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Hemingway's Son Marks 80th Birthday : NPR

Hemingway's Son Marks 80th Birthday : NPR.

Authors
Hemingway's Son Marks 80th Birthday
by Scott Simon

Listen Now [7 min 50 sec] add to playlist
Weekend Edition Saturday, June 28, 2008 · Patrick Hemingway, son of famed writer Ernest Hemingway, celebrates his 80th on Saturday. He talks with Scott Simon about his life and his memories of his father.

Anticipating Anaheim | ALA TechSource

Anticipating Anaheim | ALA TechSource.

Anticipating Anaheim
Submitted by Jason Griffey on June 21, 2008 - 8:16pm.

Every year my preparations for going to the ALA Annual conference go through a series of stages. First, the "Oh, I guess I should buy a ticket and find a hotel room" stage, which fades into the "yes, I know it's coming, but there are still weeks to prepare" stage. Then at some point I start getting emails reminding me about this meeting, or that meeting, or I see a note somewhere about a program I really don't want to miss, and amidst all this I think "I should start planning my schedule."

Then, about a week before I leave, I actually try to do it.

This year, I'm over scheduled to the max, but the tools I used to find that out are the interesting part. A few weeks ago, as part of the experimental site YourBIGWIG, I put up a Google Calendar and asked anyone who wanted edit access to just let me know. I added everyone who asked...and we had a complete LITA schedule added to the calendar in hours. Every single program associated with LITA added to the calendar, public, and available for anyone to use to plan their conference (at least as far as LITA is concerned). Take a look at the way it works, then tell me that it wouldn't be great if every ALA division put one of these together. Here is it...

Cool use of calendaring technologies by ALA LITA and Jason.. well done.. visit the link and the page on the site to view the calendar...

ALA Annual Anaheim: June/July 8: Google Maps

ALA Annual Anaheim: June/July 8: Google Maps.

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ICANN adopts new Web site naming rules | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

ICANN adopts new Web site naming rules | Tech news blog - CNET News.com.

June 26, 2008, 1:13 PM PDT
ICANN adopts new Web site naming rules
Posted by Marguerite Reardon

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers voted Thursday to relax rules for naming Web sites.

At its meeting in Paris, ICANN, a not-for-profit organization that oversees the naming scheme for Web sites, voted to accept a proposal that will allow companies to purchase new top-level domain names ending in whatever they like.

So, for example, instead of being restricted to sites ending in .com or .org., eBay could have a site that ends in .ebay, or New York City could end its Web site with .nyc.

Goodbye, Bill Gates! - Forbes.com

Goodbye, Bill Gates! - Forbes.com.

Legends
Goodbye, Bill Gates!
Edited by Wendy Tanaka, 06.23.08, 6:00 PM ET

Bill Gates is one of the most influential and wealthiest people the world has ever seen. He's a ruthless businessman who built Microsoft into a software empire that would dominate office and home computing around the world.

Forbes named Gates as the world's richest person for 13 years straight. But all good things must come to an end. On June 27, he is leaving the company he co-founded more than 30 years ago to devote himself to philanthropic work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Here's a look back at Gates' career and what lies ahead for him.

Rethinking the Country Life as Energy Costs Rise - NYTimes.com

Rethinking the Country Life as Energy Costs Rise - NYTimes.com.

Rethinking the Country Life as Energy Costs Rise
By PETER S. GOODMAN, Published: June 25, 2008

ELIZABETH, Colo. — Suddenly, the economics of American suburban life are under assault as skyrocketing energy prices inflate the costs of reaching, heating and cooling homes on the distant edges of metropolitan areas.

Just off Singing Hills Road, in one of hundreds of two-story homes dotting a former cattle ranch beyond the southern fringes of Denver, Phil Boyle and his family openly wonder if they will have to move close to town to get some relief.

They still revel in the space and quiet that has drawn a steady exodus from American cities toward places like this for more than half a century. Their living room ceiling soars two stories high. A swing-set sways in the breeze in their backyard. Their wrap-around porch looks out over the flat scrub of the high plains to the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains.

But life on the edges of suburbia is beginning to feel untenable. Mr. Boyle and his wife must drive nearly an hour to their jobs in the high-tech corridor of southern Denver. With gasoline at more than $4 a gallon, Mr. Boyle recently paid $121 to fill his pickup truck with diesel fuel. In March, the last time he filled his propane tank to heat his spacious house, he paid $566, more than twice the price of 5 years ago.

George Carlin, Splenetic Comedian, Dies at 71 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

George Carlin, Splenetic Comedian, Dies at 71 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com.

George Carlin, Splenetic Comedian, Dies at 71
    By MEL WATKINS, Published: June 24, 2008

George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He was 71.

The cause of death was heart failure. Mr. Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, went into the hospital on Sunday afternoon after complaining of heart trouble. The comedian had worked last weekend at The Orleans in Las Vegas.

A sad loss for us, a great comedic mind, that would not be quiet, or gentle, or tame.. he was an original, like Hope or Benny or Miller, and he will be missed...

Internet Archive: Details: Librarian, The | 1947

Internet Archive: Details: Librarian, The | 1947.

Librarian, The (1947)

Shows the work of different library personnel. This item is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives
Producer: Holmes (Burton) Films, Inc.
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Occupations: Librarians Creative Commons license: Public Domain

ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » Resource of the Week: Prelinger Archives

ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » Resource of the Week: Prelinger Archives.

Resource of the Week: Prelinger Archives
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

Warning! Time sink alert!

I’m not really sure how long it would take to to view all 2,000+ films in this collection, housed at the Internet Archive, but this site is really like a bag of potato chips. You can’t consume just one.

    Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 60,000 “ephemeral” (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Prelinger Archives remains in existence, holding approximately 4,000 titles on videotape and a smaller collection of film materials acquired subsequent to the Library of Congress transaction. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven’t been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions. Getty Images represents the collection for stock footage sale, and almost 2,000 key titles are available here. As a whole, the collection currently contains over 10% of the total production of ephemeral films between 1927 and 1987, and it may be the most complete and varied collection in existence of films from these poorly preserved genres.

U. of Buffalo Libraries Puts Its Catalog Up Against Google Book Search

U. of Buffalo Libraries Puts Its Catalog Up Against Google Book Search - Library Journal.

U. of Buffalo Libraries Puts Its Catalog Up Against Google Book Search

The Internet Age is all about disruption—and for academic libraries, no technology may prove to be more disruptive than Google Books, suggests Mark J. Ludwig and Margaret R. Wells in the June 15 issue of Library Journal. In "Google Books vs. BISON", they report the results of a provocative experiment to compare the search giant’s rapidly-growing database of book content with the University of Buffalo (UB) OPAC—and the article is already sparking reaction.

"We were curious about whether our new BISON (Buffalo Information System ONline) catalog has actually improved service to our users, or whether competitors like Google Books have usurped the former functions of our catalog and local collections," the authors write. The experiment ultimately yielded more questions than answers and an array of opportunities, as well as challenges, for librarians. "Tools like Google Books and other ebook platforms will soon be serious alternatives to idiosyncratic, local search interfaces," the authors write. "Ensuring that the latter are searchable, accessible, and visible is a role only libraries can fulfill."

The Mike Wallace Interview - University of Texas School of Information

The Mike Wallace Interview - University of Texas School of Information.

The Mike Wallace Interview

“Whether you agree or disagree with what you will hear, we feel that none will deny the right of these opinions to be broadcast.”

In the early 1960’s, broadcast journalist Mike Wallace donated 65 recorded interviews made in 1957-58 from his show “The Mike Wallace Interview” to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. The bulk of these were 16mm kinescope film recordings, some of the earliest recordings of live television that were possible, and that survive today. Many of these have not been seen for over 50 years, and they represent a unique window into a turbulent time of American, and world history. From Senators to strippers, Ku Klux Klansmen to Nobel Prize winners, Mike Wallace has interviewed them all, and we invite you to view The Mike Wallace Interview .

San Diego Reader | No Shushing in This Library

San Diego Reader | No Shushing in This Library.

Stories | Clairemont | Cover Story
No Shushing in This Library
By Alex Finlayson | Published Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Grace Carroll is the kind of girl you’d trust for a scoop on the San Diego scene. She’s pretty, blonde, smart. She tends bar in one of La Jolla’s hottest restaurants, where the clientele isn’t much older than the twentysomething chef, who may have been the first here to foist celery foam on culinary early-adopters.

“I can’t believe you haven’t been.” Carroll’s voice lowers to conspiracy level as she pours our drinks. “The space is totally amazing. Sometimes I go just to hang out.”

This insider tip we get with our sauvignon blanc is not about a club, microbrew pub, or boutique. It’s a library. The Mission Valley Branch of the San Diego Public Library.

Last year more than half of all Americans visited a library at least once, according to a new report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. But the real kicker is this: the age group most likely to use a library is none other than Carroll’s tech-savvy, wired-from-the-womb Generation Y (18 to 30 years old).

The Fate of The Sentence: Is the Writing On the Wall? - washingtonpost.com

The Fate of The Sentence: Is the Writing On the Wall? - washingtonpost.com.

The Fate of The Sentence: Is the Writing On the Wall?
By Linton Weeks, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, June 15, 2008; Page M01

The demise of orderly writing: signs everywhere.

One recent report, young Americans don't write well. In a survey, Internet language -- abbreviated wds, :) and txt msging -- seeping into academic writing.

But above all, what really scares a lot of scholars: the impending death of the English sentence.

Librarian of Congress James Billington, for one. "I see creeping inarticulateness," he says, and the demise of the basic component of human communication: the sentence.

Stan Winston, 62; special-effects guru won 4 Academy Awards - Los Angeles Times

Stan Winston, 62; special-effects guru won 4 Academy Awards - Los Angeles Times.

Stan Winston, 62; special-effects guru won 4 Academy Awards
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, June 17, 2008

[Screenshot image from the article]

Stan Winston, the renowned makeup, creature- and visual-effects wizard whose memorable work on "Aliens," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Jurassic Park" earned him four Academy Awards, has died. He was 62.

Winston died of complications from multiple myeloma Sunday at his home in Malibu, said his son, actor Matt Winston.

"The entertainment industry has lost a genius and I lost one of my best friends," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, of "Terminator" fame, said in a statement Monday. "Stan's work and four Oscars speak for themselves and will live on forever."

Great SFX creator and genius, he will be missed, and gone way too young...

Graphical Internet Access on a Budget: Making a Pseudo-SLIP Connection.

Graphical Internet Access on a Budget: Making a Pseudo-SLIP Connection..

ERIC #: EJ515005
Title: Graphical Internet Access on a Budget: Making a Pseudo-SLIP Connection.
Authors: McCulley, P. Michael
Descriptors: Access to Information; Comparative Analysis; Computer Graphics; Computer Networks; Computer Software Evaluation; Costs; Internet; Modems; Telecommunications
Source: Online, v19 n6 p34-38 Nov-Dec 1995
Peer-Reviewed: N/A
Publisher: N/A
Publication Date: 1995-00-00
Pages: N/A
Pub Types: Book/Product Reviews; Reports - Descriptive; Journal Articles
Abstract: Examines The Internet Adapter (TIA), an Internet protocol that allows computers to be directly on the Internet and access graphics over standard telephone lines using high-speed modems. Compares TIA's system requirements, performance, and costs to other Internet connections. Sidebars describe connections other than TIA and how to find information about TIA. (JMV)

Another older article I found online today, via Google Scholar.. and some searching.. old technology, but this was 1995...