8-bit trip

2006 Arizona Breast Cancer 3-Day

From my best friend. Please help.

Hi, all. It's the time of year again where I start walking my little size 5 sneakers off at dawn. I'm participating in the 3-day walk to raise funds for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. For those of you who remember from last year (and those of you who don't), this is a 3-day, 60-mile total walk through the Phoenix area with thousands of other participants. Each walker commits to a minimum fundraising goal, then walks the 60 miles (an average of 20 miles per day over 3 days, for the math-phobic set) to show support for this cause. It's a heck of walk, but last year was a great experience and my supporters raised over $2,100 for the foundation!

Please join me in the fight against breast cancer by supporting my fundraising efforts. You can click on the link below to find my 3-day homepage and see Gwynneth's rendition of me as a Lego 3-day walker! Please donate anything you can. Even a little bit helps. (For the supporters who know me from MathCounts, that's 21 donations of $100 each, or 42 donations of $50 each, or 105 donations of $20 each....) !

Thank you! The Phoenix walk this year is November 3-5. Even if you can't donate, please come out and show your support for all the men and women giving their time (and their feet) to fight breast cancer. !

Follow this link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support The Breast Cancer 3-Day.

CIL2006: The Web 2.0 Challence to Libraries

Paul Miller, Technology Evangelist, Talis
3:15-4:00pm

• Topics
• libraries - trusted but bypassed online
• reaching out from the library
• a library 2.0 platform
• shared innovation
• The reality gap
• how do people find stuff?
• Google
• How else do people find stuff?
• Google toolbar
• Google desktop
• Google embedded in Web sites
• Some library background
• Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources (OCLC)
• Understanding the Audience (UK)
• Basic Library Statistics (CLIFA)
• Active borrowers going down since 1999
• but people visit libraries
• 96% of people asked had been to a library in some point in their life
• Visits to libraries are up
• Visits per borrower are up
• people gon online in libraries
• 21% local library for Net access, 80% at home (UK)
• but 46% know they can go to the library for Net access
• 5% perfer the library, 3% on a mobile device
• 19% would use library if they decided to go online
• "Build it an they will come" myth
• Do people trust libraries? (UK)
  
• 89% trust libraries
• 84% BBC
• So, what went wrong online?
• 27% said visited public library Web site
• Long list of databases, pick one...
• The "competition"
• Web 2.0 logo graphic
• Innovative
• relevant
• cool
• nimble
• participatice
• user centric
• responsive
• The Web 2.0 Companies
• Library 2.0 - Talis white paper in conference package
• Library 2.0
• open the library
• push the library everywhere
• engage with actual and potential user communities
• disaggregate library systems...
• ...and bring them together
• shared innovation
• "The library system should be like Lego"
• Talking With Talis podcast
• Library 2.0 Gang
• Doing it on their own...
• WPopac
• Greasemonkey - Amazon.com checking your local library (University of Huttersfield)
• www.daveyp.com/blog/
• Jacket images
  
• vielmetti.typepad.com/superpatron
• Card Catalog
• www.aadl.org/catalog
• Doing it together...
• share a platform
• nurture a community
• Introducing the Platform
• Why a platform
• most effecient use of development copabilities
• lowers barrier to entry
• offers evolutionary path
• crosses vendor divides
• exposes libraries to wider world, significantly increasing visibility
• Characteristics of the platform
• consistent exposure of data
• consistent access to data
• consistent exposure of function
• consistent access to functionality
• shared components, shared esperiences
• shared innovation
• open
• collaborative
• standards and specs
  
• functionality and data
• hides complexty
• reduced cost and risk
• Image of Talis platform (whitepapers available)
  
• Leveraging the Platform
• Amazon example showing box that shows multiple libraries that have the book, linking through to the correct catalog
• A platform of loosely coupled components
• Talis Base (example)
• Web services
• Book jackets from Amazon
• Amazon prices
• library holdings
• links to library catalogs
• A Public view?
• Whisper (proof of concept)
• research.talis.com/2005/whisper/
• library info, Google, Amazon
• Much is possible...
• RedLightGreen
• UCD Connect
• Libraries on a map a la Google maps
• My Amazon widget
• Talis Whisper widget for library holdings
• Stepping back...
• Fuzzing out congress on Google Maps
• National libraries in the world (Talis Whisper)
• Working together
• Talis: Shared Innovation
  
• Creative Commons licence
• DIscussion threads
• Documentation
• Contribute code
• Share ideas, experiences, code
• make it your own
• share innovation
• Conclustions
• the librray deservice to reach beyond its walls
• vendor- and library-initated silos just don't make sense
• current business models? ("because that's the way it's always been done")
  
• challenge all assumptions
• share innovation

The Brick Testament

The Brick Testament is the Bible done in lego. I wonder when they'll get to the Gospel of Judas.
Thanks mom

Seek And Ex-Termi-nate!

Seek And Ex-Termi-nate!
Originally uploaded by Kaptain Kobold.

I Lego Dalek! Ah, to have all the necessary parts...

Star Wars LEGOs

Can it get any cooler than this?

• Millennium Falcon
• Death Star II
• Imperial Star Destroyer

Side note:
Here's a screwed upsearch box from the LEGO site

Lego church

This 7 feet by 5 1/2 feet by 30 inches Lego church has been making the e-mail rounds the past few days. Here's the original site for your visual entertainment and amazement.
Thanks L!

Lego Computer

Well, the case is made of Lego, the innards are still what you'd expect.

Build your own Death Star

Not only does this look like fun but also quite complicated as it's the incomplete Death Star. There's also a Millennium Falcon that would be a lot of fun to build.

Lego theatre at it's finest

Haven’t seen Spider-Man 2 yet? Check out Spider-Man: The Peril of Doc Ock".

The ultimate lego kit

I want one of these!

More lego friends

Laura's daughter Gwynneth has made herself up in Lego. (I added the trombone.)

 

Lego laura

Here she is. My best friend Laura done in Lego. (She is cute, isn't she ;-) Send me yours and I just might post it here.

Blog updates

A Splendor of Letters : The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World
by Nicholas A. Basbanes

I've begun to customize this blog just a little more today. First is me as a lego character off to the right (in the default page style.) Click on the image to build your own. Second, below the links are is a "visual styles" area. Try 'Darkness' and let me know what you think. (Should work on all current browsers.) Lastly, I've been trying to come up with a more unique way to feature book covers. Here's what I've come up with so far: