Week 3 - Thing 8 - RSS feeds and Bloglines

I have signed up to bloglines and explored the wonderful world of "Real Simple Syndication" or RSS. I have added about a dozen feeds to my account. I have never used these before and find it interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, I'll need to use it some more before deciding if I'll keep using it or not.
I like the idea of having lots of sights all brought to one place for me to check. Unfortunately, not all of the sites feed the whole posts in this format. For example, the New Zealand Herald's Sideswipe has only the top three lines, so it is pretty useless. I'm not going to continue to subscribe to that feed.
I'll see how much I like this rather than visiting the web sites themselves. I think it might be good for some sites, but others I will go to the actual site. This might help me keep a better track of some of the sites I like to read but don't regularly due to time.

Week 3 - Thing 7 - Something Technological

For this task, we have to blog about anything technology related that interests us. The iPhone is a geek toy that I'd like to get, it can do all kinds of things and can even make phone calls. ;-)
If and when it makes it to NZ, I'll consider getting one. I'd probably have to buy it on hire purchase as the cost it on the high side.
What I like about it is that it can do all the things that I want in one devise. I don't like filling my pockets with a cell phone, a mp3 player and a this and a that. The iPhone combines a phone and video iPod so I could make phone calls, watch videos, and listen to music all on the one handy devise, and surf the net too.
But I have my reservations about it too. Firstly, there is the price, and how much extra it is for the phone service contract that they will probably force you to buy along with the phone. The other problem is that it is not a 3g phone, so the internet speed is low unless you use a wi-fi hotspot. It is possible that future versions may have 3g technology so it would be disappointing to buy an early model to find the better model is just around the corner.
But it could be a long way off before the iPhones are available here legitimately.

Week 3 Thing 6 - Flickr Fun and Mashups

I've had a bit of a look around some of the things you can do your flickr photos using mashups and 3rd party sites. There are a huge number of cool things you can do.
I like Big Huge Labs, which have a long list of stuff. You can make your own calendars, create wallpaper for your desk, or add a frame to make the picture look like a stamp or polaroid photo, to name but a few.
I like one called Cube, which allows you to choose 6 photos and it will arrange them for printing out in the correct way to fold up into a cube. You can even create dice by selecting the option to add dots to each face. I'm going to try this one out over the weekend. I also like the one that allows you to make trading cards, since I used to waste a lot of money of trading card games when I was at uni.
All of these little toys look like it is so easy to use, too. Just upload photos or link it your Flickr account and choose photos you have there, fill in a few options and it does the rest, like magic. :-)

Week 3 Thing 5 Flickr

Take a look to the right side of my blog page and see what I have been up to. This week I have been exploring the photo sharing website Flickr. After looking around the site I decided to do something with it. So I created an account and uploaded some photos. I then created a Flickr Badge and added it to my blog. The photos are all animals; some from the Auckland Zoo, one photo from Western Springs and some are photos of my pets. Take a guess at which photos are of my pets.

I found Flickr to be a great site for uploading your photos and sharing them with the world or just your friends or family if you so desire. There are a huge number of photos that people are sharing. It would be easy to spend hours looking thru the fascinating images on that site.

Week 2 - Thing 4 Part 3 Facebook

Now, Facebook is something I am familiar with. I set up a profile a several weeks ago and have fast become addicted. I like that it is easy to use and is a good way to find and keep in touch with old friends as well as current friends. I have found several friends on there that I haven't seen for years after they headed off overseas.
It also as a large number of appications that can be added to your profile to play games, compare friends in a variety of fun ways, or give virtual gifts.
Maybe it is showing my age, but I also prefer that most people write in proper english rather that in txtspk, or the use of rAnDom CaPitAls tO MAkE wRItiNg loOk COol aNd HArDeR tO ReAd, which is something I found annoying on bebo.
One thing that is interesting is that facebook is almost completely useless if you don't have an account. With bebo and Myspace you don't have to be a member to view other peoples profiles, but with facebook the most you can see is a persons name and picture. And even this is a recent change; previously you had to sign up to even do a search for someone.

Week 2 - Thing 4 Part 2 Myspace

I have now signed up for Myspace. I found that signing up was a little more complicated than bebo but not too bad. Once I was set up, I found it is a lot harder to change stuff. Whereas changing the look of my bebo profile involved a few clicks of the mouse, according to the Myspace FAQ it requires html code to change the colour and look of my page. And if you don't know html, it suggests asking someone that has changed their own page.
While I have used html in the past, I have forgotten most of what I once knew. I could learn it again, but why bother? I don't like it.
Another thing I don't like is that when I am logged in, my page is covered with advertising. My profile that others view doesn't appear to have the ads, but they clog the page I look at.
I see little personal use for this site since Bebo is much more user friendly and not cluttered with ads. The one advantage to Myspace, for me, is that it seems more popular as a place for known bands and celebrities to promote themselves. So if I'm looking for info on my favourite band I might end up looking at their Myspace page. Otherwise I think I'll stay clear.
My myspace page, which I have done very little with, is: http://myspace.com/geeklibraryguy

Week 2 - Thing 4 Part 1 - Bebo

To get a feel for Bebo I have set up an account. At first I found the site a little confusing as an outsider looking at other peoples profiles. But once I had set up my account I found it reasonable easy to navigate around and learn what to do. After filling in the set up info and modifying my url I added Auckland City Libraries as a friend. I then looked around and found the music available thru the site. Looking through this and listening to free songs, I found a new band I like and have a sign up as a fan, so they are listed on my profile as a band I like.
I then looked at the skins by clicking on the "Change Skins" link. I looked at them and found a bunch of them that I liked and added as favourite skins. Then I finally decided on one to use, Binary Rain, kind of like the Matrix (thou I may change it sometime just for variety).
Since none of my friends have Bebo accounts my page will see little use, but I can see how it could be good to keep in touch with friends and share stuff with them (like photos, vids, music tastes etc).
My Bebo site is: http://www.bebo.com/geeklibraryguy/

Week 1 - Second Post

I have now looked around the blog settings and had a bit of a play with the look of my blog. I have changed some of the colours and the font for my blog title using the options under the template tab. More importantly, I have set the time zone correctly under the settings so that my post times are now accurate.
When I get a bit more time, I will fill in some details about myself for the "About Me" section.

Now it is time to register this blog so it can be tracked and my progress can be recorded as I complete the 23 things that are needed for this project.

Week 1 - First Blog Post!

This is my first blog post. This is a blog I am setting up to learn about blogging and "Web 2.0" stuff as part of a work learning project. As you might have guessed I work in a Library.
Some of the stuff we will be learning over the next 12 weeks will be easy as I already know about some of the things we will be looking at (like facebook, I already have a profile) but others will be new, for example, blogging.
I'll been considering setting up a blog for a while, but wasn't sure if I would post on it much, and whether I wanted to share elements of my life with the world. Now I'm doing this for work, I will see how much I will enjoy doing it and can decide if I'm going to continue with a personal blog or not. Only time will tell...