Category: computer

del.ico.us has been around for awhile as a bookmarking system but until today i really didn’t think much of it. basically it’s a website that allows you to “bookmark” websites that you like and then place “tags” on those “bookmarks.” “tags” are words that i assign to a bookmark that will help me remeber the website. they’re like electronic “sticky notes” that i can attach to a bookmark. until earlier today i really didn’t see any huge advantage to using it. i figured i could “bookmark” web sites within my browser. i thought the slight advantage that del.ico.us would give me was being able to have my “bookmarks” online and thus accessible from other computers. personally this didn’t seem like a huge advantage to me because i don’t swap computers much.

that was before today. today i realize that the “tags” i love on flickr were also on del.ico.us (stupid me – tags are the whole point of of del.ico.us). i try not to put a ton of things in the “bookmarks” directory of my browser (safari and firefox) because it becomes to hard to find the important ones when there are a ton of “bookmarks” within the folder. “tags” let me save everything i see. when i save a “bookmark” to del.ico.us i assign “tags” to it that i think i will help me remember the website. that way when i want to find the “bookmark” later all i have to do is search through the “tags.” this frees me up to “bookmark” any website that i find slightly interesting. all i have to do is assign “tags” to the website that describe it. then when i want to find that bookmark all i have to do is search for the “tag.” i search the web allot looking for ideas. del.ico.us is going to help allot in remembering those ideas.

another benefit of del.ico.us is that you can share your bookmarks with others via a web url. if you want to see what i have been bookmarking recently look at http://del.icio.us/ratterrell.

i’m presently at the judson retreat center (where we old our annual fall retreat – the JESUS project) for parkview elementary school’s 5th grade retreat. i’m am writing to say that they have now rigged the chapel with wifi. how cool is that? we have wireless internet in the chapel so we can now pull resources off the net while we are up here. sometimes i love technology.

i also need to say i love it when people can laugh at themselves. i’ve been walking around videoing kids imitating the principal and assistant principal to make a video for one of the worship services. the kids have nailed them. i started to load the video onto my computer for editting and the principal walked over to see what i was doing. she probably laughed harder at the kids imitating her than any of the kids will actually laugh tonight. she loved what they said. i like it when people can laugh at themselves.

i just started using audio scrobbler and i’m intrigued by it. basically it is a plug-in that you add to your media player (real player, itunes, etc. – just don’t use micro$oft’s media player) and it then keeps track of the songs you listen to and will post them on the web for others to view. if you are really into electronic privacy this is not the website for you. anyways, after a while of tracking your musical tastes the website can make educated suggestions of other artists you would like (this could definitely be abused by a music industry desperate to get you to buy their latest stuff but it could also be a cool way of experiencing new artists) and it will recommend other people who have the same musical taste as you. personally i just want to see what i listen to the most. of course, it is going to take a few weeks for it to really get an idea of what music i really like.

you can view my current musical listenings at http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/ratterrell/.

“fred” the name of my ipod (truthfully the name of most anything that i have ever named that doesn’t breathe) arrived today. i have charged it, loaded it and now i am listening to it off and on (technically i’m watching 24 right now – the greatest show presently on television – but i will start listening to “fred” again as soon as the show is over). you may all rest easy now.

i know that many of you are worried about the status of the ipod i ordered on the 8th – thus i continually update you on it’s status. i am glad to inform you that at this moment my little white palm sized, soon to be friend is either in kenner, louisiana or memphis, tennessee. the reason i say “either” is because the fedex tracking of the shipment records that on april 9th my little ipodish buddy arrived in memphis from indianapolis. the tracking statement then records that the ipod left and arrived in kenner, louisiana, a city about forty minutes from baton rouge. unfortunately, this is where it gets confusing. the next entry on the tracking detail records that my little white plastic mp3 friend arrived at the fedex sorting facility in memphis, tennessee earlier today. thus i am now at a point of not knowing where my soon to be friend is. he could be very close (kenner) or not so close (memphis). i just don’t know. don’t worry i’ll keep you updated on the status of the ipod. just remember – don’t panic.

my domain name expired (jessica, the youth assistant, and i are both certain a check was sent in months ago but that is research for monday) and has just been renewed. this means that the whole youth ministry site was down for a few days. the domain name cam back up today but for some reason the site has been acting weird. anyway, if you are reading this now it means you hit the blog during one of it’s good periods. we’ll see what happens over the next few hours.

on the podcasting front i have setup a blogger site for purposes of establishing a feed to the recordings from “the view”. “podcasting” is pretty cool. here’s how it works just in case you’re not familiar with it. first you install a podcasting aggregator (software that receives and automatically downloads the audiio for you – i’m using ipodder right now). within the aggregating software subscribe to the podcast’s site feed (ours is “http://feeds.feedburner.com/ViewPodcast”). the aggregator will now automatically download audio as it is placed on the site and if you desire store that audio on your mp3 player. i think the whole thing is pretty cool. right now i only have the audio from the march 16, 2005 service. more will go up on the site soon.

with this said i thought i would add that i ordered an ipod yesterday. it should be in baton rouge on the 13th. i’m pretty excited about the whole thing. again i most >proclaim how wonderful my wife is.

i’m thinking about podcasting the music and messages from the view. before i start learning about how to do this i figured i would ask if anyone would be interested in my doing this. so is anyone interested? podcasting is the audio equivalent of tivo. it allows you to automatically download audio off the internet (such as the recordings of the view) and transfer that audio to the mp3 player of your choice (or simply keep it on your computer).

it’s virtual stan.