Fooled by Wikipedia

So, I'm feeling a little foolish right now because right after Sarah Palin's nomination was announced, I went to her Wikipedia page. I read it, and a few of the talk pages, and I noted that at soon as the nomination had been announced the Wikipedia troops had formed ranks and seemed to be protecting the page from bad editing.

I went away thinking that she didn't seem tooo horrible, as far as republicans go, and that I would probably hate the rhetorical and symbolic role she would play in this campaign more than her as a person. (This is close to the version I read.)

My feelings toward Palin are noticibly more extreme these days. And it looks like this period of wikipedia-induced calm was no accident, since someone who may have been a part of the campaign was cleaning up her page to make her look like an Alaskan mover and shaker, rooting out corruption and protecting the environment (which probably is pretty appealing to most people who would check wikipedia in those first hours). [via Derivative Work]


Of course, the current Palin wikipedia page is much much more useful, and through the use of RSS feeds, blogs, online news sources, and word of mouth I and many other people have gotten more info on the governor of Alaska than we thought we would ever want in the last few weeks.

So, yes, Wikipedia was misleading, it let me down in that one second, but this also drove home for me that these days the "authority" of a single source is much less important to me than the general practice of keeping your eye on lots of kinds of information, and knowing how they all fit together, who is writing what, and why. If that Wikipedia page had been the last thing I ever read about Palin before deleting all my RSS feeds, and saying goodbye to the internet, then yes, I would have been Misinformed, capital M, and it could have been avoided had I consulted a more authoritative source. But that's not how most of us process information these days, and so, tragedy averted.

In other news I've been a horrible procrastinator this week, downloading pretty Firefox extensions to kill time (this is sort of like buying lots of brightly colored school supplies in the fall when you know, that really, you are just going to have to do your work and the post it notes are not going to change that.)

But, if anyone else wants to procrastinate too, this turns the age old practice of gmailing yourself to-do items into a manageable and useful practice, and the google notebook extension, available here will mean you never have to write anything down again, and is good for taking notes to panopto or clipping phrases (it attaches a url automatically) that might be the answer to your search and seize questions, but probably aren't.

E-reader lust

This one is pretty cool looking...

If you can get past the slick video of the rollable! screen you see that there is no announcement yet what e-reader software it will be bundled with. The device is wireless enabled but doesn't seem to have a browser. Content can be directly downloaded through the clunkily named Content World website (which sounds like the geekiest publishing/libraries amusement park ever).

Anyway, its pretty, but I don't think I could bring myself to buy one of these that couldn't read epub files. Not that I can afford one anyway.... but they will get cheaper quickly I hope.

When the sun's over the yard arm...

It has been forever since I last posted, but here I am! Reference class has proven to be trickier than imagined, but I am looking forward to the ready reference assignment because I am very over bibliographies.

A request from my uncle and dad last time I was home, was to find the origin of the phrase "the sun's over the yard arm" to denote the time of the day to have your first cocktail.

Uncle Marc, you were right about the yard arm, but its not dock workers but tipsy ships officers, and it actually happens at 11 in the morning.

This was one of those excellent moments where you google something and the first result is a good answer to your question that is cited from an authoritative source.

The beauty of online reference interactions (on message boards and public answer services) is that google can find them for the next person who wants to know the same thing, which isn't true of in-person reference.

Summer in the Wireless City

I'm just starting to do things that aren't watch tv or sit around, which have been my primary activities since the semester ended. I've decided to keep blogging, though I doubt it will be very consistent. I enjoy keeping up with the classmates whose blogs I read, so maybe this can be a good way to keep doing that.

One thing that I heard had happened while plugging through one of the papers but didn't really look into was the creation of the new Wireless Philadelphia. I haven't tried the network, but their website sounds (and looks) good. The focus seems to have shifted from business-related access mostly in center city to more widespread access for everyone. Their web site uses the term "digital inclusion" a lot. This isn't surprising now that Earthlink has dropped out and Wireless Philadelphia is a non-profit. The previous attempt at a city-wide wireless network was a great example of why corporate sponsorship for public works isn't always a great idea. This new advertising supported model will be interesting. The website talks about providing not just the network but hardware, tech support, information literacy instruction, and content creation.

So I'm sad I won't be sitting in coffee shops around the city trying to do my LIS 2600 homework anymore (uhmmm, but not really) because that would have been a good way to test this out. If and when it a reliable network, what does it mean for public libraries, schools, and universities?



Oh, and I've started writing some fiction again, which feels pretty good, and have seen most of the friends I haven't talked to for months. Vacation is sweet.

Nearing the finish line

I've reached the point where I could continue to try to make my webpage more pleasant to look at, or just call it a day and start enjoying August.

I downloaded an open source image editor, Inkscape, which was fun to play with, but it turns out that I'm not sure how to use svg graphics just yet, so I think I'm going to give up on the graphics for now and just deal with my text-only portfolio. When I feel like learning a new software program again (at least a few weeks from now) I'll look at it some more.

So here it is:

http://www.pitt.edu/~kci3/portfolio_ingersoll.html

Anyway, happy month off everyone!

Some piracy videos

Here's a ridiculous anti-piracy video from a few years ago, produced by the MPAA, which seems to posit that piracy will lead to a life of crime and sorrow.



This newer one from last year is much more savvy (at least missing the throwback computer screen and shadowed words.)



I do think its funny that the moment which rings most true in the commercial is when they all state with a befuddled look, "I never thought that it was wrong." After that the rhetoric becomes fuzzier...

(I especially like the teen straight out of an american apparel ad... nice sweatband.)

Hooray!

I am feeling triumphant after finishing my second html fragment. I had an "aha" moment last night with the css, when I stopped using the editor. I think using it before I really had any idea what css was supposed to look like was just making things worse. I guess sometimes shortcuts don't pay in the learning process.

Now that I feel like I can write basic html, something I've been wanting to learn for awhile, it actually seems kind of tedious to me. I've never really liked learning languages, and learning the html syntax sort of reminded me of the time in high school when my incredibly geeky friend tried to teach me esperanto. (except more useful.) I suspect coding will never be my thing, but at least I feel more comfortable with it now.