Come up with some classification system that works for you.
Don't organize by color... my wife did this to me once, and I could never find things again.
Don't use a library-strength scheme like Dewey, LoC or Cutter... you'll kill yourself later. I promise.
It's much easier to split things into bookstore classification: by general subject, then by author, then by title... but if something else makes sense for you, then do that instead. After all: this is your library.
If you want to give ID numbers to each book, don't get too hung up on order: this is just a way to find the book in a database. It only needs to make sense to a computer.
Make yourself a basic SQLite database, maybe hosted on a PHP server or whatever you dig. I like Sinatra. After that, the interface is just a matter of how much pizzazz you want to add, and if you want it to be public.
Once you have items tagged with an ID number, saved in your trusty database, you can play with metadata. For something simple, try Dublin Core. If you want to show your collection to the world, try Omeka.
After that, you're going to need a script with reminders for people that inevitably will want to read your book. Every time a person borrows a book, make the script use cron to email them every week, to remind you to give it back.
It's OK if any change is easily reversible, meaning: if you can erase your shit. I'd not stick a bar code on a 1st ed. Moby Dick, but you could certainly write, in neat _pencil_ on the title page, a code number or call number. Even rare books need to be catalogued in some fashion, and this is how the pros do it. The Newberry Library here in Chicago does that, and nobody takes better care of their books than them. Most special collections libraries at major universities do too.
Short of that: get some acid-free paper, and write your code number on that instead, or even a barcode (as long as this label is not in regular contact with the book).
For me, the main thing is distinct space... a threshold you have to cross to your office. It can even be a doorway that, when you walk through, you are now in the "work zone."
As much psychological distinction you can create between your home and your office will help you make the transition.
With all the dark news on these threads regarding our eroding security and online freedoms, coupled with the likewise dark news from news sources regarding our eroding civil liberties in the US, and the RIAA... it's nice to see at least some bright spots on the horizon. So many corporations, so little empathy for people, and so little desire to use our high technology to make the world new and better. I use Macs, and I never in a million years thought I'd find myself cheering Big Blue, but here I am. Yay!
I have my fingers crossed; maybe if the good guys win this fight, then the momentum will carry beyond its borders, and other corporations will give more than lip service to technological freedom.
Strange these days how much consumer choices can become political statements, but I'm considering buying a PC soon, and I think I may plunk down the change and buy a Thinkpad, and install Gnome. It's almost an ethical necessity.
Viva IBM and Linux, and of course Apple, who likewise needs all the help it can get.
Interesting, and good point about the highway construction. However, the highways are constructed at the expense of gas saving measures, like trains and public transportation. If this is where the subsidy money ends up, rather than in gas subsidies, I don't see why it makes any difference.
In Europe, tax rates are generally higher, but this has more to do with social programs, I understand. If gas subsidies were the same there as in the US, then perhaps gas would be as cheap there as here. However, the priority is for European governments to encourage less cars to be on the road; Roman streets are extremely congested. If they possessed highways of American magnitude, perhaps this would vanish. Nevertheless, Europeans like smaller cars (and scooters) which generally cost much less from a fuel standpoint.
American oil companies and American car companies are deep in bed with one another, and pat each others' backs. No mystery that Ford hasn't shipped a hibrid car, and makes its main profits from the F150, with appalling gas mileage. In Detroit, where I grew up, it's common knowledge that the Big Three has had fuel cell and hybrid technology for a decade, but no incentive to use it, and every incentive to keep gas prices low. They, and Mobil, Exxon, etc. all have extraordinary lobbyist forces in Washington.
My point is that if we wanted to encourage gas saving measures, there are a lot of ideas out there, but little will in the US. There is, however, a lot of money that comes from taxes that preserves the status quo.
Gas prices are cheap in the US purely because of gasoline subsidies paid for through your taxes. Without these gasoline subsidies, gas would run you more than $15/gallon.
I have a mac. Ok. I was a fanatic for a while, extolling the virtues of Apple at the expense of Microsoft, etc, but I've outgrown it. A little ironic that Apple and Apple concerns are such flamebait here on slashdot...
First, all computers are Machines. They (and their software) are all simply tools to get things done in different environments.
AppleScript is a useful tool, and a fairly comprehensive and easy to use one. Doesn't this have its place? Shouldn't the digital community see a good tool as worthwhile, and not to be instantly slandered just because it's specialized and for a different market? Just because you don't use it doesn't make it irrelevant.
The Macintosh market is a big one, even if it's not as huge as Windows or Linux. It tends to be fairly forward looking, and Apple does a good job making quality software for quality machines. I guess I don't see why it needs to be constantly relegated to the dustbin by geeks with a holier-than-thou attitude.
Slashdot Mirror
Make yourself a basic SQLite database, maybe hosted on a PHP server or whatever you dig. I like Sinatra. After that, the interface is just a matter of how much pizzazz you want to add, and if you want it to be public.
Once you have items tagged with an ID number, saved in your trusty database, you can play with metadata. For something simple, try Dublin Core. If you want to show your collection to the world, try Omeka.
After that, you're going to need a script with reminders for people that inevitably will want to read your book. Every time a person borrows a book, make the script use cron to email them every week, to remind you to give it back.
It's also a pain in the ass, and was designed for 1876.
It's OK if any change is easily reversible, meaning: if you can erase your shit. I'd not stick a bar code on a 1st ed. Moby Dick, but you could certainly write, in neat _pencil_ on the title page, a code number or call number. Even rare books need to be catalogued in some fashion, and this is how the pros do it. The Newberry Library here in Chicago does that, and nobody takes better care of their books than them. Most special collections libraries at major universities do too.
Short of that: get some acid-free paper, and write your code number on that instead, or even a barcode (as long as this label is not in regular contact with the book).
For me, the main thing is distinct space... a threshold you have to cross to your office. It can even be a doorway that, when you walk through, you are now in the "work zone." As much psychological distinction you can create between your home and your office will help you make the transition.
Am I the only one who's system was royally screwed by this update?
Slurping the blood of corpses wrapped in cotton candy through enormous curly straws, on a spaceship populated by fanged circus clowns. Yep.
No ideas are new. Every "idea" that someone has is based on the infinite numbers of ideas that the human race has had before it.
Somebody invented the wheel a while back. That is an idea. Ford makes cars. Cars use wheels. Is this stealing?
Statistically, every four bar phrase in music has been done before (as of a century ago). Does this mean that every new piece of music is stealing?
And what contract exists for me to make everybody sign that makes my ideas only belong to me?
Come on. get real. Ideas aren't property.
With all the dark news on these threads regarding our eroding security and online freedoms, coupled with the likewise dark news from news sources regarding our eroding civil liberties in the US, and the RIAA... it's nice to see at least some bright spots on the horizon. So many corporations, so little empathy for people, and so little desire to use our high technology to make the world new and better. I use Macs, and I never in a million years thought I'd find myself cheering Big Blue, but here I am. Yay!
I have my fingers crossed; maybe if the good guys win this fight, then the momentum will carry beyond its borders, and other corporations will give more than lip service to technological freedom.
Strange these days how much consumer choices can become political statements, but I'm considering buying a PC soon, and I think I may plunk down the change and buy a Thinkpad, and install Gnome. It's almost an ethical necessity.
Viva IBM and Linux, and of course Apple, who likewise needs all the help it can get.
Interesting, and good point about the highway construction. However, the highways are constructed at the expense of gas saving measures, like trains and public transportation. If this is where the subsidy money ends up, rather than in gas subsidies, I don't see why it makes any difference.
In Europe, tax rates are generally higher, but this has more to do with social programs, I understand. If gas subsidies were the same there as in the US, then perhaps gas would be as cheap there as here. However, the priority is for European governments to encourage less cars to be on the road; Roman streets are extremely congested. If they possessed highways of American magnitude, perhaps this would vanish. Nevertheless, Europeans like smaller cars (and scooters) which generally cost much less from a fuel standpoint.
American oil companies and American car companies are deep in bed with one another, and pat each others' backs. No mystery that Ford hasn't shipped a hibrid car, and makes its main profits from the F150, with appalling gas mileage. In Detroit, where I grew up, it's common knowledge that the Big Three has had fuel cell and hybrid technology for a decade, but no incentive to use it, and every incentive to keep gas prices low. They, and Mobil, Exxon, etc. all have extraordinary lobbyist forces in Washington.
My point is that if we wanted to encourage gas saving measures, there are a lot of ideas out there, but little will in the US. There is, however, a lot of money that comes from taxes that preserves the status quo.
Gas prices are cheap in the US purely because of gasoline subsidies paid for through your taxes. Without these gasoline subsidies, gas would run you more than $15/gallon.
International Center for Technology Assessment
I don't even have a car, and I pay for gasoline.
strange that at anazon.com (I looked) now lurks an anti-Verisign website.
I have a mac. Ok. I was a fanatic for a while, extolling the virtues of Apple at the expense of Microsoft, etc, but I've outgrown it. A little ironic that Apple and Apple concerns are such flamebait here on slashdot... First, all computers are Machines. They (and their software) are all simply tools to get things done in different environments. AppleScript is a useful tool, and a fairly comprehensive and easy to use one. Doesn't this have its place? Shouldn't the digital community see a good tool as worthwhile, and not to be instantly slandered just because it's specialized and for a different market? Just because you don't use it doesn't make it irrelevant. The Macintosh market is a big one, even if it's not as huge as Windows or Linux. It tends to be fairly forward looking, and Apple does a good job making quality software for quality machines. I guess I don't see why it needs to be constantly relegated to the dustbin by geeks with a holier-than-thou attitude.
so, Apple uses miselading prices, just like Downy, Coca-Cola, Nike, Ziploc, Crisco, Ford... must be a conspiracy.