#79 The Future of Media: Television online

Thanks to web sites such as hulu.com, tv.com, and the animation enthusiast's Joost, television has become accessable on PCs and laptops. Phone providers Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon have jumped on the demand-for-TV bandwagon by offering mobile TV services, and major network websites have some episodes of popular shows online. Isn't it wonderful that we have so many viewing options? There really is no excuse anymore for missing a single episode of Jerry Springer or WWE. We are so fortunate. Also, we can continue to shell out for the latest technology which allows us to tune in to our choice of mindless prattle, I mean distinctive entertainment, anywhere we are, anytime of day. A small monthly tithe to the wireless gods is all that stands between you and the opportunity to enrich your phone company. Goodness knows that life as we know it would end without being able to watch even more TV than we already do, and the quality of what one is able to watch on one's iPhone is worth any price. (If you have come to the conclusion that I do not own a cell phone and therefore won't be watching TV on my cell phone, you win.)

The Nielsen Company published results of research last year which showed that media consumption is increasing, and media multi-tasking is part of that trend. Jim O’Hara, President of Media Product Leadership for The Nielsen Company said, “The entire media universe is expanding so consumers are choosing to add elements to their media experience, rather than to replace them." One interesting development in our expanding media universe is that there are now more TVs per American household than people. You can read more of Nielsen's Three Screen Report here.

My acknowledged bias and I took a look around hulu. You can browse by TV and by movies. I don't really have a favorite TV show, but I noticed there is a 40th Anniversary Collection of Sesame Street clips you can watch. That sounded like fun.





The movie collection wasn't very appealing, but they did have some full length features I might enjoy, like "Inherit the Wind" with Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott or "Like Water for Chocolate." (You apparently have to create a hulu account in order to view an R rated movie.) I like that they have a documentary search feature. I was interested in Africa Unite: A Celebration of Bob Marley's 60th Birthday, but the buffering problem was terrible. There were other documentaries I would try, such as Les Paul: Chasing Sound, and Manufacturing Consent about Noam Chomsky.

Many people enjoy posting their own video productions on USTREAM. The Shiba Inu puppy streaming video is adorable. For about 3 minutes. Then I got bored. It's great seeing friends and family in the videos they post to YouTube or Facebook. Maybe some day I'll get around to making one. They say genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Not that I expect to be another Speilberg; far from it. But it's probably better that I keep my first attempts, at least, well away from the public library.

#78: Video

The assignment: play around with video search engines such as Truveo and Blinkx. Be careful and try not to lose yourself in the online video vortex.

I happen to get lost easily (see post #31: Maps Are Not My Forte), so I'm not very opinionated about which video search engine I use. Since it's Groundhog's Day, I decided to look for the graduation-from-boot-camp scene in the movie "Stripes", starring Bill Murray. YouTube and Truveo worked equally well with my inquiry, finding the correct movie snippet right away. The first hit from Blinkx, though, was some sort of animation contest entry which I immediately regretted watching, followed by a number of interviews with Harold Ramis and a movie review posted in 2007 by Joe Ordinary. Also, most of the Blinkx hits on the first page of search results were YouTube videos, so I wondered why I should prefer Blinkx to YouTube. When a compelling reason occurs to me, I'll let you know.

In my opinion, the biggest frustration with online videos has nothing to do with which search engine is employed. It's the whole buffering problem. What does one do while waiting for that video to finish buffering? wikiHow suggests visiting their site and learning a new skill, such as how to become a bountyhunter or how to survive falling out of an airplane.

Harris County Public Library has a YouTube channel where there are lots of library videos. I was surprised by the variety of things to see. In addition to children's stories read by staff, branches have recorded presentations by guest speakers, special events, and more. It was interesting to browse the uploads and see everything from a Mariachi band to the Pileated Woodpecker who seems to have adopted Northwest Branch. Some of the videos are quite silly and entertaining, like The Henry Houndog Show, and How Not to Reserve a Computer.

I wonder if it would be useful to record a short video tour of our branch. Since it's rare that we have time for orientation before opening, staff from other HCPL branches might appreciate an opportunity to virtually familiarize themselves with the library, before working a Sunday shift. Or, they might prefer falling out of an airplane.

#77 Images

photo by Matthew McDermott of the New York Post


Library staff and customers alike often need images to use in their work. When images are utilized to promote a web site, event, or business, it's important to insure that the owner of the original material has given permission to use it. Fastidious laws that protect the use of images may seem tiresome, but protecting the rights of creators and their creations for the most part encourages new ideas, fair trade, and sharing.

There are three main types of images that are available online: public domain images, right protected images, and royalty free images. Public domain images are free, and right protected images are purchased for a certain length of time. iStockPhoto and Fotolia are sites where you may purchase royalty-free images. Royalty free means that once you "buy" the image, it may be used indefinately and without limit.

There's a press release on the Fotolia site which states that "sales of $1 images continued to generate six-figure incomes for the world’s top photographers in 2009". That's incredible! (And it's caused me to consider sharing my images with the world.)

10 places to find free images online has more information and links to many online image banks. For example, bigphoto.com is a royalty free photo bank which offers free downloads of all pictures. To credit the photographer, the user is asked simply to provide a link back to the website. bigphoto.com is where you can find "pictures from around the world", but frankly I found the site disappointing. They had pictures from only 5 of Africa's 53 countries. 51 pictures are available for "Egypt", which seems like really slim pickings. I proceeded to look for pictures under the heading "America". Did they have a picture of Slim Pickens? Nope. In my opinion, this site was not the bomb.




(If I credit wikipedia for this picture, have I followed the rules?)

On the other hand, MorgueFile.com has an absolutely incredible collection of images. The images are free, but cannot be published "on a standalone basis". I'm not sure what that means. I don't even have to post an attribution, but I linked back to the site anyway, just because I want to acknowledge the person who is allowing me to add this butterfly to my blog. Beautiful!







I used AllFreeClipArt and found a picture of a Santa Mouse in 4 clicks. With 7 clicks I found a Santa that looked like he hadn't slept in a week. I suppose it has it's uses, but after seeing what's available on morguefile.com, the clip art wasn't very exciting.

HCPL subscribes to Schools.clipart. Staff may use this resource to create posters, flyers, bulletin boards, and other materials suitable for an educational environment. The site doesn't just contain line drawings and cartoonish pictures; it offers illustrations, photos, 3d clip art, and signart. If I was making a children's display for Chinese New Year, I might use this image of a cat.






Image courtesy of JupiterImages

#76 Sound Effects. Oh boy, a new toy!

Every kid who grows up watching cartoons understands the value of sound effects. Good sound effects make any story more real, more believable, more funny. From scrambling feet to kabong!, unique sounds add punch to theatre, radio, and television. Thanks to streaming audio, file compression, and musical instrument digital interface, now sounds can even be used to spice up the written word.

An example of a site where one can search for sounds is FindSounds. Another useful resource is Simply the Best Sounds.

Here is a sample of some sounds from FindSounds:

bull moose

barred owl

camel

I was not successful in finding out what sounds a real tasmanian devil makes. The first page of search results all sounded like this.

These are from Simply the Best Sounds:
gong

evil laugh

ocean waves

#75: Google and Beyond, or Desperately Seeking Search Engine Supremacy

I've been using Google as a Search Engine for quite some time, with generally good results. At least, I've always thought I was perfectly happy with Google as a Search Engine. I surely didn't give much thought to the notion that my bias for searching in a particular way could be limiting my results. Then Microsoft conducted a study which revealed that Search Engine branding has an impact on the perceived quality of results. Enter Michael Kordahi, a Microsoft employee. He created a website called "BlindSearch" in response to the study.

When you enter a search query on BlindSearch, you get results from the three most popular Search Engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo, but you don't know whose results are whose. After viewing the responses to the search, you can vote for the set which you feel best supplied the information you were seeking, and thus learn which Search Engine best served your needs.

I tried a few queries through BlindSearch and, taking into consideration my opinion about the relevancy of the results, cast my votes. Most often, Google came up as the Search Engine I preferred. Bing was second and Yahoo was third. Performance-wise, after four tries, I didn't notice any huge differences between the Search Engines, but there were a few surprises, such as when a search for the most popular books of 2009 through what turned out to be Bing returned a link to a website for books that "explain Buddhism for a modern western audience". It was interesting to try and imagine what exactly happened to that request in cyberspace.

Trying different Search Engines, without knowing their brands ahead of time, probably won't change the way I search in the future, but it did teach me to be aware of Search Engine branding bias.

Hitwise is a website which tracks the volume of traffic to various websites and ranks them by frequency of hits. For the week ending 01/02/2010, Search Engine usage was ranked as follows: Google 64.05%, Yahoo!Search 10.96%, and Bing 8.91%. Google is the most popular Search Engine by far, which jives with my personal choice of a favorite.

It was a real eye-opener exploring Google's features. I didn't know that you could do mathematical calculations in the Google search box, automatically convert measurements (like centimeters to inches or kilometers to miles), instantly find local businesses by zip code, read a Tip of the Day, and much more. With so many ways to improve your searches, it's no wonder Google is extremely popular. I found the sheer number of features a little overwhelming; they have so much stuff to strut! The Google Search Engine reminds me of:





It is a blue-ribbon Mummer's band of Search Engines, elaborate and fancy and fun. With all there was to explore, I didn't spend as much time sifting through the features of the other Search Engines. I noticed that Bing, though, had an absolutely gorgeous home page today, displaying an exquisite photograph of a secluded beach in Greece. Maybe Bing is politely promoting the quest for Nirvana this week. They don't seem to realize that, on New Year's Day at least, some people's idea of ecstasy is being in Philadelphia, at Broad and City Hall, watching the string bands.

#60 Recession Busters

Everyone seems to want to spend less these days. Maybe Oprah was thinking of recession busting when she decided to spring for free food from KFC. Unfortunately the promotion fell flat...really really flat...because KFC didn't have enough chicken to meet the demand. And that was just the first day. But, even though the little people didn't get a free lunch, KFC and Oprah got something for free: a lot of bad publicity, which they "richly" deserved because of their incredibly poor planning.

The moral seems to be, if you want to save money cook for yourself.

Here's a recipe for chicken spaghetti that feeds a lot of people for very little money:
source

Watching Clara Cannucciari was fun and I admire her spunk, but I like Ree Drummond's receipe better because it's baked instead of fried. Her web site, ThePioneerWoman.com, is one place to look for simple and frugal recipes. I regret looking at the site today though, because she posted a recipe for Peanut Butter Pie, and now I'm craving it in a big way.

A good book about growing up during the Depression is Mildred Armstrong Kalish's "Little Heathens". Set on an Iowa farm, Kalish's memoir vividly describes the family's way of life, and helps [this reader, anyway] maintain perspective regarding the current economic "crisis". For example, Kalish writes that "the only things my grandparents spent money on were tea, coffee, sugar, salt, white flour, cloth and kerosene." Can you imagine? Now THAT'S cutting expenses to the bone. My own grandmother at least bought raisins, so my father could take a raisin sandwich for his lunch at school. And speaking of Depression-era cuisine, the book contains recipes for making down-home dishes such as Porcupines and Cotton Tops, as well as good old fashioned comfort foods like meatloaf and apple sauce cake. The recipes may also be found online here. Check out "grandma's hiccup cure", too.

As a child born of parents who grew up during The Depression, I have deep roots in thrift; however, in today's world, "denying" one's self during difficult economic times has quite different implications. Hardship then might have meant no meat for supper, or quitting high school to help support the family. Today, I dare say you would be considered a hardship case if you couldn't afford cable TV for a while. (And just in case, you could still watch a show online at www.hulu.com.)

#59 Your Daily Bread

Yesterday I read an infuriating news story. At a time when more and more families are forced to finance basic necessities, many of the largest banks are raising credit card rates! Why? Because the government is looking at credit card reform. And banks want to make as much money as they can, before new legislation takes effect that would limit their ability to tack on extra fees. Unbelievable.

People may say, well don't use credit then! Pay cash! I don't know anyone [my age] who doesn't have credit cards. And here's the reason. They are a necessity if you want to establish a credit history, and the history is needed in order to qualify for a mortgage. Unless you have a fairy godmother, you are required to literally buy into this system if you want to be responsible for putting a roof over your head. And you have to pay all your bills on time, or your FICA score will be adversely affected. I learned a lot by reading the article How Credit Scores Work, and got a perfect score on the credit quiz (yay!). However, PRIOR to doing the reading, I didn't realize that loan inquiries or applying for a credit card can negatively effect your credit score, or that people with less than perfect credit are charged higher insurance rates. Your scores may also determine how big a deposit you will have to pay for telephone, electricity, or natural gas service, and whether or not your application for a rental apartment is approved. One's credit history has many more implications than I ever realized, so I'm pleased this topic is being addressed as an iHCPL learning module. For people like me who would like to be better informed about personal finance, there is also an online guide from CNN money called Money 101 here.

Since I find the current credit/lending/banking situation somewhat exasperating, I have the adopted the following spending plan. It is: If you can't pay for it by the end of the month, don't buy it.

There are many web resources which explain how to develop a monthly budget. Someday, when the word "budget" doesn't immediately induce in me a dizzy spell, headache, and/or angina, perhaps I will actually access one of these resources, such as About.com's Frugal Living site. Bankrate.com's article "8 experts recall their best personal finance advise" was very informative. I liked Neale Godfrey's suggestion: "Step away from the television and the magazines. All they serve to do is show you how stupid you are because you've missed whatever they're talking about..." I also found Peter Navarro's counsel timely and astute: "Take every piece of advice you get from any investment adviser with a barrel of salt. Most are trying to sell you things that you probably don't need or want. Think for yourself."

I looked at the TCDRS web page briefly. I wanted to see my personal account, but the site told me I had to contact a TCDRS representative to get a PIN number first. I called the number listed on the site, but I haven't received my PIN number yet. Hopefully I will get "instant access" sometime soon. Not that I'm impatient or anything. I am a looooong way from retirement. And happily, my retirement fund, however much it is, is earning 7% in spite of stock market fluctuations. Now that's a blessing.