WordPress is Free Software

WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL, which runs on a web hosting service.^[5] Features include a plugin architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by more than 22.0% of the top 10 million websites as of August 2013^[update].^[6] WordPress is the most popular blogging system in use on the Web,^[7] at more than 60 million websites.^[8]

It was first released on May 27, 2003, by its founders, Matt Mullenweg^[1] and Mike Little,^[9] as a fork of b2/cafelog. As of February 19, 2014, version 3.8 had been downloaded more than 20 million times.^[10] The license under which WordPress software is released is the GPLv2 (or later) from the Free Software Foundation.^[11]

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, which promotes the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software,^[3] with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft ("share alike") terms,^[4] such as with its own GNU General Public License.^[5] The FSF was incorporated in Massachusetts, USA, where it is also based.^[6]

From its founding until the mid-1990s, FSF's funds were mostly used to employ software developers to write free software for the GNU Project. Since the mid-1990s, the FSF's employees and volunteers have mostly worked on legal and structural issues for the free software movement and the free software community.

Consistent with its goals, only free software is used on FSF's computers

Copyleft (a play on the word copyright) is the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work. In other words, copyleft is a general method for making a creative work as freely available to be modified, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the creative work to be free as well.^[1]

Copyleft is a form of and can be used to maintain copyright conditions for works such as computer software, documents, and art. In general, copyright law is used by an author to prohibit recipients from reproducing, adapting, or distributing copies of the work. In contrast, under copyleft, an author may give every person who receives a copy of a work permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute it and require that any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same licensing agreement.

Copyleft licenses (for software) require that information necessary for reproducing and modifying the work must be made available to recipients of the executable. The source code files will usually contain a copy of the license terms and acknowledge the author(s).

Copyleft type licenses are a novel use of existing copyright law to ensure a work remains freely available. The GNU General Public License, originally written by Richard Stallman, was the first copyleft license to see extensive use, and continues to dominate the licensing of copylefted software. Creative Commons, a non-profit organization founded by Lawrence Lessig, provides a similar license provision condition called ShareAlike.

Free Software data compiled verbatim from Wikipedia
the free encyclopedia

Cinco de Mayo

T

his Mexican-American Holiday honors freedom and democracy in early America commemorating the first years of the American Civil War where the Mexican Army was victorious over the French Army on May 5, 1862 under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin.

Napoleon III of France instigated a free trade policy exploiting the friendly Mexican Government to finance his empire with silver mined in Mexico. He built a coalition with Britain and Spain to exclusion of the U.S.

The Civil War lasted from April 12, 1861 – May 10, 1865; which resulted in the abolition of slavery, the dissolution of the confederacy and the preservation of territorial integrity.

Originating in the State of Puebla, Mexico, this day is known as El Dia de la Batalla de Cinco de Mayo, a day of pride which is now celebrated around the world.

 

 

Tiny Tech Readers

Ann McCormick our Women's Month honoree launched www.ReaderBee.com in March.

Ann, founder of ReaderBee.com, is a world renowned educator touting a lifetime of technology based exemplary learning systems. She has dedicated the last ten years to improving upon model methodology of comprehension building; incorporating US’ Common Core Standards to make learning flow, interesting, and most of all fun. The ReaderBee.com mission is to systematically introduce new learners to the alphabet, words, and then the sentence building process; this makes reading easy.

ReaderBee.com offers toys and manipulative(s) that encourage use of fine motor skills which couples with brain activating muscle memory for maximum retention.

I dare say that this method will work well with older individuals who are learning to read; also, it can be tailored to adults when English is their second language.

 

At ReaderBee.com you will find additional educational resources for beginning readers.

 

ReaderBee can be your little one's first step into the wonderous world of information technology.

Privacy and The Internet (first posted on May 18, 2010)

Privacy and The Internet

I am perplexed by the notion of privacy on the Internet. The law in the United States protects against illegal search and seizure, that law does not apply to data. The Internet is designed to broadcast throughout the world. One would not seek confidentiality in a place intended for sharing. There is knowledge that has remained buried for many years; it was never placed on the Internet. Governmental, medical, business and educational institutions are responsible for securing our personal data that is input onto their networked systems. Nothing, once it leaves you, is sacred. The best use of the Internet is to broadcast and to share data. In an earlier discussion we stated that, 'Nothing should be done on the Internet, that would not be done in a court of law'. This statement still stands true.

*

Google and privacy-the government has access to all data searched on Google. After 18 months, Google anonym-izes data, but a person can still be tracked through discarded records. All searches are connected to your IP address. Googles states that no one owns posted data.

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InPrivate is Microsoft's answer to privacy, but it entails numerous keystrokes. Every keystroke is recorded by the computer, even deletions. The computer stores deleted files until they are written over.

*

Seek privacy within yourself, not on the Internet. The Internet holds numerous breach opportunities, even with encryption.

What are your thoughts on Privacy and The Internet?

www.hicapv.blogspot.com

It is important that we educate. Please go to www.hicapv.blogspot.com to dispel rampant rumors that HTML is a disease...

March | Women’s History | Ann McCormick

In the 1990s, Ann brought the Hoods Project to Harlem, USA as a new systematic method to improve young black men’s comprehension skills. She has worked with technology industry giants of the Apple Education Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

For her leadership in Technology Design and Implementation

HICAP

The Harlem Internet Computer Access Project

Honors

Professor Ann M^cCormick

For

Women’s History Month 2014

Ann has dedicated her life in service to others. She is treasured by both children and professionals. She meets students at their level, even if it means her getting down on the floor with them. Her philosophy is to bring the student from elementary to PhD level. Professor McCormick worked over two months in China assisting in opening a new school for girls. She is now that schools Virtual Principal.

Ann is the founder and CEO of Learning Friends and the Learning Company, which sold for $660,000,000.00.

 Ann supports equity in technology access for all; working internationally with Latin America, Finland, Japan, Singapore, etc.

Ann M^cCormick is a:

• Reading and Math Software Designer
• Pioneer in the Software Industry
• Virtual Reality Strategist
• Education Futurist
• Technology Marketing and Sales Expert
• Learning Fun Enthusiast, Industry Leader

Ann’s latest project involving educational software, children and the alphabet, is set to launch this month.

 

EXTRA  * EXTRA  * EXTRA
The www.ReaderBee.com site has been launched. This is the place to learn how to read!

 

Check out some of Ann’s amazing accomplishment at: www.learningfriends.com

Solar Flare's Coronal Cloud

When there is a solar flare, it is the coronal mass ejection’s hot plasma gas cloud containing radioactive material, protons, electrons, etc. with vast amounts of electrical energy in intensely fast moving nebulae that reaches the earth’s atmosphere and damages sensitive equipment, not the solar flare itself.

Coronal Mass Ejections occur when the solar flare becomes so hot that a rope of heated magnetism stretching between two sunspots breaks in two. It takes several days for the plasma to cool down enough to detach. Then, the magnetic cloud called a solar wind is released exceeding speeds of seven million mph and hurtles toward us.

Once the cloud reaches the Earth, it causes anomalies in our ionosphere. In early March 1989, a cloud 36 times the size of Earth caused the Space Shuttle Discovery to spin out of control for several hours. And, in June of 2012, the coronal mass ejection from a Class-M solar flare's cloud caused minor damage to the Spitzer Space Telescope.

 

Solar Flare Fun

Today’s Solar Flare emanated from the sunspot called AR1990, which was previously called AR1967. The AR stands for Active Region. Sunspots are renamed if they survive a complete rotation of the sun that is visible to the Earth. The sun is molten, not solid and rotates 14 days faster at its equator than at its poles. Today’s highly intense massive coronal mass ejection (CME) solar flare is an X class; actually X4.9 which ranks as a most powerful solar storm. The coming week is a very active geomagnetic period propelling supercharged plasma particles with a velocity of 4.4 million mph emitting radio shock waves that have the potential to harm satellites, disrupt sensitive equipment and delay space travel; but, upon reaching earth’s magnetosphere will dazzle with aurora in real time.

Black History Month 2014 | Chief Crazy Horse

As the noted preeminent scholar, Egyptologist and Professor of African American Studies at Hunter College, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan affirms, African Americans are only one-fifth African. The other 80% is Native American, if European lineage is not involved.

February is Black History Month and this is the Year of the Horse. Since Native American and African American ancestry is so closely entwined, Black History Month 2014 is dedicated to Chief Crazy Horse.

Eyewitness accounts of the Chief’s military acumen were that he rode his horse close to his enemies in battle, but he was never hit by their bullets. He rode buck naked and bareback. As a tactical leader at Little Big Horn and the Battle of the Rosebud, Chief Crazy Horse killed General Custer.

There are no official pictures of Chief Crazy Horse; he would not allow himself to be photographed. But, there is a sculpture in his honor eight miles from Mt. Rushmore on Thunderhead Mountain called the Crazy Horse Monument. The likeness of Crazy Horse stands 27 feet larger than the presidents of Mt. Rushmore.

During the time that Mt. Rushmore was being sculpted, the Native Americans asked Gutzon Borglum to remember that the Black Hills belonged to the Lakota ‘Indians’ by the Treaty of Fort Laramie signed in 1868, which granted the natives rights to Mt. Rushmore in perpetuity. A Lakota holy man, John Fire Lame Deer said that the faces on Mt. Rushmore would ‘remain dirty until the treaties concerning the Black Hills are fulfilled’. The Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation rejects offers to be federally funded. The Department of Transportation commemorates Chief Crazy Horse with two memorial highways named in his honor, US-16 and US-38 both run through South Dakota.

A first-ever investigation into the conditions of Native Americans living in the U.S. was conducted by United Nations’ in special report on the rights of indigenous peoples in May 2012 by James Anaya. He recommended that the United States return land to the tribes including Crazy Horse’s home, the South Dakota Black Hills where Mt. Rushmore and Mt. Crazy Horse are seated.

Chinese New Year 2014 Year of the Horse 4712

Today is New Year's Eve

The Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, always coincides with the Lunar New Year’s new moon and ends on the full moon when the moon is at its brightest. Officially beginning at 12:01 a.m. January 31^st, 2014 and extending through February 18^th, 2015.

 

The horse enjoys the limelight and is energetic, intelligent with excellent communication skills. But, can also be hot-blooded; rarely accepting advice. For those who are not born under the sign of the horse, this is an excellent year for travel and exotic dining.

 

The Chinese New Year celebration is so important to Asians that, traditionally, they do not go to work for much of this festive period; banks and essential staff cooperate to work in shifts so that everyone can participate in the festivities. The third day of Chinese New Year is not only Super Bowl Sunday, but it is an important day to those celebrating the New Year.

 

You can read more about each day of the Chinese New Year in the February 2013 HICAP posts.

 

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Today’s Autumn Moon, known in American as the Harvest Moon and autumnal equinox, marks the second most important date in the Chinese calendar. During this time Moon Cake is shared with friends and family. My Moon Cake arrived yesterday, compliments of the Yang Yu and the Wu Family; former HICAP students, who stay in touch.

I shared the Moon Cakes with my co-workers, who enjoyed the beautifully decorated sweet lotus delights.

Wishing all a Happy Moon Festival!

Space Earth and the Voyagers

I can hardly contain my excitement about Voyager 1’s most recent finding. Launched 16 days apart, Voyagers 2 and Voyager 1 have traveled in space for the past 36 years; blessing earth’s intellects with data plethoric. The Voyagers are the gift that keeps on giving.

This is the first time that humanity has transitioned from our solar system's solar bubble into interstellar space. The plasma wave science team detected increased pressure in the heliosphere. The pitch of electron plasma oscillation confirmed that Voyager entered the Oort Cloud. The shuttle passed through the heliopause; this is the boundary between solar and interstellar plasma.

It is apparent to me that the dark matter of the universe is detectable by its density. And, its density verifies its weight. I theorize that these heavy densely enmeshed charged particles fuse and are so tightly wound that they explode into photon emitting light, thus, star birth.

Konami Code

Konami Command Basic

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A; when A, B are not available 1, 2 are used. Konami Code, to be entered before game demo begins during the title screen, enables the player to beat the game. First used in 1986 for players who found games too difficult to attain higher levels; these codes give a full set of powers usually attained over time.

Konami Code is the gamers' cheat sheet. Enjoy.

QR Codes

QR Codes were created in 1994 to track trucks during manufacting by Denso Wave; which is a subsidiary of Toyota. This pictoral two dimensional matrix barcode is comprised of binary alphanumeric Japanese symbols written in Chinese called Kanji; made up of multiple interwoven error correction blocks where data is placed from right to left in a zigzag pattern. Storage capacity is affected by high error correction. Four bit indicators are used to convey other information and to select the encoding mode. Japanese passports are encoded with a QR Code containing a 56 bit algorithm used for encoding visas.
Discussion D in 2011 was the last HICAP lesson on QR Codes. The author is revisiting this subject because QR is more popular than ever and showing up in magazine ads, on billboards, almost everywhere.
QR means quick response. The way to use these codes is to point your smart phone camera eye at the code to engage and the target url will automatically be uploaded to your device. Fun, right!

Summer 2013

Zephyr whispers the Summer Solstice in at 1:04 am; this unique day in New York City is marked by 15 hours of daylight. In Anchorage, Alaska, 19 hours of daylight is experienced. On this day, the Harlem Internet Computer Access Program ends our HICAP 2012-2013 year. This year, we introduced www.hicapv.blogspot.com, our Virtual Learning Lab; which translates and disseminates technical computer education facts.
The blog that you are currently visiting translates scientific data, provides technical pertinent information and highlights accomplishment.
Today's posting of Scientific Notation at the Virtual Leaning Lab will be the last lesson discussion for HICAPV until Fall 2013.

Enjoy Summer!

National Voluteering Week

Pencil.org thanks all the New York City volunteers who add their expertise to the children in our Public Schools.

IPv6

IPv6 is a hot topic at the Internet Society. IPv6 means Internet protocol version 6. Internet protocol is the communication system that directs Internet traffic. IP addresses are the unique numbers assigned to each device: computer, printer, etc. IPv6, developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), is slated to replace the current IPv4 to remedy address exhaustion. The easiest way to recognize which version an IP address is by the separators. IPv4's numeric sequence is separated by decimals. The IPv6 sequence is separated by colons and has a 128 bit address; version 4 is only 32 bit. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the global management agent which oversees five regional registries and assigns blocks of IP addresses to our local Internet Service Providers (ISP).

 

Some of the advantages of IPv6 are:

• authentication
• cost efficient bandwidth cost limits
• forward flexibility for future options
• real-time quality of service options
• expanded addressing; supports more levels of addressing hierarchy, more addresses; auto configuration of addresses
• upper layer transport
• has a scope field to multicast addresses and anycast to send a data package to any group of nodes (Nodes are hosts that are not routers)

The Internet Protocol Suite has an application layer, transport layer and link layer.
Although this topic is very important, you will receive the advantages of this protocol without knowlege of why or how it works; but it is fun to know.

Women's History Month honors Dr. Dorothy I. Height

Women’s History Month is a worldwide celebration that highlights accomplishments.

The Harlem Internet Computer Access Program dedicates the month of March to All Phenomenal Women who sustain the lives of others by always rising to the circumstantial occasion. For this reason HICAP pays homage to Dr. Dorothy Irene Height. In her activist support for all people, her organization created opportunities for children to reach their optimal potential. Dr. Height could be seen in the marble pillared corridors of her office at 633 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., just a stones throw from the White House; conducting business on behalf of Continental Societies, Inc. which has a Five-Point Programmatic Thrust—Health, Education, Employment, Recreation acronym HEER. Her program, also, embraces the Arts and Humanities. Dorothy Height continued to crusade tirelessly on behalf of others for seven decades.
As a youth, she was invited by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to spend a weekend of preparation for the World Youth Conference that was held at Vassar College.
Dorothy Height, known as an International Humanitarian, was a visiting professor at the University of Delhi in India in the 1950s. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994; and in 2004, she received the Congressional Gold Medal for advocating for racial and gender equality.
The beauty of this humanitarian extended from her heart to her attire. Known for donning beautiful hats, she hosted a fabulous headwear extravaganza each spring showing artistically fashionable hats.
A Congressional Medal replica authorized by Public Law 108-162, was struck and features the image of Dr. Dorothy I. Height. In 2010, Congresswoman Norton introduced a bill to have the Post Office located at Two Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, DC named for Dr. Height. The building at 633 Pennsylvania Avenue where her offices were located is, now, known as the Dorothy I. Height Building.

We thank you, Dorothy
for living your enduring mission of service to all people.

First Day of Spring

Today is first day of spring and the first day of the Astrological Calendar. The Vernal Equinox begins today at 7:02 a.m. in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun sets at approximately 7:08 p.m. There is approximately an equal amount of day and night time hours, thus the equinox.
Time of sunrise and sunset reminds me of a scientific quatrain called,

'The Sun'

The sun neither sets nor rises
That is the stuff of poets dreams
The sun is affixed in a whirling universe
Life just isn't as it seems.

DASH

Techies love acronyms and abbreviations; it is their language. As you know, www is an abbreviation for the World Wide Web; which means that text can be transferred throughout the world to anyone with the hardware to receive it. Text is boring to non-techs. To provide more bells and whistles to the average computer user, http was put into place. HTTP means Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and when you see https://, you are entering a secure site; such as bank, governmental, etc. With http://, beyond just reading text, you are able to see and hear colorful video clips (once they load), yeah!
The Internet Society recently sent me an e-mail stating that a new standard is being applied that enables high quality media streaming called DASH,which stands for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over http, nice. This newest technology is supported by Microsoft, Adobe, Google. DASH is predicted to take over the market by 2015, we shall see!