Are libraries and librarians willing to support initiative to provide weblog support for their community? The University of Minnesota Libraries think so: “It is our goal to develop a blog server through which everyone in the university community (faculty, staff, and student) can have access to their own individual blog” (University of Minnesota Libraries, accessed…
Super-volcano, robotic rebellion or terrorism? Kate Ravilious asks 10 scientists to name the biggest danger to Earth and assesses the chances of it happening. —What a way to go (Guardian) Just in case you’ve gotten lax and started feeling optimistic or something, and you were planning to get a good 8 hours sleep tonight, this…
Although not traditionally the domain of special collections, I have chosen to use the donation to create a new collection in the area of interactive fiction, specializing in the early works published by Infocom. Interactive fiction is a genre of computer game that is more literary than most computer and video games popular today. Also…
How can I get rid of That Old Typewriter Smell? Hey, some of us like it! But we’re perverse … Seriously, it’s a common problem, especially with portables–and if you’re allergic to mold, it can be a real health hazard. Yes, the smell is caused primarily by mold, combined with decades of dust and cigarette…
He escaped Hitler’s Germany and devoted the rest of his life to humanitarian and pacifist causes with an authority unmatched by any scientist today, or even most politicians and religious leaders. He used his celebrity to speak out against fascism, racial prejudice and the McCarthy hearings. His FBI file ran 1,400 pages. His letters reveal…
Here’s what you can do with a text book: read it. You can also lose it, rip the pages out, deface the cover, and generally abuse it until it has to be replaced. But as far as a delivery vehicle for content goes, you can basically only consume it by reading it. Here’s what you…
Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time…
How hard is this to hack? The first observation is that the system is entirely manual, making it immune to the sorts of technological attacks that make modern voting systems so risky. The second observation is that the small group of voters — all of whom know each other — makes it impossible for an…
“Certainly, I didn’t do as much as I should have after all the excitement of the late 1990s. I suspect many of you in this room did the same, quietly hoping that this thing called the digital revolution would just limp away.” —Rupert Murdoch, “old media” mogul. —News must adapt to web, says Murdoch (Guardian)…
I don’t believe that the internet is a leveller of genders. In fact, in many cases, it seems to be the opposite. I spend a lot of time on IRC (internet relay chat), where my IRC nick is not gender-neutral. On many occasions I have joined IRC channels to ask technical questions, and have encountered…
Simply counting the volume of conversations and comments and the number of trackbacks is one indication of the size and scope of the network surrounding your blog. Whether or not those comments are in agreement or disagreement requires content analysis, but presumably positive or neutral comments would be indicative of a healthy relationship between the…
Six Apart plans to release version 3.16 of Movable Type this Monday, April 18. The new release includes over 100 bug fixes and improvements including significant security fixes making this a must-have for all Movable Type installations. —Movable Type 3.16 on the way (neil’s world) Aah, phooey… just this afternoon I finally upgraded from MT 2.65…
First of all there are two categories of blogs. One is the traditional web-log where a web surfer shares his online discoveries. And the second is the web diary where person shares his or her thoughts of the day. —John C. Dvorak —Understanding and Reading a Blog (for Newcomers) (Dvorak.org) Interesting… Dvorak uses the masculine pronoun…
Young women and mothers with the distinctive headscarves share the pedestrian areas with blond girls in leather jackets and jeans. Sometimes you see girlfriends walking arm in arm, one demurely wearing the headscarf and the other letting her hair go free to drive men wild with passion. Rebecca West wrote in the 1930s of the…
Wireless internet is an idea that first formulated back during the Cold War. It was a young Al Gore who first was struck in the head by an apple (much like Sir Newton, except this apple was thrown at Gore by Ollie North). Mr. Gore said to himself, in a very slow and monotonous tone,…
Since my graduate school background is in literature rather than composition studies, I may be stumbling along a well-trod path, but a conversation I had with a colleague in the hall lit off a lightbulb in my head. Today in my Seminar in Thinking and Writing class (our version of freshman comp), students shared sample…
I spent quite a bit of time sorting through (and adding to) my collection of blogging-related bookmarks. Several of these have been linked here previously, but I thought it would be useful to compile them for easy reference. Here, for example is a (perhaps somewhat arbitrary) collection of blog criticisim links… —William Cole —Blogging Workshop (Donut…
In the spirit of endism, here’s a list of all the forms of major media and how they’re trending. Make of it what you will. Flat to Down to Way Down: Music: sales last year were down 21% from their peak in 1999 Television: network TV’s audience share has fallen by a third since 1985…
When people don’t fill out forms, they often use the excuse that it’s too much work. Consider how to encourage them with negative or positive incentives. The IRS appears to have entirely solved this problem, too. Once again, the key comes from the close relationship with the criminal justice system that the IRS enjoys. Willful…
Although a failed business enterprise, Laurel‘sPurple Moon seemed to do exactly what it had planned — hit it off with girls. Her idea that games should consist of relationships, values such as loyalty, love, and courage, and conflicts such as jealousy, cheating, exclusion, racism, materialism, and broken homes seems worthwhile, but as a young girl…