gould)
You can read all about it and download the freeware at www.worldwidetelescope.org.
The Worldwide Telescope was released by Microsoft Research in 2008.
Source: Educational-Freeware.com
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