Thing #16

I honestly thought creating a start page would be a complete waste of my time; but after I created it set to my personal interests, I actually spent a lot of time looking through all of the stories and applications it chose to post on my page.  I literally set up my page in less than a minute.  I used the iGoogle start page because it seemed to be the easiest to use with the most applications available.    You choose your color scheme from a seemingly endless supply of pre-made templates for your use.  I chose a pink and white artsy-looking one.  Next, you check all the boxes that are of interest to you.  For example, I chose:  music, cooking, entertainment, weather, and humor.  You can choose as many as you like!  From there, your start page is created!  Once my start page was done, I added a "Countdown," which is an application that keeps up with the days, minutes, and seconds left until some event you have chosen.  I chose to countdown the days left until school is out for winter break.  I also added an application called "Fun Facts."  Every morning it has three new, random "fun facts" for the day.  I enjoyed creating my iGoogle start page and will be using it as my permanent home page from now on.    


I chose the "Remember the Milk" online tool as my "to-do" list.  In theory, an online to-do list seems like a good idea to keep you organized.  This is not the case.  It was way to complicated.  It was too much work for a list I could simply jot down on a scrap piece of paper.  


I can see online calendars being useful for some people, but for me it seems just as easy to write my schedule down in my planner that I carry around with me.  I'm sure there are neat applications an online calendar can do that my planner can't do, but I have no problem whipping out my pencil and paper.  


The other tool I chose to explore was called "Zamzar."  It is a free, online file converter.  It is super easy and quick to use.  You choose a file or URL you wish to convert.  Then you chose the format you would like your file to be formatted to.  Next, you type in your e-mail address so they can send you the formatted file.  And boom, you are done.  It converts just like that!  This is one application I wish I had known about.  I definitely see this tool useful especially in the school setting.  I would highly recommend this tool to others!