Some friends of mine went to see Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World this evening. I went to the IMDB to get the runtime of the film and realized I hadn’t been to the official site of the movie. I like seeing if movie websites do anything interesting (like Requiem for a Dream [flash]) so I went to the official site. I present to you the URL
http://www.masterandcommanderthefarsideoftheworld.com/
I didn’t know the ALA was doing other websites now!
There’s an interesting discussion over at Slashdot about kids and access to the Internet. Below is the post, the discussion continues here.
Kent Brewster writes “Despite dire warnings, we’ve gone ahead and put computers with Internet access into our adolescent (11, 12, and 15-year-old) childrens’ rooms. We’ve got a nebulous set of rules, which include several like these: Keep the door open when you’re on the computer. Don’t quickly exit from everything when we walk past. Don’t ever lie to us about what you’re doing. Unfortunately we’ve had instances where all of these rules – especially that last one – have been broken, so now we are looking at getting more specific. We’d be very interested in hearing from both sides of the fence: parents with Net-connected progeny, and those who are chafing under their rule. Parents, once you’re past making the huge mistake of actually letting the kids have computers in their rooms, what’s a reasonable set of guidlines? Non-parents, what are the rules that chap your hide the worst? Do they actually make a difference in your behavior, or do you just sneak past them anyway? Finally, and this is sort of a meta-question from an exasperated dad, does everybody lie about what they’re doing on the Internet?”
Steve Fesenmaier writes “The NY Times has an excellent article on how to convert videotapes – home movies, etc. to DVD. Since we live in the TV age even more than the COMPUTER WORLD, all librarians need to know some basics.
This is a great article about information literacy. Please read the entire thing and then think about it. Here’s the first paragraph.
Despite having more information at our fingertips than any generation before, there is little evidence that our ability to make
good, timely decisions has improved. A musician is not someone with an instrument and a songbook. Similarly, to be “information
literate” – able to extract knowledge from the welter of choice – we need to know how to orchestrate the technologies and “listen”
for the results. As a society we are computer and internet literate yet information literacy lags. We have computer hardware and
software but often ignore “wetware” – the first, most important, cog in the information seeking machine is ourselves.
The article also provides a great definition of information literate seeker:
The information-literate seeker “understands cultural, ethical, legal and socioeconomic issues surrounding” IT and “follows laws, regulations, institutional policies and etiquette related to the access and use of information resources”.
So fresh that it wasn’t even mentioned at the Internet Librarian 2003 conference, Google has released a Deskbar. “A wha’?,” you may ask.
This handy application integrates a search box into the taskbar of any Windows 98/ME/2000/XP machine. When searched, from any application mind you, a small window opens on the bottom right of the screen. This screen can be opened to be a full IE browser.
Other options include searching movie review (defaulting to Rotten Tomatoes), a thesaurus search (thesaurus.com), a definition search (using google’s “define:” function) and more. These are all customizable, and one can make their own custom searches as well (I’m trying to make an allmusic.com search).
The concept is of course nothing new. “Dave’s Quick Search Deskbar” (released under the terms of the GNU General Public License and ready for alteration) has been around for a while now, but it is a new offering from google.
Report any gripes with it below. I’ll start.
Charles Davis writes “from
teletext.co.uk.
An Oxford pub with famous literary connections is up for sale at £1.2m.
The Eagle and Child was the favourite watering hole of CS Lewis and JRR
Tolkien in their weekly meetings with a group of friends and writers.
The pub has been owned and leased out by the University College since
the 17th century, but it is now to sell the pub and two adjoining shops.”
Fang-Face writes “There is an article from 29 Oct at Reporters Without Borders about how
authorites in China are to step the control of internet cafes. It’s a brief article, but chock full of content and low on wrong-wing rhetoric. (Ordinarily, one must approach their reports with a fair bit of sceptism as their reporting is rather strident.) The page with the article also has a number of links to related material.
Rich writes “Monday’s Boston Globe had an article on Boston Public Library extending WiFi access
here.
Rich writes “Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal had an article on the Patriot Act and librarians called Patriot Act
riles an unlikely group: nation’s librarians
here
[link via http://www.buzzflash.com]“
Lori Bell writes “Nick Bogaty, Executive Director of the Open eBook
Forum, will be the guest on the November 20 edition of
E-bookworm, an online talk show for librarians,
visually impaired, and others interested in e-books.
The show will be broadcast from 3:00-4:00 P.M. Central
time with Tom Peters from TAP Information Services as
the show host.
If you want to listen to the broadcast without
participating, go to
http://www.talkingcommunities.com/entrance_bcast2
type your name and press enter. If you want to
participate in the show so that you can ask questions,
enter the chat room by going to
http://www.talkingcommunities.com/entrance.pl?311
enter your name, no password is necessary and click
enter. No special software is required to participate.
When you enter the room, the ivocalize software being
used for the show will ask you to download a small
applet to your computer. To listen or to participate,
all you need are a PC with Internet connection, sound
card and speakers.
This monthly program is sponsored by the Mid-Illinois
Talking Book Center and TAP Information Services. For
more information, please contact Tom Peters at
[email protected].”
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