Were you able to successfully set up your RSS feed? If not, where did you run into problems? If you were successful, does this make information-gathering more convenient for you?
I found the bloglines site very easy to set up, initally. When I began looking for feeds to subscribe to though, things fell apart a wee bit. For example, I wanted to add the Guardian newspaper to my list. I clicked on the RSS icon on their website, which brought up a long list of gobbledegook (HTML?) - what am I supposed to do with that? Back to bloglines... tried searching for the Guardian on their list of 1000 feeds, but got impatient because I couldn't find it.
I like the idea of having one place to look to see all the updates I'm looking for, but I don't really like: 1.the tech-iness of it all. this should be easy, yes? i think i'm missing something? and 2. the visual appearance of the bloglines page. part of what i like about the sites i read is how they are presented/ designed. I find bloglines very dated looking and unappealing.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Google Universe
What do you like about the Google product? What do you dislike? Would you recommend the product to friends and colleagues?
I browsed around the Google Universe and discovered a few things I wasn't aware of previously. Although I used the advance search often, I didn't know that there are other search tools available to help narrow down results to a particular topic or subject (weather, books, unit conversion, etc.) I'll use this feature again.
Another reference resource I discovered is a part of the Google Labs site; a start-up company called Aardvark was recently acquired by Google and is now integrated into their services. Aardvark is a social search engine. You can submit a question and Aardvark will find someone to provide an answer. The people answering your questions are your friends and friends-of-friends. I might be tempted to recommend Aardvark, but I can't decide if it's creepy or cool? Do I really want to sync my Google account and Facebook account and allow my contacts to see what I'm up to? Sure it's convenient, but as with most other Google services, it's too loosey goosey with my personal information to make me comfortable about using it.
Cyberattack on Google Said to Hit Password System
I browsed around the Google Universe and discovered a few things I wasn't aware of previously. Although I used the advance search often, I didn't know that there are other search tools available to help narrow down results to a particular topic or subject (weather, books, unit conversion, etc.) I'll use this feature again.
Another reference resource I discovered is a part of the Google Labs site; a start-up company called Aardvark was recently acquired by Google and is now integrated into their services. Aardvark is a social search engine. You can submit a question and Aardvark will find someone to provide an answer. The people answering your questions are your friends and friends-of-friends. I might be tempted to recommend Aardvark, but I can't decide if it's creepy or cool? Do I really want to sync my Google account and Facebook account and allow my contacts to see what I'm up to? Sure it's convenient, but as with most other Google services, it's too loosey goosey with my personal information to make me comfortable about using it.
Cyberattack on Google Said to Hit Password System
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Social Networking
For you, is Facebook useful or a time-waster?
Erm, both.
I was a Facebook hold out for ages. I finally- and begrudgingly- signed up just a couple of months ago (and share an account with my fellow facebook-shunning boyfriend). We signed up to promote an art project that we'd been working on together that needed an element of public feedback. It only kind-of worked. I don't think that we put in as much effort as we needed to to make the online component of the project really successful. For the first few days we went 'friend' crazy and added nearly everyone we know- friend or otherwise. We uploaded a few pictures, but didn't post as regularly as a lot of folks do. Now that the project is finished though, I don't find myself checking in on facebook anymore. I'll occasionally look through my contacts recent updates, but rarely (if ever) update my own profile.
So, there's the catch- to make facebook useful (as a promotional tool, anyway) I think that you have to 'waste' a great deal of time on it to make yourself visible.
each other
Erm, both.
I was a Facebook hold out for ages. I finally- and begrudgingly- signed up just a couple of months ago (and share an account with my fellow facebook-shunning boyfriend). We signed up to promote an art project that we'd been working on together that needed an element of public feedback. It only kind-of worked. I don't think that we put in as much effort as we needed to to make the online component of the project really successful. For the first few days we went 'friend' crazy and added nearly everyone we know- friend or otherwise. We uploaded a few pictures, but didn't post as regularly as a lot of folks do. Now that the project is finished though, I don't find myself checking in on facebook anymore. I'll occasionally look through my contacts recent updates, but rarely (if ever) update my own profile.
So, there's the catch- to make facebook useful (as a promotional tool, anyway) I think that you have to 'waste' a great deal of time on it to make yourself visible.
each other
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Wikipedia
How easy or difficult was it to find articles that needed editing? Were the errors you found factual or grammar / spelling?
Oh, Wikipedia. Its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. So many people! So many ideas! So much pop-culture garbage.
Looking around for something to edit seemed rather daunting. Editing someone else's writing isn't my strong suit. After thinking (too) hard about something I could add to, I decided to go with the most obvious answer first- the Calgary Public Library entry.
What a mess! Yikes.
The CPL article looked like it was written in a hurry and is missing citations galore. After reading through the editing help pages- and looking at HTML codes on more established pages- I added one little reference to the CPL article, linking to an annual report. My only other experience with HTML code has been on flickr where it is much more clearly laid out for those of us who know nothing about these things. There you just copy and paste and type in little bits of titles and such. It was my first time editing an article on Wikipedia and although it wasn't too compelling at first, I might try it again!
Count Chocula's Chocolate Food
Oh, Wikipedia. Its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. So many people! So many ideas! So much pop-culture garbage.
Looking around for something to edit seemed rather daunting. Editing someone else's writing isn't my strong suit. After thinking (too) hard about something I could add to, I decided to go with the most obvious answer first- the Calgary Public Library entry.
What a mess! Yikes.
The CPL article looked like it was written in a hurry and is missing citations galore. After reading through the editing help pages- and looking at HTML codes on more established pages- I added one little reference to the CPL article, linking to an annual report. My only other experience with HTML code has been on flickr where it is much more clearly laid out for those of us who know nothing about these things. There you just copy and paste and type in little bits of titles and such. It was my first time editing an article on Wikipedia and although it wasn't too compelling at first, I might try it again!
Count Chocula's Chocolate Food
Monday, March 29, 2010
Delicious
How comfortable are you using Best Websites?
I must admit that I rarely use the list of Best Websites. Usually, it just seems too cumbersome to navigate. I don't like how cluttered and confusing the layout of the site is -what do the little numbers beside links mean? why would I want to choose a subject from a tag cloud?- it's difficult to make sense of what's going on here.
When I'm searching for information to answer a reference question, I'm much more likely to use the sites bookmarked on the ref. desk web browsers.
BUT!
After poking around Deliciuos a bit this morning and trying a bit harder to get over my feelings of icky-ness towards the site, I have discovered (useful!) things I didn't know existed. Like:
Under the Fiction & Literature> Shakespeare tag there is a link to 'No Fear Shakespeare'. Modern English next to the original text- available for lots of plays & sonnets too. Perfect for students when everything we have is checked out. Huzzah!
Also...Library and Archives Canada has a serchable database of city directories for locations all across Canada!
So, after this little experiment, I have at least 2 new reasons to use Best Websites. Perhaps I'll find more!
I must admit that I rarely use the list of Best Websites. Usually, it just seems too cumbersome to navigate. I don't like how cluttered and confusing the layout of the site is -what do the little numbers beside links mean? why would I want to choose a subject from a tag cloud?- it's difficult to make sense of what's going on here.
When I'm searching for information to answer a reference question, I'm much more likely to use the sites bookmarked on the ref. desk web browsers.
BUT!
After poking around Deliciuos a bit this morning and trying a bit harder to get over my feelings of icky-ness towards the site, I have discovered (useful!) things I didn't know existed. Like:
Under the Fiction & Literature> Shakespeare tag there is a link to 'No Fear Shakespeare'. Modern English next to the original text- available for lots of plays & sonnets too. Perfect for students when everything we have is checked out. Huzzah!
Also...Library and Archives Canada has a serchable database of city directories for locations all across Canada!
So, after this little experiment, I have at least 2 new reasons to use Best Websites. Perhaps I'll find more!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
What do you hope to learn from CPL 2.0?
I have used most of the sites/ resources that are scheduled for this training session already, but I don't know all of them well. I'm looking forward to taking the time to look into each of the sites a bit deeper and perhaps find out what an 'online productivity tool' is.
Two crafty blogs I read often:
Design Sponge- a showcase for The Good
Regretsy- features The Bad and The Ugly
Two crafty blogs I read often:
Design Sponge- a showcase for The Good
Regretsy- features The Bad and The Ugly
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