Strange Brew

Instant Messaging is actually pretty cool and I prefer it to regular text messaging. That is because it is mostly free and it has features that texting does not have. These features are read notification bubble, the ability to link it to social media accounts, avatars and cost. I prefer Facebook's Instant Messenger because it is the simplest, user friendly and cost effective. I think that there will be an Instant Messenger app that will come along that will replace all of the features that Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat all have and bundle it into a new all in one app that kids will go crazy for. Dang, maybe I should get started on making that haha. Cheers!!

Skype is a pretty cool app and I have used it many times communicating with my family remotely. I think that is the main reason this software is beneficial and I think that both families and business professionals can benefit from using it. I think the advantages to Skype is that it is free, I think the disadvantages is that it is now competing with Facetime and other social media sites that use video streaming.

LinkedIn. I explored this site and I would have to say that I am not impressed and I do not think this site actually works. I think the only good quality this site would have would lie in the way an employer may be searching for a particular set of skills and it matches to a person in location that has them. What I don't like is the fact that, that person has not already applied for that position and that it is being done through a social media site. I think this site just needs to go away or it needs to turn into a site that actually has job postings and people can apply that way and not the other way around.

I have explored all three social media sites Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. I picked these three because they were similar but also different in there own ways, there are things some can do and not the others and vis-versa. I would have to say that they are all similar because they can stream video and also allow commenting and page views. They are different in video length, photo posting and instant messaging.

I checked out both sites, podcasts.com and podcastalley and I was not really impressed. I ended up sticking with what I know and that was I Tunes Podcasts and I picked three different podcast that I thoroughly enjoy. I felt like both sites where similar and I felt that they were outdated and irrelevant. It seemed like podcasts.com was just ads, and that stunk ha ha.

The nine club podcast is a skateboard interview podcast ran by skaters that takes a dive into their lives and provides a glimpse into something that you would not normally hear. I really like this podcast and I listen to it daily, like every morning.

This podcast is cool because it digs deep into peoples lives who were brought up in the Punk music scene. The producer is in a band that is good so he has the inside scoop and the ability to get good quests. The podcast always starts the same way which takes listeners back in time to when the person first heard punk music or the genre all the way til present day. It is good and you will want more.

This podcast is full of goodies when it comes to tales of the past. I really like this one because it is actual folklore, hence the name, and it talks about some weird events of the past. Some of my favorite episodes are the one about the richmond vampire, coal mine collapse, and the mysterious ship in anartica that was frozen for 100+ years and crew was found still intact dead.

Here is the link to my wiki page where I discussed how wikis fit in to Web 2.0. This was a fun assignment and after building accounts on all of the wikis that were in our assignment page, this was the only one I felt I could actually create something.

Weebly: At first view of weebly I thought it was an educational site only. It wasn't until I clicked around that I noticed it had a publishing feature that was similar to a blog. I have picked this site to be the one I will make a post for this weeks assignment. I actually like the layout of the design page it is similar to a blog site or even a picture editing software. I found the features pretty interesting and the options surprised me by how many there actually were. I still am pretty confused how this site is related to education but I am sure that is a function I did not check out because I felt it was unnecessary for this weeks assignment. Overall I dug this site and I will continue to tool around and check out its features. Cheers, Michael Bridges UPDATE: Weebly wanted money to make a post, so I discovered how to do it on Wikidot and its pretty cool, I now take back everything I said on its review :).

Wikidot: At first glance Wikidot seems like a legit website and something that I thought I would be able to use as my foundation for this weeks assignment. It was not until I clicked around for a little that I discovered that I had no idea what this site was and how to use it. There were tabs for Features, Opinions, Pricing, and Advertising, but I did not see a tutorial so I left the site more confused than I was before I went there. I did create an account and I feel like it did not make a difference. Cheers, Michael Bridges

MediaWiki: MediaWiki is an open source wiki space that was originally designed for use on Wikipedia. Now, for the real review, when I first clicked on MediaWiki I thought it was similar in layout to Wikipedia an it looked simple. That was the case until I looked some more and realized that it was actually quite confusing and I did not understand what the page was about and what to do. I checked out the "how to navigate" section and all it did was talk about the sidebars and how to get around on the site, all of which I already knew how to do since I have been on the internet before. Overall I did not find the website useful and I am not sure if I would return on my own. Cheers, Michael Bridges

Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelchaos/? Well, that was a trip down memory lane. I have not used Flickr for years and I forgot my password so my exiperence with Flickr was off to a great start haha. After I got unlocked it took some time to relearn how to upload again and I used the drag and drop function to upload my pictures. From there I was able to change their name and add a description in. I really liked Flickr and I used it everyday and even had the app on my phone. I was a part of an underground photosharing club that traded pictures and stories as well as made real life friends off of that site. That all changed when they changed the overall layout of the site and it became weird and everybody seemed to jump to Instagram at the same time and not look back. del.icio.us. I have never heard of this site and after a quick search I found out nothing haha. The site looks broke and unable to come back online. I will keep trying though.

LibreOffice is an open-sourced software program that directly relates and compares to Microsoft Office. One of the biggest differences between the two comes in the price, or in LibreOffice's case the lack of a price. Yes, LibreOffice is free software and it rivals the giant Microsoft Office in the fact that it provides six component programs that take place of everyone that Microsoft has to offer. LibreOffice Microsoft Office Writer Word Calc Excel Impress PowerPoint Draw Visio Math ?Excel? Databases Access I have used LibreOffice before to convert documents from Linux to Windows before and it has worked great. That is the only experience I have with the program but on the other hand I have boat loads of experience with Microsoft Office. It does seem like Libre does have a lot of capabilities similar to Microsoft Office, but sometimes it is worth paying for the full package. It r...

Good ole Linux. I absolutely love working with Linux based computers and applications, the usability is great and I love the command driven executions. I now work with Windows exclusively but I used to work on a majority of Linux based computers where I learned to navigate file directories and transfer data by using commands, and I dug it. Now I am all Windows and I have not broke out of my mind frame yet. Some similarities between the two deal mostly with general concepts but they differ more than they are similar. Once again it first comes with pricing, Linux is free compared to the pricey Windows package. The use is another example of the differences between the two and that comes with the fact that your average user is probably not going to use Linux when all they want to do is browse the internet. This is where a little side blurb comes in that Linux is one of the safest Operating Systems out there and virus protection is not needed as bad as it is in Windows. I would st...

Mozilla. I how I loved thee. I used to strictly use Mozilla as my web browser but now I have switched to primarily using Chrome. That is mostly due to the fact that I had some web sites for work that I could not use Internet Explorer or Mozilla on but they worked on Chrome so then I just made that my default browser. Mozilla is an open source software program and it does seem to generally work a little better and more versatile on web sites, but it does not seem like it advanced with the time and it seems like Chrome has foreshadowed it. I know that when Chrome first came out I was all about not using it because of the fact that it was new and it just did not look right, it wasn't until later when I actually downloaded it and used it that I liked it. Mozilla does still seem to be holding on but for how long though, to me they need to re-brand it or try something new to get users back on it. Until then I am using Chrome haha. Cheers, Michael B

The Second blog I picked for review is TechCrunch . I choose this blog because, even though I am an IT guy, I am really not into this kind of site and I wanted to venture out of my element a little. At first glance I do not mind the layout, it has a left and right column with an off centered main post column that goes from a pinned post to text titles and previews for the previous posts. The content is not just computer related but instead its based on technology, hence the title. I do like how they mix it up from post titles up and down to side to side mixes of videos and other content to break up the solid stream of posts. Overall I like the blog, other than the over sized font, I really do not have much to say about the layout. The content is diverse enough to keep new people coming in and also to attract different types of visitors. I like this move and I think that it is crucial in the blog world to keep solid page views, instead of catering to one particular topic or t...

The first Blog I picked for review is called Mashable . I picked it because as a cyclist the term "Mash" or even "Mashable" is often referred to riding a bicycle fast or aggressive, however this blog is neither haha. I am not saying that the blog is bad or that I even intended it to be bicycle related, I am simply saying I like the name. At first glance of Mashable it just looks like a big mash of ads, I could not tell the difference between site content and ads at first until I started scrolling down. The layout reminds me of tumblr because of the post tiles and the way that they are presented. The posts are laid out from side to side rather than top to bottom center scroll which i find jumbled. Although I do feel that this site seems like one someone would want to arrive at just for headlines and news so maybe it is perfect for that. Overall this is not my kind of site but that does not mean that it is bad it just means that it is not my cup of tea. Che...

Here is a image that I found that appealed to me the most. It shows various applications and software that is used in Web 2.0 and what category it falls in. I like images like this one because they provide an appealing method to help piece together information in a way that is creative.

Here is a pretty cool video that I found informative on Web 2.0, although I would watch it without sound haha.