Open Stacks

2003-06-05T13:32:00.000-05:00

It's official

As of today, Open Stacks has relocated to the following URL: http://openstacks.net/os

Barring further complications, this Blogger blog will no longer be updated.

2003-06-04T11:40:00.000-05:00

If you have a second,

please take a gander at my newly redesigned resume and let me know what you think. I'm particularly interested in cross-browser display issues, but welcome comments on content, design and format as well. Thanks.

2003-06-03T16:19:00.000-05:00

Library-wide bloggery

Michael Stephens at Tame The Web reports the onset of a pilot blogging program at St. Joseph County Public Library in South Bend, IN. Two of his colleagues already have new blogs underway: Joe Sipocz's Book Blog and Julie Hill's Sights and Sounds Blog. Kudos to Michael for his initiative and well wishes for the project's success.

2003-06-03T15:32:00.000-05:00

Congrats!

I just received an email from a former schoolmate announcing that the UIUC ALA chapter has been selected as the ALA Student Chapter of the Year. Although I wasn't really involved, some of my close friends and colleagues deserve credit for the apparent success. Hopefully, this recognition will inspire some genuine activism within the ranks, instead of the perfunctory fundraising/film screening kind of stuff that keeps me away from student organizations in general. In particular, I'd like to see an advocacy committee that organizes opportunities for lobbying and the like. Still, this is great news for UIUC GSLIS, so I'm pleased.

2003-06-03T15:03:00.000-05:00

LIS SDI

On the advice of Simon, I've signed up for The Informed Librarian Online, a free newsletter dedicated to "Professional Reading for the Information Professional." Quoting Simon: "It's a monthly e-newsletter which provides links to the contents pages of various library and info science journals. It also links to the full-text or abstracts if they are available online." In addition, they provide a list of recently published books of potential LIS interest. Many of the listed journals are of the variety listed daily on Peter Scott's blog, but collated for your convenience.

2003-06-03T11:58:00.000-05:00

Stay-home conference

Steven has done more to expose this blog than anyone on the planet, so I am happy to return the favor. Today, he posts about a completely web-based conference taking place from October 20-24. The Learning Times Library Online Conference 2003 features a variety of interesting presenters (including a keynote from the man himself).

Unfortunately, as an unemployed information professional, these sorts of things are well outside my budget. I'll be lucky to afford a tank of gas to get to my interview. But I digress.

The conference board is still seeking submissions for papers or other deliverables to present virtually. Apparently, a reduced registration fee exists for those with accepted submissions and it's a chance to learn some cool online presentation tools. Definitely worth a look.

2003-06-01T19:27:00.000-05:00

Update

Just wanted to let everyone know what's been going on and why I haven't been posting lately. As I've mentioned before, I'm trying to move Open Stacks over to LISHost. It has not been as smooth a transition as Blake had predicted, but not for lack of trying. I think we're going to attempt a different approach, but Blake has been busy moving and with other life/work-oriented pursuits. So my blog is in a sort of limbo for the time-being. I might add that all of this effort should be seen as a strong endorsement of Blake's work and LISHost on the whole. He really has put a lot of time into sorting out the endless Movable Type complexities and apparently has learned much in the process. Glad I could help. Stay tuned.

2003-05-27T15:45:00.000-05:00

A glimmer of hope

After months of fruitless job hunting, I've finally been granted an interview for an Assistant Branch Manager position. The library branch sits in an urban setting that I will likely investigate tomorrow. The position sounds well-suited to my current qualifications/experience/goals and within a reasonable distance. I can only hope that the visit and interview reinforce that perception.

2003-05-26T14:38:00.000-05:00

On the symbiotic search engine/directory relationship

If you've ever wondered if dmoz and Google were somehow in cahoots, this article will provide some enlightenment: Google and Dmoz - Are They in Love?

As the article clarifies, getting listed in dmoz is a fairly reliable way to appear in a variety of search engine indexes. So bring it on people.

2003-05-23T17:56:00.000-05:00

Experiment over?

If I understand Pat Delaney's post correctly, the future of the great blogging experiment at MLK, Jr. Middle School is in jeopardy. This would be a real disappointment as it's the broadest endeavor I've seen at any academic level (perhaps with the exception of Harvard's effort). To see evidence of the collaboration between the library and the rest of the school, take a look at the mlk Digital Library Agenda. Education needs more of this interconnectivity, not less. Hopefully, someone sees the light before it's too late.

2003-05-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

Guess who's back?

That's right, I'm back in Madison, IN and can now be called - of all things - a Master of Science (in LIS, of course). It's nice to be home. Now that my new cable modem is operational, I can turn to getting the Movable Type version of Open Stacks properly hosted. The last "personal web server" approach could have been considered a violation of my ISP agreement. I've been in contact with Blake over at LISHost about getting some affordable librarian-friendly server space. So expect that to happen soon.

In other non-news, I'll probably begin looking at short-term non-LIS employment in the coming weeks. 5 months and three weeks until the loan payments begin.

2003-05-16T18:27:00.000-05:00

Hiatus

I'll be breaking down and packing up my computer tomorrow, which means that you should expect a) infrequent updates to the Blogger incarnation of Open Stacks for a few weeks and b) my Movable Type version of this blog to be down until I have a new ISP set up. Thanks for your patience as I relocate and begin to pursue the job hunt full-time. For now, please stay tuned to the Blogger-based Open Stacks for new posts.

2003-05-15T15:07:00.000-05:00

Ballot archiving

A post over at Slashdot talks about electronic voting as negative in its lack of a paper trail. This got me to wondering about the long-term maintenance of paper ballots. How long do we keep the actual ballots, particularly for bigger national elections? Are they archived or discarded after some statute of limitations runs out on challenging the results?

In looking for an answer, I found this viewable PDF archive of "the ballots from Leon County, Florida that had no machine readable marks in the [2000] Presidential Race." The so-called undervotes. More to come as I find it. Anyone know anything about the fate of presidential ballots?

2003-05-14T15:14:00.000-05:00

Calling all youngsters...

Someone on one of the GSLIS bulletin boards kindly posted a link to the the new nexgenlib-l group over at Topica. From the list info: "This list is open to the next generation of librarians - those of us who are under 30, of any gender, political persuasion, race, etc., and our friends (those who welcome us into the profession)." There are definitely some over-30 individuals on the list, so all those young-at-heart are encouraged to join in what are proving to be very active discussions.

2003-05-13T16:26:00.000-05:00

Librarian appreciation?

I was checking in on Michael over at Libraryman and found a post about National Unappreciated Librarian Month. When's National Unemployed Librarian Month, I wonder.

Michael posits a correlation between the "celebration" and this article. I suspect he's wrong though, as the article doesn't even mention librarians. Instead, it attributes higher library traffic to the availability of Internet access for those on the wrong side of the digital divide. Now of course the foresight of librarians is at least partially to thank for this, but there is no such acknowledgement. Nor is there any suggestion that the true greatness of the library is the librarians who help people find their way through this ever-growing electronic information network that we are providing access to. While almost everything this article says is accurate, there is no love whatsoever for the role of the librarian.

The most contentious point may actually be a quote from CLA president Wendy Newman: "Everyone wants to be a good parent and one of the things they see as an act of positive parenting is taking their children to the library." Yeah, if positive means taking their children and leaving them for six hours under the supervision of the librarians until just before closing time. That's good parenting, all right.

And the article concludes: "Libraries are cool again." Apparently, librarians still aren't.

2003-05-13T15:27:00.000-05:00

Job opportunity?

It looks like a new facility is being built in my part of the world. Let's hope they left a little in their budget for personnel expansion.

2003-05-13T11:40:00.000-05:00

Game over

I am pleased to announce the submission of my last paper as a graduate student at GSLIS: a stunningly persuasive Questionpoint implementation plan. Turning in a paper is less climactic than walking out of an exam, but still quite satisfying. Overall, these two semesters have been a wild ride, but I'm ready to do something a little more meaningful with my energy. Any takers?

2003-05-12T18:04:00.000-05:00

Scholarly journal directory

I learned from the liblicense list today that the Lund University Libraries have put together a directory of open access scholarly journals. While I have little love for scholarly publishing in general, I am a big fan of open access and efforts to aggregate resources, especially when they are "free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals." Nice work. Hopefully, this project will encourage others to venture into open access publishing. And let's hope for enough open access LIS publishing to warrant its own category.

2003-05-10T11:59:00.000-05:00

Blaming the bloggers

I was intrigued that Google has plans to create a separate search tool specifically for blogs. In reading the Register's article about it, I was led to this article by the same author from the April 3rd Register that essentially decries the ability of the blogging community, particularly the "A-list" tech bloggers, to transform the meaning of ideas in such a way that the original meaning is supplanted. Because of the incestuous linking amongst blogs, content from these authors takes precedent over other sources in Google's PageRank system, forcing the original sources into virtual invisibility (a process called Googlewashing). The implication is that this is a form of censoring the original idea by driving it into obscurity.

The author talks about how it took a million people to create the original meaning of the term "Second Superpower" and only a few people to take it away. This is utter nonsense. First, you know as well as I do that it only took one person to create the term and associate a meaning with it. Second, the Web (and Google in particular) is not the only tool of meme propagation and if the term had some legs in its original form, then it would have been picked up more widely. But it really didn't, mostly in my opinion because peace-seeking people don't really want to be seen as part of the Superpower paradigm, with all of the inherent combatativeness that it implies. Third, he bemoans that this happened in only 42 days. Well, let me suggest that those 42 days included the 41 days after the mainstream media forgot about it.

I think the real issue is the short-sightedness of the author. How can a thriving community that works to create new meaning through interactivity and collaboration be a bad thing? Rather than bemoaning the "power" of the tech community, why not learn something from it? The question shouldn't be why bloggers can make these transformations possible, but why more people aren't making use of this unharnessed potential. I'm not saying there aren't avenues for abuse, but the more participants, the more balanced the coverage will be.

I think I mostly resent the suggestion that bloggers are to blame for the loss of meaning, rather than celebrated for its creation and transformation. The author's perspective seems far too limited, much like the music industry's take on peer-to-peer. The one thing he did correctly was to repropagate the phrase's original meaning by writing about it in relationship to blogging. This article has be much-discussed and heavily linked (already replacing some of those top 30 Google listings that are the crux of his argument), which has provided more people with the origin of the term than any other media had up to that point. He should be thanking bloggers for the exposure.

2003-05-08T11:50:00.000-05:00

A plea for help

Fellow members of the LIS community, I have reached the crisis zone. Graduation is in 10 days and the job hunt has been utterly fruitless. Not so much as an interview. I have a strict geographic limitation that limits my options. So I ask of the blogging contingent: if you have any professional connections in southern Indiana, Louisville or Cincinnati, please consider working them on my behalf (or directing me to them, so I can).

Why would you want to do that? Well, first, so you don't have to read of my unemployment on an ongoing basis. Second, it can't look good for an LIS blog to be written by someone who can't find a job. I don't really want to rename this site "The Unemployed Librarian." Third, a rookie can use all the help he/she can get, especially with networking.

Any other advice you might have would be welcome. This is my working resume, which is just a recreation of my paper resume (no web design quality - that will happen after graduation). How can I step it up?

BTW, to those who take the time to read my posts, a heartfelt thank you.

2003-05-07T01:22:00.000-05:00

Enetation disappears

It appears that my commenting system Enetation has gone down. I don't know if this is a long-term situation, but it has encouraged me to at least attempt an import into Movable Type. The new location of Open Stacks is at http://planetneutral.gotdns.com/openstacks. Please come check it out. I'll be adding categories and trackback soon, while avoiding my last grad school project (If you know anything about implementing Questionpoint, let me know). I'll plan on posting to both sites, until I've relocated my computer and established a new ISP. So for now, please leave any comments on the new site.

Update: Apparently, this was just a temporary problem, but the Movable Type transition will continue as planned.

2003-05-05T16:57:00.000-05:00

Low-income conferencing

Jessamyn West, newly elected ALA Councilatrix, suggested a low-income/retired fee category for conferences. Good idea. I wonder how she envisions the implementation. Would the definition of low-income (and/or retired) be spelled out plainly by the ALA or would individuals petition on behalf of their own circumstances (and interpretation of the term), as on page 3 of this example (.pdf!)?

If I understand correctly, retired ALA members already get a conference discount, so I'll suppose that Jessamyn is referring to non-members. Reaching out to non-members in this way would seem a small, positive step toward broadening the membership base in the long run. Low-income conference rates would definitely increase the feasibility of attendance for those who get no organizational support, particularly paraprofessionals. I'd like to see perhaps a sliding scale that can be applied on a petition by petition basis, but with some fairly specific guidelines to help people decide if they qualify.

I hope that Jessamyn plans to continue to circulate ideas into the community for us to consider and contemplate, as well as share tales from behind the Council doors. I'm not at all surprised that she was elected and hope her particularly strong showing (top 5!) reflects a high voter rate amongst the blogging community.

2003-05-04T21:05:00.000-05:00

Stats are information too

The sports world produces an astonishing amount of data in recording the nearly infinite minutia of athletic events. A new course called "Information in Sports" looks at athletics as a "perfect setting for probing information challenges, from research to competitive intelligence," according to one of its instructors, Mike Eisenberg, Dean at the University of Washington Information School (co-taught with Joe Janes!). I bet they don't get into the profound statistical realm of bowling though, which would be a shame.

2003-05-02T16:37:00.000-05:00

Public access portal

Peter Scott reports that OCLC has given a name to the portal they have been developing. "WebJunction will be an online community where minds meet to share the ongoing successes and challenges of supporting public access computing." When it launches sometime this month, it will be a forum for discussion related to providing open access and resources to support the cause. Looks like they did some good research (links available here).

At first glance, this seems like a great concept. A place to hash out the challenges of providing open access. But then one starts to consider OCLC's motives in investing so heavily in such a community-building project. I smell a new service rising from the ashes of our collective wisdom. Perhaps OCLC is trying to get into the content management game. Imagine a portal or other form of content management system developed directly from the collaborative insight of unsuspecting, well-meaning librarians. Always be wary of the investor's motives - what's in it for them?

Update: After just a modicum of additional research, I learned that the true investors here are...who else, Bill and Melinda Gates, to the tune of $9 million. Here's the original press release.

2003-05-02T11:53:00.000-05:00

Blogger problems

Apparently Blogger has done something that brings up a "Under Construction" error when you try to access pages using the www domain element. Not only can you not get to the page that way, the RSS feed built around the http://www.planetneutral.blogspot.com URL doesn't work consistenly. A refresh or two or three seems to fix the problem, but it might be well-advised to change practices. So I'm changing the feed to reflect the functional http://planetneutral.blogspot.com URL. Please have all links point to this more stable and correct domain name. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.

2003-05-02T00:16:00.000-05:00

7-11 diversifies

It's a true sign of the times when 7-11 decides to test-market Silk brand soy milk. PETA provides some contact info, in case you want to say thank you. And don't forget to go buy some!

2003-05-01T10:26:00.000-05:00

Collaborative Liblogging

I really like to see blogs that are the collaborative work of a single library staff. The Oak Lawn Public Library (IL) has started a new blog called the OLPL Daily Hearsay. Right now, only two staffers appear to be contributing, but it'll be interesting to watch and see if the rest of the personnel catches the fever. Strangely, I could find no evidence of the blog from the library web site. It is clearly hosted elsewhere, but there doesn't appear to be any mention of it at all. The only reason I know of it is a message on Publib. Where's the promotion people?.

2003-04-30T22:18:00.000-05:00

Props to Catalogablog

David over at Catalogablog engineered the change that I have thus far failed to implement. By switching the columns of his blog such that the content is on the left, he guarantees that a variety of reading devices will see the content before the links/sidebar. In his mind, this will be great for PDA folk who use AvantGo, but I see this as a move toward greater accessibility for visually impaired surfers (as I discussed on the 27th). Bravo.

Thanks to Library Stuff.

2003-04-30T14:43:00.000-05:00

The newest trend in administrative librarian stupidity

Recently I reported on the director of the Penn libraries, who was under investigation for charges of child pornography. Apparently, he is not alone (except in the creepy loner pedophile mode). How can professional librarians, of such high stature, have such poor discretionary skills? I mean, come on, using a library computer to traffic porn? Kiddie porn, no less. And these aren't random support staffers either. These are directors. How does their judgment get so clouded? And as I mentioned last time, what does it say about other decisions that they've made?

2003-04-30T13:44:00.000-05:00

Urbana Free RSS Feed

The wonderful photoblog of the Urbana Free Library's construction project has been syndicated. The RSS feed can be found here.

2003-04-29T17:06:00.000-05:00

Madonna wins War on Iraq

OK, so let's say you're working on a regime change. Purely hypothetical. You've taken over the capital city and are preparing to institute a new government. What should be high on the priority list? Power struggles...economic development...health care? Why bother with those non-essentials when the opportunity exists to shape intellectual property policy in the new Iraq. And who do you think is at the forefront of the copyright legislation effort? The RIAA's Hilary Rosen, of course. The Register provides more details: "With the effective collapse of the UN's food program, it's nice to see Rosen's humanitarian impulses remain untarnished by war."

2003-04-29T00:01:00.000-05:00

Aristotle's Unicorn

Are you familiar with the endangered Arabian Oryx? Jack Hanna brought one out on Letterman. According to Jack, the Egyptians tied the two horns and they grew together, forming the so-called unicorn. Not everyone agrees. Some photos from the reintroduction program. The photo in the 11th row, 2nd column shows how easily one could mistake the oryx for the unicorn.

2003-04-27T22:57:00.000-05:00

Is gelatin a killer?

This is an article about a young man who died of mad cow disease. They call him a vegetarian, although he apparently ate beef occasionally. Doesn't really fit my definition, but of course the media seizes the opportunity to remind you that a vegetarian diet is unsafe. The article suggests that gelatin may have been the culprit, so if gelatin isn't already on your avoid list, consider putting it there.

2003-04-27T13:52:00.000-05:00

Accessibility

I'm staring at this blog-in-transition and realizing that from an accessibility standpoint, it's a disaster. For example (I'm sure there are many), some folks who have visual impairments might want to use IBM Home Page Reader to have my page read aloud for them. Unfortunately, the way the page is set up, the reader would probably read the whole sidebar before getting to the blog content. I'll have to think about switching the columns or something similar. There's definitely not enough people thinking about this stuff. I'm as guilty as anyone, but it's never too late to consider. This is an outstanding resource on usability in general, with a specific link for web sites: Designing a More Usable World, courtesy of the Trace Center at the University of Wisconsin.

2003-04-26T17:38:00.000-05:00

Open Stacks

In honor of my more focused effort, I've decided to rename this blog altogether. So welcome to Open Stacks. I hope the name conveys the appropriate message, however you wish to interpret it.

2003-04-26T15:51:00.000-05:00

Re-focusing

I finally got Movable Type operational on my home server, so I've started a second blog. That will allow this blog to focus on more librarian-friendly content. Those of you in RSS land don't have to read my Friday Five anymore. Unless you really want to. If you're one of the two or three people world-wide who would like to be reading my more random remarks, email me at planetneutral [at] hotmail [dot] com and I'll send you the link (syndication available). Expect a migration of this blog in about a month's time.

2003-04-25T08:15:00.000-05:00

Friday Five

1. What was the last TV show you watched?

I caught the last 15 minutes of the Michael Jackson special, but before that, Mr. Personality.

2. What was the last thing you complained about and what was the problem?

I'm interpreting this to mean complaining to someone else, as I complain to myself constantly. The last known complaint dealt with the difficulty of setting up Movable Type on my personal server, but last night at about 1 AM, I made that happen. The main problem turned out to be accurately identifying path names in the configuration file. Once I put this computer in a more permanent location (post-graduation), I'll probably migrate over to that system.

3. Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say?

I try to tell my fiancee she does a great job at least a few times per week. I also told Aaron Schatz that I liked his Lycos 50 blog.

4. What was the last thing you threw away.

Last night's dental floss.

5. What was the last website (besides this one) that you visited.

Right here at my blog. Before that, I was looking at the myriad job boards I check on a daily basis. Nothing new.

2003-04-24T14:01:00.000-05:00

A view from the spider's eye

Ever wonder exactly what a search engine robot or spider sees when it crawls your site? Dump your URL into the Search Engine Spider Simulator. Description borrowed directly from SiteLines, the newest addition to the Weblogs queue:

The Sim Spider Search Engine Robot Simulator is a spider that simulates what search engine robots read from your website. Readers can input a web page URL and visualize the links that will be spidered, the "word dump" that will go into the database, and keyword density analysis for each page. This is a highly illustrative example of the difference between the page you see on the screen and the content that actually lands up in the search engine's database.

2003-04-23T14:25:00.000-05:00

New ODP responsibility

My application to edit the Reference/Libraries/Library_and_Information_ Science/Librarians category over at dmoz has been approved. Unbeknownest to me prior to today, this category has not been touched for quite a while, so there is some serious work to do. I'm excited to move sites more properly labeled as blogs into the correct category, but first I've got to finish cleaning up (and hopefully subcategorizing) the Weblogs category. Growth is astronomical as I've already added more than 30 sites to the directory in about one week's time. Remember, submissions are always welcome (by going to the appropriate category and selecting "Add URL.")

2003-04-23T13:07:00.000-05:00

Look out Blogger

Great news in the blogging world as the developers of Movable Type have announced the imminent (later this year) release of a new application called TypePad. TypePad would provide a central server for hosting, much like Blogger, with all of the user-friendly customization aspects of Movable Type. For those who are not well-versed in dealing with file manipulation and/or the acquisition of server space, this should make breaking away from Blogger much easier. Ben Hammersley wrote an article in the Guardian that announces the new product.

2003-04-22T17:30:00.000-05:00

Single White Album?

Critics (including producer George Martin) have suggested that The White Album would have made an amazing single album. The following page lets you tinker with different arrangements, keeping you to a 17-25 minutes per side parameter: The Abridged White Album? Here's my arrangement, which after much deliberation, I'm fairly satisfied with.

Side 1 Everybody's Got Something To Hide... Dear Prudence While My Guitar Gently Weeps Blackbird Why Don't We Do It In The Road? Happiness Is A Warm Gun Martha My Dear The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill Side 2 Helter Skelter Mother Nature's Son Yer Blues Sexy Sadie Wild Honey Pie Cry Baby Cry I'm So Tired Rocky Raccoon

What have you got?

2003-04-21T22:47:00.000-05:00

At long last, I am #1

It's taken awhile, but this site is finally the number one listing in a Google search for
planet neutral. That's out of 211,000 hits. Incidentally, a similar search for
planetneutral revealed only 10 hits, all related to me, most of which are random reviews/comments on other people's sites. At least my dmoz category shows up.

2003-04-21T19:57:00.000-05:00

It's all about me

Jason Kottke knows the deal:
Portal Wars II: When Search Engines Attack

It's the same story we hear in grad school every day - it's all about the user. It doesn't matter what you make happen with technology. What matters is what you do that makes it easy for me to make it happen.

2003-04-20T20:24:00.000-05:00

Ego Boost

Was checking in over at a relatively new blog called Libraryman and found a nice mention (April 18) of my ODP category. Also, some positive comments. Starting to feel good about the decision to take some responsibility within the blog community. And always like to see people finding my work useful (exactly what makes my academic work seem so pointless).

2003-04-20T01:21:00.000-05:00

A fresh perspective

Turn your worldview upside-down by studying these maps.

Courtesy of Metafilter.

2003-04-19T23:40:00.000-05:00

A weapon of mass instruction

This picture from ArtCars should be self-explanatory. Wish I could say I thought of the headline, but it comes courtesy of memepool.

2003-04-19T22:40:00.000-05:00

Proof we have a lot to learn about network security

Apparently, people don't understand the purpose of password protection. Here's a look at what office workers will do for a free pen.

Thanks to Lockergnome.

2003-04-19T22:23:00.000-05:00

Scandal in the Penn libraries

Watched Duets in the wee hours of the morning. Thinking about errors in judgment, I couldn't help but be struck by the bad decision-making process of Penn's library director. Makes you wonder about other decisions he may have made during his run.

2003-04-18T15:03:00.000-05:00

Friday Five

I'm not particularly fond of the questions, but that shouldn't stop me from engaging them.

1. Who is your favorite celebrity?

After some thought, I have to go with Phish's Trey Anastasio, mostly because he is as unlikely a celebrity as they come. There was a picture in a recent Rolling Stone taken after Trey and Nelly (yes, that Nelly) finished playing some blackjack. Trey looks more than a little out of place, but Nelly looks like he's been Trey's friend for years. It's a beautiful thing.

2. Who is your least favorite?

Donald Rumsfeld

3. Have you ever met or seen any celebrities in real life?

I used to live down the street from Mark Roth, pro bowling hall of famer, still at the top of his game.

4. Would you want to be famous? Why or why not?

I wouldn't mind being a known commodity in the librarian community, but not in the media. Too much hassle.

5. If you had to trade places with a celebrity for a day, who would you choose and why?

In keeping with the playoff season, it's gotta be Marty Brodeur, future Hall of Fame goaltender for the one and only New Jersey Devils. Particularly, if it were the day of a Stanley Cup game 7, of course.

2003-04-18T12:14:00.000-05:00

Good news

I'm extremely pleased to announce that my fiancee has successfully passed the Kentucky Bar Exam. Of course, there was never any doubt about this, but congrats and affection are in order nonetheless.

In other news, I may have found a new job to apply for. Apparently, the high school librarian in my town is stepping down, so there should be a position opening. I would've thought that school media certification would be required, but apparently not. This would represent a serious shift in my nascent career path, but I really need to keep all lanes open at this point. It would certainly be more geographically convenient than any other job I've applied for, so in that regard, we're heading in the right direction.

Will anyone ever interview me? Will this over-priced education serve its purpose? Stay tuned.

2003-04-18T01:56:00.000-05:00

New way to learn about end-users

AlltheWeb is offering a new feature that allows you to look at the last ten search strings run through their index. It's fascinating.

Courtesy of The ResourceShelf.

2003-04-18T00:40:00.000-05:00

I can't wait to try this.

It's been a while since I got the Food Network, but when I go back to cable, I know that I'll be ready for the Iron Chef Drinking Game. It differs from your standard TV-based game by dividing your party into teams: Challengers, Iron Chefs and Commentators. Each team has a set of drink-inducing situations to watch for. And as with all good drinking games, everybody wins. A sample:

One drink any time a judge takes his/her first bite of a dish, then his/her eyes get really wide and he/she makes some type of vapid, overexcited comment on the dish such as "This is very good!"

One drink any time a judge that looks like a rap star makes an intelligent and complex critique of one of the dishes.

Two drinks anytime your chef is announced as being the master of some inane ingredient, such as salt.

2003-04-17T16:19:00.000-05:00

The power of connectivity

A few members of my graduating high school class started a Yahoo Group in honor of our approaching 10 year reunion. I must say the turnout has been impressive. The list has been active less than a month and already almost 1/4 of our class has signed up. I joined April 2 as the 5th person and now we have 22 (out of 92), so most of that growth has been in the past two weeks as efforts to track people down have escalated.

Anyway, the point is that this list has quickly brought back together, in a matter of days, a group of people who lost touch almost ten years ago. I'm still finding it remarkable.

2003-04-17T00:59:00.000-05:00

Shedding some light on why I'm here...

On my first read through an article entitled The Suicide of the Public Librarian, I couldn't help but wonder if my worst fears were being reinforced, if not confirmed outright. But I took another look and conclude that there just may be some hope for me in librarianship. I may need to expand my scope a bit and double my efforts, but that will have to wait till graduation.

Thanks to Library Link Of The Day.

2003-04-16T01:01:00.000-05:00

Application accepted

The deed is done. As I described on Monday, I am now the editor for the Reference: Libraries: Library_and_Information_Science: Weblogs category at the Open Directory Project. It will definitely take some work to get the listings organized, but I'm excited to make the category more useful for librarians and others. I have ideas about reorganization and welcome suggestions (with the disclaimer that all decisions are made strictly by editors with the ODP editorial guidelines clearly in mind).

I'm glad to see that Steven Cohen at Library Stuff is getting leads on new library-related blogs. Makes my job a bit easier. If you want to suggest a link, go to the category link above and click on "add URL" at the top of the page. Other suggestions? Leave a comment or email me: planetneutral at hotmail dot com.

2003-04-15T15:52:00.000-05:00

A library from my past

The April issue of American Libraries contains their annual library facilities celebration. Making the cover this year...none other than Eugene Public Library, where I spent a number of months as a volunteer. Unfortunately for me, the new building was neither completed, nor completely funded, before I moved away. Still I'm excited for the staff and community out in the Willamette Valley. I was searching for an article about the financial crisis that almost kept this new facility from opening. Instead, I found this great set of pictures from inside and outside of the building, courtesy of Mr. Random.

Update: I'm yet to find anything about the failed levy, only the later passed version, but here's an article about the "green" approach to EPL's design.

2003-04-15T01:17:00.000-05:00

Making Amazon work for your library.

One smart library is taking advantage of Amazon's affiliate linking program to generate some much needed revenue. Courtesy of LISNews: Facing Tough Times, A Rural Public Library Looks To Online Commerce.

For an introduction to affiliate linking, go here.

2003-04-14T23:57:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of volunteerism...

I put in an application to become an editor of the Open Directory Project. If successful, I'll be in charge of editing the Reference: Libraries: Library and Information Science: Weblogs category. It'd be an interesting responsibility and would provide me the perfect excuse to keep up on library blogs.

2003-04-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

This seems to sum it up succinctly.

"Here's champagne for our real friends and real pain for our sham friends."
-- Edwardian Toast

I learned the term chiasmus today and this was my favorite example, courtesy of Chiasmus.com.

2003-04-13T22:07:00.000-05:00

Full-scale civil disobedience

The USA PATRIOT Act puts a stranglehold on due process and threatens everyone's privacy rights. At least one town is bold enough to do something about it.

Courtesy of FARK.

2003-04-12T11:16:00.000-05:00

Was school really a good idea?

The Christian Science Monitor reported recently on the trends in employment prospects for librarians. I'm not particularly enthused. However, if you're a teacher looking for a career shift, it appears you're in good shape.

2003-04-11T15:32:00.000-05:00

Friday Five

1. What was the first band you saw in concert?

Well, it was either Air Supply (with my parents) or Kenny Loggins (with my summer camp), but I don't remember which came first. The first concert I went to willingly was Steve Miller.

2. Who is your favorite artist/band now?

Whew, the million dollar question. OK, my favorite live band continues to be Phish. My favorite studio band...I'd say Steely Dan. But neither of those answers the question of right now? I would say the band most likely to end up in my player right now is Belle and Sebastian (followed by Built To Spill and Pavement).

3. What's your favorite song?

I don't even know how to begin. It's funny that I would initiate a song in my head feature on the same day I'm asked to identify my favorite song. Hmmm...Sneakin' Sally by Robert Palmer, Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys and the Pips, Castles Made Of Sand - Jimi, countless others... My favorite song to play on guitar right now is Distopian Dream Girl (Built To Spill).

4. If you could play an instrument, what would it be?

I'd certainly like to play guitar significantly better than I do currently, but if we're fantasizing, I'd say either a Gender Wayang (Indonesian metallophone) or a Harp (or Hammered Dulcimer or Vibraphone).

5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why?

I'm torn between Bob Dylan and Neil Young right now and leaning toward Neil. This isn't something I've really considered before. Now that I think more about it, Bob Marley needs to be on that list too. I don't have a good reason for these three, other than the awe that each inspires for me.

2003-04-11T13:00:00.000-05:00

Adding to my vitals

I realized there's an important distinction between the music in my player and the music that's playing in my head. So I thought I would add a feature to share the soundtrack of my mind with the world. The frequency that the Song In My Head changes tells you a little something about my internal monologue. I'll try to find samples of tunes whenever I can to share the infection.

2003-04-11T01:16:00.000-05:00

Flight Tracker has moved

If, like me, you want to know exactly where the flight with the person you're picking up from the airport is, then you need the real-time, graphical Flight Tracker. It's now a part of Cheap Tickets, so if you've bookmarked it in the past, you need to update.

2003-04-11T01:09:00.000-05:00

In honor of my new Zippo...

I thought I'd share a site with over 500+ video clips of various Zippo tricks.

Thanks to ResearchBuzz.

2003-04-11T00:21:00.000-05:00

Devils representing

This unassuming gentleman holds the fate of my favorite team in his glove. Meet Martin Brodeur, the best goaltender in the NHL and probable Hart Trophy candidate for league MVP. If he plays his best, my NJ Devils will go far this year. And if the first game is any indication, he's in top form.

2003-04-10T23:23:00.000-05:00

Shock and Awe (trademark of Sony Corp.)

Lockergnome reports that Sony has trademarked the phrase "Shock and Awe" (but with an ampersand in the place of the "and" - ampersands will cause my RSS feed to fail). Apparently, Sony is looking at producing a video game. You can find the trademark by searching for it at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

2003-04-10T17:40:00.000-05:00

From the Cool Things To Do With Your GPS file...

Looking for a new project for your GPS? Be a part of the Degree Confluence Project. Description borrowed from their site: "The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures and stories will then be posted here."

You should check it out just to read the adventures of the people who succeeded (and of those who didn't). The pictures really give a cross-section of the great variety of global climates and terrains. Willing adventurers be forewarned, most confluences in the US have already been documented, but many foreign opportunities await.

2003-04-10T12:38:00.000-05:00

A proud day for Planet Neutral

I'm pleased to announce that my home computer is now a functional server. You'll find my computer at planetneutral.gotdns.com.

How'd I do that, you ask? Well, first I downloaded the Abyss Personal Web Server. Configuration was remarkably simple. Then I had to get a domain name to connect with my IP address. A free domain service is offered by DynDNS.org. After establishing a domain name, I had to deal with the fact that my IP is dynamic and changes every time I reconnect. Fortunately, DynDNS lists a number of clients that automatically update the IP associated with your domain name. I chose DirectUpdate, which I accessed directly from DynDNS.

To test it, I placed a simple splash page in the root folder (embedded with a sound file to check functionality). Then, I tried it on a computer outside my firewall and surprisingly enough, success! Now, if only I had a purpose...

2003-04-09T09:44:00.000-05:00

Vegetarian Passover

Last night, my fiancee was asking about Passover and not long thereafter, I stumbled upon this article in the Boston Globe: Passover cookbook makes it easy to pass on meat. The book has a number of adapted recipes, including methods to prepare a vegetarian Seder. It's available from Micah Books, along with a variety of related Jewish vegetarian tomes.

2003-04-08T22:05:00.000-05:00

The BFG on the big screen

It looks like Roald Dahl's The BFG will be made into a feature-length film. With Terry Jones writing the screenplay, it should be something to look forward to.

2003-04-06T20:49:00.000-05:00

Something new

I've added this blog to the GeoURL database. By adding a few tags to my template, I let their crawler learn my coordinates. which can then be compared to other URL's. I can get a list of URL's close to my location, which I've listed as Madison, IN. The GeoURL button in the sidebar takes you to that list.

2003-04-06T19:22:00.000-05:00

Since when is Cod Liver Oil vegan?

It's in no way surprising to see that the couple who raised their child on nothing but "ground nuts, fruit juice, herbal tea, cod liver oil and a liquid mixture of potatoes, sweet potatoes, plantains and fresh vegetables" were found guilty of multiple charges including endangering the life of a child. What concerns me is the apparent hit that vegetarian diets will take as a result of media sensationalization of this situation.

2003-04-06T10:22:00.000-05:00

Mmm...beets!

Last night, we had a most successful dinner. The centerpiece was a Beet and Greens Risotto adapted from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. It called for grating the beets and letting them cook with the rice, so that they almost melted into the creamy goodness. Definitely a winner.

2003-04-05T15:02:00.000-06:00

I've been published, sort of...

Our very own Center for Children's Books has added a final project of mine to its Collection Development Resources. Go directly to the project, if you're curious.

2003-04-05T10:46:00.000-06:00

Last night's karaoke selections

Watchin' The Wheels - John Lennon (with Dennis, dedicated to Ann)
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - The Animals (with Dennis)
Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne (yep, with Dennis)
Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder (with Dennis, Emily and MJ)

All in all, a strong experience, although quite a bit less rowdy than other times. We also took a journey to a new (or rather reopened after five years of vacancy with a new name) club in Champaign, called the Cowboy Monkey. It was opening night and the Temple of Low Men were on the bill. Although we only caught a few songs, they sounded pretty good and the venue was nicely put together, so that's real positive for the local scene. However, since I'll be leaving town in less than six weeks, it won't do much for me.

2003-04-04T16:40:00.000-06:00

For all you young ladies...

America's Beef Producers say it's Cool-2B-Real! Learn the answer to this essential question: What type of beef do you most like to eat with your friends? The results may surprise you.

2003-04-04T14:51:00.000-06:00

Friday Five

My first foray into the weekly ritual known to bloggers world-over as the Friday Five.

1. How many houses/apartments have you lived in throughout your life?
16 (if you count dorm rooms, 18).
2. Which was your favorite and why?
After much deliberation, I have to give the nod to the house I spent my first years, in Manasquan Park, NJ. The best part about it was the size of my room, which to this day is the biggest bedroom I've ever had. It's difficult to describe, but two-thirds of the room was elevated a few feet and that whole area was carpeted in red. That was my world. The boring things (clothes and such) were located in the lower part, where the doors to the room were.
The house also had a huge pool table. It was really too big for the room, but for someone my size, it was perfect. There was a pool in the backyard, but it was under-maintained. There were really comfortable couches in the living room that were always covered in dog hair. Ah, the memories.
I've certainly lived in better parts of the world. One could argue that all of the other places were better, but as far as a house is concerned, that was the one.
Special honorable mention to my parents' house in East Dorset, VT. It just keeps getting better.
3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful?
Well, I think it's been sliding on a continual basis from exciting to stressful as I've accrued more stuff and my sense of adventure has perhaps waned a bit. However, I still love the thrill of discovering someplace new.
4. What's more important, location or price?
Since I can be somewhat flexible with location, I'd have to say price.
5. What features does your dream house have (pool, spa bath. big yard, etc.)?
My dream house has a huge garden and minimal lawn.
A big kitchen, of course, with a butcher block island.
Huge built-in media racks for books, CDs, DVDs, etc.
Finished basement for media center/screening room.
Indoor and outdoor hot tubs.
And plenty of storage space.

"And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery." - Coleridge

2003-04-04T01:10:00.000-06:00

Community crawling

Thanks to the folks at Grub.org, my spare clock cycles are being used to crawl the web for LookSmart.

Courtesy of Search Engine Watch.

2003-04-03T21:43:00.000-06:00

Palm support. Not that bad?

I had a not altogether bad experience calling Palm today. No wait. I was concerned (due to the second-hand nature of the handheld) that they would try to charge me for calling. Fortunately, I had just successfully registered the thing today, so the man on the other end was very helpful. With the help of the USPS, I should be getting a reset card in the next few days. Although it's too early to see if he was truly helpful, his willingness to help and apparent understanding of the problem were the hallmarks of quality service. Something some librarians would do well to remember.

2003-04-03T11:54:00.000-06:00

I've been discovered

A great honor has been bestowed upon me as Steven Cohen of Library Stuff fame has seen fit to mention me on his blog. Check out the post. To quote him directly: "This may become one of my favorites, if only for the music that this unnamed blogger listens to." Rock on.

I need to also give a shout out to Organica for sharing that source with me. Organica is a blog crawler that compiles link stats, so I can see who links to me and a list of all my links. Very cool stuff.

2003-04-02T22:45:00.000-06:00

Better than Google News?

I just discovered NewsNow. This site claims to monitor 8,262 sources, updating every five minutes. That's almost twice the sources of Google News.

2003-04-02T22:08:00.000-06:00

My new workout regime

On Monday, we learned that planning is a "fun academic exercise." Today in Cataloging, I learned that assigning subject headings is an "interesting intellectual exercise." You'd think I'd be in better shape with all this exercise I'm getting.

2003-04-02T21:32:00.000-06:00

Late 80's cartoons

Do you remember Dangermouse? or Thundercats? Relive the past with downloads available at this site.

Thanks to Pretty_Generic and MetaFilter.

2003-04-02T20:24:00.000-06:00

New feature

Yesterday, I added the comment link for your feedbacking pleasure, courtesy of Enetation. Already, I've learned of a visitor thanks to it.

2003-04-02T13:33:00.000-06:00

A small world

I stumbled upon an article today in the now-defunct New Breed Librarian written by a short-term law school classmate friend (via classmate) of my fiancee's. He made the brilliant decision to go to library school instead. The article speaks quite explicitly to one of the topics of my think piece: the unfortunate and unnecessary dichotomy between public and technical services.

2003-04-02T10:24:00.000-06:00

Hostile takeover

It appears Blogger will not be restoring my template from backup, since free customers get no love from Blogger Control. Therefore, the responsibility to return Planet Neutral to its former glory is mine. In this case, the results seem satisfying, if not glorious. At least I've tackled out one technological crisis, but there are others.

My PDA arrived yesterday with no stylus, CD-ROM or manual. I can't get the cradle to HotSync either. My letters to Palm have been met with useless form responses [you mean I'm not the only one with sync problems? ;-) ].

I was having some issues with Syndirella too, but overall it is miles ahead of other news aggregators. I really need to stop dealing with my toys and get to work on a "think piece" I have to manifest by next week. Oh to be a full-time blogger...

2003-04-02T00:47:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Korea

Apparently, I am now a spokesperson for Korea Life. As the story goes, my template was replaced thanks to server issues. So I await the return to a more neutral format.

2003-03-31T23:15:00.000-06:00

New RSS reader

I've been testing out Syndirella in the hopes of finding a simpler, cleaner news aggregator. I like what I see, particularly the built-in browser, an improvement over AmphetaDesk's dependence on IE. Might be making a permanent transition.

2003-03-31T21:07:00.000-06:00

Oxymoron du jour

My professor for Adult Public Services commented that the planning process is really a "fun academic exercise," as if such a thing were possible.

2003-03-30T22:03:00.000-06:00

A foray into Dreamweaver

I decided to try and teach myself to use tables to position stuff on my web pages. The result: my ultra-boring, yet functional resume. I also made a few changes on the wedding website, having added a basic navigation bar and some new links. Now if only I could do something clever with Flash...

2003-03-30T12:53:00.000-06:00

Our officiant

It seems we've found someone to perform our wedding ceremony. He a Presbyterian minister. Check out Dr. John McCreight's picture. Seems like a nice guy, no? Looks strangely familiar too.

2003-03-29T22:48:00.000-06:00

In the spirit of neutrality...

For the lazy blogger, such as myself, a handy option: The Apathetic Online Journal Entry Generator.

2003-03-29T19:32:00.000-06:00

Embedded Media

A person on Govdoc_L shared a link to this memo that "provides guidance, policies and procedures on embedding news media". All sorts of fascinating details about the parameters for embedded journalists.

2003-03-24T15:34:00.000-06:00

Ah, indulgence

In response to the latest chapter in my job search saga, I've made the bold move of purchasing myself a PDA. I will soon be the proud owner of a Palm m500, courtesy of eBay. I just needed something to record all the great ideas and potential areas for further research that enter my already full brain on a daily basis. A silent microcassette recorder of a sort.

After some fierce bidding, I paid $93 (plus $10 S+H), which I think is a solid price and $7 less than my pre-determined maximum bid. There's nothing quite like the thrill of the auction and the use of successful sniping techniques.

2003-03-24T12:48:00.000-06:00

Another obstacle

I learned today that, despite my brilliant resume and cover letter, I am not a candidate for the position of Assistant Director at my library where I did my practicum. Apprently, having little to no experience is not one of the preferred qualifications.

2003-03-21T13:01:00.000-06:00

RSS problem solved.

I've cleverly conquered the Voidstar parsing rules by adding lots of blank space in my titles. Apparently, Voidstar takes the first 40 characters of the entry as its title. Should've read more closely, as knowing that earlier would've saved me much effort.

2003-03-21T12:11:00.000-06:00

Props to Drexel

Drexel University's College of Information Science and Technology has approved an online degree program that focuses on traditional library school curriculum. Read more.

Thanks to Library Journal for the scoop.

2003-03-21T12:03:00.000-06:00

More than meets the eye

Check out our military's secret weapon, Optimus Prime.

Now check out his website.

Courtesy of Lockergnome.

2003-03-21T11:33:00.000-06:00

Break time.

I should be leaving scenic Chambana in the next hour or two for the equally scenic terrain of Carmel, IN. Fortunately, I'll be off to the beautiful Ohio River Valley and my new hometown of Madison, IN after that. I'm hoping to get pre-departure lunch at Miko, a local Japanese (w/ some Thai and Korean) place that serves up a killer lunch buffet. Tons of veg options.

Open Stacks

It's official

As of today, Open Stacks has relocated to the following URL: http://openstacks.net/os

Barring further complications, this Blogger blog will no longer be updated.

If you have a second,

please take a gander at my newly redesigned resume and let me know what you think. I'm particularly interested in cross-browser display issues, but welcome comments on content, design and format as well. Thanks.

Library-wide bloggery

Congrats!

LIS SDI

Stay-home conference

Unfortunately, as an unemployed information professional, these sorts of things are well outside my budget. I'll be lucky to afford a tank of gas to get to my interview. But I digress.

The conference board is still seeking submissions for papers or other deliverables to present virtually. Apparently, a reduced registration fee exists for those with accepted submissions and it's a chance to learn some cool online presentation tools. Definitely worth a look.

Update

A glimmer of hope

On the symbiotic search engine/directory relationship

If you've ever wondered if dmoz and Google were somehow in cahoots, this article will provide some enlightenment: Google and Dmoz - Are They in Love?

As the article clarifies, getting listed in dmoz is a fairly reliable way to appear in a variety of search engine indexes. So bring it on people.

Experiment over?

Guess who's back?

In other non-news, I'll probably begin looking at short-term non-LIS employment in the coming weeks. 5 months and three weeks until the loan payments begin.

Hiatus

Ballot archiving

In looking for an answer, I found this viewable PDF archive of "the ballots from Leon County, Florida that had no machine readable marks in the [2000] Presidential Race." The so-called undervotes. More to come as I find it. Anyone know anything about the fate of presidential ballots?

Calling all youngsters...

Librarian appreciation?

I was checking in on Michael over at Libraryman and found a post about National Unappreciated Librarian Month. When's National Unemployed Librarian Month, I wonder.

And the article concludes: "Libraries are cool again." Apparently, librarians still aren't.

Job opportunity?

It looks like a new facility is being built in my part of the world. Let's hope they left a little in their budget for personnel expansion.

Game over

Scholarly journal directory

Blaming the bloggers

A plea for help

Any other advice you might have would be welcome. This is my working resume, which is just a recreation of my paper resume (no web design quality - that will happen after graduation). How can I step it up?

BTW, to those who take the time to read my posts, a heartfelt thank you.

Enetation disappears

Update: Apparently, this was just a temporary problem, but the Movable Type transition will continue as planned.

Low-income conferencing

Stats are information too

Public access portal

Update: After just a modicum of additional research, I learned that the true investors here are...who else, Bill and Melinda Gates, to the tune of $9 million. Here's the original press release.

Blogger problems

7-11 diversifies

It's a true sign of the times when 7-11 decides to test-market Silk brand soy milk. PETA provides some contact info, in case you want to say thank you. And don't forget to go buy some!

Collaborative Liblogging

Props to Catalogablog

Thanks to Library Stuff.

The newest trend in administrative librarian stupidity

Urbana Free RSS Feed

The wonderful photoblog of the Urbana Free Library's construction project has been syndicated. The RSS feed can be found here.

Madonna wins War on Iraq

Aristotle's Unicorn

Is gelatin a killer?

Accessibility

Open Stacks

In honor of my more focused effort, I've decided to rename this blog altogether. So welcome to Open Stacks. I hope the name conveys the appropriate message, however you wish to interpret it.

Re-focusing

Friday Five

1. What was the last TV show you watched?

I caught the last 15 minutes of the Michael Jackson special, but before that, Mr. Personality.

2. What was the last thing you complained about and what was the problem?

3. Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say?

I try to tell my fiancee she does a great job at least a few times per week. I also told Aaron Schatz that I liked his Lycos 50 blog.

4. What was the last thing you threw away.

Last night's dental floss.

5. What was the last website (besides this one) that you visited.

Right here at my blog. Before that, I was looking at the myriad job boards I check on a daily basis. Nothing new.

A view from the spider's eye

Ever wonder exactly what a search engine robot or spider sees when it crawls your site? Dump your URL into the Search Engine Spider Simulator. Description borrowed directly from SiteLines, the newest addition to the Weblogs queue:

New ODP responsibility

Look out Blogger

Single White Album?

What have you got?

At long last, I am #1

It's all about me

Jason Kottke knows the deal: Portal Wars II: When Search Engines Attack

It's the same story we hear in grad school every day - it's all about the user. It doesn't matter what you make happen with technology. What matters is what you do that makes it easy for me to make it happen.

Ego Boost

A fresh perspective

Turn your worldview upside-down by studying these maps.

Jason Kottke knows the deal:
Portal Wars II: When Search Engines Attack