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Thursday, April 11, 2002 |
Thanks to Paolo, the following magically appeared in my news aggregator today from the Librarians' Index to the Internet. When I saw it, I sighed out loud with joy. First chance I get, I'm scraping Marylaine, The Handheld Librarian, Library News Daily, LIS News, and all of the other sites I still have to read manually!
- 19th-Century California Sheet Music score: 1000
- "A virtual library of some 2,000 pieces of sheet music published in California between 1852 and 1900, together with related materials such as a San Francisco publisher's catalog of 1872, programs, songsheets, advertisements, and photographs." Full images of every page and some sound files are available. Maintained by Professor Mary Kay Duggan, School of Information Management and Systems, University of California, Berkeley (UCB) for the Museum Informatics Project, Information Systems and Technology, UCB.
- http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~mkduggan/neh.html
- Subjects: Music | Songs -- California | Popular music -- California | Songs -- 19th century -- Indexes | Songs -- United States -- 19th century -- Scores | Popular music -- 19th century | Songs with piano | New this week
- Category: Databases
- Created by: mg on Apr 9, 2002 - updated Apr 10, 2002 | Comment On This Record [Librarians' Index to the Internet]
10:56:43 PM Permanent link here
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"In 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' (1979), a pernicious, high-voltage space fog drifts toward Earth, destroying everything in its path. After several hours of special effects, Captain Kirk discovers that the marauding entity is a living machine called V'Ger. In a shocking twist, its "brain island" — the tiny seed from which the mass grew — turns out to be NASA's Voyager 6 space probe, now old and rusty. Over the centuries, the tiny craft has evolved far beyond its creators' imaginations, eventually becoming a technological marvel that subsumed its crude 20th-century kernel.
In short, it's just like Sony's new Clié NR70V organizer....
Like V'Ger, however, the new Sony is an overwhelmingly advanced piece of gear that evolved from an ancient, simple, barely recognizable gadget at its core: the humble Palm organizer." [NY Times Technology, via Ryan Greene's Radio Weblog]
I covet the new Sony Clie.
10:42:20 PM Permanent link here
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"Parents of South Dakota public school students will soon be able to check their kids' grades, attendance records and just about anything else they wanted to know about how - and what - their children are doing in school.
You can blame the Internet, boys and girls, not to mention state officials who developed what's believed to be the first statewide online system giving parents access to so much data....
The state has built in extreme security measures, and officials believe hackers – as well as students seeking to change their grades - will not be able to break into the DDN Campus system....
In addition to grades and real-time attendance records, parents and students will have access to cumulative records, test data, school demographics, transcripts and other data. Students will also be able to register for classes using the system and find what courses they need to take to get into colleges and universities in South Dakota, Christensen said.
Additionally, parents can sign up to have their kids' grades and other records automatically e-mailed to them, he said. School districts will use DDN Campus to create student schedules, maintain staff records, record attendance and more easily transmit required data between schools." [NewsBytes]
10:04:43 PM Permanent link here
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Here's the RIAA Comment On Gateway Ad Endorsing Music Downloading by Hilary Rosen:
"The Gateway commercial is fun, but their website is nothing but a gateway to misinformation. No one has proposed anything that would 'prevent all digital copying.' If Gateway truly believed that illegal copying hurts all artists and labels who make the music we enjoy, they wouldn't be relying on these misleading scare tactics -- they'd be working with us to find a solution to the piracy problem. If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on this ad campaign to help stop illegal downloading...but that wouldn't help them sell more CD burners, would it?"
Here's my response:
"The RIAA's proposed solution is fun, but their website is nothing but a gateway to misinformation. No one has proposed anything that would 'prevent a digital music industry.' If the RIAA truly believed that illegal copying hurts all artists and labels who make the music we enjoy, they wouldn't be relying on these misleading scare tactics -- they'd be working with us to find a solution to the problem of how to pay artists fair compensation. If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on lawyers and elected officials to start providing actual digital content...but that wouldn't help them sell more CDs, would it?"
9:59:55 PM Permanent link here
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Compared to others my current age, I'd better get cracking:
- Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry, publishes "The Star Spangled Banner."
- Judith Guest began writing her first novel, Ordinary People.
- After defeating Antony and Cleopatra's forces in a naval battle, Augustus became the master of the Roman world.
- Matthias Jakob Schleiden, a German botanist, formulated the cell theory of physiology. [via Daypop Top 40]
9:51:18 PM Permanent link here
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Searchable History
"I’m interested in the intersection of the web and desktop apps. One app I’d like to see is a search engine for pages that I’ve visited. I often want to go back to something but can’t remember where it was but I can remember what it was about. A Google search would turn up too many hits. But if I could search just pages I’ve visited then I could find it." [inessential.com]
8:40:04 PM Permanent link here
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Hey, Steve - Cory lists some good example uses for the new Google API over at bOing bOing:
"Program Ideas
- Auto-monitor the web for new information on a subject
- Glean market research insights and trends over time
- Invent a catchy online game
- Create a novel UI for searching
- Add Google's spell-checking to an application"
Try the macro yourself using Dave's instructions, and you may start to see it. I did it using "shifted librarian" below, but I could put a "top 10 search for..." box anywhere on my site for any search term I choose.
I'm wondering if we can't somehow add this into Find-It! Illinois, the Virtual Illinois Catalog, and the Illinois Government Information service. Kind of an additional cross-reference section for web-based resources. Andy, what do you think? There's even two Perl interface for this, one from Matt Webb and one from Aaron Cope. :-)
8:27:33 PM Permanent link here
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If this works, it's totally awesome. Cross your fingers....
[Macro error: The server, api.google.com, returned a SOAP-ENV:Server fault: Exception from service object: Invalid authorization key:]
8:04:02 PM Permanent link here
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"The machine is Dance Dance Revolution, a video game that can work players to such exhaustion that they have to break for Gatorade and a Powerbar. Its popularity has been growing across the globe since it was released in Japan just over three years ago. The game has wiggled its way into about 30 arcades, movie theaters, restaurants and clubs throughout the Chicago area, including Aurelio's Pizza in Joliet, Diversions in Chicago, GameWorks in Schaumburg and Loews Theatres Garden Cinema in Skokie.
Known as DDR to its addicts, the game draws crowds waiting for a turn as well as people gawking at the public dancing displays -- no matter how bad. It's the most popular machine in a new wave of video games where participants do more than test the dexterity of their wrists and fingers.
"Everybody's looking at it and thinking it's so stupid -- until you play. Then you're hooked," said Damiata, an 18-year-old computer entrepreneur from East Hartford, Conn." [Chicago Tribune, registration required]
I'll second how addictive DDR is, although I will also note that I would never play it in public! If you have the chance to watch kids play it and they're good at it, you'll stand there with your jaw on the ground. Talk about interactivity! It's especially amazing to watch two kids dance off against each other.
When I found out there was a home version for Playstation... well, I had to get it for the kids. So guess what Santa brought last year? They have a blast with it, although they have the Disney Mix version. Once you hear the songs on a given day, expect them to bounce around in your head for quite some time. And it truly is great exercise, which is a nice tangential benefit for a video game. In fact, at the end of a song on the home Disney version, the game even equates your dancing to specific workouts ("you did 100 sit ups" or "you ran 300 steps"). I love the synthesis of movement, music, visual tracking of the arrows, and outright dancing for the kids, and it's great for both boys and girls.
In fact, I don't know which is more fun - watching the kids play DDR or playing myself.
9:34:50 AM Permanent link here
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Kelly v. Arriba - What's the Connection with Louisiana?
"The plaintiff, Leslie Kelly is a native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and studied here in the Bayou state. Given the publicity of his case, it is not surprising to learn that he has website. I still think that the Kelly v. Arriba Soft case is not as significant as it is being reported to be, and certainly doesn't represent a threat to linking. [see my earlier post]
Apparently, Kelly has the same view of the legal effect of the Ninth Circuit ruling, which he posted on his website: "My Attorneys also successfully disputed the flawed notions raised by Internet Giant Google.com and the Electronic Frontier Foundation that the Ninth's decision jeopardized all linking. The decision does not do this at all." [Link]" [Ernie the Attorney]
This is why it's so great to have attorneys blogging. I hope Ernie is right.
8:01:44 AM Permanent link here
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"When my dad wakes up today, the first thing he will notice is that he is dead. But he'll take that in his stride, because my mom will be cooking bacon downstairs and getting the coffee ready and these divine smells will keep him from worrying too much about it. He will dance a jig as he jumps out of bed, to realize he's got his young healthy body back. He'll pant with excitement to find a Life Magazine on his nightstand. It will be 1948 and he will be 30 and he'll be in Youngstown, Ohio long before they had a zip code of 44444...." [Halley's Comment, via Rogi]
Don't miss this week's posts over at Halley Suitt's Weblog.
12:39:13 AM Permanent link here
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Gateway croons for copying tunes
"The cornerstone of Gateway's campaign is a 60-second TV ad that will begin airing Wednesday evening. The spot, a continuation of the company's campaign, features CEO Ted Waitt and a bovine companion driving into the sunset singing a cover version of Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" by hip-hop artist Elwood.
As Waitt and the cow trade verses, messages appear on the screen that read, 'Like this song? Download it for free on gateway.com...or load it on an MP3 player. Gateway supports your right to enjoy digital music legally.'
Beyond the ad, the company this weekend plans to offer free demonstrations on how to legally download songs and burn them onto CDs throughout its Gateway Country retail stores. " [News.com, via Tomalak's Realm]
Good for Gateway. You can find their Digital Music Zone here; I really like the song, too (WMA file).
12:25:43 AM Permanent link here
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News Sites Repeat Mistakes Of the Past
"In recent months I attended two events focusing on online journalism. At both, speakers, panelists, and attendees often seemed to be of a common mind. Their message: too few people in the news industry recognize the value in true online interactivity and in creating services and content that are unique to the online medium....
I think this is at the heart of online news' problems today. The content that most of us produce is stuff you read, not stuff you interact with. Paul's Institute has among its missions to explore new digital story-telling forms. (She prefers to call it "story-making.") The Institute has hosted sessions where it brings together journalists and game designers, and journalists and fine artists -- to explore new ways to communicate with an audience.
Online news, if it is to succeed, needs to get more adventurous about trying new forms of story presentation. It needs to focus more on the "stuff you do" and not the "stuff you read." Then, Internet journalism becomes something new -- and not just a variation of content as presented in other media formats....
Here's what should be commonplace when Internet users visit news sites: content that they interact with, in the same way that you interact with a computer game; content that wouldn't be possible in any other medium. For example, a story on a proposed property tax increase can have an interactive application (created using something like Flash) with which a site visitor can type in his home's worth and see how it would affect his property tax bill specifically. A recipe presented can be interactive by having the user specify number of servings, click a button, then recipe ingredients are adjusted for the requested serving size." [Editor & Publisher, via Tomalak's Realm]
An excellent editorial that neatly summarizes and converges several of the themes I've been highlighting this week. If online newspapers want to reach my kids, they're going to have to offer more interactive sites, so it's great to see more and more journalists promoting this.
12:20:02 AM Permanent link here
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Copy Protection Efforts Are Doomed
"Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen told the nation's broadcasters that efforts to copy protect music, movies or television shows are destined to fail....
Andreessen said the recording and broadcast industries should recognize the explosive popularity of Napster and successor song-swapping services for what they are: evidence of unmet consumer demand and a terrific business opportunity. It should respond with a volume of cheap digital music -- and an ad campaign that reminds consumers that 'file swapping'' is merely a euphemism for theft.... 'Digital media is the biggest opportunity the entertainment industry has ever seen....'
Andreessen applied Moore's law -- the prediction by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that computational power would double every 18 months -- to predict the transformation of digital entertainment. The cheapest computer -- say, an eMachines box -- comes with a 20-gigabyte hard drive, enough storage space for 400 CDs worth of music. Within five years, that same $600 PC would have the capacity to hold 12,800 hours of music -- a veritable Tower Records available at the click of a mouse.
An MP3 digital music player, such as the RioPort, can store 400 hours of compressed music. Within five years, the same $400 player will be capable of storing 12,000 hours of music -- enough capacity to take an entire music collection with you in your car, at the gym or to work." [SJ Mercury, via Tomalak's Realm]
12:13:29 AM Permanent link here
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Copyright [CBDTPA] Bill Universally Rejected
"A grass-roots group called DigitalConsumer.org, which did not exist a month ago, claims to have signed up 24,000 members who have sent off 80,000 faxes to their elected representatives.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has also held hearings on the issue, has received more than 3,500 comments criticizing the bill, a spokeswoman said.
'We haven't received one e-mail in support of the Hollings bill,' said Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Mimi Devlin. 'It seems like there's a groundswell of support from regular users.' " [The Globe and Mail, via Slashdot]
Keep 'em coming! It's especially important for librarians to speak up in this debate.
12:05:21 AM Permanent link here
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© Copyright 2004 Jenny Levine.
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