Friday, August 28, 2009

Our e-archive

Of course everyone in the newsroom is using our e-archive (with Mozilla Firefox), but if not, message IT to download Firefox and I will send you the web link to the archive. Your DTI log-on and password work with this version too. The e-archive IS DTI, just a web version of it, so wire stories are there too.

E-Archive does have some quirks. I recently discovered it will not search special characters, such as the apostrophe (') . I was searching the name "Clyde O'Ferrell" but the story was not returned. Alina, in IT did some digging and discovered that our e-archive version doesn't like special characters. So instead of using the apostrophe, use a question mark -- like this "Clyde O?Ferrell".

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Google Squared

This tip from Mary Ellen Bates @Bates Information Services Inc.: Google Squared is a search engine that tries to provide answers instead of web sites. It builds a database of answers. For example, type in Blue Dog Democrats and you get pictures, names, birthdates, latest news. Or try one of Google's predefined subjects, such as US presidents or roller coasters.


Some tweaking is still needed - when you add North Carolina to roller coasters, you get Carowinds - good, but also the Miky Way galaxy and the Gemini constellation. Still -- way cool.

update: you can also add to the database yourself!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Infant Mortality and other health statistics

North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics has links to the 2008 Infant Mortality Statistics

The Census Bureau has put together some statistics, reports and related links on health insurance, including some historical tables.

Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center has created an interactive map detailing the whereabouts of over 900 hate groups in the U.S. Here is the map with locations for 30 hate groups in North Carolina.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Free PACER

Ars Technica tells us about a new Firefox extension created by the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton aims to tear down the federal judiciary's PACER paywall. It uploads legal documents to a freely accessible mirror that is hosted by the Internet Archive.