Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Government Information

From an L.A. Times article on Monday:
Government pooh-bahs live by the credo Information is Power. Here are a few of the guerrillas working to overthrow the resulting dictatorship.
The article informs us about (with links) free web sites that offer information that you would have to pay for at other sites. One web site Datamasher.org is a Sunlight Foundation grant winner who writes software that slices and dices government data. Check out what they have done with  high school graduation rates mashed up with income. You might be surprised at North Carolina's ranking.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Speaking of Google...

A new application from Google called Wave promises to revolutionize internet communications. It combines e-mail, chat, Wiki documents, blogs and photo-sharing sites.

One of the app's creators, Jens Rasmussen, says "We really have a much too strong tendency to just take things we know and just adapt them to the digital world...Wave will be something new, a real-time communication system designed specifically for today's faster-paced, multitasking Internet."

Life Magazine

Last week Google announced that they had partnered with Life Magazine to digitize their magazine covering the years from 1936 to 1972.  Well, here it is. Access is free. It is even searchable by keyword.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

PDFs of your stories using the e-archive

The DTI e-archive has a PDF version of your stories. Haven't ever used the e-archive? Here is how to access it:


1. You MUST have Mozilla Firefox installed on your computer. Don't have it? Call 7378 or email Help Desk to get it installed. Once installed, open the application and copy and paste this web link into the browser: http://nrearchivesvr/eArchive/login.jsp - the database is on an internal server and will not work outside the building.

2. Your Username and Password are the same as when you log-on to DTI. Remember the e-archive is DTI, just a web version of it.

3. Use the drop boxes to choose a year and month to search; search all years at once by leaving those boxes blank. But remember if you are searching all years, there are 20 years of archive there, so your search had better be specific - use quotes for phrases. (There will be PDFs of stories only since 2005)

4. Check the box to the left to select a particular story. Click the View PDF button. Your jump should be included in a separate page.

5. Once the PDF is open, you can email it, copy and save it, or print it.

6. To make sure the page is large enough to read, click Print Setup, under File and choose a larger size paper.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Poverty

2008 Poverty Tables

Historical Tables

From the Census Bureau

American Community Survey

From the Census Bureau:
The U.S. Census Bureau will release data from the 2008 American Community Survey on Tuesday, Sept. 22. This release will include all one-year estimates from data collected in 2008 — including income and poverty estimates. In addition to the full complement of social, economic and housing data, this release will also include estimates on health insurance coverage, marital history and veterans’ service-connected disability ratings for the first time. These estimates will be available for the nation, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district and all counties, places and metropolitan areas with populations of 65,000 or more. The data will be available Sept. 17 on an embargoed basis for media use.

Crime in the United States

The FBI has just released a group of statistics on crime for 2008.  The data is sorted by offense, region, state, and by local agency.

This is just one set of data:
NC State total murders 586
Total firearms 362
Handguns 261
Rifles 22
Shotguns 25
Firearms (type unknown) 54
Knives or cutting instruments 54
Other weapons 102
Hands, fists, feet, etc. 68

Other type of data:  Crime by type - violent, property; trends rates and weapons used; Data on the persons arrested - age, gender, race - for 29 separated offenses, including murder; Police employee data: Includes data about sworn officers and civilian employees.

Law enforcement officers killed and assaulted data will be available in mid October.

The 2008 edition of the annual report Hate Crime Statistics is tentatively scheduled for release on November 23, 2009.