Spring Cleaning task #29: Email

I have had a personal email account for a few years. In the past few weeks I've been in the process of reviewing my hcpl email account. I've forward some emails, deleted many and resubscribed to a few using my personal email . I still have a ways to go before my accounts are organized but I am making progress. I'm pretty good about keeping the current and recent email numbers to a minimum so my biggest project will be to go through the "archived" files.

Spring Clearing task #28: Don't Clutter

Well, I've read the Getting Things Done article and it sounds like a good program. I've already started to review and weed my emails. I think it will be a long process, but a much needed one. I also read two articles on email and online simplicity. The article about becoming an email ninja was interesting and I will use some of the suggestions as well as some ideas from the Zen of Tech and the 12 ways to keep online life simple and peaceful. Both articles were listed under the Technology link on the ihcpl blog.

I've added both Google Calendar and Remember the Milk links to my Google account. I've never used on online calendar before so it should be interesting to try to keep it up to date. I like the idea of having online do - to- list and signed up for RTM. I choose it because it will work with the Google calendar. I also like the idea that Google Calendar and Outlook will work together. We'll see how all of these work.

February 2008 Sound: Making or Listening Together task #26

I looked at several of the sites and frankly, I don't see myself using most of them. I'm not interested in creating a soundtrack or remixing songs. I refuse to use my cell phone as a radio. And I'm not interested in blogging with others about what type of music I listen to. I can see where these sites would be interesting and fun and I'm glade that they are available. I have enjoyed exploring imeem and pandrona. I've setup accounts and created playlists on both.

February 2008: Sound Downloading and Burning task #25

Well, with a little bit of playing, I got the music that I had selected burned to a CD. Actually, I did it twice. Once by playing around and accidentally getting it setup to burn and once by following the instructions. Interesting. I used a CD-RW and discovered that the CD burner always asks for a blank disc. That's OK for now. I also learned how to delete a CD-RW and star over.

I don't like the DRM approach to "music sharing". It's too restrictive and too much in their favor. I like the idea that the EFF has about a reasonable monthly fee by way of a voluntary collective licensing agreement. It seems all parties with the exception of the lawyers would benefit.

I just got my mp3 player so I don't know how much I will be using it for music. That's not why I bought it but I'll just have to see. Since I have a cassette player in my car, I use it alot to listen to books on tape not music. I do buy CDs, mainly soundtracks. At this point I thank I will continue to buy and play both CDs and cassettes for the foreseeable future.

February 2008 Next Gen: Sound of Music task # 24

Well, it's a new year and a new challenge. This month -- sound. I looked at some of the different sites for music downloads. Both free and fee. There seemed to be simular costs for most of the sites with the exception of Amazon. Most were monthly fees but Amazon allowed buying either the entire cd or choice of which tracks to buy. I just purchased a mp3 player but I didn't get it just to download music. I got one so that I could use the Overdrive book collection. I did download some music but I also downloaded a couple of talks that I will be using in some classes that I will be giving. I maybe the only person in Harris County who had trouble finding something to download on music.downloan.com. I guess I was trying to find someone too well known or I was looking in the wrong catagory.
I've listened to KODA on line off and on for the past year. I like to listen the podcasts of the Lifestyle Features thatI sometimes miss.
I found the two articles on password security very informative. It was very enlightening to review some of my passwords. I see some changes coming.

Week 10: task #23 Summary

Wow this has been a fast, busy and rewarding eleven weeks! A lot was covered. Some of the topics I was familiar with, some the terms were familiar but that was about it. I enjoyed learning about Flickr and avatars. I understand blogs and RSS feeds better. I will continue to use some sites such as LibraryThing and Library Elf and Del.icio.us. I had heard of Youtube but until now had not spent much time exploring it. I understand why it's so popular and additive. I've enjoyed most of the exercises. I'm very glade I didn't have to do this alone. A few of the tasks were very frustrating and if it wasn't for the support and guidance, I might not have completed the course. Now, when do we get to try Amazon's Kindle???? Star Trek Next Generation here we come!

Week 9: Task #22 Downloadable Media

I visited wowie and librivox and was a bit surprised by how limited they were. Wowie seemed to be very limited in what it had to offer and I got some strange "hits" from the searching. For Jane Eyre I got Jane Eyre and two books by Jane Rule, one book by Jane Simon and one book entitled Dead: with Dick and Jane 01. It was interesting that the librivox entry also linked to wikipedia entries of the book and Charlotte Bronte. I like the idea of books in public domain being available, but the practice of various people reading different chapters of the same book could be a bit problematic. I liked exploring the HCPL collections and I checked out one of the videos. I understand why the tutorial suggests that if using DSL to download one at chapter at a time because even on the staff computer it took some time to download.