Tropical Storm magnet

Jeff Rice observed that he went to Texas and a tropical storm hit. He came back here, and another tropical storm is bearing down on us. He recommends we send him on extended administrative leave somewhere else, far away. Like Greenland?

Goodbye del.icio.us!

Aargh! They did it! Yahoo has stepped in and begun the process of ruining del.icio.us! I guess it was beyond hope that they'd leave it alone after buying it.

It's no longer del.icio.us, it's delicious.com. And color coded text based results just aren't good enough for Yahoo, so they are changing the structure and layout as well.

Time to find another bookmarker.

What's in a name?

Holey Moley

We've got problems with our class names: Beginning Computers, Getting Started, Windows Basics. People don't seem to want to read the descriptions, and are trying to guess what to sign up for based on how the name fits where they think they are in the computer skills picture. The Getting Started series of classes probably needs to be renamed to something like "This is what you take if you have never seen a computer before or you are afraid you're going to destroy the world if you touch one," but better minds have told me this is too long for a class name.

I suppose if the names were less descriptive it would force people to at least look at the descriptions. I'm thinking something like "Step 1, Step 2, Step 3," etc. A lot of the people who take these classes seem to want the classes numbered anyway. So, along those lines:

Step 0: [for lack of a more condensed name] This is what you take if you have never seen a computer before or you are afraid you're going to destroy the world if you touch one
Step 1: Learn to use a Mouse
Step 2: Learn how to turn the computer on and off
Step 3: Learn about programs, windows, and saving files
Step 4: Learn about the World Wide Web
Step 5: Learn the basics of using a Browser
Step 6: Learn how to use a web-based e-mail program
Step 7: Learn more advanced things about the World Wide Web
Step 8: Learn how to stay safe in Cyberspace
Step 9: Learn what you can do with digital pictures

Unfortunately, this ignores the word processing classes we have. This also makes it look like one has to start at Step 0 or 1, and progress through all the steps. Maybe we should group the classes by level:

Level 0: Getting Started Classes, Mousing class
Level 1: Beginning Computers, Windows Basics, World Wide Web Basics
Level 2: Browser Basics, Basic Word Processing
Level 3: Webmail, Search Tools, More World Wide Web, Cybersecurity, Savvy Online Shopping, Intermediate Word Processing
Level 4: Pictures, Computers & You, Portable Software, Online Genealogy Research

Experience tells me, however, that this will only confuse them more. So here I sit and ponder naming schemes, waiting for divine revelation.