I'm 19 and I know it all

Beam me up, Scotty

2008-07-04T17:24:00.000-07:00

So this image generator thing is quite frustrating. On this one, you can only use a couple of pre-loaded images and edit the text. To be honest, you can do this with paint.net on your computer to any image.

I didn't really have time to look hard for any better ones, but I'll maje sure that I do, as there are some very funny ideas which could be done, if there were more options in the software.

Anyway, this is what I made. Average, but it was just a first go.

I'm on the prowl.

2008-07-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

So this was all about using different ways to search and find RSS feeds of interest. I did this using Technorati. Simple enough to use, and it's got a massive scope.

Another way I find sites of interest that I can then RSS or bookmark is through sites like Digg or reddit. These sites allow users to submit links to sites they like, and other users can then Digg or 'approve' them, making them more popular - or bury them. This means that a massive scope of topics from cats to wikipedia articles to funny pictures is literally at your fingertips, having been deemed worthy by an online community. This is Web 2.0 at work - taking internet content and rating it, using it, commenting on it.

Digg is a great way to find new websites, and as I've used it many times before I found it slightly more to my taste than simply searching for topics I think I might like - which is a pretty arbitrary way of finding things, even though it is perhaps more personal.

Either method is good, I just prefer a more random way I suppose.

Feed me, Seymour!

2008-07-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

So this is all about using RSS to get updates, rather than visiting the websites of the content themselves. This is a reasonably simple tool, using Bloglines it was basically a 'point and click' exercise. I'm wondering, however, why we didn't choose to go with Google Reader? It simplifies things into one google account, with blogger and gmail all together with the RSS feeds.

Certainly it's useful getting to know different services, and I appreciate that it allows greater scope with getting to know the Web, but it still seems slightly counter-productive to use lots of different, competing services when there is a simple, centralised alternative. Nonetheless, it was easy.

I read a lot of webcomics, so I subscribed to several of them, as well as news sites and sites of interest to me. One problem I have with the concept of RSS has to do with money. Most sites make money based on advertising. Ads are based on the site for people to click on, thus the reason some sites can afford to publish. The problem with RSS is that it allows Web users to avoid using the home sites of their feeds at all, or at least not as much, which then could have a detrimental effect on those homes sites themselves.

While RSS is convenient and nice to use, it seems like a very selfish and anti-social way to browse. Using RSS it's actually harder to take part it the concept of Web 2.0 which is user-created content. When one is not actually interacting with the site itself, one has less chance to comment, explore and add to the site, which defeats the whole Web 2.0 concept.

So yes, RSS is great - it's simple, convenient and it saves time. But in the long run, I feel it's less of a social tool than Web 2.0 is supposed to be, and it should not replace web browsing.

The Last Post

2008-07-04T15:47:00.000-07:00

So here goes. This is part of getting to know Web 2.0 which is nice. In fact, being 19 I know it all already. Thus the title of my blog.

It's not actually true though. I don't know it all. Setting up a blog was simple, as was getting gmail - which, by the way, is a very good email client. I can't say anything was out of the ordinary, but I suppose it's good to keep in practice.

I'm looking forward to getting a thorough introduction to everything throughout the 23 things, so let's go!