Values

Thomas Friedman writes about "situational values" versus "sustainable values" in today's column, and summarizes them as follows. Someone who is acting on situational values thinks, "I'll be gone when the bill comes due." Someone acting on sustainable values thinks, "I will never be gone. I will always be here." He then goes on to point out the many ways our leaders, corporations, banks, and individuals have been acting as if they'll be gone when the bill comes due.

I like this description. Back when I was developing software, I ran into the same two kinds of programmers. There were those who wrote code as if they would be gone tomorrow, and there were those who wrote code as if they were also going to be the ones who would have to maintain it. I tried to write code as if the person who would have to maintain it were a homicidal maniac who knew where I lived.

If we're only living for the moment, if we are not thinking about the consequences of our actions today on the next generation, and the one after that, and the one after that, then what does that make us?

Extreme pricing

I've been aware for a while now that Amazon has a real-time pricing algorithm going on in the background, but I don't think I've ever seen prices change by a single penny before.

Socialism, Communism, or Co-Op?

Public schools?
Toll-free roads, bridges, tunnels?
City water?
Public hospitals?
Employee-owned company?
Neighbors and friends buying food in bulk and splitting it up?
Public libraries?
Public safety (police, firefighters)?
Interstate highways?
Electric company?

The missing manual for iPhoto

Apple makes beautiful products, no doubt about it. But they still can't read the user's mind.

A patron is using iPhoto to make a slideshow, and we weren't able to find a view or a menu option that would let us change the order of the photos. A little research and I learned that we first have to make an "Album" and then a "Library," and then we can order the photos in the Library Or was it the other way 'round? Library then Album? I'm still not too clear on that.

Here's Apple's explanation:

http://www.apple.com/support/ilife/tutorials/iphoto/ip4-1.html

The patron will be back in today. Maybe we can figure this out. But it's slow going when the patron is at the keyboard/touchpad.

Ferguson Library Goes Open Source

This is big news! I think the Ferguson Library in Stamford is the first stand-alone Connecticut library to migrate to an open source ILS--Koha in this case. Bibliomation, a consortium based in Middlebury, is already working on a migration to the Evergreen ILS. Who will be next?

http://liswire.com/content/ferguson-library-stamford-connecticut-migrates-liblime-enterprise-koha

Use it or lose it

In New Hampshire, at the end of the calendar year any unused public library allocations are supposed to go back to the city, town, or other taxing authority from whence they came. (In reality, I don't think they actually seize your checking account, but ...) Because our director position was vacant for nearly 6 months, we have some money left over, so the end of year spending spree is on. Today I ordered a video camera and all the fixins' (spare SDHC cards, camera bag, 72" tripod, USB adapter for the SD cards), and a blu-ray DVD player. I've already bought a Windows application called ConvertXtoDVD, which converts from many video formats (the X in the name) to a format suitable for burning to a video DVD that the typical home DVD player will recognize. I'm also buying a still camera, but there are so many choices in the $200 range that I will probably just go to Staples and Target and see what's on sale.

The new director is getting quotes to set me up with a real workbench down in the basement, complete with bench-level power outlets and additional network drops. (Right now there is only one network drop. Yeah. And that's for the OPAC server.) And he's going to get some quotes to double the number of network drops all over the building. Ten years ago I guess it must have seemed perfectly adequate to have two network drops in the staff room, two at the circ desk, one at the children's desk, a couple for OPACs, and a scattering of singletons in the public areas. Sort of like the way Intel thought that no one would ever need more than 640K of address space.

I've also gotten a go-ahead to start getting quotes for a website re-design, but I don't see how that can happen before December 31st. And we're going to do something for the Youth Computer Room; I don't have a dollar amount for that yet, but I'd like to see what we can do with Linux and our existing equipment, with help from a company like Userful.

Good times!

Ray Bradbury on public libraries

"Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries, because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years." Ray Bradbury, 2008.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09library.html