Jimmy the Geek

Additional Program for Summer Reading

2013-03-12T21:25:53Z

Summer Reading is coming, and I'm booking presentations across the state. I just recently posted about my "How To Get Started Home Brewing" program, and am doing another one that may be of interest to others.

It is a "How It Works" type of program, in which I take a box of parts, describe each part, and assemble a working computer within 45 minutes. I've been building my own (and my library's) machines for more than 15 years, and it continues to amaze me that people are impressed by that fact. All it takes is a screwdriver, and I will show you how to do it.

So, if you or your library is interested, please feel free to give me a holler at jim at gee em pl dot org, or by calling (270) 586-8397.

Booking for Summer Reading Programs!

2013-03-06T21:15:19Z

Hellooo again! Sometimes the craziness in this life can't be measured.

The Peerascope project I was involved with was unsuccessful, so I am still at the Library. This isn't a bad thing -- I learned a lot about working with a startup and became pretty decent with Adobe's Photoshop & Illustrator, which I use both here at the library and at home. The library has also started to evolve into its next incarnation. I am no longer the Technology Coordinator. I am now the IT Manager and Media Relations person, and the library itself is beginning to move towards the construction of a new facility with the renovation of the downstairs meeting room. This renovation was planned as part of the overall construction project, and we have the money to do it, so we're moving ahead with that part of the project. So, these are exciting times for our library!

It is March 6th as of this writing, which means the year is quickly going by! That also means that Summer is right around the corner, and Summer Reading programs will be in full swing in three months. Last Summer, and even in the Fall, I did a presentation on getting started in the Home Brewing hobby. It was a fun time for me, because I got to show others how it works and talk about beer! Last year's bookings included the Goodnight Library (home!), Grant County Public Library, Mary Wood Weldon Memorial Library, and the civic organization Franklin Rotary Club

So far, I have been contacted by two libraries for this presentation for this year's Summer Reading Program. If your library or civic organization would like to know more about Home Brewing and how to get started in the hobby, please feel free to contact me soon! My email address is jim@gmpl.org, or you may call the Goodnight Library at (270) 586-8397.

I hope to see you this Summer!

'Til next time...

Why I've Had To Neglect This Blog

2012-06-13T22:26:40Z

Hello Everyone!

I know it's been quite a while since I last wrote, but there's a very good reason -- I'm too busy! Seriously, several things have come my way that demand nearly every waking second of my time.

First and foremost, of course, is my job here at the library. It seems the new acquisitions started rolling in hard & heavy in July right after the new Fiscal Year started. Add to that the plethora of donations from the public, more than I've seen in the 4 1/2 years I've been here! Not only have we added many, many books, movies, audio books and other media to the collection, but we have also greatly expanded our eBook offerings in response to the big upswing in eReader usage in our area. From Christmas until now, we have fielded the most questions about using eReaders of various manufacture since the devices were first introduced!

Secondly, I have been asked to write a monthly column, called The Geek's Garage, for the Kentucky Department for Libraries & Archives' monthly newsletter. In my monthly missives I talk about all aspects of technology, especially as it pertains to library use. But I don't limit it to that; I ask the readers to please send me ideas on which to write, because they are the reason the column even exists.

Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen to me occurred in October, when I was approached by a friend with a business proposition. I was asked to help get a new web startup off the ground. At the time it didn't have a name, but has a very unique application that will be VERY big. I accepted, and I am now the Director of Technical Operations for Peerascope.com! As of right now, Peerascope is still in testing/beta status, but I encourage you to go check it out. Basically, it simplifies getting on the Internet for new users, older folks and everyone else by putting all your favorite web sites on one page. It looks similar to a smart phone's applications drawer, and you can drag and drop your favorites easily. The best part is that even if you switch devices, you'll still have the exact same look scaled to fit the device you are using at that time! In other words, it will look the same whether you are on your desktop, smartphone, tablet, eReader, or whatever else you have that is web-enabled! All you have to do is sign up!

That being said, I am still working at the library full-time. I work part-time at Peerascope after I get off work at the library, which is only possible because that office is within 10 minutes' drive of the library.

The other big thing is of course Summer Reading at the library. We have so many events, and our staff is so small, that I am covering the front desk a lot. When I'm not doing that, I am cataloging new acquisitions. If I'm REALLY lucky, I get to do some minor IT work that needs to be done.

At home, it's yardwork season, and I'm also raising a vegetable garden that requires my attention. So that takes up most of my weekend time. All else is spent with the family or sleeping!

Anyway, I'll write more as time allows. So...

'Til next time....

Thoughts on Windows 8 Developers Preview - Lots of Pictures!

2012-02-03T21:42:59Z

So my Dad calls me up to ask me if I've seen the latest Popular Science article about Windows 8. I don't subscribe to that magazine, even though it's one of my favorites, so I told him that I hadn't. He explained to me that there is a download link for a Developer's Preview edition of Win8. I hemmed & hawed a little, because I don't use Microsoft's software any more than I have to. But being THE geek at the library, I figured I'd better take a look at it because Microsoft will be forcing this "upgrade" on everyone in the next couple of years, and I'm sure it will be as much fun to administer as the last versions have been. You know, fun like a root canal!

The hardware requirements are being billed as a feature -- you can run it on the same equipment as any current machine that runs Windows XP. The following was taken from an About.com article:

Windows 8 Developer Preview System Requirements

You will be happy to know that Windows Developer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows Vista and Windows 7, which means that the final release will most likely work well on computers purchased three to four years ago.

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
In order to take advantage of touch input in the new operating system, you will need a screen that supports multi-touch. This is only a requirement if you intent to use touch.
In order to run Microsoft's new Metro style Apps, your screen will need a resolution greater than 1024 X 768.

I was pleased to see that should I have a moment of weakness & install this operating system, I could do it on the machine I currently use at home. Additionally, any other machines in house that are capable of running Windows XP can run Windows 8 as well. So, I attempted to install this on an extra laptop that already had a Linux distribution on it. My mistake, it wouldn't install.

You see, to install the Windows 8 Developers Preview, it has to go on a machine that is already running Windows XP or Windows 7. That means that you will have to either sacrifice everything on your hard drive for the sake of testing, or you will have to use a partitioning tool to make space for the install. According to the hardware specs, you must have a partition with a minimum of 20 GB available. The one I used on this machine is 25.1, as that's all I could spare on it as it is a tertiary production machine.

Another caveat of installing this preview -- it's just like any other proprietary operating system and wants to take over your computer. In other words, unlike Linux, it's install or nothing. Most Linux distributions will let you run off a live CD that doesn't install anything on your computer; it all runs from your computer's memory. You click reboot, Linux shuts down, spits out the Live CD, and the computer reboots into your installed operating system!

This version of Windows installs light years faster than any previous version, but that doesn't mean ANYTHING, because this is very much a feature-incomplete demo. For instance, none of the included "apps" work (just eye candy to show you what it could look like). Out of the 35 "apps" pictured on the Metro screen, only the Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer!), the Control Panel, and the Desktop "apps" do what they are supposed to do. The rest are just placeholders.

It is a developer's preview, so there really isn't anything there of general interest. In fact, the "//build/" app for developers doesn't even work. Go figure.

As you can see, this interface is very much geared towards tablets, smart phones & other devices with touch screen capability. There is no Start button - the word Start at the top left is just text - and clicking on any of the tiles or my user name causes things to happen. As a developer, I would have to think that unless I had a huge (touchscreen) monitor (24+") where I could lay out what I'm working on in a logical fashion, this particular interface would be quite annoying. I'm thinking Microsoft may be trying to drive the touchscreen market here, but at least you aren't stuck with a touch screen interface right now. Microsoft may decide that Metro is for everyone, but I doubt even they would shoot themselves in the foot so foolishly. Wait. They did produce Windows ME and Vista. Never mind.

And so, here is the desktop that you get when you click/touch the Desktop tile at the bottom left of the group of tiles. Also notice the icons for Internet Explorer 10 and Windows Explorer, both of which work perfectly.

The Windows lock screen looks more like something you'd see on a smart phone or tablet, with a beautiful landscape picture and a large, easy-to-read clock with the date. And, just like with the iPhone and Android phones, it is designed to use a swipe gesture to unlock the device. In this case it swipes upwards, which you accomplish with a mouse by dragging up from the bottom of the screen,

which gives you the log in screen, or welcome screen as Microsoft call it:

Well, I've probably used enough of your bandwidth with these pictures, so I'll wrap it up for now. I'm a bit anxious to see how this last gasp from Microsoft goes for them. They have so much catching up to do in the smart phone & tablet arenas that it will be difficult for them to make some inroads. What might make it easier for them is the fact that they have such a large market share of the PC platform (including laptops & netbooks), that enterprise-level business could integrate them fairly easily. The only problem there is the fact that there is momentum now in corporate policies accepting non-standard, personal devices and operating systems. Plus, many software providers no longer produce Windows-only solutions, making Microsoft's day in the sun just a little more shady.

'Til next time...

Library Day In The Life, Round 8

2012-02-03T14:03:39Z

Hello Again! This post is going to outline a day in my librarian-geek life, because I like the Library Day In The Life project started by Bobbi Newman. It shows that librarians are not necessarily the cardigan-wearing, bun-headed shushers of days gone by. We are a diverse group of individuals that come from all walks of life!

So today I:
6:00 am -- Hit the alarm button on the clock. Clock hits floor. Good.
6:05 am -- Put the skillet on the stove to preheat
6:06 am -- Started the coffeemaker.
6:08 am -- Put sausage in the skillet.
6:09 am -- Say good morning to my wife!
6:10 am -- Daughters' alarm goes off, scares me awake. It's loud.
6:15 am -- Fix Fruit Loops & Cinnamon Toast Crunch for the girls.
6:17 am -- Finish fixing my breakfast of sausage & eggs from my chickens. I'm also a farmer-geek.
6:18 am -- Sit down to eat in front of my computer to catch up on email & forums.
6:30 am -- Yell at the girls to stop fighting & get ready for school.
6:45 am -- Watch weather.
6:53-ish am -- Take a shower to help the coffee wake me up.
Get ready for work
7:25-ish am -- Leave for schools and work.
8:00 am -- Arrive at work.
Turn on a few lights & all the computers.
Check my work emails & catch up on news.
8:30 am -- Go downstairs to empty the book drop and shelf books.
9:00 am -- Turn on the rest of the lights & open the front doors.
9:15 am -- Go back upstairs to finish news & emails.
9:45 am -- Catalog the latest movies.
12:00 pm -- Take a break from cataloging to go eat lunch with the AARP. I love these days, because it's good, old-fashioned home cooking!
12:30 pm -- Back upstairs to check emails, print a couple of HTML5 & CSS3 papers, and finish cataloging the movies -- only one left! I'm a librarian-geek.
12:40 pm -- Print the labels & take the movies downstairs.
12:45 pm -- Back upstairs. Boot tech services computer with a Linux live CD so I can use gparted to set up the hard drive for Windows 8 Developer's Preview install.
12:50 pm -- Start this blog post -- gparted takes a while on a large hard drive!
1:05 pm -- Restart the computer & load the Win8 DP disc.
1:15 pm -- Computer restarts, and there is no option to boot into Windows XP. Uh oh.
1:15 pm -- Restart computer again, spamming the F8 key to see if I can get the option to pop up in the advanced startup menu. XP isn't there either. Face goes pale.
1:16 pm -- Turned to my good friend Google on another machine to see what I did wrong, or if there is a way to have XP show up in the Windows 8 bootloader. After some digging I find that there is, thankfully. Breathe a sigh of relief. Color returns to face.
1:30 pm -- Decided to load the 64-bit version of Windows 8 DP. It finishes installing right around...
2.15 pm -- CRAP!! I gotta get the stuff downstairs to set up for Games @ the Goodnight!!
3:00 pm -- Got the tables & chairs set up, the Xbox & Wii set up, and the popcorn machine set up. Gotta go back upstairs & set up an "emergency" station for our technology-averse outreach librarian. Left her a note.
3:15 pm -- The kids are starting to show up. Not too wild today (yet).
4:30 pm -- They've been quiet....too quiet.
4:45 pm -- Cleaning up.
5:00 pm -- Back in the office, checking email & setting the startup parameters to include Windows XP as a startup option. Go to Computer --> Advanced Settings --> Startup --> check the box to include earlier versions of Windows. Restart, and when the computer gets past the BIOS screen, you should have the option to boot into earlier versions of Windows.
5:25 pm -- After confirming things are working right in XP, time to shut down & go home!

That's what my day was like today. Tomorrow will be little different, although I will probably write another post on my initial impressions of the Windows 8 Developers Preview.

SOPA, PIPA, and Libraries

2011-12-29T16:56:52Z

Boy has it been a while! I've been feeling guilty about neglecting my blog lately, but life @ the library has been quite crazy this last half of 2011. Since my last post in October, I have completed my class, developed a mobile app for the Goodnight Library, built three new machines, and cataloged what seems like a million books & media. Oh yeah, I found time to check out a new CMS as well, but that's another blog post. ;)

So if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you've seen me post a few times in the last couple of weeks or so in opposition to the House Bill called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate Bill called Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Both are financed by the movie, music and Big Pharmacy industries, and both threaten to destroy the Internet as we know it. In no uncertain terms, if either of these are signed into law, the Government will have forced the ability to shut down a site & fine its owner(s) for each IP-infringing instance onto Online Service Providers (OSPs), without any form of due process defined.

The bills shift the enforcement of the law to the OSPs, who are not trained in law enforcement. The way everything is worded, all a claimant (IP owner) would have to do is say that a site is infringing on their copyright or patent, and the ISP would be forced to shut that site down without due process for the owner(s) of the site! In other words, no more YouTube, Facebook, or any other sites in which music videos can be shared or embedded by the average person.

Regardless of the fact that the Internet is PUBLIC DOMAIN, and that once something is put into the PUBLIC DOMAIN, it is PUBLIC PROPERTY owned by no one, the MPAA, RIAA and Big Pharma feel the only way to stop piracy is to destroy the Internet. They have failed with lawsuits against individuals, they have failed to produce what people want, and now their sales are suffering from a dying business model. So, they're desperate and will try anything to save their livelihood.

But what does this mean for Libraries? Well, everything! If the Internet is censored and we haven't been in the fight, what does that say about Libraries, champions of free speech? What if it is ruled by some judge or jury somewhere that Libraries can be considered Internet Service Providers? Does that mean we have to start enforcing the law and approve every activity in which our patrons engage?

Well, for starters, how many of you out there in Libraryland provide Internet access to your patrons? How many of you actually filter or monitor what your patrons are doing? If it were determined that your library's IP address was the destination of some illegally-shared files, guess what? You're liable under these Acts for not stopping the downloads. You're aiding in piracy. You could have your Internet service taken away and face MASSIVE fines. The same would apply if it were discovered that either a patron or an employee were uploading illegally, or had set up a file sharing service through your Internet access. It wouldn't even have to be a library computer -- just about any laptop is capable of functioning as a file and web server. And then, the civil suits will follow.

I say, "No thank you!" I have too many other things to do in my job, than to have to sit an monitor a computer screen that tells me no one is doing anything or visiting a site with illegal material on it. As a consumer, I say, "HELL no!" If I can't buy a copy of a song at a reasonable price AND enjoy it the way I want to, then I don't want to do business with you. I want to download a song and be able to burn it to a custom mix on a CD to listen to in my car. Let's face it: you producers can't make a CD with one great song and ten other, crappy songs and continue to stay in business. I want to be able to make a copy of a movie DVD to prepare for the inevitable demise of the purchased copy. I can't afford to buy a new copy of everything I use every time one goes bad! Let me buy what I want to buy, and then use it the way I want. I'm one of those you will punish unintentionally, because I would never share any media over the Internet with anyone. You were never able to stop "illegal" cassette dubs, and you will never be able to stop illegal file sharing. The Internet and its users are bigger than you. Whatever happened to "fair use?"

As a rational believer in a free market system, I'd like to say also to the financiers of the bills: If you can't adapt to change and overcome your close-mindedness and other difficulties, then it's time for you to close up shop and let the next generation of content providers take over. Authors, unite under the banner of self-published! Hollywood -- the Indies are HERE, and more and more folks will get better at special effects. Just look at what's happening on YouTube! With the advent of cheap HD video-capable cameras & even smart phones, your days became numbered under your current business model. Musicians, follow Radiohead's example of pay-what-you-think-it's-worth if you are brave enough to see how good you really are. I'd bet we'd see a lot more musicians out there writing their own stuff, instead of these wannabes that perform the scripts the RIAA hand out!

The ISPs are not all against these issues either, though you'd think they would be. Having to police users' use of their services means increased costs, which of course would be passed on to the subscriber. GoDaddy.com, probably the largest domain registrar in the world with over 50 million domains, originally supported SOPA. This prompted a massive protest and call to action by GoDaddy customers, making Thursday, December 29th the day to boycott GoDaddy by moving their domains to another registrar. GoDaddy has since changed its stance, but it appears the boycott will happen anyway.

And of course, other providers are looking to cash in on this protest by offering deals and ramping up advertising campaigns. I personally administer accounts at 1and1.com, and got an email from them this morning that clarifies their stance on SOPA/PIPA and takes a not-so-subtle jab at GoDaddy.com:

Dear Sir/Miss,
You may have heard about Protect-IP (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act
(SOPA) currently under consideration in Congress. If passed, among other
things, SOPA requires Web hosting companies like 1&1 to police websites in
order to prevent them from communicating copyrighted information on the
internet. We would like to make sure you are aware of 1&1’s official
position on SOPA.

As a global provider of domains and hosting services, we oppose the Stop
Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or Protect-IP (PIPA) Acts currently under
consideration. While we observe the concerns of those who are troubled by
the potential impact on protecting intellectual property online, 1&1 feels
there is an urgent need to strike a balance between dissemination of and
access to information and protection against its illegal use within the
public domain.

The US government is currently reviewing SOPA and PIPA as possible ways to
prevent unlawful distribution of copyrighted materials available on the
internet. These current proposals, if passed, would allow for significant
interventions into the technological and economical basis of the internet.
This could put the vast benefits and economic opportunities of entirely
legal and legitimate e-business models at risk. Generally, companies
offering technological services should not be forced to be the executor of
authority in such matters. If they were to act upon every implication of
content infringement without any judicial research into the actual usage of
its customers, the integrity behind their customer’s freedom of
information and speech would be enormously harmed.

1&1 Internet, Inc. has worked through associations and with related
companies to ensure that these aspects are taken into account. Thus, we
welcome the serious consideration by the US Congress of the potential
harmful effects on Internet freedom should SOPA and / or PIPA be passed as
law, and hope the stability of the Internet’s domain name system (DNS)
remains intact.

We encourage every Internet user concerned about these plans to contribute
to the debate and to raise their voice with their local representatives in
the House or Senate. One way to express your concerns could be to use one
of the websites that emerged to protect user interests in the current
legislative debate, such as http://fightforthefuture.org/.

At 1&1 we support you, our customer, and an open internet. If you find that
you are supporting a company that encourages SOPA and wish to drop them as
a provider, please follow the simple instructions contained on the website
linked below.

Thank you for being one of our extremely valued customers, and for taking
the time to read this.

Best regards,

Frederick Iwans
General Manager 1&1 Internet Inc.

link: http://order.1and1.com/DomaininfoMove?ac=BE.US.US263K22814T7073a

I am happy that 1and1.com feel this way about SOPA & PIPA, and because of that I will continue to be their customer.

Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist and recent contributor to Business Insider, had this to say in his article:

The bottom line is that DMCA works. Its safe harbors have allowed the Internet to become the US's most important new industry in a century and an a critical job creator. If we need to amend the DMCA, let's do it with a negotiation between the interested parties, not with a bill written by the content industry's lobbyists and jammed through congress on a fast track. [emphasis mine]

You may want to take some action yourselves. I totally understand this, and once I got this email I immediately emailed my Congressmen. You can do the same, and the more voices they hear from their constituents, the less they will listen to the money coming in from the movie, recording & pharmaceuticals industries. It's an election year -- they WILL listen more closely to voters!

Contact your Representative through the House of Representatives' online form, which will help you ID your Representative. Alternatively, you can call the House switchboard at (202) 224-3121 (TTY at (202) 225-1904).

The Senate form isn't quite as pretty and easy to use as the Reps' form, but you can still select your Senator easily enough. This form, once you select your Senator, also gives their direct phone line so you can call them.

I urge you all to call and tell them to vote NO on SOPA and PIPA!

'Til next time...

Back To School!

2011-10-19T17:34:39Z

No, I'm not touting the classic Rodney Dangerfield film (although it's really funny!), I'm actually going back to school to work on my Bachelor's Degree. Yesterday saw the start of my first class at Northern Kentucky University! I am working towards my degree in Library Informatics, which should hone my geek skills to be more effective in a library environment.

I can only take one class a semester due to budget constraints, and now that I've started my first one, I'm really glad that is the case. My first class is Ethics of Information Technology, and basically it's a class in philosophy that concentrates on the ethical issues of the IT world. It's very time consuming and is forcing me to dust off some brain cells that I haven't used in, well, let's just say a very long time. The time consuming part so far has been having to read articles & watch a (mostly boring) film with talking heads from the upper echelon of the philosophical studies world, explaining what several facets of philosophy are and how they came to be studied. Hold on a second....

Yaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnn.....stretch

Okay, now where was I? Oh yeah. It's not like I've never been to college or I've never studied anything difficult before. It's only been five years (already?) since I graduated with my A.A.S. in computer programming. But, given the time requirements of this class, the fact that I'm overhauling the Friends of Kentucky Libraries' website, and the stuff I do at work and at home, I'm really happy I'm only in one class.

Anyway, I'm happy to get this journey started! Go Norse!

'Til next time....

Do Something. Anything!

2011-10-12T19:52:08Z

Countless times over the years, we've all seen and heard this expression in one form or another. A prominent movie that featured this exchange was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, when Ron & Harry were battling the mountain troll in the girls' bathroom. It was a "life-threatening" situation in which immediate action was necessary!

Thankfully, life isn't usually like that unless you work in an emergency room or as a paramedic, but that doesn't mean we should sit idly by and watch life carry on. We all have life experiences we can pass on to someone else, whether in our own profession or not. For example, I've only been working in the public library field for four years, but I have over 30 years of computer experience if you count the BASIC programming I did as a child and the office programs I've used over the years. In addition to that, I had worked in fast food, retail & manufacturing before I finally decided to make a career out of being a geek. I guess you could say I've been about halfway 'round the block when it comes to my life education.

So coming into the library field with an AAS in computer programming and about 5 years' documented experience as a geek has given me the opportunity to pass on some tech knowledge to other librarians -- not just here, but at the state level also where I give presentations on various tech subjects.

I'm not one to sit around and 'just do my job.' I'm always working on something, even at home, whether it's computer-related or not. I do computer work on the side, to be sure, but I also work on both my vehicles and I maintain a vegetable garden. My wife & I serve on the Simpson County 4-H Council and are leaders of the Cloverbuds Club. I serve on the Board of Directors for the Friends of Kentucky Libraries, where I am also their tech guy and overhauling the website.

My point is, if you are bored with your job or are looking for ways to spice up your existence, Do Something! Anything! And what brought this post about is this image I received in an e-mail:

Life is too short to stand by and not TRY to make a difference! I've maintained that you are only as young as you let yourself be. I also maintain that you will never know your potential until you start exploring your limits. I'm going for it. Join me!

'Til next time...

Remote Desktop From a Phone

2011-08-10T14:18:59Z

I'm sitting here in the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center at the G-FIRST Conference listening to the opening plenary panel talking about cybersecurity and remote access and thought, "I wonder if there is a remote desktop client for my phone?" So, a quick look on the Android Market revealed several choices. I ended up installing the 2X Software offering, and after a quick and easy configuration, I was able to access & log in to the Library's server!

I will say that the experience isn't the most comfortable for someone with big fingers. After all, we are talking about administering a Windows 2003 server, which doesn't have the ability to reflow its screen to smart phone size. For that matter, while I was able to see and use the entire desktop and native Server programs, the circulation program I opened was chopped off without any scroll bars to access all the information and controls. However, being able to access the server alone is reason enough to install such an app since most administrative tasks happen natively on the server, platform.

This app connects via the RDP protocol, so it will likely be a whole different ball of wax when trying to access a Linux server. But then again, that's what SSH is for ;)

So it would seem that in this increasingly connected world, I have yet another way of being a geek.

'Til next time....

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

Library Day in the Life Project

2011-07-06T22:29:30Z

It's time once again for librarians all over the world to capture their day's activities and show that our jobs are much more than sitting at a desk & checking books in and out. Bobbi Newman's Library Day in the Life Project does just that -- shows off how lots of different librarians from different types of libraries spend their time on the clock! For some librarians, we are the Jacks (or Jills)-of-all-trades and do more than our job descriptions require. So here's how my day is going so far:

7:45 Arrive at work & turn on the lights, computers, printers and copier.
7:55 Check e-mail, answer some, send a collaborative note to a colleague, read a thank-you from a patron on helping him choose an eReader for his wife.
8:15 Read a couple of bits of library-related news.
8:20 Turn on a computer in the process of being provisioned for public access.
8:22 Read the log from the anti-virus scan, see no errors.
8:25 Start on this post!
8:30 Go downstairs to get the book drop in, and start checking in last night's deposits.
9:00 Take the bookmobile to Springfield, TN for service.
10:50 Return from Springfield, TN, sans bookmobile.
11:00 Go to lunch.
12:00 Return from lunch, start catching up on e-mails.
12:15 Examine a patron's laptop as to why it won't get through its startup repair procedure, determine that it's a corrupted machine with no viable restore points, start the factory restore process. Windows 7 goodness, that!
12:23 Sent that laptop on its way with its owner!
12:45 Start cataloging.
12:50 Respond to a fix from our ILS provider.
12:51 Return to cataloging.
1:30 Break from cataloging to finish up public access computer. Read antivirus log (yay, no threats found!), install DeepFreeze, thaw the computer, make final desktop adjustments. Go install the computer at its station, restart after Windows finishes installing drivers for the hardware down there, freeze the computer and reinstate its circulation status. Thank God that's over!
2:00 Talk to my wife, who's come in with two of my girls to get books for them to finish their Summer Reading lists. Discuss supper options, with no conclusive menu from me as I ate waaaaayyy too much for lunch and don't want to think about food!
2:10 Back to cataloging!
3:30 Bookmobile librarian comes in to 'give me a break,' meaning that she needs the Tech Services computer to enter her circulations, do her transfers and get the bookmobile stuff up to date. So I'll work on this post some more.
3:47 Put batteries in charger for tomorrow's Games @ the Goodnight session.
3:52 Started triage on another patron's laptop.
3:53 Researched & found that the laptop is of 1997 vintage AND a Compaq, which means that it MUST use proprietary Compaq components if anything needs replacing. #proprietaryfail
4:15 Downloaded a Windows 98 Boot Disk & determined that this computer has a failed hard drive, a stuck F1 key, a dead battery and is generally ready to be buried. Played Taps.
4:20 Back to cataloging.
4:43 Fielded a Readers Advisory question from a patron.
4:50 Back to cataloging.
5:25 Finished for the day, wrapping up this post!

So my days are usually filled with IT & cataloging duties, but right now through the end of the month, you are just as likely to find me at the circulation desk, covering when we are shorthanded. We only have a staff of 11 (counting the cleaning lady, who is actually a contract worker), so I go where I'm needed.

Cutting the Cables, Redux

2011-06-16T19:10:16Z

Hello again! I posted an entry back in September 2010 about cutting the cables at home in regards to phones and Internet. This post is a follow-up to that, just to let you know how it's going.

We have changed some things around, but we are still cable-free in terms of both services! We dropped the satellite Internet, since it proved to be unreliable when I needed it most -- during a rainstorm of course -- to remote into the library and see what was going on with one of the servers. Plus, we were consuming enough data that we were starting to bump into our 17 GB cap that Wildblue imposes on its customers. Don't think we weren't happy to have the 1.5 Mbs download speeds when the weather was clear, but that data cap is a deal-breaker for an online family! Additionally, the modem seemed to behave a lot better after we signed up for the Pro package, which I think just paid them to ramp up the transmission power from the satellite to the ground station. And please don't think this isn't a great service; it is well worth a look if you live in an area like several residents here, where there is a state line involved (Tennessee) and the carriers don't want to infringe on territory by placing cell towers too close to their competitors or internal territorial divisions! This creates a fringe area where no one gets good cellular reception, and the cable companies don't want to run miles of line for a few subscribers, and where the only phone company in town doesn't want to invest in equipment for the same reasons.

Anyway, my brother-in-law is the owner of the Radio Shack & Scottsville Cellular store in Scottsville, KY, and he is a dealer for our regional cellular company, Bluegrass Cellular. Bluegrass has a nifty device that allows you to surf the Internet at speeds that rivals basic DSL service. For the purposes of this discussion, basic DSL service offerings are those that advertise speeds of "up to" 3Mbps. Most basic DSL packages are in the neighborhood of 512Kbps - 1.5Mbps, so it is a fair comparison in my eyes.

The Axess MV400 is a wireless broadband router that uses the cellular phone network to provide high-speed wireless Internet access. Bluegrass Cellular is the ONLY cellular provider in our area that has 3G or better speeds, and they have partnered with Verizon to bring 4G to town later on. Once that happens, I may jump ship with my cell phone, since AT&T have no interest in a small rural community -- they've said as much -- which tells me that they are no longer concerned with growing the cellular business. If AT&T were concerned, they would be pursuing every line of revenue.

So to keep this from becoming another AT&T-bashing session, let me point out that we are extremely happy with our new service. We get download speeds in the neighborhood of 3.5Mbs, which rivals mid-range DSL service, and uploads as high as 1.8Mbps, which beats most basic DSL offerings. On a consistency note, our average download speed is around 900Kbps, with our uploads in the neighborhood of 512Kbps.

Since we ditched our satellite TV service, we have watched all our shows over the Internet. This service is hands-down better than satellite Internet could ever offer, in large part to the higher bandwidth and low latency in the connection! Whether it's Netflix on the Wii, HD video from YouTube, Hulu or a network's offerings, the videos load relatively well and have few pauses or buffering issues unless someone else in the house is online watching videos also. Since I don't watch NASCAR or much baseball, I guess I'll have to wait & see what football season brings as far as sports goes.

This service is also very beneficial to me professionally. I have used the Linux operating system (OS) & open source software almost exclusively for the last five years, and I really like to experiment with the new & updated OSes that come out from time to time. As you can imagine, these files are not small! I have downloaded and used one that is over 8GB in size, and that much data takes hours to download on all but the fastest connections.

The ability to download any Linux distribution, burn it to USB/CD/DVD, and try it without installing it are the biggest reasons I switched from Windows. I can do this all for the cost of a CD, DVD or USB flash drive, and a little of my time. I can try any piece of open source software I want, at any time, without installing it on my hard drive. When I'm done, I simply restart the computer, remove the live media, and boot up normally. You can't do that with Windows or Mac OSX at all, unless you have a lot of patience, don't mind backing up all your data, installing the OS, restoring your data, and then rinse, lather, repeat for each version you want to try. And then there's the money and time to shop for the software to make Windows & OSX productive! For that price, I will continue to experiment, I will continue to be vendor-free, and use my computer the way I want.

Thanks, Bluegrass, for the ability to have high speed Internet in an otherwise under-served area!

Until next time...

LiveJournal's Android App

2011-05-03T16:37:33Z

As I sit here waiting for my hot and sour soup to cool, I thought I'd give this app a go. I'm finding that the more I use my phone for more than just a phone, the more I'm replacing my desktops and even my laptop for daily tasks like checking emails & Facebook.

Since this is a test run, here is a picture I took with my phone the other day:

This is the road in front of my house. I live on a hill, but my road is now under water, the result of all the rain & storms we've had lately.

Well, my food is here, so I will go for now and blog some more later. 'Til next time....

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

The Tree is Dead; Long Live the Tree!

2011-03-26T20:52:00Z

I ran across an interesting post and response on Facebook today. The post is a very thoughtful insight to the whole eBook conundrum, painting eBooks as not much more than a marketing ploy. He makes some good points, but I will have to disagree with him, based mostly on the number of patrons I'm seeing (and from whom I'm getting phone calls) that want or need help with their shiny new eReaders that they got for Christmas or for a birthday present, and his final statement about eBooks being a distraction from the library's mission. The All These Birds With Teeth blog, authored by Joe Grobelny, states:

Finding ways to help people access information, for pleasure or otherwise, and then giving them the tools and the know-how to create new knowledge is bigger than books or ebooks. The true mission of the library is to lower the barriers for access into the “information economy” and frankly, the ebook is a distraction from the real mission of libraries.

Now, it seems to me that his statements here are contradictive. If the eBook is another medium through which people access information (think New York Times, e-textbooks, and online encyclopedias), then wouldn't the mission of the library be also to help that person get over the "barrier for access into the information economy?" Not sure I understand his statements here, unless it is to illustrate that the whole eBook fracas with HarperCollins is a distraction from the library's relevancy as a community support center. Perhaps it is, but then it just hurts the publisher, because several authors have come forward publicly in support of libraries, and even have denounced the actions of HarperCollins.

Claire Eike, a librarian for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, posted two responses, the second of which is the one that got my wheels turning:

...we see all these studies that people are reading significantly less. I think we have to redefine "reading" to include online reading and dialoging.

I couldn't agree more with Claire. Reading needs to be redefined to include online & electronic media. Reading is so much more than words printed on dead trees these days, and really has been transforming from paper to electrons for several years. School children are even being given electronic textbooks (e-textbooks), school libraries are going all-digital, and some schools are even handing out iPads for student use! With the advent of computers getting cheap enough for the average person to afford, the transformation started. Granted, back in the 1980s a PC cost well over $2000, but it was still cheap enough that more of the public could put one in their homes. Then, when services like AOL came along and offered "cheap" dial-up Internet service (for $29.99/minute!) it became even easier for people to do research online, then printing what they needed on their tractor feed, dot-matrix printer.

In the 20 years or so since, more and more advances have been made, to the point that we can now carry a device on our hip, or in our pocket, that has more computing capacity than those first PCs. On those "smart" phones, which are now more like tablet computers that make phone calls, we can watch video or read eBooks, which are really not books at all, but electronic files that never go away. And that, of course, is the point of contention for publishers who have obviously not learned anything from the MPAA or the RIAA in their attempts at monetizing online file sharing.

But how many of us actually use them, or need them to the point that we have bought a device dedicated to the purpose of eReading? For my money, I'd get an iPad or an Android tablet, simply because I wouldn't want a single-purpose device. I like to be able to do more on a device that's able to do more. The original Nook, the Sony Readers, and the Kobo Reader all have rudimentary web browsers, but they are horrible for web surfing!

So I can figure about when the tipping point of reading electrons more than paper came about, but how much of that can we attribute to reading works distributed by a publishing house? Technically, a work is published when it is first put into a medium, whether physical or electronic. But how can we track the myriad of blog entries, YouTube videos (many of which are text juxtaposed over a slide show with music), online documents, self-publishing sites and other avenues for authors to distribute their works? Nearly anyone who has an eReader will use an online service from which to download/checkout eBooks, so unless a library is subscribed to a service through which the patron's account gets authenticated, then the library does not get credit for the circulation. How can the definition of reading be made to fit all the new media that come out seemingly yearly, for any purpose?

Say Hello to Our New Little Friend!

2011-03-04T17:03:16Z

The Goodnight Memorial Library is proud to announce that we now have an early literacy station available for children up to 6 years old! It is located beside the catalog computers on the 2nd floor and is available during normal business hours. Here's what it looks like:

It's a system we purchased from AWE, Inc., a supplier of early learning & early literacy stations to the world, really, with systems going to all types of libraries and organizations like Boys & Girls Clubs and Head Starts.

The system is very kid-friendly, with a set of tiger-themed headphones,

a child-resistant keyboard, which should last a good amount of time due to the fact that there will be no drinks around (I hope!),

and a themable, easy-to-navigate interface for kids to play educational games:

In "testing" this product, I found that it really is kid-safe and appropriate for small children, with all facets of knowledge and concepts available to the young ones. Everything is included, from basic shapes, motor skills, colors and language development, to basic math, science, foreign languages (are there any, anymore?), and health and science, all taught by characters your kids already know! Learn Spanish and other subjects with Dora the Explorer, as well as Mercer Mayer's Little Critter and other popular characters! AWE even went so far as to reassure everyone that the content wasn't selected willy-nilly, as evidenced by the "Educator-selected content" header:

The theme-ability of this station is one thing that's good -- there's a default, cartoon-ish theme, a space theme, which you can see two pictures up, a princess theme and a jungle theme. Additionally, you can change the character and the language from English to Spanish, as shown in this picture:

We hope you are able to bring your young ones in to use this machine regularly -- we think they'll enjoy it and will learn something without even knowing it!

In order to ensure a bit of fairness for everyone, all sessions are limited to 30 minutes, and this station is only available on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no Internet access on this machine, so parents needn't worry about objectionable content coming in by mistake. We ask that parents please supervise their children while they are in the library using this machine, especially if they haven't had much exposure to computers. While it is made to be both child-friendly and child-resistant, these things won't last with lots of abuse.

Biting the Hand That Feeds You

2011-02-25T22:17:01Z

So I'm working along this morning, reading other librarians' blogs when I come across this post about a change in OverDrive Media's licensing of e-books (OverDrive is the company that powers KY Libraries Unbound)on Librarian By Day:

The first bit – ownership of ebooks will now expire after a certain number of check outs to patrons. Libraries may no longer own them forever and ever. This is unbelievable! And a HUGE step backwards in lending rights and library access.

The past several months have brought about dramatic changes for the print and eBook publishing and retail industries. Digital book sales are now a significant percentage of all publisher and author revenue. As a result several trade publishers are re-evaluating eBook licensing terms for library lending services. Publishers are expressing concern and debating their digital future where a single eBook license to a library may never expire, never wear out, and never need replacement.
OverDrive is advocating on behalf of your readers to have access to the widest catalog of the best copyrighted, premium materials, and lending options. To provide you with the best options, we have been required to accept and accommodate new terms for eBook lending as established by certain publishers. Next week, OverDrive will communicate a licensing change from a publisher that, while still operating under the one-copy/one-user model, will include a checkout limit for each eBook licensed. Under this publisher’s requirement, for every new eBook licensed, the library (and the OverDrive platform) will make the eBook available to one customer at a time until the total number of permitted checkouts is reached. This eBook lending condition will be required of all eBook vendors or distributors offering this publisher’s titles for library lending (not just OverDrive).

The second bit of bad news – publishers want to meddle in your library card policies:

In addition, our publishing partners have expressed concerns regarding the card issuance policies and qualification of patrons who have access to OverDrive supplied digital content. Addressing these concerns will require OverDrive and our library partners to cooperate to honor geographic and territorial rights for digital book lending, as well as to review and audit policies regarding an eBook borrower’s relationship to the library (i.e. customer lives, works, attends school in service area, etc.). I can assure you OverDrive is not interested in managing or having any say in your library policies and issues. Select publisher terms and conditions require us to work toward their comfort that the library eBook lending is in compliance with publisher requirements on these topics.

Normally I wouldn't care a whole lot what the publishers are doing -- usually all I have to do with them is to catalog their information in our system. But now they are saying print books only last 26 checkouts on average? They have no clue! I'd love to see a citation for this number so I can disprove it with experience!

Of course librarians, library users and authors from all over the world have tried hard to bring Twitter down today, expressing both outrage and incredulity over this sudden policy. Josh Hadro revealed in his Library Journal article that the offending publisher is HarperCollins (HC). Instead of going the route of most other publishers and simply charging more, HC have decided that print books only last a year in a library setting. This is assuming that books check out for 2 weeks and aren't chewed up by dogs or left in the rain. They also fail to realize that libraries spend money on gallons of glue, miles of tape, rubber bands, and other supplies repairing these books over the years. Translated message to HC and all other publishers: WE WILL NOT SPEND MONEY ON NEW BOOKS IF WE DON'T HAVE TO!

At least one author, Courtney Milan has chimed in as well, at least from outside the HC family. On her blog, she likens this new policy by HC to "eating your seed corn," an old saying for using up your supply of seed that will grow your crop next season. Perhaps this is the case (maybe HC is quitting book farming?), but what they fail to realize is that libraries are fertile fields of both guaranteed sales and future customers, as well as sprouting new readers and customers for the future!

Another non-library blog, mobiputing.com, has also expressed dismay and concern over the future of e-books as well:

...given that I’m sometimes the 8th or 10th person on a waiting list to check out an ebook from the Philadelphia Free Library, I can’t help but wonder if this new restriction would mean the book will disappear before I make it to the front of the queue — or just as bad, a cash-strapped library might have to pay for another license for me to read the book for “free.”

OverDrive has to keep publishers happy or it won’t be able to provide any books to libraries, so it should come as no surprise that the company has added the self-destruct button to digital library books. But I can’t help but wonder if the move won’t severely limit the number of books available for check-out from public libraries across the US.

Here's a great breakdown of what all this means for libraries by The Librarian in Black, Sara Houghton-Jan.

Should you feel so inclined to follow the discussion on Twitter, follow the hashtag #hcod.
Should you feel the need to rant at HarperCollins, the e-mail address to use is library.ebook@harpercollins.com.
And finally, if you would like to tell OverDrive what you think of them kow-towing to the publishers, they are @OverDriveLibs on Twitter, OverDriveForLibraries on Facebook, and their standard inquiry form.

Lots of us in the library field are feeling a bit betrayed by OverDrive right now, as well as by HarperCollins, so I ask that you please join the fight and tell them how you feel!

Comments on my blog

2011-01-28T23:27:31Z

I found out something rather accidentally just now. If you delete the notice in your LiveJournal Messages page, everything gets deleted! Duh, right? Well, that's all well and good until you delete the notice that someone has posted a comment to one of your entries. It turns out that it deletes that comment in the entry as well!

Bad form, LiveJournal!!

Software Testing by the Big Boys

2011-01-23T18:45:22Z

Every time I log in to Yahoo! when I'm using Google's Chrome/Chromium Browser, Yahoo! has to tell me that my browser hasn't been tested for the "new" Yahoo! Mail. Now, I've been using Chromium, Google's truly open-source version of the Chrome browser, for more than 6 months. You'd think that in that period of time enough Chrome/Chromium users would have used Yahoo!'s services that they could get some real-world data. Instead, we get this:

I guess Yahoo! either doesn't care to remove this notice, or are thumbing their nose at their biggest dominator. Google isn't so much a search competitor anymore as it is a dominator. But then again, Gmail stayed in Beta status for years before Google deemed it worthy of final release status.

I understand well the need for software testing when the application is deemed to be an enterprise-grade software, but come on, Yahoo! We're talking about a mail aggregator, RSS Feed aggregator and Ajax-enabled content displaying web page! Admittedly it looks fairly complex when you do a 'view source' right click, but at its heart the web page is simply CSS, HTML and JavaScript.

I guess I'm just trying to say that I'm tired of having to click the "Go On to Yahoo! Mail" link when I want to check my mail. There's been enough testing done by the public to say that Chrome/Chromium works. You guys don't have to provide support for another browser outside of Firefox or Internet Explorer, but that seems incredibly short-sighted when you consider they are but two fish in the sea.

Tales from the Inside

2010-11-14T17:18:34Z

This post isn't library-related, but it does tie in quite nicely with my career.

My kids are having fun playing in the Edubuntu Operating System, an educational suite incorporated into the Ubuntu Linux OS. The particular release I am installing is based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, a.k.a., Lucid Lynx. The LTS designates that it is a Long-Term Support version, to be supported for at least three years. With Ubuntu's six month release cycle, it's a good thing to use a stable, supported OS as a base for an educational system. By the way, there are lots of school systems around the world that use Edubuntu, even here in the United States. It's a great idea, especially with the prohibitive costs of licensing Windows or Mac-based software and hardware.

So I've done a lot of work on computers, both inside the software and under the hood. But in the last 27 years of fooling with them, I don't think I've ever see anything like this:

What you are looking at is the backside of an old Nvidia GeForce MX4000 graphics card that was installed in an old HP Pavilion computer my kids have been using for games. The yellow arrow is pointing to a blob of bubble gum. (WTH, right?!?)

I'm still scratching my head as to how it got there, because I KNOW it wasn't there when I installed that card, and to my knowledge, I'm the only one who's unscrewed and removed the case on that machine since we've had it!

I guess this one will go down in history as one of those great tech support mysteries....

'Til next time!

Internet Librarian Conference, and Why

2010-10-22T22:12:45Z

Tomorrow will see me, along with hundreds of my colleagues, converging on the city of Monterey, CA, for the 2010 Internet Librarian Conference. It's an opportunity for me to get away from the routine of daily cataloging, beating on computers and the circulation desk. It's an opportunity for me to sharpen my IT skills, get new ideas to help us be a better library, and provide better services for our patrons. Finally, it's an opportunity for me to meet colleagues I follow on Twitter and Facebook, as well as meet new ones.

I'm really looking forward to this conference, and I realize just how fortunate I am to have both my Library Director's and Board of Directors' support for this conference. With the number of states and communities ending support for their public libraries, and the funding cuts we have sustained here in Kentucky, I fear that major conferences like this will fade away due to lack of attendees. So it's vitally important to attend this conference to see what my colleagues are up to in the realm of technology, because technology is what drives the world and the consumption of information more so today than in years past. For libraries to stay relevant to everyone, we must adopt those technologies and instruct our patrons in its use. If you haven't been to your local public library lately, you ought to go check them out. You never know what you might find behind those doors!

We must also teach each other our ideas that work well, and help each other figure out why other ideas haven't. E-mail is good, and there's always the phone, but you can't beat one-on-one, personal interaction when there is a tough or complicated issue to discuss. Plus, it's just plain cool to be able to tell your co-workers, "See you next month!" :)

I'll be posting from the conference some, so keep an eye open for my new posts.

'Til next time.

Cutting the Cables With Scissors

2010-09-07T18:53:53Z

This post isn't necessarily about library technology, but can (and will) be a story heard more and more often.

At my house, we used to have the usual avenues to the outside world: land line phone, dial-up Internet (we live out in the sticks, no cable or DSL available), and satellite television. Then we got cell phones.

We lived with having both land line and cell phones for a while. With dial-up we had to have a land line phone line, so keeping the phone made sense. Our regional cellular carrier covered enough of where we went that we realized that we didn't need long distance phone service any longer. So we dropped it, and that was the sound of the scissor drawer opening.

Then we realized we were using the cell phones more for local calls, since mobile-to-mobile was free. We also realized that our cell phones were becoming our primary contact number more often than not. So we dropped our land line phone service to _just_ phone service -- no caller ID, no call waiting. Still have to have it for dial-up Internet. That was the sound of the scissors coming out of the drawer.

We switched cellular carriers to AT&T (then Cingular), because I was traveling outside our regional carrier's area more frequently. I could talk to more of my family for free as well, and the phones were better and plans were a bit cheaper. Now the scissors are open, but we still had the land line, which by this time had no actual phone on it, just a line to the modem in use.

We decided in January 2010 to go to satellite Internet service, something against which I have railed in the past. Yes it is more expensive than any other consumer-grade offering and we're on the hook with Wildblue for two years, but it does bring broadband to the house. Besides, the area in which we live is prone to lightning strikes, and we had spent roughly $195 over about 5 years in replacing modems for that reason. Cable one has been cut, as we canceled our land line phone after the satellite stuff was installed.

We started with the "Value Package", which was mediocre at best. It was the cheapest offering at $59.99/month, but we were regularly having to reset our satellite modem as much as 5 times daily, which is totally unacceptable and indicates there is a problem. Our download speeds were between 80Kbps and 250 Kbps, which was like lightning to dial-up users. We soon realized that we were getting close to the ceiling on our service, which was limited to 7.5GB of data in a rolling 30-day period. So we upped to the "Select Package", which gave us some breathing room at 12GB, and also increased our speeds to a theoretical 1Mbps. There was an improvement in download speed, and we only had issues with hitting the cap when I would play with a new Linux distribution and have to pull updates. We haven't hit our cap yet, but we could. With the Select package, we were still having to reset our modem quite often and paying $79.99/month, but we still had broadband.

So my wife & I sat down and did some figuring. We were paying between $90 & $100 for satellite television with Dish Network. We could upgrade our Internet package and watch TV online, but where are the majority of our shows? We both have shows we watch on the SyFy network, we can get most of the major networks' programming over the air, and whatever else we watch (I love to watch the PowerBlock on Spike TV) we can grab from Hulu or the show's own site.

So we did it. We cut the final cable. We pay $89.99/month for our Internet service, and get 1.5Mbps downloads (closer to 900 Kbps) & a cap of 17 GB. But we are not paying one red cent (we're actually saving about $50/month overall) for our television content. We are a week behind what subscribers see on our SyFy shows, but you know what? I don't care. We've got a little more money in our pockets every month now and we still watch what we want, when we can.

Cable and satellite services are a species headed for extinction anyway, as more and more content goes online and is fed over the Internet. Closer to the junk pile already are CDs and DVDs, as well as Blu-Ray. BR will have a short future in data storage, but it's a technology that is too late in coming. The advances being made in flash memory and Solid State Drives have rendered it obsolete, along with all the restrictive, constraining DRM crap that the MPAA and RIAA have foisted upon movies and music.

We've cut the cords and cables, and are happy about it. So far we've not run into any problems and we look forward to the future!

jimmythegeek @ 2010-08-28T10:30:00

2010-08-28T15:30:35Z

So lately I've been playing catch-up here at the library, mostly with cataloging and other librarian-type jobs. But I've also been working behind the scenes, testing open source Integrated Library Systems (ILS), and talking to other vendors of ILS to determine what's best for us at this juncture. We've had the same ILS provider since 2002, and things aren't going as well as they should most of the time. Additionally, it doesn't work on Windows 7, Linux or Mac, so it really is nearing its end of life, along with Windows XP.

I've also built and deployed four new machines for public access, as the computers being replaced are eight years old and starting to show their age. They all have dual-core processors & 2 gigabytes of RAM, as well as an onboard Nvidia GeForce graphics chipset to handle any online games and most other games that a patron may bring in on a USB stick. Patrons are also able to view HD video content as well, which should cover future viewing options as more and more content online goes HD. It's just a little insurance, warranted by the fact that lots of camcorders and even some cell phones can do HD video. And besides, it's just a better user experience for our patrons.

One other thing I've been working pretty hard on is a presentation on how open source software use in libraries can help with cutting costs and reducing headaches. I know that open source software isn't for everybody, at least not yet. But with the right tools in place a library (or an individual, for that matter) can break free from vendor lock-in and ongoing costs of staying with that vendor. By ongoing costs, I am referring to annual licensing fees, hardware upgrades, productivity software purchases, and even software updates that many proprietary vendors charge. Since the IT industry changes so quickly and we are rolling into many of the scheduled "point releases" for the open source guys, I'm finding that this presentation is a work in progress. I will present at the KPLA Fall Conference at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, KY on September 17th.

I also plan to go to the Internet Librarian Conference in Monterey, CA, October 25th-27th. Being able to go to a conference that deals with both the Library and IT sides of my job is a great help in that I can stay on top of my job in both categories. I am very fortunate to be able to attend such events; lots of folks can't, and have to rely on others to pass on the information accurately and in a timely fashion. This is all well and good, but in order to maintain professional knowledge and viability in a rapidly-changing profession, we have to have that information as soon as it is available. Knowledge truly is power, and it is the enabler of sound decisions that shape the future of an organization.

Summer Reading is Ovah!!!

2010-08-03T21:46:56Z

And thank God! As I've posted before, one of the downers to working in a small library is the small staff. It's not really a downer, but it does make it inconvenient when I'm trying to get an IT project or some cataloging done and I have to cover the circulation desk. Being one of ten is a bummer when there's tons of programming!

But it was a great Summer! I haven't seen the final numbers yet, but I'd bet heavily that we've set some records this year in terms of attendance and variety. We showed three movies every Tuesday in June & two Tuesdays in July, had a henna tattoo artist, theater troupes, scientists doing bug & reptile programs, Tae Kwon Do & T'ai Chi demos, financial advisors -- you name it, we probably had it. The Bug Guy was really neat, because he brought in a microscope that you plug into a TV (similar to this, but professional); only we plugged it into an LCD projector so he could show his water bugs on our 8'x10' movie screen! Can you say 1950's horror movie?!

At any rate, now that I have "more time" to do my thing, I'll get back to posting a little more regularly. I have lots of photos to show!

'Til next time!

Further Musings on the iPad

2010-06-14T19:19:22Z

So The Goodnight Memorial Library has had an iPad for about a month now, exploring the possibilities and potential of the device for patron use.

As I've stated before, it's a great time-waster, with little use in a productivity setting, at least in terms of creating documents, spreadsheets or Keynote presentations. Sure, Apple sell iWorks, their answer to Microsoft Office, and it does create/save/edit MS Office files, but only in iPage. Numbers (Apple's spreadsheet program) can only open & save in its own format, and the same applies to Keynote. The real downer, at least for me when composing a document, is the on-screen keyboard, which requires the user to press two keys to get at the special characters such as #, %, &, and ^. When doing complex passwords or lots of equations/number crunching, this can be a pain.

Additionally, most of the documents, music, videos and anything else you transfer from computer to iPad requires the media to be dragged through iTunes, and even then it may not play well. Apple do not allow any MP3s or other audio media on its machines unless they are stored in and played through iTunes. PDFs are supposed to be platform-agnostic, but they don't render well on the iPad. See this post from my colleague, Valerie Forrestal, for more on PDF files and a video demo.

There are others in the Information Technology world who would agree with me, and have done some of the same things that I have in terms of eschewing the passé desktop or notebook and using the latest & okay device as a replacement for the jobs they do. It just won't do these tasks well enough to be adopted by businesses for that purpose.

Yet another downer is security. It is said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and for years that link has always been the end user when it comes to basic device security. Some boneheads leave their devices in taxis, on the table to go refill a drink, or where ever, and there is nothing any IT Pro can do about that. Some folks have a need to have the shiny new device & steal them. Not much you can do there, either, but with the right tools in place can at least protect data by wiping the device remotely or track the device to that secret underground lair.Apple does try to help a little with some advice located here, as well as some PDF documents to which I have linked in this post. Since the iPad does run the iPhone OS, many of the procedures and practices used for securing iPhones can be applied to the iPad as well. Here is Apple's Enterprise Deployment Scenario guide, their Security Overview for the iPhone OS, and their Enterprise Deployment guide. They are all PDF documents, so you will need a PDF reader like Adobe's Acrobat Reader or Foxit Software's Foxit Reader.

Now, this device does have some very cool features and is very useful in other arenas, namely watching videos, playing games, surfing the Internet and potentially as an e-reader. I know, Valerie's blog post states that it has no usefulness now, but as the device matures and is refined I suspect we'll see more and better features. I'm not ready to give up on the device yet, but I think that in the end, Apple will not be as IT-friendly as we admin-types would like, given their largely consumer-driven focus.

Reflections on a PC-Free* Day

2010-05-26T03:40:21Z

*Okay, relatively PC-free. I was at work, and since there is no app for our Circulation software, it was required that I use our Circulation PCs for library business.

Our library recently acquired an Apple iPad for testing compatibility with our downloadable e-books, audiobooks, and music. This is my review of my experiences thus far with the iPad.

The iPad model we got was the $499 base model, with 16GB of storage and wi-fi connectivity. Since this is for testing usability and compatibility, and we don't want to pay AT&T for another, too-expensive data plan.

The iPad is essentially an over-sized iPod Touch, also an Apple product. Both have touch screens, accelerometers, the iPhone Operating system (iPhone OS) and wi-fi connectivity. For those with failing eyesight (or just can't see as well as you used to), the iPad may well be worth your money, at least more so than an iPod Touch. That being said, there are a few shortcomings that I'll get into in a bit.

For starters, when you take the shiny, new Precious out of the box and attempt to turn it on, you are greeted with a screen that graphically (no words!) tells you that you MUST plug it up to a computer and sync it with iTunes, which you MUST have installed on that computer to even use the iPad. So, if you have an aversion to iTunes and its Digital Restrictions Management scheme, don't buy an iPad.

However, once it's all synced up and registered with Apple, it's a pretty nice device if all you want to do is waste time. Don't get me wrong, it's a great media consumption device, but has very limited use as a productivity device. For starters, the keyboard is my major hangup. I wouldn't dare to attempt to write a blog post with it, because to get to special characters, like %&$*^#, you have to press two extra buttons, and then press another button to get back to the alphabet. It's also frustrating when trying to enter complex passwords on a secure site.

The touch screen on the iPad is excellent, exceeding my expectations, which I must admit were limited to the experiences I've had with credit card readers and cell phones, and the occasional Nintendo DS. The screen is very sensitive, but not so much so that you end up clicking something you don't want to click. Scrolling is very smooth, but does require that you keep consistent pressure while dragging your finger(s). Pinching two fingers together on the screen zooms in and spreading them zooms out, which is very handy in map applications where you might desire a street-level view over a city- or state-wide view. Dragging a single finger left or right across the screen will scroll left or right in an application, or between screens to show different apps.

So now we move on to the media consumption aspect of the iPad. One of the first things that struck me as odd right off the bat is the fact that there is a YouTube app right on the home screen. With all the brouhaha lately between Steve Jobs and Adobe, and the fact that the iPhone OS won't support Flash, I was quite surprised to see that there. Clicking on it takes you out to YouTube, where of course you can watch any non-flash video. The few I looked at were of lower quality but watchable, so until content creators & browser manufacturers get into supporting the new HTML5 video codecs, this loss of quality will be the norm rather than the exception. I must also add here that there are apps that will take you to sites that will play high-definition video, but again, those videos are not flash-based.

Now on to the apps. Some of these apps are great, others, not so much. Since the iPad shares the iPhone OS with the iPhone, it is only natural for the developers to port iPhone apps to the iPad. Therein lies a major problem with those apps: they were created and optimized for the 3.5" (diagonal) screen on the iPhone. When in standard '1x' mode, the app looks just like it would on an iPhone, complete with the border, look and feel of being on an iPhone. When you push the 2x button in the lower right corner, you get a low-res, pixelated mess. Now, the developers did provide a feature called "scaling up," but the net effect is to downgrade the experience to the point that you feel like you are back in the 8-bit graphics days -- fuzzy, pixelated graphics & text like those seen here in the game World Class Track Meet.

The text is grainy and difficult to look at for very long, and any graphics are very low-res, looking very much like the picture above. For a device with the ability to render high-quality graphics and HD Video, I expected a much better experience.

I'm testing this iPad for use in our library, so I have to look at it as both an end-user and a system administrator. As an end-user, all I can say is I want one bad enough to have to wipe the drool off my chin. As a system administrator, however, it is a total nightmare. Since it is so new to the market, there are no apps for locking the machine down. Maybe I'm a little old-skool, but this device does have the ability to log on to a network, and it has no means of keeping a user from changing the device's settings, something that could prove troublesome in the event of theft. Hey Steve, how about giving us sysadmins some love?

That being said, there are apps you can use to control what media is stored on the iPad, but what good is that if you can't stop a user from changing the settings and/or deleting media and apps from the iPad? Additionally, since there are no external data ports to hook up an external hard drive, there's no way to re-image an iPad like you can with a standard PC or laptop. If there are any libraries out there using the iPad already, I'd love to hear from you and discuss what steps you've taken to secure your iPads, media and apps.

In conclusion, I'd have to say that I wouldn't want one for anything but traveling on vacation, where I'd have to do a minimum of typing. For that reason, I can't justify spending the money on one personally, even for the base model. I like a device that can multi-task, something else the iPad can't do, and has a keyboard that I can use without having to press six buttons to type one character. Am I old for wanting this? Yes, I guess I am, but I like what I like, and I can spend $500 on a fully-functional netbook or laptop, and run Linux or (gasp!) Windows.

So if you are in the market for a very nice, time-wasting video device, e-reader, or basic game platform, and have the money to spend, get an iPad. If you have to manage content and/or user access, need a keyboard that is easy to use, or simply don't like iTunes, don't get an iPad. The choice is really up to you, and you will really want to think about your intended use before you make that choice.

Technology and Librarian Training

2010-04-16T22:20:55Z

Okay, so it's been a while since I have posted. This week has seen me in beautiful Bowling Green, KY, for the Kentucky Public Library Association (KPLA) Spring 2010 conference. The Twitter hashtag we were using is #kpla10, if you want to search some of the information given over the course of some of the presentations. I'm putting this out there for you, KY Librarians, who attended the conference and didn't get to some of these, but anyone can look because it's all pertinent information for all librarians!

Anyway, being the geek that I am, I attended most of the technology-track presentations at the conference and learned something about the librarians in this state: Most of them want to embrace and use technology and social media but have no idea how to start or to manage it once they are using it. I'm not saying our state's librarians are backwards, idiots or even that they are technophobes. I'm saying that the technical presentations enjoyed a larger crowd than I remember from a couple of years ago, and that the need for technical training for librarians in Kentucky is at an all-time high.

Seriously, as librarians in a world that is hurtling towards digital everything, we HAVE to stay on top of what's on the market & on the Internet or we risk falling behind in this world and losing our relevancy and value to our patrons & taxpayers! Too many times I hear, "I didn't know you could do that," or "How do you do that," usually within the basic operations of a computer such as printing on a web site or in regards to some particular feature of a piece of software. Most of the time its the staff here, but I also heard it a LOT at the Kentucky Public Library Association (KPLA) conference, even from some of the presenters!

I'll be the first to admit that I probably spend too much time on the Internet, but in my line of work it pays to be on top of what's out there, technologically speaking. It is through thorough research and development that we figure out what's best for us and our patrons. I have been on the Internet a lot in the last couple of weeks, working on an open-source ILS server for testing purposes. It's up and running, and without the help of users & developers on the Internet, I would probably STILL be trying to figure it out. It took me about five days, off and on the project, to get it done. Without the online help, it probably would have stretched into a couple of weeks or even longer.

So maybe I'm a little bit jaded in my evaluation of the state of technology training for librarians in the state of Kentucky. But if we librarians, perceived as our communities' information experts, don't know how to change a printer when trying to print from a web site or PDF document (File -> Print -> select printer -> OK or Print), or don't know how to be effective online searchers, or don't know how to connect an iPod to our Wi-Fi service, what do we really know? How diminished does our reputation as information experts become? Will that patron come back to ask us how to download an e-book onto a Nook or Kindle?

Chances are, those librarians who are either unwilling to get involved with computers past the circulation desk or deem themselves too old to have to learn about them will call on the younger generations to fix the issue. But quite often, the younger ones (30- and 40-somethings) don't know much more either, and in turn call the IT guy. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and love helping people. But not only do I do all the IT work, I also am the Technical Services librarian. You know, the mysterious one who puts all the new acquisitions in the system. I try to do my best to explain the situation and demonstrate to my fellow staff members how to resolve each issue, and it has helped a lot in terms of reducing interruptions. But after this weekend, I strongly suspect that librarians statewide, and maybe even country-wide are lacking in the latest technical training.

So what do you think? Do you know how to connect an iPod to Wi-Fi? What about a Microsoft Vista- or Windows 7-equipped laptop that won't connect? Did you know that restarting a computer will fix most Windows issues? How do you feel about the technical knowledge level of your staff? Yourself?

I'm not saying that all librarians should be experts in computer operation and use. But some basic training on how to do some simple stuff would greatly expand our usefulness as an institution and as individuals.