Flint's Waterloo AKA: #23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...

So here I am at the end of this little journey to self discovery. I've learned a bit and discovered some things that I didn't know before.

I can't really think of anything that would help improve this format. Oh, other than I really really hate flicker. Like seriously, I do not like the way it works. I like Photobucket way more. Much easier to use and I can send pictures from my iPhone directly to my Photobucket account. Might be a nice option for that section.



I don't think I mentioned this earlier but, gift card.

Book 2.0 (See? It does sound stupid) AKA:#22 Media and Book Downloads (or "You are almost done!")

For this I chose Overdrive. I've been lax in messing around with it and that seems to be the one most asked about by patrons.

I chose to look for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and found quite a few types including a graphic novel and the radio show.

Downloading the book itself is easy and a PDF file can be read on pretty much anything. I can really see a library revolutionized by digital books.

I have a dream and that dream is that some day a patron can walk into the lobby of a library, plug their electronic device into a terminal and download whatever item they are looking for in the entire world and walk out. Obviously they could still request a physical copy from the stacks if they'd like.

The only thing really stopping this is the limit of copies that can be checked out. It's a file, why is it limited?

Can i just test out of this part already? AKA:#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

Here are some screenshots of the podcast section of my iPhone...

Youdo that YouTube that Youdo so well AKA:#20 You too can YouTube

Top Gear is the greatest car show ever made. There are a few examples why.








Besides awesome Top Gear I can see youtube finding a use in a library as a sort of database. There would need to be a section for library patron to be able to search for specific subjects like a library catalog. it would obviously need to remove the chaff of youtube like random duded yelling at trees for no reason and stuff like that.

Google Maps, or what's that wierd car doing driving down my street. AKA:#19 Discovering web 2.0 tools

Who hasn't just screwed around with a map website like Google Maps? It's probably the most entertaining of the map programs because it has a street view. Apparently a specially equipped car with crazy Ghostbusters equipment perched on top drives around every street in the world and takes a picture at every intersection and address. These are uploaded and then allow a viewer to basically "walk" in first person down the street from location to location. pretty useful if you need to find a house or store and don't know what it looks like.

How do I know about the car? Well in the street mode take a look at the ground. You can see where someone photoshoped the shadow of the vehicle out of the picture. Well I happened upon a couple of pictures they missed and you can clearly see the shadow of a car that looks surprisingly like Ecto-1.

Crazy huh? I wonder why no one noticed it.

Word is the Word AKA: #18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

As a former Computer Page/PSA I have a good deal of knowledge about helping patron troubleshoot the various Microsoft apps and I can say with a bit of expertise, that no matter how "free" a web app is, it will never replace an app made by a professional company that had gone through countless revisions and have had hundreds, if not thousands or programs work to refine it. This isn't Microsoft fanboyism here, it's just a matter of fact that you have significantly more control over the document or presentation in Word than you do in any web based app.

Changing Reality AKA: #17 Playing around with PBWiki

I've messed around with Wiki editing before. I've updated the Wikipedia entry for Fort Atkinson SHP a few times since there were some fairly massive errors on it and I figure I'm a good scourse since I re-enact there. Other than that, I found it very easy to edit the provided wiki to have my blog url on it.

Wikipedia and the collapse of reality AKA:#16 So What’s in a Wiki?

I can pretty much share my opinion on Wiki stuff by showing a short clip of the Colbert Report about the subject.

Not a minute after he asked for the change I rushed to my computer and found this as the entry for Reality.

What more needs to be said about wikipedia as a source?

What's next, Cake 2.0? AKA:#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

I seriously had hopped the term 2.0, stapled on to words to make them seem for hip and trendy, would have died in a fire by now. Since 2.0 is a version number that would imply that there would eventually be a Web 2.1 or Web 2.75 which is idiotic since the web is changing so rapidly from day to day. This also implies that the previous version of the Web was 1.0 which is impossible since the only thing that could be called Web version 1.0, the original US military system that allowed base communication, in no way resembles what we have today, or even a decade ago. Web 89234.0 might be a bit closer to the mark yet still untrue by a long way.

Library 2.0 also feels to me to be a cop out. Libraries should, by their nature, cater to the needs of their patrons. This means updating their procedures and technology throughout the years. By labeling a library as "2.0" all people are doing is jumping on the bandwagon of the current internet fad when they should already be working for the patron's best interests to begin with.

Technorati. Let's get Tom Hanks in here and start looking for the conspiracy. AKA:#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Honestly I'm not finding aything interesting about this site. It may have been revolutionary back when it first started, but I can think of a few easier ways to do what this does without some of the hassle.

mmmm. This apple is delicious. AKA:#13 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking in Delicious

Delicious is essentially a website that allows a person to have bookmarks saved, allowing access from any computer. I can see how this would be useful to a person who has a ridiculous number of bookmarks and needs to get tot hem from work or home. However in my experience, if someone has bookmarks at home and they are trying to get to them on their work computer, they are most likely not actually working and more likely just screwing around.

Rollyo. Isn't that some kinda candy? AKA:#12 Roll your own search engine

For this exercise I looked at a website that can make customized search engines. I found this fairly interesting as it's use for research papers could be highly useful. If education or government websites were entered a person could easily find sources about their topic without the hassle of going to the sites individually. The engine would have to be customized based on the type of paper, but that would be minor considering the benefit.

...a thousand Words. AKA: #11 A thing about LibraryThing

Here's a link to my library at the moment. I just took a little bit and added the books of the top of my head. One thing I'd like is to be able to add multiple books at once instead of having to search again to get to the same screen if I'm looking for books by the same author.


I think you have to log in to see it.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/timspork

An Image is worth... AKA:#10 Play around with Image Generators

Hopefully most of you will be able to take the words and figure out what this is from. For those of you who don't then you can scroll down.
























The first sentence of the Declaration of Independence. Please turn in your citizenship papers to the nearest authority, do not pass go and do not collect $200. :)

I took a while to get a layout I liked with which words where. I also had to make the color scheme that I felt fit the text. I kinda wish there was a means to really customize the layout and specify where you want each word.

Do not "feed" the rss. AKA: #9 Finding Feeds

I'm just going to go straight downt he list here, since I'm lacking imagination at the moment. Also you've all already heard about my views on RSS feeds.

Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?
Subject search.

Which Search tool was the easiest for you?
None of them really.

Which was more confusing?
They were all needlessly complicated.

What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels?
Video Gamming. That's all I looked for. :p

Or what kind of unusual ones did you find?
I found some pretty obscure video game feeds...

The Simple Life AKA #8 Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

So I've now messes arround with the rss feeds and I can say that I'm not impressed. I do not have many websites I'm a regular at, so the ones I do frequent are either forums, that do not work in RSS or websites that I just know the url to. I'd much rather check the Penny-Arcade site than look at an RSS feed of it since I then actually get to see the comic.

iPhones Support: AKA # 7 Blog about technology

I have an iPhone and love the little thing. It can pretty much do anything. So why then isn't there a free app I can download that will allow me to make posts on Blogger? I'm not spending $9.99 on something I can just go to the internet and do for free.

Flicking through the Flickr, AKA #6 More Flickr fun

So for this assignment I'm supposed to talk about my adventures with Flickr mashups. Well to be honest I didn't find them that interesting. Either I couldn't get some to work, or what they did just seemed too simple when compared to the required work put into it. I'm not saying that the mashups didn't require a good amount of skill to make, I just think that with some of them, the ends do not justify the means.

The "of little toy men" part AKA #5 Discovering Flckr

Coices6
Originally uploaded by tim_spork

I thought it time to include something explaining the second part of this blog's title. (Also it fits nicely into this lesson of the library class :P)

I'm an avid war gamer. I specifically play a table top war game called Warhammer 40,000, which is a sci-fi game set in the distant future. (The 41st millennium to be exact)

This is pretty much my major hobby, next to playing my xbox 360, and interpreting the 1820's to visitors of Fort Atkinson State Historical Park.

Anyway, the picture above (or below? I'm new to this...) is of a diorama I made for a friend. It features an Imperial Guardsman, the straight average joe in the game, having to face the tough choice of whether to confront a mob of one of the Imperium's most prevalent enemies, the orks, or turn and run, only to be shot by his own regiment's commissar, who's job it is to ensure that not a single warrior of the Emperor shows cowardice.

Well that's a pretty good synopsis. I assembled and painted the models myself and I've always been quite proud of it.

Library Fun! AKA #3 Get blogging in 3 steps

Hello world.

Well that's a good first sentence. Let's start with that. Let's see, now what? Well I'm doing this blog as part of a library program so I guess I'll learn how to do most of this as I go.

I'm also supposed to talk about what life long learning means to me. Well, I'm currently in school to become a secondary education major. I plan to teach history while I pursue a doctorate in archaeology. That pretty much guarantees that I'll be continuing to learn new information throughout the rest of my natural life. I accepted this fact quite a long time ago, of maybe when I was seven. It's a very liberating fact to know something like that from that age on. Makes future choices much easier.

I think that's a good first post. Let's end it there.