Web Browsers

A web browser is the software loaded on your computer which you use to connect to the internet. There are many different web browsers including Windows Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome. You can download any of these web browsers for free!! The most popularly used is the Windows Internet Explorer.

I took an online tour of Google Chrome and found it combined a minimal design with sophisticated technology. Some of its more appealing features include:

*The address bar which doubles as a search bar and matches your bookmarks and history as you type

*Web page tools are all conveniently found in the page menu (cut, paste, copy, enlarge text etc.)

*Extra tabs at a click of a button, change tab position and view thumbnails of open tabs for easy selection

*Easy to use technology to make the web faster and safer

*Go incognito and leave no trace behind - I am not sure if it is a good or a bad feature! If your children knew about this feature there would be no way of checking up on them but if you were to buy your spouse a present online it would cover your tracks. I like to think the cup is half full!

I also took an online tour of Firefox to compare it to Google Chrome and this is what I found:

*First up is the humbly named Awesome bar (address bar) Type in the Awesome Bar and the auto-complete function includes possible matching sites from your browsing history, as well as sites you’ve bookmarked and tagged in a drop down. The Awesome Bar learns as you use it—over time, it adapts to your preferences and offers better fitting matches.

*Private browsing (incognito)

*One click bookmarking

*Location aware browsing – if you upload your location Firefox will suggest local websites and other local information

*Remembers your zoom settings and saves tabs and sessions

*The best feature of Firefox 3.5 is its many add-ons, I’m talking 1000’s! Google ‘Firefox add-ons’ to find out more! Everything you need to customize your browser and PC!

Library Joke of the Week!

Q - How many Librarians does it take to change a light bulb??

A - Five. One changes the light bulb while the other four form a committee and write a letter of protest, because after all, changing light bulbs IS NOT in their position descriptions. (six if you count the librarian they all report to)

Blog Action Day 2009

Do you care for the environment??
But you ask... What can one person do??

Just watch this!!



Be part of something bigger than yourself!!

Library Joke of the Week

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Winnie

Winnie who?

Winnie you going to bring back that overdue book, Hmmm?

Podcasts

A Podcast is a non-music audio recording which is dispersed throughout the internet by amateurs and professionals. A Podcast can include interviews, radio shows or discussions about a particular subject. Listeners can hear them on their computers, MP3’s or mobile phones and receive updates through RSS feeds when new content is posted no matter where you are.

To find some podcasts that would interest you, just google ‘podcast’ or check out the Podcast directory (http://www.podcastdirectory.com/) or Podcast Alley (http://www.podcastalley.com/)

A podcast that was of interest to me was called A Juggling Mum (you can look her up on itunes) She tells her story of a working mum with 4 children, a husband and a home business. With hints and tips for juggling work, home and a social life!

Podcasts could be used in libraries to inform members of upcoming events or what’s new in the library, to explain how to use the catalogue or to share book reviews.

Library Joke of the week

Once a blonde went to the library to get a book. A few days later, she returns and says to librarian at the counter,
"This book was very boring. It had too many characters and too many numbers, so i would like to return it."
The librarian says to the other librarian, "So that was the person who took our phone book!"

Mashups

Mashups? (Sounds like what I’m having with my meat and veg for tea tonite!!)

A Mashup is a web application that uses content from more than one source to create a single new service displayed in a single window. A Mashup brings applications together, enhances existing data, improves usability and makes a web page or blog more dynamic and engaging!

To get a better idea of Mashups I headed to The Mashup awards website (Http://mashupawards.com/winners) and I found some amazing Mashups you must try!!

Twitrans
This is a Mashup for all you twitter lovers out there, just say, you have a friend on the other side of the world and you speak different languages and find it hard to communicate. Simply tweet to @twitrans Eg. en2de Hello! Wait for the translators to do their job and it will be translated on your home page. Eg. Gutentag!
en2de is code for English to German. Here are the rest of the language codes:
Ar – Arabic, Zh – Chinese, NL – Dutch, ES – Spanish, Fr – French, RU – Russian,
EL – Greek, HE – Hebrew, HI – Hindi, JP – Japanese, PT – Portuguese and IT – Italian.
Check it out at http://www.twitrans.onehourtranslation.com/

140it
One more for the Twitterers! Do you find it hard to keep to your tweets 140 characters or less? Then this little Mashup is for you! It works by reducing words and removing spaces, shrinking URL’s and exchanging company names with their stocktwits logo. There is more information and a demonstration video on the website. http://www.140it.com/

Pixelpipe
Liberate your media!! Upload photos, videos and audio through the pixelpipe gateway and distribute your content across 100+ social networks, photo/video sites, blogs etc. with mobile and desktop applications. No more loading the same photo over and over again, do it once! Distribute your content to any of these: Flickr, YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, Picasa, Photobucket, Zooomr, Photobox, Snapfish, Shutterfly, jaiku, Blip.tv, Twitter and Blogger… just to name a few!!! Check it out yourself!! http://www.pixelpipe.com/