Task 8 - Dashboards

Dashboards! The concept intrigued me, and yet......

A few times in the last week or so I've hopped onto Netvibes, and tried to summon the energy to investigate it - I'm sad to say, it hasn't really happened. I set up two dashboards - one personal, and one for work. I can see the value in setting up an account for work purposes, particularly in a job like mine where I need to consistently blog the latest news in my area. It is too easy to get behind on industry news, or overwhelmed with feeds or email newsletters - the dashboard looks as though it could save a lot of time, but potentially inundate you with useless information. I guess it's a weigh-up between pros and cons.

For my personal needs however, it doesn't suit at all. I am perfectly happy with my Google Reader and the gazillion tabs I leave forever open on my Macbook.

I'd be interested to see others' dashboards though - has anyone made theirs public?

Task 7 - RSS (Google Reader)

 I've been looking forward to this task because I'm a big fant of Google Reader. Having used Google Reader for awhile now, it's become one of my favourite ways to relax in the evening - scrolling through post after post after post. Sometimes the number of subscriptions get out of hand and I can't keep up with it all, but I enjoy it nonetheless, and I find it the best way to keep up to date with all my favourite news.

At work I use Outlook Reader for library, research and data management related news. But in my personal Google Reader I follow all sorts of blogs, including two other 23 Things bloggers - libmini and Reflections of a New Library Girl.

The Mary Sue blog has to be my favourite newsfeed of all. The Mary Sue describes itself as a Guide to Girl Geek Culture that highlights women in the geek world, and provides a space for the voices of geek women.  It covers everything from books, comics and films such as The Avengers and Game of Thrones, to prominent female scientists, to mini controversies such as the (ridiculous) Lego Ladyfigs range.

I follow author blogs as well: George R. R. Martin's Not A Blog, Daniel Stephensen's Forgetlings, Michelle Dicinoski's blog, and J.K. Rowling's Pottermore Insider.

Other interesting blogs I follow include: Geeks are Sexy (technology, science and social news), Whedonesque (includes everything related to the Whedonverse - All hail Joss!), Relentlessly Cheerful (blog of artist James Hance who enjoys doing mashups such as Star Wars and Winnie the Poor, or, The Muppets and Firefly), The British Museum, and the Etsy Blog (Etsy is a portal for creative small businesses).

From BookShelf Porn

I'll also mention That's Nerdalicious which is a yummy- (and sometimes disgusting-) looking website that simply posts about nerdy gastronomy.

And Bookshelf Porn -  please don't be discouraged by the title. This website is absolutely beautiful - it posts pictures of amazing bookshelves, libraries and bookstores from all over the world. It's a must for any avid reader or librarian - take a look :)

Tasks 5 and 6 - Flick, Pic, Pix!

Task 5 - Flickr vs Picasa

Sharing photos is one of the most fun and sociable ways to spend time online. Like anyone, I am very selective about what I upload, but generally I add photos to Facebook from social events to share with friends and family, and to allow them access to the photos if they want a copy for themselves. I appreciate all of the photos available online as searching through photos is often how I research places I’d like to travel (bearing in mind that many photos have been edited and beautified).

I’ve signed into Flickr in the past and have an account – I’ve found it frustrating because previously it’s only been available through Yahoo. Because I don’t use Yahoo account details for anything else, I often forget my login details and it’s a tedious process to go through to renew your password (as it is with any program). I can now login with my Google account (Yay for Google), which thrills me, but when I attempted to close my yahoo account, it announced that it would not free up my username, hence I’d have to come up with yet another username – best to leave it as is methinks! Facebook offers a login option as well, though for privacy reasons, I’m not entirely comfortable having loads of photos migrated to Flickr – having them all online on Facebook is enough…for now.

I’ve not used Flickr to upload my own photos, so what do I use it for? Family and friends of mine do use it, and so I set up RSS feeds for their photostreams. This is great for keeping up to date with their activities without having to log into the program. However, signing into Flickr for the 23 Things program, I’ve been delighted to discover the ‘Explore through tags’ option – its very interesting to see what the common tags are: instagramapp, London, Nikon, wedding, art, cannon… The explore function is also helpful, particularly the Creative Commons photos.

On to Picasa… I went to the web address, and thanks to Google, my Picasa account was already set up and open– I didn’t even have to login – Picasa gets my vote! I haven’t used it before, I haven’t uploaded albums to it, so I was a little surprised to find this photo in there - (I will investigat this later!!)

I had a flick through all of the functions and really enjoyed Creative Kit – very easy to use. And I can tell you that in complete contradiction to the statement above, I would happily migrate my photos to Picasa (from Facebook). The reason quite simply is because it’s Google-based, which means I can have a single account for loads of different uses. It’s quite important to me to have everything centralised for ease of use. To echo my last post – I heart Google.

Task 6 - PixLr

PixLr was a lot of fun! I especially like that I can download it as a Chrome add-on - big plus there. Here's a few photos:

First try (a Chalet at Mt Tamborine)

Cheese! 

London

I love this effect in the London photo, it's called 'Harry' (very appropriate). It's looks like a really old school photo but I took this in 2010. Great effect!