David's 23 Things

Week 9, Thing 23, Summary

2007-11-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

This was an informative and well thought-out program. I already knew most of the information beforehand, but this was a good refresher and I did learn several things.

It is extremely important for librarians to have a good knowledge of technology, as it is used in so many ways, and they need to be able to help patrons. As the library system starts moving more and more online, librarians need to be able to keep up with the new services.

Week 9, Thing 22, Audiobooks

2007-11-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

Netlibrary is pretty nice, but unfortunately, it seems to have mostly older items, so I prefer to get stuff from Maryland Digital eLibrary. My only problem is that the audiobooks aren't compatible with Ipods, but that isn't that much of a problem. The movies are nice, since they have a lot of old videos that aren't available anywhere else.
Fortunately, most of the items from here are compatible with PDAs, so I can still view them.

Even though audiobooks and ebooks are nice when traveling, I still prefer a physical book.

Week 9, Thing 21, Podcasts

2007-11-28T09:12:00.000-08:00

I have been using podcasts for a while, and I really enjoy them. I use Itunes, and simply subscribe to a podcast and download it to my Ipod. I currently have many podcasts, ranging from music podcasts to calculus lectures. Podcasts are a wonderful way to learn, discover new things, and pass the time.

Week 9, Thing 20, Youtube

2007-11-28T08:57:00.000-08:00

My post is about a Youtube video that I found. This movie is a comedy, but it also illustrates how computers can be used to edit and enhance videos.

Youtube is one of the most popular video sharing sites, and is a great place to find commercials, humorous clips, previews, and much much more.

Week 8, Thing 19, Web 2.0 Tools

2007-11-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

I choose an online desktop to write about, DesktopTwo. DesktopTwo is a free online desktop that offers a 1 GB "hard drive", mail, blog, IM, mp3 player, and many other programs. DesktopTwo is completely online, and so can be accessed anywhere. I only have a couple of complaints: it's a little hard to upload files, and I don't think that you can install programs.
Aside from these small complaints, DesktopTwo is an excellent program.

Week 8, Thing 18, Zoho Writer

2007-11-28T07:02:00.000-08:00

Zoho Writer and other online productivity applications are a great way to type documents.

They have many advantages:
-free
-edit documents from anywhere, on any computer
-same file types
-no worries about compatibility
-collaboration is very easy
-you can edit your documents offline
-tabbed documents

I have used these productivity tools before, and I am actaully using Zoho to keep my records for the 23 Things.

These applications make it easy to continue working on research papers, other writing assignments, and keeping a calender up to date.

Week 7, Thing 17, Sandbox

2007-11-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

My post this time is about the Library Sandbox. I added my blog to the Favorite Blogs Page, which was extremely easy.

The Sandbox is a good place to discover other peoples blogs, have fun, and meet some new people.

Week 7, Thing 16, Wikis

2007-11-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

My post this time is about wikis. I am quite familiar with wikis already, and I use Wikipedia a lot. However, I did enjoy looking at the ideas that the various libraries had posted. I think that the Book Lovers wiki is really nice, and will be even better once it gets more reviews.

Week 6, Thing 15, Perspectives

2007-11-17T08:29:00.000-08:00

My post this time is about perspectives on the Library 2.0. I agree with most of the points that people made, such as the need to have more materials online, the need to have user-friendly services, and the need for librarians to be comfortable with technology and to be able to easily help customers.

Overall, a lot of good advice was given. Personally, I can't wait to see the future of the library
5-10 years from now

Week 6, Thing 14, Technorati

2007-11-17T07:59:00.000-08:00

My post this time is about Technorati, which is the leading search tool for blogs.

When searching for "Learning 2.0", the results were much different for different headings.

For the Top Favorited blogs, there are several interesting blogs, such as Boing Boing, which I'll probably start reading.

Technorati is a great tool for discovering new blogs and getting your own blog recognized

Here's some interesting facts about Technorati:
Currently tracking 112.5 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.
175,000 new blogs each day.
blogs are updated with 1.6 million posts/day, or 18 posts every second

Week 6. Thing 13, Del.icio.us

2007-10-30T05:36:00.000-07:00

Del.icio.us is a pretty good idea- especially the ability to categorize bookmarks and sharing the categorization among the users. The ability to manage bookmarks is not a new idea however; several other sites (including Google) offer this service.

The user categories are very useful and help to discover new sites based on what you're interested in. Also, Del.icio.us is a very easy to use site and it works well.

Week 5, Thing 12, Rollyo

2007-10-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

My post this time is about Rollyo, a site to create your own search tool for searching various websites that you specify. This could be very useful if you just want to search on a few sites for something instead of searching the entire web.

I created a roll called Technology Reviews, which searches reviews on several popular computer magazine's sites.

Personally, unless I was having trouble finding something or it was a special circumstance, I wouldn't bother using this. While it doesn't waste time, it doesn't save enough to make it worthwhile.

Week 5, Thing 11, LibraryThing

2007-10-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

My blog this time is about LibraryThing. This is an online site that allows you to categorize your books, and view the list anywhere, even on a phone. It also gives recommendations about other books that you may like.

Speaking from experience, it is all too easy to forget what books you have, and this is MUCH easier than searching through a shelf that's full of books.

I think I'll be using this program a lot from now on.

Week 5, Thing 10, Fun with image generators

2007-10-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

This is a fun week, so my blog this time is about online photo generators. I chose a "posh" photo generator, and here's my photo.

I think that this generator is a cool piece of software.

Week 4, Thing 9, Finding RSS feeds

2007-10-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

I found the Bloglines search easiest to use, because I've used it before.
Feedster, though, is nice because of the number of its RSS feeds.

There were a couple of other nice tools too. If you're looking for something in particular, the best ting to do would be to use all of them.

Week 4, Thing 8, RSS Feeds

2007-10-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, my post for this thing is about RSS feeds. While I have known about these feeds for a while, I have never really used them, preferring to just navigate to the website. This is a bit time consuming however. One neat thing about RSS feeds is the fact that they auto-update, keeping you from having to find the most recent articles. One nice feature of Bloglines is the search feature, which makes it very easy to discover and subscribe to new feeds.

My opinion: RSS feeds are pretty cool, so I'll probably start using them more.

Week Three, Thing 7, Technology Blog Post

2007-08-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

I really like pda(personal digital assistant) technology. You can have a full computer, complete with internet, email, media (images, movies, audio files, etc.), notetaking programs, games, and many other programs that fits in a pocket. In addition, there is a much smaller chance of getting spyware and viruses on a pda even when using the Internet. I have had an internet capable pda for 4-5 years, and I've had only 2 problems, one of which I was able to fix (this is with absolutely no protection, though there are mobile security programs available, such as the Airscanner Firewall, and Airscanner Antivirus.)

Week Three, Thing 6, Flickr Mashups

2007-08-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

I explored some Flickr mashups. One of my favorites was the retrievr, (http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/), which is where you draw a rough draft of something and watch the results. It's amazing how many results a single dot brings up.

Week Three, Thing 5, Flickr

2007-08-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

Flickr is a powerful image hosting/viewing tool. I have had experience with it, but I haven't used it for a while, so this was a good review of the site. There are a lot of free image hosting sites, but this is one of the best.

I found this photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/benmcleod/59948935/. I would definitely love driving this fast.

Week 2, Thing 3, Easiest and Hardest Habits for Me

2007-08-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

The hardest habit for me is number 3, "View Problems as Challenges", as I tend to get annoyed at problems rather than viewing them as helpful learning experiences.

The easiest habit for me is number 6, "Use Technology to your Advantage", because I am very comfortable with technology and I constantly use technology as a timesaver, to make work easier, etc.

Test

2007-08-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

This is a test post