Projected, recorded, uploaded, embedded

Enjoy the music with me? thanks to Alex Ross and others (see below)?



"The first part of Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" Overture, as played by the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, at the New World Center on Jan. 28, 2011. The image is being projected on a seven-thousand-square-foot wall; the sound is heard over a network of 167 speakers." [Youtube video description]

Or wonder at technology with me?

• Miami's New World Centre's Wallcast projects concert hall performances outside. (Frank Gehry designed the center, who can we thank for the sound and simulcast tech?)
• [?unidentified device] captures the cast in excellent quality.
• YouTube lets Alex Ross upload the recording and me embed it here.
• Blogging programs like WordPress helps people share stuff online
• Extra-blogging stuff like tracking back builds conversation
• Repository software like dSpace helps institutions collect and preserve scholarly writing.
• Online courses with course managment software... hm, can't really promote the one used for current course as I'm not fond, tend to prefer Moodle.

Or delight in social factors?

• What explains the expensive projection of performances outside the hall, to the public for free? I can guess why people would use the Soundscape - I want to go!
• Alex was so impressed (?) he recorded, uploaded, blogged and wrote. AH! to "invite people in" - Alex answers my first question.
• The beauty of connections: dkl, a scholar interested in "combination of sight and sound in musical experience, and the use of technology to alter their combination", gets caught by Alex's article and later blogs about it. (And dkl "gets" linking in his first post!)
• Everyone is sharing all this stuff online.

So maybe it is just one factor in different dimensions: People love to share what makes them zing.

Or my story:

In which Charles Sturt University School of Information Studies offer a course by distance (that (if I finish) would qualify me to be a reference librarian), in which John Kennedy, Bob Pymm and Sue Terry authored the Collections subject asking students to explore repository software designer DSpace, who share use case examples including George Mason University's MARS, who preserve blog posts of at least one of their associate professors, Dan Cohen who (among many wonderful contributions to online scholarship) writes and talks inspiringly about the value of the blogging genre for scholarly communication (see why I listened for an hour!?). Dan uses WordPress and his team designed Zotero and and where was I? ... oh yes, Dan's blog captures trackbacks so I noticed dkl's first post at Spooky and the Metronome, where he grabs my attention: music+image, a mix of styles in one post, his personal story, scholarly meditations, and darn him for linking instead of embedding the above video himself.  Because on seeing Alex Ross' uploaded video of the projected performance - musing at the capacity to see and hear without being there or then, I needed to see it all shifted that extra step in time and virtual space, and now I've added the dimension of posting from Australia.

Software License Agreements... sigh

I'll have to see whether someone has been collecting odd things about Software License Agreements. I'm sure there must be sites for us to grumble about them. My grumble today relates to Adobe's for Flash Player 10.1. Is there another Flash player out there, that is safe and reliable? Not that I've not found Adobe's Flash player to be either unsafe or unreliable yet, but when the SLA reads as follows I have to wonder:

7.1 Use of PDF Files. When you Use the Software to open a PDF file that has been enabled to display ads, your Computer may connect to a website operated by Adobe, an advertiser, or other third party. Your Internet Protocol address (“IP Address”) is sent when this happens. The party hosting the site may use technology to send (or “serve”) advertising or other electronic content that appears in or near the opened PDF file. The website operator may also use JavaScript, web beacons (also known as action tags or single-pixel gifs), and other technologies to increase and measure the effectiveness of advertisements and to personalize advertising content. Your communication with Adobe websites is governed by the Adobe Online Privacy Policy found at http://www.adobe.com/go/privacy (“Adobe Online Privacy Policy”). Adobe may not have access to or control over features that a third party may use, and the information practices of third party websites are not covered by the Adobe Online Privacy Policy.

For a start: Why would I use Flash Player to open PDF Files? I hate pdfs. Oh, is this something that whoever coded some Flash movie I've clicked to view might have included in its instructions? BTW - Please don't. Is there really no way to configure Flash Player so that it simply will not open pdfs, or not without an option to cancel the play before it opens?

I guess I'm glad Adobe are so open about how security can (I'm guessing) be breached with Flash. See more:

7.3 Local Storage. Flash Player and Adobe AIR may allow third parties to store certain information on your Computer in a local data file known as a local shared object. The type and amount of information that the third party application requests to be stored in a local shared object can vary by application and such requests are solely controlled by the third party. You can find more information on local shared objects at http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayer_security. For more information on how to limit or control the storage of local shared objects on your Computer, please visit http://www.adobe.com/go/settmgr_storage_en.

Now, what is with the incredibly long document with no language menu so one has to scroll through searching for your own language?

Trip notes going up at family blog

For anyone who might be interested, I've finally got back to actually publishing some of the notes I had jotted on our trip (to Canada and the US back in June/July), over at the family blog Counting Everything. Only four days in so far, the rest will have to wait till assignments are finished for the year.

Thinking happy

At first, I ignored the topic because it was a meme, but then of course it appeared again, and by then I was feeling a little frustrated that I've been so busy I've not kept on target for 30 posts in 30 days. 

Not that I shall let such a minor issue bother me... at least that is something I have learned over the years: a little cognitive control of my emotions, and thanks to neuroplasticity (and making sure my son saw a documentary about it on SBS) I needn't worry if the relevant parts of my brain (the full-text of that article in pdf) are damaged. 

And that is what makes me happy: my thoughts.  When I remember - I choose to be happy: I think through the current situation until I find a perspective that feels positive - and it is rarely difficult. After all, I'm fortunate that much of the time a good proportion of my needs are easily met.  If there are any not being met I can enjoy the process of planning, imagining, pondering how to meet them - or I can focus on the joys of one of the many that are already.

Fly a Kite! by SlinkyDragon via kwout

More on citing board games: Scruples

How delightful: Having decided that a comment I was writing had developed beyond a simple example to append to my post about citing board games in APA style: as I entered a title for this new post it occurred to me that the theme of Scruples is what earned this blather its own space.

MyBlogLog shared another curiosity when I scanned its statistics for me today... Someone searched my blog for cite the board game scruples.

Unless the querant was pondering the ethics of citing board games, I'm guessing the curiosity was how to cite that particular game Scruples. I do have a copy of the game, and this is how I would cite the copy I have. As the game is revised and updated every five years (High Game Enterprises, 2008), you might have a different copy.

Depending whether my text refers to the game as a whole or a specific part of it, in-text citations might be:
(A Question of Scruples, 1986)
(A Question of Scruples, 1986, q178)
(A Question of Scruples, 1986, rules p.6)
(A Question of Scruples, 1986, base of box)

A Question of Scruples [Board game]. (1986). Sydney, N.S.W. : Milton Bradley

So, why would I not cite the publisher as corporate author? Because I am not sure that Milton Bradley are responsible for the design of the game. Although I would not rely* on the source regarding this particular information (Wikipedia and BoardGameGeek) to insert [Surname, I. (Designer)] in author place, it may be the game was designed by an individual who sold it to a game company who may have shared rights to publish it with companies in other countries.

*The claim of designership maybe false. Or overstated, perhaps the claimant merely created and sold the concept of the game.

It is sad for historians, and board game appreciators, that game publishers have not been in the habit of acknowledging the provenance of the games they publish.

Considering the claim (unverified, but uncontested) of a designer outside the publishing company, the claim on my box of copyright by MB "under Berne and Universal copyright conventions" and the absence of any information acknowledging designers or design teams (would that be too hard?), seems they may simply have bought the right to publish, and that the designer did not retain any right to acknowledgement for design.

I have seen a game in which the publisher did acknowledge the source of the concept, and the company personnel who then developed it into a game. I'd like to see more of that. Just like my uncle likes to read the credits rolling at the end of a film.

About judging ideas & opinions

Scott Adams riffed on the notion that it is absurd to have an opinion on whether it was a good idea to create a certain movie (or other things for that matter).

Scott Adams Blog: The Value of Ideas 06/04/2010 via kwout

I wonder whether opinions say more about the opinionator than the content of the expressed opinion? e.g., one who says "that's a bad idea" is revealing that they simply cannot imagine an expression / execution of the idea that they would enjoy. Which might lead their listener to wonder about the quality of the opinionator's imagination, or preferences.

Which reminds me about another opinion on opinion:

That, in many situations, while everyone is entitled to their own opinion (supported by Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

)... "not all opinions are equal". While I'm sure she's not the only one to express that truth, 'tis Sandra Dodd of unschooling fame, whose expression of it I always remember... vaguely....

Image by moonflowerdragon via Flickr

Of course, one of the reasons this comes up in relation to Sandra is in the matter of freedom of expression of opinion. If I recall correctly, and I hope someone will point out if I misrepresent it, Sandra expresses the opinion that place may limit freedom of expression. For example, in a Yahoogroup or mailing list, made or owned by an individual - the rules for expression in that place may be declared by the owner and maintained through eviction from the group if necessary. Similarly for private homes, or other privately-owned buildings. I have not investigated whether the law supports private-space-right-to-suppress-speech.

OOOh, but that reminds me of a recent post by Kathryn Greenhill, about the library's role (as a public institution) in the provision of information when there are many opinions on a topic: that of not censoring, no matter whether the available information is, in the librarian's opinion, bad in some way.

I think the following of Kathryn's comments sum her overall view, though I recommend the lively presentation in her whole article:

A library’s role is not to supress ideas – not matter how dangerous or loony I may believe those ideas to be, nor how wrong I think they are. ... A library’s role is to provide access to information and connect people to that information. We seek to provide a balanced and varied collection, but not to judge the information we are providing, nor the people who are seeking it. ... I am not arguing that ideas should be heard without rebuttal, argument, critical thought or judgment. I am arguing that they should be heard and that libraries exist as a vital institution to protect the right for that to happen...

I think an important point to remember is the breadth of material that comes under the label "information". "Information" is not only facts, but also theories with or without reasonable support, opinions of varying quality and fictional representations.

Something students in CULLB602C@UB will be exploring is the library's role in teaching Informacy, ie: educating its patrons in evaluating the sources of information they peruse.

Related articles by Zemanta

• There is no such thing as public opinion (clubtroppo.com.au)
• A Vision for a School Library (123elearning.blogspot.com)
• Court Says Internet Filtering in Public Libraries Not Censorship (readwriteweb.com)

Just a quick mention in relation to Zemanta: I chose (as somewhat related in area of interest) the above articles from those suggested by Zemanta. As I scrolled through the list of suggestions again after my second selection I was disturbed to note that an article was marked "Clicked" (ie selected) that I had *not* chosen. It is possible that I may have mis-moused or mis-clicked in making my selection; and I have no way to be sure - but as the "clicked" item I did not choose was a PROMOTED article, I intend to carefully double-check my selections in future.

Hello from our new laptop

How exciting: for our trip we’ve bought a new laptop :-D

Why? We want to be able to:

• keep in touch with people back home
• go online wherever we happen to be to research the next stage
• watch movies or shows we’ve bought specially to view on the trip (could you recommend some good “travel” movies?)
• play a game or two in down-time
• transfer, sort and store our photos as we go.

Please give your tips/advice for travelling with a laptop.

So, Cricket researched options and required specifications and finally recommended the:

Toshiba Satellite A500/031

Sure go ahead, if you’ve had trouble with one, do send warnings.

But so far (4 hours in to familiarisation, only Firefox installed) I’m enjoying it – except that the desktop icons are a lot larger than I would like and there are no options to make them smaller (resolution is as high as it will go; and Control Panel options to change desktop icon & text size is only available to go larger).

Just like when I found delightful features of Windows 7, I have been delighted to discover Toshiba Bulletin Board.  The boys and I will be sharing the laptop and I don’t think we need to have different user settings because we use the same programs, and anything we want to keep private we can save to our memory sticks – BUT I like to use stickies and to do lists – but the boys don’t need to see my notes to myself on the desktop.  With Toshiba Bulletin Board we can make our own boards – to pin up our own lists, photos, notes etc.

Naturally one of the first things I did when I finally started familiarisation procedures (ie mucking about in there) was to begin a todo list, and documenting what I’ve done and learned so far :P

1. Removed battery
2. Connected to secure home network
3. Windows 7 offered to set up a homegroup and this time I went with that and received a password
4. I can access some stuff on other home computers - but it looks limited to docs, pics, vids, music; couldn't see how to access program files - would be convenient not to have to redownload stuff.
5. Created personal Bulletin Board - boys can have their own
6. Listed things to install in Board’s ToDo List
7. Installed Firefox
8. Learned a tiny bit about homegroups – but still confused about Windows 7 file management.
9. Tried to find a way to shrink the icons on desktop – couldn't
10. Changed basic computer's Windows7 user name from New User, although that is still showing as its name from my PC.
11. Wondered what option we will use for office software on this machine.
12. Removed Wild Tangent
13. Looked for that Windows 7 writing tool I liked so much for blogging, ah yes Windows Live Writer, so it is in the Windows Live folder.
14. Changed desktop background theme.
15. Binned Adobe shortcuts - won't need those
16. Pinned tools I use (Paint, Writer, calculator) to Taskbar, unpinning the unnecessaries.
17. Played some more with the Board (added a pic of Xin and Me in Second Life)

And now the laptop and I need to get back to work…. that to do list calls…particularly the firefox addons: delicious, kwout and zotero.

Waking, walking and wondering

Woken at 1:21 by Margie's SMS festive greeting; then around 4am worrying until a friend's text around 6am meant I could sleep again. And such a lovely sleep I could then enjoy for three hours until time to help the boys prepare for a seasonal visit with their father's family.

After lunch, GUF and I walked up to Black Hill. I didn't take the camera, but this is an older photo of a path we didn't take today :D It was a lovely walk in the sun, with enough breeze to keep us mostly cool enough. I enjoyed the wind in the trees, feeling the age of the eroding rocks and the passing of time shown in the shrubs crossing paths that were clear last time I was there.

Then this evening I pondered some of the puzzles GUF has been solving in The Eleventh Hour. Codes and puzzles are entertaining though I don't have nearly the gift or penchant for them that GUF has. We discovered that my sight (even requiring glasses) beats his magnifying glasses for finding the hidden mice.

So far with the help of a huge variety of proteins and salted pumpkin seeds, I've managed to get through the day without eating any traditional festive treats. Although once or twice as GUF prepared his sandwiches with Chocka Vlokken, or when I glanced at the tin holding Dutch rusks, or saw the Chocolate Hagel in the cupboard, it was a teensy bit tempting.

Tonight, a subscriber gift from Enniv Zarf in Second Life sent me to his Youtube Channel, and I introduced GUF to the joy of Paul Kwo's piano improvisations. I cannot choose a favourite, but of those I enjoyed tonight, this was the most mellow:

Procrastination

Tammy Takahashi contends that Procrastination Is a Great Tool for getting things done. However what her explanation really reveals is that a valued large goal, broken into manageable chunks can actually be achieved if one is sufficiently motivated to complete the chunks and not procrastinate them.

I made sure to read the post because my day began with me wondering whether I might discover my own procrastination to have any value. Perhaps I'll examine the idea more thoroughly another time but for now I'll back to whatever I choose to do next: a task early; an overdue task; fun-easy or fun-challenging or not-fun... I won't know till I stop this one and move into the next moment.

*&^%$#@! assignment time again

The unit: Develop and apply knowledge of library information services.

The first assignment: 

Write a report (1000 words for each library) on the State Library of Victoria, The Museum Library and one other Academic or Public Library.  Report should include: brief summary of the library's history; account of the information role of the library and its relationship with its users; summary of management and reporting structure; discussion of key issues facing the library; summary of key legislation which effects (sic)(?affects) library's role and performance.

Why it is *&^%$#@!:
I hate writing solely for the purpose of being assessed on what I've written.  Valuable purposes of formal writing are to compose information useful in content and style to the work's reader.  My assessor already knows this stuff so what I write can't be useful to her.  When "what is in it for me" is only a grade I feel sick.

So: To get around that I have to:

• find a personal motive, maybe:
• a focussed series of entries for my blog
• What this unit contributes to my industry knowledge
• How that new knowledge could contribute to my future work in the industry
• Preferably: what I enjoyed learning or found interesting or personally relevant
• if I had a workplace I might "report" to a staff meeting or staff blog / wiki - but I don't yet;
  
• career planning - too far away: I'll be homeschooling for a few more years.
• maybe alter my 'educated' notions of what a report looks like
  
• (boring... headings, sub-headings, prose content, conclusion)
  
• play with the assessment criteria invitation to organise it 'innovatively'

Priority: Get it done!

• Writing to format frustrated me to tears
• eg SLV have pages galore dedicated to the areas relevant to the inclusions for my short report
  
• all of which I find interesting
  
• I would have to summarise what has already been extensively summarised.
  
• Break it into pieces
• There are two more assignments in this unit due in 28 days
• := 9 days each
  
• := 3 days each library of this one.
• := 1/2 day per element to include.
  
• leaving hopefully enough time to wrap it all up in a report!

????