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