So here we are, the end of the road. It's been quite an interesting journey, with lots of things learnt.
Thing 23, StumbleUpon, was quite pleasant to use. I suspect that it will become a first rate time-user-upper, much like Facebook, ICanHasCheezburger, and other news aggregate and picture posting sites. It was fairly easy to figure out, although the picture posted on the 23Things blog did not match up with the website's setup on my web browser. I'm not sure if that's an upgrade of the site or just a difference in web browsers, but I eventually figured it out where the settings was.
I have to say, I was surprised to find that my favourite part of this whole process is this blog. I was dragged into it kicking and screaming, but once I got started (after deleting 3/4 of what I wrote for my first post before publishing it), I found it surprisingly easy to write. There is something liberating about putting your words in writing, and being able to speak without being interrupted!
The most useful of the things we learnt about for me is Pinterest, simply because of the wealth of ideas I can find for displays and children's programming, and even ideas of books to read!
I was surprised at how difficult it was to navigate the Creative Commons images, as I hadn't realised how different rules for images from different countries are.
As for how I plan on using what I've learnt, I will probably continue on with this blog and use it to post book and movie reviews, as that seems to be what I enjoy using it for the most. Perhaps I'll expand that further in the future to write about other things that interest me. I will continue on with Pinterest, as it is something I was already using for work, though less so for home use. I don't know if I will keep up with Scoop.it or StumbleUpon, though they seem interesting they do take a lot of time to browse through, and that's something that must be used judiciously when at work. I may just migrate them to home use instead... Wordle was OK to use, but I remember seeing a different word cloud generator previous to the training that seemed like it had more versatility. I may try to find it again to use in some display ideas in the future. Vision is something I use already, so that has not changed, though I may look into GoodReads more in the future. I don't know that I will use podcasts much in the future, and I probably won't be posting many youtube videos, although you never know! I can't say much about Apps at the moment, since I don't have an app enabled device, but if I do in the future I will revisit that. As for Twitter, although it was easier than I thought to use, it's format and uses don't really fit in with my lifestyle at the moment. I will have to revisit that in the future as well.
All in all, exploring these different facets of the web was enlightening, and wasn't as hard as I though. I am hoping that this will make me more open to trying new things in the future, though I know that I will probably remain more of a real world girl than a virtual world one. But at least now I know what people are talking about when they mention Scoop.it or Twitter!
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
Things 20 to 22
It seems that I will have problems participating in week 9's things, as I don't have access to an app device at the moment. I own a first generation Kobo, but I don't believe I can install apps on it as it doesn't have Wi-fi or internet browser capabilities. I also don't have a cell phone, wonder of wonders!
I'm sure I'm not the only library clerk without one, so perhaps a group workshop for those of us without devices would be a good idea. I will certainly try the Overdrive version for my PC and download then return an ebook to my Kobo through that in the meantime.
update: I tried out downloading Adobe Digital Editions for my PC and Kobo (the program reccomended for it rather than Overdrive). I seemed to manage downloading ADE to my PC well, but when it came to Authorizing my PC and eReader with an Adobe ID, things did not go as predicted in the instructions. There was no Digital Setup Assistant window, the ID setup asked me which ebook vendor to use, something which was not listed in the instructions. Also, when I finally got to the step of authorizing my Kobo, Adobe would not let me! Since during this process it seemed as if I had tried to do the setup in the past (an ID already existant with one of my email addresses), I thought that it would work ok. But for the checkout and download step, I was not sure where to download the book (it did not say anything about that on the website), and when I tried to find it with ADE and on my Kobo, I was unable to locate it.
Maybe it's easier to use with the App, I'm not sure. All I know is that currently I can't seem to borrow ebooks from the library, which is a real shame. Perhaps I will eventually figure out how to do it.
I'm sure I'm not the only library clerk without one, so perhaps a group workshop for those of us without devices would be a good idea. I will certainly try the Overdrive version for my PC and download then return an ebook to my Kobo through that in the meantime.
update: I tried out downloading Adobe Digital Editions for my PC and Kobo (the program reccomended for it rather than Overdrive). I seemed to manage downloading ADE to my PC well, but when it came to Authorizing my PC and eReader with an Adobe ID, things did not go as predicted in the instructions. There was no Digital Setup Assistant window, the ID setup asked me which ebook vendor to use, something which was not listed in the instructions. Also, when I finally got to the step of authorizing my Kobo, Adobe would not let me! Since during this process it seemed as if I had tried to do the setup in the past (an ID already existant with one of my email addresses), I thought that it would work ok. But for the checkout and download step, I was not sure where to download the book (it did not say anything about that on the website), and when I tried to find it with ADE and on my Kobo, I was unable to locate it.
Maybe it's easier to use with the App, I'm not sure. All I know is that currently I can't seem to borrow ebooks from the library, which is a real shame. Perhaps I will eventually figure out how to do it.
Friday, 7 March 2014
Movie review
Just watched an interesting movie last night, so I thought I would review it. It's called Man with the Screaming Brain, starring Bruce Campbell.
If you know Bruce Campbell movies, you'll know that they tend to be tongue in cheek, cheesy, B-movies that are so interesting that they deserve an A-rating. In this case, the plot of the movie centres around a rich American who comes to Bulgaria with his wife on business, and gets embroiled with a taxi driver and his psycho Gypsy ex-girlfriend. And I do mean that, she tends to stab first and ask questions never.
And here comes the requisite sci-fi twist. A Russian neuroscientist has been working on an inhibitor serum that has the potential to allow any donor to be matched with any receiver, without risk of rejection. I'll let the movie's title tell what happens next, and the rest to your imagination.
I highly recommend this movie if you enjoy campy sci-fi action movies!
If you know Bruce Campbell movies, you'll know that they tend to be tongue in cheek, cheesy, B-movies that are so interesting that they deserve an A-rating. In this case, the plot of the movie centres around a rich American who comes to Bulgaria with his wife on business, and gets embroiled with a taxi driver and his psycho Gypsy ex-girlfriend. And I do mean that, she tends to stab first and ask questions never.
And here comes the requisite sci-fi twist. A Russian neuroscientist has been working on an inhibitor serum that has the potential to allow any donor to be matched with any receiver, without risk of rejection. I'll let the movie's title tell what happens next, and the rest to your imagination.
I highly recommend this movie if you enjoy campy sci-fi action movies!
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Things 18 and 19
Here's another book review:
Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11275323-raising-steam
This is book 40 of the Discworld series, and it stars Moist Von Lipwig, as well as Lord Vetinari and a few other new and recurring characters. Ankh-Morpork is taken by storm, or by steam, by a brand new invention called a locomotive. The good citizens rush forward to take advantage of this novelty, and Moist is at the forefront as usual. Just as the clacks have changed things, so does the steam engine bring new opportunities, and new dangers to Ankh-Morpork. Dwarf terrorist attacks, goblin's improvements, and the possible creation of a new goddess are just a few things you'll find in this book. As always Pratchett's writing kept me reading avidly. I did find that the pacing of this novel was perhaps a bit choppier than in the past, but maybe that is intentional, or perhaps a side effect of Mr. Pratchett having to use voice recognition and dictation software, as well as using human assistants... Somehow this novel had a bit of a melancholy tone to it. It wasn't overtly so, in fact it was as enjoyable and entertaining to read as ever. But I found that I came away with the feeling that the author was trying to tell us something. To say that all things change, and change is good. And that sometimes you have to let go of things, let go of the past to move forwards. I don't know if Mr. Pratchett is planning on wrapping up the Discworld series soon, but it seems like he's trying to pave the way with his writing, to prepare his readers, if you will. Hopefully he will continue to entertain us with his prose for a while yet.
Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11275323-raising-steam
This is book 40 of the Discworld series, and it stars Moist Von Lipwig, as well as Lord Vetinari and a few other new and recurring characters. Ankh-Morpork is taken by storm, or by steam, by a brand new invention called a locomotive. The good citizens rush forward to take advantage of this novelty, and Moist is at the forefront as usual. Just as the clacks have changed things, so does the steam engine bring new opportunities, and new dangers to Ankh-Morpork. Dwarf terrorist attacks, goblin's improvements, and the possible creation of a new goddess are just a few things you'll find in this book. As always Pratchett's writing kept me reading avidly. I did find that the pacing of this novel was perhaps a bit choppier than in the past, but maybe that is intentional, or perhaps a side effect of Mr. Pratchett having to use voice recognition and dictation software, as well as using human assistants... Somehow this novel had a bit of a melancholy tone to it. It wasn't overtly so, in fact it was as enjoyable and entertaining to read as ever. But I found that I came away with the feeling that the author was trying to tell us something. To say that all things change, and change is good. And that sometimes you have to let go of things, let go of the past to move forwards. I don't know if Mr. Pratchett is planning on wrapping up the Discworld series soon, but it seems like he's trying to pave the way with his writing, to prepare his readers, if you will. Hopefully he will continue to entertain us with his prose for a while yet.
Thing 16 and 17
I'm a bit behind for week 7, but here it is at last.
For thing 17, I listened to the podcast from Q, the Read on Libraries - is this the end of Libraries as we know them? (the podcasts listed in the Booklist webinar archive seemed to be missing except for the 3 most recent)
I found that although I could understand the argument of John about the potential that the libraries might be giving up their collections in order to provide more social space, I don't agree with his fears that the library will become nothing more than a hyped up Internet café. I don't think that libraries see the issue as being Internet vs. Books, or Social space vs. Research Library. It seems that, at least in this situation with the New York library and other American libraries, the issue is with membership and usage of the libraries, and keeping funding. Although moving 2 million books into storage seems shocking to some people, what I'm wondering is what type of situation it really is. Will there be electronic scans done of the stored books to provide access to them? Can a patron order the books from storage in order to use them? Which books are being moved? Is the storage location meant to be permanent, or will the collection be eventually moved again to another research library? In the podcast John seemed to have this fear that books were being threatened, like in Fahrenheit 451 perhaps? I think the discussion was very good, though Chris and Jian Ghomeshi did not seem to address the underlying issue that seemed to concern John. Chris's view that making libraries more accessible and welcoming to patrons will increase library usage is a very good point, but I think he probably did not see books as being the most important carrier of information that John seemed to. In any case, it was a very interesting debate, and if I have time I will look for further debates on the subject.
For thing 16, here is a video on the origins of the words geek and nerd. I thought it was interesting, though I'm not sure which category I would fall into :).
For thing 17, I listened to the podcast from Q, the Read on Libraries - is this the end of Libraries as we know them? (the podcasts listed in the Booklist webinar archive seemed to be missing except for the 3 most recent)
I found that although I could understand the argument of John about the potential that the libraries might be giving up their collections in order to provide more social space, I don't agree with his fears that the library will become nothing more than a hyped up Internet café. I don't think that libraries see the issue as being Internet vs. Books, or Social space vs. Research Library. It seems that, at least in this situation with the New York library and other American libraries, the issue is with membership and usage of the libraries, and keeping funding. Although moving 2 million books into storage seems shocking to some people, what I'm wondering is what type of situation it really is. Will there be electronic scans done of the stored books to provide access to them? Can a patron order the books from storage in order to use them? Which books are being moved? Is the storage location meant to be permanent, or will the collection be eventually moved again to another research library? In the podcast John seemed to have this fear that books were being threatened, like in Fahrenheit 451 perhaps? I think the discussion was very good, though Chris and Jian Ghomeshi did not seem to address the underlying issue that seemed to concern John. Chris's view that making libraries more accessible and welcoming to patrons will increase library usage is a very good point, but I think he probably did not see books as being the most important carrier of information that John seemed to. In any case, it was a very interesting debate, and if I have time I will look for further debates on the subject.
For thing 16, here is a video on the origins of the words geek and nerd. I thought it was interesting, though I'm not sure which category I would fall into :).
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