Podcast For Everybody

The podcast resources available online today are overwhelming. From the podcasting directory on Libsuccess  to countless other podcast directories, there is something for everybody.

I visited the Alden Library podcast directory and found a podcast that Char Booth, a university reference and instruction  librarian, created to introduce herself to her students. I can imagine how Sno-Isle administrators, librarians and staff can have personal podcasts like that of Char’s in the near future. You can hear her on Kwami’s Shared Reader. She talks about her native Texas.

OverDrive

I took the webinar on OverDrive way back in 2005 when it all started with Lesly Kaplan.

I tried re-installing OverDrive at home and noticed that the rubrique “Upgrade Windows Media Player” can be confusing since it is not easy to identify the version.

Any way, I finally identified my version by right-clicking the Windows Media Player icon to the top left. Then I found the Help and About where Windows applications’ version information are generally located. 

While following the Windows Media Player Security Upgradedirections necessary to use OverDrive, I got the error that I did not have a genuine Windows license and therefore I should close Windows Media Player (I have the latest version 11. something) and restart.

This is surprising since I have a validated copy of Windows. When I restarted, OverDrive asked me to hit the Play button. And, surprise, the voice said I have set up the Security Upgrade successfully.

Google Docs and Zoho Writer

I attempted to copy a file I created in notepad into my newly activated Google Docs. I was using FireFox 3.0. and I was unable to use the copy and paste functionality.

It did not give the option of choosing if I want to control that functionality. It simply denied me the ability to do so. I then launched my Internet Explorer version 7.0.something and was able to copy the existing document into Google Docs.

I mean, I understand the security risks involved but to totally disable the copy and paste function beats me. Maybe there is a way to enable it that I am unaware of. Will have to explore that.

I tried both Google Docs and Zoho Writer. With an existing Google account, when you use Google docs for the first time, it asks you if you want to create another account. If you say no, you get to use the application immediately.

With Zoho Writer you can use either your existing Google or Yahoo accounts to generate a new registration. Which makes Zoho Writer sign-up easy.

Both tools have powerful word processing capabilities. What I noticed is that Zoho Writer looks more like Office 2007 with all menu items, lots of them, designed as icons.

A strange thing I noticed is that although Goolge Docs has fewer menu icons with some text menu items, I prefer that to Zoho Writer because it is simpler to use and less cluttered. Simplicity rules, I guess, and Google has figured that out.