#13 Del.icio.us

Another handy organising tool. I love the idea of bookmarking(tagging)sites to one place. I can be on holidays at an internet cafe or at home and not have to remember sites bookmarked on my work pc. I also had fun searching topics on Del.icio.us and finding like-minded people and exploring their tags.

#12 Rollyo

Nice to be able to limit searches to known or reputable sites. I may use this at work for discovering book reviews for patrons. The recipes searchroll useful too, not to mention my own brilliant (and completely self-indulgent!) personalised searchrolls.

Select...Paul\'s blogSearch The Web

#11 Librarythang

Not a bad gizmo. A good way to convey reading interests or recommendations.

What... me?

Have you heard this rumour on Bizarre rumours?
As the gossip-mongers are telling it, a football stadium full of pornographic barmaids controversially worshipped nose picking Paul.

#10 Image generators

#9 Finding feeds

The previous exercise in bloglines was probably my favourite so far, in that I'm able to control and reign in information to a single source. This is one tool that I will probably continue to use. My family resembles the United Nations, so I'm always on the lookout for the latest information on Argentina, India, The Netherlands etc. RSS would be a great way to stay in touch with relevant news. However I found "finding feeds" through Feedster, Topix.net etc., a bit hit and miss. The Bloglines search tool seemed to be the best. The content appears to be edited to some degree.

#8 RSS Bloglines

I've always been impressed with people on blogs and newsgroups that constantly submit relevant, interesting and topical information gleaned from websites. I assumed they spent too much time trawling web sites, emails etc. Now I know the secret! Very useful for keeping up with news and developments for work and personal interest type stuff, not to mention dinner party banter (ie boing boing)! Here's my public blogline: www.bloglines.com/public/conanthelibrarian

#7 New technology...you can keep your ipod!

I brought this 1960s radiogram home from the op shop the other day, much to the bemusement of my kids and chagrin of my wife. "Where's it going to go?" "What are you going to do with it?" my wife asked. I went to turn it on...uh oh false start, it's not working. It worked well in the shop. Anyway with a bit of tweaking I managed to get it playing. Wow, what a sound! I played old records on it for the rest of the afternoon while my kids danced in paganistic abandon around it. Even my wife conceded that her Irma Thomas and Bettye Lavette LPs sounded better on the old dear. "The way they were meant to sound" was her comment. There is definitely a warmer sound to records. I find digital sounds too clean, cold and even a bit harsh in comparison. Friends are buying ipod docks with single speakers lately, proud of the fact that it plays 3000 songs (ripped off from the internet). They seem to overlook the fact that it sounds cold and tinny, like icicles assaulting the eardrums. My new/old unit is better (to me anyhow). All week now in the warmer evenings when the kids have gone to bed, I've been relaxing in the easy chair spinning old soul, blues, rock 'n' roll and country records on the radiogram content with the world. I might even start whittling.

#6 Flickr mashup

I went to 'Photo Fortune' and tried my luck with a mashup there. It combines a phrase with photos. The phrase read "You are sick, twisted and perverted. I like that in a person." The photos were a bit strange with a couple of guys doing something weird in a laundry. Hmmm.... I liked it. Maybe I am sick, twisted and perverted!