
Complaints over the cost of academic journals have long been a trope that repeats at library conferences with no denouement, but there are new signs that might be changing.

There’s a Microsoft Store right across from the Apple Store in the Valley Fair Mall. Cliff and I realized this after exiting the Apple Store there with a new keyboard and headphones. We’d never been in an MS Store before, so we ambled over with our clean white Apple-branded accessories in hand. The Windows Phone [...]

Legend has it that Marta Becket rolled in to Death Valley Junction in 1967 and has been performing at the Amargosa Opera House since, but tonight is her last performance. I visited in 2004 and took in the show then. It’s a certain kind of show and performer that can run 45 years non-stop (it was [...]

The most recently released, stable version of Scriblio is marked 2.9-r1 and was last updated in June 2010. You can be forgiven for thinking development had ceased in the interim. Today, however, I’m proud to introduce a completely new Scriblio, re-written from the ground up to take advantage of the latest features of WordPress and eliminate the mistakes [...]
(Updated, see below) WordPress 3.1 introduced some awesome new taxonomy query features, and the URL parsing allows some rudimentary syntax to query multiple terms and choose if the query is OR’d or AND’d. The URL syntax is as follows: A comma (,) between terms will return posts containing either term (logical OR), like this http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/tag/wordpress,mysql/ . A [...]
Cliff introduced me to the wonder of the Songify app. Here are some tips to making the best of it: Longer text makes for better songs. Repetition makes for better songs, don’t be ashamed of repeating yourself. Speak in a monotone voice, let the app handle the tune. Speak nonsense. No sense in trying to make [...]

First Wikileaks published the collateral murder video, then a massive-but-redacted dump of diplomatic cables, then people figured out how to get the unredacted content. Though this information was already public, the ACLU pursued a FOIA request on these very cables, the result was a heavily redacted record of the cables, and a clear picture of [...]

parallel-flickr: a tool for backing up your Flickr photos and generating a database backed website that honours the viewing permissions you’ve chosen on Flickr. More details from the website: It downloads and stores your original photos and their “640x” versions. Currently photos are stored locally but there’s a plan to add support for S3. For [...]

The LA Times on December 10 reported that Predator drones such as those now being used by the Air Force and CIA were used to support police in their investigation of cattle rustling. Theft of livestock has long been a serious matter, but regulations and procedures typically make it difficult to sell stolen cattle. According [...]

WNYC’s On The Media did a nice piece on it back in September (MP3 download): judging from the arrests and harassment, photographers are part of a terrorist plot. Or something. The CopBlock (tagline: “badges don’t grant extra rights”) map of actions taken against photographers is littered with activity.
Thank you – got it working with that simple tweak.
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