boney-girl

Why I removed a sidebar widget

2007-08-23T22:49:00.000+10:00

The drop down menu I had for interesting Links has been removed. Why? If I wanted to add more links I had to start over again and add all my links just to add a new one, for now I will just use the standard sidebar for links until I find something different if I can. But not now, it seems that blogger is having some issues, one minute I can add a page element (this is where you get the sidebars from) next minute I can't, so for now I will leave it and come back tomorrow and try to add my favourite links.

No.26 YourMinis! and Scrapbooking

2007-08-17T21:24:00.000+10:00

No. 26 of Learning 2.1 talks about YourMinis which is all about widgets.

If you have read any of my posts you will see that I have already gone down the road of widgets and I never get sick of them, so of cause I had to get one from YourMinis and then I had to decide what kind of widget I would create. This time it had to be different from all the other ones.

Two of my friends are into scrapbooking (me, not so much in fact not at all but I like their work) have created a blog about scrapbooking and they like to share with you the many ways that you can use their products and to also offer tips and ideas along the way.

My YourMinis is dedicated to them it is RSS feed widget, feel free to check out their site by clicking on the feeds to see what they are up to.

LetterPop number 25 of Learning 2.1

2007-08-15T21:39:00.000+10:00

LetterPop is a website, which lets you create your own newsletter when you do not have any fancy graphic programs on your computer. LetterPop offers 135 templates to choose from for your newsletter.
All you have to do is join and start creating, the drag and drop features make it easy for anyone to use, you are able to upload your own pictures. You are also able to save your creation, publish it for others to view and even email it.
This is a great way to get your news out there . I have created a newsletter it can be view by clicking here.
Using LetterPop I came across two little problems
1. You don’t have control in regards to the resizing of pictures. I uploaded a picture dropped it on to the newsletters and found it was too big, I had go back and resize then upload it again, my advice is to try one picture get an idea of the size required change all pictures you want to use before uploading all to LetterPop.
2. Printing, LetterPop allows printing of your newsletters but you also get excess information like at the bottom of the page the web address is show, perhaps in the future they make be able to offer a printable version without the excess in formation.
Overall, I would give LetterPop

Ning Network and Learning 2.1 explore.. discover.. play

2007-08-03T23:36:00.000+10:00

Part of the Learning 2.1 is to joined the Ning Network, this I had done a couple of months ago and have joind several networks within Ning, just look for my little house on the hill I may be your friend already.

I am now part of the Learning 2.1 Ning Network

The journey continues - Thing 24

2007-08-03T22:54:00.000+10:00

My learning continues and probably continue till when ever. I've moved on to Learning 2.1, I'm inspired by Learning 2.1 and am looking forward to trying all things suggested perhaps I will find something new but I doubt it.

Thing 23 - file conversations - Zamzar covers conversation for documents, image, music and video formats. I tried the conversion of a PDF (portable document format) to a word documents the formatting was exactly the same the I did the opposite with great results. For anyone who does not have a certain program on the computer they might find the website an advantage for example after creating a word document and wanting to share it with others who may not have e the same version of word can change their document into a PDF file. Another good point is for say Public Libraries who don't always every program available on their computers may be able to help their patrons who want to print the document and the library does not have the correct program. My library have come across this problem, we have tried the free online PDF conversion but it does not accept all types of file extensions like Zamzar.

I used Zamzar to convert a video file into an extension that I could used on my computer and was very happy with the results. I say give it a go.

Talking about file extensions, have you ever been asked (by a patron (library) ) can you please print out my document, you load up the file and it won't open, you look at the extension and think what kind of file it that. I come across this problem many times the latest was .docx this is the extension used by Microsoft Word 2007 I know that now but then I didn't and had to send the patron away to re save it in a different format. My point to all this rambling is suggest this website FILEXT-the file extension source. Some of the extension listed I've never heard of it may not be new find but it's something I found and wanted to post about it.

Enough for now until Thing 25.

Scrapblog have moved

2007-07-28T21:40:00.000+10:00

My three Scrapblogs have been moves over to boneygril-2nd-edition, you can click on the links to view them if you like.

Round up of Learning 2.0/Web 2.0 23 things

2007-07-28T20:51:00.000+10:00

Learning 2.0 and 23 things

What have I learned and will I do with what I have learned

I began with an end in mind and that was ‘if I try I can succeed”

It is up to me to improve myself

Problems can be resolved if you look at them as a challenge

I think I can, I know I can, and I will

Adapt to changing technology take a chance

Help others learn from others

Enjoy

I first came across 23 things after I had created my blog. I read about it in one of my RSS feeds and after reading the entry, I realised that I had already started working on 23 things I continued with my journey and discovered many new things.

Blogging Tagging Flicker Flickr colour pickr Montager Technology interests RSS feed Image generator Rollyo Technorati Del.icio.us Wikis Online applications Library Thing Podcasts video downloadable audio

Through my discoveries, I learned not just to look but also to investigate as I browse. Some of the extra things I learnt, making a Tag Cloud, Archive calendar, changing colours and fonts in the HTML codes. Joined the Ning network and made alot of friends.

I find I am continually learning every time I open the browser and I beleive that is the point of Learning 2.0

Here's a quick way

2007-07-13T23:22:00.000+10:00

Here's a quick way to add Interesting Links without filling up your blog put it in a drop-down menu, why, just to be different, thanks to hackosphere

2007-07-02T22:50:00.000+10:00

New videos @ boneygril

Musical @ the library
Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis @ the Library

gone but not forgotten, I'll be back as the saying goes

2007-07-02T21:49:00.000+10:00

Polaroid Puzzle
Fish tank
Picturetrail (overseas holiday)
Weather girl

To chat or not to chat my ramblings

2007-06-22T22:25:00.000+10:00

To chat or not to chat or is it now called posting messages

Is plain emailing being outdated????

My latest finds are Twitter, Bebo, Facebook and MySpace.

I have read about these through various blogs and on the Internet I have joined two of them.

My friend Twittered (not sure if that is the correct term) me, so I joined Twitter and we twittered for while accepted some new friends.

The other day I noticed my daughter using Facebook, she was in the family room using her laptop. My laptop is in the lounge room I sat down joined Facebook and sent her message asking her to be my friend, she accepted and we began chatting over the Internet instead of yelling to each other across the house, we do really talk to each other normally but this was just an exercise for me to see how Facebook works.

Of cause there many more site out there where one can chat, upload photos or post messages but I don't think they are for me.

Talking of chatting, where I work (public library) we have some computers that are restricted only for research purposes, on these computers chatting and email is not allowed and it was easy to block chat/email when there was only hotmail messenger and yahoo chat but now because there so many variations it is becoming hard to block all of them especially when you have not even heard of them, it's making the IT guy a bit crazy.

I can't imagined how many variations there are out there in the world wide web where one can email, chat or just send messages.

I've been tagged - MEME 8

2007-06-22T21:41:00.000+10:00

So I have been tagged, I guess I had better think of 8 random things.

My 8 randoms consist of things I like/love and are proud of.

1. My children, well their not children any more but technically they are still my children, they are now adults, so do I call them my adults, no, I don't think so, that sound odd.

2. My friend, who I have known for over ten years, who has been a good friend, mentor and would not let me give up when I was struggling with my studies to become a Library technician.

3. Watching TV, I enjoy all sort of viewing from soapies to documentaries.

4.Startrek, Stargate, Boston Legal and The Amazing Race.

5. Chocolate

6.Sitting in my old lounge chair surfing the internet on my laptop

7. Completing my Diploma of Library/Information Services course, and considering I have not been near a school environment for xxx amount of years and I mean a lot of xs, that is something to proud of and I did it while working full time, enough of the self praising.

8. Getting back into the work force after the breakdown of my marriage (not my fault but his) after a ten-year break you really have to re-educate yourself.

9. The ability to be able to teach someone else something I have taught myself to do.

10. Creating this blog.

I tag Kevin

new video added on boneygril second edition

2007-06-14T21:43:00.000+10:00

The Japanese are very good at creating unusual games.

Flickr Badge (23 things Web 2.0, No 3: Photos & Images

2007-06-09T00:11:00.000+10:00

A couple of posts ago I talked about up loading pictures to Flickr and trying to work out how to put these pictures into a widget, well I thought it was a widget but in reality it was a Flickr Badge. I have worked it out and I have added my Flickr Badge to boneygril-2nd-edition, check it out if you like.

I can add this exercise to my attempt to complete all 23 things in Web 2.0.

TIME FOR CHANGE AND CLEAN UP

2007-06-08T22:04:00.000+10:00

Clean up - I have decided to remove several of my widgets namely Shelfari –until I find new books that I like, Clusty Cloud – at the moment I don’t need any information about graphic novels, Clusty might come back in the future, Memory Game – I have played it enough this has been replaced by Polaroid Puzzle that’s the clean up.

Change – new cloud as mentioned in previous post, new archive calendar also mentioned in previous post again I would like to thank phydeaux3 for his help in getting these up and running.

I have had a lot of visitors to my Frappr Map, Australia, Sweden, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Pakistan, Tunis, USA, Malaysia, London, Canada, Spain, Bangkok, Turkey, and Paris.

It’s also good to see viewers and readers from BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog.

I will have to get back to completing 23 things soon.

new video added on boneygirl second edition

2007-06-06T22:12:00.001+10:00

Blog Archive Calendar been added

2007-06-06T21:10:00.000+10:00

I forgot to say thank you again to phydeaux3

Creating a label cloud

2007-06-05T22:19:00.000+10:00

It's been awhile but I have found something new, putting my labels or tags if you like into a cloud thanks to phydeaux3.

I will be back later

Improving my Flickr connection

2007-05-11T22:30:00.000+10:00

In one of my previous posts I mentioned that I have added some pictures to Flickr and put a link to these pictures, that’s good but I have seen on other blogs that they have their Flickr pictures contained within a box.

I will be endeavouring to do the same, if I accomplish this I will put it in my 2nd edition and let you (you being the universal you) know through this blog

Hello world

2007-05-11T22:21:00.000+10:00

Today I discovered that I could create a blog within a blog, if you click on my profile you will see that I have created a second blog called Boneygirl 2nd edition.

The reason I did this was, first to see if I could and second, because I wanted too, cleaver person aren’t I?

I really like to play with things like image gen, widgets etc, so I've decided to add my new creation to my 2nd edition blog.

If you like to see what I have been up to click on my profile, at the moment I only have two things but I will be adding more in the future.

23 things + Web 2.0 Photos & Images

2007-05-06T00:05:00.001+10:00

Number 3: Photos & Images. Explore Flickr

I have explored Flickr and added some pictures from my 1991 overseas holiday.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8151562@N06/

I have also changed my PictureTrail showing these pictures.

23 things + web 2.0 with help from fellow learner

2007-05-04T22:27:00.001+10:00

I came across this gem through Libby's blog who is taking part in the Bayside Library (staff)Learning 2.0.
I created this self promotion using ImageChef

For book lovers

2007-05-03T23:27:00.000+10:00

Hi,
I may be talking to myself but that's ok, I just been visiting my friends over at Ning and have joined Book Place , where you will find Networking Authors, Readers, Publishers, Editors, Agents, Reviewers, Librarians and get introduced to many authors and their books it's a great place to visit.

Fun with a presentation slideshow

2007-04-30T22:57:00.000+10:00

Spresent allows you to create professional looking presentation using advanced vector graphics animation and web publishing technology this is my small attempt, at the moment you are limited by what they offer, it says you can import your own PowerPoint file but I found that at the moment the tab is not highlighted its still in the Beta stage I think, even so I had fun.

Time for a change, out with the old in with the new

2007-04-27T21:45:00.001+10:00

I think I have gone widget mad, but hey I like them and it amuses me.

Today I have taken out the Sudoku game and my crazy art box widget I sure I will bring them back again. For now I have replaced them with Cinco – A simple but tricky game to pass the time also Memory Game, where you can test your memory with this fun and simple game. It is also where I found the clock, why I need a clock on my blog I have no idea, I guess it just my fondness for widgets, I may get over it one day, all these I found at Labpixies.

ps Random books from my library has also gone for now.

23 things + Web 2.0

2007-04-23T23:07:00.000+10:00

Number 13.
Learn about tagging and discover Del.ico.us (a social bookmaking site)

I have just been over to del.icio.us and started adding my bookmarks I use when blogging, I have many more to add but it's late and I need to get up earlier to take my daughter to the station in the morning, I will be adding more bookmarks later, but at least I have started number 13. If you like you can check them out at http://del.icio.us/boneygirl

Cool

2007-04-20T23:38:00.000+10:00

My new widget (guess you realized I like widgets) is from PictureTrail you can create your own photo flicks in the form a slide show there are many choices in the slideshow layout, I think it is a great and easy way to show off your pictures. I have added a few slides from my holiday in Warrnambool and my artwork produced through Scribbler

23 things + Web 2.0

2007-04-20T23:02:00.000+10:00

Number 10.

Play around with some image generators and find one that you like.

I have played and my results are below, I created a picture using Modern Art Generator I liked this one because you could use your imagination and you had control of the outcome.

The next ones were a bit more restrictive. I created my own money with Dollar Bill Generator adding a bit of Australia to the dollar bill. My last one is a Web 2.0 logo using Web 2.o Logo Generator

At it again

2007-04-10T22:53:00.000+10:00

My map has changed this one is more interactive, I came across it when I checking out my friends in Ning. I used Frappr! this map is called Visitor Map, hit counter again very easy to add to blog. I hope I get some hits.

Rambling

2007-04-10T21:54:00.000+10:00

Blogger vs. WordPress

Back in March, I attended a workshop on blogging. I had heard about this and of course had come across them while surfing the net. I went to the workshop because I like to learn new things, you could say I am a learn-a-holic (new word created? Perhaps, I will have to check with my mentor). Anyway as I was saying, I went to learn but wasn’t sure if this is what I would get into.

The presenter was very informative. Her explanations of how things work were easy to follow. We were shown how the presenter’s blog (using WordPress) looked and also shown other alternative sites that one can use to create a blog. One of these was Blogger.com by the end of the night, I was all set to go home and start blogging - that’s the way I get when I really enjoy a presentation, I just can’t wait to start.

And of course I created a blog using WordPress - there is only one post there so I am not going to give the address. I investigated every inch of that site, tried a few things and lost interest.

A few days later I decided to try Blogger. I found that there was more to offer here. At the start I had only posted a few comments and as I became more involved in RSS feeds, joined Web 2.0, I found that other people have been able to add different elements to their blogs and this became a challenge for me.Widgets (third party item that can be embedded in a web page), using HTML/Java scripts, game widgets, clouds widgets, interactive widgets - I love these things - as you can see by this blog I became very enthused by widgets.

I went back to WordPress to see if widgets could be entered on my blog but they are very restrictive in their page elements. I did manage to get a map of Australia added to my blog, whereas at Blogger.com you can add as many HTML/Java scripts types of page elements as you like and they have more interesting options in their other page elements.

I guess it all comes down to personal preferences. If you want fun stuff use Blogger.com, if you are into just a simple blog for writing posts, adding links to other sites etc, WordPress might be for you. I’m no expert, just a simple blogger or maybe WordPress is just too high tech for me.

Update

2007-04-07T00:09:00.000+10:00

ZoomClouds has been taken out, when my page was loading a message came up saying that there was an error on the page, to find out what was causing this error I had to remove then re install each widget one at a time and re-load my page each time to work out which one was causing the error.

ZoomClouds is only for internal tagging of what is written within posts, when you click on a tag a new window opens with the post, I suppose is would be good for someone who has written a lot of posts but me I rather not have an error on my page when it loads.

But then again I was playing around with it so maybe I did something to it, I will revisit ZoomClouds again another day to work on it.

BIG CLEAN UP

2007-04-06T19:30:00.000+10:00

It’s been a few days, no new toys today.

Today was supposed to be a day of rest being that its Good Friday, sleeping in, not doing much all day but I wasn’t so lucky, today was the day my daughter decided it was time to clean out the kitchen cupboards. There was a purpose behind her decision, she will be moving out in a month and is looking for things she could take rather than have to buy.

The amount of stuff one collects and forgets about over the years is amazing, I’m the type of person who uses the same thing over and over again not bothering with anything new which I might have been given or bought because I thought it was nice.

She (my daughter) kept saying ‘mum why you don’t throw out these old things and start using the new stuff’ my reply was ‘why’.

I have a brown dinner set (she absolutely hates it) which was a wedding present (32 years ago) it’s the first one I started using (I had received two sets as presents) and as far as I’m concerned there is nothing wrong with it. In the old days when dinner parties were happening I bought the other set out only because it catered for more people.

Did anyone ever keep the vegemite glass/jars, you know when you finished the vegemite you cleaned it out and used it as a glass, they don’t make them like that nowadays. To get back to my point I seemed to have accumulated a lot of these, stupid me suggested perhaps she would like to use them, well, the look was enough and they were thrown out.

She especially liked my baking wares most of that went into her box of goodies, that’s good because she can now bake for me.

I will have to say she ended up with quite a few things, saucepans, glasses (not vegemite ones) mugs and a couple of fancy serving plates, but wouldn’t take the three tiered one though, I guess I will have to find another home for that.

I have a box of cutlery again only used for dinner parties, I wonder how long before that gets raided?

I may not have had my day of rest but my cupboards now look tidy. Maybe I can find new stuff to fill them, perhaps not.

Fun stuff

2007-04-01T23:24:00.000+10:00

I told you I like playing with things, at this rate I'm going to have my blog filled with things rather than words. The latest one is from http://www.widgetbox.com/ on this site you have many choices as to what you want in your widget. You can have games, pictures, feeds etc. the choice is yours. I liked the fish tank, I have a feeling I picked this one because I will be gazing into it a lot when I am trying to think of something to say, also there is a game to play if any one is interested, I know a lot of people like Sudoku unfortunately I am not very good at it.

I haven't only been playing, I read all my feeds through Google Reader, I been over to Library 2.0 aka Ning, greeted new friends, a few Aussies one Englander and a couple of Americans. Also been over to Crimespace (also part of Ning) this is a great place especially if you are into crime novels, I meet new friends there as well, I learnt of three new books which my local library does not have (guess who will be requesting them). Made a friend with an author of a book which the library has, it’s a bit surreal talking to someone who lives on the other side of the world and knowing when I read his book I can, in a small way, call him my friend.

Thats it for now off to bed work tomorrow

Mapping

2007-03-31T22:44:00.000+10:00

She's found another one, it's called MapKit you can add photos, videos and places, I suppose if you do a road trip you could mark it on a map and up load it to you blog, I will have to investigate it further

I've been playing

2007-03-30T22:33:00.000+10:00

I have added some new stuff to my page, thanks to a couple of feeds I have been reading so thanks to Bill Drew Creator of Ning (Library 2.0) a social network. While reading his blog I saw the Shelfari which I thought looked interesting and decided to have a go. You can see the results under my favourite authors. My other new thing is a Cloud Cluster and again this came via Marylaine Block and her list of new things. It was very easy to create and it can be changed at any time. You are only limited by the query you make. I may not have a lot to say but I do like finding new things to play with.

update

2007-03-30T00:22:00.000+10:00

I finally logged in to my account at ZoomClouds, my fault I put in the wrong user, as you can see I have redesigned it. I found ZoomClouds very easy to work with. I also changed my widget and gave it the name Silly stuff when I was redesigning it I lost the widget and it took me about a half hour to work out how to get it back which I did, it’s all a learning experience doing these things I am quite proud of my self. Well this it for now I am very tired and have to get up for work more next time.

CLOUDS

2007-03-28T23:44:00.000+10:00

Today I learnt something new, well for me it is. I learnt how to make a cloud on my blog. I did a lot of surfing to learn about ‘clouds’ and how they work and how to put one on one’s blog. Some of the talk was very technical, I am not up to par with html and javascript I understand some but I am very cautious when it come to making changes. Through the many blogs I look at the one that suited me was ZoomClouds, I found this through http://librarycloud.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20Blogger
Once I had signed in I created a cloud and they did the rest but I will have to say I am having trouble logging back in, I have emailed them asking why? I will get back to that when I hear from them

Ideas to get library staff involved in Library 2.0

2007-03-25T22:40:00.000+10:00

Getting buy-in from management and staff for Library 2.0 ideas”.
http://librariesinteract.info/author/sirexkat/
Came across in one of the feeds I receive, I thought I would put forward my idea.
Why not create a common user name and password, give it to all staff so they can add a few comments if they so feel inclined. Some staff may feel intimidated about creating a blog, some may never use it again, so if there was a common one they could all use it and then they might feel more inclined to make contributions they may even decide they like the idea and create their own blog later.

I like this

2007-03-25T20:06:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Ellyssa from Library 2.0 I have created a widget via Box.net widget . As you can see I have already added a couple of files of cause they are only test doc. Ellyssa has uploaded powerpoint files so possibilities are endless.
I will try and be inventive with my uploads.

Road Trip

2007-03-24T23:43:00.000+11:00

I'm sitting here and wondering what can I write about, do I need to write something everyday or just once a week or monthly. I think it is good for the soul if you can write something every day it doesn’t have to be important, it could as simple as hello world or today I had good day, or work was **** today perhaps tomorrow will be better.

The other day I went on a road trip, a friend ask me to join her on a day out and I thought this will be nice and it was overall, only she forgot to mentioned the day would be starting at 8.15am.

Now for someone who has been on holidays for the last two week and has had the luxury of sleeping past 10am it was a bit a shock having to get up at 6am to meet at 7am to reach the start destination by 8.15am. I don’t know about anyone else, but knowing you have to wake up at a certain time you end up waking several times during the night because you are worried about over sleeping.

So back the road trip as we both work in a Library this sounded interesting. There was trip arranged for anyone interested to attend several presentation, these included a talk by an author of children’s books on how her book was created, the process involved in getting the book published from the first idea to the finished product, from there to the selling of the book through booksellers. We also invited to view several rare children’s books held at the Melbourne University, Baillieu Library.

The afternoon found us traveling out to Dromkeen, (the Dromkeen Collection Art Gallery, holds a priceless exhibition of original artwork and manuscripts of Australian children's literature).

Getting there was an experience, my friend and I were sitting in the front seats and could see the driver, now I don’t know if he was new or it was just the way he drove but he continually moved the steering wheel left to right just slightly mind you but it was enough to make us feel like we were on a boat, one other passenger commented later that if the bus trip had been any long she have been sick. I have been on many bus trips in my life and have never come across such a rough ride, but in the end it was worth it because Dromkeen is a beautiful place to visit.

The trip home was a bit smoother perhaps he had settled down by then. It was a long day and that night I slept like a baby.

An update

2007-03-21T15:38:00.000+11:00

I went back to Google docs & spreadsheets created a word doc with words and tried to upload to this blog, try as I might, it would not go through ,which is very frustrating as I had uploaded the word doc called 'this is a test'. But I am not going to give up, I am going to try again only because I like things to work they way are suppose too.

p.s. - to my mentor, apologies if I used the wrong spelling of the word to

Something new

2007-03-20T00:00:00.000+11:00

I have just posted a word document using Google docs and spreadsheets, the document is called "this is a test" it took awhile to come through so now I will try to send a word document with words to see what it will look like.

2007-03-19T23:18:00.000+11:00

THIS IS A TEST

Getting there

2007-03-19T22:02:00.000+11:00

As you can see I am slowly getting there, I have added a couple of items on the side

Never too old

2007-03-11T17:46:00.000+11:00

An interesting thing happened on the way to turning 40 a change of life was forced on me and with that change I drifted into the technology world. Computers became my passion, well not computers per say I couldn't build one if I tried, I wouldn't know where to begin but as to the programs used on computers I would have to say I'm not to bad, you could even say I'm pretty good actually. As computer technology moved forward I made sure I moved with it, most of the time through self teaching. That's the reason for this, my first blog, I've conquered the Internet, email and even RSS feeds. I have read many blogs and decided to try it out for myself.

I do have one thing to confess though, I have never taken a fancy to Ipods or MP3 players, I don't think there is anything wrong with them, I know how they work this is via my children, I guess you have to a music lover to appreciated them, I mean I like music but I am not one sit and listen to music for hours on end.

Now give me an audio book to listen to in the car and I'm a happy chappy

ps hey mentor what do you think

boney girl