#12 (Week 5) Roll your own . . . with Rollyo

Day 1221

Well, Willy managed to roll his own. It is amazing how, once one has learned a skill, it is never really forgotten--even after decades.

Willy had to admit that after the first obligatory "out-of-print books" type search engines he was stumped as to what to do. Then he thought of his good friend Dubya and was instantly inspired. The result is on the left edge of the blog.

Week five is done. Now he is only two weeks behind.

Interlude 5

Day 1223

The cover up . . . .

Ock·ham's razor also Oc·cam's razor (ŏk'əmz)
n.
A rule in science and philosophy stating that entities should not be multiplied needlessly. This rule is interpreted to mean that the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena should first be attempted in terms of what is already known. Also called law of parsimony. ~American Heritage Dictionary

Sherlock Holmes' Law - After eliminating the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is the truth. ~Sign of the Four (Chapter 6) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

First we were told . . . .

Within the past couple weeks or so, you've been seeing lights in some public areas (mostly on Lower Level, 3rd Floor, 4th Floor, & exterior) [of the King Library] going off & then back on sporadically & intermittently. I was informed that the server for the lighting control system had just been upgraded & the technician were still working out some glitches. The problem should be resolved soon.

Then we were told . . . .

Earlier today, this restroom [5th Floor Public Men's Restroom] got hit with vandalism. All the faucets were bent sideways. The plumber responded to this problem, removed all the faucets, & closed down the restroom awaiting new parts.

Then again . . . .

Recently, we've been experiencing different problems with the sensor faucets in the Staff restrooms on the Lower Level & 4th Floor. Typical problems are non-working sensors, no hot water, high pressure water dispensing, & the most recent - water running for a long period after users step away from the faucets. The technician have been working on these problems but different issues keep arising. We are still working on different solutions right now, and will keep you posted.

The truth . . . .

There is really only one simple explanation for all of this phenomena . . . .

we have a poltergeist.


The Willy Scream

#11 (Week 5). Explore a Web 2.0 awards site

Day 1229

Willy found Google Start. . . .

Google Start has tabs. They appear to work great--allowing many entries but keeping them organized and uncrowded. Willy is now transferring much of what he had set up from hiw Bloglines account.  He will do a comparison over the next few weeks/months between the two different ways of organizing sites he wants to visit regularly.

This feature requires using Google personalized pages. The personalized pages include keeping a search history--the thing that Big Brother wanted from the search engine web sites. So the first thing Willy did was turn it off. Instructions for doing so can be found at:
Personalizing your search results
To stop, you need to "pause" your search history. You may also want to "remove items."


Homeland Security doesn't like it when you pause your search history.

#10 (Week 5) Play around with an online image generator*

Day 1229






* and get out a secret message. . .

Interlude 4

Day 1230

Now Willy knows he is hooked.  He is starting to worry about backup.  You can find out about backing up by searching in help under backup.

Interlude 3

Day 1230

Golly, Willy thought week 4 would never end. Now he is only 1-1/2 weeks behind. . . .


They found the shrink wrap!

#9 (Week 4) Locate Useful Blogs and RSS

Day 1230

Willy took a quick look at the feed find tools. He may be missing something but he don't think he needed them at this time (but they are bookmarked). His problem is not finding blogs/RSS feeds but limiting/weeding them.

RSS is not a source but a medium and it is becoming ubiquitous. Willy already has an idea of the sites he wants to tap and most of them have RSS.

As far as blogs are concerned, a directory is not what Will needs. He is interested in selected blogs. So the resources he is currently tapping are things like the Webby Awards. As he locates blogs that fit his needs they will help him find others--quality tends to link to quality. This is a method Willy discovered in graduate school. Most articles are junk; only a few percent are worth reading. A skill that students should learn is how to locate that few percent. One method is, once you know a good author, you find more by seeing who that author cites and who cites that author. Good authors cite each other. This is the pot growing method of discovery. Once you have a little bit of the good stuff, it is easy to grow more.

Useful blogs. . .

• The Shafted Librarian looks like a good blog for keeping up on what is going on in Libraryland.
  
• Librarians' Internet Windex blog is good for looking at new, selected (clean) websites.
  
• One of the most incredibly inciteful sites Willy found was Unshelved. Did you see the one about the chicken?
  

Interlude 2

Day 1230

From YouTube (another one of Willy's habits) . . .
showing yet another one of Willy's habits. . .
which makes this habit squared?


Gollum and Smeagol sing Barry White

#8 (Week 4) RSS feeds/ Bloglines account

Day 1231, Habit #4

@#$%!!! Willy just spent 40 minutes writing this post only to have it lost when he tried to upload it. This is a learning experience. He should save; either by saving as a draft or just publishing each paragraph as it is written. This is the same strategy used in word processing.

Damn! He was on a roll too . . . .

Willy already had experience with RSS so he thought this module would go fast. Ha!
He has been using Sage on Firefox. It is a great RSS reader but it is client-side software--it has to be installed on each PC that is used and is also browser specific. But Willy is an itinerant PC user—always on the run--often using different browsers on different PCs. It takes too much time to maintain RSS for all of those situations. So Willy only had it installed on a couple of machines. The result is he was not using RSS the way it really should be used--regularly and often.

When Willy discovered Bloglines he went nuts (well ok, he was already nuts, so maybe he went psycho-nuts). Because it is a web service, rather than client-based software, he can now access it from any PC using any browser. RSS is great for him because:

1. It allows him to reduce his environmental impact. He kills less trees by reducing hard-copy subscriptions. He is working towards, not a paper-less existence, but a reduced paper one.
   
2. It allows Willy to organize and tailor the news he gets--increasing the quality and decreasing the time-cost in keeping up with the news.
   
3. It allows Willy to use the time that would ordinarily be wasted waiting for things to happen, e.g., waiting for a patron on the reference desk. He also has client-side software (MobiPocket) that synchronizes RSS to his PDA. He uses this to read RSS while off-line, e.g., waiting in line at Costco.
   

Here is Willy's Bloglines public URL:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/1265days

#7 (Week 3) Post on technology

Day 1243

For this exercise Willy had to blog about anything technology related and also add a comment on someone else's blog.

One of Willy's most useful pieces of technology is the USB drive he wears clipped to his collar. It's his old-fart technology bling. It is a god-send for a person with no working memory. He considers it an extension of his mind. If he ever loses it, he will have lost his mind.

Also for this exercise, Willy had to choose a target er, he had to leave a comment on someone elses blog. He chose poor Bookcharmer--he mentioned the 23 things they have in common.

#6 (Week 3) Flickr mashups, etc.

When asked if we will find out what happens to Willy, the only answer was a soft chuckle from producer Dale Neverno.

Day 1244

Habit #3 (fd's flickr toys)

Willy is starting to count up the "habits" he is acquiring through Learning 2.0. He is using the term habit because at the beginning of this program he listened to a podcast of the Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners.

• Habit #1 is blogging. Willy never thought he would be interested in it. Now he wonders if he will be able to break it.
• Habit #2 is Flickr. Boy, did Willy get sidetracked on that one.

One of Willy's weaknesses is staying focused on the task at hand. Admittedly, he is easily distracted. . . no, easily amused. . . no, not that either. With few exceptions, just about everything fascinates Willy. This means as soon as he is introduced to something he gets hooked on it. Aw, geez, now it sounds like he has a problem with addiction.

Anyway, his interests start piling up. he starts dividing his time up into more and more projects. It takes longer and longer to get something done. Learning 2.0 will give Willy 23 more excuses for why things don't get done.