A Dog's Life

Week 2 : Zamzar - converting file formats

2010-04-27T12:23:00.010+12:00

It occurs to me that converting files is a bit like having a dog (.pdf) go into a kennel (Zamzar) and having a cat (.doc) come out! A crime against nature, or a good trade? I'll let you be the judge :)

Well the first challenge was to find the Zamzar site - I could have had a (correct) punt by adding ".com" after the name, but I have a strong Google reflex that led me to http://www.zamzar.com/ just as quickly.

Instead of converting a word document to pdf - something easily done when saving on my work pc - I decided to attempt converting a pdf to word ... something I would have found handy in the past ... especially when having to print off pdf. registration forms, fill them out in pen and then scan them to attach to emails. I knew there must be a cleaner, simpler way!

I browsed my files to quickly find a pdf example, highlighted it and clicked on open, selected doc. as the format I wanted it converted to, entered my email address and within a minute I'd been sent an email to say that the converted file would be available on Zamzar for the next 24 hours. My only hiccup during this process was realising that the pdf had been successfully selected as nothing shows up in the first Zamzar box.

I quickly downloaded the registration form I'd selected for conversion and saved it as a doc. but was rather disappointed that it didn't act in the way I'd hoped. Instead of allowing me to type information into the boxes, the whole form acted like a picture within the word document that I could type *around* but not *in*. If anyone knows whether this is a true limitation of conversion or merely my own ineptitude, please feel free to enlighten me :)

Week 1 : Blogger - set up your own blog

2010-04-27T11:31:00.005+12:00

As with the Mafia, so with Manukau Libraries Learning 2.0 exercises - just when you think you're out, they pull you back in! I have decided to revisit my cyber-doggie learnings from 2008 and carry my original blog on for the new six exercises at http://mlweb20.blogspot.com/

While I have elected to re-use my gmail address and blog, I recently helped a team member start up new ones and was reminded that the most difficult things involved were choosing an original name that hadn't already been nabbed - and writing down all your addresses and passwords somewhere secure.

I think it's Quite Interesting (just flashed on the Stephen Fry-hosted show Q.I. for a sec there, great show) that the exercises I will be following are hosted on a blog, and that my medium for reflecting back on each exercise is also in blog-form hosted by the same site. This illustrates at least one use for blogs in the library environment - as areas for staff training and communication. This can also be extended to our library customers, to keep them informed of new initiatives/events and teach them how to use particular resources ... but I have (no doubt disloyal) doubts as to how riveting they would find following a library site in the long term.

In any case, I will attempt to take Web2.0 by the throat and squish it into submission - much as I am squishing the ball above. Grrrr.Woof.

The Twenty-third thing!

2008-09-16T17:29:00.005+12:00

Hello there

This is the final "Thing" I have to complete and therefore my final post in which I'd like to reflect on my progress over the last few months.

I found following this online journey (cyber walkies if you will - my last dog related pun I promise!) to be generally interesting and worthwhile. I enjoyed discovering new sites/tools and finding out more about others I only had a glancing knowledge of. I also liked the impetus to create and maintain this blog. I'm not sure if I will create one as a civilian, but it's been good to try it out. It's also quite satisfying to be able to read back through my blog and experience the accumulation of information and opinions (and puns - again sorry).

It's also been interesting to complete an online course through work. Bad in that it took up extra time I didn't have, and good that it encouraged colleagues across departments to share information on common (often shakey) ground and generally bond a little more. The council firewalls were my biggest frustration. In the building I work in there isn't the same access to (un-blocked) learn.nets (public computer pods) as in the library branches, and I don't currently have internet access from home. One of my colleagues commented that because she wasn't experienced on the internet that when she came to a dead end she didn't know if it was something she'd done wrong, or just a council block.

I'm not sure how this collection of e-experiences has specifically benefited me in my professional life. Possibly just with an increased confidence in negotiating the current generation of interweb sites/tools.

I will now leave you with a final photo of my handsome doggie persona - Angus - Adieu! Woof!

Week 9 : Thing 22 : Books, but not as we know them

2008-09-16T16:58:00.003+12:00

My main exposure to e-books has been through my brother (ever an embracer of new technologies and gadgets) who likes to read e-books from his palm pilot (or whatever device he's no doubt upgraded to) while lying in bed. He says that the LCD screen gives him enough light so he doesn't have to turn on the bedside light and disturb his sleeping wife. Very considerate, but I fear for his eyesight!

I've spoken to other people, with less hardy eyeballs, who say that they always try to avoid reading anything lengthier than a few paragraphs directly from the screen. If they have an article or similar to read they print if off, and if they want to read a book they buy (or borrow) the hard-copy.

I would say I fall more in the latter camp by preference, but sometimes do read articles and stories from the screen when I can't justify wasting the paper.

I had a look at "Project Gutenburg" http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page, the main site to access free e-books (they have 25,000+ titles) to see if it held anything of interest to me.

First I searched for one of my favourite author's "Lois McMaster Bujold", of whom there was unsurprisingly no free writing available. (That's not to say that there aren't plenty of paid versions or illegally shared versions existing out there.)

Then I tried "Shakespeare" on the grounds that he was unlikely to still be under copyright.
Yup, oodles of Shakespeare in several languages and a variety of formats available to download it in. I decided to look at a PDF version of "Hamlet" (in English) http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/2ws2610.pdf
After wading through about 9 pages about Gutenberg and their various disclaimers, I got to the text itself which was pretty clear (but it would have been better if the speaker's names were bolded to break it up and make it more obvious who was speaking when).

I wouldn't say that I am a convert to e-books, but it's good that the options are out there and that some of the older materials in particular are being presevered electronically.

W9:T21: Half Man Half Toaster Pastry

2008-09-16T16:26:00.003+12:00

I had a look at the podcast directory site Podcastalley.com and did another search for "Flight of the Conchords". The top entry entitled "Half Man Half Toaster Pastry" http://hmhtp.podomatic.com/rss2.xml which promised that "Our Music Will Make Sweet Tender Love to Your Ears" seemed to relate - but the rest of the links it brought up all seemed to be aviation-related ... so perhaps not!

Did the same search on the podcast directory site Podcast.com and got a different listing that seemed more relevant and to be more orientated towards video (as opposed to audio) clips than the previous site. There was a collection of FotC links grouped together under one link. The podcasts turned out to be video clips and led me to the official HBO site for their recent series where video blogs from their (fictional) fan Mel were archived, among other behind the scenes footage.

Podcasts remind me very much of YouTube, but without one dominating site and and generally with more of a focus on audio clips. I actually think the podcasts are more useful, as many TV/Films come out on DVD, whereas previously radio interviews and the like were limited to one-off performances.

W9:T20: Flight or fight...

2008-09-16T15:46:00.003+12:00

"Flight of the Conchords" is an Enzed musical comedy phenomenon that I'm both entertained by and (nationalistically speaking) rather proud of.
A quick search on YouTube for their name will bring up a list of video clips of many of their live stand-up performances, the music that featured in their HBO series, and some of the interviews they have had.

The above is the opening image of a video clip of the duo performing their "Gangsta Folk Rap" www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvNLv5NEmM0

Their unofficial website has also utilised the site themselves by collecting many of the links to YouTube clips together in a gallery www.conchords.net/video/fotc-youtube-gallery

I find YouTube to be an interesting place to poke around in, particularly if you are a fan of a particular celebrity/show/animal etc.
As for it's practical usage for libraries; it could be used for video diaries and live footage of library events which (like the FotC site) could then have the URL links embedded in library websites or e-mails.

8:19 And the award goes to ...

2008-08-25T17:26:00.004+12:00

Just been having a look at the short-list of award-winning Web 2.0 sites/applications and feeling heartened at recognising a good sprinkling of them ... many through the Learning 2.0 lessons.

I decided that "Fun stuff" sounded the most appealing section - it's been a long Monday! - and I had a look around http://www.hairmixer.com/

This site could actually be quite useful if you were contemplating an extreme hairstyle change and wanted a bit of inspiration or reassurance - otherwise it's just a bit of fun.

Here's the (disturbing) result of mixing my own face (circa 1976) with Pink's hair ... maybe not?!

Test

2008-08-25T16:52:00.001+12:00

Test document writtenin Zoho Writer

+"Hi"from the dog !

8:18 Zoho, are you there-ah?

2008-08-25T16:12:00.004+12:00

I've just created an account on Zoho, and have been looking at the benefits of using 'Zoho Writer', its online word processing application ... and I think I'm sold - for home use at least.

I think it's great that it's freely available (apart from mostly needing to be online to use it that is, although there are offline features), and that it can easily convert your documents into whatever kind of format you need. I know that I have plenty of old university assignments and bits of personal writing saved to discs that I probably will not be able to access again, because both the storage system and the word processing applications used are already rather antiquated. Fingers crossed, online universal applications like Zoho mean that documents created there will have a lot more longevity. (Although you really should save anything important to some other medium just in case, she nags.)

I also like some of the fancier features Zoho has, such as saving documents as tags - so that one document can be accessed under several folders/tags. From what I can see tags are an integral part of Web 2.0 - and a tag is really just another name for a keyword ... which is the librarian's stock and trade. Although I am sure most cataloguers will be wincing at the uncontrolled vocabulary used for tags. One person's potato being another person's spud and all that. There are also lots of other associated Zoho applications available, such as spreadsheets, that could eliminate the need for a personal user to buy an expensive software bundle - nice.

My main complaint so far is that sometimes you have to wait a bit for the things you click on in Zoho to work. So if you are doing something other than typing in plain text, you will likely find yourself somewhat frustrated when the interweb was being a bit porridgey.

Week 7 : Thing 17 : Getting to know you, getting to know all about you ...

2008-08-19T11:04:00.002+12:00

Bebo, Myspace, Facebook, Yahoo! Groups, Hi5, Friendster and Orkut are all examples of large social networking sites, with the first three being the most popular (at least among English language speakers - apparently South Korea's CyWorld.com is huge).

I've just read an article that refers to a recent survey by computer experts rating the top 10 social networking sites according to "how easy they are to set up, their range of features, and most importantly the duel needs of both privacy and security". Interestingly, Bebo came out on top largely "due to encouraging responsible networking by enabling people to easily hide their details from others, and giving plenty of options to block unwanted people."

I think privacy and security are the big issues now; partly to protect oneself from unwanted pests/bullies/perverts, and partly because the episodes in your life that you are happy to share with friends may not make the best reading for potential employers down the track.

Personally I equate Bebo with teenagers, Facebook with 20 & 30-somethings, and Myspace with music groups.

I prefer more straight blog-like networks like Myspace because I think they are more personal. Facebook has a lot of cutsie features, (like sending people a virtual cake icon for their birthday) and is good for linking your site with your "friends" and their "friends" and so on down the line, but in many ways the most profound entries will always come from anonymous blogs.

6:16: Web 2.0, Business 2.0, Libraries 2.0, Learning 2.0, Librarian 2.0

2008-08-08T15:24:00.004+12:00

(As ever) I found the potted description of "Libraries 2.0" on the wikipedia a helpful overview of the term-du-jour. I like the line "With new web tools information can be released to flow in every direction (library to user, user to library, library to library, and user to user)", which succinctly describes the underlying principle of Libraries 2.0. This very blog is largely an exercise in librarian to librarian information sharing in a virtual environment. (Wow, profound)

Read a good article (referenced by the wikipedia description) Maness, J. (2006). Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries. Webology, 3 (2), Article 25.
In which Maness describes Web 2.0 in a similar way - but rather more poetically - as "a matrix of dialogues, not a collection of monologues". Maness also refers to the term "biblioblogosphere" when describing weblogs written by librarians such as this. Maness goes on to define “Library 2.0” as “the application of interactive, collaborative, and multi-media web-based technologies to web-based library services and collections". When discussing the implications of blogs and wikis to libraries, he writes that "In a world where no information is inherently authoritative and valid, the critical thinking skills of information literacy are paramount to all other forms of learning".

Technorati a.k.a. what a lot of blogs!

2008-08-08T14:19:00.005+12:00

Just had a look on http://www.technorati.com/ for "Learning 2.0" references.
Firstly I went to the advanced search option, chose to look in blogs and looked for the whole phrase, which I put in speech marks. (You may not have to for the phrase option, but I find it a very useful search habit for sites like Google when I only want hits on a specific phrase.) Only 6 results came up - surprisingly few. I then searched for "Learning 2.0" in the tags box and got 183 hits - now that's more like it! And finally I looked for it in the URL box (even though you're really meant to put a URL in there rather than a phrase), and got 262 hits. Jackpot.

Next it was on to http://www.technorati.com/pop/ to see what's popular.
Apparently Jenifer Garner and Ben Affleck are (both made it into the top 15 searches). The most popular blog (as rated by fans) is http://www.boingboing.net/ - which mostly looks at pop culture and technology related issues. The top movie at the moment is "Dark Knight" and the top news story relates to the Olympics.

Week 6, thing 14: Del.icio.us is plain yummy ...

2008-08-08T13:13:00.005+12:00

Rather like a tasty bone.
Well if you'd like to take a nosy, I've created a Delicious account here http://delicious.com/ADogsLife and it is a site that I would be happy to come back to.

It was kind of like guided net-surfing, and I can see how a lot of time could be spent/wasted following the different website links that various keywords/tags throw up. It's good to see the numbers of Delicious account holders next to each site as an indication of popularity.

My only down-side was that I was unable to export my current bookmarks from Outlook, as it really seemed to be mostly geared for those with an Internet Explorer browser.
N'mind, was a fun exercise coming up with some new ones.

Wiki post - lucky number 13

2008-08-04T16:43:00.003+12:00

I was feeling a bit gung-ho and decided to go through the process of signing on as an approved user of the Manukau Libraries wiki as a learning exercise ... or was that an exercise in ego? Verification came through to my gmail and I duly added comments to the fav. blogs, movies and television show lists. I'm feel slightly conspicuous now though, as my comments display a little differently to everyone else who have stuck with the generic login.
Oh well, dogs are rarely noted for being modest in their opinions!

Wikitastic!

2008-08-04T16:02:00.002+12:00

As you may have noticed from my previous post, when looking for a quick definition I find the Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page an incredibly useful resource.

I would hesitate to cite it academically, because I am unsure as to the quality of the moderation. However if one was writing on an emerging or marginal popular culture topic, then it may well be the only (somewhat) authoritative source of information.

Wikis are a great way of gathering information and opinions in a thematic way, but the quality of the content will vary and is difficult to police. In libraries it's a good way to encourage interaction from the public and to foster improved communication and engagement among staff. Although, obviously, it will need to be set up with its intended use very much in mind.

What do podcasts have to do with dolphins?

2008-08-04T15:33:00.002+12:00

Nothing actually! But, now that I have your attention, for my 11th “thing”, I thought I would wax lyrical about the value of podcasts.

According to the slightly sus, but ever-helpful Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

“A podcast is a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.
The term is a portmanteau of the words "iPod" and "broadcast",[1] the Apple iPod being the brand of portable media player for which the first podcasting scripts were developed (see history of podcasting). Such scripts allow podcasts to be automatically transferred to a mobile device after they are downloaded.[2] As more devices other than iPods became able to synchronize with podcast feeds, the term was redefined by some parties as an abbreviation for the backronym "Personal On Demand broadCASTING".[3][4][5]
Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.”

I particularly like the way NZ Radio stations such as Radio New Zealand http://www.radionz.co.nz/podcasts and KiwiFM http://www.kiwifm.co.nz/Listen/tabid/53/Default.aspx now offer podcasts archiving some of their broadcasts.

Some podcasts are also cited on the relevant musicians webpages, and others are even cited within articles, e.g. this Scoop article publicising the weekly KiwFM interview with Helen Clark http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00310.htm

Flickering images

2008-08-04T14:47:00.005+12:00

To have a play on Flickr I created a public account and uploaded twenty-eight photos of myself (as a dog) at the beach here http://www.flickr.com/people/caninetravels/

I created my Flickr account's icon from one of the photos by cropping it down to one little square.

I also chose to organise my photostream by making the photos all display a little smaller, so that they could all fit on one page.

I went back a little later and tagged all my photos "NZ beach dog", in an effort to make them more easily retrievable for mash-up applications.

Flickr's "Montager" mosaic application http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php *said* it was looking for the tags "NZ beach dog", but kept telling me that "there were no images associated with that tag".
....

Having taken a deep breath, I decided to leave the mosaic and create my own trading card at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php

Behold my success!

Sniffing around

2008-07-31T17:18:00.004+12:00

Just been having a quick sniff around Flickr. Very interesting to see what does and doesn't pop up in my searches (not-with-standing constant interference from the council's firewalls).

The above is a (less than flattering) photo of "Otis Mace" an excellent local singer-songwriter (as mentioned in my blog profile), and friend.

The below is a photo of the ever-delicious "Colin Firth" getting doused with coffee for an Oxfam campaign. Mmmm, Marcona hast mere Mmm!

Dog rolls...

2008-07-28T15:56:00.003+12:00

actually I went with more of a TV theme to create my searchroll.
I've saved a "rollyo" search engine - the icon is top right of the blog.
Just tried a search for "Torchwood" (a rather more adult spin-off from "Doctor Who") using the "Cult TV" sites I collected, and it all seems to be working.
Have finished "playing" for now I think ... will take a small breather before moving on to the "Photos & Images" module of Learning 2.0.

The joy of libraries!

2008-07-28T13:09:00.003+12:00

Have a look at my LibraryThing catalogue http://www.librarything.com/catalog/ADogsLife
A work in progress as you can see.

It was good to look up some of my favourite authors and see what popped up - I've even placed a couple of holds at my own library http://www.manukau-libraries.govt.nz/ for new books that cunningly crept in without my knowledge.
Also interesting to see how many fellow Library-thingers have selected the same titles ... or not!

Fame at last!

2008-07-28T12:28:00.003+12:00

With the help of one of the neat flickr toys at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr I am now a legend ... in my own mind at least.

I also spent some time uploading photos onto Flickr with the intention of using the Mosaic toy ... but it just didn't happen for me. Never mind, I think this poster was more fun anyway, and I will no doubt use the Flickr account in next week's exercises.

Einstein says ...

2008-07-25T16:12:00.004+12:00

Or do I mean "(Groucho) Marx says"?

In any case, it was all with a little help from the image generator at http://www.hetemeel.com/

Cloudy day brightens

2008-07-25T15:40:00.004+12:00

Not to be put off by my earlier failure with wordle (Dogs are persistent creatures), I googled the words ... create word cloud ... and was led straight to this site http://tagcrowd.com/

The resulting word cloud from the Dog's Life lyrics are below:

Cloudy day

2008-07-21T17:49:00.002+12:00

Wanted to make a pretty word cloud out of the below, but sadly the site http://wordle.net/ wouldn't oblige today.

A Dog's Life (Elvis Presley)

If I had my life to live over
I know just what I'd like to be
A pampered pet of a rich brunette
Sitting on my mama's knee
Someone to love me
Someone to care
Rubberduck dubble little fingers through my hair
I need a dog's life
What a life, that's good enough for me
That's good enough for me

If I had a bone to be picking
A picking chicken or a steak
Curled up there in an easy chair
Man, that won't be hard to take
I'll always be faithful
That's what I'd be
Never bite a hand that feeds me, no siree
Just lead a dog's life
What a life
That's good enough for me
That's good enough for me

I'd find me a pink little poodle
And lose my noodle over her
I chase her 'round all over town
Just to ruffle up her fur
Nuzzle her muzzle
A hole in her paw
Greatest case of puppy lovin' you ever saw
It's called a dog's life
What a life
That's good enough for me
You heard me say it now
That's good enough for me

Feeding time cont.

2008-07-21T17:07:00.003+12:00

Hello there

I've been having a little experiment with some of the different ways of finding and adding RSS feeds, but I wouldn't say I'm feeling uber-confident yet. I still find the easiest way is to find a good site and then click the "Sub with Bloglines" link I saved to my favourites earlier. If there is a feed it adds it to my swag, and if there isn't it doesn't. Technocrati seems a fun way of quickly finding communities of blogs that relate to some of my interests, but I'm not really interested in subscribing to too many personal blogs of people I don't know. You'd think a dog would be more sociable :-)

I think maybe it's time I moved on to playtime.

More venting about traffic ...

2008-07-17T10:41:00.007+12:00

plus something new I learned.

Last night the truckies finally had their victory. One broke down on the Harbour Bridge around 2pm and, despite it being cleared, the ensuing back-up of traffic meant several hours later it still took me two hours to drive from Manukau to central Auckland. Two hours! I would have much rather been out and about chasing sticks let me tell you.

The lesson I referred to was not actually traffic related, or only in that another venting on this topic was written a while ago but failed to upload. What I didn't realise, as I howled at the moon that fateful fourth of July, was that a draft had been automatically saved! I only noticed this just now when I used my (non-car) dashboard, clicked on manage 'posts' and saw the draft saved there. I was only in there to tidy-up/edit an earlier post where I had neglected to put commas between my post labels. Suffice to say, after clicking on edit, I was able to press 'publish post' successfully and the post was even labelled with its original create date.

So the moral of this tail may be that the trucks will always obstruct you in the end, or that the commuter's lot is a dog's life, or perhaps sometimes things you think are lost lost forever are actually only misplaced! (much like a buried bone)

Feeding time!

2008-07-16T13:45:00.005+12:00

Hi there

I have finally gotten 'round to having a fiddle with RSS feeds. I have links to the rest of my pack's (team's) blogs at the bottom of this page, and I have started to accumulate a list of interesting feeds on my new blogline account.

Apparently my blogline is now publicly available at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/ADogsLife
So don't be shy about sniffing out some of the resources that caught my eye, and let me know if you have any recommendations that might tempt my doggie appetites.

Yrs, Dog-tired.

And a special TGIF goes out to Danielle ...

2008-07-04T10:07:00.008+12:00

because she has been waiting for some more content to start popping up from people.

Alas it is Friday morning and the most pressing thing on my mind is a sense of victory that I took the South Western motorway into work for a change and managed to avoid the Truckie Go-Slow on the Southern this morning.

(Beware venting ahead) I had bad enough run home last night when I was (mildly) rear-ended by someone who didn't realise that it was the oxymoronically named "rush hour(s)" and everything was now a car park. My car still looks like its crappy self and I didn't wake up to a seized neck and the weekend is fast approaching - so all good.

I shall now leave you with a cheerful dog-related quote from Paul Newman in the 1963 movie 'Hud' - "It happens to everybody, horses, dogs, men. Nobody gets out of life alive.” sourced from a great site for movie quotes http://www.reellifewisdom.com/ Enjoy!

Deep thoughts about blogs as distorted reflections ...

2008-07-01T14:38:00.001+12:00

as I licked at fresh puddles.

Meet the dog

2008-07-01T09:07:00.001+12:00

Welcome to my doggie world! Come play with me as we fetch smelly sticks and chase colourful balls ... of knowledge. Watch me pull on my leash and charge into this virtual arena half-strangled. Together we will sniff out the fartherest reaches of this Inter-web-thingie and mark our scent, aka pee everywhere. Trust me, it's a compliment.