Facebook Search

Zach Miners provides a review of Facebook's search options .

-DD

Knowledge Analysis

Julia King believes that we all must be able to be data scientists , interpreting data to live successful lives.

-DD

Recording Presentations

Natalie Houston tells of her decision to record her presentations when she does them at conferences.

-DD

Discovery Pulse Blog

EBSCO has created the Discovery Pulse Blog to promote usage of the firm's data discovery tools. Discovery tools conduct a metasearch of multiple types of data resources held by an institution, providing a uniform query and report interface. Very popular with students, but currently the results are not as precise as using the search options of most stand-alone products.

-DD

Android, Chrome and Google News

Alex Chitu tracks Android, Chrome and other Google Operating System news in a blog . Recently Chitu shared with readers how Google is experimenting with generating timelines for certain topics.

-DD

"Tech Support" Scams Shuttered

Michael Cooney reports that the Federal Trade Commission has shot down scammers who claimed your computer has a virus and then charges a stiff fee for a "fix."

-DD

Company Names

Steve Kolowich discusses the genesis of Ed-Tech names in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

-DD

Amazon E-Book Rental Program

Alexandria Alter discusses how Amazon is offering e-book and audio book rental for a flat $10/month subscription fee. However, many major publishers are not participating, presumably because it will cut profits or is contradicted in existing contracts with authors or other distribution channels.

-DD

Presentation Design

Scott Schwertly shares four elements of presentation design . This is an overview of general design principals, and not limited to a PowerPoint deck of slides.

-DD

Roadkill Database

Bob Brown publicizes a roadkill app which will plot where animals are being killed in collisions with motor vehicles. The roadkill database and app are still under development.

-DD

Open Education Resources

CETIS publications in the UK is hosting commentaries on the topic of Open Education Resources (OER).

-DD

Packing

Anastasia Salter advises academics facing the need to move .

-DD

Attendance Policies

Michelle LaFrance and Steven J. Corbett discuss attendance policies in this commentary.

-DD

Travel Apps That Do Not Require the Web

Jon Chase shares the best apps for traveling without the Web .

-DD

Innovation and Execution

Marian Cook recommends using partnerships with firms which are technology leaders to rapidly deploy an innovation. This allows quick development by experts in a cost-effective manner.

Govindarajan & Trimble's Beyond the Idea: How to Execute Innovation in Any Organization also deals with executing innovation. The authors indicate that a stable company is a tuned performance engine, devoted to producing a product or service. Only very small projects can be accomplished by individuals during their slack time -- these are they call "Model S Inititatives." For a company planning repeated [Model R] initiatives such as an annual product refresh, a standing team makes sense. Special teams of experts are required for a custom [Model C] initiative which will significantly advance the firm. Cook likewise is calling for the establishment of a special team of experts for major [model C] innovations. -DD

Box for Collaboration

Matt Kapko describes how creative professionals are using cloud tools from Box to enhance collaboration.

-DD

Microsoft TechFest

Microsoft's TechFest reveals new research projects. Most of these innovations seem to expand the graphical user interface with new methods of creating or displaying visual data.

-DD

 

PingPlotter Tracks Data Packet Travel On The Internet

Gearhead (Mark Gibbs) recommends PingPlotter to determine problems with data packet delivery over the Internet.

-DD

Year 2000 Bug (Y2K) Strikes In Pennsylvania

Paul McNamara reports that a Y2K bug resulted in draft notices being sent to 14,000 men born in the 1800's. A comment on this post cynically suggests that this is not accidentally retained data:

These 14,000 are probably receiving SNAP benefits, Social Security checks every month, a tax refund every year, and each one has an Obamaphone. Moreover, they all have voted in local, state, and federal elections over the past century.

-DD

Amazon Offering A Trial of Its Cloud Services

Amazon now offers a one-year free trial of its cloud services . This offer has usage limitations, but would be useful for gaining experience with Amazon's data handling offerings.

-DD

Top Level Domain Opportunities

Zeus Karevala expresses concern about the proliferation of top-level domain name options. He recommends that marketers focus on supporting one domain, as promoting many variants confuses customers.

-DD

Mission-Critical Staff Cannot Expect An Uninterrupted Vacation

Esther Shein reports that senior technology staff are expected to be on call during vacations . The article has drawn many comments that this state of affairs exists at all levels because many firms are now running as lean as possible, with the result that only one individual in the firm can handle certain mission-critical functions.

I have worked in lean enterprises where each area of responsibility was mastered by one individual. This was extremely efficient (these people could make instant decisions in their areas) but stumbled from lack of succession planning.

-DD

Paper Animation

Alison Connor and others at the University of Utah created an online exhibit of moving or three-dimensional paper craft found in books printed during the past 500 years.

-DD

Microsoft Email Security Adds Encryption

Juan Carlos Perez reports that Microsoft is beefing up encription on its major email services.

-DD

Google Scholar

Aaron Tay, the Senior Librarian at the National University of Singapore, shares his observations about Google Scholar .

-DD

Why Old Books Smell

Andy Brunning maintains a chemistry blog, and in a June 1 post suggested why books smell.

-DD

Microsoft Windows - Different Interfaces For Different Environments

Preston Gralla reports on Microsoft's plans for the next version of Windows

-DD

Elyssa Kroski maintains a blog with links to sources of useful information, such as technologies for promoting library services.

-DD

Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science -- Reinterpreted

Connaway and Faniel have attempted to reframe Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science from being centered on books and information scarcity, to addressing the age of the Internet and information plenty. Ranganathan's five guiding principals were:

1. Save the time of the reader.
2. Every person their own book.
3. Books are for use.
4. Every book its reader.
5. A library is a growing organism.

-DD

Library User Quiz

The Pew Research Internet Project has developed a Library User Quiz that plots (and perhaps gathers data about) the demographics of public library usage.

-DD

Library Graphic Changes With Time

I discovered that the American Library Association has developed a new graphic to reflect the new reality of electronic information access.

The old graphic was an individual reading a book:


while the new graphic shows a person at a laptop:


-DD