stephs musings

Steph's Musings Move to Open Source

So, here are I am typing up my thoughts on this open source application. It's pretty cool. I wonder what Microsoft is making of all this openly available software. What is amazing to me is the amount of competition out there that Microsoft has. I would never have believed that all this open source software was available. Now, I will say there are definitely some things that Microsoft does really well, and it isn't as user-friendly to use open source software. However, for basic word processing, this stuff works great. It's got the same universal icons so that you can figure out the functionality. I'm one of the converted. Move over Microsoft, there is some stiff competition out there.

Week 7, Thing 17: Learning 2.0 Sandbox

So after much tooling around, I figured out how to post my blog. I also created a page listing some of my favorite books in the sandbox. At this stage, there are not that many HCL blogs posted on the site. Many of the other libraries have over 30 blogs posted. At HCL, we need to get with the program. Granted we didn't officially start the 23 things until yesterday, but still. If I can figure out how to do it. And let me tell you it took a couple of tries, anyone can do it. So, that's my post for thing 17.

Week 7: Thing 16: Wikis

I realized that the Library's internal Web site functions like a wiki - or is in fact a wiki. I edited it the other day. How weird. I think it's really amazing how wikis work. I just am hesitant about wholehearted adoption given the number of people out there who love to disrupt community activities. There's always one person who would like to wreak havoc on a wiki, thereby ruining the experience for everyone else. And some people do it unwittingly. I just read in the paper today how Johns Hopkins University is setting the record straight on the whole toxins in plastic that are released when heating food in microwave. I hate to admit that I was caught up in the hysteria and started using glass to microwave my kids' food. Hopkins name was attributed to the findings, so I didn't think I actually needed to check in with them to verify. And lo and behold, today it comes out that Hopkins never endorsed that finding. Some schmo put it on the web somewhere and hysterical parents everywhere started to send around the e-mail lending the "urban myth" credibility so that people believed it, rather than verifying that it was in fact not authored nor substantiated by Hopkins. Gotta love it. All I have to say, is that there are sick people out there who prey on the well intentioned out there. And wikis just give them another playground. That's my two cents.

Week 6: Thing 15: Library 2.0

This was just a reaffirmation that Libraries need to keep up with the times and integrate technology-driven services into their offerings. Sometimes I feel like a throw-back because I just like to pick up and read an actual book. I'm not looking forward to the time when people read books electronically. I think it will mess up people's visions. It's probably more environmentally-friendly if you need less paper, and therefore cut down less trees, however I really like the feel and smell of a good book. It's great to be able to bring a book in bed with you. It's highly portable and doesn't require a battery. With the move toward greater use of technology, I sincerely hope that the actual books themselves don't become obsolete.

Week 6 Thing 14: Technorati

So I was tooling around here and did some searches. It was funny to come upon some of the blogs. I actually found one from a woman where my kids go to school. That was really interesting. It confirmed that I am happy where my kids are at. Anyway, it was pretty crazy to see all the blogs and posts out there. Unfortunately, I'm not that into "celebrity" so most of the tags that were the most popular were the least of interest to me. I don't want to use any of the celebrity names for fear that Technorati will scour my blog and put me up there as having some interest in P*** H****. You know who I'm talking about. Actually, I could have just done fill in the blank and there are plenty of young stars who have been in the celebrity rag spotlight. So that's my post on Technorati.

Week 6 Thing 13: Delicious

So that was another interesting site. It will be a good place to look when researching a specific topic , rather than searching blindly on the web. That assumes that you can trust people who have bookmarked sites to have good sense and not just bookmark everything and anything.

Week 5: Thing 12: Rollyo

So this was pretty cool. Here is my roll: http://rollyo.com/stephanieshane/hoco_sports_rec/
It contains a bunch of sites that have information on kids sports and recs in Howard County Maryland. I hope it's helpful to any other parent out there who has young kids and feels the pressure of having to figure out what sporting activity to sign them up for.