Times Of India Dated: Sep. 18, 2002
By Deepa A
Times News Network

Excerpts:

Many learning disabled children have benefited because of computers. A recent study by Anandilal principal Vandana Lulla confirmed that children showed a marked improvement in their studies after they started using computers. Around three per cent of the 700 students in the school suffer from learning disabilities.
"If a child has dyslexia, parents and teachers usually use placards with the words written in huge letters, so that the students can grasp them easily," said Ms. Lulla. "It's easier to do that with computers, as you just have to use a bigger font. Many children with learning disabilities have bad handwriting - a problem that doesn't arise when computers are used to take notes or answer exams. The spell-check facility in computers also reduces spelling errors.
"The visual component in computers is of great help," said Purnima Hindia, administrator of Nalanda Institute of Byculla, a school for children with learning problems. "We find that children understand, learn and remember concepts better when we use multimedia presentations." The Nalanda institute uses software specially written for children with learning disabilities.

Dyslexic children are more comfortable with computers because they don't have to worry about spelling, said Vinita Pandit, the former principal of Arya Vidya Mandir at Bandra-one of the few schools in the city that provides special attention to learning-disabled children.
"The tension that children have because they can't write is not there," said Ms. Pandit, who is the educational consultant to the Maharashtra Dylexia Association. Children can work at their own pace on a computer and there is no fear of being rebuked by a teacher either, she said.

Studies in the West have shown that dyslexics who avoided writing letters are very comfortable with e-mail. In fact, the British Dyslexia Association Advocates the use of computers for educating dyslexics. It's still unclear whether children do learn spellings by using computers. "But the main thing is that it helps them understand concepts easily," said Ms. Pandit. However, the state's education system places greater emphasis on a student's performance in the exams. "When children score low marks, we say they are no good or ask them to leave the school," she said.

Special educators say that all this is likely to change. "Computers will be the answer for dyslexics. In another decade, examining bodies should allow dyslexic students to write answers in computers," said Ms. Pandit.

Times Of India Dated: Sep. 18, 2002
Column: The Speaking Tree
By Vikas Singh

Excerpts:

Question: Gurudev, I find it very hard to see God in my enemy despite my best efforts.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don't try to see God. Just see a human. You may not have devotion, but at least you can have compassion.

Question: What do you feel about disbelievers?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: All good things are doubted. Negativism is so inbuilt that if I say I have great affection for you, you will ask 'really'? But if I say I hate you, you will immediately accept it!

Question: I see Krishna in you.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Krishna is in every child in the world. He is in every one of us, but we have lost touch with him. And the agony every human endures is the pain to be reunited with the Krishna within us.

Question: Is there place for spirituality in a world still trying to come to terms with what happened on September 11 a year ago?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: But after 9/11, New Yorkers have become much more loving and caring towards each other. They display much less aggression.

Question: Does it mean that the overall global level of aggression declined?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Recently, I was in Bihar. I told a gathering there, give me guru dakshina. The hate you feel towards your enemy, give it to me. That place used to be rife with violence and crime. Now, things are much better. But those were simple villagers. City people tend to think in much more complex ways...

Question: Is the art of living difficult?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The way to 'gyan' is really simple. A child doesn't know his mother, he just loves her completely. fall in love with all shrishti, gyan will come itself.
I have a letter from an Al-Qaida member, who underwent Art of Living training in jail. That man had been brainwashed into believing the only way to attain heaven was to kill other people. But today, he says he has attained heaven right here on earth, through meditation. He has written that given a chance, he would like to help others attain this knowledge.

CNET SearchBar
The CNET SearchBar is a customizable Internet Explorer toolbar that sits at the top of your browser. It allows you to quickly access and search your favorite CNET.com sites
http://www.search.com/guides/sb/main.html

Google Toolbar
http://www.google.com/options/toolbar.html
The new Google Toolbar increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web without returning to the Google home page to begin another search.

Yahoo Companion
http://companion.yahoo.com/
Customize your toolbar with buttons for your favorite Yahoo! services. It saves your favorite bookmarks online and access them from any computer.

Shantanu's Link Bar
http://www.shantanuoak.com/sites/links4.php
Click and drag these links to your Links Toolbar.

Does anyone know what is yahoo database?
Let me count the hands.. one, two Oh! just a few people out of millions present here :)
Read on to learn more about this useful feature of Yahoo!

What are the limitations of the yahoo Database?
1. Yahoo database is a part of Yahoo Groups feature. So It can't be accessed easily as we access our mail or calendar (for e.g. mail.yahoo.com)
2. Each group can only have up to 10 tables. Each table can't exceed 1000 rows, or 10 columns.
3. Views and formulas are not supported.
4. There is no web support. The database can not be used on your site or you can't create a user friendly interface to let the people add records.
5. Yahoo Database is best suited for simple databases which needs to be stored on the net.

How do I print a table from the database?
Click on the name of the table you'd like to print. Then, click the Printable Report link. This will create a web page with your table on it. Print this page using your browser's print command.

How do I control who has access to the database?
To control access to a table you created:
1. Click on the name of the table.
2. Click on the Edit icon.
3. Select the desired access policy.
4. Click the Save Table button.

How should I start?
Create your own group and start using the database...
http://groups.yahoo.com/

Jakob Nielsen in his newsletter dated August 19, 2002 has raised the question of font size on web pages.

I have explained on my website, how to increase the font size, either using View - Text Size option or using the button on standard toolbar. You can also choose the bookmark on your links toolbar to increase the font size. Sometimes simply by clicking the stylesheet button on links toolbar increases the font size. You can refer to my Internet Explorer FAQ and Browser utilities section from my website to know more about it. Remember, Internet explorer is a software that needs to be learned like any other software like coreldraw or excel.
Whichever way you like, increase the font size and read. Don't let your eyes suffer because of your ignorance or laziness.

I wanted to know the best way to manage my database. I wanted a user friendly way to access the database. I typed "phpMyAdmin" at google and guess what? The first site was http://www.phpwizard.net/projects/phpMyAdmin/ I simply downloaded the software, then uploaded on my server. Changed the config.inc.php file and that's all! I had already started using my database without going into details of SQL. That's called something "really" user friendly.

Here is the list of people/companies, I don't want to see going out of business!

1. Dan Diebolt
The person who has taught many people like me, how to use one of the best website called quickbase.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuickBase/files/%20Donations.html
I wish I could pay him $20 as a token of my appreciation of his work.

2. Tiny URL
The website creates tiny URL's for eg. http://tinyurl.com/something that will redirect you to your desired website for eg. http://www.mydomain-name.com/~aLongAnd/totallyRubbishURL/Including&and?
http://tinyurl.com
I am sure this invaluable service is worth $50.

3. Lockergnome.com
If I start paying a dollar for every tip I got from this newsletter, well, I guess I will have to pay thousands of dollars. (No kidding!)
Chris Pirillo needs no introduction. I don't know if he accepts donations any more. I had donated $5 last year. and I think it's worth to donate $5 every year!
http://www.lockergnome.com/

4. http://antville.org
Yes, this web blogging system is the best among the top 5 softwares I have tested.
They don't accept donations. But I will like to contribute in some way.
I think the site deservers $50 if they accept.

5. CSS Guru Eric Meyer
http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/
I don't know if he accepts donations. But I would have certainly paid $10 for the CSS Discussion (e-mail) list, maintained by him at..
http://three.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/css-discuss

6. Monsur of bloglet
Monsur Hossain is currently a programmer for the blog community Xanga.com. His latest endeavor is Bloglet, an email subscription service for blogs. Monsur resides in New York City, and keeps his own blog at http://www.monsur.org

7. David Sklar
He is an independent consultant in New York City and co-author of O'Reilly's PHP Cookbook. (px.sklar.com)

8. Ioannis Livassov
cgiscriptshop.com host one of the best Database GUI I have ever seen!

9. waththatpage.com
I use this service to monitor the pages those don't off RSS feeds. The site sends an e-mail containing the text that has changed.

The biggest problem faced by most of the people using the net is SPAM Mail (Unwanted alias Junk Mail).
There are now very powerful tools available to fight junk.

1. First decide if the message is really "one to one" and private. Most of the e-mails sent and received on the net are public in nature ("One to Many"). For eg. an URL of a news story, Photos, Jokes and so on. If the message is not really private in nature, think of publishing it on the net itself. (Yes, the way I am publishing my thoughts through this http://oksoft.antville.org site) so instead of e-mailing all of you (And adding the spam mail mess) it's easy to publish it here. It gets stored as well. So you don't need to worry about your backups.

2. If the messages are really private (for eg. the recipe of French Fries) you can send and receive your messages using hotmail.
There is an easy way to prevent spam, if you are using Hotmail.
Goto "Options" and choose "Junk Mail Filters" Choose "Exclusive".

E-mail from addresses appearing in your address book will be delivered to your Inbox. All other mail will be delivered to your Junk Mail Folder.

This is the most effective way to avoid spam. However you will have to keep checking the junk mail folder to see if you are not missing any new client or very old friend. (Whose e-mail is not in the address book).

Now you can share this e-mail address with the people whom you really want to keep in touch with. Create another Yahoo! or hotmail ID and use this second e-mail address as your 'public' e-mail address.

1. How do I change the title of my page?

• Change the title by going to "Preferences" link.
• You can also change the Language/Country or date Format.
• Selecting the option "weblog is public" will allow others to view your webpage.
• Number of days on frontpage: 10 to 30 (So that you can read the old articles on the main page itself. You can click on the calendar, to read old articles.)
• "Welcome to antville.org" is the title of this page.

3. How can I add an image?

• Click on "images" and then click on "add new image" link.
• Using the name, you will be able to insert this image.
  for eg. typing the line (% image name="nameofyourimage" %) will add an image called "nameofyourimage" to your webpage.
• You can also type the regular HTML tag like show below to add an image.
  (img src="http://www.shantanuoak.com/home.gif")
  

• If you want to link to an external HTML file, you can add it to files.
• Click on "add new file" link and then upload the HTML file to the server.
• Now you can link it by inserting the line (% file name="hover" %) where hover is the name of the file (hover.htm)
• You can also link to an external file using a link for eg. http://www.shantanuoak.com/index.php

6. What is the web address of my webpage?
The web address is http://you.antville.org where the "you" is your screen name you chose at the time of registration. This screen Name can not be changed! My address is http://oksoft.antville.org

7. Are HTML Tags allowed?

• YES Almost all the HTML Tags are allowed.
• If you want to link to html file, just type the full path like http://www.shantanuoak.com/index.php
• If you want to create a regular html link, you can type visit my site
• If you want to link to gif or jpg file, use the regular img src Tag.
• If you want to link to local html files or images (through images or files), you have to use < with % and use either file name="name" or image name="image". This code should end with % and >.

• Click on "Story" link.
• Click on "set offline" link next to the story you want to hide from your site visitors.
• You can still read the story and edit it. You can make it online anytime.

Shantanu Oak
shantanuo@yahoo.com
http://www.shantanuoak.com

hover

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