My Technology Addictions

Well I have done it now, I have registered to be part of BarCamp Perth

I am going along to the BarCamp in Perth on Saturday June 30th and will meet up with my friend Sue, who sort of “suggested” we go, and then we dobbed ourselves in for a couple of presentations. A BarCamp is described as an unconference where  you can share and learn in an open environment with lots of demos, discussions, presentations and interaction. Among some of the rules of a BarCamp are:

That you do talk about the BarCamp -( the reason for this post)

You do blog about BarCamp - ditto

That if it is your first time at a bar camp you are supposed to present…So I will be involved in the presentations on

Podcasting 101 & Learning Systems / Design for eLearning / Education and web apps

I think Sue and Kate who are also part of these presentations are more expert on these particular topic but I will tag along and put in my two cents worth. I have even talked my teenage son who is studying Computer Science at Murdoch Uni to come along for the day. he can decipher some of the Open Source stuff that I am not up on.

so if you are free on Sat June 30 between 9am and 5pm, interested in web development, web 2, elearning, Open source and more have a look at the Barcamp wiki and register and come and join us in what looks like a great day of interaction for all

I have just read a post on Probable Distractions blog about an really cool workplace that is fitted out to look like the Nautilus from Jules Verne?s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Just imagine how inspiring it would be to work in a place like that.

This got me thinking about what other great workplaces there must be. I remembered seeing a  documentary on The Googleplex  that showed bright colours fun  games and  staff moving around on scooters

so I decided to “Google” fun workplaces and I found some really cool places to work and some fun ways to organise your office space. I also found some cool desktops at nownow.com.au , I did note that they seem to be predominantly macs!

Red Bull in London has a 29 foot slide that staff can use to go between floors

 We mere mortals can but dream

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

The release date of the iPhone in the US has been announced - June 29.

Photo from Apple

I have read a lot of articles complaining about the user interface but I think it looks pretty cool, and defiantly aimed at the young phone user market. The large icons on the screen would make it easy to navigate through the device but I haven’t seen any pics to show what sort of keyboard screen it has for text messaging. It has storage of 4GB or 8GB and also includes a 2 megapixel camera. It is a shame that it won’t be on the 3G network with its specs saying it is only 2.5G. Battery life is supposed to be about 5 hours with 16 hours standby and has Bluetooth and WiFi. As usual Apple have some neat ads and a gallery of images that can be viewed on their site. Looking at some of the images in their gallery you have to wonder if this will bite into their ipod market? Images show Album covers and songs playing on the iPhone. It looks like it will be about $600US. So if you want one device that plays music, takes photo’s and makes phone calls then this may be what you are after. Don’t know when it will be in Australia but I have no doubt it will soon be the new cool thing to have among teenagers.

Photo from Apple

Updated links on using blogs now on Resources page

Yes I took the challenge to Go Without Google For a Day and survived to tell the tale. This is definitely a task to only undertake if you are not under pressure, meeting deadlines or very busy. You need time to learn your way around using the different search engines. I took the easy option and downloaded Alt Search Engines list of 100 alternative search engines and used their top recommendations.

First I tried Kartoo this was quiet fun as it displays your results as graphical pages on a map. You can move your cursor over the results and see where and how they may link to other pages. It also gives you a list of keywords that you can use to define your search. You can Select the language of your search but not specifically your country - No Australian specific search.

Next I tried Quintura well I must be thick or needed coffee but I got thoroughly confused and gave up. 50matches is a Social Powered Search and they “only crawl web sites that were bookmarked or voted for by people, in sites like del.icio.us, digg and reddit.” Well I hope they don’t crawl my del.icio.us account as I know how unorganised and very badly tagged my things. No hope from my account of finding what you may be looking for - enough said. I also gave BlogDigger a go but when the results show Adds by Google and the results are presented looking very much like Google I wonder what their search engine is powered by?

I found a PC Magazine article called 11 Ways to Search without Google and tried a couple of their suggestions. One was Cha Cha where my searches for things like “Compact Framework Programming”, “VB.Net PPC” and “Mobile Developers” turned up some different results to what I get from Google. They also suggested StumbleUpon but this required a download of their toolbar and that was a hassle. When I want to use a search engine I want it to be a quick and painless activity,I want information and I want it now. I don’t want the hassle of downloading something before I can even start!

So I tried several different search engines and found sites like downloadsquad that I hadn’t found before when using the same phrases on Google. I found it interesting to try different search engine and did find the information I was looking for in my searches, but also had to make a conscious effort not to use Google for finding information. I think that we have been using Google for so long now it has just become a way of life. I do find myself talking about “googling things” and have even said this to my students.

I may continue to use some of these alternatives if Google doesn’t return what I want and when helping my daughter with school projects, they may help to return different results to what her class mates or teachers will get!

BUT I use Google for so much more than just searches

• It is my customised home page
• At a glance I can read my horoscope
• It tells me the latest news
• I can time my work
• I can place sticky notes and reminders.
• I love the fact that I can read the latest feeds from blogs I have subscribed to without going to another page
• I can get my gmail easily
• I can search my del.icio.us account
• I can easily add new feeds
• I can search Wikipedia

And if I get sick of seeing all those things I can get rid of them or not sign in and then have a clean white fresh page that I can just use as a search engine.

So I have to now stand up and admit

I am a Googleholic and I don’t care