Category — General

Half million Chinese now make a living from the acquisition and sale of WoW gold:
Inside World of Warkcraft Gold Farm, Future of Work. Amazing. And don’t miss the video below if you have not seen it.

“an astounding half million Chinese now make a living – about $100 a month – from the acquisition and sale of WoW gold to US and EU gamers. Why is this is the future of work online? Consider the numbers, youth, and low wages of the gold farmers, and the growing interest in outsourcing tasks online.

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wow, that is quite a lot of people.

Confused Of Calcutta » Blog Archive » Three lies about social software:
Lie 3: Social software destroys privacy
There are many reasons why I believe that privacy, as the West knows it, is dead. Some of it is to do with the web. Some of it is to do with social software, I guess. Some of it is probably even due to cyber-crime. But I think we’re missing the point. People share information willingly. Now some of them may not realise quite how much information they are sharing, and how this information may be used against them, but that cannot be laid at the door of social software.
People who don’t want to share openly still use social software. There are passworded wikis, closed-loop IM systems, even things like Orkut Crush. Openness is primarily a choice and not a condition.

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This looks like something that Michael might want to address…

Library as Cultural Memory:
I realized that the thing I enjoy about the library is that it exists as a cultural memory.
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SUbject/object is one of the best library blogs out there. The library does not exist as a cultural memory though. One function of a library is to distribute cultural memories and their requisite ideological functions. The key here is to remember that all mental functions exist as processes, including memory. Just as a library does not transmit and accept knowledge, but knowledge flows through it embodied in people, memory does not exist in the books or the institution. The only things that exists in the institution are interpretations, frequently unfixed from the experiences that created them.

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Andy Ihnatko :: Avoid the loony Zune :
The Zune is a complete, humiliating failure. Toshiba’s Gigabeat player, for example, is far more versatile, it has none of the Zune’s limitations, and Amazon sells the 30-gig model for 40 bucks less.
Throw in the Zune’s tail-wagging relationship with music publishers, and it almost becomes important that you encourage people not to buy one.

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the microsoft zune…. the only way to make it useful… is to change the laws so you can’t own anything else.

DevilDucky – Car vs Trailer:
Car vs Trailer

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common sense is lacking…

Library 2.0: An Academic’s Perspective: What They Should Teach in Library School:
How are graduate schools of library and information science preparing students for Library 2.0? I’ve got a few suggestions.

These suggestions are along the lines of what I’ll call foundation skills that can prepare students for working in a Library 2.0 world. In other words, I’m not getting into lists of Library 2.0 phenomena that should be covered in school, e.g., blogs, wikis, social networks, RSS and all that. These are a given. I’m more interested in skills that are necessary for working successfully with these phenomena.

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I teach some of this, but not all of it. I think that I will add teach colleagues in my next class.

U.S. Copyright Office – Anticircumvention Rulemaking:

1. Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors.
2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.
3. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.
4. Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.
5. Computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network.
6. Sound recordings, and audiovisual works associated with those sound recordings, distributed in compact disc format and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully purchased works and create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities that compromise the security of personal computers, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing, investigating, or correcting such security flaws or vulnerabilities.

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this is great news. Now if they’d just make a rule about the materials that are in the grey area of copyright law.

Eat Over Your Sink:
Wow. There’s a day for everything. And today, November 24, 2006, is Sinkie Day, sponsored by the folks at www.sinkie.com. They’re also known as the “International Association of People who Dine Over the Kitchen Sink,” established in 1991. Yep, SInkie Day is a day to eat standing over your sink. Not, perhaps, a cause for celebration — but a release for a little guilty pleasure in doing so? Nut the big news is: on sinkie day, the folks at the web site announce their 6 suspected closet sinkies of the year. Will you be one?

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wow, well I don’t usually eat over the sink, but sometimes I do. It really depends on the crumb factor… if there are lots of crumbs, i eat over the sink, else… i have to sweep up crumbs…

Buy Nothing Day – ADBUSTERS.ORG:
Every November, for 24 hours, we remember that no one was born to shop. If you’ve never taken part in Buy Nothing Day, or if you’ve taken part in the past but haven’t really committed to doing it again, consider this: 2006 will go down as the year in which mainstream dialogue about global warming finally reached its critical mass. What better way to bring the Year of Global Warming to a close than to point in the direction of real alternatives to the unbridled consumption that has created this quagmire?

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celebrate buy nothing day. (of course, i have to buy contact solution today, but eh)

Worldmapper: The world as you’ve never seen it before:
Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.
Maps and extra information will be added during 2006. Use the menu above or click on a thumbnail image below to view a map.

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seen a few of these before….