A few months ago I wrote about the Asus Eee PC, and how much I loved it and wanted one. I never got around to actually buying one, and I’m glad I didn’t as they’re about to bring out the latest version and it sounds even better! The screen is bigger, the hard drive is bigger (20Gb instead of 4Gb), and my favourite, gestures on the mouse pad! There’s a review here which goes into detail about all the changes.
Tags: techI’ve never owned a laptop, I’ve just never been able to justify the money, when I have a perfectly good PC that I love to pieces. And I’ve never felt the need to be able to take my computer with me anywhere. I never wanted a laptop at uni, mostly because I used to get really annoyed at those that did take them and then sat on MSN for the entire lecture, serenading the people around them with their tap-tap-tappity. And most of my classes were small or in workshop environments that just don’t allow for laptop use.
When I went to Sydney in September, I borrowed a laptop from work, so that I would have access to the web, and be able to use it at the conference. I had plans of liveblogging the conference, and typing up my notes at night. It turned out though that there was no wi-fi at the venue, nor would there be accessible power points. And seriously, what is the point of a laptop battery that only lasts 2 hours maximum?!
Sydney was my first experience with a laptop. And I was not so impressed. First, the abovementioned batterylife. If I’m travelling, I’m not going to be near a powerpoint all the time. Second, the weight! I had a fairly big laptop - I think it was a 17 inch screen. And it was heavy. I felt like I was lugging around a bag of bricks. This could be because I’m just not used to carrying one, but it seemed like an awful lot of unnecessary weight. It all served to remind me of why I’d never gotten one in the first place. I know that they’re not all behemoths (Vaio’s case in point) but it does make me wonder why they make such massive machines.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend introduced me to a new laptop, and I must admit I fell in love straight away, and if it wasn’t such a bad time of year, I probably would have at least made an attempt to buy one by now.
The laptop is called the Eee PC, and it’s an ultra portable baby laptop that weighs less than a kilo. It’s small - I could probably fit in in my handbag, it comes preinstalled with a Linux operating system and open source software like Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice. And because it’s in part aimed at kids, it has preinstalled games - typing games and maths games etc plus a few other educational programs. It’s also got a built in webcam and Skype installed. And, most important of all, they come in multiple colours!
On the downside, it only has 4Gb of space, however it’s got an SD card slot, so that’s expandable. Basically, it’s the perfect machine for taking with you when all you’re really needing is somewhere to type, check your email etc. It would be perfect for travelling, so that you can download your photos off your camera and upload to flickr, and type a journal entry or two. Or perfect for conferences and classes - it’s small, light and unobtrusive.
Have I mentioned I want one?
Tags: techMichael Stephens over at Tame the Web has posted a fantastic post titled ‘Professions Do Not Stand Still’. I particularly liked the first paragraph he quoted from Blog About Libraries:
Have you ever met a plumber who doesn’t work with PVC? An electrician who only uses knob and tube wiring? A firefighter who thinks those new fangled breathing masks are just too complicated? No, professionals who don’t keep up with the technologies that affect their work go out of business. Librarianship is not immune to that.
That is such a true statement. In a law library, it’s not as pressing an issue, but as times goes on, there are going to be expectations that the services provided by the library are current and making the best use of the technologies available. Technology is not the be all and end all of the profession, but it’s important that we know how and why to use it.
David Lee King has been making a number of posts on just that topic lately, starting with his ‘Am I a 2.0 Librarian and the Library 2.0 Spectrum’ post. After focusing on the technology aspects of Library 2.0 in that post, he followed up with a post ‘Library 2.0 - Is it Techie Or Not?’ about how important technology is to the provision of a library 2.0 service. And really, library 2.0 isn’t about the technology - it’s about taking the technology that’s there, and providing a fantastic service for your users. And ultimately, that means keeping up with what’s available. It’s a continuous process. Technology is constantly changing, and so too will the services that we can provide.
There will always be the early adopters, those who are constantly picking up new technology. And within the library sector, or even the legal library sector, it’s important that the ones on the edge are sharing their knowledge with others. As a knowledge sharing profession, we need to all be involved in keeping each other up to date. That’s what I love so much about the ‘biblioblogosphere’ - we’re all out there, sharing, discussing and learning from each other. It’s an amazing thing to be a part of.
Tags: library 2.0, techMany apologies for the lameness of our posting - we have both been beset on all sides with many many things to do, keeping us from the blog. As some small means of recompense I present you with this, pretty much entirely un-library related, list of interesting links. I don’t remember where most of these came from - they are the result of clearing out a backlog of two months worth of saved interesting links.
Imagining the Tenth Dimension: Awesome visualisation of string theory and dimensions. Makes my brain hurt a bit, but very interesting.
The Crossing: Beautiful flash game by Orsinal (actually, all of their flash games are beautiful, but this one has little deer! What is there not to like?)
blawg.com list of lawlib blogs: Loooooong list of law library blogs. If I wasn’t so information overloaded already, I might even give looking at it it some thought.
Slacker: More internet radio! I don’t think this is new, I just think I missed it, but as the first track it played on the Alternative station was The Decemberists, it’s already won me over :)
iTunes Autorate: An autorater for iTunes that makes me wish I had a Mac. I never remember to rate tracks in iTunes, and having it auto rate things according to how often I skip/play tracks would be kinda cool. Not terribly useful, but still kinda cool.
Five Ways to Mark Up the Web: A Techcrunch post talking about different tools that let you post-its or notes or other bits and pieces on webpages.
Screengrab: A Firefox extension that lets you take screengrabs of the entire length of a webpage, and save it in a variety of different formats. Handy tool.
Boomshine: Incredibly simple and incredibly addictive little online game. Soothing music too. I’ve wasted far too much time playing this.
listeningtowards: Lectures available for download. Amongst the most popular are Kurt Vonnegut and Bill Bryson - there are over 1000 on there, so there’s bound to be something to slip into the mp3 player for those long dull commutes.
Lumosity: Brain training games to improve memory and processing speed - it makes me feel a bit like a computer in need of an upgrade, but it’s interesting to do.
You Don’t Know Jack: has reinvented itself as a web game! C’mon - you all remember it don’t you? And now it’s snarky trivia-tastic-ness is right there in my browser!
The essential guide to piracy: Remember kids, piracy is wrong. But if you’re going to pirate, pirate safe, kay? No one wants the RIAA (or their international counterparts) on their tail.
46 essential KM blogs: Being up to my ears in knowledge management recently has made me check out all the KM blogs around. (Repeat after me - I don’t need another blogging scene to get involved in. I don’t, I don’t)
Entropia Universe: not!Second Life. I haven’t downloaded this yet, nor do I use Second Life, so I’m not really in a position to make comparisons. It’s setting itself up as a competitor though, so it’ll be one to watch out for.
and now, time for sleep. I promise we’ll try and by more regular with the posts now though, really.
Tags: interesting things, links, tech
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