Google Chrome

I admit it. I'm a browser-a-holic. I like using different web browsers depending upon the mood I'm in. Sometimes I'll stick to one for awhile and sometimes I'll use two or three different browsers during the day. In general, Mozilla Firefox tends to win out over all the other browsers because it's fast, it's simple, it has great extensions and it's free from clutter. However, not all applications work with Firefox (although more and more of them now do), so I occasionally need to use IE. Then, a few months ago I wrote about the social networking browser, Flock, which truly is a one of a kind browser replete with pictures and ins to Facebook, delicious, mySpace, and all sorts of web 2.0 tools. Netscape Navigator used to be in the loop, but it's been supplanted by the developers by Flock. Opera is an interesting critter, and I mention that one because Google's Chrome has a similar feature to one that I really love about Opera - speed dial. On Chrome it's called "Most Visited". With speed dial you select the pages you want to store and a visual image of the page is displayed, with Google Chrome, the browser stores the pages "most visited" automatically.

Like the Google search engine, the look of Google's browser, Chrome, is one of simplicity. The youTube video describing the new browser touts "speed, stability, and security". Watch the video here. One of the features that I like about the new Chrome is called "new incognito window". That feature allows you to open and download files without cookies being stored and information logged into the browsing history. If you download a file, a giant arrow slides down the browser indicating that data has been downloaded.

I've only been playing with Chrome for a couple of days now, and I have noticed a couple of difficulties: not all applications play nice with Chrome, and my back button hasn't always gone back, but I'm assuming that the little issues will clear themselves up as Google releases new versions of their browser. For further discussion of the "battle of the browsers", check out this PC World article. So take a look at Google Chrome and enjoy running your own comparisons of browsers!

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Visit the Francis U. & Mary F. Ritz Library

Display Case in Front Lobby

3rd Floor - Hudson Hall

The theme this year is Child's Play Around the Hispanic World. Members of the DCC Hispanic Heritage Committee display dolls and toys purchased from Hispanic countries. They also feature juvenile books written in Spanish which can be borrowed from the DCC library.

Not just for history majors!

From June, 2007 to June, 2008, Dutchess Community College celebrated its 50th anniversary. As part of this landmark event, the Dutchess County Historical Society published a special issue of their yearbook that focused on the history of the college.

Last September I was asked by Dr. Andrew Rieser to write an essay that told the history of DCC's Ritz Library. It turned out to be a semester-long project that found me poring through news articles, library director's reports and photographs in search of info telling the story of how the library came to be an integral part of the campus.

It turned out to be more intriguing that I'd imagined.

The most interesting part of my research was interviewing several past staff members of the library's lengthy existence. They were all very helpful & had many fascinating details to share with me.

The essay has been uploaded to this blog. You can read it here.

Textbooks at DCC!

Looking for textbooks at DCC? The college bookstore is located on the 2nd floor of Dutchess Hall past the theater. You can also look online at http://www.dccbookstore.com/ where you can select the course you are taking and be directly taken to the materials needed for that course. For example, if you are in BIO 101 section 10, follow these steps:

1. Click the Textbooks link on the left
2. Fall 2008 is automatically selected for the term
3. Check the department(s) that you need to look up textbooks for. In this example, check BIO
4. Click the Continue to "Get Course Materials" button on the bottom of the page
5. Check the course number(s) that you need to look up text books for; for example, BIO 101, section 10
6. Click the Continue to "Get Course Materials" button
7. Select the books you are interested in purchasing, either new or used and add them to your shopping cart OR click on the "Print Book List" link
8. Check out your materials or click "Print Course Materials List" button

and voila! Now you have a list of the materials necessary for your class which you can do with as you will.

A new way to search the internet universe

Let's face it - most of us are diehard Google fans when it comes to searching for relevant information fast. And while we might use another search engine occasionally, generally we end up back at Google when the going gets tough or simply out of habit. But there's a new player in town by the name of "Cuil" (pronounced "cool") intending to give Google a run for its money. According to Cuil's website, they search 3 times the number of websites as does Google and the output is organized based on page content and relevance. The simple search for cuil is located at http://www.cuil.com/ and the output is tabular making for a balanced look to the screen. Check it out!

For those Firefox fans, at the bottom of a cuil search, there is a "Add cuil to Firefox" link. Click there to bring cuil into your search engine bar.

New Facebook feature to cite books!

There's a new application you can add to your Facebook account that can really speed up the process of creating work cited pages.

When you type in the name of a book in this widget, called CiteMe, it produces a perfect citation in all the popular documentation styles. As an added bonus you can also use this feature to search for books at the Ritz Library too!!

Interested? Once logged onto Facebook, seach for the term "citeme". At the CiteMe information page, follow the instructions for installatiing the widget and you're good to go.

Got the programming blues?

Tired of having to manually check every link in a webpage you've designed? Frustrated with using a website whose links seem tenuous at best? Check out this Firefox extension called LinkChecker: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/532

Ok, so you've downloaded it - now what? Go to View --> Toolbars --> Customize and look for the check mark. Drag and drop the button onto your toolbar. Go to any webpage, click on the check and see what happens. If a link is valid, it will highlight in green. If a link is invalid, a reddish pink highlight occurs, and if a link is a forwarded or forbidden link, it will appear in yellow.

Instead of spending hours verifying links, LinkChecker will check them all for you in seconds!