Library Voice

I caught this just now via some of the people I follow on Twitter.  I have to say, this looks way cool.  Basically, in a nutshell, this application, called Ubiquity, could be the solution to those of us who hate having too many windows or tabs open.  Watch the video on the page for a good demo.  It does look very cool, even at the alpha stage of .1 in development.

http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/

I know SlideShare is a really cool service, but I honestly did not want to create yet another account to share my stuff.  Since I have a Blip.TV account, I figured there had to be a way to get PowerPoint slides up on blip.tv.  After experimenting yesterday, here’s the process that I found that actually works.  It’s not easy, but it works.

1.  In PowerPoint 2007, Choose Save AS–>Other Formats, and then save the file as a Windows Meta File  (.wmf).

This will save each slide as its own metafile in a parent folder.  In my case, I had 66 slides, so this saved 66 .wmf files.

2. Next, open Windows Movie Maker, and import the .wmf files you just created into a Movie Maker collection.  Then drag all the slides down into the movie timeline to add to a movie.

3.  Theoretically, you could add audio or voiceover there if you like, and you could also extend each slide to match your voice over, but I just opted for pasting in my slides.

4.  When you are ready to render your project, Choose File–>Save Movie File.  Choose the My Computer option for playback on your computer.  I chose the Other Settings Option, and the quality appears to be fine and of a reasonable file size.

5.  Finally, upload your new movie to your blip.tv account.

Granted, the process is probably not as easy as SlideShare, but once you do it, its a relatively painless process.  I really think the ability to add audio (music) or a voiceover can make the slides a little more interesting.  I also Iike the idea of having all of my video and powerpoint content in one place, and blip.tv satisfies that need.

Via AdverBlog:

Samsung just launched an online campaign to promote the supposed iPhone killer, the Samsung Instinct. First there is a campaign website including a fun product placement programm. But more innovative is the interactive short movie ‘Follow Your INSTINCT’, which can be watched on YouTube only. The movies are connected through YouTube annotations, which makes it the first commercial use of annotations I’ve seen so far. Pretty cool, simpel(sic) and interactive.

Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoOCiaxIZF4 .

It’s almost like choose your own adventure, and makes me ponder how we might do something like this for a library video tour. Thoughts??

This guy wrote this about video games:

I hate video games, on or offline. I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time. I hate being made to feel hateful for saying so, and I hate being told to immerse myself in them before passing judgment, because it feels like being told to immerse myself in smack and teenage pregnancy before passing judgment on them.

This is not because of anything wrong or bad about video games or heroin or teenage parents. It’s not even because of game-induced homicide or web-grooming of little girls by perverts - serious problems, but statistically low-risk. It’s because, compared with everything else on offer in a kid’s life, video games and heroin and teenage pregnancy are a colossal waste of time.

Turns out he’s also written a book, which happens to be on Amazon. Which of course, is now getting glowing reviews like this:

Now that’s web 2.0 in action. Beautiful.

My wife pointed me to this interesting article this morning:

A new study from Northwestern University finds that college students’ choice of social networking sites is related to race, ethnicity and parents’ education. The review included social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Xanga.

According to the authors, the findings challenge the democratic nature of online interaction and contradict conventional opinion suggesting that all college students communicate via Facebook, the popular social networking site (SNS) launched in 2004 by a Harvard undergraduate.

“That race, ethnicity and the education level of one’s parents can predict which social network sites a student selects suggests there’s less intermingling of users from varying backgrounds on these sites than previously believed.”

More information can be found here.

The complete article citation is:
Hargittai, E. (2007). Whose space? Differences among users and non-users of social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 14. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/hargittai.html

Don’t you love to see messages like this:

Or this:

The first example is from a webcast that I am scheduled to attend in 10 minutes. The second example is from a business database that we subscribe to. I just wonder when companies are going to get with the program and start to realize that it’s not that my browser is incompatible with their site or service. Rather, their site or service needs to make the “necessary adjustments” so that their service won’t be limited by my browser. As a Firefox user, I only use Internet Explorer in order to use two business databases, and apparently now, to attend this webcast. I should not be forced to use that browser for those purposes. Having to use IE in this way is sort of silly. It’s almost like taking your own silverware to a restaurant, just in case the restaurant isn’t modern enough to use silverware. And really, who uses Netscape??

“Sanoodi is the fun new way to record and share details of all your favourite outdoor activities. Sanoodi is for you, whether you are a triathlete or somebody that enjoys walking on a Sunday afternoon. Use Sanoodi to explore new places and draw or upload unlimited routes.”

I used Sanoodi to map out some of my cycling routes around town. It works very similarly to Gmaps Pedometer in that it allows you to track distances by drawing points on a map. Sanoodi goes beyond Gmaps, as it allows you to create a profile and save your routes within your profile. You can then send your cycling/running buddies a link to your profile or to your favorite route. You can even link to your flickr account, allowing you to show pictures of your route. Sanoodi also supports tagging, so users can tag their route with landmarks, the weather, or whatever. One of my favorite features of Sanoodi is that is tracks mileage and elevation. Runners and cyclists appreciate knowing how big the hills are. If you’re into cycling, running, or any other outdoor activity that requires the use of improved roads, take a look at Sanoodi.

Looking to embed Flash, Windows Media, Quicktime, or Real Media files into your web page?  Then take a look at the Embedded Media HTML Generator.  This utiility was created by the UC San Francisco Center for Instructional Technology in order to “to ease the burden of inserting video and animations into web pages.”  To use, simply select your file format, fill out a small form with server info, file name, etc, and click “Submit” to generate your html.

From a Business Week Online article:

You’ve heard that MySpace is dangerous for your kids, but what about for your business? Behold the summer of talking smack. Lots of interns and other summer employees have been logging on and dishing out on blogs and social networking sites about incompetent co-workers, negligent managers, and annoying customers like, uh, you.

With more than 25,000 groups on MySpace’s companies and co-workers section alone — including Publix Pimps, T.J. Maxx needs to die, and The Abercrombie is Evil Awareness Foundation — no company is immune. Here’s a taste of what’s out there.

Newsweek has an article on the new web:

The massive success of MySpace and the exemplary strategy of Flickr are milestones in a new high-tech wave reminiscent of the craziness of the early dot-com days. This rebooting owes everything to the enhanced power and pervasiveness of the Web, which has finally matured to the point where it can fulfill some of the outlandish promises that we heard in the ’90s. The generic term for this movement, especially among the hundreds of new companies jamming the waiting rooms of venture-capital offices, is Web 2.0.