Food For Thought: Don’t Work Hard, Work Efficiently

Working hard* seems to be the easy, quick remedy to combat the ever growing tasks we face at home and work. It sounds incredulous to tell someone not to “work hard”. However, simply working hard(er) neither promotes innovation nor does it make efficient use of time spent working (present and future).

As a programmer, working hard is analogous to brute force coding. By brute force coding, I do not mean banging my keyboard on my desk until something works. What I mean is: I have a project/requirement and I am going to write my code until that requirement is fulfilled regardless of method and without any planning or design. What I would have developed is a block of code that has fulfilled my one requirement, and, likely nothing else. My code is neither easy to debug nor is it reusable for future projects/requirements. I may have to write that same block of code again, with slight modifications, next week.

My challenge to you: when faced with the next big project or large workload, do not work hard, work efficiently (Google “working efficiently” to find tips on how to work efficiently).

*Working hard and not efficiently will most likely lead to desk rage (please see info-graphic below)

Lexis Advance debuts today!

The long-awaited Lexis Advance platform officially debuted today.  Bob Ambrogi gives a good review of the new interface at http://goo.gl/W6IbE while Greg Lambert provides a more technical review of the launch at http://goo.gl/p8ugR.

 

Controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) now before House Judiciary Committee

Numerous web companies, including Google and Facebook, are reacting harshly to the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261), a.k.a. SOPA.  Introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (TX-21)  on October 26, the bill contains the most controversial parts of the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act (S. 968), but radically expands the scope of what constitutes a “‘rogue website”, or site that engages in criminal copyright activities as defined under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, P. L. 105-304 [H.R. 2281]. 

H.R. 3261 would essentially force U.S. Internet service providers to block access to rogue sites.  There would be a ban list that ISPs would have to enforce, modifying their DNS records to prevent  foreign sites from resolving to that domain name’s Internet Protocol address.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Smith said the legislation is designed to “stop the flow of revenue to rogue websites… that profit from selling pirated goods without any legal consequences”.  Unsurprisingly, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are among the strongest supporters of the legislation.

In this morning’s testimony before Congress, the MPPA claimed that SOPA would allow the U.S. Department of Justice “more effective tools to protect American intellectual property, including the films, television shows and sound recordings created by our members”.  You can follow the hearings via Twitter using #sopa or watch the webcast via the Committee’s website.

Critics of H.R. 3261 predict that any user-generated content site or cloud-based service (i.e. virtually any participant in “Web 2.0″) could find itself targeted by the bill.   Opponents likewise argue that the new legislation represents a severe threat to online innovation and legitimate communications tools, effectively stifling free speech and impeding job creation.

Additonal objections have been raised by digital rights proponents, IP/copyright advocates, and public watchdog  groups.  Furthermore, in order to increase public opposition to H.R. 3261, open government organizations such as EFF, Public Knowledge, and the Sunlight Foundation are hosting grass roots events such as American Censorship Day: November 16th to coincide with today’s hearing.  Free Speech.net has started an online petition while the Center for Democracy & Technology has posted a resource list of the growing opposition to SOPA. 

Whether or not H.R. 3261 will pass remains to be seen; witnesses have another five days to present testimony.  More information about the bill can be found on the House Judiciary Committee website under Issues >> Rogue Websites .

Senate rejects S. J. Res 6, opens door to FCC’s Net Neutrality rules

Today the U.S. Senate rejected S.J. Res 6 which would repeal the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) authority to enforce its net neutrality rules.

Despite the waffling of some Senators prior to today’s vote, the result was along party lines. Senator Inouye (D-HI) and Senator McCain (R-AZ) did not vote. Here’s the roll call. Earlier in the week, President Obama said he would veto the measure if it came to his desk.

The FCC’s rules are scheduled to take effect on November 20. However, there are several pending lawsuits, including one filed by Verizon on September 30th, that may delay their implementation.

Increase in Public Accessing Government Info & Services Online

A report by PewInternet.org indicates that the U.S. public continues to seek government information and services online in growing numbers.  View the report here.

A tip of the hat goes to Susie Skarl, Urban Affairs Librarian at UNLV, for sharing the good news via GOVDOC-L.

Graphical Dictionary: Visuword

From the Internet Scout:

“What would a visual graphical dictionary look like? The Visuwords website gives expression to such a concept, and it does so by producing diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Upon entering the site, visitors will be presented with a random word, complete with various “connections”. On the left-hand of the page, visitors can learn about the different coded connections which indicate relationships such as “is a part of” or “opposes” and parts of speech, such as “nouns”, “verbs”, or “adverbs”. Of course, visitors are encouraged to type in their own word into the search query at the top of the page.”

Visuwords

http://www.visuwords.com/

- By: Robert Hudson

2008-2009 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study now online

Hat tip to the FL-LIB listserv for forwarding this gem…

 

The American Library Association (ALA) released a new report today on the technology opportunities and challenges faced by U.S. public libraries in the wake of the economic recession.  "Libraries Connect Communities 3: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2008-2009"  found that "more than 71% of all libraries (and 79% of rural libraries) report they are the only source of free access to computers and the Internet in their communities. Sixty-six percent of public libraries rank job-seeking services among the most crucial online services they offer – up from 44% two years ago. Eighty percent of libraries report helping patrons connect with government information and services – including unemployment forms, Food Stamps and tax information – online." 

 

View additonal details regardng the study at http://www.ala.org/ala/research/initiatives/plftas/2008_2009/index.cfm

 

Find state data here:

http://www.ala.org/ala/research/initiatives/plftas/2008_2009/statesummaries.cfm

 

Note:  All public libraries are being invited to take the 2009-2010 survey.  Deadline is November 6, 2009.

Trouble concentrating? Blame your media habits

An article in Wired Science discusses a study which identified a connection between multi-tasking behavior (simultaneously watching TV, reading e-mail, browsing the web and talking on the phone) and an inability to concentrate.  When self-identified multi-taskers were tested on a series of tasks, they performed worse than those who multi-tasked least.  The tests measured the ability to ignore irrelevant information; to organize things in working memory; and, surprisingly, to switch quickly and readily from one task to another. Hm, that last one’s a bit of a puzzle.  Hat tip to Law Librarian Blog.

- By: Deborah McGovern

reCaptcha – Thinking Outside the Box

You know those annoying collections of distorted letters you have to decipher and type into a box in order to use a variety of internet services?  What you’re doing is proving that you’re a human being, not a spammer’s computer.  And you may find them slightly less annoying from now on, because of an amazing example of human ingenuity.  Luis von Ahn, who developed the security software, called CAPTCHA, calculated how much time people around the world waste deciphering the letters and typing them in and was appalled.  Every day, 500,000 hours are spent on this irritatingly difficult activity.  Von Ahn realized that people can do what the software that performs Optical Character Recognition (OCR) often cannot, read blurred or stained old print.  So he invented reCAPTCHA and teamed up with the New York Times and the Internet Archive.  The Times is digitizing its archives, and the non-profit Internet Archive is digitizing books.

Now, people are confronted with two images, the first is the typical distorted letters puzzle, the second is a word from the digitizing projects that has baffled the OCR.  And actually, since it is a word, the second is easier to type than the first.  So next time you curse the security software that stands between you and internet Nirvana, take pride in the fact that you are helping to digitally preserve the paper past!  Thanks to NPR’s All Things Considered for reporting this story.

- By: Deborah McGovern

It’s RSS Day!

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a type of web technology that makes it easy to keep up with regularly updated blogs and websites, including nearly all news sites, and to set up customized news alert with Google news or similar sites.  Right now, it may be the best current awareness tool there is. 

Instead of having to visit all the websites you follow, RSS feeds send updates from all of the websites you select to one place.  This is a great time saver and literally allows you to read or scan more in less time once you’ve got it set up.  You don’t have to be a techie to understand or use it. Popular RSS readers like Bloglines and Google Reader are easy to set up and use.

Today is RSS awareness day.  To learn more about how it works and to see how the readers work, check out the brief overview at rssday.org.

- By: Meg Kribble