Guess what, kids? The Charlie the Unicorn video has two sequels! Since yinz enjoyed the original, I'm embedding the sequels, named Charlie the Unicorn 2 and Charlie the Unicorn 3, natch.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Smoke on the Water and Fire in the Fox
So, I tried the Firefox browser, and I have to say, it isn't half bad. I was already familiar with tabs from using IE 7 and 8, and I really like using CTRL+ and CTRL- to enlarge and decrease the overall page or text only. As for some of the add-ons in the list, I think some aren't that big of a deal. StumbleUpon or Personas aren't very important for me. AdBlock, however, is pretty darn cool. It's definitely one of those apps wherein you notice its absence rather than presence. For now, I'm gonna stick with IE 7 and 8 because it's used by so many sites, but Firefox is a contender. Also, cute red foxy is cute.
Oh, and I nearly forgot, one thing I like about IE 8 that Firefox doesn't seem to have is, when I open a new tab in 8, it shows several thumbnails of the pages I've visited the most. Then all I have to do is click on the thumbnail to get to the site. Perhaps there is an add-on for that, but IE 8 does it automatically, so bit of a win there, I'd say.
Oh, and I nearly forgot, one thing I like about IE 8 that Firefox doesn't seem to have is, when I open a new tab in 8, it shows several thumbnails of the pages I've visited the most. Then all I have to do is click on the thumbnail to get to the site. Perhaps there is an add-on for that, but IE 8 does it automatically, so bit of a win there, I'd say.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Guten tag. Hola. Bonjour. Yo.
For the Week 6 topic, databases, I first chose EBSCOHost, and searched for great white sharks and clicked on the full text box. I got a number of results in well known publications such as National Geographic and Smithsonian. I like EBSCO for general searching, before one has narrowed down a topic. Also, I like that Northland users can access it remotely.
I also played with Ancestry. I looked up my paternal grandfather and found the 1920 census results. He was about 16 at the time and had 7 siblings: Lena, Katie, Elizabeth, Ernest, Alma, Elwood and Clara (who was written as "Claud" by the Ancestry summary, though you can tell it's Clara in the original document). His parents, Ernest and Sofia (alternately written as Sofa and Sophie) were born in Germany, so Grandpa Harry was in the first generation born here. By the 1930 Census, he'd moved out of the house, and his dad, my great-grandfather, must have died, because he wasn't listed there. We have a lot of patrons using Ancestry here, so getting to know its nooks and crannies always is important.
Finally, I checked out the newest database, Mango. It is so fun and cool. The interface is very easy for users, and it's great having someone pronounce the words as you see them (I'm quite visual in my learning, so I can't just hear the words when I acquire a new language). I chose Japanese because I wanted something different from the usual French/Spanish/German choices. The only criticism I have is that I would've liked to see the words in Roman script as well as the traditional Japanese. I know that in Japan you're going to see the kanji, but as a Westerner, I need the extra help. However, I overall enjoy Mango and hope it overtakes Rosetta Stone as the go-to for immersion lessons, especially since Rosetta refuses to give library discounts.
I also played with Ancestry. I looked up my paternal grandfather and found the 1920 census results. He was about 16 at the time and had 7 siblings: Lena, Katie, Elizabeth, Ernest, Alma, Elwood and Clara (who was written as "Claud" by the Ancestry summary, though you can tell it's Clara in the original document). His parents, Ernest and Sofia (alternately written as Sofa and Sophie) were born in Germany, so Grandpa Harry was in the first generation born here. By the 1930 Census, he'd moved out of the house, and his dad, my great-grandfather, must have died, because he wasn't listed there. We have a lot of patrons using Ancestry here, so getting to know its nooks and crannies always is important.
Finally, I checked out the newest database, Mango. It is so fun and cool. The interface is very easy for users, and it's great having someone pronounce the words as you see them (I'm quite visual in my learning, so I can't just hear the words when I acquire a new language). I chose Japanese because I wanted something different from the usual French/Spanish/German choices. The only criticism I have is that I would've liked to see the words in Roman script as well as the traditional Japanese. I know that in Japan you're going to see the kanji, but as a Westerner, I need the extra help. However, I overall enjoy Mango and hope it overtakes Rosetta Stone as the go-to for immersion lessons, especially since Rosetta refuses to give library discounts.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Birdie goes tweet tweet
As I mentioned in the comments section on the Week 8 post, I belong to Facebook and Twitter. With Facebook, I haven't done too much. I think it goes back to my feeling that what I do is not really that interesting. I am having a lot of fun with the Farmville game. It's just like when I garden, but I don't get all sweaty, yay!
My Twitter account is: http://twitter.com/cowsharky Promise to play nice if you visit. I turned my icon green in support of Iran and changed my location to Tehran in the vain hope of making it harder for Iran gov't censors to get to Iranian Twitter users. Not sure if it's helping any at all, but at least it's something.
I tend to follow celeb types, but I think I should get brownie points for not following Ashton Kutcher (I'm such a rebel). I seriously rec. Misha Collins' Twitter. He plays an angel on the show "Supernatural", is a published poet, once interned in the White House (the Clinton years--before Monica), snuck into Tibet to live with the monks, is an accomplished carpenter and built his own house, does yoga and is insanely bendy, and about ten million other things. No, I'm not b.s.-ing here. Anyway, he's been using his account for posting completely insane stories. Check it out, and make sure you go all the way to the beginning: http://twitter.com/mishacollins Seriously, dude brings the lulz big time.
My Twitter account is: http://twitter.com/cowsharky Promise to play nice if you visit. I turned my icon green in support of Iran and changed my location to Tehran in the vain hope of making it harder for Iran gov't censors to get to Iranian Twitter users. Not sure if it's helping any at all, but at least it's something.
I tend to follow celeb types, but I think I should get brownie points for not following Ashton Kutcher (I'm such a rebel). I seriously rec. Misha Collins' Twitter. He plays an angel on the show "Supernatural", is a published poet, once interned in the White House (the Clinton years--before Monica), snuck into Tibet to live with the monks, is an accomplished carpenter and built his own house, does yoga and is insanely bendy, and about ten million other things. No, I'm not b.s.-ing here. Anyway, he's been using his account for posting completely insane stories. Check it out, and make sure you go all the way to the beginning: http://twitter.com/mishacollins Seriously, dude brings the lulz big time.
Danger! Danger! High Voltage!
Just as with You Tube, I've been visiting Flickr for quite a while. I haven't gotten to posting pics of my own, but I've found tons of other pics. I tend to visit photo pools of cute animals (especially tuxedo cats) and photostreams sent to my by friends. The craziest stream I've seen is "30 Ways to Die of Electrocution" (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bre/sets/72157611077138836/), old illustrations from a German book (circa 1930's) called Elektroschutz. The pictures were scanned and presented by Fickr user Bre Pettis, who has a blog here: http://brepettis.com/blog These pics are so bizarre that they're funny, as seen in the above example.
Since we're in Pittsburgh, shouldn't we call it Yinz Tube?
I was a You Tube addict for quite a while before this week. I use it for many reasons such as finding music videos (great for when I'm in an 80's nostalgia mood), tv clips (which are often taken down due to copyright) and humor (such as dramatic readings of bad fanfic). I finally decided on the infamous "Charlie the Unicorn" vid for my embedding. It's just so utterly demented.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
