Jason Griffey

My hands work!

Eliza is learning to bat at things with her hands. She’s not great at it yet, but it’s fun to watch her work at it. Finally, all those things that hang down from all the baby gear are useful!!!

And update on the post-shot trauma: she had a freakout yesterday afternoon, but has been fine today. Last night she slept for her longest stretch to date: from 8:30 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., then again from 5:30 to almost 10:00. And she has napped throughout the day. I think the vaccinations took a lot out of her.

Tags Brand_New_World, doctor, eliza, gear, play, toys

Legal Issues

Clickthrough licensing dreck

Post author By griffey
Post date February 19, 2008
3 Comments on Clickthrough licensing dreck

I’m in the middle of reviewing a hosted blogging solution for K-12 called ePals…this is to determine if it needs to be/should be included in Library Blogging. I’m reading through, when I get to a click through license. Every once in a while, I love to read these things to see the insanity they think they can impose…here’s a great example. Check this out:

V. LINKING TO THIS WEB SITE

Unless you have a written agreement in effect with ePals which states otherwise, you may only include a link to an ePals Site on another Web site if:

(a) the link is a text-only link clearly marked “www.ePals.com;”
(b) the link “points” to the ePals’ home page URL and not to other pages within the ePals Site; (c) the appearance, position and other aspects of the link does not damage or dilute the goodwill associated with ePals’ or In2Books’ brand name and trademarks;
(d) the appearance, position and other aspects of the link does not create the false appearance that any entity is associated with or sponsored by ePals;
(e) the link, when activated by a user, displays the Site’s full-screen that is not within a “frame” on the linking Web site; and
(f) the link will not be used in connection with or appear on a Web site that a reasonable person may consider offensive, obscene, defamatory or otherwise malicious.

ePals reserves the right to revoke its consent to the link at any time, in its sole discretion. If ePals revokes such consent, you agree to immediately remove and disable any and all links to ePals Sites.

To illustrate this insanity, if I were to, say…link directly to their Email description page, I would be in violation of this license. Or if I link directly to their Blog page…again, in violation.

Can you imagine a Web where people had to request the right to link to something?

Tags copyright legal law

Brand_New_World Uncategorized

First vaccinations

IMG_1469.JPG

Originally uploaded by griffey

Eliza got her first vaccinations today, at her slightly belated 8 week checkup. While the needles weren’t fun, she is now 10 pounds 12 ounces, and 23 inches long. She recovered from the injection trauma like a champ, and seems to be mostly back to normal, if a bit touchy about her legs. Then again, I would be too if someone jabbed three needles into mine.

Tags Brand_New_World, eliza

Brand_New_World Uncategorized

The cousins

IMG_1445.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

Here is a great pic of Eliza and cousin Parker, both right around 9 weeks old, hanging out at Nana’s house. Eliza is dainty compared to the big guy. They’re both absolutely adorable and starting to develop personalities. Parker coos and “talks” a lot, especially to his stuffed animals. Eliza is much more quiet than Parker (aka “Toot”) but smiles a lot, especially when you talk/sing to her. In the background is a gorgeous quilt made by Jason’s grandmother.

Tags Brand_New_World, eliza

Library Issues Technology

Win a Wii, donate to an amazing cause

Post author By griffey
Post date February 16, 2008
2 Comments on Win a Wii, donate to an amazing cause

Jenny and Michael, in a fit of brilliance, have set up a Win a Wii donation drive for Blake Carver, who runs LISHost, my very favorite internet hosting service. If you read a library-focused blog, there’s a better than average chance that Blake is hosting it…including Pattern Recognition.

So: go and donate, and maybe win a Wii!

Tags lishost library wii

Brand_New_World Uncategorized

Eliza’s big day out

IMG_1405.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

Eliza is 2 months old today! I had to take her to a departmental meeting, unfortunately. And then we got stuck in the elevator on the way out. No, I’m not kidding. She could sense that I was freaking out, I think, so she cried a lot but eventually I was able to rock her to sleep in her car seat while we waited for help. I lost track of how long we were in there (probably not long), but it felt like forever. I’m not really claustrophobic, but it was really hot in there, and by the end of the experience, my nerves were totally shot. All things considered, Eliza and I did okay at keeping our cool, though. A memorable outing to say the least…and I’ll never get on that elevator again, with or without her.

Tags Brand_New_World, eliza

Library Issues Technology

Autonomous Self-Checkout Idea

Post author By griffey
Post date February 15, 2008
2 Comments on Autonomous Self-Checkout Idea

Here’s an idea I had today that I wanted to get down so I don’t forget it…autonomous self-checkout with cell phones. Here’s the idea:

You write a web-service that logs the customer into their account from their cell phone browser, and then takes over the camera on their cell. They point the camera at a bar code on the book in question, and you software looks it up in the catalog and checks it out to the patron.

The difficult part for the library is how to enable the deactivation of the security strips that most of us use…ideally, the security system would be tied to the catalog, and would know when a book was checked out and when it wasn’t, and alarm only as appropriate.

This would take library staff completely out of the checkout process (which self-checkout already does) but would ALSO take any specialized equipment out, and allow for nearly complete patron autonomy in the stacks.

The interesting thing is, I’m pretty sure that all of this is possible with current open source software. Certainly there would need to be some development, but I don’t think anything would have to be completely written from scratch…maybe connectors that transfer data from one system to the other.

Thoughts? Is this being done anywhere? Or did I actually have an original thought?

Tags Books, library, library2.0, phones, selfcheckout

Brand_New_World Uncategorized

Kickin’ it old school

IMG_1357.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

Eliza is loving her new crib toy. It plays music and animal sounds when you kick it. She’s just starting to kick a lot, so this toy is perfect. I don’t know that she’s doing it on purpose, but it makes her quite happy, regardless. We got it because Eliza’s little friend Jace loved this same toy when he was smaller. We noticed how great it was when we visited his mom and dad, Tacia and Loren, in Durham, NC.