January 2001

Jeanie writes:
\”There is a short article in Smart Computing in Plain English V12 (3)
entitled Drowning in Information. Two professors from the Univ of
Calif/Berkeley released the results of a study designed to measure the
yearly production of new information in the US and the world. Findings:
Worldwide production of info equals 250 books of data for each man, women
and child on the planet. Other findings include 93% of all new data
produced in 199 was in digital format.\”

No Link for this one, though seems similar to This One or maybe This.

MSNade writes \”For those interested to know why the Dec. 2000 Children\’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) probably does not violate the First Amendment, a revised version of my spring 2000 Texas Law Review article is now available at
papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?ABSTRACT_ID=230834

Among other things, the article notes that while CIPA requires libraries receiving federal funds to employ \”technology protection measures,\” software filters are not the only technologies that would fit this requirement. In fact, when the former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) prepared an overview report of communications and information policy to Congress in the late 1980s, it adopted a broad definition of \”technology,\” which included not only physical apparatuses, but also \”technique\”s and \”social arrangements,\” which would likely include appropriate AUPs. For more details, see note 62D of the revised article. \”

Just found this on Yahoo! and it looks interesting.
pseudodictionary.com

\”is the place where all of your made up words, slang, webspeak and colloquialisms become part of the dictionary as well. we take the words you use everyday, but aren\’t in the dictionary, and put them into ours. all you have to is submit them. you\’ll even get credit and a link to your website (if you\’ve got one). help us grow our dictionary by sending us your entries now! everyday more entries are added, so check back often.\”

I\’m hoping this will be one of the last stories I link to from ZD Net. The ads are beyond horrible, and I see no reason to continue to use the site. Anywhoo…

The Story is on Bess N2H2\’s filtering software. They say it\’s used by 12 million students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and of course if CIPA is actually enforced, that number will be much higher. Bess knows where the students go on the Web and how long they spend there. It also knows when students try to access a site that\’s on N2H2\’s blacklist for being too violent or containing pornography. Not suprisingly late last year, N2H2 began selling its data.

I would think whatever your views on filtering, you would not support this… but I could be wrong.

I found this on CNN
Don\’t throw away all those rolls of tape you have lying around. It seems that Stanford University and a private European lab are teaming up to begin a 5-year research project to develop a new storage medium, stating that \”the new technology is superior to current CD drives…\” [more…]

The Current Geotimes (Jan 2001) has a story on Scientific e-Journals in which they say we can\’t rely on libraries to archive these eJournals because it\’s not a static document that can be maintained by a \”multitude of different care givers using different systems\”.

Also an interesting From the Editor article on how electronic communication changed the way things work. Libraries have to offer digital formats for everything because \”if it ain’t digital, it ain’t\”

I love this quote from Arts & Letters Daily about the book publishing industry.
\”Once upon a time, the major American publishing houses could be counted on to bring controversial new ideas, trenchant political criticism, and works of enduring literary merit to the reading public. No longer. Instead, we get a steady stream of diet books, celebrity biographies, quasi-spiritual self-help manuals, formulaic technothrillers, Jacqueline Susann knock-offs, and warmed-over tabloid journalism about the scandal of the moment.\”

One may or may not easily argue the accuracy of such a statement, depending on reading tastes and also given the fact that a trip to the library or to the closest bookstore, whether it be physical or virtual, will yield quality literature aplenty for someone. The saga continues at The American Prospect

I found this particular item today on The American Prospect while news cruising through cyberspace.

Although the issue is a legitimate one, it is interesting to realize the role played by big business in the whole scheme of things. Much of the noise surrounding Internet Filtering is being made by those who stand to gain a profit (Go figure). The point is clearly made when considering the following, as quoted from an advertisement for filtering software: \”The Internet caused the problem. It\’s only fitting it should also provide the solution.\”

One hates to rain on the parade of the Internet personifying folks out there, but isn\’t it people who are the problem? Well, read on and judge for yourself…

The NYTimes has an Interesting Story on search engines. They say regular search engines have access to only a fraction of 1 percent of what exists on the Web and as many as 500 billion pieces of content are missed. They talk about specialty search engines like Moreover, a site I use all the time for LISNews. It\’s nice to see some very positive things said about librarians in this one.

\”People may know to come to the library, but they probably do not know which reference books to pull off the shelf. Of course, in such cases, patrons can at least consult a reference librarian. On the Web, people are usually fending for themselves.\”

Brian writes \”If you\’re looking for George W. Bush merchandise, there\’s an easy — and, for half the country, intuitive — way to find some on Google. Wired News has the
Story \”

Here\’s the explanation, and if you want to try the search yourself, Try This.