Google Translate - Fresh Prince of Bel Air

I love Google.  I love mostly everything about it (let's all agree to forget Google+ is a thing).  But sometimes it can be wrong.  Take Google Translate, an awesome tool that proves useful when you have a word or short phrase that you need translated.  But for longer sentences, or song lyrics, it's not your best bet. 

The CDZA, a group that "create[s] musical video experiments," has put together an awesome video demonstrating that Google Translate isn't always perfect.  

The moral of this story: This song is still the best theme song ever and kids, do your homework without Google Translate. 

Let's Talk About Tech, Baby: Gmail

There's a weird reaction that a huge chunk of people have when I tell them a librarian (in-training). A lot of people are quick to apologize: "I'm sorry! I use Google!"  Another group will apologize for not reading, but that's a different story. 

Well guess what? We use Google too (although online challenges suggest that I actually prefer Bing).  Sometimes to look up fast answers (gasp!).  But as you probably know, Google is way more than just a search engine.  E-mail, blog, e-readers, documents drive, social media (HA), etc. etc. etc.  There's a lot of tech stuff you can do with Google.

Apparently, customizing your Gmail is something that many people are unfamiliar with.  So here are some tips:

LABELS! Label everything! Never need to search through e-mails for something again! Well that's not true, but this will make it easier.  Far easier. Hit settings.  Go to the "Labels" tab. Create a label. You can change the color of said label to differentiate labels at a glance (if reading the label name is too much for you).  You can even nest labels! That is, you can create one giant "School" label, but then have labels for individual classes that are kept under School.  Is your OCD brain going into overload? It should be.

Wondering why some people have a fancy looking Gmail inbox? Head back to Settings and find the "Themes" tab.  Go nuts.

Next, check out Google Labs! Under settings, you'll find a tab called Labs. Click on it and get excited about the marvelous things you can do to make your life easier and your screen prettier. For instance, do you keep Google Chat open on your e-mail like I do? Do you find it annoying that the list of online friends blocks your list of Folders and Labels that you've now created?  ME TOO! Under Labs, you can switch the GChat to the right side of the window and free up your Folders and Labels.  Not too shabby.

Do you like having a preview pane for your e-mails?Well with Labs, you can make your Gmail a mirror of Outlook if your little heart desires.

Lastly, you know when you send an e-mail and then you immediately regret it?  This question applies to both sober and drunk e-mailers.  THERE IS AN UNDO SEND SETTING.  It only works if you hit it immediately after sending, but you must take what you get.  If anything, it can help erase "reply all" mistakes with ease.

Happy Gmail-ing!

Nostalgia: Computer Games

Yesterday I was struck by a huge urge to play Sim City 3000.  Cursing myself for leaving it at home, tucked into a box stored in the basement, I started to reflect on a time when playing this and other games was one of the highlights of going to school. 

Charging people fair taxes in Sim City, tracking down clues in Where in the World/Time is Carmen San Diego?, and fording the freaking river in Oregon Trail was the best.  BEST.  Why? Because back in my day, the majority of us didn't have computers at home, or if we did, we didn't have time to use them/weren't allowed to play games.  That meant that school was our one shot at playing on computers. 

And where were these sacred computers kept that allowed us to experience such joy?  The library.  Back in the day when we were graded in "Library," we all got A's for being able to effectively remember what time period in which the Vikings lived.  Sure we also looked at books and did research, but only if you lost the race to the computers at the start of class. 

But now kids have iPads and laptops and any other technological device that schools for some reason are insisting they "need" to learn.  Yeah, sure it's impressive when a two year old can play on an iPad, but does she really need to?  You know who else can play on an iPad?  A cat. 

Anyway, I can get on board with how typing and learning Powerpoint (although people STILL can't figure out how to put together a good Powerpoint - black on a dark background DOESN'T WORK PEOPLE!) and intellectual programs are important for kids, but now they have access to all the computer games they want and it's just not that exciting to use a computer in school anymore.  Computers in school are all work work work.  I've encountered numerous kids and teens who don't even know what these games are; the only games they know are Angry Birds and the like.  It's so sad. 

I know, I know, I'm being all nostalgic and I know things need to die out, but the fact that kids are born with the knowledge of how to jailbreak iPods makes me sad that the fun/semi-educational computer games that were a big part of library fun (all library was fun, but this was super fun) are dying out.