Archive for the ‘random thoughts’ Category

Forking conversations, forking documents

August 7th, 2011

When the topic of discussion changes, how do you indicate that? Tender Support seems clunky in some ways, but their forking mechanism helps conversations stay focused on their topic:

Forking with Tender Support

Lately forking has also been on my mind as the Library Linked Data group edits and reorganizes our draft report: wiki history and version control is helpful, but insufficient. What I miss most is a “fork” feature, where you could temporarily take ownership of a copy (socially, this indicates that something is a possibility, rather than the consensus; technically, it indicates provenance, would allow “show all forks of this”, and might help in merge changes back). Perhaps naming and tagging particular history items in MediaWiki could help address this, but I think really I want something like git.

I’ve seen a few examples of writing and editing prose with git; I’d like to get a better understanding of the best practices for making collaborative changes in texts with distributed version control systems. Surely somebody’s written up manuals on this?

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091labs again!

August 4th, 2011

Yesterday, our local hackerspace/makerspace re-opened!

For awhile now, Fiacre O’Duinn has been talking about the shared purpose between libraries and these spaces:

The ideas that fuel hackerspaces, such as cooperation, resource and information sharing, self-directed education, and a diversity of views are concepts that are central to our profession’s ethos.

Not to mention the cool tech (3D printers, laser engravers, tool lending libraries, …) we’d like to see in libraries in the not-so-distant future.

It’s a conversation I hope to pick up with Willow & others (thx!)at CCCamp.

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GetSatisfaction’s “feedback-as-you-type”

July 24th, 2011

GetSatisfaction does so many things right. Smart, immediate feedback is one example.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed this message while adding a post:
“EASE UP ON THE ALL CAPS IN YOUR TITLE. It looks like you’re shouting”
Feedback from GetSatisfaction: STOP SHOUTING

This is great in several ways:

  1. It’s immediate.
  2. It makes a single, clear, personalized ((i.e. specific to the situation)) suggestion.
  3. It uses a familiar analogy (“shouting”) — helping to explain the perceived problem.
  4. It’s not enforced: this nudges the poster, but leaves them to make up their own mind.
  5. It hints at humor/puts the shoe on the other foot (by USING CAPS FOR THE START OF THE MESSAGE).
  6. It’s not overwhelming.

Like their mood feedback it’s lightweight and appears to be effective.

Figuring out appropriate ways of presenting people with the “right” feedback at the right time will be important for a lot of the work I’m doing!

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“Learn More”: an interface that gets out of your way

April 18th, 2011

These days my main foray into reference territory is when my colleagues are looking for things.

While looking for an update on some social media statistics, I encountered a “get more info” interface that didn’t annoy me, at VentureBeat.

When you highlight text (and only when you highlight text), a small, “Learn More” balloon appears. When you click “Learn More” (and only when you click “Learn More”), further info appears.

highlighting

bubble

moreinfo

When debating whether to include more information or less, this strategy deserves consideration.

It reminds me of Barend Mons’ derisive phrase a Christmas tree of hyperlinks; while he was mainly referencing the lack of information, I also imagine in that phrase the reader’s overwhelm when everything is hyperlinked.

There is, of course, a tradeoff, between hiding information/requiring clicks and presenting everything at once.

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April Fools! from LinkedIn: “People You May Know”

April 1st, 2011

April Fools!

Alas, you need an email address to actually connect!

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For LaTeX referencing glitches, check the \label location

December 15th, 2010

Problem: LaTeX gives the section number instead of the figure number in a text reference.
Solution: Be sure that the figure’s label is AFTER its caption.

Correct:

\begin{figure}
\includegraphics{./images/myimage.png}
\caption{A beautiful, wonderful image.}
\label{fig:myimage}
\end{figure}

Wrong:

\begin{figure}
\includegraphics{./images/myimage.png}
\label{fig:myimage}
\caption{A beautiful, wonderful image.}
\end{figure}

LaTeX requires \label to follow \caption. That is, a \label preceding a \caption is ignored.
If you’re getting section numbers instead of figure numbers as the response to a \ref, check where the \label is specified.

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“Like” and its misuse

October 20th, 2010

Language evolves, and we use words loosely. But I’m more and more disturbed with the way “Like” is being manhandled.
A misuse of the Like button
Argumentation will need to encompass polarity; so I hope that it can help.

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World Cup 2010

June 11th, 2010

While soccer is rarely televised in the U.S., the rest of the world seems to love their football. ((I’m amused that some Canadians apparently switch between ‘soccer’ and ‘football’ to describe the game.)) A few years ago I saw part of one World Cup game at the neighborhood Irish bar; this year, I’ll have my pick of pubs, along with eager colleagues closely following the games.

With so many games to keep track of, this World Cup chart from Spanish sports daily Marca is a one-stop shop for schedule info. (Thanks Nathan)! World Cup info from Marca

Twitter has made some auto-searches for the occasion, guaranteed to attract spam, along with some actual news and opinions. There’s an overall page along with a page for each game (e.g. South Africa vs. Mexico. Pages for each country (e.g. Mexico) give dates and times of upcoming matches. (Thanks Ranti and Richard for the tip.) world cup on twitter

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Juxtaposition

January 28th, 2010

Sometimes it’s the juxtaposition that amuses me:

Jill Gengler: I love being able to save someone's bacon. Tom Coates: The great slab of fatty pork that I presume to call a brain is almost totally recumbent this morning. Come on piggy! Do some thinking!

Tweetie

Jill Gengler: I love being able to save someone’s bacon.

Tom Coates: The great slab of fatty pork that I presume to call a brain is almost totally recumbent this morning. Come on piggy! Do some thinking!

We’re making progress at archiving individual streams, I think. But the overall conversation, “what was I seeing then”, and the links between things? Needs work, at least chez moi!

Updated 2010-04-14 to fix typos. :)

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Starving the subconscious

November 30th, 2009

Your brain builds something from whatever mental flotsam and jetsam is in your head. Perhaps it’s a useful thing, an answer to a question you didn’t know you needed. Perhaps it’s just an interesting combination of thoughts put into a story. It’s dreaming, but you’re awake.

-[Rands]

…when you have a real important problem you don’t let anything else get the center of your attention – you keep your thoughts on the problem. Keep your subconscious starved so it has to work on your problem, so you can sleep peacefully and get the answer in the morning, free.

-[Richard Hamming]

Metaresearch?

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