MaisonBisson

Eating My Way Through San Francisco

San Francisco is a great city for a conference. It’s also a pretty good place to get lunch. The following is poorly written and incomplete. Well, at least it’s something. Sunday I was a little surprised to find Johnny Rockets on Jefferson St. serving breakfast, but they did a fine sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich […] » about 800 words

146 Wasted Minutes

I can now say with the authority of experience that Star Wars Episode III sucked.

Update: Zach’s right, my opinion of the original trilogy has fallen over time. But I stand by the statement that Episode III is worse than it should be.

The real reason for the update, however, is to note a couple pictures of things seen and done while waiting in line: Matt, with an oversized jug of generic cola and this oversized scorpion bowl.

And, related to the Star Wars universe is Grocery Store Wars, by the Organic Trade Association. I don’t think this would be funny if it wasn’t serious.

UN Food Survey

The proceeding was forwarded to me by my dad, who included a note suggesting that jokes may embody the only real truths we can know.

A worldwide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was:

Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?

Though translated into appropriate local languages and delivered using local personnel, the survey was a huge failure. The UN auditors evaluating the study named the following as the leading causes:

In Africa they didn”t know what “food” meant
In India they didn”t know what “honest” meant
In Europe they didn”t know what “shortage” meant
In China they didn”t know what “opinion” meant
In the Middle East they didn”t know what “solution” meant
In South America they didn”t know what “please” meant
And in the USA they didn”t know what “the rest of the world” meant

Cool Stuff Made Easy (RSS, OpenGL 3D Graphics, Screensaver App)

I have an appropriate fondness for Engadget‘s How-To features, like today’s “Make a customized RSS screensaver in Tiger.” MacOS X 10.4 Tiger comes with a pretty decent RSS screensaver (don’t miss the movie), which can be set to display feeds from any source that Safari can read and bookmark. And if that’s all you want […] » about 200 words

Geolocating Everything

I’ve been excited about geolocating photos, blog posts, etc for a while. So this past month or so has been quite exciting. Most recently, GPS Photo Linker has been updated with Mac OS X 10.4 specific features: With Spotlight in Mac OS X 10.4, you can instantly search for the city, state and country information […] » about 300 words

About That Bookless UT Austin Library

There’s a lot of talk about the New York Times story about UT Austin’s undergrad library throwing out its books. Problem is, I don’t think it’s as exciting as people are making it out to be. First, the undergraduate library is one of 14 libraries on campus and the real issue was space, not books. […] » about 700 words

Flickr API

The Flickr API rocks. It helps that the developers are really excited about web services (PDFs converted from their original PPTs).

Anyway, there are code libraries available for PHP4, JavaScript and others. Michael Madrid’s Oberkampf is a dead simple PHP library that looks easy enough for non-coders to use. And I found myself quite satisfied with the REST request format and the XML to array parser by Eric Rosebrock.

I used the API to help me tag a bunch of photos with geolocation information. More on all that later.

Do I Want A LifeDrive?

After months of no news or no good news, and just as I’m about to knock Palm news site 1src off my feeder, palmOne starts leaking details of their LifeDrive “mediacentric handheld.” Then somebody leaked the whole datasheet, and 1src was there with the deets. Engadget was on the story the next day, and summarized […] » about 500 words

Markoff, I Wish I Could Trust Thee

Trouble: John Markoff has been doing tech stories for the New York Times since the beginning of days, so it’s likely he’s written something you’ve read and enjoyed. But he’s also written a number of wrong or counterfactual stories that he makes little or no apology for. At the core of the claims against him […] » about 400 words

Google’s War On Hierarchy, Alert The Librarians

Via Ernie Miller I saw a link to John Hiller‘s story about Google’s War on Hierarchy, and the Death of Hierarchical Folders. Googlization is a concept libraries have been strugling with for a while. And while it’s hard to say wether the change is good or bad, I can say that failure to change makes […] » about 500 words

Sunrise on Mount Monadnock

I’ve loaded some more of my old photography, inlcuding this shot of sunrise on Mount Monadnock (info) from the spring of 1992 or 1993. Josh stands on the outcrop in the foreground. I held the exposure open longer than appropriate for true brightness and color, but I like the effect. Other photos: Another sunrise on […] » about 100 words

Library Portal Integration

I’ve been back at work less than a week now, and I’m already behind. I’ve finally posted the handout and slides (as a QuickTime movie, PDF here) from our IUG presentation. I’ll submit them to IUG for their archive and add them to the Plymouth State University library portal integration page in an update soon. […] » about 200 words

Kwajalein Atoll

Kwajalein Atoll is a part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, lost in the Pacific Ocean (MapTech makes it easier to find) along with more recognizable locations like Bikini and Enewetak atolls. The military presence is far from gone, however, as Kwajalein is home to Reagan Test Site, where the US Army tests the […] » about 300 words

Hilary Rosen: Sock Puppet

We’re all talking about Hilary Rosen‘s apparent about face, apparently pro-customer, anti-DRM essay now (props to David Rothman for taking the high road on this). In an update to his Monday post, however, Ernie Miller notes that the RIAA and Hilary Rosen’s history is that of blanket opposition to MP3 players (and fair use) in […] » about 300 words

Delicious, Refreshing, Old Liquor Bottles

So grenadine isn’t officially a liquor, but it gets kept behind the bar and this one has a great label. The collection comes from the estate of a friend’s mother, who appears to have had a taste for old martini culture (not pictured are several bottles of vermouth). There’s more in my Flickr photoblog. » about 100 words

Pointless, Crude, Badly Drawn, Unintelligent, Offensive

It’s a book review. It goes like this: Pointless, crude, badly drawn, unintelligent, offensive. Life-threateningly funny. Buy this. Another Amazon UK customer wrote: Funnier than the real people with Tourettes The book is Modern Toss, by Jon Link and Mick Bunnage. Cartoons and more info are online. » about 100 words

When We Can’t All Just Get Along (The Failure of Logical Centrism)

I love the following quote from Copyfight:

Frank Field, responding to James Boyle’s much–discussed FT column, Deconstructing Stupidity: “Flat-earthers are harmless — until they start forcing you to write the specifications for your GPS system in accordance with their views. Then, you’re screwed.”

And Boyle’s column is pretty good too.

Former RIAA Head Hates DRM?

Today is sort of an anti-DRM day here, so it was some pleasure that I just saw Ernie Miller’s post at Copyfight regarding Hilary Rosen, the former head of the RIAA. She’s complaining about the DRM Apple uses with its music store and iPod. She says: I spent 17 years in the music business the […] » about 300 words

Give Orphaned Works A Home

David Rothman at TeleRead is alerting us to something we should have done a long time ago, but, hey look, a caterpillar…. Really, the US Copyright Office and Library of Congress are accepting comments to comments on the issue of “orphan works.” But, the deadline is today at 5PM EST today! James Boyle, addressed some […] » about 1000 words

Broadcast Flag Smackdown

The only thing that could have made Friday’s news sweeter would be to have received the DC Circuit Court of Appeals’ deciscion against the broadcast flag from the US Supreme Court instead. Still, it’s enough to get most of the IP-aware blogsphere excited. To wit: here, here, here, and everywhere else. Copyfight‘s synopsis was the […] » about 800 words

T-Mobile Does Coverage Maps, Verizon Wireless Baffled

I’d like to make more of this, but it’s old news. We’re all sick of the “can you hear me now” ads, but that doesn’t stop Verizon from talking up their network testing efforts. But when it comes to network performance, the CEO starts complaining about customers who expect their phones to work at home. What? Yes. Engadget reports:

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle he asks, “Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house? The customer has come to expect so much.”

Or, as Glenn Fleishman summarizes:

Verizon’s CEO recently stated that people shouldn’t have the expectation that cellular service works everywhere, like in their homes, or have access to detailed information about coverage.

So, it’s refreshing that T-Mobile has decided otherwise and is offering detailed coverage maps for their wireless service. I think I like seeing T-Mobile smack Verizon just because Verizon has been busy pushing legislation to block community WiFi efforts.

Time To Change… Time To Rearrange… Time To Restore From Backup…

I’ve given up on my poorly timed and completely unplanned try at switching to WordPress. I started out thinking I’d experiment with it, then things got out of hand. Factors contributing to my interest in WordPress: ecto via allforces.com A little compare and contrast with pMachine livesearch Better RSS/Atom output Flickr Gallery A mostly functional […] » about 400 words

What Are You Doing To Shape The Future Of Libraries?

Jenny Levine recently posted a note about OPACs and XML and Maps wherein she makes two points: first, Mike Copley at North Shore Libraries in New Zealand has been doing some exciting stuff to help patrons find books (go ahead, go there and click a “view map” link), then expands her post to address the […] » about 400 words

XML Server Applications

Well, it’s done. The handout and slides as presented are posted here, and I’ll add them to our portal integration page (yeah, they’re sort of connected) when I return to Plymouth. The slides don’t stand on their own, but for those that were there, they should be helpful reminders of what was said what links […] » about 500 words

III Introduces “Web Works”

Where did this come from? Innovative calls it “Web Works,” and describes them as “HTML-based interfaces for light-weight system access.” Here’s the program description:

WebWorks are new products that offer focused functionality for staff through a lightweight browser-based client. One Web Works client handles Selection List processing while a cataloging client provides the ability to add and edit records.

The session was hugely crowded, and I had to run off before I got to ask my question: “how do these fit in with any web services strategy III may be developing?”

…And then I found myself thinking: I’d really like III to focus on providing a great basic product first, then develop a great back-end web services interface for those who want to do more, then, if they must, use that back-end to build special applications as clients demand them. As it is, each new customer who waves an invoice around gets to ask for some weird product or change to a product, but I’m not clear on how they all connect or are supportable in the long run.

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a bunch of stuff I would have emailed you about