confessions of a southside catatonic chataholic

Ok, I have to confess that I have no patience, tact or diplomacy whatsoever, which is why I don't have the good sense to wait until I've finished looking at other NZ public libraries to see which bits of web 2.0 they're using before beginning to make my way through the Learning 2.1 exercises found here. As a sop I'm going to mix it up and every alternate post will be NZ public libraries blah blah blah. Ok? Ok! If you've finished the Learning 2.0 tutorial at least have a look at the 2.1 version. If you don't want to attempt it FINE - but, like Stereophonics, there's no harm in just looking and not buying (and that's a reference to their song 'Just looking').

Thing 24: Got file conversion issues? In answer to the post title, yes, we did used to have conversion issues on our Learn.Net before our recent upgrade. I haven't had a problem yet and *touch wood* won't - although I have noticed that some people are not aware that there are sometimes ways around conversion issues. Much like the bear that went over the mountain (once again, showing my age) I went to Zamzar to see what I could see. As I'm not after paid access (free good is my lifelong motto) I won't be able to: store online, mange files with a personal inbox, rename files, delete files, have no ads and an email support response time of 'Best effort', I'm good to go. Although if you'd use it a lot, then definitely signing up for their paid service would be well worth your while. The discovery exercise is to take any document created in a word-processing program and try steps 1 - 4 at Zamzar to convert the file to pdf, check your email once it's done for the final product and create a post about how this service might be useful to staff or library customers. Quickly typed up a file (chose the first few lines of Kansas 'Carry on wayward son') saved it to my desktop (well, Council's desktop, rather).

Step 1: I selected the file via the 'Convert file' tab. Don't be too concerned if it doesn't show in the box beside 'Browse' - it should display at the bottom under the heading 'Files to convert:'
Step 2: is 'Choose the format to convert to' and I selected pdf under the dropdown menu.
Step 3: entered the email address where I want to receive this file
Step 4: click 'Convert' (note that by clicking you agree to their Terms)

Dialogue box should pop up alerting you to the fact that your DOC file is about to convert to a PDF file and the link for it will be sent to the specified email address. Press OK to start or Cancel to amend. Selected ok and then watched the 'Uploading - Please wait . . . ' for a time. Umm how long is this meant to take? Woohoo - here's the email now. Get the usual spiel about why paid access is a good thing and then partway down is my file link. Downloaded the converted file and I now have 'Thing 24 - Zamzar.pdf' on my desktop. Handy dandy little sucker! And so easy to use even I got the hang of it without breaking it. There are a crapload of file formats for images, doc, music, video and 'other'. The best use I see for customers is that they won't need to download a variety of programmes because they can get it all (or maybe almost all) here. For free (remember, free good!). I never did get the hang of Adobe and now I needn't rush. Lazy, eh!? Is it possible to post pdf files here? No idea. Must find out, if only to show it works. The next time I'm in the Learn.Net and maybe field a conversion issue query I'll have another trick up my sleeve.

As an aside, this post comes to you via my email! Have requested/issued 'Publishing a blog with Blogger' by Elizabeth Castro and it's full of little gems that I've not yet managed to find on my own. Such as posting via phone (ok, that option is out for me) and email. Following their handy dandy instructions I've fixed my settings so that I can email straight to my blog. Only I can do this as I've entered a code into my settings which means: no code - no post. You can view/request our copies in the catalogue. I recommend it! It has step-by-step instructions and illustrations (yeah, I never did get past needing pictures for some things - although manuals for putting together a gazebo still escape me). Although the fine tuning of things like pics in Outlook drive me cross-eyed - but I just had to try it once. Sheesh.


Have just finished reading 'Blogging heroes: interview with 30 of the world's top bloggers' by Michael Banks. Great subjects, excellent questions and, even better, tips, hints, suggestions for how to write successful, helpful and/or moneymaking blogs. What I found interesting is the various types of applications that they like to use, and the reasons why. Am going to try some of them so I suppose all y'all will be my guinea pigs. Am currently reading 'Baghdad burning: girl blog from Iraq' by Riverbend, which is a collection of Riverbend's blog posts of life in Baghdad both before and during the war. If nothing else, these two books give you an idea of the scope, and the way, in which blogs have the power to change lives. And our view of war. There's also 'Baghdad burning II: More girl blog from Iraq'.

Keep in mind that I'm posting this via my email so if it looks crappy too bad :0) I figure it'll smooth out as I go along. Peace, love and mungbeans!

Hmmph - have since been back in to make this look how I initially wanted it to look so there! Said I wouldn't, but I did.

Technorati Tags: web2.1, learning2.1, Manukau, libraries, Zamzar