Friday, July 25, 2008

Wine Tasting

Join the Friends of the Library
For a Wine Tasting Party
prior to the Rhythm Rivers Concert on August 21st.
The Wine tasting will take place in party tents set up behind the Village Hall on the river side of the building.B & B Beverages from Wind Lake is doing the tasting. There will be about 40 different varieties of wine to taste and light snacks including cheese, fruit and sausage.We will pay $10/person to B&B with the remaining proceeds going to the Friends of the Library.
Tickets available at the Waterford Public Library

Tickests are $20 in advance, $25 the night of the concert

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

How to Improve Your Digital Photos

Fighting Uneven Lighting











Your camera can't capture the same range of light to dark that your eye can see. So if you have a partially lit scene, like the accompanying one of Half Dome reflected in the Merced River in Yosemite National Park, you simply can't make the entire image look good in a single image capture. The trick is to capture two images—use a tripod—one with the settings adjusted so the mountain looks good, and the other with the settings optimized for the river. It is then a simple matter to open both images in Photoshop and drag the Layer icon from one to the other (holding down the Shift key so that they are correctly aligned), thus creating a document with two layers. You can then either Erase the portions of the top layer you don't want or create a mask for it that you can Paint and Erase until you get the blend of the two images that's what you want.

Article from PC Magazine 7/2008

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Waterford Area Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a TOILET PAPER drive for Love, Inc. for the months of July and August.

With the rising gas prices and challenging economy, we are challenging Chamber members and community members to drop off rolls, packages or even cases of toilet paper at the Chamber office located at 102 E. Main Street Waterford.
If there are further questions contact Raegan Dexter at 262-534-5911.
Other items Love, Inc. need are Mac and Cheese, Peanut Butter, Jelly, Tuna, Canned Stew, Hamburger Helper, Personal care items, Canned fruit, and Soup. As always Love, Inc. accepts these donations at 480 S. Pine in Burlington. Love, Inc. serves Burlington, Wind Lake and Waterford families.
Please donate today!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

WebAnywhere - A Tool For Blind People To Get Online Anywhere




The catch phrase is WebAnywhere: A Screen Reader on the Go and this is exactly what it does. Tools for the visually impaired are few and far between so nobody should begrudge Richard Ladner, a University of Washington professor of Computer Science and Engineering and his doctoral student Jeffrey Bigham from a bow.

The mentor and the student developed this web tool keeping the needs of the visually impaired in mind. Blind users generally use their own computers with screen reader software installed. WebAnywhere aims to correct this through its independent platform and web based application.
WebAnywhere is not only a screen reader but its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is a web-based application. That means :

- It does not need any software to be installed in the client machine. The only requirement is a browser and the ability to play sound.

- It works with any operating system - Windows, Mac, whatever

- It requires no special permissions; the computer should only be net enabled and should have audio.

- It works on any web-enabled device including any mobile that supports web access.

- With a data size of 100Kb for the home page, it has a fast loading time (less than 5 seconds)


Friday, July 11, 2008

LiveMocha








The concept behind LiveMocha (click to watch the video) is simple. It is a Web 2.0 platform from its interface to the culture of social interactivity that makes learning a new language not only fun, but more importantly free.

LiveMocha adopts a community based approach to learning a new language. Users help each other learn a new language by offering tips, checking each other’s uploaded exercises or assignments and also engaging in one on one interactions. A speaker fluent in English might for example want to learn the subtleties of French. Through this site you can teach a native Frenchman (or better, a mademoiselle) some English and be tutored in French in return. As LiveMocha calls it – return the favor.

The log-on process is simple and attractively free. Imagine learning a whole new way to communicate without spending a dime. LiveMocha to date offers lessons in 11 languages - English, Spanish, French, Hindi, German, Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, Icelandic, Italian and Chinese.

1. Learning through visual and auditory cues.
2. Reading and associating it with an image.
3. Listening to the way the word is pronounced.
4. Magnet, a small exercise. The student listens to the word / sentence and drags it to a box to check the match.
5. Writes some text and submits it to the community for feedback.
6. Records a passage and submits it to the community for feedback.
The learners and the teachers can communicate with each other through texting, talking or with a webcam.

article from makeuseof.com

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Feed 'n' Read




In Conjunction with "Catch the Reading Bug" Summer Reading Program



"Serious @ Series"

On Tuesday, June 17 teens were invited to brunch with a book discussion of some of the popular teen books. Vampire Cupcakes & Brain Jello were served.

Discussion highlights included:




the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer












and the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson











Along with Waterford’s own version of Sisterhood of the Traveling pants