Mrs. Mecomber’s Scrapbook

My husband is nuts about chess. He found a terrific online chess game. You register and sign up to play with players from all around the world. Players are graded by points, and can create profiles. I have been watching my husband play, and I’m very impressed by the very sophisticated software. It’s pretty amazing! It’s free, too. It’s called ChessAtWork (also called Play the Immortal Game). My husband is QUITE addicted! SO if you have a husband who is supposed to be looking for car parts or fixing the plumbing, and who you’d rather not tempt with online games, better skip this one. Just warning ya.

I am a member of Entrecards (although not for this blog– just my five others, lol!). I thoroughly enjoy the traffic it has brought me as well as the wonderful new blogs and bloggers I have discovered. I’ve made some true friends through the community. I have to admit that I’ve also seen some real doozies out there, too– some use EC to peddle their acne treatments blogs (how can you have a blog devoted to one thing, eludes me!) but most Entrecarders are there for the social networking aspect. I love it! Entirely new blogs, widgets, and tools are being spawned as a result of EC. I was very excited to read about a new toolbar called Sitehoppin, created by an Entrecarder and especially geared toward EC hoppers. It’s in the beta, but I have the honor of being able to beta test it with my Firefox browser. The concept and the style is outstanding. I’ve been waiting for another toolbar to enter the scene to rival StumbleUpon, and it looks like Josh Whitford’s invention may do it. You can read about it and see a tutorial video here.

It still has a few bugs yet (that’s why the call it “beta”!). The toolbar timed out on me a few times. I also notice that there is no category for the Entrecard Home & Garden section. My New York Renovator is in that category, so until it’s fixed, my most popular blog won’t be showing.

But users can submit blogs! There’s just too much to describe here– check out Josh’s site and watch the tutorial. I’m expecting great things from this toolbar!

I found a wonderful little tool for those of us who are “hue-challenged.” Lol. It’s the Color Match Remix, a free online tool to help you find colors for your blog. It matches hues and shades automatically, with handy little sliders. It makes me want to start up some new blogs, so that I can create some cool new color swatches! But I’ve already got enough blogs! I’m writing about everything including the kitchen sink! Actually, if I start up another one, it would have to be about kitchen faucets because I’ve already got the kitchen sink, lol!

This color mixer is a fun tool for anyone, blogger or not. It has a design layout preview and the hue color numbers are easily exported. Free to use, too!

Outstanding. Incredible. Spectacular!

I’m talking about the lists of free educational software to be found at Owl & Mouse. We have downloaded all their programs and my kids have benefitted from it in innumerable ways.

We really enjoy their geography programs. I have the children go over them from time to time, even when we are not doing geography lessons. The programs are so simple, yet so customizable. You can have the child practice his skills locating continents, countries, states, capitals, landmarks, physical features, and more. The game is played like a jigsaw puzzle, and the child drags and drops the puzzle piece on the map where it belongs. There are different settings where you can make the game harder (for example, by eliminating borders) which makes it great for older kids. I can’t rave enough about the geography programs.

Owl & Mouse also have other programs for little learners, and some are online games. There are letter-learning games, reading games, build a medieval castle game, build a town or village game. These are great for very young children. Hey, grandparents, these are great for when your little grandkid comes over and laments that he or she is “bored.”

We’ve enjoyed Owl & Mouse programs for years. I think your kids will pick up a lot with them, too. What have you got to lose, anyway? It’s free!

If there is one Google product you had to have, it would be Google Earth. I thought everyone had heard of Google Earth, but I was talking to some folks recently who’d never heard it! I like the program so much that I wanted to be sure to mention it.

The family has used it countless times. My kids are geography experts now. I have used it to map our travels, and my husband likes to look at air bases around the world. It is truly an amazing program.

You can find anywhere in the world (even your property). I love looking at other countries and cities, like the city of Amsterdam in Holland with its gorgeous canal system, and the Thames in London.

Google Earth has many other features besides looking at the earth’s surface. You can skew your view to look across (it’s a little cheesy looking because it’s computer generated, but the Grand Canyon and Rocky Mountains still looked neat). You can zoom all the way out and spin the earth with your mouse cursor (fun). You can track your journeys, as Google Earth will measure distances and place markers for you (a virtual pin board). It will show you major (and some minor) attractions in localities. And best of all, it will show roads, boundaries, names of rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges, and everything! It’s great and we love it.

You have to have an online connection to view Google Earth. I have been offline and it does work, but the maps will only show what is in your computer cache, and no new material.

I downloaded this last year and had the happiest time with it! It’s Desktop Snow for Windows. It’s a “free trial” program (the program costs $10). It has no limitations but it does have a nag screen. It is customizable– you can have light snow or blizzard snow. You can choose the have the snow build up on the bottom of your desktop, and have the wind blow it away. It really is adorable.

I had it on a computer with barely enough memory, and the program ran OK. But when I had several big programs open (like Firefox, OpenOffice.org, and a media player), the snow stuttered a lot. You can shut it off or turn it on at will. Whoever made this program did a really good job. Fun!

No one can imagine using internet without cable today. Having broadband is as important as having a computers software to keep the system running. An internet phone is of no use if on dialup. A lot of scripts take ages to upload and thus contribute to loss of a number of software patents.