The "free" factor
The first thing I learned in economics was the driving force of scarcity. The second thing: there's no such thing as a free lunch. So when did all of a sudden the consumer masses expect so much for so little?
I remember being blown away by the fact that I could send and receive email for FREE! I thought "The USPS is really gonna take a hit from this!...apparently it has, since the price of stamps has increased about 3 times in less than 8 years. But this notion of getting something [incredibly useful] for nothing hasn't fazed the masses. If anything, we've been spoiled! Within the last year, Hotmail and Yahoo! have upped their inbox space by leaps and bounds--that was probably in response to the introduction of Gmail (and you know them Google peeps do everything big).
And then there was Napster.... That's all I'm gonna say about that to avoid incriminating...well, anybody. :o) But free music files on the Internet created a frenzy in the recording industry because unlike email services, music was NEVER meant to be distributed for free. Before this, the best that could be done was recording a favorite song off of the radio [and praying that you could get through the whole track without the DJ talking]. LOLNow there are entire programs and software packages available...for FREE. The peer-to-peer networking phenomenon probably has Adam Smith, Sigmund Freud and the rest of yester-generation's great thinkers turning over their graves! Why would any one human being invest commodies such as time and effort to make available to otherwise unrelated, anonymous individuals, resources that they posess with no [tangible] return on their investments?? Just for the joy of making the world a better [i.e. "freer"] place?
Nah, couldn't be...
It's a cloudy day
Not in the meteorological sense, though...I just created my first tag cloud(s)! :o) They're a bit 'puny', I'll admit--I was kinda disappointed at first when I saw them. But I know that once I continue posting diligently here and to del.icio.us (which is something I need to buckle-down on), they will fill-out rather nicely.
What was that? You wanna see it? Ummmm, no...that's OK. Maybe later, after I've had a chance to fatten it up a little.
Is it mid-term yet?
I can't remember...is the term half-way over with? I hope so. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep up with the "summer term" pace. AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH! (My apologies; that's the personal health anxiety talking [muscle tension headaches are NOT for the faint of heart or spirit]).
Ummm, OK...back to school stuff. I'm liking Leonardo's Laptop--Schneiderman has elicited cheers from students throughout the whole universe with his course grading suggestion to give all students A's. In fact, our own dear Dr. Tomer has been singing praises
about this book. Utilizing Da Vinci's perspective on intersections of art and science to discuss information technology is nothing short of brilliant.
Book Review #3
Third time's a charm?? I doubt it!I'm now reading for the third book review for LIS 2000, and would wonders never cease... we have THREE books to read and critique--and they're not "137-page pocket novels", either. Ummmm, so I'm thinking that this assignment is basically impossible since the last one was submitted on the 12th and this one's due date is a mere 14 days later. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying my best but I just don't see how I'm gonna pull this off.
In the meantime, I'm actually deriving some sort of enjoyment from The Social Life of Information. And I say only some because it would be nice to actually sit down and digest the reading material for what it is. Can't do that when you're busy scribbling notes and highlighting points that support your review's argument (which I still have yet to devise, by the way).
Wouldn't be great if I could just have a "bot" read the books and regurgitate a written body of work of scholarly acclaim? Not as far as Brown and Duguid are concerned--bots have their place but shouldn't be mistaken for humans in terms of the tasks they perform. For example, if I was able to have a computer program write my paper for me, what tone would it use? Would it be possible to customize software plug-ins for my characteristic sarcasm and dry wit [and ego]? I'm thinking....um, no.
So, off I go to attempt to complete my assignment. Wish me luck!
Technology sucks!
Yeah, I said it...SO WHAT?! Do you think it's fair that I'm a month into classes and have yet to participate in a CourseWeb chat session? [Why not?] Because it took me that long to figure out that I had to download Java software to be able to chat? [So what's the big deal?] It took an hour to download the program on *gasp* dial-up! [Good grief! Why do you still have that crap?] Because the topography of the volcanic boulder in the sea that I live on is so warped that no form of high-speed service exists in my area! AAAUUURRRRGH!!!!
Thank God I work in an Internet environment. The only problem is that I don't get paid to use their computers for my coursework.... I mean, how do I explain to my boss that I was watching/listening to a lecture taped at Pitt while I'm on the clock? "Ummm, professional development?" [Sorry kid, wrong profession.]
Like I said, technology sucks!
sleep deprivation [defined]
1. MLIS FastTrack program + working full time + everything else that comes with life
OR
2. Sleep deprivation is an overall lack of the necessary amount of
sleep. A person can be deprived of sleep by their own body and mind, as a consequence of some
sleep disorders, or actively deprived by another individual. Sleep deprivation is sometimes used as an instrument of
torture, but it has also been shown to be an effective treatment of
depression. Sleep deprivation afflicts 47 million adults in the
United States.
Lack of sleep may also result in irritability, blurred vision, slurred speech, memory lapses, overall confusion, hallucinations, nausea, psychosis, and eventually death.Yeah, these sound familiar...
Lesk vs. Baker...THE SMACKDOWN!
I'm toggling between books for the next review and I must say, I'm rather intrigued. Fortunately, these two authors are NOTHING like Mr. Kuhn (no offense to the Kuhnians out there). In fact, they're polar opposites of each other in terms of writing style--
Baker fits his points in between paragraphs of [in my opinion] over-illustrative anecdotes and far-flying tangents, while
Lesk's approach to the subject matter resembles textbook precision.
Apparently, their writing styles are not the only matter of polarity between them because each stands firmly planted on the opposite side of the debate "Preservation: Digitization versus Original Format". Neither one is even attempting to present objectivity in their books but both present strong cases. I'm curious to see who will "win" in my review.... ;o)
VI on-site visit #1
Today is the second day of our first official "campus visit" weekend, and I really didn't know what [or who] to expect. What I encountered, though, was an energetic group of 15 people from all 3 islands who are otherwise referred to as the VI Cohort [6]. Thanks to the icebreakers by "Sympathetic Sue" (bka Dr. Alman), I even managed to learn everyone's name the first night (which, for me, is a
major accomplishment).
And speaking of learning, I did some of that, too....actually, a lot of information exchange took place. Strangely now, all of the obscure posts in CourseWeb are beginning to make sense. For example, Dr. Tomer gave us the quick and dirty versions of: HTML vs XML,
web editing using NVU, tag clouds, information obsolescence,
DTD and other such relevant snippets that I'm recalling in random bursts since I haven't reviewed my notes yet. Oh yes, and I'm officially convinced--Firefox is da bomb (One less slave to the IE-driven Microsoft empire).
Dr. Alman also had us do an exercise to familiarize ourselves with
professional library associations, of which there are a gazillion--literally. She stressed the importance of taking advantage of networking and other resources available through these organizations (for a nominal fee, since we are officially students.) My personal fave happens to be the MLA; not the
Modern Language Association [infamous for bibliographic formats], but the
Medical Library Association. For those of you who are also in the Medical Informatics track, this site should be at the TOP of your Connotea/del.icio.us lists! I found MLA to be an invaluable resource while writing my FastTrack application statements--everything I needed or wanted to know about the field was there: from trends/current issues to salary expectations to consumer/patron resources.
I was especially glad to learn the details about our tagging and bookmarking assignments. Since coming into this class was my introduction to tags, [social] bookmarking, and the like, I was just chugging along and cluelessly following instructions as best I could. But "Confused Chris" (that's Dr. Tomer to you) gave us a preview of what the end product would look like. All of the tags that we create for bookmarks will be integrated into a visual representation that will use text size/boldness to depict relative 'importance' (the more instances a tag is used, the more important it must be, the bolder the text of that particular tag). Behold--a tag cloud in all its splendor:
So, ummm yeah.... information science is kinda cool. ;o)
Oh yeah, and I'm taggin' some of my Cruzan colleagues: one is "
courageous" and the other is "
meritorious". :o)
