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NIU students and faculty have the opportunity to access hundreds of IBM programs and other resources for free.

These resources ranging from cloud access, industry software, remote hardware and datasets to training tools and lesson plans are part of the IBM Academic Initiative, which offers free resources to academic institutions worldwide to help students develop market-ready skills. NIU is one of more than 3,000 organizations taking part in the program.

The Academic Initiative includes a wide range of products and tools that students can take advantage of to gain hands-on experience related to computer science, information technology, business and marketing. As Valinda Scarbro Kennedy, Worldwide Skills Program Manager for IBM Global University Programs, emphasizes, IBM is sharing the full-version software and tools not a limited academic version. This means that students have an opportunity to gain hands-on experience with the exact software programs being used in industry.

The IBM Academic Initiative is organized into nine key technology areas, including Cloud, Data & Analytics, Security and Watson. Students and faculty can browse available resources at http://onthehub.com/ibm/.

Some of the resources that are most popular with college students include IBMs Watson and Bluemix technology. Watson IBMs Artificial Intelligence QAM (Question Answering Machine) is most famous for defeating human opponents to win the game show Jeopardy in 2011. But since then Watson has continued to grow, with new capabilities and an increasing services base now available to students and faculty.

The Watson technology is part of the Bluemix cloud, another of IBMs most popular technologies. Bluemix allows users to create their own applications on the cloud either from scratch or by plugging in pre-built pieces. Users can plug in Watson services, for example, to allow for intuitive real-speech interaction with the app, along with learning capabilities.

Says Kennedy, The Watson technology we have available on the cloud is exciting. Students or faculty can create an app, and then they go into Bluemix cloud, and they can snap on a piece that does speech to text and text to speech, then they can snap on a piece that allows them to do conversation, and they could snap on weather data. Now its not just an app that does one thing. Its much more engaging and user friendly and informative.

Tracy Rogers-Tryba of NIUs Center for P-20 Engagement has experienced some of the IBM Academic Initiative resources in her role as coordinator of NIUs annual Huskie Hack, a 24-hour hacking event, where IBM has participated and presented. Rogers says, The Watson technologies are wonderful. The thing I like about Watson is the fact that it takes an enormous amount of data and can compile it in different ways depending upon your use. She continues, For me, one of the coolest things they have isPersonality Insights, an application where you can assess peoples personality based on their writing style. I put in my masters thesis just to see how it would react to this formal piece of writing, and it nailed my personality.

In addition to software, IBM Academic Initiative also provides coursework, tutorials, lesson plans and other resources to help faculty incorporate hands-on experience into the classroom. Faculty can browse educational resources by topic on https://developer.ibm.com/academic/resources/category/topic-overview/.

To access the IBM resources for free takes only minutes. NIU students and faculty should simply go to http://onthehub.com/ibm/ or https://niu.onthehub.com. Click on the resource youd like to use, and then click register. To register, you need only your NIU email address, username and password. Then sign in, add resources to your cart and begin using them.

Faculty receive initial access for 12 months, and students for 6 months. The access can be renewed as long as the NIU username remains valid

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IBM Academic Initiative offers free software to students and faculty - NIU Today

Everyone is snapping photos these days, be it with a phone or digital camera, and "filters" are becoming more and more popular as well. Even professional photographers rely on photo editing software to touch up their work, and you can too.

You've probably heard of Adobe's Photoshop CC, to many, the king of photo editing software. But Photoshop is pretty pricey, and takes a serious amount of time to learn. On top of that, it's way more than the everyday-photo-taker really needs. If you want to move on from your phone's stock "lo-fi" filter, there are more affordable, often free, photo editing programs with less of a learning curve.

A personal favorite and a way to whet your Adobe appetite is with Adobe Photoshop Elements, great for beginner to intermediate users. You can expect to shell out around $70 but it's money well spent. Elements offers an easier to use interface than its big brother Photoshop, though, it doesn't include the number or variety of tools. Elements does a great job of locating and organizing all your photos on your computer, adding effects, tons of touch-up options, and more tools to enhance the look of your pictures. If you want to share your moments on Facebook and such, Elements will do that for you as well. You can do much worse for the money. Elements will run on Windows or Mac.

PhotoScape is free and fairly robust, allowing for cropping, sharpening, contrast adjust, batch editing, etc., as well as several filter effects options you won't find in most free software. PhotoScape has also included tools tailored for those with a higher level of editing knowledge, too. PhotoScape's layout is a tad confusing, though, requiring a bit of practice but not as annoying as the installation process. If you install this software, be aware you may want to de-select the sneaky offer to changing your browser's default search engine and the toolbar that comes with it, you don't need it anyways. You are welcome to switch your browser to Chrome and install that toolbar, but realize it's probably going to track your browsing history more than ever.You can run this freebie on Windows or Mac.

Lastly, if you're ready for a more professional level of editing software while still minding your wallet, GIMP is a great open-source option and well respected.Gimp has come a long ways over the years, but it won't replace Adobe Photoshop CC, if that's what you're thinking. Most hobbyists and more causal users will find GIMP to be everything they need and more. You'll still need to invest some time to learn all the features, and there are some headaches getting it set up on your computer, but GIMP is a great product nonetheless, running on most operating systems.

Taking everyday photos and turning them into works of art has never been easier, and it doesn't have to cost you the price of a new camera either. Mobile photographers, hobbyists and professionals have more photo editing options than ever, reaching far beyond those mentioned here. And little to no cost means it's more accessible than ever before, too.

Brian Koch is an avid techie who's worked in the tech field for dozens of years with Compaq/HP, his own pc business Techpertise, outdoor photography, and more. He has lived with his wife Stacy in Colorado for over 16 years. E-mail questions, comments, suggestions to Brian: info@techpertise.com and follow him on Twitter @Techpertise.

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Making photo magic with editing software has never been easier - Colorado Springs Independent

Published Friday, Jul. 21, 2017, 9:10 am

Front Page Business Best mobile forms software for your company

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Electronic forms are popular nowadays and many organizations use them to improve their business. And you can find a lot of such systems in the Internet, but which one to choose? Form.com is one of the best among them and is used in many industries, such as manufacturing, retail audit and restaurants. Its your chance to develop your company, gather information, detect new problems. It offers a wide range of opportunities and functions: managing, data storage, inspection of work efficiency of your workers, etc.

Today, people use smartphones everywhere. They have become an integral part of our life. And it goes without saying, this company provides you with a powerful mobile audit app to make your workflow easier and more productive. And here are just some reasons for you to click on the link below and download this app: Youll be able to capture and attach images, give information about where and when they were captured. Need to show how much work have you done or send important papers? Just take your phone from a pocket and in a moment your colleagues will get the important pictures. In addition, you can mark up every image with notes and comments. Its application helps you manage your stuff. Customize your task management, automize work of your company using different triggers and online reviews, supervise the improvements of your company based on the compliance of audit. All this you can do just by using your smartphone, tablet, or computer. Besides, it creates schedule reminders for overdue tasks and send emails to appropriate group of people, this will help them not to forget about their duties. No Internet connection?! This software company has great offline functionality. All your daily tasks and trigger alerts will be stored offline and activated when your device will be connected to the network Use online reports to control, view and manage task performance. Besides, youll have the possibility to keep your eye operational trends and generate forecasts to solve new issues. If you need, you can export data from your PDF, CSV, SPSS, and XML documents. Also, if you have existing Mobile forms software or ERP systems you can integrate Form.com with them. In addition, it supports out-of-the-box configurations for more popular applications, like Salesforce.com. Create special groups, departments, individual accounts for your people and determine the necessary access levels to each set of users.

You can download this mobile app on your iOS, Android or Windows devices. Also, on the official website you can watch short video tutorials or read developers blog to get more information about this service. Everything here is described so clearly and easy to understand, but if you cant manage your problem, you always can contact Help Center. Even if youve never used electronic forms before, you wont have problems with starting this one. And if you still have a doubt or just want to see it in action, you can request a demo version to make sure youve chosen the right service.

Excerpt from:
Best mobile forms software for your company - Augusta Free Press

Fairfax, Va. A group of Maryland citizens, with the support of the National Rifle Association, filed a petition to the United States Supreme Court on Friday seeking to reverse aCourt of Appealsrulingthat stripped some of Americas most popular rifles of Second Amendment protection.The 4thCircuit ruling in the case Kolbe v. Hogan is a direct contradiction of the Supreme Courts 2008 decision, District of Columbia v. Heller, which re-affirmed American citizens right to self-defense.

Lower courts have been making up their own rules when it comes to the Second Amendment for too long, andtheKolbe decisioncrossed yet another line, said Chris W. Cox, executive director, National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. The Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. The popular rifles and standard magazines banned in Maryland are some of the best tools for self-defense. We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will reverse this egregious decision.

InFebruary, the4thCircuit Court of Appeals ruled the Second Amendment does not protect the most popular rifles in the country including AR-15s as well as all standard capacity detachable magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.

The petition asks the Supreme Court to confirm that its ruling inDistrict of Columbia v. Hellerprotects the most popular semiautomatic rifles and magazines.

By holding that the Second Amendment does not apply to common firearms and magazines, the4thCircuit has gone further than any other courtinattackingSecond Amendment freedoms.

Marylands ban on commonly owned rifles and magazines is unconstitutional.The National Rifle Association will continue to fight for all Americans Second Amendment rights.

Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America's oldest civil rights and sportsmen's group. More than five million members strong, NRA continues to uphold the Second Amendment and advocates enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation's leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the armed services. Be sure to follow the NRA on Facebook at NRA on Facebook and Twitter @NRA.

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NRA-ILA | Supreme Court Asked to Review Maryland's Gun Ban - NRA ILA

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS - Your right to bear arms in Arkansas could be taken away if you apply for a medical marijuana card. According to the Arkansas Department of Health, you can't have both a medical marijuana card and legally own a gun because pot is still illegal on the federal level.

Robert Reed, a Navy Veteran who served his country for 16 year, suffers PTSD along medical conditions which medical marijuana would help.

Reed said, "I will not apply for a med license, and risk my livelihood and my safety."

The Arkansas Department of Health said a question they get all the time is whether or not you can own a gun and possess a medical marijuana ID card. Since prescription pot is a Schedule 1 controlled substance, under federal law, you can't own a gun legally. And federal law supersedes state law.

"If they're a user of marijuana, although legal in Arkansas, it's still illegal on the federal level," explained Robert Brech with Arkansas Department of Health. "It's very clear you cannot be a marijuana user, and pass that check."

Reed, and other veterans who fought for Constitutional rights, will not apply for their medical marijuana cards due to putting the freedom they fought for at risk.

"You've got a law that outlaws the people that defended your right to make a law that puts me in jail," said Reed.

"You won't be denied the medical marijuana card. There's actually a provision in the Constitutional amendment that you can't be denied a license. So they may continue to give a conceal carry license to someone. It's really a problem at the federal level, not the state level," explained Brech.

"How can I have health and freedom by giving up a right? I can't," said Reed.

See more here:
Medical Marijuana means Losing Your Second Amendment Rights - KNWA