#78: Searching - Video

I searched for a certain video on Truveo and the correct one showed up as the 4th, 6th, and 9th videos in the results list. I searched Blinkx using the same terms and the video that I wanted showed up 1st, 3rd, and 8th. So, I guess Blinkx did a little better.

To be honest, the HCPL YouTube channel is pretty embarassing. I won't be telling any of my friends, family, or customers to check it out. The only real purpose I can see it serving is to help bring people in for programs, but only if we restrict our video posts to videos of FUN or INTERESTING programs and get rid of all the other stuff. I'm not convinced it even works for book recommendations.

#76: Searching - Sound Effects

From FindSounds:
elephant
jaguar
wolf

From Simply the Best:
bomb
oriental gong
drum roll

I think Simply the Best is wonderful! And I noticed Simply the Best is one of the sites searched by FindSounds.

#77: Searching - Images

Using AllFreeClipArt, I was able to get to a reasonably non-troll-like Santa Claus in 3 clicks. I wouldn't describe the experience as user-friendly, though.

Of the sites listed at "10 Places to Find Free Images Online," I checked freedigitalphotos.net first. I found it doesn't pay to look for something too specific. When I searched for Monument Valley, I got 0 results. In the "Places" category, though, there are lots of pictures of places in the U.S. In the "Animals" category, "Dogs" subcategory, there are 55 pictures, which is a pretty good selection. When I did a search for "puppy," I only got 5 hits, so not such a good selection. The second one I tried was freephotosbank.com. It didn't seem as well-organized as freedigitalphotos.net. It looked like the people that upload the photos get to categorize and label them. However, I did find a few photos of Monument Valley there. You can't overstate the importance of Monument Valley photos!

I use Clipart.com all the time for the blog on our branch page. Here's one I used for the AARP Tax Aide program.

Clipart from jupiterimages.com.

#75: Searching - Google and Beyond

I am a dedicated Google user. I only use another search engine if I've tried Google and gotten unsatisfactory results, which is very rare.

I did my 3 searches on Blindsearch. Google was best twice. The other time, Bing was best and Google was worst. Of course, they can't read my mind, so they did the best they could. I think I'll stick with my current practice and try another search engine only if I'm not happy with the results I get from Google.

On Hitwise, Google had the most volume, with 71% and Yahoo had 15%, so my search engine of choice is definitely most popular, whether it's best or not.

As far as features, I think I might use Google's Product Search or News, Bings News or Travel, or Yahoo's Movies or Flickr.

#59 Money & Finance: Credit, Money Management, and Saving

I knew the names of the 3 credit bureaus and that a credit score was a 3-digit number, the higher the better, but virtually all of the other information in the article was new to me. I'm glad I now know the percentages each factor contributes to the overall score, and the actions I can take to keep my score up.

I have never made a budget or a spending plan. I'm a tightwad by nature and have never needed one. I like the Frugal Living spending plan steps better than the University of Florida one because I think the biggest and most important step would be analyzing my expenses. I would divide them into Absolutely Necessary, Almost Necessary, and Not Necessary. Then I would figure out how to reduce the costs of the Absolutely Necessary and Almost Necessary items. Then I'd subtract from my income and see how much (if anything) I could spend on Almost Necessary and Not Necessary items.

The main thing I learned from looking at the TCDRS web site was that you can only get very general information from the web site. For example, how do my TCDRS and Teacher Retirement System years of service effect each other? How much would the death benefit be compared to the retirement benefit? You can't find out very detailed information from the site.

#58: Money & Finance: Banking, Budgeting, and Spending

My bank offers online banking and it's free. I am a little tempted by the idea of paying bills online and being able to check the status of my account anytime without waiting for a statement to come in the mail. I don't like the idea of doing anything medical or financial online, though, so I don't use online banking. The bank's web site does make a big deal about how secure their setup is. SiteKey and SafePass are two of the tools they use to make it more secure. I don't think there are any other measure that I could and should use to make it more secure than the bank already has.

I looked at Mint, expensr, and Wesabe. (I couldn't tell anything about Foonance in the short time I looked.) They all offer where-does-it-go, create-a-budget, and all-your-accounts-in-one-place, but otherwise their features vary. Honestly, I don't need any of these services.

Regarding the Consumer Reports article, I was interested in the parts about using shopping bots to check prices on general merchandise, phone/internet/TV, and insurance, because those are areas where I feel I could improve on what I spend.

#56 Texting

I have sent a text message exactly 1 time. I don't have texting as part of my cell phone package. Nobody ever texts me. So, when I received a text message one day, I immediately knew that the sender had sent it to the wrong number. I was very proud of myself for figuring out how to text him or her back and say "wrong number." Unfortunately, he or she was very polite and sent back "thank you," which cost me another 10 cents. Even though I haven't sent another text message since then, it was easy to figure out and I think I could do it again in an emergency.

Lingo 2 Word was interesting and enlightening. I'll keep it in mind when people send me emails with text lingo I don't understand.

My feelings about texting and driving are the same as before reading the NYT article: What is wrong with these people's minds?!