The World As We Know It

As most, or all of you know, I create the Joliet Remembers webpages. I am now in the process of gathering material for the 1980's pages. As I looked through the microfilm of the Joliet Herald-News for December, 1989, I was somewhat surprised to see ads for: personal computers, notebook computers, computer mice, cell phones, cordless phones, video cassette recorders, and camcorders, compact disc players, and fax machines. In other words, versions of most of the technological devices we take for granted today.

YouTube

After looking at You Tube today and on a few previous occasions I find that like broadcast and cable television, it can be a "vast wasteland," but it can also be a valuable resource.

The search engine seems to work well.

The category list found when you click on the word videos at the top of the page seems to me to be a waste of time, since there are no subcategories.

For my video, I chose one titled Grand Canyon Hiking, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6X4WxeSFZ4. This video explains the preparations needed for a hike in the canyon, and the precautions one needs to take when hiking there. The video also explains the advantages and disadvantages of two of the trails that run from the South Rim to the Colorado river.

I believe the video mentioned above is an example of the Internet at its best. In 2002, a friend and I hiked the Grand Canyon from rim to rim. Before leaving his home in Michigan, we watched two VHS videos about hiking in the canyon that he had received via the U.S. Postal Service. Were we to make the same hike today, I am sure we would simply download videos like the one found on You Tube.

More I & M Canal Trail Pictures

I finished uploading the pictures I took last August along the I & M Canal trail to Flickr.

One of the reasons that I enjoy riding my bicycle along this trail is that I almost always see wildlife of one sort or another; herons, egrets, turtles, and the occasional deer.

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Originally uploaded by jtegel

Had fun this morning creating a Flickr account, and uploading a few photos.

One of my favorite places on this earth is the stretch of the I & M Canal State Trail between Empress Road and Channahon State Park. The trail is less than 2 miles from my house and I ride it several times each summer. The photo here is one of a series I took last summer. I uploaded a few of the photos this morning, and will upload the rest some time in the near future.

I signed up for a Twitter account today. I think I may find the the 140 character limit easier to live with than some people, as I am one who normally tries to say as much as possible in as few words as possible.

Wikis

I believe wikis have some advantages that other forms of website do not. Perhaps the most important are that a wiki can be edited from any computer with Internet access and can easily be edited by more than one person. Another advantage, in my opinion is that the layout for many wikis is clean and crisp, i.e., an easy to read type face and not much color, which can at times be distracting.

Regarding the wikis mentioned on the Joliet Library discovers blog, I will only comment on two of them. On the Library Success blog, I noticed that there little or no material under many of the headings in the section on Management and Leadership. The material on the Bull Run wiki appears to me, especially since it appears to be edited by one person, to be more suitable for a blog.

Technorati - Whats Popular

In looking over the popular searches list on the Technorati website, there were some things that surprised me, and some that did not. I was surprised that Paris Hilton and Jennifer Garner ranked in the top 10, as I have not seen them mentioned in the main stream media lately. I was not surprised that news and environment were in the top 10. I was also not surprised that cheat codes made the top 10, as in the past, I have had patrons at the Online Learning Resource Center ask for assistance in searching for cheat codes using search engines.