LoomWare

Firefox add-on lets surfers tweak sites, but is it safe? | CNET News.com

Firefox add-on lets surfers tweak sites, but is it safe? | CNET News.com

An interesting continuation of the "website graffiti" saga, most recently reinvigorated with Google's Auto-Link feature, comes with the new Firefox extension called Greasemonkey. Greasemonkey looks like a developer version of some of these tools, with an extensible architecture that could produce some interesting custom views of web pages!

Freedom to Tinker Updates Godwin's Law

I enjoy Felton's blog, Freedom to Tinker: Godwin's Law, Updated is a good example why.

New Blog Posts - Photos in Infospace

Not known to many is my first love - photography (well, actually, Beth was 1st, but that was grade 6). In fact, I almost became a photographer for life instead of a librarian, but the fear of poverty drove me in a different direction. Needless to say I like this direction, but I do miss the photo ops. I also often have a visual in mind when I create a blog entry, so I thought I would scratch those creative itches with a new set of blog posts: Photos in Infospace. I'm not sure exactly what will transpire, so in the time-honoured fashion of that famous remix: "This is my blog and I'll blog if I want to, blog if I want to..." - I am committed to adding some informative photos to my blog. Hopefully they will inspire others' of the info-persuasion to do likewise. Some will be informative, some frivilous, others eye candy, but like the song says...

Librarian(ish) Inventions #1

Librarian(ish) Inventions #1 is the 1st photo series and is simply an "invention" by those with librarian tendancies. What do I mean by tendancies? Well, the 1st Librarian(ish) Invention was suggested by my daughter, Maia, whose only librarian(ish) tendancies is a genetic one stemming from her librarian parents. It just seemed so valuable and obvious it had to be #1.

The Super-Fast-Insta-Dissolve-Juice-Can: Maia can't stand it when she has to make juice and the juice gick is frozen, so, she has invented this one. Just throw the can in the container add water and voila! Instant non-gicky juice (pulp optional). I also liked this one as I like anything with the word Juice in it. In fact, the student literary journal I founded with Catherine Hunter is called Juice. Worth a drink, trust me.

New York Times Editorial Board Blows It on Grokster

New York Times Editorial Board Blows It on Grokster: "Today, the New York Times (reg. req.) editorial board's lead editorial is on MGM v. Grokster. They manage to all but regurgitate Hollywood's talking points on the issue (When David Steals Goliath's Music):The battle over online music piracy is usually..."

Ernest Miller pretty much blows the NYT for their recent editorial re the Grokster file. While he sets 'em straight, I think it pretty much shows where the suits that decide such things as the laws of the land will be sitting after they read this issue of the semi-official tongue of democracy :-( The music industry may not be pretty, but they sure ain't dumb...

(Scraped from The Importance of....)

Copyright in Cyberspace 2: Questions and Answers for Librarians

Copyright in Cyberspace 2: Questions and Answers for Librarians

Just ordered this one. I suspect it will not be as useful for me up here in Canada, but my sense is it will be a good addition to a too short list of books on copyright in the digital age.

(Scraped from LibraryLaw Blog.)

Discovering Anita Shreve

I love it when I find an amazing author who I'm not familiar with - Anita Shreve is the latest one. Although I had heard of her before, I never took the time to read her stuff, despite suggestions from my wife that I would like her. I started with Light on Snow (her most recent) and was not disappointed. One of the most enjoyable reads I have had in a long time. Beautiful descriptions of snow in the woods, believable characters and a simple but compelling plot. This is one of those page-turners that isn't - in other words it is an insult to even suggest this novel is even in the same category as a traditional page turner. I couldn't put this one down; I wanted to know what happened and I wanted to keep experiencing Shreve's wonderful writing.

I enjoyed it so much I went to my local library and got a copy of A Pilot's Wife and although it was also a good read, not as good as Light on Snow. I'm looking forward to reading more of hers - recommended!

Media Site Should be a Foundation Open Content Site

I posted something on Wikimedia recently, but I like this one even better: Ourmedia. Described as "a free global repository for grassroots media, allows anyone to upload, store and share digital works. The site will accept home movies, music videos, original music, audio interviews, photos, art, documentaries, grassroots political ads, animations, books, student films, software — any work in digital form."

One interesting thing about Ourmedia is that is is associated with the Internet Archive. It is also a non-profit built around open source and the efforts of a number of dedicated volunteers. In return for the free hosting of media files, artists simply have to agree to let others share their work. Also, no surprise that Lawrence Lessig is an advisor as are Howard Rheingold, Brewster Kahle, Richard Prelinger and a host of other Commons builders.

Canadian Copyright Landscape Changes

The Canadian government announced some pending changes to copyright legislation yesterday. The best thing about it that it shows the typical Canadian balance to most things (good or bad, depending on which side of the balance you sit):

• filesharing takes a bit of a hit, as posting copyrighted songs to services like Kazaa will be illegal [not unexpected for a country that protects its cultural heritage a little more carefully than its beef];
• a little more ominous is the indication that ISP's will have to monitor traffic and alert customers when their connection is being used to share large files/amounts [don't like the sounds of that one];
• Canada will join the WIPO treaties [a move that errs very much on the side of the creator than the consumer, especially in areas like circumvention and rights management];
• Canada will not go with the U.S. in their DMCA-style take-down measures that are a huge threat to free speech [its not just Star Wars we disagree on];
• use of digital material for educational use will be permitted and, at least it sounds like, without any additional fees [big win here, depending on how this one fleshes out];
• electronic delivery of ILLs will be permitted [huge win here - now we can actually make our ILL workflow efficient!];
• the issue of levying an additional fee for access to content on the Internet has been shelved pending further study [while a win of sorts, I find it ominous that the government has not drawn a conclusion on this obvious point];
• there will also be further study of the "private copying" as it relates to audio files, although this section seemed to open the door for discussion re all formats.

While this certainly helps allay some of the concern over the more boneheaded suggestions from the Parliamentary Committee report, enough concern remains that libraries and other advocates of information freedoms need to stay on top of this one. Hopefully we do so in a much more proactive way than the reactive stance we had to adopt the last time.

Podcasting Rushes Past Nerdom to Mainstream

I first posted about Podcasting in October, not long after it started. The phenom has taken off, resulting in thousands of podcasts and better support for casts in standard reader software. I use NetNewsWire, which has good integrated support for podcasts. It automatically extracts files from feeds and loads them into iTunes, creating Playlists for each unique cast. The mainstream evidence is cropping up everywhere too - CBC has started podcasting Quirks and Quarks (one of the best shows on radio) and /Nerd: Tod Maffin's CBC Radio Tech Column. I have always missed being able to listen to Quirks and Quarks as my life gets busier and busier, so the ability to automatically download the podcast and listen to it on my iPod whenever I want (usually on the bus or walking home) is a big bonus. Thanks Bob! Check out the Globe and Mail piece on Podcasting.

Ithaca Has a Creative Approach to Urbans Wireless Network

I company called Lightlink has been providing free WiFi access to citizens throughout Ithaca by providing equipment to local businesses. The company provides the service because it acts as great advertising for their ISp and other business products. The win-win is that the wireless attracts customers to the local businesses (a lot of eateries) and helps sell their products as well. Sounds like a formula for success for cities like Winnipeg that are in the process if implementing wireless throughout the downtown core.