RSS

I have often seen RSS on web pages but never been curious enough to investigate it. I will be looking for it in future. I succeeded in setting up an account and a feed. It was all very easy. I added the feed using the second method without trying the first suggestion. I'm not sure how useful or convenient it will be since it just increases the number of sites I regularly check! It could result in information overload!

Seal Sanctuary in California

Posting this photo was an experiment using Picasa. I teach Photoshop and find that Picasa does all the things Photoshop does, is free, and easily and quickly permits posts to Blogs. It is possible to edit photos, create albums, collages, desktop pictures and share photos. A new feature is finding all the Picasa photos of a person, collecting them together and making it possible to name them once instead of each time the photo occurs. I could also create a slide show of my photos. I don't think there is anything to dislike about Picasa. I really like it and would certainly recommend it to friends. I looked at some of the other Google products and got sidetracked for a while with Funny Cat Pictures, considered downloading Google Chrome to my computer and experimented with Google Earth. I typed my husband's name in Google Scholar and found a number of his published papers! I also use Google calendar to keep track of my schedule and receive an e-mail each day to remind me. Google does amazing things.

Facebook comments

There are a number of reasons why social networking sites are popular. It's an easy way to track down and stay in touch with friends and the chat feature of Facebook is especially useful because it makes conversation with faraway friends cheaper. Being able to see photos of friends and their activities adds to one's enjoyment. People need somewhere to belong, especially if they are far from family and friends, and belonging to a Facebook group provides an instant family which can include real family members. Posting a brief message on someone's wall is also quicker than using e-mail. The downside is that it's possible to become so absorbed with using Facebook and playing games and looking for friends that face to face interaction with others is neglected.

Wikipedia

I looked up a number of different Wikipedia sites but didn't find any grammatical or spelling errors. I did find that some factual information was incomplete (and added some to one page) or not completely up to date. I am extremely impressed by the fact that the information about yesterday's earthquake in Baja Mexico was up to date and more detailed than the information I found on CNN. The information about past earthquakes in California and their severity was also very complete and helpful.