< CODE Monkey LIKE Library />

Prepping for Internet Librarian 2008

2008-10-16T17:32:00.002-04:00

I really forgot how much of an inconvenience it is to travel. Finding a flight, hotel, transportation to and from the airport - I HATE IT. Not to mention I'm probably going to have to fight for seating space with some smelly loser on the plane on his way to a weekend party with his old frat buddies. Smelly people should not be able to fly, or charge them more and give the other passengers in his immediate seating area a discount. I wouldn't mind it nearly as much if I knew going into the flight that I was getting a discount and to bring my gas mask.

On the other hand, I am looking forward to attending and speaking at Internet Librarian 2008. I am honored that Information Today has asked a geek like me to speak at such a highly attended conference. The nervousness hasn't kicked in yet, hopefully I can hold my bladder long enough to get through the presentation - just kidding :)

Smelly people, stay home this weekend, please!

See ya in Monterey, CA!

Play, Play Play....and learn along the way!

2008-07-25T13:28:00.005-04:00

Working for an team such as I do it is a pleasure because it encourages me to learn and play with new technologies. This mentality is spreading quickly within the organization so much that the leadership team has made it a tactical objective this year to change the way staff members learn about web 2.0 technologies - Its call Learn & Play @CML. There's no need to feel guilty you're learning a new technology while at work anymore, in fact its encourages. See a cool website like Wordle or twitter dive in, join the community. The Internets' are your friend - well most of them :)

Are Library's naive to website attacks?

2008-07-24T09:25:00.005-04:00

I've found myself asking this question over the last few days as I spend my days, and most of the nights, fighting an attack that crippled our websites. When I tell people about our libraries websites being attacked, almost without fail, the first response from the person is "Who would want to attack a library?" or "Why would someone attack us?" as if there is some code of ethics for hackers.

Warning, rant follows:
I would like to think our library and library partners are a microcosm of the library industry and if this is true, the answer to my questions seems to be Yes. It's become glaring evident that we can no longer continue to have this mindset that we're not a target, because we are. Often a website may not even know it has been attacked and is inadvertently spreading some dangerous virus or exploit throughout the world. Libraries often have or are attached to larger networks that bad people can use to spread their malicious software. Patron information could be appealing to hackers. We must consider looking at our software security policies and procedures and add website safeguards to protect your interests. Wake up libraries!!! There are bad people out there who want to use your websites and patrons PC's to do bad things.

Proof Community is important

2008-07-10T12:28:00.001-04:00

This a rather long video, but I think you'll enjoy it. This was originally posted on http://buytaert.net/ .

The FBI vs the Internet Library

2008-06-02T12:22:00.002-04:00

Here is an interesting discussion with Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine. This podcast gives a status update on the open on-line library and Google and Microsoft's role in it. There is also some legal issues that libraries should be aware of.

http://www.twit.tv/144

As an aside, TWIT is a family of Drupal sites. :)

Speed up access to your favorite frameworks via the AJAX Libraries API

2008-05-28T13:50:00.003-04:00

Tired of spending hundreds of hours writing AJAX using multiple libraries? Google may have the answer. I'm reserving judgment until I use it myself, but it looks exciting to me - let see if Google can pull another rabbit out of their hat.

Google engineers spend a lot of time working on speeding up their Web applications. Performance is a key factor for our teams, and we recognize how important it is for the entire Web.

When you take a look at the effort that it takes to setup work that should be simple, such as caching shared JavaScript libraries, you quickly realize that the Web could be faster than it currently is.

The AJAX Libraries API is an attempt to make Web applications faster for developers in simple ways:
Developers won't have to worry about getting caching setup correctly, as we will do that for you
If another application uses the same library (much more likely), they there is a much better chance that it will be already caching on the users machine
The network and bandwidth of the users systems will not be taxed.

AJAX Library API

Thanks to Travis for sending me this goodness!

Tweets in Space

2008-05-27T09:25:00.004-04:00

For all the Twitter fans out there, here's a super cool thing to follow - @MarsPhoenix the Phoenix lander that just touched down on the north pole of Mars.
On a related note, head to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories Phoenix Mars Lander website to catch a glimpse of the Martian surface when the Phoenix is doing its digging. The lander sure looks a lot like the one that first spotted Megatron in the Transformers Movie ... coincidence? - let's hope so.

Google diving into 3D mapping of oceans

2008-04-30T14:39:00.003-04:00

I usually try to share library programmer related stuff on this blog, but Google mapping the ocean, sounds way cool to me! Maybe I'll expand to a broader array technologies.

We've got Google Earth and Google Sky. Next up will be a map of the world below sea level--Google Ocean.
The company has assembled an advisory group of oceanography experts, and in December invited researchers from institutions around the world to the Mountain View, Calif., Googleplex. There, they discussed plans for creating a 3D oceanographic map, according to sources familiar with the matter. Read more ...

What will you do with your cognitive surplus?

2008-04-27T22:13:00.003-04:00

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus by Clay Shirky.

Here is an interesting, albeit long, snippet from the Web 2.0 Conference earlier this month.

http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html

Library gang signs

2008-04-18T06:49:00.000-04:00

For those who are striving for more street cred, check out the newest in gang signs. Show you are down with Library 2.0 Fo' schizzle!

http://blog.acpl.lib.in.us/blog/?p=318

Finally, a possible end to my Wordpress solution hunt

2008-04-16T12:14:00.000-04:00

I've been searching all around the web for a way to do multiple Wordpress blogs on an single installation. I think I finally found a solution, if you have a better solution, please comment. Here's what I've found http://mu.wordpress.org/

Drupal pointers

2008-04-10T18:26:00.000-04:00

Today I found a good site for Drupal 6 content management tutorials. If you're considering Drupal for your organization or already developing in Drupal, the vidcasts on this page are a must. I very much enjoyed New features in Drupal 6 video. I'm convinced I should upgrade my personal websites from Drupal 5.x to 6 now, even if some modules are not yet ready for 6.

Life-long learning

2008-04-05T21:28:00.000-04:00

For those of you that know me, understand I'm not much of a writer. But lately, I've been inspired to share my thoughts. With the kick-off of our own Learning 2.0 project that will change CML staff into Life-long learners is exciting to me. I believe this can only help librarian to start learning this way too. Many librarian seem to be reactive learners who learn as they need to - but its too hard to keep up today as fast as technology is changing. Librarians and many technical professionals need to be striving to learn new things without a formal class setting.

Thats my rant for today, hope you enjoyed it. In the coming days, weeks, years, I intend to use this blog to submit issues and thoughts that affect library developers. So stay tuned!