Neil Gaiman recently had a poll to determine which of his books HarperCollins would make available to read online. I was happy to hear that my favorite book of all time, American Gods, won. Yay!!
The Guardian has an article about why HarperCollins is doing this that I found somewhat interesting. This is kind of a nice promotional tool to encourage readers to check out a book and then maybe come back and buy it if they like it. I do think that the reader interface that HarperCollins is using could use some work. The inability to jump to specific pages and the general lack of variable display options makes it uncomfortable to read such a long book on your computer. This may be intentional on HarperCollins' part so that you are basically forced to buy the book to get a comfortable reading experience, but they should really rethink that model. If you're going to give something away for free, then don't also attach uncomfortable shackles to it.
Anyway, here's a link to the book so you can check it out for yourself:
Monday, March 3, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Videogames in Libraries
Do video games belong in public libraries?
I think the answer to this question is an emphatic MAYBE.
Some points in favor of video games as part of the core library mission are that video games have become cultural and artistic creations, and at least some of them serve educational purposes. I'd have a little bit of trouble defending this statement that video games are artistic creations simply because they haven't made that leap in the general public consciousness. They are far more likely to be considered as toys rather than art. I would imagine that movies started out in a similar way in that at first it was simply amusing that we could get a few crude moving images on the screen. Only later did film become an accepted art form to the point where the Oscars are now at least as prestigious as other major artistic awards. I admit to skimping on the film research to see if that is totally accurate, but it seems to have a core nugget of truth. In any case, current video games are reaching a level of artistic presentation that is quickly approaching the art of film making. If films are suitable for library collections, then why not video games?
The main problem with video games is that the primary mission of libraries is to educate and inform the populace. Modern libraries are beginning to stray from that mission somewhat, but the reason that our tax dollars go to libraries is that libraries can educate us and give us information to improve ourselves and become well rounded citizens. So maybe the real question here is should libraries stock romance novels, popular movies and the latest Britney Spears album. I'm leaning towards no and in that case we probably have to kick out almost all of the video games too. I enjoy having a library as a provider of all the media that I don't feel like purchasing, but the library's purpose is not really to be my personal Amazon.com. Is most of the collection of modern libraries designed to promote education and information? My guess is that the overwhelming answer is no. So perhaps as long as we are just using libraries as storehouses of all possible media then video games do belong there too. Just try not to examine that argument too closely.
I think the answer to this question is an emphatic MAYBE.
Some points in favor of video games as part of the core library mission are that video games have become cultural and artistic creations, and at least some of them serve educational purposes. I'd have a little bit of trouble defending this statement that video games are artistic creations simply because they haven't made that leap in the general public consciousness. They are far more likely to be considered as toys rather than art. I would imagine that movies started out in a similar way in that at first it was simply amusing that we could get a few crude moving images on the screen. Only later did film become an accepted art form to the point where the Oscars are now at least as prestigious as other major artistic awards. I admit to skimping on the film research to see if that is totally accurate, but it seems to have a core nugget of truth. In any case, current video games are reaching a level of artistic presentation that is quickly approaching the art of film making. If films are suitable for library collections, then why not video games?
The main problem with video games is that the primary mission of libraries is to educate and inform the populace. Modern libraries are beginning to stray from that mission somewhat, but the reason that our tax dollars go to libraries is that libraries can educate us and give us information to improve ourselves and become well rounded citizens. So maybe the real question here is should libraries stock romance novels, popular movies and the latest Britney Spears album. I'm leaning towards no and in that case we probably have to kick out almost all of the video games too. I enjoy having a library as a provider of all the media that I don't feel like purchasing, but the library's purpose is not really to be my personal Amazon.com. Is most of the collection of modern libraries designed to promote education and information? My guess is that the overwhelming answer is no. So perhaps as long as we are just using libraries as storehouses of all possible media then video games do belong there too. Just try not to examine that argument too closely.
Firefox Feed Annoyance
I've had a problem using the little orange feed button in Firefox for a while so I thought I'd post about it and see if anyone else has had a similar problem. I did some quick Google searches and didn't see anybody else with the problem except for maybe this guy: http://www.photopost.com/forum/showthread.php?t=135391.
The problem only happens at work so if I'm at home using Firefox everything is just fine and dandy. I am also running Windows 2000 at work instead of Vista and XP which I have at home. I doubt the OS is the problem, but that's the only major difference I see. In any case, when I click the feed button that is supposed to bring me into Google's options to add feeds, I instead get something like this in the address bar:
feed://http//strayinghome.wordpress.com/feed/ and then an error page. If I change the "feed://http//" part to just "http://" then I go right into Google's add page and everything works fine. So I've got a workaround, but it's still a little annoying.
Anybody have a suggestion or have you even seen this problem before?
The problem only happens at work so if I'm at home using Firefox everything is just fine and dandy. I am also running Windows 2000 at work instead of Vista and XP which I have at home. I doubt the OS is the problem, but that's the only major difference I see. In any case, when I click the feed button that is supposed to bring me into Google's options to add feeds, I instead get something like this in the address bar:
feed://http//strayinghome.wordpress.com/feed/ and then an error page. If I change the "feed://http//" part to just "http://" then I go right into Google's add page and everything works fine. So I've got a workaround, but it's still a little annoying.
Anybody have a suggestion or have you even seen this problem before?
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Response to Mike Allen
In today's opinion page of the Lexington Herald-Leader Mike Allen started out his article (link will expire in a week or so) by making more sense than most people who are heavily involved in the gun control debates. He takes the reasonable stance that neither allowing conceal and carry permits to apply everywhere nor legislating much more restrictive gun permits are going to do anything to stop school shootings. Honestly, I can only see either of those types of legislation being effective if they were taken to their utmost extremes. If we were to force everyone to be armed at all times or if we had a nationwide purge of all firearms, that might be sufficient to effect the number of school shootings. Anything short of that is laughable and even those options would have many other unintended and likely negative consequences.
In any case, Mike Allen starts out talking sense . . . until a couple of paragraphs later he goes off the rails in an unexpected way. He goes straight from making a reasonable and well thought out argument to suddenly blaming school shootings on an imaginary "unraveling of the family, the general devaluing of human life and the rise of violence in popular entertainment." Allen fails to give any evidence that any of those three things are actually occurring in American society and instead expects us to accept them as givens. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much reason to accept these givens. Let's take them one by one:
1. Unraveling of the Family - The divorce rate has been going down since the early eighties. Even the number of single parents has started dropping in the last few years. There is also a huge argument to be made that a single parent family does not necessarily equal an unstable family life. There are plenty of stable couples raising children who simply choose to remain unmarried (or cannot do so legally in the case of homosexual couples) and there are truly single parents who are professional adults and doing just fine with their family life. In any case, you're going to have to give me some specific arguments to back up what seems to be an unfounded idea of an unraveling of US families.
2. General Devaluing of Human Life - So apparently Allen is a pro-lifer. If not, he's going to have to explain what the hell he's talking about here. The last I checked people still thought murder was bad and were shocked and saddened by recent school shootings. The vast majority of people were not randomly killing each other. In fact, the violent crime rate has been steadily decreasing for decades. I suppose if you want to call every abortion a murder then those numbers change quite a bit, but that's a whole different argument. Even if you want to consider abortion, keep in mind that the abortion rate is at a 30 year low. Allen does nothing to expand on this argument, so maybe he realizes it's a little silly.
3. The Rise of Violence in Popular Entertainment - This is the only one of Allen's argument that has any sort of evidence to support it and even that evidence is pretty shaky. It's hard to objectively decide whether violence in popular entertainment has been increasing, but I will admit that it seems quite likely. Video games have become "more violent" or at least more realistically violent as the images have become clearer and gained in resolution. Movies have had violence in them for quite some time and technology may have once again increased that level by using CGI instead of more expensive special effects. The link between violent media and real world violence has, however, not been definitively shown to exist. As I mentioned before, general violent crime has decreased which I would not expect if violent media caused violence. School shootings seem to be one of the very few types of crimes that have actually increased and I don't recall seeing a rash of school shooting movies or video games recently. Allen is going to have to give me some more definitive evidence than a Saw tattoo on the NIU shooter before I accept this as a causal relationship.
So Allen's school shooting causes seem to be largely imaginary with perhaps a little wiggle room left in that violent media argument. So what solution does he propose to these "problems." Well, it turns out his solutions are largely imaginary as well. He is "not advocating governmental censorship, but rather a renewed awareness in the entertainment industry that rights bring responsibilities, and a heightened conscience for all of us consumers who determine with our dollars what a civil society will and will not accept." Yeeeahhh, good luck with that, buddy. Assuming that increasing amounts of violent media is a real problem for a minute, why do you think that media might be increasing? As I mentioned, it's partly an issue of increasing technology, but it's also because consumers keep buying it. I understand that you are trying to change that trend with this column, but one column does not a successful economic model topple. Without governmental regulation or a huge self-imposed set of industry guidelines, this anti-violent movement is doomed to fail.
Good luck with your fight, I've got to go shoot me some aliens and government agents in Half-Life 2 and then I'm gonna watch me that movie 300. Yee-haw!
In any case, Mike Allen starts out talking sense . . . until a couple of paragraphs later he goes off the rails in an unexpected way. He goes straight from making a reasonable and well thought out argument to suddenly blaming school shootings on an imaginary "unraveling of the family, the general devaluing of human life and the rise of violence in popular entertainment." Allen fails to give any evidence that any of those three things are actually occurring in American society and instead expects us to accept them as givens. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much reason to accept these givens. Let's take them one by one:
1. Unraveling of the Family - The divorce rate has been going down since the early eighties. Even the number of single parents has started dropping in the last few years. There is also a huge argument to be made that a single parent family does not necessarily equal an unstable family life. There are plenty of stable couples raising children who simply choose to remain unmarried (or cannot do so legally in the case of homosexual couples) and there are truly single parents who are professional adults and doing just fine with their family life. In any case, you're going to have to give me some specific arguments to back up what seems to be an unfounded idea of an unraveling of US families.
2. General Devaluing of Human Life - So apparently Allen is a pro-lifer. If not, he's going to have to explain what the hell he's talking about here. The last I checked people still thought murder was bad and were shocked and saddened by recent school shootings. The vast majority of people were not randomly killing each other. In fact, the violent crime rate has been steadily decreasing for decades. I suppose if you want to call every abortion a murder then those numbers change quite a bit, but that's a whole different argument. Even if you want to consider abortion, keep in mind that the abortion rate is at a 30 year low. Allen does nothing to expand on this argument, so maybe he realizes it's a little silly.
3. The Rise of Violence in Popular Entertainment - This is the only one of Allen's argument that has any sort of evidence to support it and even that evidence is pretty shaky. It's hard to objectively decide whether violence in popular entertainment has been increasing, but I will admit that it seems quite likely. Video games have become "more violent" or at least more realistically violent as the images have become clearer and gained in resolution. Movies have had violence in them for quite some time and technology may have once again increased that level by using CGI instead of more expensive special effects. The link between violent media and real world violence has, however, not been definitively shown to exist. As I mentioned before, general violent crime has decreased which I would not expect if violent media caused violence. School shootings seem to be one of the very few types of crimes that have actually increased and I don't recall seeing a rash of school shooting movies or video games recently. Allen is going to have to give me some more definitive evidence than a Saw tattoo on the NIU shooter before I accept this as a causal relationship.
So Allen's school shooting causes seem to be largely imaginary with perhaps a little wiggle room left in that violent media argument. So what solution does he propose to these "problems." Well, it turns out his solutions are largely imaginary as well. He is "not advocating governmental censorship, but rather a renewed awareness in the entertainment industry that rights bring responsibilities, and a heightened conscience for all of us consumers who determine with our dollars what a civil society will and will not accept." Yeeeahhh, good luck with that, buddy. Assuming that increasing amounts of violent media is a real problem for a minute, why do you think that media might be increasing? As I mentioned, it's partly an issue of increasing technology, but it's also because consumers keep buying it. I understand that you are trying to change that trend with this column, but one column does not a successful economic model topple. Without governmental regulation or a huge self-imposed set of industry guidelines, this anti-violent movement is doomed to fail.
Good luck with your fight, I've got to go shoot me some aliens and government agents in Half-Life 2 and then I'm gonna watch me that movie 300. Yee-haw!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Happy Hour Madness
This is just another example of the danger of omnipresent cameras:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94418552@N00/sets/72157603953660545/
Look to future Blue 2.0 Happy Hours for future antics.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94418552@N00/sets/72157603953660545/
Look to future Blue 2.0 Happy Hours for future antics.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Jonathan Coulton the "Godfather of Geek Rock"
Jonathan Coulton is quite the geek rocker. You may have sen him referenced by or appearing with John Hodgman. I just started listening to him recently, but I do quite enjoy his songs. You can acquire many of these finely crafted pieces of music for free by downloading them from his website. If you like them, throw a little cash his way.
If you'd like to see him appear in Lexington, then demand that he do so here:
Mr. Coulton suggests in this article that he will attempt to perform in any city with more than 100 requesters. As we are now at 13 in Lexington, KY, we only have 87 more to go! Yay! The Louisville group is a little closer 100 so you might also click there if you don't mind the drive.
If you'd like to see him appear in Lexington, then demand that he do so here:
Mr. Coulton suggests in this article that he will attempt to perform in any city with more than 100 requesters. As we are now at 13 in Lexington, KY, we only have 87 more to go! Yay! The Louisville group is a little closer 100 so you might also click there if you don't mind the drive.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Del.icio.us
Now with more Blue 2.0!
I already had a delicious account so I just tagged a few interesting things Blue 2.0 and added Blue 2.0 to my network. I really like delicious for giving me a place to put favorite websites when I don't know which computer I will want to view them from next. If I know I'm looking at something that I'm only going to use at home or at work, then it's easier for me to just put a site in my Bookmarks or Favorites, but if I want it anywhere then delicious is the way to go. Here's my account: http://del.icio.us/SatansParakeet.
I also already had a LibraryThing account: http://www.librarything.com/profile/SatansParakeet. I also added the LibraryThing widget to my account just for shits and giggles.
I just recently created a spreadsheet of the salaries of library employees so I went ahead and created a Google Spreadsheet for that, as well: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pGH4iEPN7pqir617MX4FKYQ.
I think those salaries are from the 2005-2006 calendar year, but I'm not entirely sure since the Herald-Leader doesn't give a date for their source.
Alright, I'm going back to do the actual word processing activity now. I'll mess around more with my new toys later.
I already had a delicious account so I just tagged a few interesting things Blue 2.0 and added Blue 2.0 to my network. I really like delicious for giving me a place to put favorite websites when I don't know which computer I will want to view them from next. If I know I'm looking at something that I'm only going to use at home or at work, then it's easier for me to just put a site in my Bookmarks or Favorites, but if I want it anywhere then delicious is the way to go. Here's my account: http://del.icio.us/SatansParakeet.
I also already had a LibraryThing account: http://www.librarything.com/profile/SatansParakeet. I also added the LibraryThing widget to my account just for shits and giggles.
I just recently created a spreadsheet of the salaries of library employees so I went ahead and created a Google Spreadsheet for that, as well: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pGH4iEPN7pqir617MX4FKYQ.
I think those salaries are from the 2005-2006 calendar year, but I'm not entirely sure since the Herald-Leader doesn't give a date for their source.
Alright, I'm going back to do the actual word processing activity now. I'll mess around more with my new toys later.
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