Special Back-to-School Price on "Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame"
Special Back-to-School Price on "Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame." New Lower Price on American History Book That Excites Kids, Provides Tools for Teachers.
New lower price on American history book that excites kids provides tools for teachers.
Author and photographer Michael S. Class has used advanced digital photography to place his twelve year-old son, Anthony, in the cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis with Charles Lindbergh, on the moon with Neil Armstrong, in the laboratories of Thomas Edison and Jonas Salk, and on Normandy beach on D-Day. The result: It looks like Anthony really did meet Thomas Edison, Jonas Salk, FDR, Lou Gehrig, Charles Lindbergh, and Audie Murphy. The Web site, www.MagicPictureFrame.com, displays some of the book’s amazing photographs.
"I wanted to capture the interest of today's kids," says Class, "by turning American history into a grand time travel adventure." The book, Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame, is recommended for young adults, grade 6 to grade 12.
As a "Back-to-School" special, the book's price has been lowered to $26.50, a savings of $8.50.
The book is fun for kids, but Class designed the book to help homeschool parents and schoolteachers, too. Years of meticulous research went into the book: Class spoke with relatives of famous scientists and inventors, Holocaust survivors, award-winning biographers, and others to ensure that the facts of the book were both accurate and vivid. Historical accuracy rules every page: even Anthony’s conversations with the people of the past are based on things they really said, all properly footnoted. Class also included built-in curriculum aids: recommendations for hundreds of books, movies, songs, and places to visit - all keyed to the subjects of each chapter. The author’s Web site includes a fun final exam.
Homeschool expert Annette Hall (www.reliableanswers.com) applauds the inclusion of the lists: "The author has provided a tremendous resource of books, videos, historical places and more, to encourage a deeper understanding of the subjects being studied. This is a terrific aid for the teacher or homeschooling parent committed to presenting an accurate view of history that will entertain and educate the student, without putting them to sleep, something most children will appreciate."
One homeschool mom is already taking advantage of the book's built-in curriculum aids. At www.homeschoolreviews.com, she writes: "I am using this book as a spine for a homeschool history course targeted for high schoolers. For each chapter, they read the story and discuss the photographs and then they each get to pick some additional resources from the recommended materials to extend the study. I printed the final exam from the author's website and the students have used the test to see how much they have learned."
The editors at Homefires, The Journal of Homeschooling Online (www.homefires.com), say: "Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame is a terrific new book that makes history fascinating for kids. Homefires highly recommends it for homeschoolers." The book also made the "Best of Hoagies Shopping Guide" at www.hoagiesgifted.org, a Web site devoted to providing educational resources to parents and teachers of gifted children.
Anthony's adventures in American history come with a moral lesson, another facet of the book with strong appeal for homeschool parents and teachers. The chapter about Lindbergh’s flight is really about choosing one’s destiny. The story of Lou Gehrig is one of a virtuous life. The chapter about Thomas Edison is really about business and the benefits of hard work. The story of Apollo 11 is about wonder, taking risks, and courage. The story of Dr. Jonas Salk is really about dedicating one’s life to a higher purpose. Anthony’s observation of D-Day and the liberation of the death camps during the Holocaust is a testament to the reality of evil and the need to fight it.
It's not an easy book," says Class. "The book challenges the young reader to see the modern world in light of the lessons of the past. Anthony compares the people and events of the past with the people and events of his own time. Anthony discusses the nature of good and evil, right and wrong, war and peace, what it means to be an American, honor and discipline, success and achievement, courage and destiny, marriage and family, God and purpose."
Cindy Downes, a teacher and homeschool consultant (www.oklahomahomeschool.com) finds the emphasis on the moral lessons of history especially attractive. She says: "The author wrote the book 'to encourage young people to become productive, honest, thoughtful, moral citizens - and to contribute in a positive way to American society and the world.' He has done an excellent job of fulfilling this mission. I highly recommend this book for everyone, even adults. I also like that the author chose to include references to God and Bible scripture rather than make this politically correct."
Pollywog Creek Porch (www.homeschoolblogger.com) calls the moral lessons "particularly timely, considering the events surrounding our current immigration crisis." In one chapter, Anthony meets his immigrant great-grandfather at Ellis Island: it’s really a story about what it means to be an American.
"If you only purchase one history book this year for your middle-school-aged child, make this be the one," recommends Annette Hall (www.reliableanswers.com). "With so many books written today that are morally bankrupt and leave a child looking for a strong moral foundation upon which to build, this book is a breath of fresh air."
Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame (hardcover, 225 pages, $26.50) is available at www.MagicPictureFrame.com, by calling toll-free 1-800-247-6553, and on www.amazon.com. Reviews by homeschool teachers, school teachers, parents, newspapers, magazines, and real witnesses to history can all be found on the official Web site. There is a video, too.
Note to editors and book reviewers: Author and son are available for interviews. Photographs and review copies are available.
Contact: Michael Class, 425-890-4894
MySpace.com
As MySpace.com and Internet sites like it have gone from being a passing fancy to being part of the culture, teens and young adults can't imagine life without them--though how they use them varies.
Matt Nichols sometimes spends hours a day meeting new friends and contacting old ones. The Fort Thomas teen keeps up with this busy social life sitting in front of his computer, trading messages with buddies on the immensely popular Web site MySpace.com.
Nichols, 16, counts at least 274 friends on MySpace, and said he met many of them through the site.
He's just one of more than 100 million people who socialize through the Web site that has become one of the world's most visited online destinations. After the online portal Yahoo and blockbuster search engine Google, MySpace is the busiest Web site in the nation.
It's populated largely by teen-agers like Nichols who can create free accounts that allow them to have Web space to post a picture and personal information on their own user page. The site has become so popular that it got the attention of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp. and Fox News, who bought the site this summer for $580 million.
But for teens and other users, it's all about socializing.
"You can get to know people a lot easier," Nichols said. "It skips the awkward parts of conversation because you already know what you have in common with the person."
Users can post their favorite music, movies, books, fill in an "About Me" section and post pictures. They can also post religious and political affiliations, body type, work and school details and their hometown. Based on a user's information, others can send messages to start a conversation and get to know a person further.
Nichols has been on the site for about a year and spends each morning reading messages from his friends and replying to them.
"It's kind of like a step up from e-mail," he said.
MySpace is the leader in an explosion of Web sites that allow people to socialize and network online. The sites include Blogger.com. Classmates Online, Xanga and Facebook. The top 10 sites saw traffic grow 47 percent in the last year, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings.
"I think people just want to express themselves and the Internet is a good place to do that," said Nancy Jennings, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati who has studied children's media.
She said people who use social networking Web sites build significant ties, which are used throughout life as a means of finding jobs and connecting to new people. "You never know who you're going to meet that you help you out in life," she said.
Stephanie Leonard, 15, also of Fort Thomas, uses the site to keep up with friends who don't live around her.
"It's kind of like a little piece of your life," she said.
Once into the MySpace world, users are able to browse other profiles, create their own, invite others to join the Web site and add people as friends - users who have full access to view profiles and can leave comments.
Nichols used the site during summer vacation as a way to make plans with friends for the day or keep up with friends during the break.
His profile is public, so anyone, whether they are a MySpace user or not, can access his page.
"I like to be accessible," he said. "If someone is talking to you too much (on the site) you can choose to ignore them."
Leonard doesn't want to deal with harassing people online, so she only talks to people she knows. She wanted to keep in contact with friends she made during a church camp last year, so she created a MySpace page.
Unlike millions of others, Leonard keeps all of her profile private, meaning only her friends can see her personal information, photographs, online journal entries and friends list.
"Mainly because of the horror stories you hear about MySpace," she said.
The Web site has made national headlines as sexual assaults, identity thefts and physical attacks have been linked to people meeting there.
In Chicago, a 14-year-old girl was raped by at least three teenage boys after she agreed to meet them in person after becoming friends with them on MySpace. And in Detroit, a 35-year-old man was arrested and charged with assaulting a 31-year-old female after the two had met online and decided to go out for drinks together. Police used the networking site to locate the man and found three other women who he also allegedly assaulted.
MySpace quickly made changes to help with privacy and security. Users can set their profile to private, where only "friends" can view their pages. The site also has posted safety tips for its users, which reminds users their forums are public spaces.
"Don't post anything you wouldn't want the world to know," it states. It also tells users that people aren't always who they say they are and to be careful about adding strangers to friend lists.
The site also has tips for parents to use as guidelines for their children's use of MySpace as well as offers monitoring software information. It warns users to keep profiles private, meaning only friends can see a user's page, to avoid these situations and people stealing photos or information from users.
Murdoch's News Corp. is sponsoring a multi-million dollar Internet safety campaign including television and online advertising.
The profiles of 14- and 15-year-old users are automatically set to private - where only friends can view the profile. Once users are 16, they have the option of keeping their profile private or making it public - where anyone can view the page, regardless of MySpace membership.
Detective Kelli Cassidy, who works for a computer investigation task force set up by Cincinnati police and the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department, said while sexual predators often use the Internet to meet their victims, the task force has seen few criminal problems stemming from MySpace.
"It's not like a chat room where people are actually meeting and carrying on a conversion. It's just a Web site with profiles," said Cassidy.
Chat rooms are where they catch most their criminals, Cassidy said. "With all the publicity My Space has gotten over the past year, I think people are putting less sensitive information on there like home addresses."
Cassidy said the biggest thing parents could do is supervise what their children are doing on the Internet.
"A lot of parents have no clue what their kids do online," Cassidy said. "The best security is to watch your children."
Regardless of the horror stories, people still use the site to find and meet new people.
A trio of Cincinnati natives did just that last month, when they traveled throughout the United States staying with people they met on the site.
Northern Kentucky University students Melissa Elrod and Jasmine Williamson, along with NKU alumnus Jonny Nicholas traveled across the country to make a documentary on the Web site for Elrod's senior project. The documentary focuses on social networking sites, the impact they have on society and why people use them.
The trio made their way south through Tennessee then west toward Texas during their first week. They stopped in New Mexico, Las Vegas, northern California and Idaho before making their way back to Cincinnati. They stayed with MySpace users they had met online and friends of their families as well as at a few hotels.
Though Elrod and her friends stayed with people they've never met, others use the Web site to find people they used to know.
Paul D., who asked for his last name to be withheld, said social networking an easy way to meet new people, without the bar scene.
"It's safer than clubbing and more convenient to find people you already know, but haven't seen in a while," he said.
The 34-year-old Batavia resident said he's had a MySpace account for a few months and usually checks his Web page two or three times a day.
Users can search for other members of MySpace by high school, college, hometown, age group, height, interests, religion, political affiliation, zip code and more - making finding an old classmate, roommate or neighbor easy. Users can use the site to search movies, music, books, careers and as a search engine.
Each user chooses a display name, which can be changed at any time, that they will be known as on the site. Display names vary from actual names, nicknames, celebrity names and quotes.
On MySpace, a person can pose as anyone. More than 20 MySpace profiles have Britney Spears' name attached to them. Angelina Jolie, professional snowboarder Shaun White and other celebrities have several false profiles made by MySpace members.
As MySpace.com and Internet sites like it have gone from being a passing fancy to being part of the culture, teens and young adults can't imagine life without them--though how they use them varies.
Matt Nichols sometimes spends hours a day meeting new friends and contacting old ones. The Fort Thomas teen keeps up with this busy social life sitting in front of his computer, trading messages with buddies on the immensely popular Web site MySpace.com.
Nichols, 16, counts at least 274 friends on MySpace, and said he met many of them through the site.
He's just one of more than 100 million people who socialize through the Web site that has become one of the world's most visited online destinations. After the online portal Yahoo and blockbuster search engine Google, MySpace is the busiest Web site in the nation.
It's populated largely by teen-agers like Nichols who can create free accounts that allow them to have Web space to post a picture and personal information on their own user page. The site has become so popular that it got the attention of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp. and Fox News, who bought the site this summer for $580 million.
But for teens and other users, it's all about socializing.
"You can get to know people a lot easier," Nichols said. "It skips the awkward parts of conversation because you already know what you have in common with the person."
Users can post their favorite music, movies, books, fill in an "About Me" section and post pictures. They can also post religious and political affiliations, body type, work and school details and their hometown. Based on a user's information, others can send messages to start a conversation and get to know a person further.
Nichols has been on the site for about a year and spends each morning reading messages from his friends and replying to them.
"It's kind of like a step up from e-mail," he said.
MySpace is the leader in an explosion of Web sites that allow people to socialize and network online. The sites include Blogger.com. Classmates Online, Xanga and Facebook. The top 10 sites saw traffic grow 47 percent in the last year, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings.
"I think people just want to express themselves and the Internet is a good place to do that," said Nancy Jennings, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati who has studied children's media.
She said people who use social networking Web sites build significant ties, which are used throughout life as a means of finding jobs and connecting to new people. "You never know who you're going to meet that you help you out in life," she said.
Stephanie Leonard, 15, also of Fort Thomas, uses the site to keep up with friends who don't live around her.
"It's kind of like a little piece of your life," she said.
Once into the MySpace world, users are able to browse other profiles, create their own, invite others to join the Web site and add people as friends - users who have full access to view profiles and can leave comments.
Nichols used the site during summer vacation as a way to make plans with friends for the day or keep up with friends during the break.
His profile is public, so anyone, whether they are a MySpace user or not, can access his page.
"I like to be accessible," he said. "If someone is talking to you too much (on the site) you can choose to ignore them."
Leonard doesn't want to deal with harassing people online, so she only talks to people she knows. She wanted to keep in contact with friends she made during a church camp last year, so she created a MySpace page.
Unlike millions of others, Leonard keeps all of her profile private, meaning only her friends can see her personal information, photographs, online journal entries and friends list.
"Mainly because of the horror stories you hear about MySpace," she said.
The Web site has made national headlines as sexual assaults, identity thefts and physical attacks have been linked to people meeting there.
In Chicago, a 14-year-old girl was raped by at least three teenage boys after she agreed to meet them in person after becoming friends with them on MySpace. And in Detroit, a 35-year-old man was arrested and charged with assaulting a 31-year-old female after the two had met online and decided to go out for drinks together. Police used the networking site to locate the man and found three other women who he also allegedly assaulted.
MySpace quickly made changes to help with privacy and security. Users can set their profile to private, where only "friends" can view their pages. The site also has posted safety tips for its users, which reminds users their forums are public spaces.
"Don't post anything you wouldn't want the world to know," it states. It also tells users that people aren't always who they say they are and to be careful about adding strangers to friend lists.
The site also has tips for parents to use as guidelines for their children's use of MySpace as well as offers monitoring software information. It warns users to keep profiles private, meaning only friends can see a user's page, to avoid these situations and people stealing photos or information from users.
Murdoch's News Corp. is sponsoring a multi-million dollar Internet safety campaign including television and online advertising.
The profiles of 14- and 15-year-old users are automatically set to private - where only friends can view the profile. Once users are 16, they have the option of keeping their profile private or making it public - where anyone can view the page, regardless of MySpace membership.
Detective Kelli Cassidy, who works for a computer investigation task force set up by Cincinnati police and the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department, said while sexual predators often use the Internet to meet their victims, the task force has seen few criminal problems stemming from MySpace.
"It's not like a chat room where people are actually meeting and carrying on a conversion. It's just a Web site with profiles," said Cassidy.
Chat rooms are where they catch most their criminals, Cassidy said. "With all the publicity My Space has gotten over the past year, I think people are putting less sensitive information on there like home addresses."
Cassidy said the biggest thing parents could do is supervise what their children are doing on the Internet.
"A lot of parents have no clue what their kids do online," Cassidy said. "The best security is to watch your children."
Regardless of the horror stories, people still use the site to find and meet new people.
A trio of Cincinnati natives did just that last month, when they traveled throughout the United States staying with people they met on the site.
Northern Kentucky University students Melissa Elrod and Jasmine Williamson, along with NKU alumnus Jonny Nicholas traveled across the country to make a documentary on the Web site for Elrod's senior project. The documentary focuses on social networking sites, the impact they have on society and why people use them.
The trio made their way south through Tennessee then west toward Texas during their first week. They stopped in New Mexico, Las Vegas, northern California and Idaho before making their way back to Cincinnati. They stayed with MySpace users they had met online and friends of their families as well as at a few hotels.
Though Elrod and her friends stayed with people they've never met, others use the Web site to find people they used to know.
Paul D., who asked for his last name to be withheld, said social networking an easy way to meet new people, without the bar scene.
"It's safer than clubbing and more convenient to find people you already know, but haven't seen in a while," he said.
The 34-year-old Batavia resident said he's had a MySpace account for a few months and usually checks his Web page two or three times a day.
Users can search for other members of MySpace by high school, college, hometown, age group, height, interests, religion, political affiliation, zip code and more - making finding an old classmate, roommate or neighbor easy. Users can use the site to search movies, music, books, careers and as a search engine.
Each user chooses a display name, which can be changed at any time, that they will be known as on the site. Display names vary from actual names, nicknames, celebrity names and quotes.
On MySpace, a person can pose as anyone. More than 20 MySpace profiles have Britney Spears' name attached to them. Angelina Jolie, professional snowboarder Shaun White and other celebrities have several false profiles made by MySpace members.
Lest We Forget......
Monday, September 11, 2006, is the 5th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City. In addition, there were attacks on the Pentagon and subsequently - all over the world - including Madrid, Bali and Mumbai, to mention just a few. Here is a poem, written anonymously, to help us remember not only September 11, 2001 but all the other terrorist attacks on democracy.
Two thousand one, nine eleven
Five thousand plus arrive in heaven.
As they pass through the gate,
Thousands more appear in wait.
A bearded man with stovepipe hat
Steps forward saying, "Lets sit, lets chat."
They settle down in seats of clouds,
A man named Martin shouts out proud,
"I have a dream!" and once he did
The Newcomer said, "Your dream still lives."
Groups of soldiers in blue and gray
Others in khaki, and green then say
"We're from Bull Run, Yorktown, the Maine"
The Newcomer said, "You died not in vain."
From a man on sticks one could hear
"The only thing we have to fear.
The Newcomer said, "We know the rest,
trust us sir, we've passed that test."
"Courage doesn't hide in caves
You can't bury freedom, in a grave,"
The Newcomers had heard this voice before
A distinct Yankees twang from Hyannisport shores.
A silence fell within the mist
Somehow the Newcomer knew that this
Meant time had come for her to say
What was in the hearts of the five thousand plus that day.
"Back on Earth, we wrote reports,
Watched our children play in sports
Worked our gardens, sang our songs
Went to church and clipped coupons
We smiled, we laughed, we cried, we fought
Unlike you, great we're not"
The tall man in the stovepipe hat
Stood and said, "Don't talk like that!
Look at your country, look and see
You died for freedom, just like me"
Then, before them all appeared a scene
Of rubbled streets and twisted beams
Death, destruction, smoke and dust
And people working just 'cause they must
Hauling ash, lifting stones,
Knee deep in hell, but not alone
"Look! Blackman, Whiteman, Brownman, Yellowman
Side by side helping their fellow man!"
So said Martin, as he watched the scene
"Even from nightmares, can be born a dream."
Down below three firemen raised
The colors high into ashen haze
The soldiers above had seen it before
On Iwo Jima back in '44
The man on sticks studied everything closely
Then shared his perceptions on what he saw mostly
"I see pain, I see 20 tears,
I see sorrow - but I don't see fear."
"You left behind husbands and wives
Daughters and sons and so many lives
are suffering now because of this wrong
But look very closely. You're not really gone.
All of those people, even those who've never met you
All of their lives, they'll never forget you
Don't you see what has happened?
Don't you see what you've done?
You've brought them together as one."
With that the man in the stovepipe hat said
"Take my hand," and from there he led
five thousand plus heroes, Newcomers to heaven
On this day, two thousand one, nine eleven.
Monday, September 11, 2006, is the 5th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City. In addition, there were attacks on the Pentagon and subsequently - all over the world - including Madrid, Bali and Mumbai, to mention just a few. Here is a poem, written anonymously, to help us remember not only September 11, 2001 but all the other terrorist attacks on democracy.
Two thousand one, nine eleven
Five thousand plus arrive in heaven.
As they pass through the gate,
Thousands more appear in wait.
A bearded man with stovepipe hat
Steps forward saying, "Lets sit, lets chat."
They settle down in seats of clouds,
A man named Martin shouts out proud,
"I have a dream!" and once he did
The Newcomer said, "Your dream still lives."
Groups of soldiers in blue and gray
Others in khaki, and green then say
"We're from Bull Run, Yorktown, the Maine"
The Newcomer said, "You died not in vain."
From a man on sticks one could hear
"The only thing we have to fear.
The Newcomer said, "We know the rest,
trust us sir, we've passed that test."
"Courage doesn't hide in caves
You can't bury freedom, in a grave,"
The Newcomers had heard this voice before
A distinct Yankees twang from Hyannisport shores.
A silence fell within the mist
Somehow the Newcomer knew that this
Meant time had come for her to say
What was in the hearts of the five thousand plus that day.
"Back on Earth, we wrote reports,
Watched our children play in sports
Worked our gardens, sang our songs
Went to church and clipped coupons
We smiled, we laughed, we cried, we fought
Unlike you, great we're not"
The tall man in the stovepipe hat
Stood and said, "Don't talk like that!
Look at your country, look and see
You died for freedom, just like me"
Then, before them all appeared a scene
Of rubbled streets and twisted beams
Death, destruction, smoke and dust
And people working just 'cause they must
Hauling ash, lifting stones,
Knee deep in hell, but not alone
"Look! Blackman, Whiteman, Brownman, Yellowman
Side by side helping their fellow man!"
So said Martin, as he watched the scene
"Even from nightmares, can be born a dream."
Down below three firemen raised
The colors high into ashen haze
The soldiers above had seen it before
On Iwo Jima back in '44
The man on sticks studied everything closely
Then shared his perceptions on what he saw mostly
"I see pain, I see 20 tears,
I see sorrow - but I don't see fear."
"You left behind husbands and wives
Daughters and sons and so many lives
are suffering now because of this wrong
But look very closely. You're not really gone.
All of those people, even those who've never met you
All of their lives, they'll never forget you
Don't you see what has happened?
Don't you see what you've done?
You've brought them together as one."
With that the man in the stovepipe hat said
"Take my hand," and from there he led
five thousand plus heroes, Newcomers to heaven
On this day, two thousand one, nine eleven.
Let Web do popular software program tasks
Websites today do more than provide entertainment or information. They help you balance your checkbook, create a resume and stay in touch with your family. These sites are more like programs that run on the Internet.
Some computer scholars have named them Web 2.0. Most are in the testing phase, so there can be glitches.
With these sites, you only need an Internet connection. Special software is unnecessary. And the services run on both the Windows and Mac platforms. Plus, most are free.
Here are some useful Web 2.0 sites:
1. Free Office. Microsoft Office is the de facto suite. But its various renditions cost several hundred dollars.
Zoho (www.zoho.com) offers Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet and Zoho Show. These are free counterparts to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, respectively. You won't find as many features as you'd find in Office, but there are just enough to be useful.
The sites are similar to Microsoft Office, so there are no big learning curves. All files are saved online. You can start a document at work and finish it at home.
All three sites open and save files in a variety of common formats. For example, Zoho Writer will open a previously created Word document, HTML or rich text file. It will also save any file onto your computer's hard drive as a Word (.doc), portable document format (.pdf), text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf) or HTML file.
Zoho isn't the only business offering. The ubiquitous Google has an online word processor and spreadsheet. Google purchased the word processor Writely, which has been around for some time. Writely doesn't have as many features as Word, but it is certainly usable.
Google Spreadsheets (spreadsheets.google.com) is less complete than Zoho's program. It is fine for basic number crunching and the maintenance of lists. But it lacks the capability to create graphs like Zoho Sheet.
You need an invitation from a current user to sign up for the Google programs. Or, you can get an invitation online at www.webprohost.nl.
2. Online resume. Creating a good-looking, useful resume can be difficult. Emurse (www.emurse.com) helps you create resumes that can be shared online or printed.
You can either upload an existing resume or create one. Creating one from scratch takes longer. But you have more options when done, such as the ability to edit and share it online.
Once a resume is created, emurse will post it online for free. It also tracks where you've sent your resume, offering reminders to follow up.
3. Family affair. Personal websites and blogs can help keep families in the loop. But one person generally manages them. Jotspot Family Site (familysite.jot.com) lets everyone get into the act.
One person initially signs up for the free service. Invitations to other family members are sent through the website. Each family site is given its own Web address. Family members must sign in with a user name and password.
Any family member can add photographs, birthdays or important dates. There's also a section to share recipes and a blog feature.
4. Share video. Websites like YouTube are great for sharing video with the world. But you may want to keep your family trip to the beach private.
Fliqz (www.fliqz.com) allows you to share videos with as few people as you want. It offers three security levels: public, private and private with security. Videos designated as public are accessible to anyone. Private videos have unique Web addresses. Only those who know the addresses can access them.
Private with security videos also have a unique address. In addition, visitors need a password, which you set.
You can store and share an unlimited number of videos. However, each upload is limited to 100 megabytes (10 to 15 minutes of video).
Kim Komando hosts the nation's largest talk radio show about computers and the Internet. To get the podcast or find the station nearest you, visit: www.komando.com/listen. To subscribe to Kim's free e-mail newsletters, sign up at: www.komando.com/newsletters. Contact her at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.
Websites today do more than provide entertainment or information. They help you balance your checkbook, create a resume and stay in touch with your family. These sites are more like programs that run on the Internet.
Some computer scholars have named them Web 2.0. Most are in the testing phase, so there can be glitches.
With these sites, you only need an Internet connection. Special software is unnecessary. And the services run on both the Windows and Mac platforms. Plus, most are free.
Here are some useful Web 2.0 sites:
1. Free Office. Microsoft Office is the de facto suite. But its various renditions cost several hundred dollars.
Zoho (www.zoho.com) offers Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet and Zoho Show. These are free counterparts to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, respectively. You won't find as many features as you'd find in Office, but there are just enough to be useful.
The sites are similar to Microsoft Office, so there are no big learning curves. All files are saved online. You can start a document at work and finish it at home.
All three sites open and save files in a variety of common formats. For example, Zoho Writer will open a previously created Word document, HTML or rich text file. It will also save any file onto your computer's hard drive as a Word (.doc), portable document format (.pdf), text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf) or HTML file.
Zoho isn't the only business offering. The ubiquitous Google has an online word processor and spreadsheet. Google purchased the word processor Writely, which has been around for some time. Writely doesn't have as many features as Word, but it is certainly usable.
Google Spreadsheets (spreadsheets.google.com) is less complete than Zoho's program. It is fine for basic number crunching and the maintenance of lists. But it lacks the capability to create graphs like Zoho Sheet.
You need an invitation from a current user to sign up for the Google programs. Or, you can get an invitation online at www.webprohost.nl.
2. Online resume. Creating a good-looking, useful resume can be difficult. Emurse (www.emurse.com) helps you create resumes that can be shared online or printed.
You can either upload an existing resume or create one. Creating one from scratch takes longer. But you have more options when done, such as the ability to edit and share it online.
Once a resume is created, emurse will post it online for free. It also tracks where you've sent your resume, offering reminders to follow up.
3. Family affair. Personal websites and blogs can help keep families in the loop. But one person generally manages them. Jotspot Family Site (familysite.jot.com) lets everyone get into the act.
One person initially signs up for the free service. Invitations to other family members are sent through the website. Each family site is given its own Web address. Family members must sign in with a user name and password.
Any family member can add photographs, birthdays or important dates. There's also a section to share recipes and a blog feature.
4. Share video. Websites like YouTube are great for sharing video with the world. But you may want to keep your family trip to the beach private.
Fliqz (www.fliqz.com) allows you to share videos with as few people as you want. It offers three security levels: public, private and private with security. Videos designated as public are accessible to anyone. Private videos have unique Web addresses. Only those who know the addresses can access them.
Private with security videos also have a unique address. In addition, visitors need a password, which you set.
You can store and share an unlimited number of videos. However, each upload is limited to 100 megabytes (10 to 15 minutes of video).
Kim Komando hosts the nation's largest talk radio show about computers and the Internet. To get the podcast or find the station nearest you, visit: www.komando.com/listen. To subscribe to Kim's free e-mail newsletters, sign up at: www.komando.com/newsletters. Contact her at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.
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