May

17

Blogging at the Edmonton Public Library

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Blogging at the Edmonton Public Library (image: 2478969984_8e9f2ed8b9)A week and a bit ago the Public launched a variety of blogs.

doesn’t appear to use a standard (, TypePad, etc) but rather chose to develop their own platform.

On the topic of topics, the included are rather diverse, from Aboriginal Peoples, Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels, RFID in Libraries, and more.

…and this is just another reason that my local library gets me! Well done !

May

13

From the ’so simple why didn’t I think of it’ category

Filed Under How to, Musings | 3 Comments


From the so simple why didnt I think of it category (image: scancard)A friend of mine pointed me to this brilliant post (via iPhone Central)

The concept is ; the front and back of all your barcoded membership cards, and carry them around in your .

To test it out I went to the local store and asked the girl
behind the counter if she could the barcode from my . The
first look I got was pure amazement. To her the physical card was
transformed into a picture on a shiny device. On top of that the
barcode was scanned successfully. The result; a slightly confused girl
and a happy me.

My take: I’m going to try this on my card and see if this works on my Pilot T|X.

Apr

23

5 reasons my library ‘gets’ me.

Filed Under Social Media | 2 Comments


I was recently reminded why I happily support my local library, and yes, this is all about me.

The backstory: A recommended a few movies over dinner the other evening. The local store didn’t have them, so after remembering a conversation with another , I went to the local , from the comfort of my .

After a brief catalogue , all my movies were placed on hold to be delivered to the branch near work when they’re ready to be picked up.

Über convenient, and since this is all about me here’s 5 solid reasons my is convenient:

  1. Hard to find , CDs and DVDs — In my , libraries will tend to have more varied selection, not being driven by the need to sell more units of the popular stuff, they can have one or two copies of more eclectic works.
  2. Live streaming and downloadable — this one surprised me. The Edmonton Public Library has the Naxos music catalogue available for streaming, as well as time-limited downloads of of eAudiobooks Overdrive ( only (boo!) a I’ve not used, yet).
  3. catalogue with reservation system — I can reserve when it’s convenient for me, say, at 2am.
  4. Modest price, huge benefits — fees are inexpensive. Their value to me, and to my are huge. My has programming for kids, annual sales, is a great meeting place, and is an awesome resource.
  5. The Public gets — Heck, how many stodgy old places do you know that develop their own Facebook Application?

courtesy Nrbelex

Aug

21

Edmonton public library leaps into social media

Filed Under Social Media | 3 Comments


Edmonton public library leaps into social media (image: ) While other public and private organizations and corporations are analyzing, examining, and ignoring, the Public soft-launched its today.

As it says on the teaser, it’s a very LIMITED version of the wonderful world of the Public .

Currently you can:

  • check out your account status, including holds
  • of staff
  • the catalogue
  • find out what’s new at your local branch
  • check out coming events and programs
  • get local branch hours

Pretty thorough if you me. I wonder what the full version will have.

*** UPDATE Aug 23/07 ***

Looks like TD and Telus are also getting into the game, as reported by Kate Trgovac:

TD seems to really be going after the college crowd, so the app is a great play. They also have a “Money Lounge” (essentially a Facebook group). It’s really hard to tell who owns it; you rely on TD employees to disclose their biases.

And on Telus:

It’s a fishbowl where you can add your top 5 (or 8 if you’re a student) friends. It complements Telus’ current 5 friends campaign with their mobile product.

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May

9

Inside Scotiabank’s new online community - MyVault

Filed Under Social Media | 2 Comments


Inside Scotiabanks new online community - MyVault (image: 52engck)Scotiabank’s new Web 2.0 community site is now live, and I’ve taken a quick browse through the site and am very happy with what I found!

For starters, the MyVault site is laid out in a very pleasing manner, friendly and approachable.

The main interface is down into blocks:

  • My — contains headlines, financial , and user-subscribable feeds
  • My Plans — sort of an organizer / planner containing:
  • My Calendar — sophisticated calendaring features that include user definable categories and alerts.
  • My ToDo List — as the name says, it’s a list manager.
  • My Cashflow — a cashflow modeling . “Whenever you have new sources of income, or new expenses, enter them into My Cash Flow to get an up-to-date view of your financial situation”. It’s not connected to your bank account.
  • My Documents — a place to store articles and other items you may want to refer back to at a later date.
  • My — contains personal finance articles, Q & A section, Scotiabank’s ‘The Money Clip’ podcast, and a Glossary of financial terms. There’s also a section containing a few more -related items.
  • Inside Scotiabanks new online community - MyVault (image: 6exwdg5)My — ah, now we get to the ’’ aspect of an . My is a discussion forum, where members can conduct conversation in a number of themed, moderated forums, such as Investing, Home Ownership, Money , etc. One minor issue, I couldn’t find any way to subscribe to the forums and comments via , but otherwise, it’s nice to see Scotiabank willing to enable this kind of discussion within their world.
  • My — a collection of calculators and financial assessment to help you have better financial situational awareness. Some of the include RSP calculator, Net Worth, Mortgage Payment..etc.

    • Overall I think it’s a great resource. With the collection of , information, and an to provide that ‘reality check’, Scotiabank has launched a very .

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    Aug

    21

    Free Sci-Fi eBooks — Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause

    Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments


    I’ve been ebooks on my Zire 31 for a year and a bit…but not thought about listing the resources I use. Well, here’s the first step — and I didn’t have to do much of the work either thanks to this great link from David Dean. He lists five, I’ve grabbed three, but check out the comments on his post…even more great resources there.

    1. Baen Free Library - - here you can get 80+ full length . This is intended to get
      you hooked so you’ll start paying by the month (see number 4).
    2. Cory Doctorow - - Cory has released all his recent stories and novels under Creative Commons
      licenses so you can away. However, Cory is probably even more useful because he finds out when other authors do similar and lets everyone know through his at Boing Boing, so keep an eye there.
    3. Strange Horizons - no cost - a weekly -based magazine of and about speculative fiction. Every week they have more fiction available, as well as articles, reviews, poetry and art. They don’t seem to have any syndication feeds, so I created one here.

    Source: boingboing

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    Jul

    13

    Linklist - July 13, 2006

    Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment


    Firefox Essential Extensions:

    • googlepedia - shows you a relevant Wikipedia article along with your results.
      Clicking in the article will trigger new searches, making
      it a very useful research .
    • Firefox Extension Backup Extension - FEBE allows you to quickly and easily your Firefox extensions. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up — It will actually rebuild your extensions individually into installable .xpi files.
    • Compact Library Extension Organizer - CLEO is a Firefox extension that works with FEBE to package any number of extensions/themes into a single, installable .xpi file.

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