Community College Librarian » Cool Tools http://notmarian.org Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:13:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 iPhone App Overload? Never! http://notmarian.org/2009/06/iphone-app-overload-never/ http://notmarian.org/2009/06/iphone-app-overload-never/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:42:07 +0000 admin http://notmarian.org/?p=275 I love my beautiful iPhone and the ten million apps and games I have on it. Well, there’s about 10 apps and the rest are games. Buckingham Palace Mysteries, Bookworm, Yard Sale, bloons, Myst (which I still hate after these many years of trying to complete that incomprehensible *%#&)….love the games. And I love the grocery list called Shopping with its tidy database. And the Yelp app which gives me real-people reviews of all the businesses near where ever I happen to be, the Mint app tells me how much money I have to spend at those businesses. I can check and respond to emails. Google maps helps me not get too very lost. And I can look up movie times. And I can pay the bills I forgot to pay when I suddenly remember them in the movie theater during the endless previews. I am completely besotted with my phone. I’ve dropped it to the ground twice and it still works, which means it loves me too. And I (knock on wood) haven’t suffered more than 5 call losses since I got it over a year ago. Not to mention it keeps my crucial-to-my-sanity audiobook collection right there in my purse when I’m driving. I’ve uninstalled a lot of apps too though, like the one for Twitter (made the decision that my not liking to Twitter isn’t criminal), the Whole Foods recipe thing (sucked), the Kraft Foods cooking vidtut app (boxed mac & cheese casserole ten ways anyone?) and the Amazon mobile app because I just didn’t like it. If only there was an app for chronic insomnia, I would so totally buy it for .99.

]]> http://notmarian.org/2009/06/iphone-app-overload-never/feed/ 0 Scribd–what it is and why I don’t care about it right now http://notmarian.org/2009/04/scribd-what-it-is-and-why-i-dont-care-about-it-right-now/ http://notmarian.org/2009/04/scribd-what-it-is-and-why-i-dont-care-about-it-right-now/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:31:35 +0000 admin http://notmarian.org/?p=192 Ok, its a self-publishing archive. I get it. They call it “democratized publishing.” I get that. Even our President has a Scribd page with 100 friends. We can use it to embed documents into websites. Like that. Check!

Please do not say that this is the future of the book or I will totally lose it. Archive, fine, but some writing shouldn’t be “published.” Some of it sucks, ok? Most of it needs editing, alright? This is why we have blogs! And this isn’t really publishing, is it? This is a repository of stuff. Some of it is good and some of it…well, I’m no critic.

]]> http://notmarian.org/2009/04/scribd-what-it-is-and-why-i-dont-care-about-it-right-now/feed/ 0 Masks and Layers, I own you. http://notmarian.org/2009/04/masks-and-layers-i-own-you/ http://notmarian.org/2009/04/masks-and-layers-i-own-you/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:04:09 +0000 admin http://notmarian.org/?p=162 In this installment of I’m Learning Photoshop, I took on the Working with Masks and Layers chapter from PS CS4 Classroom in a Book. Ok, masks are not easy. This lesson took me two hours. Masks are like taping off things you want to retain like taping off the trim when you paint a room. There’s lots of different ways to mask, most of them nerve-wracking. The quick mask is easiest but it doesn’t stay once you deselect it. I did really like the clipping mask. You can put a texture layer over some text or a layer with a selection in it then apply a clipping mask to make the text or selection fill with the texture. And if you really care, masks are stored in channels with the rest of our saved selection information because they are just color information as opposed to being an image/object. These channels do not show in our images unless we show them purposely. Masks in channels are edited by painting in black to add to it, white to reveal what is beneath and shades of gray to partially reveal. There. I just answered all the review questions in one paragraph.
Here’s the results of my lesson:
masklayer

]]> http://notmarian.org/2009/04/masks-and-layers-i-own-you/feed/ 0 I heart voki.com http://notmarian.org/2008/08/i-heart-vokicom/ http://notmarian.org/2008/08/i-heart-vokicom/#comments Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:16:31 +0000 admin http://notmarian.org/?p=69
Get a Voki now!

]]> http://notmarian.org/2008/08/i-heart-vokicom/feed/ 0 Widgets http://notmarian.org/2008/08/widgets/ http://notmarian.org/2008/08/widgets/#comments Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:04:26 +0000 admin http://notmarian.org/?p=66 So, there are widgets and there are Widgets. http://www.widgetbox.com

]]> http://notmarian.org/2008/08/widgets/feed/ 0 Like gold to airy thinness beat… http://notmarian.org/2008/07/like-gold-to-airy-thinness-beat/ http://notmarian.org/2008/07/like-gold-to-airy-thinness-beat/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:02:03 +0000 Pip http://notmarian.org/?p=57 .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

wordle, originally uploaded by notmarian.

This is one of my most beloved poems in cloud form.  Can you guess what it is?

Wordle is my new favorite toy and has my seal of “cool tool” approval! http://wordle.net/

]]> http://notmarian.org/2008/07/like-gold-to-airy-thinness-beat/feed/ 0 Google Book Search Gadget for you. http://notmarian.org/2008/02/google-book-search-gadget-for-you/ http://notmarian.org/2008/02/google-book-search-gadget-for-you/#comments Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:59:02 +0000 Pip http://notmarian.org/?p=17 Ok, so librarians get all twittery when they encounter masses of full text. Myself included.  It doesn’t matter what kind of full text either: journal articles, research reports, newspaper articles and, of course, books.  Though we love the fact that google is cranking out the e-books as fast as we can catalog them…there’s a big HUGE problem.  Google book links are not always persistent.  That’s bad.   That’s very bad.  But here’s the cool tool for your iGoogle desktop anyway. You know you have one.  http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2007/12/go-go-book-search-gadgets.html

Oh, there’s also a gadget for google scholar. I know! Pass the smelling salts.  Too bad Scholar makes me want to cry since the student can’t get to the full text most of the time. Then they call to ask me why.

]]> http://notmarian.org/2008/02/google-book-search-gadget-for-you/feed/ 0 Imagination Cubed http://notmarian.org/2008/02/imagination-cubed/ http://notmarian.org/2008/02/imagination-cubed/#comments Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:35:57 +0000 Pip http://notmarian.org/?p=5 Here’s something nifty! This tool, brought to us by our friends at GE, allows the user to make animations using a variety of tools. Students could use this to express themselves or one could sit a child down in front of it for hours of free time. I just used the Stamp and Text tools to create the animation below because I cannot draw to save my life. Check it out!

]]> http://notmarian.org/2008/02/imagination-cubed/feed/ 0 Google Docs with Forms–Be still my heart! http://notmarian.org/2008/02/google-docs-with-forms-be-still-my-heart/ http://notmarian.org/2008/02/google-docs-with-forms-be-still-my-heart/#comments Sun, 10 Feb 2008 02:05:18 +0000 Pip http://notmarian.org/?p=4 Google docs now has a share option where you can select a form. So, you share your spreadsheet, make up your questions or whatever you need people to fill in on the spreadsheet, then all of the responses to your form are recorded on the spreadsheet. Brill!

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