Week 6, #13

"Tagging" -



Starting with the words "folksonomy" & "taxonomy" you're getting in to very controversial territory! It sounds like a threat from the government: they already put too many "tax[es] on o' me & on o' you!" And the "folksonomy" stuff sounds like a "Bushism" for him to do more "tax-on-o-me!" Where will it all stop?



Well, be that as it may (or may not), the short film clip of the 2 girls "folksonomy-ing" the back yard is very good. They deserve a bling for that.



("You're it!")

Week 5, #12

Although the Horizon system failure last week prevented some of us from setting up an Elf account (the hcpl listing on the elf library list was deleted) we have now "registered" & set up an account.

The idea is a good one. although my current status is: no holds, no requests, no overdues . . . , it promises to notify me more frequently when I have such an item to act on.

We'll see if it actually is useful.

;-)

Week 5 #11

My LibraryThing account is set up; I added 5 books to my list & am now making a entry in my "blog" stating that I have, in fact, done those tasks, with the intention of earning another bling.

So does it go: "blog, bling, blang?" or is it "Bling, blang blog?"

I must admit I can't imagine that anyone would be interested in what I'm reading, but the subject I'm presently persuing is the use of mathematical puzzles as job interview questions & the application of "testing" job applicants' intelligence as part of the job interview. This inquiry has led me to investigate the subject of "artificial intelligence" or "machine intelligence" as utilized in computing technology because "human intelligence" is deemed to be the major factor in recruiting employees for high tech companies like Microsoft. It appears that they want the greatest human intelligence in order to develop the cutting edge machine intelligence.

Week 5, #10

"Avatars" - Since we're learning about these, it is important for us all to be fully informed of the full scope of this concept. Although the information given in the ihcpl assignment is accurate, a significant omission compels me add the hysterical basis (that's right, not historical) of this important subject. To whit -

The first "Avatar" was the appellation adopted by an avid fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, who of course, authored the ever popular "Tarzan" stories that became popular movies in the formative years of the film industry. This avid Tarzan fan, in the interest of anonymity truncated her name to "Avatar" while establishing the first "blog" in June of 1937. Tragically, no one gave credit to her for this seminal work, primarily because no one knew about the Internet (which she invented) at that time, but also because of the rampant gender bias of that era. As is commonly know, it took decades for her invention to be brought before the public by Claude Shannon, who working for Bell Laboratories & conducting research on Information Theory, was given credit for inventing the Internet.

At this point, I've looked at Goodreads & tries to add my own titles . . . since I prefer nonfiction books, that is what I entereed. Guess what? it responds that it can't find the titles. So, I'll need to verify that my entries are correct & come back later. Well, that's lesson #11, so I'll close this post & move on. ttfn

Week 4, #9

Alright! This is "instant information" in the literal sense of the phrase. The next challenge is to actually read all of this information on a regular (daily?) basis. It gives fast access to sites of interest & is a way to keep up to date with them. Very good, sports fans.
bfn

Week 4, #8

[THIS JUST IN: CNN has this applicant for the anchor position on the 6 o'clock news - her audition tape was inadvertently downloaded to a blog site. As a result, millions of viewers have e-mailed CNN begging them to hire this up-start, but CNN couldn't meet the salary requirements of the candidate who told reporters that she didn't think $22 million for a 2-yr contract was unreasonable. (In confidence, she admitted that the request was based on the recommendation of the Vancouver (BC) Public Library union representative.)]

Also, "this just in:" After reviewing the Wikipedia entry for "RSS" one would not be criticized for thinking, "TMI!" The data about really simple syndication is, might we say, comprehensive.

As a web feed (or "feed" as it is known by insiders) is designed to provide automated updates of information sites that otherwise must be searched manually.

This accumulation is done by an "aggregator." Although the article doesn't give the following information, I'm adding it for the enlightenment of all students of technology willing to admit they don't know it all [it's based on meticulous research.]

The term "aggregator" describes the process of the assimilation of alligators to arid farmland ("agriculture" + "alligator" = "aggegator") as a permanent habitat, away from their normal, aquarian habitat. Aggregators are not to be confused with crocodiles because they live in a different part of the world. The reasoning behind introducing alligators to arid farmland is that since they (alligators) have the habit of burrowing, they are very helpful in digging for water, which, of course, is much needed in order to grow anything in those arid wastelands. And although there is much more detail about this specialized field of zoology (training alligators to be aggregators) I must move on with writing other authoritative reference documents. In any case, if this information is aggravating to you, you're in good company.
ttfn