Ooooo, Shiny!

I love trying new stuff! If they ever remake the old Life Cereal commercial that featured Mikey, the “He’ll try anything” boy, I could give ole Mikey a run for his money. I love trolling supermarket shelves looking for those NEW tags signaling the birth of the latest innovation that is going to make my laundry softer or my taste buds stand at attention. I love trying out new stores, new restaurants, and new shoes (ah that’s a story for another day and another blog). Of course, most of all, I love trying out new computer programs and Internet sites. So I’ve decided to discuss some of the things I find online here as often as possible. Whenever you see Ooooooo, Shiny! you can bet something new has caught my eye.

The three things I’m going to talk about in this post are; LitLovers, BookLamp, and Is It Down for Everyone or Just Me?

The simplest first, Is It Down for Everyone or Just Me?

Have you ever tried to go to one of your favorite sites and all your browser wheel does is spin and spin and spin, or worse, you get a 404 or server not found message? So you sit there wondering is it them or me? Now all you have to do is go to Is It Down for Everyone, plug in the web address, click, and it will come back telling you on whose end the problem lies. This way you’ll know if it’s a problem you need to address or something you just have to come back to later.

Up next, LitLovers.

This is a site dedicated to resources for book clubs. If you have nothing to do with book clubs however don’t let that detour you, it’s a fun place to just poke around in.

There’s a little bit of something for everyone here from reviews to discussion guides, and much, much more. Want to brush up on your reading interpretation skills? There are free online mini lit courses on topics such as how to read for symbolism or irony. Hosting the book club at your house and want to whip up a tasty dish to match your book? There’s a book club recipe section. Hoping to start up a book club? There are ideas for clubs for everyone from tots to adults.

The Taunton Woman’s Club has two discussion groups that meet at the library; one is Great Decisions, the other a general reading group. The Great Decisions group is a structured program following topics found in the Great Decision Briefing Book. However, I’ve recommended LitLovers to our Director, who advises the other group in a number of areas, as a source that could be useful to the ladies. I’ve also recommended the site to our Supervisor of Children’s Services who hopes to establish a book club over the summer for fourth and fifth graders. We’ve had people approached the library about setting up discussion groups who have had trouble getting their groups off the ground. I’m thinking perhaps if this site is used as a stepping off point there might be more success.

Last up BookLamp.

This is in beta and a work in progress; whether it’s going to succeed or not I’m not sure but it is interesting. BookLamp is trying to do for books what Pandora has done for music. If you aren’t familiar with Pandora its a Internet radio station and its mission, to quote from the site, “……. is to help you connect with the music YOU like. “

Pandora uses data collected in the Music Genome Project to tailor a radio feed for you. Sign up for an account and you’ll be asked to list some of your favorite artist and/or songs then Pandora will start playing not only those but similar music by other artist using some 400 distinct musical characteristics that trained music analysts have added to the Music Genome Project. Plus,once the music starts playing you get the option to personalize what you hear even more through Pandora’s interactive capabilities. It’s all free, no commercials, (there are ads on areas of the site however) and it works amazingly well.

BookLamp is trying to do the same thing except using an analysis of writing styles. As I said they are new and still in beta, and they are the first to admit they have a long way to go. Pandora has been around since 2000; building a data base as successful as the one it’s developed takes time as well as skill. BookLamp is looking for impute to not only add to their data base but to see if this can be a functional service and how. If you have a few minutes stop by and check it out then let them know what you think.

Until the next episode of Ooooooo, Shiny! I hope you’ll experiment and have fun!

Why Twitter?

I’ve been trying very hard, for quite sometime now, to figure out why so many people seem so rabidly devoted to Twitter. I’ve read much by both those devotees as well as people like myself who just don’t get the need. I mean I understand what, and how, Twitter works but I just don’t see the big picture of the why of it.When I saw this video mentioned on Stephen’s Lighthouse I hoped it would be the thing that finally brought the light of comprehension to me. It didn’t, but it is very cleverly done and explains in a simple and entertaining fashion what Twitter is. Alas it still doesn’t explain the why for me.

You may have noted that this post was made with something called Clipmarks, this was my first experiment with it. I found this tool on the Learning 2.0 site the other day and it intrigued me. It’s an interesting little tool, and I think it might have potential, however, I’m still in the kicking the tires stage so the jury’s not in yet. I’ll do a post devoted to it in the near future when I’ve used it a bit longer.

clipped from www.youtube.com Watch Video Twitter in Plain English

Speak or forever hold your piece

We’re in a grove now! Taunton Public Library has just set up its new podcasting blog, The Way We Say It. Right now it’s really only an introduction and pretty bare bones but I have some ideas for dressing it up with some links.

Though we have podcasting ideas flying about nothing is nailed down yet. However, I wanted to get the new blog out there so our patrons could get use to it and see if they had any ideas they would like to share in a podcast. The talk right now revolves around the younger set, what with summer reading contests about to sprout, but I’d also like our adult patrons to give it a whirl too.

The two podcasting sessions we did last year were utterly enjoyable, both for the kids, and for me. I was the one in charge of the recording, and watching the enthusiasm on the faces of these young people as they read their own original works was priceless. Podcasting is a lot of bang for an amazingly little amount of work. Granted I didn’t do anything fancy with background music or fade ins and outs but Audacity, the free recording program, is relatively intuitive and doesn’t seem to have a high learning curve. I think even fancy stuff can be done with it easily. Plus I know there is always help out there I can SOS if I get in a jam.

At this stage everything is an experiment that we are learning from. One thing for sure, it’s pretty exciting and never boring!

Of Geeks, TWiTs, and Podcasting

I love all things tech related and I’m proud to consider myself a Geek but it has not always been so. Seven years ago I was pitifully computerphobic, afraid of my computer. I could turn it on, send and receive e-mail (barely), and do a basic Word document, that was about it. So how did I get from that point to where I am today you may ask (well even if you don’t ask I’m going to tell you anyway), would you believe a TV show? It’s a weird little story but every word is true.

Now I’ve mentioned I’m a creature of the night. I do my best work between midnight and four AM, always thought I should have a night job but one’s never come along. One night seven years ago, almost to the day to be precise, I was channel surfing looking for something interesting around 2 AM when I landed on a strange TV show. It looked like it took place in someones basement and it was all about technology. It was hosted by two guys who not only obviously knew what they were doing but seemed to be having the time of their lives. I almost hit FF (technology ick!) but these two were so immensely entertaining I stayed. That first night I only caught the last twenty minutes or so and when it was over I said to myself “What the heck was that!” The show’s name turned out to be The Screen Savers (fondly known to it’s fans as TSS), the hosts were Leo Laporte and Patrick Norton, the network was TechTV.

So fascinated was I by the antics of these two guys that I went back the next night and watch a whole show. I understood about a 1/2% of what they were saying but they were so much fun to watch I kept going back. I thought I was just being entertained but sneakily, little by little, not even knowing it, I was learning. Back then Leo use to say if you gave him six weeks he could turn you into a Geek. I’m a slow learner, it took me eight before I realized the 1/2% of understanding had turned into 20% and was growing all the time. Wow!!

I watched TSS, as well as Leo’s other show Call for Help (CFH), for three and a half years and I became not only knowledgeable but bold and fearless with my computer. Leo’s mantra if something goes wrong with a computer is, It’s Not Your Fault! Leo has a personal message board called Leoville and when I realized I was on the road to Geekdom I made a post on it thanking him. I’d never done anything like that before and it was going to be my one and only post. I was surprised when, the next day, Leo posted a personal reply back to me, I was hooked. Long story short I became a member of the board, an e-mail friend of Leo’s (even got to talk to him on the phone once) and am now one of the moderators of Leoville.

Alas TechTV is no more, Comcast bought it from then owner Paul Allen and turned it into the G4 network. Leo still does CFH, now known as The Lab with Leo, but in Canada and the only way I can watch it is to download it with a BitTorrent. Now you may be wondering where the heck this is all going, I sure would be at this point. Well this whole story leads to podcasting. Over the last several years Leo has established a podcasting network online. The TWiT Network is named for it’s founding podcast (Leo calls them netcasts), This Week in Tech, and has blossomed into all sorts of tech related podcasts. Security, gadgets, Windows, the law, Macs, even Geek food and more all have their own netcasts. I’ve been a card carrying member of the TWiT army from day one and use Juice to download them then I burn most to CDs so I can listen to them in the car.

By the way, one day while sitting in a SEMLS workshop on Web 2.0 which Linda Braun was conducting she pulled up her Facebook page and I was jolted to find Leo’s name listed under people she would like to meet someday. Small world! Lucky girl got Leo to do the introduction to her Podcating book that was published last year.

So these are my Geek roots. Leo is a wonderful teacher, if you ever want to see him in action let me know I can send you one of the Lab shows to sample. Or you can listen to his weekend radio show, The Tech Guy, heard on the Premiere Radio Networks and XM Channel 158. Or better yet, download the podcasts of the radio show from that link.

Jessamyn West installs Ubuntu

When I sat down to consider the “Embed a YouTube Video in Your Word Press Blog” assignment for the Learning 2.0 SEMLS course I remembered that back in my Jesssamyn West post I’d mentioned some posts from her last year about installing Ubuntu Linux on some computers that had been donated to one of her libraries. Linux is something I would love to give a whirl and experiment with someday; this video of her doing the install makes it look not only doable but pretty easy.

I wonder how those Ubuntu computers are working out?

The power of the blogging!

Ok, so I had my little rant here about Facebook and it did make me feel better, I’m thinking blogging can be therapeutic as well as informative. It can also, apparently, be extremely powerful because what happened next blew me away! Last Thursday, being at the SEMLS CSS workshop all day, I didn’t check my E or voice mail until early in the evening. To my amazement I found, in both, a message from someone who works at Comcast Corporate Headquarters. Both messages, from this very nice gentleman, said he had been surfing the web when he noticed my blog entry and he thought he could help. He wanted to get in touch with me to get a few more details so that Comcast could find a resolution. Now I was a little “cafuddled” because my ranting wasn’t about Comcast but about Facebook, however, my natural curiosity was peaked so I responded to his e-mail with as much info as I could provide including the fact that at the SEMLS workshop someone else had also mentioned they didn’t receive a confirmation with their Comcast e-mail and that Kathy had talked about spam filter problems

By 10 o’clock Friday morning my Comcast contact had replied to my e-mail stating that it did sound like it was a spamming issue where Comcast had flagged and blocked Facebook confirmations as spam. He said he had “reached out to my abuse team” and that they would investigate the matter. He ended by saying one of the “abuse team” members would be in touch sometime during the day.

Sure enough I got a call from Comcast at 10:52, unfortunately I was out of my office and didn’t get to take the call but a number for Comcast Customer Security was left with a ticket number. It’s taken me a bit to get through but this morning I got a representative on the first try and he explained that they had investigated and Facebook has not been flagged by Comcast as spam, however, Facebook’s URL appears to have a problem and needs to be tweeked on their end. Comcast has reached out to Facebook to try to get this matter resolved.

This whole thing has been pretty amazing to me. I know there are reams of negative Comcast posts circulating on the web but I have to say this was above and beyond any normal customer service I’ve ever experienced with a utility. Never in my wildest dreams did I think a rant about Facebook, on a little blog that only a handful of people know about, would lead to such top level customer service action. Who knows, if Comcast can get things squired away with Facebook future Facebook confirmations will get through on the first try and people wanting a Facebook account can avoid the e-mail frustration roller coaster.

One more update. As I mentioned in my rant I had Googled not getting a confirmation e-mail and found instructions on how Facebook could help me with the problem. I followed the instructions with my sailsinc e-mail addie and when I posted my ranted I hadn’t heard anything back. It took two days but I did get a response from Facebook’s User Operations apologizing for the delay and stating they had confirmed my sailsinc Facebook account on their end and it was ready to go. Since I already had my Yahoo account up and running I’ve not done anything with it but I want to be fare so I say to Facebook all’s well that ends well and let’s be friends.

No Facebook for you……almost

I am unimpressed, underwhelmed, and just plain old frustrated with my Facebook experience so far. Here’s my sad story; no names have been changed to protect the innocent. Sunday I tried to sign up for a Facebook account using my sailsinc e-mail addie. The screen told me that a confirmation e-mail had been sent so I wait, and wait, and wait but no e-mail turns up. Ok, it was 3 AM, have I mentioned anywhere in this blog I’m an owl my normal bedtime being 4 AM, so I figure maybe it’s because it’s so late though why that would matter I can’t fathom. Later Sunday afternoon I check, still no e-mail. Ok, I think, I’ll deal with this Monday.

DAY 2

I check when I get to work Monday, still nothing. I wait some more, until mid afternoon to be exact, nothing. I Google “did not receive Facebook confirmation” and find that there are others out there with the same problem. I’m told to check my spam and trash folders, well I’ve already done that but I check again, nothing. Then I find directions in the Facebook Q&A section saying they can help me out with this problem. I follow their direction and send Facebook an e-mail with my e-mail address along with the word “confirmation” as the subject. In my Google search I also find a suggestion to try signing up with another e-mail address. I give my sailsinc e-mail the rest of the day to see if the SOS e-mail brings results when it doesn’t I move on to plan B.

DAY 3 – Address #2

I go through the whole routine again with my Comcast addie this time, same results, nothing. I check my spam folders again; I check my trash again, nothing, nothing, and more nothing.

DAY 4 – Address #3

I’m going for broke here; I decide to try my Yahoo addie around 2 AM Wednesday morning. Not only do they once again say a confirmation message has been sent but they have this cool little button right there to take me to my Yahoo account. Alright, I think, third time’s the charm, I think, I press the little Yahoo button and off I go to Yahoo mail. If you have detected a theme here it will come as no surprised to hear I found……………nothing………again. I’m done, I go to bed.

DAY 4 1/2

I check Yahoo when I get to work Wednesday morning and miracle of miracle what is in my Inbox? Yes, glad I was sitting down for this, one of the elusive, worth its weight in gold, confirmation messages. So yes, I do have an activated Facebook account now but like I said I’m unimpressed, underwhelmed, and frustrated by the whole experience. And no, I still have no confirmation messages in either of the other accounts.

Life’s a cartoon!

Meet Mona my newly developed alter ego. I created her over at Toonlet.

I found Toonlet through the RSS blog feed for Stephen’s Lighthouse.

Here’s Mona lamenting on the problems of Geekdom in her very first Geek Beat comic strip.

Cool flickr tool

Just found this cool little app on Lifehacker while reviewing my RSS feed updates. It’s called Sendto Flickr and it’s a little download that adds flickr as one of the choices in the “Send to” menu in Windows. You authorize it once then anytime you have a photo you want to send to flickr, right click on it, select flickr, and presto it’s there.  BTW sorry Mac users its Windows only.

Here’s a picture of my cat Olivia that I just used Sendto Flickr to…..well…..send to flickr.

One down, hopefully more to come

Ok, I’ll admit this wasn’t a hard sell but I’m proud to say another TPL staff member has created a WordPess blog! Kate, our intrepid Supervisor of Children’s Services, set up her blog yesterday afternoon and has already blogged twice. Kate is a member of the “comfortable with computers generation” so, as I said, this wasn’t a hard sell. She’s been very supportive and interested in my progress with the 2.0 Course, even commenting here twice. Yesterday she got a query on MASSYAC asking if anyone knew of any libraries using WordPress on their site, I suggested she send them the link to the 2.0 Wiki.

It quickly became obvious her own blog was a natural next step. I also sent her to the 2.0 Wiki when she had questions about setting up the blog and flickr, that Wiki is becoming a really valuable tool. If she keeps it up I think we might be able to considered her a non-matriculating student in SEMLS 2.0. I also think she’s hooked. Two comments from her today. “This blogging thing is additive!” and “I have so many ideas for blog posts swimming around in my head.”

So without any further ado here’s the link to her brand, spanking, new blog, Notes From the Black Lagoon.