Dr Tech's Blog

Pfishing and other scams

2009-01-28T11:52:00.001-08:00

How timely. I used to say that I have never had any problem with identity theft.
That is until last month.

And it wasn't via my pc or at a credit card reader.

I pay my cable bill directly through the cable using the digital cable box and my remote.
You select a 'customer account channel' and fill in the info. I have been doing this for two years using my bank atm card. Last month however, about two hours after I paid the cable bill, I went to the bank website to check to ensure that transaction registered...and lo and behold there was another online purchase showing. In that short time, someone...somehow had secured the card info.

I am not sure what made me think to check my balance so quickly...I shudder to think how much damage they could have done with the card info for, say 24 hours. I shut the card off immediately. Next step was to call the cable company who seemed very unconcerned about it!
Saying, they would look into it. (That was two weeks ago, and no response.)
Obviously, there is someone there who is dishonest OR they have a network security problem.
Needless to say, I will no longer be paying using this method.

Growing, Learning, Evolving

2009-01-14T08:44:00.000-08:00

Learn 2.1, Librarians as Learning Leaders, Professional Development opportunites with ALA; there's a plethora of opportunities for learning here at OCLS.

But it doesn't stop there. We are experimenting with eHow.com to share our knowledge with others. Online learning is rapidly spreading, and we need to be there.

I am always amazed at not only the quantity of information on the web, but the increasing level of quality. Last season, I mentioned how I got explicit (and simple) repair instructions for a washing machine malf.

I am finding that I am doing a lot more on my smartphone as well. More and more sites are being presented in mobi formats...including PapaJohns. All I need to do is bring up my favorites, click a couple radioboxes and the pie is ready on my way home.

Getting caught up

2009-01-14T08:23:00.000-08:00

Wow, the holidays sure caused me to get behind in my blog.

While reading through the early December topics (re: Library 2.0) I recalled the evening that Helen Thomas graced a full audience in Library Central with her presence.

I spoke with her afterwards and she (at 87) has no plans of slowing down. "What would I do?" she asked when posed with a question about possible retirement. She's one spunky lady. And this photo was uploaded to the Orlando Memory History section.

Programs like this are vital to the community and I was proud to see the Library step up and offer this to our residents.

Can't wait to see her grill the new president.

Exploring the best of Web 2.0

2008-11-24T12:16:00.001-08:00

So I go to SEOmoz's site and check out some of the best rated web2.0 apps:
Interestingly, I have already seen quite a few of them...the biggies, Facebook, igoogle, twitter, the photo sites, linkedin, etc.

But there were a couple that caught my eye.

Just the other day, I was looking for a quick and easy way to do online contributions for an organization I belong to. Wufoo offers a number of prewritten web forms and has lo-and-behold, there's an online form for contributing with options for three or four different handlers. Will definitely pass this along to them.

And then with the holidays coming up, coctailbuilder.com is a must. Just add your bar inventory, and it makes suggestions on what you can provide your guests along with recipes and shopping list for items you might want to consider. Be the consummate host/ess.

OCLS' Changing Mission

2008-11-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

Tom posed the question, "How do you see OCLS creating a well informed, well-connected community, making Orange County a great place to live, work and play?

I think OCLS has always been a leader in information. Notably, print information.
Where change is happening is in other mediums and platforms. Our 'e-offerings' have exploded and have given members of the library an opportunity to download books, research information using top authoriative sources, manage their library relationship with ease, use our wireless access, etc.

Further, we have assisted them to make the most of this by offering classes to make with the tools and applications to get the most out of it.

And all for free! What's not to love.

Info sharing

2008-10-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

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.

One of my favorite blogs...David Pogue

2008-10-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

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.

Learn 2.1

2008-09-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

Funny thing, after Learn 2.0 we were talking and posited the likelihood of another similar offering "...in a couple years."

Now, 10 months later, there's so much change going on, that Learn 2.1 is here.

Staff is engaged and ready to go again.

And I heard that Tom ordered 350 iPhone 3G's...

Week 10...Podcasts and Digital Downloads

2007-06-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

I have been working with podcasts for some time now. In fact, I negotiated with the vendors hosting OCLS' first podcasts. There are a couple that I sync to my iPod on a daily basis...mostly talk radio that airs while I am at work.

On major drawback that I have encountered with my iPod is that Recorded Books doesn't have a download agreement with Apple, hence I have to download to my computer and download manually to the Windows Media Player on my cell phone. Short of getting Apple and Recorded Books to the table, the bonus MP3 player that is on its way will take care of my downloadable audiobook dilemma.

Thanks Tom!

Copyright and Digital Technologies

2007-06-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Since the first VCR hit the shelves, the recording industry has wrestled with this issue. Technology had finally made amateur duplication of copyrighted AV materials easy in inexpensive. That was the mid-70's.

Thirty years later they are still fighting this game...and will probably lose, if they haven't already. Not because the technology is so easy--heck, it has been for years. The battle will be lost because of lack of enforcement particularly in foreign (non-US and EU) countries. The availability of major motion pictures on the streets of Hong Kong before a movie is even released attests to a big gaping hole in enforcement. On the music side, Napster is now legit, but has been replaced by Limewire and a host of other sites based outside the US. The RRIA is trying to prosecute, but with only limited success.

Job's article on DRM (and iTunes specifically) cites the ready availability of DRM-free music out there, and advances the position that music rightsholders secure royalties at sale, and unwrap online music from duplication restriction.

US and European law has actually stayed fairly up-to-date with technology advancements, though much was based on legal decisions in cases that were brought to court. It is naive to think that the rest of the world is going to react with much respect to copyright. In the past, that wasn't much of a problem because there wasn't much of a market there. That is all changing now.

It is going to be interesting.

Week 8 musings

2007-06-06T13:40:00.001-07:00

I really enjoyed this week's agenda. I have been interested in digital rights (particularly web image) management for a while and this gave me the opportunity to delve a bit into Creative Commons. I already had a flickr account (ajcalabrese) and uploaded some 'Creek shots and applied copyright terms. Cool.

Want to see more, you'll have to check out my account!

I also spent more time than I probably should have with protopage. I can imagine all kinds of uses for it.

Check it out...again the account name is ajcalabrese.

It's hard to believe that there are only a couple more weeks left to this program. I have been working with my learning buddy Reshard, and the tech staff has been helping the rest of the staff with some of the trickier parts. It's been a great learning experience.

More Web 2.0

2007-06-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

Tom's suggestions were pretty cool...especially Trainco and dogster.
I have been a little lax with quantifying my workouts and am going to give Trainco a shot.

My dog Louis Vuitton now has a blog on dogster. For me, it led me to some info about his hair loss. (just like his dad.)

There's a couple web 2.0 apps out there that I really like. One is at the USA Track and Field site, called "America's Running Routes," it gives you an easy way to chart running/walking courses, and provides mile marks and total distance as well as course elevation changes.

Then, (the good part) you can post your routes for others to find via search by city, zip code etc.
This is great for people who travel. Check it out at www.usatf.org/routes/

Hard to believe it's week 7 already!

That's why they call it the 'web'

2007-05-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

Remember when you were first introduced to the internet? Specifically the world wide web?

For me it was back in the very early 90's; I was doing research for my company and one of the academic types suggested a new tool. WOW. Even at that time, I was amazed at the concept. I gorged my curiosity navigating from one linked site to another.

Why am I bringing this up? Because this week there were a number of neat sites that I either haven't been to, or haven't been to in a while; and this week's assignments brought me back to a couple sites like deli.cio.us. If you're like me, you can wander from the links there all day.

I'd seen libraryelf before, but with the options that ocls.info offers, I don't see the need, and as a 'middleman' site, it opens the possibilities for errors.

I particularly like www.whatshouldireadnext.com; I am often asked by customers what I can recommend for them (using their current reading lists). Will definitely help me -- and them.

A. Calabrese

2007-05-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

This is a bye week...time to get out and ride.

Web 2.0

2007-05-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

Holy moly, is this a powerful video or what?
Watch it, then watch it again.
Sure portends some serious change.
But not to worry. It's all cool.

While exploring this week I happened on a couple notable sites:

http://www.43things.com/ : a pretty inspiring and motivating place, and,
http://www.pewinternet.org/ : a compendium of internet facts. It wasn't too long ago that you'd have to pay consultants BIG$$ for this info.

Got 5 minutes? Take this quiz.
(I am an omnivore.)

Later.

Blogs and wikis and feeds, OH MY!

2007-05-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Week Three of Learn 2.0...
We are introduced to Bloglines. I have already used aggregators, but I like the usability designed into this. Easy to search; easy to use. I moved a couple of the feed I follow over to my bloglines account. Stuff like:

I'd never been to Grokker. At first I thought I was being introduced to a different search engine. You know, how every search engine claims that it has the latest, greatest search algorithms that will make your life so much better...

What I got was a pretty cool experience. I recently bought a new smartphone and typed in the model infomation. (Motorola Q).
It returned an outline of topics related, but when you hit the 'map view' they are presented by source and relevance in a graphical representation of spheres that interact about each other. If you hover over a sphere, it will tease you with some details.

I ended up buying a desktop charger and some game software...

A. Calabrese

OCLS Learn 2.0

2007-04-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

I have always believed that real learning has to have an element of experiential involvement. That is why I am so stoked about the Learn 2.0 program.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...you say you know everything there is to know about rss, digital image manipulation, podcasting and downloadable audiobooks.

Prove it.

Hop on board with me and my learning buddy Reshard. I think you'll like the ride.

A. Calabrese