Sounds Effects-iHCPL Training

At my job, there are online training modules that staff can learn about Web 2.0 technologies. The latest iHCPL training I have participated deals with sound effects. I was able to experiment with two websites that provide sound files.

The website FindSounds is a search engine for sounds on the Web. This is great resource except it does not provide copyright information and you have to search for that information yourself. Below are a few sounds I found using the site.

• A Whistling Tree frog from the Australian Botanic Gardens web portal


• A stringed instrument from Beat Mode


• a yawn

The website Simply the Best Sounds is an archive of sound files. You can play or download them. Most files state who owns the copyright or if they are public domain. Here are a few sounds I found on this site.

• a bass guitar


• a cork popping


• Morse code

Redwall: The Graphic Novel

For those who love Brian Jacques's Redwall, there is now a graphic novel edition of the first book. One thing fans need to keep in mind is that you should approach a graphic novel version of a book like it is a movie based on a book. You get the basic idea of the story but not the details like the character's thoughts or the setting description. Ideally, the illustrations should take the place of setting information.
Redwall: the Graphic Novel is beautifully illustrated. If you can't get enough of the cover art of the series, the graphic novel is sure to please. Bret Blevins, a comics artist, did an excellent job. The main character, Matthias looks less like the type of mouse you see scurrying around but by no means cartoonish. The rats, badgers, birds and other animals are also drawn in a manner that makes them appear more animated than on the cover art of the series.
If you are familiar with the series, you will notice the story is an abridged. The graphic novel retains much of the basic story in the conversations and in the action. It depends on how you feel about condensing stories to fit a certain format. I can't speak as someone familiar with the series since I read the graphic novel before reading the actual book. This helped me learn the basic story and become familiar with the characters. However, I think the condensing of the story resulted in a feeling like something was missing. Reading the book filled in those gaps and made me wonder why I had never tried to read the wonderful series in past. The graphic novel is a great way to introduce people to the Redwall and possibly encourage them to read books in the series.

Listening to Stories

Reading is something I enjoy doing a lot. I can't stand it when I don't have time to read. Working and going to school can really eat up any extra time you have. Reading a gazillion research articles is nothing compared to a good story. So I tried audio books. They are great- especially when it read by an excellent reader/actor like Jim Dale ( reader of the Harry Potter books). I say actor because a really good reader uses different voices for the characters and conveys what each character feels. Anyway, so I begin borrowing audio books from the library. Sometimes they were available immediately and sometimes I had to wait. But many times I didn't want to wait. So I downloaded audio books from the library using Overdrive or bought books from Audible. But one of my favorite ways to hear new stories is listening to podcasts like Escape Pod. Escape Pod presents science fiction short stories for the public. The readers are good and some are writers of short stories also. Most of the stories are between 30 to 60 minutes long. Go to the site and listen to a story. There are at least five years of stories waiting for you to try.

Mind Voyages: Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Challenge

I will try one more challenge. Science Fiction is my favorite genre. I do read fantasy sometimes but I prefer sci-fi. The Mind Voyages: Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Challenge is being hosted by Robin of My Two Blessings.

Here are the rules.

• The challenge will run from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010.
• Participants may join at any time.
• All forms of books are acceptable including e-books, audio books, etc.
• Re-reads are acceptable as long as they are read after January 1, 2010.
• Books may overlap other challenges.
  
• Create an entry post linking to this blog.
• You don't have to decide before hand what you will be reading.
• Come back and sign up with Mr. Linky in the "I'm participating post" below this post.
• You don't have a blog to participate.
• There is a Mr. Linky for participants to post book reviews.

I will be trying the Sling shot back to Earth which is reading three winners from the Nebula list.

Here is my tentative list.

1. Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin (1990 winner)
2. The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro (2001 winner)
3. The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (2003 winner)
   

Graphic Novels Challenge 2010

I read graphic novels quite bit now since I started back to school. Unfortunately, I never post anything about them (or anything else). So in 2010 I will take part in the Graphic Novels Challenge.

Here are the rules.

• The challenge starts on January 1st 2010 and ends on December 31st (but we don't mind you starting early.)
• You don't have to make a list beforehand (but you can, of course! Lists are great because they give ideas to people who aren't sure what to read. And if you do make one, don't feel forced to stick to it!)
• We simplified the levels of participation: you can be a Beginner (3 Comics or Graphic Novels), Intermediate (3-10) or an Expert (10+). You're more than free to adjust your level of participation after the challenge has begun.
• There will be mini-challenges! Look for a post with more info on that soon.
• Overlaps with other challenges are totally fine.

I think I will try the intermediate. This is really going to be great! I can't wait to see what the mini-challenges are!

I just took a quiz on accent at GoToQuiz.com. The results were sort of surprising since I lived most of my life in the Deep South.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The South
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The West
Boston
The Inland North
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Sound: (#24)

I believe one of my favorite things to look for on the Internet is music. I like listening to radio stations online like JackFM. The fact they have a website is great. You can keep up with contests and concerts in the area. However, I like more control over what songs are played. I have used Yahoo! Music to create my own radio station. Another site, Pandora is similar to it. You can add stations for different genres and edit the artists or groups included in each station. Unlike Yahoo! Music, there is no commercial breaks or plugs for the commercial-free membership option (not free).

I did download a song from http://music.download.com/. It was easy and the song can be played on my desktop or on my Mp3 players. I prefer to use my Mp3 player Itunes is pretty much useless since I don't own a iPod. Other sites like Amazon that offer downloads that will play on any Mp3 player are better because if you upgrade your player later, you could still play your music.

Spring Cleaning (#29 & #30)

I'm now down from over 2600 emails in my inbox to 1700. That's not counting the ones in the folders (many of which I deleted completely). Ugh! This is worse than cleaning out my closets and file cabinets. I'm pretty good at deleting advertisements, spam and crazy urban legends. Speaking of Urban legends, I drive some of my relatives crazy when they send out those weepy "please help me I have five minutes to live and need your undiscarded toe nails" or something like that. I quickly send everyone the link to the legend on Snopes. Is that terrible?


I need to practice using YouSendIt to send to files to people. I haven't had trouble downloading files lately but you never know. It's something I might want share with my friends who like to send humongous files. Oh well, they will remain my friends.

Spring Cleaning (#28)

I have been working on and off in April trying to clean up the inbox in Outlook and delete old files on my computer. I read the GTD (Getting Things Done) article. The article gave guidelines for managing tasks. The guidelines were similar to other articles I have read on organizing. The guidelines are not hard to do but time consuming. Also it is easy to get off track and start stockpiling things again.

As far as tools for organization,I already have a PDA but I looked at the online calendars anyway. Good thing I did. I had forgotten that I had a link to the YALSA Google calendar until I clicked on the link while I was logged in iGoogle. I think the Google calendar is a great way for a large organization to remind its members about events. "Remember the Milk" was interesting but I don't want log onto a computer to make a shopping list or any other to-do list. Good thing you can synchronize with Windows Mobile. I'll keep it in mind just in case it may be useful one day.

End of iHCPL (Week 10 #23)

One of my favorite iHCPL things was Flickr. Collecting and sharing photos on Flickr makes sharing with friends and family easy. My second favorite thing was the photo editing tools. I could see uses for them at work (promoting events to staff and customers) and at home ( funny personalized birthday cards).

One thing I would like to see is more examples of how people use web 2.0 applications for work. I know there are awards for web site "excellection". I think I'll search for a list of them so I can get some ideas from recognized bloggers and web divas.

Downloadable Media (Week 9: #22)

Downloadable media is great for when you can't get to the library or you can't to read a book(like when you're driving). LibriVox appears easy to use. Unfortunately something was wrong with the archive and I could not search for any titles. Many of the titles LibriVox are classics or books published before 1923.

Wowio is a local Houston company that offers not only public domain downloable books but copyrighted books for no charge. There are even comics and graphic novels. How do they do it? Unfortunately, they use commercial sponsorships to compensate the authors. There are questions about your habits that are a part of the registration process. They used this information to send their users advertisements. If you don't want any promotional emails, you should make sure the statement about accepting them is not checked.

Using OverDrive is a little more involved than Wowio. You won't be asked any questions but you do have to download software. This is important especially if you are using a library computer that doesn't have the software loaded on it already. Most libraries do not allow the public to download anything onto the hard drive. OverDrive will also ask you to download a security update for Windows Media player. The plus side of this is that this allows OverDrive to offer you copyrighted material for free through the public library and without advertisements. I have only one compliant and it's not really a compliant. So many people like OverDrive, you will probably have to place a hold on popular or well-known titles for a chance to check them out.

Podcasts (Week 9: #21)

There are podcasts for just about anything you can imagine. I found a podcast for fans of Snape on Itunes and a podcast for dog owners on ipodder. I have found that some podcast directories are easier to search than others. I think Itunes is the best way to find new podcasts. As far as downloading them to my MP3 player, I like ipodder. I don't have to log on to a website. There is a program on the MP3 player that has a list of the podcasts I have subscribed to. When I attached the MP3 player to a USB port, the program starts, searches for the latest podcasts and downloads them.

I also used Bloglines to subscribe to a podcast called Collection Comics Library. I added a blogroll from Bloglines to the sidebar. You can click on Collection Comics Library on the sidebar to hear the latest podcast.

My favorite podcast is X Minus One (http://xmone.libsyn.com/). X Minus One is a science fiction radio show that was produced in the fifties.

YouTube (Week 9: #20)

I like watching YouTube clips like the piano playing cat. I don't think I would watch debates or clips from news reports. If someone was making a point in their blog and embedded the video, I might watch it. The categories listed on YouTube are pretty broad. Under the Category "Auto & Vehicles", you may find spoofs, demonstrations or product safety reviews all list together. I think the keyword search is a better way to find videos.

By the way, my favorite video was in the Auto & Vehicles section. It is about the concept car, the Nissan Pivo 2. It's so cute. I want my own personal car robot! Where can I get one? Okay. I can't imagine driving it but ...it has a robot!!! A real talking robot! See embedded video below.

Web-based Apps (Week 8 #19)

I think web-based apps like Zoho are great. If you only need the basics as far as word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, this will save you time and money. You can save your presentations on the website and share them with co-workers and friends. And you can save on your hard drive for important things like the computer games or music.


I created a slideshow with Zoho Show. It was easy but I did have problems with a slide not appearing in the slideshow. Eventually, it worked. Click on the link below and take a look.

http://show.zoho.com/public/neekie54/Mississippi%20Run

Social Networking Week 8: #18

In the previous post, I said I'm a member of at least five social networks. So I don't really need to join any more. But this gave me an opportunity to check out sites I haven't used. I looked at Ning but I closed it after a few minutes. Don't get me wrong. It's great but I would lose a lot of time searching for that elusive network I cannot live without. LinkedIn is useful but I wouldn't look at it too long. It's a bare bones site. Xanga looks like a lot of fun. I like the themes. I wish I had tried it before I tried Facebook. RateMySpace is great way to get ideas about remdeling from ordinary people instead of TV shows backed by corporations. Threadless has my favorite type of clothes---t-shirts! I want to buy a t-shirt! Well...uh...maybe later.

Social Networks Are Forever?(Week 7: #17)

Most people who listen to or read the news have heard of Facebook or MySpace. But have you heard of ListenToYourWife or AlternativeEnergy? If people are interested in it then somewhere out in cyberspace there is a social network for it (or in the process of being launched). I think it's great but I hesitate to join anymore. I'm probably a member of at least five social networks. I probably visit one regularly (and I have links to the other four on it). But I visit the others maybe once every couple of months. I often wonder if one day I will find that one of my accounts is disabled because of lack of use (I think at least one should be-I haven't gone past registering for it).
Networking is important for work, learning and relationships. But how much is too much? Will the social networks keep growing until several come up with so many awesome apps the others can no longer compete? Or will new ones keep appearing everyday? Will my Facebook account still work when I'm 60? It better! Just think of all the friends I could collect over several decades. Would you want to lose all that contact information? No way! But how long will this go on (and for free!) ?

Wiki, wiki, wiki (Week 7: #16)

Wikis are great ways to work together. Some are easier than others to work with. I think wikis are great for collaborating on papers, books and creating a list of ideas or activities. Most wikis allow you to create a clickable table of contents to navigate. Just like blogs, you can include links, files and photos. Wikis usually notify the administrator and the moderators about changes and allow you to change them. Since everyone sees the same thing online and that makes it easier discuss to ideas or changes.

Library 2.0-Why Our Customers Still Need Us (Week 6: #15)

Dr. Wendy Schultz's article called "To a Temporary Place in Time" was very good. I think her statement about tour guides is important to remember. It may seem that librarians are no longer needed but that may be more media hype than fact. It appears that many teens, twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings know about some online tools and services. Usually, they know a enough to get whatever they want done. Those wonderful blogs, websites, podcasts we see online are created by a small number of people who really understand a certain tool, have an idea and combine both. There are millions in this country and billions of people in this world. Compare those numbers to the number of Second Life users or Facebook users and you will see that most people are barely involved. That will change-especially if someone takes the time to inform people about what's available and what meets their needs. The library offer information services like some companies offer their products. Instead of giving the same book or website to answer a certain question, we should help customers to tailor the information to their needs..



Think about an ordinary reference interview, a customer in the seventh grade asks for a book or a website about energy. It's an assignment several of the schools in the area give every year. You give the customer the same book or website that you have given twenty other customers in the seventh grade that day. What's wrong with that? Nothing-except why is the same book or website appropriate for all twenty customers? Among those twenty, one may be visually-impaired, another may read on the level of a third grader, and one may attend a magnet school for engineering. The format of the information needs to be adapted to the specific needs of the customer. What if you could suggest a library database or website that had an avatar that was interactive. The avatar could ask the customer the type of format they would like-audio or visual. The customer could specify how loud the audio is and whether a female or male voice is used. The customer could also change the text color, size and font without messing with toolbars or having to use the Accessibilty Options in Windows. What if the customer could tell the avatar that the information is hard to understand and click on every word they want defined. A small pop-up would appear above the word with a simple definition or synonym. Tagging, embedded video, podcasts and visual search engines would help those would want more information. Many of these things exist as separate tools now. But what if one day, when you guide a customer to information that all of those tools are automatically a part of the package. That would really be something to see!

Technorati (Week6:#14)

Technorati Tools are interesting. There are apps for browser buttons, widgets that get your link count, authority and other things. These tools would not be used by someone who is not a "committed" blogger. It's not worth the time if you're just dabbling in blogging. There are interesting blogs under WTF and Popular. Don't expect everything to be like "Boing Boing". Some blogs are people discussing random topics and sometimes just ranting. Whether the information is correct (or coherent) isn't the point here but how many people surfing the next like your site.

If you search for something on Technorati, remember that you will get different links for tags, blogs and posts. I did a search on "Learnig 2.0" First blogs listed have a higher authority than tags or posts.

If you want your blog to appear on Technorati, you need to claim it like I did (http://technorati.com/blogs/storyworldborder.blogspot.com). I also created used FeedBurner to tag my blog (http://feeds.feedburner.com/StoryWorldBorder).

Tagging and Del.icio.us (Week 6: #13)

I watched the Otter Group Del.icio.us tutorial. It was okay but a little long. It covered the basics about Del.icio.us and some ways it can be useful. I thought "Several habits of highly successful Del.icio.us users" was useful except for Habit Three: Use the inbox. I could not find the inbox on Del.icio.us. All I can say about "Us.ef.ul - a beginner's guide to Del.icio.us" is that small print made me want to hit "Delete".

I have my own Deli.icio.us account. Importing your bookmarks is easy. FYI-you may get vague tags this way (i.e imported or personal favorites). No problem! You can rename tags without editing each bookmark or even better-delete the tag from your bookmarks and keep the bookmarks.

I like that you can access other people's items that are tagged the same. You can quickly find other interesting sites this way. Some of the sites might not be exactly what you want but you may finding something interesting that you didn't know before.

Here is the link to my subscription on Fair Trade.

http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/fairtrade