strondes

The ALA has provided 3 videos from their 2008 annual conference concerning privacy. The one below is of Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother. Follow the link for the others. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Link

Digital preservation is a hot topic among Information Professionals as the methods of preserving and retrieving artifacts become more complex. The biggest long-term fear, of course, is that the software currently used to decode and view an artifact may become obsolete, thus nullifying any attempt to view a document or photograph in the future. It is more important now than ever that digital archival standards be implemented internationally and redundant artifact storage made the norm. The latest episode of Innovation Insider features an in depth interview with Michael A. Keller, University Librarian and Director of Academic Information Resources at Stanford University, concerning the future of digital archiving and information preservation. I highly recommend it.

Link to audio.

Bytes.com has a great introduction to database normalization that aspiring database analysts/DBAs may find useful. It follows one example from 1NF to the normalized 3NF and BCNF structures and includes accompanying charts.

Go forth and normalize.

Link

I attended a private school for my secondary education, and it is in the classrooms of this supposedly unbiased, spiritually-charged institution where I first encountered censorship. At the time, I thought nothing of it - I even embraced and participated in it. The teacher knows best, right? Upon reflection, knowing what I know now, I find this activity to be pervasive, dangerous, and squelching of critical thought among most students today, whether they attend public or private institutions. I do not intend for this post to be a thorough analysis of my personal views of censorship, but rather a call for change.

I can understand eliminating supposed pornographic or non-literary items from the curriculum, but I will never understand editing the classics simply because some words may be offensive to some readers. I sat in the classroom just like any normal day, and I was handed by my teacher a black magic marker. Copies of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were then distributed, and we were given a list of words deemed offensive by either my teacher or the administration. “Damned” and “hell” were among the offensive words. As the entire class read page by page, round-robin around the room, we were instructed to cross out any of the “offensive” words that we encountered with the magic marker.

Looking back, this activity had 2 different effects on the students who were forced to participate in this inexcusable activity. First, censorship draws attention, warranted or not, to the text being censored. I would not have had a second thought about the words were were blacking out if not instructed to search for them.

Secondly, censoring any text simply to accommodate a certain variety of person gives the reader a false sense of the literary world and demeans the value of literature that we should be fighting to protect. I guarantee that several of my classmates to this day still cringe when they see an “offensive” word and reach for their magic marker - perhaps while even reading Marlowe, Shakespeare, or J.K Rowling. Students of this sort cannot survive in college, let alone the real world. All text has merit, and we should have a thick enough skin to step outside of the text and evaluate it critically. The reader does not have to like a text in order to appreciate its worth.

We must understand that the words themselves have no meaning, they are just ink on white paper that is bound into what we agree to address as a “book.” It is the meaning that we assign to the words that generates a personal reaction and triggers our natural instinct to question, enjoy, and critically discuss a work, literary or not. We do not have to agree with our interpreted meaning, we simply have to have an open mind to viewpoints that may be differing from our own.

I have been playing with Google Sites since it went public yesterday, and it is much more functional and user-friendly than Google Pages was. To see an example page in action, take a look at the Test-O-Matic site I put together this morning.

Besides the ease of use (no coding required), it allows seamless integration with GDocs, GCal, and Picasa. YouTube videos may be embedded, as well as hundreds of available iGoogle gadgets. For those who have not yet migrated to an online collaborative word processing platform, it provides a simple revision control for any uploaded files (see the “Documents” page of the Test-O-Matic site). It allows a multiple directory structure, which is something that Google Pages did not allow. Although I would like to see an FTP-style view of the directories and attached files, I can understand why this was excluded.

I have not used it enough to offer a thorough review, but so far I am impressed. Due to its simplicity, I have even considered migrating my portfolio to Google Sites, but I like to have more control over my CSS and layout than it currently offers. For those who just want a simple site with a substantial variety of options, check it out.

Here is Google’s video demo:

I looked around for the perfect Eee PC case for a few weeks to no avail. I found traditional laptop cases to be unwieldy, let alone too large for the Eee. Based on recommendations on the EeeUser forums, I also looked at some DVD player cases, but did not really find one aesthetically pleasing. While digging through my office, I located an old leather Bible case that had accompanied a gift Bible I received in high school. I removed the book, cleaned out some loose-leaf notes about sin, and tucked the Eee in one of the cover holders. I placed my Moleskine in the opposing cover holder. I slid a G2 pen in the attached pen sleeve, and put my Bible case to good use for the first time in years. There is even a pocket on the outside front that easily holds the charger and a USB mouse. Here are some pics:

I am not sure what brand case it is, but I found some similar cases on Amazon. I am sure that your local Bible retailer can also provide some good choices while allowing you to test the fit prior to purchase.

My grandpa now uses Linux. A few years ago I cannibalized parts from 3 old computers and built a noisy monstrosity that has provided him with countless hours of Wheel of Fortune and email. It has the combined computing power of 300 Mhz, 64mb RAM, and 20 GB of hard drive space. It barely fits inside a decade old Compaq case. Until yesterday, it ran Win ME (it was the only spare license I could find at the time). The performance gradually degraded over the years, and eventually nothing worked. It could boot, sure, but that was about it.

Enter Puppy Linux. I popped the new Pupply Linux CD (4.0, stable kernel) into the 4x drive, wiped the hard drive, changed vfat to ext3, installed Linux, and it was smooth sailing. Internet addresses began resolving again, months of backlogged emails poured in, and the printer was instantly configured. It was actually fast.

There were some limitations, but they were relatively simple to deal with. The machine can only handle running 2 concurrent programs running at a given time, and I had to convert all the Works files he had accumulated over the years into .rtf prior to conversion, but I think the end result is a powerful demonstration of the versatility of Linux. It brought an unuseable system back from the dead, and will probably privide several more years of service barring any major hardware failures. It configured all the hardware with little intervention on my part, and the new version of Puppy has a lovely oceanic wallpaper. No expense, no license - just raw functionality. My grandpa can play Wheel of Fortune, send emails, and update his church’s prayer list with ease again. Props to Puppy, too. It is a solid distro.

Be an Expert Project Manager

Graduate level projects are not necessarily difficult if you know what you are doing, but they can be immense in scope, requiring days (literally - you have been warned) to complete. When you are taking 3 classes concurrently, each with a project due on the same day, it is imperative that your projects be managed well. Most of this common sense, but may help the beginning grad student.

Schedule your time well. Although you will miss some parties, family functions, and lunch meetings by default, managing your time appropriately will help you maintain your sanity while providing comfortable pacing to get you through multifaceted projects. I recommend carrying a Moleskine, planner, or similar notebook in your pocket at all times with brightly marked due dates - and review several times a day. For each of my classes, assignments were due each Sunday night at 11:59. If you take online classes, you will probably encounter a similar arrangement. Schedule each day of the week accordingly so that you avoid a crazy-painful Saturday isolated from everyone you would rather be with just to finish your assignments on time. I would dedicate one night at the beginning of the week to each class (Monday for one class, Tuesday for another, etc.). I would read the assigned readings, discuss in the discussion board if required, and organize materials for the homework. The next half of the week would be spent on completing homework assignments. One night for each class, if possible. Simple, right?

Break it down! Distractions, multitasking, and “big-picture” thinking have a way of destroying productivity while reducing the time you set aside for schoolwork to a sob-fest (was that a real tear? Thought so. I have been there, myself). Don’t sit around thinking of every little thing that you have to complete throughout the next 10 weeks. Focus on one week at a time. Work on one task for only one class. Clear your desk of unrelated books and papers from other classes and work for 45 minutes. Take a 15 minute break, grab a cup of coffee, and repeat.

Prepare for technical disaster. In other words, backup your work every 10 minutes (or whatever interval you are comfortable with). Keeping 2 copies is a good idea, but keeping 3 copies is even better. If you are not using Google Docs or Zoho Writer, mark each backup with a date and timestamp!

Take a break. Burnout will kill you. Seriously. Spend at least one day each week school-free. Go walk in the park, work on that short story you started 5 years ago, and meet with your friends in person (real people!). See, you are already halfway through the quarter.

You will certainly learn your own tricks as you progress through your program, and I would love to hear about them! Leave some comments, and let the adventure continue.

Related Posts

Lessons I Learned in iSchool - Part 2

Lessons I Learned in iSchool - Part 1

Are Online or Offline Degrees Better?

A friend of mine recently introduced me to BOINC, touting it as “a good excuse to keep the computer on all the time.” BOINC allows you to donate your unused CPU cycles to help scientists map proteins, investigate molecular magnetism, find new prime numbers, and more. Neat.

At the time of this writing, computers around the world are contributing nearly 1,200 teraflops to scientific and academic research via BOINC (to put things into perspective, the fastest supercomputer can only handle around 300 teraflops). Why settle for one computer when thousands can process so much more?

Volunteering your computing power is really easy, no matter what operating system you use. Download the client, pick a cause that you believe in (I selected Rosetta@home), and let your computer help change the world. Your processor will only work at its peak while your computer is idle, and the client allows you to adjust the percentage of CPU power used at any given time. You may now proudly leave your computer on 24×7.

Although the phrasing in this particular call to action is a bit more aggressive than I feel it should be (e.g. “take action against your local library”), the idea is extremely important. Information should be free, without restriction, and should not favor a particular user group over another. Support your local library’s decision to eliminate DRM, and if it has not yet made the decision, I encourage you to promote the idea.

Don’t work against your library, but collaborate with it to promote freedom. In many cases, I imagine, many libraries are unaware that a problem even exists with digital resources. Open a dialog with your local librarians and discuss the danger that DRM poses to their adopted mission statement.