Sorry, just couldn’t resist a blog post alliteration on a Monday. The weekend is over and a new week is upon us, but luckily Mondays have something going for them that no other day has (well, actually, that is not entirely true, Wednesdays and Fridays have it too). What is that you say? A brand new xkcd cartoon. I thought we would start off with a cartoon before diving into the techie heart of this Monday’s post.

 

I could not resist this cartoon–haven’t you ever wanted to do that when someone has parked askew, taking up 2 spaces and there are no other ones in the parking lot? People really, really need to work on their parking skills. Or they could just save money, and help save the planet, by buying a smaller, more fuel efficient car. But enough on parking, off to the techie stuff of the day.

Have you heard that YouTube has a new YouTube EDU site. Yes, YouTube EDU, you heard that correctly. The site brings together videos from colleges and universities that have channels and post videos on YouTube, making it easier to sell teachers, professors and other instructors on the value of incorporating YouTube videos in their classroom or in assignments. Yay, for learning being interesting and in multimedia format! Check out the Compliment Guys at Purdue University. Rock on for making people smile! And nice job to all the universities producing such fun videos.

Have you checked out IE8 (Internet Explorer) yet? Here is a very nice review comparing IE8 to IE7. All I could think when reading the article was, that sure sounds a lot like Chrome. So if you use IE7 it sounds like it is time for an upgrade, if you haven’t already moved to IE8. I’m always fascinated by what browsers people use. I have to say that I’m a complete Chrome fan, but have Firefox portable to use whenever I’m doing research for Zotero since I no longer have access to EndNote Web. If you want to share what browser you use and why, leave a note in the comments.

Do you dread calling 1-800 numbers because of the annoyance of speaking to an automated system or pressing “1” so many times you’re afraid you might break the button on your phone? If so, check out 50-Plus Hacks and Tips to Get to a Real Person at Any Corporation in 10 Seconds or Less. This is a good list of tips and tricks, especially handy if you don’t already RSS and read The Consumerist. Because, as we all know, sometimes you just really need to talk to a real person–not a machine.

That’s it for this Monday’s edition of The Waki Librarian. Have a great week and the Waki Librarian will be back with more later this week.