final thoughts

Despite my often sardonic tone on these posts, this exercise has born more fun than painful. I'm just not entirely convinced of the applicability of many of these tools to the job of librarian, apart from the informational ones. A lot of this stuff is part of the tech-gimmick revolution, where our lives are made more complicated, not simpler, by digital technology that does little more than feed our narcissism, furnish distraction, make money for computer firms, and yet does not make us anymore interconnected than we were in Columbus' time, nor make us any wiser. And the terminology of this environment has, if you'll pardon the expression, an infantile quality to it: blog, mashup, tagging--a kind of kids version of Orwell's Newspeak. I do not distrust technology, I'm just suspicious of the motives behind the people who create it. "Oh, what brave new world that has such people in it . . . "

who pee'd in the sandbox?

Well, I got into the Learning 2.0 sandbox and added my blog address to the list for Harford County. I'm not sure what else to do, but anyway, it's there.

audio books

I found Netlibrary and Project Gutenberg to be non-user-friendly. I typed 1984 under Title Search and came up with nothing. I also looked up Lovecraft under Author Search and came up with zilch. Overdrive seems like a version of the library's own Maryland Digital Library Consortium--which did bring up 1984 under Title Search. Still no Lovecraft, though. I guess there's not much call for ol' H.P.

online productivity tools

I found this site http://lifedev.net/big-list-of-online-productivity-tools/and glanced at some of the tools. Although they might not be sexy or narcie (my shorthand word for narcissistic--I own the trademark on it), these tools seem, on the whole, much more useful and practical than a lot of the other things I've explored in Web 2.0.

the future of 2.0

I think this 2.0 stuff is all temporary. It will become 3.0, then 4.0, and onward. That is the nature of things. I'm not convinced it improves anything in practical terms, except in some particular ways, such as searching for information in a speedier way. A lot of the rest of it comes off as somewhat narcissistic/Brave New World/ Logan's Run stuff. Except we don't die at 30.
Still no cure for cancer, though.

searching for podcasts

I typed Podacst into Google and found http://www.podcast.net/

Youtube, Metube

I am on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egTR39mwse0

Online image generator

I've messed about with a couple of image generators (http://interactimage.com/ http://www.jellymuffin.com/generators/textpix2/), and they're not that different from Publisher, which we use for flyers in the library.

Pandora's box

I'm currently playing with Pandora, a site which instantly creates a webradio/IPod-like list of songs similar to a title which the user inputs. I decided to test it by typing in "The Gates of Delirium" from Yes. And sure enough I now have a list of Prog Rock. Admirable site.

aloha wiki

I'm on the fence about Wikis, mainly because of the--how shall we put this politely--subjectivity of Wikipedia. The idea of the Wiki is very egalitarian, which I'm always for, but at the same time, are we all experts? In other words, who decides what is truth, if it can be "edited live"?
http://www.wiki.com/whatiswiki.htm

Technorati

This site appears to be a search engine for blogs. Now I sometimes scan a few blogs on the Huffington Post site, but those are more often of a political nature. General blogs don't interest me that much, since most people online don't appear to have too much to say. For example, I typed in "Stanley Kubrick" into the search engine on technorati and this quote from a blogger named Evil Spock popped up under the headin Pimping Harder:
"There's a real creepy scene in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining where a man dressed in a bear suit appears to be performing oral sex on a well-dressed gentleman. Kubrick is so weird."
I rest my case.

Del.icio.us leaves a bad taste

Well, I tried to register on Del.icio.us but it kept putting the kybosh on everything I entered. The one that finally did me in was when it said that "password must contain a symbol or number." It's cool, because I don't have much use for social sites anyway.

Rollyo

I've just played around on Rollyo, and I'm still not sure what it's for. It appears to be another shortcut, but aren't search engines already shortcuts?

Library Thing

Well I opened a Library Thing account and built my list of favorite books, a needless narcissistic exercise, but nevertheless a bucolic way to pass the afternoon.

library related-blogs and/or news feeds.

Blog: http://www.librarian.net/

News feed: http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=news

RSS and Bloglines

I registered my account on bloglines. Whee!
I studied RSS and apparently it's a way for people to check their favorite websites without having to actually go to them manually. Or you could just add the sites to your Favorites.

Technology I like

I like my thumb drive. It holds a lot of stuff.
I like my laptop. It's got my stuff on it.
I'm looking to buy a wi-fi connector for my laptop.
I cannot use my laptop away from an electrical socket because the battery won't hold a charge. I've hardly used the battery in the 4-plus years I've owned the laptop. A new battery costs more than $100.
I saw that science has invented a new "non-stick" chewing gum. There's still no cure for cancer, though.
I think microwave ovens are overrated.
I like ice cream, but that's not technology. Sorry.
Let's see...
I want to go play in the daisies.

Wait--it was all my fault!

Wait! I take everything back! All hail Flickr! You see, what I forgot to do is hit the refesh button everytime I attempt to sign in. And then--I hit the refresh button again! So it was all my fault.
Boy, I can't wait to move on to my next task!

the technocracy is a lie

Well, I can't get into my flickr account. I can't edit. It's completely blocked me out. Is this what the next couple of months of this Library 2.0 is going to be like? Is this that global internet village I've heard so much about? Excuse my lack of patience, but you know, I can't reason with a machine.
What a joke.

Mother-Flickr

Actually I wound up on Flickr before signing up for Library 2.0. What happened was I set up a page on YahooPhotos to store some of the Paris photos that Margaret and I accumulated on our trip, to better share them with family and friends. But then YahooPhotos shut down and migrated all of the photos over to Flickr, which is a royal pain in the ass to sign in to. I'm sure that I of course am doing something wrong, since these websites are never at fault.

John jumps into the fray

Yes, Elvis has entered the building, y'all.
I also have a blog that I co-authored with Miss Margaret called Parisfools. It is also here on blogspot.
OK, enough for now.
Bye.