Week 9 #23

The end.

At last, here we are at the summing up. Web 2 good or bad? A bit like the Curate's egg really, good in places.

There is a vast amount of stuff I simply will never use. There are also many goodly things here.

GoogleDocs - yes. Flickr - yes. RSS - maybe. YouTube - you bet! And more.

Podcasts (not iTunes) - no. Tagging etc - mostly no. Ebooks - no. Bebo etc - don't think so. And more.

The problem is that unless you use these apps. frequently you forget not only how to use them but even that they exist. Life is full of an awful lot of stuff that you don't really need to know.

The trick is to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Which leads me to -

Inspirational quote for today

"As you go through life

Make this your goal

Watch the doughnut

Not the hole"

Farewell to all my faithful readers.

Grizabella

Week 9 - YouTube, Podcasts, Ebooks

The last week. Oh joy.

Youtube : I like YouTube. I mean, what's not to like? You want videos of cats being stupid? youtube's your place. you want to see dogs being stupid? Look out the window!

Best clip for me just now is 6 minutes plus of Andreas Helgstrand with his beautiful horse performing in the freestyle final at the 2006 World Equestrian Games. Absolutely mindboggling and no way would you ever see this on NZ TV.

Podcasts : With the exception of iTunes I think podcasts are cr*p. The sites either would not load or if they did they just sat there like electronic lemons. The only sites that did anything simply flicked you to YouTube so why bother.

Ebooks : OK, the sites all worked, the layout was pretty, the sites were easy to use, I really can't moan about anything except - what is so wrong with paper pages? There is something very clinical about the idea of reading a book from an electronic device. I mean, you can't really snuggle up in bed with a good laptop can you?


Inspirational thought for today

"The greatest wealth is to be rich in friends
but if possible let them be
rich friends.

Week 8 Google Docs etc

Week 8 - Online Applications & Tools

I am creating this in Google Docs. So far so simple. I assume I can save this someplace and return to it at my pleasure.
Which is what I will do as I must away now to wait upon my adoring public. ($2.00 for Bebo)

45 minutes later.
The adoring public does not need me so I'm back. Docing away on Desk! This is brilliant!!!! Why wasn't I using this all the time? And on the Council Internet too!!! What gives? I thought all this was blocked.

Many weeks later!!!
Christmas was nice. I hope you all had a nice time. School holidays in Public Libraries are sheer hell. Then I had 2 weeks leave (and needed it!!)
Holidays over, leave over. Back to "$2.00 for Bebo". Sometimes this job is really boring.

The plan here is that I can upload this into my blog. Copy and paste should work. I'll 'give eet a go' as they say in Aussieland.

A few seconds later.
Well, it worked - sort of.
I had a nice photo at the top which didn't come through. Can't think why. Copy and paste worked well.

Few more seconds later.

The picture is now at the top. I had to do it the usual way. Whatever!

Inspirational quote for today

" If you love something, set it free

If it comes back, it's yours

If it doesn't -

Hunt it down and kill it!!"

Week 7 - Social Networking

Anyone who does not understand why this is funny (and clever) is missing out on a great website and I'm not going to tell you which. Ha Ha!!!

Social networking. What can I say. I looked at Bebo and FaceBook, also My Space.

Of the three My Space was by far the best from a 'lurker' point of view. The viewer was allowed to move about in the site without having to register much more than either of the others.

My favourite bit was the find a friend stuff. Just register your heart's desire and up he/she popped complete with photo. (Yes, of course I did! And the only bloke who looked at all interesting wrote that he was gay!) You really can't win.

All that aside. I don't have any use for such sites but can see the value for families who are spread about the world. An easy way to show off the latest grandchild etc.

To sum up - Social Networking has it's place in the world but should not take the place of talking to real live breathing smelly feet and all people.

Inspirational thought for the week

"Jesus is coming!" look busy!!!

Week 6 - Tagging etc

An interesting concept, tagging. Around here more commonly associated with Vivid markers, spray cans or little square sticky things with electronics in them.

Once I realised "tagging" was just another name for "keyword" - as in keyword searching - the whole concept began to have personal uses to recommend it.

My enormous file of photocopied recipes for example. Instead of searching for ever for just where did I put Jo Seagar's Beer bread recipe I could simply tag it. "Bread" would do but Bread and Beer would bring it up at once. Of course I would either have to scan them in to a database or maybe, and this appeals more, allocate each a code number (call number).

The same thing applies to my CD collection although that needs more thought.

To my mind the real trick to tagging would be to remember the tags used.

And I never found the Beer Bread recipe either!

Thought for this lesson (although not quite true)

"I like learning stuff like that. It's precise, pleasing and quite without use" (Joe Bennett)

Week Five - Wired World of Wiki

OK. Wikis. What can I say. The three Library blogs we were asked to look at were interesting. One is now just an archive, another is staff only password protected for updates, and the third, Library Success, requires permission to add to the blog.

Blogs where anyone can add or delete stuff will always be unreliable as reference tools. Unfortunately many people using internet believe everything they read on the theory that if some clever person has put the info into a blog it must be true. I suspect these are the same people who 'win' the Spanish lottery and happy send away their bank details!

Of the three library blogs looked at Library Success was the best for me. I may well revisit this site in the future.

Just had a quick look at weeh 6 - looks good. Must go now as this is all happening on the Learn.net.

Sammy and Bungy

Sammy and Bungy
Originally uploaded by grizabella2008

Two of my favourite people. This photo uploaded to the blog thanks to the magic of Flickr. What a cool site. When I have finished my Desk duty (yes, they do make me work) I shall have a play with the editing stuff. Catch you later.

Much, much later.

I had a go at loading PicNic, several goes in fact, but the site was so slow I gave up in frustration. I'm sure there are faster and better photo editing sites out there in cyberspace.