Bone Lace

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 03:19:40 GMT

Only $9.99 a month. Over 40,000 Titles. No Late Fees. Try it for Free!.

Netflix.com - Only $9.99 a month. Over 40,000 Titles. No Late Fees. Try it for Free!

Netflix is offering unlimited one at a time rentals for $9.99/month. You can choose 3 out at a time for $17.99/month as well.
[More Stuff 4 Less Bargain Blog]

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 03:14:04 GMT

Something wiki this way comes: wikis in the "real" world.

While we’re on the subject of wiki, this caught my eye today: Russell Buckley’s Manifesto for Taking Wikipedia into the Physical World talks about applying the principles of wiki to meatspace via location-based technologies. Perhaps you’re travelling and want to know more about the landmark you’re visiting, or you’re in your own town and suddenly get curious about the old mansion looming next to the co-op. In Buckley’s model, you could snap a cameraphone shot of either locale and instantly get back a host of information sent to your phone, with text, audio and/or video content that’s been prepared by others. There are many ideas floating around about this sort of locative informatics, but what makes Buckley’s idea interesting is that it takes the wiki model as being central to how the information is generated: anybody can create content, contribute information, tag and annotate the space for others to later stumble upon; this would generate an open content, bottom-up information grid mapped to the physical world. Much of the technology needed to implement such an idea already exists and, moreover, wouldn’t be very expensive. It seem inevitable this this sort of location-based infomapping will be happening in the near near future, and when it does, I’ll happily cast my vote in favor of user-editability.

[Via pasta and vinegar]
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Userplane Apps: Live communication applications powering the world's leading online communities.

[The Social Software Weblog]

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 03:13:24 GMT

Legal Guide for Bloggers.

Focused on American bloggers, but provides important considerations for all bloggers: Legal Guide: "Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don't want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that's under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office."
[elearnspace]

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 03:12:32 GMT

Who Knows Whom, And Who Knows What?.

Social network analysis (learning network analysis?) is really the key to the interaction aspect of formal and informal learning - Who Knows Whom, And Who Knows What?: "Companies that have been frustrated by traditional knowledge management efforts, such as Mars, are increasingly looking for ways to find out how knowledge flows through their organizations. Looking at the company org chart, it turns out, often doesn't tell the real story about who holds influence, who gives the best advice and how employees are sharing information critical for success. This all takes on greater urgency as millions of baby boomers prepare to retire over the coming decade. Social network analysis provides a clear picture of the ways that far-flung employees and divisions are working together, and can help companies identify key experts in the organization."
[elearnspace]

Sun, 08 May 2005 15:07:04 GMT

OPACs and XML.

When I wish for things like native RSS feeds from our Innovative catalog, I’m sometimes told that III has an XML backend so I should just be able to build what I want on my own. Of course, my first response (of many) is that I’m not a programmer so I can’t just build what I want, but Casey Bisson at Plymouth State University is, and he’s trying to build weird and wonderful things with his own Innovative catalog.

For example, check out his proof-of-concept of LOLA Suggest! Just type something in the search box and wait a second to see what appears underneath. Too freaking awesome! I did a mock-up of what this could look like for my information shifting presentation, but Casey’s given me a live example to show instead. Thanks, Casey!

He’s got lots of other great ideas for using Innovative’s XML server, too (including for lots of RSS goodness), but he’s running into problems because he says their XML schema is non-standard, is even more difficult to work with than MARC, and is prone to parsing errors. So here we have an ILS vendor that claims to have an XML backend you can do whatever you want with, except that it’s incredibly difficult to do whatever you want with it, especially if you want to do something nutty like integrate your catalog’s content into your university’s way cool portal using RSS. As Casey noted in an IM:

“Our portal has a ‘my courses’ tab which lists the student’s course schedule, and has links to WebCT, our course management system. I'm working to get a link to the library right there with it. RSS and XML allow us to target library content to what we know of the patron and deliver it wherever they are. As an academic library, we have an opportunity to link with a number of other services. But we also have to compete in the information economy. Most course content systems and portals have only limited ‘hooks’ to include library content, but if we're not quick, libraries will be out of the loop, as faculty post all their reserves online in the course system and link directly to full text sources.”

And all of that work gets harder when you’re trying to do something relatively simple like LOLA Suggest but the XML is so complex that you’re forced to cache the bib records instead of sending the query directly to the catalog’s XML server and presenting live results.

Not being a programmer myself, I’m sure I’m misrepresenting some of this, so I hope Casey will write up his own thoughts about all of this on his blog and correct my inaccuracies. Or even more optimistically, maybe Innovative will fix the problems with their XML server (even if that just means adopting MARC XML) so that Casey can do what they claim he should be able to do, because I want me some of his ideas in my catalog.
[The Shifted Librarian]

Sun, 08 May 2005 15:06:21 GMT

Got Game on the Brain.

I’m late to the whole gaming and how it affects libraries thing, but I’m a total convert now and it’s something I’m going to actively track from now on. At first I thought it was just interesting, and while I did like the idea of bringing tweens and teens into the library using gaming as a social carrot, I’m gaining a totally different perspective for the way we can use the characteristics, expectations, and interplay of gaming and gamers in a “tipping point” kind of way.

The latest catalyst for this round of “gaming on my brain” is Moira Gunn’s interview with John Beck for IT Conversations. I’ve listened to the podcast of it twice in the last three days, and a couple of his points really resonate with me. In case you’re not familiar with him, Beck wrote Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever, and this podcast is the first chance I’ve really had to hear him talk about all of this since Audible doesn’t carry the audiobook and I’ve never seen Beck speak in person. While listening to it, all I could think of was Brent and how much Beck totally nails him and his friends. I even made Sheree listen to the interview and she agrees with me, although we both disagree with Beck about gender differences because most of the girls we know don’t play video games much at all.

At one point in the interview, Gunn asks Beck how gamers will change the workplace, and Beck provides an example observation that in video games, there are “level bosses” that you have to beat in order to advance further in the game. So one of the things you don’t want to be in real life if you’re a gamer or the supervisor of a gamer is a “boss.” I hadn’t thought about that before, although I always hear Brent talking about bosses in a negative way. In fact, when he started playing video games years ago and he first told me he was having trouble beating the “boss,” I thought that was the name of the character he was fighting. It took me awhile to realize it was his generic term for “the big bad guy at the end of the level.” Then came the realization that it wasn’t just him using the term, it was all of his friends. Imagine his surprise when he first heard me talking about my boss in a positive way!

Beck goes on to say that in the workplace, you don’t want to be a “boss,” but rather a “strategy guide,” because that’s what gamers rely on, especially to beat the boss. And as I was listening to this, it struck me that this is an excellent description of librarians! I’ve always liked that comic drawing of a librarian sitting behind a reference desk with a sign on it that says “search engine,” but now I’ve decided that I’d rather be a “strategy guide” instead. In fact, if I could, I’d change my job title to “strategy guide.” That’s exactly how we need to market ourselves to gamers, boomers, bosses, everyone. The big question, of course, is how to do that and more and more, I think gaming offers clues for how to do that.

If you don’t really understand why this gaming stuff is important, why it will be important in the future (the not-so-distant-future), why it will affect everyone (including you) or why gamers truly are different than you or me, then this interview is a great place to start. I highly recommend you listen to it. And don’t let anybody tell you that these kids aren’t any different than we were at their age, because they’re not like us at all. I was struck by how Beck’s descriptions of gamers mirror so closely the way I talk about NetGens (aka Millennials) in my own presentations. I’m going to have to rework my stuff a bit to highlight the gamer aspect of this generation.

Oh, and if you listen to the Beck interview and get as excited and intrigued about all of this as I did, be sure to register for our upcoming Tech Summit on Gaming @ Your Library! Thanks to our Executive Director, Alice Calabrese, I get to attend the ADL Games, Learning, & Society Conference in June, after which I’m debating trying to put together a day-long symposium/discussion/whatever specifically about gaming and libraries.
[The Shifted Librarian]

Sun, 08 May 2005 14:58:09 GMT

Mapping your Mindmaps - learning from the masters. It's really encouraging to see the folks at MindManager joining the ranks of bloggers. Although I would have labeled myself a power user of MindManager, I'm learning new things with every post. This happens to be specific to how to make better use of MindManager, but others relate to broader issues of how to use your technology as a partner in doing your knowledge work.

Mapping Your Maps. I don't know. Maybe most of you MindManager power users (or even not so power users) out ther have been doing this for years. I just figured it out...I don't like the file folder metaphor. And yet, that is how, form day one, I have been saving all my maps. When I try to conjure up [...] [The Mindjet Blog]
[McGee's Musings]

Sun, 08 May 2005 14:16:04 GMT

Found a great add in for Firefox (yes, it's my preferred browser, even though Radio doesn't work with it). It's called "Stumble", and it's a random site generator. The good thing is you pick the categories for the random sites, and they are all ones that someone else interested in the same category has recommended. You can also "vote" on both the random site or any other site that you like or dislike (your own picks and anti-picks are added to their database.)

Very cool.

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 01:13:54 GMT

Brain study points to 'sixth sense'.

Following the Asian tsunami, scientists struggled to explain reports that primitive aboriginal tribesmen had somehow sensed the impending danger in time to join wild animals in a life-saving flight to higher ground. A new theory suggests that the anterior cingulate cortex, described by some scientists as part of the brain's "oops" center, may actually function as an early warning system -- one that works at a subconscious level to help us recognize and avoid high-risk situations.
[Science Blog - News from Science, Medicine, Space, Physics and More]

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 01:02:04 GMT

It's gotten to the point where I want to teach. I really do. But I don't want to have to make a living at it. So I work at a corporate job (a good one, that I like, and in a good workgroup), but I want to teach again when the lack of money doesn't mean anything, anything at all. Perhaps when I retire.

Please, God, let me live long enough to do that.

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:59:15 GMT

Games and eLearning

Games and Learning: "Three University of Wisconsin-Madison professors, among the top researchers in learning through game-playing, explained the advantages of games over traditional teaching tools..."
Two things are currently hampering games in learning - lack of tools, lack of experience for learning designers. Games have much potential, but the startup is high in time and expertise requirements.
[elearnspace ]d Learning.

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:53:33 GMT

Sci-Fi Eye for the Geek Guy. Quick, think of your favorite sci-fi television or movie franchise or writer (i.e. Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr Who, Dune, HHG2TG, Asimov, Babylon 5, Blade Runner, Lexx, BattleStar Galactica, Flash Gordon, Arthur C. Clarke, William Gibson, Philip Jose Farmer, or Planet of the Apes, Buckaroo Banzai, The Matrix.) Don't think about it too much. I just want you to remember the first one that popped into your mind. Ok, got it? Great. Read on to see if I peg your personality type at all. (Participants receive a handy home version of the game.) [kuro5hin.org]

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:53:03 GMT

Food and Drink Notes.

A friend gave me a bottle of the 2002 Morambro Creek Padthaway Shiraz on Boxing Day. I opened it for Valentine's: lovely, fruity, and chocolately. Around $14/bottle. Get more of this.
Rio Adobe on DeAnza at Prospect. Better than the 'upscale' carry-out places like Chipolte and Baja Fresh. Yesterday they had green chile pork stew.
Coffee Society opened a store in the new Cupertino library on Torre. They have free WiFi. The new location's smaller than the main branch, and overrun by kids and parents instead of DeAnza College students.
[More Like This WebLog]

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 10:05:02 GMT

Contracting, clarity, and requirements. I've certainly been guilty of this kind of approach at multiple points throughout my career. The best techniques I've encountered for dealing with these challenges are the "contracting" conversations that Peter Block advocates so strongly in his excellent Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used. Regardless of which side of the table you are on, you had better become more adept at Block's contracting or you will be building or paying for entirely too many custom-made drywall saws.

Clarity, Junior Engineers, Requirements, and Frustration.

There's an amazing essay at The Spurious Pundit on "Picture Hanging." It's an allegory that explores how simple requirements in software aren't that obvious to folks who may not have context. The writing is wonderful, do check it out, it's worth your time. Subscribed.

A highlight:

You tell him to hang the photo of your pet dog, and he comes back a week later, asking if you could "just double-check" his design for a drywall saw.

"Why are you designing a drywall saw?"
"Well, the wood saw in the office toolbox isn't good for cutting drywall."
"What, you think you're the first person on earth to try and cut drywall? You can buy a saw for that at Home Depot."
"Okay, cool, I'll go get one."
"Wait, why are you cutting drywall in the first place?"
"Well, I wasn't sure what the best practices for hanging pictures were, so I went online and found a newsgroup for gallery designers. And they said that the right way to do it was to cut through the wall, and build the frame into it. That way, you put the picture in from the back, and you can make the glass much more secure since you don't have to move it. It's a much more elegant solution than that whole nail thing."
"..."

This metaphor may be starting to sound particularly fuzzy, but trust me - there are very real parallels to draw here. If you haven't seen them yet in your professional life, you will. [Spurious Pundit]

[ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman's Weblog]
[McGee's Musings]

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 09:48:22 GMT

I Corrupted My Grandparents. I have the coolest grandparents in the world. Last time I visited I told them that whenever they read a fortune cookie fortune they need to add "in bed" after the fortune. (Try it - It's Hilarious) Time goes on and I receive this email from my grandmother:

We were sitting at breakfast last Sunday after church with 2 other couples and Pop picked up a 4 page flier, it had horoscopes in it and he started to read them and I hate them and he knows it but is trying to be funny. In the meantime, I tell them about this goofy grandson we have in CA that we took to the Chinese buffet and he made us say -in bed- after reading our fortunes and since then I have been trying to ignore it but they still crop up when I read the fortune.....sooooo Pop decided to say - in bed - after the horoscopes and for that particular paper they were hysterical. Every one read the darn things with the addition and we were in hysterics, had to apologize to the people around us. Told them that we were usually that boisterous...........your fault.

Life is short - I'm lucky to get emails like this from my grandmother and grandfather. Love em both. [What Do YOU Think? Comment on this Post!] [Testify!] [Father Dan]

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 02:32:05 GMT

Celebrating the Body Beautiful. The human body is intriguing in all its forms. A photo exhibit features subjects both nude and clothed, giving us a complex picture of who we are as a species and as sexual beings. Commentary by Regina Lynn. [Wired News]

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 02:31:25 GMT

Now I'm really worried...and I thought public education was bad before (even though I insist on sending my children there to meet others unlike themselves.)

Does the First Amendment go 'too far'?. The First Amendment grants too many freedoms, according to more than a third of US high school children. This is the disturbing conclusion of a new report by the Knight Foundation. [kuro5hin.org]

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 02:29:45 GMT

Puijilittatuq, or just too many seals for one blogger to blog. The Inukitut have a word for it: "puijilittatuq." Translation: "He does not know which way to turn because of the many seals he has seen come to the ice surface."

That's a good description (from this month's issue of Ansible, the scifi newsletter from David Langford) of the blog-blockage typically caused by a fresh copy of Ansible.
Thank goodness, at least, that I'm not in Paris! Bloggers there will face the nightly temptation of being able to play mobile-phone-Tetris, using the lights on the Bibliotheque Nationale. (Thanks, Engadget!)
And check out Anil Dash's piece on "Information Bankruptcy." My favorite bit:
I learned that half of all bankruptcies in the United States are caused by medical bills, courtesy of Rebecca's link. I wish I had learned this from John Kerry about six months ago. This is the core of the health care debate in this country, not edge-case stem cell research. Modern political organizations have fantastic research resources available to them, but they squander these resources on finding weaknesses in their opponents...
... And I linked to Jay McCarthy's beautiful "Letter to Beatrice" from my del.icio.us linkblog, but never got around to pointing to it from here. Tiny sample:
In these paragraphs I will take Aristotle's classification, if for no other reason then to impress those who are so impressed, on friends: those of interest, of love, and of contemplation. This division is not always perfect, and thus many components could easily be rearranged, but how many books are in the Bible is much less important than their complete message--so I press onward...
... Now, you've got plenty to read, and I'm headed back to Thog's Masterclass... [Betsy Devine: Funny Ha-Ha or Funny Peculiar?]

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 02:28:50 GMT

I like this lady already...

Is Mary Hodder brilliant or what? She and her friends go for a hike in the Los Altos Hills while TiVO records the SuperBowl. When they return, skip over the football and watch the commercials. Read that twice. [Scripting News]

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 02:28:00 GMT

Solar Cell Implant May Restore Some Sight for the Blind.

Ophthalmologists at Rush University Medical Center implanted Artificial Silicon Retina (ASR) microchips in the eyes of five patients to treat vision loss caused by retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The implant is a silicon microchip 2mm in diameter and one-thousandth of an inch thick, less than the thickness of a human hair. Four patients had surgery Tuesday, January 25. The fifth patient is scheduled for a later date.
[Science Blog - Science Blog -- Research News in Science, Health, Medicine, Space, Physics and More]

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 02:26:47 GMT

Well put, and high time someone figured this out...

Economics of Sharing.

Economics of Sharing: "Economists have not always found it easy to explain why self-interested people would freely share scarce, privately owned resources. Their understanding, though, is much clearer than it was 20 or 30 years ago: co-operation, especially when repeated, can breed reciprocity and trust, to the benefit of all. In the context of open source, much has been written about why people would share technical talent, giving away something that they also sell by holding a job in the information-technology industry. The reason often seems to be that writing open-source software increases the authors' prestige among their peers or gains them experience that might help them in the job market, not to mention that they also find it fun."
Comment: The two biggest complaints directed at the open source movement are 1) it's anti-capitalism 2) it's not democratic. While I can see fanatical implementation of open source as fitting those categories, I think both assertions are generally false. Open source is a manner of openness and sharing. People are generating profits from open source software - the difference is that the value of the product has shifted. It's not about locking it...but positioning it for maximum creativity. Secondly, it terms of democracy, the very notion of open source is that everyone has a say, but, as with Linux, someone still has the final voice. While some may object, I think open source can be defined as a capitalistic, democratic process. Its key definition, however, is that it distributes power to many nodes, rather than limiting it to a central node.
[elearnspace]

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 02:25:23 GMT

What Exactly Is Under the Sea?. Even with today's advanced mapping technologies, old and sometimes secret data can lead to deadly surprises on the ocean floor. By Rowan Hooper. [Wired News]

Wed, 02 Feb 2005 02:07:50 GMT

Irradiated For Longevity. ScienceDaily reports on experiments suggesting that low levels of radiation exposure increase longevity - in small mammals at least. This isn't of immediate practical value, but it adds to the body of knowledge surrounding hormesis, or the "phenomenon in which low doses of an otherwise harmful agent can result in stimulatory or beneficial effects." This study does suggest an underlying biochemical mechanism: "a moderate increase in glucocorticoid levels, associated with low-level radiation, could be an important factor underlying the increase in longevity that has been observed in other shorter studies on small mammals exposed to low-level radiation."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050128222047.htm
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/ [Longevity Meme News and Commentary]

Wed, 02 Feb 2005 01:53:39 GMT

Ooh, toys...

New baby at our house is a trebuchet, says crazed marsupial.

We're oohing and ahhing over a new arrival these days--a trebuchet built by eccentric genius Kaden.
This was a suprise--and rather late--Christmas gift I ordered for Frank, after reading about Kaden's toys in BoingBoing. I loved it that this particular hanging counterweight trebuchet was "based on the familiar Monty-Python "dead-cow-over-the-castle-wall" catapult."
Kaden invites special requests--for Frank, of course, I wanted "lots of physics." Kaden dug right into it:
This whole physics angle is challenging...I dug up a chunk of brass heat exchanger tubing at Capital Salvage that I'm using half of the outer shell of for the launch trough...representin' thermodynamics in da hood, I guess.
I'm gonna put a hidden compartment in the inside of the weight box. Who doesn't like secret compartments, and the measurable discrepancy between apparent volume and actual mass will serve as a piquant and ironic nod to the ongoing uncertainty regarding Dark Matter.
Or not.
Levers we got covered.
More later...
K
The trebuchet arrived in a large wooden box stamped "ECCENTRIC GENIUS"--I'm sure we'll find a use for the box somewhere too. So far we've used it to shoot blueberries (which the dog likes to fetch but also likes to eat), small potatoes, and more-or-less round chunks of portobello mushroom, which are too light to go far.
It's a gorgeous object, and sits in front of the fireplace when nobody is using it to launch pieces of food. I asked Kaden if I could share some of his email, and he replied:
I'm glad the piece was well received, and that your fireplace is now properly defended. Here's some pictures I took of it prior to shipping...do what you want with 'em, and blog like a crazed marsupial...as long as you spell my name right.
It's Kaden. Thank you, Kaden! We love our new toy.
[Betsy Devine: Funny Ha-Ha or Funny Peculiar?]

Wed, 02 Feb 2005 01:51:39 GMT

Under One Roof, Aging Together Yet Alone. In the past decade, the number of elderly Americans in assisted living has tripled, to nearly one million. By By JANE GROSS. [NYT > Health]