Sumo Paint - An free online Photoshop

Website: www.sumopaint.com

Photoshop. A program that allows us to exercise our creative talent for digital media. It allows us to edit images for creative and funny purposes and also allows us to create digital sketches and designs that mirror those in real life. Many of us have thought once in their life about using Photoshop.

The only problem is that most of us don't have the money in order to buy the better Photoshop programs, such as Adobe Photoshop or Sketchbook.

Introducing Sumo Paint, your free ticket to supply your photoshopping needs. Sumo Paint is a free online photo editing website that pretty much covers everything that Adobe Photoshop could give you. It's simple to get started. All you need to do is make an free account and start working on whatever piece of media you want to create.

Features of Sumo Paint

Like Adobe Photoshop, you are able to upload an image and use certain tools, like the liquify, crop, change tone, colour to recreate the image you prefer.

Sumo Paint also allows you to paint your own digital drawings, as a normal software would and comes with all of the tools for you to make a piece of art. It includes the brush, erasers, colour palettes and other tools you can use to make a drawing/painting. You can then save your creations or edits onto your computer in any format that you like for you to view and share with your friends.

Being on the internet gives Sumo Paint the opportunity to edit from not only from your computer but also from the internet as well. You can type the URL of a photo when starting new project and it will appear when you start. In fact, you can get an image from the Sumo Paint website and edit them however you like.

There is also a fullscreen mode which behaves like the fullscreen mode that you can find on Youtube. It fills up your whole screen and can be reduced to its normal size with a touch of the esc button.

Sumo Paint is easy to use, having its own help section if you want to look something up.

They will guide new users to explore the tools and give descriptions of each one. It's better than using the tools not knowing what each of them do.

Uses in Learning and Reasons for Recommendation:

Sumo Paint allows under-privileged people in the world of computer graphics to try out Photoshop programs for free. It only takes a few minutes to start an account to access all the tools you need to start adding better illustrations into your work.

For School, it can be used for making better graphic for designs in subjects such as Design Technology, IT, Art Textiles and subjects where you can use it for designing. It is not limited to just those subjects. What if you need to illustrate a diagram for a math assignment but can't find a good one? Use some coluored straight lines and text in order to make your own.

For those in Y7 and Y8 you can use this to prepare for a Photoshop unit that you will have to do in ICT. Many of you will not be able to get Photoshop in time for this unit and will have to resort to using the school's computer which cna be a hassle in and out of school. Using this will solve the problem of having to pay for Photoshop programming.

By: Michael Kang 9F

Is this you? Laptop Ergonomics!! Using your laptop for long periods of time is an issue that all of us face. It is really important that in our extended use of these devices that we do not suffer physically.  Laptops are known to cause eye strain which is one of the reasons we should limit our use and periodically take our eyes and look into the distance from the screen if we are using them for a long time.

Just as importantly is our posture. The picture shows how not to do it!  Slouching puts strain on our backs and neck and over time can cause problems to develop.  Although it is sometimes difficult to remember yo should try to adopt an upright posture when using your laptop.  The video linked below helps to explain the correct position for laptop use. Look at the video here if you cannot see it

Diigo - A web research tool

Website: http://www.diigo.com Diigo is a free, online tool that can help you while doing research. It is similar in concept to Delicious, a bookmarking tool, but in many ways more versatile. Sometimes, we feel as if there is too much information, when only some is really relevant. Diigo can help you save these snippets of useful information, add you own notes or save the entire page. Above all, it makes it very easy for you to access anywhere.

Getting started with using diigo is very easy. Simply head over to their website and click the "Get Started Now!" button. After creating an account, you will see this screen: If you want to start using it quickly, you can simply drag the Diigolet "super bookmark" to your bookmarks toolbar. From it, you can access Diigo's main features, such as highlighting and annotating: Alternatively, you can install the add-on, which provides more features such as viewing your Library as a sidebar. Once you highlight anything or add a sticky note, it is immediately added to your Library, which is stored in the cloud. That way, all relevant or useful information you find while researching is kept in one place, where it is safe and easily retrievable. This is another one of Diigo's powerful features: the ability to sync and access this data from any device, anywhere. It is compatible with iPhones, iPads, Android phones and all major web browsers. Here, you can see the bit from the article I saved, accessed from my iPad. This also allows me to easily return to the article to continue reading. Overall, Diigo is a great, easy-to-use little tool to aid in your researching, to use while working on a group project where you need to share information, or just for being able to save anything interesting you come across while browsing the web. Haihao Liu 11W

Finer Points of Facebook

That's right the magic F of Facebook once again looms in our blog - so what have they done this time?  Well there is of course the new timeline feature which will soon be launched to all FB users.  According to this article in the Huffington Post, the timeline on FB will now allows users to keep all data they have posted right back to the account being opened.

Previous to this, posts and profile data would simply "fall off" after a certain time.  Now with timeline everything will be kept.  Facebook is even encouraging users to add data from before Facebook!!   The new timeline feature means that it is now more important than ever to make sure you consider thoroughly what you post as all this data will be archived and searchable. Our Message? Check Privacy Settings Once Again!!  It seems that whenever Facebook has come out with a new feature there are some privacy issues.  It may mean that you should go back into your privacy settings and make sure they are set up as you need them to be.  This video set takes you some through some of the ways you can check your account settings. Click here if you can't see the video embedded below.

Boolify!

Go Boolify! Website: http://www.boolify.org/

'Boolify teaches it's users how to create Boolean searches into Google using operators such as OR, NOT plus AND to get very specific search results.' 

Boolify basically is an interesting search engine and what it does is that it expands your search results and gives you numerous meanings and links to go to and find your answers. The appearance of the website is simple, yet appealing. Your search keywords are typed into blocks that resemble puzzle pieces. Some of the main features you may use while researching are the 'OR' and 'NOT' puzzle pieces to be more exact, basically to refine your search to only what you want and need. 

These are the pieces you can use (left): *WORD*, AND, NOT, OR and URL.

For example you use the 'word' button as your main search base, you can limit your search by adding the 'not pice and making your search more precise. Another great tool you can use more or less to widen your search is by adding the 'and' piece. This piece helps give you more options in terms of what you are searching for (right). Suppose you are researching about sharks, you may add 'and' fish to deepen your inquiry. Maybe even to look at the relativity between the two and how they can be differentiated. 

The last additional tool included in Boolify is GLEAN (above). This is a simple tool for mathematics and science research and questions. Glean tools target critical mathematical concepts and skills to help students in areas where they face a challenge.

Well, those are the main tools that Boolify features. This search engine will much be applied to support your learning. Additional information can be learnt and used in various subjects. Plus you can actually save what you have searched, for end of class revision! This gives you an advantage as you can bookmark whatever links you need and remember facts of topics you have covered. 

Altogether the tools you can use are:

1. 'WORD' piece
2. 'AND' piece
3. 'NOT' piece
4. 'OR' piece
5. 'URL' piece
6. GLEAN
7. 'REMOVE' piece
8. 'SAVE SEARCH' piece
9. 'VIEW SAVED' piece
10. 'START OVER' piece

I am recommending this search engine as it helps ME research and gain knowledge on external information i may need to add to my main points. This is definitely worth a try for projects, assessments and maybe just a simple piece of writing.

Mallika Chawla 9E 

PaperRater - Your Very Own Editor

Website: http://www.paperrater.com/

We've all typed up a piece of writing for school homework or for some other reason and as we're writing it, everything seems to fit into place.

But then, there's the editing.

There are not many people would get their work grammatically correct at the first try, and even when you've read over your work and hand it in, your teacher gives it back with one or two correction markings that you overlooked.

With PaperRater, you can solve these little mishaps of your own subconscious. PaperRater is a free, online program that finds the mistakes in your work and makes them noticeable to you without having to consult anyone. What's more is that an artificial intelligence also marks it to a teacher's standard, giving you a grade and a score on your writing just like a teacher would.

Features of PaperRater (Written on the website):

• Auto-Grader
• Readability Statistics
• Style and Word Choice
• Spelling and Grammar Check
• Plagiarism Check
• Title Validation
• Vocabulary Builder

What it also does is that it rates your work based on the type of Year that you're in and the type of work that you are writing. Simply enter your grade, type of paper, title and text to get your editing feedback. It also can detect plagiarism in your work from your research sites, which you can post into the "Work Cited" section.

Uses in Learning and Reasons for Recommendations:

PaperRater is a great program to use when you can't seem to find anymore problems in your work. The difference from an average word processor is that it not only points out the problems that you miss, but it forces you to change those problems yourself rather than auto-correcting it for you. Therefore, you learn to identify more problems and change it yourself. It also suggests using different words and phrases that you may have never thought of using, opening your mind to more ideas.

For those who are extremely lazy and are tempted to plagiarize, or perhaps are hard-working but have unintentionally plagiarized, PaperRater detects it and points it out. It's probably what your teacher would find out anyway. So basically, it's your online teacher/marker.

Of course, if you are confident with your skills in editing or don't want to take advice from a computer, you can always ignore what it says.

By: Michael Kang 9F

Facebook Face Recognition - More Control of your Image Slipping Away?

Photos Gone Wild!!  Facebook have done it again - adding face recognition software to the range of tools.  Called Tag Suggestions, the program digitally scans the faces in photos and suggests who they are so that you can tag them. The company claims that this feature makes it a lot easier for users to label and share photos. But it also makes it a lot easier for teens' online identity to get away from them. So What? Let's say you go to a party and everyone is snapping away photos on their mobile.  Next day thanks to Facebook, face recognition and easy tagging your "party experiences" are being broadcast across the Internet.  Is this what you want? Can you rely on your friends' to know, understand and to have set appropriate privacy settings?  What about their friends, or the friends of those friends?  While Facebook does notify users when they're tagged -- after the fact -- you still have to go in and un-tag yourself if you don't want to be identified. Facebook is a leaky bucket people, no matter how you configure your privacy settings!   You may have a case of photos gone wild and need to find ways to combat them!! The message here is NOT, "Don't share photos on Facebook", but "Think about what photos you share on Facebook and the impact they may have on you and your friends should they be seen by a different audience".  Increasingly universities and employers are using social networking to get an understanding of the person they are interviewing.  Showing an interviewer your Facebook page can even be part of an interview process. Treat the Internet as the most public space in the world and let that guide your attitudes and behaviours there.  Then you won't go far wrong. How to Disable Tag Suggestions From your Facebook page, click on Account. Choose Privacy Settings. Click on Customize Settings. Scroll down to Things Others Share. Next to Suggest photos of me to friends, click on Edit Settings. Click on Disabled and click Okay. You can also go a step further and bar Facebook from using your image to compare photos altogether by sending a note to the company.

Anki: A flash card revision tool

Anki is a small but useful tool that can help you remember vocabulary words, facts, formulas, just about anything while you're revising! Format: Free downloadable program, Mobile app, Online Platform Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android, most Web-Equipped phones via online app General Rating: Website: http://ankisrs.net/

Main Features: Create digital flash cards (with front, back and tags) and decks Hundreds of pre-made decks on various subjects Rate words or facts by how well you know them Automatic scheduling of cards reappearing based on rating Supports Chinese, Japanese text, accents, images, formulas (LaTeX) Review anytime, anywhere Simple user interface Why or how could I use it? We all know how difficult it is to memorize vocabulary words for French or Chinese (or Spanish or Japanese). Or having to cram in seemingly pointless facts for Science that you're sure you'll never use in you life. But we all have to learn and memorize such things, whether it's for that small vocab test next Monday, or for the GCSEs in Year 11, or for the IB exams. So while you're revising, instead of making flash cards on paper (save the trees!), create cards in Anki, or find ones already made, and test yourself, sticking to a schedule. Find out more info on the website (above). Known Problems Functionality fairly limited by default. Can be extended with plugins, but may be rather complicated for many people. Some more advanced functions, e.g. custom card layouts, is not intuitive to use at first. Please report any other bugs to haihao.liu@online.island.edu.hk. By: Haihao Liu 10W

Quick Tip: Ads, and how to get rid of them

Are you tired of ads distracting you while you're doing research? Are you sick of having to click the "close ad" button on YouTube? Are you absolutely certain that, for the last time, you do not wish find out your credit score? Are you starting to think that this article is beginning to sound an ad itself? Well, by installing a simple add-on, you can eliminate 98%* of ads encountered in your everyday web browsing!

*Not based on actual figures.

Before you begin: It is recommended that as you follow these instructions, open the links in new tabs. That way you can still see this page after you download the relevant add-ons.

Internet Explorer 7, 8 and 9

1. Download Adblock from http://simple-adblock.com/
2. Install
3. When you run Internet Explorer the first time after installing, follow the simple instructions to configure it.

Mozilla Firefox 3 and 4

1. Go to Tools > Add-ons
   
2. Search for Adblock Plus
   
3. Install the extension
4. Restart Firefox, and just click "Add Subscription" on the configuration screen.

Google Chrome 10

1. Go to https://chrome.google.com/webstore
2. Search for Adblock
3. Install Adblock (the one with 2 million users)

• Note: Currently causes issues when attempting to block ads in YouTube videos. Go into options and untick "Block ads inside YouTube videos."

Safari 4 and 5

1. Go to http://safariadblock.com/
   
2. Download
3. Double-click the funny-looking ".safariextz" file to install.
4. Optional: Enable automatic updates by going to Safari Preferences > Extensions > Updates > Install Updates Automatically.
   

• Note: Only tested on a Mac. Procedure should be same on PC. Please leave a comment if it works for you on PC.

Opera 10

1. Go to http://www.fanboy.co.nz/adblock/opera/
   
2. Right-click the "Main List: urlfilter.ini" and select "Save target as"
   
3. Choose the correct folder based on your OS as given on the website
4. Optional: Follow instructions to install the "Optimised Element Filter".

• Warning: This has not been tested by me! Please leave comment if it works for you.
  

Final comments: The effectiveness and thoroughness of ad-blocking will vary between different operating systems and browsers. But in all cases, there should be a big improvement in the number of ads you see, namely, a lot less! If, for some bizarre reason, you actually enjoy seeing ads, then please ignore this post.

How to save Flash game files

Why would you need to do this? - While many students will probably never use this on work, there are some students whom may happen to find a flash game they really want to use in a presentation or some such. How to do it? - This is a very simple process. Go to the site with the flash game and start the game Press Ctrl+U, then Ctrl+F In the search bar that comes up, type .swf If it is really a flash game something like this (http://uploads.ungrounded.net/531000/531437_finalninja.swf)will show up with swf higlighted, copy the URL listed Download the Orbit downloader from here http://www.orbitdownloader.com/ Click File-Add URL and paste the two URL's onto it Download the FLVPlayer4Free from here http://www.flvplayer4free.com/ When it is done, click on the file Enjoy! *Note* This was done on a windows computer, not sure on Macs *Note* If there is nothing like what is shown above after typing swf in the search bar, then it is not downloadable from the site(Newgrounds is one of the sites confirmed to work) *Note* This is only for the Google Chrome Browser, it WILL NOT WORK on Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari

The Awesome Library What is it?  The Awesome Library is a simple directory based search tool aimed at students.

Why should I be interested? Although not the necessary the nicest thing graphically The Awesome Library is aimed at supporting students and their work so it might save you some time getting to resources you can use at school more quickly that google. The Awesome Library is featured in Island School's own Research Tools site which is a must see destination for all IS students. If you think it's a good resource then why not bookmark with your Delicious or Diigo account?!

Google Science Fair

	Calling all budding scientists!!  Want the opportunity to be recognised internationally?  Would like the opportunity to show off not only how good you are at science but how well you can use google apps to support and communicate your project? Want to win some prizes? If the answer to any or ALL of these questions is a resounding "YES!!" then the Google Science Fair could be for you.
The deadline for the competition is the 4th of April so you don't have long!! How to enter the competition here.

Using Google Sites

Many students have some basic familiarity with google sites and some subjects are starting to use them as a way for you to record your notes, create projects and share ideas.  But how much do you really dig below the surface of google sites and what they are capable of? Did you know? Google provide a series of training modules on how to use google sites.  What might be especially interesting it how to customise your site and what the principles of good site design are so that you make your notes the best they can be.

Don't just consume - CREATE!!!!

There are many programming environments now that allow you to come up with games, applications and utilities for a range of devices - mobile phones, x-box and computers and most of them are free. The school has scratch installed on all it's computers and students are supported in this throughout in their Yr 10 ICT course. But this is just one... (image:http://rasterweb.net/raster/2010/03/21/consume-create/)

Did you know? www.anscamobile.com for example has a programming language that you can learn to develop games and applications for mobile devices with Windows, Mac or Android operating systems? Also Microsoft has developed a games platform called Kodu that allows you to publish games straight to the X-box!! Like to play games? Why not create one? Programming skills are what underpin all the services and businesses you use on the Internet and the skills you develop by generating a game might help give you the ability to develop the next Facebook or Google app. Programming is BIG business and software engineers are the people that made Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Youtube, etc. So don't just consume - CREATE!!