Tuesday, June 30, 2009

PodPeople, Unite!

So podcasts are the hot thing these days. Even my wife can't leave them alone. Podcasts are a great source of news, and much like blogs lets you pick and choose who you want to listen to. I subscribe to a few podcasts but forget to listen to them very regularly. I really like the interface of Itunes, and since we are already pod people this works best for us.
After investigating library podcasts with both sites listed I couldn't find anything newer than December 2008. So I used ITunes, and found a cast, of someone reading "great" literature. http://www.greatbooksaudio.com - Currently on Chapter 2 of Ulysses.
I subscribe to several electronic music podcasts from the BBC. These shows are weekly with some of the best trance/house music out that week.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Tubing on the web. Thing 20!

So Youtube has been around forever. It has everything. I like to watch game previews, anime episodes, television shows I might have missed, music videos, and occasionaly all the stupid or crazy stuff people post. The new HD option helps on the more commercially produced films or shots, but a lot of the cell phone vid and cheap web cam footage is tough on the eyes.

One of the most amusing ones I remember, and it popped into my head almost as soon as I typed in the youtube address was the Coke+ Mentos Experiments. Where two dorky looking "scientists" preloaded hundreds of Coke bottles with mentos and did a sort of show set to a real thumpy drum and bass number. Included here for everyone's enjoyment




There is also a short segment by the Mythbusters about why the reaction is so explosive. Seen here.

Monday, June 22, 2009

19th thing! I might not be done, but this is Last. Last FM.

Web 2.0, a confusing pack of strange websites with interesting behaviors. A lot appear to be specialized you tube sites. While thats 2.0 its not very exciting. I did however explore the Last.fm which is a form of web radio, that develops stations by picking an artist or group that you already like and it finds similar things. Itunes has a feature like this, but it only works for music you have, this lets you explore lots of new stuff without buying.

By creating an account, you can combine 3 artists into a multiple artist station thus expanding your listening pleasure. The site is smooth and the streaming music is fast with little to no delay. So far I've enjoyed everything I've listened to. The other nice feature is it keeps a history of what you listened too and allows you to jump back to it. Also, I suppose if you really liked it, a lot of songs have a link to a site to purchase it.

This would be very useful for patrons wanting to listen to music while surfing, since we cannot install itunes and other software that may allow copyright infringements. This also doubles as a useful listerners advisory.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Zoho

This Zoho thing is even better than Google Docs. I've been using Google docs for almost a year and half now. I don't believe in printers for my home computer. However some of these pesky college instructors demand printed out papers. Heck for a while I didn't even have an "Office" suite installed on my PC. Well i wrote all my papers in Google, then published to the web so that i could access it anywhere. The problem is that the formatting and printing wasn't to great, so I'd have to copy and paste into a PC based word processor, then edit it before printing. This Zoho actually shows me live page view without having to hint the preview button.

Another thing about those PC based processor programs is that it is very difficulty to navigate the new "ribbon" toolbar screens. Zoho is much more straightforward.

My only disappointment is that Zoho is not supported in Chrome. This really bums me out, as I really prefer chrome for browsing purposes. I did post this from Zoho, in Chrome to the blog.

Sandbox: The outdoor critter's, you know what...

I've been familiar with wiki editing for a while now. I just can't think of anything interesting to add at the moment. However, this little exercise has given the idea to plan our big Southwest road trip in a wiki. Hopefully, this upcoming spring my wife and I are planning to visit a large portion of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah landmarks.

A wiki in conjunction with a shared Google map, is the best way to plan for where, what and when to see all these amazing landscapes.

I did have a little trouble at first adding the to the staff blog page cause I kept trying to "paste" the link to my blog directly into the table. I then realized that I needed to use the insert link button at the top and problem fixed. Also, just for fun I recolored Notbyitscover's text to her favorite color, much to her dismay when she snuck up behind me and caught me in the act...

Wiki

Wiki's are cool. Generally I find that when doing reader's advisory on an author's other books, doing a quick google search for the authors name with wiki at the end, will find a fantastic site, much faster and easier to read than the author's website. Author websites are a marketing tool and are notoriously difficult to navigate. The people who write the wikis are so passionate about the subject matter that they generally have much more detail about the materials.

During the beginning phases of the PC Reservation committee we used a wiki, to discuss and develop our RFP requirements. This saved a lot of time driving to different locations and let us spend our time on this project, when it was good for us.

Also the new SPL Circulation manual being on a wiki, has made it so much easier to work with.