Helping Kids with Simple Machines

Recently a couple of kids from 808 had a project for school where they had to build a simple machine out of supplies they had on hand (i.e. no tools necessary). They had been studying simple machines for a while in class, and they now had to put their knowledge to the test.

Using tape, scissors, cardboard, paper, markers and a lot of creativity, we were able to create two really cool simple machines. Unfortunately, we were only able to snap a picture of one of them.

The first one was built by Sirak, and isn't pictured. Sirak used a roll of scotch tape, two small pencils, tape, manilla folders and scissors to create a wheelbarrow, which contains two simple machines: the wheel-axle and the lever.

Sirak, with some help, was able to get the wheel to actually roll, and then used scraps of paper colored gray to simulate rocks.

Abdullah was originally going to make a see-saw, but decided that it wasn't challenging enough to create. Instead, he decided to use a wedge and make an axe. He also put in a little extra effort and turned his scrap paper into a piece of wood for the axe to sink into. Abdullah created this cool tool using manilla folders, paper, scissors and tape.

Above: Abdullah used his simple machine (a wedge) and turned it into an axe, complete with a piece of wood to chop!

Each kid did a great job on his machine; now we just have to hope they both got A's!

Activity Room Artwork

With the help of Cailin, the kids of 808-812 have learned how to make a lot of new artwork in the Activity Room. These projects include everything from painting t-shirts to learning how to draw cartoons and graffiti. Check out the picture below for a sample of the work that the kids have been doing.

Looks like we have some talented young artists here on Memorial Drive!

A Desktop to Remind You of Home!

We recently updated the desktop image on all of our computers, using an image created and edited by a member of the CLC staff. This new desktop can be seen in a smaller size below, but must be seen on a big computer screen to be appreciated!

The desktop features a lovely picture of the Charles River taken from the viewpoint of the river-side apartments of the 808 Building.

We hope that the picture reminds our residents of home, even while they're in the Computer Learning Center.


-CLC Staff

More Celebrity Sightings at 808!

A few months back, there was a post about the power of GIMP, the freeware image-editing program. A few days ago, we dusted off the program and fired it up again, allowing the kids of 808-812 to see their heads on the bodies of their favorite celebrities, athletes and even cartoon characters! Check out the familiar faces that are now the newest 808-812 celebrities!

Above: Paulos, who wanted to be "the fat guy from Family Guy"
Below: Desi as his favorite singer, Michael Jackson, in the "Thriller" video.

Above: Doodie making his silliest face as the President of the United States.
Below: Davonte is the new face of the $100 bill.

Below: Davonte, Jhkyos and Feldano are the Celtics' newest "Big 3," just in time for the start of basketball season.

Want to start making your own funny pictures? Download GIMP here.

Want to put your face on a playing card, a logo or on any kind of money from all over the world? Check out a cool website that allows you to do just that here.

Adding Accent Marks

When typing in English, we often type in shorthand or abbreviated form (like OMG!, G2G, etc.). We usually ignore accent marks that we find in foreign words like résumé and replace them with regular a's, e's or i's.

However, when typing or writing in a foreign language, these accent marks are usually important, and can in fact be essential to properly understanding a word or phrase. So how do we add these marks? There's not a key on your keyboard for adding "é" to a word, right? Mine just has a regular "e."

Actually, your keyboard is all you need to add all kinds of accents to your typing. Pretty much every accented letter you need can be accessed and added to your type by entering its "keyboard code," which can be entered by pressing and holding the "ALT" key and entering the particular letter's four-digit code.

For example, you can type the letter "e" with an "accent aigu" (which is what the little line was called in my high school French classes) by entering the code ALT + 0233, which gives you "é."

As the French would say, voilà! It's that simple. Of course the trick is finding out all of these codes, but we've got a great link for you: Arnold Winkelried's Tip Sheet on Special Characters.

Here, towards the bottom of the page, Winkelried has created a table of pretty much every special character you need. Simply scroll through the table and find the accent you need, then look two columns to the right. That column is the code for Windows, which will be some combination of ALT + four numbers.

Three important notes:

• You must use the number pad at the right of your keyboard to enter these codes; you can't use the number bar on the top of the keyboard. Make sure your "Num Lock" is on before entering the codes, or they won't work.
• There are different codes for capital and lower case accented letters.
  
• These codes only work on Windows computers. If you have a Mac, you can still use the above link; you just have to enter a different combination of keys.

So there you have it. Next time you want to type in a foreign language, you'll have all of the proper accents!

Fantastic Lego Creations

Lego (apparently that's the plural, "Legos" is technically wrong) were my favorite toy growing up, so it's cool to see that the kids still like to play with them today. I brought some from home a while back for the kids to build with in the Activity Room, and they came up with some really cool stuff.

Recently, Darius, a teen who goes to the CLC and Activity Room often, donated a couple of boxes of Lego to us that he said his mom wanted him to get rid of. We were more than happy to take them, and the kids got busy creating stuff right away.

On Wednesday, one of the kids who was most excited about the Lego, Sirak, helped me build a really cool Lego beach house, complete with waves, a balcony, a security camera, a locked gate and even a Lego guy surfing in the waves!

Check out the photos below of this cool creation. Maybe we have a future architect on our hands?

Above: A close-up of the beach house's door and walkway.
Below: A close-up of the house's stairs to the beach and of the house's resident catching a Lego wave on his surfboard.

Above: The walkway/entryway from the front lawn to the beach. Not a bad piece of land, eh?

Below: An aerial shot of the house, complete with the security camera, torch on the roof and even the owner's boat/plane off to the left.

Thanks for the donation, Darius! And stay tuned, because we're sure to create more awesome stuff with these new Lego soon!

Fall Cleaning!

Yes, it's usually spring cleaning, but we decided to have some "fall cleaning" in the CLC. Things were getting a little dirty after a busy summer and September, so we decided to refresh the whole CLC with a bit of cleaning.

All of the computers were moved off of the tables, and each table was scrubbed clean then sprayed with Windex and wiped down. You wouldn't believe how many pencil marks and smudges came right off!

Above: The recently-cleaned desks. They look like new, right?

While moving one of the tables, a leg fell off. This might seem like a bad thing, but upon further inspection the table was pretty worn down from people leaning on it. It's a good thing it fell while cleaning was going on, and not while people were using the computers!

Fortunately, the CLC staff member who was cleaning was able to hold up the table before it fell, balance one end on a chair and move the computers, so nothing was damaged. We replaced the table with one from the Activity Room for the time being, so we're not even down an extra computer.

All of the sockets along the walls were dusted too, and the homework table was scrubbed down as well. The carpet got a thorough vacuuming thanks to a CLC staff member's home vacuum, and the door was cleaned as well.

We also scrubbed down the walls by the door, as they had been damaged a bit when a ceiling tile fell earlier in September. All of the tiles have been replaced, and we're looking good.

We also did some behind the scenes cleaning as well, cleaning out drawers and the corners by the windows. Perhaps most "excitingly," we cleaned off the round table in the corner that holds the fax machine and turned that table into an office/homework space. It now is a great space for someone to prepare a fax or copy or for a kid to work on his homework in quiet.

Above: The all-new Fax/Copy & Homework station, complete with pens, pencils, cover sheets and a sharpener. (Apologies for the blurry photo)

Be sure to stop by the CLC and check out the new set-up, and, of course, let us know if we missed a spot!

808 Claymation

It's been rainy and dreary for the past few days, so the Activity Room has had to remain indoors rather than enjoy the early-Fall weather. However, a rainy day provides the perfect opportunity for some indoor crafts, and yesterday the kids enjoyed playing with and making various sculptures out of Play-Doh.

Above: Doodie poses with his Play-Doh sculpture of Mario, the famous Nintendo character

These Play-Doh sculptures brought to mind our movie efforts from months back, where the kids created some clay figures that we then turned into stop-motion animation. The videos are older, but had never been posted to this blog before.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here are two "claymation" short films, created and brought to you by the kids of 808 & 812 Memorial Drive.

We're currently having problems with our camera, but if we can get it running again, we're going to create some more videos to post on YouTube. Stay tuned for more "claymation" action...

National Night Out Slideshow

We recently received a ton of photos from this summer's National Night Out festivities, so we put together a slideshow with some "summery" music and turned it into a video.

Here's the result, enjoy!

2010 National Night Out, Cambridge, MA - More bloopers are a click away

Football Pick'em Update!

We're now nearly a third of the way through the NFL season, and our Football Pick'em game seems to get more popular every week. We've had nearly 25 kids participate overall, and they're starting to get more and more interested as they see their friends play.

Here are the overall standings after Week 4, which ended after last night's Patriot win against the Miami Dolphins:

1. Davonte- 67.63%
2. Adonay- 67.5%
3. Darius- 66%
4. Martha- 65%
5. Jhkyos- 64.63%
6. Robell- 64.5%
7. Sura- 60%
8. Sabrin- 59.5%
9. Nebil- 57.75%
10. Mike, Fernandes & Hamza- 56.5%
13. Josh- 55%
14. Adem- 54.5%
15. Shahir- 53%
16. Dan- 50.38%
17. Antonio- 50%
18. Feldano- 48.25%
19. Sirak- 47%
20. Lena- 37.5%
21. Abdullah- 36%
22. Saffiyah- 29%
23. Paulos- 13%

Each person's "percentage" is the average percent correct they got each week. For example, if a player got 60% right in Week 1 and 55% right in Week 2, his or her overall score would be the average of the two, or 57.5%.

If you want to get involved, it's not too late to play! Stop by the Computer Learning Center and pick up a sheet from Mike or Dan.

Facebook Privacy Settings

As we've mentioned before, many CLC patrons are using Facebook, the wildly popular social networking site that has over 500 million users worldwide. Facebook can be a valuable communication tool, connecting long-lost friends and helping people stay in touch across vast distances.

However, Facebook also puts lots of personal information out there, from a user's hometown to his or her birthday or place of business. With all of that valuable information out there, it's important to protect one's identity online, and to make sure that personal information remains secure.

Facebook's standard privacy settings do a pretty good job of keeping things safe, but if you want to be extra careful, we've assembled a collection of links with security tips below.

- 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

- 10 Solid Tips to Safeguard Your Facebook Privacy

- 5 Essential Facebook Privacy Tips

- Facebook's Help Center

Keep in mind that these sites (with the exception of the last one) are third-party sites, meaning they aren't affiliated with Facebook, and are only offering advice and recommendations. None of these "fixes" are 100% necessary, but they are designed to be safeguards to make sure all information remains private.

To browse more safety tips, check out a Google search listing here.

New Tools for Back to School

While we all wish summer could go on for ever, school's now back in session for pretty much everyone. With school comes homework, and computers are becoming ever-more useful in helping kids and teens alike get their coursework done. Completing homework more quickly means more free time, and that's what we all want, right?

Aaron recently discovered this list of 50 open-source (i.e. free to use and download) software tools that could be helpful for students who are working on everything from math homework to astronomy projects.

From Aaron:

Here is a listing of 50 Free Tools that may be useful in the centers. Glancing over the listings, there is a graphing calculator program that will be useful, especially for the teens.

The graphing calculator program he's referring to is GraphCalc, a program designed to do everything hand-held calculators can do. These calculators are often essential in high school-level courses like Algebra, Geometry and Statistics, so this program could really come in handy for the older kids.

Check out the full list to see if there's a program to suit your needs, but there really is pretty much something for everyone on there. And best of all, it's all open source, which means it's all yours to use as much as you want.

Pigskin Pick'em

Summer is over, there's a bit of a chill in the air and the kids have gone back to school. This can only mean one thing...it's football season!

Hopefully we get to see another picture like this at the end of this season, right?

In the past, we've run a couple of fantasy football leagues in the CLC and Activity Room. While these leagues are a fun way to keep track of stats and battle for bragging rights, they often require a time commitment and can only be played by the older kids and teens who have a wide knowledge of the NFL and its star players.

This year, to get more kids involved, we are running a sort of pick-em contest instead. Each week, those who want to participate are given a sheet of paper with all of that week's games listed on it. The player then must circle who he or she thinks will win each game. There are usually 15 games per week, so that's a lot of deciding to do!

After each week of action is completed, the scores will be tallied. At the end of the season, the player with the most correct picks (or the highest average score per week, we aren't sure which yet) will win pick-em bragging rights and a cool prize.

Want to play? Stop by the CLC and ask for a sheet to get in on the football action.

ESPN's main NFL page, in case you want to read up on the league before making your picks.

Routine Maintenance Complete

This past Thursday, routine maintenance was performed on every computer in the Computer Learning Center as part of an effort to keep the new machines running smoothly.

CC Cleaner was used to clear out old, unused Internet files and histories, opening up as much as a half-gigabyte of space on some of the hard drives.

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware was used to check for any viruses, spyware or adware on the computers as well. Unlike last time, where multiple machines were infected with adware, this time only two computers had any infected files.

We've also identified the cause of the "infections:" an add-on tool bar called the MyWebSearch toolbar. A Google search of "MyWebSearch virus" returns thousands of results, with all of the users complaining that the toolbar had infected their computers with unwanted files.

Running frequent virus checks is a great way to keep your computer healthy.

We're still trying to figure out who is downloading and installing this toolbar, but in all likelihood it's coming packaged with free game demos downloaded by the kids, just one more reason to always read what you're installing before putting it on your hard drive.

A tip for all of you internet users out there: check your web browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.) for this toolbar. If you see a "MyWebSearch" tool bar underneath the address bar (the place where you type in a website's address), you should probably use MalwareBytes to get rid of it.

It doesn't appear that this adware is dangerously harmful, but it is unwanted, will slow down your computer and could lead to other problems down the road.

The Activity Room Learns How to Celebrate

For the past few months, we've been playing all different kinds of hockey in the Activity Room, from knee-hockey to street hockey outside at the park.

When we first started playing, for most of the kids hockey was a foreign game to them, one that they'd heard of but didn't know much about. After just a couple of days of playing, however, many of them were hooked.

However, we'd never really practiced one of the most important things (kidding, but it is important) about hockey: how to properly celebrate scoring a goal.

After most goals, the players come together in a pile and tap each other on the helmet; nothing major. But we wanted the kids to get some practice having fun after scoring a goal, so we went on to YouTube to find audio clips of NHL goal horns, the extremely loud (and sometimes obnoxious) sounds and songs played after every home-team goal.

We chose the horns of the hometown Boston Bruins and the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, cued them up to play when Adem, Ibrahim or Nebil scored, and then just let the kids go nuts.

Below are two videos of the goals and the subsequent joyous celebrations.

Needless to say, these youngsters are well on their way to NHL stardom.

Georges Island!

This past Tuesday, JRyan Solutions took the kids of 808-812 Memorial Drive on what has become an annual tradition: the yearly summer field trip!

This year, we decided to go to Georges Island, just one of the many Boston Harbor Islands. After taking the Red Line from Central Square to Downtown Crossing, we walked to the waterfront where we boarded the Harbor Islands Ferry (not before spending some time playing in the fountains on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, of course). For many of the 20 or so kids who took the trip, it was the first time they had ever been on a boat of any kind.

After a 20-minute boat ride across Boston Harbor, during which we saw planes landing at LoganAirport, people fishing off of Castle Island and numerous lobster pots, we arrived at Georges Island, arguably the most famous of the Boston Harbor Islands.

We ate a quick lunch at the island's snack stand, and then used the rest of the afternoon to explore the island, which is dominated by a Civil War-era fort, Fort Warren. The kids were able to walk to beaches, explore every nook and cranny of the fort and even go on top of the ramparts, from which the views of the city of Boston and the harbor were spectacular.

We also scoured the beaches for nice pieces of sea glass, sea creatures and perfect flat rocks for skipping. By the time our return boat arrived a few hours later, most of the kids were wiped out from an afternoon full of fun and exploring.

As the boat made the return trip across the harbor, one of the kids, Ayoub, declared that afternoon's trip to have been "the best field trip ever!"

Here are some of the other kids' answers to the question "what was your favorite part about the whole field trip?"

"The boat ride, because it was mad fun, speeding and driving crazy."
-Adem

"Going to the beach, it was better than everything."
-Nebil

"The dark caves [in Fort Warren]."
-Doodie

"Going inside in the dark and hearing the people scream [from others trying to scare them]."
-Shahir

"Getting scared in the dark places...I like getting scared."
-Sirak

Below are some photos of the field trip, but these are just a few. A YouTube slideshow featuring tons more pictures can be seen at the very end of this post as well.

All-in-all, it was a great trip, one that the kids will hopefully remember for a long time.

Above: The kids playing on the beach and in the water.
Below: A view of the harbor and of Boston from the outer edge of the island.

Above: Ayoub posing for a picture inside of Fort Warren's jail.
Below: The Boston skyline from the back of the boat as we headed to Georges Island.

Connect With People Across the World, All Without Leaving Memorial Drive!

At its best, the Internet serves as a means of connecting people with different ideas, cultures and people from all over the world.

We had a perfect example of that here in the Computer Lab last week. An adult was trying to talk to her brother through Microsoft's Live Messenger, but wasn't having any luck because her brother didn't have an "@live.com" or "@hotmail.com" email address.

A CLC staff member suggested using Skype, an internet-based chat and phone call service. Skype charges money to makes calls from a computer to a landline or cellphone, but doesn't charge for internet-to-internet chats or "phone" calls.

Using a microphone available in the CLC, this adult was able to speak to and hear the voice of her brother, who was literally thousands of miles away. Skype is wonderful technology (and free to download), and allowed her to have a real-time conversation with a family member that, according to her, she hadn't seen in over seven years!

That's just the magic of the Internet, huh?

Image Editing Tips

Recently, we had a patron in the Computer Learning Center who was interested in learning how to edit pictures so that she could make them a custom size, add text to them, etc. and post them to a new website or message board.

While image editing is a handy tool, it's often hard to learn how to do due to the complexities involved in changing a picture.

The preferred image editing program here in the Computer Learning Center is GIMP, a free program designed to be an alternative to the expensive Adobe PhotoShop. However, GIMP is a confusing program to start out with, and can be tough to use if one doesn't know what he or she is doing.

Surprisingly enough, simply using the image editing program that comes standard on almost all personal computers, MSPaint, will usually suffice.

There are a variety of websites out there that offer tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your MSPaint experience, but here are a few favorites:

• MSPaint Tricks
• Neat Tricks in MSPaint
• Tips & Tricks for using paint

By following the above tips and getting lots of practice, one can become very skilled with MSPaint, and he or she can be creating fascinating works of computer art in no time.

Don't believe it? Check out the video below to see what MSPaint can do.

NBA Street Tournament

Due to increasing popularity, our Wednesday night "PlayStation2 Battles" have continued throughout the summer. After a couple of weeks of soccer and music games, we decided to switch it up this week and play NBA Street.

Strangely enough, this edition of NBA Street is older than some of the kids, but they enjoyed it nevertheless. After it was explained to them that players like Rajon Rondo and LeBron James weren't around back in 2001, they asked where some of their favorite players were, like Kevin Garnett (Timberwolves), Ray Allen (Bucks) and Allen Iverson (76ers).

The tournament featured eight teams, one for each of the kids who wanted to play. Our tournament featured the Celtics, Lakers, Suns, Spurs, Heat, 76ers, Magic and Bucks, meaning that the kids were controlling current players like Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce as well as legends like Dikembe Mutombo and David Robinson.

After about an hour and a half of playing, we had our finals set: Abdullah, playing as the Milwaukee Bucks, was going up against Adonay, playing as the Orlando Magic.

Above: The Activity Room looks on during one of the games of the tournament.

The final game was a back-and-forth affair, as Adonay jumped out to an early lead before falling behind. The Magic, led by Grant Hill, stormed back and took a late lead. But Abdullah's squad wasn't deterred, and, led by current Celtic Ray Allen, the Bucks stormed back and won the game by just two points, 24-22. (Games in NBA Street go up to 21, but you must win by 2 points...so technically this one went to a sort of "overtime.")

Congratulations to Abdullah, Adonay and the rest of the kids who participated. Chances are that even the ones who weren't champs this time will get their shot at revenge in the near future.

Below: Activity Room footage of tense moments during the end of the championship game.

Tech Tip: Install Your Software

Nowadays, nearly everyone prefers MP3 players to CD or tape players. Most of these MP3 players are really cool little pieces of technology, designed to be easy to fill with music and even easier to operate.

Most MP3 players use simple "Drag and Drop" technology, meaning once the player is connected to a computer (usually through a USB port), all the user has to do is drag a file (music, pictures, video, etc.) from the computer to the player file.

This makes transferring music and other files extremely simple and fast.

However, not all players support this technology. Most notably, Apple's iPod doesn't use "Drag and Drop," instead requiring that users install iTunes and sync their content that way.

We ran into a similar problem here in the CLC the other day. A teen had a new MP4 (music and video) player that he couldn't seem to get to work. We connected it to the computer, converted the video files to multiple formats and dragged them to the player, but nothing seemed to work.

Finally, he mentioned that the player can with a boot CD. After installing the software, we realized that the videos had to be converted and downloaded by that CD in order to work with that player.

A silly way of doing things, but a necessary step.

The moral of the story? Always install the software that comes with your hardware, whether it's an MP3 player, a printer or another device.

A Toolbar Tip

Here's a tip for all websites and programs that offer toolbars: don't download or install them.

While it's true that some of the toolbars from Microsoft's Bing or from Google and Yahoo can make searching easier, they often come with unmentioned side affects.

Installing Yahoo's toolbar, for instance, made the Firefox "Menu Bar" disappear for some reason, making it extremely difficult to remove. Nearly all of these toolbars change computer or Internet settings, usually without the user's knowledge.

Bing, Yahoo and Google will usually just change your default search setting, which isn't really a big deal.

However, during a "computer cleaning period" today, it became clear that some of these other toolbars can be pretty malicious.

Some of the kids download and install free game demos they find online, unaware that they are also installing the toolbars that come along with them. Some of the toolbars, like the Free Lunch Design one that comes along with the popular game Icy Tower, are harmless, can be removed quite easily and don't change your settings.

However, one toolbar called "MyWebSearch" is nothing more than a cover for tons and tons of Adware. In fact, three of the computers had this toolbar installed on them, and a MalwareBytes scan found over 250 infected Adware files on EACH computer.

"MyWebSearch" also changed browser homepages and settings, including default search settings.

The moral of the story remains: make sure you read the dialog box for everything you download, and don't download anything that doesn't come from a trusted source or company.

New Printers to Match New Computers!

We've completed the last part of our recent tech-upgrade: two brand new, state-of-the-art printers have arrived and are installed and fully functional here in the CLC at 808 Memorial Drive!We had some printer issues with our trusty old printers after installing the new computers, as one of them wouldn't work with Windows 7.

However, such issues are all in the past now, as the two new printers couldn't be much more "technologically advanced" and have been working flawlessly for a few days now.

The first printer is an HP LaserJet printer, and is meant to be used mainly for black and white printing, making it ideal for things like documents or term papers. It can't print at speeds approaching 12 pages per minute, a pretty decent rate.

Above: The new laser printer, an HP Laser Jet.

The second printer is another HP, but this one is a member of the HP OfficeJet series. This one as a true "All In One" printer, as it's a color printer, a fax machine, a scanner and a copier. It has replaced the reliable old color printer and the REALLY old fax machine.

Above: The new color printer/fax machine/copier/scanner, an HP Office Jet.
Below: A close-up of the color printer's LCD screen.

Again, both printers are installed and ready to use, making the CLC your one-stop shop for any and all printing needs.

Free Online Typing Tutor

For most kids and teens, typing on a keyboard comes naturally. In fact, some are probably more comfortable typing things up than they are writing words out by hand.

Do you remember learning to type? Chances are you probably don't, it's just considered second nature at this point.
However, for those who aren't familiar with computers, learning to type can be a confusing process. Learning to correctly use a keyboard is the first step one must take when learning how to use a computer for the first time.

Recently we had an adult here in the CLC that was unfamiliar with computers, and wanted to learn from the very beginning. We started her off with learning how to type efficiently, as pretty much everything one does on a computer requires typing skills.

Explaining how to correctly position one's hands and how the keyboard is set-up only gets people so far; the best way to learn is by doing.

This is where online typing tutors come in handy. We pointed the woman to a typing website, Typing Web, which bills itself as a free online typing tutor. The website offers lessons for people ranging from beginners to experts, and features an on-screen guide and multiple exercises designed at increasing familiarity with a keyboard.

Our adult typist went through many of the lessons on her own the other day, and emerged more familiar with the keyboard and more confident in her ability to learn to type.

Typing Web, which is free to use, can be accessed here.

Math in the Summer?

As strange as those words sound, that's what we had in the Computer Lab on Saturday. A parent had asked the instructor to make sure that her kids play some math games to brush up on their addition and subtraction, two subjects that were likely pushed to the back of the brain by more "summery" concerns like sprinklers, popsicles and beach days.

However, there are plenty of great tools out there to help kids learn and have fun at the same time. The website we used on Saturday is CoolMath4Kids, a website that featured a ton of different math games for Lena and Paulos to choose from.

Both elected to play the "Number Monster" game, and were able to choose problems that ran from "Easy" to "Monster."

The kids were understandably a bit rusty at first, but once the pencils and paper came out, all of their math knowledge came flooding back!

Above: Lena studies the screen, analyzing her next Math Monster problem.
Below: Her brother, Paulos, does the same, writing down his work to make solving the problem a little bit easier.

Below: Paulos' score after about 10 problems (with only a little bit of instructor help).

Video Footage: 808's World Cup Finals

Even though the real World Cup in South Africa is over, the kids here at 808 still have soccer fever. This past Wednesday, rainy weather forced the Activity Room to stay inside, but the kids weren't disappointed: they got to play Playstation 2 on the projector again, and, once again, soccer was a popular choice.

Below are two YouTube videos of the day's happenings: one is a video of the closing seconds of a game between Jahad and Adonay, a game that was close up until the very end. The second video is of a shootout, the most exciting part of a soccer game, between Sirak and Abdullah. In each video, the rest of the kids in the Activity Room are watching, cheering and yelling along with their friends (and yes, in some cases the kids had to be told afterward to watch their language).

Watch the videos below for a trip inside the Activity Room during the height of "808 Soccer Fever!"

The first video: 808 World Cup Finals

The second video: 808 FIFA Shootout

Celebrity Sighting at 808!

We had a famous face here in the Computer Learning Center at 808 Memorial Drive today...none other than famous NBA point-guard Paulos Rondo!

Above: Paulos the NBA star in action!

A staff member's iPhone was used to take a picture of Paulos, and then a freeware image editing program called GIMP was used to fuse the pictures together. The whole process is a bit more involved than simply "fusing together," but GIMP is a great little program to mess around with.

It's basically a freeware version of Adobe Photoshop, and allows the user to edit photos in all kinds of ways, from removing red-eye and defects to erasing blemishes or even adding heads to bodies.

More about GIMP can be found here, and the program can be downloaded for free here.

Below: The two photos that were used to make Paulos into an NBA All-Star.

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Converting .PDF Files

Most people who email documents frequently are familiar with the file extension ".PDF," which stands for "Portable Document Format." It is the file extension used by Adobe Acrobat Reader, and is used very widely across the internet. The .PDF files are usually smaller and load faster, enabling the user to view the contents more quickly.

However, most .PDF files can't be edited in Adobe Acrobat Reader. This can be a potential problem when sharing documents like resumés or lists that are meant to be edited by each recipient of an email.

Today, an adult in the lab was trying to convert his resumé from a .PDF file to a .DOC file, the extension used by Microsoft Word documents, probably the most common type of text file. (While our computers don't have Microsoft Word, the .DOC files are able to be opened and edited by OpenOffice.)

So what was our adult to do? Should he simply re-type the file in OpenOffice word-by-word, or is there an easier way?

As is usually the case on the Internet, there is an easier way. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of online file-conversion websites, some of which charge users a fee, others of which are free for a trial period.

Using one of the free services, a website called "Zamzar," the adult was able to send his .PDF file to the site, which in turn emailed him a copy of the file as a Word Document. The whole process took under five minutes, and worked flawlessly.

Zamzar can be accessed here. It requires a working email address. A word of caution: entering your email address into any site can be a bit sketchy, as it may lead to unwanted spam email, but based on searches and info about Zamzar, it seems legitimate.

Learn more about how to convert .DOC's and other types of files with Zamzar here, or get started converting your own files here.

We're Running Leaner and Cleaner

Even though our computers are less than a month old, there is still occasional maintenance that needs to be done. Today was one of those maintenance days, where some small changes had to be made and programs had to be run to ensure that the computers keep running like new.

The first of these programs is CC Cleaner, a program that clears out and deletes things like Internet Caches and histories. Basically, CC Cleaner deletes all of the old files Windows keeps sitting around. CC Cleaner was run on all of the computers, and cleared out anywhere from 400-600 megabytes of space on each!

Above: CC Cleaner in action, cleaning out unused files

The next bit of maintenance that needed to be done involved virus and spy-ware removal. We used the program Malware Bytes Anti-Malware to scan all of the computers for any signs of viruses, ad-ware or spy-ware, things no one wants to find on their computer.

Luckily, the computers were clean for the most part, save for one that was infected with bunches of spy-ware, likely due to unauthorized downloads and Internet toolbars. The offending files were removed, and all of the computers are now clean.

Above: Malware Bytes showing us what we want to see: 0 infected files!

A tip for any Internet surfers: watch what you download. Many programs like free games or music come packaged with toolbars that are filled with ad-ware or spy-ware. When installing something, take the time to actually read the print instead of just hitting "next" over and over again.

After today's updates, the computers should be running even faster and safer than ever before!

Downloads:

• Malware Bytes
• CC Cleaner
  

Blocking Unwanted E-mail

Everyone with an email account has encountered the scourge of the Internet mail world: spam. Most major email clients like Gmail, Yahoo! and Hotmail have sophisticated ways to block automated messages, like unwanted email selling things or trying to get you to click on suspicious links.

However, how do you block email from a person or source you used to consider safe or wanted?

An adult had that same question earlier, as she wanted to block incoming mail from a specific sender who had a standard Hotmail address. The user, who also was using a Hotmail address, wanted to prevent this person from sending anymore email her way.

For Hotmail users, this is a quick and easy fix.

From your inbox, click on "Options" towards the top right of your screen. Next, scroll down to "More Options." From that screen, under the "Junk and Email Settings" heading, click "Safe and Blocked Senders." Then, choose "Blocked Senders."

This screen will show you a list of all of your current blocked senders on the right, and the option to add a new address to the list on the left. To block an email address, simply paste or type it in the box to the left, click "Add to list," and voila! No more unwanted email!

For a step-by-step guide including screenshots, check About.com's guide here.

A Cool Website Design Program

Above: Adonay hard at work on his Wix-based sports site

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For those looking to make their own website, be it for business or personal use, starting off can be difficult and confusing, and paying a professional designer is usually costly. Fortunately for those looking to go it alone, there are a number of options out there that serve as step-by-step guides to creating a website.

One of the best of these programs is Wix, a website that allows the user to create free Flash-based websites, meaning you can use more than just plain text and pictures. The site is very easy to use, and recently one of the kids started designing his own Boston sports-based site. He's already gotten it up to four pages, complete with sports pictures and embedded videos.

Want to design a site for yourself or your business? Come on by and we can show you how!

YouTube On the Go

Everyone remembers what it was like to get that cool new gadget when they were younger: all you wanted to do was play with it and show it off to all of your friends.

Today's kids are no different, except instead of showing off a nice new basketball or a cool bike, they have new cell phones and touchscreen MP4 players.

One of the kids in the lab recently got a new touchscreen MP4 player, one that not only plays music but also holds photos and can play videos, a cool little gadget.

Curious on how to get videos on the new device, a member of the CLC staff showed him a program that converted YouTube videos into the proper MP4 format, allowing him to take his favorite videos with him wherever he goes! By the end of kids' time, the youth was able to use the program on his own, downloading and converting a music video, a wrestling video and a highlight from a Boston Bruins' playoff game.

Above: Fernandes searching YouTube for the perfect clip to download...
Below: Success! Videos on the go!

A link to the program, for those interested, can be found here on CNET. CNET is a reputable tech website, and all of its downloads are certified to be legitimate and virus-free.

Rockin' Out in the Activity Room

Tired of sitting around in the oppressive summer heat? We found two ways to stay cool in this sweltering July weather: hanging out in the Activity Room and rocking out to our favorite songs on Guitar Hero III!

Many of the kids are familiar with with Rock Band and Guitar Hero games, but they like to play in front of and against their friends as it gives them a chance to compete for 808 Guitar Master bragging rights.

In fact, Wednesday's guitar face-off was a real grudge match, pitting brother against brother as Feldano and Fernandes battled to see who could notch the highest percentage of notes played.

Playing the song "Miss Murder" by AFI, Fernandes notched a score of 92%, only to be one-upped by Feldano, who clocked in at 95%.

As the day went on, the Activity Room was filled with kids playing some of their favorite Guitar Hero songs, like "School's Out" (a very appropriate choice for July), "Slow Ride," and "When You Were Young."

Great music in an air conditioned room? Sounds like to perfect way to stay cool.

Above: Fernandes jams away on the guitar while Feldano looks on.
Below: Feldano's winning score of 95%, including 107 notes in a row!

Activity Room Catches World Cup Fever!

Every four years, the FIFA World Cup shuts down cities across the world as fans breathlessly follow every one of their team's kicks, passes, headers and goals. The 2010 World Cup is almost over in South Africa, and while the tournament isn't nearly as popular in the United States as it is globally, some of the kids in the Activity Room recently caught World Cup fever!

As a break from the oppressive heat that has burdened Cambridge recently, the kids recently had access to a Playstation 2 system in the activity room. The system was hooked up to a video projector to allow the kids to play video games on the wall on a screen that was almost four feet across (taller than a few of the kids themselves)!

Above: A match between Algeria (controlled by Abdelouhab) and Argentina (controlled by Jahad)
Below: Abdelouhab and Jahad are focused on the action, while Sura looks on

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Above: Pre-match screen of the two teams facing off in the first match of the day, Germany versus Ireland.
Below: Adonay, who was playing against Ireland as the German team, carefully plans his next move on the field.

As mentioned before, the 2010 FIFA World Cup concludes this Sunday, as Spain and the Netherlands will battle for soccer's ultimate prize. Keep up with all the World Cup action here.

Welcome to our blog!

Thanks for stopping by the all-new 808 Memorial Drive blog, where members of the Computer Learning Center and Activity Room staff will post updates and photos of what's been going on in both rooms. If you have any questions about the blog, the services offered or anything else, don't hesitate to contact us or stop by.

-CLC/Activity Room staff

• Dan R.
• Jenny C.
• Mike R.
• Leida R.