Thing 23

Well, thats all 23 things done.
Thanks to the organizer(s) for giving me some impetus to sample these Web 2.0 things. I would never have done so otherwise. It is still early days for 2.0, and it may become 3.0 before the programs tried here have a decent life span.

-Most favourite (useful) Thing: Google Documents.
Straightforward and works.

-Least favourite (useful) Thing: LinkdIn
No discernable advantage over any other network and plagued by viral reminder e-mails.

Twitter Thing 15 + 16

Not too keen on Twitter.
Following #ox23 and a few other individuals but only enjoying the humourous sarcastic stuff for some reason. Even less useful without a smartphone/Crackberry.
Will not be a Twit in future, thanks.

Youtube Thing 12

Youtube is extremely interestng in that although it displays a lot of copyright material it also displays a lot of instructions on how to get around copyright, and even more serious, laws. Hackers seemingly can't wait to share their info with the world and although this results in many hacks becoming obsolete fairly quickly the reaction is almost always too little, too late. It will be interesting to see how quickly, with the iPad and Kindle e-readers out, how quickly e-book copyrights are sent down the drain.

With music for example, the Digital Piracy laws passed yesterday, all deal with P2P sharing. However, using Youtube, as an example, it is easier and legal to just download music off Youtube. Simply install RealPlayer SP (free) and it will open a window to download and convert to MP3, any music or video you have on YouTube.

From previous use of Youtube it would be much improved with greater gradation of privacy access similar to what Facebook has.

Podcast Thing 11

Added BBC Global News and Test Match Special podcasts to Google Reader
Could be useful although not much more effective, if at all, than BBC iPlayer which I generally have motivation to use from other sources anyway.
So just adding to information overload really.

Googledoc Thing 19

The good thing about doing 23 Things out of order, in this case...Google Docs is far superior to the Java based ThinkFree. More responsive. More intuitive.
Thank you very much.
Good night.

But first the Powerpoint Presentation I uploaded from my son's files......

ThinkFree Thing 20

Not enthused by this. Clunky and slow...basically the Java creates an unneccessary layer of software even if just doing basic wordprocessing.

igoogle + delicious = Thing 22

I think one of the offputting things of 23 Things is endless skipping back and forth between programs. Whether this will be less annoying with future hard/software, like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, remains to be seen. Suffice it to say I would never seek out a job where my eyes would frazzle with shifting screens all day. Better to work on the motorway picking up road kill.

Thing 21, Blogger Gadget(s)

-Used Blogger Gadget to display Flickr Photostream, Google news, and rearrange Gadgets etc.

Things 17 + 18 Wikipedia

Made an edit on Wikipedia:

Here's the original:















Changed some sexing info about male Kuhli loaches, as one does:
















The changes weren't perfect... it will be interesting to see how long, if ever, someone else can resist improving my writing style.
Wikipedia illustrates the good and bad aspects of constant tweaking the Web. It appeals, justifiably or not, to those who want, somehow, to be part of the scientific method, but also to those who criticize the transient nature of everything on the Web.


Then, back to no.17:
Modified a description of Twitter on OUS Lib. Web 2.0 usage page:

Facebook uses Thing 13

Facebook.
What is it good for?
In Oxonian library terms, it allows people from all over the world to increase their cache by having the word `Oxford' in their `fan' pages. Ummm thats about it as far as I can tell. There are a few die hard local fans who like to crack witty remarks in response to any announcements made and I guess it is a more visual way to `tweet' than Twitter, but in general most people/bona fide students seem to have enough information and data overload/avalanches to shelter from, that they don't seem particularly attracted to starting another one. Whether this will change before some recognisable new revolution 3.0 happens, remains to be seen.

LinkedIn Thing 14

Went and signed Costanza up for LinkedIn, but had to be very careful since, from previous personal experience, I know how insidious and viral LinkedIn can be, sending never-ending harrassing `update your profile' messages to you and anyone who is on any contact list you innocently give them access to. Stay away!!!!!! This is by far the most useless social networking site.

oh yeah.....Things 5+6................ check

Things 9 + 10.....check

Well this looks like turning into a bit of a hash, since it appears Blogger is connected to Google, while Delicious is more Yahoo-oriented. But then so is Flickr. I guess they need to be able to be hacked together to remain faintly commercially viable until such time as they disappear or are Borg'ed into a greater collective. Resistance being futile and all.

Things 7 + 8

I have skipped a few things (like Things 2 and 4, so far). Computers and their artificial unintelligence aren't fantastic yet at non-sequential, unorthodox, or flexible working. Yet, unsurprisingly, humans get by.

Sidebar: interesting that predictive text is so widespread on phones but who would have that on their desktop keyboard?

Relatedly, my userid doesn't seem to match whats on the list on the Oxford 23Things sidebar... [Now magically corrected! -Thanks!] But then I am used to having people `correct' the spelling of my name. In fact, the HMRC (Revenue) computers still manage to find me despite their human inputters arbitrarily changing the spelling of my name at random from year to year.

Upper Flickr image below Picniked as per orders from OX23oberkommando.

www.flickr.com Go to CostanzaDesk's photostream

Things 1 to 4

So far, so skeptical. I can see it as a grand time waster, although I have enough of those already. I often wonder how much of current society's time is spent wasted on learning the ins and outs of the latest software which will all be obsolete within a year or so. Any time `saved', or information gleaned from these endless `introductions to' programs is essentially lost, never to be regained. Call me a cynic but.......
Oh for the good old days of DOS and C:> del *.*

That's two minutes (above) I'll never get back......



Ok thats 3, 4 done...
now 1+2: