Rogue Security

If you have ever been haunted by a rogue "Anti-virus" you know how unrelenting they can be.  The most recent one I encountered was on my mother's computer.  It hid her desktop and would not let her install any legitimate anti-virus program.  I have used Combo-fix, Malwarebytes, and Avast to remove viruses like this.  Recently, I read an article about this in the Doctor section of Maximum PC which directed readers to this URL.  For some reason, I knew I should keep it for future reference.

So, as the article recommends, I had her install SUPERAntiSpyware (The free version).  Of course, the rogue "security tool" would not let her install it.  I had her restart the computer in safe mode (hold the F8 key while your computer is booting) and install the software.  She ran the quick scan and it found a bunch of things.  She removed all threats and restarted. 

This fixed the problem, but I still had her install Malwarebytes.  Since I use free anti-virus software, I feel safer when I use two.  This way if one misses something, the other will catch it.  One my computer, I use Avast and Malwarebytes and I have not had any problems.  It beats paying 50-60 dollars a year.

Very Easy Jeopardy for Classrooms

If you use (or would like to use) Jeopardy-style games in you classroom, you need to check out http://jeopardylabs.com/ .  If you have every created Jeopardy games in PowerPoint, you know how much work goes into it.  Well, with JeopardyLabs, most of the work is done for you.

A great feature is the ability to create your games on any computer and access them from any computer.  Also, they are password protected so only you can edit them.

Once you click "Start Building!", you will see the screen below.

To add a question, you just click the dollar amount you want to add a question for and you will see the screen pictured below.

Also, you don't have to use every square.  For example, you can fill in only three categories with only three questions each and click save.  You will be given links to play and edit the game.  When you start to play the game, you are asked for the number of teams. Then, you will seen something similar to the screen below.

When you click on a dollar amount, you will see the "answer" and you have the option to display the correct "question" after students have answered (remember Jeopardy is backwards).  Then, you can click the + or - sign under the appropriate team and they will be credit the points based on the question's value.

Youtube Captions

Youtube now has an automatic caption feature that utilizes Google's automatic speech recognition.  As an educator, I can uses for this in classes with hearing-impaired students or if your speakers are not loud enough for everyone to here.  Not every video has captions yet.  But, as a video owner you can upload a text document and Google with take care of the timing for you.