Thing #8 : feeds

I've had a Bloglines account for a couple of years, and I have to admit, I'm a complete ADDICT. I have three separate accounts: one for library-related feeds, one for pop-culture/gossip/film, and one for everything else. My pal/colleague Chris (found over at Viva Velma) first introduced me to Bloglines and I hit the ground running.

I've tried other aggregators, most notably Google Reader, but I keep doing multiple 'Lines. It has its shortcomings, most notably that you can't tag items, but I find it easy to scan through umpteen feeds and keep only what I want. I save some stuff to folders, but anything I really want to archive I bookmark in del.icio.us.

I tend to find new feeds through the links in the feeds I already have. Occasionally I'll plug a keyword into the Bloglines search to see if there's any new/interesting feeds to add for a particular subject.

Bloglines pimps a few capabilities I've used: Package tracking, dummy email addresses for listservs & saved search feeds. Check them out!

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, feeds, bloglines

Thing #7 The Scanner and Me

Like my father, I have a tenacious relationship with complicated inanimate objects. He has a string of expletives (which I will not repeat here) that he uses as a magical incantation to make them bend to his will (or not).

The scanner is one of those objects I can't seem to get along with. Every time I use it, it seems to do something different to the item I'm scanning: changing the orientation, not scanning the whole page, etc. I've been advised by my supervisor that beating the scanner with my shoe is not the most civilized way of dealing with my frustration.

In any case, I glared at it until I was able to squeeze this image out of it:

It's the cover of the BRAND NEW Scaredy Squirrel book. He's my favorite OCD-afflicted rodent!

In any case, I managed not only to complete the scanning Thing, I helped a few of my coworkers do their scans, too. All without cursing! VICTORY!

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, scanning, images, photos

Thing #6 More Photo Fun

Here's the photo what I took this morning:



Purty, ain't it? Click the photo to get the description.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, flickr, images, photos

Thing #5 Flickr

I've used Flickr for the past few years, but I haven't explored the Maps and Make Stuff features. The Flickr Uploadr is very useful to move large batches of images online. I love tagging and search for images using tags frequently.

Here's my image:


I gave it several tags, including "oclwebthings".

I wonder if the Flickr/Blogger "failure to communicate" is due to Flickr being a Yahoo affiliate and Blogger being a Google thing.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, flickr, images, photos

Things #3 & #4

Done, and done. Blogger is very easy to use, like emailing the world. I hope the challenge gets me into the habit of blogging, and I can get over the feeling that I'm just talking to myself.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings

Thing #2

I've always been a bit of an autodidact, so lifelong learning isn't an alien concept.

Hardest habit: Teaching/mentoring - I'm always afraid of coming off like this guy:



I'm not the most patient of teachers, and I often talk too fast when teaching a tech class.

Easiest: Play - I'm not afraid of breaking the internets. I've signed up for a squillion things, and usually return to those I find the most useful and/or time-saving.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings

Thing #1

I've registered for the Challenge, although as a Committee member, I'm not eligible for any of the prizes. The prizes, by the way, are a cool combo MP3 player/flash drive/fm radio/voice recorder for everyone who finishes the 23 things, and the Grand Prize of a Nintendo Wii for one lucky person.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings

Ready to play!

I'm looking forward to getting started on the OCL Web Things Challenge. The games begin on March 3rd, but those of us acting as techno-guides for the real players will probably have to be working at least a week ahead so we can work out any kinks and be ready for any questions.

First post

This is the journal I created for the Ocean County Library's Webthings Challenge. I'm a member of the Web 2.0 Challenge committee, and also the editor of the Week 4 and Week 6 entries on the OCL Web Things blog.

OCL staff members who need help with any of the Challenge Things (especially RSS feeds, Bloglines, Technorati, LibraryThing and tagging) can contact me by phone at the Stafford Branch or through Outlook email.