Early April Fool's post
Ha-ha! That's the joke, there is no post! Hahahaha!! Okay, just kidding.
From Wired: the Top 10 April Fool's Pranks for Nerds.
Enjoy! And happy Friday.
March 28, 2008
March 19, 2008
Arthur C. Clarke's farewell message
Sir Arthur C. Clarke passed away yesterday at 90. I well remember reading Childhood's End for the first time, and will never, ever forget that first amazing time I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. This last video message was recorded for his 90th birthday and is a reflection on his life, and his hopes for the future of our world. He was a remarkable man, and lived to see many of things he first wrote about as science fiction become reality. This last message is well worth a listen.
Thanks, Sir Arthur, for all the wonderful words and ideas you gave the world, and bon voyage!
February 10, 2008
Plastic bags begone!
It's about all those plastic bags. Charging for plastic bags (currently illegal in California) is a growing way of trying to get people to stop using them. Germany charges about a dollar for one, Ireland about 30 cents, Ikea a nickel, Whole Earth takes a nickel off for each one you don't use.
Remembering to bring along your recyclable bags (often forgotten at home or in the trunk of your car) is a habit it's hard to get into.
I've found a great item that goes with me all the time - an ultra-compact bag. I've been using my Chicobag for more than a year now and it's still in perfect shape. I found it in a local store but it turns out it (and other brands) are available online. The Chicobag site (that's Chico, CA) has a nice section on using them for fundraisers.
February 3, 2008
Dead Catalog Cards Rebirth
Staff at the University of Iowa Libraries have collected artists' use of cards from the now defunct card catalogs - "A small community of library staff—motivated by both nostalgia and library subculture-- has come together to give the card catalog cards themselves a rebirth." Check out the cArtalog Project Gallery and don't miss their links to history and commentary from others.
January 27, 2008
'Google Generation' Is a Myth
The British Museum has released a ground-breaking study on information literacy that turns over many of the assumptions about the 'Google Generation' (those born since 1993). You can read the whole thing - Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future (PDF; 1.67MB) and/or listen to a podcast of a discussion by report's authors. Great for commuters, exercisers, and others who listen to podcasts. Part of the British Library's podcasts and webcasts series that you can subscribe to.
Found via LibVibe.
January 19, 2008
Telephone tip
GOOG411 is great for saving money when you need phone numbers and/or addresses. You just call 1-800-GOOG-411 (free) instead of 411 (usually $1.50 and up per call). Especially useful for cellphone users. I programed the number in my phone and named it "info." Check out their video on it -- funny. Another free service from Google.
from Lifehacker's Top 10 Telephone Tricks
January 11, 2008
The next step after Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth"
"The Story of Stuff" with Annie Leonard is a 20-minute animated video laying out why we need to pay attention to our use of the environment.
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
December 28, 2007
It Made Me Laugh
For those of you who don't know, I live in Berkeley and used to work at the BPL until I left to go with Infopeople. I love my library and am so proud of them for this foray into our multimedia and interactive world. It's imbedded in the BPL website but I think you should go directly to Berkeley Public Library, An Intimate Portrait on YouTube so you can see the comments folks have left. It's a simple little video giving some useful information about the library... but... it's funny!!! I even showed it to a couple of non-library folks and they laughed.
December 26, 2007
This just in: the Queen of England has a YouTube channel!
This has nothing to do with libraries, but for some reason it grabbed my interest and I had to share. The Queen of England has a YouTube channel! Here's some background on the channel's creation.
So you think she did some of that with a webcam and edited it herself?
UPDATE: It was pointed out that this is actually the YouTube for the British Monarchy, not JUST for the Queen. That is quite true, and it has a lot of really interesting historical footage.
December 23, 2007
'Tis the season
It's the holiday season; there's a chill in the air, endless versions of White Christmas are being played on the radio 24/7 - so it must be time to elf yourself (if the servers aren't down)! Office Max's Elf Yourself ad campaign began in 2006, and from Thanksgiving to Christmas, 40 million people 'elfed' themselves! This year they've added Scrooge Yourself (wich I don't think is as fun as the elf thing but your mileage may vary). You can read more about the campaign here. Here's my lame effort.
Office Max actually is offering a bunch of fun games for the holidays. So if you can't elf yourself, or you've elfed yourself and are ready to move on, check out all of the other fun here.
Happy holidays from Infopeople!
December 15, 2007
How do you see the twirling figure?
I mostly see it as clockwise but can reverse it if I think about. I think this 'indicates' I'm right-brain dominant. I've tried it on a couple of friends and one, who is more often left-brained in terms of the functions listed in the article, saw the figure moving counter-clockwise. Take the Right Brain vs Left Brain test and be sure to scroll down and read the comments section.
December 7, 2007
The DMV did good
The California DMV is on YouTube. I've just finished their series on the top 10 reasons folks flunk their driving test. Each video clip is two to three minutes long and well worth watching as a refresher course on how to drive properly. Do YOU check your blind spot when changing lanes?
November 30, 2007
Video gleanings for your viewing pleasure
Squirrel obstacle course 1:44
I'm a squirrel watcher, so I know how determined they are. This video is the ultimate in displaying that trait.
Jessica the Hippo 3:05
Jessica is really close to her human family. Rescued from flood waters when she was 1 day old, she is still with them 7 years later.
Helicopter High Voltage Cable Inspector 3:11
This is certainly an exciting, if not exacting, job. The clip is from a documentary titled 'Straight Up' with men being transported by helicopter, then working on live power cables carrying more than half a million volts.
And finally, for a really great ride, check out Snowboard - The Best, the first snowboard descent of the steepest peak in Alaska. 3:47
November 23, 2007
If you want to save a tree or two...
The mail-order catalogs really are out of hand and here's a website that can help you save a few trees. Doing a bit for the environment in this case is free, other than logging on to Catalog Choice and entering the catalogs you want to not get. An example for me -- last year some friends gave me a Wine Country gift basket, and ever since Wine Country has been sending me these catalogs. No more. Since I've set up my account, I sit down once a week or so and enter the names of whatever catalogs I got that week that I don't want to see anymore.
Catalog Choice is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center. It is endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and funded by the Overbrook Foundation, the Merck Family Fund, and the Kendeda Fund.
November 16, 2007
Paris and speed anyone?
Claude Lelouche did a really amazing thing 30+ years ago. He drove a racing car through Paris, from the Porte Dauphine to Sacre Coeur in 8 minutes, and filmed it with a bumper-mounted camera (you are THERE). There are lots of stories about the film. You could look it up (Wikipedia or Internet Movie Database), but if you've only a spare 8 minutes check out C'était un rendezvous.
November 12, 2007
A Couple of Web Content Exemplars
Andrew Stafford, "bookseller in San Francisco" has two enduring websites that appeal to anyone interested in putting content on the web and/or avant-garde art. Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp includes animations and interactive sections that celebrate the multimedia abilities of the web. You can spin the Bicycle Wheel or manipulate the allegorical automata of The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. An excellent way toward understand the art of this major 20th century artist.
His other great work is Aspen Online, the digitization of Aspen, the hippest art magazine of the 1960s. Each issue came in a box filled with booklets, phonograph records, posters, postcards, and even film. Contributers included John Cage, Andy Warhol, Merce Cunningham, John and Yoko, Phillip Glass, Kate Millet, William S. Burroughs, Lou Reed, and dozens of other prominent cultural figures of the day.
November 5, 2007
not on work time -- Pete's Pond
From the time I started a gopher bookmark file I've loved running across wonderful works of all sorts whilst out and about on the web. Now that I've retired I have the time to find even more. Once a week I'll share a website I find particularly worth spending a little time visiting. Not on work time of course!
My first has to be my all-time favorite site: Pete's Pond, National Geographic's webcam for the watering hole at a game preserve in Botswana. While drinking my morning coffee I keep company with the pond's visitors. This AM I saw 50 to 100 kudu, a quartet of greyish animals with a round white circle on their rears (?), countless birds, and a warthog. I tune in early in the morning (late afternoon/eve there) and sometimes in the evening (dawn/early morning there). The camera is amazing. It zooms in on motion and can see in the dark!
I tuck a RealPlayer window of what's going on at the pond in the upper left corner of my screen and keep it visible while I'm doing email, reading news, etc. (To get a RealPlayer window I right mouse click on the version on the National Geographic webpage and choose the option to open it in RealPlayer - ymmv).
Until next week...