Gone Phishing....

I find it interesting that as technology improves there is a reciprocal improvement in the quality of attempted criminals. In the not so distant past in my non-librarian life, I worked for a business that received a number of faxes claiming that we would be paid a percentage of money if we would allow an African prince to deposit some money in our account. Today, instead of a fax machine, they send this request via email. Tech savvy crooks, just what we needed.
I have received a number of suspicious emails since I opened my first email account some 12 years ago. My favorites are usually the Pay Pal emails - I've never had and never will have a Pay Pal account - because they are among the most accurate in creating a false site. Sometimes they even include the disclaimer about Pay Pal never sending an email asking you to confirm your password.
I find it distracting that keyloggers are now being used to track info on a personal computer. In my network and computer security classes we discussed how easy it is to find these programs and embed them on a computer. Once embedded, they can be very difficult to remove.
For most people, the easiest solution is to use good firewall (something in addition to the Windows firewall on XP systems can be a great help) and anti-spyware programs (Spybot Search and Destroy comes to mind). Of course just having those programs doesn't help if they don't get used regularly - firewall on anytime the computer network connection is active regardless of actual web use and spyware scans one or more times a week.
Of course, even the most robust security systems on a computer are of no help if the person using the computer does not exercise a little common sense. No stranger is ever going to give you a million dollars to hide it from some government/military/person. In any case that would be a fraudulent transaction known as money laundering which carries stiff penalties in this country. If you are such a person who believes that strangers seek you out for that purpose, disconnect yourself from the web, you'll thank me later....

live long and pros.. er... learn something!

Good sites this week and lots to learn on a few of them. I spent a lot of time on the How Stuff Works site simply because I was interested in reading the articles. I also like the Nikon site because the articles about photography were interesting and came with great visual aids. I will probably spend more time in the future on the Nikon site to improve my photographic skills.

I did see some issues with a couple of the sites. Like many places on the web, sites get forgotten or ignored by their creators and fail to update regularly. For example, I looked at the DIY home theater lesson CNET's site. I was unable to get a price for the two receivers I was interested in because they were both "out of stock". It turns out the Denon is from 2006 and has very limited availability. Also, I was disturbed by the houses they showed in the the "hot houses" feature because they seemed to focus only on what I would consider an "upper class" home and not on things that can be done in smaller spaces.

I think that there will be more of this style of learning at all levels simply because it allows the user to learn on very specific subjects at the most convienent times. I think this shift is important because it empowers the user. Why sit through an entire electronics class to learn how to set up your surround sound?

Importance of historical web based information

Look for Pete the Perch to show up on Orlando Memory. Many thanks to the librarian on the 4th floor for supplying the picture on flickr.
We have been given an interesting question this week: how important are 2 distinct websites with historical information to me and the library. The first part is easy - obviously Orlando Memory gives us the opportunity to keep photos of how the library looked and how it has evolved. Since certain kinds of change can take time - and let's face it libraries are among the slowest changers for a variety of reasons - it's easy to show just how much change takes place in a long time. We are also in the unique position to see the changes that go on in the downtown area. With Orlando memory we can have a repository for information not only about our library but about the community in which we live. It's nice for me because I like historical things and find it fascinating to see how things change.
Orange Seed is a different idea. It's not as visual, so at times it's hard to see how the ideas presented will really fit until they are completed. It does allow for collaboration by a number of people - even those who don't have the initial idea, but may have ideas about implementation of other's ideas. I rarely look at the orange seed because I don't have time and I haven't had an idea that I think needs to be implemented.

Web 2.0 apps for Librarians

One of our clerks - I keep people nameless not to avoid giving due credit but because I try to respect their privacy - found this neat library catalog application that is very web 2.0 and I think would be very useful in most situations. Take a look at some of the features here VuFind Features.
I find it very interesting in that it allows patrons/members to find items, track searches, store and bookmark queries and translate into various languages. My only issue is that it was designed by librarians for librarians. I say this because it's painfully obvious that we didn't do the best job with things like Dewey (200s are a specific nightmare) and we don't always organize without letting our education and experience get in the way - i.e. I was looking at several library websites for government information for a project and when I did find the information on the websites it was hidden under headings like Reference and Research which may make sense to the average librarian, but probably doesn't make sense to a patron.
I also thought this award winner was neat - Galaxiki - because after all who doesn't aspire to own their own galaxy. Why stop at being emperor of the western hemisphere when you can be emperor of an entire star system? You can explore and read others works for free or purchase a system of your own. This seems like great fun for any sci-fi or fantasy addict.

Halloween

Because I can't resist it and I KNOW you are all out there reading - you have to check out this YouTube Video featuring Nick from Ref Central. Too Funny!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDRGffmCcr8

Have a safe halloween everyone, even if you do decide it lasts all weekend....

Changes ... or don't tell me to grow up or out of it...

Good stuff this week. The Radiohead article from Rolling Stone was very interesting even though I've never heard any of their music to the best of my knowledge. I may have to go download or stream some of it later on.
The reason I was most interested in that article is that I have an interest in continuous innovation. I think that as a library we try to innovate, certainly to the extent of doing more with fewer resources and to an extent we succeed. I think it's good from a customer standpoint that we can offer things other than books and even give them a place to download an audio book if they choose. I also think that as we've moved away from the "shush" culture of a library - the one where you can hear a pin drop from the far end of the building - we've created an atmosphere that is more "fun" for our patrons.
The Davinci articles were interesting. In particular, I enjoyed the gaming article which points out how addicted many humans are to some form of gaming. Games can take so many different forms and can make doing mundane tasks much more enjoyable. Oddly enough, there are books I remember from my youth which advocated this method - Mrs. Piggle Wiggle anyone?

Week four

Open source is a growing field. For the "early adopters" it can be a gold mine of software to do the same job as a $1000+ commercially produced product. I strongly believe that had I been better aware of the Open Office project I could have saved money when I was working on my Master's degree.
The YouTube video made some excellent points about how much information is available out there and how it is used in an election. It is nice to see that voices that would otherwise be disregarded now can be heard.
Liveleak is neat, but I had to take offense with the titling of the video I watched - Darwin Award Dimwits 14 - as few of these people CHOSE to be in the airplane accidents, they just chose to fly. There is spectacular footage, set to the song "Danger Zone", but to infer that these folks are eligible for the Darwin is questionable.
Answerbag is neat, but I was unable to find similar enough questions on TVs between Yahoo Answers, Answerbag and Askville. Yahoo answers seemed to me to have the better quality answers and a far larger number of answered questions.