Monday, August 31, 2009
Wikichecker
WikiChecker is a tool for analyzing how and by whom articles of en.wikipedia have been edited.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Beautiful libraries
Justin Menard has compiled a stunning collection of pictures of beautiful libraries, including the Lemuel Gulliver personal library (below)
Crowdsourced gatecrashing
Wanting to want; more on distraction
Like Nick Carr and many others, David Ulin has discovered lately that he has a hard time finding the focus necessary for reading (this bodes ill for Ulin, who is the LA Times book editor). Instead, he yields to "an odd sort of distraction masquerading as being in the know" and "the sense that there is something out there that merits my attention, when in fact it's mostly just a series of disconnected riffs and fragments that add up to the anxiety of the age."
I know what he's talking about, and am yielding to those very things at this moment. It must be said, however, that I did find the focus necessary to read his article - and lots of other stuff on the web - and am also now in the midst of a fairly focused internal dialogue about how to piece these words together.
Isn't the problem more that I went hunting for that article - or just anything to interest me - in the first place? There's a guilt associated with browsing the net for something to catch one's fancy that does not apply - unfairly, perhaps - when entering the world of a novel and allowing ourselves to be distracted inward. Although Coleridge likened the reading of novels to idly to spitting from a bridge or swinging on a gate (digression: see his contempt for the unwashed readers of novels and "devotees of circulation libraries" below. He sounds like Mark Helprin!) - immersing oneself in a novel is today largely considered a virtuous activity.
Sam Anderson's article in New York Magazine made the point that we, like Skinner's lever-pressing rats, are less attracted to rewards dispensed consistently and predictably than rewards that come to us randomly, according to what is known as the variable ratio schedule, or, as I like to call it, surfing on the internet.
The suggestion, of course, is that seeking, wanting, is an object of desire in itself. Emily Yoffe puts a more scientific spin on this in an article in Slate, and argues that internet surfers, driven forward by that unrelenting slavedriver and neurotransmitter dopamine, are more easily stimulated than satisified. I can buy that, it explains many things. Not just why Ulin and I are surfing instead of reading, but also the shopper's most terrifying experience; discovering that far worse than not finding what you want, is finding nothing to want!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Get away from it all
Is Google and the Web grabbing more of your life than you (or your family) are willing to give? Now there's hope...at Opt-Out Village!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Law Practice Technology Information Sources
From llrx.com, via beSpacific, a useful guide to Law Practice Technology Information Sources
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Legal, Factual and Other Internet Sites for Attorneys and Legal Professionals
A very thorough guide to legal information sources by Timothy Coggins, Associate Dean for Library & Information Services and Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Now for a real treat - Baker on Kindle
I've raved before about Nicholson Baker's reviews, and how they always put me in a good mood, and then make me buy another book. Now he reviews the Kindle...I'm only into paragraph two, but already he has delighted with knuckle-gnawer of a novel and [Kindle as]an alpenhorn blast of post-Gutenbergian revalorization and the Bowflex of bookishness (ie. something expensive that, when you commit to it, it forces you to do more of whatever it is you think you should be doing more of.) More than any writer I know, Baker reminds me - especially in his reviews and essays - of the pleasure of reading sentences per se. "The Size of Thoughts" (for example) is chock full of sentences that make you gasp with delight.
Now that I've read the whole thing, more quotables:
[decrying the difficulty of quoting precisely from the Kindle] If you want to quote from a book you’ve bought, you have to quote by location range—e.g., the phrase “She was on the verge of the mother of all orgasms” is to be found at location range 1596-1605 in Mari Carr’s erotic romance novel “Tequila Truth.”
[about the Kindle DX's presentation of newspapers] A century and a half of of evolved beauty and informational expressiveness is all but entirely rinsed away in this digital reductio.
[on night-reading from the iPhone, which Baker much prefers to the Kindle] Each time you need to turn the page, just move your thumb over it, as if you were getting ready to deal a card; when you do, the page will slide out of the way, and a new one will appear. After a while, your thoughts will drift off to the unused siding where the old tall weeds are, and the string of curving words will toot a mournful toot and pull ahead. You will roll to a stop. A moment later, you'll wake and discover that you're still holding the machine but it has turned itself off. Slide it back under the pillow. Sleep.
[going back to the Kindle from the iPhone] It was like going from a Mini Cooper to a white 1982 Impala with blown shocks. But never mind: at that point, I was locked into the plot and it didn’t matter.
So, ultimately, it doesn't matter...because before the power of the book (Michael Connelly's "The Lincoln Lawyer", which Baker forces himself to read on the Kindle out of a sense of duty) Poof, the Kindle disappeared, just as Jeff Bezos had promised it would.
Once again, a Baker review causes me to run out and buy something, this time a Michael Connelly paperback.
Now that I've read the whole thing, more quotables:
[decrying the difficulty of quoting precisely from the Kindle] If you want to quote from a book you’ve bought, you have to quote by location range—e.g., the phrase “She was on the verge of the mother of all orgasms” is to be found at location range 1596-1605 in Mari Carr’s erotic romance novel “Tequila Truth.”
[about the Kindle DX's presentation of newspapers] A century and a half of of evolved beauty and informational expressiveness is all but entirely rinsed away in this digital reductio.
[on night-reading from the iPhone, which Baker much prefers to the Kindle] Each time you need to turn the page, just move your thumb over it, as if you were getting ready to deal a card; when you do, the page will slide out of the way, and a new one will appear. After a while, your thoughts will drift off to the unused siding where the old tall weeds are, and the string of curving words will toot a mournful toot and pull ahead. You will roll to a stop. A moment later, you'll wake and discover that you're still holding the machine but it has turned itself off. Slide it back under the pillow. Sleep.
[going back to the Kindle from the iPhone] It was like going from a Mini Cooper to a white 1982 Impala with blown shocks. But never mind: at that point, I was locked into the plot and it didn’t matter.
So, ultimately, it doesn't matter...because before the power of the book (Michael Connelly's "The Lincoln Lawyer", which Baker forces himself to read on the Kindle out of a sense of duty) Poof, the Kindle disappeared, just as Jeff Bezos had promised it would.
Once again, a Baker review causes me to run out and buy something, this time a Michael Connelly paperback.
Monday, July 27, 2009
My Experiment
A web2.0 collaboration tool for scientists:
The myExperiment Virtual Research Environment enables you and your colleagues to share digital items associated with your research — in particular it enables you to share and execute scientific workflows.
You can use myexperiment.org to find publicly shared workflows. If you want further access, and the ability to upload and share workflows, you will need to sign up.
The software that powers myexperiment.org is downloadable so that you can run your own myExperiment instance. For more information visit our developer pages. The source code is maintained on RubyForge and is available under the BSD licence.
Google Book Search Settlement site
The Public Index is a site (made possible by a grant from Microsoft) to study and discuss the proposed Google Book Search settlement:
The Public Index is a project of the Public-Interest Book Search Initiative and the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School. We are a group of professors, students, and volunteers who believe that the Google Book Search lawsuit and settlement deserve a full, careful, and thoughtful public discussion. The Public Index is a site for people from all points of view to learn from each other about the settlement and join together to make their voices heard in the public debate.
The lawsuit and its proposed settlement have generated their share of controversy. This is a site for everyone, dedicated to no particular point of view other than the advancement of dialogue and understanding. We hope that the site will help the settlement’s fans and foes dispel misunderstandings and find common ground, and that those who have not made up their minds will find the facts and explanations they need to reach informed decisions for themselves. All we ask of participants is that they be respectful of each other and work in good faith to advance the dialogue.
Novels about immigrants in U.S.
WSJ's Matthew Kaminski's 5 favorite novels about immigrants in U.S.
1.Nabokov/Pnin
2.O'Neill/Netherland
3.Roth/Call it Sleep
4.Diaz/The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
5.Lahiri/Interpreter of Maladies
1.Nabokov/Pnin
2.O'Neill/Netherland
3.Roth/Call it Sleep
4.Diaz/The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
5.Lahiri/Interpreter of Maladies
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Eurozine
For a daily fix of things to read/think/write about, a visit to Eurozine is a good habit to get into; it's "a network of European cultural journals, linking up more than 75 partner journals and just as many associated magazines and institutions from nearly all European countries. Eurozine is also a netmagazine which publishes outstanding articles from its partner journals with additional translations into one of the major European languages". Also offers an RSS feed and an email newsletter.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Fascinating self-destruction
Nicely apropos of Amazon/Orwell, this University of Washington press release raises some fascinating perpectives on the future of digital information and things like accountability, the public record, trees, etc. etc. A new system, called Vanish, enables users to schedule the self-destruction of their electronic texts, thereby limiting the damage of those errant emails and deeply regretted words...at least those that did not find their way to the printer! The system can be implemented with a Firefox plugin or, for the timid, by using an online "modest-scale Vanish service, which can be used to create or read Vanish data objects without requiring any installations."
From the press release:
A team of UW computer scientists have developed a prototype system called Vanish that can place a time limit on text uploaded to any Web service through a Web browser. After a set time text written using Vanish will, in essence, self-destruct. A paper about the project went public today and will be presented at the Usenix Security Symposium Aug. 10-14 in Montreal.
Usage Scenarios
Vanish enables privacy-aware users to ensure the timely self-destruction of their sensitive data stored at uncontrollable locations, such as in cloud services or on laptops that can get stolen. For example, users can use Vanish to control the lifetimes of certain of their data on Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail, or Google Docs. Because of the technical difficulties associated with deleting Web data (e.g., replication, content delivery networks) or sometimes because of uncooperating Web service policies, data on some of these services can persist long after the user requests its deletion. This unbounded data persistance on the Web raises huge concerns in our current litigious society, where old, forgotten copies of your emails or Facebook posts can serve as exhibits during a divorce or insurance dispute. Vanish is a good first tool that allows you to "sanitize your personal Web," by configuring your sensitive data to self-destruct automatically after a period of time.
Example Scenario
To illustrate the utility of Vanish, let's consider a concrete example. Ann and Carla are close friends, who love to use popular Web services, such as Gmail, Hotmail, Google Docs, and Facebook, to communicate between and collaborate with each other. Ann is experiencing problems in her marriage and has started drafting divorce-related documents. She would like to request Carla's advice and help on the documents. Ann trusts her confidante completely, however she fears that the electronic footprint of her sensitive and still tentative communications might later be used by her husband's lawyers as part of a future divorce trial.
To protect their communications, Ann and Carla decide to limit the lifetime of their their sensitive communications and documents using Vanish. The screenshots below show how Ann and Carla upload divorce-related data into Vanishing Data Objects (VDOs) on various Web services. (1) Ann has sent a VDO-encapsulated email from her Gmail address to Carla's Hotmail address, asking for advice on her problems. (2) Carla has responded back to Ann's Gmail address with her advice. (3) Ann and Carla encapsulate draft information in a divorce document inside VDOs, until they finalize the terms. (4) Ann has sent a VDO-encapsulated Facebook message to Carla asking her about a specific term. Eight-hour timeouts for all of these VDOs are reasonable and reassuaring for the two women. Once the VDOs expire, all copies of the encapsulated data disappear. For example, for the first email (1), both Ann's Gmail copy and Carla's Hotmail copy of that email self-destruct at the same time.
From the press release:
A team of UW computer scientists have developed a prototype system called Vanish that can place a time limit on text uploaded to any Web service through a Web browser. After a set time text written using Vanish will, in essence, self-destruct. A paper about the project went public today and will be presented at the Usenix Security Symposium Aug. 10-14 in Montreal.
Usage Scenarios
Vanish enables privacy-aware users to ensure the timely self-destruction of their sensitive data stored at uncontrollable locations, such as in cloud services or on laptops that can get stolen. For example, users can use Vanish to control the lifetimes of certain of their data on Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail, or Google Docs. Because of the technical difficulties associated with deleting Web data (e.g., replication, content delivery networks) or sometimes because of uncooperating Web service policies, data on some of these services can persist long after the user requests its deletion. This unbounded data persistance on the Web raises huge concerns in our current litigious society, where old, forgotten copies of your emails or Facebook posts can serve as exhibits during a divorce or insurance dispute. Vanish is a good first tool that allows you to "sanitize your personal Web," by configuring your sensitive data to self-destruct automatically after a period of time.
Example Scenario
To illustrate the utility of Vanish, let's consider a concrete example. Ann and Carla are close friends, who love to use popular Web services, such as Gmail, Hotmail, Google Docs, and Facebook, to communicate between and collaborate with each other. Ann is experiencing problems in her marriage and has started drafting divorce-related documents. She would like to request Carla's advice and help on the documents. Ann trusts her confidante completely, however she fears that the electronic footprint of her sensitive and still tentative communications might later be used by her husband's lawyers as part of a future divorce trial.
To protect their communications, Ann and Carla decide to limit the lifetime of their their sensitive communications and documents using Vanish. The screenshots below show how Ann and Carla upload divorce-related data into Vanishing Data Objects (VDOs) on various Web services. (1) Ann has sent a VDO-encapsulated email from her Gmail address to Carla's Hotmail address, asking for advice on her problems. (2) Carla has responded back to Ann's Gmail address with her advice. (3) Ann and Carla encapsulate draft information in a divorce document inside VDOs, until they finalize the terms. (4) Ann has sent a VDO-encapsulated Facebook message to Carla asking her about a specific term. Eight-hour timeouts for all of these VDOs are reasonable and reassuaring for the two women. Once the VDOs expire, all copies of the encapsulated data disappear. For example, for the first email (1), both Ann's Gmail copy and Carla's Hotmail copy of that email self-destruct at the same time.
More on similar search
Re similar site search engines, there's a list of them...and other kinds of search engines..here. "This", Phil Bradley, tells us "is still my most popular page and on it I list a variety of different search engines and what they are particularly useful for. It's not a complete list, and it isn't intended to be. Instead, it's a list of engines that I use on a regular basis, or which are of particular interest, and which I think you'll find helpful as well"
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
How to get here from anywhere
Most people will be familiar with the amazing "get directions" function of Google Maps, which provides driving/walking/public transportation directions between any two coordinates on the map. With this new Google Maps gadget, you can easily put that functionality on your own website/blog. Just enter your address, and Google generates a gadget like this that you can add to your website.Thursday, July 16, 2009
Say Everything
"Say Everything" Emily Nussbaum writes in New York Magazine about Kids, the Internet, and the End of Privacy "As younger people reveal their private lives on the Internet, the older generation looks on with alarm and misapprehension not seen since the early days of rock and roll. The future belongs to the uninhibited."
(Neil Postman was evidently on to something, both with Amusing Ourselves to Death and The Disappearance of Childhood)
Scott Rosenberg has just published a book, also entitled Say Everything , about the history and future of blogging. In a post on his blog, Rosenberg complains that too many people seem to think fame and or money is what motivates bloggers to blog; what in fact motivates them is simply a natural urge: "the desire to express themselves, to think out loud, to exult in the possibilities of writing in public"
(Neil Postman was evidently on to something, both with Amusing Ourselves to Death and The Disappearance of Childhood)
Scott Rosenberg has just published a book, also entitled Say Everything , about the history and future of blogging. In a post on his blog, Rosenberg complains that too many people seem to think fame and or money is what motivates bloggers to blog; what in fact motivates them is simply a natural urge: "the desire to express themselves, to think out loud, to exult in the possibilities of writing in public"
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
ǝɟıן ɟo ƃuıuɐǝɯ ǝɥʇ
Sometimes it seems like we spend our entire lives looking for something...something we do not quite understand what is, until we find it. And then it causes quite a jolt...like when I found this neat site
, which takes your typed input and turns it upside down for you! From there, you can cut and paste it into emails, blog posts, and do many other interesting things. The site also claims you can turn everything on your monitor upside down by using the ctrl-alt-down combination, but I couldn't get that to work...
, which takes your typed input and turns it upside down for you! From there, you can cut and paste it into emails, blog posts, and do many other interesting things. The site also claims you can turn everything on your monitor upside down by using the ctrl-alt-down combination, but I couldn't get that to work...
The Second Pass
Similar search engines
Phil Bradley's site pointed me to similar-site.com, which delivered some very good results when I searched for sites similar to Knowbodies. It gauges "similarity" primarily on the basis of user annotations or tags on websites. It also does a good job of finding sites similar to itself, while comparable sites - http://www.similarsites.com/ and web.insuggest.com - performed less impressively. Also very useful when looking for similar sites is the "similar" option that appears in the Google search results lists, or - for the pro-active - the "related" Google search operator, with syntax related:knowbodies.blogspot.com
Monday, July 13, 2009
Newsy
Here's how Newsy.com presents itself...
Newsy.com is a multiperspective online video news site that monitors, synthesizes and presents the world's news coverage.
In an increasingly connected world, access to multiperspective news is in demand by global citizens. News sources are abundant yet redundant. Newsy.com delivers context with convenience to help keep you better informed. Through short video segments available on the web and mobile devices, Newsy.com offers a way to accelerate your global understanding of a news story.
Newsy.com takes a step back to show how the world's news organizations are reporting a story - providing an unprecedented global and macro point of view. You'll find CNN right next to Al Jazeera, the BBC right next to ABC. Newsy.com also covers major newspapers, news magazines as well as top blogs from around the world.
What are the key differences in reporting? Who has a unique insight?
By monitoring the world's new coverage, we provide immediate analysis of news perspectives so you can form your own opinion. You'll find it an informative and a convenient resource that you will want to check daily. We will not change the news, but we will change your view of it. Global access to multiple perspectives helps provide the real story, Newsy.com.
Search Google News by author
The Google News blog announces a new option, search by author. Useful for tracking the work of a particular journalist.
Making conversation
p.s. - since posting, I discover Plinky is neither new nor unique; see for example "The Daily Meme: an easy spot to find a meme to blog about..."
Reading, 0.2%, Entertainment 5.4%
Reading includes subscriptions for newspapers and magazines; books through book clubs; and the purchase of single-copy newspapers, magazines, newsletters, books, and encyclopedias and other reference books. Not sure why that's not folded into "entertainment" or "education," but BLS evidently sees it as a thing apart....
Friday, July 10, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)