Here’s the thing: the Spark community is full of people who are experts, technologists, and über-geeks.
But, the Spark community is also full of people who aren’t experts, technologists, or über-geeks.
So, this week, we started an experiment: SparkExchange. The goal is to try and bring these two groups together, and have the Spark community connect in a meaningful, helpful way.
SparkExchange is a place to ask your nagging technology questions. No question is too basic or simple. And you can get started right now: ask a question, or view a list of existing questions to see if you can help someone out. You don’t need to register or login (though you can if you’d like).
So what are you waiting for?
Great idea!
Here we go like most folks I use google as my primary search engine.
Which less well know search engine or tricks do you use and what makes them great?
I like Bing on the iPhone for maps because it uses the Seadragon technology to seamlessly zoom in across scale.
I use Youtube as one of my search engines, something I learned from listening to Spark, in fact. I use Youtube for looking up how to make things, for example, I am about to make an above-tank turtle dock for my pet turtles, and I looked all over Youtube for other people's home made turtle-dock, and came up with my own design.
Also, this morning, I had a song stuck in my head, but didn't know who the artist was. I actually used a combination of Google and Youtube (Google to isolate my possible queries on Youtube, and using Youtube to listen to various songs to find out which one it actually was).
If you have a paper and do not know how to properly cite your work, try putting the name of the paper (use 'quotes for an exact search') and 'bibliography' into the same search. Bingo, samples of that work cited in other papers.
Etiquette questions:
Are non-technical questions appropriate? I asked one, and am now not sure if I should have.
Is it bad manners to reply to replies to ones own question, clarifying the question or other type of discussion?
I suspect these will come out over time, but it is always interesting seeing how a community reacts to new discussion forums.
Well, I think, in general, we'd like to keep it to technical questions, which can include the etiquette and social norms of communications technology, but I'm hesitant to put too many rules around it. I think we need to see how this experiment evolves organically. It's really about what the Spark community decides the purpose of it should be.
One thing I would say is that we hope it can be a place where people who are trying to learn more about computers can ask questions in a non-judgmental environment, and have those questions answered by our community members with expertise.
Reply to @mississaugablog
I use Google a lot but something like over half the information on the web is not indexed by Google, because the information is contained in data sources within website like University collections and such.
This means that one needs to go to the University or National Archives and do a search using their on site search engine.
A basis search tip is to keep the query to three items, either three words or three groups of words use ” to enclose” one or more words. Like searching for because the relief requested by the Secretary conflict with court precedents can be made to represent three terms by enclosing some words so that they are looked for in that specific order, like: “relief requested” Secretary “conflict with court precedent”
There are also way to direct Google to search just a specific data base, but that may be beyound what most people may ever need.
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Infomine is great for looking for old maps and such!
http://infomine.ucr.edu/
INFOMINE is a comprehensive virtual library and reference tool for academic and scholarly Internet resources, including Web sites, databases
Josh brings up a good point that Google doesn't have access everything on the web. It's worth noting that some university library collections are searchable through Google. This is possible because the university library provides the data to Google to index.
One way to see if a particular library's collection is searchable through Google, is to visit the google scholar site then click on scholar preferences. You'll find this at:http://scholar.google.ca/scholar_preferences?hl=e…
If you scroll down to the section titled Library Links, then you'll find a search box. Search for the library by its name.
If you find the library you want, then you can place a checkmark beside it, and save your preferences. Now when you do a Google Scholar search, direct links from the results page to your chosen library will be displayed where available.
For other Google search tips, check out the Advanced Search option, then click Advance Search Tips. Many of the search tips are relevant to searching other online collections. Here's the link: http://www.google.ca/support/websearch/bin/answer…
Hope that helps.
Peggy Lynn
If I visit someone's website from, say, my Facebook page, which identifies me through the personalized URL that I signed up for, can the operator of the website, via their metrics report, see that I am coming from *my* specific Facebook page, or does it just let them know the traffic is coming from Facebook?
How detailed are these reports that inform these sites of where their traffic is coming from?
Hi Wendy,
Great question! May I suggest posting it directly at the Spark Exchange site? You can find it by going to:
spark.stackexchange.com
Thanks for participating!
The link you visit will probably be posted on someone else's page or group. It will be that group/site that the blogger would be able to see, not yours. In other words, my metrics report will track what web pages link to me, not who clicks on those links.
Usually, the best a metrics report can do to identify you is identify your IP address. This, at best, would show that you use a particular service (for example, Bell/Aliant) or institution (government of Canada). For most high-traffic websites, this is not the most intriguing kind of data to mine. It's mostly only used to block spammers or other meanies from accessing your website.
@NoraYoung, great idea! I’ve been on the Stack Overflow site for over a year. Fun and educational.
@Russ, if you want to clarify or update your own questions, you can just edit it. You are encouraged to provide answers to your own questions if you want it: on stackoverflow the best answers get voted up, so the community decides.
I'm hoping that the 'vote up the best answers' tool is going to be particularly helpful as a kind of low intensity way to monitor the information.
believe it or not I don't know how to watch livestream CBC ( or other channels) from my MacBook Pro laptop. The necessary plugin doesn't seem to download and I'm scared of doing the manual approach as the instructions bedazzle me. Any quick tips anyone?? news4dee
I've reposted your question on SparkExchange: http://spark.stackexchange.com/questions/127/stre…
I love to the idea for Spark Exchange but i wonder if the idea sprung from aardvark.com?
anybody can ask a question on anything at all.
when you register you can select areas of interest that you consider yourself knowledgeable.
on a previous show you asked if Google is away the thirst for knowledge, or something to effect. what i am finding w aardvark(who was just bought by Google this week) is that people are even more lazy. half the questions on there could be answered w 1 website answer: Wikipedia. I seriously saw a question form an Edmonton resident asking what the population of Edmonton was. omg. so wanting to be a know it all. I copied and pasted the 2006 census number off of Wikipedia and into the answer box. as if this person could not do that themselves.the trick is to only answer question that you(or i) feel the knowledge is unique and just beyond anyone else s brain.
so all that being said, not to take the wind out of your sails for the whole Spark Exchange thing but you may also want to point people in the direction of newly owned aardvark
p.s. if you live in or around San Francisco you will love the site even more because 30% of the questions i see are about San Francisco restaurant and especially sushi bars. whats up w that?
I can get a free upgrade from Vista to Windows 7, but I wonder whether W7 is that much better. if so, in what ways is it better?
Hey from Germany! I have found your article post on askjeeves. Good content! Eva F. Dobson x
Hello,
1 computer, 4 users, 2 of whom I'd like to apply a filter to their login as they are younger. Can anyone tell me how I can apply a "netnanny" type filter to 2 of these accounts? Thanks
Hi,
I'm wondering if I may be able to get some help with this.
I have an older Canon dedicated film scanner (fs4000us) that I use to scan in my slides.
Problem is, driver's from Canon stop at Vista 32 bit, and my main computer is now a Vista 64 bit. I can use my laptop to scan, but I would really like to be able to use my desktop….especially as I will soon be upgrading to a newer computer, that will more than likely be running W7 64 bit.
Anyone know of a work around?
Thanks much
Robert
Hey, love your entry; I will be back again and again to read updates. make sure you keep it up.
A friend of mine heard of some device that allowed him to burn movies from his laptop into (?) condensed files to watch on his tv. This thing held A LOT of movies. Does anyone know what this is and how to obtain it/set it up?