Perhaps this is old news to other people, but I was reading this article about Web 2.0 Search Engine 2.0, and it mentioned a new search engine called http://www.chacha.com/.
The regular search engine part is fine, but the cooler part is if you enter your keywords, then click on "Search with Guide". It actually connects you with a live person who will help you with your search!
I tried to see who the people on the other end were, but I couldn't really find anything about if they had library science or information science degrees.
Anyhoo, it's still pretty interesting.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Week 4, Ex. 8 - RSS
I was aware of RSS feeds and I used them occasionally, but I never have used Bloglines before. It's a great way to be able to log into one website and read all of the news you want without having to log into 2390234820 separate websites.
Here's mine: http://www.bloglines.com/public/rockstar-librarian .... it's definitely a work in progress. I chose ones I thought I would like to read; but if some are boring, I'll remove them, as well as add interesting ones.
I'm glad I made a bloglines account because one of my goals of this year was to keep up with current events and this is a great way to do so!
It's also interesting to me how sites like bloglines are helping people make the most of the Internet. There are so many websites and information out there, where does one person even begin to read everything? Well, people don't read everything; they shouldn't. Having a way to organize and prioritize information is what makes sites like bloglines so important.
I hope to use my new account to bookmark not only for my personal use, but to bookmark and share feeds that would help me out with my job!
Here's mine: http://www.bloglines.com/public/rockstar-librarian .... it's definitely a work in progress. I chose ones I thought I would like to read; but if some are boring, I'll remove them, as well as add interesting ones.
I'm glad I made a bloglines account because one of my goals of this year was to keep up with current events and this is a great way to do so!
It's also interesting to me how sites like bloglines are helping people make the most of the Internet. There are so many websites and information out there, where does one person even begin to read everything? Well, people don't read everything; they shouldn't. Having a way to organize and prioritize information is what makes sites like bloglines so important.
I hope to use my new account to bookmark not only for my personal use, but to bookmark and share feeds that would help me out with my job!
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Week 3, Ex. 7
Video game consoles have sure come a long way.
Remember when you would play a video game and as soon as you turned it off, your game was done? There was no saving games (with a few exceptions). Or remember when you actually had to invite people over to your house to play a game? Or how a console's only function was for video game playing? Or how a cord actually connected your game controller to your console?
This isn't the case anymore. Video game consoles nowadays are so much more than just... well, video games! You can save the place you were at if you're done playing for the day, play DVDs, CDs, mp3s, play and chat with friends online, and many other things I don't even know about. It is like having an entertainment center, all contained in a small box.
Microsoft is going to make their PC software more compatible with their console, Xbox 360, with their new Vista OS. This article about gaming on Vista (Top 10 reasons why Vista gaming will be hot) is a good example of how gaming consoles are evolving into something much more complex.
Along with large companies like Microsoft, the gamers (or smaller business owners) are also tweaking consoles to make them do things an 8-bit NES could never accomplish:
How to make a Wii laptop (part 1)
2002 article about the first Xbox modification chip
Buy your PS2 modchip here!
Now I'm not saying anything new. I just thought it was interesting to see how far video games have come.
Remember when you would play a video game and as soon as you turned it off, your game was done? There was no saving games (with a few exceptions). Or remember when you actually had to invite people over to your house to play a game? Or how a console's only function was for video game playing? Or how a cord actually connected your game controller to your console?
This isn't the case anymore. Video game consoles nowadays are so much more than just... well, video games! You can save the place you were at if you're done playing for the day, play DVDs, CDs, mp3s, play and chat with friends online, and many other things I don't even know about. It is like having an entertainment center, all contained in a small box.
Microsoft is going to make their PC software more compatible with their console, Xbox 360, with their new Vista OS. This article about gaming on Vista (Top 10 reasons why Vista gaming will be hot) is a good example of how gaming consoles are evolving into something much more complex.
Along with large companies like Microsoft, the gamers (or smaller business owners) are also tweaking consoles to make them do things an 8-bit NES could never accomplish:
How to make a Wii laptop (part 1)
2002 article about the first Xbox modification chip
Buy your PS2 modchip here!
Now I'm not saying anything new. I just thought it was interesting to see how far video games have come.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Cool resource
I'm usually not one to read all about libraries on my days off, but I thought this was a pretty cool blog/resource tool:
http://librariancentral.blogspot.com/
http://librariancentral.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
More for Ex. 5
Who cares about Elmo? It's all about Cookie Monster.Make your own motivational poster: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/motivator.php
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Week 2, Ex 4
Ummm... exercise 4 just said to register my blog with the Virtual Service Team. So I did. Whew.. that was rough.
Week 2, Ex. 3 -- My bloggety blog
When I was in the first grade, I started writing in a diary. I stopped after a few entries, then started up again when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade; I wrote daily entries until I graduated high school. I tried keeping it up in college, but I got super busy, and diary writing fell to the wayside. I tried starting a journal many times, but I could never keep it up and I was typing so much on a computer, my hand-writing skills were getting depressingly terrible. So when I discovered Live Journal, I was in heaven. I created an account in 2003. I don't even think I knew about the word "blog"; I just considered it an online diary.
I still keep that blog up, and I also purchased the domain: http://www.iheartbooks.com, where I use http://wordpress.com to keep an ongoing list of books I've read. One of my New Year's resolutions is to keep up that site up to date better than I have in past years.
I haven't had a blogger account so this is new to me. I really like the interface, and they make it so easy to customize your blog so it doesn't look like everyone else's. I enjoyed looking at all of the other blogs that are up from SJPL! Once I get caught up with my library2.0 homework, I plan to fool around and tweak my blog more.
I still keep that blog up, and I also purchased the domain: http://www.iheartbooks.com, where I use http://wordpress.com to keep an ongoing list of books I've read. One of my New Year's resolutions is to keep up that site up to date better than I have in past years.
I haven't had a blogger account so this is new to me. I really like the interface, and they make it so easy to customize your blog so it doesn't look like everyone else's. I enjoyed looking at all of the other blogs that are up from SJPL! Once I get caught up with my library2.0 homework, I plan to fool around and tweak my blog more.
Week 1, Ex. 2 -- My good and bad habits
Since I can remember, I've always had these habits in my mind. Hmm.. maybe that's why I became a librarian! But this is not to say that I actually do all of these things.
I knew I wanted to be a "lifelong learner" (even though I didn't know about that phrase) when I first started college. I chose to major in journalism because: 1) I was on my high school paper and 2) my friend was also going to be a J-major. When I started college, I was amazed to see what other people were studying, the variety of classes being offered, and the careers people were choosing. It was then when I realized how much there really was to learn out there; now if there was only a way I could learn it all.
Anyhoo, back to the 7.5 habits. I think my strongest habit is the 7.5: PLAY! Some say I play too much (thanks mom), but mostly I get positive reactions to my attitude towards work, learning, relationships, family, etc. There are definitely times when I need to be serious and buckle down to get some things done, but life is too damn short to be serious 24/7. :)
My weakest habit would have to be setting goals and the plan to achieve that goal. Many times I'll have a goal in mind, but not have a plan on how to do it. Then the goal just falls to the side, or it takes way longer than it should to achieve. Just like the tutorial said, writing your goals down does help, so I've started doing things like that. I also try and tell people what my goals are so I have someone around to hold me accountable.
I knew I wanted to be a "lifelong learner" (even though I didn't know about that phrase) when I first started college. I chose to major in journalism because: 1) I was on my high school paper and 2) my friend was also going to be a J-major. When I started college, I was amazed to see what other people were studying, the variety of classes being offered, and the careers people were choosing. It was then when I realized how much there really was to learn out there; now if there was only a way I could learn it all.
Anyhoo, back to the 7.5 habits. I think my strongest habit is the 7.5: PLAY! Some say I play too much (thanks mom), but mostly I get positive reactions to my attitude towards work, learning, relationships, family, etc. There are definitely times when I need to be serious and buckle down to get some things done, but life is too damn short to be serious 24/7. :)
My weakest habit would have to be setting goals and the plan to achieve that goal. Many times I'll have a goal in mind, but not have a plan on how to do it. Then the goal just falls to the side, or it takes way longer than it should to achieve. Just like the tutorial said, writing your goals down does help, so I've started doing things like that. I also try and tell people what my goals are so I have someone around to hold me accountable.
Week 1, Ex. 1
When I first heard about this program, I thought it was an excellent way to get ALL staff involved in something new and exciting. I was eager to learn about all of these different programs/websites/technologies, and especially on company time. HA! I was already familiar with some of them, but not everything so I'm hoping to not only learn about them, but also use them in my job as well.
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