A new toy

I bought a new phone the other day, for no good reason.

Nope, I did not buy an iPhone, nor and iPad, continuing my small protest of all things Apple. (I’m thinking of going into business making signs with a bar sinister slashed through a rotten apple proclaiming “Fruit Free Zone” but my wife thinks I’m trying to justify a meat-only diet!)

Nope, I did not buy a replacement Nokia, despite being incredibly satisfied with my N95 8Gig. When I bought this phone almost two years ago I researched available phones for months and became convinced that the N95 was very close to perfect. At the time there was even a thread on Nokia.com’s forum entitled “Is the N95 the greatest phone ever made?” I have always been happy with this phone but I fell in love with it when we were closed for our stocktake/tagging period and I took advantage of it’s amazing music player and Bluetoothed some wireless headphones. It was a fantastic experience, not far away from the first time I heard LP’s through decent headphones. This has been a great phone but it’s spiritual successor, the Nokia N8, uses an odd OS called Symbian and Nokia have already announced they will not be supporting the OS for much longer, which doesn’t inspire much faith in the long-term viability of the phone. It is a staggering phone in terms of hardware with a 12Meg camera, HD video capabilities and another fine media player but these days phones are all about apps.

I hate this word ‘apps’, what was wrong with ‘applications’? Too many syllables? But, since it has become an accepted term, and I am an advocate of using English as it adapts and alters, I’ll just have to cope.

I wouldn’t be the first person to note that mobile phones are now much more about computer-like abilities than telephonic proficiency but in very recent days I have become a convert to the concept. Apple pioneered (or, at the very least, popularised) the idea of downloading additional applications to add personalised functionality to your ‘device’ (as opposed to ‘phone’). Arguably because it was Apple, developers swarmed to the concept and both validated and  expanded the market for those applications. Most of us would remember Apple’s  “…there’s an app for that” marketing campaign and I have often wondered if it was the first phone campaign that never actually mentioned the device’s ability to make a phone call.

I will happily admit that I liked Apple’s concept and the iPhone introduced a slew of interface improvements that were incredibly smooth and intuitive, making the iPhone so easy to learn and use that it set new benchmarks for the whole industry. Just because I have issues with Apple-the-company doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate Apple’s achievements and products.

So I guess, essentially, I was looking for a non-Apple iPhone (or a Clayton’s iPhone, if you are mature enough to recall that reference). I wanted a phone with a great screen, auto-rotating aspects, pinch-to-zoom and, most importantly, the ability to download and install additional functionality (no, Saire, not games!).

A wish-list like that meant I was going to end up with an Android phone.

Android as an operating system has been around for few years now but it is only recently that it has become big news. It’s now up to the sixth release, called FroYo, and the next version, Gingerbread, is being hotly anticipated. FroYo has added a few features that closely emulate iPhone apps and there are some that are probably superior. Certainly there is a greater range of free apps than is available at the App Store although Apple has almost double the range of apps in total.

I love tinkering with technology, especially hardware, and Android phones have that appealing tinker factor, although they are generally pretty decent phones without modifying or upgrading.

Yes, I did consider one of the range of phones using the new Windows Phone 7 OS, which seems to be pretty well regarded, with a lot of pundits alleging it is the finest iteration of the Windows Phone OS ever made. Lots of reviewers seem happy with it but, to be honest, the whole ‘tile interface’ looks cheap to me. It’s only my opinion but isn’t your own opinion the most important factor when you buy a phone?

In then end I bought a Samsung Galaxy which does not currently have FroYo but, like most Android phones, can be upgraded to the newer version. Indeed Optus have already sent me a message encouraging me to enjoy a free OS upgrade.

I did not need a new phone but I knew I was approaching the end of my current contract so I started looking around and got very excited about these Android phones. Optus bent over backward to allow me to finish my existing contract early and sign a new contract and it turns out that I will be saving just over $13 a month on the new plan.

In the end, being a tech head, do I need any better reason than a $13 a month saving? J

Multiple media and synchronicity (or just co-incidence!)

I have never considered myself much of a fan of classical or symphonic music but there have been any number of connections to it, whether I recognised it or appreciated them. I have a cousin who plays French horn (which, I’m told, may be the hardest instrument to master) and has worked, full time, his entire life as a professional symphonic musician (he currently plays for the Sydney Philharmonic and Sydney Ballet Company, I think). My mum and an aunty used to take me to the Proms at the Entertainment Centre (RIP) every year in my youth, which I enjoyed, perhaps more than I told them. (BTW – I really miss the Proms; they disappeared while I was living in Brisbane and it made me quite sad when I realised they were gone.) I listened to a fair amount when I was a kid but mainly because the only records ( for the youngsters out there ‘records’ were an oil-refinery by-product once used for recording audio. Think of oversized, black, CD’s) my parents owned were classical or movie soundtracks like Oliver, Jesus Christ Superstar and West Side Story.  

As I age, however, I’ve noticed that I more often enjoy the musicality of symphonic music as a variety to my usual punk, techno, alternative or Floyd. I still hate opera but I’m learning to appreciate classical and symphonic music enough that ABC classics is one of the pre-sets on my car stereo. It’s probably worth mentioning that I loathe listening to adverts and idiots on the radio; if the music stops I’ll change channels, except if it’s for the news.

I work with staff who’s musical taste covers just about everything and a few of them are mighty talented: one passed all her piano exams right up to the point where she would have been permitted to teach but then gave it up when she had kids and moved up north; another one is a violinist with one of Perth’s local symphony orchestra’s, though she insists she is still an amateur.

One advantage of being surrounded by peers who all have different musical taste is that discussions about music can range far and wide. Last Friday, for example, I was discussing music with some of the other staff and the discussion turned to 80’s and 90’s music. One of the staff, let’s call her Smurfette, mentioned what a fan she was of ‘Depeche Mode’ and we had a bit of chat about the band and her memories of their music. I played one of their tunes called ‘Condemnation’ and told her that it reminded me of the song I had used for my wedding. I don’t know why – the lyrics, tune, melody and rhythm were all different but, for some reason it reminded me of ‘Gorecki’ by a band called Lamb, a powerful and romantic song that so moved my fiancée the first time she heard it that she instantly agreed we would use that as our wedding song, instead of Vast’s ‘Touched’, which had been her preference for years.

Smurfette said she had never heard it or, at least, couldn’t recall it and, as we can’t play YouTube or other music clips here at work I told here I would bring it to work next time she was working here.

On Friday night I was driving home from an excellent dinner with friends at Mahsuri Thai and, as moronic DJ’s and inane advertising would have it, I switched the car stereo to ABC Classics. Now there was someone talking but he wasn’t loud, nor abrasive, nor irritating and, to tell the whole truth, my wife and I were discussing plans for the rest of the weekend, so I was only giving the radio 10% of my attention, because 90% was fully focussed on everything my wife was saying J

Anyway, the ABC DJ was talking about a 20^th century composer who, in terms of his reputation, fell on quite hard times in the 70’s due to a change in his style and it was many years before the impending piece was recognised as an extremely significant work in the minimalist milieu. The work in three movements was about motherhood and the pain of separation through war. Called Symphony number 3 officially it is better known as the ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’ by Henryk Gorecki.  The music started and I was immediately struck by the sparse power of the melody and was thoroughly enjoying it in a very short time. My enjoyment was interrupted, temporarily, by us stopping for petrol. We were gone for some time and when we returned to the car I found that the tenor had started singing and I changed the station, not with any disdain, simply because I don’t like opera.

Today, I was talking to the staff member who plays violin, let’s call her Talented, about music and I mentioned that I had heard this piece by a 20^th century composer who’s name I couldn’t recall, but I really enjoyed at least the start of this work. While we were trying to work out who I was talking about I mentioned that the piece was included laments by mothers bemoaning the loss of their sons during wartime. Talented was sure she could work out what it was and she went off to ask Uncle Google.

Talented very quickly got back to me and told me the name(s) of the piece and the composer: Gorecki.

I replied that there is some irony there because Gorecki had written a piece called a ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’ and I had used a piece called Gorecki as the primary tune during my wedding – “I hope that wasn’t my wife's lament, hahaha” I said.

Talented noted that she, too, had never heard of ‘Gorecki’ by Lamb and I replied “Well, I have it here, I bought it in for Smurfette to listen to” and started rummaging in my bag.

After a while Talented wandered off, tired of waiting for me to find this mysterious tune.

Meanwhile, I was going crazy. I have, normally, three USB drives in my drawer and 6 more USB drives in my bag. I checked each one for this tune, remonstrated with myself and then checked again, and then again. I knew I had bought ‘Gorecki’ into work, I remembered putting it my bag and mentally ticking the task off. It was very frustrating. Eventually I decided there was a chance that one of my USB’s might have been accidentally put in the wrong pocket in my bag and I started to dig through the accumulated detritus. Then I noticed the CD….

“Ah ha!” I cried, pulling the CD out and waving it in the air like a trophy.

I called Talented over, plugged in some headphones and played her track 4 on the album.

I left her to have a listen and she found on note on the album liner that I had never seen, in which the writer explained that ‘Gorecki’ the tune had been written to honour Gorecki the composer after hearing his 3^rd symphony for the first time.

So does all that count as synchronicity or is it all just coincidence?

But that wasn’t my only question…..

I had significant difficulty locating a piece of music I knew was in my possession. Why had it taken so much effort to find?

Because I knew I had planned to play a tune on my work PC my brain had gone straight to “Which USB stick did I send that file to?” and I had spent fruitless minutes checking and rechecking one form of media.

Once I actually started looking for alternatives I finally noticed that CD I had been shoving out of the way.

Now I don’t bring an MP3 player to work, so I knew the file had to be on a PC-compatible media but I find it fascinating that I couldn’t let go of the idea that it was on a USB drive. Even as little as 3 years ago I think I would have looked for a CD first but now it’s all about the portable flash drives.

I played a video for friends this weekend and, once again, the first place I looked for the file was a USB drive. Admittedly I own rather more USB drives than most people but the reality is that USB drives and iPods (or non-fruit equivalents) have usurped CD and DVD as a storage medium in a quiet but pervasive manner. One has to ask if we should bother with the whole BluRay thing at all – maybe  we should just start waiting for movies to be released on USB drives instead.

I’m not sure I quite realised how much I depended on USB drives instead of discs before today.

In case anyone has tweated me

hmmm, I wonder if it's related to the wiki-war?
anyway...
If anyone has tweeted @gozziehoon and I have not replied it's access to Twitter has gone weird. I (and I'm guessing other staff in the council) can sign in but everything works except the actual tweets :-)
It's a lot like having a working DVD player but no discs :-)

One other facet of the Wikileaks frenzy

I am so NOT trying to start a debate about Wikileaks, Julian Assange, their philosophy or political reactions over the last couple of weeks.
What I am fascinated to see is how fragile the Web has turned out to be, once real challenges to general perceptions of free speech were made.
I was a little dismayed to see the Library of Congress ban Internet access to the site but, honestly, I can see some elements of truth in both sides of the debate. (If you want to see a reasonable, generally well-reasoned and relatively insightful discussion about it you could do worse than checking out their own blog site  http://bit.ly/eN4hom  )
What caught me off guard was the swift and strong responses by elements of the Web: Paypal took away Wikileaks ability to get money through them; different hosting services refused to host Wikileaks; a primary DNS service denied Wikileaks IP resolution services (now that was new and very scary  -I've not heard of that happening before) and banks froze Wikileaks funds.
It's a strong reminder that, although we think of the Web as virtually unassailable and a haven for all forms of expressions and free speech, in the end there is still a lot that can be done by governments and corporations to limit what the average citizen can see.
Here is a pretty good summary of the issues http://rww.to/gkETu2
I would like to re-iterate I am not willing to discuss the rights or wrongs of Wikileaks actions - I don't think this blog (set up as part of my job) is the appropriate forum for that discussion.
But, I do feel that we are now watching "The first serious info-war...", given the reactions by a loose association of hackers operating under the name 'Anonymous', who, over the last 24 hours, have used the Web to launch attacks on banks, the Swiss legal prosecutors, Facebook, Twitter and others in what appears to be retaliation to the way Wikileaks has been treated.
It's all a bit grim.
EDIT: Up-to-date, financially oriented, follow-up article here http://bit.ly/gLeG7w

Google joins the eBook storm

In my last post I just wanted a very quick note about the range of eBook readers and their formats, with a few links to other sites. Interestingly, a number of readers made very insightful comments and additions, which made the whole post much more comprehensive, not to say informative.
Just a quick follow-up, with a bunch of links. A day or so after my post Google announced their new (long-discussed) eBook service, which created a small stir, and then a big one.
Complaints included a notable US bias http://bit.ly/egGGUk or http://bit.ly/fg6Llo , which seemed to annoy people, and then a reaction from other booksellers, including Borders http://bit.ly/gtfvnC, calling it "...not a legitmate bookstore." and Amazon, who quickly went on the attack with Kindle for the Web http://bit.ly/ea2jop .
To wrap up, here is a link to a grumpy UK site http://bit.ly/fKPpl6 and a West Australian view, if you missed it http://bit.ly/gYMVaB .
I have to say that I feel like I'm watching a swarm of early adopters squabbling and I'm happy to just sit back and wait for the dust to settle before I decide where to spend my hard-earned.
So maybe I (and not a few libraries) will wait for next year before committing to an eBook relationship.

Thinking about an eBook reader for Christmas?

Further to our previous posts and comments about eBook readers I thought I'd have a quick look at this years choices. Last year I remember being dismayed that I couldn’t buy a Kindle at this time of year. I’m not actually sure, now, if it was because the Kindle wasn’t available, or I was too poor or whatever, but I do recall wanting but not getting an eBook Reader.

This year the range of choice is quite simply whelming (not quite overwhelming but getting there) and there are factors that need to be considered.

Not least amongst these issues is what format your preferred eReader uses or supports. As a technology trainer I am fully aware that most technological neophytes have absolutely no concept of file formats and I’m sure some eReader purchasers are going to be a bit surprised one they discover the 'joys' of unsupported formats.

I was going to do a quick summary of what to look for in an eBook Reader but I discovered that Harvey Norman have done most of the hard work for me at http://bit.ly/g0gdTa . It is worth mentioning, however, that they do not talk about the different kinds of screen. Essentially, you can get e-Ink (like the Kindle) or LCD (like the iPad). There is a lot of discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of both but I’m inclined to join the ‘eInk for readers, LCD’s for everything else’ team (as succinctly explained here http://bit.ly/f73sp7 ). These matters also directly relate to battery life and usability beyond reading digital books. (I am so not getting into a discussion of touchscreen versus buttons, either!)

Below is a very brief list of available readers right now. It is not comprehensive and I strongly urge you to research your choice before you buy; I have a strong suspicion that we, as library staff, are going to hear a lot of opinions about different readers over the coming months and a lot may be based on which model was bought.

Here are a couple of websites that are decent places to start researching your choices: http://www.ebookreaderreview.com.au/tag/best-ebook-reader  or http://bit.ly/fbxDu9

(Note, I am including the iPad, despite it not technically being an eBook reader. With the size and shape  it has I can’t imagine why you would buy one over an iPhone unless it was to use it as a reader. Now there is an opinion to incite bitter reactions.)

Migear 7 eBook reader

http://dicksmith.com.au/product/A3451/migear-ebook-reader-7-quot-tft-colour-purple

Supports PDF, TXT, EPUB, CHM, RTF, HTML

$129

GHT E-Reader

http://www.jbhifi.com.au/portable/mp3-players/ght/e-reader-7-inch-black-sku-54465/

Supports Ebook, txt, pdf, epub, avi, divx, mp3, jpg, bmp and others

$124

iRiver reader

http://www.jbhifi.com.au/portable/mp3-players/iriver/6-inch-e-book-reader-sku-52677/

Supports ePub, mp3, txt, doc, ppt and others

$343

Kindle

http://amazon-kindle-australia.com/

Supports PDF, awz (Amazon proprietary format)

$139

Hanvon eLink eBook Reader WRN516b

http://bit.ly/fz2yp1

Supports txt, mp3, ePub, html, jpg, pdf, png

$229

Laser eReader

http://catalogues4u.com.au/ViewCatalog.aspx?catID=1036

Supports Abode eBooks, ePub, doc, html, pdf

$99

Kobo

http://www.borders.com.au/electronics/kobo-wifi-black/13950042/

Supports Adobe eBooks, ePub, pdf

$177.95

Sony Touch

http://www.borders.com.au/electronics/reader-touch-edition-by-sony-6-black/13060543/

Supports MP3, PDF

$229.95

Apple iPad

http://www.apple.com/au/ipad/

Supports MP3, pdf, jpg, doc, html and others  

From $629

An anti-social conspiracy?

Further to my post yesterday, in which I bemoaned being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of differing opinions, I began to consider how this related to my lack of social interaction on the Web. I do not collect "friends" on-line, I think am friends with about 6 people, I have 4 followers on my Twitter account (and follow 3), I am notorious for my neglect of my Linkedin account. I have boundless respect for people who can maintain relationships (even if only virtual) with dozens or hundreds of people but I simply can't do it. Not least of the reasons is my previously discussed fear of accidentally offending someone I care about but, related to that, I just can't imagine that people want to know that I was stuck in a traffic jam for 45 minutes or that I am now 'friends' with some other complete stranger.
In a neat bit of synchronicity, one of my favourite tech bloggers yesterday posted and article about 'unfriending and unfollowing', here http://blog.louisgray.com/2010/11/unfriending-unfollowing-unsubscribing.html
Interesting article but I was a little horrified at the idea of reducing the number of  'friends' down to 1000 or so. I'm not sure I will have that many friends in my entire lifetime but I guess I consider it a matter of quality, not quantity.

Delicious, A Grumpy Dragon and Losing Motivation

Well, this has been an interesting few weeks. I have a lot on my plate at the moment; people who want me to fix their PC’s, an aunt who wants me to edit her memoirs and has sent me the chapter about the recent death of her husband as an opening salvo, multiple, conflicting, Christmas-Day-Family-gathering invitations from arms of the family that aren’t actually talking to each other, a wedding video that simply refuses to work, never-ending house renovations, mortgage amendments and Web 2.0 training.

And, suddenly, it all came to a grinding halt.

I know these issues are no more than any other normal working person has (and a LOT less than any parent) but I found myself overwhelmed and completely stopped doing any work that wasn’t utterly necessary to a/ keep me employed or b/ keep my wife happy, which is actually more important. I stopped going into my home office, stopped fixing other peoples computers, stopped my Twitter posts (which is nothing more than a list of the songs I wake up with), stopped answering emails. For about a week I didn’t even open my laptop – the only computer exposure I had was to the PC on my desk at work.

This has happened to me a few times in the past and that experience has taught me that there will be one or two key issues that have bought about what amounts to a Windows-style ‘freeze’. Find and deal with the obstructions and normal flow will resume. In most cases it turns out to be caused by guilt that I haven’t done something.

I decided that something about Web 2.0 bothered me but I ignored it, instead of facing the problem, and now I can’t find any interest in continuing. So I tried reviewing the lessons, one by one, to see which one I chose to skip glibly past.

“Ah-ha!” I muttered to myself, “So, what exactly is your problem with Delicious? It seems a rather innocuous little service; why are you so peeved at it that you can’t function properly.”

This little question took some serious thought because I couldn’t see exactly why I was so annoyed about it. I don’t use Delicious, never have, never will….

And yet I have more bookmarks and favourites than any geek I know. Aren’t I precisely the target audience?

Thinking about audiences is what got me on the right track, finally.  I was having a discussion about certain Perth blogs and papers and how angry I get reading the opinions of contributors (my wife won’t even let me buy some WA papers; she says they ‘…angry up the blood…”) who I referred to as “…the people who get their opinions from talkback radio…”

Something about saying this made me think about the Web and I started resolving my issue with Delicious.

I am a great advocate of the democratisation of information, and love the concept of equitable access to knowledge, if not wisdom, and the Web is arguably the second greatest tool to achieve that access, after writing itself.

For years I have been using the Web as a vast ocean of information, paddling when I want a quick insight, swimming when I want to compare and contrast (if you’ll excuse a term from my school years), almost drowning when discovering something completely out of my comfort zone.

More than anything I am a passionate lurker of forums; car forums, phone forums, PC forums, photography forums, political forums, news forums, gardening forums, renovation forums, the list goes on and on and on. I love the way that the combined insight of hundreds or, occasionally, thousands of contributors can almost always provide me the answer, solution or experience I need to resolve my issue, fix that busted part or help decide the best value toy.

Unfortunately forums are also the primary habitat of the Colourful Chest-Beating Opinionator.

Notwithstanding that I sound exactly like a classic Grumpy Old Man I get really annoyed at the number and ferocity of various opinions out there. It was years before I discovered what a Troll was (it’s an Internet denizen that spouts opinions, often outrageous opinions, with the specific intention of annoying others or agitating discord), and that single discovery probably reduced my blood pressure by twenty points. I tend to lurk (observe without contributing) forums because I’m seeking data, not because I want to get into a flame war with some conspiracy-obsessed Opinionator desperately trying to stir up controversy for their own self-serving agenda.

There have only ever been half-a-dozen occasions I have offered my opinion anywhere on the Web, primarily because I don’t want to cause offence and aggravate someone whose sensitivity is screwed up to 11. My opinion is not something I fling around with abandon because I know how diverse the range of opinions, how venomous reactions can be, how permanent any casual comment online.

I’m the kind of guy who frets for 24 hours after any Facebook update, hoping I haven’t inadvertently irritated a friend of a friend.

(There is a couple of points that need to be made here. Firstly, anyone who knows me personally is going to be wearing a significant frown right now because they know I have an opinion, anecdote or reference about any subject known to man and I am not famed for my reticence in sharing them. True enough, but that is face to face. It may be surprising to some but I actually do refrain from sharing some of my opinions if they are not appropriate for the audience – that is not something you can do with a posting on the Web. Importantly, instant apologies can be made in real life, if opinions do upset people, whereas those same issues can fester and grow online before anyone knows offence has been caused.

Secondly, I am aware that there is something contrary, if not ironic, about me posting a  [long] opinion about the opinions of others on the Web. In the end I decided that this blog is not likely to attract the attention of too many trolls or Opionators and I would hope for appropriate constructive criticism, rather than the broiling flames of abuse.)

Because so many people so willingly, if not carelessly, share (should that be inflict?) their attitudes, opinions, insights and bias, especially in on-line forums,  I completely believe that I have a responsibility to not become one of those contributors. My opinions are no more significant than the next persons and certainly not important enough to inspire argument. Additionally, I pride myself on my willingness to be convinced by clear rational argument on key issues. For example, I used to be an advocate of capital punishment but my opinion was altered but some rational, insightful argument and I am now opposed. That doesn’t mean I have an obligation to try to persuade others and I certainly don’t want to argue with people who may have passionate, firmly held beliefs to the contrary. If I’m asked I’ll share my thoughts but I have no urge to impose my ideas on some online collective.

So, what has this got to do with Delicious?

As noted, I have been a web lurker for years, dipping my toes in hundreds of different informational ponds, and I have collected literally hundreds of bookmarks or favourites. Literally. At one point I printed my favourites list, because I wanted to start over and I didn’t want to lose the collection I had. And it printed as 36 pages of links!

So surely Delicious would be a treasure for hoarders of links like me?

Nope.  I don’t want to share. I’m not actually a social user of the Web. (Hmmm, the phrase ‘Does not play well with others’ comes to mind.) I don’t want others to criticise or comment on my choices. I don’t care to have my suggestions admired or belittled. I feel like a grumpy dragon guarding a hoard of glittering gems, willing to fry those pesky irritants who want to steal  my jewels. Much like my opinions online, I will share if people I know ask me for sources or directions but I have zero interest in telling the wider public. I don’t care for either the approbation or disapproval of strangers, Opinionators or trolls. I may take note of the sites marked by others but I would never comment, positively or negatively, on those posted.

Thinking about this may also explain why I have never put any photos on Flickr or equivalent services, despite having more than half a terabyte of the things scattered over half a dozen drives. It also explains why I dropped my involvement with Good reads, a site very similar to Library Thing, after listing a significant portion of the books I have read; within days I noted that reading reviews of books I liked frequently upset me because reviews often shredded books that were precious to me. Sure, you’re entitled to your opinion but I’m entitled to walk away  - and that’s what I find myself doing with most of these social sites. I’m told that it is quite common for people to present different personas online than who they really are; I may be one of those people in that I am relatively gregarious and friendly in reality but online I am secretive and insular.

I am aware Delicious is also presented as a way of storing or aggregating bookmarks, with the option for ones favourites to be kept private, not for public exposure. While that may suit some I am more confident in my computers, my backup regimes and my hardcopy records than I am confident that Delicious’ servers will be reliably working every time I need them. For that matter I don’t actually trust the company behind them to continue for as long as I may need them. It wouldn’t be the first time that a web service suddenly forces you to change your work patterns because they decide to modify, ‘improve’ or cancel something you have added into your online life – look how readily Google abandoned Wave.

I can see that Delicious has great potential as a collaborative tool but since I am not a collaborator by nature this is an aspect that I could use as a work asset but not as a private individual. I can see that tags are a more intuitive way of recording metadata but I tend to prefer a more formal structure. (Hah, I just got a visual of neat rows of sticks implanted into a muddy swamp.)

I love the sharing of information and knowledge that the Web encourages but I despair at being exposed to so many opinions, friendly or aggressive, supportive or hateful, balanced or extreme. It has been said that the Web gave everybody their very own soapbox but I would walk away from some random spouting their thoughts if I saw them in the park and I will click away from websites like Delicious.

I have written this to help me resolve my motivation issues, with some success. Will I actually post this on my blog, implicitly inviting criticism or will I hoard this as if it were another jewel? The library Web 2.0 blogs are (hopefully) a small enough, well-mannered enough audience that I may get away with it (and, hey, only one of my previous posts garnered any comments) and, in the end, a blog is supposed to be the 21C equivalent of a diary. I could always remove the post if I don’t like the reactions, or worry too much that I have offended someone, or change my attitude about opinions…

Digital books are the future?

Some people may simply agree with this post's title without pause, others may be horrified at the idea but, in any case, it is a point worth discussing or libraries face missing the wave.
The article that made me consider this in more depth here:
http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/zCRaLaydHsI/

Amongst many interesting (but not personally verified yet) points is the question; "Did you know that the two most common ways people get books today is borrowing them from a friend or getting them from the library?" This is a US article but that idea certainly made me pause.
How may public libraries in WA offer books in digital form? We here at Gosnells have a small range of 'Playaways', which are,essentially, pre-packaged digital books but that seems half a solution, in my personal opinion.
I am sure I heard that there are libraries in Perth (or was it WA?) that can provide downloadable e-books but I'm not sure which libraries do, if any.
I appreciate that Amazon took forever to offer the Kindle in Australia but there are now a good number of e-book readers available and the iPad and a couple of the new tablet phones make fine readers themselves. If this is, as advertised, a burgeoning market, are we all prepared for it?
Personally, despite my tech-head leanings, I have never used an e-book but very recently a librarian friend of mine noted that his partner, who is also in the industry, recently said that she would now never consider giving up her Kindle to return to traditional paper-and-board books. Is that simply the first splash from an oncoming tsunami?

RSS and new sources

Firstly, I must confess to being absolutely insatiable when it comes to soaking up information; I can never spare enough time to find and absorb all the information I want. A major part of my misery is that I am interested in dozens, if not hundreds of topics, from cars (of course) to new technologies, from politics to economics, from marketing to trivia and comedy, from real estate to second-hand bargains. As an example of my info-addiction my list of Bookmarks in Chrome is over 300 web sites in 45 categories.
RSS feeds have been part of my info-diet for some time but my subscriptions are liable to change frequently and, as mentioned, some browsers handle RSS better than others. The Web 2.0 Training however led to the discovery that Google Reader is usable here at work, despite us being behind a notably fierce firewall. It's a bit curious, really, Google Reader will work but not Gmail. Don't get me wrong, though, I am not complaining.
As this assignment supposed to be a new thing I fired up Google Reader using the new Google ID I created, as opposed to my personal emails. Some time after firing up Reader, but before i subscribed to any specific feeds, I noticed an excellent, wide-ranging, nicely eclectic list of news items that I thoroughly enjoyed. As soon as I subscribed to a feed this pre-existing list disappeared, which made me a little sad.
I added my feeds (I've had the Unshelved one on my personal readers for years), including Autoblog and a couple of others but kept feeling disappointed that I had lost that original list.
After some time i thought I would try and work out precisely what that feed had been. I have to shamefully admit it took me some time but, eventually, I noticed two headings on the left - 'Recommended items' and 'Recommended sources'. It turned out that 'Recommended items' was that first list I had seen.
Over the last week, 'Recommended item's' has become one of my favourite sources, not least because it covers a broad range. Today it included a story that so intrigued me I added two new feeds because of it: KnowTheNetwork.com and LouiseGray.com. Both of these sites have some great insight into Web2.0 technologies and the article, 'Finding relevance with RSS' ,about Twitter, RSS and relevance, really appealed to me.

Of mice and menu's

I thought I would share a lesson in technology soaking up an entire day (or more) for something that should have been very simple or, at least, straightforward.
A friend asked me to video a celebration with their video camera and I happily complied. Once done I attempted to return the camera but my friend said "Look, I don't even own a working computer; could you do whatever and put this on a DVD for me?"
I should have said 'no' but I assumed the whole process would the straightforward.
After ignoring the project for a couple of weeks I thought I would use part of my RDO this week to transfer the video onto DVD. I knew it would need some basic editing and I wasn't willing to spend any money for editing software on a once-off project so I thought I'd use Microsoft's Movie Maker. ( I had, after all, seen Kathryn Greenhill demonstrating Movie Maker at the LocLib Convention a couple of years ago and she made it all seem very simple.)
So I transferred the files from the SD card onto my primary desktop PC (with Windows 7), and went to download Movie Maker, discovering, as I did, that Movie Maker had changed with Vista and I actually wanted the older version.
Fine.
Once that was up and running I attempted to import the video files. These, it turned out, were recorded in a proprietary format that was incompatible with Movie Maker. So I turned to Uncle Google to find some (free) software to covert the files from .MOD to something Movie Maker would accept. There was no shortage of software that would do the job but most of it cost money I wasn't willing to spend. I attempted to download one program that froze my laptop (which I was using because my primary desktop didn't want to talk to my network and I didn't want to waste time investigating why) and necessitated a reboot. Once up and running again, I attempted to download another free program that produced a virus warning. The third one I attempted turned out to not convert .MOD files unless you paid for the upgraded version. The fourth program I downloaded also had me worried because it was a trial version and I have experienced dozens of trial versions that work perfectly right up to the point where you save your work and  then they ask you for money. But it turned out to be fine and it converted all the files to .AVI without hiccup.
Finally, then, I imported the converted files to Movie Maker and relaxed, believing the hard part to be over.
Movie Maker examined all the files and, in Timeline view, I started editing the individual clips into one whole.
Shortly after starting I decided an introductory text at the opening of the video would be a nice touch so I wrote up a short intro and then reviewed different fonts and animations for the opening credits. One of the animations reminded me of a movie and I thought a nice bit of music over the top of the credits would enhance the whole thing.
Back to my laptop to download the .WAV file of the music. No problem, plenty of choices there.
Once I had the file, though, I realised that the sound bite was too long and needed to be cut in half (roughly) to suit the opening credits; which meant I would need a sound file editor.
Back to Uncle Google to find a decent, free, audio editor. In no time I was reminded about Audacity and recalled plenty of 'doof' geeks raving about the program, so I downloaded that, with no problems. After installation I opened sound bite in Audacity. Now I am convinced that Audacity is a powerful and competent program but it is a little overwhelming if you have never edited audio before. Eventually I worked my way through Audacity's little interface quirks and edited my .WAV file down to size.
I returned to the desktop PC, copied over the .WAV file and played it with no problem. I returned to editing the rest of the video and then, for no reason other than technological suspicion, played what I had so far produced. Everything worked fine, expect the audio allegedly attached to the opening credits would not play. When I played the file by itself there was no problem but when I played the whole video it made no sound. Back to Uncle Google.
Dozens of people acknowledged similar problems in Movie Maker but almost everyone avowed the problem was incompatible file formats. I was sure Audacity could be trusted to convert audio formats successfully but  thought I would try other formats, just in case. In the end I had the audio file in three .WAV files (at different sampling or quality settings), MP3, MP2 and AAAC files. All produced the same problem - they would play when I clicked the file but not when I played the whole video.
Completely frustrated by now, I removed the audio file and changed the opening credit to something far more boring.
By now it was late enough in the day that my wife had come home from work so I shared my frustrations with her and ignored the project altogether.
Idly checking emails and blogs while catching up with my wife's day I wrote the audio file problem back into a Google search but this time I must have phrased it just differently enough. On Yahoo Answers somebody had written (in reply to someone else) " I know it might seem obvious but have you tried the little volume slider over on the extreme left of the timeline?"
I jumped up and ran back to the desktop PC and, sure enough, there was a volume slider I had not noticed. I had found at least three different ways to adjust volume in Movie Maker but this was the critical one. When I had played the video the volume on the captured video was fine but there was no sound from the added .WAV file.
This tiny slider was the volume control allowing adjustment of the video's own sound or any added sound files. By default, in a new installation of Movie Maker, this slider is set to zero, which means soundtracks play perfectly but added audio files were played at zero volume.
Excitedly, I adjusted the slider and -TA DAH! - the .WAV file played perfectly!
So I rebuilt the opening credits I had envisioned in the first place, played the whole video and it all worked brilliantly!
Happy now, I returned to editing the video, adding fades and wipes between scenes, adjusting volume in scenes too quiet and adding brightness to indoor scenes that were initially very dark.
By 10pm the whole thing looked fabulous and I was relieved and content.
Then I  went to save the video file.
Now, Movie Maker allows you to save the project, which I had been doing (naturally!) but you can also save the actual completed video as a video file.
It turns out that MovieMaker, despite presenting you with a long list of file formats, can only actually save the video in a few formats, all of which had issues. Remembering that this file was to be burned to a DVD for playback in DVD players and not necessarily on PCs I chose to save the file in .DV AVI format.
Saving the file took hours, literally, and I ended up with a file that is now 12 Gigabytes!
That's a little long for a DVD.
So now I have to find a way of converting that DV AVI file to yet another format that will allow burning onto, hopefully, just one DVD.
I'm ignoring it for now :-)
Was that the last of the problems? Of course not!
Last night, about 8.30, I returned from work and fired up the laptop to check my emails. On bootup, AVG kindly informed me that a virus had been detected.
Naturally, it was a virus from one of the programs I had downloaded to try and convert the .MOD files.
*sigh*
AVG alleged that it would lock the file in a vault or i could delete it. When I chose to remove the horror my laptop froze and, ten minutes later, crashed.
*sigh*
I rebooted and was advised that AVG had discovered another, different virus, which it locked up in a vault without problem.
Two new virii was, however, enough to motivate me to upgrade my AV program. I own, at any one time, at least five PCs and I often get asked to fix other PCs, so I am reluctant to use an AV program that costs me money. AVG Free has been pretty good for some years but, while fixing a bad virus infestation on my boss's daughters PC, I had been introduced to Avast, which is also free but a little more powerful. Importantly, Avast also has the ability to run a virus scan during the boot process. This means it can detect virii and Trojans that are capable of hiding themselves from AV programs that only run once Windows has launched.
I downloaded a new version of Avast, updated it, set it to run on boot and rebooted.
When I went back past the laptop, some 45 minutes later, I checked the scan and discovered it seemed to be flying along but had only scanned 1% of my files!
Another hour or so later, it had finally got up to 2%.
About 11.30pm (at about 37%) it stopped, because it had found a significant Trojan, and was waiting for my decision about what to do with it. I choose 'delete' but was little dismayed to find there was no 'Do this from now on' option.
*sigh*
I got up at 2.45am and found it had discovered another virus at 57%
Delete and sigh.
Up again at 6.10am to find another one at 87%
Delete and sigh.
At 6.45am, at 99% it discovered another one.
Delete and smile, because that was the last one.
I suspect that anyone who asks me to process a video for them in the future is liable to watch me slump slowly into a corner, wide- eyed and gibbering.
Technology, hey, you just never know when it is going to make your life more interesting:-)

Flickr and obsolete technologies

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49243167@N03/4530257305/in/photostream/

Hmmm, I wanted to use Blogger's upload tool to share this photo but it would not link properly, here at work. Almost certainly that is the fault of our using IE6, more than a problem with the link, Blogger or Flickr.
Anyhoo...
The link will show you a 1924 photo of a member of a signifiicant early Gosnells-area family, paddling a little tin canoe down the Canning River, with another paddler not far behind.
If you look through the photostream of Mr McNamara there are a couple of photo's that hint at the river being considered far more vital in those days than today.
This treatment of the river as a legitimate transport route, as opposed to simply a recreational facility, made me ponder the unheralded death of technologies as new methods and tools evolve. I'm sure  most of us have heard of archivists bemoaning the unlikelihood of CD's or DVD's surviving as a viable medium, especially in terms of finding playback tools in 75 years, much like the BBC's Domesday Book tragedy in 80's ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project).
But how rarely do we consider uses of technology being subsumed by recreation after initially being a vital tool?
Horse racing is now a pursuit of wealthy owners and (generally) poor punters but it developed as a recreation from a skill that was once an essential part of life.
Most of us read, and some of us write, for fun but initially these were both skills that were, to one degree or another, valued and envied as effective business tools.
Some of us upload photo's. Clever people sometimes modify or tweak these photos using software tools like Photoshop. I often envy people clever enough to know how to use Photoshop but, before computers, there were retouching experts who had a valuable skillset that allowed them to produce art like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49243167@N03/4540585238/in/photostream/ from the same photostream. I can barely imagine the time, experience and expertise it must have taken to produce. Now technology can be bought that emulates these same skills, turning what used to be a (probably) income-producing trade or ability into a recreation, not unlike photography itself.
So, as technologies evolve it seems that some will die and others will become games and hobbies. I guess if we could see which would be which we could make a bucket of money:-)

The introductory post

Hi folks. This is my initial posting on this blog. I have to admit this is not the first blog I have created, nor is it even the first I have created as part of my library work. Once I created a blog specifically for other staff, hoping to inspire some to investigate Web 2.0 technologies. Instead, access to that blog service was disabled and none of the staff ever got to hear about it.
*sigh*
Anyway, hopefully, since I can currently access Blogger from work, maybe we will all get another shot at it. It should be mentioned that only certain elements of Blogger work through the City's filter so I'm not quite sure how this blog looks at the moment! If it changes soon, it's because I've accessed the blog from home!
The blog title? I live and work in Gosnells, a suburb often (justly) accused of being the hoon capital of WA, though some residents of Rockingham might object, but, to make a living, I introduce seniors to, play with, repair and often swear incoherently at PC's and other technology.
Don't get me wrong - I somewhat identify with 'hoon' culture (hmmm, is that an oxymoron?). I drive a Holden ute with personalised number plates, I wear trackies and flanno shirts when I'm not working and, much to my horror, seem to have picked up a discarded beer gut from somewhere and it keeps preceding me wherever I go!
But I do love Gosnells, with all it's faults, and you can often find my wife and I toiling away in our oversize back yard, hoping to coax veggies to edible size, listening to idiots destroying their tyres, doing burnouts and 'donuts', a sound my wife calls 'The Gosnells Symphony.'
Me? I save my car racing for Barbagello or Kwinana on Wednesday or Friday nights at the drags, though my wife is pushing hard for me to take up rallying.
In the meantime I'll either be up to my elbows in car or up to my elbows in computers, loving every minute of both things.
I'm acting as pioneer for the City of Gosnells doing this Web 2.0 introduction and I hope to inspire, cajole, persuade or manipulate others into exploring the wide-open plains and narrow alleys of new Web technologies. Not least, I'm fully expecting to discover new horizons myself.
Really looking forward to the journey, even if I'm not doing it in my ute :-)