Google Docs

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc63cd32_1dz9c9zg2

Linking my document to my blog was not as obvious as I would have expected. Took several attempts at posting the link before it worked. And now I've lost my doggie photo, so will have to come back to this.

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/jenniferkbraithwaite/TwoLittleWhiteBoys?authkey=_8hUP0WKUcw

Mashups

Finally - a 23 things module that is actually useful! Lots of fun things to do with photos in Bighugelabs. I used Warholiser for a photo, but that was not nearly as good as some of the other options. The Palette Generator would be very helpful for choosing colour schemes for scrapbook pages. And I really liked the Calendar generator, bit it is a real bugger trying to get it to print at the correct size.

Podcasts

Good for catching up on programs you may have missed, but what about download limits? I don't have a very large limit myself. Libraries could podcast author talks, storytelling sessions/babes, training sessions, lectures etc. Maybe even do staff book reviews or book talks.

Answer Boards

Fine for those with time on their hands! Maybe staff in answersnow could use example questions and answers to post, if they had spare time, or contribute. There are good tips on the answerboards site on how-to.

Round and round in circles

All I wanted was my Matthew Reilly photos to go on the Wiki. Sounds so simple doesn't it! Except to browse for them from the pc required a more recent version of Flash player than we had on staff pcs, and I didn't want to install that. So the alternative was to pull them off a website. Like Flickr. (I never created a Flickr account in the earlier module - lust looked.) Setting up an account in Flickr needs a Yahoo login. WHY???? Does this mean I need to keep an otherwise useless and unwanted yahoo account active just so I can put photos on Flickr. GRRRR!. Anyway - the Yahoo login. I know I had done this but do you think I could login? Only one of two possible passwords - neither worked. SO - tried to set up a new Yahoo account. Tried 5 (yes, FIVE!) staff pcs - none would display the coded script needed to authenticate the login. Finally the 6th PC worked. So now I have a new Yahoo account. Setup Flickr. Added photos. Added link to Wiki. Took an hour to add 11 photos to the Wiki. (Not to mention many swear words.) So not worth the effort.

more technorati troubles

Technorati Profile

Registering my blog with Technorati has been the most irritating and exhaustive process I have ever had to go through. And the really annoying thing is that I don't even WANT my blog to be tagged, or found in Technorati. Social Bookmarking has been an awful module, and has taken far too long. Am completely over this.

Technorati troubles

There are NO results for nswpln2008.
Complete waste of time. Need 2 doggy photos to get over this one.

A delicious link

http://delicious.com/max.angus

Still can't quite see the point of bookmarking - particularly for my own personal sites - they're all marked as favourites on my laptop. For work - well maybe, but if I feel the need to go back to a particular website I can usually remember what it was.

Tags - what is there to get excited about?

Tags seem useless without control - with control, how is it better than links on a website? (except for easier user-additions). Ok I guess for building a list of web pages for reference. Great for dumbing down the workforce - no need for library knowledge any more. Cleveland's bookmarks look better, but Weblinks by QLS still seems a better way to provide annotated lists of websites.

Max and Angus on the beach at Peregian. We only like little waves!

Wiki Edits

Am building up an irritatingly long list of logins and passwords. What with my blog, the wiki, Library thing, Janison itself etc, etc, etc, I am starting to lose track. And what do you do to prevent this? Write them an a scrappy bit of paper that anyone can find. Very secure!

Have finally done a bit of editing on the IPY page of the wiki, but am pretty unimpressed. All I did was add some meeting minutes, but they're already on the G drive. Why duplicate this? at least I can tick off Wikis. YEAH!

Cheating today

Nothing to say. Photo only. (well, I actually did add another blog to follow, so it still counts as an update to my blog). This is Angus, a.k.a. the great white hunter, the lizards' nemesis, possum hater extraordinaire, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth terrier-ist. Cute as all getout though! Can't finish wikis till I think of something deep and meaningful to add to the IPY library page. This may never happen. Keep meaning to take some photos - hard when the camera insists on staying at home!

My new rule

I am now committed to adding a Westie photo to every new posting - dog related or not. Will have to remember to put lots on my new BrisEstick, when it arrives. This is Max, one of my beautiful boys - always smiling!

Anyway - video online. Imagine all that online space being devoted to the biggest collection of poorly focused, poorly produced rubbish I've ever seen (except for the Westie ones, of course!) . I would hope if you were to use them in a professional capacity they would be of a better quality. Otherwise they are just a time-waster. Except for the opportunity to present alternate points of view in a direct, visual format, or inhouse presentations, I think it's one of those things that people get excited about just because it's there. You don't want to suspend critical evaluation in all the excitement of someone else's funniest home videos.

First video - Woo Hoo!

My blog is becoming distinctly Westie-flavoured (closest I can come to having them here at work). What else would I do but use a West Highland Terrier video?

Bah Humbug!

Have just found out that my whole wasted morning trying to view Wetpaint videos was something to do with the pc I was using. AAAGH!

Have now successfully viewed them and frankly, I wouldn't have missed much had I just given up altogether.

Desperately in need of another doggie photo. This one's not mine - but I have some just like it. Aaaw, cute!

Wiki whinges

The whole wiki thing is driving me crazy. Have just spent most of the morning trying to see the WetPaint videos, to no avail. Let's just say I get the overall gist of it, and call it a day.

I think I need a doggie photo to calm me down. This one is of the boys at Stumer's Creek, at Coolum - a wonderful off leash beach area.

Some wiki thoughts...

SJPCL subject guide - good way to include documents, categories and links to catalogue from one source – but will the new version of elibcat cover this anyway?

What is the point in most cases? Except for fun stuff, wouldn’t it be better for experts to compile info? (despite german example) Why is user generated info any better?

Heritage wiki – nice way to provide access to digitised info, but why is this better than a website?

Booklovers wiki – nice idea – anyone can contribute reviews - maybe we could do something similar with Summer Reading each year.

I can also see the benefit of wikis for closed groups wanting to co-ordinate information.

Blog practice

Thought I might add a link to the Flickr page of one of my favourite inspirational scrapbookers. Tried to add one of her photos from this page but it didn't work. Clicking on 'add image' does absolutely nothing. What the?? This is exactly what I did not want - wasting time on the internet just because it's there. "Internet dictating my life' is a road I do not want to go down

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliedwards/

(Nearly) 23 23 things

For about 10 seconds I considered posting 23 images, but the boredom factor set in REALLY soon. First I saved the images and downloaded them from the pc, then I realised I could just have added the URL of the image instead, which would have been a whole lot easier. The really surprising thing is that there were 2,698,186 images found by searching "23".

I have to wonder - one of the selling points of saving images to sites like Flickr is to share them easily, which I guess is fair enough, but if they are hailing it as safe ( and long term) storage for personal images, where would that leave people if they suddenly decided that there would be charges for doing so? Would an external site necessarily be safer than your own off-site storage?

These are the two little boys who make it all worthwhile. Max on the left, with the permanently cute expression - one ear up and one ear down, and Angus on the right with his little teddy-bear face (butter wouldn't melt ... yeah right!). This is at our favourite beachy spot, at Coolum on one of our regular holidays.

Day one

First blogging day - phew!
Took a while to get over the hurdle of choosing a blog address - who'd have thought there would be so many people trying the same names! Being a 'read the manual first' kinda girl, it's hard to just jump in without reading up on the how-to.