Turning to Tech for Homework Help

Have you seen my Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume EVA to FRA? I’ve been searching for that reference book since 1948.

Back-to-school stories have sparked my memory of those glossy pages and the frantic hunts that took place the night before a homework assignment was due.

Nowadays, missing volumes, or your lack of calculus acumen needn't challenge. To the rescue, come Google References, Mac OS X, iPhones, and the Internet.

Turn to your Google search button for these aides:

1. Calculator. To use Google's built-in calculator, enter the calculation you'd like done into the search box. Let's say, $2.87 (my last gas price) x 5.13 (gallons purchased). Do the math and you'll learn how much I paid for a half a tank. (1990 Honda Civic)

2. Unit Conversion. You can use Google to convert between many different units of measurement of height, weight, and volume among many others. Just enter your desired conversion into the search box and the site will do the rest. Their example, 10.5 cm in inches. (Answer: 4.13385827 inches. See how easy that was?)

3. Public Data. This feature is more useful for high school and college students. It provides trends for population and unemployment rates of U.S. states and counties. Type "population" or "unemployment rate" followed by a state or county, and you’ll get your answer.

4. Fill in the Blank. Sometimes the best way to ask a question is to get Google to ‘fill in the blank.’ Add an asterisk (*) at the part of the sentence or question that you want finished into the Google search box. (FYI. George Clooney was born May 6, 1961.)

Mac OS X

1. Dictionary Definitions. To see a definition for a word or phrase, type the word into the Spotlight at the very upper right hand corner of your screen. A definition, as well as Mac's built-in Dictionary application, pops up. You'll find the word's meaning, as well as a Thesaurus. (My example, since I used "searching" in paragraph one, I wanted to avoid a repeat in two. Hence: "hunts.")




iPhone users can turn to a variety of free apps for their homework buddy.

1. The free app, My Homework, is one popular example and it's currently the no. 2 most downloaded education app in the App Store. It lets students keep track of their classes, homework assignments, projects, and tests, with a simple (the developer's description) user interface.

2. College students may be interested in iStudiez Pro, which is more tailored to university studies. This app helps you keep track of lecture and lab sessions, tasks, homework, scheduling, etc. At $2.99, it's currently the no. 1 most popular paid education app in the App Store.


No smart phone? No problem. Go to the Internet and check out these websites:

1. Math.com provides everything a student or parent needs to know about Basic Math, Everyday Math, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Statistics, and Calculus. It even offers math tutoring.
2. At Homeworkhelp.com, students are taught how to learn. This site’s curriculum developers "are experienced classroom teachers who help students understand concepts, not just memorize them."

3. Point your mouse to Studentquestions.com, submit a question and offer an optional commission. The question will be automatically emailed to all the tutors, instantly alerting and giving them an incentive to give you homework help (non-commissioned questions are only posted).


Now that I’ve helped you out, you can do me a favor. Check your closet, bookshelf, and under the sofa cushions. Did I happen to leave my EVA to FRA at your house?

This Doc brings buried pages back to life

While I have great admiration for docs in the medical field, the Doc in this title refers to a favored site in technology. Specifically, Google Docs, which I've found to have awesome talents in resuscitating expired pages.
I've told you earlier I already use Google Docs to save (note the medical continuity) all the writing I don't want to lose to a natural or klutzy disaster. I also appreciate the fact that my words are resting comfortably in a cloud, so when I'm away from home, I can still access everything I've got stored on my personal Google Docs page.

And, if I wanted you to have a look-see at any of my documents or to edit something I've written (not bloody likely), I can tell Google my intentions and you would get an e-mail and a password to unlock my page.


But that's not our lesson for today. In 2000, I wrote an essay about my tattoo. Since the mark still elicits curiosity, I'd like to give you a chance to read it today. I could send it as a Word attachment, but because I'd like it viewed by the wider world (a clue!), I need a different solution.

Enter Google Docs. I open my stored Word document, copy (not upload because then I wouldn't be able to edit it) and past it into a new Google document. I click on Share, select Publish as a web page, and violà! So, here's My Tattoo, alive and well, which you can read at your leisure.

The trick also works for blogger writers who want to revive an archived post that no longer is isolated on its own page and thus can't be captured with a Web address. For further reading, travel back to April 10, 2006 when Tom McNamee of the Chicago Sun-Times gave my memoir, "The Division Street Princess" its biggest boost. See? A little CPR; heartbeats.

My beloved Apple uses its MobileMe program to perform similar miracles. But as reported in a earlier post, it costs $99 annually. In my judgment, Google Docs does it better, and for free. But don't settle for my view, if you want a second opinion, just be sure it's covered by your insurance.

Cheating on Steve with Sergey

You know I'm a big (understatement) fan of Steve Jobs, but there's one of his products I recently dumped: MobileMe.

MobileMe, which Apple charges $99 per year to maintain, allows users to sync Mail, Contacts, and Calendars between computers and iPhones. But, I was never successful performing this trick. I did use the iDisk part of MobileMe for on-line storage; but even that was a bit of a hassle. So, sadly, I declined to renew my subscription (although Apple -- in the forum of dire notices -- continues to remind and plead with me to re-up).


I've chosen Google's Gmail to do my syncing between computers and iPhone; and Google Docs (Sergey Brin is Google's Co-Founder and President of Technology)- which is free - to plop all of my documents, notes, e-mail attachments, and other stuff I want to save. Because it's in a "cloud," somewhere in cyberspace, I can access it from either of my two Mac computers, my iPhone, or on computers away from home.

The beauty of cloud computing (iDisk is also a cloud) is that if a fire or other disaster (earthquakes have been popular lately) should befall your computer, your external hard drive, your thumb drive, your CDs, or whatever device you use to back-up your important things (you do backup, don't you?), your output is still safe in the cloud.

As a Jewish mother, worrying about disasters is a birthright; so no use giving me the odds of anything so bleak happening. I'll count on my Russian Sergey (maybe it's our Eastern European roots that are the lure) to protect me.

I only hope Steve forgives me.