Tech Tuesday: APP + A Media Monday Extension

You have probably already heard the high school graduation speech by David McCullough (son of famed author). But, just in case, I am extending Media Monday and adding it here. Of course, all of our children are special to us. But, I agree with Mr. McCullough, that we do them an injustice if we don't teach them that they are competing with a world of graduates with all kinds of talents. We don't help our children if they think that life is easy, and we are always making them win. They will be competing with the best of the best and must know to succeed in this world. It is time to put all the "honorary" awards aside. I am not saying that we can't help children find their way, but we are not fooling them by making it easy for them.  Anyway, if you did not hear the speech you can listen below or just read the highlights.

NOTE: None of the above applies to grandparents or great-grandparents. That is a totally different scenario. (Unless you are the one raising them, I guess)

'You are not special,' English teacher tells graduating Massachusetts students By Sevil Omer, msnbc.com June 11, 2012, 3:55 pm

MSNBC.msn.com

One English teacher had a message for this year's graduates of Wellesley High School in Wellesley, Mass.: They aren’t special.

In addition to exhorting the Class of 2012 to pursue distinctive lives, Wellesley High School English teacher David McCullough delivered some sobering words: “None of you is special. You are not special. You are not exceptional.”

The educator called the graduating students “pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble wrapped... nudged, cajoled ... feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie.” 

“Contrary to what your U9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you … you’re nothing special,” he said in his speech, published in the Boston Herald.

McCullough rattled off statistics, saying numbers were stacking up against the graduating class. He said half of the class would be divorced and life wasn’t going to revolve around their every whim.

"Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools. That's 37,000 valedictorians ... 37,000 class presidents ... 92,000 harmonizing altos ... 340,000 swaggering jocks ... 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs," McCullough said in his speech.

He added: "Even if you're one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you."

Near the end of his speech, he urged the graduates to use that revelation as a springboard to a fulfiling life: 

"The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special. Because everyone is."

Now for Tech Tuesday. Let's say you are driving down the street in any town in the USA, and you spot a house that you like. It may or may not be for sale, but you are interested in knowing more about it. There is an app called HomeSnap. All you do is snap a photo of a home, and you will receive information on its estimated worth, size, schools, etc. If the home is For Sale, you will receive the real estate listing, photographs, and comparable homes and sales in the area.

The app, of course, works on your smart phone's GPS. It is free and fulfills the Gladys Kravitz in some of us. 

Here it is Tech Tuesday, and I have to begin with a confession. I have failed computer 101. I believe that my post Friday did not appear due to writer error. I am afraid I may not have saved the post before trying to post it. There is a little loop hole, though, in that I was using my iPad with an app, not my computer with the regular program. I would like to think that I possibly surpassed the maximum usage of the app with photos and my snappy post. We will never know, so let me begin this Tech Tuesday with a very important reminder:

Always SAVE your work. Whether that is backing up to an external hard drive, the cloud, or whatever, always save anything that you wish to keep. 

Now you should be aware of the extent of my knowledge. Tech Tuesday, may not last long.

I am going to start fairly basic and will focus on Apple products (because that's all I know). But, if you are one of my friends that has asked me a question, this is for you.

Today I am going to review adding new bookmarks on your iPad and iPhone. To let you know what my desktops look like, I have an original iPad and an iPhone 4.

Let's say you have a website that you would like to bookmark. While you are on the web page, touch the icon that is a rectangle with a right pointing arrow in it. On the iPad it is on the top of the page to the left of the web page address. On the iPhone it is at the bottom center of the screen.

On the iPad you will see this pop up window. You can choose Add Bookmark.

 Then you can choose where this bookmark goes. On this example, I have Bookmark Bar chosen. This will place the bookmark below the address box. You can touch that box and it will give you other folders or places in bookmarks to save the webpage.

Another alternative is to save the webpage directly to your Home Screen. (on a regular computer, we would just call this our desktop). 

This is what my Home Screen looks like with some websites saved to it. 

You can organize these also, but we will save that for another day. 

 The iPhone works basically the same way. The icons to do so are just in a different place. Notice the rectangle with the arrow is in at the center, bottom of the screen.

When you touch that icon the same screen pops up as on the iPad. 

When you select the Add Bookmark or Add to Home Screen, you will get the same screen as above.
Go ahead and save your favorite website, so you don't have to search for them. Share your favorites with the rest of us!

Now for an app review. Your iPhone and iPad should have the app Reminders on it. Not only can you write yourself reminders, you can set the app to remind you of your task as you leave your house or arrive at your destination. Of course, if you are using the 4S, you have Siri to do this for you.

Is this too basic? Let me know!