Okay, I'm playing catch-up this week. The tsunami of things last week has subsided, my computer has dried out, and we are ready to go. (We are always ready to share our opinion, as we have found most people are. Martin Luther did it by defacing a recently-refinished cathedral door. Ted Kaczynski did it... well, with a bang.)

Propsmart -- I liked where Propsmart was going with the MLS/map integration. Though I'm not in the market to change houses, there are several families in my neighborhood that are. I blame this on my children, personally. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any of these homes listed on Propsmart. I am concerned that someone could miss their dream house by not having a more complete picture of what is available. I don't know what database Propsmart is using for their home listings -- the local MLS is incredibly paranoid about non-realtors being able to access their site, so I don't see where they would just be handing out the info to another website for a mash-up. Still, the idea was great, and if the map hadn't been constantly jumping on my screen, I would have thoroughly enjoyed the chance to see what houses comparable to mine are fetching these days.

Learn 2.0 libraries -- I was surprised to see that there weren't that many Learn 2.0 libraries out there. I can only think that either the rest of the libraries are waiting for this computer fad to pass so they can get back to reference the way it should be done (from thick, dusty tomes), or they are holding off for Learn 3.0 so they can get the jump on everyone else.

MotorMapUSA I was again surprised to find out that there were more Ferraris for sale within 1000 miles of my zip code than there were libraries with Learn 2.0 courses in the world (63 vs. 48). A red convertible sports car was suggested, so that's what I came up with. Here's a good "almost" Web 2.0 application -- you enter your zip code and it displays on Google Maps concentric circles that represent how far you could drive your Ferrari with the increasing likelihood of it breaking down. You could see that Jacksonville would be in the green area, you had a pretty good chance of getting there, but Dallas was in the red area, where you stood almost no chance at arriving without needing repair. They wouldn't be perfect circles, either, because of road speed and traffic conditions. You could then overlay how far you would have to fly the mechanic in to fix the car, factor in the average cost of repair and localized price of gas (you stop often), a probability ratio by jurisdiction that you'll be ticketed for speeding, and la veeola, you can estimate how much it costs to drive your Ferrari from any one point to any other point in the country. I had my eye on a lovely $118,000 SuperAmerica, but figured I would need another 15% above that to drive it home from North Carolina.

Wikimapia -- I can now proudly say that I put my neighborhood on the map. Then I couldn't think of anything to write about it, so I left it uncommented. I like Wikimapia, but I don't know, like Wikipedia, how the site gets moderated. Lake Apopka was listed as the dirtiest lake in Florida, which is probably both true and unkind. What's to keep people from zooming in on a neighbors house and saying something libelous, like "Big @$$#0[3 lives here." Uh, wait. I'll be right back.

Okay, with that out of the way, I just want to say that I enjoyed all the library apps, except the interfaces to a few of them seem to be a bit spartan. Not a single site played the Chicken Dance like Chug'd (wait, that's that next week). I do intend to use BookMooch in the future. I did notice that my search for Mein Kampf turned up nothing. Does that mean noone has the book, or the people who have it aren't willing to part with it? Hmmmmm.