Microsoft to detail new Exchange, Outlook

" The new version of Exchange, which handles e-mail, calendars and contact lists, will be released in mid-2003. It is the company's first major update to the product since releasing Exchange 2000 nearly two years ago. In the $1.6 billion e-mail and messaging market, Microsoft ranks first in the number of users, but trails IBM in revenue. Other rivals include Novell and newcomer Oracle.

On Tuesday, Flessner will announce plans to spruce up the stripped-down Web-based version of the Outlook e-mail program, adding new features to make it as comprehensive as the regular PC version, according to the company.

The new Web version will include a spell checker and the ability to create and manage "tasks" or to-do lists, said Chris Baker, a Microsoft group product manager. Previously, people could view their tasks but couldn't change them. People will also be able to create "rules" that automatically directs e-mail to specific inbox folders, he said....

Earlier this summer, Microsoft executives disclosed that the new version of Exchange, developed under the code-name Titanium, will feature more security and improved support for cell phones and other handheld devices." [CNET News.com]

I'm posting this one for the rest of the SLS crew, especially Pamela. I will heartily welcome any improvements in the web-based version of Outlook. At work, we combined all of our email into Exchange during the big LAN migration of 2002, and I am extremely disappointed in webbified Outlook. I can see why they trail in revenue in this area. These enhancements can't arrive fast enough for me.

World's Funniest Joke No Laughing Matter!

"The world's funniest joke was unveiled by scientists today at the end of the largest study of humour ever undertaken.... The LaughLab experiment conducted by psychologist Dr Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire, attracted more than 40,000 jokes and almost two million ratings.

As well as identifying the joke which appealed most to people around the world, the experiment revealed wide humour differences between nations. Scans conducted on people being told jokes also identified the brain's laughter centre - a region near the back of the frontal lobes.

The joke which received the highest global ratings was submitted by 31-year-old psychiatrist Gurpal Gosall, from Manchester.

It reads as follows: Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: 'My friend is dead! What can I do?' The operator says: 'Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.' There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: 'OK, now what?'

Dr Wiseman said the joke was interesting because it worked across many different countries and appealed to men and women and young and old alike....

Computer analysis of the data also showed that jokes containing 103 words were thought to be especially funny. The winning 'hunters' joke was 102 words long.

Many jokes submitted contained references to animals. Jokes mentioning ducks were seen as funnier than other jokes.

The researchers were also able to pinpoint the funniest moment of the year. People found the jokes funniest at 6.03pm on October 7." [icWales, via MetaFilter]

The observations about humor by nationality are quite interesting, so you should read the whole article for yourself. I do have to agree with one of the MeFi comments about the one, true funniest joke in the world.

Tough Times Call For Tough Love

" 'What keeps us library types going when the dotcoms are going bust is this: We have a business plan that has stood the test of time, a plan in which generations of librarians have believed in passionately, a plan that has inspired countless library users and city councils because of its simple elegance. What we have is a bargain with history as well as brilliantly simple historical bargain. Libraries promise to share knowledge and seek wisdom. We keep that promise, whether it is with print, what we used to call non-print, or with electronic sources. We do it at bargain prices. For this society rewards us. Not much, it's true. But we have a staying power that other less clear business plans (like NetLibrary or other dotcoms) never approached.' -- Thomas Hennen, librarian, author, and purveyor of Hennen's American Public Library Ratings (HALPR)

This is the first curse of the modern librarian: tough love hurts. Still, it's a necessary pain. Too few people understand that library services aren't really free--like all government services, they're just pre-paid. And as a profession, we haven't done a good job explaining to the public that books do not magically fly onto shelves, librarians and other library employees do not work for the sheer fun of it, and Web sites do not fix their own broken links. In large part due to the very factors that make us special--particularly our strong service orientation and our keen interest in the public good--we are all too expert at "making do," and that has made us easy targets for cuts....

If you think tough love is hard this year, brace yourself for 2003-2004, when--rumor has it--budget problems nationwide will get worse, not better. Redwoods may have to be felled. The real tragedy is that library services have to cut budgets at all. Most of us provide extraordinary services at rock-bottom prices, and most library directors I know are experts at squeezing water from stones. If library directors managed their budgets, Enron and Worldcom would not only be in business, they'd be turning a profit (can you see their senior executives sharing rooms at conferences, sorting donated books for the Friends' Book Sale, or--as I learned to do as a rural library director--using their own money to buy toilet paper?)....

This year and next year, most of us won't introduce new services, improve salaries and benefits for library workers, or move into new technologies. We'll continue to provide our best services, and to some extent--because we really can't help ourselves--we'll even "make do." But when possible, more than ever, because we do care so much about those we serve, we'll use tough love to create teachable moments--because we owe it to those we serve to still be standing proud after the storm passes--and we have a business plan that insists we will ultimately prevail." [Free Range Librarian, via Library News Daily]