Search Engines (#15)

Posted on March 18, 2009 by KelliB
Actually, I don’t like using Google because I find the conceit of the developers insufferable, and I hate that they offer stock — how can you possibly own stock in a company that doesn’t have a product?  It’s stupid.
 
I like Blingo — great search results, and it doesn’t hurt that each search can win you prizes.  Love that!  Combines results from Yahoo, MSN Live Search, and Ask.com.
 
My search was for the a flower, for which I have a seed packet which has no picture, and, since the seeds are 10 years old, I don’t remember what they looked like in the Burpee Heirloom catalog (and Burpee no longer sells this type):
 
Carnation, Marguerite Mix
Rollyo: gave me similar answers to Blingo.
Mamma: gave fewer relevant results than Rollyo
Dogpile: similar to Rollyo and Blingo
 
None found this particular brand, and the results at each site seemed very similar.
 
I would hypothesize that most search engines will have the same results, because they all seem to include Google, Yahoo, MSN Live Search, and Ask. so I guess it all depends on which page has a color scheme you like.
 
I do especially like Clusty by Vivisimo, because it clusters the results into groupings, so that you can more easily see what you want. 
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Podcasting (#14)

Posted on March 18, 2009 by KelliB
Personal Interest:   Okay, I was one of the silly ones who thought that you needed an ipod to listen to podcasts.  I am thankful that I’ve been set straight, and I love Podcast Alley.  It’s great that you can serach for a Podcast (I found that easier than doing the "Pick a Podcast Genre"): I put in one word looking for podcasts in which I’d be interested, and it came back with 200 results to choose from.  Thank you Podcast Alley!  Podcasts from people all over the world?  Amazing! 
 
It is odd that all podcast "readers" make my machine wonder if it’s some kind of bad software.  Seems like they should all be so properly licensed that the issue doesn’t come up.  I think I’ll just stick with listening to p-casts with my WIndows Media Player.  Downloading lots of different programs can really mess up one’s computer, and it’s not worth the risk. 
 
The Learn Out Loud Podcasts is a really cool site: history lessons live at your fingertips — neato!
 
Library Interest: 
  1.  InfoPeople: Moving Libraries Forward This one impressed me because the most recent feed was an assessment on the "vritues of comics & graphic novels".  I think comic books/graphic novels are disgustingly underappreciated for how much work goes into their creation.
  2. PALINET: LIbraries Shaping Tomorrow Has quite a few different podcast.

 

Podcasts could be used by employees who want refresher courses, or to keep up-to-date with things like notes from Building Heads Meetings (to go along with the written notes at Comlitech). 

I have only listened  to podcasts with this exercise; I don’t know that I’d ever bother with making one, as there are already way too many people who think they have something to say when they really don’t.  I’d hate to have to sift through worthless podcasts just to get to some that have good, relevant info, and I don’t want to add to the mix.

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Fake Magazine Cover

Posted on March 18, 2009 by KelliB
So I didn’t do the monopoly card, because I couldn’t come up with a witty short statement.  The fake magazine cover did seem like fun, though.  Then I went to the site to do the fake magazine cover, and kept being inundated with google ads.  Since I was getting frustrated with trying to find the "real" links instead of the darned annoying ads, I stopped because it stopped being fun. 
 
I was all set to do a cool gardening magazine cover with some tomatillos and tomtoes I had grown a few years ago, and then it was just no longer worth the effort.  A shame, too, because I actually had an idea and wanted to see it to fruition.  I don’t know if they changed the site from last year during the first round of 20 for 2.0; I hope so, because it’s a wild, non-fun goose chase now.   
 
Maybe I will try coming up with an e-mail signature, as long as it’s not from the "Customer Signature Generator" site.
 
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2nd batch of Seedlings

Posted on March 17, 2009 by KelliB
So my second batch of seeds, sown on March 12, some have started germinating quite healthily — the Stupice tomatoes, and 2 types of lettuce (Parris Island Romaine & Tom Thumb butterhead) and Black Italian Kale (my favorite type of green).  The celery, pumpkin, rhubarb, cucumber, and leeks have not fared well, but the seeds were packed for 1999, so no surprise there.
 
 Still waiting for seeds I ordered last week from Rare Seeds: 3 types of tomato, leeks, a regular and a midget cantaloupe, a sweet Asian melon called Sakata’s, a ground cherry (groundcherries have a husk like a tomatillo, are grown like tomatoes, and taste pineapple-y) and Mexican sour gherkin cucumber (supposed to taste like a cucumber spritzed w/lemon juice).  I’m hoping to receive them this week. 
 
Was all excited to start some fennel seeds, but read they have to be direct sown, so that’s gotta wait, since we’re expecting snow this weekend.
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Victory Garden

Posted on March 12, 2009 by KelliB
So my first tomato seeds, planted March 2 in Jiffy peat pellets, have germinated and are looking quite nice and tall (about 3")…yay!  Varieties: Glacier, Principe Borghese, Cheeseman’s wild cherry, Victory, and Crimson Carmello. Nicklow’s Doubletake and Early Cherry were also planted, but failed to germinate ().

 
Germination rate was 72% overall, so very happy about that.
 
 
 
Tonight I start my next batch of seeds:
Rhubarb (Glaskins Perpetual), Pumpkin (Small Sugar Pie), Tomato (Stupice), Leeks (King Richard), Cucumber (Lemon Novelty), Lettuce (Buttercrunch & Super Gourmet Blend), Celery (Giant Red).

 
I ordered some more seeds, all heirloom this time, so I can harvest them for next year, from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co — they have a great flat (& low) shipping rate of $3 — much better than all other places I looked, where shipping started at $7.50.  $7.50 to ship 1 ounce worth of seeds?  I don’t think so.  Baker Creek Seeds can be found at http://rareseeds.com/  Not a lot of pictures, but an amazing variety of rare seeds.  If only they had Lanceolate-style kale (I had several batches last year from Skagit Valley Co-Op – AMAZING STUFF – the leaves smelled so good I set the bunches out as a floral display until we ate it).  With the Italian kale available, I would have been 100% happy.

 
I started a log a Luminotes, but have to figure out how to make it viewable to people without having to specifically invite them.
 
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OverDrive

Posted on March 9, 2009 by KelliB
The first thing I noticed was that the size is listed in KB, not megabytes (and I imagine books will never be less than 1 megabyte); this caused quite an issue with a service provider.  I missed a decimal, and because of the size of the file, and given that in remote areas that use dishes — it exceeded my bandwidth for the day, and I was essentially "cut off" from service for 24 hours (reduced to dial-uip speed!!).   Not everyone is lucky enough to have DSL or cable with pretty much unlimited bandwidth.  Please put the file sizes in megabytes.
 
I was impressed with the number of titles that are available for download.  Athough I’m not personally someone who listens to books on CD, I can see that customers whould be pretty pleased with OverDrive’s offerings.
 
I did attend the online workshops last September with OverDrive, and they are great at training and at anticipating and answering user questions. 
 
I was a little disappointed in music offerings — I would like to have seen more current/popualr titles.  Maybe some indie stuff (RCRDLBL.com has great indie artists that you can listen to for free — could that be put on Sno-Isle’s website?)
 
Overall, I can see it’s a great tool, and now that more titles are being amde available for i-pods, users should be happy. 
 
I do wish Sno-Isle had tried out the OverDrive download stations at smaller branches, like Camano Island and Darrington, because out here, with many people only having dial-up service, it could have been a real benefit to rural customers.
 
 
 
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Delicious (and no, I won’t use the name’s periods, because they’re not logical)

Posted on February 26, 2009 by KelliB
I do like that you can add tags to refine your own lists; I can see that it could be confusing to have each person defining what something actually "is", since folksonomy isn’t a rigid taxonomy.
 
The 8 minute podcast seems to have pretty much the same info as the 3-minute video at Sno-Isle’s, so I thought that was redundant, and the woman’s voice is irritating.  I kept losing focus because of her monotone, whispery droning, so I would recomend just sticking to the short demonstration at SIL’s 20 for 20: it’s great!
 
I do like that once you import the delicious toolbar, you can bookmark any page there…I will never again have to try to remember that great blog I was reading, or that really cool cooking wesite or that garbazno bean pancake that I can never remember the nameof (socca, form Nice, France).
 
The only problem I can see is that expired links are tagged.  Here I was, all excited to see Ms. Dewey, one of Sno Isle’s bookmarks (http://delicious.com/snoisle20for20), and she no longer exists…poor Ms. Dewey, and never knew ye.
 
 This isn’t a tool I would have used on my own, without being told to sign in for an account, so I’m glad I was told.  Now if I could just get rid of this feeling that Big Brother is looking at what bookmarks people are using….
 
 
 
 
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Wikis

Posted on February 25, 2009 by KelliB
I don’t know if I really need a wiki (or would have the discipline to keep up with it), but maybe having one will propel me into something so creative I can’t even comprehend what I’m about to do. 
 
I do love the WikiMatrix wizard, where you answer questions about desired attributes, and it guides you to the wikis that fulfill those desires….then, it gives ou a great side-by-side comparison chart, listing fees, author, storage capabiltities, intended audience (this was the most helpful part of the comparison chart), etc.
 
Based on descriptions alone, and if I were forced to choose one today, I am torn between Seed Wiki and Luminotes.
  • Luminotes allows being able to revoke access (not sure if this is on a person-by person basis or any public access, but I like the idea, having encountered enough trolls on chats and blogs and discussion lists)
  • Luminotes allows easy notes attachment
  • Luminotes has great step-by-step instructions (very intuitive, good since I’m not particularly programming-savvy)
  • Luminotes does NOT have a free format (unless you’re a student, I cannot afford $60 a year just for an online notebook)
  • Seed Wiki has a front page of cloud tags, which I loathe and adore: it’s great having idea thrown out, but I think it looks sloppy and it’s hard to read
  • Seed Wiki allows 200 MB while still being free

I like the idea of Luminotes, and hope, with the help of WikiMatrix to find something that will help me easily collect and arange recipes, and help me gather ideas to write my first book, which will be a novella so amazing they will NOT believe it’s from a first-time author (I have no delusions that I can write a tome like ‘Gone witht the Wind", hence the novella angle.)

Our library uses the Wiki for an online procedural manual and discussion forum, which I do find helpful, sicne it keeps everything in one place, unlike binders, which can go missing from the assigned shelf.   I like the idea of using it to keep track of potlucks:  "BettyLou, you simply MUST make that congealed pineapple lime pecan salad again!" 

 

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YouTube, Hulu, and Fancast

Posted on February 25, 2009 by KelliB
I LOVE HULU.  I missed some episodes of a T.V. show in which I was interested, and, lo and behold, there it was on Hulu.  I dont mind the ads….they give me time to go to the bathroom or get a mug of hot tea. 
 
I’ve been a YouTube fan for years, especially for music videos (they do not play David Navarro enough that I can find on any of TV’s music channels.  MTV isn’t even music anymore!
 
I had not heard of Fancast before (and for some reason, the one show I picked at Fancast swent me to hulu, or was I just imagining that?)  I would have loved this site (I love watching trailers for upcoming movies), but buffering never completed for me. 
 
I guess Hulu and Fansight could be good for customers who want to view episodes of TV series that the library doesn’t offer. 
 
YouTube is great because it has book mending videos….my secret passion is to be a book mender!  Well, I guess it’s not so seceret anymore.  Anyway, if you sign up for an account at WebJunction, and go to the Preservation Group, you get links to book mending (fixing torn pages, fixing broken binding, cleaning up pen and ink marks). 
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Social Networking

Posted on February 24, 2009 by KelliB
So I was looking at the lists provided.  MySpace is certainly overrun with teenagers, and not a place I’d care to go.   Facebook was way too intrusive in its questions, and pummeled me with suggested "friends" I might like to have.  Not into that, either:  I don’t like that people can see me and contact me without my say so.  And I’m  8 years too young for Eons, although it would be nice to have a Social Network whose audience was comprised mainly of past middle-age adults. 
 
Then I looked at wikipedia’s list of major active social networking sites, and found that my Space here, at Windows Live, is considered a social network on par with Facebook and MySpace, so…here I am! 
 
I did sign up at Facebook (hence my issue with people from high school contacting me that I never wanted to hear from again), and did find one good h.s. friend,. Jon P., although he’s safe, because he’s a manager at a store where my niece works, and we were bosom buddies until the graduation day, then he went off to college, I stayed in our small town and worked at the bank, and we never ran into each other again because he hated our small town.  Funny enough, he’s lives there now, and I’m out here on the west coast.
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