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Wednesday, April 17, 2002 |
"Pinch me, I'm dreaming. Syndic8 has just released a few directories of RSS feeds. You can now find feeds using Headline Viewer Categories, ODP categories, NewsisFree Categories, and NewsisFree Assignment of ODP categories.
I have been waiting for something like this for quite a while. If you haven't gotten into RSS feeds yet, what are you waiting for. Not only does it save time, but they are so freakin' easy to use. I am sure Jenny is thrilled by this news." [via Library Stuff via Research Buzz]
Not a pinch, although I'm definitely hearing Fred Astaire singing, "Heaven, I'm in heaven..." in my head! Thanks for pointing this out, Steven!
11:34:10 PM Permanent link here
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Audit Slams Oracle Pact [The Sacramento Bee, via Slashdot]
I was actually posting this in order to make a glib comment about why SLS is abandoning Oracle, but instead I was completely taken in by The Sacramento Bee's navigation and usability features. While the text size of most of the navigation on the page has too high of a squint factor, check out the IHT-like bar on the left-hand side of the page that lets you enlarge or decrease the text size of the article, toggle the typeface between serif and sans-serif, email the page, print the page, find more stories by the writer, sign up for newsletters or wireless alerts, or make the SacBee your home page. Click on the first icon for "info" and a legend appears above the story.
I'd like to see them add an icon to the toolbar for finding the most popular stories, but overall, very slick and nicely done!
11:11:16 PM Permanent link here
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NME Names Most Influential Artist Ever
"The Smiths have been named the artists to have had most influence on NME in the course of our 50 years as a title.
The top 50 artists to have had an influence will be revealed tomorrow (April 16) in a special issue celebrating 50 years of NME but as a taster we can now reveal the Top 10 – which also includes The Beatles, Oasis, Public Enemy and David Bowie.
The list takes into account: Appearances on front covers. Volume and significance of features. Dominance of end of year writers polls. The response from our readers in the weekly letters page. The presence of their name and influence in the paper (e.g. the number of acts referred to as the new them, the endless questioning of other artists for their opinions of them, the terrible pun headlines on their name or song titles...). And the speed with which they took over." [NME.com]
The top 10 is as follows:
- The Smiths
- The Beatles
- Stone Roses
- David Bowie
- Sex Pistols
- Oasis
- Radiohead
- Paul Weller/The Jam
- U2
- Public Enemy
Um... no. I love the Smiths, but no.
11:00:36 PM Permanent link here
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Remote Home Management Tool Released
"Intel Labs said the software will enable wireless phones and handhelds to control home networks using Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) technology, which enables PCs and smart devices to automatically connect with each other and share information. The toolkit integrates UPnP technology into wireless devices, enabling to control compliant devices in the home such as compliant local area networks and other devices such as home control and multimedia systems.
'With UPnP technology, users will be able to easily access important data, music, video, photos, and control home appliances via a home network and a variety of wireless devices,' said Shane Wall, director of Emerging Platforms Lab, a part of Intel Labs....
UPnP is a TCP/IP-based technology that offers what proponents claim is pervasive peer-to-peer networking." [allNetDevices Wireless News]
And I thought information is promiscuous now! I can't wait for the day when I can access all of my digital data and entertainment wirelessly anywhere in my home. I know there are lots of security and privacy issues to overcome, but the vision is solid. I wonder what the interfaces for this functionality on cell phones/PDAs will look like....
Plus, we have one of those phone systems that runs over the power wires in the house, not the phone jacks. Using this technology, it'd be much easier to find a remote!
10:38:52 PM Permanent link here
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"TiVo has begun the initial rollout of its next software upgrade, code-named Firebolt. Version 3.0 is not a drastic update, primarily designed to sync the code base between older models and the new Series2 TiVo, but does provide many behind the scenes improvements. Most notable additions include improved suggestions and the ability to download program data directly from a cable broadcast without using the phone line.
For the hacker community, Firebolt includes ethernet drivers, allowing TiVo to download programming data from the Internet using a special backdoor key." [BetaNews, via Slashdot]
I have ReplayTVs, not TiVos, so I wasn't particularly interested in this article until I got to the last paragraph:
"TiVo also announced Tuesday that its Series2 digital video recorders were available through an exclusive engagement with BestBuy. 60-hour Series2 units will retail for $399.99, less expensive than devices from competitors Sonicblue and UltimateTV."
Now, I have one 60-hour ReplayTV and frankly, it's not enough. I was lucky enough to get it for $400 a couple of years ago, and my only regret is that I didn't get two of them. It's great to see TiVo continuing to improve its product, but with storage prices dropping, I can't help but wonder why they stopped at 60 hours. Especially because by the time you add in the lifetime membership fee for the service, you're looking at $650. For that much money, you should get more than 60 hours on what is essentially a second generation of their product, even at the entry level.
While I was pondering this, I continued browsing the reader comments at the bottom of the article, and someone noted that SonicBlue is readying the ReplayTV 5000. Now, I'm already drooling over the 4000 (320 hours of storage, ethernet port, adding your own pictures, and more), so with my curiousity piqued, I found a CNET article from January that I had somehow missed that notes the following:
"Sonicblue also plans to release a ReplayTV 5000 recorder, Potashner said. The 5000 model will become the new high-end product and will come with hundreds of gigabytes of storage and a service similar to video on demand. The 5000 recorder is expected out in the second half of the year."
I want to know more! I'm sure they have more than just those features up their sleeve. But let me again take this opportunity to encourage you to buy a DVR if you don't already have one. I don't care if it's a TiVo or ReplayTV, but these things are the cat's meow, and they truly will change your relationship with your television in a good way. Especially if you have kids. I can't say enough good things about DVRs.
Final link - iTVMarketer has an interesting editorial from November, 2001, called PVR's: Don't Sue, Embrace, about the TV networks suing SonicBlue. What's interesting about it is that you could easily substitute the RIAA and MPAA for ABC, NBC, and CBS, and Napster/Kazaa for SonicBlue and the editorial would still be spot on.
10:08:54 PM Permanent link here
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FYI, I've changed the search box in the left-hand gutter from Atomz to PicoSearch because Atomz had a limit of 500 pages, which I surpassed a long time ago. PicoSearch has a cap of 1500 pages, which I should hit soon, but until then at least, you'll be able to do a comprehensive search of the site. The librarian in me was emulating Munch's The Scream because of the incomplete searches. Just can't have that.
This is a band-aid because the charming and talented Andy B. has graciously agreed to install ht:dig for me for the whopping fee of $0. Now that's a buddy. :-) I'll let you know when we pull the old switch-a-roony.
9:35:01 PM Permanent link here
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A New Game of ‘Life’
"The multi-colored board game comes neatly shrink-wrapped in a black cardboard box. Inside are hundreds of cards that must be sorted, two pairs of dice, and colored chess-like pieces.
Each player is an 18-year-old black male, struggling to make it. The goal is to make it from any one of four starting points: the ghetto, the military, the entertainment industry or the halls of a black university, to end the of the game board, to a place called "freedom...."
Along the way, however, are what the game's creator says are typical pitfalls for young black men — trouble with the law and money issues. Land on a racism space, and you're forced to pull a card that reads: "You're pulled over by police for driving a new car, back two spaces."
Game creator Chuck Sawyer, 33, says he's 'just being real,' using his own experience growing up in California, to educate the masses....
One of the cards, he says, drives his point home. Any player who draws it, dies." [ABC News]
As you can imagine, this article is generating a big response on the ABC News Discussion Forum. I find the subject interesting and thought you might, too.
On a side note, I'd like to see a comparison of discussion/comments features on TV news sites versus newspaper sites. My gut reaction is that TV sites tend to have sections for communal discussions, but newspaper sites don't. I don't have any data to support that, though. Has anyone seen a survey covering this topic?
8:41:48 PM Permanent link here
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Prime Palaver #6
"Jim Baen and I set up the Free Library about a year and half ago. Leaving aside the various political and philosophical issues, which I've addressed elsewhere, the premise behind the Library had a practical component as well. In brief, that in relative terms an author will gain, not lose, by having titles in the Library.
What I mean by "relative" is simply this: overall, an author is far more likely to increase sales than to lose them. Or, to put it more accurately, exposure in the Library will generate more sales than it will lose....
What the Free Library provides-as do traditional libraries, or simply the old familiar phenomenon of friends lending each other books-is a way for people to investigate a new author for free, before they plunk down any money....
Now, with a year and a half's experience with the Library actually established and running, our original assessment has been demonstrated in practice. The Library's track record shows clearly that the traditional "encryption/enforcement" policy which has been followed thus far by most of the publishing industry is just plain stupid, as well as unconscionable from the viewpoint of infringing on personal liberties....
The first title to go up into the Library was my own novel, Mother of Demons. That was my first published novel, which came out in print in September of 1997. At the time it went into the Free Library, in the fall of 2000, that novel had sold 9,694 copies, with a sell-through of 54%.
As of today, according to Baen Books-a year and a half after being available for free online to anyone who wants it, no restrictions and no questions asked-Mother of Demons has sold about 18,500 copies and now has a sell-through of 65%....
I would like someone to explain to me how almost doubling the sales and improving the sell-through by 11% has caused me, as an author, any harm? The opposite is in fact the case. Mother of Demons began its life as a typical first novel, with very modest sales and sell-through. Today, it has better than average sales and much better than average sell-through-a change that took place simultaneously with the book being available for free online." [Baen Free Library, via Slashdot]
The title of the Slashdot article summarizes this post the best: Sharing Doesn't Hurt. It used to be that when someone made me a mix tape or turned me on to a new artist I liked, nine times out of ten I ended up buying the album myself. That's $117 out of $130. These days, I'm not willing to shell out $13 for a CD anymore, especially when I haven't heard the whole thing, I probably only like a few of the songs on it, and often the album costs more than $13. Total cut for the recording industry now? $0 out of $130.
How to get back that $117 and then some? Provide me with the musical smorgasbord I've always dreamed of, let me download songs, not albums, and let me listen to those songs wherever I want to. Until then, they'll continue making $0 off me.
6:28:00 PM Permanent link here
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Hoop Dreams Meet Hoop Reality
"Turns out it's just the National Basketball Association's experiment in the world of reality TV. You see, these young guns are all players on the North Charleston Lowgators of the National Basketball Development League, a fledgling minor league for borderline pro players. They're also stars of a new show on ESPN called "Down Low: Life in the D-League." It's "Survivor" with a full-court press....
None of these 11 characters appears headed for marquee NBA stardom. None is a dominating big man or a dazzling scorer who will transform the game. They're here in the D-League because they've got an incomplete game right now. Most of them have the physical gifts and raw skills to take it to the next level -- a role-playing position with an NBA franchise. But they're not there today. And frankly, many of them may never make it. As good as they are, their lives are still up in the air....
Somehow, the cameras catch many of these raw moments: the halftime pep talk that sparks a game-winning comeback, the shoving match at practice that demonstrates frayed nerves, the telephone call to the girl back home, the aside that speaks volumes. The crew is shooting constantly, logging hours of tape a day. The producers are constantly sifting through the footage and constructing story lines for each episode....
'Down Low' isn't the only sports reality show on the tube. HBO ran a program last fall that tracked the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL through training camp. And ESPN has two other shows that track basketball teams: the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA and the collegiate squad from St. John's University. Unlike these big-budget programs, "Down Low" is airing on TV while the tiny crew is still filming the action. And since the NBDL is so low on the sports food chain, the producers have gained more complete access than their rich cousins could dream of. The end product is a show that has a more documentary, less packaged feel than anything else of its kind....
Unlike in the NBA, where the game often turns into a slow, complex dance of big men and outside shooters, the NBDL game is a frenetic track meet. On a bad shooting night, it might look like playground ball, but on a good night it looks like what basketball is supposed to be: a game with lots of transition running, aggressive defense and athletic players taking it to the hole." [Salon.com]
Darn - that's the end! I didn't know this was on! It definitely would have helped with the withdrawal symptoms after March Madness. I hope they re-run it so I can catch the whole series.
5:56:45 PM Permanent link here
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From The Peanut Gallery:
"I spent some time browsing through the high-risers at Amazon this morning. Not that I'm in a purchasing mode, mind you, but just to see who's topping the charts. I noticed that Johnny Marr is on the new Pet Shop Boys album. (I think Marr made The The's Mind Bomb incredible.) While I can't listen to the samples from the album because it hasn't been released yet, I did notice that if I buy Release, I could listen to it NOW: there's a stream.
What's wrong with this picture?
- I no longer buy without listening first.
- I don't use Windows Media."
It's great to see this practice being implemented at Amazon but as Will notes, this is definitely too limited. Why can't I just download the whole album now? And why leave out international customers on the international internet? (That question is directed at the labels, not Amazon.)
Even worse, the fine print implies that you only have access to this stream until the day before the physical CD is released. Sure it's a free add-on service, but if it's coming from Amazon and they know I bought it, why can't I access that stream in perpetua, even from the label's site?
1:28:26 PM Permanent link here
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The Chicago Sun-Times goes hyperbolic, declaring Cherish Your Privacy? Steer Clear of Kazaa.
"Not since some hippie stepped up to the mic at the original Woodstock festival to shout, "Don't take the brown acid!" has a single announcement had such an impact on young music fans: 'Don't install KaZaA! It'll compromise your personal privacy!...'
Some spyware is logging far more than just the URLs of sites you've visited. Vx2, for instance, can grab the contents of online forms. So congratulations, you might have unknowingly sent some ad company your home address, phone number and date of birth."
It's good to point out that spyware and third-party programs are installed with Kazaa and the dangers involved, but it's a free download for heaven's sake and you agree to download these things when you approve the license agreement. Granted, most people don't read it (I certainly didn't), but the writer doesn't even bother to point to Kazaa Lite or the VX2 web site where the company tells you how to un-install it. On the front page, no less.
The article does note the Ad-Aware anti-spyware software, but they don't even provide a live link to it. That's one of my criticisms of their re-design. It looks like what they should have gone to 3-4 years ago, not in this day and age. Still no place for me to comment on their article and note any of this, no RSS feed, no links to further information, and no email address for contacting the writer. No Googlebox for related sites, either, but I'm not expecting that yet.
I just have to note my favorite part of the article, though:
"OK. So, you or maybe one of your kids has downloaded KaZaA on the family PC, and he's denying the Rolling Stones their fair share of royalties from 'Paint It Black.' "
Uh-huh. As Bill Cosby used to say, "Riiiiiiight."
1:12:35 PM Permanent link here
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"The folks at FinePrint have taken this concept one step further in developing pdfFactory, their newest offering. This product also uses a print driver to intercept the print command, this time to permit on-the-fly creation of PDF files. The user can modify the output in several different ways and then save the resulting PDF to the hard disk....
Beyond the cost considerations, however, there are several innovations. The most important is that output may be concatenated into one single PDF file from a series of separate print jobs, from the same or different sources. The usefulness of this feature is best described by real-life examples. The following scenarios illustrate a point that I have long made, and that is that one of the most significant contributions that Acrobat makes to a lawyer's productivity is its ability to create the bundled document: a single file containing output from a number of different programs, collected together for ease of reference and, to be sure, for printing it out when nothing but paper will do.
The first example is that of the legal secretary who is attempting to schedule an attorney's trip for an out-of-town deposition. She can visit the airline's web site and print to Factory a page showing the times of departure from Chicago and the alternatives for return flights, as well as a diagram of the aircraft's layout, then go to MapQuest and print out a map and driving directions, then print from WordPerfect a copy of the confirming letter to the client and a copy of a deposition notice, all in one PDF file which can then be transferred to the attorney's laptop or PDA or sent by e-mail for later use." [LLRX]
I'm posting this in part for Bruce, but I've been thinking about how we could make the best use of PDFs at SLS and I wonder if there isn't a larger application here for libraries. We collate information to answer reference questions all the time, so would on-the-fly, compilation PDFs be of use in this situation? I'm pretty sure you can take a web page and PDF it, combined with results from a database search, and maybe it would be easier to give the patron this type of printed file or even to email it to them.
12:56:41 PM Permanent link here
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"As I was struggling to write an article about greedy librarians (a take-off from the popular discussion group “Greedy Associates,”) I asked myself, “What i would it be like to be a greedy librarian?” I was burdened with this word greed, and could only conclude that is was negative in nature, especially to a professional librarian.
I searched through my own librarian experiences and talked with other librarians. I could not find any in-depth discussion about this noun called greed. For the past ten years I have belonged to the librarian profession and have been taught the pros and cons of librarianship by many mentors and professors. But the word “greed” never entered any of my training or mentoring. My mentors and professors refrained from using that word and informed me that one would not get rich being a librarian. They stated that the glory of librarianship is not in the salary, but in the acquisition of knowledge and disseminating that knowledge to others....
Maybe, on one level, that is what makes us different than other professions: librarians may not understand the word greed. We understand meanings inherent in the words knowledge and information, and the phase 'may I help you.' The online version of the Webster Dictionary defines greed as 'excessive or reprehensible acquisitiveness.' " [LLRX]
Amen and hallelujah to everything on Barbara's wish list! We should take this stuff far more seriously than we do. We're not greedy, which is why we share information so freely (right, Steven!), but we should be more aggressive where our salaries, profession, and business practicies (licensing, etc.) are concerned.
11:01:27 AM Permanent link here
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Americans in the Mood for MMode?
"In Japan, about 30 million "i-mode" mobile Internet subscribers use their cell phones to scope out the nearest restaurant, order movie tickets, play games, check the weather and read news....
Now, AT&T Wireless plans to bring i-mode services to the United States. Will Americans buy it?...
Today, most of the services offered by carriers are for business users who like the ability to tap into a corporate database. AT&T mMode offerings include the capability to send and receive e-mail, read news, check on flights and sports scores, get driving directions and play a game of Kung Fu.
'These are the right services for younger users,' said Joe Laszlo, an analyst with market research firm Jupiter Media Metrix. '(AT&T's) website is snazzy and hip. We will see fewer people check stock quotes and more people playing games.'
But because AT&T will adopt DoCoMo's i-mode revenue model and charge users for the amount of content they download on their phones -- rather than the amount of time they're on the phone -- AT&T will have to convince their customers that the service is worth the price, Laszlo said. AT&T plans to charge $8 a month to download 1 megabyte of content and $12.50 per month for 2 Mbs.
'The billing is going to be tricky,' Laszlo said. 'You have to help people figure out what a megabyte of content is.'
AT&T has a calculator on its website to help users decide how much information they'd use in a month and which plan to subscribe to. But as IDC analyst Randy Gistro pointed out, customers are used to the "all-you-can-eat" minutes contracts they've signed.
'It's almost like a culture shift,' Gistro said." [Wired News]
This is great news! We're finally seeing some movement towards the future market. It's the kind of service that will make me consider switching carriers, although probably not until there is enough compelling content. It will be interesting to watch the marketing of this service because they need to get it right the first time. A "shift" indeed.
Don't forget to play around that calculator because it recommends what plan you should choose if you were a customer. For me, it recommended the "max" plan (naturally) at $12.49 per month for 2MB. Now, that's not counting gaming or auxiliary services that are not yet available, but I would easily pay that. Here's its description of me, which would be spot on.
"You're working without a net, but always plugged into your network. Making the big deals and managing the details. And having the time of your life! This is the mega-sized plan just for you with a meaty 2 megabytes to chew through each and every month.
This is the plan for you if... a typical day sees you sending e-mail in the cab, checking to see if your flight's on time, surfing ESPN.com for scores, grabbing the headlines from USA Today, finding an ATM on the fly, and calling your mom — all before lunch!"
7:52:56 AM Permanent link here
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Radio Giant to Offer Music Downloads
"A new music subscription service, carried on powerful Clear Channel's network of radio Web sites, is slated to launch Wednesday.
Operated by start-up Full Audio, the long-promised service joins an increasingly crowded field of hopefuls trying to temp Net music fans to trade in their post-Napster file-swapping services for legal music downloads. The small company is betting that distributing alongside the biggest radio corporation in the business will give it enough clout with consumers to compete with major label-backed rivals Pressplay and MusicNet....
MusicNet, Pressplay and FullAudio each offer music from three major labels. Analysts have generally predicted that consumers would want access to all five before signing up in large number.
Each service also provides different features and prices. FullAudio's Clear Channel sites will offer 50 songs download per month for $7.49, or 100 downloaded songs for $14.99. Those songs can't be burned to CD or transferred to an MP3 player, however....
The service will initially launch on five Clear Channel-owned Phoenix, Ariz., radio station sites, but will ultimately reach 30 Web sites as Clear Channel brings stations in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City into the program." [News.com]
< yawn > Yet another service that just doesn't "get it." Having a built-in audience to which you can advertise your product doesn't guarantee sales, especially when your audience is exactly the demographic that is going to expect a smorgasbord of titles and portability. < /yawn >
12:15:01 AM Permanent link here
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© Copyright 2004 Jenny Levine.
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