Web Challenge #4 - Google

I really had no idea how many great ideas came out of Google until I read the article by David Pogue. Google Earth! YouTube! I do remember hearing about Google's 20% time where staff work on their passions one day a week - hmmm, what would I work on if I could devote a whole day a week to it? I think that I would really dive into the internet and research trends, or work one day a week on "cataloging" and categorizing all of the system knowledge in preparation for when we move to a database that is searchable and can help us find out "how did we do that before", or "how did we get to where we are today?".

Some of the stuff they are playing with in the google labs is amazing - preventing you from sending e-mail you might regret during times of day when you are likely to be drunk - if you are drunk that consistently, I think you have a problem!
I didn't know that you could use the Google search box to do algebraic equations. And how about that translation program?

Challenge #3 - Electronic Resources

I've just completed Challenge #3. I found all of the Gale Virtual Reference Library titles in our library catalog and selected one about Ancient Europe. I e-mailed a pdf to the challenge's e-mail address, translated it into Spanish, and found and e-mailed a citation. I found the hard copy of VideoHound behind the reference desk in TR and compared the listings for the movie Hombre with the online version.

I enjoyed the small, baby steps that this exercise took me through. Thank you, Betsy, for making this fun!

Digital Projector/Laptop Challenge

I completed this challenge today - a piece of cake except that I didn't know the password to log in to the laptop and had to ask technology for it. Lesson learned, make sure I know the password before I take a show on the road! Georgette Breslin was my audience and will vouch for my successful completion of this challenge.
Christine

Listen NJ

I successfully downloaded an audiobook to my pc and then moved it to an mp3 player. It was the first time I had explored Listen NJ to see what kinds of audiobooks were available. I was frustrated by the lack of good selection for the mp3 format, and when I did try to find a book that I would actually want to listen to, there was a waiting list! I really didn't expect there to be a waiting list for a digital item - what's up with that???? I did add myself to the waiting list and will be notified by e-mail when I can go and download it (I won't bother doing that, but wanted to go through the process to see what the customer goes through).

My husband thought he'd be interested in downloading a book to his ipod, but when he saw that you have a limited amount of time with the item, he said he wasn't interested. And the ones that can be burned to a CD were of little interest.

So overall, I was not impressed with the service - there should be no waiting list, at the very least, and the way to browse and find items also seemed cumbersome to me.

Baby Burgee

Meet Chesabar Flying Colors Burgee, our new puppy! She's 7 weeks old in this photo, weighed 9 lbs when we picked her up from the breeder. She's growing fast and I will post more photos soon!

Finding Feeds #9

I tried Syndic8 but didn't get really good descriptions of what kind of information a particular feed would give me. So I just picked Salon, at random, because it promised to "make me think".

RSS feeds

Thing # 8. On a personal level, I could quickly become overwhelmed by all of the information being "pushed" in my direction. I barely have time to read the paper publications that are sent to me - here is yet another set of articles - 12 feeds, 10 posts each - yikes! I need this stuff to be downloaded into my brain for me!

I do, however, see real value in letting the technology find and deliver important updates and information that are relevant to someone's job or their interests. I'm more of a TV junkie than a reader. It's funny, though, because when I'm sitting and reading, my mind tends to wander and I'm thinking about all of the chores and projects I need to do, but when I'm sitting in front of the TV, I don't think about that stuff at all!