RSS Feeds

Today I learned about the usefulness of RSS feeds.  This way I can save all the websites I look at on a daily basis into one area.  This way a person can read all of the websites they frequent all at the same time from one website.  This can save time and make sure we check all of the website we frequent. 

Libraries can use this to put together RSS feeds to put together feeds of local news, of certain items of interest and simple library/library systems groupings that can be used by patrons. 

LibriVox

I have been scouring LibriVox for audio of books or stories by may favorite authors but have had very little luck.  The only author that I found on there that I would be interested in perhaps having an audio version was L. Frank Baum after searching for at least 10 others.

This leads to my question.  When can we legally make an audio version of a book?  What are the legalities behind these recordings.  Such as quite a few of the L. Frank Baum books are over 100 years old now, however books by Christopher Rice are less than 20 years old.  I would guess that due to copywrites the Christopher Rice book can not yet legally be put on a free audio version.

I am happy to see after doing quite a bit of searching, that there is actually a genre option.  Due to this option I can pick a genre that I am interested in and find options that I may never have picked before.  This way I could at least find something like the authors I was looking for.

I am relatively excited about this program and would love to read, even if just a short story for the site.

Podcasts

I always thought that podcasts were news related, I did not have any idea that you can get radio casts and books on tape.  I got lost in the audio books section.  I thought this is a great section for me as I am going into the School Library Media program and although I wish to work in a high school I may also work in elementary school.  One of my favorite things to get out from the public library as a child was the books that came with an audio tape so that I could listen and read along. 

I was lucky to have a father that would read with me during the weekends when he didn't have to work.  I am currently listening to an audio recording of the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  This is the first book I remember reading with my father and is also one of my favorite books. 

I love youtube

I can honestly say that I am a youtube junkie.  I spend quite a bit of time on youtube weekly, looking up videos that make me nostalgic, videos of songs I like, etc.  The only thing I can say that I really don't like about youtube is that I get frustrated when I can't find the things that I am looking for.

What I really like about youtube is that it's a way for anyone who has anything that may be worth preserving a way to share and preserve.  This video is one of my favorite Disney films that I saw on my parents betamax machine on our front porch.  I actually recently posted this to my sister on facebook who then watched it with her son.  If it wasn't for youtube who knows if we would have ever seen this video again and now we can share it with the next generation.

My creation

My creation
Originally uploaded by drjackal31

I may be getting sick or I am simply cranky this week. I really wanted to make a map of pictures that I have taken across the United States and Mexico. However I found that the program I was trying to use was far to difficult for my to figure out while feeling like this. I can only wonder that people who are not as well versed in computers feel this way everyday. I feel like there were way to many steps to simply make a map with photographs. Shouldn't we just be able to open our pictures on flickr and be able to drag and drop them onto a map without already having to to that in flickr before doing the same thing in a mashup website. It does not seem that the steps are worth it. Maybe I am just spoiled with my computer.

I decided to play around and make a playing card of the crazy amount of birds that were in the cemetery across from my apartment two weekends ago. Hitchcock would be proud.

Abandoned public library

Abandoned public library
Originally uploaded by Bourbon Baby

One of my undergraduate majors was Archaeological Studies, so it is safe to say that abandonment or buildings, blocks and even whole towns is fascinating to me.

The most fascinating thing to me about this abandoned library is that it looks as if though the librarian locked the door one night and no one ever came back. I am astonished as to how much information was just left for the building to keep. Many of these books are likely outdated today, but many are still useful and could teach us a great deal.

It's hard to believe that they can leave all this behind, are the books really worth nothing? Or if anything why didn't anyone try to sell the furniture? Really fascinating!

Where Technology Fits into My Life

Before I began taking Introduction to Information Technology I thought that I was pretty well versed in technology.  I work for a website store, I should know quite a bit from that correct?  How wrong I was.  After my first class I added our contact sheet into google docs and let everyone I work for have access and permission to edit so that we can all have the most up to date information.


Technology takes a larger part of our life and is a great thing for helping us find information easily and quickly.  However it has made people process information in a different way.  People quite often do not read or only skim posts.  I also do this. 

People also believe that everything is instant because of the internet, but this is not the case, things do not happen right away.  I do not mean to sound so negative, but I do deal with technology gone wrong everyday.