Firstly, let me just say thankyou to Jewinda of Library Shenanigans for her idea to add StatCounter to my blog. S/he doesn't know about me at all but I liked the idea after reading her blog (I'll be able to see where in the world people are coming from!). Her blog is very amusing, I LOVE the review of The Post-Birthday World (The characters were self-indulgent, boring twats...bland, bland, bland).
On to today's activity...Rollyo. Rollyo allows you to create a customised search engine. I had a search using the Public Domain E-Books search engine for Alice in Wonderland...the results weren't anything special and the paid ads that are popped in the middle of my results are hard to distinguish from the actual results.
I registered and, when I went to create my search roll, I found no way to use a generic *.xxx type thing (ie a search roll that would search all Victorian government sites would be *.vic.gov.au). I looked for the non-existant help files for a while...naughty naughty naughty! Help is always good. Finding the search-roll after I'd created it wasn't too easy either.
AHA! If I type in .li as the website, it finds anything in Liechtenstein. Although I just found out that it ONLY searches top level domains, so if you find a subdirectory you want to allow your search engine to search through...tough (ie a wikipedia article or the cia's Factbook).
Rollyo is a good idea but I'm not too keen on the limitations.
PS I do love how I can make the widget search my blog though!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
#11 All about LibraryThing
I've used LibraryThing before so it was a quite easy activity for me to use it again. I had 25 of my own books on there already and added a few more so I could write about it on here. I think it's quite a good idea but honestly can't see the practical use of it for most people (maybe apart from the Suggester). I do like how it can link into the opac of a library catalogue and 'recommend' books, and I suppose that really wouldn't work without all of us people out there making catalogues on there.
I did like it how it told me that I had a duplicate in my library already. But, when I searched for new books, there was no way of clicking on the book to see if it was the right one (especially as my covers were different to the ones I found).
Anyways, it's available at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/tas666
I did like it how it told me that I had a duplicate in my library already. But, when I searched for new books, there was no way of clicking on the book to see if it was the right one (especially as my covers were different to the ones I found).
Anyways, it's available at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/tas666
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
#10 Play around with Image Generators
Haha I really enjoyed this. I concentrated on 3D Stereogram which allows you to draw a picture, press the generate button and then it does one of those 3D eye puzzle things. I found it really easy to get it to work on my laptop monitor (much better than on paper when I tried doing the in that book thing). It turns out I suck at drawing with a mouse but the below picture should say 'tas666'. Click on it to get the full picture (it doesn't work so easily small). You have to look through the picture...ie look at it unfocused and then slowly bring your eyes back into focus.
PS Bah, just realised that that's as big as the picture gets. Sorry!
PS Bah, just realised that that's as big as the picture gets. Sorry!
#9 Finding Feeds
Hmm, this didn't go so well either (probably because it is to do with rss which stands for either Really Stupid Stuff or Randomly Stuffed Scribble...I can't remember which).
I started by picking websites I sometimes go to. None of them had rss things on them...not that I could find them even if I wanted to as the symbols are always tiny!
I then tried searching Google Blogs thing. It searched the contents of blogs (great for if I wanted to find a post) but not the general topic...all I wanted was a blog on Liechtenstein (maybe just a news blog...I couldn't find an rss feed on the Liechtensteiner Vaterland which just goes to prove that I am destined to be rss-less).
Next step...Feedster. Same problem as Google Blog Search.
Topix on the other hand...I searched for Liechtenstein. Not only did it do the above but it also recommended that I look at the Liechtenstein News page which was just what I wanted. Down the bottom in tiny little letters was the rss area. Did you know that Prince Hans-Adam II von and zu Liechtenstein is worth US$4.5 billion and is the 6th richest royal in the world? Lucky bugger.
With Technorati I did like the tabs that let me filter my search from blogs/videos/etc (even if all the photos were holiday snaps of people I didn't know).
With the database search, I found an orange button and clicked it (which turned out to be an rss button luckily). What I am sent daily is a list of articles relating to my search term. I can click on a button to access the full text (which hopefully means I won't need to log in...I will have to try from home).
I started by picking websites I sometimes go to. None of them had rss things on them...not that I could find them even if I wanted to as the symbols are always tiny!
I then tried searching Google Blogs thing. It searched the contents of blogs (great for if I wanted to find a post) but not the general topic...all I wanted was a blog on Liechtenstein (maybe just a news blog...I couldn't find an rss feed on the Liechtensteiner Vaterland which just goes to prove that I am destined to be rss-less).
Next step...Feedster. Same problem as Google Blog Search.
Topix on the other hand...I searched for Liechtenstein. Not only did it do the above but it also recommended that I look at the Liechtenstein News page which was just what I wanted. Down the bottom in tiny little letters was the rss area. Did you know that Prince Hans-Adam II von and zu Liechtenstein is worth US$4.5 billion and is the 6th richest royal in the world? Lucky bugger.
With Technorati I did like the tabs that let me filter my search from blogs/videos/etc (even if all the photos were holiday snaps of people I didn't know).
With the database search, I found an orange button and clicked it (which turned out to be an rss button luckily). What I am sent daily is a list of articles relating to my search term. I can click on a button to access the full text (which hopefully means I won't need to log in...I will have to try from home).
Monday, September 24, 2007
Daily book installments via rss
Okay, I just got excited. Whilst looking at rss stuff, I stumbled across DailyLit, a site that sends installments of books to you via rss or email. It's really cool! I am now getting Alice's Adventures in Wonderland sent to my rss feed reader daily. I can read a chapter a day! Hmm, 9 books of the bible there and no Qu'ran. Ah well.
Also, I found a free online audiobook service where volunteers read out-of-copyright text into a microphone and then it is made available. LibriVox is the name of the site. I'm considering volunteering...not because my voice is anything special, just because I am quite keen for mass digitising of audiobooks to take place. Although I'm having trouble listening to any of them...it may be due to our firewall at work though...I'll have to try from home.
Lucky last link, Fokus Deutsches - an online video instruction series for learning German. Exciting! There's a few languages there actually, all European though (I guess learning to speak tonal languages wouldn't be so easy online!)
Also, I found a free online audiobook service where volunteers read out-of-copyright text into a microphone and then it is made available. LibriVox is the name of the site. I'm considering volunteering...not because my voice is anything special, just because I am quite keen for mass digitising of audiobooks to take place. Although I'm having trouble listening to any of them...it may be due to our firewall at work though...I'll have to try from home.
Lucky last link, Fokus Deutsches - an online video instruction series for learning German. Exciting! There's a few languages there actually, all European though (I guess learning to speak tonal languages wouldn't be so easy online!)
