RSS feeder

Bloglines seems like a good concept, and it was easy enough to set up, but i think i will have to spend more time with it to see if it is actually useful personally. I appreciate that it might keep me more focused on moving down the list of subscribed feeds. Since many of the blogs i read have a visual component, i am a little underwhelmed by the way stories display, i end up opening the individual blogs anyway, and then things start to get a little cluttered.

Google my best friend

I admit, I use Google on a daily basis. I use it often to search, and appreciate the advanced search options, and the ability to focus the search to video, images blogs etc.... I fear that Google may promote a kind of lazy scholar, and that vetting the information is still something a lot of people need to learn to do better, but it cannot be denied that it has become an essential part of navigating the internet. The other part of the Google universe use most frequently is Docs, i started using it in school to avoid constantly sending myself emails of half finished papers because i did not have my own laptop. Since then Docs, along with Flickr (which is the Yahoo version of Picasa) have been the repositories for all of my written and pictorial property worth saving, i think some people might find that scary, but i have found that storing my documents online is actually more secure than on a personal computer. I love Docs because I can use it anywhere, and it is especially useful when I am not prepared... I can keep an updated copy of my resume and know that it is the most recent because docs will tell me the date I last changed it, it doesn't matter if i am in a different country, or don't have a USB key or computer with me. Even better google docs can be exported and emailed to be compatible with Microsoft word, they can be shared with others for collaboration, and you can upload full PDFs to be filed away for reference.

Faceblah

...as it is often called by a friend of mine. Facebook can be useful and it can also be a time waster. Like most things in the interland it depends how one uses it. I have found it useful in promoting events on a small budget, although increasingly the number of confirmed guests can be misleading. Initially i was amazed with the buffet of events and the possibility that presented, but this quickly gave way a sense of being overwhelmed.

I have used it to keep in touch with some friends who are far away. I think for many people, especially those in Canada who's families are elsewhere it is a very good tool. However, I would never consider my "friends" on Facebook to be equivalent to my friends in real time, some cross over but i have a great Many acquaintances on facebook with whom I rarely spend quality time.

Wikininnie

Since i have been geeking out tremendously on harps lately, I found an article that suited me just fine. Camac Harps, a French company that is an innovator in electric harp technology had a small entry, to which i added a few things; the name of innovative company helmsman Jakez François, and the fact that in addition to the electric, they are also working on midi Version of thier now famous "blue" harp.

Needle in a Haystack

Delicious is a good tool for keeping track of useful websites, we use the CPL Best Websites frequently at the 3rd floor reference desk. There are may ways to make Delicious work, the options may be a little daunting, I personally feel the most important factor is if the chosen sites are tagged and titled appropriately. In terms of applying that for personal use there are a lot of options about how you organize the information, which should leave you free to choose the one that works best for you.

Being a visual person i have found Delicious harder to get used to that i expected, and was not initially aware that the main search option is for Delicious in its entirety, not necessarily for the CPLs collection of links. Searching by tag is also cumulative, so if you don't find anything by tag you need to remove it before you type a new search option in. Because I use it often I am now much more comfortable with it and can usually find what i am looking for quickly.