the pod bay door

Geoff and I are planning a short article for Feliciter on blogging. We will not break new ground necessarily, but will report on the current state of the art, and how it is being used now in the library world, and what applications or uses might be forthcoming. We had our first coffee meeting today, and hope to have an outline in the next day or two. I am near the end of Rebecca Blood’s book, which is a joy to read: straightforward, lucid, clear and obvious, presented in a crisp writing style that holds my attention.

I receive the Sunday NYTimes, and in this week’s Magazine is their 2nd Annual Year in Ideas. It is fascinating, and I’m kicking myself for not keeping last year’s issue. Check out genetically modified saliva, the crying baby translator, and the self-cleaning dinner table, to name a few. Rebecca also mentions this issue.

From Milk and Cookies comes the Stewardess Uniform Collection. This may seem odd to some, but students of fashion would find a site like this quite useful.

I finished a workout after work, ran errands, and returned home to load a new #15 b&w cartridge in my HP 812C, only to have it fail. Frustrated, I returned to Staples and swapped it, and when I arrived home and installed it, the same thing happened. I was incredulous. I surfed HP web pages, eventually found schematics for the model, and while staring at the cartridge casing noticed a small piece of metal was missing, the contact for the cartridge to connect to the printer. Argh! The part is probably worth 12c, so tomorrow I’ll bring it in for repairs which will probably total $50…

One of the fun aspects of blogging is checking out someone else’s blog and discovering new information. From Geoff ‘s site I found the 2002 Year-End Google Zeitgeist, a review of “search patterns, trends and surprises.” An examination of the various charts suggests that pop culture rules the search engine domains, and a pop culture of the very young. I was surprised to see that the top athlete, the athlete with the mosts searches, was someone I’d not heard of, David Beckham, a British soccer player.

Keith has an interesting take on dealing with unreasonable people.

If you are a fan of The Onion, check out this interview with Rob Siegel, editor-in-chief, and Carol Kolb, senior editor. It was featured on the NPR program Fresh Air on Wednesday, 27 Nov 2002. When you’re finished, check out Team Onion. Then read Why Journalists Eat Up The Onion.

I have a stack of Onions at home going back 2-3 years, thanks to a friend who works at U Wisconsin Madison. He kindly sends me the paper copies every few weeks. Many people think The Onion is an online webzine, but in fact has always been a newspaper first. It began publishing in Madison WI in 1988. Its website came online in 1996.

Also of interest, a Dec 2000 interview with Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation. The book was a fascinating read, and may influence one’s decision on whether or not to eat at McDonald’s, for example.

In one of the few negative reviews of Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore’s brilliant and disturbing new documentary on American gun culture, Desson Howe of the Washington Post writes: “A lot of this is amusing and somehow telling. But what does it all add up to?” I’m not sure Moore knows the answer himself, but I don’t see that as a reason to slag this movie. After the Columbine massacre in 1999, Moore went to Littleton CO to learn more about life there and to meet some of the surviving students. Along the way, he introduces us to a number of individuals, displays statistics, and shares graphic images, some at times incredibly disturbing. For me, this is where the power of the film lies.

In the most startling and unnerving sequence, Moore splits the screen into a quad, and in each section plays video from one of four surveillance cameras at Columbine High. Sitting in a packed theatre, no one could move in their seats. I could barely breathe. Thinking about it now, I’m at a loss for words to describe how I felt.
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The world of search engines is ever-changing. Check out KartOO SA, a meta-search engine that returns results graphically, presenting a map of links to the user. It reminds me a bit of WebBrain. I don’t know much about KartOO, so don’t know how its coverage compares to the Big Engines, like Google or AltaVista.

Common Dreams “is a national non-profit citizens’ organization working to bring progressive Americans together to promote progressive visions for America’s future. Founded in 1997, we are committed to being on the cutting-edge of using the internet as a political organizing tool – and creating new models for internet activism.” Lots of stuff here applicable to us in Canada too.

Behind the Beat is an online magazine (no, not a “zine”, dammit!) that provides links to musicians talking about their latest works. They call it “audio portraits”. You can hear Steve Earle talk about his controversial tune, John Walker’s Blues.