Today's TechCrunch article, Making the Switch from Twitter to Jaiku, got me thinking about all of the annoying Twitter problems lately. I hate to even say lately, it seems like Twitter always has problems! I haven't signed up for Jaiku yet, but it looks like something I would like better than Twitter. The design is better, there's more features, the only drawback is the network is smaller. Of course Twitter is more popular. This is my biggest annoyance with Web 2.0 technologies, it's hard to switch from one to another, it's even hard to stick to one you like with so much new stuff always coming out. At some point I'm going to get a bit overloaded with all of this stuff. I like this stuff but there's just so much to manage too.
Between Twitter or Jaiku, this is not something I see myself managing two different environments either. I bet in the long run I'll probably just stick with Twitter but it's similar to my problem with MySpace...I hate using things just because everybody else is doing it...even if I that there's things about it I don't like.
Technorati Tags: twitter, jaiku, social networking, web 2.0
May 2007 Archives
Found via Andy Piper, a great little style guide for Twitter.
There's only one little issue, I believe I try to do this one:
Use proper capitalization. Typing in lowercase doesn't save characters; it's just lazy.
Maybe not religously; but it seems that when I'm using mobile twitter, I don't have the ability to capitalize any letters with my mobile phone. I logged a few geocaches on my phone last night and I got annoyed that my logs could only be in all lowercase.
I get a wide variety of symbols, along with numbers and lowercase letters. I have the ability to capitalize letters in other areas of my phone, but I don't understand why I can't use capitalization in the web browser.
Technorati Tags: twitter, grammar, mobile twitter, mobile phone, mobile
I just spent a good part of the evening installing Wubi, it is awesome!
Wubi is an unofficial Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with a few clicks. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application. If you heard about Linux and Ubuntu, if you wanted to try them but you were afraid, this is for you.I've been wanting to dual boot my computer with Ubuntu for a long time. I went to go try it a few weeks ago and it turns out my CD drive isn't burning CDs correctly (or reading them) so I could never get the disc image burned. I tried Windows Virtual PC, but Ubuntu wouldn't install right. I do have a live book disc of Ubuntu which I use occasionally, but I've been wanting something a little bit more permanent.
I've been wanting to do this because it turns out that my sound card, which doesn't work correctly in Windows XP, works perfectly fine in Ubuntu. I haven't tried using my CD burner yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if that works fine too.
Wubi rocks! It runs Ubuntu as if it's on its own drive. It's not partitioned though, it's on my computer's hard drive. I even have access to my Windows files! This is way better than dual booting Ubuntu with XP.
Technorati Tags: wubi, ubuntu, xp, windows xp
I just don't think that's possible for me. Heck, I just bought a backpack that has the 'Google' logo stitched on the back, needless to say I'm a huge fan.
Here is an interesting perspective though. From CenterNetworks, My life without Google which I discovered through Library Stuff. James Thomas from CenterNetworks explains why he blocked Google:
The amount of data they're gathering on me is frightening. Not because of Google, but because I'm positive the government will legislate their way into Google's database sooner or later and start labeling people as suspicious. Political paranoia aside, let us look at the fact here; Life on the internet without using Google is hard.
Which I agree with, Google does know a lot about me. But to imagine my life without Google services would be difficult. I can't live without GMail or Google Reader. Both of these applications are far superior to any mail or reader service I've ever tried. I even enjoy Google Calendar for managing my schedule. I rarely use other search engines too.
Occasionally I'll use Ask.com when I'm working on questions for patrons (mostly school related questions) but when it comes to searching for something that I know I can find easily, I don't even bother with the others...I know Google will get me there if I choose the right search terms immediately. The one service I switch around a lot on are mapping services. I prefer Yahoo for local searches but I prefer Google Maps for more specific searches (geotagging images and geocaching are far better on Google Maps). Now that I can take Google Maps out geocaching on my Mobile Phone, with satellite images, I am psyched!
I'm comfortable with Google, it's like a friend to me. I can even take it everywhere, Google Maps Mobile and GMail Mobile are incredible applications. My home page on the internet is iGoogle, because it brings all of Google's goodness together on one page.
It's a discussion on the value of time vs. the value of privacy. What we'll see in the future is whether they can live in harmony or whether one will win out over the other.
Technorati Tags: google, privacy
Andy sent me this link via Twitter, about good librarians and bad librarians. The original post was based on a recent Unshelved comic, which I remember reading when it first came out. The blog post is really amusing.
It occurred to me as I was reading this, how hard it really is to be a good librarian. Being the 'good librarian' feels oddly natural to me, I don't even think about it anymore. It amazes me that what comes out of my mouth most every time is 'good librarian' when I know that 'bad librarian' isn't usually too far away either. It's like the 'librarian filter' comes on that stops us from saying something we'll regret later (unless the filter malfunctioning on a particular day, which does happen on occasion).
There are times when 'bad librarian' probably shows through, usually when I'm talking to the "kids" that hang around (and never leave!) Pet peeves include, "what time is it?" They ask us this because they can't read the analog clock with Roman numerals that hangs on the wall. Every new clerk is usually shocked by this, I told one person to get used to it because it will happen at least several times a week. One clerk even tried to give a "clock lesson" when she first started, I found this quite amusing. Now I just give them the time, it's easier than the whole, "I can't read that clock" conversation. Sometimes if I'm in a particularly bad mood I will just say, "there's a clock on the wall." (that's probably bad librarian poking through).
It's really just the little things that bother me. There are a few "kids" that will ask us how to spell names to they can look people up in MySpace. This annoys me to no end. I've tried to explain that there's no one way to spell certain names. Plus they ask us how to spell last names too...it's never a last name like Jones or Smith either. I have to admit, they're pretty persistent and I've never seen them get a straight answer on this question from any of us.
The question, "how long can I rent movies here?" is another one that is hard to keep my mouth shut. I usually want to respond by saying, "what do we look like, Blockbuster?" but I usually just respond by saying, "one week." Of course I do have to keep in mind that not all libraries loan their movies for free, I have had people ask how much it costs to rent movies pretty often...although some days I do feel like I work in a Blockbuster.
Everybody has their days I guess. I do enjoy my job though, a co-worker commented one time that she liked watching me "in action." I asked her why and she said, "you just have to get to the answer every time." It's true, I love the answer more than than I do the question. :)
Technorati Tags: libraries, library, librarians, patrons
