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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 13 2008, 5:59 PM EDT (current) | jyew | |
| Mar 13 2008, 5:59 PM EDT | jyew | 125 words added |
Changes
Key: Additions Deletions
03/13/08
Ask.com Lays Off 40 Employees, Including Librarian
"This week Ask.com announced that it was essentially giving up on its plans to become a serious player in a search engine market overwhelmingly dominated by Google, saying it would lay off roughly 40 employees. Those departing include librarian Gary Price, the man behind ResourceShelf and Docuticker.
While Ask.com's services were rated highly by search engine experts, it just couldn't make a dent in Google's dominant position (66% of searches in February, according to Hitwise), or even trailing search engines Yahoo!(21%), and Microsoft (7%), logging just 4%.number two competitor to Google, were notably bleak. Commented blogger Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land. "To me, this shows that we now only have Google, Yahoo and Microsoft."
7/26
Save energy by using Blackle instead of Google
A search engine that has black as its background instead of Google's trademark whitespace on its search engine interface. According to the website, Blackle was developed in response to a blogpost titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year. This blogpost proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine.
4/4
America Gone Wrong: A Slashed Safety Net Turns Libraries into Homeless Shelters
A link forwarded to me by my librarian friends in Australia. Article talks about one of the little acknowledged roles of the public library. Any librarian can tell you that homeless clients are one of the most challenging and also rewarding aspect of working in a public library. The article goes on to raise the question - is formal training in social work something we should be thinking about in the LIS curriculum? - jude
3/26
Follow up to James Joyce estate copyright study from 504
Got this from Nick Bartine. A significant victory for Lawrence Lessig and the folks at Stanford's Center for the Internet and Society. Carol Schloss, the author who was prevented from quoting anything that James Joyce or Lucian Joyce ever wrote for the past 10 years by Stephen James Joyce, has finally seen an end to the Joyce estate's agression towards her.
3/6
Copyright Royalty Board adopts hikes in royalty rates
Response and explanation from Broadcast Law Blog
I received and email from the founder of Pandora about this today, and basically, the CRB has decided to increase royalty rates by over 100% per performance over the next 3 years. Ouch. If you're an internet radio fan like me, and you'd like to let Congress know how you feel, call Rep. John Dingell at 202-225-4071. He's the Representative for the district that includes Ann Arbor. - Libby
2/21
'Electric Slide' on slippery DMCA slope
"The inventor of the "Electric Slide," an iconic dance created in 1976, is fighting back against what he believes are copyright violations and, more importantly, examples of bad dancing."
(02/18)
Failure Trends in Google's Disk Drive farm (PDF link)
This article came up on engadget. It surveys the cheap off-the-shelf hard disks used in Google's server farms. Some of the most interesting findings indicate that failure rates are indeed definitely correlated to drive manufacturer, model, and age; failure rates did not correspond to drive usage except in very young and old drives (i.e. heavy data "grinding" is not a significant factor in failure); and there is less correlation between drive temperature and failure rates than might have been expected, and drives that are cooled excessively actually fail more often than those running a little hot.
(02/14)
If the Academic Library Ceased to Exist,
Would We Have to Invent It?
Interesting article that poses a "what if ...?" scenario that imagines a future where universities stopped funding and maintaining academic libraries. Interesting case study to apply across the SI foundations courses?
Ask.com Lays Off 40 Employees, Including Librarian
"This week Ask.com announced that it was essentially giving up on its plans to become a serious player in a search engine market overwhelmingly dominated by Google, saying it would lay off roughly 40 employees. Those departing include librarian Gary Price, the man behind ResourceShelf and Docuticker.
While Ask.com's services were rated highly by search engine experts, it just couldn't make a dent in Google's dominant position (66% of searches in February, according to Hitwise), or even trailing search engines Yahoo!(21%), and Microsoft (7%), logging just 4%.number two competitor to Google, were notably bleak. Commented blogger Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land. "To me, this shows that we now only have Google, Yahoo and Microsoft."
7/26
Save energy by using Blackle instead of Google
A search engine that has black as its background instead of Google's trademark whitespace on its search engine interface. According to the website, Blackle was developed in response to a blogpost titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year. This blogpost proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine.
4/4
America Gone Wrong: A Slashed Safety Net Turns Libraries into Homeless Shelters
A link forwarded to me by my librarian friends in Australia. Article talks about one of the little acknowledged roles of the public library. Any librarian can tell you that homeless clients are one of the most challenging and also rewarding aspect of working in a public library. The article goes on to raise the question - is formal training in social work something we should be thinking about in the LIS curriculum? - jude
3/26
Follow up to James Joyce estate copyright study from 504
Got this from Nick Bartine. A significant victory for Lawrence Lessig and the folks at Stanford's Center for the Internet and Society. Carol Schloss, the author who was prevented from quoting anything that James Joyce or Lucian Joyce ever wrote for the past 10 years by Stephen James Joyce, has finally seen an end to the Joyce estate's agression towards her.
3/6
Copyright Royalty Board adopts hikes in royalty rates
Response and explanation from Broadcast Law Blog
I received and email from the founder of Pandora about this today, and basically, the CRB has decided to increase royalty rates by over 100% per performance over the next 3 years. Ouch. If you're an internet radio fan like me, and you'd like to let Congress know how you feel, call Rep. John Dingell at 202-225-4071. He's the Representative for the district that includes Ann Arbor. - Libby
2/21
'Electric Slide' on slippery DMCA slope
"The inventor of the "Electric Slide," an iconic dance created in 1976, is fighting back against what he believes are copyright violations and, more importantly, examples of bad dancing."
(02/18)
Failure Trends in Google's Disk Drive farm (PDF link)
This article came up on engadget. It surveys the cheap off-the-shelf hard disks used in Google's server farms. Some of the most interesting findings indicate that failure rates are indeed definitely correlated to drive manufacturer, model, and age; failure rates did not correspond to drive usage except in very young and old drives (i.e. heavy data "grinding" is not a significant factor in failure); and there is less correlation between drive temperature and failure rates than might have been expected, and drives that are cooled excessively actually fail more often than those running a little hot.
(02/14)
If the Academic Library Ceased to Exist,
Would We Have to Invent It?
Interesting article that poses a "what if ...?" scenario that imagines a future where universities stopped funding and maintaining academic libraries. Interesting case study to apply across the SI foundations courses?
