Here, your benefits run out in six months, unless you have contract or side work (anything less than full time). In that case, your unemployment check is reduced by your earnings, to zero if you exceed your benefit amount.
The system handles it automatically and it was fabulous when I transitioned from full time to part time work--I had benefits to fall back on (for a couple years, as I did rather well) and something to carry through the slow months (August and December in that field).
This method would be a real boon to anyone starting a business too.
Saving lives and reducing injuries: energy absorbing car bumpers derived from needing the lunar lander to touch down (go from fast to stopped) while keeping the occupants alive. Now you know where that honeycomb design came from.
However, Tang was formulated by William A. Mitchell for General Foods Corporation in 1957 and first marketed in 1959. (Sales were poor until they advertised NASA's use of it in 1965.)
Velcro similarly, was invented in 1941 by Swiss engineer, George de Mestral, who got the idea from burrs on his hunting dog. He put some under a microscope and saw, wait for it...hooks! The name is a portmanteau of the two French words velours and crochet, or 'hook'.
Yes, and your attendees could refer to it later, I would suggest a popular sight for distributing various media to as large an audience as possible that they frequent daily......Oh wait.
I'd be with you save I used my current Amiga in my laptop during work earlier today via WinUAE. All of my Amiga files dating back into the 80s are on my hard drive.
Obviously the modern hardware still isn't capable of doing things the custom Amiga chipset could do, but I do have an A4000 around were I to really need that.
It's also refreshing how "peppy" it performs, even under emulation, compared to modern software and OSs.
The only thing I miss is not being able to bring up the software easter eggs, since I don't have a floppy drive w/my laptop. Of course, they also took the profanity out of the more recent versions of the OS so it's not nearly as entertaining as it once was.
Maybe once they design a system that actually does what you ask of it, immediately, and nothing more, we'll find our passion again?
Man hug...
(I almost feel that way about the original Palm OS, multitasking, straightforward and just worked. I wondered if it shared designers or at least similar design philosophy. Of course I use my B&W Palm regularly too, about once a week average and heavily at tax time. There are records on there dating back to 2002 the IRS really wants me to keep.)
(The preceding sound was delivered by Randy, aka "RJFerret", not by Homer Simpson, and in no way is meant to infringe on any soundmark or trademark or otherwise represent RJFerret as Homer Simpson.)
Wow I didn't know there were so many tranies on slashdot. Is there some real women on here?
You forgot "Are there 'real'' men here?" Transgender goes in both directions. A couple said they identify as female, but others may identify as male. It's kind of a shame that current society doesn't recognize there are more than two obvious genders. Native American societies had roles for other genders.
Meanwhile, you probably also don't realize how many transgendered/transvestite/cross-dressing people you know in general. Just as most people simply interact with others as they are, most people don't go around announcing their gender or gender dysphoria after all!
When it comes to automotive performance, horsepower determines top speed and torque acceleration.
Say that to the Honda S2000 (award winning 2.0 liter engine produces 240 hp with little torque and no turbo does 0-60 in over 5 seconds and can get 30 mpg) or motorcycles, or any of the other low torque really quickly accelerating vehicles out there! (Or conversely, tractors, trucks, and other things with tons of torque that can't get out of their own way.)
The formula is: horsepower = torque * RPM / 5252
I'll take low torque high revving engines over lots of torque any day! The expression is "torque feels fast, horsepower IS fast".
If anywhere near Kentucky, then Mammoth Caverns, otherwise whichever cave you pass along the way. You'll learn about geology, karst, minerals, environment (water cycle), natural history, unusual wildlife, natural formations, local lore, climate (cave temps average of region), etc.
When I was a kid, I collected newspapers to recycle from the neighbors. We brought them to a recycling plant and got paid by weight. This makes sense, I provided labor, raw materials and transported them, they paid for them and turned them into a product.
Nowadays, ironically by law, we collect, clean, sort and partially transport recyclables and have to pay for doing much of the work for them.
This sounds similar.
If *I* invest in the infrastructure, I provide lower cost energy, I maintain the equipment, I bear the cost of insuring it, I'm sure as hell not going to pay YOU to connect to me and use my energy. I have the better mousetrap, you beat a path to my door.
Mod parent up! This is the first who realizes someone pays for content, "free" just means it's charge is distributed or displaced.
My parents would never use a gas station that charged the same price for cash and credit--since then the cash paying customers were being charged a portion of the percentage credit card companies charged for those services.
People often forget that companies don't have any money and most start in debt. They simply move money from their paying customers to their suppliers, financiers and labor.
That being said, all things being equal generally consumers will gravitate toward perceived "free", even bearing inconvenience and ironically, increased "cost" for it.
Sub-sampling will also totally throw off file size (which I adjust all the time depending on image content).
But...how about this? Re-compress both images to your lowest typical level. The one that's changed the greatest will be the highest quality, have the most detail and dynamic range, without time consuming visual inspection.
I just tried it and found this method superficially effective at least.
In the future, use better file naming notes! (My originals are Name00.jpg, first gen are Name01.jpg, radical changes go to Name10.jpg and weirdness can even be accommodated with Name10silo.jpg or Name10-512.jpg for resizes.) They also sort in sequential order in file requesters for easy work flow/processing.
If you look for the profiles of some of the random followers people have mentioned here, often they are gone, having already been removed from the system.
They are also ridiculously easy to spot, like this one today:
chaoticPri73400 Beth Agrell hi£ÂMy friends! I recommends a website which can reduce your electric bill by 80%. URL REMOVED It's 7:38 am 6 days ago
"She" is following 1,603 people and has nearly none following "her", never mind her sexy picture.
That's not showing the entire story. Just like the 90-9-1 rule, most people using Twitter are reading others, you don't need to even make that first post to accomplish that, but most typically try anyway as the sign-up process walks you through it.
What they don't realize is you don't need to make an account to read either. Many of my friends follow me via email and RSS instead of via their own Twitter account. And of those with Twitter accounts, most don't update daily, but only when they have something interesting going on.
There was another article about how many people don't "return" to Twitter--not realizing many use it via their phones/SMS, 3rd party apps, etc.
Think of Twitter more like SMS, it's a service which works with multiple tools that people can use for communication in whatever way they want. Just like everywhere else, more read than write.
Interesting, I'm now late 30s and frequently run across 20-somethings who have little to no computer/Internet interest. Some personality types want to interact socially in person and others want to read paper.
Sure libraries are accommodating new media, but they aren't eliminating the old, which still gets used. Attorneys and doctors continue to need paper.
His perspective generally sounds like a good one, but doesn't seem to recognize an entire segment of our population--like nearly everyone at the BBQ I was at on the 4th.
A friend there was laughing when her sister called to ask where/when fireworks might be shown, despite them having a computer in the kids playroom and their kids being able to search it faster than she could call her!
Yes, this my first thought too when I saw this article.
More referenced in Wikipedia: "Event organizers in London used ferrets to run TV and sound cables for both the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer, and for the 'Party in the Park' concert held in Greenwich Park on Millennium Eve. One ferret, Freddie, was even registered as an electrician's assistant with the New Zealand Electrical Workers Union."
You don't really need to train them, they naturally are burrowing animals, many owners have some flexible drier vent tubing for their ferrets to run through. (And you need to "ferret proof" your home for holes under cabinets or in walls they might crawl in to.)
(Not to be off topic, but the easiest way to get pictures of fast moving ferrets is to focus the camera on a tube's exit as that's pretty much the only time you can know exactly where a ferret will be!)
Quo Vadis for the original Palms used those maps for navigation when you plugged a GPSr into your Palm.
That was my first in car nav system back in 2002! And it was nice having the separate screens, the GPSr showing speed, average speed, odometer with the map on the Palm separate.
Although hardly the most bleeding edge tech, obviously there's tons of development for Palms. (Absurdly inexpensive too, just $5 or so for a Palm and tens of dollars for a basic GPSr.)
I often visit the USA for several weeks at a time.
With this device, I'll simply be able to plug the cell into my broadband in the US and have access as if I was home in the UK, without any worries!
Maybe not, the Sprint AIRAVE femtocell here in the USA requires a GPS lock showing it is within the US before it functions! (Source: this review under "design")
You can also offer to teach basic piano/keyboards.
She was too young for me, but I met a potential dating interest by teaching a beginners continuing ed chess course of all things.
Now chess has the wrong ratio of guys/girls (and continuing ed has more seniors than my demographic). But if you can expand your interests to activities with more women...
I attended a puppet conference show last night who had a pianist playing for the various acts. Do you know how many women were there?
Back to the continuing ed, the pottery courses are always filled with women if you don't mind getting your hands dirty (and you'd better not or...) Stained glass too... Not only that but you end up with gifts to bestow on family/friends.
Back when I played tabletop RPGs, I found an interested person or two, but made it a couples game. This guaranteed it wasn't all guys... I never dated anyone from a LARP but plenty of others did.
I would NOT recommend the gym, but how about a sports club? Particularly something less typical, volleyball? Badminton? Tennis? Something not so testosterone-y that more women enjoy.
Another option, instead of being that lecherous guy leering at women in the book store or library, is to volunteer at the later or work at the former part time (they always need help during the holidays). Libraries in particular are often desperate for computer/website/IT assistance as frequently their staff is woefully unprepared for the modern advances in such.
With a part time gig though, at least then you are also getting paid to practice your social skills!
Don't overlook changing jobs to an environment with more women, the workplace is still the most common place to meet a spouse.
A quarter of the relationships I've had began there. (Sadly now I work for myself... )
Finally, let EVERYONE you know, know you are looking AND want them to let you know of anyone they think of. Especially attached women who love for others to be "happy". Most of those won't work out, but you never know, and it is an odds game after all (unless you use eHarmony, which is almost too remarkable imo).
The cool thing about the latter two, is you don't have the socially awkward issue of going from "we are having a discussion" to "I am romantically interested in you". They START with the foundation of "we are both here because we are seeking the same thing" and you simply pursue the goal of common ground.
Another more generic one is get a dog (they start as cute puppies) and take it to your local dog walk place/park/hangout.
The other suggestions here have been good too, if you write them all down and put them together, you'll have the "Geek Guide to Getting Girls" which has nice geeky alliteration to boot.
Find yourself a nice female publishing house contact, editor and illustrator and you might get more than a royalty check.
Oh! I just had another brainstorm. Offer a seminar on where women can meet Geeky Guys. You know, instead of the "Home Depot" suggestions they usually get. You'll have bunches of 30+ women who are specifically interested in meeting, well, you.
Spice it up with good PowerPoint and make sure your contact email is readily available. To promote it, you'll obviously also want plenty of social networking site support, which gets you out there in more technical areas as well.
If I did that, I'd probably end it before "any questions" with, "and finally, if you really want to meet a geeky guy, start a seminar directed to guys offering them how to meet women interested in geeks, just like I did!" (cue audience laughter) "Any questions?" The funny one will respond, "What's your number?" You'll have all the excuse you need to announce it to the room.
As for the one who actually starts her own seminar? Date her before she is taken!
Not only that, but libraries are evolving themselves to take advantage of and enhance the Internet. The Alliance Virtual Library for example does everything brick and mortar libraries do entirely in a virtual context (in Second Life, for example, their size continues to grow and expand over the years). The librarians that work there do so entirely online, all book talks, information disseminated, author appearances, etc., all online.
A friend of mine works at one of the largest libraries in the northeast. They are doing more and more online, blogs, Twitter and the like, to serve their patrons they need to make themselves available there. Even when I went looking for a book at my local library, the librarian made sure to let me know I could use online tools to find it, request it (inter-library loan) and be emailed when it came in.
If it was available in electronic form, it would have saved me a trip/time, I would have learned from it sooner, and reduced costs all around.
But back to that large library, what I didn't realize is books are NOT "permanent" like much of the discussion here assumes. Libraries throw them out daily. They discard SO many that it's not even worth the labor to try to resell them or donate them. They just get "dumpstered". Think of them like magazines with a shelf duration measured in a few years instead of weeks.
Criteria? Circulation. If it hasn't been checked out, it gets tossed to make room for new (unless it was specifically donated by a local, who might come looking for it in the future--don't want to offend your patrons after all).
Which brings me to venerable Mr. Bradbury's famous work, Fahrenheit 451. At three libraries I checked (via internet of course) his book is NOT checked out, however the audiobook version IS checked out at 2 of the 3. The DVD is checked in at all of them.
Sounds like his fear of that book has been realized, people are not reading in favor of listening.
Finally, once again, that large library I mentioned earlier? They are moving away from books. They are increasing their services in terms of movies, audio and other new media. You can "check out" Kindles, MP3 players, etc. Books are expensive, cumbersome, take an objectionable amount of physical space and people don't come to the library for them, they come for DVDs and things they can use.
The biggest problem with this transition? The older staff members who are uncomfortable with newer technologies and unwilling to adapt to the new media. (The reference librarians frequently forget to turn on the online chat client of their computers.)
And thusly, we have returned to Mr. Bradbury's issue.
For Google Voice, it's in international calling. You get $1 credit for them with your account, after that it's up to these rates. (Anywhere from a cent to about 30 cents per minute.)
Am I the only one who finds Google web search less and less useful? There's no way to really force literal search anymore.
So true and frustrating! I can't tell you how many times recently I've tried searching for something "SPECIFIC" and not been able to at all.:-(
I would love to know of a useful alternative that searches for what *I* want, rather than what some non-intelligence presumes I might want (and just wastes my time and their resources).
Slashdot Mirror
Here, your benefits run out in six months, unless you have contract or side work (anything less than full time). In that case, your unemployment check is reduced by your earnings, to zero if you exceed your benefit amount.
The system handles it automatically and it was fabulous when I transitioned from full time to part time work--I had benefits to fall back on (for a couple years, as I did rather well) and something to carry through the slow months (August and December in that field).
This method would be a real boon to anyone starting a business too.
Glad I didn't live in NY!
Saving lives and reducing injuries: energy absorbing car bumpers derived from needing the lunar lander to touch down (go from fast to stopped) while keeping the occupants alive. Now you know where that honeycomb design came from.
However, Tang was formulated by William A. Mitchell for General Foods Corporation in 1957 and first marketed in 1959. (Sales were poor until they advertised NASA's use of it in 1965.)
Velcro similarly, was invented in 1941 by Swiss engineer, George de Mestral, who got the idea from burrs on his hunting dog. He put some under a microscope and saw, wait for it...hooks! The name is a portmanteau of the two French words velours and crochet, or 'hook'.
Yes, and your attendees could refer to it later, I would suggest a popular sight for distributing various media to as large an audience as possible that they frequent daily... ...Oh wait.
I'd be with you save I used my current Amiga in my laptop during work earlier today via WinUAE. All of my Amiga files dating back into the 80s are on my hard drive.
Obviously the modern hardware still isn't capable of doing things the custom Amiga chipset could do, but I do have an A4000 around were I to really need that.
It's also refreshing how "peppy" it performs, even under emulation, compared to modern software and OSs.
The only thing I miss is not being able to bring up the software easter eggs, since I don't have a floppy drive w/my laptop. Of course, they also took the profanity out of the more recent versions of the OS so it's not nearly as entertaining as it once was.
Maybe once they design a system that actually does what you ask of it, immediately, and nothing more, we'll find our passion again?
Man hug...
(I almost feel that way about the original Palm OS, multitasking, straightforward and just worked. I wondered if it shared designers or at least similar design philosophy. Of course I use my B&W Palm regularly too, about once a week average and heavily at tax time. There are records on there dating back to 2002 the IRS really wants me to keep.)
Doh!
(The preceding sound was delivered by Randy, aka "RJFerret", not by Homer Simpson, and in no way is meant to infringe on any soundmark or trademark or otherwise represent RJFerret as Homer Simpson.)
Yeah, since the roads will be glass they'll replace the plows with big squeegees.
Actually, on glass roads, I'd leave the snow there to enhance traction!
Wow I didn't know there were so many tranies on slashdot. Is there some real women on here?
You forgot "Are there 'real'' men here?" Transgender goes in both directions. A couple said they identify as female, but others may identify as male. It's kind of a shame that current society doesn't recognize there are more than two obvious genders. Native American societies had roles for other genders.
Meanwhile, you probably also don't realize how many transgendered/transvestite/cross-dressing people you know in general. Just as most people simply interact with others as they are, most people don't go around announcing their gender or gender dysphoria after all!
When it comes to automotive performance, horsepower determines top speed and torque acceleration.
Say that to the Honda S2000 (award winning 2.0 liter engine produces 240 hp with little torque and no turbo does 0-60 in over 5 seconds and can get 30 mpg) or motorcycles, or any of the other low torque really quickly accelerating vehicles out there! (Or conversely, tractors, trucks, and other things with tons of torque that can't get out of their own way.)
The formula is: horsepower = torque * RPM / 5252
I'll take low torque high revving engines over lots of torque any day! The expression is "torque feels fast, horsepower IS fast".
If anywhere near Kentucky, then Mammoth Caverns, otherwise whichever cave you pass along the way. You'll learn about geology, karst, minerals, environment (water cycle), natural history, unusual wildlife, natural formations, local lore, climate (cave temps average of region), etc.
When I was a kid, I collected newspapers to recycle from the neighbors. We brought them to a recycling plant and got paid by weight. This makes sense, I provided labor, raw materials and transported them, they paid for them and turned them into a product.
Nowadays, ironically by law, we collect, clean, sort and partially transport recyclables and have to pay for doing much of the work for them.
This sounds similar.
If *I* invest in the infrastructure, I provide lower cost energy, I maintain the equipment, I bear the cost of insuring it, I'm sure as hell not going to pay YOU to connect to me and use my energy. I have the better mousetrap, you beat a path to my door.
Shut down in case of emergency? But phones are how emergencies are reported!
Reminds me of the "Emergency Broadcast System"--which comedians wondered why it wasn't used during 9/11...
Mod parent up! This is the first who realizes someone pays for content, "free" just means it's charge is distributed or displaced.
My parents would never use a gas station that charged the same price for cash and credit--since then the cash paying customers were being charged a portion of the percentage credit card companies charged for those services.
People often forget that companies don't have any money and most start in debt. They simply move money from their paying customers to their suppliers, financiers and labor.
That being said, all things being equal generally consumers will gravitate toward perceived "free", even bearing inconvenience and ironically, increased "cost" for it.
Sub-sampling will also totally throw off file size (which I adjust all the time depending on image content).
But...how about this? Re-compress both images to your lowest typical level. The one that's changed the greatest will be the highest quality, have the most detail and dynamic range, without time consuming visual inspection.
I just tried it and found this method superficially effective at least.
In the future, use better file naming notes! (My originals are Name00.jpg, first gen are Name01.jpg, radical changes go to Name10.jpg and weirdness can even be accommodated with Name10silo.jpg or Name10-512.jpg for resizes.) They also sort in sequential order in file requesters for easy work flow/processing.
-Randy
They do, and you can easily report spam.
If you look for the profiles of some of the random followers people have mentioned here, often they are gone, having already been removed from the system.
They are also ridiculously easy to spot, like this one today:
chaoticPri73400
Beth Agrell
hi£ÂMy friends! I recommends a website which can reduce your electric bill by 80%. URL REMOVED It's 7:38 am 6 days ago
"She" is following 1,603 people and has nearly none following "her", never mind her sexy picture.
That's not showing the entire story. Just like the 90-9-1 rule, most people using Twitter are reading others, you don't need to even make that first post to accomplish that, but most typically try anyway as the sign-up process walks you through it.
What they don't realize is you don't need to make an account to read either. Many of my friends follow me via email and RSS instead of via their own Twitter account. And of those with Twitter accounts, most don't update daily, but only when they have something interesting going on.
There was another article about how many people don't "return" to Twitter--not realizing many use it via their phones/SMS, 3rd party apps, etc.
Think of Twitter more like SMS, it's a service which works with multiple tools that people can use for communication in whatever way they want. Just like everywhere else, more read than write.
Interesting, I'm now late 30s and frequently run across 20-somethings who have little to no computer/Internet interest. Some personality types want to interact socially in person and others want to read paper.
Sure libraries are accommodating new media, but they aren't eliminating the old, which still gets used. Attorneys and doctors continue to need paper.
His perspective generally sounds like a good one, but doesn't seem to recognize an entire segment of our population--like nearly everyone at the BBQ I was at on the 4th.
A friend there was laughing when her sister called to ask where/when fireworks might be shown, despite them having a computer in the kids playroom and their kids being able to search it faster than she could call her!
Yes, this my first thought too when I saw this article.
More referenced in Wikipedia: "Event organizers in London used ferrets to run TV and sound cables for both the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer, and for the 'Party in the Park' concert held in Greenwich Park on Millennium Eve. One ferret, Freddie, was even registered as an electrician's assistant with the New Zealand Electrical Workers Union."
You don't really need to train them, they naturally are burrowing animals, many owners have some flexible drier vent tubing for their ferrets to run through. (And you need to "ferret proof" your home for holes under cabinets or in walls they might crawl in to.)
(Not to be off topic, but the easiest way to get pictures of fast moving ferrets is to focus the camera on a tube's exit as that's pretty much the only time you can know exactly where a ferret will be!)
The US Government Tiger road maps are free (and the basis for much of NavTeq's data I believe in the US).
Quo Vadis for the original Palms used those maps for navigation when you plugged a GPSr into your Palm.
That was my first in car nav system back in 2002! And it was nice having the separate screens, the GPSr showing speed, average speed, odometer with the map on the Palm separate.
Although hardly the most bleeding edge tech, obviously there's tons of development for Palms. (Absurdly inexpensive too, just $5 or so for a Palm and tens of dollars for a basic GPSr.)
I often visit the USA for several weeks at a time.
With this device, I'll simply be able to plug the cell into my broadband in the US and have access as if I was home in the UK, without any worries!
Maybe not, the Sprint AIRAVE femtocell here in the USA requires a GPS lock showing it is within the US before it functions! (Source: this review under "design")
Recaptcha has a service specifically for email addresses, no obfuscation needed... Which also has the added benefit of aiding book digitizing!
You can also offer to teach basic piano/keyboards.
She was too young for me, but I met a potential dating interest by teaching a beginners continuing ed chess course of all things.
Now chess has the wrong ratio of guys/girls (and continuing ed has more seniors than my demographic). But if you can expand your interests to activities with more women...
I attended a puppet conference show last night who had a pianist playing for the various acts. Do you know how many women were there?
Back to the continuing ed, the pottery courses are always filled with women if you don't mind getting your hands dirty (and you'd better not or...) Stained glass too... Not only that but you end up with gifts to bestow on family/friends.
Back when I played tabletop RPGs, I found an interested person or two, but made it a couples game. This guaranteed it wasn't all guys... I never dated anyone from a LARP but plenty of others did.
I would NOT recommend the gym, but how about a sports club? Particularly something less typical, volleyball? Badminton? Tennis? Something not so testosterone-y that more women enjoy.
Another option, instead of being that lecherous guy leering at women in the book store or library, is to volunteer at the later or work at the former part time (they always need help during the holidays). Libraries in particular are often desperate for computer/website/IT assistance as frequently their staff is woefully unprepared for the modern advances in such.
With a part time gig though, at least then you are also getting paid to practice your social skills!
Don't overlook changing jobs to an environment with more women, the workplace is still the most common place to meet a spouse.
A quarter of the relationships I've had began there. (Sadly now I work for myself... )
Finally, let EVERYONE you know, know you are looking AND want them to let you know of anyone they think of. Especially attached women who love for others to be "happy". Most of those won't work out, but you never know, and it is an odds game after all (unless you use eHarmony, which is almost too remarkable imo).
The cool thing about the latter two, is you don't have the socially awkward issue of going from "we are having a discussion" to "I am romantically interested in you". They START with the foundation of "we are both here because we are seeking the same thing" and you simply pursue the goal of common ground.
Another more generic one is get a dog (they start as cute puppies) and take it to your local dog walk place/park/hangout.
The other suggestions here have been good too, if you write them all down and put them together, you'll have the "Geek Guide to Getting Girls" which has nice geeky alliteration to boot.
Find yourself a nice female publishing house contact, editor and illustrator and you might get more than a royalty check.
Oh! I just had another brainstorm. Offer a seminar on where women can meet Geeky Guys. You know, instead of the "Home Depot" suggestions they usually get. You'll have bunches of 30+ women who are specifically interested in meeting, well, you.
Spice it up with good PowerPoint and make sure your contact email is readily available. To promote it, you'll obviously also want plenty of social networking site support, which gets you out there in more technical areas as well.
If I did that, I'd probably end it before "any questions" with, "and finally, if you really want to meet a geeky guy, start a seminar directed to guys offering them how to meet women interested in geeks, just like I did!" (cue audience laughter) "Any questions?" The funny one will respond, "What's your number?" You'll have all the excuse you need to announce it to the room.
As for the one who actually starts her own seminar? Date her before she is taken!
Not only that, but libraries are evolving themselves to take advantage of and enhance the Internet. The Alliance Virtual Library for example does everything brick and mortar libraries do entirely in a virtual context (in Second Life, for example, their size continues to grow and expand over the years). The librarians that work there do so entirely online, all book talks, information disseminated, author appearances, etc., all online.
A friend of mine works at one of the largest libraries in the northeast. They are doing more and more online, blogs, Twitter and the like, to serve their patrons they need to make themselves available there. Even when I went looking for a book at my local library, the librarian made sure to let me know I could use online tools to find it, request it (inter-library loan) and be emailed when it came in.
If it was available in electronic form, it would have saved me a trip/time, I would have learned from it sooner, and reduced costs all around.
But back to that large library, what I didn't realize is books are NOT "permanent" like much of the discussion here assumes. Libraries throw them out daily. They discard SO many that it's not even worth the labor to try to resell them or donate them. They just get "dumpstered". Think of them like magazines with a shelf duration measured in a few years instead of weeks.
Criteria? Circulation. If it hasn't been checked out, it gets tossed to make room for new (unless it was specifically donated by a local, who might come looking for it in the future--don't want to offend your patrons after all).
Which brings me to venerable Mr. Bradbury's famous work, Fahrenheit 451. At three libraries I checked (via internet of course) his book is NOT checked out, however the audiobook version IS checked out at 2 of the 3. The DVD is checked in at all of them.
Sounds like his fear of that book has been realized, people are not reading in favor of listening.
Finally, once again, that large library I mentioned earlier? They are moving away from books. They are increasing their services in terms of movies, audio and other new media. You can "check out" Kindles, MP3 players, etc. Books are expensive, cumbersome, take an objectionable amount of physical space and people don't come to the library for them, they come for DVDs and things they can use.
The biggest problem with this transition? The older staff members who are uncomfortable with newer technologies and unwilling to adapt to the new media. (The reference librarians frequently forget to turn on the online chat client of their computers.)
And thusly, we have returned to Mr. Bradbury's issue.
But the question remains: where's the revenue?
For Google Voice, it's in international calling. You get $1 credit for them with your account, after that it's up to these rates. (Anywhere from a cent to about 30 cents per minute.)
I remember my father laughing at all the prohibitions when they were being implemented.
A plastic pocket comb IS a knife with serrated edge, easily capable of slicing someone's neck open with no modification/preparation at all.
Meanwhile if you "disarm" everyone who could prevent someone who managed to be better armed, you've just enabled them by inhibiting "us".
Am I the only one who finds Google web search less and less useful? There's no way to really force literal search anymore.
So true and frustrating! I can't tell you how many times recently I've tried searching for something "SPECIFIC" and not been able to at all. :-(
I would love to know of a useful alternative that searches for what *I* want, rather than what some non-intelligence presumes I might want (and just wastes my time and their resources).