YouTube strikes me as providing many more television channel options; and play on demand movies! I have many friends whom spend much time trawling for great footage and stories.
I personally enjoy a short two and a half minute clip which has been heavily promoted recently. The clip relates to Christian the lion... He was originally sold from the exclusive London department store, Harrods. When he grew too large for a London flat, he was shipped to Africa. The human owners went to visit the lion one year later... The clip is called Christian the lion Reunion.
The video is located at the following URL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjWtRYaxmWM
The potential bond between man and beast is ever so close!
Also, I was most impressed by the University of Illinois library dominoes clip. It was fabulous to read about the time and energy it took to prepare the clip too - four takes and more than four hours for a couple of seconds of fabulous viewing!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Play with Flickr...
Flickr espouses itself as being "the best online photo management and sharing application in the world", this is a bold claim indeed!
It was great fun to look at the Australia tag of most recent listings. It was even better to look at those which fell into the most interesting category.
Digital camera technology is absolutely fabulous... During my first overseas undertaking I had a plain old box brownie, well not quite, but it was a compact camera which seemed to eat 24 and 36 exposure film! Now on each overseas pursuit I religiously take a very mini digital camera and my heavy Canon EOS 20D which my other half imported from the USA, before they were available in Australia. It was a present for a significant birthday and is worth much more than many people pay for their first car, so I felt very spoiled; and now I seem to collect different lenses for it.
So, after that rambling, it's evident that I'm a convert to any form of digital imagery creation, sharing and manipulation (the crop, fix, edit and "make stuff" options in Flickr definitely help to get the creative juices and imagination going).
I couldn't believe that account subscribers have the discretion to add up to seventy-five tags to each photo, or video on Flickr. Subsequently, an inordinate duration of time could be spent allocating tags.
The "organiz" (deliberately without the e) option of linking images to maps and exploring by place also adds an extra dimension to the story behind images.
I particularly liked the Interesting - Last seven days images. Though, I was inevitably disappointed when wonderful shots were unaccompanied (i.e. without any explanation, or title to provide some context).
Additionally, The Commons has the objective to display "hidden treasures [from] the world's public photography archives". It's also designed to provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge. The project only commenced at the beginning of 2008 and I think that it is absolutely wonderful.
It was also fabulous to make use of the PicLens add-on which permits both full-screen and 3D viewing of online photos and videos. When used in conjunction with amazing historical images from The Commons project, it's a truly satisfying experience. Visit http://www.cooliris.com/ to find out more information and access the add-on. I'm thankful that I did!
Finally, I learnt that there is an interesting photography initiative known as the One hundred strangers Project, available for anyone to partake: http://www.100strangers.com/ It is described as a Flickr group dedicated to taking street portraits. One of its predominant objectives is to inspire participants to practice taking portraits of people not personally known to them.
It was much too challenging for me to select just one Flickr image that I found interesting... Watch this space and I'll post a link to an image soon.
Now I look forward to creating a Flickr account, uploading some images to the site; tagging them in my blog and making them public also...
It was great fun to look at the Australia tag of most recent listings. It was even better to look at those which fell into the most interesting category.
Digital camera technology is absolutely fabulous... During my first overseas undertaking I had a plain old box brownie, well not quite, but it was a compact camera which seemed to eat 24 and 36 exposure film! Now on each overseas pursuit I religiously take a very mini digital camera and my heavy Canon EOS 20D which my other half imported from the USA, before they were available in Australia. It was a present for a significant birthday and is worth much more than many people pay for their first car, so I felt very spoiled; and now I seem to collect different lenses for it.
So, after that rambling, it's evident that I'm a convert to any form of digital imagery creation, sharing and manipulation (the crop, fix, edit and "make stuff" options in Flickr definitely help to get the creative juices and imagination going).
I couldn't believe that account subscribers have the discretion to add up to seventy-five tags to each photo, or video on Flickr. Subsequently, an inordinate duration of time could be spent allocating tags.
The "organiz" (deliberately without the e) option of linking images to maps and exploring by place also adds an extra dimension to the story behind images.
I particularly liked the Interesting - Last seven days images. Though, I was inevitably disappointed when wonderful shots were unaccompanied (i.e. without any explanation, or title to provide some context).
Additionally, The Commons has the objective to display "hidden treasures [from] the world's public photography archives". It's also designed to provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge. The project only commenced at the beginning of 2008 and I think that it is absolutely wonderful.
It was also fabulous to make use of the PicLens add-on which permits both full-screen and 3D viewing of online photos and videos. When used in conjunction with amazing historical images from The Commons project, it's a truly satisfying experience. Visit http://www.cooliris.com/ to find out more information and access the add-on. I'm thankful that I did!
Finally, I learnt that there is an interesting photography initiative known as the One hundred strangers Project, available for anyone to partake: http://www.100strangers.com/ It is described as a Flickr group dedicated to taking street portraits. One of its predominant objectives is to inspire participants to practice taking portraits of people not personally known to them.
It was much too challenging for me to select just one Flickr image that I found interesting... Watch this space and I'll post a link to an image soon.
Now I look forward to creating a Flickr account, uploading some images to the site; tagging them in my blog and making them public also...
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tame technorati...
It's important to admit that I'm not a great, big fan of technorati... The site design struck me as being repetitive with different names for multiple tabs/tools that tend to do the same thing; and technorati is also somewhat ad-hoc in it's layout...
I was able to utilise the Quick Claim option to link and identify my personal Sylvester's 23 antics blog and that occurred in a straight forward fashion.
The search results did not vary significantly between blog posts and blog directory findings: 747 results were displayed with the same high priority listings.
Locating the tag searching option was initially quite challenging and required concerted hunting around the site. The search results in that instance were somewhat different: Tame the web blog listings contributed by mstephens7 dominated the results. It all took me back to the good old days of post-graduate Information Systems studies when recall and precision were analysed closely.
The Top 100 blogs and Blogger Central were of some interest, but promoted blogs consistently seemed to be of either a frivolous, egotistical nature; or targeted towards a niche audience. That might seem too critical, but despite my persistent search efforts, those were my findings.
Taming of technorati was not successfully accomplished by Sylvester the cat!
I was able to utilise the Quick Claim option to link and identify my personal Sylvester's 23 antics blog and that occurred in a straight forward fashion.
The search results did not vary significantly between blog posts and blog directory findings: 747 results were displayed with the same high priority listings.
Locating the tag searching option was initially quite challenging and required concerted hunting around the site. The search results in that instance were somewhat different: Tame the web blog listings contributed by mstephens7 dominated the results. It all took me back to the good old days of post-graduate Information Systems studies when recall and precision were analysed closely.
The Top 100 blogs and Blogger Central were of some interest, but promoted blogs consistently seemed to be of either a frivolous, egotistical nature; or targeted towards a niche audience. That might seem too critical, but despite my persistent search efforts, those were my findings.
Taming of technorati was not successfully accomplished by Sylvester the cat!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Discover Delicious...
I have had the opportunity to peruse the Delicious site. Additionally, I have also added the button which permits viewing and searching of saved pages.
I'm particularly looking forward to creating bundles and tags when there are a large quantity of sites included on my personalised delicious page.
The notion of having a batch of bookmarks available from any PC workstation is great! It has particular merit if an individual makes a work contribution at a different campus; if one embarks on an international jaunt (e.g. different flight, accommodation and tour providers can be included so that the next leg of a journey can be prepared with stand-by and last minute fares, in the interests of saving pennies); or if one seeks to share web pages of potential broader interest, with other individuals. My better half is sure to be a convert too.
I'm particularly looking forward to creating bundles and tags when there are a large quantity of sites included on my personalised delicious page.
The notion of having a batch of bookmarks available from any PC workstation is great! It has particular merit if an individual makes a work contribution at a different campus; if one embarks on an international jaunt (e.g. different flight, accommodation and tour providers can be included so that the next leg of a journey can be prepared with stand-by and last minute fares, in the interests of saving pennies); or if one seeks to share web pages of potential broader interest, with other individuals. My better half is sure to be a convert too.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Explore library thing...
I was able to explore LibraryThing, create an account and add/import several titles to my profile, without incident.
The list view option in the My Library tab was more interesting than the Covers view because it provided much more information; and provided extensive navigational pathways.
It was fascinating to read that in excess of 28,000,000 titles are included and cross referenced on the database. Additionally, the recommendations tab is probably really useful when a member has a reasonable number of items listed in their respective libraries.
The local LibraryThing tab has some opportunity for improvement. The concept is really positive but it defaults to Boston, Massachusetts. The profile page does not permit an individual to alter the location either.
My preliminary list of book titles is visible at the following URL: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Sylvestercat
The list view option in the My Library tab was more interesting than the Covers view because it provided much more information; and provided extensive navigational pathways.
It was fascinating to read that in excess of 28,000,000 titles are included and cross referenced on the database. Additionally, the recommendations tab is probably really useful when a member has a reasonable number of items listed in their respective libraries.
The local LibraryThing tab has some opportunity for improvement. The concept is really positive but it defaults to Boston, Massachusetts. The profile page does not permit an individual to alter the location either.
My preliminary list of book titles is visible at the following URL: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Sylvestercat
Monday, July 7, 2008
Play with an image generator...
It was fun to look at some of the various image generator options; and to select an individual template to post on the blog. This is provided compliments of Image Chef (www.imagechef.com), it is aptly called "Surfs up" and it permits you to write your own message in the sand.
Just a tip, less characters results in better visual clarity. This message states "Sylvester enjoys the beach".
Edit a wiki...
Thing 10: Edit a wiki, constituted thoroughly enjoyable tasks. It was great to ponder my favourite things, to post them on the Chis23t Wiki; and to add my blog to the favourites blog page.
I suspect that my favourite things list (and the accompanying list on the wiki) will grow with time...
It was also really enjoyable to read about the favourite things of other individuals!
I suspect that my favourite things list (and the accompanying list on the wiki) will grow with time...
It was also really enjoyable to read about the favourite things of other individuals!
Read about wikis...
I love the egalitarian intention of Wikis; and that "wiki wiki" means quick or something fast, in the Hawaiian tongue! The notion reminds me of a collaborative mind mapping (of sorts).
Despite creator Ward Cunningham's objective for Wikis not being for casual users; and seeking to "involve visitors in ongoing creation... that constantly changes the web site landscape", I admit that I am a sidelines casual visitor, completely having been voluntarily removed from actively changing the web's topography.
I have been a genuine advocate of the Wikipedia for some time now, though I also admit that I hadn't readily considered the maintenance structure, ongoing evolutionary process and development of the material contained therein.
The library Wikis I explored included:
Library Success - The best practice wiki. I found the breadth of topics and depth of content to be really worthwhile for assisting innovative attitudes and continuous improvement pursuits in library environs. However, I would have appreciated some additional Oceanic content.
Book Lovers wiki - I really enjoyed looking through the reviews and recommended reading lists. It was really unimpressive to view a large quantity of spelling and grammatical errors. This occurred in a dual fashion because the site is library based and library personnel have an obligation to retain certain language standards. It was also unsatisfactory because the wiki is published online. I suppose this oversight is a potential shortcoming of wikis, which can be taken for granted.
Further, there is an interesting article in the July 8, 2008 edition of The Age, "The Aussie who's changing the world of whistleblowers", written by Asher Moses. The article is fascinating for those interested in commercial, as well as public sector transparency and accountability. Wikileaks (http://wikileaks.org) was established by Australian Julian Assange. The site publishes and comments on leaked documents alleging government and corporate misconduct, by anonymously publishing submissions and leaks of sensitive religious, corporate and government documents. Assange purports that documents posted on the site about widespread corruption of the former Kenyan leader Daniel Arap Moi, led to a significant swing in the African nation's most recent presidential election. If this is an example of what Wikis can achieve, it is truly amazing!
Despite creator Ward Cunningham's objective for Wikis not being for casual users; and seeking to "involve visitors in ongoing creation... that constantly changes the web site landscape", I admit that I am a sidelines casual visitor, completely having been voluntarily removed from actively changing the web's topography.
I have been a genuine advocate of the Wikipedia for some time now, though I also admit that I hadn't readily considered the maintenance structure, ongoing evolutionary process and development of the material contained therein.
The library Wikis I explored included:
Library Success - The best practice wiki. I found the breadth of topics and depth of content to be really worthwhile for assisting innovative attitudes and continuous improvement pursuits in library environs. However, I would have appreciated some additional Oceanic content.
Book Lovers wiki - I really enjoyed looking through the reviews and recommended reading lists. It was really unimpressive to view a large quantity of spelling and grammatical errors. This occurred in a dual fashion because the site is library based and library personnel have an obligation to retain certain language standards. It was also unsatisfactory because the wiki is published online. I suppose this oversight is a potential shortcoming of wikis, which can be taken for granted.
Further, there is an interesting article in the July 8, 2008 edition of The Age, "The Aussie who's changing the world of whistleblowers", written by Asher Moses. The article is fascinating for those interested in commercial, as well as public sector transparency and accountability. Wikileaks (http://wikileaks.org) was established by Australian Julian Assange. The site publishes and comments on leaked documents alleging government and corporate misconduct, by anonymously publishing submissions and leaks of sensitive religious, corporate and government documents. Assange purports that documents posted on the site about widespread corruption of the former Kenyan leader Daniel Arap Moi, led to a significant swing in the African nation's most recent presidential election. If this is an example of what Wikis can achieve, it is truly amazing!
Explore podcasts and vodcasts...
Thing 8 related to podcasts and vodcasts was interesting.
I was disappointed that the Institute denies access to the Podshow web page. However, some worthwhile audio files were identified from exploring Aunty ABC.
It was also an uncomplicated process to subscribe to feeds.
I was disappointed that the Institute denies access to the Podshow web page. However, some worthwhile audio files were identified from exploring Aunty ABC.
It was also an uncomplicated process to subscribe to feeds.
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