January 2007 Archives

I'm such a moron, I get the Sunday paper and I skipped right over the Citizen of the Year page and didn't realize that our friend (and neighbor), Jia, was a finalist! At least not until Alex sent me an email the he got from Jia's wife, Melissa, yesterday.

Jia Liu's life graced by his generosity

It's hard to meet Jia and not remember him. He's kind to everybody he meets, he's helpful, and he's generous 100% of the time. My mom met him once at a party last summer and her and my step-dad still talk about how nice he was and how much they enjoyed talking to him. At our Chinese New Year party last year, Jia and Alex worked away in the kitchen making food for everybody most of the evening. I actually told Jia that he should let me do it and go have fun at the party but I think he was having too much fun helping out. I don't think he could stop doing things for other people even if he tried.

You will never meet another person like Jia...he certainly deserved the nomination and the recognition!

As a side note I want to say that Jia also works for Pfizer, we're not sure if he'll be sticking around Ann Arbor but if he doesn't it'll be hard to think about him leaving. I saw Jennifer Granholm on television talking about making sure that we keep the jobs or create new ones to offset the Pfizer loss. When she spoke though, she spoke about numbers and jobs and not people. Numbers and jobs are important but people like Jia are one of a kind and extremely hard to replace.

Although it wasn't a requirement, I guess we were sort of encouraged to install Linux on our own for class. My husband and I did this some time ago with my old computer but he did most of it...I decided to scrap that and do it on my own this weekend (we weren't using the computer anyway). I had already created a live CD with Ubuntu, I do use that on my laptop occasionally when I want to mess around in Linux on there. I really love Ubuntu by the way...it's a great Linux distribution.

So my old computer happens to be an old eMachines (or eMashit as my friend likes to call it) that I purchased right out of college. It's hard to be addicted to the internet with no computer so even though I had no job and my dad barely had me out of the house and living on my own did I feel I absolutely must have a computer. I used my Christmas money that year (about $100) to go out and by a new computer (about $70 after rebates). I got it with one of those CompuServe rebate deals that they had going on...I'm surprised my computer lasted the 3 years it took me to get out of the CompuServe deal. As a matter of fact I believe that computer latested about 4 years before we broke down and finally bought a new one. Sometime after then was when Alex and I decided to start messing around with installing Linux on that one. We bought the Linux for Non-Geeks book which also came with a Fedora Core installation. Fedora is great but it ran unbelievably slow on that computer, which is why we never used it.

Fast forward to now...I decided to try it again, only this time I wanted to try it with Ubuntu (well actually Xubuntu which is designed for slower computers). I tried most of the day on Friday and I couldn't get it to work. I may have been doing something wrong but after more investigation and discovered that my crappy computer only has about 32MB of RAM on it. I have no idea how I used this computer for 4 years without going crazy...it didn't take me too long to realize that even with 32MB of RAM I was going to have a hard time finding an OS to run comfortably on there...

I gave up on Xubuntu but I didn't give up completely. Saturday I was sitting around and thinking...there's got to be a Linux out there that will work! Of course I put my savy research skills to the test and I finally found one...Vector Linux. Well, I wrestled with that thing for a good part of the day yesterday and I had trouble installing that one too. Alex and I went out for coffee later in the evening and I told him that I was just going to give up...he told me I wasn't allowed. So I went back home and tried to figure out what I was doing wrong. It turns out not reading the installation instructions was the first thing (go figure)...the installation kept going into power save mode and I was hitting the wrong key to get out of it. Once I got that worked out I was on the right track and I had it installed by the end of the evening. I am also happy to say that the OS runs flawlessly on an otherwise crappy computer! I'm impressed! There's no lag time and there's some great applications on there...I even get my choice of desktop when I boot.

What am I going to use it for? Right now I'm learning Perl...we're coving it in class for like 1 day, I decided to just grab a book and try to learn it on my own. We're also covering C and C++ on another day. I took 2 semesters of C++ in college so I'm not much worried about that. I was using my live Ubuntu for learning Perl but I couldn't save files on there (no biggie though). The only problem with that particular computer is that I can't put it on the network. One thing at a time I guess :)

I think I've worked out my overall computer plans though. I'm about due for a new laptop, I have decided that my next laptop will be with Windows Vista...why not take the leap! My next laptop will also be smaller and easier on my back while going back and forth to school. I will then attempt to restore Windows XP on my current laptop and then I'll dual boot it with Ubuntu. I really do believe you can never have too many Operating Systems laying around ;)

Going through my feeds and saw this post from LibrarianInBlack, Are senior web users really that different?

This post triggered the memory of two conversation I had with two different "senior" patrons in this last week (senior in quotes because I'm bad with ages, but they were older). Both were talking to me about their mp3 players and using downloadable audio books. Our older patrons are the ones that have been using this service...most have specifically gone to the store, information in hand, to purchase an mp3 player for this service. I recall a humorous conversation where the woman's husband bought her an iPod and I said, "oh no you can't use those!" and she said, "I know I told him that, I made him take it back."

Why do we stereotype all seniors as clueless web and tech users? I would say that my grandfather has been on the computer for about 5 years now...he absolutely loves digital photography! My mom hated computers for most of my life (because my dad and I were probably always on them I suppose), but now that she has a computer with a decent connection she's warmed up to all she can do on it. Sure it may be games and going online to check email but what more do some people need?

I actually think that us younger people actually scare some older people into thinking they can't do things on the computer. I don't think it's intentional either. I can't see my grandfather going online and doing MySpace or YouTube but he uses the computer for his things...and that's ok. I believe you can teach an old dog new tricks, that is if that old dog wants to learn.

I guess it's been almost a week now since the announcement of Pfizer closing here in Ann Arbor. I think it's a sad thing and it'll be rough for the community. But I've realized that it's hard for me not to be torn between the reality of the situation and the thoughts and information constantly running through my brain.

I do know somebody who works at Pfizer, he's our neighbor and I know he's been there a long time. His wife is one of Alex's lab-mates at school. During their wedding we were seated with a whole table his Pfizer co-workers and even not being a science type person I still enjoyed talking with them during the evening. It will be sad to see these smart and wonderful people leave the area.

On the other hand, I've never been keen on the corporate nature of "Big Pharma". I know I've told Alex several times that if he were ever to find a job at a pharmaceutical company I don't think I would like that much. I've always been happy that he's decided to go into the academic world instead. Of course a lot of people have gone the pharmaceutical route and I also don't blame them...Alex could make so much more money if he were to go into industry. These are seriously high paying jobs and it's no wonder people take them.

It seems like when things like this happen, it hard for me not to see these situations in different ways. Obviously research and development jobs leaving the state is going to be rough for our local economy but I've been trying to relate that to 1 talk and 2 books I've been exposed to recently.

#1 - I've been reading my Digital Copyright book for class...it may seem like a stretch to see how this applies to Pfizer but I think it does when you compare it to how pharmaceutical patents are being handled right now. I know that companies want to hold on to their patents, I know Pfizer has some major patents that will be up soon. It's hard for me not to think that this isn't a political message on Pfizer's part... I hate to be the conspiracy theorist type, but Pfizer is still a big corporation and I don't trust big corporations.

#2 - The day after the Pfizer announcement I picked up "Wikinomics" and started reading a few more pages...ironically the chapter discusses what they call "open source pharmaceuticals". I hadn't read the book in awhile since I've been trying to read my Digital Copyright book, but it was almost like I was supposed to read that section at exactly that time! Alex, being a chemist, explained to me that research and development in industries has stalled...it takes longer to get quality products out there and they need to extend their patents to become economically viable (or so they believe). "Wikiomics" supported this and went further to explain that the companies that are emerging from this R&D slump are actually the ones that have opened up their information for mass collaboration. I can't possibly paraphrase every example from the book, but there are some extremely innovative programs...SE Johnson has one, and Merck has been contributing to the Human Genome Project by putting their genome information into public domain right away. I thought about why this would benefit companies though...there is too much information for one company to process on their own. Think about the Human Genome Project and how huge this is...you need the computing power and the brain power of a diverse population in order to make a tiny bit of progress...this is not something that can be accomplished in one company or lab of a few thousand people. I believe that companies that do embrace this more "open source" and collaborative way of innovation will actually achieve success in this new era of technology.

#3 - I went to go see Tracy Kidder speak last night. I haven't read the book "Mountains Beyond Mountains" yet...I checked it out of the library and I will eventually read it but like I mentioned, I've been busy with classes. Anyway, Tracy Kidder's account of Paul Farmer's work in Haiti got me thinking about Big Pharma again...and that is everything I hate about it. The fact that we do have the means of curing these horrible diseases in these impoverished countries and here we are arguing about drug patents on things like Viagra. It makes me sad and a little sick to my stomach.

I know research and development is an expensive process but it seems to me that the problem is where energy is being focused in the industry. I also wonder how much money these companies would save if they just lay off of the excessive drug marketing for awhile.

I am not happy that the balance of things in Ann Arbor and in Michigan will be upset with Pfizer leaving. I was actually excited about the research initiatives going on in this state...but Pfizer made this decision and we all have to live with it...and I think we'll live through it.

I currently don't talk politics much on my blog, but I just wanted to offer a fair warning that this may change. It's not that I never talked about politics on my blog, I tend to do it more during Presidential elections and Alex and I have been anticipating the 2008 election since 2004.

So what brings this up? Barack Obama formed his Presidential Exploratory Committee this past week. I was ready to slap an Obama in '08 bumper sticker on my car back in 2004 after the horrible outcome of our last Presidential election. Alex and I are pretty serious about wanting Barack to run, and if he does run we're serious about helping the campaign in any way we know how. That's huge for us because we don't tend to be the involved political types, we just have a lot of opinions about politics. The following video is Barack Obama's message about forming his committee.

So, on February 10, 2007, Barack Obama will announce whether he will be running for President in Springfield, IL...and Alex and I are going to be there! I'm pretty excited about it too. I also hope to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum again, I love that place! Plus what better backdrop...in my opinion, Abraham Lincoln was this country's greatest President. See more about who Barack Obama is with this video:

I'll probably tone down my political posts from 4 years ago...which I remember, I believe I posted at least one thing a day about politics of some sort. Normally though it was electronic voting machines that got me worked up, I suspect that this topic might come up a few times in the next election too.

I will just throw all this out there now though. I'm liberal but not necessarily a Democrat, I do support the Green Party but I will be likely to vote Democrat in major elections. I would love to live to see a 3 or 4 party governement in this country...I think the 2 parties that we have don't necessarily represent the beliefs of most people, but for most people it's all they're going to vote for. I don't think young people don't vote because they're not interested...young people don't vote because most politicians don't have their best interests in mind as they represent their constituencies. I also believe that most politicians are out of touch with technology...however this is a recurring theme, I can't say this is the first time in history that politicians don't understand technology. After reading up on the history of copyright law in our country though, I realize that now, more than ever, the importance of our public voice when it comes to technology...this soap box is for my copyright paper though, or another blog post ;)

I'm really excited about Barack and I really do hope he runs. I haven't read his new book yet, Alex is still reading it but we did buy a copy shortly after it came out. I hope to get it read soon but I have a ton of other things to read for my classes...I know it's good though!

It turns out that the library that was going to close during school hours due to rowdy teens is going to stay open.

Library Decides Not to Close to Thwart Rowdiness

What happened is exactly what I expected would. The community came together to discuss different after school options for the kids. I still stand by the library's decision to threaten to close, I think the outcome produced a wake up call to the community that librarians are not the babysitters of their children. Sometimes it does take a drastic decision to produce results, in this case the results ended up being suitable for everybody.

I do believe that libraries can cater to teenagers but I don't think they should do it at the expense of other patrons. I think teen programming is necessary but so is adult programming. I also think that ths responsibility shouldn't fall solely on a librarian's shoulders...teenagers need the support of an entire community.

I'm pleased to see that this one has a happy ending and I hope it works out for the librarians involved.

It looks like Netflix isn't letting Blockbuster's new "rent free from the store" feature knock it down from being the best movie rental company online.

Netflix offers subscribers the option of instantly watching movies on their PCs

Netflix will be rolling out a service that allows subscribers the opportunity to watch movies on a Windows PC, currently at no extra charge to subscribers who sign up for the trial period. So what's better than having to wait for a new movie through the mail? Getting a free movie rental at a store, but what's better than that? Not having to leave home at all and watching it on your computer.

I have to keep telling myself that I really don't want this. It's hype right? I can't possibly want an Apple product that bad?

It's so beautiful though! ARGH!

Don't let the title fool you, I'm not completely fed up with Rhapsody quite yet, but I had some troubles with the media manager after I posted my last post that I wanted to write about.

First of all, my computer flirted with sound again. I plugged in headphones and it was flaky...since I'm at school I didn't want to take the headphones out and try it, maybe I'll try it at home.

Second of all, I just read a good post on Lifehacker, roughly along the same lines of what I'm going to post about right now... CDs vs. Downloads... My favorite quote, "DRM...is the love child of Satan and Osama bin Laden." Quite true...

Now I continue with my story.... So earlier today I decided to reload my MP3 player with podcasts and updated playlists, it turns out this isn't as easy in WMP as it was for iTunes. One thing I discovered today is that my MP3 player has two file systems, one in which I can sync music through WMP and another closed system that allows me to manage playlists through Rhapsody (I'm assuming this is for DRM purposes). I do think I can play music using both, however it turns out that if I want to actually manage my music using Rhapsody into pretty playlists I need my files to be listed in a music folder that is contained in my Sansa's system folder (this is the closed file in WMP). So if I want to manage playlists, and still use the services I mentioned before (like Audiobaba) then I needed to find some way to put them into this system folder. This worked ok with iTunes, dragging my playlist files from the one in the iTunes window to another I created in Rhapsody worked fine...it did not work fine for WMP though. I couldn't copy and paste the files into the system folder either...I'm not sure if it's because they weren't officially imported or if it was the way WMP imported them in folders corresponding to the artists, but the Rhapsody software still didn't recognize them. Maybe it does in the player but I wanted custom playlists so there was not way I was going to assign the songs one at a time (either in the media software or my player).

I think I wrestled with this for a few hours this morning before I finally came up with a solution that eventually worked for me. What I could do in WMP was sync to a device so I decided to try my flash drive as a device...of course this worked...happy day! Then I cleared out the files in "My Library" of the Rhapsody software (careful not to check the option to also delete them from my hard drive, other was I'm screwed.) From there I was able to import all of the music files I had saved on my flash drive into the Rhapsody manager by browsing to my flash drive. Since I had started with a clean list for my library in Rhapsody I knew that all of those files could then go onto a new playlist for my device.

It was kind of a pain in the ass but I did eventually get it to work. I was also reading that there may be some issues with downloading music from Rhapsody too, although I'm not too much of a fan of paying per download, I would much rather just pay for the service to listen to whatever music I want.

I'm not saying that either Rhapsody or my Sansa player are bad, I'm just saying that just like every other personal music device, it does have its own issues. I'm still digging the player! If I ever do sign up for the Rhapsody service and try it out with my player you can expect a review of how it goes.

Now that I have a new MP3 player I've been thinking how best to manage the music on my computer. I've decided to drop iTunes since I don't have an iPod and my MP3 player is Windows based.

This actually took more planning than I thought it would, considering the one feature I love about iTunes is difficult to get on other players...managing podcasts. I went searching around for some solutions though and I think I found one that might work. Doppler is software that allows you to manage your podcasts, but what I really liked about it is that you can still listen to them in Windows Media Player (or manage them there if I want to put it on my MP3 player). The feeds are manage through Doppler but playlists based on the name of the podcast are automatically created in WMP too, so it's pretty easy.

I also decided to take a closer look at Rhapsody. I ditched the Best Buy branded Rhapsody player and installed the one from their website. I'm also becoming interested in getting a subscription, there's some features that are a bit intriguing about the service with my MP3 player. My MP3 player was specifically designed to work with Rhapsody, on the player there's an option for "Rhapsody Channels". Apparently if I'm subscribed to Rhapsody and I choose which channels I want access to, whenever I connect my MP3 player and open the software, my player is loaded with different songs automatically based on the channels I have selected. I've been listening to my MP3 player in my car lately and I realized that the one thing I like about radio is that I get to hear new songs, I think the Rhapsody Channels feature could solve that problem by offering me new music with no commercials! I also think that the Best Buy version was going to rip me off for a subscription, I don't remember for sure but I thought they were trying to offer me the Rhapsody service for something like $20/month...I remember thinking that this seemed a bit much. Rhapsody Unlimited is $14.95 or something, I think that I would pay $15 for a music serive but not $20 (proof that price point is important if you're offering online services). I don't see why I would want the same servie through Best Buy for $5 more anyway. So stay tuned, I might be a Rhapsody subscriber soon.

I uinstalled iTunes but I wanted to keep a few of my other music services so I had to reinstall options for WMP. I do have a Last.fm account, this is something I have because it's easy...I installed the Last.fm plugin for WMP. As for music recommendation and social networking I'm actually really into MyStrands. Unfortunately since my sound card doesn't work both Last.fm and MyStrands are pretty useless on my computer right now. I haven't been able to listen to any music on my computer for months now. I really like the recommendation engine on MyStrands and this is where I usually go when I'm looking for new music to try out or something different to listen to.

As much as I like MyStrands, I don't like the auto playlist feature on it. That's where Audiobaba comes in. This is another piece of software that loads when you launch WMP (can be installed for iTunes too). Audiobaba analyzes the music and seems more intelligent when creating auto playlists. I actually don't like creating my own playlists, it's too time consuming, that's why I prefer things like Audiobaba. The other thing I don't like though is having songs that are too dissimilar pop up after one another. I'm love all sorts of music, but it's kind of strange to be listening to music on my computer or MP3 player only to have Michael Buble come up after Eminem. Audiobaba also has an AutoGJ feature that creates a realtime playlist cycle based on a song you choose (again, pretty useless with not sound card but when my sound was working this was cool).

One last thing I'm playing with is a site called MP3Tunes.com. Apparently you can actually upload the music from your computer to this website where you can then listen to it online. Since my sound card does work in Linux I thought I would try it out next time I load Linux on my computer. I'm not too sure how often I'd use it but I did want to try it out. Warning, if you have a lot of music on your computer, the upload process takes a long time. Mine's been syncing since last night and it's still only 15% complete. It's an interesting idea and might be nice when I'm away from my computer.

This site is a little game to test how well you know the logos of some popular web companies and services.

It's surprisingly hard, considering how often you actually see these logos. I don't think I did very well when I took it but you can take it again to improve your score if you wish.

I love finding connections between the things I do, read, and/or participate in. I guess that's why I was excited to see the connections between the book I'm reading now and both of my upcoming classes. I'm currently reading Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (which I love). One of the first chapters was on things like Wikipedia and Open Source (entitled "The Peer Pioneers"), now I'm reading all about the benefits and perils of digital copyright and production in the "Prosumers" chapter. One of my classes we'll be talking a lot about Linux and I've already determined that my final paper will probably have something to do with open source (it really fascinates me!). I was especially fascinated by the IBM/Linux collaboration story and how well that worked. My other class is dealing with digital issues. I was happy to see both of these things merged in this book!

I'm pretty excited about going back to school now, I'm positve that both of my classes are going to great learning experiences for me. I'm also anxious to get through this book. I have a million other books stacked up and the reading has been slow over the holidays.

Oh my gosh, I about died of laughter when I read this! A friend just sent it to me...music people will get it...

"I have nothing to say and I'm saying it" - John Cage

Absolute Michigan has set up a nice post on Gerald Ford with links to videos and pictures from his funeral and services.

I caught some of the Grand Rapids footage on television yesterday, I thought some of it was very moving, especially University of Michigan marching band playing "Hail to the Victors" at the airport and the clip I saw of Jennifer Granholm's eulogy at the museum.

I'm interested in visiting the museum now, I have to admit that I didn't know much about President Ford up until now. That might have a lot to do with the fact that I'm originally from Ohio though. Since it's only a few hours drive from here there's no reason why we shouldn't go one day and visit.

Originally found on librarian.net.

This article in the NYT is about how one library solved its teen problem by locking the doors after school hours.

I know that this wasn't an easy decision for the librarians to make, I also feel their pain. It doesn't sound like the teens I deal with are as bad as the ones in the article but the most difficult part of my job is dealing with the teens that do come in. It's very rare that these teens use the library for its intended purpose and when they do need your help they're very ungrateful for it...they pay you back by talking back to you or vandalizing your building.

Teen programs don't work for this certain group of kids...they don't care much about that. We had DDR set up most of the end of last week...one of our teens came in and saw it was there, went over to it, did some crazy break dance move (probably interrupting the one kid that was playing on it), said some stupid ass thing to me about how he ripped up that game, and then walked out the door. Luckily I didn't see him the rest of the day...one good thing I can say about programs is that when we do have them the rowdy teens seem to stay away.

On the other hand this is a really hard thing, many of these kids don't have places they can go. A couple of kids that come in and act out in our library aren't allowed home while their parents aren't there. Many of these kids have already been kicked out of other local businesses and the library is the only place they can go. I'm not saying that their behavior is justified, I'm just saying that it's a very unfortunate situation for everyone. Unfortunately there's not much we can do...these kids need more than a few after school programs, their problems are deeper than anything a public library can do to help them. We also don't have the space to cater to teens, it's a small library and so there are times I have no choice but to be a "shushing librarian". I hate being that person.

My thoughts on closing this particular branch library after school hours are that I think they are justified to do so, if at least until they can find a more permanent solution. I don't believe that libraries are "safe places" for kids, nor should they be "babysitting services" for parents. I did used to visit my public library when I was a kid, and always by myself (my parents aren't readers like I am)...but, and I feel really old for saying this, kids aren't the same as they used to be...and neither are libraries.

I believe this was officially the best Christmas ever...at least I got things I wanted without buying them myself (which is what usually ends up happening).

New Year's Eve we went to my mom's and it was great fun! Alex and I opened up our presents and we got this! This wasn't the exact camera I was going to purchase but it is a pretty awesome camera! My mom got it on recommendation from some people at a local camera shop. Actually I'm going to Toledo today to visit the shop because she got Alex and I another cool present...we're participating in a photo contest and I need to pick up the info for that. For three months we get to take pictures with a single use camera that they give us and the prints are entered in a contest. There's some other cool stuff with that too but I'm pretty excited about it.

The New Year's celebration at my mom's was pretty fun. I got to see my nephew, my sister briefly before she left for dinner, and my brother and his girlfriend were also there. Lots of good food and my mom made her Christmas punch because we love it so much :)

Our first day of the year was also fun...since we have our GPS unit back we decided to go geocaching. It was a great day to do Ann Arbor urban caches as there was plenty of places to park yesterday! I had a lot of fun playing with the new camera too.

This year I'm doing Project 365, I've already started with my first picture too. I'll be adding my pictures to Flickr and I'll also be blogging them over at my Vox Blog. I've got my first picture up along with a video I took from my camera while I was out geocaching yesterday. Check them out!