Week 9 Thing 20-23

Thing #20
It is very frustrating and disappointing when looking around Youtube. I love the idea, don’t get me wrong, and there’s so many videos I would like to look at, but the aesthetic experience of watching a video is marred by the slowness of the internet.
I chose to watch in full a 2.54 minute clip, the one from ‘Life of Birds’ by David Attenborough featuring the dance and mimicry of the Superb Lyrebird. I love that bit of film. In that time the video paused for up to 8 seconds 42 times! It just doesn’t work for viewing videos. Once the video has been shown once, it seems to be faster the second time around. This isn’t too bad for short films, but imagine waiting for a half hour film to come in, perhaps taking an hour, then watching it after that.

Thing #21
I had trouble with Yahoo Podcasts. I couldn’t find a free player. They all seemed to need a subscription. Podcast.net had some book reviews, but clicking on the Podcast net player brought up a box without any obvious Play button. I added two RSS feeds from this site to by Bloglines. Finally Podcastalley.com came up with the goods. Clicking on a podcast brought up a player immediately and I listened to some history podcasts. I can see podcasts being useful in an educational and library context. For the sight impaired podcasts are a boon.

Thing #22
Audiobooks. This is an interesting concept. Instead of all the packaging that goes with audio cassettes and audio CDS, patrons may download material for a certain amount of time directly onto their MP3 players. This has great potential for a library service.
I looked in the Gutenberg collection and was pleased to see works by Kipling, Twain, Poe, Coleridge. Very exciting. I listened to some of the recording of Mark Twain’s ‘On the Decay of the Art of Lying’. This worked well.

Thing #23
The program has been useful in many ways. I always meant to explore what the web has to offer and this program has shown some of the various applications, tools and sites which may be useful. I found that with life commitments and work schedules that there was a lot to take in. I imagine that I will go back to some of the sites and tools which I thought may be fun to explore and take more time after the course finishes. Sites I wish to explore further include ‘Library Thing’ , Zoho , YouTube, Truveo and the Del.icio.us site.
I have mentioned a number of times that the slowness of the dial up connections and even broadband in the country hinder one’s use of the web based tools and sites. This is something which may have to be pursued.
Another concern I have is the amount of ‘stuff’ out there. People are putting everything on the web -- their photos, their journals, their pets. It’s endless. However, I like the idea that smaller special interest groups may now communicate easily across the world.
After exploring 23 things, one can only assume that there are endless sites and tools to find on the web.