May 14th, 2008
1. Are you aggregated?
Several major companies have launched new data portability sites recently, all in the hopes that you will use them as your aggregator for all things social.
2. What’s the Library of Congress up to these days?
The LOC is 208 years old today. Even in it’s old age, it’s tech savvy.
3. There is more to conducting a search than Google
The users are changing, the technology is changing, the sources are changing.
4. Blogs are WORK.
It doesn’t matter if you are writing or reading blogs, they can be very time consuming. Why put forth the effort? Stats really aren’t available for most blogging software, so we just assume people are reading what we have to say. Here are some tips on making the whole process a little more efficient.
Posted in Library of Congress, Facebook, search engines, MySpace, Wikipedia, web browsers, Google, blogs, Web 2.0, social network websites, 4cast | No Comments »
May 8th, 2008
1. Virtual worlds in the hot seat
As reported in the 4Cast last week, there are 100+ youth-oriented virtual worlds in existence. With that kind of availability comes vulnerability. One Congressman wants to stop children from accessing these sites in schools and libraries. Below are the links to Congressman Kirk’s (IL) statements and the recent congressional hearings on virtual communities.
2. Now there’s a term for it - “backscattered”.
You open your in-box and you see LOTS of bounced or “return to sender” type messages, so you open one to see what could have possibly come back to you. The thing is, you didn’t send out any pharmaceutical ads, or lottery announcements, or Louis Vuitton ads, or other such spam. Unfortunately, people will use random valid e-mail addresses (sometimes even a librarian’s!) to send out their spam and when their messages reach invalid addresses, it gets bounced to you.
3. Happy birthday, spam!
Spammers love it, users hate it, poetry is written with it, and it’s 30 years old.
4. Xobni
From our Twitter feed…Xobni, or spelled backward, Inbox, is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook 2003/2007 running on Windows XP/Vista. Basically, it indexes all of your e-mail messages in a more user-friendly way. What’s really cool about it? Xobni Analytics. You can view some really interesting statistics on your e-mail usage, such as what time of day you receive the most mail and who contacts you the most often.
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April 30th, 2008
OPLIN 4Cast #100: The top social networking tools, learning tools, online tools, tech gadgets
This milestone edition will be packed full of numbers. Wait! We promise it won’t be boring. The intent is to show that social networking isn’t going away. It will also show you some useful learning sites, cool online tools, and some top tech gadgets that you simply must have.
1. While we hate to keep going on and on about the social networks…
2. You want answers?
3. Online tools - are there ever enough?
4. And now, the cool tech gadgets
Posted in 4cast | 1 Comment »
April 23rd, 2008
1. Bloggers can use Encyclopedia Britannica
If you blog regularly and your site qualifies, you may be permitted to include Encyclopaedia Britannica links in your posts.
You mention a topic, link to it, and your blog readers can click on the link to learn more…and it’s all free!
2. Amazon Kindle still in high demand
The hand-held reader sold out pretty quickly, and now their replacements have arrived, and on top of that, there might be a “next generation” version coming soon. Users will need more ebooks as summer approaches.
3. Americans turning to web for news
While the results of several recent polls vary, the message is still the same: Americans prefer to get their news online.
4. Eee PC
Many tech blogs are talking about the machine that’s “Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play.” Let’s also add that it’s more compact and cheaper than a standard notebook. Eee PC 900 comes in both Microsoft Windows and Linux versions.
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