Technorati: another way to keep up!

As in the case of Delicious, 27things has changed my thinking about the possible usefulness of Technorati. Using the advanced search option for "Learning 2.0" as a tag produced fewer but more relevant results, of course, than doing just a general keyword search. Then I did a similar search for genealogy and realized that Technorati could be used as another way to keep up with what's new in this area - it gave me the top blogs, videos and images. Off the subject of genealogy, when I explored popular blogs, searches and tags I was surprised by the popular searches. I'm not sure why "taskbar" would be the most popular search, and some of the others seemed odd. Although most of the popular blogs looked too technical for me, I did find Boing Boing kind of interesting. For one thing, it led me to another blog: Awful Library Books, which is dedicated to weeding (Diseases from Space is one of those titles). Maybe if I follow this blog it will help me with my weeding hangup...

Dealing with Delicious

Way behind again on 27things, it's definitely time for me to deal with Delicious. But before I do, I want to thank the birders again for their help. I posted the picture of the unknown bird in my yard on the Sacramento Birders Yahoo group and got one response from someone who felt sure it was a juvenile black-crowned night heron. Of course it was only one person, but he seemed pretty certain.

I learned the basics about Delicious some time ago when an account was set up for our use at Central Library and I was asked to add some genealogy web sites. I have to admit that I didn't really use Delicious much after that. When looking for good sites for stock quotes the other day, though, I realized that our Delicious account was readily available on the links toolbar in Telis. That made it really convenient, and I had several good sites in no time at all. So maybe now I'll set up my own account and add it to the links toolbar on my work computer - and my home computer, too. Another thing I like about Delicious is that you can combine tags when you search to get more specific kinds of web sites. Hopefully I can start thinking of this site as a really useful tool when doing reference work.

Bird ID Help Needed

Yes, I should be focusing on the next step in 27Things - learning about Delicious and Technorati. Before I do, though, I have a favor to ask of any birders that might be willing to give me their opinion. The other day while I was away from home a bigger-than-average bird landed in my smaller-than-average yard (a deck, really). My friend who was home at the time managed to take a picture - but from inside the house and with no zoom (he said the bird was about 12 inches tall). I'm still a novice birder, so I'm not sure what it is - my guess is it's an immature something - some kind of heron? I'd really like to hear what other people think it is - and sorry for the quality of the picture. If I don't hear from anyone on the blog, I might post the picture to the Yahoo group for Sacramento Birders. Thanks for your help!

Mike to the Rescue, and Rollyo

It seems that someone at LibraryThing is looking out for me - specifically Mike, who apparently troubleshoots the problems people have with this service. It really surprised me when he responded to my last blog about the problem with my LibraryThing widget disappearing. To solve the problem he applied a patch, and added some code - so far it seems to be working! I'm hoping for the best.

Rollyo seems easy enough. I made two searchrolls - one for genealogy and the other for birds. Choosing certain web sites to search does narrow the results, and ensures that those results come from trusted sources. I tend to wonder, though, what information I might be missing when I limit myself to just a few sites. I guess that's why the searchroll gives you the option of searching the web instead of those selected sites.

The Disappearing LibraryThing Widget

My sense of accomplishment after finally posting my LibraryThing widget to my blog is not so great anymore - the widget keeps disappearing, and I've had to replace it about four times now (if not more). If anyone has any input about why this might be happening, I'd appreciate the advice. And just when I thought I was up to dealing with new technology (on a limited basis)....

A Motivational Poster, and LibraryThing

Because I'm an unorganized person by nature, I decided to make this motivational poster for the image generator exercise for 27Things.

Maybe I'll print a copy of it and put it up at my desk.

Also, I'm enjoying having a LibraryThing account - I think it's a good way for me to keep track of the kinds of books I like to read and to get ideas for future reading. I have to admit that it took me a while to figure out how to post the widget to my blog, but I'm pleased with the results. My new mantra: don't be defeated by technology!

Thanks to the Birders, and RSS Feeds

Before getting back to 27Things, I just want to say what a pleasure it's been reading other peoples' blogs. I've enjoyed finding out that there are other birders working for SPL (I thought I was alone!), and have especially enjoyed reading For the Birds. I also want to thank Bibliocrone for mentioning that people can join the Sacramento Birds Yahoo Group. I've signed up, and am looking forward to getting local bird news via e-mail (ok - if you like birds you'll understand).
On RSS, I actually already had a Bloglines account, and had some feeds there. For this exercise I added more feeds - ones having to do with genealogy, since updated information in this area helps me in my job. I have to agree with Sola Soleil about RSS feeds, though - it's hard to get the time to read this steady stream of information coming your way! Maybe the trick is to limit it to the feeds you really think are most important.