Thing 23: everything

I'm really glad I took part in this programme, and not just for the material gain. I was already familiar with most of the things in the programme, but I think I benefited from looking at them as actual items, skills, or resources, and thinking how they can fit into my life, and not just sort of taking them for granted.

I must've been on the internet for 11 years now, and I forget how very very different things are now, and by different I mean far more useful (although it's hard to be simple concepts like IRC and newsgroups). I guess you could say I'm a Tech kind of person, but it was good to think of things from an introductory perspective and ask the question "what is this for, and what can I do with it?"

And yes, I will continue to continue to use many of the resources from the programme. Cheers!

Thing 22: limitless paper in a paper-free world

Ebooks looked like the answer to my prayers when I started university last semester. All of my course texts were available through the university's library website. I wouldn't have to spend a cent on books, and could stock up on hair-care products and so on.

This proved to be a little unrealistic, as I basically needed the books very much while in class, and was restricted from printing the whole things out. So the ebook dream disappeared, but I must say I'm still a fan. I've now read several whole books on a computer screen, and haven't gone blind. I say, gimme more.

The down side to this post is, when browsing through the ebooks at NetLibrary I found no titles that I can imagine reading right through. This is not because they're ebooks, and I think part of the problem with the way people can think about ebooks is that there's an assumption that they're better than books because they involve technology. But at the heart of things, I'm only likely to read an ebook because it's the most convenient way for me to read a specific title. Not because it's digital, but necause it's available.

Thing 21: piratical

I have difficulty with Podcasts. I love the idea of being able to take a really good radio show and listen to it at a more convenient time, because I'd always miss things on "real" radio. But then it turned out, even with the option of listening to something any time I wanted, whenever suited, I still didn't listen.

Listening on the bus is stupid, because it's too noisy. Can't listen at home - too noisy. Can't listen at work - people hardly think I'm paying attention now.

All of which has taught me - I am not reayd for podcasts. At least, it's a bad idea for me to pay for them.

That said, one of the most rewarding podcasts I've ever listened to is WNYC's Radio Lab, which is an hour-long show along the general theme of science. It's very nicely produced, with each episode following a theme like "sleep" or "placebo". It's tied together with music and doesn't have any kind of rigid structure or feeling of being forced. This is a testament to how well made it is - effortlessness takes a lot of work.

I did some nerd-book related searches on Podcast.net and came up with a couple of interesting feeds - The Comic Geeks and WFMU's The Speakeasy with Dorian. And over on Podcastalley.com I tracked down Geek Brunch. Nerding it up, yo.

But like I said, I'm not ready to commit to podcasts yet. I think it's the lack of moving images that makes me so likely to do something else. I'm sure I'll get better.

Thing 20: 15 minutes

That video is a clip from my friends' band, Haunted Love. The two of them pulled some favours and got into the Dunedin Public Library's secret inner rooms to film this clip, and it turned out quite well. They were both quite proud of me when I started working for Auckland City Libraries. I was proud, too.

One thing I'd like to note about video-sharing on YouTube: I watch videos that are hosted on YouTube almost every day, but almost never go the site. This is thanks to the handy embedding feature that YouTube provided right from the start. All the clips I watch are hosted by YouTube, but for all appearances live on totally different websites.

As to how libraries could make use of YouTube, I'm not at all sure. For me it's just a terribly convenient way to host and share videos, and I've never dabbled in the community side of things. Forgive me, but I've been online for a long while, and I prefer things text-based. Text doesn't discriminate against the ugly.

Thing 19: I have been censored

I should've known it was all too good to be true. I show up to work and get told "hey, go on MySpace and YouTube during work hours and we'll give you a free MP3 player!" It seemed made up, not the kind of thing that happens in the modern net-policed workforce. "What about my productivity?" I cried, "certain web-blocking software companies insist it will go out the window, even though there is some suggestion otherwise!"

The management in me was very satisfied to see a WebMarshal message today when I tried to navigate to Web 2.0 Award winner Meebo for Thing 19. Ever since that "Access Denied" message life around here has felt normal again. It's nice to know the guys down at the IT lab are working on my case.

Don't try looking while you're at work, but Meebo is a snazzy Web2.0 communication tool. Ever chatted on a network like ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Chat, or Google Talk? The annoying thing about these is each one has a separate application, or separate page, with different logins and so on. Software like Pidgin or Adium allows you to combine all the protocols into one handy application, but sometimes you're just not allowed to install an application.

This is where Meebo comes in. It's a web app, obviously, which combines all these chat protocols and allows you to talk to all your different contacts in the same window, wherever you are.

Unless you're at work of course.

No, I didn't hack around the WebMarshal to find all this out. I just knew it.

Thing 18: getting it write

Zing! Puntastic pun-times!

I've been using Google Documents to handle documents for a while now. I had a job for a while writing music reviews, and as it was kind of fitting between other jobs and study I needed a way to quickly get to my files on whatever computer I was near, without worrying about what format is was in. So I used Google Docs, and this worked pretty well. I tried convincing the magazine I wrote for to do the same, but you can't rush these things.

I see Zoho (in which I'm writing this) is similar to Googlde Docs, but much more complex. The formatting panel in Zoho Writer is closer to what you'd find in a desktop word processor, rather than a the rich text style WYSIWYG formatting normally found online. I'm a little unsure whether I would consider this an advantage - I really do like to write with only basic formatting. A simple text editor, for example. Formatting can come later.

Zoho goes a long way to providing the full suite of office applications - presentations, spreadsheets, databasing, conferencing, et al, etc. More than I can see myself needing, to be frank. But it's impressive that they're available as Web Apps.

I notice Google Docs seems to roll out new features more slowly. Perhaps because they're making sure they're getting things right? Maybe, but it still doesn't work right in Safari.

EDIT: I used the "publish" feature in Zoho Writer to publish this post, and then came straight in and edited it. Mostly because the formatting was a little off. One could learn the ins and outs of the way the formatting changes between Zoho and Blogger, but one would adise one to keep it simple and just post from the Blogger Dashboard. I mean, you're online anyway. It just makes sense.

Thing 17: I am my favourite

I posted a link to my blog on the ACL Learn PB Wiki Favourite Blogs page. The process was quite simple - click edit, enter my name, email, and a password, and the page changed to a handy WYSIWYG editor. I found the function for adding a link a little more confusing than when doing so on my blog, but realised this was because it had built-in functionality for linking to other pages on the wiki. Once I realised that I changed the link to type to an external URL, plugged in the data, and there was my URL.

Then I hit save and went to do some shelving. Mission accomplished.