Vib Ribbon - English translation

thoughts and dreams

Well, after an energetic start, followed by a bout of lethargy, then followed again by the energy that only a good old fashioned deadline can muster, I've managed to finish. Most of the process was simple enough in terms of figuring out the technology. The frustrating part, which I'm sooo going to blame that earlier period of lethargy upon, was the constant sign ups and registrations to multiple web sites, confirmation e-mails, etc. Deadline saw to that though, and after I just bit the bullet and got on with it, it turned out to be a relatively simple process to complete the exercises. The first cut and paste of HTML code into bloggers "insert a page element" function caused a bit of headscratching to begin with, but that also turned out to be quite simple once you'd done it successfully for the first time. A few of the applications from the web 2 awards list proved problematic, but aclelgar said that was probably due to connection speed, rather than bugs or human errors. That made me feel a whol lot less frustrated, and I've still had my interest piqued sufficiently to continue exploring those things at home in my own time. I think there will be a few things that will help me get my blog the way I have wanted to get it, but have never had the know how to do. Overall, despite the few moments of frustration, I've found this exercise to be quite educational, I feel a whole lot more confident of using the new technology, and come the time that the new website goes online, I think I should be knowledgable enough to understand just what in the ding-dang the customers are talking about.

Net library

I signed up to net library today, no problems there, saved a couple of books into my favourites. I dont know if I can post those through to my blog, so I did a screen cap, seen here. I don't feel that there are too many things here that would interest me, but further additions to the collection may change that. I am wanting to learn how to install and use Linux, so I think the computer books would be of the most interest to me.

That's better! After last night's frustration of none of the applications working, the podcast rss feeds have at least successfully transferred to my blog through bloglines. I've added Humphrey the Bag (british comedy) and Booklounge (book reviews, author interviews, etc) which can also be located on left margin in my bloglines public feed. Glad that things are working again.

you tube, you embed, you don't get squat

This is getting ridiculous. Now that I finally get a result this evening, it's a half-baked one. Literally. I tried embedding the you tube clip, all steps same as previous html copy and pastes that I've done so far, but when I publish and view, only half the clip (left margin to half way across) is visible. Went back to editing to try to find a solution, but nothing seemed to work. I even tried to attach a screen capture for a visual of the widthly-challenged clip, but, just as with others I tried tonight, it wouldn't upload from my desktop. For the clip itself, which I'm very fond of, go to Vib Ribbon (English translation) on you tube, it's the intro to a very strange video game. The game is loaded into the playstation console, and the intro plays. The player then removes the game disc from the console and replaces it with their music cd of choice. The game adapts itself to follow the tempo and rhythm of the music, and the player must pass the obstacles in time with the music. The actual game play doesn't have as tight a synchronicity with the cd as the intro would lead you to believe, but who cares? The intro is worth it all by itself. La la la, la la la... Ohhh!!! Dooma doobie doobie doh...

And the winner is... No-one!

Title sums it up. I tried, I really did. Is it just me, or do none of these applications from the awards list actually work, apart from what we've already used so far in the exercises? I tried the following: lulu, writeboard, thinkfree, mailemotion, arcaplay, frappr, & the broth. Not a bloody sausage from any of them. Don't know if it's a connection problem, if I'm doing something wrong, or if the sites have bugs. Guessing though, if they won awards, the bugs is ashes. One that looks like it may have worked however, is Onesentence, where you submit a true story that is only one sentence long. Elaborate sentence structures are permitted, but brevity is preferred. Quite a few funny entries amongst them. Even if i can't get it working from my end, they're fun to read.

zoho no go

Tried zoho and google docs, but both gave me the same problem - each time I tried to import a word document from my desktop, I pressed "browse" but neither of the two programs would respond at all. Nada. Todo morreu. O internet me parece um vagabondo. But anyway, since it wasn't working, I'll carry on with next exercise, and ask for help tomorrow.

Enter Sandbox

That really was a bit more fun. Nothing like being encouraged to spout off and push your agendas. Nice and simple to edit posts, freedom to choose page position, add links, pics, whatever. Once a particular page got a pattern going, it seemed like users were happy to follow along, which, rather than making it boring to read, just made it nice and simple. And if you want to be anonymous...

the wiki and the dead

Well, I think Wikis are fine in certain applications. I personally find it hard to allow the books to be opened for just anyone to write in. I think the reason we have the word "experts" is because we need a word for these people, just as we need the people themselves. We need to be able to trust in expertise. I understand the democracy angle, but I think the people who work so hard in their fields deserve the respect of being listened to, and in some situations, the open ended creation of wikis allows too much leeway for facts to be distorted. That said, however, I also think that for social applications, they are a marvellous forum for groups to promote ideas, activities, build artistic communities, or what have you. Gig guides could be updated by the performers, or venues, without worrying about printing deadlines. Lexicons of slang terms or business jargon could be updated daily, following the trends of human speech as quick as the language itself evolves. Heaven forbid though, that the Oxford dictionary should ever end up as the Oxford Wiki. We can't measure how far we've progressed if we lose sight of the starting point. As far as library applications, I think Wikis are really just like The Fitch, except they include the customer as well. The platform is open to any of us to add to the fitch, not as a successor to OPAC, but as an aide. I think wikis should remain in a similar proportion. Just like web 2.0, I think they are supplements, not replacements.

Web 2.0 : Bride of Web - The Revenge...

Tabbing back to quote exactly who said what seems like a bit of a chore right now, so I'll paraphrase my way through this. I read through all the articles, and watched the video, along with one other related video from you tube. I think the exponents of web 2.0 technology have some very valid points as to how it can help us to give the customers a greater pool of resources to work from, but I also find I have to agree with some of the criticisms of potentially tangled networks, stemming from the random nature of the tags that will inevitably accompany the customers departure from the reliance of traditional library cataloguing terminology. Fine to let each customer alter their own version of things, but care will be needed to ensure that customer interaction remains within well defined limits. Tags should be able to help customers search using lay terms, but they should never override the work that has been done over generations. As an example, a customer I was serving a few weeks ago wanted to find books on using a hot wire to burn patterns or text into wood, which he was adamant was to be found under the keywords "poker burning." I myself didn't know the official term, so started off with pokerwork, then, at his constant behest, poker burning, but came up with nothing but books about card games and cd burning. Next I tried wood burning, amongst which results was the book that ended up being what he wanted, although we weren't to know this for another 15 minutes, as it was in stack. In the meantime, I had to repeat the process of showing him where "poker burning" got us, before he would accept that perhaps it wasn't the term. In the end, when we looked in the item arrived from stack, and found it was the correct book, we then scanned it in and checked the related subject links, where we found its official term was "pyrography." Granted, we neither of us had it right. From the customers perspective, the tag "poker burning" could have saved time and effort. But from a librarians perspective, were we to lose the accuracy of a system that has been so carefully constructed, to the whims of a rapidly evolving technology that may turn in any given direction at any time, then rather than helping the customer, we would be letting them down by failing to be consistent. I guess I see it like the tower of Babel. We know that we can't impose a single universal language and expect it to be understood by all. But also, we know how difficult it can be to define something when everyone has a different word for it. The "customer is always right" ideology might be all the reason some need to propose a dismantling of the existing tower, but when the pieces fall, who will be left putting them back into some sense of order? And who will be able to translate what follows? This technology is fantastic in its potential, but it's still just one part of what we have to offer. I think, along with whomever said it in the articles, that web 2.0 needs to be viewed strictly as an addition to existing sources, and most certainly not as a replacement. As long as no existing structures are weakened in the process, or foregone in it's name, web 2.0 has an amzing potential in libraries.

headtriptechnorati

Well, simply click the "advanced search" button, which I would have really kicked myself for if I were to have missed it, and you have the options of searching for "learning 2.0" in the following search fields: 1: Keyword; 2: URL; 3:Tag; 4:Blog directory. This gave the necessary fields to do the discovery exercise, with the following results, as can be seen in the posted screen captures of those results.

It's del.icio.us, mama! and chunky...

Well, I have the luxury of computer and broadband at home, so having opened a del.icio.us account, I created the network badge, uploaded my firefox bookmarks into it, and installed the buttons on my browser. Dead simple process, takes a few minutes, but easy. What's good is knowing that when I'm away from home, all I need to do is (b)log in, and as well as a space to rant, I also have all of my most used sites right there at my pawtips. I really need to spend a bit more time exploring the possibilities of tags, but for now, I've at least got the idea down, and know how to shift the info from one place to another. The rest is just history that hasn't happened yet. And what I really like about the "import bookmarks" function on delicious as opposed to the same function on rollyo, IS THAT IT ACTUALLY WORKS. Bollocks to rollyo for that one. Their instructions wax lyrical on the wonderful compatibility between rollyo and firefox, but it failed every time I tried. First attempt at same task on delicious however, and voila, tutto posto.

so, this is how you do it, given you're using buttons and network badge...

Richarquis' 12 step plan.

1. Visit page of choice.
2. Decide to yourself, "Oooh, that's nice. That's very nice."
3. Congratulate yourself on your strength of mind.
4. Click "post to del.icio.us" button.
5. Have a wee dram. Just a wee one mind, the interweb moves like a cat.
6. Now, just look at that! The URL of that nice page is already typed up by the library moles that Dave Eggers told you about, and all you have to do is focus that strong mind of yours to creating tags for it.
7. Remember suddenly that the word "Emancipation," by some perverse twist of fate, not to mention semantics, could be a tag for Mariah Carey.
8. Make sure you never, ever use that word as a tag, lest you lead innocents astray.
9. Hit that button. The one that says "Save."
10. Log into your blog, and click your del.icio.us network badge.
11. Cut the title header off one of Mum's "Cosmopolitan" magazines.
12. Attach it to your forehead, and whoop, as you exert your Technurban® superiority over those around you.

Death to the Luddites!

Well, several technology related things have been absorbing me lately, all of them on my computer. Most of all though, is my lovely new Lightscribe DVD burner. Basically, using special Lightscribe discs, which are covered in a heat-reactive dye, when I finish burning the info onto the disc, I then take it out of the writer, turn it over, and re-insert the disc face down into the writer, and the laser then activates the dye, burning the picture or text of my choice into the surface of the disc. No need for printers, inks, stickers, and no crappy scrawled felt tip labels. On the downside, the labels take about 15-18 mins each to burn, and so far the technology only allows for sepia 2-tone labels. Give it time though, and I'm sure the software will speed up, and they will find a way of printing full colour labels. On the upside, the labels look beautiful, with sharp, clear lines. I've had nothing but positive comments from friends who I've given these discs to so far, and I'll definitely continue to use them. Will be happy when they get cheaper too, they're currently among the most expensive discs on the market, meaning I'm pretty selective about my use of them, preferring to keep them aside for birthday presents etc, rather than everyday use.

roll, roll, rollyo, have you any wool?

Rollyo was relatively simple, although I was unable to get the "export bookmarks" function to work properly, even though my Firefox browser is supposed to be compatible. I followed all steps to the letter, only to end up with a blank page saying "done." When I viewed "page info" from my browsers "tools" tab it told me that "this page does not support the encrypted code." I decided to leave that step out, and simply create a searchroll from scratch. I was easily able to create one for Russian language news feeds from Novaya Gazeta (the Russian independent newspaper founded by Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist murdered in her apartment block in Oct 2006) and from the BBC Foreign Languages page, both links from my public bloglines feeds. I couple this with the Cyrillic keyboard I have installed on my home computer, and can then search for updates on politics or whatnot, but I am able to enter the names of Russian people, places, or events, without having to second guess for dodgy transliterations. For example, if I want to search for news about Нижняя Палата, (Lower House, in this context, political) I don't need to worry whether English transliteration would be Nijnaya, or Nizhnaya, or Nizhnaja, depending on different peoples interpretations of the Cyrillic script. And besides, even political updates looks sexy in Russian.

don't point that library thing at me...

Well, I must say, a nice simple toy, and everyone loves that desert island books thing, but here, you can choose more than 5 or 10. Perfect, really. I was delighted to see that 13 other people had listed "The big silver book of Russian verbs" on their list. I wonder how many of them actually read that puppy. As far as plot, it's about as diverse as Bukowski, but as far as excitement value, well... не надо ничево сказать.

release the spiders!

Technorati Profile

imagin' all the generators...

Played around with a few of the generators, found myself particularly fond of the Chuck Norris Random Fact Generator (Yes, Walker Texas Ranger is my idea of entertainment) and the crossword generator also caught my attention, particularly after watching the documentary "Wordplay" about the New York Times annual crossword competition. This one doesn't like you to try and be too clever, the more intersecting words you give it for the template, the less chance you have of it saying "yes." The less structure you form within the template to start with, the easier it is for the program to cope. Also, you end up with words that aren't part of everyday language, acronyms, and oddities that exist only in crossword or scrabble dictionaries, not in normal peoples minds. I highlighted my words in red, and the computer then filled in the rest. I was pleased to see that it included LSD as one of the answers, but another one RND seemed like a cheap filler word. I like the concept, but I would still get more satisfaction out of creating my own with pen and paper.

Jetzt geht es glatt!

Got it, with a little help. Blog feed now public, seen on top left corner of this page. Now, onwards and upwards.

Vielleicht jetzt ja!

So, trying again, I now find this following line at the bottom of my blog -

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

although I can't recall if it was already there or not. I don't know if this is the correct answer to the public bloglines exercise?

r to the s to the???

Well, all introductory steps were simple, but come the step "how to find your public bloglines" I found myself вниз головой* trying to figure out just what in the ding-dang was going on. I tried several times with different ideas as to what might work, but, alas, Ich war von Mauern voll umgeben.**

*loosely translated as "ass over elbow", or, for the quaint, "upside down."
**"I was completely surrounded by walls," or in plain speech, I didn't have a damned clue where to turn next.

So as far as that's concerned, I'll check in with colleagues and repeat that last step soon. For now, I'll just move on to the next steps, since deadline is approaching. Feels like I'm back at uni.

retrievr it, or not.

Well, I messed around a little with flickr addonmashupmacallit, retrievr. Drew what may be the worst drawing they have ever recieved, and ended up with the photos seen in the screen capture here. Quite an interesting application, I started with just the black lines, and got all black and white shots, usually human faces. Next I added some green, and got a few startling photos of some beautiful and intensely green eyes. Then added red, and got the selection of photos seen now. I think that what sets it apart from the flickr colour picker is the fact that you can also control, to a moderate extent, the dominant shapes of the photos. A finer point with which to sketch would be the finishing touch on this toy.

flickr, knave of dolphins

rats. tried using the "create a trading card" to include in the librarian trading cards, but either the function wasn't working, or the red wine had got the better of me. those who know me may, and i expect, will, jump to their own conclusions as to which of the two that would be. those who don't, i could use the benefit of the doubt.

flickr, king of the dolphins

well, after weeks of sheer laziness and even a bit of actual preoccupation, i've resumed my web 2.0 work. i had a quick look around flickr, everything was straightforward, and instructions were always close and clear if any problems were to have arisen. i didn't see any tags in the generic display "explore flickr with tags" that particularly interested me, so typed "siberia" and then "iceland" in the search field, and stumbled over some beautiful pictures of places i one day hope to see. there were a lot of very colourful pictures of the aurora borealis, geysers, baby blue wolf eyes, and assorted arctic lunacy, but i really love the simplicity of this little ice flo, so small and delicate, and doomed to obscurity save for the whiz who caught it on film and then kindly shared it with us all. a nice simple site to use, lots of interesting content, even only after 2 simple searches, and a nice sense of community between publishers and viewers. my initial irritation at having to sign up to yet another site, with yet another e-mail account, was happily bypassed with the aclelgar account which saved me the bother. in an exercise like this, the repetition of application forms is more hassle than i would care for, but if it was a one off, i would have no qualms about it. if i should get a digital camera, i'd happily use flickr, alongside http://www.webshots.com/ , another great source of instant desktop wallpapers.

postscript: when i publish to my blog, instead of seeing the image on the screen, there's just a narrow rectangular box that appears above the text, and the little pointy finger appears when i hover on it. the link works, but no pic on screen, i don't know why. i repeated the process, but only ended up with a second rectangular box repeating the link. i decided not to worry for now, and move on to next section in order to catch up. if colleagues share tips, or further exploration yields a better result, i'll adjust it accordingly.

the man without a facebook

It was a dark and stormy night... But the man without a facebook never knew this, for he had no eyes. How do I know, you ask? Because I was there... I mean, he couldn't have told me, could he? He had no mouth...

Well, that trash could go on for ever and never move an inch. So, facebook was a pretty simple affair. No technical difficulties whatsoever. I must say, I prefer the fact that it builds networks based more around ACTUAL friends rather than virtual friends. I liked the options of music, vids etc, that myspace offers, but was always turned off by the transitory nature of most people there. If you explored the groups there, there was an ugly trend called "trains" where people (complete strangers, or, maybe even just photos of strangers, as masks for lord knows who) would allow you to join their train if you had the correct photogenics, allowing you both to up your statistics to "567 friends", instead of the paltry 32 that you already had. Upon creating a facebook account, however, the very first photo I saw as "friend" was that of my oldest and closest friend since childhood, who remains as such now. That was really all the reason I needed to forget myspace forever. I'm sure though, that further exploration of facebook on my part, and perhaps development of it on theirs, will afford it many more possibilities from an aesthetic point of view.

Chillin' in the name of...

b to the lo to the double g,
if we crunk with the web we get an mp3
player, for jus' a holla one time each week,
keep an L.A. on the beat, spittin' rhymes,
save a dime, save a dollar,
if my dj keep scratchin', finna buy the dogg a collar...

(chorus)
get on up, like the JB, maybe,
lyrics flow easy when you shootin' the breez-e
keepin' pace on the course like thoroughbred stallions
we the book brigade, we the ACLiens...

Well, thanks to Mr Snoop Bloggy Blogg, for those wise words. Confucius will surely be turning green in his grave. I'm L.A. Ricahrd, and you're tuned in to the mellotronic sounds of the ACL. Check it out like a book on-the-super-fly.