Dan | Library Monk

October 15, 2003

Computers, Blogrolls, and Studio MX 2004

The computer situation is back to normal finally. I have my Pentium 4 back on my desk in working order, which means my notebook can take a well deserved rest. I also now have a dual monitor setup, a Dell UltraSharp 19 inch LCD and a ViewSonic VE 700 17 inch LCD both running at 1280×1024. The Dell is a better monitor and on a digital connection while the ViewSonic is analog. Both are good, I’m just working on getting the colors etc. balanced just right. Dual monitors is very nice. With these and the iMac on my desk i have a nice semicircle of screens. I’m glad it’s a sizable desk.

I have a BlogRolling account now, I just need to get the time to set it up. I purchased and installed Macromedia Studio MX 2004 yesterday. Very nice and it supports secure FTP which alone is worth the price. My only quibble is that it has an activation scheme, which means no installing it on the laptop for me. But I may eventually find a way around that. But that might violate the DMCA which seems to equate to treason these days.

I’m disappearing for a few days since it is fall break here at the University of Tennessee. Yay! A break from academic madness.

October 11, 2003

Update on earlier post

Well glad I didn’t go to the game tonight. Tennessee lost to Georgia 41 to 14. No SEC championship for us. But Tony Stewart won the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. So at least something orange won tonight.

In other news BlogRolling looks like it’s finally moving. Hopefully new signups will be accepted soon.

October 11, 2003

Things in the life of Dan

Just thought I’d post to the blog since I haven’t in over a week. Ph. D studies have really kicked into high gear, staying very busy with that. I’ve been trolling through articles looking for stuff on the digital divide (primarily as it relates to libraries). First Monday seems to be good place for that, as is D-Lib to a lesser extent.

My computer situation is looking better. About 2 weeks ago I managed to blow up two computers in one day. One was a new Pentium 4 3.0GHz box for me and the other was my old machine that I was going to rebuild for my mom. Well, I bought mom a new computer instead. I got her a Athlon 2400+ (2 GHz) machine, a nice upgrade from her K6 450 MHz box. And my P4 is on it’s way back to me after its warranty repair. Luckily my Pentium 3, 1 GHz laptop still works, although with only 16 meg of video memory and 256 meg of RAM it’s a bit underpowered. And then there is my trusty iMac, which I suppose I could use for more than a jukebox, if I could afford all the software needed to make it useful.

If you are looking for good computer systems check out Monarch Computer Systems (where I got the P4 from) and Mwave.com (where I got mom’s computer). Both are good places, Mwave is a good value and Monarch’s service and support are excellent.

Been wanting to add some things to the blog, like book links and a blogroll, but I’ve been short on time and BlogRolling is not accepting new signups anyway.

Tennesee plays Georgia today, I had tickets but didn’t feel like going and gave them away. Hopefully they’ll play better than they did against Auburn last week. The next home home game after today is against Duke on November 1. I’ll be there, hopefully they’ll win that one.

October 1, 2003

A view of librarians from the right – Kill them!

Ordinarily, I would not post about something from the right-wing TownHall.com (being pretty to the left myself) but this article is just too bizarre. Rich Lowry in his article, “The ideological librarians” seems to equate the free flow of information and being accommodating to the homeless as sedition and subversion of the Bush administration. Oh and all librarians have hair that is “usually wrapped in a tight bun, of course”.

His defense of the USA Patriot Act is weak. he basically says, “Sure the law is on the books but library records have not been subpoenaed yet.” But the point is that the law exists and can be used.

And lest we forget the ALA passed a resolution supporting jailed librarians in Cuba. Somehow Lowry concludes that this further supports the idea of the ALA’s anti-Bush leanings. He may very well be correct that ALA is anti-Bush, and I have no problem with that. But this backhand slap has no place in the article.

San Diego Independent Media Center has an excellent rebuttal of the article. It’s definitely more interesting than Rich Lowry.

October 1, 2003

CSS Support in current browsers/Dreamweaver MX 2004

Web Page Design for Designers October 2003 issue has articles on CSS support in current browsers as well as in Dreamweaver MX 2004. The review of Dreamweaver wasn’t glowing but I’ll probably get it at some point since I can get student pricing at the UT Computer Store.

September 23, 2003

American Photography Project

Five students at the University of Tennessee, two of whom I used to work with, Rob Travis and Banner Gwin, completed an interesting trip this summer. The American Photography Project seeks to re-examine the vision of America captured in 1955 by photographer Robert Frank. Half a century later, America certainly is a different place.

The Metropulse has an excellent article on the 14 day journey.

September 22, 2003

It’s Football Time in Tennessee

The UT Vols beat the Florida Gators 24 – 10 in Gainesville. Go Big Orange! And they have moved to No. 8 in the AP and ESPN rankings. This Saturday the Vols play South Carolina in Knoxville and I shall be in attendance. Should be fun.

In other UT news, Volmania has spread to Iraq. This water tower has a very interesting paint job.

September 22, 2003

It’s Football Time in Tennessee

In other UT news, Volmania has spread to Iraq. This water tower has a very interesting paint job.

September 16, 2003

John Ashcroft – Master of Tact

From AP, John Ashcroft is quoted as saying people are being wrongly led to believe that libraries have been “surrounded by the FBI,” with agents “dressed in raincoats, dark suits and sunglasses. Raincoats? Maybe in Seattle. Anyway…

He goes on to say that, “Now, you may have thought with all this hysteria and hyperbole, something had to be wrong,” Ashcroft said. “Do we at the Justice Department really care what you are reading? No.”

And then Mark Corallo, speaking for the DOJ, states, “The American Librarian Association “has been somewhat duped by those who are ideologically opposed to the Patriot Act.” So now librarians and hysterical and easily duped. Man, I just love the Bush administration.

Of course ALA has issued a response.

And by the way this post was made using Zempt, which is a very nice peice of software.

September 15, 2003

I’m back!

After some tweaking of the the design, Library Monk is relaunched. I got all the previous posts typed in but I left off the comments. (what few there were) Let me know what you think.