Skipping Ahead, In Brief

I was going to watch vids to learn about wikis for libraries, but I still haven't got Flash 9 on my workroom computer. I went ahead to #20 because the only time I ever looked at anything on MySpace, I couldn't figure out how to track the comments on someone's topic. Of course, there might not actually be a way; it could be a mostly nonlinear communication method.

(I've noticed that with Blogger; yeah, you can set your own comments so you're notified about later posted comments, but there's no way to respond to one person specifically rather than simply making a post to the wide world. Or at least no easy way, since I haven't found it yet. I know some other blogging services have this feature.)

Looking again, it may be that one needs an account to read the comment threads. For some MySpace accounts, I'm sure you have to have mutual friending. That doesn't seem likely for the Denver Public Library. I suppose they just never reply.

I really like the layout and general look of the DPL Teens MySpace, but was startled to see that their page is "Female 18 years old".

Must one have a "person" avatar, not a "thing"? And of course, if you must pick, it should be female (nonthreatening); adult, yet not too adult. But. "I'm the Denver Public Library Web Site for Teens!"

It just seems incredibly disingenuous and kind of creepy that they've endowed the website with teenage personhood. Fake Teen Personas: Not Just For Predators Any More! At least the Female HCL page is 88, and has avatar photos of several actual staff members.

On the upside, I can see how a library MySpace page might be a good place to meet other library-oriented geeky teenagers, unless of course they're somebody/something else masquerading as geeky teenagers.

Thing 9

I use GoogleDocs and I think it's great. There is a stack of documents in my account. However, the "23 Things" version of editing a document totally bonked me.

"In this Thing, edit a famous document using these two collaboration tools. Both are free. You don’t need an account to edit these public documents. . . . Look at this public document in Google Docs. Make as many edits and changes to the documents as you wish, using the various editing tools available."

I clicked on that link without signing in to GoogleDocs, since they say you don't need an account, and got the document to look at. Fine, great. Except . . . I can look at the document all I want, but I don't have a task bar, and thus no way to edit it. That part makes no sense. When I tried to get at it through my GoogleDocs account, a page came up saying I need permission, and to request access.

Make up thy mind, 23.

ETA: Okay, upon Rachel's suggestion, I read the user questions. :) I do need both an account and permission to edit the GoogleDocs one. The Zoho version has a few interesting edits, and several commenters trying to figure out how to get into it, but it certainly isn't as pretty -- how does the person being edited know where the edits are? This would be a serious problem in a document any longer. I've put edits into documents of 200 pages on GoogleDocs and they are usefully obvious.

What Would The F.F. Do?

The Founding Fathers' heads would explode. They didn't want anything to do with rabble like us, much less female rabble.

Thing 8

Flowers at the Como Conservatory

I managed to make a cube, and also I put up a slideshow of photos from Hawaii at the top of the blog.

Thing 7

Email is ubiquitous, and how we do almost all communication across the system. IM is handy for reference, except that sometimes I don't log out when I leave the desk for lunch or breaks.

I've been using AOL Instant Messenger for a decade, and it took me this long to get sick enough of the third party applications it loads and the explosion of noisy ads it spawns to download AIM Ad Hack, which works like a charm. I'm not sure if it will actually get rid of things like Viewpoint if you already have them loaded, but I removed them first before downloading the new version of AIM.

And by 'removed,' I do mean cleaned them Very Carefully out of my registry.

Yahoo IM doesn't seem to come with that kind of advertising tornado. I just started using that about a year ago. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same, and you can import your AIM buddy list as well.

I've used Yahoo email for ten years, and Thunderbird on my home computer since I switched to Firefox as a browser a couple years ago. I can't remember what brand of email I had with IE.

I suspect it's a lot harder to do a good reference interview over IM. It's tough enough sometimes to coax the real question out of a patron standing in front of you! Certainly extra care is warranted.

I've only done a couple of web conferences/workshops, and I don't like them as much as when the trainer is really there . . . but it's got to be less costly!

I'll admit, I haven't used Twitter, but I'll have to read the articles, because I'm baffled as to how it can help libraries.

A lot to say about Thing 4, apparently.

I looked at Picasa, since Library Guy likes it so well. I also saw other good comments on review sites, including someone who said he wasn't going to be using Flickr because he's already "married to Picasa."

One look made my decision for me. I hadn't realized it's not just an online sharing service, it's a download. "When you install Picasa, it instantly goes to work, organizing all the pictures on your hard drive by date in the "Folders on Disk" collection."

I think NOT. That's all I need is for Picasa to go in and "organize" my 16,000 plus photos.

I know that's how many I've got because Absolute Evil Incarnate, aka Photoshop Elements Organizer, told me so . . while it was doing the same thing. I bet you can imagine how long the thing takes to populate 16,000 thumbnails every time you open the Organizer. There's a way to 'hide' them, but they still open even though you can't see them.

[It took me a whole weekend to put a couple thousand photos from Yellowstone into albums. That was before I realized it was way more work than it was worth, and that viewing 15 RAW files will freeze the thing up. It's a known glitch, but instructions for *possibly* fixing it take up two pages of fine print.]

Anyway, now I know why the guy is married to Picasa. A divorce would pretty much ruin his photography career.

A HA. aka Thing 4.

Enjoy your afternoon at Hamoa Beach. :)