September 2009
2 posts
errors, on fixing →
Shared by GraemeW Quite right. Library catalogs are never going to meet patrons’ (rising) expectations for quality and functionality unless libraries figure out how to do continuous quality…
Sep 6th
Friday Fun: Exam howlers →
I just love those articles that turn up every once in a while that make fun of the typos and factual errors students make on their exams and term papers. I know it’s cruel but I can’t help myself.
Sep 5th
July 2009
1 post
2 tags
How to break a library catalog
The sequel to The age of conversation: 100 voices, 1 conversation is Age of conversation 2: why don’t they get it?. So if you search in a library catalog for “The age of conversation 2”, you’ll get no relevant results. What do you think you’ll get if you search Google for “The age of conversation 2”? The goal of a library catalog isn’t to find...
Jul 21st
May 2009
3 posts
Best Science Books 2008: Royal Society Prize for... →
Every year starting in November or so, I start to highlight various “year’s best science books” lists I find around the web. Typically, one of the last is the long list for the Royal Society…
May 28th
You are Choice →
Shared by GraemeW Heh, heh. Seriously? It’s reassuring to know that not all industry is shrinking in this economy. The giant apostrophe business is clearly booming. This boom is indeed…
May 11th
Lorcan Dempsey's weblog: Earth works →
Shared by GraemeW The Storm King Wavefield looks amazing. By: dempsey Categories: GLAM• Personal One of the most interesting things we have seen while in the US is the Serpent Mound in southern…
May 9th
March 2009
1 post
Best Science Books 2008: Library Journal Best... →
Shared by GraemeW Oooh! Lots of good choices for the traditional April 1 gift to fathers (and uncles!). This might be the last post for 2008 books, and it’s one of the best annual lists out there….
Mar 4th
February 2009
1 post
SciTopics →
Shared by GraemeW Ooooh, this might be useful if I were a science writer … Add another “knowledge-sharing resource” to your reference grab-bag:  SciTopics, a free, searchable collection of…
Feb 3rd
December 2008
3 posts
Native Tasks in Gmail! →
Shared by GraemeW Neat! Gmail now has a native task manager, if you go to the “labs” area of Gmail and turn it on. Once you click on that little green bottle at the top of your regular Gmail…
Dec 9th
CNN Cuts Entire Science, Tech Team →
Shared by GraemeW Ouch! CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O’Brien, its chief technology…
Dec 5th
urban decay desktop images →
Shared by GraemeW Look! Desktop grunge! Like you, I spend plenty of time in front of my computer screen. Most of the time I can’t stand to have anything besides a black or dark grey desktop but…
Dec 1st
November 2008
1 post
whoops →
Shared by GraemeW Great video of Shanghai! My apologies for the annoying “quitting the Internet” post. As if! Can’t believe I was such a megadumb dickhead as to think I was really going to stop…
Nov 28th
September 2008
5 posts
Ignorance, the Ultimate Boss →
Shared by GraemeW Very interesting post. In contrast to war games, playing trading games, like 1701 or Patrician III, uses more math, but still uses the same sort of scientific method for…
Sep 13th
SPORE!!! →
Shared by GraemeW Now THAT’S interesting — dialog by Walter Jon Williams (who happens to be one of my favorite SF authors)! Spore, the world’s most eagerly anticipated video game ever, releases…
Sep 7th
the best writing quote ever →
“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann Why, yes, I am working on something.
Sep 6th
Science Debate 2008 →
Shared by GraemeW Looks interesting I found something nifty. A group of citizens concerned about the state of science and technology in the US kicked off an effort which is now…
Sep 5th
Fetishes →
Shared by GraemeW Well, the answer should be given by Russell, I think, …
Sep 4th
August 2008
3 posts
Inkys, Chicklish, Uglies Video →
Shared by GraemeW Noted; for people with YA’s in the family Three quick things while I write the end (END!) of Leviathan. 1) Extras has been long-listed for a 2008 Inky Award. Go to the…
Aug 24th
Beloit College Mindset List →
Shared by GraemeW Always enlightening but perhaps not as surprising this year as others. The Beloit College Mindset List has once again arrived. Always enlightening and fun.
Aug 22nd
How Newsrooms Throw Away Value By Not Linking To... →
Shared by GraemeW Know any journalists that publish to the web? A lot of research can go into a piece of reporting, and in print the value of that research can only be passed on through brief…
Aug 8th
July 2008
3 posts
NPR to Slash Science Friday? →
Shared by GraemeW Not good! I saw this today and it makes me very sad: NPR is cutting funding by 60% for the immensely popular Science Friday starting in October, as part of budget…
Jul 16th
Barbara Hurd's Fascinating Books on Caves,... →
Shared by GraemeW These look like good candidates for someone’s Xmas list (not mine, though).                           Barbara Hurd has three superlative books out from…
Jul 3rd
50 Bookmarking Tools →
Shared by GraemeW That’s a long list! Lots of sites to bookmark…. there’s some in the mixx here you may not have known…. (more…) Share This ShareThis
Jul 2nd
June 2008
9 posts
George Carlin →
Shared by GraemeW Carlin is most famous for the seven words, but this is probably the sketch I like best. So, um, before he died I had never ever heard of George Carlin. You know, just like…
Jun 27th
Factors in Food Commodity Price Increases →
From the USDA Economic Research Service, but has a global perspective
Jun 19th
Wordle - Create →
A Java app for making a word cloud — cute!
Jun 18th
Goosh.org, the Unofficial Google Shell →
Shared by GraemeW Oh, this is so funny. Back to the future!! Yesterday’s Mashup of the Day was a fun one for those who miss the good old days of command shells, goosh.org, “the…
Jun 11th
Next Up for the FTC: Green Building and Textiles →
Shared by GraemeW Looks good for anyone living in DC (:-). From the FTC website: “The Federal Trade Commission today announced the third in a series of public workshops being held as part…
Jun 10th
15 Days Of jQuery →
Possibly easy way to learn a possibly interesting javascript library
Jun 10th
280 Slides - Create & Share Presentations Online →
Also exports in Powerpoint 2007 format, or send as an email attachment.
Jun 9th
40+ Excellent Freefonts For Professional Design →
Some suitable for languages other than English, presumably including the one in which ‘freefont’ is a word.
Jun 7th
Correction Of The Day →
“Gore Vidal was once head-butted by Norman Mailer, not the other way round,”- June 5, 2008, The Guardian.
Jun 5th
May 2008
11 posts
GeoNames →
Free database of zip /post codes for several countries, including the US and Australia.  Includes a web service which we will exploit somehow.
May 31st
Writer: the internet typewriter →
Hey!  This works just like a typewriter.  Neat!  Free!
May 16th
John Resig - Processing.js →
A graphics library and language ported to Javascript.
May 10th
The Talent of the Room →
Several years ago, the writer Michael Ventura very graciously gave me permission to republish on my website his essay The Talent of the Room. I recommended it to someone yesterday and re-read it…
May 8th
Releases/Firefox 3.0rc1 - MozillaWiki →
Use this page to check how Firefox 3 RC1 is progressing (or not!).
May 8th
Think Like a Dandelion: reproductive strategies... →
Shared by GraemeW The interesting point is further down the column than this excerpt: that people buy far more books when they are immediately available than when they have to pre-order. Each…
May 7th
Locus Online Features: Cory Doctorow: Think Like a... →
An interesting column in Locus magazine by Cory Doctorow on how information propagates over the Internet.
May 7th
Page2RSS →
Phil Bradley writes: Now, this is very useful. For pages that don’t have an RSS  Page2RSS will basically create one for you. Simply type in the URL of the page that you’re interested in,…
May 6th
TOC: Interzone #216 →
The latest Interzone (#216) is a special Mundane-SF issue guest-edited by Geoff Ryman, Julian Todd and Trent Walters. In addition to the regular features, reviews and interviews (this month…
May 5th
Make Silverlight Games with Popfly Game Creator →
Many people have been using Silverlight to create games for the web, but until now, you’ve had to be a programmer to do it.  Just released on the Popfly site is alpha of the new …
May 5th
LiveLOOK →
Instant Screen Sharing, Co-Browsing, Web Conferencing - Windows, MAC, Linux.  Possibly interesting web meeting tool for $1.50 / person / hour.
May 4th
April 2008
10 posts
InkSeine from Microsoft Research →
Possibly interesting project for people who have a tablet PC.  Oh, wait, that’s me.
Apr 30th
HandmadeBooks.COM: Michael Roger Press --... →
Nice handmade journals — site has stupid frames so you may never be able to get back here.
Apr 28th
Accepting the one-star challenge :... →
Kelley Eskridge “gleefully accepts John Scalzi’s general challenge to writers to post our one-star amazon reviews”, with the side-effect that the reviews makes her first book, Solitaire, seem both worth reading and overwrought.
Apr 27th
The leaves that hung but never grew →
The LJ blog of Gillian Spraggs, with links onward to her other sites.  Excellent stuff, with translations from Martial and Sappho, as well as fragments of research on English and European history.
Apr 25th
papersky: International Pixel-Stained... →
Another list of free e-stuff celebrating the Second International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day.  This is Jo Walton’s blog, btw.
Apr 25th
International Pixel-Stained Technopeasants →
A list of free fiction, mostly SF/F, posted by pixel-stained technopeasants, i.e., writers, in honor of the second annual IP-ST day.
Apr 24th
VPN Evolved: Gain Secure Remote Access with... →
Possibly interesting free VPN software
Apr 8th