LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

If you are interested in the latest proposed legislation in Florida that may impact libraries have a look at http://www.oneil.cx/WP/?p=208

Brazilian ISPs are preparing to block access to all wordpress.com sites after a judge ordered a block on a particular blog hosted there.

The ISPs claim they cannot block one particular blog from that domain, but rather must block the whole wordpress.com TLD. I'm no expert on ISPs nor Brazilian law, but this seems like the ISPs want to kill a fly with a shotgun.

If you are interested, and can read Portugese, the article from G1 is interesting.

A federal law, the TREAD Act requires that a tire pressure monitoring system be installed on all new cars sold in the US.

This TPMS will use radio frequency signals to send tire pressure data to a central onboard computer. Since thre will be many cars in close proximity these sensors in the tires transmit an identifing code so that the onboard computer can extract signal from noise.

However there is absolutely no reason a sensor could not be embedded in a road, or placed next to, above, near or in some other way positioned to pick up these radio waves... radio you know like the one in the car.

Armed with the unique IDs transmitted by these sensors you could be tracked, or simply watched. Perhaps a sensor to see when you drive into the office parking lot, or to the mall or grocery store.

I can wrap my library books in tinfoil to keep the RFID from being interrogated, but what are you going to do wrap the car in a Faraday cage?

Enjoy the violation of your privacy.

Someone said that to me this week.

You may read the full post at my personal, infrequently updated blog.

I am not about to whack myself so cancel the parties.

I sent 4 emails to FSU about the job I had open that would be perfect for a librarian. I sent 3 emails to USF including one each to a professor with a blog who could post a note on there or facilitate it being posted on the college's website, I also mailed the director , and finally I signed up for their jobs listserv and posted it there.

I had HR post it on the Floridalibraryjobs.org website. I recieved résumés from office managers, stock brokers, mortgage brokers, coders/developers, help desk managers and two librarians one of whom I made submit her résumé.

No one from the library schools, no one from the Floridalibraryjobs.org website, no one from any of the listservs, and no one from LISNews bothered to apply. In fact that librarian who accepted the job Friday saw it on a job website where the firm pays to place positions.

Why so few librarians applied is a mystery to me. Why the job was not publicized by the library schools in Florida is a mystery to me. My alma mater FSU has delivery driver and receptionist positions listed on its website, why it would not list a position tailor made for a librarian interested in enterprise search and technology including collaborative technologies is beyond me, and frankly it disappoints me greatly.

Apply

http://floridalibraryjobs.com/more/index.cfm?fuseaction=job.view&jobID=2325

Hugo Chavez has free heating oil for you if you are poor. You might also want to sign up for his newsletter.

Get your free oil online - well the form is online the oil is not obviously.

http://www.citizensenergy.com/english/pages/13/individual-households

I have four undocumented aliens in my living room (no not those kind of aliens - although I do live quite close to the Church of Scien...well nevermind) .

I have a friend who needed a place for four people to stay since there was an apartment fire in a nearby city today. They were 'guests' of the 3 people who lived in the 2 bedroom apartment. If they can fit 7 peole in a 2 bedroom I can certainly fit five people in my place. The red cross found the family on the lease a place but it was too small for everyone.

Today is Veterans' Day in the States. I know that many of us are related to veterans. My father, Dr. de la Pena McCook's father as well. Sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and co-workers we all know a veteran.

Today we should, even if for only a moment, thank them in some way. Say a prayer, tell a veteran thanks, visit the graves of those veterans lost to war or lost simply lost to time.

Fark.com (don't go there if you are easily offended)is discussing a Boston Globe article about the library adding Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and DVDs to their collections to increase traffic.
Fark is a generally negative place but the comments about libraries are quite interesting.

Sad but funny. Some guy was shot and his brilliant friends drove him to a < a href="http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/10/portland_homicide_detectives_i.html">Hospice. Yes a Hospice not a Hospital.
I am so glad my friends are not complete morons. I'm also glad I try to avoid places where people shoot at me.

The nice folks at Inkwood Books in Tampa passed along this nice < a href="http://bluepyramid.org//ia/bquiz.htm ">What book are you? quiz.
Give it a try if you like.
Support your local independent bookseller.
Heinlein? Me? I didn't expect that, I was thinking more Alex Comfort or perhaps Southern Comfort.

This clown is dead 40 years today. This seemed like the appropriate place to post it.
If any of you are going to the memorial demonstration I have a t-shirt that real live commies gave me. I never wear it, you are welcome to it.

I worked with a great guy when I worked at a local hospital and his brother was a professor of Creating Writing (and a mighty good author - 'my' library bought all his books) at FIU.
I was looking at John Dufresne's blog this evening and found an interesting tidbit about requesting one's own DHS file. I think I'll just do that. You may want to as well.
I wonder what it will show -since I am a religious (R.C) single, single, bearded, frequent traveller (12-15/yr plus 2 or 3 international), that goes to countries known for bombings (Northern Ireland) and to countries from which many people illegally enter the US (Mexico and Canada).
I wonder if they can find the hat I left on a Delta flight in 1992?

The State of Florida maintains a list of jobs for librarians in Florida. To sumbit an announcement several questions must be answered, one of which is does the position require and ALA accredited MLS.

Almost every position that is listed as not requiring that ever useful ALA MLS does indeed require it. Go ahead, have a look.
Do you want to work for people who can't fill out a simple online form?

The recent OBL video is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time and it amazes me people are getting their knickers in a twist over this.
I have heard the Grecian Formula joke about a dozen times now when the talking heads on the news speculate about why the loony Bin Laden's beard has 'changed' from grey. It didn't change the video is from years ago.

The best part is that OBL stops moving just under 2 minutes into the thing yet keeps talking for another 10 minutes until he does a little hop and starts moving and talking again. This happens each time 'he' talks about something current (well within the last 5 years).

It is obvious that the talking heads and those pontificating about it have failed to watch all 26+ minutes of it. I had some friends over and we had a good laugh at this.
Think I'm making this up look at it here. Try and find it at any news network site and you won't find it. I wonder if they simply failed to watch it, or if they purposefully are hiding the fact that it is a video dubbed over a still.
Nice work on the audio editing, but they really need to get a Mac if they want quality video editing.

So over the holiday weekend I decided to set up a small application to manage the schedule at my (previous) library. I had been thinking about it and tinkering with it for a while but I finally got it into production.

Feel free to have a look about at a mirror of it at http://kafeneionsocrates.com/l the username is admin and the password is 1234.

I'm taking this install down eventually so feel free to muck about and create users and modify things.
I'd appreciate and criticism or suggestions.

Again I find myself agreeing with the NAACP. They ask us to reserve our opinion on Michael Vick a football player (although I don't really follow it too much not living in Buffalo anymore).
Michael Vick has been charged with a crime, something that happens to many people daily. However Mr. Vick has not been convicted of the crime with which he is charged. Until such time as he is we owe him the presumption of innocence.
Someone committed the crimes, and our criminal justice system will deal with the suspects. We have to accept our Constitutional protections as we might someday need them ourselves. They apply to all of us not just our friends; more importantly they apply to those charged with terrible crimes.
Michael Vick is not guilty, Lindsey Lohan is not guilty, and Irv Feldblum is not guilty (you probably don't know Irv but he got a parking ticket in Toledo) until such time as he is found guilty or enters a plea.
Indeed I do find dog fighting abhorent. I'd happily give those people a good kick in the gonads when they were down.
However until such time, I'll go along with the position of the NAACP that he is not guilty until he is found guilty.
Reverend Marcellus from the NAACP just said on the news that "Race always matters," when discussing the Vick case. You know I have to agree. If it were Doug Flutie would more white people be giving him the beneift of the doubt. I hope not, but I think so.
I also feel that OJ is not guilty. My opinion is that he probably killed people, but I have to accept the jury's decision. I don't have to like it I just have to live with it.
I never knew who Michael Vick was until the last few days. Oddly I know who that metrosexual Beckham is. I should pay more attention to hockey.

Oh and this is not at all related to libraries so I'll find some tangential link. I have an MLS. There ya go!

I was looking up a Canadian immigration policy for a friend that I worked with when I was living breifly in GTA (Etobcoke) for a nursing contract. The Canadians report their expenses online. I was looking at some of the expenses reported by the Minister and her staff.
This is simply brilliant. I want the US government to do this.
I am glad I don't have to post mine because my 'constituents' would be angry. My boss is happy though.

There are flames shooting out of the road near my office (I am in NYC today).
I knew I should have left the office an hour ago.