Tagging, Mashups, & Generators

*Note- Below this post as well as to the right hand side of my blog you will find a variety of linked photos from Flickr as well as some of my on-line generator creations.

* Tag Clouds
-list of user-generated tags
-typically listed alphabetically
-the importance of a tag is shown with font size or color (bigger the tag the more favored it is)
- hyperlinks that lead to a collection of items that are associated with a tag

Tag Clouds make finding an image(s) associated with a particular word(s) or tag(s) easy
Ex.

(image taken from: http://jowra.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/delicious-tags-plugin.png)

Flickr

I had fun exploring Flickr for a second time. I must admit that I have rarely used my account since the summer. Mainly due to the fact that I am stuck in the "I prefer what I learned with.... blah blah blah" although I must admit that I have been using Flickr to upload some of my vacation pics so that I can easily show them to friends and family.

The one place where I must admit that Flickr beats PhotoBucket hands down is with its tagging. Fickr (in my opinion) is the easiest photo sharing website to find photos listed under a particular tag/ tags. PhotoBucket is nowhere near as easy and tends to show the same image over and over, unlike Flickr.

Flickr Mash-ups

Reviewing some of these mashups for the second time was an interesting experience. I had forgotten how mesmerizing flickrvision.com is. Or how bizzar it is to see which images are chosen when you draw squiggles in the box at flickr labs . For an interesting experiment I attempted to draw everyday objects in the box, not once did I actually get anything that even resembled what I had attempted to draw. And once again, even after learning how to play Sudoku I could not figure out how in hell to play the Flickr version.

Google Map Mash-ups

These are a few interesting and disturbing google maps mash-ups which I am sure benefit the world in some way shape or form. (*Note:- I do realize some google map mash-ups are seen as extremely helpful, ex. the one which shows where all the US sex offenders live, however the politics behind that are extremely difficult to discuss in this small assignment and for that reason I have chosen to include a few mash-ups which are not so political... unless you are against StarBucks in which case being able to find the closest one to you may be more disturbing, due to its acknowledgment of our extremely corporate capitalistic obsessions which we use to fill the forever empty void within us all, but for the rest of us is exactly what we need to get us through are hectic days.

UFO Maps
The other side of the world
Sanata Map
Where are all the Ham Radio's?
Find a Concert

On-Line Generators

These are one of my favorite things to do on the web. Particularly around exam time on-line generators fill the pages of my bogs. Mainly for procrastination purposes but on occasion to add that extra little... something to my blog. For example I quite often use a doll generator on my info page to give others an image of me without giving them an actual photo. Other times I like to use some of the sign generators as "Friends Only" banners to let others know that if they want to read my blog they are going to have to be my friend. I also like to use on-line generators to really show the name of my blog cause sometimes the user name can overwhelm the actual name of your blog depending which one you use. And sometimes I like using on-line generators to make fun and personalized stationary. I use a generator to come up with a funny poem or image and then print it out on a few sheets of paper to give my hand written letters a little extra detail.

Basically on-line generators for the most part are just fun, quick and easy and can be used for a multitude of things. I must admit that I like using the poem generators to send my friends little poems to make their day a little happier.

Flickr: Interesting Photo's

Blurred Vision: Suicide, Tracey Leigh Grady, 12/13/03,
originally uploaded by MsAnthea "Anthéaïs".

Other interesting Photo's
Owl
Street Art
Puzzle
Girl

Online Generators: My Creations

I feel like I'm so angry! everybody has asked why I'm leaving the punk community but the answer is simple: Some of you know who you are and why I'm leaving FOREVAR.

This entry automatically generated by the LJ Drama Generator!

My sexual attraction code is:
GF-AA: GF-AF GF-AM GF-AA GM-AF GM-AA GTw-AF GTw-AM GTw-AA GTm-AF GTm-AM GTm-AA GH-AF GH-AM GH-AA

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Google Reader

I must admit that originally I was not too sure how I felt about Google reader. I could see the usefulness of having all the content you regularly look up/visit in one place, yet did not feel that I visited enough sites on the web to use google reader on a regular basis. I must also admit that I am as fond of visiting separate websites as I am of T.V. commercials, to me, visiting separate webpages is part of the whole internet experience. I felt sad giving up that part of surfing the web. Although, as unsure of google reader as I was I felt that I should give it a fair chance and use it for about two weeks. I must admit that I still visited other sites, mainly because I could not add them to google reader, or in the case of my blog, I decided that I enjoyed visiting my friends page too much to give it up to google reader.

In order to make google reader more relevant or useful, I decided to add not only the regular sites I visited (by copying the web address of the site and pasting it in google readers add subscription box or by finding the RSS option/link on the actual web site/page that I wanted to add to google reader) But to also add sites that I traditionally would not visit, yet felt passionate enough about that I would enjoy reading on a daily basis (for this I used the directory in google reader to search topics of interest to myself to find new blogs/webpages to add to my RSS feeder)

Throughout the two weeks where I used google reader on a regular basis I found myself adding more and more subscriptions to my RSS reader. I also found myself removing a few that I did not feel a connection to. Throughout the entire experience I found that I had somewhere between 300-500 items to read a day. I must admit that I enjoyed obtaining new facts and knowledge on a daily basis and felt that for this google reader was very helpful/useful. Also for my Media and Feminism classes I found google reader extremely helpful to keep track of all the newspapers and articles I had to read on a regular basis. The one downside that I found was on occasion I did not have the time to dedicate to reading all of my subscriptions. I also found it extremely overwhelming if I missed a day or two, very quickly I could have 1000+ items to read with no time to read them. There were also days where I felt that google reader supplied me with too much information to ingest after 6 hours of very intense (information overload) class.

All in all I found google reader useful and have decided that it is an easy way of keeping track of the sites I enjoy reading and what I have and have not read. I also really enjoyed the ability to star items which I found extremely useful or interesting. I really appreciated that ability to keep track of these items and have them all in one place. The ability to then share these items with friends, relatives, and others was extremely helpful and easier than attempting to direct people to particular parts of webpages.