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Tuesday, April 30, 2002 |
"The badge on the right is, IMHO, very cool. Run your mouse over it and click on an mp3 link to hear music. If you'd like to give your readers the ability to instantaneously hear the best of EM without leaving your own site, see these instructions." [Gary Robinson's Rants]
My EM badge is over at the bottom of the left-hand column. Mouse over it to check out how cool this service is! This is more for me than anyone else so that I can always access the list quickly and easily. This is a fantastic implementation that I'd love to learn more about.
Imagine having such a badge on your library's web site showing your top 10 reader recommended titles or most popular titles (all dynamically populated from your catalog or a database). What if we could combine statistics nationwide and each library could put a badge on its web site? Heck, it wouldn't even have to be a badge, but that would probably be the easiest to add into everyone's existing designs.
11:44:37 PM Permanent link here
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Andrew Drucker has provided some of the most interesting comments I've received yet about my Google Answers versus free libraries question. With his permission, I'm posting some of his comments in the hopes that my librarian readers will take them to heart. All emphasis is mine.
"I associate the local library with having a lot of books, I'm afraid I don't tend to associate it with highly knowledgable people. When I was young, it was the place I went to borrow my weekly allotment of reading. When I was at University, it was the place you went to discover they only had 3 books between 60 of us on the course. Nowadays it's the rather nice looking building (2/3rds the way down this page: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g.blaikie/american.htm) that's only open when I'm at work....
And I think you're right that libraries aren't advertised as helpful places that can help you find what you're looking for. Librarians have more of a reputation as scary people who shush you. And this is considering that one of my old university friends worked in a library for quite some time, helping tourists track down genealogies and historical details....
I like the idea of libraries very much - I think they're very important, to allow people that wouldn't otherwise have access to books to get access to a huge range of information. It's just that largely they seem to be more trouble than the use I'd get out of them....
[Interlibrary loan is] partially an incentive, but (and I'm somewhat unusual in this, I know) I tend to buy my books solely online. I read reviews in magazines (real and virtual), make a note in my wants list and then do an Amazon order (or whoever is cheapest that week) and wait for them to deliver. If libraries had a similar service, I'd happily post books back (or drop them back in a slot, like Blockbuster allows). In fact Blockbuster is a good example. They're open late, I can just drop in and pick something up at 8pm and I can return the book at any time. I suspect that 'the books are free!' isn't enough of an incentive for me at the moment as I have a fair amount of money....
I wouldn't use it very often, but I'm sure that [remote database access] would be occasionally incredibly useful. And like most conveniences, once you've used it a few times, you'll wonder how you ever did without it."
We need to pay attention to Andrew's perceptions because they are not unique. The great thing about this is that we could easily win back Andrew's patronage if we did a better job of marketing our services. For example, many libraries provide remote database access, bookdrops, live online reference services, and relaxed rules (eg, we've not going to break your bank over fines).
My home library is pretty small, but residents can access four databases online by just putting in their library barcode number. They also opened on Sunday nights from 5-9 p.m. and this has become one of their busiest times of the week. In fact, the Board just voted to make Sunday hours 4-8 p.m. all year round instead of just during the school year.
In addition, they got rid of the ridiculous rule that you couldn't renew a book over the phone. They let you bring food and drinks into the building, and they put in a drive-up bookdrop. They're talking with Audible about circulating MP3 titles, and they're subscribing to LearnATest.com (online practice exams) for their residents.
All in all, they're doing a much better job of reaching out to the community and making themselves more convenient. We're working on making them more portable (they also got a grant to start bookmobile service this year), but what they really need is a line item for professional marketing. Here's hoping.
11:32:53 PM Permanent link here
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"The finale of the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County's 'Read Together Palm Beach County' campaign Thursday night at the Watson B. Duncan Theater at Palm Beach Community College was about to collapse with a breep-breep-breep busy signal from author Ray Bradbury's home in Los Angeles.
But West Palm Beach Librarian Pam Smith called her reference desk. The reference librarian called the Los Angeles library. The L.A. librarian looked up Bradbury's phone number in the cross-reference directory, found his address, looked up his street, found a neighbor's phone number and called the neighbor, who then knocked on Bradbury's door and told him to hang up the phone.
'Librarians saved the day once again,' Smith told the amused audience.
Had not the librarians come through in the clutch, the audience would have missed the author of Fahrenheit 451 criticize the education system, rip television news and Jack Nicholson and label Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? the worst show on television....
Bradbury also told stories of how he wrote 451, a cautionary fable of a society that bans books, then sends firemen to root out and burn the books that have been hidden. He rented a typewriter in a typing room beneath the UCLA library for 10 cents for half an hour.
'I moved in the typing room with a bag full of dimes,' he said. Nine days and $9.80 later, the first draft was finished." [Palm Beach Post, via librarian.net]
11:02:38 PM Permanent link here
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Tonight I purchased Going Wireless by Jaclyn Easton from Audible.com. It sounds fascinating, although I'm more in a music phase at the moment. However, I will soon go back to listening to books in the car, and this will be my first go. (I'm sorry I can't link directly to it, but Audible uses session IDs and Javascript so my links never work.) If you're at all interested in testing Audible's service, this might be a good title for you to try!
10:55:51 PM Permanent link here
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"I'm so far not really impressed with the quality of answers on Google Answers. A lot of them either seem to hype products to answer questions, give one answer to complicated questions, or just miss the point. Granted, some of the questions suck terribly as well. But what do you expect? "researchers" have one hour between the time they claim a question and the time it needs to be answered. This leaves precious little room for calling or emailing other folks who might be able to help, and forget reference interviews. The interface -- see 25 questions, hit next for the next 25 -- is clunky already, what will it look like with 1,000 questions in the queue? My biggest issue though is the way anyone with a login has the same -ga appended to their handle [I am jessamyn-ga for example]. I would strongly urge a differentiation between researchers and question askers, even if it's just notation. And allowing comments at the same time as answers is like letting other people in line at the reference desk also answer your patron's questions. My prediction is that people bid low on questions and just scan their comments [for free] for answers, or hints of answers. I should be getting the OK to start in answering questions this week, I'll let you know how it goes." [librarian.net]
10:48:20 PM Permanent link here
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"The company said its shoutout portal will feature youth-oriented capabilities such as communities, a selection of ringtones and games such as KISS, which the company described in a statement as 'the ultimate text messaging flirting game.'
It also features romantic horoscopes, pick-up lines and local movie times, according to the company.
'These on-demand, interactive products sync up with the way the 14 to 24 year-old market lives and uses wireless services,' said Rob Hyatt, Cingular's executive director of consumer marketing. 'shoutout will take Cingular's offer of self-expression into a unique new realm of community and interactivity.' " [allNetDevices Wireless News]
Visit the site and time how long it takes before you are thoroughly annoyed by the spinning Cingular logos in the upper left-hand corner. Then try to read the text on the navigation buttons. It's okay - put your face up close to the screen and squint. Hey, here's the top 10 ringtones for March 2002:
- Get Ur Freak On by Missy "Misdmeanor" Elliot
- Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson; Alien Ant Farm
- Pink Panther Theme
- Big Pimpin' by Jay Z
- How You Remind Me by Nickelback
- Hard Knock Life by Annie; Jay Z
- Enter Sandman by Metallica
- Bad Boys - Theme from Cops by Inner Circle
- Inspector Gadget Theme
- Batman Theme
Very eclectic mix there! But then, this portal isn't aimed at you or me (as if we couldn't tell by the fact that Britney Spears is the featured artist). This seems like a tentative first-step towards an i-mode like service similar to what they have in Japan. Many a wireless portal has come and gone, so it will be interesting to see if the time has come for one to take hold.
10:42:50 PM Permanent link here
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"U.S. workers have increased their substantial lead over Japan and all other industrial nations in the number of hours worked each year, according to a report issued yesterday by the International Labor Organization. It found that Americans added nearly a full week to their work year during the 1990s. They worked 1,979 hours on average last year -- that's 49 1/2 weeks.
That's 137 more hours or 3 1/2 weeks more per year than Japanese workers, 260 hours (about 6 1/2 weeks) more per year than British workers and 499 hours (12 1/2 weeks) more per year than German workers, the report said.
And then there's the French. They just passed a law trimming the hours in the workweek....
Among the reasons for the large differences between the United States and other countries are that Europeans typically take four to six weeks of vacation each year, while Americans take two to three weeks.
Then, there's France. While American employers kept adding overtime during the 1990s, in France the government reduced the official workweek to 35 hours with the aim of pressuring companies to hire more workers.
But there may be another benefit. French workers are actually more productive per hour than Americans, the report said." [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, via MetaFilter]
Well, Andy, I guess I was wrong (don't tell anybody I said that). I very much believe in the ethos "work to live, not live to work." Not that I don't give 110% at my job and put in extra hours when it's necessary, but I have a family and a life and I don't plan on giving up either one.
In fact, you may have already noticed the pattern that is starting to emerge for what I deem "posting hours." I'm outside having fun, being with my family, doing whatever until the evenings, which is when I do the majority of my posting. Don't let the online world take over your real world - it's not worth it.
10:24:36 PM Permanent link here
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"If you saw the world through Steve Mann's eyes -- actually, through the glasses attached to his wearable computer -- you'd always have a computer display floating in your field of vision. As you walked across campus, you could simultaneously surf the Web or type notes using a handheld keypad. Or you could look at everything as a kind of television show, filtered through a video camera that brightened or darkened what you saw -- for easier viewing or just to suit your mood.
Mr. Mann, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto, was one of the first people to propose and develop "wearable computers," now a growing area of research at colleges around the world. He has also taken an unusually personal approach to his work, turning himself into a long-term experiment: For nearly 20 years, he has worn a computer-vision system nearly every waking moment, trying out his latest inventions and learning what it is like to live in the physical and virtual worlds at the same time.
His eyeglasses look like a prop from a science-fiction film. A mirror positioned over his right eye beams a video display into his retina. A digital video camera captures whatever he sees. Wires run from the glasses to a small computer concealed in a belly bag under his wool sweater.
This is an older version of his 'rig,' as he calls the wearable computer. His latest model is smaller and more discreet, fitted into a standard pair of sunglasses. But that machine was damaged by airport-security officials, he says, in a recent incident that has led him to sue the airline. Repairing the damage will take months, he says....
At the university here, Mr. Mann teaches a course on how to become a "cyborg," a term he uses to describe himself. A cyborg, short for "cybernetic organism," is partly organic and partly mechanical. The most famous fictional cyborg is probably Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in The Terminator.
The otherworldly term highlights Mr. Mann's belief that wearable computers are not just a new kind of gadget, but the beginning of a fundamental shift in the relationship between people and technology. Mr. Mann's custom-built computer is not just a tool, he says, but an extension of his perception, his memory, and his identity....
Mr. Mann has also developed software that lets his computerized vision system alter the world he sees. He has set his wearable device to detect billboard advertisements, for instance, and to wipe them out of his visual field....
The technology can also turn wearers into news broadcasters via the Web, sending out live images of anything they witness. Mr. Mann and his students have attended protests in Toronto while wearing their computers, allowing them to disseminate firsthand images of the events before local television stations do....
If you talk to Mr. Mann face to face, however, you cannot be sure whether he is looking at you or reading the latest computer news from an Internet discussion list. The experience can be off-putting, at least to those who are not accustomed to spending time with cyborgs.
But Mr. Mann points out that humans have adapted to other wearable technologies that must have seemed strange at first -- eyeglasses, wristwatches, and such. 'We've adapted to shoes and clothing,' he says. 'It seems reasonable that we should be able to adapt into a higher form of life that is with these kinds of machines....'
[Thad Starner] doesn't usually have a camera in his system. Instead, he uses his wearable computer much as he would his desktop PC -- to write papers and check e-mail. His current research deals with how to turn the wearable computer into a kind of 'personal butler,' automatically displaying information in response to audio cues. For instance, if you talk about scheduling a meeting with someone for next week, the computer might pull up your calendar....
Mr. Starner's wearable computer comes in handy during speaking engagements on other campuses, he says. As he meets colleagues, he can call up their research interests from the Web using a computer display on his eyeglasses and a small keypad. "They're very flattered that I know so much about them, or seem to," he says. "It makes you seem a lot more socially graceful than you are. It's really cool.' " [The Chronicle, via Lockergnome Bytes]
I wanted to quote more from this article because it's a fascinating look at Steve Mann and research in the area of wearable computers overall, but instead I'll encourage you to go read the whole thing yourself.
Potential benefits: talk about making library services portable! This goes well beyond the Knowmobile, even if you're just out in the stacks.
Potential hazards: I'm already a klutz, so I know I'd be walking into things left and right. Even worse would be drivers using these systems!
Of course, this would be really great in meetings....
10:08:42 PM Permanent link here
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Tonight we realized that Brent calls movies you watch at home "DVDs." He said he wanted to see Big Fat Liar again. When it was pointed out to him that it wasn't in theaters anymore, he said it was probably out on DVD now. The overwhelming majority of movies we own are on VHS videotapes, but the official term to him is "DVD." He's six.
9:10:04 PM Permanent link here
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Tonight we went to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding. We enjoyed it, and it's certainly a great show to see with your honey. Sit back, relax, and laugh out loud. Lanie Kazan, Andrea Martin, and Michael Constantine were all great. Apparently Greek families and Jewish families have much in common.
9:01:04 PM Permanent link here
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Excellent - NewsIsFree has an RSS feed for Law.com! Don't tell him, but I'm going to buy my brother a copy of Radio as an early birthday present. Once he has installed it and we get remote access set up, I'll go in and subscribe him to some of the great lawyer blogs (Ernie, Ernest, Rick, Denise, Rory, Will, Staton, etc.). Maybe we'll also be able to use RssDistiller or Stapler to grab headlines from the Kansas City Star.
Even if he doesn't use it to blog (which I hope he will do at least internally at his firm), he'll still be one-step up as the most well-informed lawyer in the office! Plus, he'll hop aboard the RSS cluetrain and understand what I'm talking about in regards to his firm's web site.
8:41:18 PM Permanent link here
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"A single mind-bending snapshot from a new $75 million camera installed earlier this year aboard the Hubble Space Telescope shows 6,000 galaxies, a cosmic core sample of sorts that represents humanity's deepest glimpse into the depths of space and time....
Four images from the new camera were released today, all of them spectacular in their own fashion. The most startling, however, is an image of the so-called "Tadpole," two colliding galaxies 420 million light years away.
The hit-and-run collision between a smaller galaxy and a much larger star swarm left a long trail of stars and gas stretching 280,000 light years, giving the galactic wreck the shape of a tadpole swimming through space.
But it is the background of the image that provides a mind-numbing glimpse of discoveries to come, a background that includes 6,000 discernible galaxies or fragments of galaxies caught in various stages of evolution across the past 13 billion years.
Some of those galactic fragments presumably formed within a billion years or so of the birth of the universe. Astronomers do not yet know how galaxies managed to form so rapidly, but Ford is confident the new camera will help scientists gain critical insights." [Washington Post]
You may have a problem viewing them for the moment because the site is under a heavy load, but you can get to the pictures from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Do keep trying, though, because these pictures are amazing!
3:27:09 PM Permanent link here
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" 'Their thumbs have become bigger, more muscular,' said Sadie Plant, author of a new report of 'On the Mobile,' a study of cellphone habits of people in eight major world cities. Talking from Birmingham, England, she said that Japan's 'oya yubi sedai,' or 'thumb generation,' was the most advanced in the world.
'What impressed me in Tokyo was their ability to tap in a message without even looking at the keypad,' she said of her study, which was financed by Motorola.
Television stations in Japan have held thumbing speed contests. Last year, one young woman was clocked thumbing out 100 Chinese characters in a one-minute burst, similar to typing 100 words a minute, a feat normally done with all fingers flying....
Across town, in a white tablecloth restaurant where talking on cellphones is discouraged, Ayako Inaba's right thumbnail — peach pink with little silver stars — silently guided her through the electronic tree in her cellphone display.
'It has changed how I live,' said the 22-year-old fashion journalist who bought her Web-capable cellphone as soon as she moved back to Tokyo from New York last spring. 'We used to say, `We will meet at 7:30 in the Ginza in front of the lion of Mitsukoshi department store.' Now we just say, `Let's meet at 7 in the Ginza....' '
Thumbing through her in box, she read from the text index — a message in English from her boyfriend in Italy, a message in Chinese characters, or kanji, from an old boyfriend in Japan, and a message from a college girlfriend....
Kannon Konno, a 20-year-old college student, paused from perusing her e-mail to watch a middle-aged man pecking at his cellphone with an index finger. She commented drily: 'I think he should use a P.C.'
On a cellphone, speeding thumbs make road kill of grammar and punctuation. Some cellphone companies include 200 pictographs in an electronic vocabulary....
In Japanese, cellphones are eroding people's writing skills. In a poll of 3,000 Japanese adults conducted in January by Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, 27 percent said that the use of computers and cellphones had made their handwriting worse, and 52 percent said they had forgotten some characters. With more young adults reading cellphones in subways, sales of books and magazines in Japan dropped last year, for the fifth year in a row....
Thumbs, the doctor cautioned, should not be belittled. Scientific research indicates that "thumbs dominate a huge area of the brain. In Japan, if you lose a thumb, you are redesignated under our national labor legislation as heavily handicapped.' " [NY Times: Technology]
I've already referred to this study once, but I like the examples the NYT articles provides. It's only a matter of time before this phenomenon hits American NetGens. It's already started. I've noticed myself watching Kailee and Brent to see if I can pick up on them using their thumbs or fingers differently than I do.
1:20:10 PM Permanent link here
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"The online portal company is launching a new advice site on Monday night that will pair customers seeking advice with self-described experts. The site, which will be powered by online advice company LiveAdvice, will replace Yahoo's homegrown experts site....
Yahoo's move comes as Google, which is steadily moving beyond its search services, has branched into the advice market. Earlier this month Google launched a beta site called Google Answers. Google users pay to list a question on Google Answers, then pay a flat rate to a company-selected expert who provides an answer.
Yahoo launched Yahoo Experts, its own entry into the advice market, in fall 2000. Yahoo will close the site, which allowed customers to connect via text messages for free, at the end of next month....
LiveAdvice charges a 6 cent per-minute connection fee for phone calls made through its service within the United States and Canada and takes a 30 percent to 50 percent commission on fees charged by advice givers. Yahoo Advice will charge the same rates, LiveAdvice spokesman Michael Fox said....
Although Yahoo's advice site will include psychic, relationship and related listings, the site will not include any adult listings. LiveAdvice plans to drop all adult listings from its service within three days, said Beth Haggerty, the company's chief executive officer." [News.com]
I'm tempted to sign up and ask for advice on how to help a struggling portal find a revenue stream that makes sense. It makes you wonder how much longer Yahoo can keep Google around under the covers since they're both trying to build independent online communities.
Given yesterday's survey results about how the public views and uses print and online newspapers, I'm surprised that they're not the ones trying to integrate an advice service.
12:55:10 PM Permanent link here
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"Alexa has released Alexa Web Search and Alexa Toolbar version 6.5. By partnering with Google, Alexa has built a new kind of search engine, one that helps users collaborate and find the best sites, with less effort. This is how Alexa shows related links to this site." [Library News Daily]
Here's my entry in their database. I can't believe Library Stuff isn't even on the list! The funniest part, though, is that when I click on the link for History - Wayback on the left-hand side, I get an error message that says, "The shortURL address: englishlessons.vze.com does not exist. Either you made a typo, or the link you followed had a typo, or this user is no longer with us." Go figure.
7:24:17 AM Permanent link here
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"Directory will offer one-click access for Verizon Wireless customers.
The Newspaper Association of America, in conjunction with several of its newspaper members, has launched The Local News Gateway™, a wireless link to local news sources across the country.
'With the launch of this gateway, the newspaper industry has tackled the next frontier in information delivery. Now any newspaper that creates a wireless edition may now be accessed from a single site,' said NAA President and Chief Executive Officer John F. Sturm. 'As they proved with the success of their online offerings, newspapers are demonstrating their ability to get relevant, timely and local news to readers. No matter the means of delivery, newspapers provide the content people seek....'
The Local News Gateway uses browser-sensing technology and delivers the newspaper editions viewable on the user’s particular device. Devices currently supported include browser phones using either HDML or WAP, any connected personal digital assistant using the Palm operating system, and Pocket PCs. The gateway is driven by an extensive database of digital newspaper links maintained by NAA.
Phone users may access the Local News Gateway by typing www.lngate.com into their phone browsers. A free, downloadable Palm Query Application, as well as instructions on how to use this 'Newspapers Anywhere' application are available at www.naa.org/edge/wireless.html." [NAA Press Release, via Virtual Acquisition Shelf & News Desk]
12:13:47 AM Permanent link here
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© Copyright 2004 Jenny Levine.
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