I turn to that, Beatrix approves, and we watch. Then, a few minutes later, a commercial comes on. The volume difference is jarring to say the least. I would safely guess it is fifty percent louder than the show. I hurriedly reach for the remote and turn it down…
“Why did you turn the movie off, Daddy?”, Beatrix worriedly asks, as if she has done something wrong and is being punished by having her entertainment interrupted. She thinks that’s what I was doing by rushing for the remote.
“I didn’t turn it off, honey. This is just a commercial. I was turning the volume down because it was so loud. Shrek will come back on in a few minutes” I say.
“Did it break?”, she asks. It does sometimes happen at home that Flash or Silverlight implode, interrupt her show, and I have to fix it.
“No. It’s just a commercial.”
“What’s a commercial?”, she asks.
”It is like little shows where they tell you about other shows and toys and snacks.”, I explain.
“Why?”
“Well the TV people think you might like to know about this stuff.”
“This is boring! I want to watch Shrek.”
Tag: Media
Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting to the librarians at Western Kentucky University during their 2011 kickoff event. When discussing a topic with the Dean, I was told that they were interested in the future of the academic library, technology, and how to manage the changes that are coming. That’s definitely in the sweet spot of my library interests, so I gave it a shot. Below you’ll find a slideshow with accompanying audio of my presentation, along with the Q/A session at the end. The whole thing is about 1.5 hours, but my presentation is just the first hour or so. I’d love to hear what you think, especially if you disagree with any of my points.
Keynote about the future of libraries, change management, and technology over the next 5 years given to Western Kentucky University Libraries, August 24, 2011 by Jason Griffey
Here are my slides from the Mississippi State University Libraries Emerging Technologies Summit 2010. They very graciously asked me to keynote the Summit, and I’m hoping that the talk was thought provoking and helped kick off what looks to me a really great day of programming.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I’ll make sure to find the answer!
Death of Newspapers
As with many things, the Daily Show nails the death spiral of the newspaper with absurdity and humor. My favorite line in the whole piece is “Find me anything in here that happened today.”
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
End Times | ||||
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Just put a new post up over at ALA TechSource: Saving Your Digital Life. Here’s a blurb:
I have, basically, three kinds of data that I’m worried about protecting in some way: working files, files that are important but replaceable, and files that I can’t afford to lose at all. Working files are just that: files that I’m currently working on for whatever reason. Might be a photo I’m editing, or a document, or an MP3 that I need to move to another computer…anything that requires action. Files that are important, but replaceable, are things that make my life easier if they are in digital form, mostly media. DVDs I’ve purchased and CDs I own have all been digitized, because I want to be able to watch them when I want and not when I remember to have a disk of plastic with me. I also want to be able to move them to my iPhone or other portable media player. If I lose the digital, it’s ok, because I can just re-digitize them, but I really, really don’t want to have to do that. And finally, there are the files that I just can’t lose for any reason. Things like tax returns, photos of my daughter, receipts, and other digital items that need to be safe even if there’s a natural disaster.
So how do I handle all of this? With one piece of hardware, a few pieces of software, and broadband.
Go read the whole thing if you’re interested in how I handle MY digital life.
Online Newspapers from 1981
This is just awesome. I love the details in the reporting, like the fact that it takes 2 hours for the newspaper to download! Shows how far we’ve come.
Also, I <3 acoustic couplers.
Betsy surprised me a few days ago with this, which she claims is either a late birthday or early father’s day present: a signed, numbered, limited edition of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
It’s put out by Subterranean Press, and is gorgeous. Subterranean is a press that specialized in high quality printings of limited edition fantasy, scifi, and horror…I want to own nearly everything they print.
But for now, I will just stare and covet my copy of my preciou….I mean, Snow Crash.
Line Graph: Top 40 Artists 2005-2008
Really amazing graph generated using Lastfm Extra Stats that analyzes my music listening habits for the last 3 years. I’ve been using Last.fm to track my iTunes and other listening, and it’s really cool to be able to drag that data out and see it in graph form.
Very, very cool little program.
After discussing the book today with some friends on Meebo, I came up with the perfect turn-of-phrase for the collective sadness enveloping all of us who have spent 10 years following these characters. We all suffer from:
Post-Potter Depression
Thanks everybody, I’ll be here all week. Try the veal.
Swarm of Angels
If anyone hasn’t heard about the Swarm of Angels project, they just started their movie poster contest, and it’s a great time to read up on the project and get your fingers into some Open Source movie making.
NB: I’m a Angel…joined 5 May 06, and if the “user count” on the URL is correct, I was Angel #29. Crazy!