Computers Assisting People Work Session

We had a good work session at Computers Assisting People (CAP) today.

Dan McMillan brought his son Liam and some students from John Marshall High School who helped us with some heavy lifting.

And the usual crew of CAP volunteers helped get PCs out to the community.

In this photo, 4 CAP volunteers pose with a Pastor of a Cleveland Church. CAP is providing PCs, printers, etc for a PC lab at the Church.

Mike Anderson, Pastor, Darnell Hines, Arthur Phelps and Ken Eskridge

Learn more about Computers Assisting People (CAP)

Diversity Center Walk, Rock & Run

Students and TV3's Kim Wheeler at the Launch

The Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio kicked off its 10th Annual Walk, Rock and Run on Friday, March 23, 2012.

Since 2002, The Diversity Center has partnered with The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum to host Walk, Rock & Run which celebrates diversity. Artists, entertainers, and community sponsors provide great music, delicious food, and other family entertainment. All participants gain free entry into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Great Lakes Science Center, and Baseball Heritage Museum.

All proceeds support The Diversity Center’s School & Youth initiatives in nine Northeast Ohio counties.

More info and pictures from the launch event

Women of Excellence

Stefani Schaefer led a panel of entrepreneur Tami Longanberger and Ohio Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor at the Corporate Club of Landerhaven.

They gave insights into subjects every woman wants to talk about like "How do you do it all?" and "How do you balance family and work?"

Photos and more from the Women of Excellence event

Paprika!

The Cleveland Hungarian Development Panel, under the leadership of its president Marika Megyimori, hosted the 22nd annual Paprika! event on March 3, 2012 at The Ritz Carlton Hotel. Ms. Megyimori and Elizabeth Papp-Taylor served as Chairs of the sumptuous event.


This year's theme was "The Global Trek" in honor of keynote speaker Albert Ratner, the force behind the Global Cleveland project.

Arriving guests were escorted into the event by young people from the Hungarian Scout Folk Ensemble in traditional costumes.

The emcee for the evening was David Wittman, anchor of Channel 19 Action News. He introduced Dr. Michael Roizen, Chief Wellness Officer of the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Roizen then introduced the evening's honoree, Albert Ratner.

Pics and video of Paprika from the Cleveland Hungarian Development Panel

Cultural Heritage

Most ethnic and cultural communities are seeing it happen. Many of the people who have direct experience with events, formations of groups, key people and so on are aging or have passed on.

The memories and artifacts need to be captured and preserved or they could be lost forever.

In Cleveland, the Asian Indian Heritage Project is working to collect and preserve these memories and artifacts.

On a broader scale, the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) is working on this nationally.

The Asian Indian community in Cleveland recently hosted the president of SAADA, Samip Mallick, who explained some of the archive processes.

It's something that every group should consider.


Details, photos and videos of the the Asian Indian Heritage Project event

Fabulous Food Show - Spring

Let the backyard barbeque battles begin!

The first edition of the Spring Fabulous Food Show pays homage to the masters of the flame April 28 & 29, 2012, at the I-X Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse and more.

Win free tickets to the Fabulous Food Show

NOTE - If you are a reader of this blog, type the word "blog" after your city in the form and you will double your chance to win

But Macs don't get viruses

Smarmy Mac fanboys always claimed that Macs were immune from viruses because of superior coding. In reality, virus writers chose to ignore the relatively small (4% or so) percentage of Macs and concentrated their efforts on the Windows world.

Now that the Mac is gaining some market share, they are becoming a target.

The Flashback Trojan has compromised an estimated 600,000 plus Macs, making it comparable to the massive Conficker worm botnet that affected Windows PCs.

PC World reports that "According to current data from Net Applications, Mac OS X is the number two desktop OS with 6.54 percent market share. Windows, on the other hand, accounts for 92.48 percent of the market. Based on market share, the Flashback Trojan botnet is equivalent to a Windows botnet of nearly 8.5 million PCs. That makes it an even larger threat than Conficker--just on a much smaller platform."

They continued, "It doesn’t help anything that Apple perpetuates the myth of invulnerability. It takes time to develop a patch, but as soon as Apple was aware that the threat existed, it should have proactively communicated to Mac OS X users to make them aware. In fact, it should have provided users with instructions to disable Java and mitigate the threat pending a patch to resolve the issue. The fact that it didn’t is probably a contributing factor to why the Flashback botnet is as large as it is."

Cleveland Hungarian Development Panel - Paprika 2012

The Cleveland Hungarian Development Panel recently held their annual Paprika event.

This year's theme was The Global Trek and featured MC David Wittman and speakers Dr. Michael Roizen and Albert Ratner

Paprika 2012 - Photos and Videos

Albert Belle and the Tribe

To me, Albert Belle was one of the most intimidating hitters ever. The way he snarled and grimaced at the plate had to scare opposing pitchers. And the famous photo of Albert pointing to his bicep is a classic.

He, of course, has been estranged from the Cleveland Indians but through the efforts of Carlos Baerga, Kenny Lofton, Sandy Alomar and Mike Hargrove Albert Belle visited spring training this year and the door was opened for more participation.

I am ready for it.

Watch Indians VP Bob DiBiasio tell about it.

Food at Progressive Field for 2012 Season

I am normally a hot dog and beer guy at the ballpark but when there's a Cleveland Indians media preview and you get to sample all the goodies, it can be hard to resist.

There is a new Food Network Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese at sections 121, 154, 163, and 550. As an introductory offer, the Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese will be offered for $2 (regularly $4.50) for the first home stand, while daily supplies last.




There's a decadent praline cake soaked in Jim Beam bourbon.



Some other interesting choices too.

Check out the new foods at Progressive Field this season

Cleveland Indians Experimental Wind Turbine

The Cleveland Indians continue their pioneering efforts re sustainability (solar panels, recycling, etc.) with the installation of a wind turbine at Progressive Field. Assistant director of operations Brad Mohr says they worked on the wind turbine with their neighbors from Cleveland State University. The wind turbine is located on the south-east corner of the ballpark.

See more about the wind turbine and the Cleveland Indians solar panels and other sustainability efforts.

April Fool's Day Pranks

Since April Fool's Day is on a Sunday this year, there are not as many opportunities to prank your co-workers but here are a few fun ones to try anyway. You need access to their PC for these.


Go into Word and set up the AutoReplace with something funny and irritating. You can be obvious and have the system replace a common word like "the" with an insult. Or delay the agony by making more discrete changes such as a misspelling of your company name.

Everyone has access to a wireless USB remote control for PowerPoint presentations, right? Sneak the wireless receiver into the victim's USB port and then when you are ready, and in range, start messing with his mouse movements and clicks.

See more geeky pranks for April Fool's Day

Cleveland Indians and Social Media

The Cleveland Indians have been involved in social media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc) for years and are expanding their efforts to engage with fans on different platforms such as Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr and a new behind-the scenes blog called Tribe Vibe.

Anne Keegan, Assistant Director of Communications for the Cleveland Indians, tells the Great Lakes Geek about these new efforts.



More on the Tribe and Social Media including how you can apply for the Social Suite and a list of all Cleveland Indians Twitter accounts.

Healthy Granola Recipe

Fast, Fabulous, Fresh Foods Class 9


Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day, yet so often we skip it or just grab any old thing as we run out the door. Fast food offerings and pastries are laden with fat and calories and can actually make us feel hungrier as our blood sugar spikes and drops.

Granola sounds like a good choice, but so many granolas are high in fat and sugar - and expensive. Our recipe is for a basic granola that is low in sugar and fat - it has only ½ cup of oil and ¾ cup of total sugar added to almost 10 cups of mix.

Healthy Granola Recipe

Cherry Blossoms in Cleveland

The 130 cherry trees that line Cleveland's Brookside Reservation were a gift from JANO (Japanese Association of Northern Ohio)

Pictures of the Cherry Trees in full bloom

Dennis Kucinich at Parade

Congressman Dennis Kucinich and his wife Elizabeth Kucinich marched in the 2012 Cleveland St. Patrick's Day Parade but they didn't march with the Public Officials group in the beginning.

Kucinich marched with the West Side Irish American Club instead.

Dogs at the St. Patrick's Day Parade

There were 500,000 humans at the 2012 Cleveland St. Patrick's Day Parade.

But there were a lot of dogs too.

See pictures and videos of the dogs at the Parade.

Irish Setters, Irish Wolfhounds, Siberian Huskies, Pugs, Newfies and lots more.

It was a great day for dogs - and their people.

Tweet Smart with Twitter

The Great Lakes Geek just finished reading #tweetsmart: 25 Twitter Projects to Help You Build Your Community

It's fitting that a book that focuses on the short (140 characters or less) messages of Twitter would itself be fewer than 100 pages.

But don't let the brevity of the 85 page paperback dissuade you from checking it out.

Great Lakes Geek Book Review of #tweetsmart

Latest Recipe

Fast, Fabulous, Fresh Foods - Class 8

Quick Tomato Concasse Sauce for Pasta Recipe.

Tomatoes offer massive health benefits. Besides healthy doses of vitamins, minerals, and fiber, tomatoes have been show to aid in the fight against heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. They are an essential element in the "Mediterranean Diet" which is being touted for its myriad of health benefits - and they taste good!

The fresh basil and parsley flavor the oil and vinegar and then the fragrance blooms when the warm pasta hit it. Don't forget, though, that herbs add so much besides flavor to a dish. Most of them are densely packed with vitamins and nutrients.

Parsley has the highest concentration of anti-oxidants of any plant, as well as vitamins A, C, K, B complex, fiber, and potassium. Basil also offer Vitamins A, C, E, K, niacin, and riboflavin. These are just some of the benefits of basil and parsley.

Pope Shenouda III

"Egypt is a nation that lives within us and not a nation we live in."
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III



Our condolences to the Egyptian community and the Coptic Orthodox Church on the passing of the beloved Pope Shenouda