Assignment #76

Did you miss the late night jokes last night? No problem.

Goto http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bldailyfeed3.htm

Or try http://www.newsmax.com/entertainment/late_night_jokes.shtml

Play!!

Assignment #75

The next time your kid has a project to do

Goto the mashup schoolr

http://schoolr.com/

Great site.

This site has a citation creator that uses a service from the North Carolina State University Library System. I had recommended Ottobib in Assignment #54. From that post I got this comment:

Benjamin said...

You may also want to checkout BibMe.org, a similar automated bibliography generator. In addition to allowing for automatically citing books, BibMe supports the same for a bunch of other types of sources and lets you download the resulting bibliography as an RTF document.

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Assignment #74

If you’ve kept up with our assignments you’ve seen that Google is so much more than just a pretty search engine. If you really want to get into the World of Google here’s the place.

http://www.googletutor.com/

Also here’s the official Google blog.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

Now remember that hack from assignment #42 where we had Google find us downloadable mp3’s? Well last week GoogleTutor had a search engine called G2p.com that did all the work for you. Here it is

http://www.g2p.org/

and here’s the GoogleTutor article

http://www.googletutor.com/2007/04/30/g2p-looking-for-others-files-the-dummy-way/#more-710

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Assignment #73

So you have what you call your Image Macro. It’s a picture with a caption on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_macro

A subset of Image Macros is lolcats. Here’s an article on the art form

http://granades.com/2007/05/02/loltrek/

with a Star Trek TOS parody.

Lolcats have their own pidgin English so be aware.

This is a part of the Internet I had no idea existed before I saw the article.

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Assignment #72

Redos

Thought I’d hit a couple redos today. That’s when I’ve got more information on a topic I’ve already covered. Here’s the first on streaming from just yesterday. Lifehacker has a couple of good articles:

http://lifehacker.com/software/alpha-geek/how-to-stream-your-music-to-any-pc-256052.php

http://lifehacker.com/software/screenshot-tour/stream-your-music-with-orb-257816.php

AND

Let’s revisit the Youtube downloading thing again (last time, I promise).

Now I’ve showed you a couple ways in assignments #49 and #17. Anyway here’s the latest article by way of Digg.

http://mashable.com/2007/05/05/download-youtube-video/

23 ways to do it.

I tried zamzar.com on a video that I couldn’t get as it seemed to be protected somehow. It worked like a charm and even changed the format for me.

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Assignment #71

What we're going to do is take your mp3 music collection on your home computer and stream it to your computer at work.

1) Goto http://www.vibestreamer.com/

Download and install Vibestreamer 2.06 on your home computer.

2) Configure vibstreamer

Click USERS AND GROUPS--Right click inside the left open box--Click ADD--Give yourself a username and password so you can get in from work.

Click SHARING--Right click inside the box--Click ADD--Browse for the directory where your music is--Then check the username box.

Click SETTINGS--Click that pull down tab on the IP ADDRESS and set and write down the ip address along with the port.

Go back to STREAM SERVER and click START

3) Leave your computer on and go to work.

4) At work, put that ip address and port into your web browser like this--(e.g.) http://123.456.789.101:8081

You'll be prompted for your username and password--up will pop your directory with the music. Worked like a charm for me though I am concerned with security so I probably won't do this very often. But it is cool.

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Assignment #70

Here's something that has been in the news lately. Google has what they called Personal Homeages and now call iGoogle. The reason they were in the news as they lost everybody's settings. But no biggee. It's just ones and zeros. iGoogle is like Netvibes, only flashier and less serious and they have a ton of feeds that you just click to get.

Goto http://www.google.com/ Click MORE--EVEN MORE

Left side Click iGOOGLE Sign in using your gmail account username and password. Get feeds by clicking on the ADD STUFF link in the upper right. Put widgets on the second page by dragging them to the page 2 tab.

The themes are cool. My beach theme changes with the sun though it seems to be linked with my Watertown, SD weather widget rather than my actual Guam location.

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Assignment #69

So you’ve got Greasemonkey on your Firefox browser. Now

Goto http://userscripts.org/

Search for SEARCH TERMS (hit enter)

Click on Search Term Highlighter (the third one)

This cute little program highlights your search terms on the various web pages--something I need sometimes.

Click on VIEW SCRIPT SOURCE if you want to see what it looks like otherwise click the INSTALL THIS SCRIPT button.

For an interesting though somewhat difficult to hear presentation on Firefox and it’s add-ons goto

http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/archive.php and listen to

Your Firefox can do That?

It’s the sixth one down.

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Assignment #68

FireFox

The FireFox Browser keeps getting cooler and cooler. It’s open source so anybody can add capabilities to it and there are a bunch. If you haven’t got it yet goto http://www.download.com/ and download and install it. Now click TOOLS and ADD-ONS. Click the GET EXTENSIONS. Now click on Recommended Add-ons. Go through the list to see if anything appeals to you but do download Greasemonkey. We’ll play with that tomorrow.

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Assignment #67

Ok – Here are two sites where you start by uploading a picture:

The first is a site where you upload your photo and then it tells you which movie star you long like and how much.

http://www.starsinyou.com/home.php

The second lets you make a baseball (or any sport) card out of an uploaded picture.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php

Play!!

Assignment #66

RSS

Really Simple Sindication

We’ve already looked at this but here’s a cute video to explain it.

http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

For more info here’s Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss

Play!!

Assignment #65

Screencasts

Screencasting is basically making a movie of what’s happening on your computer screen. It’s usually used for how-to videos on computing, etc.

Here’s a podcast on screencasting at SirsiDynix. It’s the 13^th one down.

http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/archive.php

Here’s a short little screencast on screencasting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt__FskTtyE

Here’s where you can get the program Wink that you need to do a screencast

http://www.debugmode.com/wink/

Or just get it from Download.com

The program is easy and quite intuitive (and free) so just get your copy and

Play!!

Assignment #64

My brother also gets my little emails and he had some interesting things about last Monday’s email and ALEXA:

I think alexa is a hijacker which may explain why it is so popular. It makes you an offer you can't refuse. Alexa collects information from users who have installed an "Alexa Toolbar," allowing them to provide statistics on web site traffic, as well as lists of related links.

The company offered a toolbar that gave Internet users guidance on where to go next, based on the traffic patterns of its user community. Gee, I wanted to go there but I came here. Thanks Alexa!!!!

Another concern is whether Alexa ratings are easily manipulated. Some webmasters claim that they can significantly improve the Alexa ranking of less popular sites by making them the default page, by exchanging web traffic with other webmasters, and by requiring their users to install the Alexa toolbar.

Hey alexa, thanks for changing my start up page, rerouting me to where you want me to go, and telling everyone what I am doing using the bandwidth that I am paying for.

For more see Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internet

And for your assignment

Goto http://worldatlas.com/

Click on it

Under the map of the world there’s a flag with a dragon on it--click on it.

Click on COUNTRY FLAGS

Goto –G- Guam click on it

Right click on Guam’s flag.

Save Picture as…

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Assignment #63

Here’s a couple of interesting websites if you’re home schooling. These are sites that teach lessons through movies. The first is

http://www.teachwithmovies.org

Lots of movies here with lesson plans but not much else. A few years ago I got a yearly membership for a few bucks and my name is still on their list. Use rameyerguam with a password of asiya.

Another site is

http://www.storyofmovies.org/

They have more activities for their 3 movies (that’s right—3 whole movies) but the site is sponsored by some Hollywood biggees and does do a good job with those 3. And even though they say more movies are coming they’ve had those same 3 for at least 4 years now.

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Assignment #62

Ok Star Trek lovers, here is Wikipedia for Trekkers.

Goto http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Portal:Main

and

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Assignment #61

This is a website that shows you the most popular web pages on the net.

Goto http://alexa.com/

Note the movers and shakers, click on TRAFFIC RANKINGS at the top.

Note the world rankings on the right.

Find the United States and click.

Check out something you’ve never heard about.

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Assignment #60

Here’s a cool site.

Goto http://www.cnettv.com/

Click on Tips and Tricks. Watch a video or two.

Now Click on Movies and Music. Watch June Carter sing “Keep on the

Sunny Side”

Great video.

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Assignment #59

You probably ought to check this place once every couple of days. I’m not sure how much of his stuff is strictly legal but he does have some cool stuff.

Goto http://www.floodle.net/

Go down to (16 Dec 06) - CIA Book of Dirty Tricks

Click on it to check it out.

Check out whatever.

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Assignment #58

Second Life

So I registered with Second Life last week.

http://secondlife.com/

I watched the podcast that Sirsi-Dynix has here:

http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/archive.php

Read both PC Magazine and Information Week’s articles from their current issues.

Watched some cool videos on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxj8RTW4ev4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=synxFmQJ_0A

Realized that I’m going need a lot of learning curve but did see some interesting potential.

But a nagging thought, since I’m doing my Near Death, Reincarnation and Other Spooky Stuff Discussion Group here at the Andersen Library, was- I wonder if WE’RE somebody else’s Second Life.

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Assignment #57

MP3 Blogs

Here’s the wikipedia entry for MP3 blogs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3_blog

Here’s a cool example:

http://www.coverville.com/

Coverville plays covers (recordings of songs that were made popular by somebody else)

Search Coverville for covers of ABBA songs.

Here’s my favorite:

http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/

Put MP3 BLOGS into Google.

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Assignment #56

Every time I think the Internet can’t get any more fun I find some new website. Prepare to spend a couple hours exploring your favorite band on FoxyTunes Planet.

Goto http://www.foxytunes.com/planet and put in your band or artist.

Foxy Tunes is an addon to Firefox that I did download. It’s unobtrusive but I can’t really see a reason for it yet.

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Assignment #55

Here I just told you about mashups last week and I run across this today. It’s a great little tutorial on exactly how to make your own mashup with Google Maps. And it’s only 3 and a half minutes long.

http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9705175-2.html?tag=nl.e415

Play!!

Find old assignments at http://rameyerguam.blogspot.com

Assignment #54

Here’s a useful little website if you’re writing a paper.

Goto http://ottobib.com/

Put in the ISBN number of some book and click the appropriate formatting.

Voila! You have the bibliography notation.

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Assignment #53

Goto Top Secret Recipes http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/

On the left click on RECIPES.

At the bottom of the page click on page 9

Click on KFC® Cole Slaw ^FREE

The two pay recipes I looked at were only $.79/ea

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Assignment #52

It was Helene Blowers who’s the Tech Director for the Charlotte NC Libraries that got me going on this little Web2.0 thingy. I heard her LEARNING 2.0 podcast on Sirsi-Dynix and thought “Hey, this could be fun.” Anyway Ms Blowers has this whole program done out for her staff that’s being copied by other groups. Here’s the variation for the California School Library Assn. http://schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com/

Here’s Ms. Blowers Blog which I now subscribe to

http://www.librarybytes.com/index.html

And finally, since I’ll be stealing all kinds of stuff from the LEARNING 2.0 unit, let’s just start with something quick and fun.

Goto http://www.glassgiant.com/hollywood_sign/

and put something in.

Click Make Sign.

After goto the Home Page http://www.glassgiant.com/

and

Play!! These and called online image generators.

Assignment #51

The more I’m on line, the more blogs I subscribe to. The ones that change a lot and that are basically Internet newspapers, I have on my Netvibes virtual desktop. The more personal and professional blogs I link to through Bloglines. These blogs add new items only once in a while and Bloglines only shows me the new stuff. This way I can see if anything new is on a whole bunch of sites all in one place.

Stephen Abram from SirsiDynix said on one presentation that he daily checks 500 blogs for tech news using Bloglines and it takes him about a half an hour.

Now, it’s a little querky and the interface isn’t the greatest but you’ll eventually need this.

Goto http://www.bloglines.com/

And register. When you find something you like, get the RSS feed and add it to your page.

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Assignment #50

Mashups

OK! How many of you know what a MASHUP is? A mashup is a combination of 2 or more databases to come up with – whatever. For instance a real popular mashup is to take the Google Maps database and combine it locally with houses for sale. The result is cool if the area has hi def pictures. One agent uses Google Earth to show you how to find your house from 15,000 miles in space. You can zoom right in on the house see the neighborhood, etc. Here’s one for Reno

http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Reno-Nevada/

So now put

(your home town) real estate google

into http://www.google.com/

and see what you get.

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Assignment #49

Ok, I just learned this one. When you play a video from Youtube or someplace else, it streams the video to you. To play it a second time it doesn’t need to stream it again, it’s already on your hard drive. BUT! how do you find it?

Goto Search and look for all files that were created in the last day. Different versions of Windows have different ways of asking for your parameters.

Hit Search and you’ll get a list. Most of the files will be just a few Kb. Find the file that has about 2+ MB for every minute of video. It’ll probably be a bunch of numbers and letters. Now, if you have that Flash Video Player from Assignment #17 you’ll be able to use it by changing the file name to (something).flv (Right Click-Rename)

Go to Edit-Undo Rename if you need to later.

BUT, if you download this great media player called VLC Media Player

From http://www.download.com it’ll play it straight away.

Rename and save it if you want.

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Assignment #48

Goto http://learner.org/

After signing up go back to View Programs and click program

Click American Cinema

Watch 1. The Hollywood Style by clicking on the

These are all those great Annenberg videos that were the best thing on PBS. You can’t watch the videos in all the programs but most of them you can. There are hundreds of hours of excellent educational videos. A few years ago that American Cinema series on VHS went for over $100 on Ebay.

You can also view some of these same videos through the Free University Project http://www.freeuniv.com/

AND

You can also get a big bunch of educational videos at

http://best.online.docus.googlepages.com/

Assignment #47

Musicians!!

Of all the things you can find easily on the net, one thing that’s difficult

to find is sheet music. Here’s how to get some.

Goto the midi converters for Windows part of hitsquad.com

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95/MIDI_CONVERTERS/

and download MidiNotate Player v1.1.1

I’m sure there must be others but I found this one pretty easily.

Install it and pop in a midi file (see assignment #22 at my blog below) and

presto-printable sheet music.

I love midi files. If any of you are doing something cool with them, let me know.

Play!!