Categories
Digital Culture

Missing my green note

…but rockin’ on the blue note.

itunes

I’m going to miss my lime green iTunes icon…but the new blue makes up for it:

New iPods! New iTunes! Movies! The new iPod shuffle is seriously the size of a quarter…it’s amazingly tiny. And we’ve got a space jump up to 80Gig, which is double the storage of my 3rd gen iPod.

And the biggest thing isn’t even out yet…iTV, the much-rumored set-top box from Apple that will stream wireless video signals to your television.

itv

Lots of questions, like: what codecs will the iTV support? Can I play my divx videos across it? Will it support 5-channel sound wirelessly?

Categories
Digital Culture

Windows LiveWriter

Here’s a test-post from Windows LiveWriter…I’m just seeing how well it handles WordPress, and images, and such. Not a huge fan of local blog editors normally, but I thought I’d see how well Microsoft has handled this.

Categories
Digital Culture

Quick update

So what am I up to these days, besides being too busy to blog as much as I’d like:

Preparing classes

  • New workshop on Google Scholar
  • A kick-ass new student-centered class on Plagiarism that uses music and sampling as a metaphor for academic writing
  • Faculty workshop on plagiarism

Writing stuff

  • Finishing a presentation for LITA Forum on wikis
  • Working on a book proposal
  • Finding travel grants

To make up my regrettable silence to all my valued readers, I leave you with a too-cute-for-words picture of Summer Glau (River Tam from Firefly and Serenity) from DragonCon:

IMG_7722

Categories
Digital Culture

DragonCon

I’ve spent the last 24 hours in Atlanta, GA at DragonCon. I thought I would share with you the single picture that is the essense of all things DragonCon:

IMG_7707

Categories
Digital Culture

And once more, I’m off

DragonCon

This time to DragonCon, in Atlanta, GA. I’m gonna go get my geek on, play some games, run some tournaments, grab some schwag, sell some cards. More as I’m there and when I return.

Categories
Digital Culture

Valleyschwag 4

IMG_7689

More Valleyschwag! This month wasn’t as good as last month, but the shirt is nice. I’m not sure wtf the mini beach chair is good for…holding my cell phone? The stickers are interesting, as always, and I got a bottle opener. But it does seem a bit small, comparatively…of course, Valleyschwag is undergoing some serious growing pains. I’m willing to give them a few months to work it out.

I’m also not sold on Perplexcity…I’m a gamer, and love games of all sorts, but I’m just not sure how to take such a massively distributed puzzle. Seems like more work than fun to me.

Categories
Digital Culture

I am not a terrorist

I am not a terrorist

Read the story. Buy the shirt. This is getting utterly ridiculous.

Reminds me of the printable felony I produced for BoingBoing awhile back. I will definitely be buying one of these.

Categories
Digital Culture

The world is not only stranger than you know…

…it is stranger than you can imagine. And this is never more true than on this wacky series of tubes we call the Interweb.

Exhibit One: I give you….Otherkin.

Otherkin is a subculture made up of people who describe themselves as being non-human or having a connection to a mythical archetype in some way, usually believing themselves to be mythological or legendary creatures. The word is a neologism primarily used by members of that subculture, and is somewhat fluid in definition, and in its broadest sense includes those who consider themselves to be animals, aliens, extradimensional beings, and any other non-human entities.

These are people who believe that they are dragons, werewolves, and elves.

Yes, really.

No, I’m not joking.

You want even wackier? Ok…you asked for it: Otakin!

A sort of crossbreed between fans of anime and otherkin, Otakin believe that they are actually the reincarnation of an anime (or occasionally game) character and that the worlds depicted in popular animes such as evangelion and games like final fantasy exist in another dimension. Unlike their otherkin counterparts, otakin are relatively rare and tend to limit their activities to obscure message boards and livejournal communities. >>from the Urban Dictionary

Otakin (sometimes Otakukin) believe that they have the souls of fictional characters, usually from Japanese anime. Let me say this again, slowly: They believe that they contain within them the souls of cartoon characters.

*boggle*

The obvious question seems to be: Why those particular sets of things? That is, why is there a group of people who believe they have within them the soul of elves, but not, oh…trolls? Or Goblins? Why are Otakin just anime based, and there’s no one running around believing they are the “reincarnated” soul of Woody Woodpecker? I’m not saying this is any more rational than believing, oh…that there’s an invisible man in the sky who watches everything I do…but on the “weird” meter, this one goes to 11.

Oh, and just for you, dear readers…one last special site that involves both dragons AND invisible men in the sky.

Categories
Digital Culture Sewanee

Zuca

While this blog isn’t a gadget-blog, I wanted to sing the praises of a recent purchase that might come in handy for both the gamers and librarians (and gaming librarians) who might read this.

At the Origins Game Fair this year I purchased a Zuca. What’s a Zuca? It’s a rolling bag of many things…

Zuca

This is the best rolling bag I’ve ever seen. It has great organization inside, with pockets and a large open area for books/computer/folders/body parts…whatever you need to haul around. The thing feels indestructible, has inline skate wheels with frictionless bearings and will go anywhere and has a nearly zero turn radius. The frame allows you to use it as a seat or table for those crowded airports or in the library, and since it’s aluminum it doesn’t actually add much weight to the product. It’s still very carryable when needed. It also comes in about a million colors/styles.

The only complaint I have about the bag is that it connects to the frame at all of the sides, but not the top, so when you use the handy mesh hammock in the inside top of the bag to hold change and such, it pulls the top down when you roll the bag. It’s a terribly minor thing in an otherwise remarkably well-designed product, and doesn’t effect the use of the bag at all. There was some issue with it fitting in a few of the overheads of the smaller airplanes I was on this summer, but in every case there was a solution (once it was checked by the crew, and once I stowed it under the empty seat beside me). It fit in the larger planes just fine.

For those of us who carry a lot of books and electronics when travelling (and who doesn’t anymore…) this is a really well made solution. If you see me at a convention, I’ll probably be wheeling this along behind me.

Categories
Images Library Issues

Hot Library Action

From The Nonist, some Hot Library Smut:

Yesterday I came across a truly gorgeous book of photographs by Candida Höfer titled, Libraries, a title which pretty much says it all, because that is just exactly what it is, one rich, sumptuous, photo of a library interior after another. It’s like porn for book nerds. Seriously. They are gorgeous photos, nearly all without visitors and just begging to be entered. (ha. sorry.)

And boy are they some pretty pics:

BNF-PARISRIJKMUSEUM-AMSTERDAMHANDELINGENKAMER-TWEEDE-KAMBIBLIOTECA-DE-LA-REAL-ACADEREAL-GABINETE-PORTUGUES-DE-STRAHOVSKA-KNIHOVNA-PRAHA

If you want your very own library porn, you can order it from the publisher.