Songs of Praise

Caveat emptor. The Man invented holidays to confound the blogger. We say "less holidays now".

A few essential apps & websites for your (re)consideration.

Google Reader
After flirting with Pageflakes, Netvibes, etc., we've returned to the Google Reader fold because, basically, it does all this librarian needs without the FlashJava frippery. Example: new additions to Intute's resources accessed & tagged in a couple of minutes. Example: your del.icio.us network's tags added in seconds. Essential.

WAMP
WAMP installs Apache, MySQL & PHP on a desktop PC. Why would you want to do this? Well, if you don't want to hang around for months waiting for your tech people to install Moodle so you can experiment before they let you loose on the full monty, or you want to try Joomla! 1.5 before upgrading & migrating your original website, WAMP is for you. Simple install turns your PC into a web-server. Installing apps reasonably simple. No registry changes means that you can circumvent techie paranoia. Come play in the sandbox.

G24
G24 brings you the latest stories from the Guardian, guardian.co.uk and the Observer - updated throughout the day. There are five pdfs to choose from: Top stories, World, Media, Business and Sport. Simply click on the Open pdf link and print.

Britannica Webshare
If you’re a Web publisher—a blogger, webmaster, or writer—you can get complimentary access to the complete Encyclopædia Britannica online. It’s a rich trove of reliable and high-quality information that you can use to check quick facts, etc. [The facts, ma'am, just the facts. Which would be nice.] Register here.

Inanimate Alice
Definitely a work in (pretty slow) progress but one worth watching. Why? Because.
'Inanimate Alice' tells the story of Alice, growing up in the early years of the 21st century. Written and directed by writer Kate Pullinger and digital artist Chris Joseph, this series of multimedia, interactive episodes uses a combination of text, sound, images, and games as Alice takes us on a journey through her life from the age of eight through to her twenties.

YouTube
Worthless, worthless, worthless. Pussy cats, drunk kids, duff video, Duff beer and porn. Worthless.
Well, perhaps not. Notwithstanding the presence of a number of Ivy League (Tossing & Turning) universities with YouTube channels, Southwest Tech in Wisconsin have IMO an exemplary channel which offers 1 minute videos of students describing the courses that they're following. Marketing propaganda perhaps but not the dead (& expensive) propaganda of the printed prospectus.
SouthWest Tech channel on YouTube.

...and the graphic. Roll your own at http://www.fodey.com.
PostScript: so Blogger doesn't handle animated gifs? Shame! 'Twas brilliant too, believe me!