Building Testing Libraries
Grok Headline matches for Building Testing Libraries
Testing and Building with the New
gumstix SBCs, Part 1
Testing and Building with the New
gumstix SBCs, Part 1
06/05/2005 11:10 PMChecking back in with gumstix's expanding product line to see if the
original concerns have been addressed and what's possible now with the
waysmall modules.
Building MySQL snapshots on Debian
testing
Building MySQL snapshots on Debian
testing
12/02/2002 01:17 PMI used to build nightly snapshots of the MySQL development trees (both
3.23 and 4.0) on both FreeBSD an Debian. But I stopped that a month or
two back while I was debugging more important stuff. I recently
decided to...
The amount of office space that
corporations allocate to their libraries
has fallen by 8.36% over the past five
years, according to a new survey of
corporate libraries "Corporate Library
Benchmarks, 2004-05 Edition" ISBN:
1-57440-069-X.
The amount of office space that
corporations allocate to their libraries
has fallen by 8.36% over the past five
years, according to a new survey of
corporate libraries "Corporate Library
Benchmarks, 2004-05 Edition" ISBN:
1-57440-069-X.
09/03/2004 02:51 AMReports on results of a major survey of corporate and other business
libraries. Gives extensive data on management policies and practices
and details on spending trends for salaries, electronic and print
materials, and library services. [PRWEB Sep 3, 2004]
Web Load Testing Tool Launched Very few
website monitoring companies offer load
testing tools
Web Load Testing Tool Launched Very few
website monitoring companies offer load
testing tools
08/12/2004 02:51 AMDotcom-Monitor has just added an external web site load stress testing
tool to its suite of executive class website and network monitoring
services. [PRWEB Aug 12, 2004]
Merge old iPhoto libraries on CD with
iPhoto 5 libraries
Merge old iPhoto libraries on CD with
iPhoto 5 libraries
03/19/2005 02:40 AMI had several iPhoto libraries burned to CD backups from iPhoto 3 or 4
that I wanted to merge with my nearly complete iPhoto 5 library.
However, because I burned the libraries directly to CD from the Finder
or Toast, and not ...
Salon in Libraries?
Salon in Libraries?
03/19/2003 10:45 PMLast year I said I thought Salon should look into licensing
content to libraries, and now they're finally doing something about
it. Adrienne Crew, their Content Licensing Manager, sent me the
following:
"Thought you'd like to know that Salon's Premium Institutional
Subscription program for libraries is finally up and running....
Currently we are offering a one year subscription in the $300-400
range and feeds all access to the articles on the site via an IP
authentication system or a single password."
More details as I get them.
England Libraries May All Get Wi-Fi
England Libraries May All Get Wi-Fi
12/04/2003 01:07 PMThe majority of libraries in England already have broadband access but
now the government is working on adding Wi-Fi: Most of the libraries
in King County, outside of Seattle, have Wi-Fi. It's a great, low-cost
way for libraries to offer Internet access without having to provide
computers for everyone. My library always has a line of people waiting
to get on its computers so perhaps with Wi-Fi some people could come
in with their own computers to use the Internet. But I wonder how many
of the people I see waiting in line there actually have laptops that
they could bring with them instead....
New IM Record in Libraries
New IM Record in Libraries
03/14/2005 06:23 PMI've been so short on time lately that I've been trying to avoid
using what little blogging time I do have to simply repost what other
library bloggers are already putting up. This one, however, was just
too good to pass up.
when was the
last time you had this kind of response to a new library
service?
"Brian didn’t give me permission to publish a portion of
his email, but I’m so excited about it I’m going to throw caution
into the wind. He wrote [emphasis mine]:
'Rule number 1: Don’t send out IM reference fliers to
every middle school and jr. high classroom on the same day!
Had to have been at least 100 IMs in the first 2 hours after the
kiddies got home. For a while, I had about 20 IM windows up at once.'
"
Someone recently observed that there are a lot of Eeyo
res in the library community, but I think we can officially
declare IM reference a Martha-Stewart-good-thing for (at least) public
libraries and move it to Pooh status.
Cost of purchasing the AIM software: $0.
Cost of staff time to "man" the AIM service during those two hours:
already paid for.
Satisfaction of having 100 kids respond positively and view the
library in a new light: PRICELESS.
Echidna Libraries
Echidna Libraries
07/15/2004 07:16 AMAdded 8Bit Targa Support
slack-get 0.2 (Libraries)
slack-get 0.2 (Libraries)
05/04/2004 04:41 PMA tool like 'apt-get' for Slackware.
2D Graphics Libraries
2D Graphics Libraries
05/05/2004 07:45 PM
While platforms these days have fairly good 2D graphics support
like Quartz on OSX,
GDI+ on XP, and , and Gnome Canvas, developers like me often have
to use third-party
libraries for whatever reasons. On Win32, for example, GDI+
support is missing
in legacy platforms which means either giving up on fancy
graphics, redistributing
GDI+ binaries, use a third party library, or writing one
yourself. Writing one
yourself is fun (I have done it a couple of times over 20 years)
but, unless it offers
some unique features, you'll always end up migrating to a third
party library.
BTW, Flash has an excellent 2D graphics engine but it's lacks an
API so it's like
a sports car without a driving wheel. Yes, you can embed the
Flash ActiveX and
generate SWF on-the-fly but it's unwieldy for dynamic interaction
and even handling
gets tricky. Embedding Adobe SVG ActiveX is just as unwieldy
if not more.
While there are proprietary 2D engines out there, typically written
by a few guys
at a small company, they tend to disappear within a couple of
years, either bought
by companies (i.e. Apple, Adobe, Macromind, and Microsoft), or
abandoned out
of lack of interest or workable revenue model. Besides, they
charge fairly steep
fees so I tend to avoid them.
Out of all the freely available 2D libraries out there, Libart stands
out in features and quality. It offers fast
anti-aliased rendering
and it's use in Gnome Canvas over the years means most of the bugs
have already been
stepped on. Libart is also used to drive librsvg,
a SVG engine, and Java 2D, Java's graphics API, although Sun made
extensive changes
to tap hardware acceleration. While Libart can and has been
used cross-platform,
it's not exactly cakewalk to use in non-Linix platofrms. Cairo has
some interesting features and rising interest could mean it will
replace Libart someday,
but it's still in development.
Third-party 2D graphics library I really like these days is Anti-Grain
Geometry (AGG) which, although dormant for the last two years,
has been rejuvenated
with the released of version 2.1. AGG is written in C++ and
uses templates extensively
like ATL does. AGG is lightweight, very fast, flexible, and
full of features.
It even comes with a partial implementation of SVG
viewer as an example. AGG supports Win32, X11, and SDL as
is. It doesn't
yet support features variable stroke effects like Creature House's
Expression
3 engine and Fractal Design's Painter support but then
it's just me being
unreasonable. :-)
I should note that subpixel graphics was first done 20 years
ago in Word
Handler to display 70 columns of hi-res text on Apple
II.Silicon
Valley Systems, the company that published Word Handler, was
based just 5 minutes
from where I live now and I enjoy fond memories of working there
every time I pass
by the old office on El Camino. I guess everybody remembers
their first job.
LCD screens were just starting to replace LED on calculators at the
time, so Steve
Gibson and Microsoft ClearType can claim to be the first to use
subpixel graphics
on LCD screen. Lenny Elekman, where are you now?
Libraries and the Internet
Libraries and the Internet
12/19/2004 03:00 PM
Kudos to Google and its new university allies -- including my alma
mater, the University of Michigan, as well as Harvard, Stanford, and
Oxford -- for their exciting project to
open the stacks (Wall Street
Journal, via
Paul
Kedrosky). It's a great day for the dissemination of knowledge!
Bloggers from these institutions are relaying the emails received from
their administrators:
...NB Parser Libraries
NB Parser Libraries
06/11/2004 09:55 AMProject started
slack-get 0.3 (Libraries)
slack-get 0.3 (Libraries)
05/26/2004 10:49 PMA tool like 'apt-get' for Slackware.
It’s the Libraries, Stupid
It’s the Libraries, Stupid
06/09/2004 11:39 PMVia Jeff Dillon,
some insightful words on programming in Java and
in the C#/.NET/Mono ecosystem. I hadn’t thought about it that way.
PlanetaMessenger.org Libraries
PlanetaMessenger.org Libraries
11/01/2003 10:43 AMJMML 0.4 released
Merlin Libraries
Merlin Libraries
06/06/2004 05:02 AMMerlin Libraries v0.1.103 (unstable) Released
"http://p2p.libraries.psu.edu/"
"http://p2p.libraries.psu.edu/"
11/18/2003 03:32 AMEssential in Libraries?
Essential in Libraries?
04/27/2004 10:48 PMSMS an
Essential Communication Tool
"The Mobile Data Association (MDA) reports that 2.1 billion text
messages were sent in March 2004 in the U.K which is a 25% rise on the
total from the same month last year.At present, on average, around 69
million text messages are sent each day in the UK.This article from
the BBC states.'It is evident that in the last five years texting has
grown from a popular craze among teenagers to an essential
communication tool.'
Text
messaging reaches new high" [Smart Mobs]
'UK libraries out of use by 2020'
'UK libraries out of use by 2020'
04/26/2004 09:46 PMThe public will stop using libraries if visitor numbers and book loans
continue to fall, according to a new report.
Libraries 8, Amazon 0
Libraries 8, Amazon 0
12/09/2003 12:13 PMHave You
Ever Wondered....
"Have you ever wondered if the library were like Amazon.com?"
[The J-Walk
Blog]
YSL Coding Libraries
YSL Coding Libraries
12/11/2003 06:12 PMTransfer of CVS repository in progress
Computers in Libraries: Keeping Up
Computers in Libraries: Keeping Up
03/19/2005 02:36 AMGary Price, Genie Tyburski, and Steven Cohen talked about keeping up
in "Tips for Keeping Up: Expert Panel" that was the last item on Track
A on Wednesday. (Track A...
Forcing SQL Performance Libraries into
WMI
Forcing SQL Performance Libraries into
WMI
06/03/2004 03:15 PMACCESS AT UK PUBLIC LIBRARIES
ACCESS AT UK PUBLIC LIBRARIES
12/30/2003 07:42 PMIN THE UK MOST PUBLIC LIBRARIES CAN BE ACCESSED. THEN AGAIN WHY NOT
JUST POP IN AS THE WEB IS ACCESSED FREE ANYWAY.
Libraries reach out on-line
Libraries reach out on-line
12/29/2004 12:06 PMglobetechnology.com Dec 29 2004 3:22PM GMT
Libraries and the Coming Age of Video
Libraries and the Coming Age of Video
01/22/2004 03:24 AMOur Everyday, Everywhere Exposure to Video
"Digital video is starting to have profound implications for the
way humans absorb information, interact and communicate.
Are we entering a post-literate society? How does the presence of
screens with moving images just about everywhere affect our behavior?
Is Big Brother watching us, or does it just feel that way?...
Consider, however, Deja View's Camwear, to my mind the 'killer app'
of CES this year. A tiny camera clips onto your glasses, hat or shirt
pocket. It's attached by a thin cord (which you can run inside your
shirt or top) to a camcorder that, because it uses flash storage and
has no display, is about the size and weight of a deck of cards.
Here's the concept: Camwear records everything you do, but doesn't
store it anywhere until you tell it to, and then only in 30-second
clips (16 on an included 64 megabyte memory card, but it accepts up to
a 512 MB card).
But the key is this: You get to decide after the fact if
something's worth keeping — and then capture it — rather
than recording everything and having to go back and view and edit
hours of video.
For longer clips you can 'daisy-chain' 30-second segments (although
you'll miss about 1.5 seconds of action in between). Battery life is
around four hours. It uses state-of-the-art MPEG-4 formatting and
works with a PC, Mac, TV and related display devices.
Beyond the obvious 'America's Funniest Home Videos' application,
Camwear has a host of intriguing uses. Consider the ATM that doesn't
give you your cash. Or the salesperson who changes the deal on you. Or
playing back the earthquake or car crash to the insurance agent. It's
your life as Reality TV....
Then there's our quality of life and self-concept as human beings.
If the camera is always on us and our surroundings, what does that do
to our sense of privacy, security and individuality?...." [Seattle Times, via JD's New Media Musings]
On the one hand, that's a pretty scary world to think about living
in. On the other hand, I really-really-really want one of these
things! Parents know how many times you wish you had a video recorder
handy when the kids say something particularly funny or just work
their kid-like charm.
I've mentioned here before that libraries need to start consider
cameraphones in their policies, and this opens a whole new can of
worms to the mix. It's not that cameraphones in and of themselves are
so bad, and you certainly can't ban them. They're not terribly
unique -- anyone could walk into your library with a 35mm camera
tomorrow and start snapping pictures -- but their approaching
ubiquity brings with them new issues.
However libraries have a myriad of policies governing appropriate
behavior in these very public places, many of which are designed to
maintain patron privacy. One of these days, someone is going to walk
into a library and be obvious about taking pictures of people with
their phone, even uploading them to the internet on the spot. It's
better to be proactive and discuss how to handle this type of
situation when it comes up, rather than have your surprised staff be
reactive and make a bad situation worse.
And hey, it's better to talk about this stuff now, before everyone
has a Deja View Camwear.
Are We at Year One of Texting in
Libraries? No.
Are We at Year One of Texting in
Libraries? No.
12/27/2004 12:53 AMI'll Give You a Bell : 20 Years of the Mobile Phone
"In just two decades, the mobile phone has become the
fastest-selling, most loved - and hated - consumer product. Britain is
the world's most mature mobile market, with more mobiles per head of
population and higher bills than any other country. Almost all adults
now have at least one mobile phone, one in two teenagers has a 'moby'
and a new British firm, Communic8, has just launched MyMo, a simple
phone for four- to eight-year-olds. Some 23 billion texts have been
sent this year and more than 20 billion calls made. The total value of
this electronic white noise is £15 billion....
Perhaps the biggest change mobiles have wrought is in the language
of communication we all use. Textsperanto - the amalgam of abbreviated
words, acronyms and coded punctuation that teenagers developed so that
they can fit more words into their space-limited SMS messages - was
designed to be impenetrable to adults but most of us have a grasp of
it now. When a pupil at a Scottish secondary school handed in an essay
entirely written 'in txt', her teacher gave her a 'C+ 4 e4t'....
For the refuseniks, however, the battle against the tiny power
tools is about to get a lot tougher. Twenty years after Ernie Wise
first pressed the green 'call send' button on a brick-sized Motorola
handset, the latest tiny, third-generation - 3G - phones are about to
hit the market. Today, thousands of teenagers and adults are poring
over geeky phone manuals, configuring their new handsets so that they
can surf the internet, download real-time TV and video clips, take
photographs, make video calls and play MP3 music files." [The Guardian, via textually.org]
I had to call Sprint today to find out why I haven't been able to
access any data services at home on my Treo for the last 10 days or
so. The new recording that you hear - first thing - is a message
noting that activations may take up to 24 hours because so many people
are revving up their new phones.
I find the following overheard conversation to be pretty
typical:
"College Girl: Yeah, I called mom and dad
and left a message on their machine. I've been calling their cell
phones too but they never pick up. They just don't understand.
(pause....) Yeah, they don't get it -- cell phones are supposed to be
carried around with them." [CamWorld]
None of which Could *Possibly* Apply to
Libraries, Too
None of which Could *Possibly* Apply to
Libraries, Too
06/09/2004 06:58 PM
The Internet
Search on Mobile Race
"IDC analyst Mr Keith Wayras expects 30 million people, or 17 per
cent of US mobile subscribers, to use the web on phones in 2006,while
currently in Japan about 44.8 million people, or 58 per cent of
internet users, access the web on their mobile phones.Internet access
will be available on most of the approx 600 million mobile phones
expected to be sold worldwide this year.While it is already possible
to run a Google search on phones, it is not always easy with websites
built for desktop computers and not small-screened devices.This
article says that "Google itself said in April that if it doesn't
launch products that improve Web searches on handheld devices, it will
fail to win a significant share of an increasingly important part of
the online market."The article goes on to analyse Microsoft,Yahoo and
AOL's moves in the internet search on mobile race.
Google could change the wireless internet"
[Smart
Mobs]
New List of Wi-Fi Consultants for
Libraries
New List of Wi-Fi Consultants for
Libraries
06/03/2004 11:42 PM
Bill Drew has
started a list of consultants on The Wireless
Librarian site. Get help with your own Wi-Fi implementation or
help the list grow by sending in additions.
Flaw Found in Sun XDR Libraries
Flaw Found in Sun XDR Libraries
03/20/2003 08:29 AM
CERT/CC officials warn of vulnerabilities caused by an integer
overflow that may let intruders crash a system or cause it to leak
sensitive information, such as secret keys.
Wireless Not Evil in Libraries
Wireless Not Evil in Libraries
03/19/2003 10:45 PM
Another good post I missed while gone - Let's
Hurry Up with the WiFi, Borders Is!
"Borders has hooked up with Intel® for this venture.
Intel® is promoting their Intel® Centrino(TM) mobile
technology not only in these outlets, but also Hilton hotels and resorts. [link goes to
article and list of hotels] and McDonald's.
If libraries can't be on the cutting edge of this technology, we at
least need to be ready and implement it before it gets totally
mainstream. While I wish libraries could introduce this technology to
everyone, it isn't happening that way. The news about Intel®
promoting their product is heartening, though, becasue I'm ready to be
connected all of the time.
See Wireless
Librarian for articles and a list of libraries implementing
wireless technology." [LISNews.com]
The comments on this post are more interesting than the article
itself (we all know the outside world is going wireless with or
without us). Someone tries to compare wireless apples to ebook oranges
in the context of bad technologies. While it's important to go
into these types of ventures with your eyes wide open to the pitfalls
and disadvantages, I have yet to meet anyone who can make a convincing
case that wireless, pervasive internet access won't be a
major part of our lives in the near future (and I say that as a
consumer, not a librarian). Near meaning the next 5-10 years, which
means libraries need to start preparing now.
Remember - "preparing" doesn't have to mean
"implementing." Yet. The good part is that there's time to
start learning about wireless technologies and their various
implementations.
Here's my favorite comment from the LISNews thread:
"Our libary steers away from untested technology like electric
light. Because what happens if the power goes out? That is why we
[rely] on fires built around the library. You can read the stone
tablets by firelight just fine. We don't want to mess with that crazy
'paper' technology."
Digital Libraries Magazine
Digital Libraries Magazine
01/17/2004 10:48 PM
Digital Libraries Magazine
http://www.d
lib.org/dlib/january04/01contents.html
The January,
2004 Issue of Digital Libraries Magazine is now Online.
Reuniting iPhoto Libraries
Reuniting iPhoto Libraries
01/17/2004 10:43 PM
Medical Libraries in Europe
Medical Libraries in Europe
04/28/2004 05:53 AM
Medical Libraries in Europe
http://www.pubmed.nl/libeur.htm
A comprehensive listing of medical libraries in
Europe. This will be added to Healthcare Resources
2004 Internet MiniGuide and has been added to Healthcare Resources
Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.
portal: Libraries and the Academy
portal: Libraries and the Academy
02/10/2004 02:49 AM
portal: Libraries and the Academy
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/
A journal that presents research findings and provides regular
coverage of issues in technology, publishing, and periodicals, portal
is written by librarians for librarians. Peer-reviewed articles
address subjects such as library administration, information
technology, and information policy. The journal examines the role of
libraries in meeting institutional missions, explores how technology
affects librarianship and scholarship, and conveys this research to
academic librarians in a timely manner. Through the highest-quality
research and news about librarianship in higher education
institutions, portal provides a much needed, fresh perspective. portal
earned recognition as the runner-up for the best new journal of 2001,
awarded by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.
Ham Radio Control Libraries 1.2.0
Ham Radio Control Libraries 1.2.0
02/18/2004 01:18 PM
Shared libraries for HAM radio equipment control.
Computers in Libraries -- Wednesday
Computers in Libraries -- Wednesday
03/19/2005 02:36 AM
I went to four sessions yesterday in addition to the keynote and went
to the dead technologies night session, and I wonder why I'm tired
when I get to the...
Advice for Libraries from My Aggregator
Advice for Libraries from My Aggregator
04/29/2004 11:11 PM
PC Mag Says
Death to 802.11b (Almost)
"PC Magazine rounds up several
802.11g routers, and says they're cheap enough, they're good enough:
802.11b no longer enjoys a large enough (or any) price differential
for quality Wi-Fi gateways that include WPA encryption support, PC Mag
says. So while you can still find 802.11b devices on the market, they
recommend new gear have 802.11g built in...." [Wi-Fi Networking
News]
Lesson: Make sure you buy 802.11g for your
library.
Making
CD-R's Last
"From Doug
Kaye I learned of an interesting
article on how long CD-R's will last and things you can do to
increase or decrease that time. I've always just popped down to
Staples and bought the cheapest disks I could find. For some of my
uses (the latest Suse distro, for example) that's fine. But this
article makes the point that if you're using the disk to archive
important material, you need to be more careful. The article contains
information on how to select good media and media that's appropriate
for the drive that you'll be recording on. This may be especially
important for organizations building large collections of CD-R's that
they need to keep to meet regulatory or other business requirements."
[Windley's Enterprise Computing
Weblog]
Lesson: If your library is using CD-Rs for
backups, archiving, or preservation, pick the right ones!
Grok Description matches for Building Testing Libraries
GrokA matches for Building Testing Libraries
Building Testing Libraries
