Thing 13

The thirteenth thing is called "Online Productivity Tools"--although I must admit that I felt anything but productive as I sampled the various options that I could add to my igoogle page. Would my efficiency on the job really increase because I elect to have the joke of the day at my fingertips? A number of the add-ons seem designed only to increase the mental distance between my wandering attention and whatever it is that I am supposed to be doing.

On the other hand, I did doll up my igoogle page with local weather alerts (a no-brainer since the weather radio keeps going off on this day of unsettled atmospherics--from where I sit I can hear the alarm, but not the announcer's voice giving us the weather particulars), the New York Times leads and a few other relentlessly respectable links. I even added the "great art image of the day" for decoration. A Gaugain Tahitian this morning.

Then I stumbled over the 23 Thing pointer to a website called Zamzar.com According to the blurb,
This program will covert one file type to another. Especially handy in libraries that may not be able to open a student or patron file because it doesn’t have the right software.
Well, son of a gun, if we hadn't just had that situation in the library this morning. I wonder if this would have helped.

I still prefer my personal "starting place" homepage aldaily.com (Arts & Literature Daily from the Chronicle of Higher Education, it's something like the thinking person's Reader's Digest), not because it's useful--it isn't--but because it's really one of the most interesting ways I know to waste time online.

Thing 11 Reddit, Digg etc.

OK, I've reached my limit. Call me an elitist, call me a media snob, but I see absolutely no reason to get my news mediated by the inadequate attention spans of a bunch of witless, post-adolescent cyber-commentators. The so-called social media sites can carry on without me.

When I want to find out what's going on in the world, I want the New York Times straight up. Why on earth would I care to have my news "voted on" by a bunch of underemployed slackers who happen to have some time on their hands in cyberspace? Sorry, but whatever "community" they belong to, count me out.

Thing 10

Honor is served. I have added a comment to our Reference Wiki, thereby observing the letter (if not the spirit) of Thing #10.
My chief difficulty with Wikis is the usual authoritative/egalitarian dilemma. Do I really trust the collective wisdom of the group, unmediated by the editorial voice?

I wonder what the origins of the word "wiki" are, by the way. Oh well, speak but the word, and google gives us the answer. According to computerworld.com, the genesis of "wiki" is just about as banal as you might expect. Somebody vacationing in Hawaii hears "wiki, wiki" (Hawaiian for 'quick') and thinks, "Hey, that's a good name for the software."
The only software name I've ever approved of, really, was the email program Eudora--for obvious literary reasons. (Eudora Welty's short story "Why I Live at the P.O." was the inspiration.)
Oh well, off-topic as usual. I am NOT a 21st century person.