Kindle and Amazon seem to be getting a lot of people excited. They have sold out of the current batch of Kindles. In a lot of ways I can understand why. It looks like it's easy to use, a good size and with extra storage could hold a lot of books / documents. The ability to use the mobile phone network to get the books you're interested in is interesting! It seems to be easy to read. The items you chose from Amazon are listed in their / your library on Amazon so you can download them again if you need to.
The problems as I see them are only able to connect in America, no images, limited storage space and limited functionality. Adding an extra memory card is useful, but it doesn't solve most of the problems.
Some years ago there was so much touting of the idea that in general 'the people' didn't want several gadgets for several functions. One gadget was wanted that could do everything. This pushed a rash of development into the UMPC and some of those are pretty wonderful. They didn't take off in a big way. You can still get an ultra mobile but they don't appear in the shops as such and they are quite expensive. Every one of them that came out always seemed to miss out on one thing, whether it was the ability to make phone calls or something to do with connectivity, for example you could do wifi but not bluetooth (or the other way round). And sometimes the amount of storage just isn't inspirational. I can't see the point of getting an ultra mobile with 20 or 40 GB when my music player had 40 and I'd filled up 11 by the time it died. If I'm getting more functionality I want more storage.
A lot of people didn't like doing general computing on such a small screen. As I still haven't had such a small form factor in my hands to play with I can't give an opinion on that. I tried reading text on my music player but that was so small I ended up getting eye strain.
I'm one of the people who still wants one great gadget. I want everything including phone, camera, internet general computing, images and video, music, books, organising, decent storage and probably more on one device. I can't justify it yet. I keep an eye on the devices as they come out but the ones that seem to be getting close to what I want are very expensive. I already have a phone and access to a (fantastic) digital camera, a pc at home and I can buy a laptop for Aus$6-700 so why would I spend over Aus$2000 for something else ... that probably won't satisfy in the end. I feel quite pessimistic. At the very least I'll probably end up with the latest windoze and have to wipe it and load linux, and as such a huge part of the expense for these gadgets is the dozy operating system it feels like a waste of money. And knowing linux and the general idea that it always copes best with hardware at least six months old I may not get it to work properly anyway. At least for 6 months. And I'm not knowledgeable enough to write the drivers and programs I'd need.
So, probably for the next few years, I'll have a basic phone, access to a great camera, a pc at home that I've built myself, and a laptop that I can use for music, video, reading, organising myself and general computing. I will do internet either on the laptop when I'm out or on my pc at home. I can sync my organising with the pc, laptop and pc at work. At least with a handy usb stick. I'll make phone calls with my basic phone. Take photos and load them onto each computer as I want. Use the computers as backup for each other... Could be worse - I could be using a PDA as well.......................................
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!
I've been using podcasts for a couple of years. My favorite is Escape Pod which is all science fiction short stories. I used to download and listen to them on my ipod before it died. Listening to podcasts on my puter is a bit of a chore because I'm still on dialup. Using Podcast.net I found a few others and put them on bloglines. This: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EscapePod/~5/185595989/EP132_SparksInAColdWar.mp3 is the one I'm waiting on loading while I'm writing this. The other thing I'm doing lately to keep myself occupied while waiting for things to load is reading an online book from Google Books. I'm forgiving Google Books for all their earlier failings because I've just figured out how to narrow a search to full text only. Without that it useful as an index to monographs and I've found several references to subjects I'm interested in contained in books that I could then borrow to get the full story. It's always been one of the gaps in library services - no comprehensive index of monographs.
I like to keep an eye out for references to a favorite singer. Lots of journals are indexed and I've found plenty of references and kept up on my reading. Since Google Books came along I've found some reference tools, which I probably would have found and they have indexes so I would have found the references. Having an online index is quicker. And the ones that aren't in my own work library I can get on inter-library loans.
The huge advantage is references inside other books, biographies, memoirs, etc. These often don't have indexes. Even if they do there are some I would never have thought to look in because I would never have dreamt there was a connection with my singer. I am now a total convert to Google Books as a reference tool and finally to find a few full text online. Detest the sponsored links: I'm reading "Confucian Feminist: Memoirs of Zeng Baosun (1893-1978)" and the sponsored links are Chinese Girls For Dating and Love with chinese women. And they think they are targeting with their sponsored links. It's like targeting with a lump of 4 by 2. I really wish I could download the book. At this stage reading while I'm waiting to download something is fine, but when I finally get broadband I won't be wanting to read so much. Downloading and reading offline on a laptop maybe on a train on the way to work would be more attractive.
The problem with Google Books is the terrible quality. There are several pages in the book I'm reading that are so bad I have to skip them altogether.
I like to keep an eye out for references to a favorite singer. Lots of journals are indexed and I've found plenty of references and kept up on my reading. Since Google Books came along I've found some reference tools, which I probably would have found and they have indexes so I would have found the references. Having an online index is quicker. And the ones that aren't in my own work library I can get on inter-library loans.
The huge advantage is references inside other books, biographies, memoirs, etc. These often don't have indexes. Even if they do there are some I would never have thought to look in because I would never have dreamt there was a connection with my singer. I am now a total convert to Google Books as a reference tool and finally to find a few full text online. Detest the sponsored links: I'm reading "Confucian Feminist: Memoirs of Zeng Baosun (1893-1978)" and the sponsored links are Chinese Girls For Dating and Love with chinese women. And they think they are targeting with their sponsored links. It's like targeting with a lump of 4 by 2. I really wish I could download the book. At this stage reading while I'm waiting to download something is fine, but when I finally get broadband I won't be wanting to read so much. Downloading and reading offline on a laptop maybe on a train on the way to work would be more attractive.
The problem with Google Books is the terrible quality. There are several pages in the book I'm reading that are so bad I have to skip them altogether.
More video
This one is from Yahoo Video. I'm sure this poor old clip has been used in so many library 2.0 blogs...
Saturday, November 10, 2007
#20 You too can YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJlkplvYdgA
First experiment
Ah! The image with the instructions for this didn't match up with the way it's currently shown on YouTube but I spotted the 'embedded' information and so worked it out. I've played with YouTube before but I haven't tried to embed a video in a post. Lotsa fun. And I think we can all relate to this particular video ...
#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools
Ok, I suspect someone has already gone over the other tools and picked out the best for here.
Some of the ones I have been playing with: Medstory looks interesting but I do like Medline better, I think I can narrow down my searches a bit better. For me personally, when I'm looking for medical information, I want narrow results instead of broad.
The City Guides and Events etc are only of interest to Americans.
The Cocktail builder was a lot of fun. I think I need to go buy more alcohol now. This is a good thing, really!!! I can definitely see a use for this in my library and all the staff agree! It will have to be locked cupboard that only the staff have keys to and I suspect there'll be arguments over the best way to arrange things and if it should be visible on the catalogue. I'm all for shadowing those records.
And my great niece and nephew love fuzzmail, but I don't really have the creative bent to make the best of it.
Maps I always love. I usually use Whereis, but Google Maps is lovely too, and the satellite and hybrid variations a fun. I was trying to figure out where I took a photo some time ago and the maps weren't working so I used the satellite images to 'drive' there and even found the building I'd photographed. Switching to map then gave me the suburb name. I like the idea of creating specialty maps with Wayfaring and it reminds of an mailing list discussion I was a part of some years ago where someone had said they were coming to Sydney and wanted to know where the best coffee was! A map everyone could contribute to would have been handy.
I'll continue exploring. I know there's more I'll like. Oh did you say start with one? Couldn't do that.
Some of the ones I have been playing with: Medstory looks interesting but I do like Medline better, I think I can narrow down my searches a bit better. For me personally, when I'm looking for medical information, I want narrow results instead of broad.
The City Guides and Events etc are only of interest to Americans.
The Cocktail builder was a lot of fun. I think I need to go buy more alcohol now. This is a good thing, really!!! I can definitely see a use for this in my library and all the staff agree! It will have to be locked cupboard that only the staff have keys to and I suspect there'll be arguments over the best way to arrange things and if it should be visible on the catalogue. I'm all for shadowing those records.
And my great niece and nephew love fuzzmail, but I don't really have the creative bent to make the best of it.
Maps I always love. I usually use Whereis, but Google Maps is lovely too, and the satellite and hybrid variations a fun. I was trying to figure out where I took a photo some time ago and the maps weren't working so I used the satellite images to 'drive' there and even found the building I'd photographed. Switching to map then gave me the suburb name. I like the idea of creating specialty maps with Wayfaring and it reminds of an mailing list discussion I was a part of some years ago where someone had said they were coming to Sydney and wanted to know where the best coffee was! A map everyone could contribute to would have been handy.
I'll continue exploring. I know there's more I'll like. Oh did you say start with one? Couldn't do that.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
The Librarians on ABC
I did not like The Librarians. I think the writers made some basic mistakes starting with making the main character horrible. If the main character was someone else having to cope with a horrible character it would have been easier to watch. We all know there are horrible people working in libraries as there are in any other field, but who wants to watch a whole program about them?
Next is that they have obviously heard some stories about what goes on in libraries but I don't think they did their research terribly well. It was all a bit ordinary.
How about simply knowing basic workplace stuff? As if anyone would get away with being so blatantly racist in this day and age and in a senior position! Certainly racism exists but no one would be game to be so blatant! They'd be hit with anti-discrimination in about 5 seconds flat. Especially because it was a public library, that means government you fools, no one would get away with it.
And that team building scenario? Where one of the staff is suppose to end up crippled? For goodness sake as if any team building company would take risks like that. Their insurance companies wouldn't let them.
And obviously some of the people working there are not librarians. A couple of them would have to be Library Technicians!! Calling the show "The Library" would have been better! Of course.
The interesting thing is that those of us who do work in libraries have been talking for weeks about all the different scenarios that we know of and have been involved in. They are genuinely funny and very reality based. If the writers had talked to enough of us they'd have enough to keep a series going for years.
Next is that they have obviously heard some stories about what goes on in libraries but I don't think they did their research terribly well. It was all a bit ordinary.
How about simply knowing basic workplace stuff? As if anyone would get away with being so blatantly racist in this day and age and in a senior position! Certainly racism exists but no one would be game to be so blatant! They'd be hit with anti-discrimination in about 5 seconds flat. Especially because it was a public library, that means government you fools, no one would get away with it.
And that team building scenario? Where one of the staff is suppose to end up crippled? For goodness sake as if any team building company would take risks like that. Their insurance companies wouldn't let them.
And obviously some of the people working there are not librarians. A couple of them would have to be Library Technicians!! Calling the show "The Library" would have been better! Of course.
The interesting thing is that those of us who do work in libraries have been talking for weeks about all the different scenarios that we know of and have been involved in. They are genuinely funny and very reality based. If the writers had talked to enough of us they'd have enough to keep a series going for years.
I'm still playin with other aps
I haven't decided which ap I'll write about for no 19 yet so I'll just blather on a bit.
I still like Zoho Sheet. Created another sheet and graph, for the same data as the last one, but organised by employer group this time:
I don't like not being able to edit the colours - silly thing has put 2 shades of yellow together!
Quite a few people at my work have shown an interest in Learning 2.0 and even though it isn't endorsed to do it at work I think people are deciding to do it in their own time. I hope they're not doing it at work, I could be getting people into trouble!!
ps, I like the 'labels' on here better than tags because we can use phrases instead of single words.
I still like Zoho Sheet. Created another sheet and graph, for the same data as the last one, but organised by employer group this time:
I don't like not being able to edit the colours - silly thing has put 2 shades of yellow together!
Quite a few people at my work have shown an interest in Learning 2.0 and even though it isn't endorsed to do it at work I think people are deciding to do it in their own time. I hope they're not doing it at work, I could be getting people into trouble!!
ps, I like the 'labels' on here better than tags because we can use phrases instead of single words.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
