May 2011
69 posts
3 tags
A place to talk / from a working library →
This article/post is just a quick glance at patterns of communication that are only becoming apparent due to being transmitted in a digital form.
May 31st
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May 30th
1,057 notes
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The Fourth American Revolution | FINANCIAL SENSE →
Well, that was depressing. I would need to read the book that he’s using as his source to decide if I agree with him or not, but if anywhere close to being true (and it could be) then this isn’t good. Although his hyperbole on Chinese historians is silly. There will be US historians as well lamenting things well enough if this prediction comes true (see Imperial Roman historians). Upon further...
May 30th
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May 30th
1 note
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“Most attempts to understand privacy do so by attempting to locate its...”
– If you have any interest in privacy, read this. It’s a deconstruction of the “nothing to hide” rebuttal, but it does so much more, and applies to not just the government. It’s not that there’s a single thing that I don’t want found out, but more about what happens to all that ‘harmless’ data...
May 29th
9 notes
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ARL Policy Notes: What Libraries Need In Copyright... →
I really don’t see why this would not be implemented as stated. But then, I could be missing something. arlpolicynotes: Today the Library Copyright Alliance released a statement describing the key features copyright reform proposals should include in order to constitute significant improvement over current law for libraries and their users. In the wake of the recent rejection of the Google...
May 29th
66 notes
4 tags
The People vs. Goldman Sachs | Rolling Stone... →
This is just incredible. Take a look, and see if you can’t support Sen. Levin of Michigan in some way.
May 28th
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GeekMom » Blog Archive » Does Legislation... →
An interesting look into parenting and social media driven by responses to a new CA bill mandating both stronger default privacy setting on social media sites, but also parental control of children’s accounts. I find that I agree with the need for parental oversight, but that should be done by the parents, not at the State level. The commentary on how to provide safety while not stifling a...
May 28th
2 notes
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Zuckerberg: Kids under 13 should be allowed on... →
Yeahh. “That will be a fight we take on at some point,” he said. “My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age.” What are they going to be learning again? Also, it’s known that there’s a bunch of sub-13 year olds on facebook right now. What do you mean you haven’t started to learn yet? This strikes me as a creepy move.
May 27th
1 note
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“The odd thing about multiculturalism is that it is a unicultural phenomenon. All...”
– This quote caught my eye. Not saying that I agree with it, but that the irony inherent in it is somewhat amusing.
May 27th
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How close to a train track can you set up a... →
Just interesting.
May 26th
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“All across the United States, large and small cities are closing public...”
– This is terrible. Libraries are just that important especially today… A Country Without Libraries by Charles Simic | NYRBlog | The New York Review of Books (via infoneer-pulse)
May 26th
69 notes
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May 25th
18 notes
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May 25th
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Daily Show mocks FCC's Baker for taking Comcast... →
Stuff like this is why people don’t trust the government. While legal, it really doesn’t help with “citizen confidence” when you approve the merger, and then go on to get a very high paying job with that same merged company. Jon Stewart does a good job with this one, as does the NYT and Comcast’ home newspaper the Philadelphia Inquirer. Oh, there’s also a petition you should sign. The...
May 24th
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Attack of the exploding watermelons! →
You… can’t make something like this up. According to the Xinhua news agency, 20 farmers in a village in Jiangsu province planted imported seeds from Japan, with 10 households saying their watermelons began exploding last month.
May 24th
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May 23rd
80 notes
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Artist Creates Intricate Portraits Out of Old Maps... →
May 23rd
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ARL Policy Notes: What Libraries Need In Copyright... →
arlpolicynotes: Today the Library Copyright Alliance released a statement describing the key features copyright reform proposals should include in order to constitute significant improvement over current law for libraries and their users. In the wake of the recent rejection of the Google Books settlement,…
May 22nd
66 notes
2 tags
May 22nd
126 notes
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Volcano erupts in Iceland, spurs quakes - World... →
Oh look! It’s Iceland again! This time the star is Grimsvotn!
May 22nd
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Library Juice » Library student on why librarians... →
Nifty-keen. His blog has moved though, and is now a private wordpress blog. I would love to get access to it eventually though. Though I’m not planning to go into his field exactly, it’s still cool to see this justification. And the Anamanaguchi music as well. Can’t forget that.
May 21st
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May 21st
2 notes
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A Gummi Bears Stop-Motion Homage to Classic Video... →
Tasty looking.
May 20th
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“Microsoft bought Skype to keep Google from buying Skype. Notice I didn’t mention...”
– An interesting snippet, from something completely different. I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Why Microsoft bought Skype - Cringely on technology
May 20th
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Go Westward Young Population Centroid →
Known of this for a while, but it’s an interesting visualization of the trend.
May 19th
7 notes
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May 19th
1,323 notes
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How Google controls Android: digging deep into the... →
This is a very nice, in-depth look into the filings in the lawsuit between Skyhook, Google, and Motorola. An engaging read.
May 18th
20 notes
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Pleasure Reading Leads to Professional Careers,... →
Called it. Or at least I would have if anyone would have asked me… infoneer-pulse: Teens who read for pleasure—rather than just for school work—are more likely to have professional careers as adults than those who don’t crack open books for leisure, says a study conducted by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Researchers asked more than 17,000 people born in 1970 about how...
May 18th
112 notes
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May 17th
36 notes
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Don't blame iPad for PC sales stagnation, says NPD →
So NPD, which seems on the ball about things, claims that the iPad is not to blame for PC sales reduction. It’s an expansion of the market, not a shrinkage, so the decrease in sales (especially of netbooks) can’t be blamed on the iPad. Cool.
May 16th
6 notes
4 tags
Want to write in LOGO? There's an app for that →
Creation on your iPad anyone? Can you code with this? I know I heard that iPad would stifle the supply of future coders…
May 16th
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May 16th
6 notes
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Facebook caught exposing millions of user... →
Hmm. The write up is a bit inflammatory, but yeah. Inadvertent potential privacy holes make me glad I use… at most 3 facebook applications.
May 15th
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May 15th
45 notes
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May 14th
3 tags
SocialFlow Company Blog: Breaking Bin Laden:... →
This is really interesting. A general overview of why a specific person got the big break. socialflowteam: A full hour before the formal announcement of Bin-Laden’s death, Keith Urbahn posted his speculation on the emergency presidential address. Little did he know that this Tweet would trigger an avalanche of reactions, Retweets and conversations that would beat mainstream media as well as the...
May 14th
406 notes
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Lost Sounds Orchestra: How the Web Has Allowed Us... →
This sounds really neat! CS + Physics + Archaeology + Music = win. The Lost Sounds Orchestra is a music ensemble that exists to play only music that has been long lost from the collective memory of our cultures. It seems like a contradiction in terms. But the LSO is an outgrowth of theASTRA Project, a group which has developed a computer modelling system that allows researchers to generate the...
May 13th
10 notes
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Publishers Plan a Joint ‘One Stop’ Book Site →
So a single website made from useless websites no one visits is going to be of greater interest than the whole bunch of unvisited websites with the same content… Who thought this was a good idea again? infoneer-pulse: Publishers have spent a lot of time and money building their own company Web sites with fresh information on their books and authors. The trouble is, very few book buyers...
May 13th
12 notes
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Pitzer College in California Adds Major in... →
So, what department is this major under? infoneer-pulse: Colleges and universities have long offered majors in religion or theology. But with more and more people now saying they have no religion, one college has decided to be the first to offer a major in secularism. Starting this fall, Pitzer College, a small liberal arts institution in Southern California, will inaugurate a department of...
May 12th
8 notes
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May 12th
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There’s No Data Sheriff on the Wild Web →
You heard it. There’s no law on this subject - at all. Don’t even get your hopes up that legislation would help too much either. Technology changes so fast, that your law might/will be obsolete by the time it gets passed. Oh, and judges won’t even know what you’re talking about once it gets challenged. Busy signals and text messages indeed. infoneer-pulse: A company suffers a catastrophic...
May 11th
3 notes
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Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says - Galactic... →
This is just gold. CORUSCANT — Obi-Wan Kenobi, the mastermind of some of the most devastating attacks on the Galactic Empire and the most hunted man in the galaxy, was killed in a firefight with Imperial forces near Alderaan, Darth Vader announced on Sunday.
May 11th
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The Stanford Flipside » With Osama Dead, Search... →
Just a humor story.
May 11th
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Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education |... →
Continuing from the rant in the earlier piece, this article documents and lays out a crisis in higher education, starting specifically with grad school. Rather depressing, and again, it makes me more than a bit angry about things.
May 10th
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Survey: 85% of New College Grads Moving Back in... →
And yet people want to increase the number of people going to college? See also that the class of 2011 has the highest average debt of any year ever at around $26,000? And on top of that for those who do go on to get a graduate degree (PhD) you’re extremely lucky if half of your classmates get positions at all? With most of those being non-tenure, not even full time positions? It’s at times like...
May 10th
25 notes
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A $25 PC On a USB Stick - Slashdot →
This looks like a really nice mini-computer. HDMI out, USB port for keyboard. $25 price.
May 10th
1 note
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Daring Fireball: Wolf! →
I don’t know how else to put this. Gruber’s list really says it all. Ranging from 3 days ago to 2004, we can see a long list of wolf cries. Makes you wonder when they’ll be right, or better, why are people still harping on this 7 years later. You’d think that if it was open season then, that it still would be. Oh well, I diluted that message. The original is just clearer and purer, as there needs...
May 7th
7 notes
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May 7th
161 notes
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The Minecraft Teacher: Student Alamo project made... →
minecraftteacher: I just watched a video that really blew me away. It’s from ‘Luclin’, a well-known Minecraft Youtube’r. Luclin’s son Ethan created an amazing scale replica of the Alamo using Minecraft and submitted it for a school history project. The level of detail is remarkable. And to hear Ethan walk us…
May 7th
27 notes