#11 Library Thing

I spent several good years of my life as a senior cataloguer and have the scars to prove it. So I was interested in the facility for mere mortals to catalogue their own books. The Library Thing provides for fairly basic cataloguing and is perfectly simple to use. The most appealing feature allows users to add individual tags and reviews.

I added 5 titles and reviews to my "library":

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/onlylittleoldme

One interesting aspect to this whole Web2 revolution is the vast proliferation of the same essential information with multitudes of variations in a completely unregulated environment. Hopefully, at some stage in the near future people will realise that sometimes less is more and they'll start working more cooperatively as with Wikipedia.

Helpful garment label

My epitaph

Finally!

road sign

road sign, originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/12493276@N02/.

#10 Image generators

Had heaps of fun making a variety of hopefully witty images:

First, an evocative road sign, using http://www.customroadsign.com/menu.php


Using http://www.getyourownstar.com/menu.php I gave Mozart a well-deserved star on Hollywood's walk of fame.

Then I created an epitaph for my tombstone, using http://www.tombstonebuilder.com/index.php (This one is deadly serious.)

Next I created a helpful garment label, using http://yourgen.com/other/fire

I saved the images to my photos, then to flickr, then to my blog.

#9 Library-related feeds

Viewed the technorati tutorial. Searching technorati and feedster by tags is a good way to locate feeds that have current information about specific topics. But using common keywords often results in too many results to process.

Added the Christchurch City Libraries new nonfiction feeds to my Bloglines. This worktool will help me to select new titles for our library.

Added a "News for Libraries" feed from the National Library.

Joined the Topix community. (My usual web name had already been used. So I had to use a variation. The multiplity of logins and passwords has the potential for becoming difficult to keep track of.)

Most of the Topix topics focus on popular culture. We're certainly a long way from Library of Congress subject headings here.

Realising that I will never actually have the time to view all my Bloglines feeds, I perpetrated a severe cull. Now my list is more manageable.

I'm interested in the issue of a consistent icon for feeds. Please check the following broken link: http://sjlibrarylearning2.blogspot.com/www.feedicons.com
"Page not found."

#7 My favourite tech related thing

Online financial management has simplified the way I manage my money. With an ASB Fastnet login I can easily switch funds from my high-interest FastSaver account to my Streamline account in time to pay off my monthly VISA Gold bill.

I enjoy the convenience of paying cash for virtually all everyday purchases. Nearly all my regular bills are paid by direct debit from my Streamline account. A quick look at my online balances shows me how much I have spent each month without having to keep a personal record myself.

I recently used the one-off Bill payment feature to pay a bill over $500 online. This entailed registering for Netcode and having a unique number sent to my mobile phone so that it was clearly me and no one else making the payment. I liked this added level of security.

I also have online access to view the progress of my superannuation funds in the New Zealand Retirement Trust.

For my 8-week overseas trip next June-July I'm prebooking my accommodation, tours and entertainment online, taking advantage of the high NZ dollar. When I'm overseas I'll be monitoring my funds online and using my VISA card for most transactions, thereby avoiding the need for changing too much cash. This will be a big help, because on my travels I'll be dealing with US dollars, Mexican pesos, Pound sterling, Danish kroner, Euros, Jordanian dinars, Indian rupees, Thai baht and Singapore dollars.

While planning my trip, I used the Star Alliance online mileage calculator. This allowed me to select my own itinerary and preferred flight times within a set mileage limit for the round-the-world fare. This wonderful tool is problably my second favourite online techy thing.

P.s. Added a comment to Nefertari's cat blog:
only me said...
My favourite cat quote is: "Managing people is like herding cats."

Bloglines

#7 Following the palinet tutorial http://www.palinet.org/rss/toti/tsstutorial.htm, I subscribed to Bloglines and selected a range of feeds that I'm interested in.

While searching for feeds I came across this cool explanation of hotkeys:

Hotkeys: j - next article k - previous article m - collapse/expand left pane s - next sub f - next folder A - read all n - toggle keep new o - open article O - open article in background r - refresh left pane

I'll definitely be using "m" from now on to hide that pesky lefthand window.

Watched the Cnet.com and YouTube videos on RSS.

I tried to add a Feeds page element to my Blog template, but a message came up saying the URL was invalid.

Then I tried another approach: adding the URL as a Link page element. This time the URL was accepted. So I now have easy access to my Bloglines feeds at the top of my homepage above my Blog archive.

Fun times!

Fun times!

#6 (continued). Used the Captioner tool in http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ to spice up our group photo.

Doomed planet

#6 Studied http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ and decided to create a spoof movie poster. Selected photo, text, fonts, colours etc. I had heaps of fun with this wonderful tool. I wonder about the possible problems associated with this technology in the future. Issues of copyright and intellectual property spring to mind. With the explosion of feedability, will it be possible to monitor let alone police this area?