Google archive of Life Magazine pics

Here's something the Internet is perfectly suited for. Google, as part of its ongoing efforts to digitize everything, has gotten hold of Life Magazine's photo archives. Here's the story, via HotHardware.com.
For the younger readers, Life Magazine was a powerful part of American journalism, known for its photography. Many of its photographs serve as the most memorable images of the 20th century.
Interestingly, while the project is up and running and the pictures are easily accessible, there doesn't seem to be any copyright information included. Presumably the parent companies and photographers have not relinquished their copyrights. But given other recent stories about Google landing in hot legal water for its liberal take on intellectual property, I would have expected to see a disclaimer.

Recover lost form data!

Here's a great tip from the ever-interesting blog Lifehacker. Someone's gone and made a Firefox extension that can recover lost form data. If you're anything like me, you've spent hours crafting lists of threats and insults to submit to your local newspaper/blog/sports team/daycare forum. It's incredibly easy to get distracted and switch pages, or get a glitch on hitting the submit button. Rather than toss up your hands in frustration and give up ever trying to remember all your wit and witticisms, now all you have to do is press go on the Lazarus Firefox extension.

Linguistics of nerdery

Ever wonder where those Internet shorthand terms come from? No? Well, apparently some people do. Here's a story from PC World magazine about Net shorthand. Interestingly, some of the terms, such as ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing) and its many derivatives predate the explosion of the World Wide Web. ROFL dates back to at least 1989 on Usenet forums. Some other terms, like FWIW (for what it's worth) actually have their origins in office culture rather than the Web.

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Google and copyright

Remember the brouhaha a couple years back about Internet search giant Google trying to put copyrighted books online for free? If you're wondering what happened to that, it's been tied up in court. Finally, it looks like the tangled mess is due to be sorted out, sort of. A potential settlement is being floated to the various litigants in the class action lawsuit, with May as a deadline for approval. Here's the story, via Library Journal.
The thing is, the classes in this suit are pretty nebulous. There's just no way to represent all authors and publishers. Yet the ramifications of this litigation could be felt by all of us in the information industry. Already the various classes involved are showing signs of dissent. It'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

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TMI?

Here's what looks to be an interesting study from Forester, via the blog Lifehacker. While the study costs money, Lifehacker reports that it found RSS use (blogs and such) has slowly risen to around 11 percent. That means most folks are still going to individual Web sites or getting information in other ways.
Now, RSS is still relatively new and things like that take time to catch on. But the troubling part (for RSS proponents) is that of the large portion of people not using it, an overwhelming majority -- something like four-fifths -- aren't even interested in learning about it.
Have we finally reached a point where the tired expression "TMI" ceases to refer to gross or unsavory information but instead means, quite literally "too much information"? As a self-described RSS junkie, I can definitely see where most people would quite happily swear off the vast amounts of information that cross my computer screen each day.

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Data, data, data!

With technology, we can acquire a lot of data, in lots of different areas. I recently read Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why It Matters by Bill Tancer, the general manager of global research at Hitwise. Hitwise is a company that analyzes Internet data. Tancer has a number of really neat insights in his book, but what I found the most fascinating was the 90-1-9 rule of Web 2.0 (i.e. participatory Web applications like blogs, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) 90% of people who view blogs never comment--they just read! 9% contribute infrequently, and only 1% are frequent contributors. So that means there are a lot of you out there we've never heard from!

On a smaller scale, the library uses data to see trends in our circulation. As Acquisitions Coordinator, I do a lot of analysis of our collection to see what materials are popular, what we could use more copies of, and what materials aren't as popular. Did you know there is an item in our library that has circulated over 1000 times? It's a VHS copy of The Accidental Tourist. Our administration department looks at data as well, to see how many people use the library every month and how many books we've circulated. In September 2008 alone, we enjoyed a circulation of over ninety thousand items.

So what can you do with data? Here at the library, we use it to better serve the public. Bill Tancer says that companies who analyze Internet search results can predict trends and get better market shares. Personally, I enjoy knowing these facts about the library and about the world around me. Data can be fascinating and eye-opening.

computer guts

Ever wonder what goes into assembling a computer? On Sun., Oct. 25, we'll be ripping apart (I mean, lovingly disassembling) a donated PC here at the library. Along the way, we'll talk about the various components and how to keep up with the technology. In this age where software gets all the attention, it's easy to forget that at its heart your computer is just a bunch of soldered circuits. And magic too, don't forget the magic. In any case, if you're into hardware, drop by. It should be fun!