Kids and Mobiles

"Being the father of three small children, I am interested in the subject of kids having a mobile phone of their own. When my oldest son started school in 2001, already 2 children in this first class owned a mobile. Remember these are 6 year olds. Actually this seems to be a low number. Reports I checked on the web seem to suggest that (in the UK for example) at least half the children older than seven own mobiles...." [Mobitopia]

Yeah, 9-year old Kailee has already asked for a cell phone a couple of times. Of course, no one has answered yes yet.

Fotonotes: The Cool New App

"Greg Elin has rolled out his new tool, Fotonotes annotation of JPEG files with metadata. It allows you to embed stories in a picture and, as you roll your mouse over the image, sections are highlighted and the text appears. Dan Gillmor gives Fotonotes a rave here, and demontrates how the image annotation works.

Now, think about how Fotonotes can be used to embed metadata in images so that they can be related by database functionality. This picture of Dan Bricklin could be related to other pictures of Dan, as well as Mitch Kapor, who is sitting in the background. Want to know if people frequently appear together? Google their names and get this picture and others, such as from PC Forum's site." [RatcliffeBlog: Business, Technology & Investing]

This could be very interesting for library digitization projects, and it's perfect for Pullman, Andy B.!

Put your hands together and welcome the Kennebunk Free Library to the blogosphere! One suggestion, though: they need an RSS feed. :-)

Micah Alpern continues to improve his Trusted Blog Search Tool:

"I've released an update to my 'Blogs I Read' search tool that includes support for blogrolls powered by blogrolling.com.  Now you don't have to have a Radio Subscriptions file. The code wizard is now even easier.  You just provide the URL of your weblog and I auto-detect if you have a RSS Subscription file or a blogroll."

Excellent! If you're blogging, you should definitely implement this on your site. I will be next month.

Will Cox sent me two great links today:

• Vacation Area Network
  "Mike and I have spent years developing the idea of the Vacation Area Network. Each year when we take a family trip together (his family and mine, we even include our wives and kids in some activities), we try to 'improve' the experience with the use of technology (usually somehow involving computers)....
  
  We now know about Weblogs. This seems like a good possible fit..... We are planning to vacation in Acadia National Park in Maine this summer. The VAN will be an incredible one this year. I'm looking forward to it." [Pete Kruckenberg's Network Computing Weblog]
   
• Back to My Roots
  "I also found out what it's like to ride with a guy who is dodging in and out of heavy traffic in our nation's capital while simultaneously answering his cell phone, navigating to a new address and entering some "data" in his PDA. I must say that Art's driving skills have gone to hell. It was a purifying experience to have the crap scared out of me numerous times. It's amazing just how often he found the need to consult with that PDA for one reason or another." [Jim's Pond]

Lori Bell found another library group purchase of Audible titles called Listen Up Wisconsin.

"Listen Up, Wisconsin loans digital audiobooks on MP3 players to patrons of participating libraries.... [It] is a test project of the South Central Library System and the Waukesha County Federated Library System, funded by the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium."

You can also view a Powerpoint presentation that gives some history about the project, and they point to an MP3 Assessment Study (PDF) done by the Contra Costa County Library in California (who are also burning Audible titles onto CDs and circulating them that way). Unfortunately, the Powerpoint slides don't go into much details, especially in terms of their project experiences to date. I'm going to try to get more details, though.

And this provides me yet another opportunity to remind SLS, HTLS, and now DLS libraries that we're coordinating our own Audible group purchase. It's an incredible opportunity, especially price-wise, so feel free to contact me for details or attend the informational meeting on April 16!

There's now an official web page for NEASIS&T's It's Not Just Google Anymore: Blogs and the Latest in Search Engines event at which I'll be speaking on April 28. Other speakers include Steven Cohen, Ran Hock, Greg Notess, and Jessamyn West, excellent company indeed.

Lots of ways to register, including paying the registration fee via PayPal! It should be a most interesting day, so I hope to see you there.

On a tangential note, Steven has posted our presentation from the Computers in Libraries conference on his site: Looking at the World Through RSS-Colored Glasses.

Jon Stewart put on a great Daily Show tonight, the highlight being his commentary on the Oscars and Stephen Colbert's on-site "report" (simulating streaming video from a videophone) about the "coalition of the fabulous' decaptiation strike" against Joan Rivers. Then comes an interesting interview with Jim Kelly, Managing Editor of Time magazine. You can catch some of the video online tomorrow.

Eleven Computers Drowned in MP3 Witch Hunt

"The IT department of Celemtech today destroyed eleven computers during a witch hunt for illegal files, mainly MP3s, on employee computer systems.

A giant tub of sea water was wheeled around, and suspicious computers were dumped in. If the computer floated, then it was considered possessed by MP3s. If it sunk, then it was considered pure and returned to the employees.

Head of the IT Bill Stoughton explained, 'We know that MP3s are lighter than air, hence they should float on the water. The same applies to pornographic files as well.'

Stoughton was heartened by the results of today's dowsings. 'It appears that our educational e-mails about the dangers of MP3s are working. Every computer sank today,' he said with a smile." [BBspot, via Furdlog: Frank Field's Weblog]

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