A Bloy and his Blog

I came across this list of obsolete skills. Reading it just makes me feel old. Some of the more ancient skills I possess:

• Adjusting a television’s vertical and horizontal holds
• Adjusting the levels for recording to audio tape
• Balancing the tone-arm on a turntable
• Changing the C120 film cartridge in an Instamatic camera (yes, I had one)
• Editing audio tape with a razor blade and splicing block (video tape too!)
• Entering “freeware” programs from a magazine
• Gopher (in the early days of the internet)
• Loading data from a cassette tape (my first computer, an Atari 800 had a tape drive)
• Punching a hole in the shell of a single-sided 5.25″ floppy disc to make it double-sided (I even owned a special hole-punch for this)
• Rewinding an audio cassette using a Bic pen
• Ripping the little holes off the sides of the computer paper
• Setting a baud rate, parity and stop-bits
• Setting up a modem using AT commands
• Switching to high beams by stomping a button on the floor
• Using a flash cube (on my Instamatic camera, of course)

All now useless bits of information, just taking up brain cells…

A Barracuda Networks study, based on an analysis of more than 1 billion daily e-mail messages sent to its more than 50,000 customers worldwide, found that 90-95 percent of all e-mail sent in 2007 was spam.

Wow. I knew it was bad, but not THAT bad.

And in case anyone doesn’t know how email spam got its name…

Monty Python: Spam sketch

Many years ago, I had a film single lens reflex camera. SLRs are great for their flexibility, allowing you to change lenses, add filters, and manually adjust settings. For a while now, I’ve been wishing for some of that flexibility in a digital camera, and have been thinking about buying a digital SLR. Early last month, a local camera store was having a sale on the Nikon D40 — a deal I couldn’t pass up.

read the rest of: The Nikon D40

Today I returned home from the Computers in Libraries conference (more on that soon). I was away for a week, and what I missed most was my internet connection. I found myself very envious of the librarians who had their own notebook computers, and were taking advantage of the free wi-fi in the conference rooms.

I spend a great deal of my normal day (both working and off days) using a computer. Going without access while seeing others online almost made me feel like a junkie in need of a fix. Waiting in line to use one of the conference’s eight email stations for ten minutes did not cut it. I wanted to check out the cool things the librarians were talking about in their presentations. I wanted to be able to take notes more efficiently. And, I wanted to do some of the normal, daily things I do on the web.

I seriously need a notebook computer.

I’ve been wanting to replace my old MP3 player for a while now. It’s a few years old, so the features and storage capacity are lacking compared to players on the market now. I decided to give in to my technolust and started shopping around.

Part of me was reluctant to go with an Apple iPod. My old player was from Sansa, and concerns about Apple’s proprietary software bothered me a bit. After reading some online reviews, I decided to try one of the new Sansa models. I was not impressed. The controls seemed clumsy and hard to get used to. I experimented with loading music from my computer onto the player, and that was a clumsy experience as well. So, I returned the Sansa player, and picked up a 4 GB Apple iPod Nano. Wow! What a nice device. Yes that’s right, I am now one of the Pod People.

read the rest of: One of the pod people

Last Spring, my library signed on to AskAway, a virtual reference service. AskAway is the Wisconsin division of the QuestionPoint consortia, which provides virtual reference (via online chat) throughout the United States. That means our patrons can get reference help from a librarian, 24 hours a day, even on holidays. In turn, some of our librarians spend an hour or so per week answering virtual reference questions from patrons all over the country.

It’s been an interesting experience providing online reference help. When I first started, it was a little unnerving and overwhelming (much like the first few times I was working at the reference desk in the real world). But just like that other reference situation, those feelings fade with experience.

read the rest of: On being a virtual librarian

So my stereo receiver was suffering the effects of old age, I had some Christmas money in my pocket, and it was time for a new one. After browsing some online product reviews, I had a some specific models to look for. I went to a few electronics stores and found one of the recommended receivers, at a good price. I brought it home and begun the monumental task of unplugging all the components, speakers, antennas, from my old receiver and plugging them in the new one.

I got to the cassette deck. There are a lot of places to plug things in to the back of my new receiver, but where were the ones for the tape deck? There were none. The receiver had no input or output receptacles for a tape deck. That was something I needed to look for while I was shopping??

read the rest of: Death of the cassette