the web according to google #88: wave, buzz and mobile

1) Even after watching the videos on Wave and Buzz, I'm still not sure I see the need for them. Wave seems like it has possibilities, but only if everyone I know also has Wave. If I have Wave and no one else I know has Wave, then Wave isn't very practical. I did like that you could drag files straight from your computer desktop into Wave, but if I have no one to share those files with, what's the point?

Buzz seems too much like Twitter and Facebook status updates to me. I already have Twitter (which I use) and Facebook (which I rarely update), and having one extra thing seems like far too much work. Is my life really that important that everyone I know has to see what I'm up to on three different sites?

2) As of now, I do not have a phone that is web capable, so I don't use any Google Mobile apps. If I did have a phone that could connect to the Internet, I'd probably use the apps for maps (because I get lost a lot), Gmail (because I'm a compulsive email checker) and Calendar (so I always know my schedule). Until I get that phone...

the web according to google #87: google reader

1) Although I don't use any application that only serves as a feed reader, I do have feeds associated with my personal blog. I find this very convenient because I'm already checking that part of my blog all the time to see what my friends have posted, and can see feeds from other sites at the same time. But since the focus of this post is Google Reader, I did take the tour (which was very very short). I don't think I'll ever feel inclined to get blog feeds through Google Reader, but I can see how it would be convenient for people who want to consolidate all their blogs into one feed.

When I was doing the tour, Google had sample feeds, one of which was a photographer's post about visiting a ghost town on a tiny island off the coast of Japan. I highly recommend this post.

2) All the blogs I follow have feeds. Currently, some of my favorite feeds are for Go Fug Yourself, Cute Overload, and Lolcats. Cute pictures, snarky commentary, and cats with poor grammar. What could be better?

the web according to google #86: calendar and documents

1) I already use Google Calendar at home and at work. My personal calendar includes everything important: birthdays and holidays, work items, due dates for bills, etc. At work, we use the calendar to enter vacation days, programs, etc for all the staff in a particular department. This consolidates all important information in one place and makes scheduling much more convenient.

2) I also already use Google Docs at home and at work. At work we use this feature (along with Google Sites) to upload the desk schedule and make it viewable to all staff members. Personally, I don't think Google Docs is as functional as Microsoft Word, but I still use it because anything I do is accessible from any computer with the Internet. I mainly use this for uploading things that I change frequently, like my list of books read. It's convenient and sometimes convenience is more important than all the fancy bells and whistles (many of which Google Docs lacks).

the web according to google #85: resistance is futile

As I mentioned previously in the post about search engines, I don't generally use Google as my primary search engine. Actually, at the library I mostly use the Live Search at the top of the Internet Explorer window because it is convenient. Today (er, when I started writing this post weeks and weeks ago), however, I will be using Google for every search? Why? Because you can play Pac-Man on the Google search page. How awesome is that?

1) On a regular basis, I use Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Sites, Blogger and YouTube. I know what you're thinking: That's a lot of Google products for someone who doesn't actually like Google and thinks the company is trying to take over the world. (They are.) I use Gmail because it has the most pleasing interface of all the email clients I've seen. I use Google Docs because it easily allows me to access the same document from my home computer and from work, without carrying around a flash drive. The same for Google Calendar. (Although, last week my calendar was down for 5 days. I was not pleased and it has made me consider finding another calendar option.) I use Google Maps because it easily allows me to modify the route given. I only use Google Sites and Blogger because of work, but I love YouTube a lot.

2) I browsed through Google Labs, but I honestly didn't find anything on there that seems like it will make my life easier because it exists. The new Gmail options they're working on won't change anything about how I use Gmail now, and it's the same for all the other Google features. I don't know if I'm just missing the cool features, but it all seemed very unnecessary.

3) Google Books is an interesting feature that I'm not sure I would use all that often. I find it annoying that a good portion of the books are only available in limited preview. What's the point? If I'm going to go to the trouble of reading a book online, it's probably because I need it immediately and can't find a physical copy. A limited preview is not useful in that circumstance. I probably won't ever take advantage of Google Books until the books I actually want to read are available in full. However, I did enjoy scrolling through the magazines Google Books has cataloged. I particularly liked looking through back issues of Life. I wasn't aware that this site had magazines, so finding a wide array of choices was a pleasant surprise.

publishing evolution #84: writers communities & author websites

1) Let me tell you a story. Back in April 2006, I read Twilight for the first time. I loved it. Loved it to bits and pieces. Loved it so much that I skimmed the entire book in one day, wrote an entire paper that same day, and immediately picked the book up again. (Since then, I've come to really despise everything related to Twilight. Oversaturation, perhaps? A realization that the series isn't all that great? Who knows?) I loved the book so much, that I went online, googled Stephenie Meyer, visited her website, and wrote her an email.

An excerpt from my email:

I started reading your book late Monday night (or, rather, early Tuesday morning!) By the end of the first chapter I was completely hooked, and it almost cost me a grade. I am the world's biggest procrastinator, and so it should come as no surprise that I had a paper due by 11:59 Tuesday evening that I had yet to start writing. It should have been easy. I should have woken up early that morning and written my 6-10 pages before evening. Instead, I woke up and stared at the cursor blinking on my pristine word document, my mind contemplating not the USA PATRIOT Act and its affect on libraries, but Edward Cullen. Noon came, I'd yet to write a single word (besides the title page, of course) and decided PBJ was the order of the day. Well, everyone knows you can't type and eat a sandwich at the same time so I picked up Twilight. BIG MISTAKE! I ended up being so drawn into the book that every hour or so when I'd try to put it down and write my blasted paper, I'd end up back with the book five minutes later. I ended up skimming through the entire book that day because I simply had to know what happened and didn't, for the sake of my paper, have time to read it all the way through. At six o'clock I managed to finish skimming, and get down to work, turning in eight pages and a gazillion citations by 11:45 that night. Just made it, and since I have serious doubts that my professor actually reads any of our papers, I'm not all that worried about my grade.  

And she replied! First I got a form email, but a week later I got a second email, actually written in response to my story. It was thrilling. It still is, even though I've since left Twilight behind.

So, yes. I frequently visit author sites, either to gather information before a book club or to learn more after discovering a book or series I love. My favorite author websites are the ones that also have blogs written by the authors. I find blogs fascinating because they give a peak into what another person's life is like. It's a glimpse of secret thoughts, realizations, upcoming news, and proof that even the most famous people can have humdrum days.

One of my favorite author websites and blogs is that of Meg Cabot. Her blog is hilarious! I've been reading her blog for a few years now, and I'm constantly amused at what she writes about. I have even emailed her a time or two when she has done giveaways of advanced reader copies of her books. (And I've received the books, too!)

For this post, I decided to look up Carrie Ryan, the author of the YA books The Forest of Hands & Teeth and it's companion novel, The Dead-Tossed Waves. Guys, I LOVE these books. They are beautiful, haunting, memorable, angsty, action-packed, and completely original. They made me cry. Imagine how ecstatic I was when I saw on her blog that the third book is coming out next spring and that three short stories set in that universe are coming out at various times this year. This is FANTASTIC news! And I never would have known those short stories existed had I not read Carrie Ryan's blog.

2) Do I think an American Idol-esque contest for book publication is a worthwhile idea? No. In fact, I think it's pretty dumb. In my opinion, the general public does not always get things right. I mean, Chris Daughtry came in 6th place on AI and now practically every song on his albums plays on the radio. Jennifer Hudson, who didn't make it to the end of AI won an Oscar for a role in a movie-musical. And Taylor Hicks, who won the fifth season of AI has completely faded into obscurity. See how easily the American public can get things wrong?

What I would like to know is, how many people actually know this contest exists? How many votes do they get each week? It's hardly a popularity contest if no one knows about it.

publishing evolution #83: paper to pixels (or e-ink)

1) For the most part, I prefer books in paper format. I like the freedom of carrying a book around with me, folding down pages, marking my progress through the book. I also like knowing that I can take as long as I want to read a book, without worrying about a dying battery.

But I am not completely opposed to e-books. I have found that some books (mostly classics) are easier for me to read on a computer screen. I finally read all of Jane Austen's Emma last year - online. I had previously tried reading that book half a dozen times, but found it incredibly boring. I don't know if it was determination that pushed me to finally finish it, or if the online version actually helped, but reading it a computer certainly didn't hinder me.

I also recently purchased a Sony Reader, which has been great so far. It is compact and easy to carry around, but I know that free book availability will keep me from using it exclusively.

2) I think price is a concern for the majority of book buyers, particularly while the economy is still struggling to recover. I know I have bought fewer books over the past year than usual. The books I have bought have been from the Friends of the Library, at Half Price Books, or used from sellers on Amazon.

As I mentioned above, I recently purchased a Sony Reader. As of now, I refuse to spend money on digital copies of books. Instead, I've been downloading public domain novels and checking out ebooks from HCPL. It's worked out well for me, and I'll probably stick to this plan for a long while...at least until I get desperate!

3) I think previewing a book before I buy it is a fantastic idea. I do this a lot with cookbooks and knitting books, trying to check them out from the library to see if they are worth the money. However, I wasn't that impressed with iFiction. I suppose it's a good idea for people who are trying to self-publish in the most simplistic fashion, but the quality of the handful of stories I previewed was lacking. It certainly wasn't worth purchasing, even if the rest of the story was only 75 cents.

publishing evolution #82: print on demand

1) I browsed through all of the sites listed in the post and was shocked at how expensive self-publishing can be. There is a basic package (that is still almost as much as my monthly rent) that offers quite a bit, including a full color cover, but the nicer packages are several thousand dollars each. Crazy! I had no idea. It's hard to tell from the website, but the books seem to be decent quality - when the author puts the effort in. Some of the books lacked appealing covers, but that is probably the fault of the author, not the companies.

I can honestly say I have never read, nor do I have any desire to read any of the books I saw in my brief browse through the bookstores on the self-publishing sites. Besides, my TBR list is already a mile long. It would take a strong recommendation from someone with similar reading tastes to mine before I added a self-published title to my list.

2) What do I think of self-publishing? Not much. I think it has a place in the publishing world, but not for people trying to make a living through writing. For recipe collections, family histories, personal biographies, etc, self-publishing is fantastic. It allows the author to print a limited number of books at a relatively low cost to distribute to family and interested friends. But, in my opinion, that is the extent of self-publishing's usefulness.

I found the following quote in the Writer Beware article, which is the perfect springboard for my thoughts on self-publishing.

If you’re a new writer looking to establish a career, however, a POD service is probably not a good choice, except possibly as a fallback option for a manuscript that has failed to find a home.

This is exactly why I don't make a habit of reading self-published books and would never self-publish anything myself. I don't feel that the majority of self-published books could have been accepted by a major publishing company. If you have sent your manuscript to all the major publishing companies and they have all turned you down, there is probably a reason for all the consolation letters. Write something new. Extensively revise your manuscript. Find an agent to represent you to the publishing companies. Don't self-publish, because that is just subjecting an unwitting public to a bad manuscript.

the future of media #81: get out your crystal ball

1) In my opinion, media is quickly heading toward a future where everything is streaming. Everything will be accessible on the internet - music, movies, tv, news feeds (both video and text). Some areas are already heading that way and I think the move to digital tv last year is hurrying things along. As I mentioned in the tv post, I watch all my tv streaming over the internet. I haven't found myself hindered by my decision to cancel cable, and I certainly haven't watched less tv because of it. If anything, I watch more tv now because I can watch episodes when I have time, not based on when episodes air. As more people get high speed internet, cell phones with internet access, or various other handheld devices and as more cities move to a citywide wifi, more content will be available streaming. A future with easy access to streaming media seems likely and I love it.

2) I am not an early adopter of new gagdets for several reasons:

(1) I am poor.
(2) The first generation of any gagdet is bound to have bugs and issues that will be worked out by the second generation.
(3) I am poor.
(4) Not every new gagdet is worth having. The Kindle, for example is very cool, but limited. New gagdets require extensive research before purchasing to determine if they really are as worthwhile and revolutionary as people initially thought.

I'm not opposed to technology, but I am cautious about spending money on new technology. Take, for example, the iPad. I think the iPad is beautiful. I want one. The day it was unveiled I read everything I could about it, gazed longingly at the pictures of it, and planned a pilgrimage to the Apple store the weekend after it goes on sale (in March) just so I could touch one. Despite all that, I would never buy the first generation iPad. Too many glitches. Too many things that could easily be corrected for the second generation model once Apple gets costumer feedback. (Plus, the second generation is almost always accompanied by a cost cut.)

The second part of this question involves outdated technology. What do I miss the most? I'm not honestly sure. I miss non-digital tv, I think. I miss the VCR. But I only miss those two things because I used them frequently to record tv shows. If I had TiVo or DVR (or didn't just watch online), I wouldn't miss those at all. I know it's odd to say, but I kind of miss CD's. I buy everything on iTunes now, which means no physical CD, no cover art, no song lyrics. I miss my grandparents' 8-track. Not because it was a useful advancement in music technology but because it was fun to play with on vacation. (All they had left to listen to was Elvis!)

(I miss my hair crimper, but I doubt that was what this post was aiming for.)

My favorite media gagdet is the iPod (or the mp3 player, in general). Before the iPod, a vacation would include carefully deciding which CD's to bring for my discman. Inevitably, I would want the CD's I left behind. Now, even with my second or third generation iPod (no video, small storage space, very heavy), I can take 20 gigs of music with me and take up far less space. It's brilliant! It certainly makes my life easier.

the future of media #80: movies

1) In the previous post, I mentioned my intense love for Hulu. I generally use it to watch tv, but I have occasionally watched movies through Hulu. They have a nice mix of old and new films in many different genres. The one I just noticed and watched a bit of, was Ghostbusters. Memories of my childhood!


I really don't mind watching movies on my computer, mainly because I have a laptop so watching isn't restricted to an uncomfortable desk chair. I can watch on the couch or in bed, if I feel like it. I also spent several years with a hand-me-down tv with faulty connections, so could never watch DVD's without the tv going blank halfway through. I got so used to watching everything on my laptop that now that I have a (newer hand-me-down) tv that works, I rarely use it.


2) I regularly use Apple Trailers and IMDb to watch trailers for new movies coming out. I tried to watch a trailer for Toy Story 3 on Apple Trailers, but the staff computer I am on doesn't have Quicktime or sound, so it didn't quite work. Alas. Never fear, I have used both sites many, many times and will continue to do so.

3) For the last two years or so, I have been a faithful member of Netflix. I love it and wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone. Netflix makes it so easy to create a queue filled with movies and tv (some of which I will never get around to watching, but keep in there just in case), tailor the number of discs you want to receive at a time (with a pay adjustment, of course), browse by genre, and rate movies and write reviews for better recommendations. My favorite Netflix feature is definitely the streaming video. In fact, I just finished watching seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter through Netflix Instant. Now if only season 3 was streaming, too...

the future of media #79: television

To begin this post, let me get something off my chest.


I love tv.


There. Now that we've got that sorted, on to the post!


1) A couple of years ago, I decided that cable just wasn't worth the monthly bill, so I got rid of it. Shortly after, I discovered that not even rabbit ears could pick up a channel. (This was before the change to digital.) So I started watching all my tv online. I'm quite proficient at it, if I do say so myself. If I'm being honest, I think I watch more tv now than I did when I actually picked up channels! Odd, I know.


I use Hulu on a weekly basis to watch a good many of my tv shows. Castle, Burn Notice, White Collar, Sanctuary, Glee, Heroes... The list continues. It's easy to use and allows me to set up a subscription to each show I want. When something new is uploaded to that subscription, I get an email letting me know. Now I no longer need to worry about keeping track of when shows are airing new episodes because Hulu does it for me!


2) I do not watch tv on my cell phone because it is an impossibility. My cell phone, it is old. It is not internet or video compatible. If I had an iPhone? I would watch tv on it all the time.


3) I'm not much into watching people's personal streaming video, but I do watch videos uploaded to YouTube. I also have used YouTube to upload videos of my own. None actually have me in them, but they are videos are one's I have taken on vacations and at events (like Monster Jam).


Now I feel like watching tv...

searching #78: video

1) I am currently more than a little obsessed with Men's Figure Skating. I hold the Olympics fully responsible for this obsession. Since watching Evan Lysacek skate his heart out an win gold, I've been trying to find his free skate at the 2006 Olympics in Torino - with no sucess. I thought I'd put Truveo and Blinkx to the test and see if either site pulled up a link to that skate. No luck. Truveo and Blinkx both came up with tons of video links for the 2010 Olympics, but nothing further back. Since that search failed, I did a search for something I know for a fact is on the web - Johnny Weir's skate to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." (I really like that program. Can you tell?) A search on Truveo and on Blinkx both turned up results linking back to YouTube, the site I already knew had the video.


I can see how Blinkx and Truveo might sometimes be helpful, but I don't see myself using either all that often. The video I really want didn't show up and the one I already know about, well, I could just find searching YouTube. No point using a secondary search engine when most of what I find is on YouTube.


2) I knew HCPL had a YouTube channel, but I'd never been to it before. There is actually quite a bit of video on it, more than I would have expected. My favorite video series was uploaded by Freeman. It gives instructions on buying a print card, printing a document, and adding more money to a print card. Brilliant! The videos were clear and easy to understand, with explicit text instructions and arrows pointing to the relevant areas on pictures of the print card machine, etc. In my opinion, it would be fantastic if all HCPL desktops had a link to that video series (or one tailored to each specific branch, if there are differences). It might (maybe, hopefully, probably not but cross your fingers!) cut down on the number of printing questions.

Finally, because I think everyone should see this video at least once in their life (more than once is preferable), here's Johnny Weir skating to "Poker Face." He's fabulous!

searching #77: images

1) I am unimpressed with All Free Clip Art. The site is not intuitive and poorly set up. It also seems to be experiencing technical difficulties of some sort because every search I do leads only to blank clipart boxes with red x's. I have no idea whether the Santas look like trolls or not because I simply cannot see any of them.


2) Of the ten sites discussed, I already use one and had never used (or, in many cases heard of) the others.


Flickr - I adore Flickr. I'm not all that much of photographer, but I do enjoy taking photos of events I go to, parties, friends, family and vacations. I have found Flickr (especially when upgraded to a relatively inexpensive pro account) is a simple, intuitive website. I can create albums, group albums together, add tags, add notes, send albums to friends and family, even post slideshows on my blog! It's fantastic. Flickr also seems to attract a very mixed group of photographers, some on my level and some who actually have skill. I love browsing through Flickr and admiring the talent of many of the photographers.


MorgueFile - After exploring MorgueFile, I am highly impressed with the site. All the photos on the site are free to use and adapt without attribution. That makes finding the perfect picture so much easier because everything is free to use! I did notice that the quality is not always the same (some pictures clearly look like they were taken by amateurs), but there are enough lovely stock photos to make the site worth bookmarking.


3) I use schools.clipart all the time for program advertisement. I love the variety of photos and photo objects they have on that site. There is something for every program, and the high quality pictures really make a huge difference. I recently used this one for a sign regarding a teen book club:

Image Credit: @jupiterimages

searchin #76: sound effects

1) I love animal sounds. I love the adorable and unique ways little kids mimic animals. (One of my younger brothers used to make the funniest horse noise that none of us can copy accurately.) I love how animal sounds make me think of long car trips to visit my grandparents in West Texas. We would all moo when we passed cows, and baa when we passed sheep, and sometimes we would convince Dad to make his brilliant elephant trumpet, complete with an arm as a trunk. Life seemed much simpler then, when all I had to worry about was how to best mimic a rooster.

I used FindSounds to search for the following animal sounds:

A lion's roar
An elephant's trumpet (This site actually has tons and tons of different elephant sounds.)
An orca's call (This entire page is in Italian. Fun?)

2) Simply the Best seems much easier to navigate, especially if finding something in the public domain is necessary. I used it to find the following sounds:

A train horn (It sounds like something from Thomas the Tank Engine.)
Submarine sonar (I have a strange obsession with submarine movies. I don't even know.)
Morse Code (It would be interesting to know what was said in this clip.)

I thought both of these sites including some great sound effects. It's helpful to have sound effects from various sites collected onto one searchable site.

searching #75: google and beyond

1) Blindsearch was pretty fun. I did three different searches and ended up picking Google twice and Yahoo once. My first search was for Johnny Weir and the vote went to Google because it included a link to the YouTube video of his skate to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." (Arbitrary, I know, but I can't help it! I love that song and I adore his feisty skate to it!) My second search was for Wales. I ended up picking Google's results because it brought up a site other than Wikipedia or Answers.com the earliest. My third search for Joe Flanigan turned up an almost identical set of results in each column, so I randomly selected Yahoo.

Oddly enough, I generally prefer Yahoo at home, use Bing at work (through the live search option), and only use Google as a fall back. Despite my Blindsearch results, I will most likely continue this way simply because I dislike Google as a whole.

2) Not surprisingly, Google was the top search engine this week with 70.95% of the hits. Considering that Yahoo trails it with a meager 14.72% of hits, it is clear that Google has taken over the Internet. (Also not surprising, Google tops the list of most visited websites as well.) Clearly, the usage stats do not match my personal choice since I generally use Yahoo.

3) Yahoo has recently introduced a Search Pad function on their results pages. Search Pad allows users to save search results in a list, organize the list anyway they want, write notes on each site bookmarked, and save the list for future use. The lists can be retrieved later so searches don't have to be redone, and can also be sent via email or weblink to anyone you want to share it with. I think this is fantastic. It lets users do a search, save info, and come back to the same sites later on without the hassle of saving tons of bookmarks, leaving tabs open and hoping nothing goes wrong, or scribbling things down.