Thing 11

Web 2.0 Award Winners


wayfaring.com - my initial attempt to create a map was a complete failure. I couldn't see any Help or How-to instructions and I quickly became frustrated. And today, the site caused an IE problem and shut down. I'm moving on, no more Award Winners!---KL

Wayfaring allows you to create personal maps with and share them with your friends. Explore maps created by others and connect and collaborate over a vast social network. Mapmaking has never been so easy!


spurl.net - this site was partially disabled due to spam attacks ---KL
Never lose track of a web site again with Spurl's free on-line bookmarking service and search engine. Spurl stores addresses quickly for easy access with a one-click bookmarklet and provides recommendations for new content based on your preferences.

furl.net - interesting concept and it certainky sounds like an improvement over the standard IE or Firefox Favorites list. ---KL
Make your favorite web bookmarks accessible from anywhere with Furl's lightweight bookmarklet. Furl allows you to easily save, take notes on and share the links you've stored, or browse others' most popular bookmarks to find new and interesting things.

Thing 10

Image generators - The first one I tried out was Ben & Jerry's Flavor Generator - not exactly creating an image, though at the end you do see your named flavor on a picture of a carton of B&J's ice cream. Thought of lots of mixtures of flavors and ingredients for new and wonderful ice creams.
http://www.benjerry.com/scoop_shops/dousaflavor/flavor_generator.cfm

Then I tried Make-a-Flake at http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/viewflake.php?id=14448975 The result of my effort is shown here. And in the process though I thought I had done the download to the Blog incorrectly, I discovered you don't actually see the picture till you Preview or Publish the Blog entry. So success with Thing 10.

Thing 9

I enjoyed reading my NPR Children's Books feed today. I've never read the Lemony Snicket books, but found a nice overview of the series characters from Oct. 13, 2006.

Thing 8 - RSS

"Make Life “really simple” with RSS & a news reader" I don't know yet if a RSS feed will really make my life really simple, but it was really simple to register with Bloglines and subscribe to my fist feed - The Shifted Librarian. Time will tell.

Thing 7

I'm finally getting back to Learning 2.0 today with the deadline looming, and I'm almost to my personal goal which was to figure out RSS feeds.

As far as what interests me about technology in general is just the sheer numbers of technology "things". It is overwhelming! How do people find time to play games, blog, mash, Flickr, use iPods, take pictures and upload them to photo galleries, and so on. What do they do about all the other everyday activities - work, pay bills, cook & eat, clean, do yard work, shop, etc.?

I love the ease with which I can write using word processing software and make spreadsheets. Powerpoint is a wonderful tool, and I'm not sure how I ever got along without the Internet and the wonderful search engines! But at some point I want to leave technology behind and DO things. None of which involve sitting in front of a computer.

So that's my technology-related blog entry. Not what you expected, but....there it is.

Week 3 #6 Mashups

So I learned that mashups are exactly as the name implies - a collection of various items pulled together on a web site. I had some fun browsing the Librarian's Trading Cards. Guess we aren't stereotypes after all!

Week Three - Flickr

During my Flickr tour I searched for pictures of an amusement park, Idlewild, which is near my hometown in the Laurel Highlands area of Southwestern PA. I didn't find too many pictures of just the park and it's rides, but this one of a building at what was previously called "Story Book Forest", brought back lots of memories. Story Book Forest has now been incorporated into Idlewild. It's nice to know the park and it's surrounding have been preserved. I remember the good times we always had on the rides and watching fireworks.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28495046@N00/224108075/