Global Accessibility Awareness Day: May 17, 2018

 The Seventh Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is May 17

 

The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access, inclusion, and people with different disabilities.

The third Thursday in May is set aside to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day.  This year, it is being celebrated on Thursday, May 18.  Global Accessibility Awareness Day originally came about when a couple of webmasters had an online discussion.  They realized that few web developers really knew about what they needed to do to ensure web sites and apps were usable by folks with all kinds of disabilities, and compatible with a wide range of Assistive Technologies.  

The original celebration was aimed at backend developers. It challenged them to test their site for accessibility and make at least one improvement.  It directed them to resources they could use to check a site from a person with a disability's point of view.   It tried to ensure developers knew about technologies such as screen readers, alternative input devices, and principles of universal design.

In subsequent years, the effort expanded to encourage greater awareness of assistive technology, as well as how the digital world could do a better job of ensuring things worked for those using adaptive equipment.  Despite the fact there is legislation compelling an accessible digital world,  a lot of barriers remain.  Few developers are well versed in mandates, nor do they know how to comply. GAAD hopes to change this. 

Today, GAAD continues to focus on increasing awareness.  If developers knew more about how physical and cognitive limitations affect usability, and possibly exclude millions of potential users, they'd be more prone to address them. GAAD helps to facilitate this.  Events are planned to spotlight and demonstrate assistive technologies, both online and offline.  

How Can I Participate in Global Accessibility Awareness Day?

Improved Dictation in Windows 10 with the April, 2018 Update

The Latest Windows Update brings
Improved Voice Typing to Windows 10

Talk to Type in Any Text Field

Windows is about to push another major update, beginning on April 30, 2018.  This update will include several new features most of us won't use.  However, there is one new and improved feature that will excite many of us, especially those of us who have come to rely on it when using tablets or smartphones. That new feature is improved dictation.

Windows has had limited dictation abilities for several releases.  Previously, dictation was hidden amongst the accessibility features, and it did not work very well.  One could do limited voice typing within notepad or within a handful of word processing applications, but the recognition engine was bad, and it was clunky to access. You also needed a separate microphone for voice typing to work at all.  The April, 2018 update changes all of that.

Disconnect Your Facebook Apps to Protect Your Personal Data

Facebook Apps May Treat Your Personal Information Like a Commodity

Remove Facebook App Connections to Protect Your Personal Data

We are still reeling from the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.  Cambridge Analytica purchased data from Facebook App Developers, and then they used it to try to influence us politically.  If you are interested in reading more about the hows and the whys of this breech, please see our previous post, The Facebook Kerfuffle and What it Means For You, as well as all of our previous articles on privacy and protecting your data.  Your data was compromised because you trusted the wrong apps with it.

Now you are aware of why the data miners are creating all of these apps, it is time to disconnect them so that they will no longer have access to your personal information or the contents of your Facebook Profile.  Removing apps used to be quite a tedious process, so many of us just ignored it or put it off, until our Facebook Account was cloned, a rogue app started posting on our behalf, or friends started complaining of receiving messages we never sent.  Thankfully, in response to this catastrophe, Facebook has streamlined the process of app removal, making it much easier. They have also made it easier to see just what kinds of permissions the apps request, as well as to selectively remove permissions. Today, we're going to look at how to do this.  We'll guide you through finding your connected apps, purging those you no longer use or recognize, and examining the permissions the remaining apps require.

Use Alexa for March Madness Coverage and Updates

Alexa Can Keep You Up to Date with the NCAA Basketball Games

Listen to Live, Streamed Coverage,
or Check the Scores and the Schedule,
Using Alexa and an Amazon Echo

March is here! And in the United States, that means March Madness and the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Did you know you can use Alexa to keep you up to date on everything tournament related?

Today, we are going to look at two Alexa Skills that will help you keep up during March Madness. Both of these skills are free to enable.

Harmony Hub Part 2: Setting Up Your Harmony Hub

The Logitech Harmony Hub, Part 2:

 
Setting Up Your Harmony Hub and Adding Devices

This is Part 2 of a series examining the Logitech Harmony Hub. In Part 1, we reviewed the Hub itself, and we looked at what how the Harmony Hub can add voice control to your existing entertainment components, as well as Smartphone control.   In Part 2, we look at configuring the device to work with your system components.  In Part 3, we will look at adjusting your Harmony Routines to better control your own specific entertainment components.

By  the time you've gone through Part 2, you'll have learned how to add devices to your Harmony Hub, as well as how to set up routines and activities for your various components. You'll also learn how to integrate your Hub and associated devices with Alexa.  You will find many of your devices and routines work well, with no further tinkering.

However, once you begin voice controlling your components, you may find some are not working as expected. In Part 3, we'll talk about how to edit your devices and activities, so that everything functions smoothly.  After using your Hub for a few days, you'll have a better idea of what needs tweaking.

Ask My Buddy and Alexa Can Summon Help in an Emergency

Alert Your Personal Emergency Network
Using Only Your Voice,
 with Alexa and Ask My Buddy

Turn Your Smart Speaker into an Emergency Alert Device

Alexa and other Smart Home technologies can make life a lot easier for people who live alone, people who have disabilities, and a lot of older people.   Smart Home technologies and Smart Speakers can automate a lot of tasks, and make physical tasks simpler for those with physical limitations.  Smart speakers and other assistive technologies can help a person continue to live independently, in his or her own home, for a longer time. But what these technologies cannot yet do is to call 911.  Wouldn't it be great if Smart Speakers, like the Amazon Echo or Google Home, could summon help when an individual needs it?  Well, now they can, thanks to a service called "AskMyBuddy.net."

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

Most of us have seen the commercials. A senior citizen is in distress, but s/he cannot get to a telephone to summon help.  However, the individual wears a pendant, and by pressing a button, s/he can summon assistance from a personal emergency alert network.  And although these devices are marketed to seniors, I know a few women and people with disabilities who live alone and wish they had this "yell for help" capability, but they do not want another monthly expense, especially when they figure they will not use it often. Many people in this category have Alexa or a similar Smart Speaker.    However, despite the fact Alexa has limited calling abilities, she cannot dial 911, no matter how many times you ask her to.  Wouldn't it be nice if Alexa could summon emergency help with a voice command?

Merry Alexa-Powered Christmas

Let Alexa be Your Holiday Helper

 

Use your Amazon Echo to Help with your Holiday Prep

We are midway through the Holiday Season, and getting down to the wire.  Last night, we lit all eight candles on the menorah, and on Sunday Night, Santa finally comes.  As with the other Holidays we've looked at, (Halloween and Thanksgiving,) your Alexa powered device can help you make your Holidays a little merrier.

Today, we're going to look at Alexa skills you can use to help you through the Holidays.  Most of these skills can be enabled by saying "Alexa, enable the [name] skill.

Holiday Cooking

We've already covered the ways Alexa can help you with your Holiday Meal Prep when we talked about an Alexa-Powered Thanksgiving. Many of the same recipe and meal planning skills can help you with your Holiday meal prep.  You can find out all about the Pie Guy skill, Betty Crocker, What's Cooking, Roast Calculator, and more in that article.  But there are a couple of helpful holiday food skills we did not cover there: Holiday Cookies, and Santa Snacks.

Holiday Cookies, of course, gives you all sorts of ideas for Holiday Cookies.  It will read you the ingredients as well as the instructions.   You can pause and/or repeat any step at any time.  And of course, you can do it all hands-free.  To enable, ask Alexa to enable the "Holiday Cookies" skill. To use, say "Alexa, ask Holiday Cookies..." or "Alexa, open Holiday Cookies.

Santa Snacks: Santa Snacks will help you find the perfect snack for Santa!  Just answer a few questions, and this skill will suggest a snack to leave for Santa Claus.

Santa-Related Alexa Skills

An Alexa Powered Thanksgiving

Alexa can Ease Your Thanksgiving Prep
And Help you on Thanksgiving Day

An Amazon Echo Makes an Excellent Thanksgiving Assistant

Thanksgiving is a week away. For some people, Thanksgiving is all about the food; for others, it's about football. For most, it is a hectic time that we all love.  But it is also a time in which we can all use a helping hand. And Alexa can step in and give you help, easing some of the stress.  

Today, we're going to look at how Alexa can help you with Thanksgiving, both in the lead up period and on the big day. We will look at Thanksgiving skills that can be enabled, as well as built-in abilities that will come in handy.

An Alexa-Powered Halloween (Smart Home Series Part 11)

An Alexa Powered Halloween:
Enhance Your Halloween Using Alexa and Your Amazon Echo

 

Halloween is upon us. Although Halloween falls on a Tuesday this year, many communities are celebrating this weekend.  Additionally, many of the adult parties are scheduled for Saturday. Many families are using this weekend to prepare for Halloween.  If you have an Amazon Echo or Dot, you can use Alexa as an adjunct to your Halloween preparation and celebrations.

Today, we return to our Smart Home Series.  This article is Part 11 of the series. You can go back and read Part 1 here.  This post examines fun, Halloween-related things to do with Alexa. We'll look at spooky skills, spooky sounds, and spooky videos, as well as how to find some Halloween-related recipes using Alexa.

Spooky Skills

As we learned earlier, Alexa has a plethora of skills which can extend her functionality. Amongst these skills are some specific Halloween oriented skills.  Remember, you can activate most skills by saying "Alexa, activate the [name of skill] skill."  (Skills which require account linking usually need to be activated from the skill's page at Amazon, or through the Skills section of the Alexa app.  More information about skills and how to activate them can be found in Part 3 of our Alexa series.)  Since most of these spooky skills do not require account linking, they can be activated with a voice command.

Weathering a Storm Part 4: Food and Provisions

Putting Together a Storm Emergency Kit Part 4:
Food, Water, Beverages, 

Provisions, and Miscellaneous Supplies

Feeding Yourself During a Storm Event:
Winners and Losers

This is our final post in a series on preparing for a Storm Emergency and lessons learned from Hurricane Irma.  Part 1 focused on emergency lighting, Part 2 discussed communications, and Part 3 looked at Electronics, Power Accessories, and Entertainment, and talked about how to alleviate boredom during an extended power outage.  Today, we're going to step away from technology for a little bit and look at food, provisions, and miscellaneous items you need to keep in an Emergency Kit.

Food Considerations

When a storm hits, you may need to shelter in place, or you may need to evacuate.  Whether you evacuate to a public shelter or to a motel, you will need to bring your own food. In addition, you cannot count on ANYTHING being open during the storm or its immediate aftermath.  Restaurants, grocers, and convenience stores will close in advance of a Storm Event, and many will not reopen for days.  Thus, your Emergency Kit needs to include at least a week's worth of supplies per person.  And of course all of these supplies need to be shelf-stable, lasting a long time without refrigeration.

If you shelter in place, you may be able to use camp stoves and the like to heat up food. However, if you need to evacuate, you will not be able to use any type of grills or camp stoves. You will not be able to use any type of personal generator either. Thus, ideally your emergency food should consist of items that can be eaten without heating.

Storm Emergencies are very stressful. And for most people, stressful times call for comfort food.  Many people pack their emergency kits full of the foods they SHOULD be eating, rather than the foods they ENJOY eating. This is a big mistake.  Be sure to pack your Emergency Kit with foods you actually enjoy.  Do not overlook snacks.  And also include some of your own, personal, "stress-eating favorites." For many, that means including some form of chocolate in your Emergency Kit.  For others, it may mean nuts or chips.  Whatever your own non-perishable "vice food" is, be sure to include plenty of that in your kit as well.

You WILL need to eat well during an emergency situation. Therefore, try to include protein-packed foods and things that will give you energy. Avoid high sodium foods and foods that tend to dehydrate you.  If your system is at all sensitive, try to avoid foods that will cause flare-ups. Yes, you want some comfort foods, but this is NOT the time to go on a junk food only type binge.  Also make sure you have some high fiber foods in your kit.

Commercially canned foods are better than home canned foods and/or bottled foods.  Canned foods are much less prone to contamination by flood waters than food in bottles or jars.  Food in "pouches" is another good alternative, as it has a long shelf life and is less prone to contamination by floods.

Tech and a Storm Event Part 2: Communications--What Worked and What Didn't

Surviving a Storm Event, Part 2:
Communications: Winners and Losers

 

This is Part 2 in a series about surviving a Storm Event and its aftermath.  Part 1 discussed Lighting Solutions for your Emergency Kit, and it can be found here.  Having recently lived through Hurricane Irma, Techlaurels is sharing lessons learned from the storm.

As most people know, Irma severely impacted Florida, including the Island where Techlaurels is physically located. While some areas were hit worse than others, most Floridians experienced gas shortages, extended power outages, and a loss of utilities. While power and utilities have been restored, Florida is still cleaning up Storm Debris.  Forecasters warn that we can expect October to be an active Hurricane month. Most of us are NOT waiting for another evacuation to be called. We are restocking our Emergency Kits now. We are also looking at the services that failed us, and reassessing what worked and what did not.

Many of us felt extremely communication-challenged throughout the Storm.  When you are living in the Information Age, it's hard when you cannot access the news or Social Media.  In addition, the little information you're able to receive is plagued with urban legends and false assertions.  Today, we are going to discuss what worked and what did not when it came to communications during the storm.

Tech and a Storm Event Part 1: Lighting--What Worked and What Didn't

Building an Emergency Kit for a Storm Event:
What to Include, and What to Ditch,
Part I

Winners and Losers for Surviving the Storm and What Follows

As some of you know, Techlaurels is physically based on the Florida Gulf Coast.  I live on a barrier island that is 7 miles long, and a mile and a half at its widest.  Originally, Irma was supposed to go up the East Coast, and my part of Florida was supposed to be out of Irma's path.  Even when a precautionary voluntary evacuation was put in place, few of us did much to prepare, other than charging up our electronics and filling a few jugs with water.  The data did not support our area being hit with anything we couldn't handle. We'd need to shelter in place for a day or two, and that was all.

Then Irma changed paths, literally overnight. We awoke to the news that Irma was now projected to make landfall on the West Coast.  We'd been upgraded to a mandatory evacuation, and few of us had done much to prepare.  And now, there were neither available supplies nor sufficient time to do what we needed.  Gas was extremely hard to come by, shelf stable food was unavailable, and there was no bottled water to be had.  The Chief of Police ordered all businesses closed at 2 pm, and we needed to be off the Island before 6, when all bridges would be closed to oncoming traffic. Most of the shelters had already filled, and the interstates were already parking lots. We needed somewhere to run, and choices were few given the circumstances.  However, the rule of thumb is to shelter from wind and run from water, and we were now facing a potential 15 foot storm surge, something that would obliterate our little Island. A five foot surge would be enough to take out a lot of buildings; 11 feet would be enough to destroy us.  It was too late to escape Irma's path all together, so the best alternative was to find an available hotel room somewhere South of Alabama.

We found a room at the Stuart Courtyard, a hotel on Florida's East Coast that was new and built to withstand a Cat 5 storm. It was on high enough ground a surge would not threaten it. When we arrived, we had approximately 18 hours before Irma was supposed to hit that part of Florida, and the feeder bands had already arrived.  We kept utilities at the hotel for approximately 14 hours.  After that, there were no elevators, hotel phones, internet, hot water, lights, or power. That meant no food or beverage service, not even vending machines. And we still had at least 2-3 full days that we needed to shelter in place.

On the second day, Irma again changed her path, and I was looking at not having a home to which I could return.  At the last minute, Irma changed her path once more, and thankfully, that meant the storm surge alert was called off. However, my home was not completely spared from Irma's wrath. We had 92 mph winds and inches of pounding rain. We had huge trees down all over the place, loads of damage from wind-borne objects, shingles littering the neighborhood along with other various debris, and our utilities had been completely wiped out. The Police were running on generators, and the cell phone tower's backup supplies were running low.  If you could get a single bar, your communications were limited to texting. Every time you tried to use a data connection, you'd be promptly cut off. They managed to restore water before they reopened the Island, but it would not be safe for drinking until power was restored, and with only electric stoves on the Island, we had no way to boil it.

Because it was a good five days before most businesses had power restored, and the restaurants and stores had lost their refrigerated and frozen supplies too, there was a food shortage on the Island. It would be days before the delivery trucks made it out.  Restaurants tried to reopen once power was restored, but menus were limited.  Hoarders snapped up what little food there was quickly, and we were beginning to exhaust what was in the pantry.  You had to drive hours, to more populated areas, to try to get gas, batteries, water, and food that did not require refrigeration.  And officials were asking us to limit non-essential trips, as the roads were clogged with evacuees trying to return, gas was still scarce, and we needed the supply trucks and utility workers to be able to get through.  Any place that had supplies had long lines. I joked that  every place open looked like a 1980s era Russia, and they were giving away plush, three-ply toilet paper.  We had a good two weeks of third-world like conditions.  But we all managed to make it through.  And during this trying time, I learned a lot about what worked and what didn't.

Creating Groups with Alexa (Smart Home Series, Part 8)

Make Your Smart Devices Work Together
by Creating Alexa Groups

Control Devices Made by Different Manufacturers
with a Single Voice Command

  

This is Part 8 in a series about building an Alexa compatible Smart Home, and about learning to use the Alexa App.  Previous articles focused on setting up and using Alexa, as well as setting up a Smart Plug and a Smart Lighting System.  You can find Part 1 of this series here, as well as links to all 7 previous chapters in the Sidebar.

Today we're going to discuss something we've touched upon in previous articles: setting up Groups in Alexa. Setting up groups allows you to control various Smart Devices with a single Alexa command.

What is an Alexa Group?

 A Group is merely a collection of devices, gathered together, so you can control all at once.  We briefly touched on Groups in Part 1 of this series, in the section called "How Does the Echo Help with Your Smart Home?"  As noted then, each Smart Device comes with its own app that you typically need to use to set-up the device. Without the help of Alexa, you'd also need to use the app to control the device. This is all well and good when you have only Smart Devices from a single manufacturer, AND if you do not want to control things with your voice. But what if you have some Smart Light Bulbs, like a few Hue Lights, and other lights on Smart Outlets, like the WeMo? Do you really want to have to open a few different apps just to turn on your lights?  Setting up Alexa groups eliminates the need to do that.

A group is simply a set of devices and/or scenes, saved under a specified name. It is very similar to the concept of "rooms" used by the Hue Lighting System, except it's a thousand times more flexible. A group can consist of one or more device.  You may then activate the device or devices with a single command word.

For example, I have Hue Bulbs in both my bedroom and office. Both these rooms are on my top floor. I also have bedside lights controlled by a WeMo Smart Outlet.  I have all of these lights in a group called "Upstairs."  I can turn them all on by saying "Alexa, turn on Upstairs." Without this grouping, I'd have to say "Alexa, turn on Bedroom" to turn on the Hue Light in the bedroom, "Alexa, turn on Office," to turn on the Hue Light in the Office, and "Alexa, turn on Bedside," to turn on the bedside WeMo. Because I have all 3 lights in a group called "Upstairs," instead I can just say "Alexa, turn on Upstairs," and she turns on all 3 lights.

So Alexa allows me to place items from different rooms and  manufacturers into "groups" for easy control, as well as adding voice control capabilities to those devices.  It allows me to control sets of devices without having to open several apps. I can also add "Scenes" from the device's own app into an Alexa Group.  I can then access all those things at once, merely by commanding Alexa with the name of that group. Grouping can take a half dozen different commands, and unite them into a single word.

How Do I Set Up an Alexa Group?

You use the Alexa App to set up your Alexa Groups, of course. You can set up groups using either the ios (Apple) app, the android app, the Fire Tablet app, or the browser-based Alexa Web Portal. Before diving in, you need to make sure you have all of your apps and devices linked and prepared. So it's best to check those things first, and then you can go on and get grouping.

The Alexa App, In-Depth, Part 3 (Smart Home Series, Part 4)

The Alexa App, In-Depth, Part 3:
Extending Alexa with Skills

Adding Additional Alexa Skills, and
Fun Things to Do with Alexa

This is Part 3 of an in-depth look at Amazon's Alexa app and the Echo Family of Alexa-enabled devices. Part 1 introduced the Alexa app, talked about setting it up, accessing menus, using Alexa as a media and audiobook player, as well as pairing devices to the app. Part 2 looked at all the submenus in the settings section, as well as about lists, alarms, and reminders. It covered personalizing your devices, setting up news briefs, setting your location, changing your wake word, and changing other Alexa defaults. Part 2 discussed pairing accounts to Alexa, as well as customizing news and sports briefings, pairing a calendar, changing your music streaming defaults, and voice purchasing with Alexa.  Part 2 covered customizing almost every Alexa setting that can be customized. Today, we're going to get to the fun stuff.  Alexa can do a lot that's fun, inane, or just silly. Some of these things are available natively, while others require enabling skills.

What is an "Alexa Skill?

When you get a new Smartphone, it comes with certain abilities, like voice dialing, messaging, and a camera. It may not come with things like Facebook or a photo editor, but you can easily go to the App Store to add these capabilities. Likewise, a new PC comes with little more than a web browser pre-installed.  You usually download or install additional software.  Your Echo device comes with a lot of functionality built-in, but you can extend it through adding new skills.

An Alexa skill is like a phone app or a software program. It is a little program that will add new features to an Alexa compatible device.  Presently, all Alexa skills are voice-driven.  (That may change as Amazon develops Alexa devices with screens or cameras, like the Look and the Show.) And rather than "installing" a skill, you merely have to "enable" it.

Convert a PDF or Scanned File into Editable Text, Using Google Drive

Apply OCR to Previously Saved or Scanned Documents;
Easily Convert PDF Files into Editable Formats

 

The articles in this blog are inspired by real life issues.  This weekend, I received a call from a less-skilled user. All of his electronic files had "disappeared" from his PC, and he was busy trying to recreate them from hard copies. He had already scanned a bunch before he discovered the scanned files were not editable.  Rather, he had a bunch of files that had basically been scanned into giant graphics. Was there anything he could do?

We discussed that, in the future, he needed to look for a "Scan to OCR" option in his scanning software. Most scanners include a Scan to OCR plug-in. (We also had a long conversation about disappearing files, and what that might mean, as well as setting up cloud backup through Backblaze to prevent these issues in the future.) But believe it or not, all was NOT lost. It is NOT too late to convert those scans. There is an easy way to apply OCR to saved files, using Google Drive and Google Docs.

What is OCR

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. OCR takes electronic information stored in an image format, (like GIF, JPG, PDF, or PNG,) and converts it into characters your programs can understand.  When you copy or scan something, basically a device is taking a picture of whatever you lay on its bed. Electronically, it saves a series of dots, rather than a series of letters and numbers. If you wish to edit a scanned document, first you MUST convert it back from a bunch of dots to characters software can recognize and understand. This process is called OCR, or Optical Character Recognition.

Most popular scanners come with OCR software.  If you are scanning a document, and you will want to edit it later, you should look for the “scan to OCR” option in your scanning software.  (It may also be called "Scan to Doc.")

If you have a document that has already been scanned to an image-based format, you will need to convert it using OCR BEFORE you can edit it.. This is also true for files you have stored on drives and other media.

OCR Using Google Docs

Google Drive contains a free and easy way to convert image-based files to editable text.  This is especially handy for PDF files, as well as files received as e-mail attachments. Google Docs has hidden OCR capabilities. You can open a file stored in Google Drive with Google Docs, and run it through an OCR plug-in while you're doing so. The steps are outlined below.

Reader View in Firefox

Reader View: A Firefox Feature for a Cleaner Web Page

Reader View Strips Out Everything But the Content
It Also Can Read the Content Aloud to You

In the early days of the World Wide Web, browsers did not support a lot of fancy stuff.  Animated GIFs and Blinking Text were about the most sophisticated design elements available. But as the web matured and browser technology advanced, the average web browser was able to support a whole slew of features. Not only did we start seeing multi-columned web pages, we started seeing pop-ups, ads, and a lot of clutter.  This is fine on a lot of web sites, but sometimes we just want to read the main content, without a lot of distracting elements.  Sometimes, we yearn for the early days of the web, when information was presented cleanly, and in a decent sized font.  Reader view is here to help a user achieve that look.

What is Reader View?

Reader view, also referred to as Reader Mode, is a feature that strips away all extraneous content, leaving you with just the "guts" of the page.  It strips away things like menus, buttons, ads and background images, leaving you with just the main content. It also changes the page's text size, contrast and layout for better readability.

To demonstrate, I zoomed our last post to 50% in both "regular" and "reader" modes. Then I took screenshots.

Here it is in "regular" mode:

Poll and Survey Services: A Review (With Samples)

Create Polls and Surveys, for Blogs, Web Sites, Social Media, or Marketing Campaigns

This is the end of our series on Internet Quiz Services.  Folks love to take quizzes, and they can be great traffic-drivers. But many quiz hosting services do nothing but mine data, and their sketchy terms tell you little about how they will use the data they are mining. 

This series began by discussing the negatives of many quiz sites.  Then it went on to identify two quiz hosts who do not mine data: QuizRevolution and Polldaddy.  Earlier posts reviewed quiz creating and hosting services at these sites. Today, we end the series by looking at Polls and Surveys. Both Polldaddy and QuizRevolution offer poll and survey hosting, as well as tests.

Quizzes vs Tests vs Polls vs Surveys

At QuizRevolution, you can create surveys and quizzes. At Polldaddy, you can create quizzes, tests, surveys, and polls.  What are the differences between these?  Well, for all intents and purposes, a quiz and a test are the same thing.  Both offer a series of questions with right or wrong answers. Both are scored upon completion. A test or quiz usually assesses knowledge of a particular subject area.  On the Internet, however, quizzes tend to refer to silly, fun lists of questions, and they may or may not actually reflect knowledge or mastery.  Internet quizzes are more often centered around personality traits.  They may not be based on any sound theory at all.  On the Internet, tests tend to be more serious and more learning-focused.

A poll is a single question that asks one's opinion on something. It's generally multiple choice.  A survey, by contrast,  allows you to ask multiple questions across a wider range of question types.  It may include "scaled" questions, open-ended questions, and/or multiple choice. It may also collect demographic and/or personal information, such as name, sex, address, etc.  But there are no right or wrong answers, and no passing scores with a survey or poll.

Technology to Weather the Storm

Summer Storm Season is Here

Prepare for Power Outages with the Right Tech

This week, we have a different kind of Friday Quick Tip. Summer Storm Season has arrived,  and for many, that means winds, rains, and possible flooding. It also means power outages. Sometimes these outages are brief; other times they last for hours.  And for a lot of us, that means no technology. Modems and routers need power to function. And how many times has your phone's battery died, and it was ALL you had for entertainment during a storm?  Luckily, there is technology to help keep your tech useful during bad weather, and all that comes with it.

Today's tip discusses what tech you need to prepare your electronics for a bad storm.  Basically, we discuss how to keep things up and powered, so you're not stuck with nothing to watch when a storm hits other than the bad weather. With the right equipment, you can keep your electronics up and working.  And we're not talking about buying generators that cost hundreds of dollars.  Rather, we're talking about solutions that cost less than your average night out.

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

In this case, UPS stands for "uninterruptible power supply," rather than the guys who deliver all your packages.  In other words, a UPS is a device that allows a computer to keep running for a period of time when the power goes out. It also provides protection from power surges.

A Review of Polldaddy and a Quiz: How Facebook Savvy Are You?

Polldaddy: A Privacy Conscious Web Service for Polls and Surveys

If you have been following this blog, you will have read our series on the Dangers of Internet Quizzes.  The first articles discussed the dangers of taking these types of quizzes, as well as the privacy ramifications.  We then moved on to safe quiz sites, and the differences between the good hosts and the data miners.  Techlaurels promised to review two quiz hosts that were good for both bloggers and quiz takers.  Our last posts discussed one of these hosts: QuizRevolution.  Today, we are going to review the second site: Polldaddy.

To start, Techlaurels migrated the quiz from Part 2 of the series over to Polldaddy.  That quiz is embedded below. The review of Polldaddy follows.

Quiz: How Facebook Savvy Are You?

If you have read through our series, you should be able to ace this test with no problems!

This quiz is hosted at Polldaddy.  Polldaddy respects your security and does NOT collect or share your data.  It is perfectly SAFE to take this quiz.  NO data is being recorded at all, and you do not need to log in or register to take the test.  You do NOT need to connect any social media accounts either.