The Vault of Gavin

Week 10 - Thing 23 - To Sum Up

2007-10-29T16:21:00.000+09:00

Well it's been fun. Sure I may have been less than comprehensive in my coverage of some of the weeks, and sure a slight hint of cynicism or sarcasm (it's the lowest form of wit, don't you know) may have crept in from time to time, but I actually had fun for the most part and learnt a few things too.

Week 9 - Thing 22 - eBooks

2007-10-29T09:22:00.000+09:00

We came along a bit late for the free content on the World ebook fair. It finished on the 4th of August and it now costs the princely sum of $8.95 a year to join the world public library and access that stuff. As I am way too cheap to cough up that sum for a bunch of old ebooks, I went to Project Gutenberg's site and clicked through a few for free. Inkeeping with the weak thread of vintage horror I have tried to maintain through this blog, I read the first bit of The Fall of the House of Usher. I've never read it before and I was immediately captivated by the unusually lighthearted tone of the opening:

DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

Poe: wacky

Before long, reading off the monitor, eye strain set in.

Don't get me wrong, I think ebooks are fantastic and it's good that people are donating their time and energy to make all of this out of copyright material freely available, I just like paper books better is all.

Week 9 - Thing 21 - Podcasts

2007-10-25T15:26:00.000+08:00

After checking out all three podcast sites, updating my Quicktime and even installing a third party viewer, for a long time I couldn't get a single podcast to play on my computer. Some of them sounded quite interesting, but I was feeling the constraints of time and my short attention span problem was rearing it's ugly head again. Anyway, I perservered and finally, at the end of a protracted ordeal that I ensured my colleagues had to live through with me, the disembodied voice of a dour Englishman speaking slowly and deliberately about horror films emanted from my computer speakers. It was a wonderful moment and one I shall cherish, to be sure.

Week 9 - Thing 20 - YouTube

2007-10-24T10:44:00.000+08:00

Because any excuse is a good excuse for old cigarette ads:

Damn, I used to love smoking.....

Week 8 - Thing 19 - LibraryThing

2007-10-19T08:48:00.000+08:00

I actually got on this bandwagon about a year ago. I became rapidly addicted to adding all of the books in my house. Except the ones I didn't want to admit to. I also only put in books that I actually still own, which meant leaving out gems like A Clockwork Orange and 1984 which I borrowed from libraries or people. I also left out books that I haven't managed to finish, like Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading. Less invitation, more beheading please!

I could go on and on. But don't worry, I won't.

My LibraryThing is here.

Week 8 - Thing 18 - Zoho Writer

2007-10-19T08:45:00.000+08:00

I really like this thing. It's portable and it's simple. I would have linked to my document, but it's incredibly dull. I can definitely see this kind of application being commonly used in the near future. Maybe even breaking Microsoft's stranglehold?

Probably not, I guess.

Week 7 - Thing 17 - TAFE 23 Things Wiki

2007-10-12T10:43:00.000+08:00

I just created the Image Generators and Web Award Winners page and added thrilling content. In doing so, I discovered that my blues name is 'Sirloin' Bartholomew Peebles! I wonder if I can fit any more links in here.

No ..... no I can't.

Week 7 - Thing 16 - Wikis

2007-10-09T09:07:00.000+08:00

The subject guide wiki seems like a pretty good use of the technology, but I'm not too sure about the execution. It's a bit...busy.

Overall, these were interesting but since most of them are in their infancy, it's too early to really say whether or not they will be useful.

At this point in the 23 things I'm getting concerned about the sheer weight of web 2 material that might be rolled out into unsuspecting libraries. Obviously a lot of these gimmicks will diasappear or be integrated, but when we are dealing with a client base which contains people who struggle with concepts like "left click", I wonder what it would be like trying to get them to "go onto our website and check out the blog links in the subject guide wiki."

I don't know. This stuff is cool, but is it necessary? It would be nice if the technology could one day be merged together into one user-friendly-do-everything program, but in an age of rampant global capitalism I suspect that is a naive notion. It'll probably get more, rather than less complicated. That is unless Google achieves it's aim of global domination, and at this point I would like to be the first to welcome our new overlords and offer any assistance that a puny subject may be deemed worthy of contributing.

What was I talking about anyway?

Getting down off my soap box now.

Week 6 - Thing 15 - Perspectives

2007-10-08T15:00:00.000+08:00

I really did read a few of those perspectives on Library 2.0. Some of them were interesting, incisive commentaries prompting deep reflections and even the occasional paradigm shift on my part. But it was two weeks ago and I can't say as I can remember them right now. I'm sorry.

Quick! Look at the monkey:

Week 6 - Thing 14 - Technorati

2007-10-08T14:36:00.000+08:00

If you wanted to add this blog to you technorati favourites for mysterious reasons known only to yourself, you would need simply click on this here thingy:

Seems I've added a tag here too:
[SJLibrary2.0]
Click on it and you'll see a whole lot of blog entries called Week 6 Thing 14. Wheeeee!

Week 6 - Thing 13 - del.icio.us

2007-09-24T13:49:00.000+08:00

A while ago, I decided in my well-maintained ignorance to ignore del.icio.us. What little I understood of it didn't appeal to me. By which I mean to say that I didn't like it's name.

At the same time, whenever I found a good website while I was away from my home computer, I would email the link to myself. Then when I got home it was just a simple matter of not bothering to read said email or add the interesting website to my bookmarks.

del.icio.us is good.

But I still don't like it's name.

Week 5 - Thing 12 - Web 2.0 Awards

2007-09-20T15:23:00.000+08:00

They give out awards in a music category! I'm at work listening to music! Well... 30 seconds of music anyway. I had a look at last.fm. It's a social networking music site. If you type in a band it gives you a page of 30 second snippets (sometimes mercilessly hacked) from a wide range of their songs, plus videos, comments, groups, pictures, biographies and plenty more. Sure, 30 seconds isn't much, but I enjoyed the nostalgia. The site also suggests further listening and I found that the suggestions were generally pretty relevant. I put in Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and it gave me pretty much my CD collection. I really need to buy some new music.

Here's one of those 30 second bits. I think they must have used a cheese grater to cut it out of the track, but it's still an excellent song.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Deanna

Week 5 - Thing 11 - Twitter

2007-09-20T14:28:00.000+08:00

I watched the Twitter globe for about five minutes and was surprised and appalled at how many other people are doing precisely nothing all over the world right now.

Week 5 - Thing 10 - Image Generators

2007-09-20T14:09:00.000+08:00

I Simpsonized myself. I uploaded a photo and voila!

I think you'll agree, the likeness is incredible. Well, it's a man with a beard anyway....

Week 4 - Thing 8 & 9

2007-09-17T11:08:00.000+08:00

I set up a bloglines account last week and just had a look at it. Sure enough it had a few new bits to look at. Handy, I guess. The only thing is, I probably don't look at enough websites regularly to warrant getting an aggregator to do the work for me, and I like the formatting a pretty pictures on the actual sites too much to give it up. Still, I can see the usefulness of these things if that's what you're into.

I'm going to break with tradition and forego adding a funny picture to this post.

Blog for blog's sake

2007-09-12T09:36:00.000+08:00

Must be getting addicted to this. Now I'm posting stuff that I dont actually have to. Here's something that I came across while doing a bit of legitimate work related research. A poster for The Godfather made up of the entire script of the film, all painstakingly hand-lettered.

Clicking the picture takes you to the creators website with more of this stuff.

What book are you?

2007-09-11T15:04:00.000+08:00

Turns out that I'm James Joyce's Ulysses. How pretentious. I actually started reading this once....

As they said on The Book Quiz:

You're Ulysses!

by James Joyce

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.

Gee.

Week 3 - Thing 6

2007-09-10T15:12:00.000+08:00

There, I used a 3rd party Flickr tool to make a joke about the APEC summit.

Certainly funnier (even after several viewings) are the wonderful Bushisms that came about at said summit:

Week 3 - Thing 5

2007-09-10T14:34:00.000+08:00

I can't quite believe that I just sat here taking photos of puppets on a stick and I get to call it PD!

Lil' Cthulhu here is just one of many (well, three) puppets from the toy library that are sure to haunt the dreams of any who behold them. Behold the rogues gallery at my newly established Flickr page.

Week 2 - Thing 3 &4

2007-08-31T10:31:00.000+08:00

Setting up this blog has taken me one step further down the path to self actualisation. I couldn't find any facial hair for my avatar, so I had to settle for a pumpkinhead.

Week 1 - Thing 1 & 2

2007-08-31T10:16:00.001+08:00

By messing with the space/time continuum, I'm commenting during week 1 on a blog that I haven't created until week 2! (Note to self: insert little winking smiley face thing here, that last comment might have sounded snarky).

I am well pleased with the progress so far, although I found the 7 and a half tips presentation frustratingly slow and as a result I probably overlooked some of the good content. I learnt that my attention span is even shorter than previously thought. Two and a half stars from me. Margaret?

Anyway, what did you think, John Claude Van Damme?

Yeah, pretty good!

It begins....

2007-08-30T14:48:00.000+08:00

Like Rhesus monkey Sam, I am ready to test the safety of 23 things for generations of intrepid Blogfarers to come.