We've reached the end, the final curtain.
Seems as though I've been doing this for months and months. I've typed and clicked...typed and clicked...shouldn't there be a novel in here somwhere?
Seriously, though, folks, I did learn a few things.
The RSS feeds are a great way to get news updates without all the annoying popups and menu distractions on the actual news sites. I'm going to be using these probably more than any other of the tools.
Another useful one is the wikis. I found is http://www.wiki.answer.com/, where you simply ask a question (Who was George Washington?) and...voila...up pops the answer. No playing around with quote marks or guessing at keywords or whatever. Quite handy, that.
I found flickr and photobucket amusing, as well as some of the podcasts, like NPR.
Perhaps the biggest revelation for me is the sheer magnitude and variety of material available at present in cyberspace, as well as the astounding volume of social networking that is going on. (Where do folks get the time to do all that posting, especially the posting of stuff that would appear to be marginally interesting to anyone but themselves?)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Legacy of Ashes
I picked "Legacy of Ashes" as an audiobook selection because I've already read it. I was curious as to how accurate the description of this title would be.
Very accurate.
This is considered by many national security experts to be among the most comprehensive books on the history of the CIA.
Other authors have navigated the convolutions of this spy agency but have had to rely on anonymouse quotes to get across the most incisive details. As the description notes below, all of Weiner's quotes are directly sourced, so you can make your own informed judgments about the validity of the info.
Weiner has been writing on national security for the Times for some 20 years. I got the impression reading "Legacy of Ashes" that he has probably been collecting source material from Day One, perhaps with the understanding that he could name names only in the distant future for his book.
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last sixty years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America’s confidence.
Legacy of Ashes is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA. Everything is on the record. There are no anonymous sources, no blind quotations. With shocking revelations that will make headlines, Tim Weiner gets at the truth and tells how the CIA’s failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.
Very accurate.
This is considered by many national security experts to be among the most comprehensive books on the history of the CIA.
Other authors have navigated the convolutions of this spy agency but have had to rely on anonymouse quotes to get across the most incisive details. As the description notes below, all of Weiner's quotes are directly sourced, so you can make your own informed judgments about the validity of the info.
Weiner has been writing on national security for the Times for some 20 years. I got the impression reading "Legacy of Ashes" that he has probably been collecting source material from Day One, perhaps with the understanding that he could name names only in the distant future for his book.
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last sixty years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America’s confidence.
Legacy of Ashes is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA. Everything is on the record. There are no anonymous sources, no blind quotations. With shocking revelations that will make headlines, Tim Weiner gets at the truth and tells how the CIA’s failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Podcast
I headed to the NPR site and, naturally, headed for book discussions.
One featured an interview with Edward Dolnick, author of "The Forger's Spell," an account of what the author contends was the greatest art forgery case of the 20th century.
The forger was a Dutchman, one Hans van Meegeren, who pocketed some $30 million selling fake Vermeer canvasses during the World War II years. One of his buyers was No. 2 Nazi strongman Hermann Goering, who traded 137 authentic (and stolen by the Germans) art works for a single (forged) Vermeer.
Good interview, and at 8 minutes, long enough to give you enough details to know if I would like to read the book.
One featured an interview with Edward Dolnick, author of "The Forger's Spell," an account of what the author contends was the greatest art forgery case of the 20th century.
The forger was a Dutchman, one Hans van Meegeren, who pocketed some $30 million selling fake Vermeer canvasses during the World War II years. One of his buyers was No. 2 Nazi strongman Hermann Goering, who traded 137 authentic (and stolen by the Germans) art works for a single (forged) Vermeer.
Good interview, and at 8 minutes, long enough to give you enough details to know if I would like to read the book.
YouTube
What a cornucopia of wheat...and chaff!
News & politics, entertainment, education, style are just a few of the categories, and each one offers hundreds of videos. It seems likely a viewer could find something on almost any subject in a few clicks.
I especially liked the news & politics zone (watched an AP clip highlighting career of White House flack Tony Snow, who died of cancer at 53).
I like the idea of being able to catch video when you want, without having to wait for the next cycle on CNN, for example .
That said, it appears that many of these non-news videos are moronic, poorly edited or both.
One so-called "comedy" selection has a guy opening a bathroom door, and sneaking up to the tub where his male roommate is showering. He yanks back the shower curtain and ....TA-DA...there's the naked roommate. Ha-ha.
Or, "Futuristic Brunch," in which two guys loudly complain that the breakfast options at McDonald's are not "lunchy" enough. So...a few minutes before the lunch/breakfast changeover at 11 a.m., they order an Egg McMuffin. At 11:01, they order chicken and fries. At their table, they reconstruct these items and creat a sandwich combining all the ingredients, along with honey-mustard sauce. The end.
Most surprising were the page after page of video offerings that were either Japanese karaoke singers, or what seemed to be snippets of Japanese TV comedy shows, subject/plot/punchline inscrutable to me, of course. But the audiences will laugh at anything.
Library applications? Possibly training videos for new employees, or mini-workshops for those already on the job.
News & politics, entertainment, education, style are just a few of the categories, and each one offers hundreds of videos. It seems likely a viewer could find something on almost any subject in a few clicks.
I especially liked the news & politics zone (watched an AP clip highlighting career of White House flack Tony Snow, who died of cancer at 53).
I like the idea of being able to catch video when you want, without having to wait for the next cycle on CNN, for example .
That said, it appears that many of these non-news videos are moronic, poorly edited or both.
One so-called "comedy" selection has a guy opening a bathroom door, and sneaking up to the tub where his male roommate is showering. He yanks back the shower curtain and ....TA-DA...there's the naked roommate. Ha-ha.
Or, "Futuristic Brunch," in which two guys loudly complain that the breakfast options at McDonald's are not "lunchy" enough. So...a few minutes before the lunch/breakfast changeover at 11 a.m., they order an Egg McMuffin. At 11:01, they order chicken and fries. At their table, they reconstruct these items and creat a sandwich combining all the ingredients, along with honey-mustard sauce. The end.
Most surprising were the page after page of video offerings that were either Japanese karaoke singers, or what seemed to be snippets of Japanese TV comedy shows, subject/plot/punchline inscrutable to me, of course. But the audiences will laugh at anything.
Library applications? Possibly training videos for new employees, or mini-workshops for those already on the job.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Web 2.0 tools
O.K. they told us a few weeks back, week 5, I think, that we could have fun.
Fun is good, so I figured let's have more of it
Thus, it was an easy choice looking at all these tools on Web 2.0 Awards. I chose to explore the one called FUN.
My choice was "One Sentence." These are supposed to be stories of everyday life told in one sentence only, and offered up as something that really happened to the commenter.
LOL with many of these "stories," although I have my doubts that all of them are fact and not fiction. Such as this one:
"As I dropped my spare change into his cup and heard a splash, I was horrified to realize he was not a homeless person begging for money but just a guy on the corner enjoying his coffee."
Hmmm.....
Great situation, but I'm asking myself if perhaps we have a little James Frey impersonation going on here.
I'm not sure how this tool might be used to better serve library patrons, but I can easily imagine how librarians could let off a lot of steam posting one-sentence stories about all the crazy stuff that goes on in their jobs.
Call if psychotherapy on the cheap.
Fun is good, so I figured let's have more of it
Thus, it was an easy choice looking at all these tools on Web 2.0 Awards. I chose to explore the one called FUN.
My choice was "One Sentence." These are supposed to be stories of everyday life told in one sentence only, and offered up as something that really happened to the commenter.
LOL with many of these "stories," although I have my doubts that all of them are fact and not fiction. Such as this one:
"As I dropped my spare change into his cup and heard a splash, I was horrified to realize he was not a homeless person begging for money but just a guy on the corner enjoying his coffee."
Hmmm.....
Great situation, but I'm asking myself if perhaps we have a little James Frey impersonation going on here.
I'm not sure how this tool might be used to better serve library patrons, but I can easily imagine how librarians could let off a lot of steam posting one-sentence stories about all the crazy stuff that goes on in their jobs.
Call if psychotherapy on the cheap.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Zoho Writer
This tool looked promising.
I liked the idea of having all of the text choices on the toolbar, instead of having to deal with drop-down menus.
I wrote a bit using a variety of fonts, colors, backgrounds, etc.
I was then set to post it to my blog.
But each of several dozen times I tried to do so, it did not recognize the blog address, even though it was correctly entered.
And, to add to the frustration, when I closed out (thinking this might solve the problem) and returned to the Zoho site, I could not access my post. Each time, I got an error message giving three options: debug, cancel or send error message. Regardless of the choice, each selection shut down the site.
So...a potentially useful tool, but so far, in fact, useless.
I liked the idea of having all of the text choices on the toolbar, instead of having to deal with drop-down menus.
I wrote a bit using a variety of fonts, colors, backgrounds, etc.
I was then set to post it to my blog.
But each of several dozen times I tried to do so, it did not recognize the blog address, even though it was correctly entered.
And, to add to the frustration, when I closed out (thinking this might solve the problem) and returned to the Zoho site, I could not access my post. Each time, I got an error message giving three options: debug, cancel or send error message. Regardless of the choice, each selection shut down the site.
So...a potentially useful tool, but so far, in fact, useless.
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