Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Jott
http://jott.com/Default.aspx
Jott is a service that translates your voice into text. You call up Jott from your telephone and create a message. It will then translate your voice into text. It also keeps the original recording, so you can listen to that later, too. You can have it send your message as an email to you, someone else, or a group of email addresses. It can also post to a number of services such a Blogs, Twitter and Yahoo Groups.
Jott is a service that translates your voice into text. You call up Jott from your telephone and create a message. It will then translate your voice into text. It also keeps the original recording, so you can listen to that later, too. You can have it send your message as an email to you, someone else, or a group of email addresses. It can also post to a number of services such a Blogs, Twitter and Yahoo Groups.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Pidgin IM client
http://www.pidgin.im/
Pidgin is an open source multi protocol IM client - which means you can connect several of your IM accounts into one piece of software. There are several of these products out there, however, the reason this is espeically attractive to me is that it's the first free multi protocol IM client that also includes (again, for free) GroupWise Messenger - a product that our staff still use at our library.
Pidgin is an open source multi protocol IM client - which means you can connect several of your IM accounts into one piece of software. There are several of these products out there, however, the reason this is espeically attractive to me is that it's the first free multi protocol IM client that also includes (again, for free) GroupWise Messenger - a product that our staff still use at our library.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
VuFind & Fish4info
http://www.vufind.org/
http://fish4info.org
Yesterday, we had a great demo from Chris Harris of Genessee Valley BOCES on their fish4info.org site.
Fish4info (still in the early stages of production, but soon to be open source) and VuFind (open source, released this summer) are products that will allow libraries to essentially replace an ILS's poor user interface OPAC by displaying catalog data in an easier format for patrons to use that also integrates Web 2.0 features. While Fish4Info is tailored more towards K-12 school libraries, VuFind is more of a broad spectrum product. Our library has also been working on a similar grant project and if everything goes right *fingers crossed* will start creating an open source product in the coming months. Exciting stuff!
http://fish4info.org
Yesterday, we had a great demo from Chris Harris of Genessee Valley BOCES on their fish4info.org site.
Fish4info (still in the early stages of production, but soon to be open source) and VuFind (open source, released this summer) are products that will allow libraries to essentially replace an ILS's poor user interface OPAC by displaying catalog data in an easier format for patrons to use that also integrates Web 2.0 features. While Fish4Info is tailored more towards K-12 school libraries, VuFind is more of a broad spectrum product. Our library has also been working on a similar grant project and if everything goes right *fingers crossed* will start creating an open source product in the coming months. Exciting stuff!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Rainmaker
http://www.aaa-clouds.com/rainmaker/rm/?page_id=3
Use Rainmaker to create a tag cloud based on any URL you type in. You can create a cloud using multiple URL's, add words or phrases and exclude words to create your cloud. It also allows you to modify the appearance of your cloud.
Here's a tag cloud that I made for this blog.
Use Rainmaker to create a tag cloud based on any URL you type in. You can create a cloud using multiple URL's, add words or phrases and exclude words to create your cloud. It also allows you to modify the appearance of your cloud.
Here's a tag cloud that I made for this blog.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Cool tools around the 'net
These are several utility type sites that have come in handy from time to time.
ConvertTube
http://converttube.com/
This site will take a URL of a video and convert it to a file (you choose which file format - .mpg, .mov, etc.), which you can then download to your desktop.
GuerrillaMail
http://www.guerrillamail.com/
Sometimes you go to a web site to download a driver, or to sign up for a service to test something out and in order to do so, you need to enter your email address and then confirm that you're a real person by replying to the email or clicking on a link within the email. Even if you have that "junk" email account that you use, it's still a pain to see it load up with SPAM over time. GuerrillaMail will give you a temporary email address for 15 minutes - long enough to put in your email address, and confim it at the email end so you can continue using a web site.
Zamzar
http://www.zamzar.com/
This site will allow you to convert a file type. Usually you need to download and install software on your PC to do this. Have a Word Doc and want to make it a PDF? Zamzar can help! It will convert image, document, audio and video formats.
MediaFire
http://www.mediafire.com/
Sometimes you need to share a file with people, but it's too large to email and you don't have any servers to host the file on. MediaFire allows you to upload and share a file with your friends via a URL link that you share with them. And you don't need to register with the site to use it.
ConvertTube
http://converttube.com/
This site will take a URL of a video and convert it to a file (you choose which file format - .mpg, .mov, etc.), which you can then download to your desktop.
GuerrillaMail
http://www.guerrillamail.com/
Sometimes you go to a web site to download a driver, or to sign up for a service to test something out and in order to do so, you need to enter your email address and then confirm that you're a real person by replying to the email or clicking on a link within the email. Even if you have that "junk" email account that you use, it's still a pain to see it load up with SPAM over time. GuerrillaMail will give you a temporary email address for 15 minutes - long enough to put in your email address, and confim it at the email end so you can continue using a web site.
Zamzar
http://www.zamzar.com/
This site will allow you to convert a file type. Usually you need to download and install software on your PC to do this. Have a Word Doc and want to make it a PDF? Zamzar can help! It will convert image, document, audio and video formats.
MediaFire
http://www.mediafire.com/
Sometimes you need to share a file with people, but it's too large to email and you don't have any servers to host the file on. MediaFire allows you to upload and share a file with your friends via a URL link that you share with them. And you don't need to register with the site to use it.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Fly Pentop computer
http://www.leapfrog.com/
We've had meetings with our library staff where we've gathered input on what future projects or technologies they'd like to see brought to the library. One thing that we heard several times was "I'd like it to be easier to type up meeting notes."
There are several products on the market that would help. Tablet PC's don't always work well and are bulky and expensive to carry around. The Logitech io2 Digital Pen retails for $150 and only got a so-so review from Consumer Reports.
The Fly Fusion Pentop from Leapfrog retails for $80. The paper you need to use it with costs $8 per notebook. It appears that you can do a lot more than just digital transcription with this pen. Becauase it's marketed towards teens, it also does things like provide a calculator, and plays mp3's and games. With a reletively low cost, this might be a fun tool to check out.
We've had meetings with our library staff where we've gathered input on what future projects or technologies they'd like to see brought to the library. One thing that we heard several times was "I'd like it to be easier to type up meeting notes."
There are several products on the market that would help. Tablet PC's don't always work well and are bulky and expensive to carry around. The Logitech io2 Digital Pen retails for $150 and only got a so-so review from Consumer Reports.
The Fly Fusion Pentop from Leapfrog retails for $80. The paper you need to use it with costs $8 per notebook. It appears that you can do a lot more than just digital transcription with this pen. Becauase it's marketed towards teens, it also does things like provide a calculator, and plays mp3's and games. With a reletively low cost, this might be a fun tool to check out.
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