YouTube and Podcasts

You have to marvel at the way YouTube has opened up the whole world of video. The speed with which videos are uploaded is staggering. It is a great resource and very user-friendly. Ever before "23 Things @ UL" I was using YouTube. In fact, it was probably one of the first web applications I tackled.

I reason I chose to upload the Munster haka was because the night in 2008 that is one of the most memorable in Irish sport. As if the opening of Thomond Park and playing against such formidable opponents as New Zealand were not enough, the four lads stepped forward and performed the haka! What is more, the entire squad did themselves proud on the night. Pure magic.

I also explored podcasts, in particular, Podcasting Ireland. In the process, I realised I needed to instal Quicktime, which I did, to allow me to follow some podcasts. I also checked out Stephen Kinsella's podcast. I must be honest, it is no substitute for a classroom though its effectiveness may be greater if it was visual as well as audio.

Wikis

I've often heard the term "Wiki" mentioned but was afraid to enquire what it meant in case I still wouldn't understand after the explanation. Now I'm chuffed to be in the know. Given their ease of use, I think Wikis must become the knowledge-sharing tool of the future.

Wiki.openstreetmap is really amazing as is Wikileaks. You could lose all track of time when exploring these.

From a work perspective, because of the simplicity of updating and saving, I think Wikis could become a popular way to share and update information.

EBooks, Readers and eAudiobooks

Being a fan of the "actual" book, I approched this exercise with a degree of scepticism. However, the facility in ebooks to fit the text to the width of the page is really useful. The feature on the readers which allows you to increase the size of the font is even better, especially if you need glasses! In particular the readers are quite appealing. Being able to download a number of books to a reader saves a lot of weight. This is really important nowadays when airlines are so weight conscious. I don't think I'd download and read an ebook on my PC but I would be open to doing so if I had an ebook reader.

I think the eAudiobooks are great and must be a real Godsend to anybody with sight problems. Equally, they could be of value to old people and even could be used to encourage young people to develop a love of books.

I downloaded Pride & Prejudice from UL Library ebooks and, when skimming through it, noticed that particular pages were blank and had the message "not available for download". I wonder if anybody else experienced that.

Del.icio.us and Technorati

I was able to set up an account in Del.icio.us without any trouble and went on to bookmark a number of websites. It's easy to see how useful Del.icio.us would be in most work situations to allow for sharing of information. I (think) I even managed to set up an RSS feed from one of the bookmarked sites to my blog.

When exploring Technorati I ran into problems with the explanatory video. I didn't have the relevant software to run the video but, try as I might, I was unable to download this. It kept stalling half-ways through the operation. I finally gave up on the video and read the introduction instead. Technorati is definitely a great tool if you want to track blogs but, for the moment at least, I'm not going to go there. For now, the RSS updates to my blog are about all I can keep up with.