Summarize your thoughts about this program on your blog. Well I'd say overwhelmingly this program was successful. I learned more than I knew coming into the program and found some neat sites and tools along the way that I'll be using more in the future. Probably my favorite activities was playing on You-Tube and with the Image generators. I also like that the program exposed me to technology I hadn't had much opportunity to utilize before. The biggest unexpected outcome for me was learning about RSS feeds and moving towards utilizing them myself.
As to how to do things differently...well I was disappointed with the overall layout of Blogger personally. It seems that the community building that Maryland Libraries was going for would have been better served by Livejournal than Blogger. Blogger had better tools overall than any other service I had used. I found the lack of an ability to search out like minded blogs a needless frustration. I'd also like to suggest better instructions for staff on what is expected of them for their assignments.
I'd do another discovery program like this in the future - it was fun. This was a fun way to learn about how the web continues to evolve.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Week 9: Assignment Three
Overdrive and other downloadable audiobooks. I went ahead and set up a Overdrive account and downloaded the software here at work. Downloaded Wee Free Men and clicked on the Overdrive player and received the Security upgrade to Winders media player message. Thats okay I thought to myself remembering there was a message on Overdrive that this would pop up. Click ok and get an error message. Click a few more times before giving up and searching the help files of Overdrive for the error message. No joy. So rather than e-mailing Overdrive I went home and installed the software on my laptop and transferred the book to my MP3 player.
Tool'd around the house listening to the Wee Free Men while I did chores. If my car had a port on the radio for plugging my 'player into it I would definitely use Overdrive more often. Its great to not have to worry about CDs. :)
Tool'd around the house listening to the Wee Free Men while I did chores. If my car had a port on the radio for plugging my 'player into it I would definitely use Overdrive more often. Its great to not have to worry about CDs. :)
Week Nine: Assignment Two
Podcasts! Okay I'll admit that I didn't really see the point to podcasting before and I'm not certain I see the point after listening to several different ones. I started off by going to Podcast.net and browsing the subject guides. I clicked on Sports then Baseball and started browsing the available content. Clicking on a few I discovered that what sounded like interesting topics turned out to be someone who was running a sports clinic for kids. So I shifted gears and started looking at the games/hobbies tab and found some World Of Warcraft podcasts. Even then I was disappointed as the vast majority seemed to be about information I could find on the web/in the game or was a bunch of idiots trying to be funny. So I fell back on my old stand by and googled Chris Moore Podcast and came up with this. Finding that hilarious and more inline with what I was looking for I added the series to my Bloglines.
I guess for me the podcasts reminded me of tuning in on a wireless amateur radio as a kid. Sometimes you would find gold (How to Score with the Ladies) and sometimes you got some nut ranting about how the martians replaced his cat with a demonspawn.
I guess for me the podcasts reminded me of tuning in on a wireless amateur radio as a kid. Sometimes you would find gold (How to Score with the Ladies) and sometimes you got some nut ranting about how the martians replaced his cat with a demonspawn.
Week Nine: Assignment One
Discovering YouTube - the original plan since I use YouTube and Googlevideo so often was to film and upload footage from WoW. Unfortunately the trial software I used kept crashing on me and could only take 30 seconds of footage when it wasn't crashing. The clips were also exceptionally large (600 megs) so I downloaded some software to compress it only to have that crash too. Throwing my hands in the air (and waving them like I just don't care) I decided to just embed some favorite videos for y'all.
WoW related:
And who could resist Christopher Walken dancing?
Want some Popcorn?
Because, after all, Anything YOU can do I
can do better.
Okay I'm done. =)
WoW related:
And who could resist Christopher Walken dancing?
Want some Popcorn?
Because, after all, Anything YOU can do I
can do better.
Okay I'm done. =)
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Week 8: Assignment Two
I selected Cocktail Builder as my site to explore. I'm not much of a liquor drinker but I can see the benefits of such a site even for novice lushes. The real strength of the site comes from punching in what liquors you have in your bar and receiving recipes that have the ingredients available. It would be a great way to explore drinks you may not have tried before. It also has a pretty extensive cocktail recipe database but sadly no recipe for Vulcan Mind Meld. Sadly I'm not sure there is much application for the Library world other than as an additional tool for patrons looking for cocktail recipes. :/
It would be cool if there was a similar site for food or desert makings...
It would be cool if there was a similar site for food or desert makings...
Week Seven - Activity Two
Every time I went to add to the homepage for the sandbox I got the message that another user was editing the page. After 15 minutes of trying I decided to post the link to my contribution here.
Sandbox contribution
I also added my blog to this page.
Sandbox contribution
I also added my blog to this page.
Week Seven: Activity One
This week's assignment particularly interested me as I'm looking into the feasibility of installing and running a Wiki as a supplement to our Intranet. I say supplement because my biggest worry with a wiki is that folks will attempt to use it to supplant our Intranet. I've already seen documents created at some of the branches that links to Memos and other resources that are on our Intranet. I'm not certain why work I've done was replicated or why such a shortcut was deemed necessary given that additions to the Intranet are posted on the news page for the site.
At any rate the biggest strengths of a Wiki for library staff in many cases is its biggest weakness. In a typical Wiki environment anyone who registers has access and may add/edit and/or delete content. In a trusted environment (ie a work team) this is generally fine. But having worked with Wikis for a couple of years now I've seen first hand the damage that the malicious can have on a Wiki for kicks. Here is a site that screenshot and saved some of the vandalism to Wikipedia over the years.
Wikipedia has combated that in recent years by setting up rollbacks and requiring sources for information. Unfortunately sometimes they take it just a little bit too far in trying to keep up the standards. These all, of course, extreme examples and not something that can be reasonably expected to happen every time a Wiki is used on the web. But it is something any administrator is going to have to consider when setting up their Wikis.
In FCPL's case I've decided to start small and limit the Wiki to Childrens Programming resources to start with. Once we see it in use and get a feel for the architecture and how it works I'll expand it to cover other resources. I don't expect it will ever replace our Intranet as some staff hope - if nothing else to maintain the standard that the Intranet is the official resource for FCPL staff.
I did like the BookloversWiki and could conceive of using something similar on FCPL.org.
At any rate the biggest strengths of a Wiki for library staff in many cases is its biggest weakness. In a typical Wiki environment anyone who registers has access and may add/edit and/or delete content. In a trusted environment (ie a work team) this is generally fine. But having worked with Wikis for a couple of years now I've seen first hand the damage that the malicious can have on a Wiki for kicks. Here is a site that screenshot and saved some of the vandalism to Wikipedia over the years.
Wikipedia has combated that in recent years by setting up rollbacks and requiring sources for information. Unfortunately sometimes they take it just a little bit too far in trying to keep up the standards. These all, of course, extreme examples and not something that can be reasonably expected to happen every time a Wiki is used on the web. But it is something any administrator is going to have to consider when setting up their Wikis.
In FCPL's case I've decided to start small and limit the Wiki to Childrens Programming resources to start with. Once we see it in use and get a feel for the architecture and how it works I'll expand it to cover other resources. I don't expect it will ever replace our Intranet as some staff hope - if nothing else to maintain the standard that the Intranet is the official resource for FCPL staff.
I did like the BookloversWiki and could conceive of using something similar on FCPL.org.
Week 6: Assignment Three
Ahhh Web and Library 2.0 we meet again. I'm one of the users that feel that web 2.0 is the same web we've always used only with new absorbency™. Web users and developers have always been working on ways to make the internet not only more userfriendly but interactive as well. I remember when I first started building websites all of the pages had a contactme@mydomain.com type address. Then as things evolved (read spammers hit teh net) I started using a contact form to hide my address. Back in those days databases were not something that drove websites - now sites like FCPL.org are in the minority by relying for the most part on static html pages (this obviously doesn't count the catalog).
Is it bad that FCPL.org doesn't use rendered CSS pages pulling content from a database like the Intranet? In my opinion no because for the most part, HTML is working for us. Since FCPL.org is the "flagship" site for FCPL there is a natural validation process for addition to the site so interactivity will naturally be lower than other sites. Well another tweak to the design and a full redesign are in the future. We'll see what it looks like then.
Is it bad that FCPL.org doesn't use rendered CSS pages pulling content from a database like the Intranet? In my opinion no because for the most part, HTML is working for us. Since FCPL.org is the "flagship" site for FCPL there is a natural validation process for addition to the site so interactivity will naturally be lower than other sites. Well another tweak to the design and a full redesign are in the future. We'll see what it looks like then.
Week 6: Assignment Two
So I took a look at Technorati as requested (I already knew how tagging works for blogs as my journal (Livejournal) and Blogger use Tags. As far as Technorati goes I'm far from enthused with it. This is probably because I'm not as enamored of blogging in general as everyone else is. I think in my own mind I've always equated blogging with the random nutcases that speak on the matters near and dear to their heart on the steps of the local government.
Now I realize that the vast majority of blogs aren't like this but when I look at my own Journal and those that I read regularly on LJ I've discovered that the ones I find the most interesting are the journals that are used as personal diaries. Exceptions to this are a journal by a hollywood special effects artist who gives behind the scenes looks and 'this is how I created this really scary prop' type posts. Even my favorite writers that I read tend to use their journals as a daily updates of news and happenings in their life.
So all in all I have to say I was underwhelmed and uninterested in using Technorati. Sorry if this disappointing to anyone. :/
Now I realize that the vast majority of blogs aren't like this but when I look at my own Journal and those that I read regularly on LJ I've discovered that the ones I find the most interesting are the journals that are used as personal diaries. Exceptions to this are a journal by a hollywood special effects artist who gives behind the scenes looks and 'this is how I created this really scary prop' type posts. Even my favorite writers that I read tend to use their journals as a daily updates of news and happenings in their life.
So all in all I have to say I was underwhelmed and uninterested in using Technorati. Sorry if this disappointing to anyone. :/
Week 6 - Assignment One
Del.icio.us is a pretty cool web tool for bookmarking. But so far its biggest strengths over other bookmarking sites is its tag cloud and social networking aspect. More on the latter in a minute.
I can't say that I find tagging that much more useful over what I've always done which is to organize bookmarks into folders in my browser. I'm enough of an "old skool yo" web user that if I don't have the URL memorized then I can find it through google or my search engine of choice should I need it while away from my computer. I've also been known to set up my links page to reflect urls I use often or to place it on my journal's links heading for ease of retrieval. That being said I can certainly see why Del.icio.us is popular and should probably look at re-wiring my brain to take advantage of its features.
Except when it comes to the social aspect of the site that is. I'm sorry but I'm a curmudgeon when it comes to these things. I frankly don't care what others are bookmarking especially when I find that some folks are using its recently bookmarked feature for advertising purposes. No thanks. =)
I can't say that I find tagging that much more useful over what I've always done which is to organize bookmarks into folders in my browser. I'm enough of an "old skool yo" web user that if I don't have the URL memorized then I can find it through google or my search engine of choice should I need it while away from my computer. I've also been known to set up my links page to reflect urls I use often or to place it on my journal's links heading for ease of retrieval. That being said I can certainly see why Del.icio.us is popular and should probably look at re-wiring my brain to take advantage of its features.
Except when it comes to the social aspect of the site that is. I'm sorry but I'm a curmudgeon when it comes to these things. I frankly don't care what others are bookmarking especially when I find that some folks are using its recently bookmarked feature for advertising purposes. No thanks. =)
Week 5: Assignment 3
Rollyo - Overall I'm not terribly impressed with Rollyo. I like the concept of being able to search multiple sites at the same time but found that to narrow searches to relevant information required quite a bit of tweaking on my end. The adds throughout the search were a deal ender for me.
I think I'll stick with ye ole google toolbar search buttons even though it means doing multiple searches in succession. The results were better overall.
My rolled Rollyo.
I think I'll stick with ye ole google toolbar search buttons even though it means doing multiple searches in succession. The results were better overall.
My rolled Rollyo.
Week Five: Assignment Two
Library Thing is teh best thing evah. I've been meaning to maintain a database of all the books Krys and I own for years now, have farked around with Access (hate it), book database software (buggy as hell), and even tried making my own mySQL database (learning curve like whoa). Library Thing is the easiest by far and its Amazon link makes it work the best. I now know what I'll be doing in the coming weeks at home.
Here is my Liberry.
Here is my Liberry.
Week Five: Assignment One
This one was an easy one for me as I've played quite a bit with online image generators. *cough* Totally on my own time of course...
Without further ado here are my "creations" hosted on my webspace:
Okay this WYSIWYG sux - why in the world does it add the images to the top of the post and now where the cursor is? Stupid.
Without further ado here are my "creations" hosted on my webspace:
Okay this WYSIWYG sux - why in the world does it add the images to the top of the post and now where the cursor is? Stupid.
Rolling again....Week 4 Assignment!
I'll confess I've not been very enamored of RSS feeds prior to this week tending to follow my routine of checking favorite pages every day for new information. After playing with RSS this week I've somewhat come around to understanding the need and probably using them more.
Makes me ponder more turning on the RSS feed for our intranet.
Anywhoo here is my blogline: http://www.bloglines.com/public/DerekB
Makes me ponder more turning on the RSS feed for our intranet.
Anywhoo here is my blogline: http://www.bloglines.com/public/DerekB
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Thing Three: Flickr and Tech schtuff.
I'm a little behind schedule after moving down into the Systems department this week so here is Thing Three.
I spent some time today exploring Flickr and the various mash-ups posted on the site. Its neat that they've opened up the API for community members. I thought some of the mash-ups were pretty neat but having run my own website for years I find I'm just as likely to upload the file to my own site than use a 3rd party site. I do like that you can identify those that can access your pictures and those that can't. Its a little easier than my log-in and password set-up. ;)
So in the spirit of using Flickr* and a mash-up** I created the following catmacro starring our cat Cattie-Brie:
Now on to the tech speak.
I can't be the only person who is "meh" about the new iPhone can I? Its a $500 dollar phone. A $500 phone that requires you to have a AT&T service plan. And AT&T can't (or won't) tell you what the service plan costs. Not only that but I can't see a single option that I feel is a "must have" for my cell. Of course you're talking to a guy who is only worried that his cell can make and take calls. I'm pretty easy to please.
*Not really. I used blogger's upload feature because I didn't want to make a flickr account. :)
** I did use the mash-up though.
I spent some time today exploring Flickr and the various mash-ups posted on the site. Its neat that they've opened up the API for community members. I thought some of the mash-ups were pretty neat but having run my own website for years I find I'm just as likely to upload the file to my own site than use a 3rd party site. I do like that you can identify those that can access your pictures and those that can't. Its a little easier than my log-in and password set-up. ;)
So in the spirit of using Flickr* and a mash-up** I created the following catmacro starring our cat Cattie-Brie:
Now on to the tech speak.I can't be the only person who is "meh" about the new iPhone can I? Its a $500 dollar phone. A $500 phone that requires you to have a AT&T service plan. And AT&T can't (or won't) tell you what the service plan costs. Not only that but I can't see a single option that I feel is a "must have" for my cell. Of course you're talking to a guy who is only worried that his cell can make and take calls. I'm pretty easy to please.
*Not really. I used blogger's upload feature because I didn't want to make a flickr account. :)
** I did use the mash-up though.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Great Googlie Mooglie!
How in the great gods of the Internet do you search for other blogs on Blogger?
Monday, June 18, 2007
Magtheridon First Kill!
Crossposted to my personal journal, a WoW Journal and here.
After weeks of attempts my alliance of guilds have finally killed raid boss Magtheridon in the Hellfire Citadel. This is a crucial first kill for our little band of raiders as we've been slow to get back in the raiding season lately. This kill solidifies us into the fourth most progressed guild on our server.
I also was proud to be chosen as the warrior to attack and hold Magtheridon's attention for this first kill. Got the first piece of armor off him as a reward. ;)
I'll direct link to the kill shot off my friend's site until I can link my own killshots: http://home.comcast.net/~thedragoon/wow/Magtheridon_down3.jpg
For those interested my Character is the third from the left in the front row. The kneeling warrior roaring with glowing hads.
For giggles we went and raided my favorite raid dungeon Naxxramas
After weeks of attempts my alliance of guilds have finally killed raid boss Magtheridon in the Hellfire Citadel. This is a crucial first kill for our little band of raiders as we've been slow to get back in the raiding season lately. This kill solidifies us into the fourth most progressed guild on our server.
I also was proud to be chosen as the warrior to attack and hold Magtheridon's attention for this first kill. Got the first piece of armor off him as a reward. ;)
I'll direct link to the kill shot off my friend's site until I can link my own killshots: http://home.comcast.net/~thedragoon/wow/Magtheridon_down3.jpg
For those interested my Character is the third from the left in the front row. The kneeling warrior roaring with glowing hads.
For giggles we went and raided my favorite raid dungeon Naxxramas
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Did you survive?
Evidently the world ended yesterday while we were all quietly working. You can see eye-witness accounts at the bottom of the post.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
ZOMG FIRST! Or the easiest and hardest concepts of lifelong learners
Warning to all who read this blog - I will probably end up annoying you with my WoW talk - I apologize in advance. But I've always been taught to write about what you know and right now...I know WoW. So brace yerself mateys.
Lifelong Learning
I feel that I'll have the hardest time deciding upon a goal ahead of time. I tend to get distracted pretty easily by shiney things and will scamper off to explore what interests me. For example I just spent 15 minutes playing with the different WYSIWYG that Blogger uses for their posting. I also played around with the URL for the posting screen to see what it reveals about my blog.
The easiest, as I'm sure you can guess, will be to play. I pretty much play all day on websites and other concepts of the web that interest me and when I get home play World of Warcraft.
Yes mentally I am 5. Why are you looking at me like that?
Lifelong Learning
I feel that I'll have the hardest time deciding upon a goal ahead of time. I tend to get distracted pretty easily by shiney things and will scamper off to explore what interests me. For example I just spent 15 minutes playing with the different WYSIWYG that Blogger uses for their posting. I also played around with the URL for the posting screen to see what it reveals about my blog.
The easiest, as I'm sure you can guess, will be to play. I pretty much play all day on websites and other concepts of the web that interest me and when I get home play World of Warcraft.
Yes mentally I am 5. Why are you looking at me like that?
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