Week Three - Thing 7 - Something I've Learned

I learned a new techie term this weekend. I wanted to load some photos onto my laptop from our camera but I have only ever loaded thewm onto my desktop computer and the software that I needed was not loaded onto my laptop. Anyway, I went to the Pentax site to download the software and there was a link for software and something called "firmware," which I had never heard. The site said that software is what you download to use on your computer to allow your camera to download images, etc. Firmware is something you download onto your camera that might update its settings, like the way that it records date and time, for instance. I'm not sure if it is called firmware for all portablwe devices, but I think it's cool that I learned something new!

Week Four - Thing 8 - RSS Feeds

Ok, I have set up my RSS feeds. To be perfectly honest, I have no need for RSS feeds in my life - personal or professional. I think, as it is, we are all bombarded by information from all angles every day. So why would I subscribe to another thing that I have to sign up for, sign into, and spend time reading? I see how these would be helpful, especially if you had a job as a reporter for a newspaper or some other job where you need to be on top of information from multiple sources quickly. In my job, somebody comes in with a question and I search for the answer right there and then. Does it help to be on top of current trends and information? Of course. However, I already find myself saying, several times a day, "I was just reading about..." without needing to be hooked into an RSS feed.
Something that really bothered me is the fact that I signed up for a friend's political blog, and anywhere he has video embedded shows up in the RSS feed as a continual list of pornographic language. What's up with that? It makes me ask what kind of filtering there is on these RSS feed sites. If I asked students to sign up for these, will they see something similar?

Week Four - Thing 9 - Blog Finders

I used the Google Blog finder. I never knew there was such a thing! I think this is great. I often am faced with a question from someone who would like to know what others in a certain field (usually different teaching disciplines, but not always) are thinking about. With the Blog search I can go on and find a few blogs and read a little about any subject to get various opinions. It's weird, it is almost like having a round table discussion about any subject at the drop of a hat. I found with some blogs you sometimes are faced with some fanatics or people who feel really passionately one way or the other, depending on what subject you are searching for. I suppose people who bother to keep up with a blog are the ones who DO feel passionately about their subject matter. Anyway, if you can kind of sift through and glue all comments together for a more well-rounded perspective, it can be really helpful.