When you train your dog to bring you the morning paper, that is a neat trick. When you train your computer to bring you news you want to read, that is an RSS feed.
I never fully appreciated RSS feeds for what they can do until I started reading the book We the Media by Dan Gillmor. The underlying idea is that you don’t need to search the Internet for the things that interest you but that they come to you through your RSS subscriptions and preferences.
This is useful for you when you want to be kept up to date on certain topics. Anytime there is an article, your RSS feed is updated to show it. I currently use Google Reader to keep track of blogs, job postings, and news.
Gillmor discusses another way to use RSS, which is to follow what is being said about yourself. This is a good way for popular bloggers and organizations to know what is going on in their realm and connects with their readers on a different level.
Honestly, I haven’t used RSS feeds enough in the past but I’m starting to really appreciate what they do. It could particularly be very helpful for my current job search!
The buzz on Google Wave has slowed down considerably, considering that Google had big news that was announced 2 days ago. I’m not sure how the Google Phone will compare with Google Wave, but I hope we can say that the impact of both still are or will be quite interesting.
Image Credit: Flickr user niallkennedy
During the holiday season, Google gave out thousands of invites to users who already had Wave so that they may invite friends to use the service. How many do I still have left? 18! I’m not sure if there just isn’t enough interest or people simply don’t care to find out what exactly Google Wave is, at least not enough to seek out an invite from a friend (i.e. that everyone who would want it or would be open to trying it already does have it).
So far, I’ve used Google Wave with friends and family to:
- Participated in a poll on how many people think Rain (the Korean hip hop star in the movie Ninja Assassin) is cool
- Load copies of my statement of purpose for my friend to proofread and give suggestions on
- Post pictures for my sister to access and use for her painting project
- Say hello, all at once, to the people in the academic department I was in for graduate school
- Play Sudoku with others
- Invite others to Google Wave
Number 2 on that list was particularly better than using email because I ended up making several edits between the time I posted it and the time when he was free to read it. I would simply go back and delete the old copy and post the new one. I could have waited until he had time to read it to send an email, but I like this way of doing things. Later, I would post other things for him to read and I have peace of mind knowing that they are waiting for him in the Wave whenever he would like to find them. Same thing with number 3.
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Last Sunday, I got my invite for Google Wave (from now one I will call it GWave). If you don’t know what it is, Google has created what they think email would be if it were invented now instead of 40 years ago.
Here is a short video with a basic explanation:
So far, I have done very little that could actually be called productivity on GWave. I did post to a friend my Statement of Purpose that he helped edit for my graduate school applications. There was also a poll on how awesome is Rain (Bi) the Korean star in Ninja Assassin. I started a Sudoku Wave with my sister and some friends. GWave also have maps! I’m sure the functionality will only get better, so the little complaints you might hear now are just because GWave is still in Preview. It hasn’t even been released to beta.
I’m glad that GWave exists and I look forward to using it for many more things!!
I even mentioned it in my Statement of Purpose. I’m thinking of including it somehow in my research, but that is a secret for now! If I make it into a program, perhaps I’ll release some more details. 
So I am sick, possibly with the flu, and I remembered looking at Google Trends for the flu a while back so I though I’d post about it. Here is a video explaining it:
It is interesting to me how they use search terms data to put together these models. It makes me think about what else could be graphed like this that they haven’t done yet or how Google Trends can be used for research and gathering a sense of what the public is thinking and doing.
Specific links to pages of interest:
- Google Flu Trends
- About the data
- Current US Trends (You can also see trends by state.)
- Google Trends, (search by term)
Wolfram Alpha is a really cool “computational knowledge engine” that a friend (Nat) showed to me.
Here is the demo video:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html
Check it out and play around with it!
http://www.wolframalpha.com/
It is capable of pulling out information and analyzes it in different ways. It can produce graphs and make complex calculations, and a lot of other things if you watch the demo video. This brings me back to a post I wrote earlier about the impact that the Internet has had on knowledge, intelligence, and our minds, especially with the power and dominance of Google.
What is the role of such tools as the search engine or the “knowledge engine” that give us access to mounds of information that can be processed in an instant? It seems to be changing as new ways are invented to organize and find data.
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Google and extension of the mind
May 20, 2009
Commentary, Society, Technology
4 comments
The amount of stimulation the Internet can provide can be overwhelming at times, but I think that this characteristic may be surpassed by the benefits of having large amounts of information at your fingertips.
“Googling” has become almost a daily part of our lives, and only becomes more so as the power of the Google search engines increases its reach. There is, however, an ongoing debate about whether this type of accessibility through technology is making us smarter or dumber.
Though people may argue that having such tempting access to vast oceans of random things on the Internet, I do not think that people can blame the Internet for their own lack of focus, concentration, or contemplation.
We’ve been through similar experiences with the onset of cable television, but the Internet seems to be the new scapegoat for decreased productivity or intelligent thought.
I tend to agree with this author from Discover Magazine, who says that this type of access to information can be a natural extension of our minds that can allow us to learn more easily because we are able to go out and grab the bits of information that we need at any moment.
So I think that this means that, if our minds are jumbled and easily distracted, our online activity will represent that jumbled mess, often through distracted clicking. We can’t blame the tools we have for the ways that we are using them. That would be like chopping vegetables and getting angry at the knife because we cut ourselves from lack of concentration on finger location among the vegetables.