Olean, NY

Two comments: 1. It has three syllables. 2. Sizzlin' Country double u pea eye gee.

Buffalo, finally

I'm in a Denny's across the street from the training location getting the first food into me since lunch yesterday. (Airline pretzels don't count.) Luckily I can do today's class in my sleep, since after only four hours of it last night that just might be what I end up doing today.

Another delay

I now might get to Rochester by Midnight...

Just pick a gate, any gate

Came in at gate C12. Leaving out of C18. Get to C18 and they tell us we need to go to C4. (At the far end of the concourse.) We all get there and then they send us all to C14. We're here now but we've just been told that they need to swap out planes. That'll take another 20 minutes. I'm now landing in Rochester at 11:30. Then I get to drive to Buffalo. All this just days after telling someone how smooth flying is these days.

Quote

Babies are God's way of persuading parents to have teenagers.

I'm not making this up

The following was actually said to me in response to a statement I'd made referring to bed linnens:

"Do you realize how sexy it is to hear a man say 'thread count'?

I guess that three-month stint working at a Bed Bath & Beyond might actually be paying off.

Fortune cookie

The best mirror
is a good friend.

What, you think I have groceries in this house?

I'm home

Well, at least for 43 hours this time.

Presenting...

The Exorcist in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies. (flash)
Thanks Laura

Ask michael why he's cranky

Laura asked me to send her a copy of my schedule for the next few weeks. Here's what I camw up with...

03.22 Drive to Salina, KS
03.23 Teach in Salina, drive to Hays
03.24 Teach in Hays, drive to Colby
03.25 Teach in Colby
03.26 Teach in Colby, drive home
03.27 Home
03.28 Fly to Rochester, drive to Buffalo
03.29 Teach in Buffalo, drive to St. Bonaventure
03.30 Teach in St. Bonaventure, drive to Buffalo
03.31 Teach in Buffalo, drive to Rochester
04.01 Fly home
04.02-04.10 Home
04.11 Drive to Manhattan, KS
04.12 Teach in Manhattan
04.13 Teach in Manhattan
04.14 Drive to Hutchinson, KS
04.15 Teach in Hutchinson
04.16 Teach in Hutchinson, drive home
04.17 Home
04.18 Home
04.19 Drive to Cheyenne, WY
04.20 Teach in Cheyenne
04.21 Teach in Cheyenne
04.22 Teach in Cheyenne
04.23 Teach in Cheyenne, drive home
04.24 Home
04.25 Drive to Dodge City, KS
04.26 Teach in Dodge City
04.27 Teach in Dodge City
04.28 Drive to Lawrence, KS
04.29 Teach in Lawrence, Drive to Kansas City
04.30 Teach in Kansas City
05.01 Drive home

Day four, town three

I'm in Colby, KS now. This time doing two days of classes at Colby Community College. Nice lab. (Picture up this evening.) Be sure to keep an eye on my photo blog for pictures of all the Kansas hot spots. (Keep an eye out for a librarian driving to work on her lawn mower. ;-)

It can only get better from here, right?

Well, first thing in the morning at the second location and I lock my keys in the car. 30 minutes later, AAA saves my butt once again. Classroom is small but there's wireless so I'm using my laptop to present.

I remember you

I remember you, you're the one who made my dreams come true, a few kisses ago.
I remember you, you're the one who said I love you too, I do, didn't you know?
I remember too a distant bell, and stars that fell like rain out of the blue.
When my life is through and the angels ask me to recall the thrill of them all,
Then I shall tell them, I remember you.

Lyrics by: Johnny Mercer

On a lighter note

Diana Krall's new CD, The Girl in the Other Room, will be out on April 27th.

How wrong can one day go?

In no particular order and placing no blame...

• Not enough computers
• Computers with wrong version of software
• Computers without any version of software
• Extra computers arrive, still not enough
• Extra computers with corrct version of software but different from rest of room
• Time for classes changed, I wasn't told
• More people than expected, not enough materials
• New town doesn't have Sprint service so Trēo becomes glorified page-a-day calendar
• Dial-up AOL has very flaky DNS servers.

Ahh, but there's always tomorrow...

You never know

I've been very good lately. I've not been going into every bookstore that I pass. I didn't even go into any while in DC despite there being several in the neighborhood. So, when I stopped for a break in Colby, KS this afternoon and saw a Hastings, I was tempted and succumbed. The great thing is that I found a copy of Titus Crow: In the Moons of Borea. Elysia: The Coming of Cthulhu by Brian Lumley which I'd been looking for in hardcover for a few years now. (I'd just not bothered to order a used copy online.) The even better part was that it was on their bargin rack for only $2.99 and wasn't bargain marked. This is not convincing me that skipping an opportunity to go into a bookstore is a good thing.

My how kansas has changed

Today was the first time I'd driven I-70 across Kansas since, I believe, 2002 so I was looking for things that had changed. I notice a few small items not worth mentioning but this one was just funny. On the Western edge of Russell, KS there is a big sign telling everyone how the town is the home of both Bob Dole and Arlen Spector. Right next to it was an even bigger sign advertising one of the several adult superstores along the highway. Ah, the free market.

DC, again

In the past 12 days I've now been in three DC airports. First Regan National, flying in for CIL, then Baltimore leaving CIL, now Dullas on my way home from Rochester. I think I've entered the Twilight Zone.

Time to head home

It's snowing here in Rochester. Time to head back home. Of course, I leave for Colby, KS in about 24 hours...

Quick trip home

I've been in Rochester, NY since yesterday for my brother's wedding. It was a simple yet lovely service. Lisa seemed like she might not get through the vows she was so nervous but everything came out just fine.

I also got a chance to meet up with my best friend Laura who lives in Phoenix. (Yes only the two of us would need to go across the country to see each other for the first time in four years.)

Photos of these events and involved individuals can be found on the photo blog.

P.S. Yes, I'm blogging on the Trēo.

Google local

Google has launched their local search which limits results to a localion you specify. In the first search box you enter your keywords and in the second you enter a full address, city/state, or just a zip code. My test search for 'pizza' in 'Greece, NY' quickly found the place I'm having dinner at tonight. If you're not someone who travel's a lot you have the option of Google remembering the entered location. I plan on using this to find bookstores in rural KS next week.

Site of scopes trial at it again

CNN: Tennessee county wants to ban gays

Texas Library Association

I want to speak at the TLA conference. As Jenny shows us, they "treat their speakers VERY well!"

Making decisions for others

Don't like the book your child has checked out of the library? "The Hartsells said they are keeping the book until they get assurances it won't be circulated." Yeah, that's the solution for these Wilmington, MD parents.

Fingerprinting the friends

I don't know about your Friends group but I'm the youngest member of my Friends board by about 30 years. It seems that San Diego requires that Friends workers my be fingerprinted for background checks.

More on why forms stink

My boss is currently moving her mother and went to the USPS Web site to fill out a change of address form. Turns out that once you've filled in the form you have two options. One, print out the form and mail it in. Two, submit the change of address online. Here's where the bafflement comes in. To submit the form online you're charged $1.00.

On first glance this does seem a tad ridiculous. It probalby costs the postal service more to accept the mail-in method than the electronic method so charging for electronic submission seems a little backward. Most of us thought that the charge for electric submission is a way to reduce the potential for fraud in the system; preventing someone from running a bot that would change thousands of addresses. However, there are other ways to do this such as showing a graphic with a word in it that must be typed in in response. (Computers can't do this.)

Still, the fact that you'll be charged for online submission should be stated up front, on the first page of the form, not after you've already filled in the form.

Why forms stink

If your library is going to put up an e-mail reference form, make sure you don't leave out the recipient's e-mail address. (Line 73 of this form.) I wonder if they're concerned about lack of use of this service? (Yes, I have notified them of the problem as I was attempting to ask them a reference question.)

Internet Librarian 04

I've sent in three proposals for this year's Internet Librarian conference. (Two workshops & one session.) Monterey, CA in November sounds like fun. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Trēo update

Today I got PalmVNC running. Now I can get my office desktop on my Trēo. (Not that I actually need this function. I just think it's cool.) I also installed Ping just because I'm such a geek.

Almost perfect weather

I so should have ridden my bike to work today. Got up to 66F with some wind. It should be that nice tomorrow too but I've going to an author signing right after work so I won't have enough time to bike and get to the event on time.

Spam fun

I got some spam today that was addressed to me and two other people that haven't worked at BCR for at least eight years. That's some e-mail list those guys are working off of.

Watch rumsfeld squirm

MoveOn.org has posted a clip of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld caught lying on Camera.

Documents of interest

Two very interesting documents from the W3C and one (of the last) from Webmonkey

• Authoring Techniques for Device Independence
• Ink Markup Language
• The End-All Guide to Small-Screen Web-Dev

A "good" filter?

Instead of buying a filter with a hidden database, the Kansas State Library has created their own.

Become a digital anarchist

Today's Bookdocks shows you how.

Doh!

According to this AP report a library locks itself out of own Web site. Instead of fixing the filter, it changed it's domain name.

Ironic

Papers of Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the world's greatest fiction detective, found. Lost for more than 40 years.

It works! (and on the first try too)

Turns out that through a small program names PDANet I can turn my Trēo into a wireless modem for my laptop. So, if I even need to be online, don't have a WiFi connection, and the Trēo just isn't enough, I can hook it up to my laptop and I'm connected in seconds. (Assuming I have Sprint service. I'm just wondering about my next trip to Savonburg, KS.)

CIL photos

Michael Stephens has posted his photos from the conference. (Including one of your truely.)

Kiss me...

...I'm a librarian. (But printed on a thong?)

Tempted to swear about this one...

H. R. 3920 :: To allow Congress to reverse the judgments of the United States Supreme Court.

Why oh why?

Why is AIM for palm $19.95 when the desktop version is free?

Storage!

Jenny wants storage. Well Toshiba's got your storage right here.

Ban dhmo

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who will post this story today but I just felt the need to since I use the mentioned site in my Using the Internet as a Referene Tool class.

SoCal city falls victim to Internet hoax, considers banning items made with water.

The site they're talking about is the Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division which seems to be collapsing under the weight of the story as I couldn't get in while writing this entry.

Trēo mail update

Well, I can get both mail accounts via POP3 in one program (Eudora for Palm) but I can't send mail via the BCR account. (Darn that non-relaying server security.) So, I'm guess I'm stuck with two mail programs.

RSS success

Turns out that there was a flash update for the Trēo that fixed a "cookie corruption" problem in the browser. I'm now into my bloglines account.

Here comes the mail again

I've successfully set up my Trēo to both send and receive mail for both my BCR and Webpan accounts. Of course, I've had to sue two different programs to do that but that's o.k. (One is POP and one is IMAP.)

I'm having trouble with the browser accepting cookies, and therefore can't get into my bloglines account, but I've found an update on the Handspring site that might solve the problem.

Important blog updates

I've renamed my mobile blog to Travelin' Librarian. Somehow in the process the URL changed.

Deciding that the name of this blog was just a tad too bitter for my personality any more, I've also changed this blog to match. In this case not only was there a rename but a change of URL. I think I've got everything switched over. (You'll need to changes pointers to the RSS feed too.) If you notice any problems just let me know.

Trēo-licious

For those of you that were wondering, yes, within hours of arriving home from the conference on Saturday I did go out and purchase a Trēo 600 Smartphone. I've got a few issues with it but all of them have to do with the difference between PalmOS and PocketPC (the PDA's I've been using for the past two years.) I'll list those things in a future post.

In a related note, I no longer need my extra cradle for the old iPaq. I'm selling it off cheap on Amazon.com.

Conference horn tooting

O.k. during that late night pow-wow Greg Schwartz and I set up an RSS feed for the conference's chair. I wasn't going to mention it but since he has...

Custom cds

Get them at...Starbucks?

ILL shouldn't be this dificult

I asked an area library to ILL and article for me and send it to my local branch. The article arrives but stays at the Central branch. Why? Because, they send microfilm and the only branch with mf readers is the central branch. Do I have the ability to get there before I leave town Friday morning for two weeks? Of course not.

New author photo

Just got back from a 400+ person book signing by Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon. A photo can be found on my author photos page.

Michael's blog goes mobile

Here's something else you can blame Jenny for, or just figure it was something I picked up at the darn conference from no one in particular. I've now got a photo blog. Check it out at http://travelibra.textamerica.com/.

CIL photos

Since I didn't bring a USB cable with me to the conference I had to wait 'till I got home to post these. They're not much but they're worth a chuckly or two.

• The sign in my room's bathroom.
• Jenny presenting.
• Once the WiFi's been discovered.

Web design book update

I wrote half of the metadata chapter on the flight from Baltimore to Atlanta. (Yes, Baltimore to Denver via Atlanta.) I would have tried to finish it on the Atlanta to Denver flight but I just finally zonked out while waiting to take off and didn't wake up for most of the flight. (Some of you know what it takes to get me to sleep on a plane.)

I also got an e-mail late Friday from my editor wanting a date for a first complete draft. He suggested April 1st and I'm tempted to shoot for that. I'll have a better idea if that's reasonable on Monday. (At least two more complete chapters will help appease him ;-)

I've also figured out that I need to rewrite some small bits form chapter's I've already turned in. He's cool with that as he not really going to start the editing process 'till all the chapters are turned in.

Things that bug me #7

People who sit behind me in airplanes and can't seem to manage to get either in or out of thier seat without using the back of my seat for leverage. (I'm not just talking about large people here. I'm big and I can manage to do it. People much more in shape than I am just can't in most cases for some reason.)

Big disappointment in mass

Catching up with the news.. You do realize that anyone who supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is admitting that such discrimination is unconstitutional? What they're doing is changing the only laws They can to Mah such discrimination legal.

Cranky

Ok. I'll admit that maybe I'm a bit cranky from lack of sleep but I've got some observations from the flight home that I'd like to share.

• Why do AirTran planes have rows 1-3 and then Ship to row l0? What happened to rows 4-9?
• Why is it that my tiny little screwdriver got confiscated yet the woman sitting next to me at the gate in Atlanta was allowed to bring knitting needles as thick as my wrist? (I'll admit that I'm exaggerating a little but not much.)
• Lastly, there was this in the in-flight magazine:

  "Located Just abs loch from Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, the Hotel Palomar is offering special pr ogr am sand packages designed to make the woman business traveler feel more at home, while keeping in touch with family and friends. The "Stay in Touch" package includes a $25 phone credit, Bulgari spa basket, complimentary glass of Wine and continental breakfast at the Fifth Floor restaurant, and Complimentary DSL service. Complimentary weekday car service to the financial district is also available. Secluded five floors above street level, the hotel bills itself as a convenient and safe retreat for women on the roado"

  I've got to say that this is all something I'd appreciate just as much as any woman but I Can think of several women I know that would scream quite loudly if something similar was offered only to male guests. What's up with that?

Computers in libraries 04: some final thoughts

I may be jumping the gun here but I'm on the way home and I've got a connection so I figured I'd take this opportunity to look back at the conference that was CIL04. What has also prompted this was my best friend's comment last night of my postings this week. "I didn't understand much of it but you seem to have had fun." Needless to say she's neither a techie nor a librarian. So, for her, and for my family, here's my reflections on the conference, simplified.

• Entropy happens, things fall apart.
• Geeks, geeks, and more geeks.
• If you blog, they will come.
• Networking oppontunities abound. Grab them when you can.
• Willpower when it comes to new toys is lacking for many of us.

O.k. on a more serious note I've got to say that this was the single best conference I've ever been to from both a personal and professional perspective. Not only did I make many new contacts but I renewed a few old ones. I learned about new technology and was given some additional perspective on what the librarians I train don't know and want to know. I've was forced to consider what we talk about amongst ourselves as library techies versus what our patrons want and/or need. (Which is not always, almost rarely, the same.) I've learned that if you get to the sessions early you can sang the single power outlet and that you should ask when you check in where the free WiFi connection is. I've convinced myself that networking opportunites are more important than sleep, but not for more than three days in a row. Lastly, I learned that I must do this again next year.

A final word on this issue. The conference would not have been such a success for me if it had not been for the following people. (I'm working from memory here so if I've got your name wrong I aplolgize. I'm also too tired to insert links here though I believe that I've linked to all of you in previous posts.)
Greg Notess, Ran Hock, Gary Price, Mary Lee Kennedy, Darlene Fitcher, Jane Dysart, Roy Tennant, Greg Schwartz, Frank Cervone, Stephen Abram, Michael Stevens, Chris Zammarelli, Jenny Lavine, and Andrea.

Discount anyone?

Maybe it's just me but I think that if you check in and out of a hotel in less than six hours there should be a significant discount. Really, I only used 25% of the time I paid for.

The reason for this is that since I'm working for a non-profit I get to do it all for as cheaply as possible. In this case that meant leaving the $179/night hotel in DC for a $89/night hotel in Baltimore since that was where I'm flying out of. (A different airport and airline from where/how I flew in.) I got to the Baltimore hotel at 10pm and checked out at 3:45am for a 4am shuttle to BWI for a 6:45 flight out to Atlanta. (Yep, Baltimore to Denver via Atlanta. Ah, the joys of AirTran.) Now if the Starbucks would just open...

Luggage update:
My little screwdriver has finally bit the dust. The one that's been in my bag ever since I started this job 6.5 years ago and has survived countless automatic and hand secutiry screenings. This time it was a manual search that pulled it out. I blame the new bag since the old backpack stored it in a much more covered way. (To be perfectly clear, I was not concealing this item. It's just been there in my bag in plain sight. I've just be wondering how long it would take someone to find this little computer screwdriver.)

On a lark I just tried to get a connection here in BWI and I'm in. Turns out they're using the same "Airpath" service as Des Moines so I'm in and live for the next hour. That should keep me awake until Starbucks opens.

Computers in libraries, day 3

The two entries were written in the afternoon of day three. Presented here your your edification.

Fun at lunch

1:15pm
A bunch of us ended up going to an Asian place down the street for lunch. Andrea was successful in teaching me how to use chopsticks. I don't know if the lesson will stick but at least I've learned the basics.

I got some more answers about the Trio 600 and I'm that much closer to getting one. At this point it all comes down to figuring out what sort of deal I can get out of Best Buy tomorrow.

Political speech

03.12 4pm
The afternoon session titled "Marion Goes to Washington" was interesting including information on a PAC from a database vendor that gives money to representatives that are supporting the bill to privatize database content. I could have gone without the semi-sterotying title but the session was worth attending.

Searching triumverate

The (R)evolution of Search Engines program ended up being a pannel of three of the biggest names in the Search Engines world (at least from the librari perspective.) Hearing Greg Notess (Search Engine Showdown), Ran Hock (The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook), and Gary Price (Resource Shelf & co-author of The Invisible Web) speak on this topic is something that I recommend to anyone who gets the chance.

However, I have to admit that my brain is starting to melt...

A new record

I've just auctioned off a to-be-signed book for $225! Considering it was a $25 starting bid and there were only two bidders I was very surprised when I checked the auction just now.

Push or Pull?

I remember the early days of the push technologies on the Internet. It was only a few years ago but looking back I viewed them as one of those great ideas that failed due to poor marketing and implementation.

The biggest one I can think of was Microsoft's Active Desktop concept. You would put "objects" on your desktop and they would automatically receive updated information whenever the sources pushed information out to the subscribers. I'm not sure why this didn't ultimately work, but I always through that the concept of items automatically being sent to me was a great idea. Why it didn't catch on in the long run I'm still not quite sure.

Today we have RSS and aggregators. This XML language and its associated client software allow you to "subscribe" to a feed and then receive the updates whenever they occur. Almost every presentation that mentioned RSS at this year's Computer's in Libraries conference (and there were many of them that did,) described this as a 'push' technology. I beg to differ on this description. It may seem like push but is it really?

In a true push environment, beyond the actual setting up of the subscription, there is noting more to be done on the part of the client, whether you consider the client to be software or a human. But this is not how RSS aggregators work. With these programs you need to set up the subscription and tell the aggregator how often to recheck the subscription. Every time the aggregator rechecks and finds a change, it transfers the information from the server to the client. It 'pulls' the information.

Granted, RSS may seem like a push technology since there is minimal human involvement in retrieving this information, but it is being retrieved, i.e. pull, not being received, i.e. pushed.

Now, some of you may argue that I'm splitting hairs. I'll admit that I say that when I click on a Web link I "go" to a page when I know deep down that I'm not "going" anywhere. (I'm actually sending a request for a page which is then sent back to me.) But, I'm sure, in at least one of my classes, to point this out to my students, to make sure that they at least understand the concept even if they're going to go back to the way of talking about it like everyone else does.

Here's my question. When teaching people about RSS and aggregators, should we be describing it as a push technology when it really isn't?

(Yes Jenny, I'm expecting a comment from you on this.)

High end, low end

One of this morning's keynote speakers was Mary Lee Kennedy. One of the things she's done was to work with Microsoft to develop SharePoint 2003. CA serious software package for sharing information for online meetings.) One of the was she illustrated her points about "getting personal" was the use of IM programs to provide reference service. As Michael Stephens said the other night, "What I'd like to see is a library dump $20,000 virtual reference software and just get an AOL screen name."

Stop in and say hi

This conference has made me realize that many, many more people than I ever thought actually read this blog. If you're reading this please take a moment to use this entry's comment link to let me know who you are. Thanks!

Web design book update

In all the excitement of yesterday I forgot to mention that I finished chapter 18: CSS & Forms. I'll be sending it in to my editor when I get home on Saturday.

An even more interesting night

I'd just about finished writing my last blog entry when I get a tap on my shoulder and hear "Don't be antisocial Michael. Come join us." It's Darlene Fitcher asking me to join her and a few others at another table. There were a few comings and goings but over the next two and a half hours I ended up talking and joking with Jane Dysart (Computers in Libraries and Internet Librarian Conference Program Chair), Roy Tennant (California Digital Library), Greg Schwartz (Louisville Free Public Library), Frank Cervone (Northwestern University), and Stephen Abram (President Elect of the Canadian Librarian Association.) Now there's a crowd you want to be hanging out with in the library technology world. (I was most freaked out when Roy Tennant introduced himself and in response to my introduction replied "From BCR, right?")

By the way, it turns out that it was Darlene that searched for CIL blog entries and brought up this blog. I bet she's starting to think I'm virtually stalking her. (At least I've finally got her name right. I'm sure she'll correct me if I'm wrong. ;-)

Score!

Two full days into the conference and I'm finally told that there's free wireless in the lounge. Guess where I am now...

It was a great afternoon and a better evening. The sessions went well and we quite interesting. (o.k. I think most anything blog-related at this point is interesting.) I also had a short meeting with the Editor-in-Chief of Information Today about my next book idea. He likes it and he's passed around the proposal along to five big wigs in the library world for their input. (Sorry, can't remember any names but I recoginzed four out of the five he mentioned.) He promised to send me their responses back in the next week or two.

Dinner was an absolute blast. 14 library bloggers including The Shifted Librarian, and Chris of L.A.C.K. were there. Jenny decided to show off her Treo 600 and I think she's convinced me to get on this weekend when I inally get rid of my finally. I asked her if 'that picture' she had taken of me was going to appear on her blog. She said of course. I meant the one she took of me and my tablet. She meant the one she had taken of me just minutes earlier on her Treo. (Hey, when I'm at sea level I'm allowed on drink.)

Durring the conversation one person mentioned that during a presentation I didn't attend today someone asked if anyone was blogging this conference. The presenter did a quick search and they found this blog, specifically the entry relating to The West Wing comment from D. Scott Brandt posted last night. Man I'm gettng more press by just being here than I did four years ago when I presented. I'm starting to get a little freaked out.

A bunch of us ended up getting ice cream (yes, in DC in March) from a little shop down the street. Turns out we were being served by the 'scoop freaked.' (His term not ours.) It started out by one of our group asking "hey, is that more ice cream" pointing at another selection around the corner. His response, "no, that just looks like ice cream." The conversation, though funny, went down hill from there.

Well, some others just arrived and want me to join them. Later...

Putting a face to a...

The era of meeting someone and "finally putting a face with the name" is still alive and well but I've now started "putting a face to the blog." Two stories:

Just ran into to Darlene Fitcher (University of Saskatchewan) who mentioned my library card collection in her presentation last night. Turns out she does the Web site for Neal-Schuman, one of my publishers, so she knew of me when she stumbled over the collection while prepping her presentation, (Turns out she didn't find it through Google afterall.) Anyway, she said she was glad to be putting a face to the name. She also told me she read the after all last night and enjoyed my posts from the conference.

The person giving the next presentation, Jenny Levine, is the person who first asked my about my laptop yesterday. Turns out she's The Shifted Librarian one of the blogs that I ready regularly. So now I'm finally putting a face to a blog. As I mentioned earlier I'll be meeting Chris of L.A.C.K. tonight at dinner so I'll be doing it again in a few hours.

CIL, day 2

The morning's Keynote from one of the big wigs at Northern Light was actually quite interesting. His point: all the search engines are interested in is increaing advertising revenue. This shouldn't have been suprising to anyone in the audience but even I was taken aback by some of his evidence.

Unfortunately, that presentation was the highlight of the morning as the rest was down hill from there. I went to the "collaboration" presentation in the "Working and Learning Electronically" track and that turned out to be about the libraries and IT departments at universities collaborating. Should have read the full description I guess as that was not what I was expecting at all. I was hoping for something on learner collaboration in an online environment.

The next session I attended was on "Supporting KM with Weblogs." This sounded very interesting especially since I'm teaching the KM Technologies class at DU again this summer. Unfortunately, the talk was very high end focusing around software that was most appropriate to libraries in corporate environments. I got a few good quotes out of it but I'm not sure how I can apply it to the class except in a very general way. This wasn't the presenter's fault. I think if the presenter was given double the time and was able to slow down a bit it would have been much better. It is as it is in conference presentation land.

I did finally meet up with Rachel Singer Gordon and introduced myself. I've also realized that our dinner is tomorrow evening not tonight. Tonight is the bloggers dine-around. This should be interesting since bloggers tend to be chatty by nature. Also, they've closed off the attendance for this dinner at something around 20 people and several of them are from the Library Underground list including Chris from L.A.C.K. This is going to be fun.

One other note. This year instead of tapes of the presentations they're offering CD-ROMs with MP3 files of all the presentations and all the PowerPoints too. The price at the conference is $79 for a complete set and after the conference the price goes up to $289. I broke down and ordered one. This'll be nice since tomorrow there's several interesting presentations going on at the same times which I'll have to miss. This wasy I'll get to hear them and be able to steal/borrow slides form the presentations. If anyone is interested in hearing the "Dead and Emerging Technologies" session just drop me a line.

Now on to the next two sessions, "Beyond way 101: Applying Reference Skills to Weblogs" and "Unleashing the Power of RSS" then on to a meeting witht the editor-in-chief of Information Today about my next book proposal. This afternoon should be much more interesting than the morning was.

A funny from the conference

I just rembered one of the funnier lines from the "Dead & Emerging Technologies" pannel. D. Scott Brandt said "We need to end this thing on time because many of you want to get back in time to watch West Wing. The show where actors pretned to run the White House. Unlike the real world where a pretneder acts like he runs the White House."

A response

The conservative librarian has posted a response to my request for him (not a her, sorry my mistake) to clarify what we should have "learned" from 9/11. He has no links directly to posts so you need to go to his site and then scroll down to March 9th, 5:21pm.

Notes from the road

This entry is a long one. Since this date and time is the first I've been online since leaving for the conference I just decided to put up all the posts I've written so far all up at once. So, everything that follows for today includes posts for yesterday and today in chronological order. They are dated and time stamped individually for your convienence.

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A piece of crap

03.09 10:13am
Last weekend I finally broke down and purchased a rolling computer case. (Maybe I've already mentioned that here but it's key to this story.) Yesterday I took it for a test run to the office and back and decided that I really liked it. Not exactly the right pockets in some places but I was able to quickly adjust. So today I took it with me on my trip to DC. I'm sitting at my gate and I'm now carrying my rolling computer case. I got through security, put all my stuff back into my pockets, put the laptop back into the case, set it on the floor, pulled out the telescoping handle, and one of the two bars, came apart. It looks like I have all the pieces but they do not snap back together. $135 for this damn thing (Eddie Bauer, so it's supposed to be a good bag,) and I've now got to carry it for the next four days. (Unless there just happens to be a store I can exchange it at near my hotel in downtown DC. Yeah, that'll happen.) Luckily I have the shoulder strap but I loaded this thing for bear since I didn't have to carry it. I hope that the rest of this trip goes better than how it's started.

And so it begins...

03.10 7:36am

Well, the high-speed connection in the room Is $9.95/day so but the time I settled in my room last night at 8pm I decided it wasn't worth the cost. I would have been happy to dial in to the BCR AOL account but it seems that I left my phone cord in the old laptop bag. Scratch that idea. So, no connection at the moment I figures I can write all the entries and then upload them this evening.

Flying into DC for the first time since 9.11 was a little bit interesting. It seems that no one is allowed to get up out of their seats for the last 30 minutes of the flight. Now I understand why this rule exists but why treat the capital any different from anywhere else. Yes, I understand that DC is "special" but why just not institute that rule for all flights?

I landed on time at 5pm and had a dinner scheduled for 5:30. These "dine-arounds" were put together by different hosts around a multitude of topics each night at different local restaurants. Since I got into town so late I was considering not going to this one but I figured I had to eat anyway so I got into the hotel, dumped my stuff in my room and hoofed it the mile to the restaurant, getting there at 6.30, only an our late. Turns out that only one other person showed up and after an our waiting for anyone else to show up had finally ordered. The two of us had a great Indian dinner and wonderful conversation. The big surprise was that this dinner's host, who also happened to be the organizer of the conference, never showed. I'm hoping to corner him at some point during the conference to ask what happened.

Anyway, I'm registered and waiting for the morning keynote at 9. I've left the power cord for the laptop in my room so let's see how long this battery actually lasts. (Of course, I don't want to just leave the machine on so the biggest drain on the battery will be turning it on and off whenever I need it.)

Hmmm... Maybe I should take this opportunity to work on the CSS & forms chapter. (Especially since I think my editor is manning the Neal-Schuman booth and will defninitely ask me how the book is coming along.)

Web design book update

03.10 11:22am
I just found out that my editor from Neal-Schuman is not at the conference. Oh well, I Still got 10 new pages written this morning before the keynote. Now I'm only One day behind.

"Didn't you have a tablet?"

03.10 1:40pm
I decided to try out the Windows Journal program on the tables and took notes by pen throughtout the first session. (I'll defnitely be doing that for the rest of the conference. It's really convienent and no tapping of the keyboard or worrying about mistypes. Oh, and I found a outlet that I could sit next too so the battery worries, at least for today, aren't an issue.) When the session was over I switched back to the regular laptop/keyboard to I could get some more done on the book. (I'm so glad I for the version with a full keyboard.) THe next thing I know I've got someone sitting next to me asking "Didn't you have a tablet." One spin of the screen and the tablet was back. At that point I'd drawn a crowd and spent the whole 15 minute break talking about my laptop. And after the next session. And just a miniute ago before this upcoming session. At this point I might as well be a conference presenter. (Hmmm, an idea for next year's conference?)

Advertising vs. entertainment

03.10 1:45pm
In this morning's neynot speech, Clifford Lynch mentioned something about how much entertainment was "sponsored." This immediately reminded me of a blog entry that I wanted to write Sunday night but had forgotten about. In Sunday's episode of Alias, about 10 minutes into the show Sidney and Vaughn are chasing after someone in a parking garage and she yells "The F-150" pointing to a truch they quickly commendeer to chase after the bad guys. Not five minutes later, the car chase through the parking garage over, the opening credits run and then the first commercial appears. That commercial, and one commercial in every other set for the duration of the show, is for "the new Ford F-150." Come on folks. I've heard of product placement but this steps over some sort of line in my opinion. Have them drive an F-150, fine, that's placement. Have them announce they're driving an F-150, that's the sponsor deciding the content of the show. I can't believe that the show's writers put those words into Sidney's mouth without anyinput from the folks at Ford.

Wireless found, but not useable

03.10 3:04pm
Sitting her working on the book, waiting for the next session I suddenly get the message many have been waiting for: "wireless connection found." Woo hoo! Well, I was able to connect to "Chris Home Network" but it's peer-to-peer. No outgoing conenctions. Oh well, it was a few minutes of excitement anyway.

Conferences are dangerous

03.10 3:11pm
I've already got three more ideas on what I could present on next year. Better start planning soon. I'm already booked through December of this year. I'm sure someone will be booking me for March 2005 any day now.

Web design book update

03.10 4:10pm
Five more pages done. That puts me caught up through yesterday. One more session the off to dinner then one more session (the annual fun fest on "dead technologies.") Those three events will put me down for the count so I'm done with this project for the day. However, if I can pull off 15 pages on breaks today one hopes that I can repeat the performance tomorrow. (Hey, that would even put me a day ahead of schedule.)

Conference fun

03.10 9:31pm
I'm back in my room and it's been an interesting evening. Here's the scoop.

Earlier today I figured out that I didn't pack the power plug to recharge my PDA. Walking to dinner I turned it on to check on the battery level to find the startup screen. The damn thing had done a hard reboot and everything, including my calendar for this conference and directions to the dinners was gone. Not a big deal overall but remember, this is the NEW PDA. The one that I just excahnged the old one for two-something weeks ago. I'm starting to think that when I exchange this one (yes, this one goes on Saturday when I get home) I'm going with a different brand or at least a different model. Anyone have any suggestions?

After the last session of the afternoon I doublechecked the location of the dinner I was attending. And, since this particular "topic" dinner didn't have a "host" and since I was the first on the list, the reservation had been made under my name. Luckily I didn't have to do much as everyone seemed to converse well with each other and had no need for me to do anything as the "host". I was the one who talked the waiter into diing the checks for the 13 of us into three and even though that took a bit of schmoosing, it wasn't that much work.

On my way to the last seesion of the night, (I'll get to that in a minute,) I was stopped in the hall by D. Scott Brandt, the "host" who didn't show last night. He apologized profusely. I told him that I was impressed he recognized me without my nametag. He admitted later that he rembered my name but had to look me up on Google for the face.

The last (and only) evening session was titled "Dead and Emerging Technologies." This is an annual pannel discussion that, although on a serious topic, almost anything goes when it comes to what the speakers say. Irreverant is the best way to put it and the laughs hardly stop for the whole hour and a half. At one point, one of the pannelists is declaring that library cards are dead or should be shortly. At that point she brings up her next PowerPoint slide and says "except for this guy." I look up and there's my name along with images from my library card collection. She had no idea I was in the crowd and when she says my name I oblige with "I'm right here." My guess is that when she was looking up "library cards" in Google she found the site. She's promised to send me a copy of her presentation.

After that person's presentation Scott mentioned that I was one of the other people he'd seen with a laptop floating around the conference. (Referring back to something he talked about in his intro. One of the pannelists then spoke up and corrected "Michael has a Tablet." She's the one who asked me about it after the first session.

Last but not least, I'm now sitting in my hotel room waiting for a tech support call. I tried to connect to the high-speed connection in my room to read my e-mail and post all these items but it doesn't want to work. I have a connection but my browser's telling me that it can't find any sites. Sounds like a DNS problem. (Hmmm, that sounds familiar.) I call texh support and after the front line guy had me tru to go to cnn.com he decided that this problem warrented an "escalation" to a real tech support person. Go figure.

Tried a reboot and I'm in...

Computers in libraries

As previously mentioned, I'm off to Washington, DC tomorrow morning for Computers in Libraries 2004. If you're looking to catch up with me check my schedule and drop me a line. I'll try to blog from the conference but no guarantees. As you can see I'm booked solid for three days and sleeping might have priority over blogging.

Learned something?

According to the conservative librarian, when it comes to the upcoming election "the economy is not the issue. Immigration either. Education, bi-lingual or otherwise, no. Gays, no. Taxes, no. Welfare, Social or Corporate, no. Jobs, no. The issue will be about those that learned something on September 11, 2001, and those didn't. "

I've asked her what we were supposed to have learned. I'll let you know her response if/when I receive it.

Reminiscences of nixon & elvis

Remember that famous picture of Nixon and Elvis shaking hands? Well, this photo runs a very close second.

Ah, utah

The Utah state legislature has passed a law that denies funding to libraries that don't install filters. According to the article it will cost SLC alone aproximately $200,000 to install filters. My favorite legislator quote of the day: "What adults do in their own home, it's their stinking business."

Books are not eggs

Phillip Pullman is against an idea floating aroung the UK to get rid of the practice of suggested retail pricing on books. I'll tell you that this idea scares me too and I hope it someone on this side of the pond doesn't start to think it's a good idea.

Oh my god!

Any religious beliefs I may or may not have aside, this is just way too out there.

Koontz book update

I've added the large print edition of Chase to the ms.

Web deisgn book update

Chapter eight (forms) was completed today. At 79 ms pages that's the longest chapter so far. BTW: that page count doesn't include screenshots. I think I'll write the 'CSS & Forms' chapter next since I'm in a forms mindset.

Web design book update

15 more new pages today and I'm back on schedule. I'm still working on the forms chapter which is currently running 55 ms pages. I'm guessing at least another 20 to finsih it.

A peek at retirement

My dad. He's been off work now for several weeks after carpel-tunnel surgery. I've been wondering what he's been doing to occupy himself. I never thought that whatever he would come up with would make the local paper.

Godzilla to take a well earned sabatical

After 50 years and 28 movies, Godzilla (the real one) is going to take a ten year rest.

New author photo

I caught up with Matthew Pearl, the author of The Dante Club last night. A picture has been added to my author photos page.

Supreme court researcher's dream

The Library of Congress has just released the complete papers of Justice Harry Blackmun, the author of the Roe v. Wade decision.

The song (doesn't) remain the same

I caught a little VH1 this morning before work and on came the video for Green Day's "Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)". I sat and watched it for the 1000th time since it's such a great song. At the end of the video the credits came on again and I had the sneaking suspicion something just wasn't right. I pulled out the Nimrod CD with the song on it and I was right. The original title for the song is/was "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)". Did Green Day change the name of the song since everyone calles it "Time of Your Life" despite that not being the actual title? Did VH1 change the name of the song? Hmmmm...

Creative viri

It seems that the author of this latest virus has decided that I'm dumb enough to not only believe that this is from my server admin sending from a non-existant account on our system, but that I would also want to type in a password sent in clear text to open the attached .zip file.

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From: staff@bcr.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 10:09 PM
To: msauers@bcr.org
Subject: E-mail account disabling warning.

Dear user of Bcr.org,

Some of our clients complained about the spam (negative e-mail content) outgoing from your e-mail account. Probably, you have been infected by a proxy-relay trojan server. In order to keep your computer safe, follow the instructions.

For details see the attached file.

For security purposes the attached file is password protected. Password is "04565".

Cheers,
    The Bcr.org team                http://www.bcr.org

High level hypocrisy (don't you dare be suprised)

"I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well placed ... managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country."
— Colin Powell, My American Journey

Memo

This memo appeared in my inbox today. Something about the wording is just amusing to me.

If you encounter a problem with one of the toilets and need to perform plunging therapy, please let me know which toilet you have worked on so we can establish whether it is specific equipment that is giving us trouble or if the problems are generic.

Editing the enemy

According to this New York Times article the US government is warning editors that changing the words of authors from certain countries can be considered aiding the enemy. Never mind the fact that this is exactly an editor's job.

It's official: hollywood out of ideas

It looks like remakes of both The Chronicles of Narnia and The Poseidon Adventure are in the works.

You're in the big time now

Contemporary Authors "Provides complete biographical and bibliographical information and references on more than 120,000 U.S. and international authors."

Computers in libraries '04

Next week I'll be attending this conference in DC. My schedule is pretty full but if you're looking to meet up with me check my conference calendar then drop me a line with a suggested time.

Blog updates

I've ditched the atom feed and replaced it with a RSS 0.92 feed (link in the menu) courtsey of LISFeeds.com. It's not perfect but more software will be able to read this feed than that Atom feed.

I've also added a new menu of blogs that I read in case you're interested.

Web design book update

Because of the concert yesterday I wrote five pages early this morning but not the other five needed to catch up. I'm still a day behind schedule but I should be able to fix that in the next day or two.

From the 'I don't want to be responsible for my child' department

Here's another parrent and TV station with their knickers in a twist over what their kid can take out of a library.

Tech support hell update

Despite my not needing PNY tech support to call me back since replacing the SD card did the trick, I'm still upset that they've not called back like they promised.

Book sales

The Kansas State Library orderd 90 copies of the Library Software directory. That's $450 in royalities for each of us.

The next book project

Today I sent off a the proposal for a "What to Do With an MLS" book to both Scarecrow Press and Information Today. Let the bidding war begin! ;-)

Lucky day!

I just won two tickets to the Keb' Mo' show tonight!

Web deisgn book update

Well, I've been slacking off the past few days so I wrote 15 pages this evening. That brought me up through yesterday. At this point I'm just too fried to write today's five pages so I'm gunning for 10 tomorrow. That will bring me back up to speed.

The internet encyclopedia

Back in late 2002 I reviewed an article on XML that was to be published in The Internet Encyclopedia. The set came out back in December (I'd forgotten all about it) and according to the editor somewhere within the $600, three-volume, 2688 page set my name is mentioned.

Hey mom and dad, you are keeping an archive of everything with my name in print right? There are used copies on Amazon.com for only $205.

What would dewey do?

My WWDD t-shrit and Unshelved Vol. 2 book arrived today. The book contains an original sketch of Buddy telling me to "chew on a good book."

March eases up

I'm no longer going to Cheyenne, WY for four days in march. That reduces my travel days from 19 days to only 16. (12 of them are still in a span of 13 days.)

Latest published work

My review of Straight from the Stacks has just appeared in the March 2004 issue of Info Career Trends. This is my first work officially published completely in an online format.