#11 LibraryThing

I've been exploring LibraryThing and I'm hooked. It appeals to all those among us who are irresistibly drawn to other people's bookshelves.
I love being able to catalogue my own books, it appeals to my inner mad book collector and catalogue fetishist. It's so easy just to enter an ISBN and see the book pop up on screen, cover and all. It's fascinating to see how many other people out there share your literary tastes.
I also had a look at the various groups. There's a group of Librarians who LibraryThing. I'll have to check that one out (in particular the message threads about funny requests from patrons and also favourite books about libraries/librarians). Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Travellers' Wife just has to be in there somewhere. I also took a look at a couple of favourite authors who've catalogued their books on LibraryThing. Mind you I don't think I'm quite obsessive enough to add all my books but here's a few.

#6 Mash-Ups and Election 2007.

Well, I've finally solved the mystery of mash-ups.
The Mash-Up Awards site
has a new "Mash-up of the day" to play with every day.

Today's mash-up of the day is a ripper.
Magg (your friendly neighbourhood movie aggregator) which searches the
different video-hosting sites for you. Yes, go beyond YouTube!

Seeing as how we're all in election mode I just had to share this one which I found by searching for John Howard on Magg.

Online Image Generators

This exercise has been so much fun.
I've generated my "blues" name
on the Blues Name Generator
Just call me 'Louisiana' Dinah Clearwater.

Sent a Bob Dylan message.
(think Subterranean Homesick Blues)
on the Bob Dylan Message Generator

and created my very own EMO
with the pocket EMO generator.

RSS Feeds

I've seen those three little initials RSS on many a web-site before without ever knowing what they were. Now thanks to Learning 2.0 the mystery is solved and I've set up a bloglines account. I can see if there's any news
from the ABC or the BBC, keep up with the online New Scientist and see if any if any of my favorite blogs have been updated. I can download NASA's image of the day. In fact I spent a LONG TIME yesterday following one link to another link and ending up in some weird and wonderful blogs. Great for keeping tabs on your favorite sites, the ones you check every day...

Technology or 10 Things I Love/Hate about You

Looking back at that last post it was sooo serious.
Technology:
Ten Things I love (and hate) about you
1. Hyperlinks
Broken Links
2. Email
Spam
3. Looking at the Pyramids on GoogleEarth
Spending half the night on GoogleEarth
4. Interesting information on Wikipedia
Mad crackpot misinformation on Wikipedia
5. Johnny Depp on YouTube
John Howard on YouTube
6. Getting a bargain on Ebay
Getting ripped off on Ebay
7. I can listen to that program on a Podcast
I have far too many podcasts to listen to.
8. Great music on the iPod
It crashed and all my songs have vanished
9. Bookmarking that fabulous website
Forgetting to bookmark that fabulous site and now I can't find it!
10. Download success!
Cannot find server.....

Technology thoughts

We're surrounded by technology of course, not all of it new. Even the pair of scissors in front of me is an old and useful technology. Once i started to think about it i was amazed to reflect on how much easier life has become with contemporary technology. Things that many people do every day such as netbanking, reading online newspapers, sending email, checking out real estate sites are all things we take for granted. In the area we work in - that of information - the changes have been enormous. When I first started work(for a media organisation) it was still a world of typewriters and linotype machines. Court reports had to be phoned in from a public phone and dictated to a woman sitting at a typewriter. Now we see journalists reporting via satellite phone from world troublespots and have seen the rise of the citizen blog as a way of getting information to the rest of the world.

Remember Knowledge is Power (Sir Francis Bacon, pictured above)

Flickr takes me to Laos

Vientiane - Laos
Originally uploaded by Blazing Productions

I've been exploring the Flickr website and it's easy to get lost in all the wonderful images. I've just started reading Colin Cotterill's detective series based in Laos about the adventures of Dr Siri, an elderly coroner. Very quirky and with a wonderful setting so i just had to go and look at some of the amazing pics of Laos. This is a wonderful temple in Vientiane. Book 1 in the series is called The Coroner's Lunch.