2008-12-08

Wasn't this mentioned in the Bible?

Taken right before they wheeled out the Golden Taurus:

Fabrizio Costantini took this photo for The New York Times
Seriously, what is going on here? Is divine intervention part of our Big Plan to save the economy? Why are there cars on the altar?
I tried reading the article. I really did.

2008-12-02

My German Word

Back in high school German class, I invented a word. We'll get to that in a moment, but first:

The Backstory

It was one of those "advanced" classes - basically like English class, but German. We would read a short story or essay and were then tested on our comprehension and whatnot.

One story was about a family on a Spatziergang - basically, a walk in the park. Another was a history lesson, about Hitler's seizure of power, the Machtergreifung.

Later, during a quiz, I confused the two terms and created:

Spaßergreifung. Literally, the seizure of fun.

2008-02-28

Reflections

As I look back on all that I have published these past few months, I am struck by a single thought: why is anyone reading this? Surely, the three of you had better things to do with your time? I've done little but complain, yet here you are, back again. Perhaps it is some form of masochism.

In all seriousness, this was truly a learning experience. I learned that I can't keep a deadline to save my own - well - let's say skin. Also, it seems I don't care for a great many things, or their names. Shakespeare once asked if (and I'm paraphrasing) the names of things really affected their innate qualities. Yes. They do.

So, if given the opportunity, would I do all this again?

2008-02-14

The Bryan's 2.0 Experience

The self-titled post.


It has been a long, hard row to hoe getting this far. There were randomly placed stones strewn about the field, blocking any attempt to cultivate the land. Some of these boulders, namely the ones known as blogging from the circulation desk (like right now) and procrastination, were added by yours truly.



This is not, however, supposed to be a rant of the faults or failings of this program or its participant. What this is supposed to be is an analysis of the positives. So:



The best things in this life are the simplest and most flexible. The same is true for the applications explored in this exercise. Those options which improve communication without being cumbersome win out over those which fail to do so.

RSS allows end users to consume content in a manner that suits them while permitting the producers of said content to disseminate information to a wider audience (that is, it's quicker and simpler to add a feed than to frequent a website, meaning that more people will have an easier time getting the message). Similarly, the direct comm-oriented bits (IM, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, etc.) allow the rapid transmission of ideas without a cumbersome interface (for the most part). There is a reason that cell phone text messaging is so popular: it's fast and easy.

Which brings me to my final point, one which was also made much earlier: portability is paramount. RSS, IM, MySpace? Welcome to 2000. Really. Some of this stuff has been around since the 90's! Amazon has had user-reviewed products and the so-called long tail since what, 2001 at the latest?

Around the same time as all this, an ingenious little device known as the BlackBerry made its debut. By combining the powers of a PDA, cell phone, and (underpowered) notebook computer, this little guy brought all these cool webby particulars into the palm of your hand. Now Steve Jobs has given the BlackBerry a fancy touch screen and two-year period of servitude, er, service contract. By releasing the product as the iPhone at five times the cost of its predecessor, Apple has revived interest in portable computers.



Welcome to the future.



Style over substance.

It's A Cigarette

Why the image of the hand-rolled cigarette, you ask? This is why. Near as I can tell, Rollyo is short for "roll-your-own", and the image seemed to fit. I poked at the site for a bit, tried a few searches (including the "rare books" one), and came to one irresistible conclusion.

No; Google is just fine, thank you.

2008-02-12

What the World Needs Now


Just over two weeks left in this guided exploration of the Wired. Now, apparently, I'm supposed to tell anyone with a computer what books I've read. In other words, this thing wants me to check out LibraryThing. Sure, I'm game.

I doubt that the books I chose are of particular interest, but here they are. A quick glance will reveal they run the gamut from the esoteric to the familiar. This is not a surprise to anyone in the know. Also, one may note that my name is my login. Personal preference.

As for the experience, it was relatively painless. The site is a bit picky when it comes to passwords, however: my usual security codes were a bit too elaborate for them. Searching for books and adding them to my profile was fairly straightforward, the hardest part being finding the right edition of each book. Take The Battle of Jutland, for instance. There were some five different editions, only one of which I had read. Finding the right version of The Divine Comedy was even more of a struggle, one involving heavy artillery and trained badgers. And though a first edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy may once have graced my greased palms, it no longer resides anywhere near my shelves.

Come to think of it, I believe I read the paperback.

2008-02-08

Public Image

Okay, it appears that the time for serious discourse has passed and the time for merriment is upon us. As an effort to educate Virginia Beach Public Library staff members on the new and exciting applications available online, we were to create funny pictures.

M'kay.

Not that I'm one to shy away from any opportunity to goof off, but I felt kind of guilty looking through the offerings hinted at by the benevolent director of this little experiment. That is, until I found FD Toy's Motivator. Everyone has seen these; they are the things managers put on the walls when real human motivation is not really an option. Said higher-ups would rather put up a poster that says "LEADERSHIP: something displayed every day" underneath a picture of a mountain climber rather than display any actual leadership. I used to work as a telemarketer. Every square inch of spare wall space was covered by these inane sayings. In a way, they were darkly humorous, like House or certain episodes of M*A*S*H. Take, for instance, a poster urging ETHICS over the middle manager who always fleeced his sales reps to make an extra buck. Or VIRTUE over that one rep who most certainly lacked any sense of Victorian propriety. Great to have at parties, though. The sales rep, not the poster.

Anyway, my brain immediately came up with dozens of inappropriate and hilarious uses for this "tool". Most of which are, naturally, not going to appear here. I like having the account, and Google does censor egregious posts.

2008-02-02

The Greater Serves for the Lesser?


Yet another thing about online audio and video. Okay, I'm game. After perusing the audio archives of a couple of progressive libraries, I noticed more than anything that the files were, for the most part, formatted with the MP3 codec. For the uninitiated, "codec" is short for "compression-decompression", in other words the method used to cram the sound into a tiny chip and later release it back into the world.
Apple uses AAC format for its Ipods. MP3 is the industry standard for music and is compatible with most players, thus the term "MP3 player". There are dozens of codecs, most propriatary in nature. So, "podcast" should not apply to MP3 files, which are incompatible with an IPod. MP3 files must be converted to AAC to play on the fashionable player, losing information (read: sound quality) in the process.
None of this really matters much for online audio productions. Most are voice only, and would be better served by different codecs anyway, ones more suitable to the spoken word. These are probably incompatible with any digital music player but would sound great on your cell phone. Okay, enough pedantry today.
What about the content? That is beyond the scope of this post, but I'll give it the Old College Try. A given organization will have to judge for itself what should be shared with the public. A story, just as audio or even as streaming video, read aloud and posted on the library's website would be cool. A catalog of library events that can be downloaded and played on a portable player might be useful for the blind or busy (or both).

2008-01-31

Bummer

Google has dealt yet another savage blow to my fragile ego. The primacy this author once enjoyed at the top of a certain heap has been taken away, probably by pixies or gnomes.

Certainly one of the fey folk.

2008-01-30

Pod People


Here we find one more of those new-fangly expressions that I just don't like. Podcast. Wretched word. A sort of portmanteau combining "broadcast" and "ipod". Disgusting. It just doesn't work. Both parts come from the latter half of the donor words. "Icast" would be better, but it probably violates some Apple copyright. "Broadpod" rhymes, at least.

Etymology aside, calling an online audio RSS feed a podcast is like calling an adhesive bandage a band-aid. Or a refrigerator a frigidaire. The popular lingo is confusing a brand name for a product. What a horrid thing to do. I, for one, have never owned an IPod, subscribed to ITunes, or bought into any of Steve Jobs's electronic fashions. Yet, I can and do consume these so-called podcasts. They play just fine on QuickTime.

Wait, isn't that an Apple product?

Well, yes, but.

But what, exactly?

But it's free, you see. One need only suffer through endless requests for updates and friend requests from ol' Steve himself and the world of free audio is open!

Besides, it would probably work fine on WMP or RealPlayer if I asked it to.

I did subscribe to the Penny Arcade podcast. Those two are nuts! N-V-T-S - nuts!

Scroll down. You'll find it.

2008-01-18

The System Works, or Something About Wheels

There's an update on a previous post. It turns out that the rotational ground effect device that generates the highest decibels in audible sound does, in fact, receive more lubricant.

2008-01-10

A Series of Tubes

Unless I've missed something, this installment is stuff I've done before. Embedding YouTube vids was an early habit of mine on the MySpace. I've since cleaned them all up, so I can focus on important things, like music playlists.

So, I once again set out into the vast landscape that is YouTube in search of cool videos that speak the words I cannot. Only this time, instead of Leonard Bernstein, I found James Burke. Without further ado:

Enough with the Flickr

I have reached my Flickr level limit. All I want to do is sit down and enjoy a nice cream soda. Opposed to my own ambitions, however, we find this Thing. Now I'm supposed to have fun with Flickr? Wonderful! Up until now, I've just been using it for practical purposes. Finally, I get to cut loose and see what joy I can squeeze out of strangers' photos!

The
Flickr Colr Pickr is actually pretty cool. The rest of it, not so much. The map doodad probably is really neat, but I just don't trust it, somehow. And trading cards? C'mon, most of the so-called librarian cards don't look like proper trading cards. The template for the card resembles something from Magic: The Gathering but none of these goofballs bothers to put any effort into replicating the form of a card. Where's the damage? What are the effects? These are just captioned photos on a silly background. Do some research, people!

Okay, now that that's done, may I please return to creating a visual catalog of my possessions?

2008-01-09

Deja Vu

This thing seems familiar somehow. If only I could remember what it resembles. It is as if an earlier concept, one which had been laid to rest, has returned from the grave replete with the accoutrements of the Undead (those consisting primarily of rotting flesh and a frightening demeanor).


Okay, so it's not as bad as all that. The stuff I read as "research" came primarily courtesy of Michael Stevens, of Tame the Web fame. This guy is, shall we say, very enthusiastic in his adoption of the whole "2.0" phenomenon. I never did like that term. I spoke about it in some detail here, but I want to say more now. Given that the current state of networked computers represents a fundamental shift away from an earlier paradigm, it is certainly not the second iteration. Unless one counts ARPANET as "Web 0.x" or something. And what ever happened to "Web 1.1"? "Web 1.3.153"? Even Windows had a 3.11. Either way, we've got to be up to "4.x" by now.


I seem to have lost my focus. Tags, right? On Flickr?


As previously mentioned, tags allow regular people to find things based on a common idea. Take, for instance, the Platonic ideal of a table. That's a tag, isn't it? The photos uploaded that carry the tag "table" vary widely in form, but all nevertheless display some recognizable table-ness that allow the tags to work. They also allow you to find pictures of tables. Or birds. Or whatever. And also find and possibly connect with the artists (term used loosely) who took the photos.


Is this important? Sure, if you're a voyeur. Or a stalker. Otherwise, it's just kinda neat.


I'm more a fan of deviantART anyway.

2008-01-08

Um, Already Had One


Before
Originally uploaded by
bryan.wetterlin
I started using Flickr a while back as a means of cataloging my possessions for insurance purposes. No, you can't see them. They are private, and fit only for the eyes of myself and my claims adjuster, should I ever make his or her acquaintance.

Sadly, I was delayed working on this thing because I had forgotten my Yahoo account password and security question, and the new password was sent to my Gmail. If you follow the link from a staff computer, you'll see my dilemma. Personal email is verboten, as you may expect. Then it turns out I have to give Flickr access to Blogger and transfer my thoughts from Blogger's Composer (which is miserable) to Flickr's Composer (which is worse - no spellcheck) and do my final edits after the words have already been posted. I find that distasteful and sloppy. I also can't seem to find a way to remove that horrid indent in the first paragraph. I may have to go back and create a similar indent in each of my other posts, just to make it right.

Thus my delay. Here is the end result, a pic I snapped back in August for our branch's annual Teen Volunteer Appreciation Party. We had a "fiesta" theme this year. Uploading to Flickr is remarkably easy, actually.

UPDATE: The indent doesn't seem to appear on Firefox. I'll have to double-check later.

2008-01-04

Blocked 2.0 Awards


Sorry, I wasn't able to explore the site I chose. As much as I'd love to tell you all about the cool things happening at Pandora, I can't. I've filled out the form, let's keep our fingers crossed. It is very simple, really. If I am unable to do the work at work on a work computer, I'll need overtime.

UPDATE 2008/01/18: The system works! After requesting access, it was granted. Not sure if it was just for review purposes (which will later be revoked) but, still! Pandora is pretty cool. First, it asks you for a song or artist you like (I picked The Police as a test bed) and then it starts playing similar songs. Right away, I was listening to U2, The Cure, and (of course) The Police! A simple and intuitive rating system (thumbs up, thumbs down) let me fine tune my station. Live versions and B-side tracks were included, offering a nice change from commercial radio's "Top 10" playlists. The trial was only three or four songs long, but when the option appeared to create an account, there was no debate.


2008-01-03

My Lack of Education Hasn't Hurt Me None

cash advance

Online Payday Loans

So Far Behind It Is Not Even Funny

Yep. 2008. The latest post from the Powers That Be is numbered Thing 25. This is about Thing 18. Technorati. Didn't I already say something about this? Ah, yes. Right here.

But that was a different age. A happy time. A time when I was right there on the cutting edge of Virginia Beach's experiment with The Information Superhighway®. Now, I'm pedaling my bicycle along the service road, jealous of all those fancy-pants with their expensive automobiles.

Sorry, what?

Technorati. Riiight. This time I signed up and claimed my blog, for what it's worth. I was supposed to watch a tutorial or something, but those always put me to sleep. Besides, I'm usually at a public service point when I work on this stuff, so donning headphones and rocking out is not an option. I did search for blog posts and such containing "Learning 2.0". The results confirmed most of my suspicions, that this whole thing is by librarians, for librarians. Take a gander at the people making videos on the subject. Yup, librarians.

I noted another interesting trend. There has been a serious drop-off on posts mentioning Learning 2 point 0. Take a look at this chart. Telling stuff. September and October seem to have been the "Learning 2.0" season. Now, the levels have dropped off to below their pre-August 11 numbers. What happened to make such a flurry of activity? Is it related to our own program, which started in October? I doubt that VBPL accounts for any significant percentage of those posts, rather that the sheer volume of Learning 2.0 related material provided fuel to the Sparks in our department who gave rise to this conflagration.

Too much?

Technorati is very nice, by the way. Real cute, what with the hearts and all. It even has that cutsey name. Like a cross between technology and literati. Double plus good!