Jing/Screencast Assigment- In progress

Here is the URL to the Screencast.com portion of the Jing assignment.
http://www.screencast.com/users/NeferDragon/folders/Jing/media/eac90ce1-621b-4f61-bc9e-1405c8ca15cd

Jing photos on Flickr:

http://flickr.com/photos/29966241@N02/

Week #6 Response to other blogs

1. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7203734298375207400&postID=5979923452270935045&page=1

2. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7203734298375207400&postID=5979923452270935045

3. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4736393327020365268&postID=7210400771684751838&page=1

4. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5671000685629389967&postID=6339064433645300516&page=1

5. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1306183455487090817&postID=4369305451792631369&page=1

Week 6 -Muddy points

My muddy points are about the assignments. Information on how to get articles from Zotero into BibTex were not clear and gave many students I spoke with had great difficulty. The same can be said of the Jing assignment where it is unclear when to use Screencast and when to use Flickr.

Theres applications are fun projects and I hope to make some future use of them in a library setting.

Is there a required number of posts required in response to other student's blogs? Do you lose points for not having a "Muddy"?

Week 6 - Readings -Those 3 Letter Words

It's all about going out to play on the internet/World Wide Web. Even when users don't have a technical background they may have heard some spicy three letter words batted about. LAN-MAN-WAN. No, it's not a new song from the Woo-Tang-Clan. LAN stands for Local area network. An example of a Philadelphia LAN is Comcast, Verizon, and Sprint. These for Fee services provide a gateway connection from the customer's modem or DSL to hardware and software that form the connection to the internet.
MAN stands for Metropolitan Area network and provides city wide internet service to a large area. Philadelphia has "hot spots" where anyone with a wireless interface can connect to the Internet from their mobile devices. This service connection is free or Open Access. The final three letter word (WAN) stands for Wide Area network is used to connect to satellite networks internationally.
Without WAN the WWW(or Web) would not be truly gobel.

I have a LAN at home. It consists of my desk top computer unit, a DSL modem (service provided by a For Profit ISP-Internet Service Provider), a wireless router and a lap top computer with internal wireless technology. This network is considered a "closed system" because not outside computers have access rights to my Internet connection. Discovering Computers, describes a LAN in more detail(Cashman et, al. 2008, Chp. 9, pg.471).

All of the above Networks operate on a Client/Server configuration. Clients subscribe to a provider who then grants access to transmission and database servers.

YouTube on RFID:

This little video made me think a lot about the way companies like FedEX, UPS and other common carriers track purchased online and have shipped to our homes. We can go online and with a few clicks of the mouse tell if that package has been received at points along the way. The video showed the strips that look like common tape with circuits on the back that can slapped on almost anything. Want to track a box of Kix from the warehouse to the customer's checkout line, read the information on the RFID just like reading from a barscanner. The video voiced privacy issues, that I feel can be used or abused at will. What is the difference between these RFID tags and the computer chips now being shot into the family pet? How long before someone lobbies for the right to place such tracking items on law abiding citizen? Just how much control is too much control? How long before web cameras invade every street corner and satilite devices are programmed to pick up information from computer chips implanted into infants in hospital nurseries? Does give one a lot to think on, and a bit to be concerned over.

Zotero and CiteUlike-using BibTex

Here is the URL:
http://www.citeulike.org/user/QuakhaanTee

This was the most confusing assignment to date. I'm glade we had this assignment because all my Librarian friends didn't know a thing about CiteUlike or BibTex and now I can show them.

Week 5- Comments to Other Blogs

1. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4736393327020365268&postID=538258743774207874&page=1

2. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8246859739839578614&postID=3688707504678862386&page=1

3. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4181925387762663697&postID=2509969814099689784&page=1

4. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6411265268178233609&postID=3377650723589560831&page=1

5. https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1129785935180596689&postID=7374628139044541268&page=1

Week 5- Muddy point

If students get to pick the topic of the Google Scholar articles are they restricted to information digital services, Library functions or some scientific area? Would a search on Popular Literature be acceptable? Will the citation generator not work for this topic?

Week #5 Readings -More for Less

Data Compression on Wikipedia:
Data compression saves on storage space. If one has ever used Win-Zip, the concept of more for less will be somewhat familiar. Compressed code or the bits and bytes of machine language take more time to transmit and more space to store depending on the size of the file(Wikipedia).
The other side of the coin is decompression, where file data is expanded back to it's original size. Think in terms of shrink to send and expand upon reception.

Compression Basics:
Compression Types,
Lossless:
Just as there are different types of operating systems for a computer, there are different types of compression software. In the online article, Compression Basics, two types are discussed. The Wikipedia example of Lossless compression stated that compression was accomplished by means of a mathmatical formula called a "algorithm" (remember your algebra?). The formula works by removing "redundant" or re-occurring bits. To paraphrase the Wiki example, Lossless compression would look like: A-to the second power, B-cubed, etc.
Here is my version:
(Original) left over dinner-(compression) lft ovr dnr =>(decompression) left over dinner
Transmission of the first part of the statement would take less time and space than the statment on the last side of the equasion.
Lossy compression involves the remove of qualities such as picture clairity, sound fidelitly, or other features not ususally apparent to the human eye(Wikipedia). Using this compression type an original photo may lose some of it's contrast, or brightness, etc.
Lossy:
There are two basic lossy compression schemes:

• In lossy transform codecs, samples of picture or sound are taken, chopped into small segments, transformed into a new basis space, and quantized. The resulting quantized values are then entropy coded.
  
  
• In lossy predictive codecs, previous and/or subsequent decoded data is used to predict the current sound sample or image frame. The error between the predicted data and the real data, together with any extra information needed to reproduce the prediction, is then quantized and coded.

(Retrieved online from: http://www.maximumcompression.com/lossless_vs_lossy.php)

FirstMonday Article:

Project increased cultural diversity of current collections.
Experienced the differences between results oriented and work-product-output results.
Expects to experience increased demand for service.
Fostered greater appreciation for digital conversion of old photos as a preservation method.


Youtube and Libraries:

good features,
Streaming Video format independence.
No technical Knowledge required for use.
Login and password account creation secure
Easy access from any internet enabled video device (MP3, iPod, Cell Phone, etc.)
Use a presentation or instruction video tool.
Wide range of Viewership.

Benefits to Libraries?

Virtual tours, catalogue linking to library servers, promote social events and communications, staff and user training sessions. Community outreach tool to children and teens.

Week 4 - Comments to Other Blogs

1. bf1lis2600- https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5848364238363716642&postID=2536497492260298933&page=1

2. Nileda- https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7435433289349349739&postID=7292513573689845377&page=1

3. -
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1306183455487090817&postID=1025117614346331319&page=1

Week 4 - Simple version of Metadata

As stated in the articles and books for this week, Metadata is information about information. Here is a simpler explanation.

Think of unsorted laundry. You put whites in one pile and colors in another. Meta data would tell the data base manager/application to create a chest of draws and put baskets inside. As items are entered the Meta data identifies the type: "This is a white sock, place it and all other socks in chest-draw #1. This is a blue T-shirt, place it and all other T-shirts in chest-draw #2 (where chest-draws =storage tables). Meta data also tells the data base that 999 baskets will fit in each chest-draw (where one basket= one data entry record), that there can be seven or more draws available and that each has whatever number of filled baskets, etc. When the chest-draw is full one must create/open another draw.
One must also note that unsorted Laundry cannot be dumped into draws labeled for sorted items. Only like- types are allowed. While you can put blue, green and white T-shirts in the same draw, they still have to be T-shirts. One can not place a white sock in with a white T-shirt. Likewise, one cannot place more than one sock or T-shirt in each basket. Meta data also says to name each basket something unique. Most databases have what they call a primary key. This key is usually a number (SSN, Acc, Order#, ect) that is used to quickly access the draw where the basket holding the T-shirt or sock that you need is stored. That way one need not rummage through every draw and basket looking for the Hello-Kitty socks or the Born-to-Bust-A-Move T-shirt.
To conclude, Meta data is the instructions that tell the storage, processing and retrieval functions how to behave. I hope this helps.

Week # 4 Databases, MetaData and Dublin Core

Database and Metadata by example:
Defining a data bases one could say is like selecting a container to hold a harvest of different kinds of beans. Each bean is some bit of information. However, unsorted one could spend a day finding the all the beans for a pot of limas or pintos. Therefore, beans need to be sorted into subcontainers. These subcontainers are called records. The information stored within each record is the raw data that one can manipulate, modify, retrieve or delete.
Most everyone knows how to use an index. Indexes indication the location of records containing desired information. That said, an index is Metadata, information about the infromation stored. A database is manipulated via a question or query. Queries are nothing more than search tools in the form of a set of search parameters.

According to the Wikipedia article for this week, the first electronic filing systems were operated with punch cards. My Dad worked for IBM (Owego, N.Y.) and I recall his having to get up at odd hours and drive to work because some staff member ran a "bad batch". The cards were hole-punched and run in sequence. To get a bad batch all one had to do was invert one of the cards from the correct order, or punch the wrong coding on the card. Finding and Fixing errors often took hours.

The Database Management System and the use of ad-hoc-query method solved the problem of information access and retreivel(Rob and Coronel, 2005). Three main types of databases are currently in use today: the private computer user, business networks and Governmental/University mainframe servers. Some databases are said to centralized when housed on site while other are considered distributed when housed at several different locations.

Dublin Core Data Model:

To put this simply, database query languages come in several flavors just like ice cream. You have MS Access, Oricle, SQL server and others. Some incompatibility issues exhist between these applications. The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative seeks to discover a language that is platform or application independent. To achieve this goal the focus has been placed on " semantics to represent all resource descriptive requirements", "means for semantically refining such elements in order to say something much more specific", "specify a particular encoding scheme critical to the interpretation of metadata types", and "describe the content of resources" (Wikipedia).

Of equal importance is the establishment of shared values for Metadata semantics.


Reference:
Rob, P. , Coronel, C. (2005) Database Systems Design, Implementation and Management, pg. 3

Week #3 Comments

Week 3 Comments posted to Other student- Bloggers:

1.
http://elise-lis2600.blogspot.com/feeds/5388612374078564594/comments/default

http://nicplana.blogspot.com/2008/08/week-2-reading-notes.html

http://woodss53.blogspot.com/2008/08/week-2-readings.html

Week # 3 Reading Notes and Muddy Point

Introduction to Linux:

A computer operating system software designed to give a computer the instructions needed to function. The Software was written in "C" a programming language closer to human communication than machine language that is binary code. One of the features of "C" is that the code can be used more than once, meaning a section of code written for program can be "plugged into" another program to add functionality. Linux now has several versions most of which are open-course operating systems such as Somba, Red Hat and Knoppix are examples of Linux which now provide GUI's (graphic user interfaces) that look and feel like Microsoft Windows.

Software developers have observed that Linux is a very stable platform and most tools for the creation of applications is included in the system software. Examples of applications for Linux are Open-Office Suite, a set of MS Office comparable programs that offer word processing, data-base management, spread sheets and browsers such as Opera, Amaya (a free browser/Web page editor), Konqueror ( a browser that looks and feels the most like Internet Explorer that I have experienced), and FireFox (which has been adapted as an platform independent application - meaning that the application is suitable to run on Windows or Unix/Linux operating systems).

Kernelthread.com- What is Mac OS?

MacIntosh operating System, (or Mac OS as it has come to be called today) was Apple computer's response to the popularity of Microsoft Windows. The Mac system is Unix-kernel based which means most of the systems is operated from the command line. From the Beginning version called Darwin to the tenth version known as OS X, the system upgrades were not compatible with it previous versions. Speaking for personal experience, the Mac was easier to navigate in terms of creating and saving documents. PC's of the save era required complicated steps like writing in an entire file path. For example to save the file "Overnight" one had to type in C://Overnight.txt. This instructed the processor to store the file "Overnight" in the C-drive as text. In contrast to save the same file to a Mac one only had to create a desk-top folder, name the older, name the document and save it to the folder.


Update on Windows Roadmap:

There is good new and bad new for Windows XP lover such as myself. According to the article, Microsoft will continue offer support the operating system due the large numbers of users who still use the system. Last week I was able to download SP#3 for my laptop which included several security patches. The bad new is that Microsoft will no longer license and sell the O after June of this year.

The article also mentioned that Windows XP will still be available to users of Vista Ultimate and Business versions as a "Downgrade right" (Vighte, B. 2008, SuperSite Blog). Backward compatibility was one of the hallmarks of Windows systems, but Vista in the areas of network compatibility, Service Pack issues and IP issues.

The mention of Windows 7 toward the end of the artical made me wonder if most customers were less than pleased with Vista. One suggestion offered by the artical as an alturnitve to Vista was continuing to use XP with SP#3 and IE 7 until Window 7 is launched.



Muddy point: For Week 3 readings and muddies are due by what time on Friday? Comments are due by what time on Monday? If the submissions are online, do we have until 9pm?

Photos on Flickr

I have selected a set of photos that express my heritage and interests.
URL: http://flickr.com/photos/29966241@N02/?saved=1

Now that I know my scanner is working and how to use Flickr, I can send photos to friends and family. Thank you Dr. He for requiring this assignment.

Other thoughts One Week 2

The PDA and cell phone have converged into the "smart Phone". Will the "Tablet PC" or "Hand-held"computers converge into a voice activated, web-cam enabled, Internet surfing, VoIP Mobile computing device?

Embedded computer add functionality to GPS systems, fuel injectors, air bags, anti-lock braking systems and environmental controls in cars. This same technology is moving into home electronics and common appliances as heating and cooling, light fixtures and sleep-number beds.

Computers are our Doctors:

From CAT scanners to MRI imagers, computers now play a major role in the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of all but the least common health care issues. Websites like WEB-M.D.com now offer Internet users aide to determine if a set of physical or mental conditions suggest a visit to ones family health care provider. In the operating room, computer-programmable devices are replacing the hands of surgeons.

Ethics and Issues:

Should "Big Brother" have the right to place the average law abiding citizen under intense surveillance as a matter of course? No. I feel such a practice violates the basic civil rights of American citizens to exercise the first amendment. Surveillance technology should be reserved for intense study and determent of foreign "hate and home-grown "supremacy" groups.

Digital Literacy and other thoughts from Unit 2

Understanding the digitizer- Any handwriten item on a page, human vocalization conducted face-to-face are considered Analog.
Digital=binary(on/off or 1 and 0)
A bit is the smallest portion of storage and it takes eight of these units to make one byte. One byte of bits is needed to transmit enough binary code (also called machine language) to represent a single number, letter or charactor in human language. Bytes are then used to store data sets(units of information to be retrieved later) in a computer memory device such as a hard drive.

Memory types:

RAM- Random Access Memory
ROM - Read Only Memory
COM- Complementary Metal-oxide Semiconductor
Cashe- (level 1 and Level 2 processors) aids processing speed
Flash- USB/removeable /temporary storage devices

Digitization

The question of Digitization's worth can be answered best not by counting the cost but rather by the impact it has on the user. The ability to deliver readable copy, vibrant images, to capture and thus preserve sounds, text and video in a medium that is less destructible that the original source, is in my opinion worth the time and cost.
For example, an out of print book item is sought online as a birthday gift for a family member who loved the story as a child. If someone, somewhere, at some time made a digital copy of this item the digital version (say it's a .pdf file) could be located, purchased and downloaded for reading on a computer or other reading device. Without Digitization, this item would remain unavailable.
The same argument would be made for saving family photos, Reunion videos, song collections, important instructional methods and other teaching tools.
Digitization cuts down on the dependence on paper copy. The movement to "Go green" may embrace the technology as a "tree-saver". Digital books are one of the Philadelphia Free Library's fastest growing collections, second only to the DVD collection for "current Blockbuster" movies (personal observation only).
Finally, as no method of medium delivery is flawless, problems with going digital may be reduced as the methods and technology mature.