The youtube post discussed empowering people to communicate across wide and new communities that never existed before, allowing people to get information from non-traditional sources. What I am finding in this election cycle is that it has an even more critical function holding political candidates' statement to verification. No longer can a candidate deny a comment at a rally, or a position (s)he has taken. Now, not only can it be uncovered in a text article on the 'net, but eith youtube et al. it comes in their own words and image.
- One single video ended the career of George Allen who was running for Senator last year in Virginia.
Check out the multitude of 'answers' sites. I did some research on them about two years ago, and they have come along way. On a personal note, I saved a service call for a problem I had with my clothes dryer, after posing a question to yahoo answers...turns out, that a software (YES software) reset in my clothes dryer control panel fixed a problem that I was having.
Open Source can play a prominent role at OCLS. Our biggest software engagement is with our circulation system. Special, local enhancments will be easy to enable in open source (III, are you listening?)
Customer computers may have OS applications running locally on them, rather than shared-license applications. It will likely be cheaper, and very likely be better.
Hard to argue with.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
One of my favorite blogs...David Pogue
David Pogue is the tech editor at NYTimes.com. He writes a weekly column in the Sunday New York Times, but has a more timely blog running at http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/
This week he talks about all the little techy tidbits of information that he has accumulated in his brain cells and how he ought to write a book called "The Basics."
Things like:
* You can use Google to do math for you. Just type the equation, like 23*7+15/3=, and hit Enter.
* You can switch from one open program to the next by pressing Alt+Tab (Windows) or Command-Tab (Mac).
* Just putting something into the Trash or the Recycle Bin doesn’t actually delete it. You then have to *empty* the Trash or Recycle Bin. (Once a year, I hear about somebody whose hard drive is full, despite having practically no files. It’s because over the years, they’ve put 79 gigabytes’ worth of stuff in the Recycle Bin and never emptied it.)
and,
* You don’t have to type “http://www” into your Web browser. Just type the remainder: “nytimes.com” or “dilbert.com,” for example. (In the Safari browser, you can even leave off the “.com” part.)
There's a whole lot more at http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/tech-tips-for-the-basic-computer-user/#more-553 AND, he is looking for your input for things he's missed.
Go there.
This week he talks about all the little techy tidbits of information that he has accumulated in his brain cells and how he ought to write a book called "The Basics."
Things like:
* You can use Google to do math for you. Just type the equation, like 23*7+15/3=, and hit Enter.
* You can switch from one open program to the next by pressing Alt+Tab (Windows) or Command-Tab (Mac).
* Just putting something into the Trash or the Recycle Bin doesn’t actually delete it. You then have to *empty* the Trash or Recycle Bin. (Once a year, I hear about somebody whose hard drive is full, despite having practically no files. It’s because over the years, they’ve put 79 gigabytes’ worth of stuff in the Recycle Bin and never emptied it.)
and,
* You don’t have to type “http://www” into your Web browser. Just type the remainder: “nytimes.com” or “dilbert.com,” for example. (In the Safari browser, you can even leave off the “.com” part.)
There's a whole lot more at http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/tech-tips-for-the-basic-computer-user/#more-553 AND, he is looking for your input for things he's missed.
Go there.
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