Cub's Park: Official Mustard, Ketchup & Paper Cup

With opening day tomorrow, it's good to know where the Cubs stand on ketchup, mustard and paper cups.

Conflicker Worm - The New Y2K

So yes, everybody and his mother has sent me a message about the Conflicker Worm that's supposed to strike on April 1.

All I can say is, April Fools to you too! ***

___

*** I mean, some of us remember Y2K.

The Real Gadget Revolution: Web on the Go

I find it amusing that there's so much buzz (some of it manufactured?) about the Amazon Kindle. The real revolution is all around us (which is what you'd expect for a revolution): it's people using smart-phones or netbooks to text each other, send email and photos, and otherwise access the Internet.

Now we have a report by the Pew Research Center which reflects pretty much what anyone taking a train or bus home can observe every day:

Cast a glance at any coffee shop, train station or airport boarding gate, and it is easy to see that mobile access to the internet is taking root in our society. Open laptops or furrowed brows staring at palm-sized screens are evidence of how routinely information is exchanged on wireless networks.

The report goes on to look at the roll that "mobile internet access" plays in various user groups. It concludes that the tech bar "has risen":

In the past, having tech gear such as broadband at home generally placed people on the cutting edge; that is no longer the case in this edition of the typology. Our new study shows that mobile connectivity is the new centerpiece of high-tech life.

[h/t ResourceShelf]

Chicagoland Drupal4Lib BoF (3/20) - Report

We had a wonderful turnout of close to 20 librarians from all parts of the Chicagoland area. Knowledge and skill-level ran from seasoned veterans to people being introduced to Drupal for the first time.

Project Demos & Participation

We had a number of people show us projects they're working on, including Mikael Jacobsen of Skokie Public, Brian Smith from PALS and Colin Koteles from the College of DuPage. We also had healthy contingents from Loyola, Oak Park Public, [the 3 people sitting next to Mikael?], and the ALA.

Module & Technique Discussion

Questions or issues that came up included transferring a Wiki to Drupal, customizing Themes (in this case the Zen Theme), use of Panels and a short (and conflicted) demo on my part of CiviCRM.

Resources

I was happy to see that at least two other people had read or were reading the O'Reilly Drupal Book. We agreed that it was very good. I added that it was very hands-on and that you really wanted to have a working copy of the CMS in front of you as you went through the chapters.

Other resources that people recommended included, Learn by the Drop, some of the instructional material from UMich, and this interesting site bitnami.org where you can download all the apps you need (Apache, PHP, MySQL, etc.) to get Drupal up and running locally.

ALA in July

We also discussed plans for ALA in July. We'll be meeting as part of the LITA Drupal4Lib IG meeting. People expressed an interest in hearing from a speaker who could discuss where Drupal is heading in the near future -- with the next release. Happily, we have a number of excellent Drupal Developers in the Chicagoland area who could talk on this subject.

Most Embarrassing Moment

In an attempt to show beginners how easy it is to set up Drupal using cPanel/Fantastico (just to play around and experiment with), I completely flubbed up, ending with one error after the other. So yes, I will be leaving town and changing my identity. (Here's how it should have gone...).

Thanks to All

First thanks to the wonderful people at DePaul for letting us use their great Instruction Room.

Then thanks of course to everyone who came! I was so wonderfully surprised by the number and variety of people who came. It really energized me as to ideas and activities we can do for using Drupal for library purposes in the Chicagoland area.

Feel free to leave comments and hope to see everyone again!

Next Meeting(s)

We'll be getting together as part of the LITA Drupal4Lib IG meeting either on the Saturday (7/11) or Sunday (7/12), depending on conflicts, room availability etc. We then have a scheduled meeting in September at the downtown office of the MLS on September 25.

Note: Mikael Jacobsen is also organizing meetings for NSLS.

MLA Issues New Handbook, Still Insists 'Website' is Two Words

The seventh edition of the MLA Handbook has just come out. The Chronicle of Higher Education points to the considerable effort the publishers have made to give this "bible of the undergraduate paper-writing process" a substantial web component. They have a password-protected website that contains the full text of the manual along with a whole ton of support material.

Good for them! It's great they're making such an effort. But what I want to know is why they still refuse to acknowledge that 'website' consists of only one word. Doing so would be a sign of true progress.

Amazon's 'Inkjet Community'?

I think Amazon is taking this community thing way too far. I mean, the 'Inkjet Community'?

Early Voting in Chicago

Made it over to the early voting station at the Lincoln Park Branch of CPL during a break. It's for the Primary to replace Congressman Rahm Emanuel. The last time I had been there was in October for the General Election. Needless to say, the one or two people waiting to vote this time round in no way matched the scores of people all packed in and waiting just a couple of months ago. Instead of close to an hour, it took maybe 5 minutes.

Obama a Lefty ?

Am I the last person on earth to realize that Obama writes with his left hand? You know us 'lefties' feel a kinship for one another. Notice he's wearing his watch on his left hand as well. A true lefty might wear it on his right -- to afford mobility to the dominant hand.

Document of the Day: Dead But Still Homeless in Mississippi

Apparently until the following legislation finally passes, if you're dead in Mississippi but don't meet the "residency requirements", your chances of getting a pauper's grave don't look too good:

MS HB 1316, 2007-2007, Holland; An Act To Authorize Counties To Waive The Residency Requirement For Determination Of Pauper Status To Qualify For Burial Costs; To Provide That Counties And Municipalities Burying Paupers May Use County Or Municipal Employees And Equipment, Purchase Necessary Materials And Contract For Necessary Services For That Purpose; To Provide That Those Provisions Do Not Authorize Public Funds To Be Used For Ceremonies Associated With Burials Or Funerals; And For Related Purposes.

No doubt, the current requirement is in place to prevent Mississippi from becoming a haven for transient dead people.

[Found while searching on a demo of Serial Solutions 360 Search for "keyword contains burial and materials"]

Chicagoland Drupal4Lib BoF (3/20, 1:30p)

I'm pleased to announce a Chicagoland Drupal4Lib BoF on Friday, 3/20 (1:30p-4p) at DePaul's Loop Campus, 1 E. Jackson (10th fl., Rm# 10028), Chicago.

GOALS OF THE CHICAGOLAND DRUPAL4LIB BoF

The Chicagoland Drupal4Lib BoF will be an opportunity for librarians to get together and discuss how they use (or would like to use) Drupal in a library context. We'll ask people to present projects they're working on and we'll field questions on problems and approaches to implementing Drupal. All levels of knowledge from expert to n00b are welcome.

Also, since we're the 'host' city for the ALA Convention in Chicago in July, we'll have an opportunity to think about what we might want to do for that.

This Chicagoland Drupal4Lib BoF is a follow-up to our successful get-togethers last year at the Metropolitan Librarian System and at the wildly sold-out Chicago Drupal BarCamp in October.

CHICAGOLAND DRUPAL4LIB BoF - QUARTERLY BASIS

We'll be doing one of these on a quarterly basis -- or at least that's the intention. The people at DePaul have kindly made their location available for March; We'll be meeting at McCormick Place as part of ALA in July; After that we'll be meeting at the downtown offices of the Metropolitan Library System (MLS).

PARTICIPATION AND SUGGESTIONS

It goes without saying that your participation and suggestions are welcome. The format is free and open enough to accommodate a ton of different ideas and needs.

You can sign up here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/18820

Feel free to leave a comment there or email me directly -- and everyone start planning for an informative and rewarding event -- on 3/20!

Weird Library Commercial of the Week

And the winner is: a cornstarch laced brown foamy liquid that apparently is supposed to appeal to easily distracted (and hallucinatory) teenagers.  [link]

Current Cites for January 2009

  

Current Cites for January 2009 is out! You can find the issue here...

I wrote about an interesting article in Portal that looked at the search habits of undergrads where the authors not only analyzed 100 freshman comp term papers but conducted follow-up interviews and focus groups as well.

Trip to DC for the Inauguration

I took the train down to DC for the Inauguration. It looked like the entire progressive half of the country was on its way to the nation's Capital.

In the train car on one side, a man was reading "The Return of Depression Economics" by Paul Krugman. On the other side, a woman was reading "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein. Obama regalia -- hats, pins, teeshirts -- were everywhere. As we reached our final destination, one woman suddenly broke into 'This Land is Your Land'.

First task was to pick up my 'Silver Ticket' which would determine where I would be standing during the Inauguration next day. Justin from the Congressional Office was kind enough to come down and bring me the thing. Otherwise, I would have had to join the hundreds of people waiting hours in front of every Congressional Office Building near the Capitol.

I ran into Dianne from Will County along with a couple of friends. We walked around the Capitol examining the area where the inauguration was to take place the next day.

Later on I joined a couple of friends for dinner at a pub in Clarendon. I was staying in Virginia in a town called Leesburg.

On the big day itself, we woke up at 4am. It took us about three hours to get downtown. Because the Metro was so crowded, we had to break up into different groups each trying his or her separate way of getting to the Washington Mall -- some walking, some trying to get into Metro trains that were packed to the gills with people.

Everything was packed. It was also about 20 degrees or colder. While this normally isn't bad, the fact that we were outside for several hours gave us all literally 'cold feet'. But cold feet or no cold feet, we were determined to participate in this great event.

Unfortunately, it took us so long to get to the entrance of the Silver Ticket area, that it was impossible to move forward. There simply were too many people crowding in.

Next we tried walking further down the Mall, away from the Capitol and towards the Washington Monument. It wasn't until 14th St. that there was an opening onto the lawn. We didn't have the best view, the 'Jumbotron' was way too far off and the audio came in and out, but still we were able to make out Obama's words and cheered and hollered our lungs out at all the important parts. It was a fabulous day.

We then reassembled at a nearby bar which unfortunately featured cigar smoking. Considering that we were only mid-way through a very very long day, it was amazing that everyone had beers -- except for me who wisely stuck to coffee.

Later in the evening we went to one of the Inauguration Balls. At first the idea of such a formal (not to mention stilted) occasion wasn't at all attractive to me but I was happy I went. Obama stopped by saying a few words to the crowd and while there were several hundred people in the hall it was a far more intimate environment than the million-plus scene earlier in the day. Michelle was there as well as the Vice President and his wife.

We didn't get back to Leesburg in Virginia till maybe two in the morning -- or, in other words, maybe 22 hours after we got up. Needless to say, it was a long day. We were all tired, worn out by the walking and crowds; our feet hurt and we were more than a little chilled; but the truth is, none of us would have missed this for anything in the world.

NYU Ref. Associates Reunion

Former NYU Reference Associates Leo, Andy and Mariana get together in NYC, first for a tour of Andy's current gig and then for din-din at a local restaurant.

Blast from the Past: The Sisters Zilla

Wow, here's something I haven't seen for a while: It's a clip called, "The Sisters Zilla" [archive.org] that I did as a final project for one of my classes at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program -- almost 10 years ago! It's kind of funny, especially near the end. What's more amazing: the link still works (requires RealPlayer):

Here's the original description for the piece:

The Sisters Zilla (in RealVideo). Emotive blockbuster combining the best of "The Three Sisters" by Anton Chekov together with "Godzilla" by Sony Entertainment plus a shot or two of ITP thrown in for good measure. Done with Debbie Tarjono for 'Digital Video'. (Premiere 5.0, AfterEffects 4.0; Summer 1999).

Bye-Bye Dailup at NYU

Reading my copy of Connect Magazine, which the IT People at NYU are kind enough to still send me, I notice that they're discontinuing Dailup Service as of January 20, 2009.

That's a shame though probably long overdue. NYU Dailup service was my first gateway to the Internet way back in 1994. I had had a modem on my laptop since the late Eighties but the only time I actually used it was to dial into a special government number to download some unexceptional data. Dailing into specialized phone numbers was about all you could do with a modem back then -- that and then a bit later on, connecting to proprietary networks like AOL or CompuServe.

It's when I got to NYU in '94 and was able to connect to their Dailup service that this strange unfamiliar network called the 'Web' became accessible. This was the era of GIF images and Netscape 1.0. In fact, just before I got there, the Library at NYU had completed an initial effort to make content available online -- in Gopher.

Oh well. I used Dailup till sites like Napster started getting big, at which point I switched over to DSL from Verizon. Ah, the days of 28kbs and 56kbs connectivity!

Holiday Dinner at Mom's

Yes, we were able to fit in everyone who came. Got back home late.

Top 10 Reasons Not to Pay Attention to My Top 10 Reasons from Last Year

1. Everything has changed.
2. If only I knew then what I know now...
3. Forget 2007. It's 1937 all over again!
4. Did I even have a 'Top 10' last year?
5. After a conversation with myself, it turns out that I'm too carried away with the disruptive nature of cloud computing to actually move forward on anything meaningful.
6. Sorry about No. 5 -- makes no sense to me either. I promise to do better with No. 7.
7. I'll fight, I'll fight, I'll fight the notion that hindsight is 20/20.
8. My carbon footprint has no shoes.
9. While we're waiting around for No. 10, is there anyone alive who still doesn't know that friken TV is switching from analog to digital on Feb. 17, 2009? If they had taken as much time to warn us about the Telecommunications Act of 1996, we might still care.
10. As Ernie Banks would say, 'All will be fine in 2000 and 9'.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hot Dog Stand 'Wieners Circle' Closed Down By Board of Health

It's practically an institution on the North Side of Chicago. The Hot Dog Stand 'Wieners Circle' has been closed down by the Board of Health due, according to a sign on the door, to problems with their "hot water service". In other words, the pipes have burst.

I remember going there as an undergrad after a late night on the town. We'd first go to Neo's (then in its 'New Wave' phase) and then hit Wieners Circle for a Polish with grilled onions. This was way before they developed the schtick about swearing to customers and concentrated instead on the quality of the food.

Anyway, the sign on the door says they'll be back to continue their "love affair with Chicago" once they've completed some "needed re-modeling".

Old Year Resolution

Generally you make resolutions for the New Year but this is something I want to get done in the day or two I have off prior to January 1: Convert about half a dozen Drupal sites (like this one) to 6.x. It's about time! [Note: old site used Drupal.]

FaceBook Scandal Points to Strengths & Weaknesses of Social Networking Tools

A fascinating scandal on Facebook, uncovered by blogger Brad J. Ward, points to both the strengths and weaknesses of Social Networking tools.

The scandal revolves around an attempt by at least two companies, CollegeProwler.com and MatchU to corner the market, so to speak, on as many College 'Class of 2013' Facebook groups as possible using non-attending individuals to set up the groups and serve as Admins.

Once they were found out, representatives of these two companies, possibly sensing a public relations disaster, left comments on Brad's original post, apologizing for their actions and promising to vacate the groups they had so improperly created.

Many commentators called this 'squatting' and appropriately identified the need for Colleges and Universities to stake out prominent roles for themselves in social networking sites so that vacuums like this don't occur in which case marketers (or even worse) inevitably come in to fill the void.

But that's only half the story.

The other half is the casual almost breathless use of collaborative technology that went into uncovering this scam.

The thing was first mooted on a blog, screen-shots were put up on Flickr, a screencast was created using Jing. Brad and others searched LinkedIn, ZoomInfo and even Craigslist eventually nailing down the companies responsible for this.

They communicated with each other on his blog, through Twitter or using a group spreadsheet on Google Docs. The spreadsheet itself which has since been taken down for privacy reasons, quickly incorporated the work of at least 30 volunteers listing more than 400 schools.

And all of this happened within the space of a day or two!

Communication has been instantaneous for a while now but the variety of ways we can communicate and the number of formats we can employ is truly remarkable.

Current Cites for December 2008

Current Cites for December 2008 is out! You can find the issue here...

I focused on a couple of interesting articles, one having to do with site optimization and the other with data preservation, from the December issue of Communications of the ACM.

Drupal4Lib - One Year Old!

I almost forgot about this but it's been a year (give or take a few days) since I started the Drupal4Lib ListServ.

I sent out the word on December 5 and within two days we had 200 subscribers.

As I said on a post that I sent out to the group, the original motivation for starting the List remains the same now as before, namely to provide an easily accessible environment to get helpful and reliable information on Drupal in a library context.

I'm pleased to say we now have 474 subscribers -- almost all who have been wonderfully 'helpful and reliable'.

So thanks to all the subscribers and happy holidays!

The Art of Reading John Milton

NPR had a segment on the 400th anniversary of John Milton. It wasn't too bad in relating the importance of Paradise Lost though I don't think I agree with Modern Library's William Kerrigan who recommends the "best way" of reading it as all at once in one sitting. As an undergrad, I had to pound my head against this work more than once. Not only is the language and imagery a bit tricky but the allusions to classical and contemporary events are enough to sink even the most motivated reader. The trick then is not to become frustrated but rather to come back to it, over and over again if necessary, until the outstanding beauty of the work starts speaking to you. For that reason, I'd say that the best way to read Paradise Lost is to read it three times over.

UPDATE: One of passages that totally knocked me over when reading this as an undergrad:

                                              ... Full soon
Among them he arrived; in his right hand
Grasping ten thousand Thunders, which he sent
Before him, such as in their Souls infixed
Plagues; they astonished all resistance lost,
All courage; down their idle weapons dropped;
O're Shields and Helmes, and helmed heads he rode
Of Thrones and mighty Seraphim prostrate,
That wished the Mountains now might be again
Thrown on them as a shelter from his ire.

         -- John Milton, Paradise Lost, VI.

eBook Killer, Thy Name is NetBook

So remind me again, who's going to pick the utterly drab and uni-functional Amazon Kindle for $359 when they can get this baby for the same price?

Courtesy of MiniNote User.

UPDATE (1/5/09): Not to make this sound like the GadgetBlog but HP just came out with an update to its top of the line model, the HP Mini 2140. Faster chip, bigger lcd panel -- Hoo Baby!

Facebook 'Loses' My Email Notification Preferences

File under, 'Weird Email of the Day':

Please reset your email notification settings. Unfortunately, the settings that control which email notifications get sent to you were lost. We're sorry for the inconvenience. To reset your email notification settings, go to... Thanks, The Facebook Team

How do you 'lose' settings like this?

AT&T is the Death Star (HTC Fuze Edition)

Just got my new HTC Fuze from AT&T. Going through the always helpful forums at XDA-Developers, I came across the following cry of pain:

Why did AT&T (and others like Verizon) have to make changes to it?

Why can't they just leave it as it is as the Touch Pro? I can't stand the fact that they had to change the keyboard to be different!

No tab and Ctl key.....come on!!!!!

The guy has a point.

First there's the load of AT&T crapware that's included. You can't escape this since the good folks at AT&T thoughtfully re-engineered the default interface to include a prominent link to it. It mainly features fee-based services that ordinarily can be found elsewhere for free. Did I mention that you have to hack into the system to get rid of this stuff?

But back to the above lament.

The keyboard on earlier versions of this phone only had four rows. This allowed for larger keys. By squeezing in a fifth row, HTC, the manufacturer, had to reduce the size of the other rows and hence the keys. This made the keyboard slightly more difficult to use but no doubt HTC felt this reduction in functionality was justified since consumers now had a 'full qwerty' keyboard including a row of numbers.

Unfortunately when AT&T got its hands on the device, it simply said, 'qwerty, schmerty' and replaced the top row of numbers with punctuation marks. Worse, it replaced the normal function of certain keys on the lowest row with (surprise, surprise) yet more links to its fee-based proprietary services.

There is a conflict of goals here. The consumer wants a device to communicate with while the company wants a gateway to its proprietary fee-based services. This conflict results in interface decisions that alter how hardware and software traditionally function.

To the question then, what would a keyboard or operating system look like if it were designed by a telecommunications company, we now have an answer. For those of us concerned with the results, working towards a regulatory framework that separated the two -- i.e. the provider of the network from the provider of the network device -- might be a safe option.

Ah, the Good Old Days

Former assistant Cook County state's attorney Joe Roddy on the changed environment then and now for the Chicago Police Department:

"The difference is this -- when I grew up in the 40s and 50s, if a police officer asked you to get out of the park, you couldn’t get out fast enough. Now, people say, 'F**k you' -- pardon my Irish -- and spit at them...." [Mick Dumke, "The City That Pays Out", Chicago Reader, 11/27/2008]

Current Cites at the Reference Desk

Doing my Current Cites at the Reference Desk in between patron traffic.

UPDATE: And hot off the presses, here's the latest issue of CurrentCites for November...

Yes, It's that Time of Year: Blue Beanie Day 2008

Courtesy of Jeffrey Zeldman:

Announcing the second annual Blue Beanie Day! Show your support for Web Standards and Accessibility. Please join us on Friday, November 28, 2008 in celebrating Blue Beanie Day.

Friday, November 28, 2008 is the day thousands of Standardistas (people who support web standards) will wear a Blue Beanie to show their support for accessible, semantic web content.

It's easy to show your support for web design done right. Don a Blue Beanie and snap a photo. Then on November 28, switch your profile picture in Facebook and post your photo to the Blue Beanie Day group at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bluebeanieday2008/

How Dare You Call My Laptop a Technological Dinosaur

Every once and a while I come across an article which pretty much declares any device larger than a cellphone as dead because cellphones are what the teens are using and hence everything else is on the road to extinction.

This is silly.

I use my smartphone/pda/call-it-what-you-like -- all the time but even I know it doesn't replace my need for larger devices depending on what I'm doing.

I'm not going to write my research paper on one, for example, for the same reason that I wouldn't do the same, twenty years earlier, on the back of an envelope. You choose the tool to fit the job.

Ideas for Drupal4Lib IG Event at ALA in Chicago?

This is still a while off but I thought I'd put out an initial request before the holidays officially begin. It's a request for ideas and suggestions for the meeting of the LITA Drupal4Lib Interest Group at the 2009 ALA Conference in Chicago.

Feel free to leave comments either here or on the LITA Blog at:
http://tinyurl.com/Drupal4LibALAchicago

LAST JUNE/JULY IN ANAHEIM

Last June, we had a pretty nice BoF with librarians discussing Drupal projects they were working on. We also had a round-robin Q&A with librarians new to Drupal who were thinking about maybe using the CMS but wanting more information.

Here's my write-up of the event:

"Drupal4Lib BoF at ALA Anaheim"

ALA 2009 IN CHICAGO

So next year, happily enough, we'll be meeting in Chicago (my hometown) and I wanted to poll people to see what they thought.

A BoF is pretty nice but we could just as easily have a speaker or two, or investigate an interesting theme or topic.

Time-wise, I don't think we’d get more than an hour and a half -- two hours max. Fun things might include specific modules for library application, using Drupal in a library environment -- anything really.

So if you have any ideas or suggestions, if you'd like to speak or would like to see someone else speak, if there's a theme or topic you’d like to investigate, please leave a comment either here or on the LITA Blog at:
http://tinyurl.com/Drupal4LibALAchicago

With just a little work, I'm sure we can arrange something that our fellow Drupal4Lib'ers would look forward to.

Thanks for any help,

LEO
(2008-09 Chair of the LITA Drupal4Lib IG)

When Design Kills

I had a very pleasurable time at the Garfield Park Conservatory on Chicago's West Side several weeks ago. Finding it however included a mishap due in part to this extremely poorly constructed map which I found while wandering around looking for directions.

You can see a larger version of the entire billboard here -- plus a close-up of the map itself.

I was at the "Gold Dome Fieldhouse", looking for the main Conservatory building. Can anyone guess why I started heading (incorrectly it turned out) west?

Time's up: You can make a map in a thousand different ways (just look at mass transit maps from various cities), but one of the few conventions is that the top generally points north, the bottom south, the left west and the right east. That's how maps are laid out.

Unfortunately, the person who designed this one, decided to ignore the convention and turned the thing 90 degrees counter-clockwise. This way, it may have been easier to fit in with the rest of the information on the board -- that's probably why they did it -- but it's really going for convenience of composition at the expense of comprehension.

Nobody looking at this is going to instinctively tilt their heads sideways to figure it out. Instead they'll do what I did and head off in the wrong direction.

I was saved by friends who, lucky for me, drove over and picked me up. Others might not be so fortunate. The whole point however is that bad design happens when it doesn't take user assumptions into consideration. The result can be not simply making things harder to find but causing users to make incorrect and possibly disastrous decisions. Just ask the person who designed the "Butterfly Ballots" in Florida.

Good News for Net Neutrality

Net Advocate and UMICH Don Susan Crawford has been named a "FCC Review Team Lead" by the incoming Obama-Biden Administration. Maybe the 'Net has a future after all...

[h/t TechPresident]

Three Events in My Life

They're selling Obama hats at my local 7-11. I know 'business is business' but this is the first time I can recall when the 'swag' from a presidential campaign was thought valuable enough to hit the retail shelves.

Three world events have affected me in my life. The first was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. I was there, had been there since '84 and knew what it was like to have a police state just a block or two away. I was working construction in those days. I had finished up and had taken a nap. When I woke up one of the people living in the house told me the extraordinary news that while I was asleep, the Wall had come down.

Of course, the person exaggerated. The Wall which surrounded the entire western half of the city hadn't come down. Rather an opening had been made at Checkpoint Charlie and also at the Brandenburg Gate where people from East Berlin -- the 'Ossies' -- could cross over. What followed were three days of absolute euphoria as tens of thousands of East Germans came over, swamping the local public transportation, waiting in long lines in front of banks to pick up their "Begrüßungsgeld" (i.e. welcome money) of 100 DM with which they bought items absolutely unavailable in their part of the city such as cassette radios and bags of oranges.

The downfall of that Wall and the regime it represented was the most positive experience of my young adult life.

More than a decade later, I was living in New York City. When I first heard that a jet had struck one of the World Trade Towers, I thought maybe it was an accident, albeit of horrendous proportions. When the second plane hit the second tower, I like everyone else in New York knew otherwise. I can remember walking north to work, up 1st Avenue, and seeing the emotions of people looking past me in the direction of Lower Manhattan. I finally turned around to see what they were looking at and there the towers stood, clearly visible as always, but now smoking and about to collapse. The ruins continued to give off smoke for weeks.

Now I'm in Chicago. Just three days ago, the eyes of the world were focused on our city. It was the final act of a series of events whose beginnings, I would argue, stretch back to the turmoil of the election in 2000. It was a period of abnormal excesses, exacerbated in reaction to 9-11, where we as a nation didn't always come off as a preeminent force for good. In fact, in many ways, we lost ground.

So after an unbelievably long campaign that could have ended in any number of ways, we all gathered in Grant Park, not wanting to risk fate by putting into words what so many of us were hoping and some of us had worked for. Pennsylvania was declared, then Ohio. The polls in California and the rest of the Pacific-coast states were closing at 10pm Central Standard time. At 10pm the people in the park started counting down from 10 to 0. Exactly at that point on the large TV screens, Wolf Blitzer from CNN said he had an important announcement to make, that CNN now projected Barack Obama to be elected President of the United States. The crowd in the park, all 250k of them, went wild.

It's a moment, like the two others, that I'll never forget.

NetDiver 10th Anniversary

Carole Guevin's NetDiver, a portfolio site for aspiring web designers, is celebrating its 10 year on the web. You can get the "Official" poster here...

Carole Guevin was a voice of (cutting edge) sanity during the early days of the web and it's great to see her site still going strong. She even has a Facebook Group... 

Early Voting in Chicago

So I came up with the brilliant idea of ducking out from work to go to the Early Voting location at the Public Library just across the street.

Bad move. After filling out the form and giving them my ID, I was led into a waiting room with more than 60 people! This is going to take a hundred years. My colleagues at work probably think I skipped out of town.

[Note: the above was written while I was marooned in the waiting room. And yes, I finally got out and was able to resume normal reference services.]

Drupal Camp Chicago: Wow!

Hoo baby, they got a big crowd for the Drupal Camp Chicago. Easily over 100 attendees!

We had so many people at the Library BoF -- most of whom weren't librarians -- that I had to shift into "presentation" mode -- with a wonderful assist from PLA Webmaster Doug Dawson, Brian Smith from Palsnet.info, a librarian from Brookfield Public and the owner of a development shop creating a website for one of the regional library organizations in Washington State.

If I missed anyone, please forgive me. We really could have gone on for another hour.

They were taping the session plus a couple of people had cameras so hopefully I'll have some photos or clips in a little bit.

In any case, hats off to Kyle and Matt and the rest of the CDMUG.org crowd. What a great event.

Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities & Computer Science 2008

Registration is now open for 3rd annual Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science (DHCS) taking place on November 2–3, 2008 at U. of C.

This is an event I really enjoy attending. Last year, it was at Northwestern; this year it's at U. of C. It brings together all people interested in Digital Humanities with a scholarly bent. Unfortunately this year I'll be out of town. Darn!

In any case, you can register by going to: http://dhcs.uchicago.edu/

Current Cites for September 2008

 

Current Cites for July 2020 is out! You can find the issue here...

Banned Books Week

In observance, I guess you could say, of ALA's Banned Books Week, NPR did a segment on how The Grapes of Wrath was banned at the end of the 30's.

It was good but I really wish they had focused on more recent titles. Going over the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2007 might have been more relevant. At least it would have helped people understand what librarians and advocates of free speech are dealing with in this day and age.

UPDATE: WBEZ did something slightly more along the lines of what I was thinking with yesterday's segment, 'Celebrating Some of the Best Banned Books'.

2008 ILA Annual Conference

The Annual Conference of the Illinois Library Association is in Chicago this year.

It runs the whole week and is located at Navy Pier. Here's a shot of the entrance to the exhibits.

More Divine Intervention for the Chicago Cubs

As seen on the Blue Line this morning. The South Siders might have difficulties with this.

Drupal Camp Chicago Fri.-Sat. (10/24-10/25)

Kyle and Matthew along with a few others from the CDMUG are putting together a Drupal Camp Chicago.

It's a two-day event running from Friday (10/24) to Saturday (10/25). Location is the UIC Innovation Center at 1240 W. Harrison in Chicago.

Website for the event is http://drupalcampchicago.org/. It's only a month away but they're still taking suggestions for sessions at this link:

I'll be doing a Library BoF tentatively scheduled for early Friday afternoon. The idea is:

• Showcase library-related Drupal projects in the Chicagoland area.
• Talk about future plans and aspirations, field questions and compare experiences.

Mark your calendars today!

OneWebDay 2008

OneWebDay is Monday. Here's a link to the spiffy event site:  http://www.onewebday.org/

The idea is to celebrate the benefits we derive from the Web. The hope is the more we appreciate it, the more we'll be protective of it. You can read more on the OneWebDay's About Page...

Last year I did a video of UIC students talking about how they use the web. This year I've got a ton of commitments so I'll just have to replay last year's effort. See below.

PT Reference Gig at DePaul

Today was my first day doing reference at DePaul University Library. I grabbed a couple of volumes of the DLB and a volume of the NUC (Pre 1956) and I was in 7th Heaven. It's only a couple hours a week but I love it!

PLAspace.org - Official Launch

Okay, today was the official launch of the new community site that I've been working on for the Public Library Association: PLAspace.org

The announcement reads:

"Today marks another milestone in the rollout of PLAspace. We officially open the doors to new CoPs and new participants.

We created PLAspace to give Public Library Association members a place where they could share ideas and work together on common interests. Today, the first official day for the site, we already have several dozen members and a half-dozen CoPs."

Old Projects Never Die : Red Scare (1918-1921)

"Red Scare (1918-1921)" was a project I did for extra credit while finishing up my MLS at Queens College (CUNY). It must have been around 1997.

The online exhibit consisted of political cartoons with some photos from the period 1918-1921. There were over a hundred images illustrating the hysteria of the time -- most scanned from hard-bound copies of the Literary Digest, then conveniently housed in the stacks of NYU Bobst Library. The exhibit is hosted by Newman Library, Baruch College (CUNY) where I went after NYU.

Anyway, every once and a while, I get a request for permission to use one or two of the images. There was a lot of interest in them around the time of 9/11 but even afterwards, the requests still come in.

I usually explain that the copyright has long run out on the images and that they're free for the downloading. The latest request was from one of the College Prep Testing Services. They want to use one or two of the images for their section on U.S. History.

I guess, I'll have to upgrade the project at some point. Ten years is a long time for content like this on the Web.

Back to School at UIC

Today was the first day of classes at UIC. It was a nice summer but I'm happy to see the students back.

They had people at all the entrances giving out information. You can just make out the "UIC Orientation" table in the distance.

Amherst College Library Launches New Site

Tracy Sutherland gave us a sneak peek of the new site, then under development, at the Drupal4Lib BoF at ALA Anaheim in June.

Now it's been launched for the whole world to see:
https://www.amherst.edu/library

Nice job and Congrads to all!

PLAspace.org - Soft Launch

We're doing a 'soft-launch' of PLAspace.org -- the community website that I've been working on together with some very nice people from the Public Library Association as well as a number of volunteers.

It's open to the public but it won't be officially announced till sometime in September. Anyway, have a look:

http://www.PLAspace.org

The Parboiled Rice Has Come! The Parboiled Rice Has Come!

 

Yay, the Parboiled Rice has come!  For 10 years, I lived in New York City and for 10 years I ate Parboiled Rice from the Associated Supermarket either on 14th St. or 23rd St.

So what do I do when I start running out of the cherished grains? Why I send for 10 pounds more of course -- via Priority Mail.

Here's the latest shipment.

eBook Readers Suck as eBook Readers

First people, please don't mention the Kindle and the future-of-print in the same breath. That would imply that one has something to do with the other and why do Amazon's marketing for them?

But ignoring that for a moment, I think the whole concept of a dedicated "ebook" reader is somewhat dodgy.  I mean, if that's all they do, why bother?

You can't copy out bits and pieces of the text, import them into something you're working on, share them with friends, blog about them -- or do any of the million other things you're used to doing on electronic devices that are increasingly just as small and inexpensive.

In other words, an 'eBook' reader completely sucks as an 'eBook' reader because it treats what you're reading as a complete digital dead-end.

Leo Kline in the Onion!

Workplace environment: I've been on the receiving end of this from my co-workers since yesterday. From the most recent edition of The Onion:

ROCHESTER, NY—Reported sightings of Rochester's legendary "phantom diner," a mysterious restaurant that purportedly appears only to those in the most inebriated state of their lives, are often met with skepticism and incredulity. But for Leo Kline, 24, who claims he visited the diner this past weekend, the apparitional eatery is all too real.

Like I wear green?

No Vacation for Leo

I wish I could say my lack of posting for the last week or so is because of me 'gone fishing'.

Instead, I'm working on a site for the Public Library Association that, happily, is close to completion.

The thing's looking good but it's taken all my free time away.