THING 8--RSS: Been There, Done that.

I use Firefox so have been adding feeds to my browser for over a year now. I find it easy to do and very handy. Now IE has that feature, too, and I've tried it out.

Also, over a year ago I created a Bloglines account but didn't use it much and now have forgotten my password. I can see the usefulness of having a web site with my feeds, though. It means I only have to set them up once and then I can access them on any computer--if I remember my password.

I think my mistake the first time was populating Bloglines with stuff that wasn't that crucial to me--so, let me give it a go again.

LATER:
I thought the Wicki article was too teckky but the Commoncraft video, RSS in Plain English was an excellent introduction to the concept. I thought the Palinet tutorial was pretty good, too. The CNet video wouldn't finish loading for me.

EVEN LATER:
Okay, Bloglines is all set up for me and some feeds added in three different ways so far. And why would I want to do all that search for the RSS icon and copy the link or cut and paste URLs when I can just drag the Sub button to my toolbar and sub with two clicks? When not at one of my very own computers, I suppose, but I'll take the easy way every time.

The advantage of Bloglines is that you can see the posts in the preview pane, whereas if you get a feed to your browser you only see the names of the posts in your drop down menu and have to click one at a time to view.

Savage Chickens: Scrabble Rematch Cartoon

I found this while looking for Scrabble pictures.
Savage Chickens: Scrabble Rematch Cartoon

It's on a blog I found to be very funny. There was even a library related cartoon.

I noticed a header above a list at the bottom of the page that said "Links to this Cartoon". Below that was the phrase "Create a Link". Out of curiosity I clicked it.

Lo and behold! A dialog box popped up with my blog title already entered (I was logged in on another browser tab) and all I had to do was click another button to add the link in a post to my own blog. Well! Ya learn something new every day.

I think my link may not be reflected on the Savage Chickens site because I have limited the visibility of my blog.

THING 7--Technology Related

I think I've proven by this point that I love computers for their entertainment value. I just like messing around with them and have for years now. Right now I have five computers in my house--my screaming fast desktop PC with 2 gigs of RAM and two hard drives; my husband's PC which I have to maintain; my iBook, because it's fun to have an Apple computer to play with, too; my Palm Lifedrive PDA which comes in handy on trips because I can check email and take chapters of my book to work on; and my very first computer up in the attic--a Kaypro I with a 9" screen and two 5 1/4" floppy drives which I bought in the eighties and hang on to for sentimental reasons. Oh, I forgot one--I also have a dead Dell laptop which I haven't discarded yet. I hated that one because it never worked right. That makes 6. And, of course, there's my not so secret affair with my new work computer.

Although I do have a Second Life account and a sexy Second Life avatar which I've flown across the virtual 3-D Linden landscape, mostly I enjoy rather simple games. I play email Scrabble with friends and enjoy a Scrabble-like on-line game called Babble where you try to make as many words as you can by linking letters in a daily generated grid.

In England Scrabble is very big.

I Saw a Movie Last Night

That made me very worried about 23 things--

We Can Have Video Now

THING 6--Esme LOL

Esme LOLZ
Originally uploaded by aliveontheinside

I was checking out the Flickr toys and found the tool for creating LOLcats. This tool will come in handy.

MY MEEZ AVATAR

You know you've been waiting for it.

THING 5--Flickr

Fun Fun Fun as you see from previous posts. I dove right in and found out how to do lots of stuff before I actually read any instructions. I set up an account and made it private for now. I'll make public individual photos as needed.

I've used Photobucket as an on-line picture host for years and so that helped me know what to look for when up-loading. Flickr and Photobucket are different in various ways. Both allow you to share your photos with others if you want or keep them private. Flickr allows you more options for uploading in different ways, including sending a picture from your cell phone, and more options for organizing your photos. You can send a picture to your cell phone from Photobucket, however. When you link a photo to another place such as a bulletin board, the Flickr picture becomes a link you can click on to go to Flickr. Photobucket just allows your picture to be seen on the other site. That can be preferable.

You can search both sites using tags. There is no map feature on Photobucket, but I don't have a big need for that, though. Photobucket allows you to get fancier in making slideshows and saving them. I don't see anything that matches Flickr's community of Groups, however. Flickr has more functionality as a social networking site. The ability for friends to make notes directly on the pictures that pop up when you mouse over is cool. But I was disappointed that the Flickr "Make Stuff" section was all third-party pay sites. You can buy various stuff with your picture on it from Photobucket, too, and prints, but it's more obvious you have to purchase the items.

Photobucket allows you to upload short video clips and gives you a tool to do some simple editing. Flickr does not provide for videos. There is also slightly more photo editing options in Photobucket.

I think that Flickr is glossier and sexier overall, and I was impressed by the high quality of the pictures I came across, but I like the functionality of Photobucket for hosting images to post to bulletin boards.

And there's a link to Meez on Photobucket so you can make your own 3-D avatar . (More on that later.)

I haven't played with all the Flickr third-party fun sites yet though. There's lots there to amuse by the looks of it. I did make my name in Flickr letters but was disappointed that I couldn't save it but could only link to it.

hairless and fearless

hairless and fearless
Originally uploaded by massdistraction

Now I know two ways to add photos from Flickr. The other way I had to cut and paste an HTML link. This way I set up a direct link from Flickr to my blog and gave Blogspot permission to accept Flickr posts. Now I can click a link above a Flickr picture that I like and send it directly to my blog. Don't you like this bookstore kitty?
Ripley has her own Pool on Flickr.

The picture was taken by Flickr user massdistraction and clicking on the picture takes you to the Flickr site.

Testing if I can Link to Flickr

Back from my trip to Mars

Now I have more things to do.

Must Practice Linking to Images

Hey, u canz clik on diz pic and has cheezburgers.
More nom nom nom than THINGS.