#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

And the pertinent questions (and answers) are:
I chose Pandora Radio.
Submitted for your approval. Say- you were up late watching the Olympics or your neighbor - fresh from her viewing of Mama Mia!- plays all her ABBA albums at mega-decibel levels until the wee-wee hours of the morning. You're trying to stay awake and multiple cups of coffee aren't doing the trick. You know that a certain songs- like Morning Dance by Spiro Gyra- energize you. You wonder if there are other songs out there that will have the same effect. Pandora can help you find the songs you need to hear right now
What did you like or dislike about the tool?What were the site’s useful features? . I really like that Pandora can locate other artists similar to the artists I like and other tunes similar to a song I like. I like that Pandora asks for my input to make sure it's getting me what I want- a thumbs up or thumbs down. When I've used this site in the past, there have been times that Pandora is having a bad day and completely missed the mark. At times like those, I've wished that there was something stronger than a thumbs down. You not only hear the similar tunes, you see what albums they appear on. One drawback would be that on a day like today where -according to ITD- the web provided by JPL and the City of Jacksonville is at 80%+ capacity; music files get interrupted because there's so much demand on resources. During the busy times, you get chopped up versions of songs which really takes the joy out of the enjoyment for me. Can't complain too much; it IS free, after all.
Could you see any applications for its use in a library setting? Not directly. I can see that it might be a source for music collection development a sort of music version of the Readers' Advisory "If you like" lists. To me, this is more of a personal use site than a social networking site but there is a social networking side to it.

Zoho-mania!--#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

Whoa! That was so easy! The only things I found that I disliked about Zoho are:

• They didn't feature the font that I usually use. You know- the City of Jacksonville approved font Century Gothic. And they didn't allow odd sizes of the font- like 11.
• It had a very busy toolbar array.

Other than that, getting started with it was pretty intuitive. I didn't give Zoho Writer too many challenges when I was composing my blog entry on it. Everything transferred over and the fact that the font (Tahoma) doesn't exist in Blogger.com-land fazed neither Zoho or Blogger.

In some ways- it was easier composing the blog entry in Zoho and then transferring it over to Blogger.

WOW!!! Olympic Opening Moments - a Zoho Exercise

I was really impressed by the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremonies last Friday night (8/8/08). I'm still trying to figure out how they were able to:

• make the big torch (known at other Olympics as the Olympic cauldron) appear out of nowhere.
  
• make the people-powered movable type work so well
  
• and wondering what I missed that occurred during the commercials.
  

I'm hoping that someone does a DVD of the entire show.