Plazes Updated

Wearing the badge “still beta,” Plazes, the free, network-based geolocation service, now sports a new coat of paint. Among the improvements is the Flash-based badge (above) and a much improved frontpage/dashboard that combines the map of known locations with the map of active users, formerly two separate screens.
On the downside, I sort of miss the [...]

The Flickr Is A Series Of Tubes

It’s hard to be angry with Flickr about unexpected downtime when they post funny things like this.
For my part, this is more than just an excuse to link to DJ Ted Stevens’ Internet Song (yeah, “the internet is a series of tubes”), it’s an excuse to point out how Flickr apparently knows how to speak [...]

OpenSearch In A Nutshell

OpenSearch is a standard way of querying a database for content and returning the results.
The official docs note simply: “Any website that has a search feature can make their results available in OpenSearch format,” then adds: “Publishing your search results in OpenSearch™ format will draw more people to your content, by exposing it to a [...]

Arctic Monkeys

While listening to my favorite radio station 92.1 FNX, I discovered my new favorite band. The Arctic Monkeys is a new band that comes from the UK, and their popularity is rocketing. Their new album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, has sold more than 360,000 copies which makes it the [...]

NELINET 2006 IT Conference Proposal

I recently submitted my proposal for the 2006 NELINET Information Technology Conference.
It’s about WPopac, of course, but the excitement now is that the presentation would be the story of the first library outside PSU to implement it.
WPopac is an open source replacement for a library’s online catalog that improves the usability, findability, and remixability of [...]

Less Than A Year Left Before Paris’ Retirement

Yup, Tom reminded me recently that there’s less than a year left on the Official Paris Hilton Retirement Countdown. In case you’ve forgotten, the hamburger-eating heiress announced her retirement in a June 20 issue of Newsweek (jump to page two for the relevant bits).
Don’t get tripped up on the postdated retirement announcement, Bill Gates announced [...]

Technology Scouts At AALL

I’m honored to join Katie Bauer, of Yale University Library, in a program coordinated by Mary Jane Kelsey, of Yale Law’s Lillian Goldman Library.
The full title of our program is Technology Scouts: how to keep your library and ILS current in the IT world (H-4, 4PM Tuesday, room 274). My portion of the presentation [...]

The Social Software Over There

Amusing. One one side of the world is Jenny Levine, the original library RSS bigot, pushing libraries to adopt new technologies from the bottom up, and here on the other side of the world is NewsGator offering their products for top-down adoption.
Why are law libraries interested in NewsGator? Could it be that social software increases [...]

Inclusion or Exclusion By Language

…The time for pedantic purism is past; if we wish to communicate with the larger audience, we must use language they understand. We do not have the luxury of defining our words, their definitions are thrust upon us by usage.
I was struck by how much that sounds like something I might have said about libraries [...]

Education America

Today I discovered (thank you Ryan) Kareem Elnahal’s speech as valedictorian of Mainland Regional High School and I discovered new hope, new faith in our country’s future. When high school students can step up and speak truth to power, as Elnahal did so well, I become a believer in the strength of human spirit. “We [...]

Rocket Cars Make Better Fireworks

I pointed out this Jet Turbine Powered Toyota MR2 a year ago, but now I’ve discovered Ron Patrick’s Jet Powered VW Beatle. The story is well told in a San Francisco Gate article from April (with bonus video), which describes the builder:
Patrick is a 48-year-old Stanford-trained (Ph.D.) engineer who owns ECM (Engine Control and Monitoring), [...]

Antstepology

French vexillographers circulate the national library, protesting flag desecration, too many windows, and cardboard sunscreens. Fireworks on the Fourth of July promise.Celebrate Independence Day With A Drink.
tags: banana, bananas, blueberries, blueberry, flag, fourth of july, fruit, independence day, july 4, july 4th, patriotic, patriotism, raspberries, raspberry, red white and blue, stars

Celebrate Independence Day With Breakfast

Let the vexillographers cringe, flag desecration never tasted so good.
Sure, it’s barbecue season, but that’s no reason not to enjoy breakfast. And what better way to break fast on the Fourth of July than to dress waffles as sugary, fruity flags? Do that with your hamburgers. Do that with your potato salad. Do that with [...]

Today’s terms tags: , concert, music, political cr…

Today’s termstags: , concert, music, political criticism, politics, show, the sun, they might be giants, tmbgecho through pine wallsstretch sun along desire’s coast

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants, playing at Mohegan Sun, drew roars of approval from the crowd when John Flansburgh went off-lyric sheet during The Sun (which they amusingly described as part of their Venue Songs series):
…The heat and light of the sun are caused by nuclear reactions between a failed foreign policy, a failed domestic policy, [...]