If you still don't know what Google wave is or just don't want to watch the 80 minutes long video, Google have made a new video explaining Wave in just 10 minutes (acutally 7.52). Enjoy!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Google Wave goes Beta!
Today (the 30th of September) Google have opened Google wave for 100.000 beta testers. I'm unfortunately not one of them but it's still a big step towards the upcoming launch.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Wikipedia
Everybody knows Wikipedia, but not everybody thinks that it's "safe" to use. Because everybody can write and edit any post on wikipedia some people fear that the information might not be true. There are several arguments for that.
1:The person who wrote it might actually not know what he's writing about. 2: Someone wanted to write their own personal opinion about something like how the earth was made or maybe write badly about a "famous" person. 3: They intentionally wrote something they knew was wrong, also known as Wiki-vandalism.
The first argument is for me not really a problem. There are so many people who knows so much about so many different things that I think it would be corrected almost right away. The second, asuming that it's no a direct lie, only requires some basic understanding on how to see if a person is uttering a personal opinion. The third however is a little more difficult. In cases where people edit a post, making it "untrue", I guess the answer to the first argument would apply. If they just plainly make something up, like inventing a city, I don't think it would affect me since I use it to find information on a, for me, known subject which make it hard to be "fiction" as described before.
One of the obvious reasons for using wikipedia over some "old" encyclopedia is that wikipedia is often updated minutes after the change has occured where as the old ones takes a longer time to get up-to-date. That is why some people argue that wikipedia is more "safe" to use when wanting relevant information.
Some people complain about wikipedia being filled with "useless" information about "indifferent" things. I however think that that is the main force of wikipedia. It contains information about anything that somebody found important enough to write about. That is something you won't find in the professional encyclopedias.
Here's a little video by Collegehumor about the topic:
1:The person who wrote it might actually not know what he's writing about. 2: Someone wanted to write their own personal opinion about something like how the earth was made or maybe write badly about a "famous" person. 3: They intentionally wrote something they knew was wrong, also known as Wiki-vandalism.
The first argument is for me not really a problem. There are so many people who knows so much about so many different things that I think it would be corrected almost right away. The second, asuming that it's no a direct lie, only requires some basic understanding on how to see if a person is uttering a personal opinion. The third however is a little more difficult. In cases where people edit a post, making it "untrue", I guess the answer to the first argument would apply. If they just plainly make something up, like inventing a city, I don't think it would affect me since I use it to find information on a, for me, known subject which make it hard to be "fiction" as described before.
One of the obvious reasons for using wikipedia over some "old" encyclopedia is that wikipedia is often updated minutes after the change has occured where as the old ones takes a longer time to get up-to-date. That is why some people argue that wikipedia is more "safe" to use when wanting relevant information.
Some people complain about wikipedia being filled with "useless" information about "indifferent" things. I however think that that is the main force of wikipedia. It contains information about anything that somebody found important enough to write about. That is something you won't find in the professional encyclopedias.
Here's a little video by Collegehumor about the topic:
Delicious and bookmarks
Delicious. com is a website that lets you create a profile to which you can add bookmarks.You can either import the bookmarks from your internet browser or go to the website and add them manually. You then have acces to your bookmarks from any computer by logging in to your profile on delicious.
This is very usefull if you work at different computers and or use a puplic computer and need a certain website that you don't remember the address to. You can also create a network and share your bookmarks with friends and colleagues.
An extra bonus feature is that you, if you use firefox, can install a delicious application that lets you have acces to your bookmarks directly from your browser. This might be a good way to organize your bookmarks if you have laptop and stationary computer.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
LibraryThing
One of the other websites, presented to us by our professor, is LibraryThing.com.
It's a website that lets you search/browse several archives to find the books you have read/own.
You then make your very own list of books and let other people see your collection. You can now rate and make review of the book. The idea is then to let you see others, who got the same kind of books that you have, so that you can get inspired to which book you are going to read next, or simply let the website generate some suggestions automatically based on the books in your library. I think I'd rather see what people I know have read before trying the other feature.
I thought it was very fun to find the different books I've read, but so far I have yet to get excited about the "Recommended" feature. That being said I find it very nice to be able to show off and even recommend the books I've already read.
It's a website that lets you search/browse several archives to find the books you have read/own.
You then make your very own list of books and let other people see your collection. You can now rate and make review of the book. The idea is then to let you see others, who got the same kind of books that you have, so that you can get inspired to which book you are going to read next, or simply let the website generate some suggestions automatically based on the books in your library. I think I'd rather see what people I know have read before trying the other feature.
I thought it was very fun to find the different books I've read, but so far I have yet to get excited about the "Recommended" feature. That being said I find it very nice to be able to show off and even recommend the books I've already read.
RSS feeds and iGoogle
I've never really used RSS feeds before. I didn't really know what it was and didn't really know how to start using them.
I then discovered that I've been using something very much like RSS feeds for a long time by using iGoogle. In iGoogle I've chosen a number of news sites that I would like to get news from and they each get a box on my iGoogle page in which the 3 latest news appears.
A good idea then to get news from minor sites that doesn't have that many news is to use RSS feeds. I'm using google reader and a little widget(add-on) to my iGoogle which makes a box on my iGoogle page in which my feeds now appear.
In addition to making this blog I've also subscribed to a number of people I would like to follow. It so happens that I can also use google reader to see blog posts from the people I'm following. So now I've got all my news on my iGoogle page, which of course is my homepage, and I'm starting to see the real potential to RSS feeds although I would advice using it together with iGoogle.
I then discovered that I've been using something very much like RSS feeds for a long time by using iGoogle. In iGoogle I've chosen a number of news sites that I would like to get news from and they each get a box on my iGoogle page in which the 3 latest news appears.
A good idea then to get news from minor sites that doesn't have that many news is to use RSS feeds. I'm using google reader and a little widget(add-on) to my iGoogle which makes a box on my iGoogle page in which my feeds now appear.
In addition to making this blog I've also subscribed to a number of people I would like to follow. It so happens that I can also use google reader to see blog posts from the people I'm following. So now I've got all my news on my iGoogle page, which of course is my homepage, and I'm starting to see the real potential to RSS feeds although I would advice using it together with iGoogle.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Did you know
This is a video that makes the viewer say: "Oh shit!" And I really like those kind of videos!
To blog
I've always thought that you ought to have something to say before making a blog. Nevertheless I now have a reason for making one since we are integrating it into our lectures.
I now hope that it will blossom into a great blog of knowledge or die trying!
I now hope that it will blossom into a great blog of knowledge or die trying!
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