Want to share sites you find interesting, check on Del.icio.us!

The second blog post required for this week is a review of Del.icio.us or delicious.com.  It is a social media site for sharing bookmarks online.  I do not know if it is something I will use, but I’m considering it.  I might be able to help my dad out by sharing links to different “How To” websites like how to change your homepage back when it has been high jacked.  Another one he needs is how to remove fake virus detection software that keeps popping up trying to sell you a way to remove the 100’s of viruses and malware that you do not really have on your computer.

Delicious.com uses the example of a teacher sharing links with her students.  The links she is sharing direct her students to valid research resources.  I think that is a very clever idea.  It would be particularly useful for younger students who do not understand that a lot sites they think are creditable, like Wikipedia, can be full of personal opinions and incorrect information.  It would also save the student time searching the Internet for creditable sources when the teacher already has a list of them ready on her delicious.com site.

My delicious.com link is: https://delicious.com/vixfox#

All it contains right now is links to Web 2.0 information I found interesting or useful.  If you have never tried out delicious.com, give it a whirl.  There are a lot of users with varied interest so you can find links to just about anything.

I can only think of benefits to using delicious.com.  The only drawback I could see is the standard privacy issues, but with this site you would have to go out of your way to reveal too much private information.  I am interested to see if any of my classmates came up with drawbacks.

Checking out Flickr - A Web 2.0 site for sharing images.

Part of this week’s class assignment required creating a Photostream on Flickr containing images I created with Web 2.0 as a theme.  I know I’m weird, but I love Microsoft Paint.  I’m especially thrilled with the recent changes to it that expanded its capabilities so I used it to create my images.  My images are very primitive, but I like them, and they express my thoughts and feelings about Web 2.0.

Since I had never used Flickr before, I was expecting to have a little trouble with it.  Signing up for an account was painless.  The only hiccup I had was after selecting my pictures, describing them, and picking out a few tags for each of them I thought I was finished.  I clicked off the page and nothing was saved.  I did not have anything in my Photostream.  I was confused so I started over from step one.  Once I was back into the Upload screen I immediate saw what I had missed before.  There is an Upload Photo button.  Duh!  After reselecting my images, describing them again, and yet again tagging them, I clicked the button that read “Upload 3 Photos” and BAM! I had a Photostream.  It was easy! 

I think I could talking my 80 year old dad through doing this, and I probably should.  He has so many images on his computer, he can never find anything.  This would be a great way for him to back them up, organize them, and then share them.  He figured out how to share photos on Facebook by himself, and I think Flickr is much easier.

I’m not much of picture taker.  I had a prime chance last week to take a picture of a bear eating berries in my side yard, but I did not even think of it.  Then just few days ago a humming bird was checking out my window screen not four feet from me, but did I grab my camera phone and take a picture?  Of course not.  I do think to take pictures of my grandsons, but that is about it.

Flickr may not be something I use, but my dad and daughter-in-law are getting a crash course on it soon.  They both take a lot of picture of people and places I’d enjoy seeing.  Flickr is easy to learn, and they give you a full terabyte of storage space.  I do not know how many pictures fit in a terabyte, but it is a lot!

To check out my Flickr feed go to:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/100974506@N02/

Reviewing Open Source Software: Mozilla Thunderbird

I'm not sure why, but I had a hard time finding a third Open Source program to review.  It seemed like everything I downloaded was full of things I did not want to put on my machine.  Things like toolbars, homepage changes, third party applications, and so on.  That is my major complaint about Open Source software.  It often tries to push all this extra garbage on you.  The junk is even packaged in a way that makes it look you are agreeing to the terms of use when you are actually agreeing to have "bonus" software installed. 

I finally broke down and quit trying to find something new and different that none of my other classmates would be reviewing.  Instead, I downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird.  Boy was I pleased; no extra toolbars, no changing my homepage, just the program.  When I launched it for the first time, it ask for my full name, email address, and password.  Then just like Outlook 2010 it went out to the Internet, verified my email address and password, and automatically configured itself.  The next thing I knew, it was downloading my Gmail.

Much like Open Office, if you know Microsoft Outlook, it is just going to take a little fumbling around to figure out how to do things.  It's not difficult to use at all.  It's just a little, and I mean very little, different.  I would not hesitate to recommend Thunderbird to anyone who wanted a desktop application for email.  I am a thrifty person my nature, but I also want quality.  Thunderbird delivers on both fronts.

Thunderbird offers features like the ability to create and organize your mail in multiple folders.  It can handle RSS feeds.  There is a good junk mail filter. It supports many mail services.  Whether it's a Microsoft Exchange server, POP, or IMAP email, Thunderbird can handle it.  It even comes with security features like digital signing, encryption, and a built-in phishing detector.  It also will not have a problem with HTML based emails.  Thunderbird does not just offer a basic desktop email client, it comes with all the bells and whistles you could want.

If I did not own Microsoft Office 2010 and 365, I'd use Thunderbird for my email needs.  The only feature I found missing is the ability to send a fax.  There maybe a way to force it use the Microsoft's Print to Fax feature, but it would have to have access to Windows TAPI engine so another work around like an Internet email to fax service would probably be easier.  All in all, I think Thunderbird is an awesome product and would suggest it to anyone.

Reviewing Open Source Software: Open Office

Open Office was the first Open Source program I ever heard of.  Prior to hearing about Open Office, I had always had Microsoft Office.  I used Microsoft Office skillfully, especially Word, Excel and Outlook, for years before ever receiving any training on them.  While working as a contractor at Microsoft, I was trained to support Microsoft Word 2000.  This training also included the basics of the other Microsoft Office 2000 programs because they can be used with Word.

Using Open Office was a little clumsy at first because things are just a little different.  However, the creators were definitely inspired by Microsoft Office because if you know how to use Microsoft Office, it is not hard at all to make the transition to Open Office. 

Since I have never received formal training on Open Office and just fumbled my way through teaching myself the basics of using it, I am not sure if it has all the cool features like WordArt. It definitely has all the basics you need to use it in any office environment. It is also able to open Microsoft Word and Excel files; and if you pay attention while saving your files, you can save them in standard Microsoft formats.  This means you do not have to worry that someone else might not be able to open your files because they have Microsoft Office.

If I were setting up an business and needed to have an office program but had a tight budget, I would use Open Office instead of buying the licenses for Microsoft Office on several computers.  It would take no time at all for anyone who already knows how to use a word processor and spreadsheet program to learn to use Open Office.  Besides, I have had Word and Excel crash on me numerous times, but I have never had that problem using Open Office.

Reviewing Open Source Software: Google Chrome (Open Source or Not?)

Let me first start with the premise that I learned to program on a Commodore Pet and 64, and it was torture.  I hate programming, even HTML gives me a migraine.  I like the principles behind Open Source, but I will not be taking advantage of the fact that a piece of software is Open Source by adding my own special touch to it.  So as for the debate about if Google Chrome is Open Source or not, my opinion is some people believe it is.  From what I have read from them if it is not Open Source, it's a kissing cousin to it.  I have listed some links below to some of those who think it is.  I am using Google Chrome as one the Open Source programs I am reviewing for a class project.

I have been online in some form for going on 30 years.  I have used a lot of browsers.  If it were not for a program called RoboForms, I would probably give up using Microsoft's Internet Explorer.  Google Chrome and Opera both work faster and recover better from errors, but RoboForms, which manages all my logins, passwords, and personal data is not as reliable in any browser other than IE.

In Chrome, specifically, sometimes the toolbar refuses to open at all.  Other times it will only take me to the website, but not log me in like it is suppose to.  So as far as the RoboForms plug-in working with Chrome I give it a C-.

Now with that being said, that's the only drawback.  Chrome loads faster that IE.  It works better on websites that use Flash.  It even seems to do a better job running Microsoft's Silverlight.  I love watching videos.  My computer has a 32" monitor for this specific reason.  I watch videos from Netflix and Amazon on Chrome and they load flawlessly and play perfectly.  The same videos, the same computer, using IE, they pause during playing to buffer.  Sometimes they lag while playing or simply just do not play at all.  So for video quality and playback I give Chrome an A+++.

I would definitely say that Chrome is a lighter, faster and more nimble browser than Internet Explorer.  However, I am not interested in switching to a different login manager at this time.  I have major problems with brain fog and have bouts of massive confusion.  RoboForms helps me more than I can say.  So for now, when I need to use RoboForms to login to a website, I use IE.  I am hopeful that with new updates someday it will be as reliable in other browsers like Chrome.

Back to the debate about whether or not Chrome is Open Source, I leave you with these links to people who know better than me.  Make up your own mind, if you really care.

Victoria

http://ostatic.com/chrome

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/girawCs8eMY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(web_browser)

Web 2.0

This image represent Social Media

Better luck the 3rd time around - Wk 2 Assignment

The second site I tried to go to for our week 2 assignment was PostBubble.com but no luck there either.  The domain would not even resolve.  It was then that I took a good hard look at the Top 10 Blogs Following Web 2.0 site by Brian W. Williams and noticed the post is dated August 21, 2006.  No wonder I am having trouble with outdated and closed sites.  Not being someone who gives up easy, I kept looking and found Rev2.org which, Mr. Williams said, "This site covers everyday topics around Web 2.0, written by Sid Yadav of Queenstown, New Zealand".  Maybe that was true in 2006, but now it is run by a team of editors.

Rev2.org  seems to be a thriving blog site with up-to-date information about what is happening on the web today.  I'm not sure how they determine their layout because the post do not appear to be in order by date. It seems they might be organizing the stories more like a newspaper would; the hottest item gets the prime spot.

They do not seem to have a shortage of sponsors which is a good sign.  On their About page they talk about being dedicated to reporting on Web 2.0 startups and technologies through in-depth analysis.  Considering the top story on there page today is about Facebook's new search feature and the other stories on their site, I definitely can see that this holds true.

As a matter of fact, the only thing I really disliked about the site was their color scheme. The varied shades of turquoise made reading the menu bar across the top of the page difficult but not impossible.

The team at Rev2.org  seems to be dedicated to their mission and doing a good job keeping up-to-date and writing insightful pieces.

Bravo Rev2.org  keep up the good work!

Solution Watch out of date

For our week 2 assignment, to review two blogs from The Top Ten Blogs Following Web 2.0, by Brian Wynne Williams, the first blog I chose was number 10.  This blog is by Brian Benzinger and titled SolutionWatch .  Brian Wynne Williams says "Brian Benzinger provides well-written, in-depth reviews of emerging sites", however. when I checkout the blog, it's simply an archive.  It has not been updated since 2007.  There is a note from Brian Benzinger saying something along the lines of he hopes to get back to updating the blog when time allows. 

Hmmm....last post in 2007 and now it's well past the halfway point in 2013.  Maybe this one should not listed in the top 10 anymore.  What is there is well written and thoughtful, but it is all old news. Definitely, not what I have expected from one of the Top 10, even when it is the one in last place.

Hi!  My name is Victoria and I'm creating this blog for my Web 2.0 class at the American Public University System.

This is my second years at APUS and even though it is hard work and sometimes difficult I am enjoying it.  Right now my major is Psychology, but I am not sure I will be keeping it there. I am very interested in computers and had a previous career in Technical Support so I'm tempted to change to some IT major. However, I also have some very promising opportunities in the real estate field so that is another option.

Ta-ta for now!
V