Accept no substitutes

Month: September 2006 (Page 3 of 4)

Chapel Hill Bloggers Meetup Monday Sept 18

What: Chapel Hill Bloggers Meetup
When: Monday 18 Sept at 7 p.m.
Where: Chapel Hill Public Library in the downstairs conference room

There will be wifi, and two presentations:

Also mark your calendars for Thursday 5 October for the Chapel Hill Bloggerd Meetup at Open Eye Cafe at 6 p.m. (moving to Tyler’s Tap Room at 7).

Anton says: We’ll try this meetup schedule for the next couple of months:
First Thursdays for social drinks and chatting.
Third Mondays for presentations and discussions.

PT Sage – Cured?

It’s back! This time the Chrysler folks brainstormed and then took the advice that Dan posted here in Comments. They replaced the camshaft and crankshaft sensors. They kept the car and drive it all over. One guy took his life into his hands and drive it to Burlington. It kept on working. So far so good. But then it never stalled for them in the past either.
I drove the PT home in the rain and it was great. Just like old times. Have to wait for a warm clear day to really test it out. But I feel positive.

I Love Mountains

Too bad that so many of them are getting their heads cut off by strip mining. Matthew Gross showed me ILoveMountains.org which not only makes a strong case for what we’re losing and at what scale, but it makes smart use of Google Earth (in the multimedia section) to show you the scale of the loss. You too can zoom over the Eastern mountains and see how grey and treeless some have become. Other good use of multimedia to tell the story there as well.

Added bonus:
There’s an MP3 on the site of Willie Nelson singing Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind.

SockMonkeys of Carrboro

Sock Monkey Dreams
Keeping with today’s Monkey theme, Tucker and I were walking, not dancing, through Carr Mill Mall tonight. The window of our favorite toy store, Wootini, was decorated with a sockmonkey diarama that had just been created by the folks at Sock Monkey Dreams. A delightful selection of SoMos are engaged in engaging activities including straddling a large rubber band powered airplane, gardening, and just lounging around.

The SoMos are preparing for a book party. At the end of this month, there will be a publishing party for Sock Monkey Dreams: Daily Life at the Red Heel Monkey Shelter.

BTW if you have ever thought you wanted to work at a toy store/art gallery, you should drop by Wootini and talk with owner Michael Maher.

FaceBook creates Stutzmania!

Monkey Bites
Speaking of monkeys, Fred is the subject of an interview on Wired’s Monkey Bites blog by Michael Calore today.

Fred’s articulate and accurate accessment of the states of Face Book on his own blog over the past few days — the feeds war with its users, the “opening” or exposing of the communities, etc — has gotten a load of press.

Of special interest are an article in Forbes, the Ball State Daily News includes not only insights from Fred, but also ideas from Thursday’s visitor danah boyd and good data-driven findings from recent UNC grad Bret Bumgarner (Fred and I were two of the three committee members for Bret’s honor’s thesis which uses uses and gratifications theory to explain what people do with FB).

MONKEYS!

Rhesus looking innocent
Driving to Dharamsala, I noticed a lot of Hanuman Temples — on the way back down the mountains these would all be splashed with orange paint. As we got further into Punjab, I started seeing real monkeys hanging out on the temple walls.
I pointed this out to Vikrant, who was unimpressed. “I don’t like monkeys. I like Hanuman, but I don’t like monkeys.”
“Why?” I asked.
“When I was little, monkeys jumped on me and took my food and scratched my face. I don’t like monkeys.”

When I reached McLeod Ganj, I had another monkey alert. On the back of my door in the Pema Thang were warnings: “Shut the doors and the windows (or the wire-meshing) to your balcony when going out, MONKEYS may enter your room.” “Do not feed the MONKEYs & DOGs”

Sure enough when I walked out on the balcony, I heard rustling in the trees. I could see their little faces peeking out of the foliage. They were checking out my doors and windows (or the wire-meshing).

During my walks around McLeod Ganj, I saw little troops of monkeys looking for mischief. And some large single males getting into trouble. But I also saw evidence that Buddhists try to love monkeys anyway and want them to be happy.
Hanuman Langur is feared by monkeys
Back in Delhi at the airport, I was talking to an Indian traveler. He told me that when the Delhi subway opened some of the first riders were monkeys who followed people on trying to get bags of chips. Once on the subway the monkeys tried to escape with the chips and when they realized they were trapped in the car, they went ape. The solution was to hire Langur-wallahs. Street performers who with their charges, the much larger Langur, terrify the smaller monkeys and chase them off the trains. According to my informant, there are several Langurs and their wallahs on the subway payroll. Sure enough there’s a WikiNews story that supports him.

ibiblio move in progress

Over the weekend, all of ibiblio moved out to our new hosting facilities at MCNC. It’s just a little ways down the road, but we have much more room, much faster access, better connectivity, etc.
We also have a few road bumps during the move. The most of the problems have to do with DNS changes and propagation. All of our IP numbers changed and coordinating the various places at which these are kept and announced was and is more than just a technical problem.
As I write this, I can connect to most all of the ibiblio sites I’ve tried and I’m even getting faster response then when the servers were right here on campus only a few buildings away.
But some sites, especially those who handle their own DNS and some that are database driven are having trouble. We’re working with those folks — etree.org, worldmusiccentral, and others — to relieve those problems.
Don and Ken spent a good part of their waking hours (which were themselves reduced) going between MCNC and UNC this weekend. Jonathan has been great at keeping some dialogue going on with the various site managers.
Bear with us, but do let us know if you encounter problems.

PT Saga – Not the Power Train Control Module

I came back from India, hopped in my PT, drive to pick up some stuff and stalled (again). Called the dealer. They called Chrysler in the Sky.
We heard from on high: Replace the Power Train Control Module.
Since this part is covered by the 8 year/80K mile warranty, I liked it.
But last night I picked up the car with its new Power Train Control Module. I drive 3 miles on the Interstate.
As I pulled off on the ramp, I disengaged the clutch. I lost powersteering almost immediately. The engine stalled.
I roll started the PT. Whew!
But it stalled at the next light. Again about 3 minutes to restart.

So Chrysler in the Sky, it’s not the Power Train Control Module.

Back in on Monday morning.

Work done so far: 60K mile tuneup, clean the throttle housing etc, firmware upgrade, power steering pressure sensor, fuel pump, EGR (exhaust gas recovery), multi-switch and shift cable (these not really a candidates), powertrain control module. Also drove around with Co-Pilot installed.

Ask danah boyd about Social Networking!

You can ask questions in advance to Social Networking researcher danah boyd!
An addition to the danah boyd visit announcement [Thursday, Sept 14, 2 pm, Toy Lounge]:

Our discussion will be structured by audience questions. Attendees are invited to submit questions in advance. Questions may be posted as comments to the blog post noted below, or submitted to Fred Stutzman at
fred at metalab.unc.edu. We’ll structure a discussion that will be open and wide-ranging from your questions.

Full description and question submission information here:
http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2006/09/invitation-discussion-with-danah-boyd.html

Marchionini wins Contribution to Information Science Award

Great news about collegue and collaborator, Gary Marchionini!

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Gary Marchionini has been selected as the 2006 recipient of the Contribution to Information Science Award (CISTA), an annual award given by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Society of Information Science & Technology (LACASIS) to honor an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of information science.

Dr. Marchionini is Cary C. Boshamer Professor at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has a distinguished career as a teacher, researcher and active member of professional organizations. His research interests include information seeking, human computer interaction, digital libraries, digital government and information policy.

He is Editor-in Chief of ACM Transactions in Information Systems.and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Information Processing and Management, Library and Information Science Research, Information Retrieval, Journal of Network and Computer Applications, Journal of Digital Information, Educational Technology, Journal of Educational Resources in Computing, and the Journal of Digital Libraries. He is active in professional organizations such as ASIST and ACM.

Dr. Marchionini received his Ph.D. from Wayne State University in mathematical education with an emphasis on educational computing. Prior to joining the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science, he was a professor at the University of Maryland and a member in the pioneering Human Computer Interaction Laboratory.

Dr. Marchionini will receive his award and speak about his work at the annual LACASIS Awards Dinner in January.

Linda Heichman Taylor, LACASIS Awards Chair

75th Anniversary of SILS – Marcum, Ruettgers, Martin

September 18 will see the kickoff of the School of Information and Library Science’s 75th Anniversary celebrations.

That Monday will see presentations by:

* Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress.
* Michael C. Ruettgers, Senior Advisor and retired Chairman, EMC2 Corporation.
* Robert Martin (Ph.D. ‘88) Professor, Texas Women’s University School of Library and Information Science who will present a tribute to Dr. Louis Round Wilson.

When: 2 p.m. Monday September 18
Where: Memorial Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

A reception will follow.

Coming: danah boyd, Craig Silverstein, Jay Rosen, Dan Gillmor

Several good talks upcoming this fall which will have some ibiblio involvement.

First, Fred has managed to convince Social Networks researcher danah boyd to stop by next week, Thursday September 14th to visit and to give a public talk about her work. Probably about 2 pm – 3:30 pm. Trying to secure a place for her talk now.

Second, Phil Meyer and the J-School have PressThink and NewAssignment.Net‘s Jay Rosen coming by around October 4. There will be a public talk but I’m not sure when as yet.

Third, The Health Sciences Library is sponsoring a visit from Craig Silverstein, Google’s Technology Director, on Thursday, October 26, 2006 4-5:30pm at the Medical Biomolecular Research Building. I’ll be directing a panel in response to Craig’s talk.
To reserve a seat and/or to submit discussion questions and to learn more, visit the HSL’s Organizing the World’s Information: Google’s Vision for the 21st Century.

Fourth, Center for Citizen Media director, Dan Gillmor will be in town on Monday November 13th and will be doing a public talk that afternoon.

I Win the Sock Monkey Naming Contest

Louis Round Wilsock is the name of Meg McKee’s sock monkey. Going to check out my prize now. Sorry collegues, you should think twice before entering a naming contest in which one of the other constestants has a MFA. I am a certified creative ;->

My prize is a made-by-Meg custom sock monkey! Very nice. But now she needs a name. Photo forthcoming. She’s sitting atop a deskframe at the entry to ibiblio now.

Meg reminded me that I also won the runner-up with the name “Beverly SILS” That works fine for this monkey…

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