Category Archives: Essentials

Essential iPad & tech skills

The MDS iPad App Portal – you’d be surprised at the tools you have available!

There are dozens upon dozens of apps you can download from the MDS App Portal. CLICK HERE to see the list, divided up by general categories.

[NOTE: You do have to be signed in to your MDS Google Account to view the info.]

If you are viewing this blog entry on the Tech website, you can click the “APP PORTAL” link, above.

Feel Free to download any of the apps you’d like to explore!

Have an app you don’t want anymore? Send a request to the iPad email, or to Mr. Rule to have it removed.

Want to see if your iPad has enough room? Call up Settings -> General -> About and look at iPad Storage. You should see a line telling you how much open storage you have available.

ADVICE: Leave at least 3gig open on your iPad. It will start misbehaving and causing you headaches if you don’t.

There is more the Search than Bing & Google – getting better results when searching

The original article is at https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-expand-search-sources/

By exploring lesser known search engines such as WolframAlpha, Mojeek and Gigablast, you will get a wider range of results, customization and privacy options

There are a TON of search engines out there that might be MORE useful as you search!
Some are DEFINITELY more privacy focused as well.

For searches with a single specific and factual answer, your choice between Google, Bing or another search provider may not matter. For example, both search engines provide rapid and accurate results when you want to know what year the IBM PC was first manufactured (1981) or which team won the Men’s 2022 FIFA World Cup (Argentina).

However, when your intent is to glean information from a wide range of sources, it makes sense to query different search engines. For example, searching both Google and Bing for “edge computing best practices” or “use vi and tmux” provides slightly different sets of linked pages to review.

The search alternatives covered below include not only truly independent search sources but also secondary search services. These secondary search services often depend on Bing or Google results that the service then filters and sorts differently than the source search indexes.

Jump to:

Explore independent search services

Beyond Google and Bing, the most significant independent English-language search engine is Mojeek, shown in Figure B, left. An October 2022 blog post claimed that Mojeek has more than 6 billion pages indexed. As a privacy-respecting service, Mojeek also chooses not to track you.

Another truly independent search engine is Gigablast, shown in Figure B, right, which also serves as the source index for searches conducted at Private.sh. However, the two sites prioritize and present results differently, with Gigablast grouping results from notable sources and Private.sh providing a conventional list of links.

Figure B

While most search services rely on indexes and data from sources such as Google or Bing, independent search indexes do exist. Mojeek, on the left, has indexed more than 6 billion pages. Gigablast, on the right, also maintains its own independent index.

Seek a secondary search provider

Most search services rely on Bing or Google as a source for some — if not all — of their results. DuckDuckGo (Figure C, left), for example, partners with Microsoft for results from Bing, while Startpage (Figure C, right) syndicates results from Google.

Figure C

Many search providers rely on results from Bing and Google. DuckDuckGo, for example, partners with Microsoft Bing, while Startpage relies on Google.

What distinguishes DuckDuckGo and Startpage from their search data sources, however, are their respective privacy policies: Both promise greater privacy and less tracking than Google or Bing.

Qwant and Yahoo similarly source results from Bing, while Brave Search mixes in results from both Bing and Google. At least a couple start-up search engines, such as Kagi and Neeva, offer both free and paid plans that let you prioritize, filter and customize results.

Unlike the secondary search services listed above, which are all for-profit entities, MetaGer.org, shown in Figure D, is operated by a non-profit organization based in Germany. Like other secondary search services, it draws results from other sources, including Bing, Yahoo, Scopia and Infotiger. Not only may you switch any of these four sources on or off, MetaGer also lets you choose to exclude specific domains or subdomains from results.

Figure D

MetaGer.org, run by a nonprofit organization, relies on Bing, Yahoo, Scopia and Infotiger search sources. You may toggle any of these sources on or off.

Directly search a relevant site

Some answers may best be obtained directly from a relevant source. Answers historically found in an encyclopedia or an atlas, for example, might be resolved with a search of Wikipedia.org or OpenStreetMap.org. Most major search and mapping services rely on these sources.

While once commonly questioned, the general reliability of Wikipedia as a source, in particular, has been thoroughly considered and addressed. Similarly, questions you might ask a knowledgeable colleague may be answered with a query of Stack Exchange, Stack Overflow, Quora or Wikihow. Answers from these sites may need to be evaluated with appropriate caution and consideration.

WolframAlpha (Figure E) provides an interesting example of a specialized research engine. The system relies on a set of sources selected for accuracy. For example, if you ask the system to give you the human population on Mars, it returns the number zero, as you would expect. WolframAlpha excels at mathematics and science calculations and questions, along with answers that may be derived from established history and facts. Both free and paid editions of WolframAlpha are available.

Figure E 

As a specialized research engine, WolframAlpha delivers answers drawn from a highly curated set of sources to help ensure accuracy of results.