...or is it?
If there is anything I've learned doing the CPL Web 2.0, it's that we live in a very fluid world. Who knows what the future will bring. Maybe Google will be the largest company in the world two years from now, or maybe it will have gone bankrupt. Maybe a billion people will be on facebook in a couple years, or maybe it will have been wiped you by something newer.
I do know I have enjoyed dipping my toes into the 2.0 waters, and I particularly like having this wee corner of cyberspace to jot my thoughts down. Perhaps I will continue to do so.
Thanks CPL team!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Web 2.0: Twitter
I must confess I have not given much thought at all to Twitter. Having lived 98% of my life in a world without social media, I am too accustomed to gathering my information a much slower pace.
I see how Twitter is a great promotional tool - an effective way for a popular organizations (musical groups, sports teams, cults..) to keep thier followers whipped up in a frenzy. I imagine Miley Cyrus frequently sends out tweets like "Are you coming to my Concert tonight? Remember to buy a T-shirt!" I also see how kids can use Twitter to text all thier friends at once - very efficient.
There may be very practical uses for Twitter. Maybe everyone could follow a local emergency alert service on Twitter, so if a tornado was heading to their town, everyone would get a tweet warning them. I'm sure something like that will happen in the future.
I see how Twitter is a great promotional tool - an effective way for a popular organizations (musical groups, sports teams, cults..) to keep thier followers whipped up in a frenzy. I imagine Miley Cyrus frequently sends out tweets like "Are you coming to my Concert tonight? Remember to buy a T-shirt!" I also see how kids can use Twitter to text all thier friends at once - very efficient.
There may be very practical uses for Twitter. Maybe everyone could follow a local emergency alert service on Twitter, so if a tornado was heading to their town, everyone would get a tweet warning them. I'm sure something like that will happen in the future.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Ahh, Nature!
Three weeks ago we discovered that Robins had built a nest in the tree beside our mailbox. A week later, five little blue eggs appeared. We have been using the back door ever since.
This morning we had our first two hatchlings. These fellows were just a couple hours old when this picture was taken.
News Flash: J.G.Farrell wins the Booker Prize thirty years after his death!
Sort of...
Back in 1970, the folks who handed out the Booker Prize made changes to their eligibility requirements, which resulted in several books not being nominated for the prestigious award. Yesterday, in an attempt to address this unfortunate occurrence, it was announced that J. G. Farrell's 1970 novel Troubles was the winner of "The Lost Booker Prize". Farrell, who died in 1979, was lucky enough to have won the proper Booker Prize in 1973 for The Siege of Krishnapur, which was the second in a trilogy that started with Troubles.
It's a good thing to see Troubles get the recognition it deserves. I read it a few years ago and loved it - it is a fantastic novel about the British losing control of Ireland. I think it is entirely possible that Farrell's Booker win for Krishnapur was partially due to the "sympathy vote" because Troubles got shafted.
Sadly, Troubles is not in the CPL catalog but perhaps with this new recognition a copy or two may make it on to our shelves. If you just can't wait (and you really shouldn't), the wise folks at NYRB (New York Review Books) re-issued this novel a few years back - you should be able to order your very own copy on-line or through your favourite book seller.
Back in 1970, the folks who handed out the Booker Prize made changes to their eligibility requirements, which resulted in several books not being nominated for the prestigious award. Yesterday, in an attempt to address this unfortunate occurrence, it was announced that J. G. Farrell's 1970 novel Troubles was the winner of "The Lost Booker Prize". Farrell, who died in 1979, was lucky enough to have won the proper Booker Prize in 1973 for The Siege of Krishnapur, which was the second in a trilogy that started with Troubles.
It's a good thing to see Troubles get the recognition it deserves. I read it a few years ago and loved it - it is a fantastic novel about the British losing control of Ireland. I think it is entirely possible that Farrell's Booker win for Krishnapur was partially due to the "sympathy vote" because Troubles got shafted.
Sadly, Troubles is not in the CPL catalog but perhaps with this new recognition a copy or two may make it on to our shelves. If you just can't wait (and you really shouldn't), the wise folks at NYRB (New York Review Books) re-issued this novel a few years back - you should be able to order your very own copy on-line or through your favourite book seller.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Web 2.0: LibraryThing
I had never heard of LibraryThing, but as a book lover I'm very interested in social network sites that focus on books. I am currently an avid user of GoodReads (www.goodreads.com), which is quite similar. GoodReads seems to be a more popular site; you are likely to find many more reviews of any given book there than on LibraryThing. The drawback might be that because it is so popular, the quality of the reviews tend to be a little less intelligent than they might be on the slightly more highbrow LibraryThing. I like the "discussions" feature on LibraryThing - something GoodReads does not have.
I did a little test, which I'm afraid LibraryThing did not pass. I searched for "Cigar Box Banjo", by Paul Quarrington. This book came out last week. I read it on the weekend and was going to post a review on LibraryThing - only LibraryThing did not have a record of it yet. I noticed that in the "Awards and Honors" section about the author it listed his winning the Matt Cohen Prize, but made no mention of the more prestigious Governor General's Award or the Stephen Leacock Medal that Quarrington had won. I tried to amend this, but LibraryThing wouldn't let me log back in! Ack!
So for now I'll stick to Goodreads, but will re-visit LibraryThing from time to time to see how it improves.
I did a little test, which I'm afraid LibraryThing did not pass. I searched for "Cigar Box Banjo", by Paul Quarrington. This book came out last week. I read it on the weekend and was going to post a review on LibraryThing - only LibraryThing did not have a record of it yet. I noticed that in the "Awards and Honors" section about the author it listed his winning the Matt Cohen Prize, but made no mention of the more prestigious Governor General's Award or the Stephen Leacock Medal that Quarrington had won. I tried to amend this, but LibraryThing wouldn't let me log back in! Ack!
So for now I'll stick to Goodreads, but will re-visit LibraryThing from time to time to see how it improves.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Web 2.0: Online Productivity Tools
Google Docs will destroy the Microsoft office suite of programs. It's just a matter of time.
Once upon a time most people kept all their money hidden somewhere in their homes. They were distrustful of banks and thought that slick educated people would cheat them out of their hard earned cash. It took several generations before a majority of the people figured out that it was easier and safer to keep your money in a bank rather than under your mattress.
Eventually people will figure out that web-based documents are easier to access and share than those residing on the hard-drive of a single computer, and they're probably safer too! If you have a pc connected to the internet, it can be hacked into much more easily than the those servers at Google can be, but where you are really at risk is if your hard-drive gets toasted, or if your computer is damaged in a fire, then your files are all gone too. It is expensive and time consuming to make back-ups of all your files - and then you have to store them someplace safe (preferably at a different location), and its a pain in the bum to migrate them every time you change computers or operating systems. Better just to store them on Google's computers and access them through the internet.
I have been an avid user of Google Docs for a couple of years.
Today, thanks to CPL 2.0, I discovered the Google Calendar. I am a very disorganized person, and I am very excited about the potential this has to organize my entire life on one calendar that I can access from anywhere!
(Two days later): Google Calendar is so cool! I put in a doctor's appt., and I entered the address so I wouldn't have to look it up again later. The calendar automatically gave me a map to my appointment! how cool is this?
Once upon a time most people kept all their money hidden somewhere in their homes. They were distrustful of banks and thought that slick educated people would cheat them out of their hard earned cash. It took several generations before a majority of the people figured out that it was easier and safer to keep your money in a bank rather than under your mattress.
Eventually people will figure out that web-based documents are easier to access and share than those residing on the hard-drive of a single computer, and they're probably safer too! If you have a pc connected to the internet, it can be hacked into much more easily than the those servers at Google can be, but where you are really at risk is if your hard-drive gets toasted, or if your computer is damaged in a fire, then your files are all gone too. It is expensive and time consuming to make back-ups of all your files - and then you have to store them someplace safe (preferably at a different location), and its a pain in the bum to migrate them every time you change computers or operating systems. Better just to store them on Google's computers and access them through the internet.
I have been an avid user of Google Docs for a couple of years.
Today, thanks to CPL 2.0, I discovered the Google Calendar. I am a very disorganized person, and I am very excited about the potential this has to organize my entire life on one calendar that I can access from anywhere!
(Two days later): Google Calendar is so cool! I put in a doctor's appt., and I entered the address so I wouldn't have to look it up again later. The calendar automatically gave me a map to my appointment! how cool is this?
Monday, May 3, 2010
Web 2.0: Flickr and YouTube
Quality, entertainment value, and usefulness of the sites.
I think that like the internet itself, these sites contain needles of very useful content buried in haystacks of goofiness. There are some really great tutorials on YouTube for learning how to do all sorts of things. A few months back I had to teach the Introduction to Excel module and I found some very good tutorials on YouTube. If you having difficulty with any kind of computer program, you can probably find a tutorial on YouTube to help you out. I don't use YouTube as entertainment much, and of the quality of the video is sometimes pretty bad, but there are some very good instructional videos in there.
Flicker. Well, the quality of the pictures I see on Flickr are consistently excellent- much less a haystack of goofiness than YouTube. I think Flickr has done an excellent job at attracting high quality users to its site. I find it very useful when I need a picture for a blog- I can usually find suitable pictures quickly, and searching "The Commons" lets me find pictures I can use without fear of copyright violation.
I think that like the internet itself, these sites contain needles of very useful content buried in haystacks of goofiness. There are some really great tutorials on YouTube for learning how to do all sorts of things. A few months back I had to teach the Introduction to Excel module and I found some very good tutorials on YouTube. If you having difficulty with any kind of computer program, you can probably find a tutorial on YouTube to help you out. I don't use YouTube as entertainment much, and of the quality of the video is sometimes pretty bad, but there are some very good instructional videos in there.
Flicker. Well, the quality of the pictures I see on Flickr are consistently excellent- much less a haystack of goofiness than YouTube. I think Flickr has done an excellent job at attracting high quality users to its site. I find it very useful when I need a picture for a blog- I can usually find suitable pictures quickly, and searching "The Commons" lets me find pictures I can use without fear of copyright violation.
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