Exercise No.16 Google Docs

To most of us, google docs are not something extremely new. I rarely used before because it can't be the same as Microsoft word. However, when you need to preserve or share something like note presentation and so forth, it is a useful tool.

For me, the most useful aspect of google docs is that you can share the file through website without going through hard-drives or flash-drives. When you need other's note about a class, it is easy to get it through google docs. Just click on share, you can get what you need effortless.

Google docs is quite a powerful tool despite that it can't be the same as Microsoft word.

Exercise No. 15 Wiki

For our generation. wiki is already familiar for most of us. However, because of the quality problem, people are always doubtful of Wikipedia. To me, it is a good place to start out finding or knowing something you want, but only limited to the first step. You need further search to check the fidelity of it.

Nevertheless, the wiki for library is quite useful. For example, Book Lovers Wiki is a good choice  to find the commentary of the book you want to search. The permission for access to edit website is a very good idea. It could prevent the problem of giving access to people without enough knowledge to edit the website. There is also a lot of Library wiki available in the website. However, the credibility is still questionable.


In short, library wiki is a good place to know about books, especially when you need to find what others think about something.

Exercise No. 14 Technorati

For me. Technorati is a good website to search RSS feeds. However, if it comes to find the blog, it seems limited to that aspects. As we try the search of learning 2.0, the difference between searching blog and post is huge. You can get a lot of searching outcome form searching posts. However, almost all of them are irrelevant. The blog searching is more associated with the title. However, only one searching result is found.

To the Top 100 blogs, those are interesting. Daily finance and Naked Capitalism are two of my favorites. There is a lot website which is worth to search in this list. However, excerpt this list, Technorati didn't render as many useful aspects as I expected.

In short, it is a website which is worth to use. However, it might be a disappointing website when you navigate thorough it.

Exercise No. 13 Del.icio.us

First of all, it is the first time for me to use Delicious. Because I have yahoo. account, so I can access it without any subscription. To me, delicious is kind of material commentary and connection website. You can search a lot of useful website from delicious without navigating through the vast website. It is useful to tag your searching outcome which you think is useful. Therefore, you can create your own website library by Delicious. By cataloging, you can easily access these website without navigate the web.

However, because it is available to general public, the controlling vocabulary it used is defined by the user. Therefore, the controlling vocabulary didn't have universal standard like what LC have. You might get into trouble when searching for something when its controlling vocabulary mistakingly correlated  with other thing. Moreover, you can't exclude what you don't need because the searching engine can't do that.

In short, Delicious is a useful. However, it still have difficulty to use as a database.

Exercise No. 12 Finding new feeds

Searching RSS feeds is a little bit different. In my opinion, to search the feeds effectively is to go to the main website. For example, New York times main page or U.S.A today. It will bring you a lot of things you need. For example, if you put the RSS feeds of CNN.com, it will bring out  a lot of daily news to you through google reader. However, it will be a little bit difficulty to find a certain thing you need to read. In this aspect, using the RSS feeds searching engine might be a little bit helpful.

The searching engine I used here are Topix.net, Technorati and Syndic8.com. For Topix.net, it is a little bit difficult to navigate through because it is too blurry. A lot of advertisement there and didn't bring a distinct link to rss feeds. Technorati is a little bit similar.  However, Technorati is good at searching the blog article. Spending a little time, you will find some excellent blog about the topic you want. Syndic8. com is very clear. Just put your topic, than you can get a lot of outcome for what you want to read. In short, I personally prefer Syndic8.com because it is compact and clear.

I personally think that RSS feed is a subscription service; therefore, the most useful searching way is to use categoric searching. As you find your subject, it is easy to get what you want.

Exercise No. 11 RSS & newsreader

Before I finish this assignment, I knew nothing a bout RSS and newsreader and I always confused about the icon in the blog which I always read through. However, after I finish this section, I found that RSS and newsreader are very powerful tool to read through website effectively and effortlessly. 

For the most important, it takes less time to navigate the website, especially blogs. Before I use RSS, I had to navigate the website by click each one and open every page which it embedded. By using newsreader, I can read all the new article at once and at same page. It greatly reduce the time which I have to spend to navigate it. Secondly, the newsreader can notice you that whether or not there is new article there. You also don't need to wait for the website especially when some websites take a lot time to transmit the data it has. In short, the reading of website and blog become very easy. And you can do it by using any computer. You don't need to take your laptop all the time. In brief, it bridges the website into the newsreader. As you log into google reader, you got it

   

Exercise No. 10 Librivox

Librivox is an audio books online database. To me, it is similar to Voice of America. However, it is more delicate and elaborate in many aspect. You can find some very important book in our academic study.

Because of my history major, I search for the history catalog. Some of the item makes me excited. For example, The history of the decline and fall of Roman empire, which is written by Edward Gibbon. As a history lover, you can miss this zenith work in the history society. The period of the book starts from 180 to 1590. It illustrates how West and East Roman Empire collapse. When I was a college student, one of my class is the history of Roman Empire. I have to struggle with the a lot of reading especially  part of this book. If I have this audio book that  time, I probably can read through the article more quickly.

The other is Mary Queen of Scots. This is the topic I have read through during the time I was struggling with my TOFEL IBT test. During that time I read a lot of history about United States and United Kingdom in order to practice English. Things about Queen Mary always makes me curious.  In my opinion, it is rare to find a noble to have the same experience as Queen Mary. She divorced four time. She stayed in Scotland only seven years and in England's prison for nineteen years before execution. In my opinion, her life seems like a funny joke. She is a Queen but lives in prison for major part of her life. She never has a entirely controlling power over Scotland. Her life is always kidnapped by other people, for instance, her fourth husband.

All in all, it is a worth searching website. It renders so much useful materials to read.