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nook

August 31, 2010 in Uncategorized, books, review, tech by spinstah | 2 comments

When the debut of the Amazon Kindle started to revive the e-reader and e-book market, I started paying more attention to what was going on in that little world. Not with the intention of buying a reader anytime soon, but because I like gadgets, and I’m a librarian, and I had the thought of “someday, when the DRM is all sorted out, I’ll get one.”

Well, the DRM hasn’t been “all sorted out” (ha!) but someday came this spring, when the idea of buying a Kindle cheap on ebay was planted in my brain, and ferociously took root. Ultimately I didn’t get one, as none of the listings I saw were inexpensive enough. But, this happened in the spring, and my parents were looking for a gift worthy of a milestone birthday. So, I started to look into the possibilities. I had two requirements: I wanted something that could seamlessly download my subscriptions to The New Yorker and The New York Times, and I wanted something that could handle the standard epub format (which means it can be used with Overdrive, a system libraries use to lend out digital content like ebooks and audio books, and I can also purchase ebooks from a variety of sources). This immediately put the Kindle out of the running. My intent here is not to knock it, as I know several people who have one and love it. But it wasn’t going to work for me.

At that point I started to look at the nook and the Sony Reader line. There are several models of Sony Readers at this point, and they can all read the standard epub format. But only one can also seamlessly download subscriptions. The nook can do both of these things, and had the added bonus of being about half the price as that Sony Reader (at the time at least, the price on the nook has actually gone down*, and the Sony Readers may have as well). So, we had a decision. Read the rest of this entry »

WiMax, Take Two

June 22, 2010 in internet, review by spinstah | No comments

Back in February of 2009, I attempted and failed to sign up for Xohm, Sprint’s WiMax service. My overall experience led me to believe that the service wasn’t quite ready to be launched — coverage in Baltimore wasn’t all that widespread, and the Mac support was entirely given over to their developer network, in a lame attempt to get other people to do the work they should have done before launching. I returned the modem I’d bought, griped about the experience online, and soon thereafter Xohm disappeared from view.

It turns out that a company called Clearwire had bought Xohm from Sprint, and they stopped taking new subscribers while they did things like expanding the network and making sure the software and hardware was compatible with the Mac OS. How sensible. They also eliminated the need to install any software on your computer in order to use the service (Xohm required some crazy widget/app thing, for no apparent reason). The pricing for the service, now called Clear, is still smack in my price range ($30 or $40) for basic home service. It’s a little more for a subscription that works with a USB modem that you can take with you anywhere, and you can also bundle voice with any of the plans. One especially nice touch is that you have a choice of a two-year contract and leasing the modem, or a month-to-month contract for which you buy the modem outright. I went with the latter, because if I’m going to wind up paying for the modem anyway, I might as well do it up front and not have to deal with a contract. Read the rest of this entry »

On Twitter

August 18, 2009 in internet, social software, tech by spinstah | No comments

I resisted Twitter for a long time, and when I finally signed up I felt a bit sheepish about all my pooh-poohing. So why did I finally sign up? Because friends were having conversations there that they weren’t having via other mediums, like chat and Facebook. I have found that I really like hearing about the stupid annoyances and routine happenings of the lives of folks whom I care about but rarely see. Recently, danah boyd wrote an interesting post that defends the social aspect of Twitter, in the face of a report that finds that the majority of tweets are meaningless blather:

I vote that we stop dismissing Twitter just because the majority of people who are joining its ranks are there to be social. We like the fact that humans are social. It’s good for society. And what they’re doing online is fundamentally a mix of social grooming and maintaining peripheral social awareness. They want to know what the people around them are thinking and doing and feeling, even when co-presence isn’t viable. They want to share their state of mind and status so that others who care about them feel connected.

That is exactly what finally drew me in. Once there was a critical mass of people I cared about on Twitter, I started paying attention to their tweets, and eventually I jumped in myself because it seemed silly to email someone in response to a tweet they had posted Sunday night, which I was seeing in my newsfeeds over lunch on Monday. I still really don’t care about following news organizations or random famous and semi-famous strangers and librarians. To me that’s not what Twitter is for, though it makes sense to use it that way (and I do follow a few of those types of accounts). That’s also partly why I still have my account locked, because I don’t use the service in such a way that I see any reason for some random person I have never met to follow me. To me it’s a social space similar to Facebook, and I apply the same rule of  “do I (or would I if you lived nearby) hang out with you in real life?” before I friend or follow someone.

It strikes me that all this kind of silly stuff we post to Twitter is probably what people who talk on the phone a lot talk about. Despite the fact that I will post it on the Internet, I still won’t pick up the phone and call any of my friends to discuss these kinds of little things.

Politics of Class Online

July 17, 2009 in internet, social software by spinstah | 1 comment

I find Danah Boyd’s work absolutely fascinating. Her application of ethnographic research methods to the technology sphere, and in particular social networking, contributes immensely to my understanding of these technologies and how they’re being used. I just read a transcript of a talk that she gave at the Personal Democracy Forum last month (The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online) and it’s really gotten me thinking. Here, she’s looking at another side of the digital divide which I think gets lost in the conversation:

Social media does not magically eradicate inequality.

When we talk about the digital divide, we’re usually focused on access. Who has access to the web? What kind of access? Is it access they can afford? Is it access that is convenient? Are the speeds at which they can connect fast enough to actually engage with what’s going on? But in my experience, that conversation rarely gets to a point where you’re talking about what they’re doing when they’re online and who they are. Have you ever thought about the fact that there are class and race differences between who is using MySpace and who is using Facebook? As she points out, on the web we (as a society) are essentially replicating all the different social stratifications that exist out on the sidewalk. It makes sense if you think about it — with social networking sites many of us are essentially just recreating our offline social networks. That means you go where your friends are. But how many of us are aware of this, and to what extent?

Anyway, I highly recommend reading through this transcript if you have an interest in social media, social networks, and how people use them. This kind of broader thinking can really help to provide a better context for what’s happening in the different areas in which we’re all focused (for example, I pay attention to reports and information about what undergrads are up to, and  give maybe a cursory glance to the stuff on other age groups).

Sprint WiMax in Baltimore

February 10, 2009 in Baltimore, internet, review, tech by spinstah | 3 comments

After I moved, I decided to set myself up with Sprint’s new WiMax service (Xohm or Clear, depending on which marketing materials you see — shortly after they rolled it out there was a name change). There’s not much out there about the service beyond some random tech blog entries from around the launch, so I thought I’d post on my experiences. (Long story short, it didn’t work out for me.)

Anyway, here’s how it went for me. I decided to go with the WiMax for several reasons: There’s no installation appointment necessary, which is always a good thing. The price was in the range of what I’m willing to pay, and on top of that they have a promotional rate for your first six months. There’s also no contract, so you can cancel at any time. All very good things.

I checked out their coverage map and my new apartment was several blocks within the coverage zone. So far, so good. On to the hardware options, where there was a bit of a disappointment. Currently, only three options are given: a standalone modem, a USB dongle, and an express card (which comes with an adapter for PC card slots). And currently, only one of those is listed as officially being Mac compatible – the standalone modem. I wasn’t really interested in the modem, because I wasn’t sure if my wireless router would work with it (it’s something like three years old at this point, so who knows). In addition the standalone modem is $20 more expensive than the other two options. Read the rest of this entry »

Holiday pics

December 26, 2008 in internet, social software by spinstah | 6 comments

After thinking some more about the question of whether or not to make fewer photos on Flickr public (Privacy on the Internet . . . and Me), I’ve decided that I’m going to make more of them friends & family only, especially those featuring people*. That means you’ll have to make a (free) Flickr account (they’re owned by Yahoo!, so you can use an existing Yahoo! account) and be friended by me in order to see them. And in order to be friended I need to know you in real life. Them’s the breaks.

There are ways that I can share the photos out to people without accounts, so I will probably do that with big events and parties. But for random occasional/incidental photos you’ll need a login. I am toying with the idea of making a guest account — something that folks who don’t have a Flickr accunt and aren’t interested in having one could use to get access to my photos — so let me know if you are intersted in this.

All that’s to say that I started this new system with the family holiday photos I just uploaded. I’m still debating on whether or not I want to go back and change the permissions on photos I’ve already uploaded. (I suspect this will happen some weekend when I’m bored. We’ll see.) So, consider this your warning that at some point, certain of my photo archives will disappear if you are not already a Flickr friend.

*Contributing to this decision was the fact that within a couple of days of writing that post I noticed that a photo of mine had been favorited by someone who was going around making a collection of photos where ladies’ pants were riding a bit on the low side. Luckily the gal in the photo in question was a stranger, but still. It appeared that at some point Flickr had deleted their original account, but they had created a new one and were going back and re-finding all their favorites. Ew.

Privacy on the Internet . . . and me

December 21, 2008 in internet, social software by spinstah | 6 comments

As I was writing the previous post (Privacy on the Internet) it got me thinking about how I approach posting things online. I have a ton of stuff online about myself and am easily findable with a quick Google search. (At the moment 6/10 (without middle initial) and 8/10 (with) of the first page of results are about me.

Even though I’m all over the place, I’m still taking advantage of privacy controls, and I’m trying not to post things that I think could cause me trouble down the line. (There was an exception to that rule for several months.) But I’m finding it increasingly difficult to balance the desire to be out there,  making myself findable and accessible, with the desire to control who can see the details. Read the rest of this entry »

Privacy on the internet

December 20, 2008 in internet, social software by spinstah | 1 comment

Hand-in-hand with my interest in social software and social networking technologies is an interest in privacy on the internet. Slowly but surely, the landscape is changing.

We’ve all seen the news stories about people who have lost their jobs because of a blog post or something on a profile on MySpace or Facebook. But here’s a new twist: earlier this month, Read Write Web reported on a college student who not only lost a student teaching job because of a photo & caption on her MySpace profile, but as a result her college converted some credits to change her degree in education to one in English. I haven’t looked up anything else on this story, but as RWW reports, the situation is a little more complex than a simple matter of the woman in question not using her privacy settings (which she obviously hadn’t been). It sounds like there were some disagreements between her and her supervising teacher, and the article hints at the possibility that the woman either wasn’t cut out for high school teaching, or she didn’t receive the kind of mentoring one would expect while in a student teaching position. Anyway, I can’t really comment on this case much more than that, but Abby and I got to talking about it. Read the rest of this entry »

Bye-bye VHS

December 8, 2008 in tech by spinstah

This doesn’t seem to be anywhere else at the moment, but Roy Tennant points out that JVC is ceasing production of stand-alone VCRs. (They will still produce combo players that have VHS and DVD capabilities.)

Many libraries have large collections of VHS tapes (both popular titles & educational). I wonder how long it will be before people start to decide that it’s cheaper to liquidate their VHS tapes and replace them with DVDs (or digitized copies) rather than try to find or repair a VCR. Most of my small personal collection of movies is on VHS. Sometimes I think about replacing my favorites with DVDs, but since I have a functioning VCR it seems like a waste of money, especially given how often I watch some of them.

Google Reader

November 16, 2008 in blogging, internet by spinstah | 2 comments

A couple of days ago, I switched from Bloglines to Google Reader. I had started thinking about it a few weeks ago, when Bloglines was having some weird problems. Then they cleared up, and I stopped thinking about it. And then, of course, late last week there were more weird problems – every feed in my inbox was updating, in some cases showing me hundreds of old posts. This is not the point of an RSS aggregator. I gave up and exported my subscriptions from Bloglines and dumped them into a Google Reader account, and I’ve been using that since I think Thursday.

So far I like it. I like that you can toggle so easily between list view (headlines) and expanded view (stories). I prefer to go through my subscriptions feed by feed, so I tend to skip the homepage, where Reader mixes together all the updates from all your feeds. (I also feel like there is too much stuff on that page. There are three columns — the regular panel on the left with your updated feeds & navigation for Google Reader, the middle column with the stories themselves, and then a right column that has a box recommending new feeds and another box of ‘tips and tricks.’ It seems like I can’t get rid of the right panel. It’s not really busy, per se, but it still feels cramped.) The only ’save’ feature I was using within Bloglines was the ‘keep new’ checkbox, which Google Reader also has.

I can’t see any reason to go back to Bloglines (except to bookmark the few things marked ‘keep new’), which is a shame. It feels like the end of an era, especially since I taught so many of my GSLIS classmates about RSS by getting them started with Bloglines. I hope they haven’t been too frustrated with it, or if they have they’ve given another reader a try.

UPDATE 11/19: Jon points out the Better GReader Firefox addon, which is pretty slick. You can get rid of the nav at the top and also bypass the “add to iGoogle or Reader?” page when you add a new feed. Thanks!

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