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Nope. I'm not dying. (At least not any faster than everyone else as far as I know.) But these are my last thoughts about the 23 Things lessons.
Overall, I enjoyed the lesson series. I'm definitely glad for the structure and motivation provided by this series. I've wanted to try my hand at blogging and learn about Delicious and RSS feeds and wikis for a while now. But it all seemed too overwhelming. These lessons have provided the push I needed. I'm grateful.
I'll be keeping up with several RSS feeds, and I'll probably continue with my blog. I like the opportunity to 'speak' my mind. (I'll see how long that lasts when I know that I no longer have anyone reading it! *grin*) I think I enjoyed GoodReads and YouTube the most. Those lessons were pure fun! The RSS feeds and the Flickr lessons will probably prove the most useful in my professional life.
There are several things I still don't see the appeal of though, like Rollyo or even the online image generators. (Maybe it's because I'm more of a verbal person. I got a kick out of some of the *text* generators I found. *g*)
Wikis are not for me. *makes face* It's not just that they're unstructured, it's mainly that I've spent many, many years in customer service and I've seen how often people destroy things just for the sake of destruction. Plus, I found the wikis I tried to use clunky and unresponsive.
I hope they run another 'discovery exercise' along similar lines. I would *definitely* like to participate. I think I learned a lot, and I enjoyed most of the effort.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Flickr mashups - #6
Well, I tried BeFunky.com that offers to change your photos into artwork. It was astonishingly easy to use, even when I pulled the photos from Flickr. (Intrestingly, I only saw the images I had marked as 'public' in Flickr. So apparently BeFunky didn't have access to my photos which I marked as 'private'.) When I tried to save the resulting image to my computer I failed. My computer couldn't open the resulting saved image. :-( Oddly enough, the image did come through when I attempted to 'share' the image by emailing it to myself.
I looked at Graphita's website, but all I found was a graphic. *shrug* As far as I can tell there's nothing more.
Here's my experiment with ImageChef that allows you to frame your photos. I got a kick out of this site. I'll have to remember this site for future playtime.
I looked at Graphita's website, but all I found was a graphic. *shrug* As far as I can tell there's nothing more.
Here's my experiment with ImageChef that allows you to frame your photos. I got a kick out of this site. I'll have to remember this site for future playtime.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Email I had to share
I got this email from a coworker, and I loved it so much I had to share.
Dear World:
We, the United States of America , your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault (known as the "Dabush" virus) that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4. Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional today,January 20. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding,
Sincerely,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Dear World:
We, the United States of America , your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault (known as the "Dabush" virus) that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4. Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional today,January 20. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding,
Sincerely,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Mobile Technology - #7
I think almost any prediction I might make about the way mobile technologies like cell phones, wireless Internet, laptops and such will change the way people seek information will look very obvious or very stupid in a very short amount of time.
Cell phones have been touted as a great way to help connect with others. And while some undoubtedly have found that to be true, I'd like to take a moment to complain about one of the effects I've noticed most often. The death of courtesy. People drive down the road determined not to let the traffic interfere with their phone conversation. People in line at the coffee shop get annoyed that the person behind the counter wants them to interrupt their phone conversation to order. Grr.
As far as information seeking goes. . . While I have in fact used my cell phone to call the library in order to ask a question, I think those who own something with an Internet connection of some kind are more likely to seek the information themselves. Let me give you an example. Recently I was visiting with several family members including my parents and an aunt and uncle. We were debating our route home and our time of departure. My father expressed concern about the traffic (since we'd have to travel directly through the *very* large city my aunt and uncle live in) and my uncle promptly whipped out his Blackberry and started checking the local traffic reports. Now, his computer was maybe fifteen away, the TV less than that, but he went straight for his Blackberry. That situation was hardly uncommon. I've been in restaurants with him when someone asks a question and he'll whip out his little device and try to answer the question.
I think the growing prevalence of mobile devices will encourage the growing trend of people seeking the information they wish themselves rather than relying on traditional sources (like libraries). To a certain extent I applaud the idea, but I think most people aren't as information-savvy as they think.
Cell phones have been touted as a great way to help connect with others. And while some undoubtedly have found that to be true, I'd like to take a moment to complain about one of the effects I've noticed most often. The death of courtesy. People drive down the road determined not to let the traffic interfere with their phone conversation. People in line at the coffee shop get annoyed that the person behind the counter wants them to interrupt their phone conversation to order. Grr.
As far as information seeking goes. . . While I have in fact used my cell phone to call the library in order to ask a question, I think those who own something with an Internet connection of some kind are more likely to seek the information themselves. Let me give you an example. Recently I was visiting with several family members including my parents and an aunt and uncle. We were debating our route home and our time of departure. My father expressed concern about the traffic (since we'd have to travel directly through the *very* large city my aunt and uncle live in) and my uncle promptly whipped out his Blackberry and started checking the local traffic reports. Now, his computer was maybe fifteen away, the TV less than that, but he went straight for his Blackberry. That situation was hardly uncommon. I've been in restaurants with him when someone asks a question and he'll whip out his little device and try to answer the question.
I think the growing prevalence of mobile devices will encourage the growing trend of people seeking the information they wish themselves rather than relying on traditional sources (like libraries). To a certain extent I applaud the idea, but I think most people aren't as information-savvy as they think.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Flickr - #5
From my first trip to the Pacific Northwest. I went with some family during the summer. It was a fun trip. Seattle's public transportation system really impressed me. Their library, not so much.
This photo is blogged from Flickr's tool. The Singing Fountain below is embedded in my blog.
Flickr has got some amazing abilities, but it's not very user-friendly. I *really* like the ability to set the privacy options for each photo. Adding tags is probably the easiest function on Flickr. Other than the sometimes confusing link names, the biggest drawback is very predictable. The site can be very slow to load new pages. Considering that manipulation of graphics is the point of the website, this lack of speed is to be expected. I'll *definitely* be using Flickr more now that I've got an account.
This was fun and soothing at the same time. The water patterns changed in time with the music. Considering it was in the mid 90s the water felt pretty nice.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Web 2.0 Awards -- Citysearch - #19
Citysearch won 3rd place in the Web 2.0 awards under "Guide & Reviews". I love the idea of Citysearch, but I'm not overly thrilled with the actual product.
Overall it seems a little clunky. The site is graphics-heavy which results in slow loading. And all of the sponsored results and advertisements are intrusive and can be confusing. (If you're not paying close attention, you can easily confuse the sponsored advertisements with your search results.)
I also lament the inability to search for specific areas of the city. No matter how great a place may be, if it's a twenty-five minute drive from where I live or work I'm not interested in making it my bakery/café/deli/etc.
Of course my favorite aspect are the individual reviews. The editorial reviews, when available, are an excellent complement. The site makes adding a review rather easy, with a combination of multiple choice questions and freehand comments from the reviewer.
*looks up at review* Goodness. I sound like I hate the site. Well, despite the usability drawbacks, I think I'll be using Citysearch regularly from now on. I really, *really* like the local aspects.
Overall it seems a little clunky. The site is graphics-heavy which results in slow loading. And all of the sponsored results and advertisements are intrusive and can be confusing. (If you're not paying close attention, you can easily confuse the sponsored advertisements with your search results.)
I also lament the inability to search for specific areas of the city. No matter how great a place may be, if it's a twenty-five minute drive from where I live or work I'm not interested in making it my bakery/café/deli/etc.
Of course my favorite aspect are the individual reviews. The editorial reviews, when available, are an excellent complement. The site makes adding a review rather easy, with a combination of multiple choice questions and freehand comments from the reviewer.
*looks up at review* Goodness. I sound like I hate the site. Well, despite the usability drawbacks, I think I'll be using Citysearch regularly from now on. I really, *really* like the local aspects.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Downloadable media - #22
I'm not really a big fan of audiobooks except for longish trips. Even then since my car isn't set up to connect to an MP3 player I'm limited to audiobooks on CD.
After doing some searches it appears that Overdrive has the better collection as far as my personal tastes go. Although Overdrive's music section disappointed me. Except for the classical section I'd never heard of any of the songs or artists.
I'd say Overdrive also has the better user interface. I had to download the Overdrive Media Console (which was easy), but then it required me to update my Windows Media Player for "security reasons". (My first thought? How did Bush manage to seduce my computer?) Still, it walked me through the whole thing pretty well. Although, considering the size of the files, I'd never want to try this with a dial-up connection. Even with a DSL connection, it took quite some time.
I can see the appeal for people who like listening to audiobooks and use a device, like an MP3 player or even their computer. My biggest 'complaint' is that having two providers makes things rather complicated and discouraging for the casual user.
After doing some searches it appears that Overdrive has the better collection as far as my personal tastes go. Although Overdrive's music section disappointed me. Except for the classical section I'd never heard of any of the songs or artists.
I'd say Overdrive also has the better user interface. I had to download the Overdrive Media Console (which was easy), but then it required me to update my Windows Media Player for "security reasons". (My first thought? How did Bush manage to seduce my computer?) Still, it walked me through the whole thing pretty well. Although, considering the size of the files, I'd never want to try this with a dial-up connection. Even with a DSL connection, it took quite some time.
I can see the appeal for people who like listening to audiobooks and use a device, like an MP3 player or even their computer. My biggest 'complaint' is that having two providers makes things rather complicated and discouraging for the casual user.
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