"Silly Little Numbers!"

If people are the

only ones who use

money, how important

can it really be?

Silly little numbers!

~5-year old Rosie Avila

(Original calligraphy by Lelania Avila)

I can't get two columns in the PDF

1/4/09 Update: So far I can get the whole article to be 1 column or two columns, but I can't get the title page to be one column and the body to be two columns. So it doesn't behave as suggested here.

Notes from the 11/7/08 Living with Cancer Conference

Joanne  Rawlings-Sekunda from the Maine Bureau of Insurance

• 800-300-5000
  
• http://www.maine.gov/pfr/insurance/
  
• They have a staff of 11.
  
• 8 of the 11 deal with consumer complaints
  
• In general with insurance, the fewer restrictions, the more expensive.
  

Steve Brakey(sp?) is a Technical Expert from the Bangor SSA office

• He acknowledged that it's hard to reach the Bangor office by phone. They have one line for all of Maine and Eastern Canada and Quebec.
  
• If you call the national 800 number, they're looking at the same computers that they look at in Bangor.
  
• If you must call, the best times are Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. 
• Since I worked in Canada I may be able to get benefits from Canada. I should contact the office in Fredericton NB

I'm not sure who said this:

• File complaints online - I guessing this is Maine Insurance complaints.
  

Other notes here

Test "Quote from a blog" bookmarklet

abc

function mozInnerHTML(node) { var str = ''; for (var i = 0; i < str =" '';" i =" 0;" attr =" node.attributes.item(i);">'; } else { str += '>'; str += mozInnerHTML(node); str += ''; } break; case Node.TEXT_NODE: str += node.nodeValue; break; default: break; } return str; } var sel = window.getSelection(); var node = sel.getRangeAt(0).commonAncestorContainer; var html = mozOuterHTML(node); var uri=document.location; var title = document.title; var win=window.open('','','width=500,height=400'); win.document.write('

' + html + ' [' + title + ']' + '

' ); 

[]

def

4. Quote from a blog, which lifts text from a page and formats it for posting to a blog, along with attribution and a link. Because this version uses an advanced Mozilla-only technique described here, though, you might rather use the version that Phil Windley discussed here.

[Jon Udell: Bookmarklets 101]

ghi

RideMatch and Modeling

A project for Max and his students: model ridematch idea in NetLogo.

A substitute kludglet for del.icio.us/html urls

8/12/08 Update: I've replace dm.htm with d4m.htm. Try this and this.

The new del.icio.us doesn't work well on the Blazer browser on my Palm T|X. Every page gets a "page too large" error. The old del.icio.us didn't work that well, so I often used del.icio.us/html urls that worked well: the were fast and used the small screen efficiently. del.icio.us/html urls are gone. A mobile del.icio.us is promised, but until it arrives I've come up with a kludge for helps.

http://mshook.googlepages.com/delhtmljs.htm is an html/javascript applet that is my attempt to substitute for some of the things I used to do with del.icio.us/html urls.

This url:

http://mshook.googlepages.com/delhtmljs.htm?mshook?tags&extended&count=100

does what this url:

http://del.icio.us/html/mshook/?tags=yes&rssbutton=no&extended=body&count=100

used to do for me in the old del.icio.us

This is not as fast as the old del.icio.us/html urls (which were very fast) but I still find it useful on my TX. I imagine it could be useful on other slow and/or small screen devices.

These are some other substitute urls for some other del.icio.us/html urls I've used:

• http://mshook.googlepages.com/delhtmljs.htm?robotwisdom?tags&extended&count=100
• http://mshook.googlepages.com/delhtmljs.htm?mshook/*pda?count=100
• http://mshook.googlepages.com/delhtmljs.htm?mshook/pdafriendly?count=100&tags&extended

The page uses the del.icio.us Linkroll script and thus the Linkroll script parameters (instead of the old del.icio.us/html parameters). I use the Linkroll page to build my url and then extract the arguments and append them to the delhtmljs.htm url.

How big is a floating 5MW wind turbine?

According to Sclavounos (Floating Offshore Wind Turbines: Responses in a Seastate
Pareto Optimal Designs and Economic Assessment) a displacement of between 9800 and 14350 Metric Tons.

» Wind turbine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "The Enercon E-126 delivers up to 6 MW, has an overall height of 198 m (650 ft) and a diameter of 126 meters (413 ft). The Repower 5M delivers up to 5 MW, has an overall height of 183 m (600 ft) and has a diameter of 126 m (413 ft)." / wind turbine big size power stats statistics

For comparison:

• USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) displacement: Full: approx. 8,885.66 tons
• USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) Displacement: 14,564 LT

• http://oe.mit.edu/flowlab/pdf/Floating_Offshore_Wind_Turbines.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Arleigh_Burke_%28DDG-51%29&oldid=226483912
• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Zumwalt_%28DDG-1000%29&oldid=228351103

All retrieved 7/29/08

Fwd: George Lakoff, Co-founder/Sr. Fellow, Rockridge Institute; Author, The Political Mind - SendMeRSS

The Commonwealth Club doesn't provide a page to point to for a description of a radio program. So here's their description of one of their program from their RSS feed.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Commonwealth Club Radio Program <alert@sendmerss.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 5:24 PM
Subject: George Lakoff, Co-founder/Sr. Fellow, Rockridge Institute; Author, The Political Mind - SendMeRSS
To: mshook@gmail.com

George Lakoff, Co-founder/Sr. Fellow, Rockridge Institute; Author, The Political Mind - SendMeRSS George Lakoff, Co-founder/Sr. Fellow, Rockridge Institute; Author, The Political Mind George Lakoff, Co-founder/Sr. Fellow, Rockridge Institute; Author, The Political Mind Leading linguistic and political analyst, George Lakoff, will explain how language can be used as a critical tool in progressive politics, describing how our brains work in relation to society, why language is so important, and how Democrats can use this knowledge to their advantage to win the November elections. Lakoff believes that progressives have been fighting a losing battle in America for the last 30 years because, he says, the majority of citizens vote against their own self interests. Lakoff is a professor of cognitive linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1972. He has published many scholarly articles and books including The Political Mind (2008) as well as the influential book, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think (2002). Although some of his research involves questions traditionally pursued by linguists, he is best known for his ideas about the centrality of metaphor to human thinking, political behavior and society. He is particularly famous for his concept of the "embodied mind," which he has written about in relation to mathematics. In recent years he has applied his work to the realm of politics, exploring this in his books. He is the co-founder and senior fellow of the progressive think tank, the Rockridge Institute. He previously taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan. He has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and a Visiting Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (1995) and the Linguistics Society of America Summer Institute at the University of New Mexico (Summer, 1995). Link - Download - Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:29:25 GMT - Feed (1 subs) Sent using SendMeRss.com. Visit here to unsubscribe from Commonwealth Club Radio Program. Recommended Feeds/Actions Subscribe DealMeRSS.com - Great Deals Delivered Every Day

Telegraphist's Equations

• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521646456/
• at Google Book Search
  
• Page 82:
• As an historical example, we can analyze the first transatlantic telegraph cable, laid in 1865. The cable was 3,600 km long and weighed 5,000 tons. The insulator was a vegetable gum called gutta-percha . For this cable L = 460 nH/m, C = 75 pF/m, and R = 7 mQ/m. At a frequency of 2.4 kHz, wL = R, and so the high-resistance assumption is well satisfied for frequencies below 100 Hz. At 12 Hz, we can write a and v as
  
• a = v/wRC/2 = 4.4 x 10...
  
• v = ...
  
• The loss for the entire line is al = 140 dB and the delay is l/v = 210 ms. For comparison, at 3 Hz, the loss in dB and the delay change by a factor of 2, to 70 dB and 420 ms. Thus the 12-Hz component attenuates 70 dB more than the 3-Hz component. In addition, the 12-Hz component arrives 210 ms ahead of the 3-Hz component. In order to improve these characteristics, the signalling speed had to be drastically reduced, to about one word per minute, which was twenty times slower ...
  

Signal Noise Ratio

• http://www.librarything.com/card_card.php?book=325583
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521646456/
• Page 137:
  • "Right at 1,200 Hz, signal tones can be detected if they have sound pressure levels of 57 dB or larger. This is 3dB below the noise. This means that Morese Code can be received when the signal power is comparable to the noise power within the critical bandwidth. By contract, an AM or TV boadcaster aims at 50-dB signal-to-noise ratios over much larger bandwidths to provide a clear sound and picture. This means that the NorCal* 40A can communicate at distances of thousands of mile with a transmitter power of 2 W, whereas a broadcaster might use 50 kW for coverage in a single city."

t:	signal
t:	noise
t:	ratio
t:	radio
t:	electronics
Created:	20060502
t:	morse
t:	code
t:	power
t:	shannon

---

EditText | BrowseFacets | RecentChanges | FindPage

iLarry Diamond, Senior Fellow,Hoover Institution; Professor, Centeron Democracy, Development and theRule of Law, Stanford University - SendMeRSS

The Commonwealth Club doesn't provide a page to point to for a description of a radio program. So here's their description of one of their program from their RSS feed.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Commonwealth Club Radio Program <alert@sendmerss.com>
Date: Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 7:25 PM
Subject: Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow,Hoover Institution; Professor, Centeron Democracy, Development and theRule of Law, Stanford University - SendMeRSS

Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow,Hoover Institution; Professor, Centeron Democracy, Development and theRule of Law, Stanford University - SendMeRSS Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow,Hoover Institution; Professor, Centeron Democracy, Development and theRule of Law, Stanford University The Spirit of Democracy Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; Professor, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University In 1974, nearly three-quarters of all countries were dictatorships; today, more than half are democracies. Diamond contends, however, that recent efforts to promote democracy have stumbled and that many democratic governments are faltering. He explains that the desire for democracy runs deep, even in very poor countries, and proposes that even entrenched regimes like Iran and China could become democracies within a generation. Produced by The Club's International Relations Memeber-Led Forum This program was recorded in front of a live audience on May 7, 2008 Link - Download - Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:22:08 GMT - Feed (1 subs) Sent using SendMeRss.com. Visit here to unsubscribe from Commonwealth Club Radio Program. Recommended Feeds/Actions Subscribe DealMeRSS.com - Great Deals Delivered Every Day

Wifi risks & benefits: What if?

What if we limit the use of wifi in public libraries and it turns out that the current evidence of linkage turns out not to be causative and as a result of limiting the use of wifi we have limited public access to information which allows the public to inform themselves about their own health issues and make well informed decisions?

And this:

There have been a large number of occupational studies over several decades, particularly on cancer, cardiovascular disease, adverse reproductive outcome, and cataract, in relation to RF exposure. More recently, there have been studies of residential exposure, mainly from radio and television transmitters, and especially focusing on leukemia. There have also been studies of mobile telephone users, particularly on brain tumors and less often on other cancers and on symptoms. Results of these studies to date give no consistent or convincing evidence of a causal relation between RF exposure and any adverse health effect. On the other hand, the studies have too many deficiencies to rule out an association.

• Anders Ahlbom, et al. “Epidemiology of Health Effects of Radiofrequency Exposure: CNIRP (International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection.” Environmental Health Perspectives 112 no. 17(2004): 1741–1754 (accessed June 29, 2008).
• (my emphasis)
• via Progressive Librarians Guild Statement on WiFi in Libraries and the Precautionary Principle June 16, 2008 (accessed June 29, 2008)
• via email from Wendy

The Bible as a user-directed narrative

Highly linked.
That's what any literary criticism does: turn an author-directed narrative into a user-directed narrative.

History, Theory, and Practice of the Electric Telegraph By George Bartlett Prescott

History, Theory, and Practice of the Electric Telegraph By George Bartlett Prescott:

On Monday March 12th 1860 there were transmitted over one wire from Boston to New York 204 private messages containing 7,456 words and 600 words of press news and from New York to Boston over the same wire 253 messages containing 8,957 words making a total of 17,013 words The time occupied in transmitting this large number of words was nine hours The length of the circuit operated is 260 miles and the weather was rainy during the day The despatches were all printed in plain Roman letters by the Combination instrument and accurately punctuated Messrs Grace and Edwards were the operators at the Boston and New York termini of the line

Two more documents relating to wifi and health

• Mobile Phones and Brain Tumours – A Public Health Concern - pdf - html
• Analysis of Health and Environmental Effects of Proposed San Francisco Earthlink Wi-Fi Network - pdf - html

My original post on the topic is here.

Various Aspects of Narratives

• Ira Glass on narrative
• The national narrative
• Lists as narrative
• Robotwisdom
• Harper's list
• User-driven vs author-driven narratives
• Linear vs non-linear
• Lists as part of a prose narrative
  

User driven narrative -> author driven narrative

Says Jakob, "instead of an author-driven narrative, Web content becomes a user-driven narrative."

My user-driven narrative becomes an author-driven narrative when I tell you how I found something on the web. Which may very well bore you. But that's why I like via links. A memoir is a user-driven narrative transformed into and author-driven narrative. So are many first novels.

Wikipedia cf DocBook and DITA

Wikipedia has developed as an open community process sets of meta data reminiscent of DocBook's tags. Further, the Wikimedia blog is adding structured features which move it toward DocBook and DITA.

Beowulf

Further my infatuation with Old English (OE), sparked by Dr. D. S. Lee's lectures, I just discovered James Rumford's wonderful retelling of Beowulf. The back cover points out the he's used modern English words that come from Old English almost exclusively. The language is beautiful, as is the book design, the length is good for the impatient and there are wonderful touches: after the introduction we meet Beowulf in the original, "Beowulf is min nama" - Beowulf is my name. The final line is also included in OE.

Reconciliation

I've long thought that what needed to happen in order to restore the standing of the United States within the community of nations was for Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to be tried at the International Criminal Court at the Hague. Then hearing Mac Maharaj and Padraig O'Malley on Fresh Air, I'm wondering of some sort of international reconciliation might not be a better path.

Invitations to Communion

My collection is here.

Sites: Word file or Google Doc?

When I'm using a Google Sites wiki and I've got a document I want to associate with a page, should I attach a Word (or Excel or PowerPoint) file or should I link to a Google Docs file?

• If it's too complex to be a Google Docs file, then it should be an Office file.
• If I want several people to be able to work on it at once then it should be a Google Doc.
• It probably shouldn't be both.
• Any other guidelines?
• How to transition from having everything as Office files on the local server to having Google Docs in the cloud?

I can't seem to get those Ubuntu USB install to work

Yesterday I tried two Ubuntu 8.04 installs to USB from Pendrivelinux.com: a full install and a (for lack of a better term) lesser install. Neither worked.

• The full install booted and asked me to log in but then went to a blank screen - the desktop never loaded. I could Ctrl-Alt-Del and get the shutdown options, but that was all.
• The lesser install (it only requires a 1GB usb drive) would not even boot.

Both are install from the live CD which works fine. Both I tried both twice to no avail. Suggestions welcome.

Photo Book for Mom

I want to make a book of photos of Mom. What are the option?

• Tabblo
• It looks like a 40 page minimum
  
• Flickr
• Kevin Kelly's list
• Blurb
• This is KK's top recommendation.
  
• 20 pages minimum
• MyPublisher
• 20 page minimum?
• Qoop (Flickr)
  
• How many photos have I got?

Whither tinyurl?

Yikes! Here's what it says this morning:

500 - Internal Server Error

This server has encountered an internal error.

Follow these instructions: change the domain name that appears in the URL in the address bar of your web browser from tinyurl.com to b.tinyurl.com and leave everything else the same. Press the "go" button or hit the return key to be redirected to the page the TinyURL you followed goes to.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

But following those instructions it still doesn't work.

Has it been overwhelmed by twitter?

Cataloging Graphic Novels

• Husson College, Bangor, 5/16/08
  
• My Google Notebook for this is here.
  
• monographs "never end" as distinct from serials
• Graphic novels are a format.
• There is a graphic novel material type.
• Searching
• Don't search by ISBN - you'll miss it hasn't been assigned
• Rather, search by title
• Overlay - wipes out the destination record - that's OK if there are only 3 lines.
• Copying is a less drastic alternative to overlay.
• If you've got a bad record, don't create a new record. Fix it.
• "You're in a fix mode when you're doing these graphic novels"
• Don't put prices on the 020. You can remove it if it's there.
• If the paperback is basically the same as the hardback (it can be a cm or 2 off and a few pages off) it should be on the same record.
• An adapted work is entered under the adaptor. You still give credit to the original author (245 |c & 700)
• If it's not on the title page don't put it in.
• 100 is main entry
• 245 is title and statement of responsibility.
• 245
• |n numbered part
• |p part name
• 245 is the hardest part.
  

foo

Health and Microwave (and other) Radiation

So far I have not found convincing anything I've heard or read about the danger of cell phones and wifi and similar technologies.

• Disclaimers:
• I have not myself read any actual scientific studies that discuss these issues.
• It is my hope that these technologies do not affect human health adversely.
• I think it is possible that these technologies cause measurable health effects.
• I think it is possible that these technologies don't cause measurable health effects.
  
• What I've heard and read:
• A panel discussion at the Commonwealth Club of California. What I heard of this discussion (I didn't hear all of it) was focused around the Bioinitiative Report.
• Back in December I did some searching and found and an article "How Cell Phones May Cause Autism"
  
• Why am I skeptical?
• None of what I've read or heard so far is at all specific about the dangers. It doesn't discuss or differentiate:
• different frequencies of radiation
• different power levels of radiation
• The discussions have a fearmongering style
• In at least one case it seemed as if the guy had hooked onto this issue and was riding it for all it's worth.
• There's no discussion of comparative risks. For example, if a study shows some risk, how does that risk compare with the risk of riding in an automobile? As Marvin Minsky said, we need a department of homeland arithmetic.
• There's reference to information bearing radiation, or something like that - I don't recall the exact wording. But it's as if the information in the radiation will somehow mess up the information in our DNA. But perhaps they're just using the term to differentiate wifi and other fairly low energy radiation from microwave radiation which is actually strong enough to cause heating.
  

My Google Notebook on the topic is here and here are my del.icio.us links tagged radiation.

What I don't like about Google Sites

• No tags (or facets) on pages
• I can't create a page in a manner comperable to using CamelCase in a traditional wiki.
• For some reason, this makes pages much less representative of concepts.

Google Apps for Libraries

• Notes:
  
• Ellsworth Public Library 5/14/08
• Mark Arnold
• Deer Isle/Stonington School
• Google Apps
• Sites - when to attach a .doc file and when to have the doc in Docs
• What about Google's right to use anything on your site.
• How to do specific things with Google Apps?
• How to transition from disks to Apps?
• Don't call it an email account, since that can cause problems

Lucas Gonze and Jon Udell

I listened to this Interview With Innovators. It brings to mind:

• Dr. Lee's discussion in his last lecture on manuscripts about the lack of authorship.
• Duncan Cragg's microweb
• All the cataloging stuff about work and manifestation, etc. and the LibraryThing version of that.
• Clay Shirky's talk at the Long Now Foundation.
• Being useful. - serving
• Ride match
  

This is a very unfocused talk, but very worth while.

• audiokatia
• rss
• and Jon's frustration at its limit adoption
  
• syndication
  
• Bitzi
  
• provides a unique identifier for a file
  
• syndication
• music playlists
• curating

Microphone Craft

Update: Here it is, via this search.

In the past week or so, NPR had a story on a couple in the southeast who manufacture microphones. The reporter was a women who noted that she and her ilk are "people of the microphone." I think the couple live on a farm and have chicken or geese or something like that. I've not been able to find the story with NPR's search, which I frequently find annoying.

Why I'm grumpy about apps that aren't browser based

Application implemented in the browser automatically have these feature (unless the designer actively disables them, which alas, they sometimes do):

• use anywhere - it's hard to find a computer that doesn't have a browser
  
• variable font size - really small fonts are really annoying
  
• text search - I expect it to be available - it it's not, it's annoying
• copy and paste from the text - with formatting
  
• multi-platform - Windows, Mac & Linux, obviously, but also, in may case, Palm
• spell check on text input
  
• view source - I like to know how things work
• save page - it's sometimes convenient to have a local copy
  

iTunes is a good example of this problem. I'd like the text to be larger. It's search is good, but being able to search the visible text of the screen would be even better.

Reading via the index and table of contents

When I pick up a non-fiction book in a bookstore or a library I seldom begin my examination by looking at the content. Rather, I look at the table of contents to get a general overiew, and then in the index to see if it has references to people or concepts that I already associate with the topic. More atomization.

The Most Concise AACR2 as JSON

(see "The Most Concise AACR2." by Michael Gorman from American Libraries 12:8 (Sept. 1981), p. 499; - reprinted in Foundations of Cataloging : a sourcebook available here and here and available here via MARVEL!)

Rule 1. Describe the item you have in hand. Record the following details in this order and with this punctuation:
Title : subtitle / author's name as given ; names of other person or bodies named on the title page, label, container, title frame, etc. -- Edition (abbreviated). -- Place of publication : Publisher, Year of publication.
Number of pages, volumes, discs, reels, objects, etc. ; Dimensions of the object (metric). -- (Name of series)
Descriptive notes
Examples of descriptions

1. His last bow : some reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes / A. Conan Doyle. -- London : Murray, 1917.
   305 p. ; 20 cm. -- (Murray's fiction library)
2. A white sport coat and a pink custacean / Jimmy Buffett. -- New York : ABC, 1973.
   1 sound disc. ; 12 in.
   Backing by the Coral Reefer Band.
3. Little Ernie's big day / by Norma Eustace ; designed by Doris Manier. -- 2nd ed. -- Chicago : Little Folks, 1980.
   1 filmstrip ; 35 mm. -- (Big day filmstrips)

If the item is a serial...

{"Title":"Title",
"subtitle":"subtitle",
"author's name as given":"author's name as given",
"names of other persons or bodies named on the title page":"names of other persons or bodies named on the title page",
"Edition":"Edition",
"Place of publication":"Place of publication",
"Publisher":"Publisher",
"Year of publication":"Year of publication",
"Number of pages":"Number of pages",
"Dimensions of the object":"Dimensions of the object",
"Name of series":"Name of series"}

Example 1:

{"Title":"His last bow",
"Subtitle":"some reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes",
"Creator":"A. Conan Doyle",
"PublicationPlace":"London",
"Publisher":"Murray",
"PublicationYear":1917,
"NumberOfPagesEtc":"305 p",
"Dimensions":"20 cm",
"SeriesName":"Murray's fiction library"}

Example 2:

{"Title":"A white sport coat and a pink crustacean",
"Creator":"Jimmy Buffet",
"PublicationPlace":"New York",
"Publisher":"ABC",
"PublicationYear":1973,
"NumberOfPagesEtc":"1 sound disc",
"Dimensions":"12 in",
"DescriptiveNotes":"Backing by Coral Reefer Band."}

Example 3:

{"Title":"A white sport coat and a pink crustacean",
"Creator":"Jimmy Buffet",
"OtherPersonsEtcNamedOn":"designed by Doris Manier",
"Edition":"2nd ed.",
"PublicationPlace":"Chicago",
"Publisher":"Little Folks",
"PublicationYear":1980,
"NumberOfPagesEtc":"1 filmstrip",
"Dimensions":"35 mm.",
"SeriesName":"Big day filmstrips"}

Why is field identification using punctuation so important to Michael Gorman? It's arcane and difficult for a machine to parse. Why not use labels which are at least somewhat self-documenting (and therefore somewhat less arcane) and easy for a machine to parse. He seems to be fine with MARC, but remember that it was created essential to computerize the process of typesetting the catalog cards the Library of Congress used to sell. An important characteristic of those cards was the use of various typographic conventions (font size, bold, layout) in addition to punctuation. We've long since given up on that attractive and marginally useful aspect of catalog presentation and Gorman is not (any longer, at least) complaining about that.

Test post

This is a test post via blog.gears.

Old vs New - Cataloging rules and tags

The old way: lots and lots of rules, some of which are meant to define and then take into account the needs of the user.

The new way: let the user define her own needs and take them into account as he sees fit, and then aggregate the result, both statistically and by tagger.

Google Notebook Atom REST example

Here.

Why I use Google products so much

Basically because I currently give them my best chance of leaving a digital legacy.

If I host stuff myself, it all goes away (except what's in the Google cache) when I stop paying for it.

Keeping stuff around seems to be part of the Google way. How ephemeral that is remains to be seen. Alas, that means I'm using Google Notes instead of trying out Evernote.

What about vandalism?

Google Notebook & Atom

All of a sudden it dawned on me that Google Notebook is just (?) Ajax manipulation of an Atom store.

Minimal 3D PDF file

Here is a minimal (18kb) 3D pdf file. Here's the same file as text to make it easy to look at.

u3d-pdf-howto.pdf is the file I started with. I used pdftk.exe (PDF Tool Kit) to break it into it's individual pages. I found u3d-pdf-howto.pdf file here.

How to Embed a Google Docs Spreadsheet in a Blogger Post - Part II

An update to this post.

• The iframe code is here.
• I can no longer edit that post in Blogger.
• I can edit the post with this.
  

Where does the Google App Engine SDK keep it data?

C:\Documents and Settings\Michael\Local Settings\Temp\dev_appserver.datastore

There's also:

C:\Documents and Settings\Michael\Local Settings\Temp\dev_appserver.datastore.history

These are binary files, but you can see some text.

How to Embed a Google Docs Spreadsheet in a Blogger Post

Here's the code:

I give up!

I can't get the html to display without messing things cup, so go here and view source to get the code - it's an iframe

The original spreadsheet is here.

April Trial: Search ALL of MARVEL! at Once

My initial impressions are here.

Fake it 'til you make it

New to my collection of FITYMIs from Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm:

you may understand how the adoption of the outward and visible sign has some strange influence in developing the inward and spiritual state of which it is the expression.

From here

Later:

The first, on an individual level, is as a kind of cognitive therapy or as a way of generating rules of conduct: if you believe certain propositions, or try to make yourself believe them, the world becomes more tolerable and your behaviour better adapted to it. This need not be because they are simply grand untruths. It might be because they are needed to balance other grand untruths generated by default by other bits of my mind.

Later:

..., I knew on one level that my fears were ridiculous, and that there are in fact no lions on Swiss alps, no wolf-packs in the lake district and no giant carnivorous elk anywhere. But the only thing that made them go away was to behave as if I were not frightened and to summon up images of my spiritual self as a larger, more dangerous beast than anything to be found around me. Propositional truth did nothing for my fears. Propositional falsehood worked.

Acid, quenelles, teleology
Andrew Brown (again)

or

Fake it 'til you make it

or

Perform the acts of faith and faith will come

Loyola, Exercises (1548)
From Dawn to Decadence page 39

Assume a virtue, if you have it not,... For use can almost change the stamp of nature

Hamlet to his mother (1602)

So with faith, if it does not lead to action, it is in itself a lifeless thing.

James 2:17

we need only in cold blood ACT as if the thing in question were real, and keep acting as if it were real, and it infallibly end by growing into such a connection with our life that it will become real

William James
Principals of Psychology Chapter 21 (1890)

Helen blushed, and Sister Teresa seemed to read her thoughts. "In the beginning, we all feel a bit like imposters in our capes and veils and being called 'Sister.' But don't worry about it - just act like you think a nun should when you're not sure what to do, and you'll find that through grace and love, you become one."

Lying Awake
Mark Salzman p83

Brain scientist also tell us what we�ve always known, that practice makes perfect. Repetition of an action actually strengthens neural pathways, which James Austin calls, �long-term potentiation.�[40]

Wesley vs. the God Module:
Can Wesley Help a Nonreductive Physicalist Post-Modern Theology of Religious Experience?
Cliff Guthrie

I see that I found several of these here (pdf).

10/24/04 - Lot's of good stuff in Remembering the Future, Imagining the Past: Story, Ritual, and the Human Brain by David Hogue. There's even an index entry for "living as if".

Fwd: Weekly e-mail from St. John's

This is a test

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michele Daley <saints315@verizon.net>
Date: Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Subject: Weekly e-mail from St. John's
To: saints315@verizon.net

March 27, 2008

ST. JOHN'S EVENTS & NEWS

This Sunday March 30^th – Holy Eucharist: 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Lectionary readings: Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31.

Sundays in April, Holy Eucharist:– 8:00 and 10:00.

Church Office Hours: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 8:30-2:30.

Downeast Transportation offers YEAR ROUND public bus transportation around SWH and one or two stops in Bass Harbor on Wednesday (only) for $1.00.  All buses are accessible with wheel chair lifts.  Trips to and from  Ridge Apt, the library, SWH medical center, Kozy Kove, Norwood Cove apt., the Food Mart, Double J, Bass Harbor post office, Birchwood Apt. etc. can be made (on Wednesday) without a car.  Downeast Transportation also offers trips to and from Bar Harbor to Ellsworth and Bangor EVERY Monday and Friday (year round).  The cost is $9.00 round trip. Downeast Transportation buses are available to ALL of us--They are not just for the elderly or those living in housing. They also have schedules that could be handed out at the food pantry.  (A schedule is currently posted on the bulletin board in the undercroft)

Come Home for Supper on Friday, April 4! If you're willing to be a host (a very easy and lovely opportunity) please contact Barnes...244-7985, Bromage...244-3227, or Craig....244-5267, and remember to sign up this Sunday, March 30^th, so the committee can plan for this always enjoyable evening.

The Best Ever Spaghetti Dinner, held at the S.W. Harbor Congregational Church on the High Road, will benefit the Westside Food Pantry and will be on Saturday, April 5th from 4:30-7:00p.m.  The cost is $5.00 for adults; $3.00 for children 12 and older and no more than $15.00 for a family.  Children under 12 are free!

Tired of the same old faces at church?  Invite a friend!  Invite a neighbor!  Welcome a stranger!  

Between the Services:

Dear SJ Member, In response to my recent note regarding our Sunday Forum, I have had several good replies with useful comments and suggestions.  If you have not weighed in with your views/wishes, please do so at william.baker@umit.maine.edu

 

This Sunday, March 30, Jean Rohrer and Mary Mitchell will present "Medical Missions in Ecuador," based on their recent work there.   

For the month of April, the following schedule has nicely taken shape:

April 6:  Bible Study: "St. Luke: The Gospel for All People"   (Please read afresh     the entire Gospel of Luke by April 6.)

April 13: Mary Anna Fox, "Compassion International: Ministering to Children in the Dominican Republic."  Ms. Fox is a member of the Southwest Harbor Congregational Church.

April 20:  Mary and Jim Vekasi, "'Create in Me a Clean Spirit': Non-Violent Communication." 

April 27:  Joan Grant, "Spiritual Hospitality: A Seal Cove Retreat and Training Center for the Spiritual Life."

Please join us in the undercroft at 9-10 a.m. each Sunday. 

Yours, Bill Baker

Why Google Sites & Blogger over proprietary system?

• Goals?
• Who updates?
  
• Email posts to blogger.com
• Categorize posts via tags
• Relatively infinite design, programming and hosting resources
• Easier to maintain (?)
• I don't like the way the proprietary system paints the page with every link.
• The proprietary sites I've seen are very rough.
• How many people in the proprietary organization?
• If the proprietary organization doesn't work out, we can't can't someone else to work on the site for us because it's a proprietary system. We'd have to rebuild the site.
• Here are a couple sites:
• Saint Andrew and Saint John
• Saint Andrew's Newcastle
• Example
• Dr. Mel Levine in Bangor - April 30, 2008
  
• The pages are slow to load.
• Caveats:
• I am not a designer
• I am not a copy writer
• I understand function
  
• Spencer suggested that we look at the Acadia Senior College web site here.
• Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design
• Service times should be first and formost - that's mostly what people want to see
• No fluff language.
• Money
  

Dialup (& PDA & Cell phone) Friendly Websites

I'm not doing much at The 'Bary, but this item is appropriate there.

MaineCat - The recording of Library of Congress bibliographical data in machine form

MaineCat:

"Author Buckland, Lawrence F
Title The recording of Library of Congress bibliographical data in machine form; a report prepared for the Council on Library Resources, inc
Publisher Washington, Council on Library Resources, 1965

HOLDINGS FOR Maine Info Net CENTRAL DATABASE
REQUEST THIS ITEM
Library Shelving Location Electronic Link Call Number and Serial Holdings Request Status
Univ of Maine ORO Annex 029.7 B856 DUE 04-24-08

Edition Rev., February 1965
Phys descr x, 54 p. 22 cm
Subject Cataloging
Data tapes
Information storage and retrieval systems
Automatic Data Processing
Alt author Council on Library Resources"

I like this item.

• It predates MARC and the September 1966 Scientific American example.
• You can see element that became part of MARC.
• The internal formats they came up with are reflected in the MARC binary format.
  
• It includes verbal descriptions of the programs that translate an entry into printed output. The elements of XSLT and XSLT-FO are there.
• Henriette Avram is nowhere to be seen in the document.
• The main example card is about a JFK education speech (?). The publication date is November 23, 1964.
  

IT Conversations | O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference | Alex Russell

IT Conversations | O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference | Alex Russell:

"Alex Russel, creator of the Dojo web toolkit, discusses the future of mobile phone development based on his experience in the mobile, security, and web development industries. He claims that although smart phones are increasing in power, they will not be a suitable platform for open source development. That, and restrictions by handset makers and network operators, mean that the web is the only viable platform for developing mobile phone applications in the future."

I'm pretty sure Alex refers to the lack of "thingification" as one of the the problem with the mobile network. Does that bascially mean the ability to attach a url to something and pass it around? I also missed other, possibly important terms. It's worth listening to again.

I think this a different sense of thingification that commonly used.

Critiquing Hugo

I'm saddened and sometimes amazed of the vehemence and pervasiveness of critiques of Hugo Chavez and the socio-political experiment going on in the relatively democratic Venezuela as compared with governments with whom the United States is, if not friendly, at least tightly allied, say Saudi Arabia or say, Nigeria. Avowedly unbiased NPR is not exempt. A case in point: the interview a few months ago with Joe Kennedy and his work with the Venezuelan government to bring less expensive fuel oil to low income people in the northeastern United States. Joe would point out the relative levels of democracy between Venezuela and most other major oil producing states, but the interviewer wouldn't hear it and kept insisting, well, I ought really go find the interview and reference it.

In any case, again, what's the real issue? Actually using Venezuela's oil wealth to benefit poor people?

Self critique: Is this really the same as the failure of American leftist to give up on Stalin as the reality of his rule became known? I hope not. I don't think so. I think the Venezuelan rich have not been had their wealth stripped or been imprisoned simply because of their wealth.

Red vs. Underlieing (sp?) Culture

The current state of Russia illustrates my long time assertion, which I think predated the fall of the wall, that what we claimed to object to in the Soviet Union were at least as much Russian characteristics as Communist characteristics. This leads me to the conclusion that what they (? - conservatives? Protestants?) was the government helping out either poor people or just people different than the speaker. They tended not to object to the government helping them out, be they defense contractors or farmers or their particular flavor of worship.

(That's underlieing not underlining

Lists vs. Prose

5/11/08 Update: Wikipedia:Embedded list

Recently I came across a Wikipedia article in which there was a style notice suggesting that the page ought to be rewritten as prose as opposed to the list that it was. I've not been able to re-find it, but I'd like to see their reasoning on the issue since I'm much inclined to make lists and outlines of my ideas instead of prose and don't particularly see why it ought to be prose. On the other hand, I admire well written non-fiction prose, say John McPhee or Richard.

Rules for a Dictionary Catalog By Charles Ammi Cutter, Worthington Chauncey Ford, Philip Lee Phillips, Oscar George Theodore Sonneck

Rules for a Dictionary Catalog By Charles Ammi Cutter, Worthington Chauncey Ford, Philip Lee Phillips, Oscar George Theodore Sonneck: ""

What I Like About Marc

• It's the earliest rich data format that I know of.
• It demonstrates lots of the data encoding techniques of its day. It may have invented some of them
• I see a forerunner in the card examples in Scientific Amerrican.
• It and the metadata it embodies is going forward into the future as part of the semantic web.

This is a test of blogging from Opera Mini.

And now I edit.

Rules for a Dictionary Catalog By Charles Ammi Cutter, Worthington Chauncey Ford, Philip Lee Phillips, Oscar George Theodore Sonneck

Rules for a Dictionary Catalog By Charles Ammi Cutter, Worthington Chauncey Ford, Philip Lee Phillips, Oscar George Theodore Sonneck: "1 To enable a person to find a book of which either A the author B the title V is known c the subject J 2 To show what the library has D by a given author E on a given subject F in a given kind of literature 3 To assist in the choice of a book G as to its edition bibliographically H as to its character literary or topical"

Things Joseph has figured out

• "Moma car": Amy's van
  
• "Nana car": the Maxima
  
• "Bop car": the Taurus
  

Evidenced during a surprise visit today.

iPhone not having copy & paste is bad

According to Jakob Nielson the iPhone doesn't have copy & paste. This is bad. For me, at least, copy and paste is a major mechanism for exploring the internet.

• copy a word or phrase and paste it into Google - does the iPhone have a "highlight and search" mechanism?
• copy a url and then paste it into the browser address bar and hack it
• copy a snippet from a page I'm tagging and paste it into the comment
  

By not having this mechanism my universe is made much smaller to no benefit for me that I can think of.

http://del.icio.us/ttotdpost updater

For now I'm giving up on updating http://mshook.googlepages.com/ttotd2delicious02.html to use http://textingtermoftheday.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=processFeed instead of http://www.google.com/reader/public/javascript/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/TTOTD?n=3&callback=getPosts as its source. I want to because I think that the blogspot JSON feed may update sooner than the reader feed.

• supplant only works with the top level items in an object.
• I'm afraid that jsont.js may have trouble with $t as the name in an object and it's too convoluted for me to try and debug right now if it does.

The Origins of MARC

Origins of MARC IBM punch card SciAm 9/1966 p232

Hey Mister - You've got a banana in your ear!

I was walking along one day and I noticed up ahead this guy who had a banana in his ear. So I said, "Hey Mister - You've got a banana in your ear." He kept walking, so I said a little louder, "Hey Mister - You've got a banana in your ear." He just kept walking, so I called out as loud as I could, "Hey Mister! You've got a banana in your ear!" Still, he just kept walking. So I ran up ahead of him and turned around and put up my hands so he would stop and shouted as loud as I could, "HEY MISTER! YOU'VE GOT A BANANA IN YOUR EAR!" He stopped and looked at me and said, "Sorry, I can't hear you sonny, I've got a banana in my ear."

I remember that joke from my childhood (that's in the 1950's - way before Bert and Ernie did it) and my Mom laughed every time she heard it.

Fwd: "jojoba" - Word of the Day from the OED

This is a text to see how the fancy typography survives the trip to a blog and how it does in the Atom feed.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <oedwotd@oup.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 9:30 PM
Subject: "jojoba" - Word of the Day from the OED
To: OEDWOTD-AMER-L@webber.uk.oup.com

OED Online Word of the Day

An unsurpassed guide to the meaning and history of millions of words, both present and past, the Oxford English Dictionary Online is the most powerful online lexical resource on the Internet! Subscribe today for only $29.95 a month, and you can have access to the "greatest work in dictionary making ever undertaken." – The New York Times

---

jojoba, n.

ADDITIONS SERIES 1997

Bot.

(hhb) Formerly also jajoba, jojobe, jojove. [a. Sp. jojoba, ad. native Indian hohohwi.]

a. A desert shrub, Simmondsia chinensis (family Simmondsiaceae), native to northern Mexico and the south-western U.S., that is used for the oil it yields. Also, = *jojoba oil below.

1900 E. J. WICKSON California Fruits (ed. 3) 43 The 'jajoba' (Simmondsia californica) is a low shrub, the fresh fruits of which..are eaten like almonds. 1933 Bot. Gaz. LXXXXIV. 826 Simmondsia californica, commonly known in the southwest as 'jojobe' or 'jojove', is an evergreen shrub. 1958 Econ. Bot. XII. 261 Jojoba, the gray box bush, is a drought-resistant, long-lived, evergreen, desert shrub bearing fruit like an acorn set in sepals. 1983 Houston (Texas) Chron. 21 Aug. I. 19/5 The August harvest of jojoba looks good so far, raising the spirits of manufacturers of just about everything from food to floor wax. 1989 Times 31 Aug. 25/6 Jojoba is hardly absorbed in the gutan attractive feature if you are trying to make low-calorie foods. 1989 Sunday Tel. 10 Dec. 43/4 Brown paper wrapped grapefruit and jojoba soap, £2.25.

b. jojoba oil, oil extracted from the fruit of the jojoba, used in cosmetics and as a substitute for sperm oil.

1975 Nature 22 May 272/3 Chemical analysis of jojoba oil has confirmed that it is strikingly similar in composition to sperm oil. 1986 Look Now Oct. 68/2 The Renewer Lotion contains collagen, jojoba oil and a special firming ingredient to smooth and soften the skin.

To cancel this service, send a message to wotd@oed.com consisting of the text signoff oedwotd-amer-l. Alternatively, use this unsubscribe mail link.

Written requests to unsubscribe may be sent to:

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Images in Google Docs & Notebook

• In Google Docs, when you insert an image into a document, you can choose to have the image data actually included in the document.
• In Google Notebook, when you clip an image, it puts a pointer to the image in the notebook, not the image.
• If you export the notebook to the Google Doc, it will still be a pointer.

So, if you clip an image on localhost, you'll only be able to see the image if you're on that machine.

OpenURL Checker

http://mshook.googlepages.com/openurlchecker.html

• Example: http://tinyurl.com/24aa7m

Wikipedia Category Summaries

http://mshook.googlepages.com/dbpediacategorylist.html

Some examples:

• Category:Bibliography_file_formats
• Category:World_War_II
• Category:Baroque_Cycle

Texting Term of the Day

Three locations:

• http://textingtermoftheday.blogspot.com/
• http://twitter.com/ttotd
• http://del.icio.us/mshook/ttotdpost?setminposts=100