One last thing (thing 17)

Sandbox wiki done at last. I was hoping for some kind of brass band/bells and whistles/small parade but as instructed I made a (short) list of my favorite things and added it to the list of pages as instucted. I'm one of those see/do learners so it probably won't make sense until I actually need to put it to good use. But that's my last thing, this is my last post, done, fin, hooray!

We are Borg

Just thought it was worth noting.

Thing 23 "Cart before the horse"

I enjoyed being exposed to SOME of the 23 things. New to me and actually potentially useful and/or fun was Thing 19: the list of Web 2.0 award winners (I think I mentioned I like having prescreened content...not much of a browser I guess) and Thing 18, online productivity tools. That one I'm sure I'll go back to. The process was very rewarding to me and well worth the time invested just for exposure to those two things. I'm certainly not ashamed to admit a lot of it goes past me however (Especially things 13,14, and 17 which I still need to go back and complete. Not having a computer that has the necessary tools to look at many of the sites mentioned is one thing. I'll try to work on Thing 17 at home where my techno savvy family can help and my computer is somewhat more accomodating....

Thing 21: Podcast search tools

I have to admit, I enjoy podcasts when they're prescreened for me (by family or colleagues) but the notion of calling one up doesn't usually occur to me. But now I know how. Just for practice I looked up a proven winner "Cute with Chris". Did I mention my dog Tug was the winner of a cute-off for best yoda dog ever. True!

Thing 14

Ditto what I wrote for thing 13. I think for tags to be useful one needs to be more plugged in more often than I am. Just for casual exploration as I'm doing with 23 things, I don't really see the advantage to me personally. I'll come back to this later.

Thing 13

I've been avoiding this one...can't put it off any longer. I keep going back to del.icio.us and still don't see what its for nor how it can improve my life. But that's just me. I'm sure it's wonderful for someone. But as long as it keeps going by me I guess it's not something I really need at this point.

Okay, I just learned that one use for del.icio.us is as a repository for stored bookmarks, for instance in our coming migration from webmail to desknow. So that's 1 ..

Thing 19

Getting paid to shop....I love the retail site, ETSY. Not only because I'm crafty and appreciate the whole "out of the box" approach but also because it's a right brain feast. The unique shopping format that allows you to shop by color, age, whatever floats your boat. I'll have to go back and see what the other delights lie in store

Thing 18

"online productivity" doesn't do Thing 18 justice. I had no idea there was a word processor that could follow me anywhere my gmail account goes. I'm actually really impressed by this feature. And for those of us who are somewhat tech-challenged, it all seems very intuitive (since it's a Google thing) and easy EVEN for me to use. that's saying a lot.

More about wikis

Just an interesting aside: My daughter's history class has a wiki of textbook notes. Theoretically each student contributes a portion of book notes to the wiki, so the work is divided up. True to the nature of a wiki, you're only as good as your contributor, so the quality varies along with whether an assignment even gets completed....

Thing 22: downloadable audiobooks

I've looked at NetLibrary previously, just to familiarize myself w/it for helping customers, but not Project Gutenburg...never knew there were audiobooks there. As always, it's like exploring a used bookstore, a dusty one, but good to know about. I finally have a use for my snazzy new mp3 player since listening to audiobooks is a big part of my daily work commute.

Thing 16: Wikis

The use of a wiki by library staff as a means of disseminating information internally is very appealing to me but as I read over the definition of a wiki as being a "democratizing" element and "leveler of the (technology) playing field", I understood that our own system has a long way to go to fulfill its potential. While the examples of library systems using wikis to supplement catalog information or provide a wide-ranging community forum sound great, I wonder if HCL can reach that degree of public trust.

Thing 15: Library 2.0

Difficult to get through some of postings...zzzz....which leads me to the idea of Library 2.0 as interpreter for technology. Since acquisition of knowledge is such a personal process, varying with individual learning styles, I can't believe there will ever not be a need for a physical commodity/presence/representation for a library's many functions and services. But then I'm not a visionary so what do I know...

Thingie 9

Merlin is the kind of personalized (well, except for that weird blacked out picture of AS) site that might prove useful sometime...I'll do my best to check it out periodically.

Thing 8

A nice review of RSS feeds...I like the accessibility of the Bloglines site although I still don't have time to read more than 5-6 feeds a day.

You Tube

I've used YouTube before but am excited to revisit one of my favorite videos (and all associated incarnations of Matt Harding's) and post it to my blog. I hadn't seen it for a while and forgot how happy it makes me ...

Where the Hell is Matt?

Rollyo

No, I still use Google for most all my search needs and have become fairly adept with it. However, I do see Rollyo as a useful kind of organizational tool (more than a search tool per se, at least in the way I define search).

More Flickr Fun

Okay, it's fun to look at sites made by artistic and creative people who have more time than I have. (I'm really NOT bitter...) I especially liked the site created by Jim Baumgartner of "actionscript-centric Flash movies" (krazydad.com/bestiary) and could spend much more time playing if I had it.

My further explorations yielded a thingie...

LibraryThing is very cool...
Although I'm not as interested in commenting/ collecting reviews by other members, I'm really happy with the addition of the graphic book cover elements to my blog. A fun toy for library folks/bookstore junkies. Must explore further...

My life I mean image generator

Free MySpace Layouts

"Week 3" Technology blog post

I learned last night that for high school seniors applying to college, there is an online standard application form that some colleges elect to use. The prospective student may fill it out once and submit it FREE to any schools that elect to use it. For students, what a time/sanity-saver. For parents, what a cost-saver. I think this development is also somewhat indicative of attitudes the schools themselves have about their student bodies and their image.

Flickr

My favorite feature of Flickr is the random picture generator "sprinkles", aptly named for eye candy

Something to fill out my blog:
I'm doing a blog because I want an MP3 player but it's kind of fun too if I can squeeze out the time. Since we're in between programs, I'll work on it now, but it's really difficult to justify ordinarily.