Welcome to Study Hall! The Internet can be a great resource as long as you know how to use it. Here you will find tips for effective web research to help you get the most out of the Internet.
Maya
Cyber Defender & Databank Supervisor
Because of her unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Maya started out as a librarian. While she loved her job, she wanted to do more to help protect people.
Since Cyber Villains such as Ms. Information and Elvirus can corrupt websites and the information on them, Maya teaches people to protect themselves by using caution when visiting websites and avoiding sites that are not trustworthy.
Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime
- Chinese Proverb
Anything chocolate
Interests:Browsing bookstores, baking
May 30 2008
Pulling Through
We won. With everyone's help we were able to do it. The Master Hacker is back behind bars. A lot of the Cyberspace section of campus was wrecked during the attacks. We have a lot to do to rebuild the place.
However, we know that the vision of the Carnegie Cyber Academy lives on. If it wasn't for the cadets spreading what they know, we would never have reached victory. The heart of the Academy lies with them.
posted by Maya
topic: Miscellaneous
May 20 2008
Finding Reliable Sites: What kind of domain is it?
The domain is one easy way to help you determine if a Web site has reliable information on it. The last part of the site's URL will tell you what kind of domain it is. There are a number of different types, but the most common are .com, .gov, .org, .edu, and .net.
Some URLs are more likely to be reliable sites because only certain types of sites are allowed to have them. For example, .gov sites are government sites, like the mayor or the White House, .edu sites are educational sites, like a school or college, and .org sites are usually non-profit organizations, like churches, museums and scout troops. These are more likely to be reliable sites because they have an official organization behind them checking their content. Other URLs like .com and .net sites could be managed by anyone, and so there are a lot more unreliable sites with these URLs.
posted by Maya
topic: Finding Reliable Sites
May 19 2008
Plans Come to Fruition
Five villains immobilized! The Dis Guys were almost successful at disguising themselves as part of the chat program Dana and Erika used to capture them. When I finally ferreted them out, they attacked me and tried to run. Thankfully, Ward was there to back me up this time, and he was able to halt them both.
Getting through to Elvirus was like playing a mutating chess game. I suggested some moves to Alan, and then used her distraction to sneak through her defenses and capture her king. She's now fuming from her trap in Cyberspace.
posted by Maya
topic: Miscellaneous
May 14 2008
First Taste of Battle
My first two villains were easy. M.C. Spammer was in complete shock when the denial of service attack rebounded on him. It wasn't very difficult to make sure he stayed that way.
Ms. Information was half crazy from Alexi's maze. The poor girl had started to lose track of reality. Unfortunately she'll probably be back to her snooty self once the effects wear off, but she won't cause any trouble for us now when we go after Nils.
posted by Maya
topic: Miscellaneous
May 8 2008
Providing Support
Commander Omni has asked that I provide support for all the operations here. Mainly that means helping the cadets secure the Cyber Villains in our traps so that we can have a clear shot at capturing The Master Hacker. It's pretty scary. Usually I only take part in the planning phase, providing information on the villain and how best to capture them. I'm not sure I'm ready to do all of this field work.
posted by Maya
topic: Miscellaneous
May 6 2008
Research Tip: Custom Search Engines
Want to know how to quickly find reliable Web sites, instead of looking through many odd ones? Some search engines, like Google, allow you to create your own custom search engine. To make sure that your search results are reliable, you can set up your custom search engine to search sites that you have already approved, before searching the rest of the Web. This way, you can cut down on all the time it takes to filter through search engine results.
You can tailor your search engine to focus on a specific topic, and you can add more reliable sites as you find them to continue to improve your searches. You can also share your custom search engine and use custom search engines created by other people. Some people even allow you to add more sites to their custom search engines to help them improve their search results. This is a great way to find information about a specific topic without having to do quite as much work finding the best sites. However, be aware that some unreliable sites could still be included in the results.