From My Armchair: 4 August 2012

At the BookShelf

I am into my last days of annual leave, so it is doubtful I’ll be able to read anywhere near as much as I have this last week. I’ll probably have the Kindle out at lunch for a bit, so I’ll still be getting some reading in even while I’m at work. The Kindle has certainly made it a lot easier to have good reading material available no matter where I am. Loving the Kindle.

 

Social Networks, Web Applications & Other Tools

Not a lot has happened with the social networks in the book/reading niche over this last week, except that I have been updating Goodreads on a regular basis as to what I am reading, progress and cataloguing the books as I go.

I did do a quick addition to Quotista, which has a lot of potential but doesn’t appear to be being developed any further, which is…

View original post 446 more words

Advertisement

Dorrigo National Park: Scene from Casuarina Falls

I am currently on leave and haven’t always had Internet access – hence the absence of a few posts recently. I have decided that for today I’ll post a photo taken today while bushwalking through the Dorrigo National Park in New South Wales, Australia. This shot is taken at Casuarina Falls on Sassafras Creek. More shots to come in coming days.

 

Delicious

Delicious is a bookmarking/favorite web application, in that it saves and archives the URLs that you like. Of course you can save your bookmarks/favorites in your browser, which I do with Google Chrome (Bookmarks). I use Google Bookmarks for mine, as well as Delicious (which I use for my public bookmark sharing web application). I also use Wonderpage (see https://onetoday.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/wonderpage/ ) to visually show my Delicious bookmarks as thumbnails of the page.

Why do I use both Google Bookmarks and Yahoo’s Delicious (currently owned by Yahoo anyhow). Well there are a number of reasons. Firstly I prefer to use the Cloud for most of my Internet tasks, which will generally always allow me access to my data no matter what computer I use and/or wherever I am. Using both also allows me to have a readily available backup – which is always wise I think. Of course I also like to allow visitors to my Blogs, websites and so on, to have access to sites that I think are fairly useful and valuable.

Anyhow, have a look at Delicious – it is in my opinion the best bookmarking application in the Cloud.

http://www.delicious.com/

Boomerang for Gmail

Boomerang for Gmail is a Firefox and Chrome plugin for Gmail. It allows a Gmail user to take control of when they send/receive emails. It is currently available by invitation only – however you can apply for an invitation.

See more at:

http://www.baydin.com/boomerang4gmail/

FastPencil

FastPencil is said to be the easist way to write, publish and sell books. If you have an interest in books, particularly writing books, then this site might be for you. I haven’t yet used FastPencil because I currently used Scribd, however, I do intend to check FastPencil out – to see what is on offer there. It looks very interesting and useful.

http://www.fastpencil.com/

Jessica Watson’s Blog

Jessica Watson is heading for home in her solo sailing navigation of the world – the youngest ever. She is currently below the Australian mainland and closing on Tasmania. All the news and information on Jessica can be found below, at her Blog:

http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/

BUSHFIRE SEASON HAS ARRIVED

On Friday I was visiting the Bulahdelah Cemetery in order to photograph headstones for my family history research. I decided to go up to Bulahdelah after work, it being only a short journey from Tea Gardens.

What I had noticed over the last week or so was that as the temperature had begun to rise so the number of bushfires and controlled burns had increased around the area dramatically. In fact, there have been quite a lot of bushfires burning around the area. Though this photo was taken on Friday, bushfires are continuing to burn around the place, driven by the very strong winds and dry conditions that currently exist. There is a massive fire burning over toward Nelson Bay by the look of it, as there are huge plumes of smoke in that direction.

This photo was taken from the Bulahdelah Cemetery toward Alum Mountain, where the fire was burning. The air throughout the area, from Tea Gardens to Bulahdelah, was full of smoke and there was a thick smoke haze. I wouldn’t say the air was choking, but every breath certainly had the taste of summer upon it.