HTML-Kit in Ubuntu

HTML-Kit in Ubuntu
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Woo hoo! I got my first piece of Windows-only software to run under Linux using Wine. I'm very proud of myself right now. Though there are those hours of my life I'll never get back...

It's ready

My Internet Librarian 2006 pre-conference is ready to go. I think I set a new record: 202 slides...

Sushi!

DSC01538
Originally uploaded by RaubDaub.

Just had to share this photo I found in flickr this morning.

Muppet Wiki

Yes, everything you wanted to know about the muppets but were afraid to ask in a wiki.

via Library Stuff

The Doctor is in (the US)

Series two of Doctor Who starting David Tennant starts tomorrow night on the SciFi channel. Don't miss this series, it's just as good as the last one if not a little better.

RSS2HTML

RSS2HTML is a very simple, menu driven way to republish RSS content in your site. However, there are not a lot of options and an iframe is the best way I could find to enbed the content within a page (as shown below).

RapidFeeds: MySite

And here's a test of the republishing features of RapidFeeds' MySite:

RSSCalendar

Here's another RSS tool I'm playing with in preperation for IL2006: RSSCalendar.com. It allows you to enter calendar information and output several different RSS feeds and even republish to your site as shown below. The idea is amazing and I can see a lot of uses for it. Unfortunately, you can not import existing calendar information, you need to enter it manually. I guess if you're already entering it into your Web site, this wouldn't be any more work. But in a situation like mine, I don't want to have to enter an even into Outlook and RSSCalendar.
Thanks Karen!

Rosario's new digs

For those of you wondering where Rosario (my soon to be former boss) and David (her hubby) are going to be living when they get to Cali, I've put her pics up in a flickr photoset.

A scant 16 days later...

More Flick photos of mine have been requested

As I've posted previously, Schmap has again asked for permission to use five additional photos of mine from my flickr account. This time it's two from Orlando and three from Denver. Keep posting folks!

Idaho Library Association Annual Conference

I'll be at the Idaho Library Association Annual Conference next week. Details can be found in the BCReview Newsletter.

Grazr

Here's another new RSS tool: Grazr. This allows you to embed an aggregator right into your Web page. What you're seeing here is the content of the OPML file I exported from my Bloglines account. This is one hell of a way to offer a feedroll.

Widgets.cc - RSS Scrollbox Widget

Here's a slightly different RSS Scrollbox Widget from Widgets.cc which moves vertically and allows you to pull in content from up to three feeds.

Widgetbox › Scrolling RSS News Ticker web widget

I'm working on my RSS pre-conference for IL2006 so I'm finiding a bunch of new RSS tools. Here's Widgetbox's Scrolling RSS News Ticker web widget.

New SecondLife Avatar

I was getting tired of my normal-looking Prince Charming-based avatar so I spent some of my Linden on a Gossamer avatar. Here I am outside the SL Library.

Good news for us travelers

You can now bring a limited amount of liquids and gells with you on your flight! This includes, and it's about time, any liquids purchased inside security. (No more gulping hot coffee at the last second before boarding.) There are rules however, so you need to be aware of them.

Journal of Web Librarianship

Journal of Web Librarianship
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

It's official. I'll be in the vol. 1, no. 1 of the Journal of Web Librarianship. This will be my first peer reviewed publication.

I'm in Library Journal

Fall speaking schedule

• October 4-8: Idaho Library Association, Moscow, ID
  • Tech Terms
  • Firefox Search Plugins
• October 21-26: Internet Librarian 2006, Monterey, CA
  • 22: Integrating RSS Into Your Web Site (Pre-Conference)
  • 23: The Second Life Library 2.0: Going Where the Users Are
  • 24: Flickr & Libraries
  • 25: Book Signing (Information Today, Inc. booth)
• November 9-12: Colorado Association of Libraries, Denver, CO
  • 11: Tech Terms
• November 13-15: University of Nevada, Las Vegas Law Library, Las Vegas, NV
  • 14: Web Page Creation Basics (XHTML)
  • 15: Introduction to CSS
• November 26-December 1: Nevada State Library Gates Workshops
  • 27: Computer Security (Salt Lake City)
  • 27: Setting up a WiFi Netowrk (Salt Lake City)
  • 28: Technical Support in Your Library (Salt Lake City)
  • 30: Computer Security (Moab)
  • 30: Setting up a WiFi Netowrk (Moab)
  • 01: Technical Support in Your Library (Moab)
• December 5-8: Iowa City Public Library
  • 6: Blogs (BCR Workshop)
  • 6: RSS (BCR Workshop)
  • 7: Podcasting 101 (BCR Workshop)
  • 7: Wikis (BCR Workshop)
  • 8: The Social Web (Staff in-service day)

Be The Lemur Librarian

The Mianatra Center for Lemur Studies is looking for a part-tim librarian. If that's not your style Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions is looking for a Chief Librarian to be stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Souls Alike

I have the greatest Best Friend ever! Wednesday I arived in Phoenix at 2:30 and had coffee w/ L. We then had some dinner and she took me to see the Souls Alike tour with Bonnie Raitt and Keb' Mo'. Keb' Mo' opened and played a full set. Bonnie joined him for one song at the end. After a short intermission, Bonnie Played a full set and Keb' Mo' joined her for a four song encore. As a special suprise, Jackson Brown showed up and joined both of them for a four-song second encore. It was a outdoor concert and the weather was absolutely perfect. We got back to her place about midnight, slept for about 4 hours, and I left for home at 6:35am Thursday morning. Now how's that for a birthday present?

Absolute Genius!

There's nothing like coming into work after a few days off to recharge (more about that later) and finding these two gems to make me love this profession.

The first is about John Blyberg and the Cherry Hill Public Library in new Jersey ripping every CD in the collection and making more then 49,000 songs available for patrons to listen to in the library. Yes, even those with laptops over the WiFi network! (John's Technical post and Michael Stephens' post with photos.)

The other item courtsey of Michael Stephens is the video from SJCPL's 2003 staff day. (Be sure to stay through the credits.)

Special day x2

Aye, don't forget, tis' Talk Like a Pirate Day. Tis' also my brother's birthday. Happy Birthday Matt, argh! "

Let the ninja write your text

The Ninja Text Generator

"Technology Giveth and Technology Taketh Away"

Cory Doctorow on DRM at the 2006 LIFT Conference

What is this library thing?

What is this library thing?
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

The Strange "Thing" needs identification. It is currently housed at Western State University in Gunnison, Colorado and they're looking for an answer. Both REAL answers and FUN answers are welcomed, and should be sent to Beth Avery.

Flickr photo use

I've been asked a few times for permission to reuse a flickr photo of mine for another publication. My CC license allows anyone to use my photos in a non-commercial way as long as they attribute the photo to me. If you want to use it for a commercial purpose, just ask, I'll probably say o.k. and not ask for any money. But, what happens when a photo is used in a commercial magazine, without permission, and without attribution. Lawrence Lessig has the story of one such flickr photo and Autoweek magazine.

Need some new wallpaper

Fall colors in Colorado
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

I'm not the best photographer in the world but I'm getting better. IMHO this is one of the best photos I've ever taken and if you're in need of some new desktop wallpaper feel free. (Just click on the photo, select "all sizes" and choose the size appropriate for your desktop.)

Ten Do's and Don'ts for Conference, Workshop, and Program Organizers

Last week the Liminal Librarian posted her Ten Do's and Don'ts for Conference, Workshop, and Program Organizers. As someone who has been doing presentations and workshops for the past ten years I can say that some hosts are better than others. (I am also not picking on anyone in particular!) To share one recent story, I was at a conference and there was a technology issue in which the security folks didn't want to allow me to hook up my laptop to their Internet connection. The on-site coordinator (someone who wasn't actually part of the conference but worked for the institution where the conference was being held) finally asked me "What do you need?" and was able to get me exactly what I needed to make my presentation not only easier for me, but better for the attendees. Now that's service!

Cory Doctorow takes on Amazon Unbox's license

Cory's review contains some strong language so you've been warned. He goes into detail section by section but here's his central argument:

"The difference between Amazon and Amazon Unbox is like night and day. When you sign onto Unbox, you sign away all the amazing customer rights that Amazon itself is so careful to protect. Amazon Unbox takes away your privacy and every conceivable consumer right you have, and then tells you that the goods you buy from them don't belong to you, and they can take them away from you at any time, or change the deal you get from them without any appeal by you."

Browser Wars: The Saga Continues

For those who weren't around for the browser wars here's a primer that goes all the way back to Mozilla v. Netscape and bring's everything up to date with Firefox 2.0 v. Internet Explorer 7.

Feelings

Sara Jane lives!

There's going to be a new Sarah Jane Smith special this fall on the BBC and then a new series in 2007. If you don't know who she is, you're probably not interested.

iTunes 7

iTunes 7 is now available for download from the Apple site. The "check for updates" feature in iTunes 6 keeps reporting that the update server is unresponsive so if you want it, a direct download may be our only option for the near future.

Book signing @ IL2006

Information Today, Inc. has asked me to do a book signing session for Blogging and RSS: A Librarian's Handbook at Internet Librarian! It's currently scheduled to happen in the Information Today, Inc. booth on Wednesday, October 25 from 12:15 to 1:45. Come by and say hi. Book purchase not required but strongly encouraged.

Live from the Steve Jobs Keynote

Engadget covered the "It's Showtime" keynote that finished within the past 1/2 hour. If you're wondering what's up with the iPod, iTunes, and the iTunes Store, this is the post you need to read. (My favorite part, iTunes 7 will give you album art for your music as long as you have an account. This includes music you imported yourself!)

Podcast icons

I once surfed for RSS icons and found more than 20 different ones regularaly used. Noticing that iTunes started using a new icon to represent podcasts I decided to take a look for those this time around. Here's seven. There were others but they were mostly variations on the ones reprinted here. So, what do you think? Which do you feel should be the standard?

The iTunes Store is being updated.

I've moved my iTunes folder off the network to my now-larger hard drive (more about that later) so I had to resubscribe to some of my podcasts. Unfortunately, the iTunes store seems to be down. My guess is that they're prepping the system for the soon-to-be-released movie downloads.

New YouTube Player

It looks liek YouTube has improved it's player again. The one thing I did notice worth mentioning is the fact that the embedded player (left image below) is different from the player used on the YouTube site (right image below). On the site you get time information and the ability to control the player's volume. In the embedded player there's only a mute button and no time information.

Casino Royale Trailer

The full trailer for Casino Royale is now up on AOL.

Airport Wireless Internet Access Guide

Airport Wireless Internet Access Guide
The definitive guide to US airport wireless connections and free airport wifi

Welcome to TravelPost.com's definitive, comprehensive guide to airport wireless connections in the USA. From top US airports like Atlanta Hartsfield International to smaller airports like El Paso International, we provide the most complete listing of wireless Internet access, service providers, airport coverage areas and Internet subscription pricing plans available. With TravelPost.com's guide to airport wifi, travelers can easily determine which airports offer wireless Internet access and which airports offer free wireless high speed Internet access.

If you are considering a subscription to a wireless Internet service plan through providers like T-Mobile, Verizon, Boingo and AT&T, use this guide to find the service provider that best meets your needs based on which airports you use and your pricing and access requirements. Provided with each airport is a link to the TravelPost.com hotel directory for travelers to find hotels with wireless Internet access.

Enjoy this free service for travelers provided by TravelPost.com"

Fired from MSNBC

MSNBC has fired Eric Alterman but he's allowed to give his response on his MSNBC blog.

FrontPage's Replacement: Expression

Microsoft has released beta 1 of the Microsoft Expression Web Designer, the follow-up to FrontPage. I've installed and played with it a little bit and here's my initial reactions:

The interface is nice and easily understood after about five minutes of poking around. I especially like the ability to split the screen between code and WYSIWYG editing.

With Microsoft's "we write good clean code now" push, a validator is included in Expression. The validator does allow you to choose which level of "compatibility" you would like to test against.

The list of validation errors appears below. In this example, since I was validating against XHTML 1.0 Transitional, it did tell me that the legacy FrontPage Webbot in my code may cause problems. Bravo!

The menu-based CSS editing will take me a bit of getting used to since I'm comfortable writing CSS by hand. I can see this being very useful to someone new to CSS.

The new "Optimize HTML" feature seems useful but I've not played with it yet.

Expression's "Preview in Browser" feature is flexible. It auto-detects which browsers are on your computer and you can set up different preview types including multiple browsers in a specific resolution.

Expression still works with servers that have the FrontPage extensions installed but it doesn't seem to have a built in FTP and/or SFTP client allowing me to easily access sites on non-FrontPage servers. (I've got just one site I work on that is still on a FrontPage server.) I'm not planning on moving from HTML-Kit to Expression until I see what the actual cost will be (or maybe if I get it for free as part of some Office upgrade). Overall though, it does seem to be leaps and bounds ahead FrontPage and Microsoft deserves kudos for this product.

9/11

OneGoodMove.org has John Stewart's first post-9/11 broadcast. Watch it again if you've seen it before.

MyWetStuff.com review

Two weeks ago I mentioned MyWetStuff.com, a new service for travelers that allows them to order personal care items online (the stuff that you can't bring in a carry-on any more) and have those items delivered directly to their hotel. The site was giving out the first $1,000,000 worth of items for free (with a limit of $15 per customer). I decided to try it out and here's my review:

I had signed up in advance and finally received an e-mail with a link letting me that the service was up and running. The first 12-hours worth of attempts to get into the system failed as the site seemed to have crashed. (Unfortunately, I didn't get any screenshots of that.) Finally that evening the site was working again and I was asked to sign up for an account. Quickly I realized that I was going to end up reviewing their site's usability as much, if not more, than the service as I had originally intended.

While registering for my account I was asked to enter a password. As I typed in the password I wanted to use for the first time, an alert window informed me that I had "exceeded the maximum number of characters allowed."

My typical password length is ten characters but since I was typing it quickly, I had no idea how many over the limit I had gone. Besides, there was nothing on the screen indicating that there was a limit. So, I backspaced to the clear the field, and this time typed slowly and counted my keystrokes. Turns out that the ninth keystroke triggered the alert so eight characters was the limit. I completed the form with my new, less secure password and clicked the button to submit my account information. I received the following response: "passwords must be between 6 and 8 digits long and must include at least one numeric digit"

At this point there are several problems the least of which is the lack of any capitalization or punctuation in this message. Next up the scale is the fact that I'm wondering what a non-numeric digit is. Most importantly, why wasn't I given this information on the previous page? Had I know this, I wouldn't have to repeat the process or even get the alert I'd received on the previous page. (In my defense, the eight character password I'd selected included a "$" which didn't seem to be good enough for this system.)

I chose a password for the third time and finally had my account and could finally start shopping.

The selection at this time is minimal but there were enough of the basics in the system for me to be able to choose some toothpaste, hair gel, and deodorant. (I'm a guy, shopping for this stuff is not all that difficult or time consuming.)

I added all three items to my shopping cart (grand total of $0.00 since I had a free $15 and the total was a very reasonable $3.40) and headed for checkout. Next I'm asked for the address of my hotel so the items can be shipped to the correct location and arrive on the same day I do.

Then I'm asked for my credit card information.

For a moment I'm confused. Isn't this going to be free? The screen doesn't say why the need the information (shouldn't it?) but I guess that the shipping's not free so I go ahead and fill in my information.

I'm right, shipping's not free but how much could it possibly cost to pack and ship three trial-sized personal care items? Turns out it'll cost me $13.50! What, are they using FedEx overnight to ship this stuff? Wouldn't the postal service work just fine? This stuff isn't going to go bad in the few days it'll take. Needless to say, I didn't complete the order. I'll check my bag.

Wikipedia Wins Users and Critics

Also from NPR, they covered Wikiepdia (yet again) this morning on All Things Considered in a bit titled Wikipedia Wins Users and Critics

"Wikipedia is the ever-evolving work of hundreds-of-thousands of volunteer writers and editors who range from high school students to academic scholars. This leaves the online encyclopedia open to criticism and ridicule. That doesn't seem to stop people from using the site as a source for knowledge. Jenny Lawton of Chicago Public Radio reports."

USB Security Risk

For the record, I've never sais that USB drives weren't secuirty risks at all, just that with a little planning and smarts, you could minimize the risk to near zero. The latest episode of Hak.5 shows you how to make a jump drive that, when plugged in, can steal your Windows password in less than a few seconds. (It's about 1/2 way through the episode.) However, that computer must be running in administrator mode, which, none of your public computers are doing, right?

Life in the Commonwealth

This past Friday NPR broadcast a commentary titled "Life in the Commonwealth".

"Maybe it's a good thing that libraries exist today because with our attitude we would never start them today."

Armageddon's Children by Terry Brooks - Autographed for you

I'm selling a copy of the latest Terry Brooks novel on eBay. If you win, I'll get it autographed for you. It would be a perfect Christmas gift. Hurry, the auction ends Tuesday.

White & Nerdy

This may not be legal but Weird Al's White & Nerdy (mp3) is just too funny to keep to myself.

Cartoon

via gapingvoid

Downloadable Doctor Who

I havn't blogges about Amazon.com's downloadable video service Unbox yet and I wasn't planning to until I say that they are offering a limited number of Doctor Who episodes (the original 1963-1989 series). I ove the fact that they're doing this but if you look at the details, the downloads (good for 30 days worth of viewing) are $1.99 each. That's $1.99 per 25 minute episode of which 4-6 episodes typically formed a complete story. So, at a minimum, you're looking at $8-12 for a 1:30-2:15 show. That's a bit high in my opinion.

Flickr: The Catalog Cards Pool

If you're playing with the Catalog Card Generator please submit your work to the Catalog Cards Pool.

X-Treme Patron Counting

No matter how cool a people counter ever can be, must it really be marked as the "Peoplecounter X-Treme™"?

Bloglines problem #2

Bloglines problem #2
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

As a follow-up to my recent post regarding one problem I'm having with Bloglines, here's another one. In this case, when I click on a folder that contains multiple feeds with unread items instead of getting a display of the unread items, I get just a list of the feeds that have unread items. If I click on a folder that contains unread items from just one feed, it works as it should.

Catalog Card Generator

I'm a little behind on blogging this one but John's at it again. Go retro by creating your own library catalog cards online, scribbles included.

Put a lid on it!

Drinks
Originally uploaded by cjmoss1.

For those that feel I only like pointing out "bad" library signs, here's a wonderful recent addition to the Library Signage pool. Its user friendly, a great play on words, but let's everyone know what the rules are.

Dylan on iTunes

You may have heard that you can get the new Bob Dylan album via iTunes. But did you know you can get Bob Dylan: The Collection from iTunes. Every (52) live and studio album, 773 tracks including 42 "rare" tracks, and a 100-page booklet for $199.99. If you have iTunes installed here's a link to the store.

Battlestar Galactica Webisodes

Yes, if you miss an episode the Battlestar Galactica videos page has an archive.
Thanks librarywebchic

Write consistent policies

CIPA Presentation 10
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

I just finished up an Infopeople presentation on CIPA and DOPA and this was the most interesting slide/topic discussed. For years now I've been pointing out to libraries that may have inconsistent polices and that is exactly what this slide addressed. The presenter pointed out that many libraries who fiter also have adopted the library bill of rights. However, LBR says that the library does not descriminate based on age yet the filtering system does exactly that. A great point! Do you filter based on age? If you do, then you're in conflict with LBR...

Blogs & RSS book update

Just got the following e-mail from my editor at Information Today. (Names obscured to protect the guilty.)

Actually, the book is shipping to the indexer tomorrow, which means it should be heading to the printer in about 3 weeks. That means were looking at publication during the last week of October/first week of November.

Also, just to let you know, we received some great blurbs from SA, BD, and SJ-S that we'll be using on the cover and in marketing materials.

Seating Chart

Seating Chart
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Will someone please tell me where the aisle is in this plane?

Bloglines problem

Bloglines problem
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

I've been having a problem with Bloglines lately and I wonder if I'm the only one. As illustrated in the attached screenshot, I have feeds in which I'm marked one or more items as "keep new" and that is accurately reflected in the feed's title on the left. However, when I open that feed, the kept items are not being displayed. Am I alone? Is there a solution?

Screencast #1: BlogThis!

I finally figured out my code probkem when it came to embedding a flash movie into a Web page. (librarywebchic helped but the solution was actually something stupid-simple that I missed.) Anyway, it, and future ones can be found on my newley created screencasts page.

Why Bittorrent Works

If you're familiar with Bittorrent but aren't sure how or why it's different from other P2P technologies check out Why Bittorrent Works from Torrentfreak.

Linux on USB

Feather Linux "is a Linux distribution which runs completely off a CD or a USB pendrive and takes up under 128Mb of space. It is a Knoppix remaster (based on Debian), and tries to include software which most people would use every day on their desktop." Anyone want to donate a 128MB jump drive for me to play with?

LibraryThing and your library, part 3

Karen's going nuts with this and I love it! He place of work, the Southwest Iowa Library Service Area is now using the LibraryThing blog widget as is the Atlantic Public Library. I'm wondering about the phrase "my library" which is automatically being generates by the widget as it doesn't work all that well in a library situation. I'm going to work with Karen and the folks at LibrayThing to see if we can get that tweaked.

Amazon RSS

Amazon RSS
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

I went to the Amazon.com homepage this evening and what do I find? An RSS feed for my plog. (O.k. I hate that they call it a "plog" but the fact that I can get it as an RSS feed suddenly makes me much more likely to read its content.)

LibraryThing & Your Library (Update)

After the LibraryThing blog pointed out that their blog widget (previously unknown to those involved) would be a better solution than running their RSS through FeedRoll, the Shenandoah Public Library site is now using said widget. This now allows them to show cover images and limit to particular tags should the need arise. (Similar use of the widget are forthcoming on the Creston Public Library and the Southwestern Community College LRC sites.)

See, all you need is a good idea and the right person to be passionate about it and things do start to happen.

Web standards?

Sushi Den
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Here's proof that a Web site can follow "Web standards" (they say so in their code: "Sorry, this site's design is only visible in a graphical browser that supports web standards, but its content is accessible to any browser or Internet device.") but still not allow people access to their site. This is yet another site that won't let me do something because I have a .info at the end of my e-mail address.

Free coffee @ Caribou this Friday.

Bring in this Starbucks coupon to your local Caribou coffee this Friday and they'll honor it. No, I'm not kidding. Here's the story.

Your library and LibraryThing

Shenandoah Public Library
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

The Shenandoah Public Library (Shenandoah, IA) now has a LibraryThing account. Using their account's recently-added books RSS feed and FeedRoll, they're publishing a list of thier new books on the library's home page. They've only added two books to their account so far, but you've got to start somewhere.

This is the result of Karen's hard work and enthusiasam.

SpeedTest.net

SpeedTest.net
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

SpeedTest.net is "a general use broadband connection testing site with many geographically dispersed servers to test against. Here we plan to demonstrate and beta test our latest Ookla Speed Test creations such as latency, jitter, client location and distance to server calculations. Test your connection anytime and even store your results for future reference." If nothing else, it's cool to watch for those that miss watching the little blocks move around while defragging their hard drive. (Sorry, it only takes about 30 seconds to complete a test.)

Homo Conexus

Technology Review has an interesting article by James Fallows on what happens when "A veteran technology commentator attempts to live entirely on Web 2.0 for two weeks." It's also a great introduction for those still not sure what this whole "Web 2.0" this is about.
Thanks Rosario

BCR 2.0

BCR (MPOW) launched its new Web site this morning and the recently launched BCReview is now a blog powered by Blogger. Be sure to check it out and send any comments that you may have on the new look.

Why you should post your photos to flickr, part 2

Gene Leahy Mall
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Previouslt I posted about Library Journal asking to reprint one of my flickr photos in their September 15th issue. (Nope, it's not out yet.) Today, I received an e-mail from the folks at Schmap notifying me that one of photos (shown in this post) has been "shortlisted" for inclusion in their Omaha, NE travel guide.

I give all of my flickr photos a cc license so you don't need to ask to reuse one of my photos as long as you follow the license. What I did appreciate is the fact that I was notified and asked my permission anyway. They've also said that they'll notify me whether I get in and will give me the appropriate credit. So, please, use my photos, just let me know and link back to the original in flickr. Thanks!

Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance

The SciFi Channel's Web site is hosting ten mini-episodes ("webisodes") titled "Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance" every Tuesday and Thursday though September leading up to the premier of Season 3 on October 5th. Episode #1 is up today.

Star Wars side-by-side

With the release of the original theatrical versions of the original Star Wars trilogy (yes, Han shot first) coming on September 12th, the folks at StarWars.com have set up slide shows of more than 150 images per movie showing the changes made from the original to the special editions. The comparisons of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back are online but the Return of the Jedi comparison doesn't seem to be available yet.

iScorch

So, you've found yourself at a concert sans lighter and cell phone but you do happen to have your video iPod with you. You can still salute during your favorite power ballad with iScorch. (I wish I was making this up!)

Bruce Hornsby on NPR

A 90-minute Bruce Hornsby concert was recently broadcast on NPR's Talk of the Nation. The full show is available for streaming from the NPR site. If you're a Hornsby fan this is a must hear as non of the songs he plays are the versions you're used to hearing on the radio.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

Someone finally notices that "bohemian" and "bo-heman" we seperated bu just one letter... The result is The Bo-Heman Rhapsody:

Google Image Labeler

Google Image Labeler is you doing work to "improve" Google image search results in the form of a game. You are paired with another "player" and you're both shown the same image. You then proceed to enter keywords that you feel describe the image. (Sounds like tagging to me.) If you match a term that your partner also entered, you both "win" and that word gets added to the search index for that image. I played a few times and it was sun at first but got old quickly.

Filling a niche

I just found MyWetStuff.com. (Get your mind out of the gutter!)

When MyWetStuff.com launches at 12:01 am (EDT) on Tuesday, September 5, 2006, travelers will for the first time be able to pre-order trial sizes of their favorite liquid-based toiletries and travel amenities, and have their personal selections waiting for them at the hotel when they check in.

I usually check my luggage but for short trips it does seem like a pain sometimes. Since the first 70,000 people who try the service will get $15 worth of free stuff I've signed up and plan on trying it for a 2.5-day trip to Idaho in early October. I promise to report the resuts of my inital test.

Audio mashup

I'm not sure which impresses me more, the fact they someone came up with the idea to mashup the themes from The Simpsons and from Star Trek, or the fact that he decided to do it with a keyboard, a funnel, and a thermin...

My Busy Day

Backroom Disaster (3)
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Yesterday I decided to take a day off from BCR, sleep in, get some stuff done around the house, have lunch with my SO, then head over to the Friends bookstore (which I manage for those of you who don't already know that) and shelve the new paperback Science Fiction and Fantasy books. Instead, I got a call at 8:55am from the board president saying that there was a problem at the store with the new shelving and that I needed to come over right away. What I arrived to find is pictured here.

It seems that we weren't very smart about filling our new 7' double-sided shelving unit. The thing is stable enough assuming you balance the load. We, on the other hand, put too many books on the one side and not enough on the other. Overnight gravity decided to raise its ugly head. Luckily, since it did happen over night, no one was around to be underneath the resulting pile.

All of the shelves survived, but the eight of the end pieces that hold the shelves to the uprights will need to be replaced. (A few close-ups of the damage can be found in my flickr account. Just click on the photo in this post.)

Should we have added additional anchors to the shelving? Of course. We've got more shelving on the way and we've already talked to the plaza's maintenance guy. He's got a plan to run beams from the shelving to the walls to give us the needed stability. Still, we'll not put as many books on the shelves as we have previously.

As far as I could tell, we only had to get rid of one book due to damage from the collapse, and that was a book that wasn't in very good shape to begin with.

A Blog Day thank you

I missed Blog Day yesterday. (I was a bit busy which I'll explain in a later post.) However, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Phyllis for linking to this blog in her Blog Day post.