Question: Sarah asks, "I had to force my computer to reboot and now all I see on my screen is a blinking cursor in the upper left. Have I lost everything? What can I do?"
Answer: Good question, Sarah. When you see that, it most often means that your computer is trying to boot from a USB drive that's not bootable, usually a flash drive. So what you should try first is to unplug anything except your keyboard and mouse that happens to be connected to a USB port, especially if the device is a flash drive or external hard drive. If your computer is in a desk or place that makes this difficult, unplug the other end of the USB cable at the devices themselves. Then try to boot up again and see if it gets past that point. If that was all it was, then it should go on and boot normally. If it doesn't, then your hard drive may be bad or going bad at least because your computer still can’t find a bootable drive.
Cool Site: Homeschooling In Texas.com: With all the problems that public schools have nowadays, many parents are seriously considering homeschooling their kids. Many more might like to, but aren't sure how to get started, or what requirements may exist, and just whether or not it can work for their family. I haven't homeschooled my kids, partly because my wife and I both work, so it doesn't work time-wise for us, and also because I'm hoping my kids can be missionaries to their classmates. But... homeschooling does work for many families, and maybe yours is considering it. If so, check out this resource: HomeschoolingInTexas.com. This site is mostly made up of links to other sites, and like any website with lots of links, some of them don't work anymore. But there are links to articles on topics like how to get started, curriculum you can use, I found a link to a site that does class rings, caps & gowns, diplomas, etc. And this particular site also does diplomas for 500 or more schools as well, so it would look exactly the same. You'll find articles linked up discussing the issue of socialization, one of which illustrated how much more often home-educated adults 18-24 have taken college-level courses: 74% of homeschooled go on to college; compared to 46% of the general US population. I was surprised at the size of the gap; I would have thought that the general population number would be higher. But this site's info doesn't stop with Getting Started. Other sections of the website cover How to Homeschool, How Do I Teach..., Beyond the Basics, and Support.The How to Homeschool and How Do I Teach sections cover what it sounds like they'd cover, how to do homeschooling, and how to teach various topics effectively to different age groups. Beyond the Basics looks at information for parents who have special challenges like: large families, caring for babies and toddlers, single and working parents, military families, special needs homeschooling, teens, and gifted children; as well as the practical matters of making school fun, getting organized, saving money, etc.. The support section covers things like support groups for homeschooling parents, local & state events and resources, publications to help give you some ideas, humor, email lists and sites like the Family Unschooling Network. All in all, if your family is considering homeschooling, look here first.
Cool Gadget: Seagate GoFlex Satellite Portable Hard Drive: Last week we looked at a Wi-Fi enabled flash drive from Kingston. This week's cool gadget was also mentioned last week, the Seagate GoFlex. In case you don't remember, this is a Wi-Fi enabled external hard drive. It's great for serving up content like pictures, movies, or music while you're on those long trips, and this device comes with a car charger for just that very purpose. You can fill up that 500GB hard drive over USB 3.0, the fastest USB around. Then put it in the car, push the power button, and in under a minute it'll start making its data available to any three Wi-Fi enabled devices in the car, including iPads, iPods, Android phones/tablets, Windows phones, even laptops, for up to 5 hours between charges. It has a built-in web server but doesn't use any kind of media synchronizing software; just the same drag and drop you're already used to doing when you want to copy files from one drive to another now. It runs about $200.00. The link we'll have in the show notes includes a video of the drive in use, which by the way, works best with iOS devices (your basic iWhatever) because it comes with an app for them.
It's All "Geek" To Me: API: This week, we've got a term you very well might not have heard: API, which stands for Application Programming Interface. It refers to a mechanism that programmers use to ask Windows to do things for their programs, like draw pictures on the screen. That way, everyone who wants to draw a picture on the screen doesn't have to reinvent the wheel to get it done; and Windows has thousands of APIs that programmers can use so that everything looks and acts consistently. A side benefit of that consistency is that once you as a user learn how to find a file to open, or how to choose a printer to print on, it always works the same way.
