Microsoft Vine for Worried Moms

Earthquakes, volcanoes and floods. It makes a mom wonder what theworld I is coming . Microsoft has come up with a program that keeps ordinary citizens in the loop when it comes to emergency response. You won't have to rely on tweeting, cell phones or Facebook any more to find out what is going on in the world. By the way if you own a Mac this is not a blog you are going want to readas it Vine does not function well on Macs.

Microsoft Vine can be described a new social networking tool, designed to help its users keep tabs on people and places during any kind of emergency situations. Currently in a beta test in Seattle, the service lets you enter a location and see news reports gathered from twenty thousand places including United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This can help you get updates from other big organizations.

For example let's just say that there is a worldwide flu pandemic. Still you want the kids to go visit grandma. You could get updates directly from the World Health Organization about where the worst cases of the epidemic is, about school or road closures or about the number of people affected by it so that when you put them on that train you know they will be safe.

You can enter the people you want to be in contact with on Microsoft Vine. You can then receive an email message about them on the Vine dashboard. It is the ideal way to keep in touch with someone in case of a disaster. I think every woman's babysitter sould have this.

There is a map overlay in the program that allows you to track where everyone is online. You also have a status update like Twitter does and it also can feed your Facebook account. This could be valuable for your friends who are not on Vine like you are but still need to know where you are and where you might be going in the event of a disaster.

You can also use Microsoft Vine to let people know where you are and you can issue a report with emergency contact information. This is a good way to let people know where you are going and how long you will be gone.

The great thing about this program is that it cuts the tweeting and gets down only to the bare basics of where you will be during an emergency. There is not casual talk allowed on this thing. It is a good thing for you and your teenager to have.

People are already using Twitter to let friends and family know about big emergencies. Vine does not use traditional GPS based location awareness. This makes it less than ideal for critical emergency communications but it is better than maybe trying to navigate solely through Twitter or Facebook because there is not a lot of casual talk in the way.

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More Fire Safety Tips

As burns can be so devastating to a young person,particularly if they scar your children for life I decided to extend my research to do with Fire safety around the home and found even more obscure threats to my family's safety.

You should consider how you heat your home and what kind of risk this heating system poses. For example, if your home is heated with a completely self-contained, enclosed central heating system with no exposed source of direct heat, you have far less to be concerned about than you would if you were using a wood burning stove in the centre of the room to power the heating system.

Another very sensible step to take is to use a thermostat to control the temperature of the water that comes out of the faucets (taps) in the bathroom and kitchen. If the water cannot get hotter than (say) 110Â°F or 120Â°F (or â€˜medium' heat if this is how your thermostat is calibrated), the water is never going to get hot enough to scald anyone.

On a more general level, you should consider installing appropriate fire prevention measures whilst also making sure that you have the necessary fire fighting â€˜tools' available in the home as well.
For an example, every room in your home should have smoke detectors fitted, and if possible, installing a sprinkler system that will automatically douse a fire within moments of it starting would also be an extremely good idea.

Next, make sure that you have fire extinguishers (and possibly fire blankets) to hand. You should also ensure that you have read and fully understand the instructions for how to use the extinguishers well in advance of needing them too. In the panic that would naturally ensue in the event of a fire is no time to be learning how to use the extinguisher.

Another extremely useful step is to give a good deal of thought and consideration to how you would exit your property in the case of a fire developing. In other words, you need a personal fire escape plan that is tailored to the peculiarities and characteristics of your home that will enable you to get out in the shortest possible time.

This plan should also take into account as many possible variables or eventualities as you can think of as well. For example, it is all very well knowing that you can get out the door if a fire breaks out during the day, but what happens if you live in a two storey house in which you and your family sleep on the upper level? How are you going to get out if a fire breaks out downstairs in the middle of the night? These are all important points to consider.

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