Category: Numbers

ON VACATION! Back on AUGUST 30!!

I AM NOW ON VACATION!

What an exhausting and long year since last August – my last full vacation!

And exhausting … for ALL OF  US! I am so fortunate to have been able to  work with such amazing and incredible colleagues at The Computer Help Desk over the past … 500+ DAYS! Yes, it has been that long since we started working remotely, late in March of 2020!

Without ALL of their support, humour, leadership, imagination, guidance  and every single possible ‘intangible‘ that each and every single one of them, ALL BRING to our Teams meetings, emails, texts, GIFs, Emojis, Jeopardy, Quote Contests, it would have been impossible to accomplish a fraction of what WE ALL DID AS A TEAM!

THANK YOU ALL!

A few key UVic and BC websites for returning to campus in September for everyone!

  1. Return-to-Campus Guidelines now available
  2. Return to campus info for students
  3. Communicable Disease Plan now available
  4. UVic News
  5. Update on getting your COVID-19 vaccine
  6. Remote work arrangements announced for the fall
  7. Working remotely
  8. Post-secondary studies during COVID-19
  9. NEW COMPUTERS IN CALL! YAY!
  10. NEW FURNITURE IN CALL! YAY!

Not to worry . . .

August 30th to prep for
. . . Septem . . . PURR !!!!

 

Pandemic


I will bring Empire Donuts when I return to UVic!

~~Bogman~~

 

Jeopardy – Revenge of the Memes – Poll for Next Jeopardy in October 2021

“TO INFINITY …. AND BEYOND!“
or 
YOU GET TO CHOOSE THE NEXT
JEOPARDY MOVIE QUOTES!

The NEXT JEOPARDY is already in the planning stages!! The Categories, such as “SkyNet”, “Altair 8800” and “Slide Rulers” will be my choices, but the Quotes will be suggestions from CHD Consultants!

I knew going in to the June Jeopardy this year … might … be a “Blast From MY Past”! And  although many are well known Science Fiction movies … not so well known amongst our Consultants! 🙂

So next time, I will let ALL the CHD Consultants give me feedback on the movies quotes THEY want to try and guess … from THEIR generation! This is, to quote Robbie the Robot … “DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER” time as I may not have seen any of the movies THEY have grown up with! LOL!

I created a Poll at MS:Office 365, using Forms,  for all the Consultants to fill in. I guessed at some movies and also left room for ‘Others..’ and a text box for comments too! Not only did it refresh my skills at Polls (it had been a year!) but it will bring everyone together again and might even add a bit of competitiveness to Jeopardy next time.

And imagine the Consultants … the “Jeopary Shaming” if someone gets one wrong! OH, the horrors! 

The actual Poll is below (screeen grabs) and each has a clickable link TO the Poll, but I have limited access to “Only people in my organization can respond“. Security reasons! A good test of settings too!

 
And it will eventually generate some stats and comments too, all part of Forms at MS:Office 365! Early results are in,  below, but a long way to go! And if you haven’t noticed, I am a big fan of MS:Office 365! So much more is coming in the weeks and months to come! Make sure you check out the Microsoft Office 365 at UVic OAC Blog Page for all the latest stuff!

ENJOY!
          
TTFN!

BE SAFE EVERYONE!

Pandemic

Throwback Thursday . . . Language Quotes!

Throwback Thursday
. . . or . . .
Language Quotes!
(and a bit of nostalgia!)

Learning another language is like becoming another person. One of my favourite quotes, ever!

Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami

You can take the boy out of The CALL Facility, but you can’t take The CALL Facility out of the boy!

I have been around for a few days … since October of 1989! Whoa, that seems like yesterday to me! A future post will have some slightly grainy images of what CALL once looked like  … well before numerous renovations (scheduled and unscheduled!) and before The Great Flood of 2015! That was some kind of day! There are a few images in a previous post, which includes a pdf of exactly what CALL is!

CALL Jeopardy: REBOOT VERSION

And the most recent version of my CALL Jeopardy file is here. ALL of the files are there too, including old photos of CALL, the Great Flood and the rebooted CALL!

 ‘State of the Art’ in 1989!

An earlier post mentioned the 30th Anniversary of The CALL Facility! Technology certainly has changed!

And changes are still coming! Just AFTER we started working remotely from home, NEW FURNITURE ARRIVED FOR THE CALL FACILITY!

I was VERY BRIEFLY back at CHD earlier this month, to upgrade my remote laptop, and went in to look at the new furniture … AND IT LOOKS FANTASTIC! I sure hope we can get back to using our facilities, classrooms and ALL OF UVic soon, but in a safe, VERY SAFE manner!

A fairly busy day today, so some quick quotes about learning languages. I also include quotes in each slide when I give my CALL Facility orientation, so you can click HERE to see those too! They are current to January 2020!

Mostly, these are new, but there are a few favourites in here too!

And some Albert Einstein quotes too! After all … on the Quantum Level … everyone speaks the same language … and other magical things like that! Yeah, too many Marvel movies clunking around my head! But that is a GOOD THING!

All the usual  Daily Links and YouTube videos are after the language quotes below!

Enjoy!

  1. Language Learning Quotes – GoodReads
  2. 50 of the Best Quotes to Learn a Foreign Language
  3. 25+ Inspirational Quotes About Language
  4. The 5 Best Inspirational Language Quotes
  5. 10 Inspirational Quotes for Language Learners
  6. Light Up Your Brain with 10 Quotes About Language Learning
  7. Inspirational Quotes for Language Learners
  8. 42 Awesome Inspirational Quotes for Language Learners
  9. Language Learning Quotes

As long as I have words at my disposal … … and Google, there will be
Throwback Thursdays!

 

ENJOY!

 TTFN!

 

Top 20 Quotes
About Language

Inspirational Quotes About Learning
A New Second Language

Quotes About
Learning Languages

Learning Quotes About
Learning a Second Language

Language Learning Quotes

Inspirational Quotes
for English Learners

Language Quote #9

The Best Quotes From
Albert Einstein

Top 20 Amazing Quotes on Patience
From Famous People

 

 

Pandemic

 

Throwback Thursday . . . or . . . Laughter and Chuckles!

Throwback Thursday
. . . or . . .
Laughter and Chuckles!

Why did the chicken cross the road? Error 404. Road can not be found.
ALMOST a … Dad Joke! Years ago, I once ‘collected’ cartoons from the comic section of newspapers or editorial pages, specifically looking for Math, Statistics or Numbers in general – for use as motivation in my classes! I probably still have them somewhere in ‘The Garage’ and will look for them one day and have a post dedicated to really old math cartoons!

Once, I included a funny math cartoon at the very END of a printed math test for my Grade 12 Math 31 (Advanced) class. This was during my Student Teaching year at U of Calgary.

I had the opportunity to teach ‘Probability’ to my highly motivated International Baccalaureat program at the school I was assigned! Well, this threw them for a loop! “Is this a question?“, “Is this for marks?“, “How do I answer this question?” and ‘What is this for?”

And to his  credit,  my Supporting Teacher let me do all kinds of crazy things in all my classes! This will be a theme for another OAC post one day!

One small amazing Fun Fact: I ended up being paired with not one, but TWO of my OWN High School Math teachers from my high school years … just by chance! What are the odds on that !!! Well, that is what statistics are for! LOL!

So, some Throwback Thursday humour and  random images, YouTube videos and cartoons to maybe provide a chuckle or two!

And that is about it for today! A busy day with some meetings, documents and workshops at the speed of Self Pace too! I might throw new stuff in later! You just never know!   

 

 

Enjoy!

  1. Windows Vs Mac Vs Linux: 10 Funny Jokes In Pictures
  2. The 12 Most Ridiculous Windows Errors of All Time
  3. 21 Hilarious Microsoft Windows Fails
  4. Top 10 Programmer Jokes, Explained for the Rest of Us
  5. The 10 Funniest Computer Fails, Bugs and Errors
  6. Computer Memes

As long as I have stuff in ‘The Garage’ … and the “World Wide Web“, there will be Throwback Thursdays!

 

ENJOY!

 TTFN!

 

Why Computer Engineering
is Like Standup Comedy

I’ve Got a Problem with My Apple
The One Ronnie – BBC

One Day, A Computer Will Fit …
… On A Desk – Arthur C. Clarke (1974)

Computer Joke of the Day
May 1, 2020

Modern Upgrades
for Classic Computers

15+ Funny MS Windows Jokes
That Will Make You Laugh

10 Funniest TED Talks
Compilation

Computer Predicts the
End of Civilization (1973)

Arthur C. Clark
Predicts the Internet (1964)

A Funny Look at the Unintended Consequences
of Technology (TED)

BYOD issues were an even bigger problem in the 1950s.
BYOD was not as much of a concern in the office as BYOG.

‘Well, for starters, I’ve never seen a laptop in Roman Numerals.’
“It’s a fantastic computer! It’s so old that none of today’s hackers know how to hack it!”
“That old computer we recycled in 1989 is now worth a fortune.”

Old-fashioned computer

“Don’t worry Mac, I’ll have that happy face back in no time.”

 

Pandemic

 

Terrific Tuesday . . . upgraded to . . . Terrific TEDnesday!

Terrific Tuesday
. . . . upgraded to . . . .
TERRIFIC TEDNESDAY!

And now for something completely different … mostly! I do have favourite topics and have officially changed today’s name to TEDnesday in honour of TED Ideas Worth Spreading!

Everyone has heard of TED Talks! The first time I was told about them, my first thought was … who is this Ted person and why should I listen to him!

And of course, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design!

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.

Just a slight sidebar here … I usually discover something amazing (ie. LEARN something new!) if you look for an ‘About’ or ‘Who We Are’ or even a dedicated search engine WITHIN a website to uncover hidden jewels of information! And it is usually just one click away, or even visible as a magnifying glass icon!

This might be obvious to almost everyone, but … when that one person that lights up because you showed them a neat new trick at a website …. priceless!

So maybe, this next tidbit will help someone – TED actually has a very robust search engine itself!  And they also offer pre-made TED Playlists too! Just click on the images below to see TED Talks Playlists and TED Talks search engine for Languages!

TED Talks Playlists
TED Talks Search for Languages

Many of TED Talks are also found at YouTube as well, but there are so many extra benefits at TED.COM that I recommend looking there first. You never know what you might find!

And using an abundance of caution and a balance of fair play and common sense, I did a search for ‘Worst TED Talks of All Time‘ and came up with this:

But I do DISAGREE with Arthur Benjamin – A Performance of Mathemagic on  that list! No way that almost 10,000,000 of us can be wrong! That is my Inner Math Teacher speaking! LOL!

Enjoy!

  1. The Most Popular Talks of All Time
  2. 20 Quotes From the Most Powerful TED Talks of All Time
  3. 25 Quotes From the Most Inspiring TED Talks
  4. 25 TED Talk Quotes to Inspire You
  5. TED Topics
  6. History of TED
  7. 5 Best Quotes for life From The 5 Most Viewed TedTalks (YouTube)
  8. Debunking TED Myths
  9. 20 Most Inspiring TED Talks of All Time That You Should Not Miss
  10. The 79 Most Popular TED Talks of All Time
  11. TED Talks Are Wildly Addictive For Three Powerful Scientific Reasons
  12. Dilbert – Search for TED Talks

As long as there are words (& videos!) out there, there will be interesting topics! 


And videos too!

ENJOY!
     
TTFN!

Why Language is Humanity’s
Greatest Invention

How Language Shapes
the Way We Think

One of the Most Difficult Words
to Translate

The Benefits
of a Bilingual Brain

How Interpreters Juggle
Two Languages at Once

The Visual Magic
of Comics

Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na’VI
Real Languages?

Jed Talks

 

‘I wonder if TED ever listens.’

 

IT Security Quotes … or What Could Go Even WrongER!

IT Security Quotes
. . . . or . . . .
What Could Go Even WrongER!

I work from the Desk of VicU Computers Helpers. Pleeze conform to me your pazzword or your Internet will dissolve.

Yeah, right. IT Security is a huge, HUGE issue and is now part of our digital lives – both personally and professionally. And for good reason.

So, right off the top, the best and most informative sites are HERE AT UVIC! If you haven’t visited, read or been told about these incredible resources, then now is your chance. And since a picture is worth 1000 words …. here are 6000 words!

Click on each image below to go to the UVic site.

Information Security
University Systems status update
Phishing
Phishing emails spotted at UVic
Phishing emails spotted at UVic
Phishing Awareness Training Campaign
Antivirus Software for Students
VIDEO: 5 Common Cybersecurity Questions Answered
VIDEO: 5 Common Cybersecurity Questions Answered
Personal Perspectives from UVic’s Chief Information Security Officer
UVic Team Triumphs at National Cybersecurity Competition

 

Enroll in any computer security training that UVic has to offer! Refresh your Cyber Spidey Sense Skills all the time! Be aware of Phishing attempts! And be even MORE VIGILANT now that we are working from home – the same skills you are honing for work, are as important for your home digital security too!


“If you spend more on coffee than on IT security, you will be hacked. What’s more, you deserve to be hacked.”
     – Richard Clarke

“My message for companies that think they haven’t been attacked is: You are not looking hard enough.”
     -James Snook

“The five most efficient cyber defenders are: Anticipation, Education, Detection, Reaction and Resilience. Do remember: Cybersecurity is much more than an IT topic.”
     – Stephane Nappo

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and few minutes of cyber-incident to ruin it.”
     – Stephan Nappo

“USBs are the devil. They just are.”
     – Overheard at SecureWorld, Atlanta

“IoT without security = Internet of Threats”
     – Stephane Nappo

“One Person’s “paranoia” is another person’s engineering redundancy.”
     – Marcus J. Ranum

“Two things about the NSA stunned me right off the bat: how technologically sophisticated it was compared with the CIA, and how much less vigilant it was about security in its every iteration, from the compartmentalization of information to data encryption.”
     – Edward Snowden

“If security were all that mattered, computers would never be turned on, let alone hooked into a network with literally millions of potential intruders.”
     – Dan Farmer

“You have to make sure that your hard drive is external from your computer. If you put yourself in the minds of the thief, they want to make a quick buck. They don’t really care about your hard drive, just your computer. An external hard drive is critical. In my case they left the hard drive behind and I was able to plug it into my new computer. It was the key to everything.”
     – Michael Stelzner

And once again, similar to yesterday’s post “Famous Computer Quotes or What Could Go Wrong!” these are just a few of my favourite ones!

Oddly, there aren’t too many current IT Security videos at YouTube that I hoped for. So that means, as I mentioned above, check UVic’s own sites for the most current and most pertinent information about computer security! My Go To pages! They are listed below too!

If I had a single favourite quote, it would be this ……

Enjoy!

  1. Information Security (UVic) and more important links
  2. University Systems status update (UVic)
  3. Phish Bowl – Phishing emails spotted at UVic
  4. Phishing Awareness Training Campaign (UVic) and video
  5. Antivirus Software for Students (UVic)
  6. Inside IT VIDEO: 5 Common Cybersecurity Questions Answered (UViC)
  7. CISO Blog – Personal Perspectives from UVic’s Chief Information Security Officer
  8. CISO BLOG Video Endpoint Protection
    🔥 HOT OFF THE PRESS WINNER 🔥     
  9. 8 Cybersecurity Quotes to Apply to Your Online Habits
  10. 24 Best Cyber Security Quotes That Will Blow Your Mind
  11. 8 Tweetable Cybersecurity Quotes To Help You (And Your Business) Stay Safer
  12. Top 20 Cybersecurity Quotes You Need to Hear
  13. 101 Data Security Tips: Quotes from Experts on Breaches, Policy, News & More
  14. CQURE Hacks #42: That Can Fool Anyone. Don’t Ignore Social Engineering
  15. Simulated Phishing Training (video) (February 2021)
CISO VLog Simulated Phishing
                                                                             CISO VLog Simulated Phishing

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics! 


And videos too!

ENJOY!
     
TTFN!

Cyber Security
Top 10 Threats

Cyber Security Awareness
Better Update than regret

This is What Happens When You
Reply to Spam Email

More Adventures in
Replying to Spam

The Agony of Trying
to Unsubscribe

Top 20
William Gibson Quotes

Famous Computer Quotes … or What Could Go Wrong!

Famous Computer Quotes
. . . . or . . . .
What Could Go Wrong!

Since the advent of computers and digital technology, there have been some funny, outrageous, prophetic and downright WRONG quotes about computers and technology. Let’s go down that winding path this morning!

I will just intersperse quotes with some images of quotes too! A mishmash of data, graphics and historical perspectives!


“Computers in the future may weigh no more than one-and-a-half tonnes.”
     – Popular Mechanics, 1949

“I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last the year.”
     – Chief Business Editor, Prentice Hall, 1957

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
     – Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943

“There is no reason anyone in the right state of mind will want a computer in their home.”
     – Ken Olson, President of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977.


“Loop, Endless: n., see Endless Loop.”
     – Random Shack Data Processing Dictionary

“Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.”
     – Brook’s Law

“An elephant is a mouse with an operating system.”
     – Anonymous

“BUG, n.: An undesirable, poorly-understood undocumented feature.”
     – The Devil’s Dictionary to Computer Studies

“640k is enough for anyone, and by the way, what’s a network?”
     – William Gates III, President of Microsoft Corporation, 1984.

“Microcomputers are the tool of the 80’s. BASIC is the language that all of them use. So the sooner you learn BASIC, the sooner you will understand the microcomputer revolution.”
     – 30 Hour BASIC Standard, 1981.

I want to change the world but they don’t give me root access.
     – Unknown

And these are just a few of my favourite ones! There are literally hundreds of amazing quotes out there, and I as usual, have put a bunch of links below for you to search, should you need that perfect quote about computers!

The single best quote, ever, and ever so true even now, came from John F. Kennedy …..


Enjoy!

  1. Computer Quotes
  2. Top 10 Computer Quotes
  3. 101 More Great Computer Quotes
  4. Top 20 Computer Quotes
  5. Ted Nelson Computer Quotes
  6. 776 Computer Quotes
  7. Computer Quotes – Good Reads
  8. 21 of the Greatest Computer Quotes Ever
  9. 11 Best Computer Quotes
  10. History of CPU Architecture


As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics! 


And videos too!

ENJOY!
     
TTFN!

Top 20 Quotes
About Computers

Top 10 Computer Quotes

Top 15 Quotes
About Computers

Computer Quotes

Top 10 Computer Quotes

Best Famous Quotes
on Life and Computer

Top 20 Quotes About
Computers and Technology

10 Quotes About
Computers and Technology

Open Book Exams … or My Favourite Textbooks

Open Book Exams
. . . . or . . . .
My Favourite Textbooks

This may be the FIRST and ONLY blog post on the internet about … Favourite Textbooks! Textbooks are usually the bane of most students! LOL!

But I really enjoyed getting new textbooks, especially in Grade 12! For the first time, we had to venture to DOWNTOWN CALGARY to actually BUY AND OWN our textbooks! Previously, we were issued them, had to guard them throughout the semester and RETURN THEM at the end! But now, we could OWN THEM!

And what a great textbook for Grade 12 Math – ‘Modern Intermediate Algebra‘! And the trick was, to buy the book that had the ANSWERS IN THE BACK! Only a few of them DID have the answers, and I was lucky enough to get one of those! Quite an adventure for me at the time! 

And if you haven’t figured it out by now, I still have these textbooks! Yup, weird, but … I collect books of all kinds! A future post will be on REALLY OLD TEXTBOOKS that I have! 

The next 4 textbooks are all from when I attended the University of Calgary from 1975-1982. Yup, some gap years in there to travel, live and work in Banff and explore the world! Might sneak an old photo of me in there somewhere too! LOL!

And how boring – a book on .. evaluating student progress? And even more boring, THAT IS THE TITLE TOO – ‘Evaluating Student Progress’!

And here I thought I would finally find out all the tricks and secrets of passing exams … and for the most part, I did pick up some ideas, especially when my first job out of university was evaluating exams, something called Item Analysis! And it was fun! Basically, how does an exam actually MEASURE student knowledge! Yeah, boring, but at the time, I actually USED this textbook in a real life setting!

And then one of my All Time Favourite themes – STATISTICS titled ‘Elements of Statistics‘! All kinds of neat formulas, algorithms and magical numbers with REAL WORLD RESULTS! And for the first time – a new studying technique! We were allowed to bring in a small 4×6 recipe card with ANYTHING WE WANT WRITTEN ON IT! This was such a great learning tool, that I used it in all my future classes! This forces you to actually STUDY and WRITE DOWN anything you were not as confident with, thus FORCING YOU TO RECOGNIZE AND STUDY YOUR WEAK POINTS! And it worked flawlessly! (At least, for me!)

This has been a bit of a ‘Top 10 Favourite Textbooks‘ countdown, except only a ‘Top 5‘ of them! My bad! And the next 2 textbooks bring back fond memories … and some not so fond …. of courses I took … sometimes twice and three times! How about them apples!

The BEST stat course EVER was on games of chance! And the Instructor LIVED HIS TEXTBOOK – ‘Basic Probability and Applications‘! When introducing himself, he said he might be late for some Monday morning classes as he would be enroute BACK FROM LAS VEGAS as he spent most weekends there …. GAMBLING! That is one amazing course intro! And he had his own TEXTBOOK TOO!

And my FAVOURITE TEXTBOOK OF ALL TIME is entitled ‘Excursions Into Mathematics‘ for the exceedingly misnamed course ‘Elementary Mathematics From and Advanced Viewpoint‘!!!

I took this course
… THREE TIMES …
before I passed it!
HARDEST.COURSE.EVER!

First time was with a friend and BOTH of us dropped it at Christmas as it was just too freaking hard! Second time was with my entire Education Year colleagues (9 of us!) and the 10th student in the class dropped it too – and he was in Honours Math at the time! Why did HE drop it? It was lowering his GPA!

Finally, passed the course in the summer, and all I did was Math for a solid month, literally every day, and got a B+ on it! YAY! The Instructor apologized to me .. I was literally ONE POINT AWAY FROM AN A- …. but I did not care. I HAD PASSED THE COURSE and could now graduate! WHEW!

Still, the textbook is awesome and even though I may have ONCE understood many classical concepts – it is like Quantum Physics, another favourite topic! I may not understand ANY of it … but it is as close to MAGIC as we will ever get in this crazy world/universe/multi-verse we live in! LOL!


Oh, and whenever there was a so-called ‘Open Book Exam‘ – they were the toughest exams in the history of education. You better KNOW YOUR STUFF, because if you spent the time looking for the answer in your ‘textbook’, you wasted so much time, you never finished the exam!

And as Steve Jobs liked to say … ‘… one more thing….’!

My favourite math book was my ‘Mathematical Handbook‘ that had all kinds of formulas and simplified explanations of my favourite theorems and numbers! Served me well all through High School and University!

And one more …. one more thing! If I didn’t include a dictionary … ANY DICTIONARY in this list, then I would be remiss! I had ve saved many of my old dictionaries, including my pocket French/English dictionary, but I now tend to use dictionary.com and thesaurus.com on an almost daily basis! Big thumbs up to both of those sites!

 

 

Enjoy!

  1. 20+ Funny Textbook Doodles That Are So Clever, Teachers Won’t Be Mad

And not that many funny extra sites out there. I found most of them quite rude and in bad taste and many offensive. The only funny one is above. And just doodles on existing images in each book. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes … it rains! (Ask me about THAT quote, which literally comes out of … right field!)

And same with videos. Lots of bad taste ones out there, sand offensive ones, so today, only a compilation of Steve Jobs ‘One More Thing‘ below, to wax nostalgic today!

As long as there are words out there, there will be a site that Google finds!! 

    ENJOY!
            
   TTFN!

Steve Jobs …..
History of One More Thing

 

 

Cool Picture . . . or Infographics and Language Learning

Cool Picture
or
Infographics and Language Learning

A picture is worth 1000 words. Never more accurate with Infographics! And INFOGRAPHICS ARE about words AND languages.

FULL Disclosure: I have zero artistic talent!

DOUBLE Full Disclosure: I once took an art class and … could barely sharpen my sketching charcoal!

I just missed out on a course about Infographics at the library yesterday. I am hoping they offer it again! And just what ARE Infographics? Well, according to Wikipedia:

Infographics (a clipped compound of “information” and “graphics”) are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.[1][2] They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends.[3][4] Similar pursuits are information visualization, data visualization, statistical graphics, information design, or information architecture.[2] Infographics have evolved in recent years to be for mass communication, and thus are designed with fewer assumptions about the readers’ knowledge base than other types of visualizations.[5] Isotypes are an early example of infographics conveying information quickly and easily to the masses.[6]

All those cool combinations of statistics, images, ideas, trends and INFORMATION in one, easily understood picture! Literally, a picture is worth 1000 words!

I have liberally saturated some posts with Simpsons gifs and memes, and I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to find some Simpson infographics! LOL!

   

But why use Infographics? Basically, and I am truly over-simplifying, but … we areALL  students of VISUAL learning! Visuals can improve learning by over 400%! AND ‘The average person can recall 65 percent of visual information ten days later (only 10% of what they heard)‘. Those are astonishing numbers for success in learning … ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!

Confucious was right ….”I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

The topic of student teaching (practicums) came up at Digital Coffee today and the best and most powerful teaching lessons I remember, not only when I was a student teacher, but also AS A STUDENT, were always the most visually stimulating, interesting and sometimes, confusing lessons! But their impact is long-term, at least on me!

Oh, the stories that … could be a future OAC post about teaching ‘BG’ …. that is short for … BEFORE GOOGLE! LOL! Or even ‘BtI’ – Before the Internet!

Yup, I grew up when Amazon was ….. a river! And Social Media required … leaving the house!

And one of the most famous of ALL Infographics is something ALL of you have studied in school, potentially from about Grade 6 on … maybe even earlier – Mendeleev’s Periodic Table, 1869!

And I also discovered some ANIMATED Infographics, which takes visual learning to a whole new level! Okay, so the last one is a .. penguin! LOL! I bet you will remember THAT one, if only because it is such a black and white issue! 

Click on each one to open in a new tab.

Visual Learners
Muscles
Penguin

And the usual assortment of recently searched interesting links, videos and other cool stuff – but beware, you may now have an overwhelming urge to discover a new element and add it to the Periodic Table!

Enjoy!

  1. Infographic – Wikipedia
  2. 5 Language Infographics
  3. All the World Languages in One Visualization
  4. Infographics on Canada’s official languages
  5. Infographic: Benefits of Language Learning
  6. The Best Language Infographics & Interactive Tools on the Web
  7. 6 Language Infographics for National Foreign Language Week
  8. National Foreign Language Week
  9. 50+ Fascinating Language Facts You Didn’t Know
  10. INFOGRAPHIC: The world’s most spoken languages and where they’re spoken
  11. Infographic: A World Full of Languages
  12. The World’s Most Spoken Languages
  13. Language infographics – Pinterest
  14. The Simpsons: 30 Years Young – Infographic
  15. 6 Reasons Why I Won’t Look at Your Infographic
  16. Why infographics matter in the classroom
  17. 12 Groundbreaking Infographics That Changed the World
  18. A Collection Of The Best Infographics
  19. Life before Google: What was it like?
  20. 15 Examples of How Different Life Was Before The Internet

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics! 

    ENJOY!
            
   TTFN!

 

Using Visual Language
in Infographics

Infographics
How to Learn a New Language

10 Easiest Languages
to Learn

Most Popular
Programming Languages to Learn
1965 – 2019

 

 

 

Working From Home . . . What Could Go Wrong?

Working From Home . . . 
What Could Go Wrong?!

DEFINITELY NOT my most productive morning since working from home!

Full Disclosure: Having a relatively frustrating morning, with, you guessed it … my computer! So, probably a short post today.

DOUBLE Full Disclosure: Taking a Tea Time Out, breathing and … over it now!

FIRST AND FOREMOST – amazing colleagues! I can’t say enough about everyone I work with at the Computer Help Desk! Thanks everyone! And they are doing the same for Students, Staff and Faculty with knowledge, humour and steadfast patience!

My laptop went wonky this morning! Still a bit wonky, but still doing what it does best – allow me to work from home during these interesting times! Everyone was quick to help, offer suggestions and give advice and I am back doing my morning OAC post! 

The only downside, would seem to be my bookmarks/Favourites in Edge have gone rogue! And if THAT is the worst thing that has happened on ‘Yet Another Manic Monday‘, then I am good to go with that! I spent the better part of the morning finding and re-setting my bookmarks and access to them. NAILED IT! Well, maybe … THUMBTACKED IT!

I had to take my own advice and just … let it go! I can easily, slowly, rebuild my Favorites and just keep on working at home! A few things that I always try to remember and put into perspective:

  1. PERSPECTIVE! Yup, just how important is it.
  2. Tea! Better than coffee for stress reduction
  3. Meditation – just letting things go. Thanks to Henri at UVic’s Multifaith!
    1. Breathing … kind of a sub-category, at least for me!

Not too much more. Those work for me and me alone. Yes, a big bag of oversimplification, but, it works for me. 

So, a perspective story! My lawnmower started on the second try this weekend! YAY! But the rip cord to start it .. RIPPED OUT! So, standing there, lawnmower RUNNING and no way to start it again … Command Line Decision – just start cutting and don’t stop! Just like in Finding Nemo – “Just keep swimming!”, except … mowing the lawn!

I even emptied the catch bag – WHILE IT WAS RUNNING – and kept on mowing! Whew, finished frontyard, lane, alleyway and backyard in about 50 minutes while on FULL THROTTLE!

Makes a good story and then the best part – there are kits to replace the staring cable for under $10!

In hindsight,it was not as stressful as at the moment! But … I decided to …. just keep mowing, just keep mowing and it relieved my stress! Thanks Dori!

I also did a previous post on “Relieving Stress . . . International Words and Self-Care Trends”

And I leave you with some great UVic and other sites on stress including BC and Canadian government sites.

Enjoy!

  1. 10 Ways to Cope with Anxiety about Coronavirus (COVID-19) (UVIC)
  2. Ways to cope if you are in isolation due to COVID-19 (UVIC)
  3. Anxiety and Stress (UVIC)
  4. Managing COVID-19 Stress (BC Government)
  5. COVID-19 (BC Centre for Disease Control)
  6. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) (Canada)
  7. World’s Most Advanced Lawnmower

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics! 

    ENJOY!
            
   TTFN!

 

 

 

 

 

Most Insane Lawnmowers