Ex gratia post - not for training purposes

INSIDE

Wiki - What?

Way back in 1994, Ward Cunningham named his new website technology after the Wiki Wiki shuttle bus system at the Honolulu International Airport - wiki means "quick" in the Hawaiian language.  (1994 !! how come I'm only discovering wikis now in 2010?)

Wikis are certainly quick as opposed to the unit in HTML I had to struggle through at uni.  Then I did a course in  Microsoft FrontPage - FrontPage  is a WYSIWYG editor and web site  administration tool which was quicker at producing a web page but still tedious.  But now we have wikis which are relatively easy to set up and publish to the www and it means that anyone can add to the website so created.  It is a digital tool for collaberation which has many benefits for corporate and private entities.

Wikis are in the news right now namely the Wikileaks about which Ben Macintyre commented in The Times on 02/12/2010 - " In the age of paper, no one individual would have been able to carry, let alone leak, such a vast quantity of information. But what would once have required a fork-lift truck can now be moved with a single USB memory stick."

RSS - Really Simple Stoopid

The course outline for this week makes subscribing to RSS feeds sound a breeze - here a click, there a link, everywhere a click, link uh oh! back to the missed step two lines back - complete bafflement!!  One thing RSS feeds are teaching me is patience.

Finally managed to subscribe to the following :

Entertainment News - The West Australian
(gotta get my movie fix somwhere)

Tame the Web:  Libraries, Technology and People by Michael Stephens
(my ambition)

ivebeenreadinglately : where a very intelligent sounding Levi Stahl comments about what he's read
(let someone else do some of the reading for me)

Libraries Interact : Blog central for Australasian libraries
(my side of the world)

librarian.net : putting the rarin back in librarian since 1999
(once more with feeling)

Well now I have a few of my interests captured and can log onto Google Reader and see what new posts have been made all at one website instead of searching each site separately.  The joys of RSS feeds - once the really simple part of subscribing to them has been mastered!

Out of Africa

The Drakensberg Gardens Staff Choir - listen to their beautiful music!

This choir has a lot to sing about - praising the beauty of their surroundings in the heart of the southern Drakensberg (Dragon Mountain) range in Kwa Zulu Natal province in South Africa. Known in Zulu as uKhahlamba (”Barrier of Spears”) these are the highest mountains in South Africa with peaks reaching well over 3000m.

We spent 4 days at the Drakensberg Gardens resort - drinking in the mountain scenery and pure air.  The choir is comprised of 18 members of staff including cleaners, gardeners and caddies.  They compose all their own music - mainly spirituals - and sing a cappella.

Congo Meandering

Meandering River in the Congo
Originally uploaded by Tom Furst

Pezula Golf Course Knysna South Africa

Pezula 14th
Originally uploaded by FurryBoris

Pezula means "up" in Zulu and it certainly is that.
One of the most beautiful spots in the world - wish I played golf.

The golfing genes in my family ran out by the time I came along.
My brother Stephen Cullen came 29th in the The Seniors Open Amateur Championship  - this tournament was launched by The R&A in 1969 to help select a Great Britain & Ireland side to play in the World Senior Amateur Team Championship run by the World Amateur Golf Council. So he ranks  29th in the world of Senior Amateur golfers and I'm really proud of him.
My other three brothers also played as well as my father and brother-in-law.  Guess the subject of all conversation around the family dinner table.

Ode to life in the slow lane

This blog is my celebration of life in the slow lane - gently does it, no hurry! - hence no posts yet - watch this space.