mysiteonline™ - Work

Twine: The Semantic Puzzle (RDFa Group)

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:46:51 -0400

From my new subscription to the Twine (data?) service, I subscribed to the RDFa group to hear, and read about new (or interesting) technologies around the web. It's been quite some time since I had heard about Freebase Parallax (last read about in the Web4Lib digest), and when reading over the article in my Twine digest email, I took a second look. The video demo really showed its power. But, to understand the Semantic Web (RDFa), I'd suggest anyone interested read over that article first. It discusses ideologies on how one should be able to find information and data over the web.

A Good Data Browser Allows You to Navigate the Knowledge Space by Car
...and...
Twine, if you're interested - currently in private Beta.

NCIP, Standards, and why we need RFCs

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:45:23 -0400

So, in attempting to figure out this rather obnoxiously generically defined protocol, I've found that our vendor's implementation of the protocol is not what I would have expected from first attempts. Properly formatted XML with line breaks to denote a new tag in the structure is apparently not desired as the query fails. If I remove all newlines (and I did remove all leading whitespace, though I'd imagine it was possibly unnecessary?) the query was successful. ...not to mention that a test was given where we would access it using Telnet under Microsoft's DOS. Well... MS-DOS prompt's telnet seems to be quite finicky and doesn't work as expected. Using PuTTy seemed to work OK though. Go figure. I'm glad I have that for SSH to our host otherwise I wouldn't have thought of it.

Without an RFC to describe exactly how communication is to be sent, received, and expected...bug testing has become a chore and a bore...not to mention that in trying to get a PHP socket client working just does not seem to be working. I can read information sent from my test server, but I cannot send data to the test server; though it works with PuTTy. If only it were a webservice with SOAP or something similar instead...which is probably what I'd extend this to do anyway, eventually...for use by the consortia.

Oh yes, NCIP v2 should be coming along within the year as well since I believe it's now been passed. Yay. Give me more technical specifications or an actual library example to work from! ARGH!

The Website has Launched

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:42:00 -0400

Well it's about time, the site is now live! As I've said in a previous post about this, it's not complete - all the content (sans images...which was almost all clipart) is directly from the old version of the site, just rearranged.

Put in use to this design are some rather obnoxiously tricky CSS tweaks along with JavaScript, Flash, and RSS feeds all pulled together to create a single site.

JavaScript:
sIFR
Dustin Diaz's SweetTitles (tooltips)
Homebrew DL list FAQ
NiftyCube
AmberJack Tour Script (temporarily)
...and some other various stuff...

CSS:
Tripoli CSS "Framework"
Stuart Landridge's Image Replacement Technique

Flash:
Monoslideshow ($20 purchase, site license)
sIFR

...and lots of HTML! Ha! I also used the WeatherBug API, and MagpieRSS (I used my own SimpleXML RSS reader but I didn't write a caching method, Magpie seemed faster and it already had caching, so...), as well as a "Beta_RSS" feed of our Event Calendar (which is incorrectly serving non-ISO-8859-1 as ISO-8859-1, causing problems I can't figure out how to fix. Regardless, it looks pretty!

Now, to wait for the dust to clear and the smoke to settle (all the little things that bug me that I will fix, but aren't important) so I can move on to updating the content and more visual hierarchy of things. After that I should start talking about programming some more here.

New Feature from Polaris

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:44:47 -0500

Clarification for those of you that read my blog for non-library-related information: this is library related.

I just got an email from one of the sales associates (I somehow got added to the list) on a new product that can be incorporated into the PAC: NoveList Select.

Polaris is pleased to offer NoveList Select - a quick and easy way for patrons to find books similar to those that interest them. NoveList Select pulls from a database of over 4 million titles and retrieves only books that are included in your collection. What's more, a "Find more like this" link appears right in the PAC and sorts results by popularity, making it easier for readers to find additional books they will enjoy.

I can't recall if other PAC software does this either by default or with a company-supported plugin (I know there are third party plugins), but I'm quite happy to hear about this. I'd imagine it works under a library consortia running Polaris just fine, so now I guess I just have to hope our consortia decides to take a serious look at this.

Coming to a Library Near Me!

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:32:14 -0500

I've been rather quiet on my blog for the past few months, and I might be for the next few as well. The reasoning is simply because I haven't had a whole lot of interesting things to talk about, I've mostly been designing and redesigning our "new" website's look and feel. I've been quite embarrassed to tell people where I work simply because the website was not of my own creation and did not reflect my talents. As I am a one man band here (except for PC repair and networking, my boss does that and I assist him), I do graphic work, design, programming, cost/benefit analysis, future planning/research for technology, and a slew of other mindless yet time consuming things -- I haven't been able to work through this as quickly as I had envisioned. Not only that, but getting a consensus in a new design, knowing that everyone deciding on it had liked it (and not just thought that anything is better than our current design) was a difficult task. I'm still having trouble getting any help on actual content...due to this fact, it's more of a visual redesign than an overhaul, which is quite unfortunate.

Regardless, since I'm itching to show off the website, I'll give a small treat in its place...
Continue reading "Coming to a Library Near Me!"

Web Imagery, Libraries, and Copyright Policies

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:53:56 -0500

Okay, so... Working for a library, but also knowing all about ownership rights and the blurry lines between proper usage and improper usage, it always irks me when I don't know what the correct thing to do is.

Many times, I'm asked to place up imagery on our website that is not our own. We do not own the material, it is not from a free* clipart library, and it was not created by me (or in the case of generalization - anyone else within the organization). More often than not, it is book cover imagery directly from our "Patron Access Catalog"...the web-based book/item search for libraries. Now, the vendor (maker of our PAC) has an agreement with Syndetics and therefore with all of the book manufacturers to license these images, and it extends to our use of it within our own organization for use within the PAC.

However, does this grant satellite libraries with their own website (namely, us) the exclusive right to also pull these images and use them? Amazon also allows users of their API to pull book cover imagery, and because of that, I would think if I were to use that, I would be OK in doing so. But - am I? Is it really lawful and legal to use these images for our own use of marketing and publication (in either instance)?

* "Free" depending on the terms of use from the author and distributor.

Free Wireless at the Library

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:10:15 -0400

Although this is not meant as a marketing scheme (we've had wireless for a very long time), I couldn't figure out what to title this as. At our library, such as many medium to large sized libraries (and even some smaller ones now) offer free wireless internet access for their patrons. However, this sometimes brings in the oddball PlayStation Portable (PSP) gamer, the "sit in my car outside the building with my laptop" internet surfer, and the creepy "oh sweet, porn!" people in to the library. Some of it isn't bad:

- Oh, I see you have a playstation portable. If you're interested, we have some game play strategy books for you.
- (While walking back from lunch break) Hey, nice laptop. You know, if you actually want to come inside the library, we do have a café with coffee, bagels, deserts, sandwiches... We also have some DIY books that show you how to extend the range of your computer's wireless signal.
- ....ok, so I can't think of anything for this guy except maybe pointing him towards the picture books of modern dance or realistic painters/sculptors, but then I'd be ever afraid to go near those books again. We usually kick them out anyway.

However, today, we had something a little different. Can you see what's odd in this picture?

Read on for a close up and explanation...
Continue reading "Free Wireless at the Library"

Preventing Changes in Sections of Word 2007

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:14:12 -0400

I've been doing a lot of design work lately, and have had very little time in doing any web-related programming or similar activity. This is no different, but because I've been working in the new Microsoft Office 2007 product suite (mostly Microsoft Word), I've had an opportunity to learn a few things I didn't know how to do before. Today, I needed to try to prevent an image from being modified (moved, resized, removed, changed, etc...) within a document (a redesigned organizational letterhead). This worked fairly well, except I had used a document header and footer which also needed to allow for modification (in the header), but preventing changes wouldn't let me access the header. Regardless, the instructions and steps used in the article I'm about to link you all to were extremely useful and quite cool. I know some of these existed in earlier versions of Word, but even so...

"What Does Structured Editing Mean, Anyway?"
I hope this can help someone else someday.

Reasons Not to Allow Comments

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:46:33 -0400

Sometimes you know that allowing comments is a bad thing. Comment moderation is only so good, and Akismet and similar filters are better suited for certain situations or applications. Therefore, you need reasons why not to allow comments, and to prove to your stakeholders and target audience that this is a bad thing. So, what reasons could there be? Well, if your stakeholders have a bit of trashy humor and can watch some semi-vulgar language video, here are two reasons:

1. http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1771556
2. http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1776175
Continue reading "Reasons Not to Allow Comments"

Ah, how I love thee, XKCD

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:35:42 -0400

Courtesy of XKCD:

The Universal Survivor's Guide to Working with Librarians

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:24:12 -0400

I love my daily dose of XKCD.

...also befitting if you date a librarian.

Michael Stephens and my Word Count Tally

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Fri, 18 May 2007 19:51:48 -0400

As promised to Mike, I kept a running tally of the number of times I heard Michael say the word "Hot". Seemingly this word had been popularized within his presentations, but that time seems to have since passed, as you can see from the stats below. However, whilst listening to Michael speak, I did notice a different word that was much more prominent (though definitely helpful during the presentation to emphasize points). I also tracked a different, never oft-used word.

"Hot": 5
"Yay": 18
"Kerfuffle": 2

Kerfuffle?! Ha! Neat.
In context (I think): "Without first learning how to use the (blank) before releasing it to the hounds, it caused an unnecessary kerfuffle." ...he so much more eloquently used this interesting word. I don't think I quite captured its spirit.
Continue reading "Michael Stephens and my Word Count Tally"

Dinner with Michael Stephens

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Wed, 16 May 2007 22:24:49 -0400

I was lucky enough this evening to be asked to have dinner with the famed library blogger of TameTheWeb, Michael Stephens. I wasn't entirely sure of what to expect. I sat in on a presentation he gave at the Polaris Users' Group conference in Syracuse last summer and his talk was very inspiring and motivational. He'll be providing a day long presentation on two days (tomorrow and the following day) to a sold-out crowd of librarians and staff members interested in his talks (or told they had to attend by superiors, though I believe it's more of the former); I'll be attending Friday's session (long weekend, anyone?).
Continue reading "Dinner with Michael Stephens"

Pot 3.0 -- The Semantic Pot

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:36:15 -0400

In a posting to a mailing list I've recently joined (Web4lib), Tim Spalding of LibraryThing fame hopped in to a discussion on Web 2.0 and what it means to libraries...and how libraries are abusing these technologies. Either way, the silly yet factual statement he makes breaks up the conversation quite well:

I don't think Web 2.0 is a fad, but it's clear the *term* has jumped
the shark when the media starts talking about powerful marijuana as
"Pot 2.0":

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18310976/

Of course, everything will change when we have Pot 3.0, the Semantic Pot.

In the overall discussion, technology focused professionals in the library genre are trying to dispell the overly magical powers that our "Web 2.0" applications can grant us mere mortals. Libraries are springing up with blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds simply to use them, but not really thinking over how it will benefit the user -- something that many sites are guilty of (ours is beyond behind the times, so I'm not guilty of that, just many other things -- new site is in the works, finally).

Libraries and Technical Meetings/Projects

nospam@example.com (Brendon Kozlowski) — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:24:42 -0400

TechEssence has an interesting topic on Librarians and technical projects. The article itself sounds interesting and well thought out, but the article was purposefully vague. Technology or technical projects can take up an enormously broad range of qualities and specifications, and I believe they were simply realizing there's a barrier with many librarians when it comes to anything technical, or technology related.

Now, what about those of us with the job of, oh...completely revamping a website and having all the staff who know about web-related things but don't understand the complexity in creating them. They know enough to be dangerous, but I'm not entirely sure I can educate them on exactly all the work that goes in to it -- and I am the only one behind the web development, web server control, etc...plus I run around helping people clear out their junk/bulk mail folders. So, perhaps there's more problem here than meets the eye, but...this seems like the article assumes or presumes there's a team behind all of this, not just a single person with a team of people coming at him or her.

Oh, the article really is well written. You should go read it and see what you get from it as it can be useful for any organization, not just libraries but any team with non-technically minded individuals.