 Sunday, January 19, 2003
DVDs Fast-Forward, Pass VCR Consumer Sales
"Consumers pushed the "stop" button on VCRs in 2002 and resoundingly hit "play" for DVD machines, marking a decisive blow in this increasingly one- sided home entertainment battle, industry sales figures showed.
American consumers purchased 17 million DVD players last year, compared to 13.5 million VCR decks, according the Consumer Electronics Association, the industry trade group that monitors such sales.
DVD players began to outsell VCRs in September of 2001, spiking up to a December holiday-season edge of 1.8 million DVDs to 1.3 million VCRs. But by this holiday season, the contest was a December blowout, with DVDs outselling VCRs 2.3 million to 1.1 million....
Wargo predicted VCRs would be off the shelves by about 2010." [NY Post, via Gizmodo]
I hope your library has begun circulating DVDs. I wish my home library could, but they have no space for any new collections, so that will have to wait until after their referendum passes (fingers and toes crossed for this coming April).
One of my SLS libraries, Downers Grove Public Library, is really running with one of ALA's PR themes, Get Caught Reading:
"We are excited to announce Get Caught Reading—a year-long book and reading celebration! Get Caught Reading promises to be a fun-filled year of reading, contests, programs, and events for the entire family. Each month we’ll feature a different topic with special book displays and booklists. We want you to participate!...
The library is offering personal reading calendars to Downers Grove Public Library cardholders! This pocket-size 2003 calendar features a reading log, holidays, author birthdays, and information about our Get Caught Reading book club. We hope that you’ll use the calendar to keep track of important events in your life as well as the books you read throughout year. Supplies are limited. Hurry in to get yours today."
Live From Gadget Central
 "Let the record show that CES 2003 finally put the CRT monitor in the grave. Flat panels practically wallpapered the place. Samsung and Philips continue to dominate in LCD industrial design. What stood out for me were Philips's DesXcape wireless touchscreen monitor and keyboard that turn any desktop into a portable tablet PC (out in February for $1,500), and what may be the industry's first home-theater-in-a-box, also from the Dutch electronics giant, with a DVD recorder that will launch this fall for $1,300. Samsung had so many gorgeous new displays, I just stood there with my jaw on the ground. But stay alert: More than one major brand will be introducing liquid-crystal-on-silicon screens and next-generation HDTVs this year." [Business 2.0]
Macromedia blog fans should be in seventh heaven now that Geoff Bowers has aggregated the Fullasagoog feeds into a single syndicated one:
"Have finally gotten round to re-syndicating the blended Goog blog feed as RDF. So now you can use a standard NewsAggregator tool to read Fullasagoog, or repurpose the feed to your hearts content. Feeds updated on the hour.
The complete, full-roasted, blended feed for Fullasagoog is available, from these locations with 30 and 50 posts respectively:
The following individual category feeds are available, with 30 posts each:
Thanks, Geoff!
Phil Wolff pointed me to Davis Poses Checkout Fee at Libraries:
"In a little-noticed move, Gov. Gray Davis has proposed halving state support of already struggling local libraries and imposing user fees of $5 a book in certain cases.
The plan was rejected Tuesday by some Bay Area library officials as unprecedented and outrageous in a democracy.
'The idea of these fees violates the fundamental philosophy of public libraries,' said Alameda County Librarian Linda Wood. "I think the public would be outraged.' " [The Oakland Tribune]
If you live in California, you should read this article and yes, be outraged. Please be vocal and let your legislators know that libraries are a cornerstone of our democracy and as such, are not available for the chopping block (at least, not any further since they've been hit pretty hard already). It will be your loss if you don't.
Antoine sent me the following info:
"The Open Blog Project is something that I have recently put together whose purpose is to support and facilitate the evolution of collaborative, web-based, event-based, and physical-location based blogs that exist, as much as possible, in the public domain. (http://www.openblogs.org)
A few individual project efforts include: openblogs.com - blogs for physical locations to 'personalize' space via image, story, map, and commentary annotations, etc.
Meta Commons - a 'commons for the commons'; anyone is welcome to join
Eventuals - temporary blogs for any kind of event with a set date for information & commentary aggregation before and during an event
Active Commons - to promote and facilitate progressive community networking and collaboration in a neutral setting (go figure!)
Chicago Blog - a blog for Chicago and its neighbors/neighborhoods
Date Sense - a singles blog to go 'beyond the stats' and into real personality & character-learning that initial one-to-one communication (often contrived and simply awkward for a lot of people) may not provide
I am currently looking for participants. (I'm currently a one-man band.) The article on the site, 'Why we need to re-claim the public domain, and what I'm doing about it,' illustrates a bit more why I've decided to do it."
Researchers Translate DNA Code as Music
 "Imagine the human genome as music.... Spanish scientists did that just for fun and recorded what they call an audio version of the blueprint for life....
The end product is "Genoma Music," a 10-tune CD due out in February. "It's a way to bring science and music closer together," said Dr. Aurora Sanchez Sousa, a piano-playing microbiologist who specializes in fungi....
In general, the genome music is an easy-listening sound that is vaguely New Age. One of the prettiest songs is based on Connexin 26, a human gene that causes deafness when it mutates. The DNA skeleton is expressed with tinkling bells and a flute melody does the rest....
She declined to discuss marketing plans for the CD. She said she's circulated it only among academics so far, and psychologists in particular find it relaxing.
Her team's plans for future music include having the hospital choir sing a vocal piece based on DNA from a bacteria." [SiliconValley.com, via Adam Curry's Weblog]
If your library is thinking about adding a wireless network, either for staff or patron use, check out this 802.11g Update to The Wireless Networking Starter Kit book. It's a good overview of g, even though it also discusses Apple's implementation of it for the Airport Extreme. Even though it's not an official standard yet, there are reasons to look at g instead of a since it's backwards-compatible with b. And if this is all alphabet soup to you, order The Wireless Networking Starter Kit for your library.
House Makes a Plea To Keep BlackBerrys
"Congress to lawyers: Don't take away our BlackBerrys. Please.
In a rare intervention into a private lawsuit, the chief administrator of the House of Representatives yesterday pleaded with attorneys in a patent-infringement case to settle their differences in a way that allows the popular handheld e-mailing device to continue operating.
'The device is used routinely by most members of Congress . . . as well as senior staff,' wrote James M. Eagen III. Any disruption in the service 'creates a serious risk to the House's critical communications and could jeopardize the public interest, particularly in the event of an emergency,' he said.
Eagen wrote that Congress has invested nearly $6 million in BlackBerry technology, including issuing 3,000 of the black, wireless handsets, in part because of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Eagen's worry stems from a federal court jury verdict in November that the BlackBerry infringed on patents held by NTP Inc., an Arlington holding company." [The Washington Post, via Boing Boing Blog]
Wd U go on a d8 w/ me?
"Texting is the next generation gap, I think. Before I got my Hiptop, I spent the last year doing a crapload of texting on my Sprint phone. (In fact, the whole reason I got the Hiptop was that I looked at my monthly bill and realized I was doing three times as much texting as I was actually talking on my phone.)
But every time I talk about texting to my peers, they totally don't understand it. There's a whole litany of complaints: It's too hard to type; the screens are too small; why wouldn't I just use email if I want to send a message? This all reminds me of the early 90s, when my friends would wonder why I was spending so much time "on the Net", and make similar complaints: The Net is for weird loner geeks; there's nothing interesting on it; nobody will ever want to read things on a screen. Is there an echo in here?
The point is, adults interested in society and technology ought to pay far more attention to what young adults are doing with their toys. Young adults were the first adopters of the most popular Net-based tools, like instant messaging, MP3s, file sharing, and blogging -- all of which have become utterly huge and massive trends. I usually try and avoid generational analyses, but in case of technology adoption, it's true. Mobile devices are going to penetrate our lives in ways as powerful -- and unpredictable -- as the Net." [collision detection, via Smart Mobs]
Of course, it goes without saying that libraries need to pay attention to how these trends will change how young adults expect to receive our services. Radically.
Bill Erbes gets it. His LIS 753 course, Internet Fundamentals and Design, at Dominican University includes the following assignment:
"An introduction to the fundamentals of the Internet, including its origins, evolution, architecture, current issues, and future. Students will gain a basic understanding about Web content languages, Web site management, and design/usability principles. Students will also be introduced to the fundamentals of telecommunications and networking with examples drawn from the Internet. Critical Internet issues such as search engine limitations, security, privacy, copyright, governance, and other related topics will also be discussed....
Each student will maintain a Weblog throughout the term, with updates made no less than on a weekly basis. (160 points) DUE: Weekly, by 9:00 a.m. each Thursday throughout the term."
For this coming week's class, students are to be prepared to submit the name, address, and focus of the blog they will be maintaining throughout the term. Go LIS students!! I'll be following along with interest....
On a side note, the course syllabus reminds me about ISSNs for Weblogs. I had seen this last year, but the service was down. Now it's back up, and I intend to apply for one for TSL.
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