Videos YouTube

It's amazing what people will post on YouTube. Found an interview with a Professor Greenberg from UNC Chapel Hill where she talks about metada and why it's important. She discusses Dublin Core Metada which is something a small group of us needed to use to complete a cataloguing assignment. Her interview can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFqmqcv3s4w. It's worth watching if you are interested in cataloguing.

iTunes

I must admit I'm not much of a music lover. The only band whose members I can name are the Beatles. Does this date me! I like music but I am not plugged in all the time like so many people who don't leave their homes with out earphones. So I wasn't all that inspired until I realized that you could download books too. As an avid reader this was definitely something I could relate to. The variety of free e-books to download was quite good, certainly enough to keep me busy for a long while. Now I just have to win the MP3 player and I'm all set. I wonder do they come in purple?

Stumble

The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines stumble as a verb meaning:
1 a: to fall into sin or waywardness b: to make an error : blunder c: to come to an obstacle to belief
2: to trip in walking or running
3 a: to walk unsteadily or clumsily b: to speak or act in a hesitant or faltering manner
4 a: to come unexpectedly or by chance b: to fall or move carelessly

I prefer the definition: being led on an unexpected trip to interesting and obscure sites that you would never visit on your own.
Think of Stumble as your own private, slightly wacky tour guide to the web. It was easy to log in to and even easier to navigate. I can see this becoming a very addictive pastime!

Facebook

I've created a Facebook account to comply with the requirements this week and to see what it's all about. I admit that I'm still puzzled. I suppose if I had a group of people I was interested in communication with this application would be great. None of my family is computer literate and so although this could be a great way of sharing photos and news over the continents, its not possible. I had a very clear (I thought) conversation with my mother about obtaining my cousin's email address and what I got back was a FAX!! number. So for the moment it's not very relevant to my life and will certainly delete it once the assignment is over.

iGoggle

What is amazing to me is the vast amount of time and effort has gone into creating all the applications that are available at Google. Not just Google earth, Google map, Google documents but the many templates available and selections for customization. There are thousands of options available for making Google exactly what you want it to be. It scares me a bit to see the thousands of games available as well. I suppose if you add these to your home computer no one will know how you spend your time, but at work, these additions could cause a serious drop in productivity!
I love Google map and use it because I am seriously geographically challenged - as my family and friends will attest.
At the present time sharing documents isn't something I've had to do but it could be quite helpful in a team situation.

LibraryThing observations

This is a great place to catalogue your books! Evyerone should have a complete list of all their titles. This way when you lend out a book to a friend, you can keep track of the information and actually get it back. Best reason to create a LibraryThing account is to keep a list of books I will get around to reading when I retire. I've started many a list but managed to lose most of them. Here are some of the titles that I've enjoyed and some titles that are my bibles.

http://www.librarything.com/home/dlovadin

Delicious Homework

Bookmarks are great for keeping you organized. How often do you cut articles out of the paper that have great information you will use one day only to find on the ONE day, it's no where to be found. Using a social bookmarking tool can eliminate bits of paper and frustration. Tagging is like creating your own thesaurus - specific to you. By adding tags to your bookmarks, you are really customizing the entries to be the most helpful to you.
So I think delicious is a pretty good piece of software.

Flickr upload

I've attempted the homework and so far it's not too difficult (thanks for the help Naomi)! I've searched around Flickr a little and it's amazing what people will share with complete strangers. Maybe it's easier to share with strangers you will never have to interact with than friends and family who know you too well.

Wiki Update - Recipes!

The Ryerson Recipe Wiki is an opportunity for all of us to share our favorite recipes. Think about all the wonderful food we've enjoyed together at our Holiday Festival Parties, retirement parties, etc. I've often asked and been asked for recipes after one of our socials. This venue is the perfect place for everyone to publish their favorite. It would be like the community cookbooks that all of us have on our shelves at home, slighty dog eared and certainly stained on the pages that contain the recipes that we make over and over again.
The process of setting up the Wiki account was very simple. Again, as with all of the activites to date, it's the content that is problematic. What to write about that you won't mind seeing in print next year! Editing is a simple process, as is commenting but don't try to delete your entry, it won't work.

RSS Feeds

Well, week 2 of RULA 2.0 is upon us and the world of RSS. There are website, that cater to every possible interest. It wasn't too difficult to set up the RSS feeds but for someone who only reads the living section of the newspaper a couple of times a week, I wasn't sure I really wanted to subscribe to 10 feeds. Is it better to know as much as possible about the world around us and be overwhelmed by it or is "ignorance bliss". I guess I'll monitor the feeds I selected and let you know.
Here are the feeds I've selected so far, ( I say so far because it's becoming addictive to search and add), I suspect I'll need to weed the collection before very long.
http://www.bloglines.com/public/dlovadin

Blogging Observations

I've discovered it's much more difficult to post to a blog than it is to set up a blog site. It's great to be able to test out new (at least new for me) technologies during work time. In our busy schedules we tend to put off learning something new that is not compeletely necessary for work. Being forced (in a nice way) is a good thing! My observations regarding blogs and blogging from my vantage point on the 1st floor are:
computer software is awesome - anyone who can read can be a computer wizard
unfortunately, not all computer wizards are created equal.