The Future of Media #81: Get Out Your Crystal Ball

I think the development of 3D technology will have more effect. Visual meadia has changed drastically since it first started out, we had silent movies, to movies with color, to special effects, to computer generated movies, high definition, and now 3-D. My husband and I went to watch Avatar in 3D and the experience is recommended. The parts that had 3D effects made you feel like you were actually in that environment. One part was the destruction on their home and ash particles were flying everywhere, I felt like I could reach out and catch them in my hand. I am not really an early adopter of new gadgets, it just depends on what it is I suppose. I would have to say the DVD player is my favorite media gadget so far, MP3 players are nice but not all can play a video. DVD players play the video and the sound, and have interactive menus that you can use. I love the fact that you can skip around in movies and go to certain chapters where with a VHS the only option you had was the Rewind and FastForward buttons and you had a chance of missing your stopping point if you didnt know the "timing point" in which you stoppied at. Blue Ray is new and nice but I don't find it too practical for those budget minded.

The Future of Media #80: Movies

I love watching movies on my computer, whether it be a DVD in the actual console or online. My husband and I watch movies on the computer at least 4 out of 5 times when it comes to home entertainment. I prefer the TV so we use a special connection to hook up the computer to the tv. The screen is much bigger and allows us to watch the movie on a larger screen. We have watched "Band of the Hand" and "The Lost Boys" through one of the websites my husband found. Hulu had a trailer for The Karate Kid II, that seemed pretty interesting. Normally when we are watching streaming movies, trailers come on, and I find that pretty cool and it definitely lets you know what is coming up. The Last Airbender is coming out and my husband was very excited when he saw the trailer for that movie , I was pretty intrigued when I found out M. Knight Shyamalan was going to take part as well. We like watching "Avatar:The last airbender." We have also used Netflix; I love the availability of online movies through them. We have tried Redbox before but sometimes found the selection rather bland or uninteresting so we stick to online services. Netflix is a great service but the extra cost does not fit into our budget so we just use the free websites available on the net.

#79: Television

I use Hulu all the time, since I don't have cable or even decent digital tv reception, this has been my tv savior. My work schedule varies, some times I get home at 5:30PM and sometimes I get home at 8:15 so I am never on a real time schedule when it comes to chores, tv, or anything else. But whenever I find myself with some spare time, I can catch up on my shows on Hulu. I have watched "dead like me", "The Simpsons", and "House".

I have never watched a tv show on my phone, unfortunately my phone is not high tech enought to have that capability. My husbands phone however, has some internet access through the 3G network an he is able to wach a few things on his phone. I don't think I would be interested in this, I don't like the fact that I would have to strain my eyes to see the image on a screen no bigger than 2" x 3".

I enjoy Youtube, I find alot of interesting videos on there. I don't really have a particular channel that I watch, but my husband, the video junkie, loves to watch a Youtube channel, called the Shaytards. I hear the opening credits to the show every morning when I wake up, my husband works the night shift so he unwinds in the mornings with videos and video games.
I myself have never posted any videos on a website, I don't find an interest in that. I do however share the occasional humorous video from YouTube via Facebook.

Searching #78: Video

My search topic for videos: Pekingese Puppies ( I love pekingese dogs)

I used Truveo first, then I used Blinkx.



I definitely prefer Blinkx, I love the fact that the thumbnails for each video was animated, this helped me see the content of the video without having to open each video separately. I think this feature cuts down of the time it takes to search for a video. With Blinkx, I had to click on each video then wait for it to load and play before I even got an idea of what type of content was in it.


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I visited the HCPL’s YouTube channel and found a lot more videos than I would have expected. Some have very good production methods whereas others were more straightforward. All in all I was very impressed with the quality of the content of the videos. I think if the videos were tagged with more keywords, it would put HCPL more in the public eye. I think our patrons would like more "How to" videos that show them how to do certain library related things. An example would be "how to get a print card", or "how to send a document to the print station". Our Young adult librarian has a great repoire with the teens and I am sure they might be interested in taking part in creating the video. People tend to comprehend pictures and live action videos more so than having to read a paragraph.

Searching #77: Images

This module kind of frustrated me. AllFreeClipArt was not very helpful, I spent most of my time just trying to find a single image, I got things that were relevent to the subject matter but never the actual subject I was looking for. I lost count after clicking so many times.

I prefer the usage of Flickr, it has so much content and the user interface is easy to use. I even found a very talented photographer, a Houston Native. Meet TinyAlice. She has some very nice pictures on Flickr.

I visited FreePhotoBank.com and found some ok pictures. I didn't like that I had to click on advanced search in order to type in what I wanted. I suppose if you had a very very general idea of what kind of picture you wanted, food for example, then this website would be for you. However you would have to pay a price for it and it had a limitation on how many times you could use it. That doesn't seem too Free to me. I think I will use another site instead.

I have used the clipart program available to HCPL staff in the past and have found it very helpful. At Aldine Library, I am in charge of the Recycling Program so I make quite a few flyers and this has a plethora of images that I can use.

This image will work perfectly for one of my recycling program flyers!



Image credit: © 2009 Jupiterimages Corp.

Searching #76: Sound Effects

Different animal sounds for your enjoyment from Findsounds.com

ELEPHANT

CHICKEN

Mallard Ducks

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These are from Simply the best sounds

Joey from Friends. Copyright: Warner Bros.

who doesnt know this song?
Fur elise

an unmistakable voice...Ace Ventura.
Copyright: Warner Bros.

Searching #75: Google and Beyond

1) I did three searches on Blindsearch. I searched myself, purple cala lillies, and my sister's hair salon. The results were shocking. I am an avid google user, I use it at least 3 times a day I'm sure, yet none of the engines I chose were google. That was very surprising. So Google did not fair very well at all, Bing came out first, then yahoo, then google. However this does not change my opinion of google, I have had better success rates in the past with Google rather than others. I will continue to be a GOOGLER. :)

2) Google is ranked number 1 on Hitwise. Yahoo was its closest competitor and it surpassed it by 58%. I guess I am part of the majority who use Google.

3)One of the features that I love about Google is Igoogle. This homepage is so useful. I have all my frequently needed information all in one place alongside my favorite search engine. I checked out the google advanced search options and found something useful. Google allows you to limit date ranges. You can also change the preferences to match your needs. I really prefer google because the information I get is clear and easy to read and sort through and I feel the ads are not as intrusive as you would find on others.

All in all - I'm a GOOGLER!