Bolero

Bolero was probably about 4 years old. He had been so badly damaged that my two legs were amazed that he had even survived the injuries that had been inflicted upon him. He was even smaller than me and I am the youngest. My two legs had taken him in just over a year ago when he was living wild, and they doubted he would have lived that extra year in the wild. He was quiet and not great at playing games as he really did not know how, but he tried. He showed great affection and trust in our two legs, but today all his injuries which had weakened his immune system caught up to him. It was with great reluctance that my two legs took him to the cat doctor and decided to end his suffering here and let him go to cat heaven. The two legs tell me that he will not be alone as two others he knows (whom I have not mentioned previously as I really did not know them), Pestido Who was 18 and Baby Puss who was 22 when they passed on earlier this year, will be there to greet him. Bye my friend.

Week 9 - Last Task

The Learning 2.0 programme has been an interesting exercise. Although there is much out there a balance must be met. This is true when applying these skills to the library situation. I see that some are already looking to set up PBWiki's but we need to be aware of committing too much to new technological tools. It is important to remember that many staff may not be comfortable with use of computers (but may not say it) and likewise many are not as competent as they think. The adage "To err is human, but to really stuff up use a computer" springs to mind. Equally the KISS principle also applies. After almost 40 years of using computers my two legs knows too well the problems of too much technology, where the problems of a crash expand exponentially with the complexity demanded. Many of the tasks can be applied to library usuage but many are at a more personal level.

Equally before everyone rushes out using these new skills remember that a lot of them absorb a lot of bandwidth and the system is slow enough as it is - or so my two legs says.

The programme was worth while for catching up and seeing how the Internet has changed, from the days when my two legs used DOS as his commands to touch a button today. On a personal level some things will definitely get used and I am sure my two legs has some ideas in mind.

Also now that one sees the potential there would be a need for further training to keep up with this rapidly expanding cyberworld.

Week 9 - Audiobooks

My two legs thought that the changes here were very good. Originally when he had looked at the list of ebooks most were business related. With the advantage of netlibrary the range has been greatly extended. My two legs used to listen to a lot of audiobooks while doing other things, especially as he does not watch much TV. With the greater range here perhaps I can persuade him to do more so we can all listen and enjoy.

Week 9 - Podcasts

Had a look at Podcasts. A search for Cat on the Yahoo podcasts (audio) produced mainly music from such as Cat Stevens. Podcast.Alley and Podcast.net produced a greater range of topics. I have added a feed from Kitty Cat Cast to my blog. This was of interest as Coco, Charleston and Penny are all Main Coons while Bolero thinks he would like to be. Also Wagner from our cat family down the road is a Norwegian Forest (One of those that my two legs looks after). Great sites that can give much in the way of news, views and music. Something that can appeal to me and my cat mates as well as my two legs.

Week 9 - YouTube

Had a look at Youtube and again one could spend hours just poking around to see what was there. Found the setup was quite good with not many categories to search. Found the Cat playing piano Video which I had to put in as the cat looks so much like cat mate Timmy. Seems to be something for everyone and certainly some could be useful to library websites (apart from the ones such as Conan the Librarian etc.). There were links to such places as National Geographic. Like the one promoting the library and perhaps this idea could be used for the next Library Week.

Week 8 - Web 2.0 Tools

Had a look at a Web 2.0 award site. This was Realtravel.com which looked quite interesting but the location I chose fell rather flat. I picked the site Tunnel Beach which is just south of Dunedin. There was a lot of information but much of it did not relate to that location. In fact I got more history and pictures from Google. I chose the site because it was listed. The information on other less obscure sites are probably better. It was also rather slow in loading, but still an interesting site. Easy to navigate and with a lot of useful information.

Week 8 - Zoho

OK so I have now created a document on Zoho. Looks to be rather an interesting site. This is certainly different from the old sites where one simply stored documents which could be retreived and edited from anywhere. I tried to upload a picture into this but it did not seem to work, so will see if I can post this back to my blog. One downside though seems when I switched screens and then came back to this it had reset back to its defaults.