May 28, 2005
We'd Like To Recommend....
I guess I'll be wondering about his one for a while. Why did Amazon send me an email with a recommendation for the....
Panasonic ER411NC Nose and Ear Hair Groomer
Panasonic
Amazon.com
For fastidious groomers, this trimmer takes care of unsightly nose and ear hair for an impeccable turnout. A much safer alternative to scissors, the ergonomic stainless-steel blade retains its... Read more
Was this a result of an anonymous tip? Is there something I should know? I will simply HAVE to assume that there is something not quite right with their personal recommendations.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)March 14, 2005
MCLE via MP3
This post on Library Web Chic about using iPods in academic libraries for such things as audio reserves for music classes and pictures for art history classes reminded me of something I've thought would be very useful; attorney MCLE programs via audio MP3 files.
Sure, there are probably some attorneys in your firm that don't have a MP3 player, but that's okay, because you could purchase a couple of MP3 players as loaners. (iPods would be fun, but a much cheaper player would be more practical for this purchase.) Just think, no more lost audiotapes. We could maintain a library of MP3 programs, and copy them to the player as needed. Of course, how you'd get the loaner MP3 players back is another issue.
I assume that vendors aren't supplying programs via MP3 because they don't WANT us to be able to copy and redistribute too freely. But there must be a way to make this work for both vendor and user.
Podcasting could facilitate something like this, but you don't really need podcasting to deliver MCLE programs in MP3 format.
Speaking of podcasting and MCLE, Robert J. Ambrogi wrote an article on just that topic in the Feburary 2005 issue of Law Technology News, "Podcasting: CLE's New Wave." (Law Technology News requires registration.)
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)January 30, 2005
Amazon's Customer Service Phone Number
Let me just preface this by saying that Amazon is one of my favorite ecommerce sites, and has been for many years. I remember the early days when they even sent me Christmas presents to thank me for my business. Those days are gone,
But once or twice I felt the need to contact someone at Amazon, that is, a real person, via that old, yet still quite effective technology, the telephone. And Amazon doesn't make it easy. If you're persistent, and click around the site enough, you may eventually find the phone number, though I couldn't tell you now where. But that's a lot of aggravation at a time when you may already be a bit peeved with an incorrect shipment, etc. So let me make it easy for you. This web site contains contact information for Amazon Customer Service, and even their legal counsel. For good measure, the Ebay and Paypal numbers are included as well.
Here's another tip. If you find yourself needing to call Amazon, but you've misplaced this particular web site address, and can't remember where you read it, just Google "Amazon Customer Service". You'll find a number of people (including Genie Tyburski at the Virtual Chase) have published the number in their own efforts to point Amazon customers in the right direction.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)December 03, 2004
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
For those of you who are non-librarians, I should probably explain that we tend to get excited about any depiction of librarians in the media that doesn't involve glasses, a bun, and oh, especially shushing. With that in mind, if you're looking for something to watch on Sunday night at 8:00, tune into TNT for The Librarian: Quest for the Spear. While it's true that the hero is described as "a bookish nerd", I can forgive that one slight, since this IS an action picture.
While we're on the topic of fiction, if you're doing any holiday shopping for your favorite librarian, you might want to consider a recent fiction release, The Librarian. But be forwarned, as one Amazon review said, this book is "not for Republicans." I haven't read it yet, but plan to, assuming that I'm someone's favorite librarian!
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 05:45 PM | Comments (0)September 19, 2004
Improving Books by Reading the Web
I've been reading a book on dog training called "Click for Joy!" It's an extremely well organized and well written. But this blog isn't about dog training, so why am I telling you this? Because I was struck by how much the organization and content was influenced by the internet.
Several years before writing the book, the author started a mailing list on clicker-training called ClickerSolutions. As the list grew, she quickly realized that the same questions were asked over and over again. So she decided to compile those questions and write detailed answers, hence the question and answer format of the book, and the inclusion of information that is bound to be relevant to the readers as it was essentially dictated by individuals interested and new to the topic. Case studies and quotes illustrate many of the points, and likely originated on the mailing list as well.
Then there is the organization. Each question/answer is typically short, just a page or two at the most, and included is a sidebar is a list of questions on related topics with associated page numbers, just about the closest thing you could get to a hyperlink in a book format.
Could this book have been written without the lessons learned on the web? Sure, but I'd lay bets it wouldn't have been nearly as informative. Perhaps what we've learned about writing for the web can also improve our print communications as well.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)August 25, 2004
XP Upgrade - Service Pack 2
I use the Windows XP Live Update service regularly to keep my home computer current with all the updates and security fixes that are continually pushed out by Microsoft. For the last week, the Live Update icon has been sitting in my system tray to let me know it's time to download again. Yet I hesitate. Why, you might ask, am I reluctant to update? In three words, Service Pack 2. While it's main purpose it to make your PC more secure, vigilant security comes with a price.
I'm not the only one who is concerned. Business customers are also hoping for more time to test applications for potential problems, so Microsoft provided them a workaround to delay the inevitable.
You'll find that SP2 asks your permission more often in an attempt to make you aware of changes happening to your computer before they can cause damage. And that's a good thing. It includes an updated firewall, turned on by default, as well as a pop-up blocker for IE 6. While these features will often rebuff intrusive ads and takeover attempts, they can cause problems for researchers using premium subscription services.
Westlaw and Lexis are effected. Both have issued instructions that
summarize the issues, and the fixes, which involves adding Lexis and Westlaw as trusted sites in IE and bypassing the pop-up blocker.
Lexis Instructions
Westlaw Instructions
Users of RIA's e-forms need to take similar precautions.
According to a new MS knowledgebase article entitled "Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2" there are over 200 that have some kind of issue with XP2 such as Quicken 2003 (aack!), and including several Microsoft applications.
According to PC Magazine (spotted on Virtual Chase), the most common cause of broken applications is the firewall. The article gives instructions on how to deal with this problem, which could be handy once I finally get up the nerve to download XP, that is.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)June 27, 2004
New Arrival
My postings have been a bit sporadic this month due to several trips to Sacramento to visit a litter of pups sired by our Belgian Tervuren, Raider. Last weekend, to Raider's utter disgust, we returned with a little girl from the litter who we've named FlashFire's Casablanca Rose, or Cassie for short.
She's been quite the distraction around here, but she has to rest sometime, so I'm trying to use nap time to catch up on my blogging or sometimes even shower. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a picture, okay, two pictures, so you can see that I'm not biased when I say she's the cutest puppy in the world.
Shredding paper is one of her favorite activities. But shoes, oh happiness, oh ecstasy, she thinks shoes are just the best. The tail wags like crazy whenever she finds some laying about. Luckily, mine are all locked away safely.
The Amazon box was a big hit. It has kept her busy for days.
I should probably tie this entry to technology somehow. Hmmm, how about this. These pictures were taken with my new digital camera, which was purchase after much painstaking research. Amazon had a great price on the Olympus C-765 during their camera sale in June (it's higher now), even beating Costco's price on the older model.
Olympus
C765 4MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Zoom
So far I've been quite satisfied. It's been very easy to set up and use, and is quite small for a camera with a 10X zoom.
It's a good thing I'm happy, because I can't ship it back now. The box isn't really in suitable condition.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)June 13, 2004
Revealing Codes
If you use Word you need to understand the ramifications of using Word's tracking feature. While track changes is helpful for monitoring every change to a document, and is especially useful when collaborating on a document with others, it has a dark side. If you don't remove the tracking when the document is done, anyone who reads it can go back and see what you removed and changed. In legal situations this can be critical, but even with less contentious parties you might want to be more circumspect.
PC Magazine's article, "Revealing Codes", details what can go wrong, and tells you how to avoid revealing more than you intended by using Word configuration options and tools. However, they don't mention one alternative that seems simple and reliable; don't send the document to the recipient in Word format, instead save it to PDF, especially if it's going outside the firm.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)April 26, 2004
OCLC Worldcat Popularity Contest
OCLC Worldcat contains detailed information on more than 53 million books, serials, tapes, videos, etc. held by thousands of libraries, essentially pointers to hard copy materials and where they can be found. Though OCLC was originally conceived to help libraries share cataloging information, it's also a very valuable research tool. Even Google thinks so! They plan to include 2 million Worldcat records in their search results in the near future.
In the March/April issue of Online Magazine, Peter Jasco discusses how to use Worldcat to answer the question "Which is the best book on __________________?" He suggests searching on a topic, then sorting search results by the number of libraries that hold each item, showing the most popular titles at the top of the list.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 06:52 PM | Comments (0)Search Findlaw from Office 2003
Spotted on Inter-Alia, you can now search Findlaw's Directory of Lawyers from within Word 2003's research pane. Hmmm, that's nice. It saves the trouble of opening the browser, which I usually have open anyway. But hey, Microsoft, how about allowing us to dump search results from the directory into Access or Excel? THAT would be handy.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)February 17, 2004
Free Newsfeed from Jurist's Paper Chase
Are you looking for a free high-quality legal newsfeed for your Internet or intranet site? Jurist's Paper Chase, the continually-updated legal news weblog edited at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law by Professor Bernard Hibbitts and his volunteer staff of over 30 law students is now making legal news headlines available free to legal, educational, and governmental websites and intranets. The headlines can be added to your site by incorporating an rss feed (with clear attribution to Jurist), or just grab the ready-made html code.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)February 08, 2004
Top Trends in Library Automation
Marshall Breeding will present Where is the Industry Headed? Top Trends to Watch in 2004 on Feb. 11, 2004, 8 AM to 9 AM Pacific as a Dynix Institute Seminar. It's a free web seminar so you don't have to travel any farther than your desk! If you miss the live presentation, not to worry, I see an archive for past presentations. You've gotta just love web conferencing!
January 25, 2004
Upgrade or Buy New? The PC Dilemna
I have a confession to make. Every time I open up my computer, even to do something simple like install a modem, I break into a sweat. The insides of the darn thing scare me. I attribute my computer hardware phobia to a summer evening in 1991 when a luckless telephone service representative tried to walk me through upgrading the memory on my Packard Bell 386 computer. In those days tiny jumpers had to be re-set in patterns unintelligible to man, woman and computer geek. It eventually took an experienced PC service rep several hours to figure it out.
So my computer is now two years old and I've never cracked the case. It may be time for me to screw up my courage, bite the bullet, and just do it. Why here, why now?
Even though the prices on new computers have plummeted, my two year Pentium 4 1.8 Ghz Dell computer seems quite capable of continuing on for a few more years. So I was particularly happy to see PC Magazine's article, Supercharge Your PC.
The article goes into detail on which upgrades make the most sense, and concludes in its sidebar "Should You Purchase a New PC": "It all comes down to what's important to you and how much you want to spend. If your limit is $500, don't bother with a new PC; you're better off beefing up your system (if it's less than three years old). But if you're willing to throw in at least another $250, buy yourself a new PC. For the extra expense, a new system will far outclass an upgrade in both performance and features."
My needs are modest. I don't use my computer for gaming or video-editing, at least not yet. So my plan is to upgrade the memory to 512MB, add a USB 2.0 card. Then should I need additional hard drive space, I can buy an external one.
I'm thankful that newer computers do not have little teeny jumpers to set when upgrading memory. Let's hope they haven't come up with something new and exciting to muddle and confuse me. Just in case, is there a support group out there for hardware phobics?
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)January 19, 2004
Comments are Back!
The option to post comments on lawlibtech.com hasn't been available for a week or so. I had to disable comments due to a spamming incident on the site. Comments are back, but I will be approving all comments before they are actually posted to ensure no spam creeps in. So please be aware that there will be a delay of up to a day before your comment appears. But don't let that discourage you! Please DO comment!
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 05:47 PM | Comments (0)January 01, 2004
Happy New Year!
New Year's Day is always exciting when you live in Pasadena, whether you go to the Rose Parade or not. I was able to watch the 8:00 am fighter jet flyby from my front yard. They were a couple of miles away, but for a few seconds I had a clear view. Later in the day I got lucky when the three planes in formation flew directly over my house. I'm not sure where they were headed. Maybe they were on their way to the Rose Bowl. Regardless, it was an unexpected treat.
On my morning dog walk I wandered to the end of the parade route to catch a glimpse of the festivities. The end of the parade is not as picture perfect as the start, and TV cameras are conspicuously absent.
The 5.5 mile journey takes its toll on the bands. There are always band members that just can't make it, and have to be picked up by the Tournament vans. Tuba players are especially at risk for obvious reasons. Yet for the most part the bands manage to play up a storm, right up to the end, before collapsing on the grass in Victory Park. It should be noted that the Marine Corp band looked like they could do it all over again. I don't think they broke a sweat.
The float experience is a bit different at the end of the route as well. The parade passes under the 210 freeway in the last quarter mile, so the tall ones have to sort of fold down in order to make it. Most of them don't go back up again for the few remaining blocks. I think the ones that do should get a special award.
The orange alert had it's effect. A Marine Corp. facility that marks the very end of the parade was guarded by several soldiers with automatic rifles. Military helicopters moved up and down the route all morning. There were no banner toting airplanes or blimps this year. All non-essential planes were banned from the airspace above the parade route and Rose Bowl.
I enjoyed the bands considerably more than my dog (Raider) did, so we didn't stick around too long. We wandered to the other end of the park to watch the equestrian groups finish their ride to their waiting transportation. This calmer, gentler part of the parade was more to Raider's liking.
From all accounts it was a peaceful, but fun parade. Let's hope that sets the tone for the New Year! I hope you have a great one.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)December 14, 2003
Amazon.com Holiday Shopping Tips
It's shaping up to be a bad flu season. Just another reason to stay away from that germ factory called a mall. And since it's also the holiday shopping season, I thought a few Amazon shopping tips might be in order.
If I'm any indication, 2003 should end on a high note for Amazon.com. I spent most of my shopping time on Amazon with my Amazon.com credit card in hand (virtually speaking), browsing through books, toys, DVDs, digital cameras, etc. to find the perfect presents.
I'll let you in on a secret if you promise not to tell any of my friends and family. Some of the items I purchased on Amazon.com for Christmas gifts are, how shall we say it, pre-owned and/or sold by third party booksellers. I scored several highly recommended $20 dog books for $2. (I'd give you titles, but then you-know-who would know you-know-what.) The condition upon receipt? Excellent. No one wants to take a chance on receiving bad feedback, so I find that more often than not, sellers actually overstate any flaws. Sure, there's also shipping and handling charges, but Amazon requires that those be kept relatively low.
Whether you can get a good deal varies dramatically with the title and genre. Some books aren't any cheaper used than buying new from Amazon, in which case, I give it a pass. Other times there can be dramatic differences between the new and used versions. Mass-market books can be purchased for incredibly low prices.
On the flip side, buyers can also easily become sellers. Think of it as book rental. For example, if you purchase a book, read it, and decide that for whatever reason you're unlikely to ever want to refer to it again, you can sell it on Amazon. If you receive a book for Christmas that is outside your area of interest, don't despair. Just re-sell.
Mind you, this works better for some books than others. Recent releases have a decent value for a short period of time. Most fiction and best-sellers can't be resold at a high enough price to make it worth your while to make a trip to the post office. I've had good luck re-selling classic books on investment (do you know how boring some of those books can be?) , computer-related topics (assuming I had the most current editions), and books on decorating that didn't suit my taste, just to name a few. Whenever I run out of space on my bookshelves, I review the ones I no longer want to see if they have potential for re-sale.
This giving business goes both ways, so I've also spent a fair amount of time refining my wish list. If a friend recommends a book, I immediately add it to my wish list so I won't forget the author/title. When PC World rates a best-buy on a digital camera, I quickly add it to my wish list so that I can keep track of the likely candidates for purchase.
All this hard works pays off. My nephew was happy when he drew my name for Christmas this year, since he knows I keep my wish list current, and so I would be particularly easy to shop for. I'm glad to help. After all, If people want to give you stuff, the best thing to do is make it easy for them to buy you what you want!
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)November 11, 2003
Happy Cows Come from California
I'll warn you in advance, this post is totally off-topic, but all work and no play, etc., etc.
Those of you living outside California may not be familiar with the "Happy Cows" commercials. Luckily, you can view a few recent ones on the California Cheese web site. I just saw the newest one and it's great fun. Click to get past the splash screen, then choose "Happy Cows", "Happy Cow TV", then "Big Sheep". Enjoy.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)October 30, 2003
Amazon's Search Inside the Book
Books have been getting a lot of attention on the web this week. And for good reason. There is, obviously, a tremendous amount of information contained in books. But finding out which book has the information you need has almost always involved getting your hands on a copy of it. In this electronic age, this is not very efficient. Whereas journal information has been accessible in full-text electronically for many years. My guess is that, for that reason, journal literature gets much more use.
Leave it to Amazon to be the first to offer full-text searching of books.
Amazon has consistently added features to their bookstore that users of library online catalogs have always yearned for. And they've really done it this time. Now when you search for a book on Amazon, you will also be searching the full-text of over 100,000 books.
This is no small development. There is now content available to researchers that was for all intents and purposes previously invisible. To try out this new feature just go to the Amazon front page.
For more discussions on this topic, see the Web4Lib archives.
And the word is that Google is hot on Amazon's trail negotiating for similar content.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackOctober 13, 2003
We're Not Like Other Librarians
After many years of waiting, Pasadena finally has train service to downtown Los Angeles! I love taking the train to work. It gives me another hour a day to read! So I'm doing better keeping up with my professional reading.
This morning I read Knowledge Services and SLA's History: An Interview with Guy St. Clair, in SLA's Information Outlook, September 2003. I know, it doesn't sound like fascinating reading, but I was on the train and figured why not. Turns out, the entire interview is worth the read. But what particularly struck me was his description of the differences between special librarians and "other" (academic-type) librarians.
The point Guy St. Clair makes is that "specialized librarianship exists to provide practical information" ... in contrast to the more "scholarly, academic, cultural..."social-work" type of profession." And according to Guy, "...specialist librarians are different: Sucess in specialized librarianship requires - no, demands, a collaborative relationship between the information provider...and the information customer."
I guess it seems obvious, but I never thought about it quite like that before. I've always thought that our greatest strength was our ability to collaborate. You may think that sounds easy, but it really isn't, and is very important skill for those doing work in the KM area as well. We're generally quite tuned in to our users needs, have good communication skills, and understand user interfaces from the user point of view.
So if you got Information Outlook in the mail this week, don't skip over this interview!
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 12:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackOctober 08, 2003
Legg Mason Told to Pay Newsletter
Violation of copyright in the for-profit environment became a difficult to control problem with the advent of the photocopy machine. But now that many newsletter-type publications are available in electronic form, it's even easier than for a recipient of copyrighted material to "duplicate" the material by sending it on to small or large groups of people, without permission of the publisher. And, in fact, there are still publishers who are reluctant to issue electronic versions of their newsletters for that very reason.
So this news should strike fear in the heart of all risk-management types.
The Washington Post reported a 20 million dollar penalty against Legg Mason as a result of extensive and systematic distribution of an investment newsletter to large groups of people within the company.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53416-2003Oct6.html
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
