Thing #42: Google Groups / Usenet

Well, I found it interesting that anyone is using this system, given the plenthora of alternative discussion groups/lists availabe. It does seem that useage is once again on the wane - probably because there's just so many possible channels available now. It might have worked a bit better on a standalone - Google was pushing out ads at me for some of my searches which obscured the screen somewhat. And what about phrase searching!! A bit too basic and frustrating for me. Would be of value from a historical viewpoint.

Thing #39: Animoto

Had a lot of fun with this one. Very hard to limit self to only 15 or less photos.

I obtained photos from http://www.flickr.com/

A $3 fee for full length videos is a good money spinner - much easier to find more photos than fewer and with such a modest fee most would be happy to pay. And probably again and again!

They've made it very easy to put together. Tried the remix function and got a much better result than what I had first up. As have 15 photos, not all seem to show in the video.

http://animoto.com/play/ruSUEHkO4hQqB8XlIYOA6A

Aimed at the novice - just shove in a heap of photos, choose some music and voila - heaps of fancy effects are done for you. So easy.

Thing #35: Microblogging

Twitter.

Hmmm.

What can I say?

Setting up an account was easy.

Declined to have Twitter have access to all my contacts (scary stuff).

Searched (on a major nostalgic whim) and found some people posing as "Buffy" and "Xander" and "Angel" from the "old" tv show. They must have fun thinking up posts to add re vampire slaying lives. Apparantly a Xander is now following me - talk about quick on the uptake.





No "Spike" though - oh, the shame of it all.....

Thing#32 Online file storage with Box.net

Mostly was fairly easy. A bit of toing and froing initially, but reckon on a 2nd go would be fairly easy to manage. Not sure that it would be good for work use - lose control of the files and trusting a 3rd party with the information. Useful for personal use if moving around a bit I guess. Have used Zoho before and found it a good product.

Online file storage example

Rudd determined to act on housing affordability.doc

Thing 31: Get Organized with Plaxo

Plaxo seems to offer a great many features and ways to share data and connections with friends, family and colleagues. The mind boggles.

It's easy to use, with the ability to import your address and contact information from a number of sources including Gmail, Yahoo etc, and if any of your contacts are registered with Plaxo, you are automatically updated with their contact details, whenever they are updated - so handy when people change jobs, email addresses etc. Of course this requires them to update themselves which is never guaranteed. You can personalise the information that they have supplied in your own contacts area, which is quite nifty (especially if you know more than one person by the same first name and need to differentiate them).

I do wonder about viruses, given that it's importing contacts from an email list.

Thing #29: Scrapblog - I'm in Love

Useful for those crafty types out there (scrapbooking seems a phenomenal trend that shows no signs of abatement). Could be useful front page to highlight a new acquisition eg Budget papers with pictures of Swan and Rudd, ALP logo, money etc or as a front page before you get into a wiki entry (though you'd have to make sure that it looked professional to entice people in).