Week 6 -Thing # 14 - Technorati

I think I now understand Technorati.It's a search engine for blogs. When I searched Learning 2.0 you could choose, Quick view, posts, blogs, video, photos ,music & events. I clicked on Quick View and there were recent blogs, videos and photos.I decided to watch the video named Learning 2.0 Grand Prize Drawing.This was the drawing that PLCMC had for a lucky winner who had completed the 2.0 program.The person received a new laptop. NICE PRIZE!!!!
When exploring the popular tab on Technorati, there didn't seem to be too many surprises for me. Engadget is ranked # 1 for Top Blogs. This doesn't surprise me especially with the iPhone being released last week.There was even a photo of the mayor of Philadelphia camping out for an iphone! The top searches weren't surprising either, knowing what everyone who comes in the library uses like MySpace,youtube,iphone, they are the popular site that people use everyday.
On Technorati, you can also search by tags ranging from funny to glasco airport to transformers, etc. The tags depend on what people are interested in at the time and what's hot!
I'm not sure if I would use this as much as some of the other activities. I don't have time to sit and read other people's blog. My Life is one big Blog!!!!

Week 6 - Thing # 13 - Del.icio.us

OK,I think I know what Del.icio.us is now...Someplace to store all your favorite sites so that you can use them from where ever there is internet access. I'm usually at work or home when I use the computer and I don't have a laptop, so the things in my favorites at work I would never use at home and visa versa. I can see people using this, but not me. I did find the one suggested site, The Several Habits of Wildly Successful Del.icio.us Users, helpful.Here is the website.

Week 5 -Thing #12 - Rollyo

I am not having fun with this one at all. You get to create your very own search engine about anything you want. I did mine on my favorite quilting sites. I had a real hard time figuring out how to add this to my blog though.

Select...QuiltingSearch The Web

Week 5 - Thing 11 - LibraryThing

LibraryThing is something very useful. I have cataloged a small number of my quilt books for now. I can't wait to get into my sewing room so I can add on the rest of them. This will come in handy when people want to get me other quilt books, I'll have a list to give them.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/scoffman

Week 5- Thing #10 - Play Week

I decided to try the program that Ellen used, Dumpr, with one of my photos. This is a cottage that we rent from DNR in Northern Baltimore County.

Week 5 - Thing #10 - Play Week

The Real Me is me before kids!!!!!
I had sooooo much fun with this assignment. I used Yahoo Avatars.
This may sound stupid, but it reminded me of playing with Colorforms when I was little. The possibilities are endless.

Week 4- Thing # 9 - Merlin

I was't really impressed with Merlin. I did subscribe to it and added Merlin to my bloglines. Using the search tools was OK, but I would rather go to a site I like and look to see if they have RSS. That is how I added some of my feeds to my blogline. I'm not sure I want to register for anything anymore. I'm really tired of typing my email address!!

Week 4- Thing #8 - RSS Feeds

Really Simple Syndication IS really simple. It's just like adding things to your favorites list.
I did select feeds that were pre-selected for you and I also learned how to add and delete others. When looking on some of my favorite quilting site, I noticed that not all sites are set up as RSS. One way you can tell, sometimes, is at the very bottom of the last page, RSS will be mentioned. So then you just copy the address and paste it in the subscribe box. On other sites, RSS wasn't mentioned anywhere, but a blog might have been part of the website and that could be subscribed to. One of my feeds is a recipe website, Recipezaar. When I subscribed to that, it gave me all kinds of options within Recipezaar to subscribe to, not the whole site itself, and then you would just click the boxes of the ones that you are interested in and you could subscribe to them.
I did place a link to my feeds on my blog.

Week 3 - Thing 7 - Technology

Last night we bought a digital camera for my daughter. Other members of my family have digital cameras. I get the hand-me- downs! The camera that we bought last night is a Sony. This is a brand that no one in the family owns so we are forced to learn the new technology connected with this camera. Yes, it does the basics, zoom lens, big viewing screen, movie clips, etc., plus more. This camera lets you crop your pictures and it also can get rid of the "red eyes" while still on the camera. The older cameras that we own, you have to upload your pictures onto your computer, into a program like Picasa in order to make any changes to your photo. Another thing that is different with this camera is the battery that it uses. The older ones use AA batteries and the Sony has a small flat square battery. Needless to say the recharger is different and an additional expense! That's technology today, New today, different tomorrow!!!!!! Upgrade! Upgrade! Upgrade!!!! Money Money Money!

Week 3 - Flickr mashups and 3rd party - Thing # 6

Some of the mashups were fun to watch. I watched someone surfing off Hatteras, wishing I was there. Not necessarily surfing but soaking up the rays! I have a similar program on my computer at home called Photojams which allows you to make a slideshow of your photos. This is great for showing off your vacation to your friends or making a slideshow of your kid's activities.

My favorite spot on the 3rd party site was the trip planner. I thought it was really neat that you could copy someone else's trip and then customize it to your likings. Half of the trouble and work planning a similar trip is already done for you, i.e. where to stay, where to eat, airline, activities, etc. My son, who just graduated from Virginia Tech, wants to backpack in Europe before he settles down in a "Real Job" in the "Real World". So I emailed him someones trip planner that was posted to give him some ideas. Maybe he'll post his trip someday!

Week 3 -Thing # 5 - Exploring Flickr

It took me a long time to figure out how to upload a picture of a quilt to put on my blog. After looking at Flickr, I saw the possiblities of using other people's photos and also how to upload my own pictures. I finally got the hang of "tags", it's just like using a keyword search. If you really like someone's work you can click on their name and via the photostream, view their other works. Also when you do a search using the tags option it will give you other keyword options to view other pictures.

custom blog

Before I get too far into this process I have to customize my blog. The choices for backgrounds are not very exciting! Stay tuned!

Week 1 - Thing # 2 -Lifelong Learning

I have found that when learning something new I am a visual learner. I may have goals that I set for myself, but having the time to reach those goals sometimes seems impossible with today's lifestyles. I have found however that when I only have a short amount of free time to do something for myself, that I get more done. If I have a big block of time I think of multiple things that I should be doing and not much gets done. So what I guess I'm saying is that I need to take more control of my own learning and organize my time better.

Week 2 -Things # 3&4 - Setting Up Blog and Registering It

I did it! If I can do it anyone can.