Bundle: Money Uncomplicated is their Motto!

Bundle is a pretty intriguing site that aims to help all of us "get smarter about money. Together."

So if you wonder how other people spend theirs and how it compares to how you spend yours or how other folks are dealing with a problem that you're having, get thee on over to the Bundle site.

 According to their FAQ's they update spending data every quarter, the people and stories you'll find there are real folks & situations, and Bundle promises
"to be an independent, unbiased source of money information and advice."

You might want to take a look at their 2010 Bundle Report: How America Spends to get started.

I wonder how many people actually own a piggy bank? Oh, and let's break that down by age, income, & gender.

The Internet 2009 in Numbers!

Here is a fascinating overview of the 2009 Internet by an outfit called Royal Pingdom whose "focus lies on covering the uptime monitoring needs of 90% of the companies in the world" for a living.

These are amazing statistics!

The Internet 2009 in Numbers

A Brief "Just Hack Me" Public Service Announcement . . .

This just in from LISNews:

If Your Password is 123456, Just Make It HackMe

Kind of gives one pause, yes?

Be sure to check out the comments.

Like Factoids? Like Fun Graphics? You'll Love This!

OnlineEducation is an interesting, albeit with somewhat mysterious origins, site that takes topics like A Day in the Internet and creates this:


Created by Online Education

There are other nifty topics like Videogame Statistics, Facts About Your Farts, What's Changed This Decade, Facts About Bottled Water & more. (FYI: some topics may be more edgy than others.)

You will also find some useful lists here such as 100 Free Tools to Write, Publish, & Promote Your Own Book and 100 Best Blogs For Homeschooling Moms (which also includes blogs by homeschooling Dads and kids plus lots of homeschooling resources).

This is what the Online Education folks have to say on their About page:
"Everyone has a natural curiosity, and we are here to give you a daily dose of wit, humor and knowledge to satisfy that urge. We cover all the bases of life that didn’t get a lot of attention at school."

By George, I think they've succeeded! Check it out!

Technology and the New Literacy?

Check out this interesting article from Wired magazine:

Clive Thompson on the New Literacy

that sheds some much needed light (imho) on how technology just might be responsible for a new revolution in literacy and communication.

Evidently Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, has come to some enlightening conclusions in her Stanford Study of Writing project. Who knew?

Be sure to check out the comments and leave some of your own if you get the urge.

Know About FreeCycle???

Here is a pretty cool site that my sources in Maryland turned me on to that is pretty much like virtual dumpster diving or cyber bulk pick-up day. (Wahoo!)

Actually, all kidding aside, FreeCycle Network ("changing the world one gift at a time") is a grassroots, entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns.

Their Mission Statement: "Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community."

For local folks there is a Lebanon FreeCycle Group you can join. If you are elsewhere don't dismay. FreeCycle is made up of 4,801 groups with 7,207,000 members across the globe so there is likely one near you. (You could also start a group if you so desired.)

To get in on the Freecycle action you need to join a group. (Membership is free.) Each group has a moderator and there are a few (not many) rules to be followed. (For example, when they say "free" they mean "free".)

And just in case you think this is some fly-by-night outfit take a look at their organization chart. This seems a well thought-out, well organized enterprise.

So? What are you waiting for? Go forth and check it out!

Free is GOOD!

Tell Your Story & Share With The World . . .

Another great example of how the Internet can connect ALL of us who access it in meaningful and important ways.

Our First Loves Project is a place to tell the story of your first love and read about the stories of others. It began life as a student journalism project and is really a treat to experience.

The stories themselves are simple and short. Most are accompanied by audio and/or visuals but all have a wonderful sense of humanity and will engender an emotional response which you can rate at the bottom of each piece. There are also similar story recommendations as well.

Ok, Peeps, go ahead.... share your story with the world too!

From their About Page:

"Our First Loves is a multimedia storytelling experiment. Produced by a group of student journalists in an interactive design class at the Medill School of Journalism, it is based on the idea that journalism on the Internet should be about connectivity. Not just hyper links or social networking, but connectivity in the sense that it has the unique ability to bring even perfect strangers together and show us what we have in common. New media journalism can be the ultimate equalizer, a proof of the human condition."

THE place to go for free computer training & more!

GCFLearnFree.org comes highly recommended by our in-house computer tech/YA Librarian person, Vicki.

She uses this site when teaching our basic computer classes at the library and has had only good things to say about it.

This is from their About Page: "GCFLearnFree.org® is supported by the Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. (GCF®) whose mission is "to create and provide education, employment, and life enrichment opportunities for people who desire to improve the quality of their lives".

GCFLearnFree.org exists to serve the educational part of the GCF mission. We create and provide quality, innovative online learning opportunities to anyone who wants to improve the technology, literacy, and math skills necessary for them to be successful in both work and life. We believe there's freedom in the ability to learn what you want, when you want, regardless of your circumstances. That's why we're 'GCFLearnFree.org.'

So if you are in need of basic computer skills (0r know someone who is) this is the place for you (them)! (The site also offers a Spanish language option as well.)

Under the category of Computer Training you will find several courses for getting started: Computer Basics, Windows, Internet Basics, Email Basics, Internet Safety, Mozilla Firefox, and Facebook 101.

There are also courses on using Office software: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Office, OpenOffice.org, Outlook 2003, and Publisher 2003.

All the courses are free and it is beneficial to sign up for an account because GCFLearnFree will keep track of the courses you've taken & the progress you've made. Each class is self-paced so you can learn when you have the time.

Besides Computer Training they also offer classes in Everyday Life, Math & Money, Online Classes, & Work & Career.

There is a huge amount of good info to be found at this site so be prepared to take your time and check it out.

The Mother Ship For Link Lovers!

Populair.eu is the place to go if you're someone who likes to browse links for popular sites in subcategories under eleven topics. (Say that ten times fast!)

Topics include: "populair, webdesign, software, gadgets, news, social, music, video, book, iran, & travel."

Needless to say Miss Bun is very impressed with the book page! Bibliophiles should definitely check it out!

Nice layout, nice colors, great stuff!

What more can you ask for?

Have fun exploring!

P.S. There is no "About" info for this site which would be nice to know. However, it appears that the contact for it is Edward de Leau from the Netherlands. (FYI)

Have A Thing For Shoes???

Then you will like visiting Solemates: The Century in Shoes which is an early example of using the Internet as a multidimensional information delivery tool. (Say that ten times fast!)

Here you can get a glimpse of footwear fashion through the 20th century and learn a few tidbits along the way.

Be sure to check out the "Special Features" tab to pick up some factoids on Dorothy's famous Ruby Slippers.

"Dial a Decade in Shoes" is kind of fun, too!

(This site was created by the team at 4th Revolution, an Internet development and marketing communications firm in Sacramento, CA which was bought out by Wirestone in 2002.)

Note: This blog entry is dedicated to Karla Marsteller, executive director of the Palmyra Public Library which is our sister library to the west.

“Give a girl the correct footwear and she can conquer the world”
-Bette Midler

Happy Birthday to (& some separation anxiety about) . . .

Kevin Bacon who was born on this day in 1958 in Philadelphia, PA. (Click on his name to go to his IMDB [Internet Movie Database] page to learn more about him and his career.

Now, you may have heard of the phrase Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon which is a trivia game based on the concept of the small world phenomenon and assumes that any actor can be linked through his or her film roles to actor Kevin Bacon within six steps.

(More PA trivia: This game was created by three students at Albright College in Reading, PA back in 1994. Check it out here: The Kevin Bacon Game.)

Why should we care about the concept of six degrees of separation? A "degree of separation" is a measure of social distance between people. You are one degree away from everyone you know, two degrees away from everyone they know, and so on.

Because Stanley Milgram's experiments back in 1967 suggested that human society is a small world type network characterized by short path lengths and mirrors what we know today as the World Wide Web. (A Microsoft study done in 2008 confirmed the theory.)

It really is a small world after all.

Breathing Earth = Information Visualization

The Breathing Earth website by David Bleja is a great example of how the Web is changing the way we interact with and perceive information.

"This real-time simulation displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates. "

It's kind of fascinating to step back and take a global view of such things. Don't be afraid to move your cursor over the map to see what happens.

And be sure to scroll down to find out more about the data and where it comes from, the environment and climate change as well as links to other resources.

Learn About Low Impact Development and Eco-living

When I visited this site: A Low Impact Woodland Home by Simon Dale in Great Britain two things that made an immediate impression were 1) how passionate about this subject Mr. Dale must be and 2) if it weren't for the Internet I would probably never have had the privilege of learning about it.

This is a straightforward, interesting site on the topic of green living, sustainability, and low impact development. Take a tour around the site and be sure to visit the Lammas website that is listed under "Resources" to learn about the society and Eco-living.

Under the "Home" tab you will find house plans, the family's perspective, and similar buildings.

On this site you will also find videos, a forum, how to get involved and some good resources.

This is an excellent example of using the power of the Web to connect people and ideas.

Nifty DIY Recycled Bookmark Recycled From A Nifty Blog . . .

I found this great idea for a bookmark on Lauren Kilberg's blog: doubletakes: things that make you look twice (which she has been writing since 2007). Her blog is definitely worth a look!




Here is the link to the bookmark page: DIY Corner Bookmark

Lauren evidently found in on a blog she likes called d.Sharp Journal (check it out....very cool).


This is a great example of how the Web works. It's all about links & nodes & people & information making connections.

Take a look at an example of a social network map on the right. The bigger the round ball (node) the more connections (links) it has. Kind of amazing, yes?

Anyway....go make some creative recycled bookmarks and hopefully you will never loose your place (or connection) again.

Improv Everywhere's MP3 Experiment Six via Pogue's Posts Blog

Where Online Meets Offline...

Ok, so I came across this blog entry (The MP3 Experiment by David Pogue) as I was rambling around the Net, and since I am also very interested in how technology and culture intersect (and I love collaborative, fun projects) this immediately caught my eye.

The existence of Improv Everywhere was also under my personal radar (please, no eye rolling...) so discovering them was another treat for me.

All I can say is: Another amazing example of how technology can be used to impact our lives in unexpected and incredibly creative ways.

Please read David Pogue's post where he describes participating in The MP3 Experiment Six on Roosevelt Island, NYC with his young son. (Wish I had been there!) And check out Improv Everywhere's website to see what they've been up to lately. Be sure to read the FAQ's to learn how you can participate and how Improv Everywhere got started.

Then go out and make some fun of your own today!

Have a look at The MP3 Experiment Five to experience the magic:

Atomic Shrimp: A Man and his Blog......

This is a blog by Mike "in the south of England - almost exactly halfway between Southampton and Portsmouth."

Mike's blog is "really just about the things I do in my spare time. My interests include wild food, experimental cooking, assorted crafts, multimedia work and the deliberate, but benign and mild-mannered pursuit of the absurd."

Here is a link to just one of the absurd things you will find there: The Mouse Organ

You may wonder why I am pointing you in the direction of Atomic Shrimp. (I have heard from several people that they think blogging is just a waste of time).

The point I would like to make is that this absurd, funny, quirky blog is a stellar example of someone putting themselves out there on the Net for no other reason than they can, or they want to share or they just get some satisfaction out of creating something that others can see.

(And given the fact that the whole online world has the potential to access this blog you can bet that someone will see it!)

Never before have so many had the means to self publish so easily on any subject and in so many formats. And what's more is that they can get immediate feedback (if desired).

So, Peeps, don't automatically turn up your nose at the "B" Word. Just jump into that great sea of humanity that is the Internet and reach out and connect with someone!

(Do I now owe a certain telecommunications company some revenue???)


Here is another Atomic Shrimp blog entry to entice you to have a look: Making A Mountain Out of a Molehill




Enjoy!

Like Music? This is Way Cool!

The Internet never ceases to amaze me re: the sheer depth and breadth of what is out there, who put it there, and how anyone who has decent computer access can be a part of it.

Here is a great example: Pandora Radio which, according to the website, was "created to put the Music Genome Project directly in your hands."

So? What's that mean?

Well, Peeps, it means that you can create your own radio station based on artists or songs that you like. Or you can listen to a "station" based on a musical genre.

For example, I currently have a Crosby, Stills, & Nash station, a Feist Station, a Bonnie Raitt station and a Laurie Lewis station.Thanks to the Music Genome Project when I make a new station it takes the music/artist I've selected and pulls other music that is similar to play on it. You can also fine tune your station to your liking with the "options" drop down. You can also bookmark your favorites.

If something gets played that I don't like I just let Pandora know and I won't hear that selection again. Can you say that about your AM/FM stations?

You can share your station with friends or put it on your mobile device and lots more!

Pandora Internet Radio requires that you have an account but it is free. The free account will stop the music in an hour and ask if you are still listening. You also have to put up with some advertising but it's not that bad.

For $36 a year you can have a paid subscription that is advert free and plays for at least 5 hours before asking if you are still listening.

What are you waiting for? Get your Pandora Radio on!

Retro Media: An Online Exhibit

(Click on the logo)


This is an interesting online version (thanks for the heads up, Mo!) of an exhibit by the University at Buffalo: The State University of New York library that gives us a look at how we have recorded, collected, and used audio, visual, and digital information over a span of 120 years & the problems and issues that go along with such rapidly changing technology.

For some of us this is walk down memory lane.....

How Facebook (ie, Technology) Gives YOU the Power...

This just in from the NY Times Pogue's Posts blog (thanks Sandee!). It's a true story about things lost and found. (And you thought Facebook was a bad thing!) Now, Peeps, go forth and connect with someone ...

Facebook: Finder of Lost-Wallet Owners

Do You Doodle???

Here is a free online coordination tool that makes scheduling things with several people (like meetings) a breeze.

Instead of having to go back and forth with a million emails everyone gets to see the dates and times and choose what works for them. They can also see what other folks choose. Doodle can also be used for other things like polls. Pretty nifty! Check it out!

Doodle

Have questions?
Here is their FAQ (frequently asked questions) page: http://www.doodle.com/about/faq.html