Thursday, November 8, 2012

Family Tree Maker User: Consistency Check Reminders

One of the Blogs that I follow is that created by Tamura Jones, Modern Software Experience. Today his blog was on Consistency Check Reminders. I hadn't thought about that as a topic of this blog, but I agree with Tamura on what he wrote. Our genealogy software should provide us with options on this topic, as well as the Back Up mention at the end of the article.

Back Ups:

Family Tree Maker has always provided us with Back Up features. But Tamura went further then having a feature available, but reminders or user options to have the Back Up's performed.? FTM2012 does have options for us, plus offers us a Back Up reminder when preparing to perform some tasks within the program.

For example: the Tools, Compact File utility does offer a Back Up window / reminder before the compacting of the file is performed. Going to the Tools menu and selecting Compact File, this window will open.


Placing the cursor in that box will start the back up process. WE, the user, should take advantage of that.

We also have options on WHERE to put that back up. The Default is in the SAME folder where the Family File is located. Usually in My Documents, under Family Tree Maker. I do NOT put my Back Ups on the SAME Hard Drive where my Family File is located.


I put my Back Up's in a Custom Directory, on an External Drive. (my "J" drive)

We also have options in what we want to include in the Back Up. I always Back Up every thing. I am NOT concerned about disk space. I want to ensure that I can recover any problem with the file quickly and easily.

OH, I also run a Restore from Back Up, once a month, to make sure that the Back Up works.

If you look at the filename of the Back Up (FTMB), you will see that it included the DATE of the Back Up. It makes it very easy to see the most recent file to restore.

There are other operations, that may impact the entire file, where the Back Option is offered. I take advantage of that when offered.

Taking Tamura's statements to heart, FTM2012 also provides us with the Option to Back Up the file automatically, when we close the file, without actually having to do any mouse clicks. That option is in the Tools, Options menu, General Tab.


Putting a check mark in that box, which is the default setting, will cause the program to create a back up of the family file. Using the Automatic Back Up feature, will put a Back Up in the SAME folder as the family file and it will NOT include images. So, the size of this back up will be smaller the the Back Up mentioned earlier.

Consistency

The major thrust of Tamura's article, by my reading, was our ability to make our data consistent.

FTM2012 provide two versions or help in this area. 1) during Data Entry, and 2) a report, in this case the Data Error Report.

The Tools, Options menu has a Warnings Tab.


We have options on what data we want to have a Warning Screen appear, or not appear.
  • Double Dates
  • Title in Name fact
  • One or two digit years
  • Text in quotes (nickname) in the name fact
  • Copy media files to media folder
  • Auto populate Smart Stories
I keep all by the One or two digit years in the PROMPT ME mode. So, during data entry, if I were to put the nick name of a person, in quotes, into the Name Fact, I'll receive a warning, and cause me to confirm this is what I intended to do. I put a nick name into the AKA (Also Known As) Fact, so I want to be reminded that I have done something that would not be consistent with my data entry for the nick name.

IF I enter a 2 digit year, I will be warned to enter a 4 digit year.

For example: I entered 06/06/12 into the Date field. There is a Warning ICON on the Right of the Date field. It took my 12 to mean 12 AD, instead of 2012.


The warning says "Error: The data you entered has an ambiguous year" message.
Below the previous Waring screen are three more options:
  • Show alerts for unlikely birth, death and marriage dates
  • Show unrecognized place name indicators
  • Show informational alerts (i.e., changed name, changed home person...)
I find these very helpful. There are proactive warnings on data entry. They will appear as pop-up windows, or an ICON for the Place Name indicators. (will show shortly)

There is a Data Entry Report in the Publish Workspace.


The Person Reports and select the Data Error Report. Once the report is generating the Items to Include where the below window will open.
We have plenty of options of what we want in the report. I use this report frequently, but normally focus on certain bits of information at a time. For example, the Children being out of order.

So, in my mind, we have the proactive Warning messages during data entry, then a report to work from.

Place Name Consistency

This has always been a concern of mine. However, until FTM2012 (704), the struggle has been around Historical Place Names. That update has resolved that for me. I can visually see my "current" Place Names and the Historical Place Names at a glance.


For example: All Hallows Parish, is a historical place name, while the All Hallows Church Cemetery is in the town of Birdsville. The Cemeteries and the Plantation are in Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

The ICON with the Check Mark, is the visual indication that these place names have yet to be resolved. In each of these cases, I am researching what the place name should be. Upper Burlington County, New Jersey, doesn't currently exist. So, I need to view the DATES of the events that took place in Upper Burlington County, New Jersey to see if it is a historical name based on that time frame.


?If I understand the trust of Tamura's article, for me, FTM2012 offers me the features we described in his article.

_______________________________________________________________

Copyright ? 2012 by H R Worthington

Source: http://ftmuser.blogspot.com/2012/11/consistency-check-reminders.html

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Want To Protect the Election, Young People? Volunteer as a Poll Worker.

155655050 People queue to cast their ballots at a polling station in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday

Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images.

The line to vote at my polling place in Brooklyn, N.Y. was two and a half hours long. I don?t live in a swing state with massive turnout, and there was no hotly contested local election or ballot initiative. While many New Yorkers are suffering the after effects of Hurricane Sandy, fortunately, my polling place was unscathed. The multistep process of checking in, voting, and getting the ballot electronically scanned wasn?t what made the line drag. The problem, to put it bluntly, was the sweet old ladies manning the polls. God bless these women for volunteering, but it?s clear: If young people really want to protect voters, they should volunteer as poll workers.

At my polling place, it took two elderly ladies, in tandem, two to three minutes to find each voter?s name in the rolls, write down the pertinent information, and have each voter sign. The actual voting booths were virtually empty because it took each voter so long to get through the bottleneck at check-in. The line management was terrible, and no information being given to the hundreds of people waiting outside in the cold or to organize and streamline the process.

Several poll workers were sitting around, starting into space. The voters on either side of me in line both bailed after an hour, saying that they?d try later. I asked if people who didn?t want to wait could just cast a provisional ballot, and a poll worker told me she didn?t know.

Of course, poll volunteers aren?t experts in line management, nor are they brought on because they?re speedy with a pen. They?re brought on because they have the time and inclination to volunteer?and so it shouldn?t surprise anyone that so many volunteers are retirees. But couldn?t we back them up with some plucky, fast-moving young people?

After all, college students and young people with flexible schedules are already out in force volunteering for both campaigns. And with unemployment near 8 percent, surely retirees aren?t the only people with their days free! Rather than showing enthusiasm by knocking on doors the day of election, how about ensuring a smooth process for the people who are actually voting? Long lines are a serious barrier for full participation, so idealists can see it as an act of social justice. You even get paid.

And while Election Day isn?t a holiday for federal or state employees?or for pretty much anyone who isn?t an autoworker?there is one group of state employees who might be available. If you?re a teacher, why not take your grading day off and run the polls? You already know all about line management and dealing with grumpy, impatient people.

Heck, by the time my two-and-a-half hour wait ended this morning, I?d have been happy to let Occupy Wall Street run the voting stations?after witnessing their massively well-organized relief efforts being coordinated for Sandy victims I?d take a bunch of charming anarchist hippies over good-intentioned but tortoise-paced old people any day.

When I left the polling place, the line was about five times as long as it was when I got there. For all of you still waiting in line at MS 51 in Park Slope, I recommend you take advantage of Gov. Cuomo's declaring emergency voting at any polling location, and jump the line to ask for a provisional ballot. And before the next election, sign up to volunteer. That?s an even better way to effect change.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=e92e24fa935bc4115f03685ae4d6f259

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Scenes from Election Day: America votes

People line up early to vote at Washington Mill Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. (Patrick Smith/Getty Imag??

The most expensive presidential race in American history?some $2.6 billion was spent?is finally coming to an end. The barrage of political ads is quieting, and voters now have the chance to speak.

Polls close in Virginia, Indiana, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Vermont at 7 PM ET, with other states following close behind. Alaska's polling stations, the last to close, finally shutter at 1 AM Wednesday. In the meantime, we'll be gathering all the latest news about the candidates, polling stations and swing states here.

1:00 PM: Better late than never? Google searches for "who's running for president" spiked in November.

12:25 PM: You might want to think twice before posting your filled out ballot to Facebook, Flickr, or Instagram. Propublica reports that some states have laws that prohibit people from showing their ballots to anyone. Violating the rule can result in having your ballot thrown out. See if it's legal in your state at the Citizen Media Law Project site.

12:18 PM: In Washington D.C., There are reports that some lines are so long at polling sites that people are giving up on voting. How was your polling place? Let us know in the comments.

12 PM: Republican National Committee official Tim Miller?is complaining on Twitter that a Philadelphia polling place has put up voting booths right next to a mural of Obama. The location of the polling site is 35th ward-D18 Franklin School, according to the Weekly Standard. Miller wrote that the Pennsylvania GOP has filed a complaint. Electioneering is not allowed within 10 feet of a polling place. The Philadelphia City Commissioners' office is looking into the complaints.

Obama mural in Philadelphia. (Tim Miller)

11:40 AM: Elections officials in Pinellas county in Florida mistakenly sent hundreds of robocalls telling voters they had until 7:00 PM Wednesday to vote, the Tampa Bay Times reports. (The last polls close at 8 PM Tuesday in the state.) Elections officials sent a second message to alert voters who received the calls of the mistake. A majority of the county voted Democratic in 2008.

11 AM: A Chrysler official wrote on Twitter that the car company has given its entire workforce the day off to vote. Late last month the company had strongly denied the accuracy of an ad from Mitt Romney's campaign stating that the automaker was moving its Jeep production to China. The company, in fact,?said it recently added 1,100 jobs in the swing state of Ohio, where one in eight jobs is connected to the auto industry.

10 AM: All four major candidates have cast their ballots. President Barack Obama voted weeks ago in Chicago as part of his campaign's push to get their supporters to vote early in states that allow it. Voting on Tuesday: Vice President Joe Biden, at a Wilmington, Del., high school; Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, near their Belmont, Mass., home; and Paul Ryan cast his ballot in his hometown of Janesville, Wis.

9:40 AM: The first election results are in?and it's a tie. In New Hampshire, Dixville Notch's 10 registered votes split evenly 5-5 between Romney and Obama. The small village has cast its ballots at midnight since 1960, giving political junkies an early look at how candidates are faring in the Granite State. President Obama carried the small village in 2008, but Dixville Notch went to George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/scenes-election-day-america-heads-polls-163147928--election.html

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Video: Dan Patrick Show: Luck is out-shining Manning

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/49725944#49725944

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Friday, October 26, 2012

John Birch Society protests Belfast's ... - Bangor Daily News

BELFAST, Maine ? The lunchtime crowd walking downtown on Wednesday may have wondered what ICLEI is and why it needed to be kicked out of town, as banners held on all four corners of the intersection of Main and High streets urged be done.

Protesters from the John Birch Society, a conservative group formed in 1958 to push for limited government and personal freedoms, said that the city was a member of the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives. That group advocates for municipal policies that reduce energy consumption and mitigate climate change.

The John Birch Society protesters ? about a dozen in all ? also drew a connection between ICLEI and the United Nations? Agenda 21, a land-use planning initiative.

But it turns out the city is not a member of ICLEI.

A city committee, the Belfast Climate and Energy Committee, joined ICLEI and paid the $600 annual dues a few years ago to get information about how to reduce energy consumption in municipal buildings and promote similar strategies for residences and businesses, Belfast Assistant Planner James Francomano said Wednesday.

Roger Lee, a three-term city councilor seeking a fourth term, was a member of that committee and said Wednesday it is essentially defunct. The city stopped paying dues to ICLEI in 2010, but the organization?s website still lists Belfast as a member.

Hal Shurtleff of Boston, a regional field director of the John Birch Society who was among the protesters, said he concluded that Belfast was a member by reviewing ICLEI?s website. Wednesday?s protest was still valid, he said after the banners were taken down, because ICLEI is part of a larger effort to limit personal freedom.

?ICLEI is one tentacle? of other, larger efforts to impose limits on personal freedom, he said.

Two women holding the banners joined Shurtleff in denouncing ICLEI, saying the organization wanted to prevent people from purchasing certain kinds of vehicles and ending single residences because of their impact on climate change. Shurtleff said climate change was a myth.

Shurtleff is scheduled to present information about Agenda 21 at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, at the Belfast Free Library.

City officials contacted ICLEI Wednesday to ask that Belfast be removed from the list of members.

Lee expressed dismay that ICLEI was cast as a villain.

?They?re a perfectly fine organization. They?re assisting municipalities all over the world,? he said.

Membership allowed the committee to receive software to estimate how energy use might be cut in municipal buildings. Committee members also were able to attend regional meetings to learn what other towns and cities were doing on the energy-efficiency front, Lee said.

?It?s pretty small-scale stuff,? he said. ICLEI does have ?a particular regimen they want you to follow. Our committee never did that.?

The city has improved energy efficiency at City Hall, and plans to do the same at the police station, the Belfast Free Library and the Boat House, Lee said.

A handout given to pedestrians on Wednesday featuring Shurtleff?s photo and biography noted that ? Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all human society, unlike anything the world has ever experienced.?

During the protest, Shurtleff said planning and environmental initiatives conflicted with the personal liberty protections of the U.S. Constitution.

Lee remained perplexed.

?It?s hard to even understand [the protesters?] position,? Lee said. ?Apparently there?s something wrong with trying to live sustainably.?

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/10/24/news/midcoast/john-birch-society-protests-belfasts-environmental-affiliation/

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Syria government indicates accepts holiday truce: Russia

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has indicated to Russia that it will accept U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's proposal for a Muslim holiday ceasefire in Syria, Moscow's U.N. envoy said on Wednesday.

"We have had indications that they (Syria's government) are accepting the proposal of Mr. Brahimi," Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation Security Council during which Brahimi briefed council members via video link from Egypt.

Brahimi told council members that a final announcement Of a ceasefire with rebels was expected Thursday. Churkin seemed to confirm remarks Brahimi made earlier on Wednesday in Cairo, when he said the government had indicated its acceptance of the proposed truce.

The council issued a statement after the meeting supporting the ceasefire, which would begin on Friday and last for several days at least during the Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha, and urging "all regional and international actors to use their influence" to ensure the truce is implemented.

"The members of the Council agreed that an Eid al-Adha ceasefire could be a first step towards a sustainable cessation of all violence," the council said.

After Brahimi spoke to the press in Egypt, the Syrian government appeared to contradict him, saying that its military command was still studying the truce proposal.

"The answer will be announced tomorrow officially speaking," Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told reporters. "We have always been part of the solution, not part of the problem."

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said Brahimi also contacted the opposition to persuade rebels to accept a temporary truce in the 19-month-old conflict that the United Nations says has killed around 30,000 people.

"He had been in touch with various parts of the opposition," Lyall Grant told reporters. "Certainly the Free Syrian Army and other parts of the opposition had indicated that they were prepared to respond if the government took the first step in initiating the ceasefire over the Eid period."

On the way into the council meeting, Churkin said Moscow hoped Brahimi's plan would be successful.

"We support it very strongly," Churkin said. "We worked very hard in support of Mr. Brahimi in making sure there is a chance that might happen."

Chinese Ambassador Li Baodong echoed Churkin's views.

"Hopefully we will see the truce, and also we want to see a sustainable ... cessation of all violence," Li told reporters after the council session.

The United States and European council members blame Russia, a staunch ally and key arms supplier for Assad's government, and China for the council's deadlock on the 19-month-long conflict. Moscow and Beijing have vetoed three resolutions condemning Assad and reject the idea of sanctioning his government.

U.S. BOOSTS 'NON-LETHAL' AID TO REBELS

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington also would like to see an end to the violence.

"And we'd like to see a political transition take hold and begin," she told reporters in Washington in an appearance with the visiting Brazilian foreign minister. "We've been calling for that for more than a year."

She said the United States was increasing its non-lethal support for the Syrian opposition, including working with local councils inside Syria. She said Washington also was working with its friends and allies to promote more cohesion among the disparate Syrian opposition groups with the aim of producing a new leadership council following meetings scheduled for Doha in the next several weeks.

One envoy said Brahimi also told the Security Council that he needs its "strong and unanimous support."

"Another failure would lead to extreme escalation and spillover to other countries," the diplomat, who was inside the meeting, paraphrased Brahimi as saying.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay also emphasized the need for the council to overcome its impasse on Syria in an address to the 193-nation General Assembly.

"While taking into account important political concerns, it is urgent to find ways to avert the massive loss of civilians and human rights violations," Pillay said.

"International law obliges states to protect their people, and where a state manifestly fails to carry out this obligation, then the international community needs to take urgent and effective measures to protect the Syrian people," she said.

Russia and China have repeatedly said they refuse to condone outside military intervention in Syria such as the NATO operation to protect civilians in Libya last year that led to the overthrow of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his death at the hands of rebels who fought to oust him.

Brahimi told the council there was no longer a single safe place for Syrian civilians in the country and that the army continued to shell indiscriminately, diplomats said. He also spoke of a disregard for humanitarian law and human rights on both sides.

"Executions, kidnapping and arbitrary detentions (by the government) continue," a diplomat cited Brahimi as saying.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn in Washington; Editing by Vicki Allen and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-government-indicates-accepts-holiday-truce-russia-063637750.html

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Friday, October 12, 2012

Women use emoticons more than men in text messaging :-)

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2012) ? Women are twice as likely as men to use emoticons in text messages, according to a new study from Rice University.

Emoticons are graphic symbols that use punctuation marks and letters to represent facial expressions to convey a person's mood, help provide context to a person's textual communication and clarify a message that could otherwise possibly be misconstrued.

The study, "A Longitudinal Study of Emoticon Use in Text Messaging from Smartphones," used smartphone data from men and women over six months and aggregated 124,000 text messages. The participants were given free iPhones to use for the test period but didn't know what researchers were investigating.

"We believe that our study represents the first naturalistic and longitudinal study that collects real emoticon use from text messages 'in the wild,'" said Philip Kortum, assistant professor of psychology at Rice and one of the study's authors.

Texting has become one of the most popular forms of communication in society worldwide. This year alone, it is estimated that 8 trillion text messages will be tapped out.

In the Rice study, 100 percent of the participants used emoticons, but they did not use them very often, with only 4 percent of all their sent text messages containing one or more emoticons. Other researchers have found differing rates, but those studies relied on users to self-report their emoticon usage. One benefit of the current field study is the realistic look at the ground truth of what actually occurred and what users really do.

"Texting does not appear to require as much socio-emotional context as other means of nonverbal communications," Kortum said. "It could be due to texting's simplicity and briefer communication, which removes some of the pressures that are inherent in other types of non-face-to-face communication, like email or blogs."

The study also confirms previous research that women are more emotionally expressive in nonverbal communication; however, in this research, the authors found that while women may use emoticons more than men, the men used a larger variety of emoticons to express themselves.

Participants in the Rice study texted a wide variety of emoticons. Seventy-four different emoticons were used, but the top three emoticons -- happy, sad and very happy -- made up 70 percent of the total emoticons sent by the study participants.

Kortum and his co-authors pointed out that their study is a glimpse into the complex nature of real mediated communications. They said that additional inquiry in real-world settings are needed to understand the complexities of human communications through technology.

The study's co-authors were Chad Tossell, Clayton Shepard, Ahmad Rahmati and Lin Zhong, all of Rice University, and Laura Barg-Walkow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The study was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and appeared in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

The data collected from the smartphones included all text messages sent and received with the timestamp, number of words and amount and type of emoticon(s) used. Privacy was maintained by making the users anonymous and by permanently masking the textual content.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rice University. The original article was written by David Ruth.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/JopJ3K1wsuA/121011102301.htm

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