Delicious, Take Two
I signed up for Delicious social bookmarking quite a while ago, but it just didn’t take for me. Perhaps the fact that I could not access it at work or that I was perfectly happy with using my browser for bookmarking. Either way, I set-up Delicious and just never really used it beyond the first few days. Why not give it another try. After all, I am trying move more onto the cloud, I can have my bookmarks in one place and I can share sites that I value. Let’s hope my new job does not block Delicious. I will find out tomorrow.
Here is what I like so far:
- Everything can be tagged – easy to stay organized
- Adding a badge widget to my blog, promote sharing my bookmarks
- Adding a Delicious tag cloud to my site or blog (see my Delicious tag cloud below)
- Viewing how many people, and who, bookmarked pages. It’s motivating to see someone tag my pages
- Finding new and interesting sites by viewing other people’s bookmarks
- Easy access from any computer, if Delicious is not blocked by the “man” at work.
- Customized descriptions of each bookmark can be added
So, I started with bookmarking and tagging the links I have collected on my Free e-Learning page and added a few blogs, blog communities and some e-learning resources.
And here is my Delicious tag cloud.
FYI: Here is a great video on social bookmarking and Delicious.
I am sure there are additional features on Delicious that I should be using. Let me know what Delicious tools and features you would recommend.
Adobe Flash Lite Exchange – Updated With New Content
Adobe’s Flash Lite Exchange has been updated. It has been quite a while since they have added anything new. So this is a welcome sight. Plus, I am proud to say they included my MinuteBio on Julius Caesar.
If you have a Flash Lite enabled device or just want to browse what is available, here is the Flash Lite Exchange link. FYI: They do have an education category.
Ben Franklin m-Learning Course
Tracing Bitmaps in Flash
With Flash you easily convert your imported graphics into vector graphics. Once converted, you can manipulate the vector graphic from within Flash. For example, remove colors, add colors, distort shapes, etc. This has been extremely helpful while working on a Ben Franklin course I am currently developing. I have been importing graphics of historical illustrations and artifacts (none with copyrights). In order to keep the same “cartoon” feel of the Minutebio courses, I used this method. Giving the graphics a more uniform, cartoon look, plus vector graphics scale up better.
Here’s how it works:
Highlight the imported graphic. In the menu, use Modify>Bitmap>Trace Bitmap.
The Trace Bitmap dialog box will appear. Color threshold and other parameters can be adjusted and previewed. Click OK and it becomes a vector graphic.
- Tracing Bitmap
It can now be easily manipulated. In the example below, background colors have been removed, the shape of the arm has been changed and numerous colors have been added.
