WEEK 8 -- CUSTOM DESKTOP

Week 8 -- Custom Desktop:

iGoogle:  I opened an IE browser and pulled up iGoogle, then set myself up a page.  Changed the theme to "Twinkle Twinkle," which reminds me of beautiful Christmas lights.  As I type, I am listening to J. S. Bach's "Toccata & Fugue in D Minor" on the YouTube gadget.  An unnamed organist playing in a cathedral.  Very, very beautiful.  I also listened to Manheim Steamroller's "Still, Still, Still," an old Austrian Christmas carol that is one of my favorites from childhood.  

I changed some of the gadgets and added a "To Do List," which can be emailed.  Right now I have a "trick" on my iPhone 3G where I add a NOTE and compose an email list on the way to work (with Bill driving, of course).  After I complete the NOTE, I email it to myself at work.  Perhaps I can work in the iGoogle To Do List with this routine.  The gadget is neat because you can print the list.  You can also cross off items on the list (strikethrough) which is quite satisfying as you see items crossed off the To Do List, instead of having to delete them and then you don't necessarily see your progress.

When I installed the gadget, I accidentally got two copies of it on my iGoogle screen, so had to use a dropdown toolbar to delete one copy.  I also did a drag & drop of several gadgets to reposition them on my screen.  

Also watched two video clips about use of iGoogle.

FireFox and FireFox:  Add-ons: I went to the FireFox and FireFox Add-ons sites and did some custom work on my FireFox.  I had already loaded Delicious bookmarks several years ago and have icons for adding tags & viewing my bookmarks from my FF toolbar.  Of course Delicious may be going away and I may be transferring to Diigo, like so many other people have done.  I also added Zotero to FF.  I use EndNoteWeb through our Web of Science/Knowledge databases and like that pretty well, but it looks like Zotero has some even better features for formatting your information and storing many types of files/information, including "mass imports" of marked items in a batch from the wonderful full-text database, JSTOR.

Search plugins for IE and Firefox:  As I finish up AurThings, I will no longer tolerate being obliged to do things for which clear instructions are not provided.  Case in point: 

From AurThings:
"Next, click on the drop-down arrow next to the search box in the upper right corner; refer to the screen shot above for a visual aid. You'll likely see the default searches that Firefox and IE give you, but you'll also note that there's the option to "Add Auraria Library."

My IE is version 8.0.6.  My Firefox is 3.6.13.  I don't understand what this is talking about and neither my IE nor my Firefox has that configuration.  It probably doesn't help that the screen shot we are to use "for a visual aid" is a Mac (I have a PC).  Or, I am just too stupid to see or know what the instructions are talking about.