Stream of Consciousness

At one of the libraries where I work, a co-worker passed along a fascinating link to a haunted library.  So why did I categorize this under technology?  Check this out.

One library in particular has installed three cameras that are connected to the internet.  Yep, you can watch for their ghosts online ’round the clock. 

If you see a ghost, you click on the camera image.  The image is saved and you can write comments with it.  Then the saved image and your caption go into their online collection of ghost pictures.

This was really cool because, as a total scaredy cat myself, I would never ever go near a haunted anything on purpose.  Much like I wouldn’t go see a lion in the wild, but in the zoo it’s a different story because I feel more like I’m observing the critter from a safe distance where it is unaware of my presence.

While most of the saved images are shadowy, there were a few that I found truly startling.

Here is a link to their ghost cams:  http://www.willardghost.com/index.php?content=ghostcams

And here is a link to one of my favorite ghost images from that library:

1.  Disembodied leg. http://www.willardghost.com/ghostspottings/inspect.php?capture=28760&pic=20070111/WillardGhostCapture_20070111-04:09:29.jpg

I was at a conference last week, one that I go to for work each year, and what a difference a year makes.

Last year, there were long lines at the computer center that was set up where we could check our email and print out seminar handouts.  This year - no waiting at the computer center.  

 Two reasons come to mind.  First, the hotel has internet in each room and a wireless signal in the lobby!

I was kicking myself for not bringing a laptop from work, because in-room internet was less than $6 per day.  Then I really kicked myself on the last day when I found a wireless keyboard in the TV stand!  I could have been using internet over the TV in the room even though I had not brought a laptop - wow!  I had no idea they were doing that.

Second reason is that so many people have phone/PDA things with internet in their pocket (and yes, I still want an iPhone and I still need to save up for it).

I was recalling this morning at work how very much easier life has been since most of our students have acquired thumb drives.  These are also called USB drives or USB keys.  Sometimes you will see them on a keyring or a lanyard.

These are so cool becacuse, unlike floppy disks, they don’t get ’stuck’ in the drive slot (for which we have our high-tech diskette removal beauty supply eyebrow tweezers). 

They are better than CDs for three reasons.  The first reason is that some of our older computers don’t write to CD.  The second reason is that sometimes the student will bring a CD that is not re-writable and then they get upset that they can’t write over an older file.  The third reason is that CD are prone to scratches and USB do not expose the data surface to damage.

The only drawback to USB is that they are so small.  Usually this is a good thing, except that they are so totally small that people forget to take them out of the machine before they leave.  We have a special box in our lost & found collection for these.

My thought on this is that the manufacturers should start making them in dayglow neon colors instead of the traditional black and grey - that way they’d be much more eye-catching and therefore more difficult to leave behind on accident.

But until then, if you leave your USB on the lanyard when you put it into a computer, and you tie a colorful little ribbon on the lanyard, you’ll be much less likely to forget your thumb drive when you leave. 

I didn’t get it.  When I first created an account on Facebook it was so totally boring.  There was nothing going on, and it was not easy for me to figure out how to find stuff.

Now, a group of my peers has discovered Facebook, and suddenly it’s the neatest place to be.  I feel like I’m in school again, doodling on my papers and passing notes to friends.

I’m sure this initial fascination wears off, as evidenced by our less-frequent logins from a few months ago.  And, of course, now that I’ve been actually using it I’ve got too many cutesy little applications plugged into my profile.  I’m sure they’re all gleefully sucking cookies off my computer too.  But how to choose which ones to let go of?

I find that when a friend sends you an application, it’s tough to say no.  One of my problems is that I may have to use my own site to demo stuff for work, so I don’t want to put anything too offensive up there, and yet I still want to have fun at the same time.  For example, there are ‘fight’ pokes you can send to your friends (all in fun) but I would hate to have any of those taken out of context.

One of these applications that has me hopelessly hooked is called ‘fluff pets’.  Yep, now not only do I go home to clean the litterbox of my own 3 dimensional cat, I have to be sure to feed, pet, and walk my virtual pet daily in order to avoid tremendous guilt as his mood changes from happy to miserable with increases in my neglectfulness.  I need a virtual pet-sitter!

iWant an iPhone, and I will whine about it to anyone who knows me.  I want visual voicemail.  I want the internet in my pocket.  I want a camera attached so I can post those pictures instantly instead of having them hidden on little sd cards at home that still need to be unloaded.  Not to mention that it’s the coolest iPod ever.  And ALL of my friends/relatives/etc. have told me to wait for the price to drop and the next release - grrrrrrrr.

I’m torn now when I use IM. 

I’ve been using Windows Live Media (love all the animated winks and emoticons) but it sucks with contacts from yahoo.  So for them I go to Meebo.  I love Meebo.  Nothing to download - log in and go.  But it is limited in the cutesy stuff.

And I know that I really should be able to figure out how to use Twitter, but my GenX roots are showing when I’ve got no contacts to use it with! 

My newest addiction.

Free site where you can add your favorite titles to your ’shelf’, rate and review them, and share with friends and see their ’shelves’ too. Great concept, now they need to do this with music and movies and they’ll be all set. http://www.shelfari.com

Finally got it working - between code from three different people I’ve got a search box for the NULS OPAC working. I inserted a demo in my MySpace page. For those of you who wish to add it to your webpages here is the source code (use ‘view source’ to pick it up) http://www.myspace.com/virgh

Just finished watching “An Inconvenient Truth” - wow, amazing how they got the evidence together in a compelling format. 

HOWEVER, I must say I was terribly disappointed that there was way more emphasis on the science and not so much on how to fix the problem.  I went to the website listed at the end of the film (www.climatecrisis.net, 2007), and here are tips from their pages on what you can do to help solve the problem:

AT HOME

• Replace a regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
• Install a programmable thermostat, and move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
• Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
• Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
• Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket and use less hot water.
• Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
• Turn off and unplug electronic devices you’re not using
• Only run your dishwasher with a full load and use the energy-saving setting
• Insulate and weatherize your home
• Be sure you’re recycling at home and buy recycled paper products
• Plant a tree
• Get a home energy audit and switch to green power

AT MEALS

• Buy locally grown and produced foods, organic foods, fresh not frozen. 
• Avoid heavily packaged products.
• Eat less beef.

TRANSPORTATION

• Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling, car sharing, telecommuting, or taking mass transit wherever possible.
• Keep your car tuned up and your tires properly inflated.
• When it is time for a new car, choose a more fuel efficient vehicle.
• Fly less often.

So many students who are about to begin their thesis don’t get enough information on the process itself of thesis writing.  Here are the tips I’ve learned along the way of both writing my own and helping others in the Library.

1.  Start with Chapter 2 (Literature Review) so you know what is out there on your topic area.  Then you can fill in Chapter 1 (Introduction) and figure out specifically what question you want to research.

2.  Learn what your word processor can do for you automatically.  Did you know that the Table of Contents can be done automatically?  That you can sort the references automatically?  Do you know how to set it automatically to display roman numerals on the first few pages and Arabic numbers on the rest?

3.  For each article that you read, create a 3×5 card (or a 4×6 card) with the last name of the first author, the year, and BRIEF notes about how the article relates to your topic.  Then, when you’re ready to organize your literature review, you can shuffle the cards and not the banker’s box of journal articles that you have collected (yes, you will probably have that many!).

4.  Decide on a logical set of divisions for your Chapter 2 (Literature review).  Does this topic fit into past/present/future?  Would it make more sense to divide it by three major concepts within the discipline?  Should it be divided geographically into regions (US, Europe, Asia, etc.)?

5.  Have at least one person you can truly count on to read over your paper and look for grammar, spelling, or logic errors.  This person should be someone OTHER than your professor, so you don’t wear them out with re-readings. 

6.  Pick a topic you love because by the end of the process you’ll be sick of it.

7.  Know that when you ‘finish’ writing it, and give it to your prof., they’re going to give it back to you with corrections to make.  Don’t cry - just know that it’s like a boomerang and will keep coming back to you for a while, even when you think it’s all finished.

8.  I didn’t listen (hindsight) to my wonderful friend who very correctly said that human subjects make it take MUCH longer than if you avoid trying to do it with original human subject research.  Sigh.  (Don’t get me wrong - I like doing original research - but it has taken me a year to finish this one thing rather than one semester as I had hoped for.)  Why does it take longer?  Approvals and permission slips, and ‘recruiting’ participants is much more difficult than it sounds.

9.  Thesis grades are pass/fail, but some of us get wrapped up in wanting to ‘publish’ our findings.  Here’s a thought:  you’re writing the thesis for the professor & committee.  Get them what they need, get your grade, graduate, and then you can spend more time fluffing up your work to your liking, if you’re more of a perfectionist than is needed to ‘pass’ the thesis.

10.  Do the abstract LAST - it’s a summary of everything, including your findings, so there’s no way you can write a good abstract first even though it will be one of the first pages in your document.