Three from the Vampire Squadron - GSW_Negatives_4_2X3_262m
Originally uploaded by fizzix

I came across something today that exemplifies everything awesome and cool about the internet. This guy has scanned in a bunch of photographs his father took in the Pacific from 1945-48 while he was in the USAAF. Not only has he scanned the photos but he has posted them to Flickr for us to enjoy. Take a look, there is some great stuff in this collection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fizzix/collections/72157600232519825/

Sentator Jim Webb

I found a fascinating article on Jim Webb in the recent New York Review of Books. He's got me intrigued. I'm going to keep an eye on him.

I wouldn't say: "When you die, that's it." I'd say: "When you're born, that's it."

How about a great interview with Gore Vidal? You can read it here.

Another type of cell phone user

Another great type of cell phone user at the library is the person I like to call the Wanderer. The Wanderer takes a call and immediately stands up from wherever he is sitting (usually the open study area in the middle of the floor) and circumnavigates the library in search of a spot where he can talk without disturbing anyone. If he is sitting in the study area in the middle of the floor he heads to the fiction area where first he enters the reading room. He sees people reading magazines and newspapers there and then turns down into the stacks. In the stacks he sees people browsing for novels. They give him nasty looks so he heads back to the open study area. Once back there he ducks into one of the word processing cubicles and discover that is the loudest spot in the library. He then heads across the to nonfiction and has to stop short because we have a sign there that signifies that area as "The Quiet Area. No talking." Now he's boned, he's got nowhere else to go. He looks over at us at the reference desk and we give him the "you're in the library, there is no place to go talk on a cell privately." Then he does one of two things. He either tells whoever he is talking to that he is in the library or he goes downstairs and then outside.

Statistics and terrorism

I just finished an amazing novel by Cory Doctorow called "Little Brother." It's about a 17-year-old hacker that takes on the Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist attack in San Francisco. To me it stands right alongside Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is Harsh Mistress" as a great story surrounding instructions on how to start an insurrection against an oppressive government. I am going to get this book into the hands of as many teens as I can.

One topic he addresses in the book is the Paradox of False Positives when it comes to increased security and data mining. He also wrote an article about the paradox for the Guardian. You can read it here. If you enjoy the article you will dig the book. Believe.

The ever expanding universe

I just read on Warren Ellis' blog that our universe may have been spawned from another universe. I like the idea. No beginning no end. Who knows where we might end up next?

Screen shot

I use a media player called VLC. Why? Because I'm a hacker, that's why. Well, actually because a hacker website told me to. I found out a couple of days ago that you can take screen shots with VLC. How cool is that. Check out the picture here. It's from the discussion in the diner for the episode called "The Contest." One of my favorites.

Say no to Hillary

This guy sums up perfectly why Obama should tell Hillary to take a hike.

The Civil War in Four Minutes

I love animated maps.

Howdy

Today's high temperature was in the mid nineties. I think it was God getting back to me for the text I sent to Kevin last week asking him if they still had snow in Northern Michigan. Who's laughing now? I'm not. The temperature is fifteen degrees above normal. That means it will be 110 in July. I think if it gets that hot you start having scorpions living in your backyard.

Cell Phones

For a while when cell phones were starting on their pat to ubiquity the library tried to keep people from using them in the branches. An idea that may have sounded good when the rule was first put into action. In reality we seemed to spend a large portion of our day chasing people around and telling them to hang up their phones. It was counterproductive from a public relations standpoint. Especially when one of my former coworkers would grab the "no cell phones in the library" sign and wave it in the offenders face after she chased them down. Most signs telling library users to refrain from an act are pretty obnoxious as it is. The added indignity of waving the sign around brought me back to high school.

Now we allow people to use their cell phones in the library. For the most part it works out OK. Ninety nine percent of library users realize that their voices are transmitted electronically and it is not necessary to yell into their phone in order to be heard on the other end. It's the other one percent, let's call them 'yahoos', that cause problems. These yahoos are mostly adults. Kids with cell phones know they don't have to holler. The yahoos raise their voice well above conversation level and proceed to project their bidness into every corner of the second floor of this building. It's shocking, really. My favorite yahoos are the ones that go into these computer cubicles we have. Cubicles that, due to their design, naturally project sound. Not only are you talking too loud but you are now broadcasting. You might as well be standing on water, dude.

The library's policy is that we allow cell phone use as long as the phones are used quietly. Now when I go tell someone to hang up his phone it's usually not an awkward interaction because he's usually being too loud and, hey, it's still a library, take it outside.