The iPod (and other voices) in my head

I am now working on a large university campus and am amazed by the students with iPod buds hanging from their heads.  There’s nothing like carrying your soundtrack along with you! I have to admit that now I feel a bit more comfortable wearing my (non-iPod) mp3 player.  My little secret however is that I am not listening to tunes, but instead another wonderful outcrop of the iPod phenomenon – the podcast.  I can download podcasts from a myriad of places and listen to them at my leisure.

These devices have made me come to realize that there is almost always a tune in my head.  Quite frankly, an mp3 player gets in the way of my internal soundtrack if for no other reason, the shear capacity and fast shuttling that occurs in my inner-iPod.  I wonder if an external device like the iPod will reduce my internal song inventory.  I’ve posted before about how online maps (and autoflush toilets) may be inhibiting our abilities.  (the Luddite inside me?).

LCG

Ohh, Gmail, Save us from our Sends!

E-mail is a wonderful technology which allows for the rapid transmission of messages across the Internet.  The car is also a fantastic technological device for transferring us from one place to another.  Neither should be operated while under the influence of alcohol.  Granted, you may not be endangering the lives of others in a drunken e-mail, but you could certainly be endangering or simply embarrassing yourself.  Don’t fret, Gmail has a solution.

Eric Raymond, in his definitive work on open source software, stated that “Every good work of software starts by scratching
a developer’s personal itch.” So it is with a new Gmail feature called Mail Goggles. Gmail engineer, Jon Perlow, recently posted about his own personal need for a way to prevent him from sending messages like the “late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together.” So, he created Mail Goggles.

The Mail Goggles feature offers a math challenge for e-mails before an email can be sent between 10pm and 4 am on weekends.

To enable the feature in Gmail, just click on “Settings” and then “Labs” and scroll down to Mail Goggles and click “Enable”.  After it is enabled, adjustments to the schedule can be made in the “General” settings page. Enabling this feature gives Gmail the ability to take away your keys when you’ve had a bit too much to drink.

Of course this won’t save you from sending that emotional flame mail in the heat of the moment.  There you may want to try my 24 hour test.  Write the email and get those emotions out, but save it to your drafts and let it cool off a bit.  No better place to cool of that someplace with a draft.  Revisit the email in a day and see if writing it out wasn’t sufficient for yourself.  Otherwise revise and click send.  The revisions alone are worth the wait.  Perhaps Gmail can help here as well.  Some external device takes your blood pressure and won’t let you send until it is low enough.

LCG

outside the box

I’m quite excited to share a new service called Box.net which allows storage of files on the web along with many other features.  This idea is not new, but the exectution by Box.net is quite easy to use (including a drag-and-drop function).  I became interested in the service when I read that gOS and the Evergreen computer were now integrated with Box.net to allow storage on the net instead of on a local harddrive.

LCG

Download Day!

Be part of breaking a Guinness World Record and help support free software by pledging to download FireFox 3 on the day it is released.

Mozilla has found many clever ways of getting press for what is arguably the most successful open source project ever.  This matches well with the innovations of the software which has a growing market share because of its ease of use and addons.  Try the current version by going here, or get a preview of the upcoming 3.0 by downloading the release candidate.

LCG

Adobe opening up?

Adobe recently announced the Open Screen Project.

Specifically, this work will include:

• Removing restrictions on use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications
• Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player
• Publishing the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services
• Removing licensing fees – making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free

Is Adobe seeing the light that Microsoft isn’t? (The light that I personally think Sun is not only seeing, but adding their own luminance to.) Web developers increasingly “get” OSS and want it. They can use it as students with no money. They can use it inhouse without any licensing problems. (Personally, OSS was a wondrous tool for me when I worked for companies that would not invest a single dollar in software and the licenses to make us legal, and is indispensable in a library with very limited resources.)

There is tremendous benefit to be invested in learning technologies that the user can influence through their community, not being burdened and beholden to corporate control. AJAX is the buzz for this reason. Sun “got it” when they released Java initially as OSS and has more and more fully released control to the community.

I haven’t had a chance to blog about my Competitive Intelligence class, but the focus of my study was on Sun Microsystem, Inc. and I am impressed with their embrace of OSS. They understand that programmers are using OSS. The web by its nature is open and it encourages and demands open technologies. Applications are moving from the desktop  to the Internet with SaaS and the network is the computer as Sun Microsystem’s John Gage famously said over a quarter-century ago.

LCG

IRS to libraries: “Thank You”

After posting about taxing resources recently – discussing the added burden of library resources as government and business push off services and access to the web – I was pleased to see this letter sent to the ALA from the IRS. Notable quotes:

We appreciate the important role libraries play in meeting individual needs for tax help and information. A recent example is the excellent assistance librarians provided to taxpayers entitled to Economic Stimulus payments.

and

The electronic age has changed us all, but libraries remain the heartbeat of their
communities.

Amen, to that.

LCG

Hotmail not so hot.

Patrons were very upset today because of problems logging into Hotmail. I tried to assure them that it was not anything to do with our computers or network, though many still think we control all aspects of the Internet. (Including being able to tell them their forgotten password.) Turns out the problem was pretty widespread according to this article.

The saga continues with another interesting post from the Register : Steve Balmer lies to my mother.

LCG

Taxing resources

For some, their single annual visit to a public library is to get their necessary tax forms.

In Oklahoma, public libraries have an added burden this year. The Oklahoma Tax Commission is NOT sending any forms to public libraries as they have in the past. Instead they are instructing libraries to point patrons to the website where they can print out the necessary forms. Our policy is to charge for printing, so when we tell patrons that we can help them print out forms, but it will cost them, they are understandably upset This is definitely a cost saver for the OTC, but I would love to channel the anger directed at the lowly librarian for this state decision back to the source of the decision.

This year also has a fun twist on the I.R.S. side. The economic stimulus package requires certain individuals to fill out a tax form even if they aren’t required to normally. This, to get their (reduced amount of) $300.00. Most people will not have to do anything to get the rebate… just file their taxes as normal and the rebate will be issued, but there are special circumstances which require specific action:

The law also allows for payments for select taxpayers who have no tax liability, such as low-income workers or those who receive Social Security benefits or veterans’ disability compensation, pension or survivors’ benefits received from the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2007. These taxpayers will be eligible to receive a payment of $300 ($600 on a joint return) if they had at least $3,000 of qualifying income.

Essentially, these individuals must file a tax return. There is even this nice sample of how to fill out the tax form.

Another growing tax season ritual for the libraries is helping patrons print off their W-2 forms. A large number of employers now offer W-2s online as a “convenience” for their employees. This service is pushed out to the libraries where a large percentage of the working poor have the only Internet access available to them. Likewise, many companies now require job applicants to use web-based methods of applying and many of those people use the public library.

It is interesting to watch this changing role of libraries to adjust our resources to needs like these –  pushed off onto the Internet for convenience.

LCG

Congratulation Firefox!

Firefox is about to break has broken 500 million downloads as this New York Times article points out. An interesting point they make is that while most data shows Firefox at about 17% market share, their own analytics shows about 28% for their readers userFirefox.

LCG

Take an Internet Tablet and call me in the morning.

The Nokia Internet Tablet is just what the doctor ordered. Great piece here that expands on what I said in Poor man’s iPhone pointing to the Nokia Internet Tablet as an open platform for an iPhone-like experience … and more. I have the original version of the tablet, the Nokia 770 which I picked up for just over $100.00. The newer version (Nokia 810) is four times that much, but has GPS, a pull out key board, Skype and much more. I took my N770 on a recent trip instead of my laptop and was amazed that with the free wireless at the hotel I was able to do most of the basic tasks I needed (rss reading, email, downloading and listening to podcasts). I don’t know that this poor man will be investing in the N810 any time soon, but it really is worth looking into.

LCG