It's not always easy to work out where to get the tags or how to use them to embed the image or video that one has generated; if I didn't know things about things I'd probably give up in disgust and confusion. But when it works it can be amusing.
Friday, 23 November 2007
9th task, willy nilly subscription
Well, I have found and subscribed to the essential rss feeds; Unshelved and Tales from the Liberry.
I have been attempting to get on to the LIANZA website to see if they have any rss feed but I am being stymied by the cursed lack of bandwidth our internet connection (and fairly likely the LIANZA website as well). From searching I've found a few conference blogs from the LIANZA 2007 conference, but nothing that really looks like a useful feed from LIANZA itself (I was hoping to find an rss version of the mailing list but to little avail. Perhaps if I ever manage to get on their homepage I'll find something there).
I have been attempting to get on to the LIANZA website to see if they have any rss feed but I am being stymied by the cursed lack of bandwidth our internet connection (and fairly likely the LIANZA website as well). From searching I've found a few conference blogs from the LIANZA 2007 conference, but nothing that really looks like a useful feed from LIANZA itself (I was hoping to find an rss version of the mailing list but to little avail. Perhaps if I ever manage to get on their homepage I'll find something there).
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
So, we're up to the 8th bit. RSSell
RSS make it really easy to be excessively inundated with information, so much so that it can take over from actually surfing the web and such. When I first started using the greatest browser yet created, Opera, I discovered that it had an RSS reader built in, which then prompted me to subscribe to all the websites I usually browsed through on a daily basis. Utter disaster.
The sites I subscribed to - admittedly they were news and current events and industry news type sites - were so big that the number of updates they sent through ended up being completly unmanagable. As the number of unread posts grew I found I started skimming the title of each post instead of going into read the blurb the posts contained, and missing a lot of really interesting information that I would otherwise have come across if I had been skimming the page itself.
On the other hand, on really the big websites that update a lot if you don't keep looking at them, specific articles often get archived or pushed off the front pages before you have a chance to look at them, so having a big list of all the articles that get posted can come in handy.
The trick for me is to either keep the rss browser open so you can stay on top of any new posts that come along, or to subscribe to sites that don't update very often so don't inundate you with a pile of messages every hour. Some sites have daily upates, while others have weekly collections. I like the daily updates myself, but again, if it's a big site it can take a while to chew through all the posts. I also really only subsribe to sites that I won't go to on a daily basis as they don't often have interesting things to read but like to keep track of for the occasional useful article.
I use an actual rss reader rather than a web version, as I always prefer an actual stand-alone program where possible becuase trying to run things through browsers - like bloglines - always seems so clunky, slow, resource heavy and uncustomisable, despite the benefits of being able to access the feeds I want anywhere. Hence most of the feeds I've sub'd to won't show on my public bloglines feeds, but heres a link anyway: http://www.bloglines.com/public/radnom
About the only thing I like about Bloglines is the ability to blog the interesting articles for easy access later.
The sites I subscribed to - admittedly they were news and current events and industry news type sites - were so big that the number of updates they sent through ended up being completly unmanagable. As the number of unread posts grew I found I started skimming the title of each post instead of going into read the blurb the posts contained, and missing a lot of really interesting information that I would otherwise have come across if I had been skimming the page itself.
On the other hand, on really the big websites that update a lot if you don't keep looking at them, specific articles often get archived or pushed off the front pages before you have a chance to look at them, so having a big list of all the articles that get posted can come in handy.
The trick for me is to either keep the rss browser open so you can stay on top of any new posts that come along, or to subscribe to sites that don't update very often so don't inundate you with a pile of messages every hour. Some sites have daily upates, while others have weekly collections. I like the daily updates myself, but again, if it's a big site it can take a while to chew through all the posts. I also really only subsribe to sites that I won't go to on a daily basis as they don't often have interesting things to read but like to keep track of for the occasional useful article.
I use an actual rss reader rather than a web version, as I always prefer an actual stand-alone program where possible becuase trying to run things through browsers - like bloglines - always seems so clunky, slow, resource heavy and uncustomisable, despite the benefits of being able to access the feeds I want anywhere. Hence most of the feeds I've sub'd to won't show on my public bloglines feeds, but heres a link anyway: http://www.bloglines.com/public/radnom
About the only thing I like about Bloglines is the ability to blog the interesting articles for easy access later.
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Whats-it the 7th... confessions of a long term puter geek
Ah technology, where would we be without thee?
I've essentially been a computer geek since... oh my family got a C64 way back in the day when these were cutting edge. Way WAY back in the day. Made my first website in html 2.1, an intranet site for my highschool library (yes, indeed I was head librarian - that is how geeky I was and possibly am...). I have up until recently kept abrest of technology and such, however I have never had the bankroll keep up with the latest and greatest. Recently I've found things change too fast and require infrastructure that NZ can only dream of in order to make full use of - and I've only just gotten broadband (well we call it broadband... I live with a German flatmate who continuously ridicules NZ style internet access; she is used to much faster access).
This year I've discovered the hidiously addictive world of online multiplayer gaming; more specifically, the game World of Warcraft. The trick that the developers of computer games have discovered is of continuous small rewards, coupled with an environment where one needs to cooperate with other human players to defeat dastardly computer controlled critters. The aspect of team membership and character development drive one to compulsively play.
One of the first and most successful games was called Everquest, which quickly became knowen as Evercrack as more and more people became hopelessly addicted. (Everquest was the first computer game where a major Pizza retailor allowed players to order and pay for real life pizza in the actual game - it was ordered by the character then billed to their game account then delivered to the players home). As always, the technology the game was based around changed and improved, a new game (WoW) came along; eventually the new will supercede the old.
As interesting as actually playing the game is, is joining guilds and interacting on forums devoted to the game. Guilds are groups of people who band together in order to vanquish the evils of the world - and for mutual protection. Usually guilds form from people that play at similar times and learn each others play styles and exchange knowledge. Grouping obviously allows people to leverage the strengths of several type of characters, which will allow them to take on and defeat ever bigger and nastier pixelated creatures. Sometimes the content demands 10, 25 or sometimes 40 people to combine their efforts in order to beat the game; curiously it is as much for bragging rights amongst the guilds and the feeling of accomplishment rather than any particular ingame reward that drives most of the main serious guilds to put absurd amounts of time and energy into the game.
The guilds usually have websites and web forums where their members can exchange ideas, brag about the Phat Loot they have and essentially be a community. The forums are not actually hosted by the game makers; they are independantly created by the guilds, and hosted on servers that make their money through advertising on the page (good 'ol google ads).
One thing it highlights for me is the need for a social network to have a purpose. It seems alien to me to have something like Facebook where the purpose is... to have yourself on the net for people to look at/track where you are. Where as a network like a guild, or a development team working on an opensource program (ala sourceforge projects or Linux development) is actually a useful tool for coordinating the team's efforts. Which I guess Facebook et al are good for too; it just requires one to think of mobilising their friends etc as a team dedicated to the development of Project: Social Life.
I've essentially been a computer geek since... oh my family got a C64 way back in the day when these were cutting edge. Way WAY back in the day. Made my first website in html 2.1, an intranet site for my highschool library (yes, indeed I was head librarian - that is how geeky I was and possibly am...). I have up until recently kept abrest of technology and such, however I have never had the bankroll keep up with the latest and greatest. Recently I've found things change too fast and require infrastructure that NZ can only dream of in order to make full use of - and I've only just gotten broadband (well we call it broadband... I live with a German flatmate who continuously ridicules NZ style internet access; she is used to much faster access).
This year I've discovered the hidiously addictive world of online multiplayer gaming; more specifically, the game World of Warcraft. The trick that the developers of computer games have discovered is of continuous small rewards, coupled with an environment where one needs to cooperate with other human players to defeat dastardly computer controlled critters. The aspect of team membership and character development drive one to compulsively play.
One of the first and most successful games was called Everquest, which quickly became knowen as Evercrack as more and more people became hopelessly addicted. (Everquest was the first computer game where a major Pizza retailor allowed players to order and pay for real life pizza in the actual game - it was ordered by the character then billed to their game account then delivered to the players home). As always, the technology the game was based around changed and improved, a new game (WoW) came along; eventually the new will supercede the old.
As interesting as actually playing the game is, is joining guilds and interacting on forums devoted to the game. Guilds are groups of people who band together in order to vanquish the evils of the world - and for mutual protection. Usually guilds form from people that play at similar times and learn each others play styles and exchange knowledge. Grouping obviously allows people to leverage the strengths of several type of characters, which will allow them to take on and defeat ever bigger and nastier pixelated creatures. Sometimes the content demands 10, 25 or sometimes 40 people to combine their efforts in order to beat the game; curiously it is as much for bragging rights amongst the guilds and the feeling of accomplishment rather than any particular ingame reward that drives most of the main serious guilds to put absurd amounts of time and energy into the game.
The guilds usually have websites and web forums where their members can exchange ideas, brag about the Phat Loot they have and essentially be a community. The forums are not actually hosted by the game makers; they are independantly created by the guilds, and hosted on servers that make their money through advertising on the page (good 'ol google ads).
One thing it highlights for me is the need for a social network to have a purpose. It seems alien to me to have something like Facebook where the purpose is... to have yourself on the net for people to look at/track where you are. Where as a network like a guild, or a development team working on an opensource program (ala sourceforge projects or Linux development) is actually a useful tool for coordinating the team's efforts. Which I guess Facebook et al are good for too; it just requires one to think of mobilising their friends etc as a team dedicated to the development of Project: Social Life.
Friday, 5 October 2007
Library Thing the Sixth: Mashn
Much frustration involved in attempting this part. The only one I could get to work was the colour picker, which admittedly was a fun toy (and useful for them as are into proper design principles, I'm sure).
Montagr seems to be the most irritating device of all time - honestly who writes a piece of software then doesn't describe how to use it? I know that minimalist/'clean' interfaces are the way to go these days, but only if what it's styled around is so brainlessly easy to work first go that people like me (with minimal attention span) won't get frustrated and leave after the first three goes. I've been back a couple of times but I still havn't worked it out. I presume one needs to load a tag to source the 'pixel's of the montage, then load an image to apply the pixels to? All I can get is either the one image I specify, or the first image in the tag list to show.
An example of poor user interface design? I think so. Which is a shame, it would be great to be able to make these things (though I don't know when I would). Maybe I'll check out one of the other ones.
The Mappr wouldn't even load, so had a wee bit of difficulty trying that one out.
The colour picker was pretty fun, I just wish I had one back in the day, when I was designing my first pages *reminisce* not that the colour schemes dreamed up by an angsty teen during the height of grunge would be particularly original, but you never know.
The issues with Mappr and Montagr both raise the issue of technical barriers to 2.0 interfaces, those of site useability. It is of little use attempting to use an app that doesn't explain itself to those who don't understand; or that you can't actually get into in the first place however fancy it is. I found this to a lesser extent with FaceBook, the amount of time it takes to sign in to, and load the pages of can be rather annoying if all you want to do is perform a quick change.
Montagr seems to be the most irritating device of all time - honestly who writes a piece of software then doesn't describe how to use it? I know that minimalist/'clean' interfaces are the way to go these days, but only if what it's styled around is so brainlessly easy to work first go that people like me (with minimal attention span) won't get frustrated and leave after the first three goes. I've been back a couple of times but I still havn't worked it out. I presume one needs to load a tag to source the 'pixel's of the montage, then load an image to apply the pixels to? All I can get is either the one image I specify, or the first image in the tag list to show.
An example of poor user interface design? I think so. Which is a shame, it would be great to be able to make these things (though I don't know when I would). Maybe I'll check out one of the other ones.
The Mappr wouldn't even load, so had a wee bit of difficulty trying that one out.
The colour picker was pretty fun, I just wish I had one back in the day, when I was designing my first pages *reminisce* not that the colour schemes dreamed up by an angsty teen during the height of grunge would be particularly original, but you never know.
The issues with Mappr and Montagr both raise the issue of technical barriers to 2.0 interfaces, those of site useability. It is of little use attempting to use an app that doesn't explain itself to those who don't understand; or that you can't actually get into in the first place however fancy it is. I found this to a lesser extent with FaceBook, the amount of time it takes to sign in to, and load the pages of can be rather annoying if all you want to do is perform a quick change.
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Fifth library whatsit FLICKRn on
Finally a pic on my blog from Flickr. I couldn't find an easy static link to the image; I eventually had to go through image properties to find a link that would upload from the Flickr website using Bloggers url upload tool. I could've saved the image to my pc, then uploaded that way, but it's more convenient to do it straight from Flickr's site (or so I thought). I guess not having a static link allows Flickr to stop bandwidth thievery.
Having keywords/labels/tags is a great thing; instead of a generic search engine spider crawling creepily through a page looking for keywords to index (how does it know what's relevant? And as many many old skool web pages showed, such bots can easily be spoofed), and Googles strategy (unless it's changed since I last heard about it, which it likely has) of ranking results based on the number of sites linking to the page doesn't give people a way to specify what they think their site/post etc is actually about (dredging back to the proto-internet for an example, I have heard of one website that was such an excellent example of bad design that the vast majority of links to it were of a 'what not to do' nature; the actual site I believe was about cooking... wish I could find the address).
Another site I have heard of but hadn't explored is Photobucket; powered by Google rather than Yahoo. Picasa came as a surprise - logging into there showed some pics that I uploaded to another blog I started from the same gmail account : / as it's part of the Google empire it makes sense to run off the same user space as gmail/blogger.
I must say that all the mobile phone (posting and browsing etc from mobile and such - that goes for face book etc as well) options make me jealous. I think I need both a new phone and a perhaps a new country (some options only work with certain - American - mobile carriers, it appears). But any phone that comes with a web browser will do... and a phone account with free data options...
Monday, 24 September 2007
Fourth Library Thing - Wait, what happened to 2 and 3?
Oh, apparently they were the creating & registering a blog ones, I see.
Anyway I already have a FaceBook account (as does most of the department) so I have already experienced the... joys... of being Booked. I tend to find it a tad busy - too many things happening that I can't be bothered immersing myself into, so I essentially end up just responding to other peoples requests : ) Also attempting to work out how to find people, what a network is, what a group is, finding a specific group and such is a fairly steep learning curve (well it was for me...). Easiest thing to do is to find someone who already has an account to send you a friend request then you can piggy-back off their account (although, that may be where my confusion lies - because I didn't really spend much time trying to work out how to do stuff I don't know how to do it. Hmm fancy that).
Bebo I like better than FaceBook - the interface seems cleaner and easier to navigate (although I don't have an account so don't know about that side of things). It does seem like a pretty good place to find interesting movie clips and such - although it is a tad dodgy having a movie of a tied up woman entitled 'Dream Lover' on the homepage : / Wonder if they have any WoW clips...
I like the time limited auto-login option - log in automagically but stop remembering me after two weeks is a good idea, especially when with all things faddy after a couple of weeks one tends to have found a new toy to play with.
And now for the dreaded MySpace *shudder* looking at the main page it looks slightly more comprehensible than FaceBook. I'm a little sceptical about the default search including relationship options : / Or perhaps I'm missing the point and MySpace is actually a dating site?
I've discussed with people, who tell me that the fields I'm seeing as being about dating are optional (so people don't actually have to fill them in) - as are the search options as well. I just feel that if the site is about making friends and being sociable, dating is only a part, rather than the first thing that you search for. Perhaps this is part of a bigger social discussion around the point of being sociable, dating habits/mores (it seems that when trying to find people on here the search strategy asks 'who would I like to date' which I guess is as good a basis for finding compatable people as any - but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't date most of my friends).
Maybe I'm just confused and read too much into it : / But I am a moral philosopher, so it is my calling...
Anyway I already have a FaceBook account (as does most of the department) so I have already experienced the... joys... of being Booked. I tend to find it a tad busy - too many things happening that I can't be bothered immersing myself into, so I essentially end up just responding to other peoples requests : ) Also attempting to work out how to find people, what a network is, what a group is, finding a specific group and such is a fairly steep learning curve (well it was for me...). Easiest thing to do is to find someone who already has an account to send you a friend request then you can piggy-back off their account (although, that may be where my confusion lies - because I didn't really spend much time trying to work out how to do stuff I don't know how to do it. Hmm fancy that).
Bebo I like better than FaceBook - the interface seems cleaner and easier to navigate (although I don't have an account so don't know about that side of things). It does seem like a pretty good place to find interesting movie clips and such - although it is a tad dodgy having a movie of a tied up woman entitled 'Dream Lover' on the homepage : / Wonder if they have any WoW clips...
I like the time limited auto-login option - log in automagically but stop remembering me after two weeks is a good idea, especially when with all things faddy after a couple of weeks one tends to have found a new toy to play with.
And now for the dreaded MySpace *shudder* looking at the main page it looks slightly more comprehensible than FaceBook. I'm a little sceptical about the default search including relationship options : / Or perhaps I'm missing the point and MySpace is actually a dating site?
I've discussed with people, who tell me that the fields I'm seeing as being about dating are optional (so people don't actually have to fill them in) - as are the search options as well. I just feel that if the site is about making friends and being sociable, dating is only a part, rather than the first thing that you search for. Perhaps this is part of a bigger social discussion around the point of being sociable, dating habits/mores (it seems that when trying to find people on here the search strategy asks 'who would I like to date' which I guess is as good a basis for finding compatable people as any - but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't date most of my friends).
Maybe I'm just confused and read too much into it : / But I am a moral philosopher, so it is my calling...
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