Google maps

Wow is this thing great or what? Not only is it possible to get directions to somewhere you have never been before but you get to see what it looks like. Bravo Google.

Wikis

Wikis, great idea, but like anything else only as good as who's scribbling stuff on them. I think it is likely that Wirginia Maixner looked places other than wikipedia for neurosurgery tips this week. She may have used it to find out which Simpsons episode carried a story about conjoined twins though.

Del.icio.us Tagging

This was a new one on me. Portable bookmarks are a great idea. being a librarian, I think I crave some sort of controlled vocabulary for tagging. Serendipity has alot going for it though.

Librivox

mmm, I don't know. I think this could be absolutely marvellous for text books. I can imagine lots of students would love to walk around with the dulcet tones of William E DeMyer telling them about Neurologic Examination. I certainly would have when I was a student. However the great majority of items are fiction and when we read fiction we have our own interpretation playing in our mind. Someone else reading that compromises the interpretation. I know of many people who listen to recorded books in the car and that seems a good idea especially when the books are read by professionals or teams which turn the book into a radio serial, a different beast altogether. Still a good idea with much potential.

GoogleBooks

The idea of Googlebooks is great and follows the very heart of internet freedom. However we live in a world of recognized intellectual property laws and much of the world we are able to enjoy (as the intellectual propery lawers will tell you) is born of their bounty. In any case it seems the US justice department is attempting to, and will most likely succeed in, scuttling the agreement Google thought it had in place. This means Google will probably never be what it had hoped to become, but in a more limited role it has much to offer. Many writers value dissemination ahead of fortune and if the books which rights holders are happy for G to present are able to fing their way there without administrative difficulty it will indeed be a good thing.

In the imortal words of Mrs. Joseph (Rita Webb) from To Sir with Love " the more education the better....What with the bomb and all"

I like the librarythang. I think it would be particularly useful for avid readers of fiction but as a non-fiction reader I still like it. Every book I put in I found. Two thumbs up. I wish it did music also.

My catalogue http://www.librarything.com/catalog/MarcosR

RSS feeds diggin

I like the idea of RSS feeds and I have found some really useful feeds that I will happily continue subscribing to well after my23rd thing. However many of the things from Digg strike me as technology for it's own sake. To use a guitar analogy, it's like adding affects pedals to a good tube amp, what is music what is sound? It is easy to get caught up in the sound and forget about the music, but it is the music that is the pure creativity.