RE: Twitter

via Gaping Void

This cartoon made me think of Twitter

via gapingvoid

Stick Library

What do you get when you cross a library school student and an obsession with doodling?

Thanks Sarah

Cartoon

via gapingvoid

Saturday Morning Cartoon

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

The devolution of the office

Here's how my afternoon's going

See the rest of the story @ mcstrick's blog. (Site contains brief adult language and some cartoon nudity.)

Conference speakers

Does this cartoon from gapingvoid resonate with you?

Political Cartoon

Political Cartoon
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

IL05: Wednesday Keynote

Google Print: Making the Virtual World Real

Rich Wiggins, Michigan State University

• Cartoon: Why Google must never be bought by Microsoft
• The idea: The library of congress metaphor
• Schoolgirl in Carthage, TN accessing the contents of LoC (Al Gore)
• Other projects
• Small group of items, digitize it all
• Words & songs of Woddie Guthrie
• Library of the first ladies
• Worthwhile
• Extends access to all web users
• Preserves fragile content
• Why not all of LoC?
• LoC numbers
• What are you measuring
• What resolution
• What color depth
• What format
• LoC books only
• 20-28 million itmes
• 2-7 million unqiqe bound volumes
• 17-20 terabytes
• The idea
• Disk is cheap
• Digital imaging is getting cheaper
• Broadband is relatively cheap
• Labor can be relatively cheap
• Automation can help
• The germ of the idea
• Technology is rapidly improving
• Flatbed scanner is the wrong tool
• Cost
• Aprox 0.05 or 0.01 per page/image
• $10-12/hour labor, mileage, meals, lodging
• Digitize the LoC
• Aprox $2.5 billion dollars
• OCR
• Getting better and faster
• Digitize it now, OCR on demand
• Storage costs are plummeting
• RAID arrays
• Under 50 cents per gigabyte
• Inventory/cataloging costs
• Physical shelf space, $40/item
• If it’s worth purchasing, it’s worth digitizing
• Barrier: Rights Management
• Once digitized, can we deliver it?
• The paradox of latent value
• Aprox 1/3 of LoC print collection is now in the public domain
• Barrier: “The benefit doesn’t justify the cost”
• It’s more cost effective to digitize everything than “just the good stuff”
• Encourages preservation
• Deacidification
• Fire, digital is backup
• Benefit: access
• Benefit: Improved digitizing technology
• The “ideal” book scanner
• Benefit: Standards
• Open XML
• Cross document metadata
• Benefits: Large-Scale Rights Management
• 20 million volume collection will force the issue of fair use
• Today, Disney defines fair use
• Digital library projects: Think Big!
• Google project teaches this
• Apollo Program Analogy
• Google’s vision will be realized by a forward thinking company and not the government
• Why trust Google
• They’re smart
• They’re agile and innovative
• They show no fear
• They’re worth $100 billion
• They won’t do this alone

Google: Catalyst for Digitization or Library Destruction?

Roy Tennant

Roy: More access is better. Easier access is better. There’s more room for players and that’s a good thing. It’s good that Google is digitizing things. There’s room for everyone to be involved.

• Cartoon: Google, Devil or Merely Evil?
• Scary monster #1: A Copyright Cataclysm
• Libraries have long enjoyed “fair use” protection
• Google’s attempt to shield themselves under fair use may ruin it for us all
• Scary monster #2: Closed Access to Open Material
• They’re probably going to fix this problem
• Google print copies are locked to certain ones from certain publishers
• Public domain books are locked into showing just a certain number of pages
• Link to buy book but no link to the library
• Scary monster #3: Blind Wholesale Digitization
• Large research collections are not weeded by policy
• “We keep all kinds of crap”
• Outdated material
• “no more a good thing than buying books based on color”
• Copyright will restrict access to up-to-date, recent material
• Users will end up with the old crap since it’s more available
• Open Content Alliance is focusing on collections
• Scary monster #4: Ads
• Most g]Google profit coming from ads
• Needs eyeballs
• Ads for antidepressants next to Hamlet
• Viagra next to Lolita
• They’re responsible to their stockholders, not the public
• Scary monster #5: Secrecy
• Agreements between Google and libraries have mostly been kept secret
• The libraries could not talk to each other
• U of Mich revealed after FOIA request
• OCA is more open
• Rumors indicate UM has best agreement from lib perspective, others have less favorable agreements
• But we don’t know, nobody’s talking
• Scary monster #6: Longevity
• Google, Enron, WorldCom in common?
• Public companies motivated by profit
• Two are now gone
• Size doesn’t not shield you
• What do Google and libraries have in common
• Both on Earth
• Harvard library, 400 years old
• Google 7 years old
• Who should we trust?

Adam Smith, Product Manager for Google Print and Google Scholar

• Welcome all comments, it’s what makes our products better
• Better to have the information out there to see how people use and access it
• Walk a difficult path to make many parties happy
• Want to make the information accessible – at least discoverable
• Copyright is an issue
• This is just a small piece of the puzzle as ambitious as this project sounds
• Welcome other efforts and they’re positive for the community
• Publisher program uses a destructive scanning technology
• Library version is non-destructive, they created it, and secret
• New version of Google privacy policy has just been released

Defragging your hard drive

I'll be using this Dilbert cartoon in all my future Tech Support on the Fly workshops. (During which I teach defrag.)

I'm just a bit, yes I'm only a bit

If you haven't heard yet, Hitachi has announced "perpendicular" hard drives will allow for terabyte drives, without a size increase, by 2007. Lucky for us, they've put together a flash cartoon, a la Schoolhouse Rock, explaining the technology.

The Big Cartoon DataBase

Trying to figure out the name of that hairy red monster that appeared in just two Bugs Bunny cartoons? (Gossamer) Check out The Big Cartoon DataBase
Thanks Steve

Who's on first?

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's famous sketch "Who's on first?" Might have turned out something like this If done in 2004

COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT.

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.

ABBOTT: Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look in the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What have you got?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommend something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!

ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.

COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, lets just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: Word in Office.

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W".

COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start with some straight answers. OK, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet?

ABBOTT: Yes, you want Real One.

COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of your business. Just tell me what I need!

ABBOTT: Real One.

COSTELLO: If it's a long movie I also want to see reel 2, 3 &4. Can I watch them?

ABBOTT: Of course.

COSTELLO: Great! With what?

ABBOTT: Real One.

COSTELLO: OK, I'm at my computer and I want to watch a movie. What do I do?

ABBOTT: You click the blue "1".

COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?

ABBOTT: The blue "1".

COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue w?

ABBOTT: The blue "1" is Real One and the blue "W" is Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: But there's three words in "office for windows"!

ABBOTT: No, just one. But it's the most popular Word in the world.

COSTELLO: It is?

ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren't many other Words left. It pretty much wiped out all the other Words out there.

COSTELLO: And that word is real one?

ABBOTT: Real One has nothing to do with Word. Real One isn't even part of Office.

COSTELLO: STOP! Don't start that again. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer

COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?

ABBOTT: One copy.

COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy money.

COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

A FEW DAYS LATER .

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?

ABBOTT: Click on "START"..........

Thanks to Karen Burns

Technology: anything invented after you were born

Today's Boondocks cartoon reminded me of this past Christmas. Remember when you were a kid and once the opening of presents on Christmas morning was over usually mom and/or dad had to put together at least oneof your toys for you? Well, this past Christmas, once all of the presents were opened, I spent part of the afternoon putting together my parent's new toys. (My dad got a CD-RW drive and my mom got a "magic box" that allowed the computer to read the cards for her sewing machine.)

If homeland security did computer security

This User Friendly cartoon is just hillarious!