This is the end..the end of the story..

Well, I must say it's been interesting. I have had a chance to learn a little bit more about what's available on the web. I think my favorite excercise was the one that prescribed that we investigate some of the sites that won the web 2.0 awards. Also, I think the information about RSS feeds was pretty informative. The google application that allows you to wordprocess on the net is something I might use perhaps.

In terms of my outlook and goals I guess I want to be unemployed so I can keep up with all that's going on on the internet.

The perspectives on web 2.0 actually made me think a little about my job, which was suprising. I thought about how my job my end up being obsolete in the not too distant future! Not those librarians though..we'll end up..trading them over the internet... a nice perspective that person wrote, but that part was just too funny...

The format..I might try to emphasize goals to complete, rather than simply just writing about the experience. Make it straightforward, find a way a participant can display what they did. I think it would be better if people were encouraged to do more with the applications they are being introduced to.

Would I do this again? Yes, because I'm screwing around while I'm at work.

Moldi cheese downloads

It's interesting that they have started this project, I suppose this is the way of the future, or something. I'm curious as what the limitations are on obtaining materials to turn into downloadable content. The music, for example, seems to be all stuff that would be public domain, like classical music and stuff. Yet despite this, there is still limited collections, as well as lending periods for the downloadable content. So that makes me curious as to what exactly the rules are for in digitizing material for library users' convenience, because obviously the site doesn't have the most popular material (seems like a lot of the rejects actually...that was mean, i'm sorry).

Anyhow, I think I would use this website to brush up on my knowledge of Classical music, they seem to have a lot of it. I think I might download some Chopin.

Invasion of the Podcasts

Doing this excercise at work was pretty limiting, either the correct software wasn't installed to listen to the podcasts, or the library filter blocked content. Yeah, I know I could get the filter turned off. Anyways, I searched for stuff, and i suppose there was material I woud be interested in; its hard to tell because none of the search tools provided were very well thought out. There wasn't decent descriptions of the podcasts, and the results were difficult to wade through...like a river that had tons of jello powder thrown in it. I found a podcast called'Metal Gear Awesome', I didn't get to listen to it however. If its humour based on the Metal Gear Series, count me in. That's the one I added to my bloglines account. There were also library podcasts, but once again the results were not presented in a manner that encouraged me to look through them.

Podcasts for the library...what could we do with them..hmmm. Weekly updates about stuff going on at the library is one idea. Another would be to record the programs we have at the library and make them available as podcasts. That way people could suscribe to a branches podcasts, and never miss a program hosted at that library. I'm a genius. hoozah.

why don't YOU tube?

Youtube is addictive. I can waste much time browsing the site. One of the things I like to browse the most on youtube is musical performances. In particular, I have found a lot of cool performances by guitarists doing covers, or arranging various pieces of music. Video game music arranged on guitar is usually pretty impressive, especially stuff from the Final Fantasy series. A lot of people will perform some of the more obvious choices, but one performance I was really impressed by was this older gentlemen who arrange Final Fantasy X's "Silence before the Storm" for guitar. That piece was always one of my favorites from final fantasy X, and i learned how to play some of it from watching this guy play. I give this guy big props for tackling this piece, and arranging it. Here is the video:

Power tools page

Okay, I messed with a variety of things on this page.

One thing I looked at was the makezine page, it has instructions for all these do-it-yourself projects. The coolest thing I found was the tank someone built with working pneumatic cannon that can fire hot-dogs, or other things. Awesome.

I read about G-Mail on the tooling around page. Eh, nothing to exciting, e-mail is e-mail, but good to know.

Boing-Boing is another sweet page. They had a link to a funny comic about music piracy. It talks about how if you pirate a song, you get to keep it, and it will always work. However if you buy it on i-tunes, you might not be able to recover it if you get a new computer, or have to re-format your harddrive because of drcm-locked files. This is true, and very lame. If you buy something, you should be able to re-download it in instances of catastrophes. My nephew bought several seasons of scrubs on i-tunes, but because he had to re-format his harddrive, or something like that, he lost everything he bought because there's no way re-download things you already purchased. I had to get a replacement ps3 from sony, and i could only back up certain things on my harddrive, that doesn't include game installs that I downloaded from the Playstation Network, but at least with the Playstation Network, I was able to redownload the games I had already purchased.

Another cool thing on boing-boing was a small post about researchers trying to develop thought-based communication. Apparently they are going to map language on the brain and make it possible to send electronic messages like text messages, or e-mails, for example, with the simple power of thought. Whoa. Synthetic Telepathy they call it. They said it may take 15-20 years. I must live to see the existence of that technology.

So yeah, I found some cool stuff, so thank you.

Hit me up with them recipes, keyys

I cook a lot, and I like trying to cook just with whatever is in the house, so this website, recipekey.com, is ideal for that sort of thing. It was a little confusing to use at first, but I think I got the hang of it. I didnt go to in depth in exploring all the options, but you can make your profile and list ingredients you have in your pantry so when you search for recipes it will tell you what you already have. Also, say you happen to have 64 slices of american cheese ("mmmmmmm, Homer would say, before spending all night eating every slice one at a time) you could search for that as a main ingredient to find recipes that feature that ingredient. The site also offers search options like prep time (filters out those recipes that require overnight rests), cooking method, dietary restrictions and so forth.

You know what's also interesting? A 24 year old male picked out this site from all the other options...Oh sighh.

I played in the Learn and Play sandbox and the other kids ostracized me

Yeah, its easy enough. Its cool to edit stuff. It would be really fun to actually go crazy with it, and try to make the pages look good. Like people even messing with other people's text to make it look uniform and organize the information. Even putting in links on someone's text to another page that has related information. I could see how it could get addictive editing a giant website. Also frustrating if some jerks kept messing with all your work. The pages look messy, noboby messes with other people's text, politeness I guess, but I think that's what you have to do to really take advantage of a wiki. But yeah, I added some favorite movies and tried linking a few to the quote page to add some favorite quotes. A sucessful excercise if I do say myself. Need I say more? Well I hope nottt because that's all there really is to the subject!

Web based appliances..toasters, ovens, and refrigerators, oh my!

Wouldn't that be cooler though? Web based appliances? Wouldnt it be awesome to not have to save that old turkey in your own refrigerator..but rather upload it on to the web..where you can share it with your bestest friends?

This is another tool that would've been useful to have at the beginning of my stint in college. I have had a few annoyances where I thought my paper was e-mailed to my professor and was all dandy..only to find out they couldn't open it. I like the idea of web based applications for basic things like word processing, power point, and spreadsheets. We shouldn't really have to clutter up are computers with programs for such basic functions..and on top of that have to worry about which version of the software one has. I would definitly use this. I have never used power point..i've never had the software..but it would be really cool to make a presentation..and be able to show it anywhere I go by simply hopping on the internet. I also made a mini presentation that i started on and sent it to a friend to collaborate...The project is secret. Only they would understand....

I've had a lot of times where customer's documents they had on disc couldn't be read by the current software version on our computers..so they had to wait for a software update to download. It would also be a handy tool for saving their work if they don't happen to have a way to save their work. Usually if they can't buy a floppy, I suggest they e-mail it to themselves..but this would be a lot more effective.

Cool.

Wiki wiki, what!

I didn't know that wiki was a format for a whole wealth of things, I just thought there was wikipedia, a web encyclopedia edited by the public. Well, we all know that one thing wikis have problems with is vandalism, since anyone can (unless there are restrictions put in place) make their own entries on a wiki. This was quite evident when Stephen Colbert insisted his audience make an entry about bears on wikipedia..or something. I'm not sure that was it, but suffice it to say, the webmasters were none to happy.

I have to agree with the comment someone made about the library wiki examples that were put up on Learn and Play: They are quite unattractive. I wasn't inclined to browse these wikis..they were boring. I think that's the problem with how this excercise was thought out...unless you are involved with the Wiki yourself, a Wiki is probably just going to look like a boring, poorly thought out website. Well..that's not true..wikipedia is very entertaining. It's just that i don't think with these examples we were shown the true potential of wikis.

I thought of an interesting wiki we could create for our library, though. It would involve having entries about issues that we get asked about by customers involving the internet computers. Questions like: putting music on to an mp3 player, questions about particular websites, and so forth. It could be a wiki where we enter topics as they come up, and then patrons can view the wiki to see if their issue is covered. Wouldn't that be cool!??!

Stuck in web 2.0 with a giant rss feed coming to eat me!

One of the concepts that was touched upon in a few of the perspectives was how a librarian would evolve along with technology. Wendy Schultz put forth the idea of "collecting librarians" in order have them help one locate, compare, and provide perspective on information. That's an interesting concept, with less and less emphasis on having a print collection, librarians might the only type of employee from a library that would still have a job in that sort of world. Ohhhh, you self-serving librarians. JOKING. Or am I??

I think we're a long way from printed material and library services being obsolete because one of the principal reasons people use the libraries that wasn't touched upon is that its an affordable way to for people to access information. A lot of people still don't have computers, and the library is the best place to find what one is looking for. As internet computers have been integrated into the library experience there has already been some shift in how we help patrons. Customers increasingly need help with computer, and internet applications, like how to write a resume...or play Halo (which I am really curious about...where are all those kids playing the first Halo for free at?).

The question is, when print collections do become obsolete..how will the library distribute and purchase materials? With the shift to completely digital information we would no longer have an issue with limited collections, thus we wouldn't have to impose limited loan periods. Yet as we do live in a capitalist society (which maybe with all this economic bailout bussiness we're finally learning a lesson about having a free market) there is an issue of copyrighted material. Obviously publishers wouldn't be happy about libraries purchasing materials once, and than distributing them an unlimited number of times, for indefinite periods.
This problem already comes up in a way: a lot of kids ask how to download songs with file sharing programs..which I guess we're probably not supposed to do. So i think it would be necessary for the library to get involved with digital music, and other multimedia in someway..or another. Not that I care...you capitalists.....

Bookmark this...jerkface!

Aye. This looks like it could be quite useful. One thing I might use more it for rather than saving bookmarks, is for finding sites. It would be a good alternative to search engines like google if you search by tags. You would know the sites you find are at least useful to someone. Also, if you find someone who has a particular bookmarked site you like, you can see what other kind of sites they have bookmarked. I don't usually bookmark sites, I don't usually come across that many that I would either want to save, or would have trouble remembering.

The research aspect is intriguing..but you would have to be organized, and be the social networking type to get something together. However, if find people that know what they're doing, it could be useful, since it's hard to find reputable information on the internet that a college professor would accept as a resource.

Would've been a good resource back in the day of trying to find "punch Rush Limbaugh in the face" flash games.

Someone hit me over the head and then I was twittering all over the place

Microblogging, huh? I don't know about this...doesn't anyone value solitude anymore, rather than sharing every small detail of their life? People can't stay disconnected for more than 5 minutes..sheesh. Cynicism aside, i can see how this could be addictive. I found Spider-man, and decided to follow his exploits. Who knows? Maybe I'll see what he's up to, and I could go help him fight crime. This might have a practical application for libraries. I noticed, for example, the learnandplay twitter account mentioned a library branch closing. Perhaps it could be used to keep employees and patrons in the loop. There's already a wealth of ways to communicate on the net, and this seems like kind of a cross between forum posting, and instant messaging. So to sum up...I do see twitter having practical applications, but for people just telling people what they are doing every 5 minutes...well people already do that with their cellphones...I could see how it could be amusing though. What would be cooler is if tracking devices were put in everybody and twitter would constantly update us with what they were ACTUALLY doing. No...that would be wrong..

...


twitter name: Snowdenslove

Library Thing

I've seen these kind of sites before and have never been interested..but I see how it can be addicting. You add books, and you can even add your own knowledge to the pages dedicated to the particular books, or get involved in discussions. One reason I don't get into these kind of sites..sad to say since i work at a library..is that I don't read that much. However..I do have good taste..if i do say myself. Its just..with reading its very hard to tell if you're going to be wasting your time reading a book by reading crap...and there's so much of it. Yet, I suppose that's why sites like this exist. I just don't want people to see what limited amount of books I've read. But this thing is cool I guess. WORD. Or words rather...Words are what you read in a book..yeah..that's what i mean.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/snowdens

thingys that appear in front of your eyes maker thing

Yeah..I somewhat knew about these. I played around with the "Dub your own chinese movie" application..but not too much as I've already played around with stuff like that. I instead quickly came upon the most appealing image generator which was the "Make your own movie poster" application. Good fun. I hope Billy Bob Thorton isn't mad that I said he I wrote and directed my movie. Pfft..whatever..I can know other Billy Bob Thortons!


http://bighugelabs.com/photos/a6c2db87c75993ca711bc1fa109fff0f/poster4306414

Searching RSS Feeds

Out of all the search tools, I found the bloglines searchtool the best. I think I searched for news on any new spider-man movies (apparently Sony has snagged Toby Maguire, and Sam Raimi for Spider-man 4 and 5...whoa!). Topix.net I found wasn't useful because keyword and phrase searching isn't very helpful when you are looking for a particular subject to be constantly updated on (I want to find a newsfeed about Sour Cream, instead they bring something up about chili which you can put sour cream on...go figure!). That's the one interesting thing as in terms of feeds, as it's hard to find specific feeds, more often you'll find a feed that includes the topic you were searching for. Syndic8 I thought was mostly useless. User submitted stuff is always iffy. I only searched for gas stuff, and it came up with something, but I still don't like the layout of the search engine. Often feeds seemed to be in the process of being evaluated to determine whether they're worthy of being part of Syndic8 or something...

Weblogs..pretty easy to find stuff but the information I found seemed to be limited and not very informative..short little blurbs...it was hard to tell whether the blurbs were summaries or whether there was a way to access the full blog. I did however learn about Ps3's Life program that it is part of the most recent firmware update...apparently you can access it through Folding_Home which is a program that uses PS3's to help Stanford scientists do protein folding simulations to help research diseases like cancer and stuff. The life program lets you view the the earth..zoom in on particular cities..get the weather and news...much like the Wii allows you to do. Word.

Newsfeeds, and stuff.

I like this newsfeed business. When I was initially reading the concept I was like "ummm, browsing the internet isn't that hard..do we really need to add another layer of convenience?" but it's actually really cool. After creating my account on bloglines I added some newsfeeds to my account just by clicking on stuff I'm interested in. That gave me a lot of newsfeeds so then I just simply deleted the specific newsfeeds I wasn't interested in. This is a great tool for information junkies. I like the idea of not having to go to all these different websites to see if they've been updated or not.Internet has always had the stigma of not being the most reputable source of information, but rather just having a large wealth of it, yet this tool does well at whittling all that information down. Of course most people would probably just suscribe to the kind of opinions and information that confirm their biases, yet, for example, if one were to suscribe to several different newsfeeds covering a paticular topic, it might be a way to add more balance, as well as reputability, to one's source of information. i would of liked to have this feature at the beginning of my career as a political science major. cauuuse...I didn't really read the newspaper like they encouraged.

Who I'm kidding? There are more time wasting things to do with this. Like subscribing to Penny Arcade...or Elmo's Weekly Sockpuppet review....(I made the second one up...obviously).

A technology related post in which I talk about one of the less practical applications of technology

I have spent much of my natural born life playing video games. I aspire to be a musician, but half the time I'd rather kill things than write music. In fact, when i write music it is usually a concious effort to pull myself away from a game to write a song. In a ways, it turns music making into something like a job. I have to be like "okay, if do some work, you can play a game." Sad thing is I haven't made a cent for this work.

anyways...

Video games have become increasingly more complicated, and sometimes less accessible to those who haven't grown up playing them. The exception to this of course being the Wii, which has brought gaming to a wider audience; still though, a lot of that wider audience includes players of Wii sports, where you do some virtual form of a activity you would do in real life. That doesn't really encapsulate the so called "hardcore gamers". I'm not denegrating this kind of gaming, its fun and social, but I'm just saying it's a different kind of animal. Those that are really involved in video games spend countless hours getting involved in a story line, building up a chacter, looking for hidden stuff, or whatever. The point being games are more an investement of time than ever. Which brings me to my actual point. The more complicated games have become have made them more prone to problems now than ever. Back in the days of Nes and cartridge based systems, these things never failed except for the occasion of having to blow dust out of game. Now, video game machines have the same problems as pcs, because video game machines increasingly aspire to be pcs. You can look to the Xbox 360's ring of death that has plagued countless gamers for an example of this.

My experience with this has been my ps3. Grand theft auto 4 in particular. I had no problems with my ps3 until this game. This game froze in the beginning of the movie first time i tried. I trieeeeed countless things to try to get it to work. Reinstalling the game (that's something you do with pcs!) disconnecting the internet from the ps3, all kinds of things. After extensive research online, i came to realize that certain batches of ps3's have a hardware defect that hasn't been exposed until gta4. sooo, since my system was out of warranty i had to do a lot of complaining to convince sony to replace my console. I'm awaiting ups to deliver the "coffin" that i will be sending my ps3 in with. Soooo, hopefully all goes well. And hopefully they don't send back a crappy 40 gig which has no b/c (ability to play ps2 games, and ps1 games) and no wifi since the 60 gig i have is not produced anymore......

See all of this? This is the bad part of modern gaming, where you look more ridiculous in the eyes of others because you invest all of this time just trying to get a damn game to work. JUST WORK WELL VIDEO GAMES...WE DON'T WANT ALL OF THOSE JERKS WHO THINK GAMING IS A WASTE OF TIME TO SHAKE THEIR HEAD SMUGLY AT OUR PLIGHT.

REtreiver

Sooooo...I browsed the third party programs for Flickr, and came across one I thought was quite fun. It's called Retriever. It allows you to search Flickr images by doing little sketches in this little box that acts like a paint program. The application then attempts to find pictures that look similar to what you sketched in the box. The results are...mixed. It does fine at finding images with the same colors you use, but it can be a little iffy when searching by lines, and shapes. Also, its hard to actually draw a proper representation of something you may have in mind, the box is small, and brush sizes they offer are too big to be precise. One result that was interesting was when I randomly attempted sketching the likeness of Daxter from the Jak and Daxter video game series (I'm really not sure why it came to mind) and Retreiver ended up finding a picture of a giraffe, and then I realized the orange blob I was creating did look like a giraffe.

All in all, a cool program, just could use some refining.

Tea party.

This Flickr site, I haven't heard of it before...apparently it's popular. I've heard of photobucket though. So which is the Youtube of image hosting? I don't know. Or the Myspace of image hosting...I think that's more apt.


Soo, I was exploring flickr as commanded, and was using the function that displays the most recently uploaded images. I came across this table of delicious looking cakes, most likely set out for a tea party, which i gleaned from the tea kettle. I picked this image because I've always wanted to have a proper tea party...alas, I never have though. There was some pictures of Europe and stuff that browsed a bit. Apparently there's a function where you can explore a world map and click on locations to find photos related to that area... that's kind of neat. I didn't choose any of the images I found because they seemed kind of generic post-cardey type of deals.

Anyways, I wonder what kind of cakes those are. The one in the foreground on the left could be a lemon custard type of deal..The one in the front looks like its glazed with jello...or that it actually is a jello mold. That would be a weird thing to bring to a tea party though. The one behind that has coconut i bet. I like coconut flavor..though somtimes coconut can be too chewy.

Anyhow, don't read this, because you might thing i'm mental.

oh and the image:

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/lazyshirley/2803646347/[/img]

Deep dark secret.

I would divulge, but I work with some of you people.

On another note, I have a stomach ache.