Week 4 - RSS & Newsreaders

Very interesting, at first I got real click happy and just subscribed to heaps of stuff... I thought to myself, I like to make sure I know the latest on what "really" matters to me, with a great emphasis on "really". But what I discovered to my dismay, is that the world won't stop and wait for me to finish reading all the latest happenings it just keeps going forward (how rude!). So after a quick re-check I greatly reduced my amount of subscriptions to a more manageable amount and it has worked really well.

Bloglines is simple and easy to use. A cool function from Bloglines is the Bloglines Subscribe Button which makes it real easy to subscribe to any Blog / Site that supplies feeds by allowing you to link the site to your current set of feeds in Bloglines.

Feeds, well I'm a big fan of links (why type when you can click!) so I thought I would create a link to my feeds on Bloglines, this will allow quick easy access to all my feeds.

I have also created links to some popular aggregators for those whishing to subscribe to my Blog. Simply click on your preferred aggregator and it will add my feed to your current list.

New Songs

I have uploaded some more songs to my Blog. There is now 8 songs in total, simply use the scroll bar on the MP3 Player to view what's available for listening.

My Most Significant Technology Advancement

Being an avid music lover, I would have to say that music on the web in particular mp3s has enhanced the internets capability to reach out and connect with people immensely.

For me music is more than just a simply melody, it has the power to reach into a person's soul and release multitudes of emotions that can either sooth or disrupt one's emotional state. We have all been there before, listening to the radio and a particular song comes on that reminds us of a defining moment in our lives, acting like a placebo engaging our minds to think and feel a certain way. Music cannot be fabricated, it is soley derived from the very essence of the human spirit, where creation is it's only driving force.

There are numerous music web pages floating around the web, a simple Google search on "music" will result in thousands upon thousands of pages at your finger tips. Hence the creation of the mp3 file.

MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as mp3, is the most popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format. Designed to greatly reduce the amount of data requires to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio.

It simply is the easiest way to listen to and share music across the web.

So therefore I would like to make a toast to the simply yet powerful mp3 file, I have embedded an mp3 player on my blog with 3 of some of my many favorite songs for your listening pleasure. Please feel free to listen to each of them as I plan to upload many more as time permits. For more information about having this function on your blog / site please visit
Jello.Yello.

(P.S Each song requires loading time to play, please allow a few minutes for it to load. Enjoy!)

Week 3 - Photos & Images

Im in love... How cool is Flickr! I've used a couple of different sites previously for web photo storage but none have the editing capability that Flickr does.

Where can I begin...

I'll start with how easy it was to set up an account and begin uploading images, it took about 5 mins to register (need to create a yahoo account first) then you may begin to upload your images via the web browser. I was very impressed that I could give different viewing attributes to each photo, for example if I wanted them visible to public (everyone) or just family and friends (people I can select). Another cool option is downloading the Flickr uploader, which after a quick installation on your computer allows you to upload photos directly from your computer rather than the Flickr site, visit Flicker Tools to download.

One of my favorite tools was the Hockneyizer (weird name cool function) this allows you to upload a photo and a add a multiple "Polaroid" effect to it. Here's a couple of example's of my before and after images.

They look great don't they!

For more fun I highly recommend Flickr Toys.

Last but certainly not least I created a Flickr Badge which is like a mini slideshow of some of my selected public photos from my Flickr account. Fairly easy to set up just requires a little knowledge of HTML to be able to paste the finished code into your Blogger template.

Week 2 - Blogging

Boy does time fly, week 2 already...

Blogging a.k.a Web - Log, used by thousands world wide it can serve many purposes with one of the most popular resembling an online diary.

Created my Blog with Blogger (another part of the all mighty Google empire damn I wish I has some shares…) and registered.

Week 1 - Intro

So it begins...

1. Having checked out 23 Things I feel that this will continue to expand my knowledge of the World Wide Web and what it has to offer. I believe that this will continue to endorse that "the internet is not just for porn!" ;)

2. I have always tried to set a mind set of "you never stop learning" looking at the Seven & 1 /2 Habits Of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners has reinforced some attributes I believe in. Some of the habits which I already use are;

1. Begin with the end in mind - I believe that if you are goal orientated and can visualise the end result, nothing can stop you from achieving what you want.
2. View problems as challenges - If every bump in the road is turned into a mountain, rather than trying to find a solution you will focus more on the size of the problem which will cloud your thoughts making the solution harder to find.
3. Have confidence - You have to believe in yourself, believe that what you’re doing is right and it will bring you closer to achieving your goals.
4. Use technology to your advantage - Necessity is the mother of invention, computers for example were created to aid us not to create more burden, use technology for it's intended purpose.

My personal favourite Keep it interesting! For me there's nothing worse than doing something you don't want to do!

A Big Hello To All Library 2.0 er's

Hi All,

Long time reader first time poster (something like that) anyway Im sure this will be a great experience for all involved.

Feels like Im back at school again.

Arghhh...! Im sure it will be fine.

Here's to a New Age Library!