NCSD Class of 1970 says "Let's Surf, Baby!"

As Seen on TV:
www.dtvanswers.com
www.dtvtranstion.org

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is responsible for
administering the Converter Box Coupon Program (Coupon Program).

Do You Still Have Digital TV Questions?
This website has answers.

My favorite Website:

Websites of the Month

July
Canning
This month is gardening related...canning or preserving the fresh bounty from the garden. I was
over at Lowes (hardware) in Burlington (NC) and next to the magazine and book racks was the
freestanding display of the Ball company's canning products. Well, Di and I do a lot of canning this
time of the year and this was the first time I've seen Balls products prominently displayed so....
I had to check everything out and found the url www.freshpreserving.com

June
Raw Video: HD video of gulf spill released
Yeah, really sad about the gulf oil spill, another way of looking at this is history in the making. You've
seen videos of the oil spewing out of the damaged underwater pipe, although grainy. There's a high
def video available. Yeah, put up with the advert for a moment then the video shows the leak in
clear fashion...dramatic, huh?
www.news.yahoo.com

Fun Facts About Coffee
I was doing a little research about coffee grinds...actually, what to do with used coffee grinds and
came across this page, Fun Facts About Coffee. Did you know: that the athletes playing in the cannot
drink more than 5 cups of coffee? Both the American Revolution and the infamous French Revolution were born in coffee houses? We say coffee beans although they are really berries? Expresso is not a
word? The three biggest coffee drinkers in the world are the Americans, the French and the Germans?
Read more here: http://cocoajava.com/java_trivia.html

May
N.C. Natural Wonders Stretch from the Mountains to the Coast
Ahh! My favorite vacation designation...the Blue Ridge Parkway @ #1, Grandfather Mountain @ #3
and the Great Smoky Mountains @ #4. Camping many times...I can't count...motels...only twice and
that's not counting any Morganton stayovers. Land for Tomorrow was featured in a local TV station,
WRAL, newscast segment and loyal visitors know, I love the mountains, so I was overjoyed when the
Blue Ridge Parkway was picked as the number one vacation designation.
www.landfortomorrow.org

April
A Visual Photographic History of the North Carolina School for the Deaf
Historical exhibits about NCSD is expanding...we have the NCSD Museum and their website,
The Bugler, beginning with the Spring 2010 issue, is featuring an ongoing series of articles about
all the Deaf schools in North Carolina, and of course this website featuring various segments
throughout the website about the history of the Morganton school. This new facebook group page is
administered by the well known Jimmy Autry featuring pictures seen AND unseen previously. If you
are a member of fb then there's no problem in viewing the page. If you are not a member, join up
and see the new avenue of the history of the Deaf schools in North Carolina.
http://www.facebook.com/login.php

Straw Bale Gardening
As most of you visitors know, I'm a backyard gardener and I'm always searching for shortcuts anyway
I can. I found a fantastic shortcut but MamaPat says this was old news to her. First paragraph of this
site explains it perfectly: Straw Bale Gardening is simply a different type of container gardening. The
main difference is that the container is the straw bale itself and is held together with two or three
strings. Once the straw inside the bale begins to decay the straw becomes "conditioned" compost
that creates an extraordinary plant rooting environment.
Sounds good to me!
www.strawbalegardens.com

March
My apologies for not providing neato websites for the past three months. Maintaining pages for our
40th Anniversary has been a daunting task...so without further ado:
Give Away of the Day
I was looking for a couple of programming resources, freebies as a matter of fact, and found this
site, downloaded a couple of files and found out the hard way that you had to install AND register
these freebies on the same day they are free. If you don't, then you've lost this opportunity. Anyway,
I downloaded a couple of these freebies and (registered on the same day) found that these were
really, so far, good quality software. You can bookmark and check them out daily or sign up and they
will e-mail you daily on their freebies. You know about Webshots Picture of the Day, well, this is
almost the same: Software of the Day. PS: Don't wait till midnight to see what the next day's freebie
is about...their servers are located somewhere in the Pacific Standard Time zone so...midnight their
time is 3am North Carolina time...zzzz
www.giveawayoftheday.com

February
No WOM this month.

January 2010
No WOM this month.

From January 2009
As promised, here is my CSDVRS review:
www.csdvrs.com
Well, this one is not a website of the month but a disappointment and a grief about the company
behind the website. I've put off getting VRS because I just didn't want a another TV waiting to be
used. The CSDVRS folks at the ASL Expo in Greensboro, NC back in September 6, 2008 convinced me
to sign up for Z30 (Z340) on sale for $80. Although it has a small screen, I really liked this unit
because of its laptop like portability. It would serve its purpose very well as I could take it with me
on my road trips as well as being able to connect this unit in any room in my house as well as inside
my workshop separate from my house. Really, a perfect and ideal VRS unit for me.

OK, so weeks go by...no e-mail, mail, or any communications from CSDVRS. I go to NCSD's
Homecoming and eureka! CSDVRS has a booth! I asked about getting Z340. Their representative said
I will get e-mail in three weeks. So again, I waited and waited. No e-mail, nothing, nothing, and
more nothings. So, on January 6, I contacted them through their website and basically I wrote: "It is
now 2 and half months OR 4 months since September 2008! WOW. I waited and waited. No e-mail,
nothing, nothing, and more nothings".

And now, finally, I received a response, albeit a manufactured response...you know...the same
response sent to anyone who's asking. Here's what they said: "We are completing the final stages of
testing the new Z phones. The Z-340 has started being shipped to customers, and there is still no
release date of the Z-150. This has been due to an overwhelmingly high volume of requests we have
received for the Videophone. CSDVRS will be contacting you once the Z becomes available, and the
current units we have will be assigned on a first come, first serve basis."

Oh, wow, whoopie doo! Geez, I didn't ask about the Z-150. Here was my response:
Same old, same old.
That's the same story the rep said at the NCSD Homecoming on Oct. 18, 2008.
So in effect, nothing new, nothing changed.

Sigh,
Lester Latkowski

So the moral to any company offering any product: Don't offer products until it has come off the
assembly and testing lines. DUH!

Sonicbomb.com = MH-47 Chinook helicopter
John forwarded this military clip and...well...I'll let his e-mail do the describing:
Gutsy move...This is some chopper pilot...a rarely seen perspective: a video of a U.S. Navy SEAL
extraction was filmed from inside an MH-47 Chinook helicopter. The pilot has lowered the ramp,
dipped the tail end into the water to partially flood the compartment (a maneuver that requires quite
precise flying) and awaits the Navy SEALs to board in their F470 Zodiac.
The rest of the website is outstanding...has historical items never before released to the public or
declassified after so many years. Needless to say, I spent several hours on it.
www.sonicbomb.com

If you have a favorite website, please e-mail them to with the
subject "Website of the Month" and we'll check it out and post them here. Please no commercial sites
unless it's really interesting.

Previous Websites of the Month can be found here.

Check back often!
This page is a work in progress, which means, the internet is always changing and expanding,
therefore, this page may have links added, updated and/or deleted. I am hoping that this page will
grow with input from you so that you can use this page as a reference.

I used to say that I'm surfing on the net with two PCs simultaneously, but now I have modified my
setups so that I am using two monitors on each of my workhorse computers. One computer is used
for webmastering, graphics, surfing, researching, e-mailing, etc and the other is for audio work, such
as archiving audio tapes, recording music files, archiving data files, burning CDs/DVDs, recovering lost
data off of other people's dead hard drives as well as helping me to repair other folks dead PCs.

So I'm going to take advantage of this page and help ya'll be savvy with your own PCs and internet
surfing. Oh, by the way, don't let me do all the work, send me your favorite websites!

Browser Wars
Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Safari, SlimBrowser
I will not go into deep details here but will briefly talk about each and will start in alphabetical order.

First up Mozilla Firefox, a direct competitor to MS's IE (Microsoft's Internet Explorer), Firefox is an
open source browser with an extensive plug-ins and extensions to make your cruising the internet a
breeze. Loads up pretty quick and as with other browsers, it will inform you when an update is
available. This is my main browser and I haven't looked at all of the plug-ins and extensions, yet.

Google Chrome is the newest entry in the browser wars. It's light weight, quick to load, fast, and if
you do a search, it informs you of the contents in your PC that you might be looking for. I don't have
it installed on any of my PCs because of unverified rumors that it sends back data to Google. I
really like this browser so I'm planning to do an extensive research to see if I can overcome my
apprehension on using this browser.

Internet Explorer...comes with Windows and gives the other browsers an unfair advantage. Used to
be that you could not uninstall it, now you can. It's a heavy browser, takes a while to load up and MS
is slow to install innovations created by it's competitors. If you were using Firefox, you would
remember that it took MS a good while to feature tabbed browsing. There are extensions and plug-
ins offered for IE but they're not easy to find.

Netscape used to be the only direct competitor to IE and was THE dominant web browser in terms of
usage share, although by 2002 its usage had almost disappeared. One of the reasons for this was
due to the popularity of Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser software and other web browsers,
and partly because the Netscape Corporation (later purchased by AOL) did not sustain Netscape
Navigator's technical innovation after the late 1990s. The business demise of Netscape was a central
premise of Microsoft's antitrust trial, wherein the Court ruled that Microsoft Corporation's bundling
of Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system was a monopolistic, and illegal business
practice. AOL's eventual purchase of the Netscape Corporation, guaranteed the death of the
Netscape browser as AOL canceled technical support in 2008. Downloading of archived versions of
the Netscape Navigator web browser family are available. Moreover, AOL maintains the Netscape
website as an Internet portal. Netscape source code was the base for Mozilla Firefox. Netscape used
to be the only web browser I used.

Opera started out as trailware, in 1994, and had to be purchased after the trial period ended.
Version 5 released in 2000 ended this requirement and became ad sponsored, displaying
advertisements to users who had not paid for it. Later versions of Opera gave the user the choice of
seeing banner ads or targeted text advertisements from Google. With version 8.5, released in 2005,
the advertisements were removed entirely and primary financial support for the browser came
through revenue from Google which is by contract Opera's default search engine. I've used Opera for
about 6 weeks now and it's impressive. I enjoy their so called dial-up page which features multiple
homepages when you first startup the browser. It's also a fast browser, not heavy loaded like IE.

Slinmbrowser is really a stripped down version of Internet Explorer with tabs, very light weight,
loads up quickly and features quite a few extras as with the other browsers; built-in popup killer,
skinned window frame, form filler, site group, quick-search, auto login, hidden sites, built-in
commands and scripting, online translation, script error suppression, and blacklist/whitelist
filtering.

Browser War Summary - Here's my take:
Firefox is my long running favorite...I've added several features for my use, Adblock Plus,
Autopager; used mainly on Google's search pages...lets me continue on down the page and not
having to click to Googles next page, Download helper has an icon to display ongoing downloads,
Personas, (browser skins/themes), Mminimap, Plaincopy (which I use during my webmastering
duties...this lets me copy text in plain format and not the format from a webpage), ReminderFox;
lets me put in reminders to display when needed and my favorite, Foxsaver, it's really a screensaver
but it runs in the browser's window...it's like a mini-webshots.

Internet Explorer - Although IE is now loosing it's dominance as Firefox is now emerging as the most
popular browser, webmasters test their website work with IE first to double check their work, before testing with the other browsers. Firefox at times has problems displaying layouts of web pages when
comparing with IE. Unfortunately, some web editors rely on IE when using a shortcut transferring hyperlinks.

Opera is my new favorite browser next to Firefox.

Slimbrowser is used because it's faster than IE and I use it on my Notebook when checking my
e-mails on the road.

How, where do I use these browsers on my workhorse PC? I have 3 monitors attached to my PC,
The left monitor I switch between 3 browsers, Firefox for web surfing, Slimbrowser for e-mails and
IE for webmastering work. The middle monitor is used mainly for webmastering, text editing as
well as some graphic rendering. And the third or right monitor is where all my webeditors are used
and Opera when not web editing. When my concentration is focused on the middle and/or right
monitors, Foxsaver kicks in on the left monitor and provides a pleasing distraction when I need a
mini-break to rest my eyes a bit.

To download these and other browsers and some plug-ins you can go to cnet download.com

Hurricane Katrina has impacted just about everyone in the United States especially us Deafies.
We need to prepare ourselves for these dangers. Trudy Suggs offers suggestions to help you prepare
in the event disaster strikes in her Cultural Perspective article in i711.com. To view these and other
articles you must register, free, on i711.com.

TDI (Telecommunication for the Deaf, Inc.) has appointed Trudy Suggs as National Public Relations
Specialist for Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network Project which is funded by
the Department of Homeland Security and coordinated by TDI. (Click here to go to the CEPIN
website). Trudy wanted to share the first issue concerning emergency kits. Please click here to see
News and Updates as well as to download the "Are You Ready" newsletter in PDF format.

Note to ALL VRS Users:
On January 26, 2005, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released public documents
that make clear that video relay providers may no longer use certain marketing and call handling
practices to try to get your business. Click here, to find out what is now prohibited...

ASL Sites:
There are many web sites devoted to the ASL as a language; here are a few of them:

Take me to the ASL Browser
This is an excellent site to learn ASL. Click on the link "Take me to the ASL Browser". This page has
in alphabetical order a list of words which you click on and it shows a video clip of how to sign that
word. Needless to say, the page also has video clips on signing the alphabet.

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/

The FAED Eagle website has been shutdown and while researching for it's new location, I found
this site. It has tons and tons of ASL and Deaf links.
Grab a cup of coffee and do click on http://www.aslclub.org
(BTW, FAED's site was shutdown on, 08/01/03).

This is another page with links to ASL sites:
http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/guides/asl.html

The Talking Hands ASL website is kinda nifty. The homepage has a sign langauge toolbar that
you can download. Their product page has a bumper stickers promoting ASL and Deaf Pride, as
well as cards and a coffee cup promoting ASL. At the bottom of their pages are links to download
ASL wallpapers and more Deaf links.

Deaf Websites:
There are about 185+ Deaf websites out there. Some are now down, some are
in the process of re-work, and some now charge a fee. What I've done here
is listed the most informative ones, in no specific order:

NCSD Museum

www.ncsdmuseum.net

DeafWebsites.com a comprehensive listing of Deaf websites.

National Theatre of the Deaf: www.ntd.org

The USA Deaf Sports Federation (USADSF) Website: www.usadsf.org

Deaf Life Magazine: www.deaflife.com

Everything You Wanted to Know About Deafness - DEAF-INFO Web Site. ...
What will you do? The Deaf Employee. ... Home to a mailing list about deafness,
as well as information and links to other deaf resources:
www.zak.co.il/deaf-info/old/home.html

Extensive directory to just about every aspect of deaf culture, including education,
schools, reference...www.deaflinx.com

An internet shopping mall for the Deaf! www.deafmall.net

Promoting Equal Access in Telecommunications and Media for People Who are Deaf,
Late-Deafened, Hard-of-Hearing, an national organization engaging in
telecommunications advocacy for deaf and hard of hearing people: www.tdi-online.org

Welcome to DeafZONE: www.deafzone.com

Closed Captioning Faq, an extensive information site about closed captioning
on television, HDTV and the internet. As of January 2008 "FAQ" page has been converted to a website
http://www.captioncentral.com/

To quell the rumors: Captioning Is NOT Going Away:
http://www.robson.org/gary/captioning/rumor-killer.html - this page is not available on this site as of
June 2004.
Webmaster's Note: This was originally posted in August 2002 and was featured as a Website of the
Month selection for February 2004.

For a list of Schools for the Deaf in the USA
http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/InfoToGo/schools-usa.html
Thanks to: Berry & Martha Hamrick

AOL's Hometown pages has over 200 individuals/groups with their own web pages relating to
various areas of Deaf cultures ranging from personal pages, various Deaf clubs, services for the
Deaf, etc. You'll have to make time to visit these pages. There's a lot of stuff out there. Type in
deaf in the search & explore box in this page:
http://hometown.aol.com

Here's two that I found interesting:
http://hometown.aol.com/cculber007/myhomepage/deaf.html

Lanny's Brown Eagle Page: Bottom of this page has additional
links to deaf sites:
http://hometown.aol.com/lepickering/eagle.html

National Association of the Deaf's website
http://www.nad.org

Berry has found a search engine with a tremendous wealth of Deaf related websites:
http://bigtome.com/big/page?search=deaf

Of course, just keying in www.deaf.com will take you to the owners of the Deaf Life publication
site giving you a choice to go to 6 other websites.

And www.deaf.net is "just getting back online".

Deaf Expo is a show where venders and companies selling equipment and items for the Deaf get
together inside a large building so Deafies can see what's for sale that would enhance their everyday
living. These shows are located in California and due to organizational restructuring there were no
shows produced in 2005 and no shows are planned for 2006. This group is not associated with The
DeafNation Expo mention in the next paragraph below.
Click on http://www.deafexpo.com/ for further updates.

The DeafNation Expo website marvels the community with:
-  Video Clip News/Sports coverage are done in Sign Language
- Countless Special Coverage at events that are now history
-  Hosting the DeafNation Expo at 12 different cities
-  Sponsors are clearly visible on the web
-  And even better, the audience has been paying attention to every step they make…
http://www.deafnation.com
And don't forget the DeafNation Expo in Greensboro on February 23rd.
                                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am in the process of splitting this page in two, but it will be an ongoing process, the other half
is here.

Websites of the Month Archives
2009's Websites of the Month can be viewed here.
2008's Websites of the Month can be viewed here.
2007's Websites of the Month can be viewed here.
2006's Websites of the Month can be viewed here.
2005's Websites of the Month can be viewed here.
2004's Websites of the Month can be viewed here.